Dr James, 0s:

In this video, I'm going to give you the five best books that I've ever found whenever it comes to starting your finance journey, and I'm even going to go one better than that and put them in the exact order. I recommend reading them as well to get the best results. If you're new around here, my name is Dr James. I am a UK-based dentist. However, I left clinical dentistry about three years ago, whenever I was 29, to start a business which helps dentists understand finance Even better. I've since went on to start my own regulated financial advice firm. I take the best lessons and I share them on this channel for everyone to benefit, no matter what their background. So let's start off with an all-time classic Hopefully you guys can see that just there. How to Own the World by Mr Andrew Craig. This is the first book that I read. Back in the day, I had no idea how money worked. I thought investing was for people who were in the city ultra cool, ultra slick. I didn't think it was something that everybody could do or anybody should do, or even that anybody could do. And then this book came along and opened my eyes massively. There's some mind altering stuff about the history of money, how currency works, how you can invest, how you can design a portfolio. The reason I really like this book as well is because it's one of the only investing books one of the very few investing books that are out there that focuses on finance from a UK perspective, so it talks about the accounts that you can use and how you can set them up as well. It goes into a lot of detail. The next book I recommend reading is Live, own Less and Invest the Rest by the same author, coincidentally, and this is very much the next leg of the journey whenever it comes to understanding finance, which will add onto and complement the knowledge from that first book that I showed you very, very, very well. I love how to Own the World Great book. We're recording this video in 2024, soon to be 2025. Some of the stuff in there is a little bit. Things have moved on since then. Let's just say that people's knowledge and perspective and understanding of investing has progressed, and that's why I really like this book, because it builds on that baseline knowledge. It talks about how you can refine the portfolio design methods that you've been given in the first book, and also it talks about different assets. Now you can construct a portfolio that is aligned with your overall goals, objectives and values and enables anybody to just go and invest, because it just keeps it so simple with the language that it uses as well. Here is my third book. Whenever it comes to the world of finance and investing, this is the Gone Fishing Portfolio. Now we're getting out of the shores of the UK and we're looking to America, because this book is very much written from an American perspective. Again, it goes into portfolio design in a little bit more detail than the other books that we talked about just a second ago. It talks about specifically how you can design an equities portfolio. There is a lot of stuff in here that comes very, very close to recommending products for specific companies. I won't shout those companies out Now. You'll have to read the book to be able to find out what those are. So you just got to take that part with a little bit of a pinch of salt. But whenever it comes to designing a portfolio for the long term, the knowledge in this book is invaluable and it does exactly what it says in the tin. That shows you how to design a portfolio that you can just go fishing effectively and forget about, and it's going to accrue value passively, in the background, hence the name the Gone Fishing Portfolio. So the really cool thing about those first three books that I showed you is they're all about portfolio design and they're all about finance in a very traditional sense. And once you understand that, I mean, I think that one of the big epiphanies for me was to understand that actually that's not all there is to money. That's actually just one component of money and there's a lot of other things that surround that that we have to understand in order to get the best outcomes or the best results. And that's why I really like this book, which is the psychology of money. And basically what this book calls into light or into our into attention, is how our decisions, whenever it comes to money, are subtly influenced by our background, on our parents as well, and it just calls into question that perspective from the point of view that do we know that our parents beliefs under our parents as well? And it just calls into question that perspective from the point of view that do we know that our parents' beliefs under our parents' opinions of money, our parents' opinions of money? Actually beliefs that were formed in their era, which were relevant to their time or potentially given to them by someone else around about that era, and how do we know how accurate they are here and now in today's world? And that's why I really like this book, because, until you know this stuff well, you might be operating out of someone else's information that's provided to you by someone else that you don't even necessarily know is true or accurate. And that's why, when you understand this stuff well, you begin to think to yourself right, wow, cool, maybe I was seeing the world with blinkers on. And actually there's a lot of cool stuff that you can do in 2024 whenever it comes to finance, business, investing and wealth that you couldn't do in years gone by. And that's why it's so. Book number five Would any rundown of the greatest books whenever it comes to finance be complete without Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, poor Dad? I don't think it would. The reason I like this book and I think that you should read it fifth. On your journey whenever it comes to understand about finance and wealth and money, particularly if you're just starting out, this should be the fifth book that you read, if you ask me out of the books that I've read some more over here, but we're focusing on the really important ones today. The reason I like this is because it makes you think to yourself right, I know I understand investing. Those first three books that we talked about will give you a really good understanding of the world of investing. We can't invest zero pounds. There has to be some profit in your bank account first of all, and this book gives you a framework through which you can understand how that can happen. There's a really cool thing in here which he talks about, which is called the asset quadrant or the cashflow quadrant, and basically he points out that really it depends what you want from life. I mean, if you want to do the nine to five and work until you're 60, that's fine because you really love your job. But if you don't want that and you want something more, well, you really got to think to yourself right, what else can I do? How can I create a business, design a business, make a business that works for me rather than it, than me working for it, so to speak? And that's why, a little, I like that little lesson and that little framework in the book. You'll have to pick up the book to understand fully what I mean. There's way more to it than just that, of course, but it makes you think a bit wider, from the point of view of a wider perspective, as to what you could be doing with your money, how you should be investing, and understand what else is out there. And, on a personal note, I had no idea about that avenue in life or that path in life until this book opened my eyes and then it really really made me think right, what else do I not know? How can I use this information to my advantage and create financial freedom in the here and now, which is exactly what this channel is about as well. And you know what I'm going to do, guys. I'm actually going to give everybody a sixth book on finance investing. This is for the hardcore people that are out there in the audience. This is not for the fans of art. Can you see the thickness on that book and the post-its that I put in there over the years? So this book is about 500 pages long. It is called the creature from jekyll isle and it is all about the history of money, the history of the federal reserve and the history of the bank of england. There's some things in there that I learned that I literally think about every single day. One, for example. One lesson would be, for example, the lesson of fiat money and how there's actually four types of money. When you really boil it down and you understand the history of wealth and the history of finance and where money came from, and when you know those four types, it makes so much more sense as to the evolution of money and how it all began and where it's got to nowadays, which is, effectively, that it's just printed and made up by central banks. And because we've all been trained and indoctrinated to, effectively that it's just printed and made up by central banks, and because we've all been trained and indoctrinated to believe that it is something that we need and use on a day-to-day basis, well, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because we all believe in it. Therefore, it all has meaning effectively, and you'll fully understand what I mean, whenever you get through this book should you choose to If you've done the first five books, if you read those first five books you read those first five books. You got enough, in and of itself, to know more than 95% of people whenever it comes to the world of finance and money. But I wanted to chuck this one in because it was a personal favorite and again. It really, really expanded my mind and made me see things differently. So that concludes this rundown of the five coolest books that I found on my finance journey that I wish I would have just started with, really, instead of just reading a random assortment of books. If I would have read them in that order, I would have learned things a lot faster. Things would have made sense so much more quickly. And then, obviously, that bonus book chucked on top as well, for the real enthusiasts in the audience.