On a quest to read the personal finance “classics” of our time, I’ve come across a couple of books that are highly touted as such but fail to make the very official Impersonal Finances Required Reading List. As the crass title of this post indicates, Rich Dad Poor Dad & The Millionaire Next Door were more like Rich Dad SNORE Dad & The Millionaire Next BORE for me. It can’t be a coincidence that both of these tomes have a word that rhymes with bore/snore in the title. Too easy! Here are my quick takeaways on two best-selling books from the end of the 20th Century that would have been better consumed as blog posts in modern times. After all, who wouldn’t choose $1.29 in Adsense revenue over millions of dollars in sales worldwide?

Rich Dad Snore Dad

I’ve mentioned this book before in a post about personal finance books I read during the pandemic fall of 2020, and to quote myself quoting the author, here was my initial takeaway:

You know, I really enjoyed the first half of the book. It reminded me of the conversational flow of Wealthy Barber. And then, well, to quote the author himself, he’s a best-selling author, not a best-writing author. Too much of the second half of the book felt like he was trying to sell me his Rich Dad Poor Dad line of products, or I accidentally stumbled into one of his seminar presentations. I have no doubts that said presentations have helped many people, but in book form the tone is condescending and unrealistic.

Two years later… I stand by it! Having consumed ever further personal finance content over the last two years, I would advise that most FI-curious individuals keep this one on the shelf. While the book did get me pumped up about the prospect of purchasing real estate on my way to riches, the ability to make the kind of profits in the housing market that the author describes scarcely exists in this day and age.

The financial world is constantly evolving, so it’s no surprise that a book from the 90s might not offer the most relevant advice and information for today’s investor. But the dated nature of the content makes it difficult to get through the entire sales pitch cover-to-cover. I’m all for the motivational undertones, but there’s a certain “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” brand of advice that doesn’t particularly resonate with me. The modern-day versions of this type of book can be found all over TikTok and Twitter in the forms of the braggadocious influencers we so know and love.

The Millionaire Next Bore

While I acknowledge the groundbreaking nature of this type of research at the time, which must have been painstakingly time-consuming to compile in the pre-internet days, it felt even more painstaking to get through certain chapters without dozing off. From start to finish, the book felt like a Powerpoint presentation in which the presenter simply reads every word on the slide. I have a hard time believing that the data couldn’t have been summarized more palatably in fewer than 800 words via a Nick Maggiulli blog post.

Oftentimes a best-selling book like this will come along and introduce a new phrase or abbreviation to the masses, but somehow such catchy repeated acronyms as UAW (under accumulator of wealth), PAW (prodigious accumulator of wealth) and EOC (economic outpatient care) didn’t set FIRE to the personal finance lingo of the day.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Rich Frugal Life’s inclusion of this book on this excellent list of personal finance books for each stage of financial independence, but for those tempted to upgrade their home or car to keep up with the Joneses, there must be more digestible pieces of content than this collection of illegible tables and survey results laden with survivorship bias.

The Impersonal Finances Required Reading List

If these mid-90s snoozers don’t make the list, what does? I’ve mentioned them all a handful of times, but the best books I’ve come across to open the eyes of a beginner are, in no particular order:

• The Simple Path to Wealth – JL Collins
• Retire Before Mom & Dad – Rob Berger
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi (my review here)

You can pick any of the above three as a launching point. Once a bit of financial knowhow has been established, move on to Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money. As of now, that’s the essential one-two punch. I admit I’ve got some more book reading to do.

After that, it’s time to read some blogs! There are way too many to mention, but Mr. Money Mustache is the OG personal finance ass kicker, J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy has the most fun, and the Ritholtz content mafia of the aforementioned Maggiulli, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick, among others, consistently pumps out high-quality instant analysis of the market fluctuations while providing historical context (here’s my favorite example). And, of course, the critically acclaimed Impersonal Finances blog comes out of the woodwork once a month to shitpost best-selling finance books, complain about obscure fees, and detail horrendous investment decisions so you don’t have to. Don’t forget to smash that subscribe button.

Other Personal Finance Book Hot Takes

While much of the best personal finance content these days can be found online, there’s no shortage of hardcovers to peruse on your way to financial independence. Books like The Wealthy Barber and The Richest Man in Babylon are fun, light reads that serve a purpose but are not essential. Your Money or Your Life introduced the earth-shattering concept of FIRE to many, but at the risk of being ostracized from the community, falls in a similar vein as its 90s counterparts on the readability spectrum. Vicki Robin seems like an awesome person, but it’s possible that I’m just not generationally equipped to consume self-help finance books from this era. In any case, BORE Money or SNORE Life was a little bit of a stretch for inclusion in this post (but again–that can’t be a coincidence!).

Is there a book I need to cross off of my personal finance reading list? Drop me a line and I’ll check it out. My only rule is to avoid titles with easily rhymed words.