Cailin Riley Books

I feel like personal finance books can sometimes be really boring and make the process of learning even harder.

I mean, the whole point of the book is to improve your finances and learn new things; that’s hard to do if you can’t even make it through the book.

Luckily, I’ve made it a personal mission of mine over the last year or so to keep an eye out for personal finance books that are a) entertaining b) timely c) helpful and d) realistic enough to put into practice in daily life.

Here are three that made the cut:

Money Hacks: 275+ Ways to Decrease Spending, Increase Savings, and Make Your Money Work for You! by Lisa Rowan

This is a great and easy quick read to browse for money-saving tips and tricks. Not every tip is going to apply to you or work for you, but it’s a great jumping-off point.

Tightwads and Spendthrifts: Navigating the Money Minefield in Real Relationships by Scott Rick

I’ve always identified as a spendthrift and this book did a great job of explaining how I ended up that way. Rick goes over the psychology behind each archetype and offers practical advice on how to improve relationships between different types of spenders and savers. As someone married to a tightwad, I found it very helpful!

Nicel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

This is an older book but it does a phenomenal job of giving the reader a realistic picture of how people in America’s working class live and get by. In the book, the author shares her experiment of trying to get by daily by working several part-time jobs that are often found in the American landscape (think waitress, grocery worker, etc.) While the minimum wage is luckily no longer as low as it was when this book was written, I think most readers will be surprised at how in-touch the content still is.