Personal Finance Books for Teens and Young Adults [Highly Recommended]

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We are all about personal finance skills and knowledge, but sadly, money management isn’t taught in schools these days.

We think it’s an essential life skill that everyone should learn starting as a teenager.

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Our list of the top finance books for teens

In an effort to make money management entertaining and fun—which we’ve always found it to be—we’ve put together a list of a few personal finance books that we think young adults and teens will find very captivating and simultaneously informative.

That being said, these books are good to read by people of any age. You can never read too many finance books or have too much financial knowledge.

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

This is a classic in the world of personal finance: It’s all about mastering your mindset in order to attract fortune into your life, and we think it’s well worth the read.

The spine of this book is thick, but the wisdom within its pages is invaluable. It covers the following topics:

Embracing your desire to earn a great fortune doing what you love.
Having faith that the riches will come when they are supposed to, even when times get tough.
Understanding the law of attraction on an intimate level.
Visualizing your ideal life.
Manifesting your ideal life.
Overcoming any and all fears you have towards money.
Overcoming any negative beliefs you may hold towards finances.
Mastering the art of persistence.
Honing in on your mental game to achieve the results you want.
Controlling your brain so that you can control your life.

Mastering the art of controlling your mind is one of the hardest feats for humans, yet it’s also one of the most important ones. We took a particular liking to the following quote:

“Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this weakness may be remedied by building a stronger fire under your desires.”
—Napoleon Hill

If you have a burning passion fanning the flames of your heart on a daily basis, don’t be afraid to follow that—doing so could lead you down the path to enormous success!

Teens and young adults, take note:

Napoleon Hill went through great trouble to speak with the most successful minds of his time, and he garnered an incredible amount of wisdom from doing so. He then proceeded to share their secrets with the world through his masterpiece.
The man did a great deal of research before penning this personal finance book: He knew the secrets of the wealthy.
The core concept of this book is that your thoughts become things, so it’s important to master your mind in order to attract that marvelous fortune you’ve likely been dreaming of.

Think and Grow Rich is an incredible read with powerful messaging that will help you rewire your brain if you have associated money with negativity for many years due to your upbringing.

2. The Financial Diet by Chelsea Fagan

This is a gem of a book that is perfect for the young adult who is a total beginner when it comes to managing their money: It’s written by Chelsea Fagan, a broke millennial turned successful YouTuber and writer.

She grew up poor, and now she’s rich, and she shares her wisdom with everyone who is struggling to make ends meet because they don’t have a budget, or they’re not earning enough.

She even provides practical cooking tips that will make your at-home dining experience more memorable and help you save money simultaneously!

She covers the following topics with her signature cleverness:

Budgeting
Investing
Career (How to earn a sufficient income to support your lifestyle).
Food (How to cook at home happily and efficiently, saving money during the process).
Navigating romantic relationships when it comes to finances
Happiness relating to money

While Chelsea does not make the claim that cash can buy happiness—it can’t!—she does provide the reader with a guide to keeping your funds in order so that you can maintain contentment and peace of mind for a long time to come.

“Over the past few years, I’ve learned that to be good with money is like a good long-term relationship. Instead of everything being chaotic peaks of highs and lows, there is a more quiet, sustained happiness that allows you to plan for the future, feel safe and comfortable, and really figure out what you want in life.”
— Chelsea Fagan

So there you have it: Money can buy items and services that can improve your happiness and peace of mind, but the green stuff itself does not automatically lead to contentment!

Teens and young adults, take note:

Chelsea Fagan used to be poor. She now has a net worth of $500,000 and an enormous following on YouTube. The woman understands how it is to live paycheck to paycheck and not always know where your next meal is going to come from. A lot of wealthy people who dish out advice have never struggled before, so they don’t have the same level of empathy.
This book is for the person who is in a mess financially and knows nothing at all pertaining to money management: It really is for the complete beginner, and the detail the author provides is extremely helpful.
The book is designed by the lovely Lauren Ver Hage, so it has plenty of pictures and is extremely entertaining for adults and children alike! This is also helpful for anyone who’s a visual learner.
The timeline is short: How to get good with money in a year.
It’s not about wealth-building immediately: It’s just about how to get your financial house in order.
It’s practical, and it covers how money relates to every area of life, including relationships and domestic duties.
This is a lovely and pragmatic guide for anyone who has found themselves strapped with debt or overwhelmed when it comes time to pay the rent, regardless of what their income is.
Money affects every area of your life, so you might as well learn how to control it instead of allowing it to control you.

We can nearly guarantee that this book will change your world in a myriad of wonderful ways while also being a complete joy to read!

3. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

The Richest Man in Babylon is a magnificent fictional tale by the talented George Clason, yet it is frequently recommended as a book that teaches valuable lessons in the stratosphere of personal finance.

Here’s a beautiful excerpt from this book:

“In the pages of history there lives no city more glamorous than Babylon. Its very name conjures visions of wealth and splendor. Its treasures of gold and jewels were fabulous. One naturally pictures such a wealthy city as located in a suitable setting of tropical luxury, surrounded by forests, and mines. Such was not the case. It was located beside the Euphrates River, in a flat, arid valley. It had no forests, no mines — not even stone for building, and was not located upon a natural trade-route. The rainfall was insufficient to raise crops.”
“Babylon is an outstanding example of man’s ability to achieve great objectives, using whatever means are at his disposal. All of the resources supporting this large city were man-developed. All of its riches were man-made.”

While slavery is, unfortunately, mentioned quite a bit, the book still provides incredible lessons when it comes to the following:

Saving 10% of every paycheck you receive
Building wealth
Practicing caution when lending your money to others
Being discerning about shady business deals
Digging your way out of debt
Investing
Mastering the art of patience is required if you want to accumulate great riches!
Becoming someone qualified and trustworthy when it comes to performing business transactions
Owning real estate

Presumably, because this book is older, it does not mention real estate investing.

However, we’d like to point out that, while homeownership is appropriate for some, it isn’t always the best idea for others. It really depends on your financial circumstances and lifestyle needs.

That being said, investing in prime real estate and renting it out can be incredibly lucrative.

Teens and young adults, take note:

It is written in a wonderfully entertaining manner because it is a fictional work.
George Clason is simultaneously poetic and concise, so the book is quite short compared to many.
If you purchase the collector’s edition, which costs only the slightest bit more than the regular one, you will have the pleasure of viewing intricately created black and white illustrations as you turn the pages of this beautiful book.
The financial lessons are framed as parables, which makes them easier to understand and more entertaining to read.
It is set in the great city of Babylon, which is famed for its luxurious nature, yet the conditions were actually quite unfavorable in the area. George Clason paints the picture beautifully:
The core concepts of this book are that saving 10% of your earnings will make you extremely rich over time, patience is required on your wealth-building journey, you should pay off your debts immediately, and you should never trust the wrong people with your hard-earned cash!

The Richest Man in Babylon is incredibly compelling, and the illustrations really draw the reader into the story.

While rather unconventional, this is probably the most entertaining novel we’ve read that intentionally covers personal finance in a masterfully creative manner!

In fact, we strongly believe that it would be equally enjoyable for a seven-year-old and a fifty-year-old because the lessons it holds are just that valuable!

In conclusion

Financial education isn’t taught in school, so it’s important to inform yourself about how to best manage your money.

One of the best ways to do this in your teen and young adult years is to read financial masterpieces that teach you lessons from an outsider’s perspective.

We could not recommend the above books enough, and we hope you’ll read at least one of these in the next year or so.

If you’ve read any or all of these books, what did you think of them? Do you agree with our above reviews? Please let us know, we’d love to hear from you!