Investing is an effective way to achieve financial stability in the future, but it can take several years of effort and discipline. By getting a head start in investing as a young adult, you can enter adulthood with a substantial amount of funds.

If you’re not sure what your first investment should be, investment books for young adults can give you an idea of where to start. This guide highlights five of the best investment books for young adults, with investing lessons ranging from basic to advanced concepts that will help you excel in your investing journey. It also explains how you can maximize your chances of building and preserving more wealth through credit.

Best Investment Books for Young Adults

The best investing books for young adults are written by financial experts, and you can gain valuable investing knowledge and skills through examples of their successes and failures. As one of the most successful investors of the 20th century, Warren Buffett, said: “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”

Here are the top five investment books for young adults:

1. “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”
2. “The Automatic Millionaire”
3. “Get Good With Money”
4. “The Joys of Compounding”
5. “Napkin Finance”

Best for Setting Financial Goals—“I Will Teach You To Be Rich”

Ramit Sethi’s bestseller, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” helps young adults identify the best use for their money instead of telling them how to use it. It will teach you how to:

• Set up no-fee, high-interest bank accounts
• Settle your debt and student loans faster
• Save while buying what you love
• Automate your finances

The book has word-for-word scripts to use when you want to save money, such as negotiating a big raise at work or talking your way out of late fees. The end of each chapter summarizes the concepts into simple, actionable steps that can motivate you to act.

Ramit’s book isn’t like most other financial literacy and investment books for young adults—it’s fun to read and takes a different approach. Instead of advising you to cut back on all expenses as investing books typically do, it recommends “conscious spending,” which involves cutting costs on items you don’t love and spending on items that bring you joy.

Best for New Investors—“The Automatic Millionaire”

“The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich” by David Bach introduces young adults to a unique approach to financial success—The Automatic Millionaire System. It involves automating your investments, savings, or bill payments to avoid the constant effort and attention financial processes require.

It also covers:

• Ways to eliminate unnecessary spending
• The power of compound interest
• Efficient investment allocation

In the book, Bach explains how regular expenses like buying pricey coffee or paying for a Netflix subscription can add up over time. When you identify and eliminate them, you can redirect that money toward investments.

The author uses simple language, examples, and real-life success stories to simplify and demonstrate the effectiveness of his strategies, making it the best investing book for young adults new to investing.

Best for Budgeting—“Get Good With Money”

“Get Good with Money: 10 Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole” by Tiffany Aliche is about how to bounce back from the edge financially through budgeting, saving, settling debts, building a solid credit profile, increasing income, getting insurance, and investing.

The book starts with a cautionary tale of how the author lost her job as a young adult and was financially ruined by a get-rich-quick scheme. It then describes how her ten-step formula for financial wholeness helped her dig her way out.

The author illustrates how short-term actions can lead to long-term goals through:

• A simple technique for determining your financial baseline
• An assessment tool for determining whether you aren’t making enough or are spending too much
• Best practices for saving for different needs
• Steps to take to build a strong credit profile, save, and invest
• Ways to protect your beneficiaries’ future

Aliche uses an approachable and engaging style that breaks down complex financial concepts into simple and relatable content. As one of the best investing books for young adults, it will help you develop healthy spending habits and teach you how to make your money work for you.

Best for Developing the Traits of a Successful Investor—“The Joys of Compounding”

“The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning” by Gautam Baid explains how value investing and compounding principles can help you develop the traits and habits of a successful investor, including discipline, passion, and deliberation.

Baid argues that compounding isn’t just an investment concept—it can grow your happiness, well-being, and overall life satisfaction and help develop the habits critical for investing success. The author presents the concepts in two parts:

• Part 1 focuses on strategies for establishing your well-being and happiness and becoming a better person
• Part 2 focuses on strategies for compounding investments to achieve financial independence

Drawing on the work of philosophers, scholars, and investing greats like Warren Buffet, the book demonstrates how prudent financial strategies in portfolio management can lead to exponential growth over time. It’ll teach you how to enhance your decision-making, assess investment value, and manage risks.

Best for Visual Learners—“Napkin Finance”

“Napkin Finance: Build Your Wealth in 30 Seconds or Less” by Tina Hay is an entertaining read that provides a new perspective on all aspects of money. It focuses on the basics of personal finance and uses illustrations and graphs to explain financial concepts, making it perfect for visual learners. The book has lessons on:

• Credit
• Compound interest
• Investing basics
• Retirement savings
• Paying for college
• Entrepreneurship
• Taxes
• Stock market

Hay uses humor and illustrations to break down complex concepts in an easily digestible manner. She turns what’s usually a dry topic into a light-hearted and engaging read that any young adult can comprehend.

Though quite informative, this book targets young adults new to investment since it doesn’t go in-depth with the concepts. After reading this book, you might have to read more advanced investment books for more guidance on different investment options before going through with it. Still, it’s one of the best investing books for young adults to help you build a solid foundation.

How Your Credit Affects Your Investments

You can’t effectively execute the investment strategies you learn from these investing books for young adults if you have poor credit. A bad credit profile leads to higher loan interest rates and insurance premiums, leaving little money to save and invest. This can delay building wealth.

Good credit can help you:

• Get the best rates on loans and insurance
• Qualify for the best credit card deals
• Get better job opportunities
• Qualify for an apartment
• Skip utility deposits

If you start building credit as a young adult, these advantages can help you create significant wealth and save over $200,000 throughout adulthood.

However, there’s an obstacle to starting early—the CARD Act of 2009 doesn’t allow anyone under 21 to obtain a credit card without a cosigner. Parents often deal with this limitation by adding their children as authorized users to their credit cards. This can give you a chance to build your credit, but there are a few points to keep in mind:

• As an authorized user, you inherit your parent’s credit history—if it’s poor, it will damage yours
• If your parents remove you from their card, your credit history is deleted, and you must start over

FreeKick offers a more effective and convenient way to build credit without these limitations. Minors and young adults aged 13–25 can use it to create a credit profile and permanent credit history with the help of their parents.

How FreeKick Can Help You Build Credit

FreeKick by Austin Capital Bank is a combination of an FDIC-insured deposit account and subscription service that meets two critical needs:

1. Building credit for minors and young adults
2. Protecting minors and young adults from identity theft

Start Building Your Credit Early With FreeKick

FreeKick allows you to build a credit profile and permanent credit history with your parent’s help. It doesn’t rely on or affect your parent’s credit, and when you become an adult, it jumpstarts your credit score and profile with up to five years of history.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Create an Account—With the help of your parents, go to FreeKick.bank and choose a plan that best fits your family’s needs and budget
2. Set It and Forget It—After activating your account, FreeKick automatically starts building your credit over the next 12 months
3. Keep Growing—After 12 months, your parents can either renew the account to continue building your credit or cancel the plan and receive their deposit back. If they cancel before you become an adult, no credit can ever be reported for the account

Protect Your Identity With FreeKick

Minors are among the main targets of identity theft because of their unique vulnerability. According to new shocking evidence, a child’s identity is stolen every 30 seconds, and other types of identity theft happen daily as well.

One of the reasons why you must protect your identity is because identity fraud puts your investments at risk. It can wipe your accounts, ruin your credit history, and even get you sued for debts you had nothing to do with—but you can mitigate the risk through FreeKick.

FreeKick can reduce the risk of becoming a victim of identity fraud through its identity monitoring, detection, and restoration services. These include:

Services for Adult Children and Parents	Services for Minors
Credit profile monitoring SSN monitoring Dark web monitoring for personal information Up to $1 million identity theft insurance Full-service white-glove concierge credit restoration Lost wallet protection Court records monitoring Change of address monitoring Non-credit (Payday) loan monitoring Free FICO® Score monthly FICO® Score factors Experian credit report monthly	Credit profile monitoring SSN monitoring Dark web monitoring for children’s personal information Up to $1 million identity theft insurance Full-service white-glove concierge credit restoration Sex offender monitoring—based on sponsor parent’s address

FreeKick Pricing

FreeKick offers two plans to suit different needs and budgets. Deposits on both plans are FDIC-insured up to $250,000. Find the details in the table below:

FDIC-Insured Deposit Amount	Plan Fee
$3,000	$0 (Free)
No deposit	$149/year

To establish strong credit early, reduce the risk of identity theft, and excel at investing in the future, sign up for FreeKick today.