In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, self-made millionaire T. Harv Eker reveals the difference between the way rich people and poor people think and feel about money. Eker argues that these thoughts and beliefs impel you to take actions that either move you toward financial success or away from it—if you’re not happy with the state of your finances, it’s because your unproductive thoughts and beliefs about money hold you back from the financial success that you want.

According to Eker, you can dramatically improve your finances by taking conscious control of your thoughts and adopting a rich attitude that will inspire you to take new actions that lead to your financial success.

In this guide, we’ve reorganized Eker’s ideas into three distinct parts that walk you through his philosophy and give you actionable advice on developing a richer mindset. Additionally, we include research underlying why people often fail to meet their financial goals and actionable ideas from other self-improvement authors, financial authors, and psychologists.

Does thinking about your personal finances make your palms start to sweat? If so, you’re not alone. The sheer amount of information out there about managing your finances is overwhelming, especially for people in their 20s or 30s who are just starting their financial journeys. Ramit Sethi is a self-taught expert in personal finance whose goal is to help you cut through the noise of conflicting and overly technical financial advice, get past your own hang-ups around money, and take small steps toward a "rich life"—whatever that looks like for you.

In this summary, you’ll learn how to use credit cards wisely, choose the right bank accounts and investment accounts, plan out your spending, and ultimately create a financial system that grows your money automatically.

The Wealthy Barber is David Chilton’s bestselling guide to becoming financially successful by following a handful of simple, easy-to-understand principles. These principles are illustrated using a fictional story about a teacher, an auto plant worker, and a small business owner who seek financial guidance from a barber who’s become wealthy by following the lessons he imparts.

Unlike some books on personal finance, The Wealthy Barber is not one size fits all: Chilton advises, for example, that you should only buy a house if it’s right for you, that day-to-day spending choices like whether to order take-out don’t matter too much if you’re implementing big-picture financial planning, and that not everyone needs life insurance.

Our guide compares and contrasts Chilton’s approach with those outlined in other popular personal finance books, such as The Simple Path to Wealth and The Total Money Makeover. We also provide background on developments in the financial and housing markets since the book was published.

The Automatic Millionaire provides a simple but powerful action plan for you to quickly automate your finances, build your wealth, and achieve financial freedom. David Bach argues that, with just a few dollars a day, you can immediately benefit from this book’s advice and grow your finances.

This guide explores Bach’s key ideas about how to automate your personal finances and build wealth. We’ve added commentary throughout to compare and contrast Bach’s process with other popular financial authors like Ramit Sethi (I Will Teach You to Be Rich) and Scott Pape (The Barefoot Investor). We’ve also included psychological research underlying why people fail to prepare for their financial futures, possible caveats to Bach’s recommendations, and updated resources.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the best-selling financial books in history, selling over 35 million copies. The premise: when growing up, author Robert Kiyosaki had two dads advising him: 1) a Stanford-educated PhD who followed traditional career thinking and was financially illiterate (the Poor Dad, his biological father); 2) a high school dropout who built a business empire employing thousands (the Rich Dad, his best friend’s father).

The two dads are really a parable for two different approaches to wealth: Poor Dad recommends getting a secure job with good benefits and retiring with a pension. Rich Dad recommends amassing assets that make money for you, becoming financially literate, and practicing independent thinking.

In this book, learn how to achieve financial independence, why it’s a terrible idea to see your home as your biggest investment, and how to overcome the biggest mental blocks to becoming wealthy.

There is a science—a guaranteed method—to becoming rich. Anyone can learn this science, regardless of circumstance and talent, because it harnesses the natural tendencies of the matter of the universe.

Everything in the universe is made up of the same matter, and by nature, this matter favors the advancement of life. To advance, you need resources, and to get resources, you need money. Therefore, it’s in God’s and matter’s best interests to make you rich. All you have to do is act in harmony with the universe and harness its fundamental tendencies. Learn to use the power of your thoughts, your will, and your actions to achieve wealth.

In Money: Master the Game, motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins argues that anyone can master money, achieve financial well-being, and create their dream lifestyle. In Robbins’ view, to master money means building an investing strategy that yields passive income for life and gives you the choice of when, where, and whether to continue working. Conversely, neglecting to master money means that you’ll always need to trade your time for money.

Our guide unpacks Robbins’s approach to changing your money mindset and financial strategy, and we contrast it with popular approaches to financial independence such as Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Early Retirement Extreme (ERE).

In The Simple Path to Wealth, blogger and financial expert JL Collins offers a simple road map to achieving financial independence and a secure retirement: Spend less than you make, avoid debt, save "F-You Money," and invest in stock index funds. He demystifies stocks and bonds, as well as a plethora of investment plan options. In addition to explaining basic concepts such as asset allocation, Collins answers key questions such as how to live on your investments and how to avoid major tax hits.

Whether you’re in the wealth accumulation stage of life where you’re growing your investments, or in the wealth preservation stage where you’re living on them, Collins tells you how to use your money to achieve freedom and a more fulfilling life.

In The Millionaire Next Door, authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko skewer the myths about how (and where) most millionaires live, and what it takes to become one. Their extensive research published in 1996 identified the sometimes surprising characteristics and habits shared by many millionaires. For instance, millionaires are often bargain shoppers (they buy used cars and off-the-rack clothing), pay only a small percentage of their wealth in income taxes, and shun the lavish lifestyles we often associate with being rich. The book explains how to determine what your net worth should be, according to your age and income, and how you can build wealth over time and become a millionaire—if you have the discipline.

How do formidable companies lose their footing and fall into irrelevance—or even cease to exist? And how can other companies avoid the same fate? Jim Collins seeks to answer these questions in How the Mighty Fall. Backed by years of research into once-mighty companies, Collins contends there are five phases leading to a company’s downfall: overconfidence, overreaching, ignoring the signs, overcorrecting, and surrendering.

While the book is a warning to companies that have grown complacent, it also gives hope to those in the throes of decline. Collins says that by staying vigilant of the threat of failure, you can rechart your course, keep pushing forward, and ensure your company’s survival.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the five phases that lead to a company’s decline. We’ll then break down Collins’s advice for resuscitating a faltering company. As the book was published in 2009, we’ll also include updates on the companies he mentions, as well as connecting his ideas to concepts in his other books and examining the perspectives of other experts.