12 essential works: build your financial knowledge arsenal for 2025

Prepare yourself for the upcoming year by mastering the best books on finance available. We have carefully selected a list of 12 works that will transform your mindset regarding money, business, and investment strategies. If you plan to start 2025 with a broad view of markets and finance, this guide is for you.

Why read about finance now?

The holiday season offers the perfect opportunity to dive into readings that expand your horizons. For entrepreneurs, investors, and ambitious professionals, dedicating time to books on finance is an investment in your own future. Reading not only provides practical knowledge about markets and capital management but also offers historical and psychological perspectives that shape better financial decisions.

This way, you will be prepared to face the challenges and seize the opportunities that 2025 will bring. These 12 titles cover everything from fundamentals of company analysis to human behavior, strategic leadership, and behavioral economics.

The essentials for investors

1. The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

Published by HarperCollins, this book is considered the bible of value investing. Benjamin Graham presents methodologies for evaluating companies, identifying buying opportunities in undervalued assets, and building robust long-term portfolios.

The work also prepares the reader to deal with emotional traps that arise during periods of volatility. Warren Buffett, one of the greatest wealth accumulators in the world, considers this “by far, the best book on investing ever written.”

Ideal for: those seeking to learn fundamental analysis and invest consistently.

2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

For two decades, this best-seller has remained among the top books on personal finance. The work contrasts the mentality of two “dads”: one with a traditional view of a secure job, and another who built wealth by investing in productive assets.

Kiyosaki differentiates assets from liabilities, explores the importance of multiple income streams, and challenges conventional thinking about money. For beginners in the financial world, this is a transformative and accessible read.

Ideal for: those starting out and wanting to change their mindset about wealth accumulation.

3. Financial Psychology - Morgan Housel

Sold in over one million copies worldwide, this HarperCollins book goes beyond numbers. Housel demonstrates how emotions, past financial traumas, and unconscious behaviors govern investment decisions.

The author maps out how fear and greed dominate markets, and how patience and discipline often outperform sophisticated technical skills. A fundamental read to align strategy with emotional behavior.

Ideal for: investors who want to master their emotional reactions to market volatility.

4. Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Published by Objetiva, this book goes beyond the concept of resilience. Taleb introduces “antifragility”: the ability to strengthen under pressure and uncertainty, turning crises into competitive advantages.

Combining economics, statistics, and philosophy, the work is especially valuable for building portfolios prepared for adverse scenarios and identifying opportunities in times of chaos.

Ideal for: those who want to adopt a bolder approach and be prepared for systemic risks.

Strategies of giants and practical analyses

5. Investments - The Secrets of George Soros and Warren Buffett - Mark Tier

This work by Elsevier analyzes two investment titans: Buffett, with his conservative, long-term approach, and Soros, famous for his high-risk macro moves. Mark Tier extracts the universal principles that guided both: strategic fidelity and rapid adaptability.

Perfect for those seeking practical inspiration and understanding that different paths lead to financial success.

Ideal for: investors looking for proven and diversified models.

6. Out of the Curve - Pierre Moreau and Collaborators

Released by Portfolio-Penguin, it gathers narratives from major figures in the Brazilian financial market, such as Florian Bartunek and Luiz Alves Paes de Barros. The work shares mistakes, victories, and lessons learned in practice.

For Brazilian investors, it offers contextualized insights on how to identify opportunities in the local market and apply global lessons to the national reality.

Ideal for: those investing in Brazil and seeking a realistic view of the local market.

7. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

Although not exclusively about finance, this work by L&PM is essential for building strategic thinking. Harari traces how economic systems evolved, the emergence of money, agricultural revolutions, and the impacts of power structures.

For investors and entrepreneurs, it offers a macro view of how historical trends shape the future economy.

Ideal for: those who want to expand their perspective and contextualize financial decisions within historical patterns.

Leadership, behavior, and decision-making tools

8. Principles - Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, shares in this work by Intrínseca the values and practices that led him to success. It combines philosophical reflection with practical tools to handle complexity, applicable to both investments and business management.

A fundamental read for leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to align personal ethics with professional strategy.

Ideal for: managers, entrepreneurs, and investors who want to structure their approaches systematically.

9. Rethink Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Nobel Prize in Economics, Kahneman explores the two mental systems that govern our decisions: the intuitive (fast) and the analytical (slow). The work identifies biases and cognitive traps that lead investors astray.

It combines behavioral psychology with finance, offering tools to recognize error patterns and improve decision quality.

Ideal for: those who want to refine their analytical capacity in complex and uncertain scenarios.

10. The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason

Published nearly a century ago, this classic from HarperCollins remains relevant. Through historical parables, Clason teaches timeless principles: living within limits, saving consistently, and investing wisely.

An accessible introduction to fundamentals, ideal for those starting their financial journey or wanting to solidify basic principles.

Ideal for: beginners seeking to build solid foundations before advanced strategies.

Biographies and unconventional perspectives

11. The Snowball Effect - Alice Schroeder

This detailed biography of Warren Buffett by Actual delves into his decisions, mistakes, and strategies that amassed a monumental fortune. It offers insights into resilience, discipline, and how to apply his principles in the daily life of any investor.

Ideal for: those seeking inspiration and wanting to uncover the methods behind Buffett’s success.

12. Freakonomics: The Hidden and Unexpected Side of Everything - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Published by Alta Books, this work redefines how we see economics. Levitt (economist) and Dubner (journalist) analyze everyday issues through an unconventional economic lens, revealing that economics is about incentives, not just money.

With data, stories, and theories, they challenge common assumptions and stimulate critical thinking about markets, business, and society.

Ideal for: those who want to question assumptions and see the financial world with a renewed perspective.

Transform your 2025 through reading

Holidays are more than rest: they are a space for intellectual recalibration. These 12 books on finance combine practical wisdom, strategic reflection, and transformational lessons on how to invest, undertake, and prosper.

Start now. Choose a title that resonates with your current goals and dive in. Each page brings you closer to a more prepared, resilient, and strategic mindset for the financial challenges of 2025 and beyond.

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