Before financial advice abounded online, people turned to experts’ books to get the goods on how to build a financially secure life and achieve certain financial milestones.
Many of the top money experts owe their success to these books, while others figured out that their audience craves knowledge at their fingertips.
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Here are nine of the richest financial authors, all of whom also happen to be on GOBankingRates’ list of 100 Most Influential Money Experts, plus how much they’re worth and what you can learn from them.
Rachel Cruze: $3 Million
Rachel Cruze is a personal finance expert and the author most recently of “Know Yourself, Know Your Money.” On her show “The Rachel Cruze Show,” she shares practical money tips. She is also the daughter of money expert Dave Ramsey.
Her 2021 book explains the influence of our parents’ views on money on our own “money personality” and discusses what she calls types of “money classrooms.” The book also explains six money fears you might be struggling with that are influencing your money decisions and tries to shift you toward healthier money decisions.
“Money is just a magnifying glass: It makes you more of whoever you are. If you’re kind and generous, you’ll be even more kind and generous with money. If you’re rude and self-centered, you’ll be even more rude and self-centered with money. Money is just a tool and has nothing to do with your identity,” Cruze wrote in the book.
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Ramit Sethi: $25 Million
Ramit Sethi is a finance expert, former host of the Netflix show “How to Get Rich” and founder of the blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich, which discusses personal finance and personal entrepreneurship.
He published his New York Times bestselling book, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” in 2009, which teaches many financial concepts, including how to get out of debt (including student loans) more quickly, how to save hundreds or even thousands per month without sacrificing the things you want to buy, how to automate savings and investing, and much more.
His philosophy can be summed up simply in a quote from his book, “Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.”
Suze Orman: $75 Million
Before social media made influencers and other money experts famous, there was Suze Orman, who has gone on to become one of America’s most well-known finance experts. She is an Emmy award-winning TV host and runs the popular “Women & Money” podcast. Plus, 10 of her books have been New York Times bestsellers.
Most recently, one of her bestsellers, “The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+” was updated in 2023. However, Orman has long made it a mission to empower women in their financial journey. Her book “Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny” achieves that aim. She is perhaps most well known for “The Courage to Be Rich,” however.
In “Women & Money” she wrote, “How we behave toward our money, how we treat our money, speaks volumes about how we perceive and value ourselves. If we aren’t powerful with money, we aren’t powerful period.”
Barbara Corcoran: $100 Million
In 2011, ABC’s “Shark Tank” star Barbara Corcoran published a memoir called “Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business,” which recounts her rise from financial struggle to real estate mogul. She describes failing at 22 jobs and being so broke she had to borrow $1,000 from her boyfriend to open her own small real estate office in New York.
The take-no-BS Corcoran happily shares her can-do strategies that worked for her with anyone who is interested in following in her footsteps.
“Being afraid to fail stops you from trying things in the first place. I learned after many failures that nobody’s watching and nobody gives a damn. If you want to build a successful business, you don’t have to get it right; you just have to get it going,” she wrote in her book.
Robert Kiyosaki: $100 Million
Robert Kiyosaki is the author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” — a personal finance guide that is the first in a series of over 20 guides that cover the gamut of topics in personal finance. He’s also the founder of Rich Global and the Rich Dad Company, a financial education group.
The New York Times bestselling “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” first published in 1997, continues to sell well. It’s the story of how Kiyosaki grew up with two dads — his own father, the “poor” dad, and his best friend’s father, the “rich” dad — and how these two men’s mindsets influenced his own financial thoughts and choices. What has made the book so successful is the idea that you don’t need to earn a high income to be rich.
A quote from the book summarizes his thoughts on the power of attitude on finances: “The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant.”
Jim Cramer: $150 Million
The outspoken finance expert Jim Cramer brings his experience founding a hedge fund company in the late ’80s to his stint as the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money.” He also runs the CNBC “Investing Club.” He has also written several books: “Stay Mad for Life,” “Confessions of a Street Addict,” “You Got Screwed,” “Real Money” and “Mad Money.”
His most recent book is “Get Rich Carefully,” which was published in 2013. In this book, he appeals to people who are “tired of phony promises about getting rich quickly” and offers tips on building lasting wealth in a cautious manner.
Perhaps his most famous quote is this: “Bulls make money. Bears make money. But pigs get slaughtered.” This essentially means to invest wisely, not greedily, or you might end up losing out financially.
Dave Ramsey: $200 Million
Dave Ramsey is one of the most well-known faces in personal finance. He’s unsurprisingly a bestselling author of numerous books, including “The Total Money Makeover,” and the host of the financial advice show “The Ramsey Show,” which has over 18 million listeners. He is also the CEO of the company Ramsey Solutions. One of his most recent books is “Real Estate the Ramsey Way.”
Ramsey is often known for somewhat controversial advice, such as never using a credit card and not investing in 401(k)s until you’ve done other things he suggests.
In a recent Slate review of Ramsey’s impact on regular people’s finances, the writer Joel Anderson described Ramsey’s financial advice as “fairly straightforward … pay for everything in cash and live as modestly as possible until you’re totally out of debt.”
Ramsey advocates for basic money-saving strategies that have helped many people find financial security.
Kevin O’Leary: $400 Million
Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian businessman, is one of the investors on “Shark Tank.” He has been on the show the longest and has earned the nickname of “Mr. Wonderful.” He founded SoftKey, a software company, and has since gone on to dabble in TV shows. Plus, he has written books on money, relationships and business. One of his most recently published books was “Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money,” published in 2013.
In it, he urges readers to think carefully about the big decisions in their lives, from career to life partner, though he focuses most on the financial implications of these choices. He also offers 50 common money mistakes.
One of his key pieces of advice is to not get emotional about your money. “If emotions are involved in a money decision, be very, very careful. No decision fueled by EMOTION ever led [to] long term value,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Grant Cardone: $600 Million
Grant Cardone is best known as the author of “The 10X Rule” and the CEO of Cardone Capital. The book has led to the 10X Growth Conference, and Cardone promotes financial health through books and seminars, among other things.
“The 10X Rule” discusses a “4th degree of action” that goes beyond what Cardone calls the three main basic action steps: “no action, retreat, or normal action.” The 4th degree of action is “massive action,” and his book promises to show readers how to take it through such strategies as “the estimation of effort,” busting time management myths and more.
He urges his clients and followers to rise above outdated, unworkable middle-class myths and limitations in order to achieve their own freedom.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 9 Richest Financial Authors — What Are They Most Known For, and What Can You Learn From Them?
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