Recommended Books from Leading Experts in the Fields of Financial Psychology and the Psychology of Financial Planning

Author: Warren Berger

From the publisher, Bloomsbury: "To get a great answer, you need to ask the perfect question. Warren Berger revives the lost art of questioning. In this groundbreaking book, journalist and innovation expert Warren Berger shows that one of the most powerful forces for igniting change in business and in our daily lives is a simple, under-appreciated tool—one that has been available to us since childhood. Questioning—deeply, imaginatively, 'beautifully'—can help us identify and solve problems, come up with game-changing ideas, and pursue fresh opportunities. So why are we often reluctant to ask 'Why?'"

Author: Ryan Levesque

From the publisher, Dunham Books: "Ask is based on the compelling premise that you should NEVER have to guess what your prospects and customers are thinking. The Ask Formula revealed in this book has been used to help build multi-million dollar businesses in 23 different industries, generating over $100 million dollars in sales in the process."

Author: James O. Prochaska and Janice M. Prochaska

From the publisher: "Changing unhealthy behaviors is easier said than done. Through interactive exercises, backed by countless research studies, Changing to Thrive will help readers progress through the Stages of Change and find the will power to create lasting change that will allow them to thrive."

Authors: Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Kerry Patterson

From the publisher, McGraw-Hill: "Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation―especially difficult ones―leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person."

Author: Brené Brown

From the publisher, Random House: "When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work."

Author: Martin E. P. Seligman

From the publisher, Simon & Schuster: "Flourish builds on Dr. Seligman’s game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life—for individuals, for communities, and for nations. In a fascinating evolution of thought and practice, Flourish refines what Positive Psychology is all about."

Author: Brian Portnoy

From the publisher, Harriman House: "Taken as a whole, these essays powerfully demonstrate that there is no single 'right' way to save, spend, and invest. We see a kaleidoscope of perspectives on stocks, bonds, real assets, funds, charity, and other means of achieving the life one desires. With engaging illustrations throughout by Carl Richards, How I Invest My Money inspires readers to think creatively about their financial decisions and how money figures in the broader quest for a contented life."

Author: Lori Gottlieb

From the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: "A disarmingly funny, thought-provoking, and boldly revealing new book that shows us what it means to be human."

Author: Brad Klontz

From the publisher, Penguin Random House: "Drawing on their decades of experience helping patients resolve their troubling issues with money, the Klontzes and describe the twelve most common “money disorders” – like financial infidelity, money avoidance, compulsive shopping, financial enabling, and more — and explain how we can learn to identify them, understand their root causes, and ultimately overcome them."

Author: Michael Lewis

From the publisher, W.W. & Norton Company: "Michael Lewis’s instant classic may be “the most influential book on sports ever written” (People), but “you need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy and incisiveness of [Lewis’s] thoughts about it.”

Author: James Grubman

From the publisher, FamilyWealth Consulting: "The book explores the many similarities between the journeys of ethnic immigrants to a new land and those who make an economic transformation from working-class or middle-class life to becoming affluent. Through wealth-creation, marriage, or sudden windfall, these “Immigrants to the Land of Wealth” have many of the same emotional stresses, characteristics, and psychological tasks that ethnic immigrants have, including adapting how they raise their children and grandchildren as “Natives in the Land of Wealth."

Author: Daniel Gilbert

From the publisher, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group: "What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding in your sock drawer since the Ford administration? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Would you drive out to that steakhouse near the new mall and order a T-bone, medium rare, with an extra side of the really bad cholesterol? Hard to say, of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today."

Author: Brian Portnoy

From the publisher, Harriman House: "In The Geometry of Wealth, behavioral finance expert Brian Portnoy delivers an inspired answer, building on the critical distinction between being rich and being wealthy. While one is an unsatisfying treadmill, the other is the ability to underwrite a meaningful life, however one chooses to define that. Truly viewed, wealth is funded contentment."

Author: Daniel Kahneman

From the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux: "In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think."