Money isn’t everything, but that cliché isn’t much help when you’re broke and trying to pay the bills.

Money is powerful. Not having enough of it can have a huge impact on your life, and so can having too much. When I was little, I knew I wanted to be rich as an adult. Not like, “I have a guy who cleans the pool on my yacht” rich, just rich enough to buy Oreos at the grocery store without worrying about it.  

Carl Sandburg said, “Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of all evil, the sum of blessings.”  I’ve always been intrigued with this idea: that money is just a tool, but it’s a tool that can do so much, which is why I’m interested in it in the first place. And there are a number of really great books that helped shape not only my relationship with money, but how I think about it in general. Here are a few of them.

Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is a hard sell for some people, and believe me, I get it. But the concepts he outlines in this book work, and when I didn’t know a damn thing about personal finance, this book helped tremendously.

It made the first big impact on how I think about money. In the book, Ramsey writes about living “like no one else today so you can live like no one else tomorrow.” When I was broke and paying off student loan debt, that appealed to me in a big way. I had no choice but to be broke and pay off debt, but I hung onto the idea that I could live a life like “no one else” in the future.

Generally, the book gives a thorough overview of the most basic tenants of personal finance. Stuff like:

• The power of compound interest
• Using a cash-only system to get spending under control
• Tracking every penny so you can spend less than you earn

But, more importantly, the book’s foundation is based on the psychology of money. Ramsey addresses some of the most commonly held attitudes toward personal finance and then deconstructs them, telling you why they don’t work and what works better. In short, the book hit home, and I’m glad I read it.

Yes, he does pepper in his religion, which turns a lot of people off. I’m not a religious person, but it’s easy enough to see past the references and get to the meat of this book, which is really a primer on personal finance concepts that work.

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

Here’s another book that tackles the psychology of money. It’s aim is to change your relationship with it so you can reach financial independence.

I read this book a couple of years ago, and I figured I already had a clear grasp on these concepts. After all, it’s about having a solid relationship with money, and as a personal finance writer, money and I are pretty tight.

But this book offers a different perspective. Yes, it discusses your individual relationship with money, but then it also talks about how that relationship is linked to consumerism. It’s enlightening, and one of my favorite quotes:

We no longer live life, we consume it. We have come to believe, deeply, that it is our right to consume. If we have the money, we can buy whatever we want, whether or not we need it, use it or even enjoy it. And if we don’t have the money … heck, what are credit cards for? We have taken our right to consume to heart, and perhaps placed it above other rights, privileges and duties of a free society.

Instead of focusing on getting rich so you can consume, the book urges you to focus on getting rich so you can be independent and enjoy a life that’s focused on having enough. I also love the way they define frugality:

Frugality is something like that—not too much, not too little, but just right. Nothing is wasted. Or left unused. It’s a clean machine…that magic word—enough.

Secrets of Six-Figure Women by Barbara Stanny

I’ll be honest. I picked up this book from the library a few years ago, because I needed something to write about over at Get Rich Slowly.

But man, oh man, I was impressed. This is a bold statement, but: this book helped me reach my earning potential and become a high-earner. The year I read it, I started earning six figures as a freelancer, and that would not have happened if I didn’t apply Stanny’s advice.

She kicks off with a chapter on common traits of underearners: workers who, for one reason or another, have resigned to earning less than they should be earning. And those traits described me perfectly. For example:

Underearners are willing to work for free:

“Underearners regularly give away their time, knowledge and skills for nothing. They’ll work at no charge without thinking twice. Most of the time, it’s so ingrained they aren’t even conscious they’re doing it.”

I’ve definitely worked for free without even thinking twice about it.

Underearners are lousy negotiators:

“…Underearners hold back simply because they’re too scared. ‘What if I raise my prices, and they laugh in my face,’ said Annie, a bookbinder.”

Describes me so well, it hurts.

Underearners believe in the nobility of poverty:

“…many underearners genuinely believe money is tainted, materialism is bad, and there’s something virtuous about surviving on a shoestring,” Stanny explains. “According to this line of reasoning, they are much better people for rejecting financial gain.”

Woah, okay, we’re getting way too close to home here!

After Stanny’s words outed me as an underearner, I was intrigued. Of course, I read the rest of the book, which included what exactly I should do about it. I’ve written about some of her tips here, but the full book is definitely worth checking out.  After reading, I negotiated a higher rate with two different clients, negotiated my way out of a pay cut, and ended the year with a six-figure income.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Everyone loves this book, and I’d heard good things about it before picking it up. “He lays down personal finance in a really easy-to-understand way,” a friend told me. Sethi definitely does this, the same way Dave Ramsey does, but his book goes well beyond the basics, and that’s mostly because he fully embraces a concept that makes a lot of people uncomfortable: money is awesome and you should try to get as much of it as you can.

Now, I’ve written an entire frugality manifesto, and I stand by it. But in his writing, Sethi brings up an important question about frugality: is it possible to focus on it too much? To the point that you neglect other important personal finance concepts, like earning more?

It took me a while to admit it, but sure it is. As I’ve said, you can have the best of both worlds (and Sethi talks about saving money, too), but I have to admit, this book gave me a more well-rounded perspective of personal finance. Focusing on earning more complements frugality in a great way, and I like that the book tells you how to do that. It’s not shy about embracing wealth. In fact, it’s pretty in-your-face about it, and Sethi’s writing is hilariously inspiring (I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting him, and he’s hilariously inspiring in person, too). One of my favorite Sethi quotes:

Like I said before, this is a personal-finance ass-kicking, not a Willy Wonka lovefest.

I mean, how does that not change your relationship with money?

Scarcity: Why Having So Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan

This is less of a personal finance book and more of a book on socioeconomics, but it’s powerful.

If you think overcoming poverty is as easy as spending less than you earn and pulling yourself up from your bootstraps, you should read this book. Scarcity is written by Harvard researchers who studied the impact of, well, scarcity. They wanted to see how a severe lack of time and money affects people, and the results of their research are surprising. They explain that scarcity traps you: it makes you less kind, more impulsive, neglectful–it even lowers your IQ. And the kicker is, it does this without your even realizing or having the bandwidth to control it.

Again, the book is definitely focused on a larger social issue, but it’s an eye-opener if you think you understand poverty.

I realize that some of the books on this list are very, very different. Your Money or Your Life probably doesn’t even agree with a lot of the concepts in I Will Teach You to Be Rich, for example. But how solid a relationship can you have with money if you only read books that echo the same sentiment? Anyway, these are a few of the books that helped shaped my perspective. What are your favorite personal finance reads?