EQ of Wealth Reading List
Recommended reads to grow your Wealth EQ
My small section of the universe is creating a culture where families are closer, legacies are stronger, and the world is better.
That’s the EQ of Wealth. It’s work based on everything I know and have learned, and it's informed and inspired by THE TRAILBLAZING WORK OF OTHERS.
There are lots of books in existence about the IQ of Wealth, which is any book about financial literacy or decision-making about money. The EQ of Wealth is relational — whether that be in relationship with ourselves or in relationship with others — and therefore, many of the below books are focused on relationships.
Each of the below books have been foundational to the development of my EQ of Wealth work — dive in and get ready for your own growth and legacy magic to start taking shape.
I updated the list from when it was first published in 2023. Enjoy!
ON RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNITY
Fight Right by Drs. John & Julie Gottman
This book is the best book I’ve found on how to transform confrontation to connection. It’s a must read because fighting isn’t bad, but how are we fight can be. Anything I create is truly in homage to the groundbreaking work of Drs. John and Julie Gottman over the last 50 years on the science of love and relationships.
Marriage: A History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz
This book is breath of fresh air if you grew up in America because we can hold the institution of marriage to impossible standards (see Esther Perel’s work). However, if you go far back enough, everything about marriage has changed, so why not make your own rules? And for that matter, why not make your own rules in all relationships?
The Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family Ties by William Doherty
I discovered this book through training with the Gottman Institute. I love this book because what’s so true from the research is that trust is built in the small moments. This book gives you ideas on how to make those small moments, which really are the big moments, matter the most.
The Big We by Hali lee
Relationships and impact are both team sports. Author Hali Lee has spent her career has been a trailblazer in collective generosity and specifically the unique role of giving circles in philanthropy. The EQ of Wealth is a soft skills training to drive hard capital and this book will not only inspire you to create positive change, but it can be your road map on how to do it alongside your community.
Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living by Dimitris Xygalatas
Anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas book "Rituals" explores how rituals foster connection and belonging, making the spiritual feel scientific. This book not only shares some of my favorite research on how during a fire walking ritual in Spain, the hearts rates of the participants and the onlookers all synchronized! Dimitris was interviewed for the podcast Hidden Brain and it’s a worthwhile listen as well.
ON WEALTH
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons of Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
I created the EQ of Wealth because my relationship to money and money making decisions were so intense and straight up stress response. This book brought those complicated emotions out, which is why I think it’s important. This is the only book I can remember where I got so overwhelmed in the middle of reading that I had to stop, put it down, and come back to it 8 months later. It’s not a heavy read. In fact, it’s quite enjoyable, engaging, and factual. I also realized after returning to the book 8-months later and genuinely enjoying it, I knew my journey with money and wealth were healed. Now if that’s not an important book — what is?
The Five Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life by Sahil Bloom
Wealth comes in 5 different forms, according to Sahil Bloom — it isn’t just about money. It’s Time Wealth, Social Wealth (hello, relationships!), Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth. This is a guide on how you can use all five to create a life of meaning, value, and purpose.
The myth of the silver spoon: Navigating family wealth and creating an impactful life by kristin keffeler
This book is the original book about the complexity of wealth, emotions, and family. This book guides NextGen of wealthy families to identify and confront their complicated relationship and thinking around money. It's also valuable reading for the professionals who support them—wealth advisors, estate attorneys, philanthropic advisors, family office teams, and career coaches.
ON SCIENCE & RESEARCH
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
The EQ of Wealth is focused on families, and some of our most profound sources of our personal hurt and healing comes from there. This seminal work demonstrates how our that history of health, healing and hurt are inherently connected. It’s not a light read, but the hard lessons of this book unlock profound insights.
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-related Diseases, and Coping by Robert M. Sapolsky
This book is also one of the science-heavy books that’s also fun to read! It really dives into how to manage and cope with stress (aka - nervous system regulation) — the physical tenet of the EQ of Wealth. I say again and again that the people we love the most will rock our nervous system the hardest and the fastest. This is why conversations with our family (especially in the realms of wealth and work) become confrontational so quickly. This book helps us get a handle on that.
Thinking Fast and Slow by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman
This book is one of the most important books of my life. After I read it — it was pinging around my brain daily! It’s an EQ of Wealth must-read. Thinking Fast and Slow unpacks how our brain makes decisions (Two modes - System 1 and System 2; Fast vs. Slow; Intuition vs. Deliberation) and why many of our beliefs and biases can lead us astray. A huge part of this book unpacks our relationship to money, wealth, and decision-making, backed by world-class economic research.
Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships by Dr. Anna Machin
This brilliant book delves into the biology, chemistry, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and personal experiences that reveal why love and why we need love. The breadth of love that Dr. Anna Machin explores does justice to all the ways we can form deep connections, from parental love and romantic love to love for our pets, closest friends, and even for people we’ve never met.
Why brains need friends: the neuroscience of social connection by ben rein PhD
This is a neuroscientist’s guide (with jargon at a minimum!) to boosting your brain health by living a more connected life, and thriving in a post-interaction world. From an EQ of Wealth perspective, I found these findings around why our emotions are contagious, how our brains and bodies can synchronize each other as a sign of closeness, and how to use (and not use) technology to broker connection.
ON LEGACY & PURPOSE
Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
Adam Grant does it again with his book “Hidden Potential” on what it takes to reach new heights in our lives. His work on the misconception on soft skills or what he calls “character skills” is illuminating.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
An ikigai framework is how everyone can find their own reason for living. It was this framework that was a direct inspiration for finding my legacy magic or the EQ of Wealth, and my legacy magic framework.
The Big Leap: Conquer your Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
Gay Hendricks’ descriptions of the zones of incompetence, competence, excellence, and genius will give you a new lens to look at your life, and also the courage to go after your greatest legacy. When I was picking up the pieces of a “phoenix moment,” this book inspired me to keep going with the EQ of Wealth because it’s My Zone of Genius. It had a tangible and positive impact on my life almost immediately after I read it!
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks
Legacy building is a second-half-of-life pursuit. In the same way that business and relationships are two different games, so is leadership in the first and second half of life. One is about striving, and the other is about teaching and serving. One of the core values of the EQ of Wealth is service, and that fact alone makes this book a must-read.
The Power of regret: How Looking Backward moves Us Forward by daniel H. Pink
Daniel H. Pink debunks the idea of “no regrets” and after conducting the largest survey on regret (15,000 people over 105 countries), he learned that regret comes in 4 main categories: foundation, boldness, moral, and connection regrets. Money and relationships regrets are EVERYWHERE, so knowing how to transform this difficult emotion into fuel for positive transformation makes it a worthy Wealth EQ read.
I hope these books get your neurons firing and ideas flowing, like they did for me!
If you manage to get through all these books, I commend you and I welcome your outreach for further recommendations. I’m sure by then, I’ll have many more books to share. Aren’t relationships so fun and forever interesting?
