Very intrigued by this thread lately. The Bond Book by Annette Thau is the best book on bonds, treasuries, muni bonds, zeroes, I Bonds etc. Great basis for understanding yield/price curves and all of the tax treatment for these fixed income products.
Intelligent Investor is an all-timer. By Ben Graham. 70 years later I'd still give that to any person who is interested in understanding the fundamentals of investing for an average investor.
I think for a starter those books are too advanced, just my opinion. A thing easily forgotten is how much terminology is used in various disciplines. For example, a beginning investor could well have no idea what the term "Treasuries" is, or muni bonds, or yield curve, etc.
Something light and airy could be a better starting point, something with everyday analogies.
When Tobias wrote his first edition, inflation was raging, and he advised for example when something was on sale that you used to buy a lot of it, the price in a year would be 10% higher. It was simple stuff like that, plus thoughts on stocks and bonds. Back then, many mutual stock funds had loads, they were offered by folks like Merrill Lunch, the loads could be 5% or more, at the start, plus annual fees. We didn't have discount brokers, my first stock trade had a $70 commission.
One trick I learned was dividend re3nvestment, a simple concept of course, mainly a way to avoid high commissions.
He updated his book years later. I advise my kids to use ETFs. And if you get a money manager, by all means make sure he's fiduciary.
Years ago my then ex mother in law had me look over her portfolio that was being managed, I should say CHURNED. Holy cow, it was a mess.
