Endowus 2024 book recommendations

By now, Spotify Wrapped has more or less taken your social media feed. 

For some, showcasing our music taste is akin to a personality test. If the amount of time spent listening to a song on loop reveals insights into our thoughts and lifestyle, perhaps the same can be said for the books, podcast series, or even Netflix shows we currently have our eyes and ears on.

Drawing inspiration from the wisdom of the great thinkers, or as we often refer to at Endowus – standing on the shoulders of giants – provides meaningful insights and knowledge. This year, we walked around our offices before the holiday season and collected seven book and podcast recommendations from Endowies. 

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Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles for Pivoting Through Disruption

Written by Will Page, Former chief economist of streaming music service Spotify

“If you are a fan of music and entrepreneurship, there's a book written by a music enthusiast that you might enjoy. 

Packed with references to classic tunes and iconic bands, the book is far from a collection of Bob Marley sheet music. Instead, it takes a deep dive into how Spotify revolutionised the music industry from an economic perspective. To me, one of the most inspiring parts was Page’s Public, Private Toll, and Common Goods framework, which had a profound impact on how I think about Endowus’ business model – among what we do, we transform the traditional client advisory experience from an exclusive and ‘rivalrous’ product into what the book describes as a toll good.

The book offers many more great examples of pivoting as a company, by letting go of the previous vine to move forward, if you wonder what the book name is about.”

–– ​​Isaac Lee, Senior Product Manager

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A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan

Written by Ben Carlson

"With decades of experience in portfolio management, author Ben Carlson argues that the more complex investment strategies are, the more counterproductive they usually are. This was what made the book especially interesting to me – a professional investor who deals with complex financial instruments for a living is ironically telling us to invest simply.

But the key word here is ‘simple’, not ‘simplistic’. Carlson espouses simple ways to approach the markets, but he cites William Bernstein’s that in becoming a successful investor, one has to (1) have an interest in the investing process, (2) math skills, (3) a firm grasp of financial history, and (4) the emotional discipline to see a plan through. It’s a much-needed reminder that there’s no free lunch in the world, and we need to build on our financial literacy to take control of our finances. 

Carlson also touches on emotions: “the single greatest challenge you face as an investor is handling the truth about yourself”. One has to have the self-awareness and courage to admit that we often let emotions get the better of us. And he wittily puts, “in many ways, the short-term movements in the stock market are really just one big psychological experiment on human nature, while in the longer-term, fundamentals tend to be the driving force.”

–– Yan Rong Tan, Content Associate

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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Written by Cal Newport

“We are facing more distractions now than ever. Both in and outside of work, our attention is pulled in multiple directions. Deep Work by Cal Newport describes deep work as focused, uninterrupted, and cognitively demanding tasks that create significant value and improve skills. Newport argues that in today’s economy where distractions are rampant, the ability to engage in deep work is both rare and extremely valuable. It empowers us, as individuals, to push our cognitive limits, to learn faster, and produce better results.

Newport shares several tips to cultivate deep work, and here are my favourite ones: 

• Be selective about using technology
• Schedule a specific time for work and free time
• Embrace boredom to train the brain to resist constant distractions”

–– Hugh Chung, Chief Investment Advisory Officer

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Same as Ever: Timeless Lessons on Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life

Written by Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money

“Ever caught yourself procrastinating because you wanted to gather all the necessary information before making a move? At the same time, it feels like the world moves at lightning speed, and you just cannot keep up with the constant flood of new information. That’s what we call analysis paralysis, where one overthink and overanalyse a situation to the point where one feels stuck and can't make a decision. It happens to many investing beginners. For you, my recommendation is the book Same as Ever, a lighthearted read with 20-plus short stories about the ways of life and behaviour. 

My favourite quote from the book is: ‘The idea that something can be likely and not happen, or unlikely and still happen, is one of the world’s most important tricks. Most people get that certainty is rare, and the best you can do is make decisions where the odds are in your favour… The core here is that people think they want an accurate view of the future, but what they really crave is certainty.’

Instead of focusing on what is ever-changing, knowing what never changes, or verbatim from Housel - things that would stay the same as ever, could help save you much time. This is about investment, but also your life choices.”

–– Kate Lin, Content Lead

Read more: The science behind why we are bad at saving for retirement

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How to Invest: Masters on the Craft

Written by David Rubenstein, the co-founder of The Carlyle Group

“The book comes with a collection of biographical interviews with a spectrum of the world’s most successful investors, including Larry Fink from BlackRock. 

Why I like it because each conversation is a treasure trove of insights, presenting not just the investors’ financial acumen, but also the personal lives, upbringing, and all those important life lessons that shape their approaches to wealth and markets, and how they end up doing what they do. The interviews are very candid making them very human, not merely faces of corporate plus some multi-digit figures, providing a rare glimpse into their minds.

There’s also a common thread of a handful of interviewees who advocate individual investors to adopt a passive investment strategy which resonates with me and our investment philosophy at Endowus. Give it a read!”

— Lean Sing Ding, Senior Client Advisor

Editors’ note: David Rubenstein’s inspiration came from The Money Masters written by John Train, a book profiling nine famous investors of that era, including Warren Buffett and John Templeton. Read about Buffett and Templeton and three other investment titans and how they revolutionised investing of our times. Read: True giants of the investment world: Buffett, Templeton, Booth, Bogle, Swensen

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Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization

Written by Scott D. Anthony, Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud, and Andy Parker

“In the early parts of my career, I struggled with the idea of creativity. After all, it’s often been said that you can’t ‘teach’ creativity. What people and organisations don’t get is that creativity can be nurtured. A lot of it comes from setting structures and mechanisms in place that help inspiration and creativity to thrive. 

Having had the privilege of working with one of the authors, I got to see first-hand how culture and leadership can play a big role in transforming organisations, but it also requires real actionable practices and material steps to bring to life. Eat, Sleep Innovate shares several of these stories and practices that are easy to understand, but more importantly, relatable. 

Learning lessons I got from reading this is that people and organisations shouldn’t worry about failure and that experiments can sometimes uncover things you didn’t expect. Transformation can take time, but it needs to be given breathing space to take root and grow from there.”

–– Lincoln Mah, Head of Brand Communications

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Podcast: Rational Reminder

“I tune in often to the podcast Rational Reminder, which surrounds sensible investing and financial decision-making. I especially liked the episode, The Psychology of Wealth, which explores the implications of parenting when parents move from one wealth bucket to a higher one. 

Dr. Jim Grubman, an expert in family wealth psychology, uses the metaphor of wealth as a foreign culture to explain the psychological adjustments required when transitioning to a higher economic status. He highlights the challenges that families face, such as adapting to new cultural norms and the importance of parents modelling healthy financial behaviours for their children. 

The episode also touches upon the evolution of wealth management practices from Wealth 1.0 to the emerging Wealth 3.0 paradigm, which emphasises a strengths-based approach focusing on resilience, purpose, and psychological well-being. 

Effective wealth management involves not just financial acumen but also emotional and psychological preparedness. The paradigm shift towards Wealth 3.0 empowers families to thrive and grow their wealth on the foundation of strong relationships and effective communication.”

–– Yulin Liu, Investment Lead

Our previous book list: What we're reading — Endowus year-end book list

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