The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is an aging chestnut. It's a classic in the field. Many later financial books are based on Clason's advice, which is framed in King James-style English rules:

Rule #1: Start Thy Purse Fattening — save 10% of everything you earn

Rule #2: Control Thy Expenditures — create a budget to live within your means

Rule #3: Make Thy Gold Multiply — invest the savings from rule one

Rule #4: Guard Thy Treasures From Loss — invest only where the principal is safe

Rule #5: Make of Thy Dwelling a Profitable Investment — own your home

Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin is, as I mentioned, the cream of the crop of these financial books. It's advice is sound. This is an especially great book for those seeking simplicity. It lends itself less to bullet points than some of the others, but I've made an attempt to enumerate the steps it advocates for financial independence:

Step #1: Determine how much money you've earned in your life. Next, determine your net worth. Compare and contrast the two.

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. This book was the first I read. I want to re-read it. It features lots of practical advice, including the concept of the "debt snowball" I mentioned earlier. Here are Ramsey's steps to a "total money makeover":

Step #1: Save $1000 as an emergency fund.

Step #2: Pay off debts, starting with the smallest first (ignore interest rates).

Step #3: Increase the emergency fund so that it will cover three to six months of expenses.

Step #4: Invest 15% of income in growth-stock mutual funds.

Step #5: Pay off the mortgage.

Step #6: Build wealth.

he first few cents Warren Buffett earned came from selling chewing gum. And from the day he started selling--at 6 years of age--he showed an unyielding attitude toward his customers that revealed his later style. "I remember a woman saying, 'I'll take one stick of Juicy Fruit,'" he says. "I said, 'We don't break up packs of gum'--I mean, I've got my principles." Making a sale was tempting, but not tempting enough. If he sold one stick to her, he'd have four sticks left to sell, not worth the work or the risk. He made two cents profit per pack.

Warren Buffett is the richest man in the world, yet his reputation for frugality, folksy wisdom, and straight talk make him seem like just a regular guy, like he might be the billionaire next door. He’s one of my heroes.

Several Buffett biographies have seen print over the years — The Making of an America Capitalist, The Good Guy of Wall Street, etc. — but at the end of September, author Alice Schroeder will publish a new one: The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life.