15 powerful books You Must Read In Your 30’s

I went searching for books that I should read or should have read by the time I was in my 30’s and believe it or not, I couldn’t find a whole lot out there! Or maybe it was too much and I was just overwhelmed. Either way, it was not a very successful quest. SO…. I figured this would be the perfect blog post to write about to give my readers EASY access to powerful books!

Traditionally I’ve read mostly fiction books but within the last 5-10 years I’ve tried to incorporate “self-help” books or other types that I can actually learn from. I still love my fiction books though so now what I try to do is read those at night time and my educational book in the morning before I get ready for work.

This list is for people like me who couldn’t find a good list and wanted to venture into more powerful books rather than your standard fantasy (ahem, Harry Potter GEEK here) books. **Also, I have not read all of these books yet!

Let’s dig in!

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Financial Freedom Powerful Books

Being a super-fan of budgeting and financial freedom, I naturally look for books that are about finances. A few books that I’ve read more than once are Dave Ramsey’s books. Dave’s got a lot of books out there but I narrowed them down to my favorites:

Total Money Makeover

This one walks you through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and has a lot of worksheets and other items in there to help explain as well. I like how he explains the “nerd and the free spirit” and how they always end up marrying each other! This is a great book if you’re a single person as well.

How to Manage Your Money: An in-depth Bible Study on Personal Finances

I came across this book when my husband and I took a class through our local church on budgeting. We both were really good at budgeting before we met and had already had money saved; however, we wanted to be better at being good stewards of our money like God talks about in the Bible.

Our biggest takeaway as husband and wife when we took this, was that we need to spend our money the way God intended i.e. tithing/giving, paying our bills (no-brainer there!), staying out of debt as much as we can, etc. Dave Ramsey talks about this in his books as well!

Complete Guide to Money

This book is very similar to the Total Money Makeover, but it has some updates since he wrote it later. I own both of these books and I find value in each. If you were to choose one, I would definitely go with the Total Money Makeover though!

Rich Dad Poor Dad

I am in the middle of reading this one right now. This book has been out for a long time as well, and there have been some updates but most of what he says has the same merit that it did long ago. One of the biggest takeaways I have so far is what I’ve already said in my other blog posts: get some passive income! Even if it is a little, make your money work for you. One of these ways is to open a high-yield savings account. You literally park your money and let it grow each month. Another takeaway from this book is truly learn financial literacy. From there, you will learn how you can be financially free.

Think and Grow Rich

I’m putting this on my “to-read” pile for sure. I keep coming across this book in my Google and Pinterest searches and my circle of friends. This might be similar to Dave Ramsey’s books, but in all reality, I think the principles of financial freedom are the same, and it takes us trying to figure it out so we can build that freedom in our own life! This book is obviously a good one since it’s been around for almost 90 years!

Motivational Powerful Books

Can’t Hurt Me

This book by David Goggins explores his life from a child through his time as a Navy Seal. It explores his weight loss journey as well. My husband is currently reading this book and I plan to read it next. So far he loves it and has told me it’s definitely motivating him to get our house remodel finished! (I like that!)

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I read this book a long time ago and I think I need to put it in the rotation again! The 7 habits are:

1. Be proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put First Things First

4. Think Win/Win

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

The point of this book is obviously, to develop daily habits that will make you the most effective person you can be both professionally and personally.

Make Your Bed

Make your Bed is about building good habits to make your life more successful. The key points are to start with small tasks, like making your bed, and building that into an everyday habit. Then build on to that with more and/or harder tasks throughout the day.

I am really bad about making my bed in the morning.Partly because I’m out of the house many times before the rest of the family is awake. However; I try to do something before work, whether that is tidy up the living room or kitchen if we didn’t get to it the night before, empty the dishwasher, etc. Once I get my butt moving, I feel good like I can really tackle the day!

The Art of Letting Go

This one kind of goes along with the one below, I think. It’s about letting go of things so it doesn’t continue to affect us emotionally.

There was a time where I was going through a lot emotionally. Both my parents and my sister passed away within 2 years of other. To top it off, my relationship with one of my brothers was non-existent due to our dad passing away (and ot I was griping about this to someone and that I needed to get over the fact that there wasn’t a relationship anymore. That person gave me the best advice: either let it go or DO SOMETHING about it! Go figure, so simple but so easy. And guess what, my brother’s and my relationship is back to better than ever.

The Power of Positive Thinking

This one got me straight in the feels! How many times do I fall victim to my negative thoughts? Or feel overwhelmed due to daily life? If you’re going to choose any of these motivational books, definitely go with this one. As a wife, a mom, and having a full-time high-stress job outside the home as well, I certainly have a lot on my plate. I don’t always remember to give myself grace and remind myself to make small changes, like positive thinking!

Leadership Powerful Books

My current day job is Branch Manager for two bank branches in my area. When I’m fully staffed, I have about 7 direct reports and 12 indirect reports. I’ve read a lot of leadership books, taken a lot of classes, and just plain learned by trial and error over the years on how to be a good leader. Notice I say “leader” and not “manager”. There is a HUGE difference! Read on for the leadership books I recommend.

Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts

Dare to Lead has been recommended to me several times throughout my leadership career. It is written by Brene Brown and explores the qualities of a leader. If you are in any type of leadership role, I highly recommend you read this one to help you in your leadership career. It can also help you navigate the conversations that need to be had with upper management as well. Which leads me to my next recommendation.

Crucial Conversations

Crucial Conversations is another one of the powerful books that I recommend. I took a class named “Crucial Conversations” where they took a lot of the concepts and ideas from this book and made it a class. It talks a lot about not letting your emotions take over (which is easy to do sometimes!) so you can have a truly productive conversation with other people. This book challenges you to think critically and not “react”.

Start With Why

Start With Why by Simon Sinek is one I’m sure you have heard before. There are a lot of videos of Simon Sinek out there stressing to “find your why” because that drives you to really WANT to do what you’re doing, right? When I started my blog, my “why” was to move more toward financial freedom so I could spend more time with my kids and husband.

My “why” over the years has changed a lot, but that’s okay, too! As humans, we should change and grow, and our why should definitely grow with us. I couldn’t recommend this one more! If you want his whole collection click here.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

One of the biggest takeaways that I’ve learned being a leader (aka manager) over the years is to give suggestions, not orders, which is one of the ideas in this book. Be sure to ask for input from those around you. This makes the person feel welcome and heard.

Another idea in this book is be a good listener! This one should be pretty easy considering we hear that from the time we’re in preschool! This means listen to understand, not just listen to respond.

Most importantly in any type of relationship is don’t criticize the other person. I know this is hard, but think about whenever you have received criticism. Has it ever felt good? What about if you received constructive criticism? I’ve received a lot of that in my life (LOL). But really, the reason why I didn’t take it personally is because when I was told, it focused on a task I did that could be done easier/better in the future. If it’s just plain ol’ criticism it hurts, man, it hurts!

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This book is not based on any particular real life scenario; however the scenarios included can certainly be real, and might even have happened to you in the workplace. One of the dysfunctions named is lack of trust. This will kill any type of relationship, both professionally and personally. If you don’t trust the people in your team, it is very likely that the so-called team won’t last long.

Holding one another accountable in your team is a recipe for success. Did any of you have to hold teammates accountable while in school? If you didn’t hold each other accountable, what undoubtedly happened is someone (or multiple someones) would end up carrying the weight for that person. This is a perfect example of a dysfunctional team!

Final thoughts

These are some of the best books I’ve seen (if I do say so myself). My hope is that someone who is out there searching for different types of self-help/motivational, whatever-you-want-to-call-it books will find this list very helpful.