I've made a lot of financial mistakes over the years which on hindsight, would have been avoided had I studied finance earlier in life. At Harvard I quickly learned how much I didn't know about the subject and since that time I've been devouring books volumes of works. The best of which, was actually given to me and my classmates by Professor Josh Lerner, it's Analysis for Financial Management.

The book's author, Robert C Higgins, is both an expert in his field as well as a great writer. His prose is often witty and the text is filled with analogies like:

"Like the statistician who drowned crossing a stream because he heard it was only five feet deep on average, we need to remember that the equity figures presented are the net result of new issues and retirements."

The first 50 pages are the most difficult and contain the most math but once you get past those, it's clear sailing.

For an experienced business person, there are chapters that talk about the obvious which you already know about but if you are like me, more than 50% of the information presented will either be new or something that you certainly needed a refresher course on.

It's an excellent book that touches on all of the things that a good CFO knows and the tools they use. From it, you can dive into suggested reading and master the finer points. That's what I've done and I'll be reviewing those books soon enough.

You can buy the book on Amazon.