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Book Recommendation: "Suit Yourself" by Benjamin Tan
It's a required reading for every investor, whether you're a beginner investor or an advanced investor
Dissecting the Markets
May 23, 2026
It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Work was busier as the company I worked for was acquired by a larger one, and the transition was long and intensive. After completing the transition, I traveled the world to treat myself for working hard without a vacation for over a year.
During that time, I was reading a book that a friend of mine, Benjamin Tan, wrote. That book is called Suit Yourself: A Portfolio Strategy For Every Personality Type. The things I’m going to say about this book are honest.
Reading this book while charging my vehicle
Firstly, this book is unique among all the other books I tend to read. Typically, I would either read fiction books (i.e. Star Wars) or non-fiction books that relate to the things I’m investing in (i.e. Chip War, The Outsiders). This book mixes psychology and investing. Unlike your typical investing book, which promotes a one-size-fits-all portfolio strategy, Tan argues that your optimal investment mix should reflect your personality, behavior, and emotional tolerance for risk.
At the core of the book is the idea that most investing mistakes don’t come from bad math. Instead, Tan argues that most investing mistakes come from a psychological mismatch. A portfolio that looks great on paper can still fail in practice if it doesn’t fit the investor’s temperament. Tan builds on this insight by categorizing different personality types and mapping them to suitable portfolio strategies, ranging from conservative, stability-focused allocations to more aggressive, growth-oriented approaches.
While this approach to discussing each different personality type may seem repetitive, it’s important to read through the entire book because, without knowing all the different personality types, you won’t know which personality type describes you best. And when you do decide to refer back to a specific personality type in the book, it’s easy to find all the information about that one personality type in that specific chapter.
One of the book’s strongest features is its interactive structure. Rather than simply labeling investors with generic categories, Benjamin Tan uses a series of yes-or-no questions to help readers reflect on their own instincts, preferences, and reactions toward investing. This approach makes the book feel practical and engaging, because readers gradually discover which portfolio style fits them instead of being told what they should invest in outright.
The book is also effective in its practical tone. Instead of abstract financial theory, it focuses on actionable alignment: if you know yourself to be emotionally reactive, your portfolio should reflect that by prioritizing stability over maximum returns. If you are more detached and long-term oriented, you may be better suited for higher volatility assets.
Another strength of this book is how entertaining and approachable it feels. Rather than explaining personality types in a dry or overly technical way, Tan brings them to life through pop culture references, comparing different investor personalities to familiar movie characters, singers, and celebrities. These references make the concepts instantly easier to grasp because readers can associate each personality type with people they already recognize and understand. The result is a book that feels less like reading a traditional finance guide and more like an engaging conversation about human behavior and investing. This creative use of pop culture not only makes the material more memorable but also makes the book genuinely fun to read.
Overall, Suit Yourself delivers a compelling reminder that successful investing is not just about choosing the right assets, but choosing a portfolio you can actually live with. By aligning financial strategy with personality, it reframes investing as a form of self-knowledge as much as capital allocation.