OK, the year is far from over, but it’s that time of year when you’re looking at the family and thinking “what do they want for Christmas?”.
You might even have a few crap morale-building “secret Santa” schemes that you’re involved with, through work or sports clubs or whatever. Bugger, you’ve drawn Strange Simon this year – what could he possibly want?!
Here are a few reads that might steer people towards financial independence if you fancy giving the gift of knowledge. Or, you know, brainwash family members into your way of thinking.
Two things can be true!
Disclaimer: there are affiliate links here, mainly to Amazon. If you click them, I get a percentage of Jeff B’s Giant Space Penis Rocket fund if you then buy something from the Monopoly Store. It doesn’t cost you anything.
What inspired this post?
Shameless money-grabbing?
Actually, no. I was on the Financial Independence group on Facebook and someone asked me about books to give for secret Santa at their office.
In case you are wondering: yes, I monetize this site; but no, I don’t actually make any money from this site, as at November 2021. The $4.41 that Google Adsense owes me doesn’t even pay for the domain name. I do this for fun. Obviously, if all of you buy £100 of books through my links on Amazon, there might be pigs-in-blankets to go with the turkey at the SierraWhiskyMike family Christmas dinner this year*.
*I’m kidding – as a savvy financial independence campaigner, Christmas is a time where I absolutely avoid buying turkey. It’s really expensive to cook a whole turkey. I did mulled wine beef topside last year in the slow cooker and it was awesome.
Financial independence book 1: How To Own The World by Andrew Craig
To be honest, this is my favourite all-time financial independence book. It was a great primer for the financial adviser’s diploma, so if you’re not going to pay the £900 or whatever to study with for a diploma this is a pretty good option.
The book covers the basics of investing, asset classes and designing passive investment portfolios. Best of all, the book explains why you might consider different asset classes.
Andrew writes in simple, easy-to-understand language without being patronising. He’s quite a credible author, and the book shouldn’t be too difficult for most readers over the age of 15.
At the time of writing it’s about £10 in paperback or £3.99 in Kindle. I read the Kindle version.
Financial independence book 2: The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko
This is more of a study of habits of millionaires than a book about investing.
Although the book is based on an American study that’s now quite old, the principles are sound and the trends they uncover are fascinating.
I wrote a more detailed review on this book previously.
This will suit daydreamers as well as people who are into investing already. Great for giving as reading to adults you barely know. Better yet, consider giving to adults who like gossip but don’t realise they’re spending their cash on frivolous things. Subversively challenge their view on how financial success is achieved.
Again, quite an easy read, but probably more for adults than children.
Financial independence book 3: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
For seasoned financial independence campaigners, Kiyosaki’s work is a bit too simple. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while and streamlined your budget into punchy investments already, this won’t add much to your life.
Novices and young hopefuls will love it.
I actually read this book last year, but it had a profound effect on the way I saw financial independence as an achievable ambition. Robert doesn’t mention it per se. Instead, he talks about managing cash flow and using it to buy assets, trading your time for knowledge rather than for money in the understanding that you can make more money from leveraging the skills and knowledge than you can from a job anyway. This is the book where “Just Over Broke” was introduced as an acronym.
The downsides of the book are that Robert tries to sell you his other books and it’s written in a self-help workbook style. However, if you are giving this to a person who hasn’t encountered investing or financial independence on a serious level, it’s a gateway drug.
This one is office-safe: might be reasonable to give to a colleague that you’ve drawn in secret Santa.
I think the prices are elevated in time for Christmas. Have a look over Black Friday or shop around for the cheapest prices. I read it on Kindle for about £4.
Financial independence book 4: Why Superman Doesn’t Take Over The World by J Brian O’Roark
I haven’t mentioned this one before, but regular readers will know that I like to dabble in amateur economics from time to time.
This is by a genuine economist. Seriously, check out his more academic publications.
J.B. explains some quite high-level concepts like opportunity cost in an interesting way using comic book superheroes as a medium. I don’t want to ruin it too much, but from explaining why superheroes can’t quit their day jobs to why Batman needs to put up with Robin doing some jobs to a lower standard, the basics of economic theory gets laid out before you in a digestible form.
It’s quite a short read at only 182 pages long. It’s also quite easy reading for something semi-academic and your recipient can boast about having books from Oxford University Press on their bookshelf.
I don’t know if people still flex their bookshelves, but if they do this must surely win brownie points.
Financial independence book 5: The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
A classic. Almost certainly B.S. but a good read nonetheless and really accessible for people who just don’t like talking about money.
Tim talks about how he uses a direct approach to minimise unnecessary faff and focus on the things that matter. Then, he outsources the stuff that doesn’t.
I’m not sure I believe his whole approach. Time confesses early on that he started the four hour work week project having already started up a successful million-dollar business by using the tried-and-tested method of finding a market niche and exploiting it well. I suspect that his later events only happen due to economies of scale. Still, it’s an entertaining story (I really liked the bit where he got into a Kung Fu tournament).
Tim is also very open about geo-arbitrage, which is something that would definitely appeal to a younger and less settled-down financial independence enthusiast, or someone who is willing to take a bit of risk to be more globally mobile.
There is a similar book that I considered recommending – Skip the Line by James Altucher – but Tim’s book is a more polished read and there’s a lot of overlap between the two. If your recipient has read this one, Skip the Line is a good back-up option; if they haven’t, I thought this was the more entertaining and better written read.
Rogue pick of the year: The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
I put this in as a bonus rogue pick. It’s not a financial independence book, but given the growing interest in crypto and its increasingly widespread adoption it’s something that most people should at least consider reading.
Saifedean’s book is a little outdated now and there are definitely bits I disagree with – for example, he writes that blockchain technology has no real use beyond a replacement for sound money, which is an argument that frankly lacks imagination – but the core concept is well reasoned and tolerably well referenced.
Essentially, the argument is that the gold standard of renaissance Europe was probably the pinnacle of monetary policy. As all nations’ coins could be traded without an exchange rate mechanism based on their gold content, the argument goes that international trade was enabled at a decentralised level between individual business enterprises. This allowed true freedom of trade, based on a sound monetary basis that did not result in an erosion of wealth over time through inflation.
Given that we now don’t have a gold standard of any kind, Saifedean proposes that Bitcoin is the next great hard money. No, not “hard” as in “you can touch it”, but that your country’s government can’t pull its value out from under you. It relies purely on market forces to derive its value, like gold did previously; except you don’t have to trust that the gold content of your coins is what it should be.
I’m including it here because – like it or not – Bitcoin is a big deal now, so it might pay to know a bit about one of the prominent academic schools of thought on it. There’s also a few cool bits of history thrown in, like the bit about Rai stones.
Is that all you read?
Well, no. I’ve read quite a few more books that might relate this year (not all of which were good…). For Christmas/ other holiday gifts though, these are the top five (plus the rogue pick) that might be worth wrapping up as a present for people you want to get on board with your own financial independence mindset.
Hey! I found it cheaper at…!
Honestly, I put up monetised links because if I’m going to link to something, I might as well put up the version that gives me the odd penny. I don’t bother running price comparison. That said, I’m keen that my audience gets the best value they can, and the few pennies from Jeff B won’t have much effect to my quality of life.
If you find the same books cheaper somewhere else, feel free to post in the comments below.
Affiliate links are cool, but if you post a link that’s more expensive than mine AND it’s an affiliate link, don’t get too surprised if I delete your comment.
