It’s the season and period of giving, and you must have come across this cliché that if you give a person a fish, they’ll eat for a day, but if you teach them to fish, they’ll never go hungry. So, rather than give away more “fish” this season, why not teach your friends and family how to fish with a gift of financial education?
Here are some books that can help your friends and loved ones make smart financial decisions next year, and the huge benefits is that once they are financially independent, it will reduce the stress on your finances.
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach
This book goes into more detail about one of the strategies discussed in ‘What Your Financial Advisor Isn’t Telling You’. It features true stories of real people with average salaries who were able to slowly build large sums of wealth and even become millionaires over time just by automatically setting aside an increasing amount of savings each year.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Too impatient to wait for retirement? Rather than just saving now to retire later, this book advocates taking “mini-retirements” throughout your life as well. Even if you aren’t quite ready to work just four hours a week, it has a lot of interesting ideas on how you can earn additional income and save time by doing things more efficiently.
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Stop Acting Rich…and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire by Thomas Stanley
If a 4-hour work week is just a bit too extreme or unconventional for you, this book may be more your cup of tea. It’s written by the author of The Millionaire Next Door and goes into more detail about how the wealthy live. Hint: If you want to be a millionaire (and who doesn’t?), don’t live the stereotypical “millionaire lifestyle” until you are one (and, maybe, not even then if you want to stay one).
Global Asset Allocation by Meb Faber
Want to know how to invest all that money you’re saving? It’s been said that 90% of your investment returns is determined by your asset allocation. So, which asset allocation strategy should you use? With so many conflicting opinions out there, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
This book compares model portfolios by some of the top investment experts and reaches a shocking conclusion. It finds that in the long run, it doesn’t matter much which one you pick. The key is being reasonably diversified, minimising your costs, and then sticking with your plan through thick and thin. It’s simple but not necessarily easy advice to follow when the temptation to chase past performance or time the market can be so strong. Any of these books could be a good stocking stuffer for someone on your list. If they read it and “learn how to fish,” you could literally change someone’s life. How’s that for a gift?
