I love books!
Books are my favourite life hack (with podcasts coming in a close second). I could go on and on about why books are so amazing… but Barney the Escape Artist says it better than I ever could:
“Reading the right books is the most powerful life hack there is because essentially the deal is, if you take the right genius in their field… they condense their life’s learning for you.
They do all that work for years and years in their career. And they agonise for a couple more years on how to write that down and condense it. And all you have to do is go on Amazon and get it delivered second-hand for a couple quid. Or you get it from the library for free.
And you’ve just sucked from that person—the entire wisdom, knowledge, and value that they have spent decades working on. And so, if you read the right books, and you then implement some of the lessons in your own life, the benefits from that are just ridiculously great.”
– Barney the Escape Artist (Choose FI, episode 49, from 1:13:56)
Disclosure: The recommendations below include Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases—at no extra cost to you. I only recommend books I’ve read and gained value from. (But I’d suggest doing the frugal thing and borrowing the books from your library!)
My favourite books
Below is a list of my favourite money/personal growth books. I’ve read or listened to each and every book on this list, and all of them have either informed, inspired, or changed me.
Click on the links below to jump to each category of books.
= Canadian contentFI
- ChooseFI by Chris Mamula, Brad Barrett, and Jonathan Mendonsa
- Free at 45 by Tim Stobbs
- Playing With FIRE by Scott Rieckens
- Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
Frugality and saving
- The Cheapskate Next Door by Jeff Yeager
- The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
- The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
Personal finance
- The Beginner’s Guide to Saving and Investing for Canadians by Dan Bortolotti, et al
- Moolala: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things With Their Money by Bruce Sellery
- The Moolala Guide to Rockin’ Your RRSP by Bruce Sellery
- Stop Overthinking Your Money by Preet Banerjee
- Wealthing Like Rabbits by Robert Brown
- The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
- The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton
- You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham
Early retirement
- The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates In Retirement by Todd Tresidder
- How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? by Todd Tresidder
- How to Retire the Cheapskate Way by Jeff Yeager
- Retiring Sooner by Darrow Kirkpatrick
Index investing
- If You Can (free ebook) by William Bernstein
- Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam
- The Sassy Investor by Michelle Hung
- The Short Book on Investments for Canadians (free ebook) by Jin Won Choi
- The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
- The Value of Simple by John A Robertson
Investing
- All About Asset Allocation by Rick Ferri
- Are You A Stock Or A Bond? by Moshe Milevsky
- The Behavior Gap by Carl Richards
- Lifecycle Investing by Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- Think, Act and Invest Like Warren Buffet by Larry Swedroe
- Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig
Side hustles
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul by Ruth Soukup
- Will it Fly? by Pat Flynn
Real estate
- Building Wealth One House at a Time by John Schaub
- Making Money in Real Estate by Douglas Gray
- Real Estate Investing in Canada by Don R. Campbell
Happiness
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky
Books by Tal Ben-Shahar
- Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
- The Pursuit of Perfect by Tal Ben-Shahar
- Being Happy by Tal Ben-Shahar
- Choose the Life You Want by Tal Ben-Shahar
Personal growth
- 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
- Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
- The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney
- Introvert Power by Laurie A. Helgoe
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
- Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
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