Reddit mentions: The best money management books

So first I will soapbox then tell you what I do personally. Hah, apparently this is a 10k+ essay so will split in 2.


Step 1: Pay yourself first. If you are "budgeting" for savings but end up at the end of the month with no savings you are NOT really saving. Pick your savings vehicle and set up direct deposit. Schedule so that the day your paycheck is cashed you have $500 automatically withdrawn from your account that same day to be applied to your investment directly. For you something like: Vanguard Target Retirement 2060 Fund (VTTSX).
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/target-retirement/#/mini/overview/1691
MER of 0.18%


So go to the library and borrow and read "The wealthy barber"
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Wealthy-Barber-Successful-Financial/dp/0773762167


In the same vein read: The Richest Man in Babylon. True when written in 1926 and still true now.
http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
Audio version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRomaM-yxYs


Step 2: Take a long, hard look at why you spend. You are trying to fill a hole thinking spending will make you happy. You are realizing that it does not. What is new and shiny now will have a new version come along in 6 months. What makes you happy? Quality time with friends and family? Experiences? Leaning new things? Looking at the end of the year at your IRA/401k balance. Looking at your house down payment savings account? Make a list of the times you were the happiest you have felt in the last year then go to step 3.


Step 3: After determining what makes you happy start saving and budgeting towards that goal. Steam has a 75% sale on YNAB right now.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/227320/


Buy it, use it. Determine what you need to LIVE, then allocate the surplus. The Richest Man in Babylon says live on 70%, pay down debt with 20%, invest 10%. I propose it is income dependent. As a single guy I think you should be able to live well on a salary of $45k/yr and save/invest the rest.


Now you don't have to be like John Wesley (http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/what-wesley-practiced-and-preached-about-money) but look at what made him happy. Giving to the poor. He lived on 28 pounds a year and "saved" the rest to apply to what was his number one mission in life.


"1731 Wesley began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses 28 pounds, so he had 2 pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still managed to live on 28 pounds, so he had 32 pounds to give to the poor. In the third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds. One year his income was a little over 1400 pounds. He lived on 30 pounds and gave away nearly 1400 pounds. When he died in 1791, the only money mentioned in his will was the miscellaneous coins to be found in his pockets and dresser drawers. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his lifetime he had given away."


As income rises let your quality of life rise a proportion of the increase but let your savings/investing take the majority of the increase.


Step 4: Seriously consider volunteering at something. Can be as little as 1-2 hours per week. Pick a mission or organization that has deep personal meaning for yourself. Animal shelter. Big brother/sister. Help underprivileged kids read at your local library. Absolutely ANYTHING but pick SOMETHING. Do this for weekly for 6 months and if you do not feel rewarded and that you wasted your time over the last 6 months PM me with the phone number of your supervisor/most responsible person at the place you volunteered so I can confirm you were actually there regularly for 6 months and I will send you $100 (I'm in Canada so would have to figure out how to send you a amazon gift card or something). Requirement is you going 6 months weekly for a minimum of 1hr.


1 - you will meet amazing co-volunteers.
2 - you will see how blessed you are. Instead of comparing yourself to the Johnses at the country club you will compare yourself to the people you meet at your volunteer gig. I will pretty much guarantee that at the end of 6 months you will find other things to do with your $400/month country club membership.

First off, I recommend you read Medical Student Loans by Ben White, it will answer all your questions. Like a 4-5 hour read I think all 4th year med students should read, along with White Coat Investor as you'll never have as much free time as you do now to lean a little about finances.

The thing to know about your loans in terms of the $0 payment is that your loans have a 6 month grace period after graduation, meaning no payment is due for 6 months. (If you took time off between undergrad and medical school you may have already used this up on your undergrad loans and something you should look into.) Most residents take advantage of this and then enter IDR ~6 months into residency when the grace period ends. This doesn't give you the $0 payment for a full year though, as when you enter IDR, on the form it asks if your income has substantially changed since your most recent tax return. In this case, you are legally supposed to answer yes and submit pay stubs that would then dictate your monthly payment amount. Making $55k/year means about $300/month in payments. Some residents lie and use their 4th year tax returns with $0 income and extend the $0 payment for another year. This is not legal and something I do not recommend.

The legal way to do this is actually to consolidate all your loans the day after graduation, waive the 6 month grace period on the consolidation form, and use your M4 tax return of $0 income on the IDR form before July 1st as that way you're telling the truth. This will start your payments 6 months earlier than your fellow residents, but you'll both be paying $0. Of note, for this to work, you need to file taxes this year and you should also be aware consolidating has two down sides. 1) your new interest rate becomes a weighted average of all your loans and is then rounded up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent. 2) you can not longer attack your loans with the avalanche method as you no longer have several loans with differing interest rates, but one large loan with one interest rate. In your case there would actually be a 3rd down side which is that because you have some subsidized loans where under REPAYE the feds will cover 100% of the unmet interest by the minimum payment for the first 3 years, drops the 50% as the new loan is considered unsubsidized. This strategy is typically recommended for residents pursing PSLF and not necessarily something I would recommend you pursue. I would likely recommend the typical 6-month grace period option because of these downsides and the fact that it doesn't sound like you want to do PSLF.

There are no consequences for switching out of REPAYE in terms of the interest subsidy which I think you are alluding to, but just for completeness sake, should be aware that switching from REPAYE to another IDR plan does capitalize the unpaid interest. This is essentially true when refinancing with a private company too as they are going to pay off the loans in full, including interest, and give you a new loan for that total amount, meaning all that unpaid interest accrued during residency becomes part of the principal for the new loan.

Whether you should ride out REPAYE or refinance as an attending is really going to depend on what rate you can get in 5 years from now, how much your making, and how stable your job is. Something I would revisit then and not worry about too much now.

Hope that was helpful!

Hey, I’m not gatekeeping or shaming! I’m just trying to draw attention to the opportunity you have here to do well for yourself.

Not a financial advisor, not your financial advisor, do your own research and make your own decisions. The TFSA is usually considered best utilized when it’s not just used as a “savings” account within a bank, but as an “investment” account. Banks like Tangerine have fairly easy to understand options to do that (invest your money), but if you’d like to go a step deeper down the rabbit hole, a discount brokerage (a company that can buy and sell stocks, bonds, and funds on your behalf) like Questrade is both cheaper and more powerful in what you can do with it. Here’s why you might want to consider one of those.

Your ~1.5% per year interest in a TFSA “savings” account is very secure and consistent, but you’re technically losing money against inflation, which is typically between ~2-3% per year. A significant amount of people subscribe to the idea that investing is as easy as buying a fund (such as a mutual fund or an ETF, exchange-traded fund) that holds a collection of other stocks and bonds in order to represent the entire market. That is to say: if the entire market goes up, your money increases; if the entire market goes down, your money decreases. This was an approach pioneered by a very smart man named John Bogle, which you could learn more about in r/bogleheads.

Index-based investing, as described above, has returned an average of 10% per year for the last several decades. However, this is a higher-risk investment, and if you expect to need the money inside of 5-10 years, you should consider looking in lower-risk areas, or potentially splitting your lump sum into smaller chunks to invest at different risk levels. There are a lot of really good resources on this concept, called risk-management or asset-allocation, but this is an excellent resource that I like to link.

I would also recommend you take a look at this website, which is a solid introduction into taking charge of your own financial future. The “How do I become a Couch Potato?” section would be a good start.

If you’re still interested after all that, then here’s a good dump of information to explore.

• https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/
  
  
• r/PersonalFinanceCanada
  
  
• https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
  
  
• r/FinancialIndependence
  
  
• https://www.amazon.ca/Wealthy-Barber-Successful-Financial-Planning/dp/0773762167/

Glad to hear this.

Looking over the FAQ a bit more there's a lot there for you to ruminate on - and looking over the booklist, there isn't one that would fit an 'A to Z' money management approach (for you to get started on learning all the details you would need to get everything in order, including but not limited to retirement saving, insurance, wills and trusts, college savings etc.)

When I was a lot younger I got a lot out of 'Making the Most of your Money' by Jane Bryant Quinn, I see that there's an updated version out. I can't recommend the 1997 version I read, but it may be worth a look. Amazon Link.

But a classic, great read (that you can finish in just a few hours) is one that not a lot of people have heard of, much less actually put into practice. It has positively made a huge difference in how I view successful people, and how people can grow great wealth. It is making money the old fashioned way, by living on less than you earn.

The book? The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason, on the FAQ reading list.

Best of luck in your adventure. I'll be dealing with a similar 'problem' within the next 5-10 years, won't share any more details than that.

For a variety of reasons I recommend self-sufficiency - or at least awareness of various things.

• Live modestly - even if you have the means to do otherwise.
  
  
• Be your own woman, don't wait around or feel it necessary to "have" a man in your life. If you find a great guy - that's good, but always keep your head about you.
  
  
• On the subject of guys - while they might be hot, or cool or whatever, if he doesn't support your aspirations, that's a major flaw you need to avoid. Violence physical or psychological - hitting, demeaning, intimidating, is never acceptable, and if they can't get their shit together , they can't help you get yours together.
  
  
• Here's a trick - there might be more sophisticated measures of character - but if your looking for a quick and easy one, how well does anyone treat people in service positions - waiters, clerks, janitors, laborers, the people who carry the weight of the world, but command no respect. If a person is kindly and respectful to people when it is of absolutely no profit for them personally, one can view this as a sign of good, if not excellent character.
  
  
• Do whatever it takes - to get a college degree from a public school - it's expensive - it's time-consuming - it will cost you some weekends and holiday fun, but it is SO much cheaper than the discrimination faced by most people without a college education.
  
  
• Follow the rule of 3, you might not live lavishly but you can avoid overspending, I find this book very helpful
  
  
• Save some money - Always have a small "oh shit" fund - of as much money as you can afford for emergencies.
  
  
• Take a shop class - learn how to do basic simple repairs on a car - nothing serious necessarily but learn at least what's involved in a brake job, an oil change, a tire replacement/rotation, learn what's under the hood.
  
  
• Take a computer class - for most of the same reasons - get some analytical skills under your belt.
  
  
• Get seriously good at general math, statistics, operations and some calculus / algebra - why - because it's the gift that keeps on giving if you do it right
  
  
• As a rule - most all politicians - lie, usually for their own benefit or the benefit of those "close" to them. Occasionally, an honest man goes into politics for a good cause or to actually serve the people. This is rare.
  
  
• With some business experience, and even better some project management experience, you can REALLY write your own ticket, you become a problem-solver - for yourself and other people - and people pay money to have problems solved.
  
  I could go on but that's it off the top of my head.

Save. Always and forever save as much as you can when you have the opportunity to. Keep putting money away now, each paycheck, even if for a week you can only put in $5.

There are various ways to save, obviously RRSP's are great for retirement, but there are also ways to save money that you can access if the need to do so arises. Definitely put money away separately for your children, for their education and such. Yes, there are student loans, but there could always be extra costs or fees outside of school, such as medical costs, bail, etc...

It is good to have at least 6 months worth of your expenses saved up, so that 7k is an ideal saving to have and you are already in a good position by having it. The reason to have that much saved up is so that if anything were to happen, in terms of either, or both of you, losing employment you have the finances to cover the costs during that period. Being broke is bad enough, but being broke and not being able to support ourselves, or the people that we should be providing for, is quite depressing to say the least. To reiterate you are already off to a good start with your bank savings.

The Wealthy Barber is a great book to read that provides insight into being intelligent with money, while I'm going to put an article for you to consider perusing: 4 Personal Finance Principles That Would Make Your Grandfather Proud


The Wealthy Barber

Well I was actually going edit the original post to say that I'm not qualified offer investment advice in any professional capacity (You probably want to talk to a CFA or CFP. Also you asked a very hard question Why. I'll try to answer it as best I can.

Generally transaction involving money can be broken down into four categories:

• Assets - transactions that result in something that has some value - stocks, a car or a house
  
• Expenses - transactions that are spent and nothing lasting is gained - food that you eat
  
• Income - transactions where you gain money from some work you doing - pay from your job
  
• Liabilities - transactions where you gain money temporary and later have to pay someone back - a car loan
  
  When you invest you specifically look at the assets category. Assets can be things that you expect to either gain value or lose money over time. You car for example grow less valuable over time so it's a depreciating. The other side of this is things you expect to gain value over time; for example a house. When you invest money you purchase things with that money that you expect will gain value over time. For example if you buy a coke for $0.50 knowing that later that day you can sell if for $1 you've invested in the coke.
  
  Generally when people talk about investing they are talking about the stock market. Your bank can help you get started if you want. I would recommend you read up on it a bit more before doing anything (a good starting book is The Wealthy Barber) and I wouldn't do it with any money you don't feel comfortable losing until your entirely comfortable with it.

Unless I remember incorrectly, multiple income streams is a point made in https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-Philosophical-Independence/dp/145360121X I vaguely recall something in there mentioning combining income from a job + investments + paid hobby (maybe fixing bikes) + savings account interest... or something which was heavily lopsided haha.

​

As far as I am concerned, nearly everyone seeking early FI is working with multiple sources of income:

1. job income
   
2. investments
   
   ​
   
   For other paid activities (really, gambling?... sigh....) I have a dual opinion on them. First off, if you have enough extra time, energy, and motivation to earn income through some other stream then sure you have more income AND it has the really important benefit that even after you quit your day job you can keep doing it if you enjoy it. On the other hand, I value my free time not quite as the following, but it gives you a general idea: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/10/18/why-your-time-is-worth-way-more-than-25-per-hour/ Now, I do not fully agree with a bit of what MMM writes about, as far as I can tell he is intentionally extreme just to make the point more memorable. However, the general point about time being valuable is something I do agree with. Sure, I could pick up a part-time job, I could learn to write novels and hope to be one of the precious few earning something noticeable, or plenty of other things. None of them are worth the time I would trade doing them I personally think. That being said, I will sometimes go beyond what is reasonable to sometimes cut costs, example walking a very stupidly long distance to-from work instead of just taking the bus, however that is done because it is also fun. A different example is hand washing clothes, absolutely not worth the time put into it, but the realization that I am doing something silly like that is amusing to me...

I'd recommend reading [First National Bank of Dad] (http://www.amazon.com/First-National-Bank-Dad-Foolproof/dp/1416534253/). The author went through the same challenges (and made some of the same mistakes) you are facing. I am currently using it as the model with my kids.

Top-level, forcing savings is a bad idea, as is implying you cannot do something because of the need to save. Immature brains are not wired to process the subtlety you wish they could handle. If you follow that route, they may come to see savings as the antithesis of fun and that any money earned/received should be spent immediately, lest Dad take it away for "savings" in a bank earning sub-1% interest.

Better to prompt the desire to save. Rather than a real bank account, create your Bank of Dad that pays significant interest. By doing so, Junior will see that he can spend that $5 now or put it in "The Bank" and have $10 soon (you define what "soon" means). Help him see what that $10 could buy that $5 today could not, which helps clarify the benefit of putting that $5 away today. He may even find that between when he puts the money away and when it grows to $10, the thing he wanted to buy is no longer as interesting.

By doing all of these, you show the power of compound interest and the magic of delayed gratification. You are helping to form solid habits, ones he will hopefully continue on his own (and when the compounding interest rate is less stellar...).

As for results, my own efforts are too early to tell (ask me again in 20 years).

How much debt? Anyway, I'm with you - any amount is bad.

If she gets upset at you for giving good advice, I hate to say it but take it as a real cue about how long term your relationship is going to be - you're trying to help her and it doesn't sound like she respects your opinion, and it's not about a small insignificant thing. How she hands her money might affect you in the future because if you get married it will become your debt as well.

It also sounds like she feels like her options are limited and that piling on schooling will automatically result in success, regardless of the mound of debt that's accumulating. Maybe start by trying to talk to her about the motivation behind what she's doing, and where she things it is going to go. Sounds like she wants the easy path and doesn't admit to her failures.

On money, if it is the issue (I don't think it is) you might consider these books for her, which she could also take as a total slap in the face, but worth maybe a try:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310337429/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937077594/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937077977/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

​

Also, consider attending Financial Peace University (https://www.financialpeace.com) together. Tell her it's something you're interested in, and you'd love it if she attended with you as a couple. I'm sure you'll hear plenty of other people talking about student loans and how they were saddled with debt. Maybe it would help her to hear from other people's stories.

Hello! Also from Ontario Canada! The best advice I can give you is.... Spend less than you make (create a budget and stick to it), pay off all your credit cards in full every month, try to keep the life style creep to a minimum, and live in a low cost of living (LCOL) area (if you can).

In terms of buying vs renting there are calculators for that and it's personal choice, but try not to buy more house than you can handle (we live in the GTA so house prices are crazy right now...) If you can live with your parents for a while, you can save a lot of money that way too (just contribute to the household!! If not in cash, at least do the dishes and laundry or something...!).

If you want to buy and do nice things, budget and save for them! Striving towards FI doesn't mean you have to live like a pauper... But be reasonable and have your ultimate goal in mind.

Some nice books to read (that are Canadian!) Would be Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam and The Wealthy Barber/The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton (you can just borrow from the library as an e-book or actual book!).

Since you are unionized and have a pension, I would say max out your TFSA first (check out the index fund model portfolios from Canadian Couch Potato and then your RRSP (whatever room you have left after your pension adjustment) and once you still have money left over open a marginal account (if you you are married by then,max out both those accounts for your spouse before you open any marginal accounts).

Also, read the side bar and the stickied posts. Enjoy your journey to FI. It's important to plan for the future, but you shouldn't forget to enjoy the present as well!

I highly recommend All Your Worth. You can get a used copy for $4 shipped, and it is one of the best budgeting plans I have ever come across.

It's so wonderful because of its simplicity. It makes sense, it's easy to use, it is incredibly effective, and most importantly it doesn't encourage depriving yourself. I feel like it would be great for someone like you, because so many budgeting guides say things like cut down on this, cut down on that and quit throwing your money away on frivolous things and stop buying $6 lattes when you can make them yourself at home and quit feeling like you're entitled to treat yourself constantly. This one is different.

*Also, I saw someone talking about Excel spreadsheets and all that... What kind of phone do you have?

late to the game, but i highly recommend "The First National Bank of Dad" by David Owen

Key Points

• Give an allowance for being a member of the family (not tied to chores)
  
• The child has full ownership and do whatever they like with the money
  
• Help the money grow via very high Bank-of-Dad interest rates (5% per month)
  
  There are a lot of great pieces of wisdom in this book. Based on it, i have set allowance at $1.75 per week for 5 yr old and $2.75 for my 9 year old, increasing by a quarter each year. So far, my daughter has saved up $200... which has made me put a cap on interest payments.

Passive Income Freedom: 23 Passive Income Blueprints

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MDTMDCR

FREE on May 5th

> Passive Income Freedom!
Is it real + possible? Do you need a lot of money or special skills? Can anyone achieve this?

>If you ever asked these questions, this book will give you some answers and show you in 23 Step-by-Step Blueprints that - yes - Passive Income Freedom is definitely real and achievable for everyone:

>Including YOU!

>Even as a total beginner.

I would recommend that you get a good estate planning lawyer now. They can help you understand more and potentially advise you on what you would like to ask of your father. I also highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Grave-revised-Gerald-Condon/dp/0060936312

An experienced lawyer will have "seen it all" and be able to help you know what pitfalls to look out for about children, trusts, and inheritances. My personal bias is towards keeping the trust distributions limited until a later age (40+), but you'll need to get your father on board with that. We once had a poster here whose trust wasn't released until age 55. I think encouraging your children to establish a career, at least, before they can tap into the money is a good idea. I've definitely known people who never really figured out what they wanted to do with their life because they didn't have to do anything. On the other hand, some people can be really self-motivated and level-headed. But I think more of this has to do with individual temperament than any amount of parental influence can have.

Don't be upset with the people here. Many find your situation laughably easy because they are already living for much less than it costs you. However I'm sure you are earnest - you are looking over the edge of a cliff and need to know if it's safe to jump.

The house value is meaningless unless you plan on moving so you can just ignore the whole thing in your calculations. With your invested net worth, you can safely spend $22k per year for the rest of your life (well ~99% probability). If you used the 4% rule for a 95% success rate, you could spend $29k per year.

I wouldn't hold onto the 2.8% loan. Sure it's a good interest rate, but you don't need the leverage. This article should help you visualize the effect of leverage. Making it your last action of work to pay it off would probably smooth out the road a bit. I'd have a talk with your father and tell him that you are getting ready for retirement and you'd like to pay it before you finish.

I'd say that you can't FIRE quite yet unless you are willing to cut expenses. Can you reliably live off of $1800 a month in your budget? That's not a spending level that's objectively difficult, but it may take some getting used to.

What you can do right now is to start bringing your expenses down and practice living off of the amount you would have if you were FIRE. If you need to burn some vacation to have some free time to simulate the cost savings from being home, do it. Doing the trial run right now will tell you more than years of playing with calculators.

You should go ahead and start working on kids. 35 is already pretty old for having children. The chances of conceiving go down, the chances of birth defects go way up. It may take a while for your wife to get pregnant. The reason why I suggest this is that you'll be able to take FMLA leave when your child is born, which will help with the next step.

After you've got the trial run handled, you go ahead and jump in the pool by taking a leave of absence. If it's paternity leave, your work can't legally stop you from taking 6 weeks. Otherwise, you should be able to negotiate some type of leave (perhaps 4 months?) while you take a "sabbatical." You'll know that this is your retirement, but they won't. If the first try at retirement doesn't go well, you can just go back to work when your sabbatical or paternity leave is done.

I'd recommend you read the book Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well. It covers a lot of subjects you wouldn't really think about going into retirement.

it's difficult with kids - how old are they? There's an emotional development that may or may not have happened to facilitate based on the answer to that question.

You might want to start here: The Opposite of Spoiled it's a great book on teaching money responsibility.

From the description:

>In the spirit of Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman’s Nurture Shock, New York Times “Your Money” columnist Ron Lieber delivers a taboo-shattering manifesto that explains how talking openly to children about money can help parents raise modest, patient, grounded young adults who are financially wise beyond their years.

>For Ron Lieber, a personal finance columnist and father, good parenting means talking about money with our kids. Children are hyper-aware of money, and they have scores of questions about its nuances. But when parents shy away from the topic, they lose a tremendous opportunity—not just to model the basic financial behaviors that are increasingly important for young adults but also to imprint lessons about what the family truly values.

Our daughter is too young to apply most of this, but it was a really great read and I wish it had been around when I was a kid. I feel like with this type of groundwork, it more easily answers the question " mom/dad are we poor? Our hour house is so empty and I went to sally's house and she's got tons of toys and games and her dad has....."

22 years old and 140-160k per year? Well done!

I'd start by reading as many personal finance books as you can. The wealthy barber returns(I think Tangerine or some bank is offering it for free as a pdf right now), the millionaire teacher is another great one. They'll get you started on the basics.

As others mentioned www.canadiancouchpotato.com is excellent. It's a set and forget kind of investment, with your savings you should be able to build a solid retirement portfolio in a a decade or so, depending on how your expenses and income change over the years. Personally for me MMM has some great advice buried in fanatical frugalism. It's a bit much at times, but there's good advice.

As far as your money in a chequing account, I'd invest every dime you won't need for many many years. Have a decent amount of cash on hand for emergencies(6months of expenses is usually enough) but you can keep that in a high interest savings account or somewhere liquid.

> I've always liked the idea of offering them a physical bank with a ridiculous interest rate so that they can see interest with their own eyes

This is the premise behind The First National Bank of Dad, which David Owen wrote a book about, but which you can learn about for free via a podcast:

> David Owen, author of The First National Bank of Dad, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how to educate our children about money and finance. Owen explains how he created his own savings accounts for his kids that gave them an incentive to save and other ways to teach them about postponing gratification, investing, keeping money in perspective and other life lessons. The conversation closes with a discussion of the value of reading to your kids.

> http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/05/owen_on_parenti.html

I have a small amount of CC debt but I was able to get a consolidation loan, this made my payments more manageable and the pay-off date and overall cost are now way lower than they would have been. This could be done through some third party lender but I would start with where you know first for options. If you have a bank I would start by there, they may even have someone that specializes in this kind of financial assistance. If you have access to a credit union they may even be more help than a bank's financial advisers. You can always call the credit card company directly and discuss debt management options. It may also be helpful to look at some debt relief programs or reference materials. I've always found Dave Ramsey's plans for financial planning to be straight-forward and effective. Here's a link to a Ramsey book that covers debt-relief and saving/investment, his main concept for debt relief is a "snowball" plan - pay off the small stuff first and once paid off use that extra many for the next largest balance and so on.

Good Luck!

I suggest you start by not asking for stock tips on Reddit, or anywhere else for that matter. If you don't have your own very good reasons to invest in a specific stock, you should not be investing in individual stocks at all. Investing is a game of risk vs reward, of the mathematical properties of diversified portfolios, and of mastering one's own behaviour. It isn't about getting the scoop on the next winner, nor is it really even possible for retail investors to have an information advantage over the rest of the market.

In my opinion, literally everything you need to know about being a successful long-term investor can be found in the friendly, fun and Canadian book Millionaire Teacher.

I highly recommend reading Ben White's book on student loans. It answers your question and many others. Medical-Student-Loans-Comprehensive-Guide

To get $0 monthly payments, you would need to be in an IBR payment plan (Forbearance or deferment do not count as "payments" with regards to PSLF, although technically you could use them for a $0 monthly payment; although this is likely unwise).

The cost of monthly payments is determined by 15% (IBR) or 10% (PAYE or REPAYE) of your discretionary income divided by 12; discretionary income = (adjusted gross income - 1.5*federal poverty limit). Under IBR/PAYE/REPAYE you can have $0 monthly payments if your income is low enough (remember that REPAYE includes spouses income).

For these plans, you have to certify your income annually. One trick to getting the guaranteed $0 payments is to consolidate your loans right after graduation. This immediately enters you into repayment (no grace period), but allows you to certify that you have no income. This has the benefit of allowing you to truthfully check that you have no income (not technically employed until July 1st) and allow you to build up extra $0 payments should you choose to pursue PSLF in the future. If in REPAYE it also allows you to halve your interest rate effective immediately, which will save you money in the long run.

My school had a AAMC representative speak to us regarding student loans and she confirmed that this was a legitimate strategy that many people use.

TLDR: Definitely still a viable option

yes, but I strongly recommend you read: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-National-Bank-Dad/dp/0743204808 first.

There's an essential thing to keep in mind: interest rates are too low and time horizons too long to actually make it possible for young people to "Get" saving at an early age. The solution to this is obvious, affordable and fun for everyone: just open your own "bank" and then pay your kids ridiculously unsustainable interest on every dollar they save (up to a limit). 1% per month. hell, 1% per week.

it teaches them math, you can afford it on small amounts of money and it gives them the opportunity to learn something about compounding at a rate they can relate to.

strongly recommended.

If you are in great shape, healthy, happy and have great relationships with your kids and great ties to your community, then your retirement is going to be awesome with or without a lot of money. If you lack those things, then no amount of lobster dinners is going to make if fulfilling.

There are diminishing returns to your happiness when compared to your income. Those returns may even be negative if you are spending your time doing something unfulfilling to earn money that won't increase your happiness.

You should read the book Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well There are certainly things you can do to improve your retirement, but they may not be in the realm of earning more money.

Also, you imagine that your retirement life is going to to be one big adventure where you travel all over and do all kinds of interesting things. I'd wager that you'll be sick of it in a year. Have you even tried doing it for a few months? If you can, why don't you try doing it now and see if it's something that you are willing to do for the rest of your life? I suspect that getting a house, taking care of grandkids and coaching the local little league is going to be more fun than endless nights on a sailboat.

Teach them civics--including how local government (city, county, state) government works. (And include a practical element: visit the local city hall, the local building and public works department, the local police station. Understanding that most of our interactions with government is not with the Federal Government but with your local City Hall and local police force is something sorely missing with a lot of people today.)

Teach them history--and not just the cold and pointless memorization of names and dates. Have them watch Ken Burns Civil War documentary, for example. Have them read books which tell history as a series of stories rather than a list of facts. Video series like America: The Story of Us aren't bad. Have them understand that history is a continuum, that our present day circumstances did not spring fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, but is the result of over 400 years of historic accident.

----

And while I'm daydreaming, have them understand basic Economic theory, both Macro-economics and Micro-economics. Nothing deep here; in fact, I'd say a good introduction would be The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 1: Microeconomics and The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 2: Macroeconomics. The point is not for them to become economists themselves--but to just have a basic passing understanding so they can understand the political rhetoric.

And I'd give them a basic understanding of personal finance. Just basic skills: what a checking account is, what a savings account is. How to earn money, how to save money. I'm personally a fan of Dave Ramsey, who teaches not to get in debt, to defer rewards through saving for major purchases, and who teaches keeping a budget. But honestly, any coherent introduction to personal finance is helpful here--because at some point they're going to go into the world and have to take care of themselves, financially.

• Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
  
  
• Early Retirement Extreme: A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence
  
  
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
  
  
• The Richest Man in Babylon: The Success Secrets of the Ancients--the Most Inspiring Book on Wealth Ever Written
  
  
• The Wealthy Barber, Updated 3rd Edition: Everyone's Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent
  
  
• The Automatic Millionaire, Expanded and Updated: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
  
  
• Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
  
  
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich
  
  
• The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
  
  Ich habe jedes dieser Bücher gelesen und kann es empfehlen. Ich würde jedes davon wieder kaufen und wieder lesen.
  
  
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing <-- Steht noch auf meiner Lese-Liste

Everyone's situation is going to be different. For most people RePAYE will be a bit better choice than PAYE because of the 50% interest subsidy. I recommend Ben White's book. All the information in it can be found for free online but the book is a nice convenient package to digest it all. It only takes a few hours to read through.

Also use nslds and the Medloan calculator, as well as the calculators at doctoredmoney to figure out the best payment plan for you.

Being someone that day-dreams about sailing most of the year through but has yet to get a whole lot of nautical miles under my belt, I can kinda feel for you in the position you're in. My best advice to you, though, is two-fold. The first is sail as much as you can on other, more experienced sailors' boats. Or try sailing dinghies for a season and hone your chops on some small craft.

My other advice is to read your ass off. Read websites, forums and threads on sailing, watch movies/documentaries/instructionals etc, and explore your library's sailing section. This thread isn't exclusive to learning how to circumnavigate, but check out the top suggestions I made - namely the two books by the Hiscocks. Also check out Voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hill - pretty much the authority on low-cost cruising from what I've read. And you're in luck because two years ago when I bought it I don't think it was in print...

I can try and dig up more good books for you if you like, though at the moment I'm going to turn in. There are so many great books about sailing covering so many topics. As anxious as you are to start sailing I suggest you take the time to read as much as you can and then put that knowledge to practice before heading out.

Also, as a primer on what not to do, check out Desperate Voyage.

> Since then I've dumped my financial advisor who was taking a 2.5% fee on top of the 2% MER mutual fund she had me in

I don't even know what to say, I'm so happy you've managed to get out from this. This is just insane.

> I'd discovered that there isn't a lot of specific advice on how to get started for Canadians as most information is US based and the Canadian information that exists is too vague for a beginner.

I recognize this is an old post but there doesn't seem to be a lot of action on r/fican. But I wanted to mention that, in fact, the three books generally mentioned in PFC (among other books in this list) are enough to get a person started:

• The Wealthy Barber Returns (still free to download)
  
  
• Millionaire Teacher
  
  
• The Value of Simple
  
  The last book in particular is instructive on how to go about getting started. Additional technical questions are generally answered in the CCP blog and Justin Bender’s blog. The recent ultimate CCP guide also brings a lot of the information together. Congrats again!

The trouble with a bank account is that the interest is so paltry. An idea I got from The First National Bank of Dad is to act as a bank for your kids and to pay them an exorbitant interest rate (like 5% monthly). Then they have a real incentive to save and can experience the fun of watching money meaningfully grow. You can reduce the interest rate as they get older and start to accumulate adult-like amounts of money.

You can apply for non-institutional aid (the stuff on, for example, scholarships.com) right now, but know that scholarships you get right now could lessen how much need-based financial aid you get. So if you got a $500 scholarship, your future school might just lessen your need-based aid by $500, too. I don’t think it subtracts from merit aid, though, so if you aren’t expecting much based on your FAFSA or can get more from outside scholarships than you’d get need-based aid, your best bet will be scholarships.com, unigo.com, or books like this one

You need to go to each of the websites for all scholarships to check deadlines in the Ultimate Scholarship Books.

Even those with deadlines published in the latest version of the book may have changed since it was printed. Also make note of what each scholarship needs, such as letters of recommendation, school transcripts, etc...

Good luck and great job for starting your scholarship work now! :)

The Opposite of Spoiled I thought was a great read. Hit on very good points on how to guide your kids to be a generous thoughtful person when it comes to money, materials, and other people. I'm going to be pulling this book out at least once a year for ideas.

Penny stocks are all companies he's never heard of, and paper trading isn't fun.

To engage him, you want him to have real skin in the game and to be able to buy shares of companies he recognizes -- McDonalds, Apple, Google, etc.

The best way to do both is explained in the book The First National Bank of Dad.

You act as the market. Your son uses his allowance money to "buy" stock from you treating pennies as dollars. For example, McDonalds is trading today at $120 per share so your son would give you $1.20 for a share of McDonalds. You both track the stock, and when he wants to sell you pay him the appropriate value of his share.

Hey bit late on this one, but for some inspiration I found the guys over at /r/financialindependence/ have excellent ideas on reducing expenses and an anti-capitalist way of life. The Early Retirement Extreme book is an eye-opening read!

read Smart Money, Smart Kids by Rachel Cruz and Dave Ramsey. Fantastic advice

https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Money-Kids-Raising-Generation/dp/1937077632/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520445193&sr=8-1&keywords=smart+money+smart+kids

Dave Ramsey has the best financial boot camp advice, IMHO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xxNoyEL1n0

1. Couch potato investing is an investment strategy that favours passive longterm sustainable growth of your investments through a buy-and-hold strategy. Eiiy-2 already linked to the definitive blog for doing Couch potato investing as a Canadian.
   
2. I think that the best introduction to life insurance is Stop Over-Thinking Your Money! by Preet Banerjee. The first and last chapter give you a great overview of the why and the what of insurance. Borrow it from the library if you have to (that's what I did), but I strongly recommend this book for those who have no idea about insurance.

Which is based on the book Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker. A really great read. He has a whole section with the derivation of this early retirement formula with the assumptions and the graphs, it's pretty neat.

Not specifically on point, but you might consider the classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds or the works of the great anti-psychiatrist Thomas Szasz (in particular Ceremonial Chemistry).

The Wikipedia page on moral panics has a lot of good links.

Thanks! Yes, both kids get allowances. We set something up similar to this:

https://www.amazon.com/First-National-Bank-Dad-Foolproof/dp/1416534253

Even the 4yo gets it. He gets excited when he gets his interest. The other day at Target he picked up some BS toy and I said “you’ll have to spend your savings to buy that” and he put it back down.

(It’s not always that easy)

You could give this a try, it's pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/Opposite-Spoiled-Raising-Grounded-Generous/dp/0062247026

On the nature versus nurture front, I wish someone had told me what an all encompassing powerful force nature actually is during the newborn time...

And seriously consider taking a junior or community college class in personal finance.

Also: there's good books on personal finance that are highly recommended.

1. Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson
   
2. The Road to Wealth by Suze Orman
   
3. Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn
   
   Find out when Suze Orman's show is on your local PBS station and watch the fuck out of that show. She cares a great deal about the little guy and knows the typical traps that novices fall into.

A couple good books are:

Millionaire Teacher - https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524493829&sr=8-1&keywords=millionaire+teacher

The Wealthy Barber Returns - https://www.amazon.ca/Wealthy-Barber-Returns-David-Chilton/dp/0968394744/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524493829&sr=8-2&keywords=millionaire+teacher

Online, there is some great investing advice at www.canadiancouchpotato.com and you can even check out r/personalfiancecanada

Here is a good reference: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-National-Bank-Dad/dp/0743204808

We do this with our kids. The kids can spend or save whatever they want. The Bank of Dad pays 5% per month. This teaches them that delaying gratification pays off. And they learn what it's like to make bad decisions, which is a great thing to do when they are little and the stakes of bad choices are pretty low.

It was written many decades ago, and the actual investment advice was very much tied to the times, but the philosophy is still valid, it is entitled “Your money or your Life” . https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766

MMM (Mr Money Mustache) blog and forum are somewhat international, but English speaking based. The blog is a great resource for understanding the math behind savings rates and time to retirement https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

This guy is a little too out there for me, but Jacob Lund Fisker. Aka “early retirement extreme” or ERE, is a Scandinavian guy who lives by extreme frugality https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-Philosophical-Independence/dp/145360121X
He has his own website and forum too

if you're into reading books, i recommend this one here.

https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MP5SSBTU215V&keywords=millionaire+teacher&qid=1555169396&s=gateway&sprefix=million%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-1

Andrew Hallam explains it in the most simplest form from A to Z.

cheers! :)

Other books I might suggest that are helping me keep more of my income include:

America’s Cheapest Family

Cut your Grocery Bill in Half

MoneySmart Family System great for seeing how to teach financial education to your kids.

Love Your Life, not Theirs

The principles in these are helping my situation a bit. I’d check overdrive or your library for copies.

I thought this book was a good read.

The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062247026

MMM forums. Here.

But honestly as someone else pointed out, once you have the plan, the basics down, there isn't much to say.

I spend too much time on this 'stuff' when you could easily write out all you need to know on the back of an envelope.

I enjoyed ERE's book, https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-Philosophical-Independence/dp/145360121X/

Not OP, but I am assuming he is referring to Jacob Fisker's book.

I'm actually reading it now and have about 30 pages left. In general, I love a lot of the principles in the book. To many, the cost savings measures might seem too extreme as Fisker is definitely on the lean lean side of FIRE. That being said, I think he makes great arguments for just about every topic he touches on, I'm not sure I'd be so receptive to the ideas in the book if I had started my FI journey with it though.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

To add to the reading list, I enjoyed reading 'The First National Bank of Dad' teaching kids a safe way to invest, and how to work allowance. In regards to what others have said, just being there and living by example is way more important.

> No major debts except a mortgage, but I'm a complete newb with money.

You're doing fine, keep it up!

This is a great starter: https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Ramseys-Complete-Guide-Money/dp/1937077209

Most people borrow too much and use credit cards they can't pay off the same month and get buried. Just don't do that and you're 15 years ahead of most people.

For insurance and investments, there are SO MANY to pick from it's dumb to take advice from people who don't know your goals, background, history, etc.

the ussr never attempted to even adopt proper communism. There is an incredible book called "The most popular delusions and madness of crowds" it pretty much outlines how the ussr was able to use the guise of communism to take control. Hope and Fear my droogs. Hope and fear.

EDIT: it's actually ['Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds'] (http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Charles-Mackay/dp/0486432238) thanks! u/Aut0graph

Have you read the Annie Hill book on voyaging? Full of tons of practical advice and encouragement honed from her experiences (both success and failure) over several decades of voyaging on a boat. A 'must read' book for anyone preparing to go voyaging.

You pay for your electricity service, they still burn coal.

This idea is good, but it is very difficult or expensive to implement, if not impossible in some sectors (e.g. clothes, sex toys, furniture, jewelery, office supplies and other small stuff)

I think you can live a "service based life" today by using second hand clothing/ebay/craigslist and looking at your suff as borrowed, always having in mind at what price you can sell the items. The difference in purchase price and sell price over the period you owned a thing is your "service cost".

You can find a good explanation in the book Early Retirement Extreme.

Great advice.
Whether you decide to be open about the trust fund or not, teaching kids how to give from an early age can help with instilling perspective and a sense of responsibility.

My son is only a toddler, but this book is on my wishlist for when he's older. http://www.amazon.com/Opposite-Spoiled-Raising-Grounded-Generous/dp/0062247018

I recommend reading Stop Over-thinking Your Money by Preet Banerjee, a good chunk of which discusses how the various types of insurance work and how to figure out your needs so you don't get sold something that isn't right for you.

I'd check out "Voyaging on a small income" by Annie Hill

I've heard that it is a good book to use for reference, and she should know her stuff she and her husband built their boat and sailed it some 100k plus nautical miles. It's on my to read list for sure.

http://www.amazon.com/Voyaging-Small-Income-2nd-Edition/dp/1888671378

Sure, if we all stopped consuming 50% of what's being produced, this would make half the production obsolete. The twist in thinking is that this is a good thing and not a bad one as the growth imperative would suggest.

I see the way out through going back to more self-sufficiency. The alternative to a consumer society is a society of mostly self-sufficient people. This is the basis of freedom from economic pressures as it decouples your well-being from the ups and downs of the market economy. Then, how would you get such economically free people back into wage-slavery? In fact, this was the situation prior to the industrial revolution. There's a nice book on the subject of how initially economically independent farmers were systematically robbed of their means of self-sufficiency to drive them into the factories, basically the ironically very forced birth of the "free" market capitalism. There was also a recent article posted about the book.

So basically it is not that we simply stop consuming and then how do we get our food? Instead we go back to more self-sufficiency and no longer require neither wages nor the products of wage-labor. This way, each person can individually step out of the vicious circle that is our current economic system.

For more detail on how to do this - practically, you may want to read "Possum Living", "Early retirement extreme" or "How to live without a salary".

More mainstream are books like "Your money or your life" or "Work less, play more."

I personally say yes.

Quite a few chapters were revised with current market conditions e.g. like you said the old one says Vanguard isn't in Canada yet, but new one talks about them. There's also a chapter about robo-advisors.

He also updated a lot of data so it's more recent.

Amazon has a look inside feature so you can see what's in the new version and compare it to your current copy.

https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497407433&sr=8-1&keywords=millionaire+teacher

Stop Over-thinking Your Money!: The Five Simple Rules Of Financial Success by Preet Banerjee

To be an investor, you first need to be a saver.

• Your Money or Your Life
  
  
• [Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471392286/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
  
  
• Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence
  
  
• [A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Including a Life-Cycle Guide to Personal Investing] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393027937/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
  
  
• [Stocks for the Long Run] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071800514/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
  
  Edit: Formating

First National Bank of Dad

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-National-Bank-Dad/dp/0743204808

Good tips include:

• paying high interest to keep them... interested
  
• give them allowance but charge back if you have to do their chores

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Voyaging On A Small Income, 2nd Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1888671378/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RxKoybXEVMVXD

It's a fantastic book.

> You don’t get a job in education by winning the lottery. You get it because you’re qualified - either licensed from home or have done TESOL (at least a CELTA, DipTESOL, or university TESOL diploma), and have demonstrated proficiency in Japanese.

Exactly. I'd rather be a qualified TEFLer with a permanent position than a software dev that's got to keep hustling and retraining themselves when they turn 35, 45, 55, and so on.

Software devs should read this, too.

It's actually 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds'. It's very, very good.

Work random jobs at hotels when your in port for a month or so. Looks like he's a freelance photographer as well. Probably runs a website too. The most expensive part is getting the boat.

Edit: Awesome book on the subject

The First National Bank of Dad is a very similar book, and I think OP might enjoy reading it for ideas.

Thanks for the recommendation! Are you referring to this book?

Regarding financial stuff, this is very good:

http://www.amazon.com/Voyaging-Small-Income-2nd-Edition/dp/1888671378

Uh oh. Maybe you'd better buy a Canadian personal finance book.

This book was written by a Canadian Teacher who became a millionaire. He now teaches finance in some asian country just because he likes teaching.

Check out the Money Steps and then go to Indigo and buy The Millionaire Teacher. 20$ very, very well spent.

The Wealthy Barber


https://www.amazon.ca/Wealthy-Barber-Successful-Financial-Planning/dp/0773762167

Strongly recommend reading this book. Once you read this book, you will be a pro in no time.


https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1119356296/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1977604502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0470830069&pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_r=WK7QVJ88W5YR9FP4Z1M2

You insure assets, not liabilities. The primary income earner of the household is an asset, and should be insured for both death and disability.

Your child is a liability, given they don't earn income and you pay for their upkeep. If your child dies, there will be an immediate cash requirement for their burial, etc, and you could insure for this if it will be challenging for the family finances.

Can I recommend "Stop Overthinking Your Money" by Preet Banerjee

Edit:link repair

https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296

also

Stop Over-Thinking Your Money by Preet Banerjee

There are a bunch of good Canadian finance reads but I would start with those 2.

http://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-philosophical-independence/dp/145360121X

The title is a bit misleading. It's really about rejecting consumerism and leading a more meaningful life free of the rat race.

You should check out First National Bank of Dad.

You need to read Beyond the Grave. I remember that it dealt with your type of situation.

invest $30 in this first. https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=millionaire+teacher&qid=1569609307&sr=8-1

I will probably do 5% a month as long their accounts are not very large.

I got most of these ideas from The First Bank of Dad. The match is from Dave Ramsey.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766

https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-Philosophical-Independence/dp/145360121X

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Extreme-Philosophical-Independence/dp/145360121X

https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501257833&sr=8-1&keywords=millionaire+teacher

This has a lot of foundational stuff that you can build off of.

Get her the book:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Your-Life-Not-Theirs/dp/1937077977

If you go to

https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481859413&sr=1-2

Click on Look Inside, click on Index and then scroll down to the eSeries.

Jane Bryant Quinn's book is the bible of personal finance. My father gave me a copy when I graduated from college. It's 1200 pages of dense print, and it covers everything.

Estate attorneys have incredible bags of tricks up their sleeve.

You might want to get granddad a copy of Beyond the Grave, a book about estate planning gone wrong that gets mentioned a lot on Bogleheads. Then find a stand-up attorney who can help minimize estate hassles that you and your parents will have to deal with someday.

Thank you! I thought the father of FIRE was Jacob Lund Fisker? ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/145360121X )

> the first book contains some obsolete information.

Millionaire Teacher was just updated for 2017: https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296

for very straightforward, accessible investing guidance backed by lots of research to make sense of the DIY approach (basically to invest in very low maintenance index funds, without paying an advisor) check out - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Early Retirement Extreme (check the side bar). He's known in the FIRE community for his blog and book, and (in?)famous for his post How I live on $7,000 per year.