TOP 20 Investing Gifts: Christmas Books in English & Your Native Language
How to choose an investing book present for christmas
The holiday season is just around the corner, and finding the perfect gift for your loved ones can be a challenge. Why not consider a personal finance book? We’ve curated a list of investing classics suitable for friends and family, whether they’re beginners or seasoned investors.
Our selection includes beginner-friendly books, geeky reads, or pathways to financial freedom. We also feature books for kids and options in various local languages for those who prefer reading in their native tongue.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- For Anyone In Your Family – Psychology Of Money, The Simple Path To Wealth and The Little Book Of Common Sense Investing.
- Hands-on Books – Investing Demystified, Just Keep Buying, and Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing.
- Lifestyle Books – For Casual Reading – Include The Millionaire Expat, Your Money Or Your Life and The Millionaire Next Door.
- Books For Kids – Include Grandpa’s Fortune Fables: Fun stories to teach kids about money and Investing for Kids, How to save, invest and grow money.
- Wall Street Books – Include Trillions and The Bogle Effect.
- BONUS Collection: a list of ‘Intro To Investing Books’ In Your Local Language – so you can offer it to your friends and family in local language – Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and more.
Absolute Classics FOR ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY
For Friends WHO want to UnderstanD how money Works
Psychology Of Money (Morgan Housel)
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
For financial independence SEEKERS IN THE FAMILY
THE SIMPLE PATH TO WEALTH (JL COLLINS)
The author is one of the early proponents of financial independence. He has helped countless people to improve their financial life. Because Collins wrote this book for his 19-year-old daughter, it provides important information for young savers entering the adult world. Unlike many other authors that have a more flexible approach, he advocates an aggressive 50% savings rate, which is in line with rather strict financial independence principles. He discusses how this is achievable for most people in jobs that pay an average or above-average salary. European investors will find the first and last parts of the book useful, but might have to skip over the middle bits, which go into detail about the American system.
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
FOR FRIENDS WILLING TO BUILD THEIR FIRST PORTFOLIO
The little book of common sense investing (John Bogle)
The author has founded Vanguard, one of the largest and most respected financial institutions in the world. If you want to read about Index Investing from the Father of Passive Funds, Bogle may be the perfect choice. Although Bogle’s aim wasn’t to create a resource for complete beginners, the book is understandable for everyone and clearly highlights important investing principles. It is written for an American audience, but people around the world can benefit from the advice. This is especially true since index investing has spread around the globe in recent years.
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
BOOKS For geeks
FOR INVESTORS Building A portfolio IN THE UK AND EUROPE
Investing Demystified (Lars Kroijer)
Investing Demystified by Lars Kroijer is a comprehensive guide for investors looking to optimize their portfolios. The premise is that 95% of us don’t have an edge over the market, so we should simply choose a minimum-risk bond asset and a world equity tracker. With Investing Demystified, Kroijer has created a truly international work that draws examples from all over the world. However, the book might be hard to understand for a complete beginner, since it is quite technical. Investing Demystified discusses the risks involved in investing in a much more comprehensive way than the other books on the list (except the Factor Investing book). Thus, it could be a great choice for someone interested in optimizing their portfolio for both performance and risk.
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
FOr pragmatic Data-Driven Approach to INVESTING
Just Keep Buying (Nick MaggiuLLI)
“Just Keep Buying” by Nick Maggiulli stands out for its fresh perspectives and actionable advice. Maggiulli offers practical, data-backed strategies for wealth-building.The book is structured into two main sections: ‘Saving’ and ‘Investing.’ Key takeaways include the importance of saving early in your wealth journey, the effective 2x rule to manage spending, and a focus on the stock and bond markets as consistent investment choices. Maggiulli’s approach is pragmatic, blending lifestyle insights with investment strategies, making this book an excellent choice for those seeking to deepen their personal finance knowledge, especially for early investors and those transitioning from using investment advisors.
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
Our ASSESSMENT
Beginner-Friendly
Financial Independence Principles
Investing Concepts
Personal Finance Know-how
Investing How-to for Europeans
OVERALL RATING
For Investing Geeks trying to Understand Factors
YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO FACTOR-BASED INVESTING (Berkin & Swedroe)
Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing is an essential read for investors looking to dive deeper into the advanced investing. Even if you won’t be using factors, the book is great to make the concepts intuitive. It breaks down complex financial theories into understandable concepts, explaining how investors may potentially enhance their portfolio returns by focusing on specific factors known to influence stock performance, such as value, size, momentum, and profitability. It also explains that these returns are not without risks.
LIFESTYLE BOOKS
Investing As an Expat
Expat Millionaire (Andrew Hallam)
Exercise-driven book on the way in life and money
Your Money Or Your Life (Vicki Robin)
This book is considered in the financial independence community to be the most influential body of work in this realm. By figuring out what we truly value, we can free ourselves from the endless cycle of working long hours and spending money to make up for our jobs. Robin states that many of us don’t make a living, we “make a dying”. Our jobs sap the life out of us and rob us of our most precious years. We really enjoyed the concepts of money as “life energy” and the strong focus on the “why”. The book has an interactive and practical setup, which encourages the reader to complete useful exercises and therefore get more involved with the concepts.
How average people end up millionaires
The Millionaire NExt Door (Stanley & DAnko)
The concepts in The Millionaire Next Door are easily understandable for everyone. That’s why the book will provide a lot of value to beginners. Many of the people interviewed were financially independent, so it can provide valuable information for people who want to manage their money better. However, it is equally interesting for those of us who are further along in our journey. Stanley and Danko explain how millionaires build on their existing wealth and how they optimize the inheritance process.
For Wall Street History Enthusiasts
History of Index Investing
Trillions (Robin Wigglesworth)
Trillions, how a band of Wall Street Renegates Invented the Index Fund And Changed Finance Forever, by Robin Wigglesworth is a fascinating insight into the people who made the Index Fund revolution happen. The stories about the people often start with some of their biggest failures. But beyond the stories, Robin also argues that every revolution brings its fair share of non-issues and sometimes real issues, such as concentration of power.
Story of John Boggle
Bogle effect (Eric Balchunas)
There are a lot of misconceptions about Bogle, especially amongst his fans and the Bogleheads community. Eric’s book is not a biography of John Bogle in the conventional sense nor is it an introduction to his claim to fame, that is, index investing. Instead, the book may be characterized as an attempt to chart Bogle’s impact on the history of the mutual fund industry.
Books for Children
Age range: 6-10
AGE 6-10: Grandpa's Fortune Fables (Railey)
Grandpa’s Fortune Fables: Fun stories to teach kids about money by Will Rainey is fantastic blending of storytelling with a sound financial education accessible to young children. Grandpa’s Fortune Fables is an original and ambitious book that aims to teach children better money habits from a young age through fun stories and riddles, making it very engaging. The book is designed for children below the age of 10. Some concepts that it will teach include: everyone can become wealthy, working smart, saving before spending, investing, taxes, risk, or that a home is not an asset.
Age range: 12+
Investing For Kids (Tom, Redling)
Given that most European kids aren’t taught investing in school this book greatly complements their overall education. The book is designed for children, but it is pretty advanced and probably should be labelled as 12+. If you want to spend time with your children going through the concepts presented, it is worth the time. Certain parts that shouldn’t be there, including how to read an ESG score, but overall these are minor drawbacks for what’s a great introduction for teenagers.
IntroDUCTION TO INVESTING in your Local language
UK Investors
INVEST YOUR WAY TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM (CARLSON & POWELL)
Invest Your Way to Financial Freedom” by Ben Carlson and Robin Powell is a noteworthy addition to European personal finance literature. Targeted primarily at beginners, especially young professionals, the book emphasizes the importance of saving 10-20% of income and automating investments for long-term growth. It’s an excellent starting point for average income earners looking to retire at a standard age, and may require supplemental resources for more ambitious financial independence objectives.
Italian Investors
INVESTIRE E SEMPLICE COME ANDARE IN BICICLETA (L. Biagi)
Lorenzo’s second book is a journey that intertwines the liberating world of cycling with wise investing – both are dear to me. At first glance, they appear worlds apart, yet they share a common theme of achieving freedom and—today, with the advent of index investing—accessibility. By intertwining cycling stories – including the sport’s rich Italian heritage and personal anecdotes – with a priori not always an exciting topic – Lorenzo created an entertaining book about pedalling your way through investing at every life stage.
FRENCH Investors
Investir en Bourse avec les ETF (LE PRINCE DES ETFs)
Le Prince des ETFs is an educational Twitter account that has collated a lot of essential information for beginners investing from France and interested in getting started with ETFs. The book is written by a young investor showing the 101 of setting up your ETF portfolio leveraging tax wrappers in France. While the author is not as experienced, the principles and application is sound, and he can certainly resonate with his generation in a better way than some of the traditional books.
DUTCH & French-speaking Investors
De hangmatbelegger (Tim Nijsmans, Yoran Brondsema)
A great introduction to investing for Dutch investors. The work stands out for its focus on accessibility and has the aim to make investors independant while avoiding traditional pitfalls. It also clearly illustrates possible strategies and downsides of different portfolios, that are backtested using Yoran’s backtest tool. And for those who don’t want to even read this book, Yoran runs a robo-advisor. Note, that the book is also available in French for Belgian and French investors under the name “Gagner en bourse sans se fatigue”.
Polish Investors
Inwestowanie dla każdego (Mateusz Samołyk)
This book is an extensive resource, with focus on beginners. It also touches on personal finance, adding an extra layer of local relevance. The book shines in presenting simple, effective strategies like LifeStrategy or a mix of Global Stocks and Polish Bonds, gently nudging readers toward these approaches. That said, its comprehensive nature might be a bit overwhelming for complete novices. Perfect for those who are serious about learning the craft! It also provides valuable information on tax wrappers, accounts, and other practical tools for investors. The author’s slight bias towards dividend investing, while not fully aligned with academic consensus, adds a personal touch—Mateusz, we’ll let this one slide! 😜
Spanish Investors
Carteras para Pequeños Inversores: Hágalo Usted Mismo (Will y Fog)
This book simplifies complex financial concepts, offering clear explanations, data, and comparisons of popular portfolio models like the Three-Fund Portfolio and Warren Buffett’s recommendations. Tailored for European investors, with a particular focus on Spain – where financial education is still in its infancy – it considers local taxation, cultural, and market specifics, while adapting U.S.-focused strategies. The book also critically examines trends like ESG investing, emphasizing cost efficiency and diversification. It equips readers with the tools to achieve financial independence.
Good Luck and Keep’em* Rolling!
(* Wheels & Dividends)
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