Books I recommend*
- WORK OPTIONAL: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way by Tanja Hester (my book)
Visit my Bookshop.org storefront for many more recommendations, and support independent bookstores while you’re at it (or take my list to your library). I recommend books in a wide range of categories, from financial basics to books about the intersection of money and race, to instructive books about steps you can take to make the world better.
*Scroll down to the bottom of this page for info about these affiliate links. Because I have strong feelings about this, and you deserve to know the deal. ;-)
Blog and podcast friends who create kick-ass content
- journey to launch
- rich & regular
- bitches get riches
- popcorn finance
- northern expenditure
- she picks up pennies
- wallet hacks
- the luxe strategist
- paychecks & balances
- tawcan
- retire before dad
- afford anything
- where we be
- mindful explorer
*Here’s the deal with those book links…
…because I feel strongly about blogger transparency.
This blog, Our Next Life, is not monetized for a whole bunch of reasons. However, there are some large costs involved with operating the blog and newsletter that make this an expensive hobby, one that’s hard to justify on a retired budget. The books I recommend include affiliate links, and the revenue from them (around $.50 per book purchased) covers a small fraction of the out-of-pocket costs of providing ad-free, unsponsored content to you at no charge. My aim with the affiliate links is — absolute best case — to break even on out-of-pocket expenses, so that providing this content isn’t a money pit for us. But here’s my commitment: In any calendar year in which affiliate income fully covers the cost of web hosting, photo editing and email list maintenance (the latter is the biggest expense by far!), I will donate all earnings above and beyond expenses to charity directly or to our donor advised fund for charitable giving, for the remainder of that year. And of course I’m thrilled if you go check these books out at the library instead!
The required fine print: Though all links here have been updated to Bookshop.org, which I highly recommend over the everything store, some sneaky old links remain on the site, and thus I must say we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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Great list! Your Money or Your Life is my favorite personal finance book. I read it at 22 and it blew my mind.
Wow, that’s so young! I *wish* we’d discovered YMOYL that early on… we’d already be long retired. ;-)
Good God: Many of us LIVE LIKE THIS because frugality means subsisting. Go to the hardware,paint store. Millions of folks buy paint and paint their own stuff. My car is a 1991 with upward of three hundred thousand on it..Sorry-not impressed. Son of poor immigrants here.
The goal isn’t to impress you. It’s to help those who aren’t already doing what you’re doing (because nearly 2/3 of Americans do NOT regularly save money) change their ways.
I really appreciate that you reference a lot of the smaller personal finance and FIRE blogs here instead of just the usual suspects!
I love the big guys as much as anybody, but want to give more exposure to some great blogs out there that aren’t exclusively the current A-listers. :-) Thanks for noticing!
Awwww, thanks for adding me to this awesome blogroll.
I’ve been feeling stuck in a major rut lately and thinking more and more about FIRE. Binge-reading your blog today :)
Of course! I’m so happy we met, and I love your stuff. And I just updated my best of page, if you want to spare yourself from reading the crap. Hahaha. ;-)
I just stumbled on your blog. Very thought provoking! This may be off topic but, but how are you thinking about healthcare expenses through teach stage? This is my biggest fear at the moment as it has the potential to eat up a lot of our savings!
Thank you!
Each not teach😂
That is not even remotely the worst typo I’ve seen TODAY! ;-)
Hi Cathy! I’ve written about health care a bunch, so here are some links worth checking out. Let me know if you still have questions! 1. https://ournextlife.com/2017/07/19/early-retirement-health-care/, 2. https://ournextlife.com/2016/05/04/healthcare/, and 3. check out the rundown at Our Plan: https://ournextlife.com/our-early-retirement-vision/
Thanks for the great list of bloggers. Love to see this.
You’re welcome! :-)
Fantastic list. The Millionaire Next Door was a big eye opener for me also. Finding the Retire by 40 blog introduced me to the PF community and blogging in general. I’m forever grateful for it. I’m also glad to see my friend the Luxe Strategist on here. I love reading about $60 t-shirts. Please don’t kill me Lux ;)
Hahahaah…. I’m so glad Lux is sharing her voice with all of us. SO important to see that you don’t have to be a miserly pennypincher to be financially successful. And yeah, I lend Millionaire Next Door out to EVERYONE. ;-)
This is a great list of resources. My wife and I read “Millionaire Next Door” around 20 years ago… and last year retired at 43 and 45 years old by employing many of those lessons over the last 2 decades.
That’s so awesome! Good for you guys for achieving that! You were way ahead of the FIRE curve reading it so long ago.
Any plans to make your book available in Kindle format? All my reading is on e-books.