Marc's Blog

If you hope to achieve financial independence or financial freedom and retire early, there are a number of books that can help you along the way.

The right books will help you to learn how to cut your costs of living, manage your money wisely, invest with a purpose, and have a plan. Regardless of where you stand on the LeanFIRE vs. FatFIRE debate, achieving financial independence is possible with the right approach, and some patience.

Here are 3 books that stand out as excellent options for anyone who is looking to gain control over their money and live a more satisfying life.

The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life by J.L. Collins

Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence by Jacob Lund Fisker

Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way by Tanja Hester

With millions of people staying at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, now is a great time for reading. There's not much entertainment available outside of the house right now, so it's the perfect time to settle in and catch up on your reading.

Of course, you can read anything that interests you, but I'd like to highlight 3 specific options that are especially relevant in our world right now.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau

With a record-shattering number of people filing for unemployment benefits, there are more people in need of income than ever before. This book from Chris Guillebeau is both informative and inspiration.

In the book, Chris shares the stories of many different entrepreneurs who created successful businesses while investing less than $100 to get started. Not only will you be inspired by these stories, but you'll also get some ideas that may help you to start a business of your own.

A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market: Everything You Need to Start Making Money Today by Matthew R. Kratter

The stock market has experienced incredible volatility during the past 2 or 3 months. Now is as good a time as any to learn more about the stock market and get familiar with invest. If you want to be able to invest confidently during the next year or so, you will need to understand the basics, and this book can help with that.

40 Fantastic Stay-at-Home Date Ideas by Vital Dollar

Being stuck at home doesn't mean that you can't have a date or enjoy time with your significant other. This blog post provides plenty of ideas for fun, romantic dates that you can do without leaving the house. Even after things start to open up again, it will be a slow process and many people may prefer to avoid restaurants, movie theaters and other places for a while.

Ever since I've been in the working world (starting 2001), I've had an interest in personal finance. After graduating college, once I started working I knew I needed to manage my money wisely, and I also realized that I don't want to work until I'm 65-70 years. Right after college I made it my goal to retire early.

With that in mind, finance and investing have always been interesting to me. My parents raised me to manage money wisely and to avoid debt, but I never learned much about investing.

Regardless of whether you're trying to learn more about investing, budgeting, paying off debt, or ways to advance your career, reading can be extremely helpful.

I learned the basics of personal finance and investing from several different books. Today, I read many personal finance blogs and FIRE blogs (financial independence, retire early) on a daily basis. Reading blogs has helped me to improve my financial knowledge, and blogs also help me to stay up-to-date and on top of current financial news and happenings. 

As much as I love blogs (and I actually have my own finance blog at VitalDollar.com), books are also excellent resources for learning. There are books on every financial topic you can imagine.

My recommendation would be to head to your local library, because you can find plenty of great money-related books that you can borrow for free. Also, don't forget that you can buy used books at many places, including online, for very cheap. And websites like Amazon also sell new books and ebooks for reasonable prices.

A few books that I enjoy are:

• The Total Money Makeover
• The Millionaire Nextdoor
• The Automatic Millionaire

Of course, there are a lot of good ways to get inexpensive used books (yard sales, thrift stores, ebay, Amazon, etc.), but what options do you have when you want a new book and you can't find it used?

I have two different approaches that I use to get free books, or access to books. The first one is very popular, but the second approach may not be something that you've considered. 

Let's take a look.

Option 1: Amazon Prime

I have an Amazon Prime membership, so I get access to a lot of quality ebooks. Nothing shocking there, since millions of people are already Prime members. 

When I started my Prime membership 3-4 years ago, I was really only interested in the free 2-day shipping. I hadn't considered all of the perks, but those perks add up.

Option 2: Get Free Gift Cards and Use Them for Books

What are your favorite places to buy books? My favorites are Walmart and Amazon. And one of the reasons I buy most of my books at one of those two retailers is because I can get or earn gift cards to those places very easily.

The specifics are a little bit different, but there are a number of survey websites that will pay you with gift cards. Some of those sites also allow you to earn points by doing things like watching videos, trying apps, and even by playing games. Some also have cashback components that allow you to earn credit from online purchases at thousands of stores.

There are also a lot of websites and apps that will offer a signup bonus, or allow you to earn credit or points that can be redeemed for gift cards.

Once you know which websites and apps to use, earning free gift cards is pretty easy. And once you have the gift cards, you can use them to purchase whatever books you want.

If you want specific instructions for how to do this, see How to Get Free Walmart Gift Cards and How to Get Free Amazon Gift Cards.

(Bonus) Option 3: Referral Bonuses

Ok, I said there were two methods I use, but I'm actually going to include a third one. I haven't been using this method very long, but I've been trying it recently and it has worked fairly well. The downside is, I think there is a limit to what you can earn with this approach.

The idea is to earn a referral bonus from websites and apps that will pay you to refer your friends. There are a lot of them out there and it can be some easy money. Here's a little trick to make it really effective. Find a friend who also loves freebies and take turns referring each other to different programs. 

Some of these referral programs will pay you in cash, which you can use to buy books. Others will pay you with credit for an upcoming purchase at that store or website. If it's a store or website that you would need to use anyway, you can make note of what you saved and then justify spending that amount on a book.

I write about personal finance at VitalDollar.com. The topics covered include managing money, budgeting, frugal living, ways to save money, and ways to make extra money. I've been self-employed as a blogger since 2008, and prior that I worked in the finance industry for several years.

I have experience making money with hobbies (web design and photography) and so I write a lot about side hustles and how to make extra money. I also like to profile other people who are making money in interesting and creative ways.

Some of the most popular articles on my site are: 

- 21 Exciting and Proven Passive Income Ideas

- Ways to Make Money: 150+ Side Hustle Ideas

- 40 Exciting Hobbies That Make Money