During this Holiday Season, consider giving the gift that truly never stops giving, financial literacy. Whether you’re 8 or 80 years old, there is always something new you can learn about finance that can help you advance. You are already doing your part in achieving your own financial literacy if you are reading this and subscribing to our blog and newsletter, receiving financial content straight to your screen twice a month. In what follows, we’ll highlight a few gift ideas around financial literacy that you can gift the people you love, who may be at various stages of their lives.
Let’s begin with the gift for an adult:
Book – Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray
Nick is one of the wittiest and most intelligent writers in personal finance. He is keenly aware that financial journalism is trying to lead investors astray in pursuit of clicks and views. This book highlights that wealth is the absence of financial worry, an income you don’t outlive, and a meaningful legacy to those whom you love. He goes on to tell the story of the historically reliable way to achieve such wealth with no special expertise.
Book – Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Through his Ten Commandments for Making Money, Rabbi Lapin has put together a book that highlights money principles where he shares personal stories in business and life and wisdom from the Torah. His commandments are countercultural: Never Retire, Act Rich, Do Not Pursue Perfection. In this book, you will learn a little about money and a lot about life.
Gift for a young adult:
Financial – Gift Appreciated Stock
If you are in a position to give to your child, niece/nephew, or grandchild, you might consider giving appreciated stock as opposed to cash. If this is used in the correct scenario, it could provide a small tax benefit to the donor and may be tax free to the recipient. I would argue the greater gift in this is the story that is told of how the gain was achieved. The gain was likely achieved in a buy and hold fashion. The slow and boring way. Be aware of the annual gifting amount which is $16,000/yr per person ($17,000 in 2023). If a husband and wife were giving to a child, they could gift $32,000 ($16,000 each) before they would have to file a gift return.
Book – Baby Steps Millionaire by Dave Ramsey
Our culture has pitched a “get-rich-quick” scheme. For young adults, it is all too easy to get caught up in trying to buy crypto currency or the other latest fad. In Baby Steps Millionaire, Dave shows case study after case study (with evidence) to support that it is possible- or even better- probable, to build wealth the “slow and boring way”. This is the book for someone at the beginning or midway through wealth accumulation to show that their work does pay off.
Gift for a child:
Book/Curriculum – Anything from Ramsey Solutions
Ramsey Solutions has done an incredible job of developing their youth, teen, and college curriculum for personal finance. Everything from the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox to the book, 5 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in College, to the youth line-up of Financial Peace Jr. If financial conversations are not common in your home, these could be the catalyst for some of those very important conversations.
Financial – Fund a 529 or an UTMA/UGMA
One of my favorite gift ideas is to share with your child that you are contributing to an investment account in their name. Then, share with them which mutual fund you are investing in, what a mutual fund is, how much you plan to contribute and how much that should reasonably grow to by the target goal. This is a great way to provide education to your child while also investing, and we’d be happy to prepare a one-page summary of relevant information so you could have the educational impact you want to have.
During this Holiday Season, consider these gift ideas or gift ideas for your favorite charity. If you feel your year-end plan is too important to be doing it by yourself, and you want to delegate the heavy lifting to an expert who can work directly with your CPAs and Accountants to maximize tax savings and retirement income, Sonmore Financial is here to help. We offer a no-obligation, no-cost second opinion here.
