The purpose of starting this blog is to help YOU reach YOUR financial goals. We want to help you reach those goals any way we can so we figured the best way to start would be by providing you a list of our favorite Financial Independence books, blogs and podcasts.
We will not be trying to sell you a magic pill to reach Financial Independence. We realize everyones financial journey is unique. Hopefully you gain some sort of insight or inspiration from our experiences and the information we share with you, to help launch you into your own version of financial freedom. (We also think it would be awesome if our little lady reads this blog at some point in her life. Maybe she’ll figure out a way to retire even EARLIER in her life than us somehow… second generation FI!)
We love the community we’ve created through social media and we’re hoping this blog helps us build more and more relationships with people who are motivated and interested in reaching Financial Independence. Or at least individuals wanting to live a mindful and intentional life.
We wanted to share with you the blogs, books, and podcasts from others in the FI community that have helped influence us on our journey. These sources are those who have helped shape our financial life and got us to where we are today.
You may think it’s a bit odd for us to be directing you OFF our brand new blog to go read someone else’s, but as we said our intention is to help YOU. So hopefully once you’ve bookmarked the sources below for future reading, you’ll circle back over here and don’t forget about us! Also, if you’re a beginner, new to the FIRE world, or are just interested in our definitions of some of the FIRE lingo, a great place to start would be our Financial Independence Dictionary.
While of course you COULD google the “Best Financial Independence Blogs” and generate more than a list or two, this is simply a list of OUR favorites. It’s obviously not a comprehensive list as there are MANY other great FIRE resources out there that we don’t mention. By no means is the intention here to discredit the other FI content out there. The sources below are simply who we reference, who built our knowledge base, who’ve inspired us, motivated us, and answered innumerable questions along the way.
We want to ensure everyone is aware that everything we’ve done is replicable. We did it through reading these sources and applying the knowledge we gained. And so can you, if you really want it.
It truly is all about mindset. To complain about life, is to never get ahead. If you read and educate yourself, you will propel yourself towards a world you never thought was possible. A world where you’re free to live on your own terms.
If your first thought is “sounds great but I don’t have the time to read these blogs…” I’d ask you to think about how many hours a week do you watch tv or mindlessly scroll on your phone? Replace those lost hours with reading your way through these sites, books and podcasts. You likely have more time than you think! OR stick with us and we’ll do our best to pass on all our knowledge to you as we move along with this blog.
Financial Independence Blogs:
- Mr Money Mustache
- Mad Fientist
- JLCollinsNH
- Millennial Revolution
- Frugalwoods
- Early Retirement Now
- Go Curry Cracker
- Our Next Life
These blogs listed above are some of the original FIRE bloggers out there who I have been following along for years now. Over the past year or so I’ve connected with some of the other FI bloggers out there who also have fantastic content. Here are their blogs:
- Eat Sleep Breathe FI
- All Options Considered
- Tread Lightly Retire Early
- Keepin’ It Frugal
- The Mindful Explorer
- Tawcan
- Our Rich Life
- Trip of a Lifestyle
- Our Freedom Years
- Rich & Regular
- The Fioneers
- A Purple Life
- Debt Free Guys
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the FIRE bloggers out there. These are the bloggers that we personally relate to and enjoy reading their content.
Financial Independence Books:
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- The Simple Path to Wealth by Jim Collins
- Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung
- Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam
- Set For Life by Scott Trench
- Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker
- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
- Beat The Bank by Larry Bates
- The Wealthy Gardener by John Soforic
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
- The Next Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallaw
- Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames
- Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier
- Work Optional by Tanja Hester
- Optionality by Richard Meadows
- The Joy of Not Working by Ernie Zelinski
- Stocks For The Long Run by Jeremy Siegel
- Choose FI by Brad Barrett, Chris Mamula, and Jonathan Mendonsa
- The 7 Most Important Equations For Your Retirement by Moshe Milevsky
- The Cash Machine by Dave and Chana Mason
- Playing With Fire by Scott Rieckens
- The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert Lustig
- The Art of Frugal Hedonism by Adam Grubb and Annie Raser Rowland
- Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
- The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
- Principles by Ray Dalio
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
- The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
- The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton
- The Latte Factor by David Bach
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- Year of Less by Cait Flanders
- Do You Really Need It? by Pierre-Yves McSween
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Financial Independence Podcasts:
- Millionaires Unveiled by Clark Sheffield and Jace Mattinson
- Thanks for having us on, we love hearing all the stories and strategies of actual millionaires next door!
- Episode 97: Net Worth of 1.1M – Female on FIRE, paid off $110K of Student Loans.
- Explore FI Canada by Chrissy from Eat Sleep Breathe FI and the Money Mechanic (who is also the co-host of the FI Garage podcast)
- Thanks for having us on guys, love your energy!
- Episode 10: Court from Calgary, AB | Moving From Florida to Alberta.
- Episode 17: Online Meetup – Playing With FIRE Documentary Review
- Episode 32: All About RESPs (Part 1)
- Episode 33: All About RESPs (Part 2)
- The Rational Reminder by Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore of PWL Financial
- So many great guests on this podcast, love all of Ben’s detailed analysis, and love the books that Cameron reads.
- Earn & Invest by Doc G
- Thanks for having us on Doc!
- Coming out of the Financial Closet with Travis Shakespeare and Modern FImily (Travis Shakespeare was the director of the Playing With FIRE Documentary)
- Choose FI by Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa
- Thanks for having us on guys, this podcast is pretty much the mecca when it comes to FI podcasts out there.
- Episode 166: Modern FImily with Court
- Afford Anything by Paula Pant
- Paula has the best voice out there and I love her interviewing approach.
- All The Hacks by Chris Hutchins
- So many great little wins to further gamify life.
- Bigger Pockets Money by Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen
- Mostly a focus on real estate with lots of great general FI content as well.
- House Hacking Success by Brad Labrie and Drew Klingler
- Thank you guys for having us on! We are a huge fan of house hacking.
- Episode 29 “How To Get a One Million Net Worth and Reach Financial Independence by Being Mindful of Your Money and House Hacking with Courtney of Modern Fimily”
- The Financial Classroom by Will and Tim
- Thank you guys for having us on! I love how Will and Tim are focusing on millennials with their podcast!
- Student Loans | How to Get Through School Debt Free | ft. Court from Modern FImily
- FIRE Drill by Julie
- Thanks Julie for having us on your podcast. This was our first podcast interview ever and we mention we don’t and wouldn’t blog – oh how the times have changed!
- Episode 161. Why Cutting Out Lattes Won’t Help You Reach FI | Fire2Moms1Babe – that’s us (with the old name we used to go by)!
Still here? Or did we lose you to this awesome list of others in the FI space?
When we first started our journey, we were both just entering the “real world” after school (what a scary stage, am I right?) and didn’t know where to begin with investing. Court got her undergraduate degree in Economics and Math and has a Master’s degree in International Business so she “gets numbers”. While she could talk to you about Logic & Set Theory or Econometrics, she didn’t graduate with an understanding of any real world applications of how to handle personal finances. Nic was a Health Sciences major the first time around, then got her second bachelors degree in Nursing. She could tell you all about any cardiac medications or procedures but where, when, and how to invest? Forget it.
We both had student loan debt, together it totaled $110,000. We knew we wanted to pay it all off ASAP, which was a great start, but after that we were clueless about the next step in our financial lives.
Luckily just before paying off the last of our student debt, Court found the Mr Money Mustache blog through one of her co-workers. The rest is history.
The discovery lead down one rabbit hole to the next, and the absorption of more and more useful and applicable advice along the way. We still actively seek out new information and new financial independence books, blogs, and podcasts. Never stop learning, right?
Any go to books or blogs that we should have on our radar that we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below!
Edit: While we only recently learned about Tread Lightly Retire Early’s Women of the FI Movement list, we wanted to pass along this wealth of knowledge to you also, if you haven’t come across it yet.
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We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account. Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:
- Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
- How much are you paying for your phone plan? Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
- How much are you paying for internet? Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
- How much are you paying for home insurance? We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance. If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance. Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote. (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)
- How much are you paying for your monthly utility bills? See how you can likely save on this monthly expense.
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Great list of resources. You should check out The Wealthy Barber Returns. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and for the input! I’ll add that to my loooong “to read” list 🙂 I’ll likely do a few revisions to this list as time goes on.
Clearly you’re missing the Women of FI list here 😉
Haha! We posted the blogs that we discovered on our path to FI, definitely not all the blogs out there! Although you make a good point – the Women of FI needs to be known to the world! Maybe we will update the post to include it. Stay tuned 🙂
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Great list, I see Bob and Angela both commented here so we are all in good company. (their blogs rock) Nice to see you listed Cait in the books to read, she is a wonderful friend and I am fortunate to know here and follow her inspirational journey. For books the one that can show you how powerful and frugal you can really be I enjoyed Jacob’s book ERE ~ Early Retirement Extreme which I discovered via his blog which has its own cult following like MMM but just a bit more extreme. For Canadian books I also really enjoyed Millionaire Teacher as it had lots of CND investment tips. For general how to on Canadian investments, tax tips etc the website Young and Thrifty is a good resource. Lastly as a Canadian the model investment portfolios over at CanadianCouchPotato are key. Anyhow, glad to have discovered your blog via Angela and now following 🙂
Holy sh*t – I just clicked on your name which lead to your website and I just realized you’re stasher_bc!!! You go on the most insane trails and take the most incredible pictures!! You’ve got a huge fan right here 🙂
Wow thanks for all of this info, I have written all of these resources down to check out! While I don’t know Cait personally (although we do follow each other on Instagram for whatever that’s worth) she seems like such a great human. I’m looking for content regarding the best way for dual US/Canadian citizens who are retiring early to optimize both countries accounts for tax optimization strategies. Any suggestions there?? I know it’s a super niche field. Thanks again for the comment, really appreciate it. And thank you Angela for having me on your blog so we’re able to connect with more like minded folks!