I love to receive and give books as gifts and I am hoping Santa would give me The Complete Calvin and Hobbes this year. With Christmas just around the corner, here are some gift ideas for the financially inclined person on your list:

Starters:

Spend Smarter, Save Bigger: We spend a lot of time discussing investment topics on this blog but the basic step of saving money is arguably far more important. Margot Bai’s recent book (full review) offers a number of ideas for saving money.

The Wealthy Barber: David Chilton, the best-selling Canadian author, covers the basics of financial planning in an easy-to-read format.

Investment Beginners:

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: John Bogle, the founder of US mutual fund giant Vanguard has written one of the best introductions to investing (full review).

Advanced:

Your Money & Your Brain: If you’ve ever asked yourself how we tend to make stupid money decisions, you should read this book. Money magazine columnist Jason Zweig brings the world of behavioural finance (full review) to the lay reader.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Hundreds of books are written on investing every year but this classic was first published in 1973 and is now in its 9th edition. Prof. Burton Malkiel makes the case for investing in index funds for the average investor.

The Intelligent Investor: First published in 1949, this book by Benjamin Graham is considered the bible of investing.

Four Pillars of Investing: William Bernstein’s scholarly work (full review) will make you question even the most widely held investment beliefs.