Christmas Giveaway!
14 Dec, 2025
Meri Kirihimete, Happy Christmas!
Once again, we’re celebrating the festive season with a special Christmas Giveaway for the fabulous people who subscribe to The Happy Saver. Thank you so much for your ongoing support throughout 2025.
Christmas and the New Year are times when many people decide to start, or continue, focusing on getting their finances in better shape for the coming year, which is why Jonny and I always like to give away some brilliant money books, some powerful budgeting software, a handy investment tracking tool, and this year, a boost to the investing pot, and the grocery budget!
You can enter to win specific prizes or put your name in the hat for everything.
The only condition to enter is to be a subscriber to my blog. If you’re not yet part of The Happy Saver community, you can subscribe HERE.
The Happy Saver Christmas Giveaway!
Books
These four books are among the ones I recommend others read the most often. They offer practical, no-nonsense guidance about building a better financial future. This is a broad selection, but you will be sure to take several nuggets of wisdom from all of them.
The Simple Path to Wealth - JL Collins
JL Collins’ classic, straight-talking guide to investing remains, in my opinion, one of the most influential personal finance books ever written. This is the book I recommend the most often. It explains, in plain English, why simple investing works, and why it works best over the long term. This book has changed countless lives by showing readers how to grow wealth without stress, jargon, or complexity.
Yes, he’s American, so some parts won’t apply to us here in Aotearoa. But his core message is universal: keep it simple, ignore the hype, and stay the course.
He originally wrote this book for his daughter, based on a series of letters you can still read online HERE. If you only ever read one book on investing, you won’t be wasting your time by reading this one.
This book genuinely changed my life and helped me realise that I am an excellent investor of my own money.
Die With Zero - Bill Perkins
I have two bookshelves dedicated to my finance books. One holds the “meh” reads, and the other holds the books I recommend to others and return to again and again. Die With Zero sits on the “read-again and share widely” shelf.
A completely different take on money management, Die With Zero challenges us to rethink what money is for. Instead of focusing solely on saving for “one day,” he encourages you to make the most of your life along the way, to balance thoughtful planning with meaningful living. It’s an excellent read for those at or nearing FI, or for anyone thinking deeply about how to use their money with intention.
For me, this book was permission to stop fearing that I wouldn’t “have enough” and to start using my money purposefully now. Only a handful of books have had a lasting impact on me; this is one of them.
The Barefoot Investor - Scott Pape
This book hardly needs an introduction. Still one of the most practical, down-to-earth money guides available. Scott Pape’s “Barefoot Buckets” system helps readers reset, rebuild, and re-optimise their money habits, no matter their starting point. He offers clear, practical, step-by-step guidance for restructuring your finances, tackling debt, managing money with confidence, and investing wisely. His approach is no-nonsense and very Australian but thoroughly relatable.
Whether you’re beginning your financial journey or just want to tidy things up, this book gives you the tools to create a calm, sustainable financial life.
I’ve lost count of how many copies I’ve gifted over the years because so many people use this book as a starting point to transform their financial lives completely. I even wrote a blog post titled "Applying The Barefoot Investor in New Zealand."
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - John C. Bogle
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is one of those rare finance books that genuinely changes how people think about money, with John C. (Jack) Bogle clearly explaining why most investors do better when they stop trying to outsmart the market and instead own the whole market at very low cost. As the founder of Vanguard, Bogle champions a simple buy-and-hold strategy using broad, low-cost index funds. It shows how focusing on diversification, low fees, and the power of compounding can lead to reliably strong long-term results. It’s no wonder so many people in the FIRE community trace their “aha!” moment back to this book. It demonstrates just how straightforward investing can be when you keep things simple.
Two $50 Grocery Gift Cards
This year, we have decided to give away two $50 digital grocery gift cards. Why? Because I know that sticking to your grocery budget is hard at this time of year, and we wanted to help lighten the load during the expensive holiday season.
If you are in a position to do so, consider gifting a grocery voucher to someone you know as well.
Affiliate Partner Giveaways
A huge thank-you to PocketSmith, Sharesight, and Sharesies, who are, once again, supporting the folliwing giveaways with some brilliant tools to level up your financial life:
PocketSmith
2 x one-year Flourish Plans valued at $199.95 each
Open to new and existing users
PocketSmith is the budgeting software I’ve used and loved for years, offering customisable dashboards, long-range forecasts, powerful search tools, and beautiful charts and graphs that I love to tinker with. It gives you a clear, real-time picture of your money and helps you plan confidently for months and years ahead, making it perfect for the household CFO. These Flourish Plans give you a full year of PocketSmith’s best features, making smart, flexible budgeting easier than ever.
Sharesight
1 × one-year Standard Plan, valued at $348
Open to existing users on free or paid plans
Sharesight is, hands down, the best portfolio and dividend tracker I’ve found, automatically updating your investment performance, dividends, and tax reporting across up to four portfolios with unlimited holdings. It takes the hassle out of managing your investments, giving you accurate, tax-friendly performance insights without the spreadsheet grind. For anyone investing for the long term, it’s an absolute must-have tool.
Sharesies
3 × $50 Sharesies Gift Voucher
Open to new and existing users
Start 2025 with a $50 kick-start to your investing journey! Sharesies is the investing app I’ve used to help my daughter build the habit of investing a little and often, especially into broad, Total World ETF funds - the kind JL Collins recommends 😉 - so she can learn the natural rhythm of investing over time. It makes getting started simple, giving everyday investors easy access to some of the world’s biggest, most diversified ETFs and encouraging steady, long-term wealth building.
Thank You
As we head into 2026 and inch closer to The Happy Saver’s tenth year, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for being part of this fantastic community. Jonny and I genuinely love the work we get to do, and it’s entirely because of people like you who read the blog, listen to the podcast, send through your thoughtful emails, and bring such infectious enthusiasm to getting your personal finances sorted. It never gets boring for us - not for a second! Knowing that the simple tools and ideas we share have helped so many of you feel more confident with your money is something we never take for granted.
I wish I could gift every single reader the books and tools I use and enjoy, but since I can’t, I wish you GOOD LUCK with snagging one of our 12 prizes this year! Winners will be drawn and announced on Sunday, 28th December.
Have a brilliant festive season doing as little or as much of whatever lights you up as you like.
