Update: Top 5 Gift Ideas For An Investment Enthusiast – 2020 Edition now available!

With the holidays approaching quickly, I decided to write something in the spirit of Christmas instead of our traditional educational articles. If you are at the last minute like me to shop for Christmas gifts, this top 5 gift ideas might help you find what to offer to an investment enthusiast. I encourage you to share the article with your loved ones if you like my suggestions! If again you are like me, you might even be tempted to offer yourself a Christmas gift, who knows?

I tried to find gift ideas that will be relatively easy to get before December 25th, especially with Amazon.ca which offers a fast and efficient delivery service. It is also important to note that my suggestions are not directed exclusively to microcaps but to investing in a broader way. They are also, for the most part, products or services that Philippe and I have been using or are still using today and in which we are confident you will find satisfaction and quality. So let’s begin:

1- A classic: the book

Being an avid reader myself, I am convinced that a book is one of the best ways to educate oneself on a subject. For the beginner as well as the advanced investor, there is a wide variety of books on investment as a whole. Here are my favorites in each category:

• Stock market (fundamental analysis): One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market by Peter Lynch
• Stock market (technical analysis): Insider Buy Superstocks by Jesse C. Stine
• General investment: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Business/startups: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel

2- A membership to MoneyGeek.ca

MoneyGeek.ca is a website aimed at helping individual investors begin to manage their own portfolios with the use of Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). This strategy will allow beginners to somewhat replicate the performance of the main indexes while avoiding the high management fees of mutual funds. A Moneygeek basic membership costs 70$/year and is a good way for a beginning investment enthusiast to take control of his own portfolio while at the same time limiting greatly the risk of mistakes. It is personally the way I started managing my own money. In the case you are not willing to pay the 70$/year fee for this service, the website is still full of free educational articles and resources.

MoneyGeek

3- A membership to SmallCap Discoveries

SmallCap Discoveries is an investment newsletter dedicated to uncovering the best and most promising emerging companies in Canada. This service mostly targets individual investors who would like to gain an advantage on the market. We are personally using SmallCap Discoveries and are very pleased with the work that editor Paul Andreola and writer/researcher Brandon Mackie have been doing for the past year. The cost of the membership is 249$ USD / quarter and includes an exclusive access to the private forum, allowing you to exchange with other members as well as the writers of the letter. Given the relatively high cost of this service, I would recommend offering this gift to a serious microcap investor only.

SmallCap Discoveries

4- The financial education board game CashFlow 101

CashFlow 101 is a financial education board game allowing people to learn how to manage their personal finances and invest their money like in real life. The game has been created by Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad company (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad mentioned above). CashFlow 101 shares some similarities with Monopoly but it involves far more investment decisions in areas like real estate, entrepreneurship and the stock market. If you have read Rich Dad Poor Dad, I think you will really like the game although it really isn’t a pre-requisite to enjoy it and learn the valuable lessons that the game is trying to teach you. I played CashFlow 101 many times and really loved the experience! For a reason that is unknown to me, the game is really expensive in Canada so I would suggest buying it on Amazon.com in US dollars to save money and get a faster delivery.

CASHFLOW 101

5- A hotel room to attend the Microcap Conference in Toronto on April 11-12, 2016

Coming off from a success in Philadelphia last month, the Microcap Conference is back for a second edition. This time, the event will be presented in Toronto and will showcase some of the most interesting and promising companies on the Canadian markets. Philippe and I will participate in the selection of the 40 companies that will present at the event, so be sure we will work very hard in the coming months to bring to Toronto the best investment opportunities available. Attending the conference as a private investor is completely free, all you need to do is register on the website of the event to secure your spot. If the person you wish to offer this gift to can be available on Monday and Tuesday April 11-12, why not offer him/her the hotel nights at the Hilton Toronto? Events like this one are really interesting on many fronts, especially for uncovering new investment ideas but also for the possibility to meet with some of the management teams in which you might be a shareholder already, or to network with likeminded investors. The Microcap Conference is an event I really look forward to!

The MicroCap Conference – Toronto

I hope that this brief gift ideas top 5 will help you in the decision of what to offer to your loved one(s). On behalf of myself, Philippe and all the Espace Microcaps contributors, we wish you happy holidays and a prosperous 2016!