Recommended

They say you are the average of the five people around you, the quickest and easiest way to improve this average is books and Podcasts. Reaching Aspiration targets education on subjects previously “under-served”, we love the concept of a Private University, where you target education that meets your own developmental needs. With the volume of knowledge out there, it can be difficult to know where to start, but don’t worry, we are here to help! So we have some of our favourites below.

Books and Podcasts

Subject	Name	Author	Why We Love it
Business	Book – Anything You Want	Derek Sivers	One of my favourite people. He showed me that I can run a business differently to the MBA textbook and still succeed. Check out the self narrated audio book.
Marketing	Book – Brain Audit	Sean D’Souza	Explains that the target profile is more important than target demographic and how key risk reversal and social proof is.
Marketing	Book – Growth Hacker Marketing	Ryan Holiday	Growth hacking is moving marketing towards the beginning of the product cycle.
Career	Book – Zero to One	Peter Thiel	Valuable insights for anyone starting something new. Peter may be a bit contrarian for some, but so much can be learnt from his perspectives.
Life	Book – Abundance	Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler	This should be a compulsory read for all. Society is in such a scarcity mindset, that the obvious solutions are not being seen.
Finances	Book – FT Guide to Saving and Investing for Retirement	Yoram Lustig	The best reference we have found for UK Financial Planning. Probably a bit dry for most, but comprehensive and worth the money.
Personal Development	Book – Mindset	Carol Dweck	A real game changer for challenging the hidden scripts we live by.
Finances	Book – Money Master the Game	Tony Robbins	Tony got access to the true masters of the game.
Personal Development	Book – Pebbles of Perception	Laurence Endersen	Simple, yet impactful. An easy but insightful read.
Personal Development	Book – School of Greatness Podcast – School of Greatness	Lewis Howes	Probably one of the most authentic people on the planet. Big fan.
Meditation	Book – Teach Yourself to Meditate	Eric Harrison	Simple and complete. A great way to start your meditation practice.
Career & Lifestyle	Book – The 4-Hour Work Week Podcast – The Tim Ferriss Show	Tim Ferriss	He has probably impacted more lifestyle entrepreneurs than anyone else on the planet.
Personal Development	Book – The Compound Effect	Darren Hardy	A mentee of Jim Rohn. Jim seems to have mentored all of the great personal coaches of the current generation. These great coaches don’t promise quick fixes, but they do promise and deliver fundamental change.
Career	Book – The Fred Factor	Mark Sanborn	It’s not what you do, but how you do it.
Equipment	Kindle – Paperwhite	–	Access 1,000s of books instantly. Store 100s ready to read. The back light allows reading in almost any conditions. One of our favourite parts is being able to highlight and collate our favourite parts.

Financial Service Providers

The only investors who shouldn’t diversify are those who are right 100% of the time – John Templeton

Everyone’s financial circumstances are different. So we cannot recommend what you should do, we have listed some of our favourite options for you to explore. One thing for certain is that it is your responsibility to be financially literate enough to work out what is best for you, whether that is working out your best investments or being able to distinguish between a great financial adviser and one that is not operating necessarily solely in your best interest.

Service	Name	Why We Love it
Digital Investment Manager – UK	Scalable Capital	Is this the future of investing? – It looks like the complete package – Aims to choose the most efficient funds, it has low fees, re-balances, diversifies and targets minimising risk. What’s not to love. Look at for the ISA release later this year. See our blog post
DIY Investment Platform – UK	TD Direct Investing	Perfect for anyone wanting to take control and not get hammered by fees.
Pension Manager – UK	Pension Bee	By the time you are 30, you could easily have 3 pensions. These guys help lump them all together to be more manageable, probably lower fee as well.
Credit Score – UK	Clear Score	Finding out your credit score should be free and it finally is.
Fund Provider	Vanguard	In many ways revolutionised the Index fund market. Check out Lifestrategy funds. They could meet your criteria.

Other Great Service Providers

Nobody raves about average.

– Bill Quiseng

You may not love them, but we’ve had great experience with them.

Service	Name	Why We Love it
Travel – UK	Holiday Pirates	Looking for a great deal for that much needed annual leave . See our blog post
Travel	Momondo	Generally the best and most comprehensive flight search tool. We’ve trusted them for years (occasionally wasting our time searching elsewhere).
Travel	Seat Guru	We are very hesitant putting this up, because if everyone is using it, there will be more competition. But this is a great tool to find the best seats available on your flight.
Travel – UK	Head for points	Maximise those airline miles and hotel points. The best resource by far.
Career – UK	Milkround	Been the #1 resource for UK Graduates for years now.
Other – Mobile Provider UK	Three	Three has won me over. For anyone who travels “Feel at Home” is AMAZING. Years ago their customer service was problematic, but they have really stepped up their game. We’ve been very impressed with my last few interactions.
E-Mail Marketing	ConvertKit	Such a cool bit of kit. Email marketing for professional bloggers.

Other – Domain Purchase & Server Host	SiteGround	Quick support (much needed for those IT challenge) and great value. Buy your domain and host in the same place, much easier to deal with technically.
Other – Coffee	Pact Coffee	Probably responsible for 20%+ of our productivity. Great product, delivered straight to our door and we love the ritual of brewing the coffee. Has saved us money in reduced trips to the Chain Coffee shops.
Other – Blue Light Filter	f.lux	Brilliant blue light filter for a Windows computer.
Other – Blue Light Filter	Twilight	Blue light filter for your Android phone. After trying a few, this was the ideal one we settled on.

Social Organistions

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

– Winston Churchill

At Reaching Aspiration we believe in making a positive contribution. We love others who do the same.

Service	Name	Why We Love it
Social Organisation	80,000 Hours	There process allows people to have more purposeful and fulfilling careers.
Charity	Cool Earth	We love charities that have multi-faceted impacts. Cool Earth provides support to communities acting as a barrier for entry to rain forests, by supporting them in developing income generating projects.
Chartiy	Bees Abroad	We know bees are crucial for the survival of our plant. Bees Abroad supports communities in developing beehives as an income generator. Win-win.
Social Organisation	Social Progress Imperative	It is not a surprise that societies with greater social mobility opportunities are generally happier. As per their website – Measuring social progress, not wealth.
Charity	Bulungula	A rural incubator modelling itself on internally and self directed improvements in living standards. Why are there more of these?

For the most awesome FIRE directory check on Rockstar Finance.

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