Your Money or Your Life (Vicki Robin)

Before FIRE was a subreddit, Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez wrote the original financial independence manual in 1992. The radical premise: calculate your real hourly wage (after commuting, work clothes, decompression time), then ask if every purchase is worth that many hours of your life. The 9-step program transforms your relationship with money from consumption to consciousness. The 2018 updated edition added modern investment advice while keeping the core philosophy that changed a million lives.