Graduation season is upon us, and that means graduation gifts. Many of us know a high school or college graduate who we hope achieves great things in life, and we’d love to have a way to help him or her along that path without being too heavy-handed with the advice.

Here are five smart gifts that can achieve just that. These gifts all have the potential to help your graduate with the financial challenges that await them. For most graduates, these gifts won’t be an immediate source of excitement. Instead, they’ll be something they put aside for now, only to find it waiting for them at the right moment when they’re ready to address the financial issues in their life.

“Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. This is the first personal finance book I would give to anyone, as it is the book that changed my life. What sets it apart? It explains in clear, straightforward and approachable terms how money isn’t just a tool that you can use to buy stuff and experiences, but how money is the tool that you can use to buy personal freedom — freedom from the burdens of a career, freedom from stress and freedom from almost every real worry in life.

All it takes to earn that freedom is to rethink the basic reasons for how and why you spend your money. Does this item or this experience you’re about to spend your money on really add up to enough value to make up for the chunk of your life that you’re trading for it? It’s a powerful question, one that this book asks in detail, and it’s one that people don’t think about often enough.

You Need a Budget. Eventually, everyone will come to their financial crossroads and need to take charge of their money. Assembling a budget is one of the first parts of that process, and that’s where You Need a Budget comes in.

At a cost of $60, You Need a Budget is the best tool out there for assembling a budget and helping you to stick with it. Not only does it do a stellar job of tracking spending and helping you match it with your budget, it does it all by helping you stick to a smart underlying financial philosophy. The entire tool is geared toward four rules, and if the recipient can get on board with those, they’ll be financially set.

“How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman. One of the smartest money skills a person can master is simply knowing how to cook a variety of dishes at home. Once you know that skill, it becomes a lot less intimidating to just go home and make a meal rather than spend extra money on takeout or delivery food.

This book does a brilliant job making everything approachable, even if you’re starting from virtually no cooking knowledge at all. Some of the early sections function as a brilliant “cooking 101,” while the rest provide a great reference for preparing almost anything at home.

“Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties” by Beth Kobliner. If there’s a single nuts and bolts financial guide that makes sense for a fresh college graduate, it’s this book. It’s written in a perfect tone for a college graduate, a tone that’s serious without being preachy.

What really makes this book a winner, however, is the amount of great advice targeted toward 20- and 30-somethings packed into its pages. Not only is this book readable from beginning to end, it also functions as a reference for the financial questions that younger adults may have as they begin to make their way in the world.

Basic cookware. Many college graduates have relied on the microwave and perhaps a few beat-up pieces of home cookware to get them through their college years. As they progress into adulthood, some of the first things they’ll need are tools for the kitchen to prepare their own meals.

That’s why basic cookware is almost always a great idea for college graduates. I usually prefer to get long-lasting items, like cast iron or enameled cast iron skillets or pots. Those items provide an easy-to-use surface, and they’ll potentially last until those college graduates are grandparents.

A smart financial gift will help a graduate make smart financial moves, not just now, but throughout his or her life. Each of these gifts cannot only set them start on the right track, but also teach principles that will last forever.

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5 Gifts to Set Graduates Off on the Right Financial Foot originally appeared on usnews.com