40th Birthday Gifts for Men

What is a good 40th birthday gift for a man?

A good 40th birthday gift for a man is one that refers to his specific forty years rather than to the number forty. The reliable route is something that names the year he was born and what the world looked like then, plus room for the people who know him to add their own lines. It is the difference between a present that is about a birthday and one that is about a person.

What did things cost the year he was born?

Anyone turning 40 between 2026 and 2030 was born in one of the years below. Every figure in this table comes from the body that publishes it. The house prices are the Nationwide Building Society index, averaged across the four quarters of each year. The wages are the Bank of England composite average weekly earnings series. The buying power column is the Office for National Statistics Retail Prices Index long run series, measured against 2026 JUL.

The "now" house price is Q2 2026 and the wage is 2026 JUN. One caveat worth stating rather than hiding: the historical wages come from the Bank of England composite series and the current one from Office for National Statistics series KAB9. They are different series measuring the same thing, so the years-of-pay comparison is indicative rather than exact. It is still the honest shape of it. A house went from under five times the average wage to more than seven times it. That last column is the price divided by one year of pay before tax, which is the standard affordability measure. It is not how long it takes to pay a house off: nobody clears a mortgage in seven years.

What was number one when he was born?

The Christmas chart is the one people remember, so that is the one listed. Each row is the chart of the date shown, read from the Official Charts Company.

• 1986: Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson, chart dated 21/12/1986.
• 1987: Always On My Mind by Pet Shop Boys, chart dated 20/12/1987.
• 1988: Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard, chart dated 25/12/1988.
• 1989: Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid II, chart dated 24/12/1989.
• 1990: Saviour's Day by Cliff Richard, chart dated 23/12/1990.

What should you write in a 40th birthday card for a man?

Write one specific thing rather than three general ones. A fact about the year he was born, an admission that you have known him a long time, and a single line that is true. Length is not the point. The card that gets kept is the one that could only have been written to him.

Three shapes that work, in ascending order of nerve. One: the fact. "The year you were born, a house cost £51,405. You have been complaining about the price of things for a very long time and you were right." Two: the admission. "I have known you for more than half of this." Three: the plain one. "Forty. Still the person I ring first."

What does not work: a rhyme, a reference to being over the hill, and any joke about memory loss written by somebody younger than the recipient.

What counts as an unusual 40th birthday gift for a man?

Unusual is doing the work, not spending the money. The gifts people still have ten years later are the ones somebody made a decision about: a specific year, a specific memory, a specific thing only the giver knew. Everything on the first page of results is unusual to nobody, because everybody buying for afortieth is looking at the same page.

Frequently asked

What is a good 40th birthday gift for a man?

A good 40th birthday gift for a man is one that refers to his specific forty years rather than to the number forty. The reliable route is something that names the year he was born and what the world looked like then, plus room for the people who know him to add their own lines. It is the difference between a present that is about a birthday and one that is about a person.

What did a house cost in 1986?

The average UK house cost £37,627 in 1986, according to the Nationwide Building Society house price series.

What is £1 from 1986 worth today?

£1 in 1986 has the buying power of about £4.28 in 2026 JUL, measured on the Office for National Statistics Retail Prices Index.

What was the Christmas number one in 1986?

Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson was number one on the UK singles chart dated 21/12/1986, according to the Official Charts Company.

What should you write in a 40th birthday card for a man?

Write one specific thing rather than three general ones. A fact about the year he was born, an admission that you have known him a long time, and a single line that is true. Length is not the point. The card that gets kept is the one that could only have been written to him.

Is a book a good 40th birthday gift?

A book works as a milestone gift when it can be written in, because that turns it from an object into a record. A book that is only read once is a worse gift than a bottle. A book with pages the family fills in is the one that is still on the shelf in twenty years.