Top 21 Personal Finance Books You Need In Your Life

It’s the start of a new year – the perfect time to check out the best personal finance books in Canada.

What better way to kickstart your personal finance redesign, reevaluate your financial priorities, ditch the debt and enjoy the benefits of our best credit card list, or whatever the case may be?

Here is a compilation of the best personal finance books out there, for beginners, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and everyone in between.

These books are written by experts in the field, including business people, investors, psychologists, economists, and even psychologists. The best of the best.

21 best personal finance books overview

Since the extensive selection of personal finance books claiming to be “the best” can be somewhat overwhelming, we’ve narrowed it down to these titles for you.

Each of these books offers a unique perspective on the world of finance.

Whether you’re just beginning your financial journey or well on your way up the ladder of investment success, we can all learn something new from the advice these authors have to give.

10 best personal finance books for beginners

For those just dipping their toes into the world of finance, you’ll want to make sure the books you check out are written in plain language while still remaining informative and comprehensive. These ones fit the bill.

1. The Big Book Of Smart Saving

• Author: Stephen Weyman
• Price: Free!
• Link
• Brief description: A free eBook that includes more than 10 years worth of tips and tricks for saving money.

A convenient eBook, The Big Book Of Smart Saving is a must-read for new personal financiers, but also perfect for those looking to reevaluate their money-making decisions.

It’s organized into 8 sections, including one part for setting the groundwork for spending and banking, one for mastering credit cards, and even one that’s a guide for luxury travelling on an extremely minimal budget.

To get this eBook, simply visit the creditcardGenius page, create an account, and start the download.

2. Broke Millennial

• Author: Erin Lowry
• Price: $20 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: A guide for young adults feeling panicked and needing to get control of their finances.

Directed specifically at the 20 and 30-something crowd, Erin Lowry writes about how easy it is to be overwhelmed by finances, but explains some often tricky financial concepts in simple, seamless terms.

The author uses tactics like comparing money relationships to Tinder dates and explaining how to get “financially naked” with your partner – and they’re quite effective. Her refreshing style of communication, hilarious true-story examples, and easy-to-follow advice helps readers to relax, allowing them to view their finances with new lenses.

3. I Will Teach You To Be Rich

• Author: Ramit Sethi
• Price: $33 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Explains that we don’t have to be experts to understand money management, but getting started ASAP is key.

Here we have a 6-week program geared towards millennials and young adults, teaching them how to invest in their financial futures by not investing endless hours on managing money. The first lesson is that getting started is both the most important and hardest step.

Author Ramit Sethi explains that everyone’s perception of “rich” is different and that we can build our financial habits around what we value most. Every action has a reaction, but even the smallest and easiest money-related actions can result in huge rewards.

4. The One Week Budget: Learn to Create Your Money Management System in 7 Days or Less!

• Author: Tiffany Aliche
• Price: $20.91 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: This book provides an outline for 7 days of tasks that can set you up for a lifetime of simple budgeting and financial success.

Whether you’re looking to pay off persistent debt or just set up a regular budget that’ll allow you to save for retirement, this book can help you achieve these goals in surprising ways.

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche outlines a simple budgeting process for those who can’t seem to get their day-by-day finances in check. Her advice is straightforward, easy to follow, and combines her personal debt-repayment story with real-life examples from many others.

5. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

• Author: Dave Ramsey
• Price: $16.66 (hardcover)
• Link
• Brief description: Whip your finances into shape with Ramsey’s guide to paying off debt and creating significant savings for emergencies and retirement.

A well-recognized name in the world of personal finance, Dave Ramsey has followed up his Financial Peace book with The Total Money Makeover. While his first book provided principles for saving and investing, this one suggests 7 simple steps for implementing these principles.

If applied with focus and determination, Ramsey’s advice can lead you to freedom from debt in a surprisingly short amount of time.

6. Everyday Millionaires

• Author: Chris Hogan
• Price: $12.99 (hardcover)
• Link
• Brief description: Based on the largest study ever conducted on a group of millionaires, this book explains that our financial backgrounds don’t matter – anyone can become wealthy.

Although we often think that the super rich got there thanks to help from mommy and daddy, this isn’t always the case.

Author Chris Hogan explains that anyone can become a millionaire if they’re willing to work at it, using examples from a study done on 10,000 millionaires living in the USA.

There’s no “get rich quick” scheme to be found here, or in any part of life, as Hogan says. But by being dedicated, responsible, and following the tips found here, we can enjoy huge rewards later.

If you’re a fan of Dave Ramsey, you’ll enjoy this book. Chris Hogan is part of Ramsey’s finance team, and the advice found here is very similar to and jives well with the Total Money Makeover.

7. The Richest Man in Babylon

• Author: George S. Clason
• Price: $7.65 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Stories from Babylonian parables that illustrate thriftiness, financial planning, and personal wealth.

This book frames debt as an enemy to be conquered, not a necessary evil, and says that money is plentiful if we can understand the rules around acquiring it.

The 7 rules for acquiring wealth include:

• controlling your expenses,
• investing in your home, and
• increasing your ability to earn.

Following these rules will allow you to clear your debts and manage your money so that you won’t need further loans.

The story format with which this book is written makes the concepts especially easy for readers to grasp.

8. Why Didn’t They Teach Me This in School? 99 Personal Money Mangagement Principles to Live By

• Author: Cary Siegel
• Price: $18.60 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: A father’s money management lessons to teach his kids, laid out as 99 straightforward principles.

As a business executive and a father, author Cary Siegel was disappointed that his 5 kids weren’t being taught basic personal finance management skills in school. So he developed his own way to teach them.

This book contains 8 lessons and spans 99 principles, explained in logical, simple ways so the reader becomes comfortable with making everyday financial decisions.

Some of the topics covered include:

• buying a new car,
• saving for retirement,
• investing in a new home, and
• staying away from too-good-to-be-true offers.

This book makes a great gift for teens and students starting their own financial journey.

9. Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Acheiving Financial Independence

• Author: Vicki Robin
• Price: $23.76
• Link
• Brief description: A 9-step program designed for those who want to change their relationship with money and take back control of their lives.

Whether or not you value money or material possessions, you still need to be in control of your finances, says Vicki Robin.

She puts forth concrete ways to observe your connection to the material world that allow the reader to define the things that truly matter. This, in turn, allows them to become more intentional with their finances.

One particular concept Robin mentions is the benefit of saving money through mindfulness and good habits rather than working with a strict budget.

10. Clever Girl Finance: Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth

• Author: Bola Sokunbi
• Price: $29.30 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: The woman behind the popular Clever Girl Finance website and podcast leads and encourages women through their personal finance journeys.

As the tagline says, this book empowers everyone – but women in particular –with the knowledge they need to “ditch debt, save money and build real wealth.”

The author’s own expertise and experiences, plus lessons and stories provided by other women, combine to create an entertaining and informative guide to personal finance.

A few lessons included are tips on how to make the most of a modest salary, the importance of cleaning up credit card debt, succeeding with a side hustle, and generally changing your money mindset.

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3 best personal finance books for investing

Whether you’re already a regular investor or a newbie looking for tips, these authors have got your back.

These books contain information on investing, relationships, and the psychology behind it all – plus explanations from some of the most seasoned financial minds in the business.

11. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

• Author: Morgan Housel
• Price: $16.55 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: 19 stories that explore how our unique worldviews shape how we think about money.

Morgan Housel points out that the everyday person doesn’t make decisions based on spreadsheets and formulas, like many bankers and financial advisors would like us to. Instead, we make decisions around the family dinner table, combining knowledge with feelings.

Each lesson covered here is likely something the reader has experienced or thought about before:

• luck and risk are all around us,
• it’s hard to recognize when we have “enough,” and
• true wealth is found in the things we can’t see.

Really, we’re all complicated creatures with complicated relationships with our finances, as the author explains.

12. The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

• Author: Mel Lindauer, Taylor Larimore, and Michael LeBoeuf
• Price: $25.73 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Collected investment wisdom from investor and business magnate John C. Bogle, founder and CEO of The Vanguard Group.

Despite what we might think, relying on the “common sense” of Wall Street won’t actually help everyone interested in investment finance. This book isn’t a how-to-get-rich manual, but instead encourages passive investors to make sensible decisions, avoiding knee-jerk reactions.

Bogleheads.org is a community of investors who follow the lessons set forth by John C. Bogle, and this book brings those lessons – and others – to you, the everyday investor.

You’ll learn how to properly diversify your portfolio, how to preserve your buying power, and how to distinguish good from bad advice from so-called experts.

13. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing

• Author: Benjamin Graham
• Price: $18.60 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: A classic, valued, inspiring read for investors everywhere from the father of value investing.

Benjamin Graham is considered one of the greatest investment advisors of the 20th century, and his strategies for value investing have stood the test of time. The updated version of this stock market bible includes commentary and examples from the modern world of finance, proving that Graham’s principles still hold true.

You won’t find any get-rich-quick tips within these pages. What is there, however, will teach you to analyze investment opportunities for safety of principal and adequate returns.

It’s an ambitious, engaging text that challenges readers to examine their investment techniques and mindsets.

4 best personal finance books for entrepreneurs

Starting a new business venture? Or maybe you started a while ago but would love some more tips for success?

You’ll find all you need with these well-written texts.

14. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

• Author: Chris Voss
• Price: $22.80 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: You may have never considered using FBI tactics in your daily negotiations and business dealings, but this book shows how effective they can be.

Whether you’re a boss who needs help managing their employees, an investor needing advice for eliciting straightforward answers, or a landlord hoping to increase their property portfolio, negotiation skills are a necessary element of success.

Luckily, Chris Voss is a policeman-turned-FBI-agent-turned-author whose experience as a kidnapping negotiator comes in handy for those of us hoping to learn the art of closing the deal.

The advice in this book can aid with successful negotiations at home, at the bank, in the boardroom, and just about everywhere else.

15. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition

• Author: Stephen R. Covey
• Price: $21.17 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: The NYT bestseller read by millions of people looking to solve personal and professional relationship problems.

Since its initial publication in 1989, the advice in this book has helped countless world leaders, CEOs, educators, and parents.

Covey’s 7 habits are simple, memorable, and actionable, which is likely why they’ve become so popular and have seen such success.

Covey teaches that habits are what lead us from dependence to independence and interdependence – in other words, cooperation is what allows us to achieve common goals and produce greater results. This can be applied to all aspects of life, including personal finance.

16. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

• Author: Brain Tracy
• Price: $20.45 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Provides 21 ways to curb procrastination, get important things done, and achieve success.

As the saying goes, if you eat a live frog first thing every morning, you’ve done the worst thing you’ll have to do all day – everything is smooth sailing from there.

Author Brian Tracy uses this metaphor to help readers focus on their most critical tasks with efficiency and effectiveness.

You’ll read that the 3 aspects of successful time management are:

• decision,
• discipline, and
• determination.

There’s also information on how to use technology to your advantage, and the importance of maintaining focus when faced with today’s constant distractions, electronic and otherwise.

The tips and guidelines discussed here can be powerful tools for personal finance building.

17. The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

• Author: Darren Hardy
• Price: $25.18 (hardcover)
• Link
• Brief description: The author uses his 25 years of experience in the success media industry to provide principles for success that apply to all superachievers.

Most people recognize that “superachievers” have some sort of advantage over the rest of us, but Dan Hardy says that anyone can gain this same edge. This book has the principles to adopt and actions to take in order to change your life for the better.

The concepts here are both simple and valuable. You’ll learn:

• the #1 strategy for achieving all goals and beating all competition,
• how to implement real keys for motivation, and
• how to break bad habits – even those you’re unaware of.

These are invaluable tools for success in all areas, including personal finance.

4 more best personal finance books

There’s way more to personal finance than budgeting spreadsheets and analyzing investment potential.

These books look at some of the roots of our money management issues, offering readers some surprising revelations and insight.

18. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

• Author: James Clear
• Price: $26.50 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: The author discusses 4 laws for setting and maintaining good habits, using plain language and real world examples.

Just like starting a fitness journey by doing 2 pushups each day, James Clear says that by integrating small changes into our daily lives we can expect huge outcomes. These are the “atomic habits” the title refers to.

By taking the ideas in this book and incorporating them into your finances, you’ll be able to break old, bad habits and engage in healthier ones to get you back on track.

19. How to Win Friends & Influence People: The Only Book You Need to Lead You to Success

• Author: Dale Carnegie
• Price: $15.32 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Now more than 60 years old, this book’s timeless advice can be applied to all types of relationships, including your relationship with money.

While this is a book about relationships, it’s also a book about how to succeed in business. And most businesspeople will tell you that success means more money.

Contained here are:

• 3 techniques for handling people,
• 6 ways to make people like you,
• 12 methods for winning people over to your way of thinking, and
• 9 ways to encourage people to change without causing any resentment.

If these principles are applied to your personal and professional life, you’ll be climbing the corporate ladder at the same pace as your rapidly expanding bank account.

20. Thinking, Fast and Slow

• Author: Daniel Kahneman
• Price: $11.29 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: Kahneman, a world-famous psychologist and Nobel Prize winner, explains the 2 systems that drive our thinking processes.

There are 2 systems of thinking discussed here. System 1 is the emotional part that moves quickly and intuitively. System 2 takes a slower, more deliberate pace, offering us more logical conclusions.

The author’s psychological and economical knowledge helps him explain that we often can’t trust our intuition but must learn this method of slow thinking instead.

Kahneman explains that it’s the external world, our environment and surroundings, that shape the way we think and determine the actions we take. And these principles can have a profound effect when applied to decisions on personal finance.

21. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

• Author: Greg McKeown
• Price: $23.08 (paperback)
• Link
• Brief description: We can rejuvenate ourselves and our thinking by understanding and embracing the systematic discipline of essentialism.

If you’re overworked, overwhelmed, and stretched to the limit, McKeown’s principles of essentialism can help.

To pursue and achieve what really matters in life, the author says we have to stop giving others permission to make choices for us, making our own informed and inspired decisions instead.

Of course it’s hard to achieve our personal finance goals when our attention is being pulled in a dozen different directions. Essentialism can help us redefine our priorities and move towards fulfillment in a much healthier way.

Your turn

Have you already read some of these books? Did we miss any of your favourites?

Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

FAQ

What is the best personal finance book in Canada?

This depends on what you’re hoping to get from the book. If you’re a millennial looking for budgeting advice for beginners, try reading Erin Lowry’s Broke Millennial. If you want investment advice, The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing is a solid, informative read. For entrepreneurs looking for tips and tricks, Never Split the Difference offers unique advice from author Chris Voss.

Does creditcardGenius offer a personal finance book?

We do! Our ebook, The Big Book of Smart Saving, has 8 sections that cover various topics and provide advice on small changes you can make to save money and reap big rewards. You’ll find tips on banking, spending, credit card use, even guidelines for travelling the world on a budget – and you won’t have to pay a cent to read it.

What is a good personal finance book to learn about investing?

The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, is often considered the investment bible. Graham is still thought of as one of the greatest investment advisors in recent history, and the strategies he writes about have stood the test of time.