Best Investing Books For Canadian Investors

During tough financial times, it can be hard to picture-making money from investing. However, savvy Canadians have always found a way to invest wisely in the long term. There are ways to make your money work for you no matter what phase of life you’re in. From the best investing books for beginners to the best overall books for investing, here is a selection of the top investing books for Canadian investors.

Best investing books for beginners and young investors

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

While not strictly an investing book, Thinking Fast and Slow is about how we make choices. To that end, it’s a great read for preparing to invest.

Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and psychologist, outlines two systems that drive how we think and choose:

• System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional
• System Two is slow, deliberate, and logical

Thinking Fast and Slow is about the capabilities and biases of both systems. Money heavily ties into psychology and our emotions, and we make financial decisions every day. Lessons learned in this book can be applied to these choices, both big and small, making it one of the best investing books for beginners.

Stop Over-Thinking Your Money by Preet Banerjee

Canadian personal finance expert Preet Banerjee outlines five simple rules for personal finances in this reader-friendly book.

Actually, this is not strictly speaking an investment book. However, we’ve included it here among the best investing books for beginners and young investors. In Stop Over-Thinking Your Money, Banerjee explains how you should view money. He helps you focus on the 20% of what you really need to know to confidently take charge of your finances. And then, with careful money management, you could have money to invest.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Here is the perfect book to guide 20-35-year-olds to financial success. It’s an ideal investing book for beginners and young investors because it covers a broad range of financial advice. It also includes a 6-week personal finance program. The book takes you step-by-step through actions that can improve finances. This includes everything from budgeting and savings to investing, banking and entrepreneurship.

Broke Millennial Series by Erin Lowry

How could we resist including these in the line-up of the best investing books for beginners and young investors? Really, the title is as compelling as the content.

The Broke Millennial books show you how to go from flat-broke to thriving. Financial expert Erin Lowry goes beyond the basics. How? She tackles tricky money matters and situations many Millennials face:

• Understanding your relationship with money. For example, do you treat it like a Tinder date or marriage material?
• Managing student loans without having a full-on panic attack.
• What to do when you’re out with friends and can’t afford to split the bill evenly.

Included in the series of books are:

• Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together
• Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money
• Broke Millennial Talks Money: Scripts, Stories, and Advice to Navigate Awkward Financial Conversations

Best financial literacy book for kids

Kids are certainly beginners in the investing and personal finance space! And while financial literacy is a must for all Canadians, of all income levels, it’s a whole other ballgame when you’re in a position of teaching it to your kids. To help you out, we recommend:

Raising Money-Smart Kids: How to Teach Your Kids About Money While Learning a Few Things Yourself by Robin Taub

Robin Taub, a Chartered Professional Accountant, originally published Raising Money-Smart Kids through CPA Canada in 2011. In this updated version from 2020, Taub outlines each life stage and acknowledges our increasingly mobile and cashless world. Her goal is to explain why it’s important to teach kids about money, the best ways of explaining these topics, and a detailed look at the key topics for each age.

Money Savvy Kids: The Best Ways to Teach Your Children About Money For a Strong Financial Future

Pape is one of Canada’s leading personal finance experts, and he has a number of books under his belt. Kerbel is his daughter, and together, they talk about teaching the value of money, whether allowances are actually a good idea, teaching smart shopping skills, and saving for college or university. (Note: This book is from 2013, so while most of the practical information is still relevant, the world is a bit different now!)

Best investing books of all time (most popular)

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham

What bigger compliment could there be than being described by investment guru Warren Buffett as the best book on investing ever written? That is the case for Graham’s The Intelligent Investor first published in 1949. As a leading investment advisor, Graham advocated “value investing.” The goal is to protect investors from costly mistakes and teach them how to develop long-term strategies. The latest edition features the late Mr.Graham’s insights plus current input from The Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig.

The book provides advice on getting started in investing as well as ongoing strategies for success, making it also one of the best investing books for beginners. Graham’s philosophy was to invest in stocks that appear undervalued. That’s in comparison to their inherent value that can be determined through fundamental analysis.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns by John C. Bogle

Have you been exhausting yourself trying to outsmart the stock market? Well, this easy-to-digest 200-page book explains how to stop trying to beat the market. First, keep things simple. Second, lower your investing fees. Finally, focus on a longer investment horizon. The sub-title of Bogle’s book is, “the only way to guarantee your fair share of stock market returns”. This book is for investors just dipping a toe in the market — and equally for those who are already in the deep end.

Bogle founded The Vanguard Group and is known as the ‘Father of Index Investing.’ He provides real-world advice with thorough explanations of index investing and mutual funds. These can be less risky options compared to making stock picks. Bogle favours index funds to beat performance on mutual funds and illustrates why.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A. Fisher

Philip Fisher is a highly influential investor who wrote Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits in 1958. His son Ken Fisher is also an investment expert and has subsequently expanded on the original for the paperback edition of the book. The book is considered a classic top investing book, particularly for growth investors. Included in this book are Fisher’s valued “Fifteen Points to Look for in a Common Stock”.

Warren Buffet has described the book this way: “I sought out Phil Fisher after reading his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits…A thorough understanding of the business, obtained by using Phil’s techniques…enables one to make intelligent investment commitments.”

Best books for investing in stocks

The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias

Tobias’ book was written in the 70s and updated in 2016 in a user-friendly format. The content relates to any level of investor, whether you have a little or a lot to invest. The updated guide provides new insight into online investing and also outlines when to invest in stocks and how.

Although the book covers U.S. tax strategies and some other American-centric situations, Canadians will still find value in its investing advice. With millions of copies sold, this is one of the best books on stock investing.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

Burton Malkiel provides a time-tested strategy for successful investing in this guide to navigating the market and managing investments. Malkiel looks at standard frameworks for analyzing stock performance. He believes technical analysis is not reliable. Malkiel recommends getting around the random behaviour of the market. Do that by investing in low-cost index funds versus stock picking.

In the 11th edition of the book, Malkiel includes new perspectives on ETFs, emerging markets, and derivatives. You can find tips on assessing potential returns on everything from stocks and bonds to money markets in this investment book.

One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Well-known investor Peter Lynch advocates that you can invest just as well as a pro. He believes that if you pay attention to products and services in your daily life, it can help you make good investing decisions. You might notice something impactful at the supermarket or drug store, and that could prove worthy of investment.

Lynch provides a great example of this kind of opportunity in this best investing book. He invested in Dunkin’ Donuts because, as a customer, he was impressed with their coffee. After looking into the company’s financials, Lynch decided to invest in Dunkin’ Donuts. There’s no doubt that he did very well on their stock performance as a result. Clearly, paying attention can pay off.

One up on Wall Street shares Lynch’s investment technique, with chapters on stock classifications, designing a portfolio, and more.

Best investing books for more advanced investing concepts  + investors 

The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffett

For advanced investors, there is perhaps no one like Warren Buffett. He is viewed by many as America’s top investment guru. Sure, investors watch the ups and downs of the stock market, but at the same time, they are watching what moves Buffett is making.

The Essays are a collection of Buffett’s letters to the shareholders of investment house Berkshire Hathaway. Written over several decades, they provide insight into sound business practices. The essays are arranged and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

Essentially, the book shares business insight in an engaging way for money managers and investors.

Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd

Benjamin Graham is considered to be ‘the father of value investing.’ He wrote “Security Analysis” in 1934 and it has subsequently sold over a million copies with six editions issued. The most recent edition has 200 added pages of commentary from leading money managers on Wall Street. These current experts in value investing make the book even more relevant. They show how the original writers’ principles apply to today’s market.

Expected Returns by Antti Ilmanen

Expected Returns provides the means for investors to harvest market rewards from diverse investments. Some of the skills in Ilmanen’s toolkit include how to forecast returns under different parameters. She also covers expected returns on major asset classes, investment strategies, and the effects of underlying risk factors.

Forecasting expected returns requires balancing historical results with analytics and current market conditions. To that end, for sophisticated investors interested in advanced investing concepts, Expected Returns won’t disappoint. The book provides data and surveys of investing theories along with practical insights.

Best overall books about investing

Beat The Bank: The Canadian Guide To Simply Successful Investing by Larry Bates

This book is currently (March 2022) sitting as Amazon.ca’s #1 bestseller in the category of ‘retirement planning,’ so you know it’s a popular pick among Canadians.

Larry Bates is a former senior banker and investment industry insider who wants to help you slash bank fees, potentially double your investment returns, and build a bigger retirement nest egg. At the crux of the book is how the banks (and even the financial industry as a whole) capitalize on our poor understanding of fees, our sense of loyalty, and misplaced trust. A big part of his strategy to change things up? Switching from high-cost mutual funds to low-cost, more efficient investment products.

The Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam

This book, written by a teacher, highlights the nine rules of wealth you should have learned in school. Because it shows how anyone can build a lucrative portfolio, we’ve selected this book as one of the best overall books about investing. Yes, you can prosper even on a low salary.

Among Hallam’s wealth rules is how to make money through a responsible portfolio. He advocates the power of compound interest to grow investments and to avoid paying unnecessary fees. Finally, some of the advice relates to self-perception and your relationship with money.

Talk Money to Me by Kelley Keehn

Canadian personal finance advisor and educator Kelley Keehn’s book covers the broad spectrum of personal finance. She advocates saving well, spending some money, and feeling good about your finances. The book addresses how and when to invest for your future, along with other personal finance goals such as working to be mortgage-free and building good credit.

Keehn uses relatable anecdotes to highlight how to steer clear of typical money mistakes so you can make good financial decisions. If you are looking for a resource to help get your personal finances to a good place so you can start investing for your future, this is a great resource.

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

We leave you with this book that provides inspiration on how to become a millionaire. Over a 20-year span, the authors researched how America’s millionaires acquired their wealth. Surprisingly, most were not born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth.

Millionaire Traits

This best investing book shares the seven traits of self-made millionaires. Those include:

• Living well below their means
• Allocating time, energy, and money efficiently in ways that build wealth
• Being self-made
• Having a greater interest in financial independence than on showing off social status
• Bringing up children to be financially self-sufficient
• Choosing professions with the flexibility to be self-employed.

The Next Millionaire Next Door

Tom Stanley and his daughter Sarah Stanley Fallaw have done further research on self-made, financially successful Americans. In this later edition, they discuss how specific decisions, behaviours, and characteristics align with the discipline of wealth building. Additional topics covered include consumption, budgeting, careers, investing, and financial management in general.

The authors then describe paths to building wealth on your own. This focuses specifically on careers and lifestyles associated with each path and what it takes to be successful in each. This makes The Next Millionaire Next Door a great fit for our best overall books about investing.