The best free personal finance and investing courses in Canada - MoneySense (2024)

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I’m not sure about you, but when it comes to making decisions around money, I always lean on the expert. That includes when I’m at the mechanic and I’m told what needs to be done and what should be done to my car. It’s that guidance that helps me realize where to put my money. At the same time, I don’t mind rolling up my sleeves when I can. For example, when I was a freelancer, I started prepping my own tax returns. The person I was paying to do them for me didn’t organize and add up my receipts. I figured I was spending so much time on that, I might as well finish the job, so I learned how to do it myself. Regardless of your reason for wanting to be more financially literate or add some skills to your resume, it’s always good to learn about personal finance—especially when it’s free! So here’s a list of the best free finance and investing courses available to Canadians.

Best all-around free personal finance course

McGill Personal Finance Essentials

This course covers a wide range of topics related to personal finances specifically for Canadians—and for free. We love that each of the eight lessons are taught by a different professor, which isn’t typical with most free personal finance courses. Depending on your learning style (and how motivated you are to finish the course), you might enjoy the learn-at-your-own-pace format. (One thing I’ve found to be helpful is to dedicate the same time every day or every week for learning and put it in your calendar.) This course is also very comprehensive, as you can see from the following chapters/lessons:

1. Introduction to Personal Finance Contents
2. Budgeting and Saving
3. Your Money: Today and Tomorrow
4. Understanding Debt and Borrowing
5. The Art of Investing
6. Retirement Planning
7. The Realities of Real Estate
8. Behavioural Finance

There are also bonus lessons:

• Responsible Investing
• Cryptocurrencies and Crypto Tokens

Know, though, that this isn’t a typical continuing-ed course. There are multiple-choice tests and exams online. But, when you’re done, you receive a “McGill Personal Finance Essentials attestation of completion.” Add that to your CV.

Register for McGill Personal Finance Essentials for free any time.

Best free Canadian income tax course

Government of Canada’s Learn About Your Taxes course

When it comes to learning about personal income tax, there’s no better primary source than the Government of Canada. This free course on Canada.ca is great for anyone doing their taxes for the first time, starting their first job or wanting to better understand how income tax all works. It’s organized as mini courses with multiple lessons. It may sound complicated, but the mini courses range from 12 minutes with four lessons to 76 minutes with seven lessons. Essentially, you know exactly how much time you need to dedicate to each course. You can break up your study time based on the lessons. Here’s the breakdown:

Register for the Learn About Your Taxes course for free any time.

Best free course for managing debt in Canada

The Credit Counselling Society’s The Truth About Credit

Learning about debt is something to be proud of, as you are taking the first step toward managing what you owe. Knowing how to tackle debt can help reduce your indebtedness and give you the room and freedom to start saving, too. The Credit Counselling Society is a non-profit debt-counselling organization that helps Canadians create debt management plans, and it offers five free online courses. (Compared to the above courses, this one is short. The Truth About Credit can be done in an hour or less. And The Credit Counselling Society offers other courses of a similar length.) While you won’t get a certificate of completion like with the McGill course we mentioned, you can repeat these courses and access them anytime, regardless of the device you’re using. You just need to bookmark the link. For this list, we focused on The Truth About Credit course, where you can learn about how credit works in Canada, as well as credit scores, credit ratings, credit reports and how to access your own credit report for free. There’s some myth busting, too.

Register for the The Truth About Credit course for free any time.

Best free personal finance course for young Canadians

Desjardins Personal Finance: I’m in Charge

We know, we know. You see a financial institution name before a course and you’re thinking it’s going to be all about its products. But that’s not the case with this course. Desjardins says it accredits 350 instructors to teach the lessons and “offer objective and neutral workshops,” which is why I’m in Charge made our list. The course, geared towards 16- to 25-year-olds, is taught through 114 different educator partners in English and French, including the YWCA Toronto and Option Travail in Quebec City among others. The course is broken down into four topics:

1. Personal finance essentials
2. Everyday life and money
3. Education and employment
4. Financial services

Each chapter is two hours long, and they can be taken in the order that suits you. (If you want toget on top of grocery shopping costs, module two may be the best place to start.) There are 17 lessons in total with one bonus chapter on digital security.

This course is great for those in Ontario and Quebec who want to learn on their own or even as a group (the site encourages groups or classes to take the course). You don’t need to be a Desjardins client to sign up.

Register for the Personal Finance: I’m in Charge course for free any time.

Best free credit course for newcomers

Building Credit From the Ground Up: A Program for Newcomers to Canada

Credit is very different in Canada than in other parts of the world. Many newcomers are surprised by how credit is seen as a tool for reaching financial goals and not a bad thing. But debt can also have a negative impact on people’s lives. And newcomers are more likely than other Canadians to be affected by scams and fraud, which can ultimately affect debt and credit history. According to an Interac survey, 70% of new Canadians polled feel they are more susceptible to financial scams than the general population, and 53% say they and/or an immediate family member have been targeted by fraud. So, understanding how credit works in Canada is important for newcomers.

Credit Canada, a reputable non-profit and free credit counselling service, built a newcomer course all about credit. What we love at MoneySense is how accessible it is. Not only is it online and free, it’s also available in eight languages. You can use it in Canada’s two official languages (English and French), but also in Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Tagalog. Impressive, right? Hopefully that list will continue to grow.

The course is broken down into four 10- to 15-minute modules:

1. Essentials of Credit in Canada: The basics about how credit works and resources.
2. How to Build Your Credit History in Canada: How to establish a strong credit history in Canada right away.
3. How to Improve Your Credit Score: How to check and monitor a credit score.
4. What to Do If You Run Into Problems with Credit: Learn problem-solving strategies, including avoiding fraud and debt payment strategies.

We love the dynamic presentation with moving graphics, and the engaging case studies and quizzes.

Register for Building Credit From the Ground Up: A Program for Newcomers to Canada for free any time.

Methodology: Best free finance and investing courses in Canada

MoneySense’s editorial team of trained and experienced journalists assessed other aspects of the courses, including pace, comprehension, real-life application and more. Then we looked at free personal finance courses available to Canadians. First and foremost, we looked at their cost and accessibility. To be considered, the course had to be free and available to all Canadians. The purchase of additional course materials had to be at the discretion of the student. We also looked at the quality of educators, including their reputation and expertise in the topic(s) covered, and more. Lessons and course material had to be useful and relevant to Canadians. There are many courses that talk generally about finance and investing, but the information had to work under a Canadian lens to make our list.

Watch: Where to find an investment course

Frequently asked questions about personal finance and investing courses

My bank offers free seminars on investing—is it worth the time?

Banks and other financial institutions are savvy to the benefit of having educated clients and customers. So, many do their best to create workshops that help you make better investing decisions. However, know that they may only discuss or focus on the products and services they provide. Know that you have more options.

An influencer I follow has a course, but it’s not free—should I take it?

Some influencers—or finfluencers as financial influencers are often called—use courses, seminars, e-books and more as a way to earn income, in addition to advertising partnerships and speaking engagements. However, not all influencer content is created equal—as you might already know from your social media feeds. Before submitting your credit card, confirm a few things first.

1. Make sure that their content is relevant to Canadians. There are some great American and European influencers, but their rules don’t always apply here in Canada. With some topics, like taxes, consider if the advice is relevant to your province.
2. The influencer has the credentials needed to talk about the topic. Look for Canadian credentials such as CFP, QAFP, RFP, and FPI (more on these Canadian finance credentials). Some financial influencers talk about their “financial journey,” which is insightful, but you don’t want to be making their mistakes.
3. That the influencer is real, and not a fake account or a hack. Never give your credit card number or other personal details via social media. Only do it through a secured website or platform.

What else can you do? Check for reviews (not on their website as those would be curated, but on other platforms, like Google, Reddit, etc.

For more on quality influencers, check out How to find trustworthy finfluencers.

Read more on financial literacy:

• How to deal with money and your finances when the economy is stressing you out

• Struggling with student debt? Here’s how to pay off student loans faster
• Mental health resources in Canada: How to get help for free (or cheap)
• The MoneySense Glossary for personal finance and investing terms—for Canadians