I finally pried open my wallet to pay for improved email delivery of my posts to email subscribers.  I tried to remove ads and include the entire post in each email.  We'll see if I succeeded or not.

Many aspects of personal finance have changed in the 36 years since The Wealthy Barber classic book first appeared.  To update it, author David Chilton had to not only do an extensive rewrite, but he had to come up with new advice.  He did a great job of making The Wealthy Barber  2025 update fully relevant to Canadians today.  Chilton takes important topics that are usually dry and hard to understand and brings them alive in an entertaining story format. But this book is much more than just a fun take on personal finances; the advice is excellent.  Chilton gives insights you won’t find elsewhere.  The book is like a course on personal finance requiring no previous knowledge, and even discussions of insurance and wills are funny and compelling enough to be page-turners. The bulk of the book is a set of financial lessons mainly aimed at Canadians between 20 and 45.  The early chapters introduce the characters, make it clear that the lessons require no ...

For solid financial advice backed up with academic evidence, investors can look to Wealthier: The Field Investing Guide for Canadian Millennials by Mark McGrath, adapted from Daniel R. Solin’s U.S. version of this book.  Although it is aimed at millennial-aged Canadian DIY investors, there are discussions about financial advisors as well. Outline The book begins with excellent advice on how to invest well, followed by how you can fall off the good path into bad investing due to a “rigged system.”  By understanding the possible investing pitfalls and the ways the system is rigged, investors can stay on a good path. I found the most interesting section to be the discussion of stoicism.  The authors discuss several elements of the stoic mindset that are useful for avoiding investing mistakes such as selling out of fear. The book continues with DIY financial planning and how to save enough to get to “the number.”  This part of the book had an interesting discussion of t...