The best free finance and investing courses in Canada
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.
The best personal finance and investing courses for free
What did we look for when comparing courses? Each one listed here must:
- Be free for Canadians
- Come from a quality educator
- Provide lessons that teach something useful and relevant to Canadians
- Be accessible, whether that’s online or in person in multiple locations
Read more in the full methodology below.
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:
- Introduction to Personal Finance Contents
- Budgeting and Saving
- Your Money: Today and Tomorrow
- Understanding Debt and Borrowing
- The Art of Investing
- Retirement Planning
- The Realities of Real Estate
- 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:
| Course | Lessons | Ideal time (minutes) |
| Starting to work | 4 | 29 |
| Preparing to do your taxes | 3 | 27 |
| Completing a basic tax return | 7 | 76 |
| After sending your tax return | 4 | 38 |
| Using the CRA’s My Account | 2 | 12 |
| Purpose of taxes | 4 | 21 |
| Accessing your benefits and credits | 2 | 19 |
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:
- Personal finance essentials
- Everyday life and money
- Education and employment
- Financial services
Each chapter is two hours long, and they can be taken in the order that suits you. (If you want to get 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.
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 courseFrequently 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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
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