If you’re looking to improve your financial knowledge, there are many fun and easy reads to do and listen to as well. Joining us to talk about the best summer financial books and podcasts is Sabrina Jensen of Coast Capital.

What’s an easy financial book to read this summer?

Canadians love to read, and there are lots of great reads for us to recommend this summer. Today we’re going to start off with one of my favourites, The Psychology of Money, by former Wall Street Journal columnist Morgan Housel. The book is written on the basis that people don’t need to make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They want to make them in the real world, they make them at the dinner table. The book tells 19 short, really easy to digest stories that explore all the complex and interesting ways in which people make financial decisions. At a time when we might not want to think about what’s happening in the economy, this book is far less focused on what’s happening in current markets, and is really focused on general rules of thumb and great tactics for success and personal finance.

How about for female investors in particular–do you have any reads for them?

The next recommendation is the sequel to Clever Girl Finance which came out a couple years ago, and this book [Clever Girl Finance: Learn How Investing Works, Grow Your Money] is geared towards growing your money and investing. This [book] is really helping women navigate forever changing financial waters. It touches on the basis of how investing works, how to build a nest egg, and how to invest for the future–which is so important to Canadians right now. This book is an absolutely awesome choice for anybody who’s ever sought out an accessible introduction to the world of investing. The team at Clever Girl Finance has an amazing platform and community, where they have articles, podcasts, and more–and everything is geared 100% towards helping women get ahead and setting themselves up for success so we definitely recommend you hop online.

What about kids–any recommendations for younger investors?

The next book Heads Up Money is such a hard book to find, it’s absolutely always sold out and it’s geared towards grades 5-12, so a really critical time in terms of getting ahead and getting started on your financial future. It tackles complicated financial topics in an easy to understand way. From supply-and-demand, investing, to financial trends and other topics that, even as adults, we all feel we could use some brushing-up on today.

If you don’t have time to read, do you have any podcast recommendations?

Of course–one of our favourites here at Coast Capital is the Globe and Mail’s Stress Test that comes from personal finance team Rob Carrick and editor Roma Luciw. They do a great job of guiding listeners through today’s economy and how to manage your money through it. They refer to the economy as the biggest stress test your finances will ever face, which I think we can all relate to after the last few years. As an example they just did a great episode about how TikTok changed the vibe of personal finance advice–something we’ve seen blow up on social recently. Their topics are very salient and timely.

As you can see there is endless knowledge that can be acquired about your finances, and although it can be very daunting there are some great reads and podcasts you can start with this summer and you’ll soon find you’re a little bit ahead of where you were earlier in the summer.