While I have put a lot of information on this blog and in The Money Scope Podcast, I frequently get asked about what books I recommend. Some people like the feel of paper, the organization of a book, and the different perspectives that other authors bring. I know that I do. So, I compiled this bookshelf of my favorite personal finance, investing, and career development books. While there are literally thousands of books about finance, but I have chosen a few that are concise, practical, and informed by the academic literature when possible. You can click the image of the book to link to it on Amazon.
When you buy a book via the link on this page, it supports The Loonie Doctor site because I am an Amazon associate and earn through qualified purchases. Thanks for considering.
A Great Book to Start With
The Savvy Physician: A Financial Wellness Handbook for Physicians & Professionals by Hayley Gates & Dr. Ketan Kulkarni
This is a great book for medical students, doctors, and other professionals to get started with. It is a concise, quick read, but jam-packed with insights. It covers the main areas of personal finance and building a financially saavy life as a professional. This book makes learning about finance easy and accessible by starting from the very basics and providing actionable advice based on that.
It is written by a Canadian medical student and a staff physician, but had input from other Canadian physician financial wellness educators (including myself).
Beginner & Intermediate Investing
Reboot Your Portfolio by Dan Bortolotti
If I could pick just one investing book for beginners, this is it.
This book goes through the basic terminology, concepts, and steps to building an ETF portfolio. It is backed by a combination of real-world experience, empirical evidence, and the academic literature. However, that is made digestible and easy to understand.
A great complementary resource to my Step-by Step Interactive Guide that goes through the details for doing this using Qtrade (with screenshots).
Beat the Bank: The Canadian Guide to Simply Successful Investing by Larry Bates
If you are struggling with ditching your bank-affiliated financial advisor, mutual funds, or other advisors that push products, then you should read this book.
Larry Bates gives an inside view of the tactics used by the banks to attract and retain your business. To their benefit while eating away at your investment returns.
Advanced Investing
Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing: The Way Smart Money Invests Today by Andrew Berkin & Larry Swedroe
Most investors are best off trying to match the returns of the broad market. However, there are characteristics of companies or bonds that have been shown to explain returns in addition to market exposure. Those characteristics are quantified as factors. Quantitative or factor investing aims to select holdings with those characteristics to capture the premium beyond broad market returns.
Sounds great. However, you could data-mine to show all sort of factors that have outperformed historically. How do you know which factors may be real? How can they be used to design a portfolio with higher expected returns and lower volatility? What are the barriers to doing that in real-life?
Business Taxation
Make Sure It’s Deductible by Evelyn Jacks
This book is written in layperson language to help Canadian business owners stay out of trouble with their taxes, while also making sure not to miss deductions and leave money on the table.
It has excellent tips, and does not shy away from some of the common areas that people get into trouble with like home office, vehicles, and entertainment expenses.
Getting Your Financial Life in Order
The White Coat Investor’s Financial Boot Camp: A 12-Step High-Yield Guide to Bring Your Finances Up to Speed by Dr. James Dahle
This is a well-organized and practical approach to building a financial plan for yourself. Not a projection with stress-testing, like an advisor does with their software, but a practical approach from a physician’s perspective.
It was written for a US audience. So, you have to mentally substitute RRSP for 401K, TFSA for Roth IRA, and RESP for 529 education plan. The nuances of real estate investing and incorporation are also different here. However, the principles for securing your financial future are the same as in Canada.
Wealthier: The Investing Field Guide for Canadian Millennials by Daniel Solin & Mark McGrath
A light read that gives a good basic education in personal finance that is guided by the best available evidence. This is augmented by behavioral science and wisdom to help understand where we tend to struggle and strategies for dealing with that. There is also the practical perspective from Mark McGrath’s career, advising Canadian physicians and small business owners.
This guide brings together the basics for someone starting out in their career. Or starting out by trying to get their financial life in better shape. There is concise practical advice on budgeting, insurance, tax strategies, investing, and estate planning.
Wealth & Your Relationship With Money
How to Think About Money by Jonathan Clemens
Some of the other books in this section can go pretty deep, and are written by psychologists. This is a short read written by a long-time financial journalist. He does a great job of summarizing major concepts about your relationship with money in an understandable fashion.
It is a great book to start with, and literally start thinking about money – in a different light. A good primer for some of the deeper-dive books. It was actually one of the first books I read in this area and piqued my interest.
Die With Zero by Bill Perkins
This is a classic book about how to balance getting the most out of your money. Living a rich life rather than dying rich after missing opportunities along the way.
There are practical strategies and ways to think about how you spend your time and money. Use that to help you “spend better” for more memorable moments in your life.
Learn how to optimize that for different life stages while balancing between saving for the future and living in the present.
The Geometry of Wealth: How to Shape a Life of Money & Meaning
Brian Portnoy is a behavioral finance expert. This is a practical and entertaining book that gives you a tour of how we are wired and how to use that to live a meaningful life.
Clearly defining your values, setting priorities, and using simple ways to execute your decision-making when confronted with different circumstances helps. Using that for financial decisions while understanding what leads to a more joyful life is complementary. Money helps to build wealth when used deliberately in the right ways.
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, & Happiness
What makes this book different is that it uses short stories to illustrate the concepts. Stories are probably one of the best ways to engage and learn about how to think about money and keep it in its place. That also makes what can be a philosophical discussion directly relatable and applicable.
While we often focus on the nuts and bolts of financial tasks. Understanding how our mind works, and how it can cause us to deviate from executing those tasks as we intended, is vital for real-world success.
Everything But Money: The Hidden Barriers Between You & Financial Freedom by Jessica Moorhouse
Jessica Moorhouse is a financial counsellor. One aspect that we’ve struggled with personally, and I know comes up in discussions, is our financial emotional baggage. We all have a history with money. Even though we may know what to do or have more than enough money, we can still struggle with using it effectively.
We put up barriers due to our insecurities, inherited beliefs about money, or even financial trauma. Without understanding and addressing them, various tips, tools, and philosophical discussions won’t overcome our protective or deep-rooted instincts.
Money & Family
Tightwads & Spendthrifts by Scott Rick
One of the most important financial decisions you’ll make is whether to get married or otherwise merge your financial lives with someone else. While your heart will choose how it chooses, understanding how you and your partner relate to money is vital.
Left undiscussed, this is often a source of conflict. Unchecked, a double spendthrift or tightwad couple can have different issues.
Scott Rick is a behavioral scientist and draws from research to help you discuss, understand, and develop strategies to navigate financial decision-making to build a happier financial life together.
The Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to be Responsible, Independent, and Money-Smart for Life by Robin Taub
How to teach our kids about money is one of the items (on the long list of things) we worry about as parents. This book hits straight at that. The chapters are short, which fits nicely with the fact that it is hard to get very long periods of time to read with kids around.
This is a practical book with ideas about age-appropriate lessons, developing habits, and capitalizing on teachable moments. It is modern and relevant, even addressing the issues brought up by our more digitally based finance system.
There are even worksheets and self-assessment tools!
Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations
Dr. James Grubman helps counsel families with generational levels of wealth. Most wealthy people were not born into it. They adapt to their newfound wealth in different ways and find themselves navigating an environment and a culture that is completely new to them. Kind of immigrants to a new land.
He collates those observations into different ways that people adapt to wealth. Most of us with generational levels of wealth worry about the impact of that on the subsequent generations. Dr. Grubman has interesting insights into healthy vs unhealthy strategies and how they may have unintended impacts.
Physician Wellness
Saving Lives Without Destroying Yours
The other books in this page provide information about different aspects of our lives that impact our well-being. This book pulls together many of those themes specifically through the lense of physician wellness. It is written by a Canadian psychiatrist & occupational therapist who have specialized in treated our colleagues. So, it uses a sound background of information from the literature and real-life experience. Through the filter of someone who understands what medicine is like.
This book provides useful insights, frameworks, and strategies – not only for physicians who are struggling, but for all of us who navigate the interfaces between our conflicting personal, family, professional, financial, friends, and cultural boundaries. As an physician educator and medical leader, I also found it useful for understanding why and where things within the system/culture that we cultivate can strengthen or harm physicians – and how to move the needle in the right direction.
Career
The Legendary Quest: For Professionals Seeking Inner and Outer Excellence and Authentic Fulfillment
Drs. Ketan Kulkarni and Francis Yoo are Canadian physicians who also provide professional coaching. This is a relatively quick and concise read aimed at helping professionals find inner joy and excellence in their careers. From that flows external excellence.
They have developed a framework and reflective exercises that are grounded in modern psychology research and informed by the wisdom of ancient philosophies.
The Doctors Guide to Starting Your Practice Right by Dr. Corey Fawcett
This is a great overview of big things to consider when starting your career. While the landscape in Canada is a bit different, there is still good advice about defining what type of practice you want. Negotiating contracts with employers, hospitals, or colleagues.
How start building your career in balance with the other parts of your life that matter to you. Tackling your debt and the pent up demands from you long years of training forms part of that.
No one can tell you exactly how to do it for your situation, but this book has good insights from someone who has been there and talked with many other physicians along the way.
The Doctors Guide to Finding Joy in Your Work by Dr. Corey Fawcett
Dr. Cory Fawcett is a “re-purposed surgeon”. He has done a whole series of Doctor’s guides to different topics. They read like hearing from a senior colleague. A surgical colleague – so they are generally concise with actionable advice.
It is a bit of a different flavor with personal stories and expanding on the reasoning behind his suggestions. This book is about how to identify what charges you vs drains you in your career and life. Exploring that and using it to make meaningful changes. Over time that helps to sustain work-life balance. Even as your work and life changes.
Retirement & Repurposing
The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives & Retirement
For those who feel burnt out in medicine, despite having read Finding Joy in Your Work, this is a good read. Again, considering the root issues is important. However, so are what skills you may have that are transferrable into other careers. How can your medical experience give you an edge?
For those who are contemplating retirement from medical practice. What is next? What should consider in making this transition?
How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy Retirement by Christine Benz
Much of the focus on retirement plan revolves around how much money do I need? However, it goes way beyond that. Even on the financial side, how you get your income and how your spending will change requires thought and consideration.
Where I think many professionals struggle is with all of the non-financial planning for retirement. Like investing money, investing in the other areas of your life so that your human capital compounds and allows for a rich retirement is key.