What did we look for when comparing courses?
Each course 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—all for free. The eight lessons in total (see the list below), each taught by a different professor, which isn’t typical of most free personal finance courses. There are also bonus lessons about responsible investing and cryptocurrencies, as well as online multiple choice tests and exams.
Courses included in McGill Personal Finance Essentials:
- 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
We recommend regularly dedicating some time to the material, so you can more easily pick up where you left off. Depending on your learning style (and how motivated you are to finish the course), you might enjoy the learn-at-your-own-pace format.
This is not a continuing-ed course, but you’ll receive a McGill Personal Finance Essentials attestation of completion certificate to add to your CV. You can register for McGill Personal Finance Essentials for free at 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. The course has seven chapters, ranging from 12 to 76 minutes in length, each containing a handful of lessons. Essentially, you know exactly how much time you need to dedicate to each section, so you can easily break up your study time. Here’s the breakdown:
| Chapter | Number of lessons | Approximate time to complete |
|---|---|---|
| Starting to work | 8 | 52 minutes |
| Preparing to do your taxes | 3 | 27 minutes |
| Completing a basic tax return | 7 | 76 minutes |
| After sending your tax return | 4 | 38 minutes |
| Using the CRA’s My Account | 2 | 12 minutes |
| Purpose of taxes | 4 | 21 minutes |
| Accessing your benefits and credits | 2 | 19 minutes |
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
We believe learning about debt is the first step toward managing how much you owe. Knowing how to also tackle debt can 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. The Truth About Credit course can be done in an hour or less. While you won’t get a certificate of completion, 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 reports and how to access your own credit report for free. There’s some myth busting, too.