the Wealthy Canadian

A book that I had read quite some time ago was Investing for Canadians for Dummies. I thought that I’d give a short review of it.

This book is fairly easy to read for any lay person just starting out. The logical layout starts with a fundamental overview of what investing is. The topics talk about many forms of investment (debt, equity, real estate, derivatives) which is refreshing given the usual focus on stocks (or more recently, real estate).

After a brief overview this Dummies book goes into further details about building a plan, the various security instruments and even a section on building a business. There are plenty of resources and insight into the evaluation of different investments. All of this wrapped up into a little more 400 pages (including pictures:)).

Looking back on it now I am a little disappointed that there is only one short mention of technical analysis. That one reference serves as only a warning to folks about technicians trying to swindle you out of your cash – this is far from fair. Whether you buy in to the belief of technical analysis or not it is at least worth a honest introduction. (As an aside, The Canadian Securities Course contains a chapter on this type of analysis and the CSI even offers a whole course on charting).

This is certainly not a one-stop info warehouse. It does contain considerable information across various areas. However the serious investor will still need to learn more about their areas of interest.

Unlike many other books by charismatic authors that can get a reader interested in investing but unsure of where to begin, this book at least discusses various investing topics. All in all, for someone who is interested in personal finance but does not know where to begin consider this Dummies book it is a great book for the investing novice.