6 Canadian Personal Finance Blogs to Follow in 2023

I’ve been interested in Canadian personal finance blogs for a long time (around 14 years and up!) and have seen a lot of personal finance blogs in Canada come and go.  Prior to reading financial blogs in Canada, I subscribed to the Moneysense magazine back when they had a print magazine.

Even though Moneysense is not published in a print edition anymore and is now owned by Rate Hub, I still checkout the online edition from time to time.  As I’ve said, I’ve been interested in personal finance for a long time as a Canadian millennial.

Thirteen years ago, I wanted to know how can I manage my money better.  Following some great Canadian personal finance blogs allowed me to join these PF bloggers on their personal finance journeys to achieve financial freedom and financial independence greatness.  Nowadays, many people just do personal finance reddit Canada, but before there was reddit, there were blogs (and still are!).

I thought it would be nice to compile a list of some great Canadian personal finance blogs that I followed for a long time (like over 10 years?) and enjoy reading from time to time.  I may not read each and every post that hits publish, but I often stop by and have a gander at the latest musings of my favourite Canadian personal finance blogs.

Mostly I enjoy these blogs because of their net worth posts, their dividend income goals, their sense of humour, and I enjoy following their personal finance journey and the money lessons they learned along the way with regards to investing in Canada.

Of course, there are a number of other Canadian personal finance blogs on the Internet that are a wealth of information like how to invest in a TFSA, or what the difference is between a TFSA vs an RRSP, how to convert USD/CAD in Questrade for cheap, or even blogs that rate the best online brokerages in Canada, but I find that these blogs have less of a personal touch.  I don’t seem to follow these personal finance blogs as much.

I find that I enjoy reading personal finance blogs in Canada that have more of a glimpse into the blogger’s life and thoughts more- like answering their deep personal finance question: How do you manage money in Canada?  Maybe it’s the personal finance voyeur in me, I don’t know 😉

There are a number of other Canadian blogs I follow as well, namely dividend blogs, but I won’t include them here.

The Canadian dividend blog community is so awesome and supportive.  Here is the list of Canadian dividend blogs in Canada if you’re interested.  These blogs talk about their recent dividend buys, sells, and forward or actual annual dividend yield.  A great source of inspiration on what to buy for your next Canadian dividend stock portfolio purchase, in my opinion.

In no order of favouritism, here are 6 Canadian personal finance blogs that I think you should follow if you want to improve your own personal finance journey in 2022!

Million Dollar Journey

This is the first Canadian personal finance blog that I have ever stumbled upon and read.  Frugal Trader had not only inspired me to take the plunge towards ditching my Investor’s Group Mutual Fund towards DIY investing, his personal finance blog also inspired me to start my own blog back in 2009.  His trailblazing blogging has actually inspired a lot of other Canadian personal finance bloggers too.  He is the GOAT “Greatest of All Time”.

Million Dollar Journey has a wealth of information and spans over 15 years of rich personal finance content with a Canadian twist (this blog has been around since 2006).  Frugal Trader is a true blue Canadian financial guru, the “Godfather” of Canadian personal finance blogs.  He is the original ‘millionaire Canada blog’.  Frugal Trader was even gracious enough to have me write for his site a few years back when I was freelancing and blog-less.

Frugal Trader and his wife have achieved a $1,000,000 net worth by age 35 (in 2014) and then set forth to achieve a new goal of $60,000 in dividend/passive income in 2020 (and this was achieved, just six years later in quarter 2 of 2020).  He achieved the “Crossover Point” where his monthly dividend passive income and monthly expenses are equivalent.  The power of dividend compounding is amazing.  He’s from Newfoundland and is a dad of two children.

One of my favourite posts of his is how he did the Smith Manoeuvre to generate a tax-deductible mortgage.  This is where you take out a HELOC and then invest that money in the stock market.  Then you deduct the interest income since it is tax deductible.

There is obviously risk involved with the Smith Manoeuvre, but it has paid off in dividends (pun intended!) for Frugal Trader.  Personally, I was going to do the Smith Manoeuvre with my mortgage but never ended up taking the plunge.  I’m still sitting on the Smith Manoeuvre sidelines, with my FOMO 😉

I’m a fan of tax efficient investing in Canada, like he is, anyway.

Boomer and Echo

Boomer and Echo is a Canadian personal finance blog that has a unique perspective.  Boomer and Echo is a Canadian blog with a Boomer perspective (Mrs. Engen) and an Echo generation perspective (Robb Engen, Boomer’s mid to late 30-something-year-old son).  In the past few years though, I think it has been mostly Robb posting.

Robb has two daughters, his wife is a SAHM, and they live in Lethbridge, Alberta.  Robb’s goal is to reach a $1,000,000 net worth in 2020 (it has been completed!), you can read his 2021 year end review here where he sits at $1.3 million net worth now.

One of my favourite and I guess shocking posts from Boomer and Echo is when Robb decided to sell off all his dividend portfolio and switch to a two fund portfolio of index investing back in 2015.

I remember that when this happened, a lot of people who were following him (who were obviously hard core dividend investors) were outraged in the comments and I think some even said they would unfollow him (!).

It takes guts to make a big move to your investment portfolio like that.  Here’s Robb’s post on Why Living Off Dividends No Longer Appeals to Me.  Robb has a good sense of humour and is not afraid to tell it like it is.

Robb also is a Fee Only Financial Advisor and provides unbiased financial advice for individuals and couples interested in a financial facelift.

He also recently did a calculation on whether keeping his defined benefit pension was worth it.

My Own Advisor

Mark from My Own Advisor lives in Ottawa with his wife and is a big hockey Ottawa Senators fan. His goal is to have $31,000 passive dividend income by the end of 2024), from his TFSA and non-registered accounts.

His blog is one of the best investment blogs in Canada, I’d say.

He’s 90% there already, with a dividend yield of at least $29,000 annually in his last December 2022 Dividend Income update.  He recently downsized from a house near Ottawa to a condo with beautiful views right in the heart of Ottawa.

He has some interesting comments on his blog from some very devout and opinionated followers, sometimes I could spend like 30 minutes scrolling through the comments and reading the banter between the commenters.  As I said, he has some interesting discussions in his comments sections on posts, check out the 76 comments on his post Why My Goal to Live off Dividends is Alive and Well.

Mark is a hybrid dividend investor like I am, so he has a mix of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and dividends.

I like how Mark calculates his dividend income in terms of hours ‘paid’ through passive income.  In his June 2022 dividend income update, he is earning $27,212 in annual dividend income, or earning $74.55 per day from part of their portfolio, doing nothing at all.

I’m not sure if he DRIPS his dividends and distributions, but his growth sure does seem like it.

Save Spend Splurge

Sherry from Save Spend Splurge has also reincarnated like me (lol).

She used to have two other blogs and sold them for five figures.

She lives in Montreal with her partner and her school age son.  She is a minimalist, feminist, has a great sense of style, and makes a very enviable and impressive freelancer income (like I think over $25,000 monthly or over $300,000 annually) as a consultant working only 40-hour work weeks.

She also recently hit a 7 figure liquid net worth in her 30’s.

She tells it like it is as well, and isn’t afraid to be opinionated on her blog.  She has a regular “Ask Sherry Anything” blog post where readers can submit a question anonymously and she will answer it.

I also enjoy reading Sherry’s Week of Money Diaries to catch a glimpse into what she purchases and spends money on.  She used to post net worth updates and budget round ups but an Internet troll caused some trouble and now she’s taken all that down.

She doesn’t shy away from spending $2000+ on a Burberry trench coat or four figures on Chanel hand bags.

She’s definitely more of a Fat FIRE individual.

Liquid Independence

Liquid Independence from The Freedom 35 Blog is from Vancouver like me and has a unique investing style.

He invests in things like farmland, peer to peer lending, and isn’t afraid to leverage debt to invest to get to his financial freedom journey.  His income from his salary isn’t high (it has never been six figures) but he has a $1.5 million net worth in 2022 which goes to show that you don’t need a high income be net worth successful if you invest your money well.

Notably in 2020, he recently joined the 7 figure net worth club, and he did it three years ahead of schedule at the age of 32, all the while not earning more than $80,000 in his day job.  And he reached financial independence ahead of time and quit his job at age 35 (maybe ahed of schedule too) in 2022.

These days he writes about his options trading and recently added a new addition to his family in 2022, a baby boy.

One of my favourite posts from Liquid Independence is How Personality Affects Finances and he breaks down the number of personal finance bloggers that have a certain personality type.

You guessed it, INTJ was one of the most popular ones that dominated the personal finance sphere, with a 30% of personal finance bloggers identifying as INTJ.  INTJ’s are typically engineers- hence a lot of FIRE bloggers being engineers.  You’ll find me on there with my old blog pseudonym and a mere 6% frequency of my personality type amongst personal finance bloggers.

How to Save Money

Stephen Weyman from How to Save Money and I go WAY back.  Like 9 years ago back when he started his blog, had a new baby girl, and I still had my other Canadian personal finance blog.  Stephen started MoneyGenius.ca back then in 2010 (when it was called Howtosavemoney.ca) and now has over 40,000 Email Newsletter subscribers today.  Stephen Weyman is a personal finance blogger from New Brunswick and lives with his wife and two children.

Although this blog doesn’t have ‘financial journey’ juice, like net worth tracking, or dividend tracking that I am drawn to like a moth to a flame, Stephen is very detail oriented and his site will deliver the super well-researched goods on how to save money on lots of things.

In addition, the site goes over some other important Canadian personal finance stuff like which credit cards are the best in Canada.  How to Save Money will read things 50 pages of deal sites Red Flag Deals and condense it to one easy to read blog post to save you time.

Definitely a great way to learn how to save money fast.

Related: Flashfood App Review: Save 50-70% on Surplus Groceries

Best Canadian Personal Finance Blogs Recap

There we go, I have listed some pretty amazing personal finance blogs in Canada from west coast to east coast, including beautiful British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.

Oh Canada, indeed!  If you follow these Canadian finance blogs, you’re covered for your dose of Canadian finance to inspire you to reach financial independence in Canada and get rich in Canada.

To recap, in my opinion, the best Canadian personal finance blogs that I read on a regular basis are:

• Million Dollar Journey
• Boomer and Echo
• My Own Advisor
• Save Spend Splurge
• Liquid Independence
• How to Save Money

Most of these personal finance blogs in Canada  are ‘old timers’ to the Canadian personal finance blogosphere, they’ve been around a long time (as have I, albeit in a reincarnated form).  Some of them have an element where you could classify them as FIRE blogs (Financial Independence Retire Early blogs in Canada).

Cumulatively, that’s probably over 50 years of Canadian personal finance blogging experience right there.  Follow them and you’ll be inspired to reach financial freedom in Canada as well.  Even though I have never met these bloggers in person, I feel like I know them (lol!) through the years, following them on their personal finance journey for the past ten years.

I feel like we just played that computer game, Cross Country Canada.  Remember that game in the 1990s?  It was one of my favourite games to play during computer class in elementary school (younger millennials and likely Generation Z might not remember that game though).

While you’re at it on your financial freedom Canada pursuit, I’ve compiled a list of 5 must-read personal finance books for Canadians (in my opinion- believe me, I’ve read a lot of Canadian personal finance books) to start you on your path towards how to achieve financial independence in Canada.

For more advanced investing related books, here are some of the best dividend investing books to read.

You’ll be on your way towards signing up for private banking, even!

If you’re looking to start your own personal finance blogs, here are some blogging tax deductions that you shouldn’t forget.

Hope you enjoyed this list of personal finance blogs in Canada to follow!