Last fall, Glenn Cooke approached me with an idea. In addition to his work as an online life insurance broker, Glenn manages the FinanceAds.ca network that includes some of Canada’s most popular money bloggers. He wanted to bring together several of those bloggers to collaborate on a book, and I agreed to help out as editor.

After many months of work, I’m happy to announce that The Beginner’s Guide to Saving and Investing for Canadians is now available. The 100-page book is divided into five chapters, each written by a contributor with expertise in a specific area of personal finance. I’m sure you’ll recognize the names and the blogs:

Krystal Yee, a columnist at Moneyville and the blogger behind Give Me Back My Five Bucks, shows you how to create a budget. This may be the most important step in a financial plan, because investing won’t help you if you’re spending more than you earn.

Jim Yih of Retire Happy Blog explains where to save your money. He covers the basics of pension plans, RRSPs, Registered Education Savings Plans, Tax-Free Savings Accounts and other account types.

Ram Balakrishnan, the legendary Canadian Capitalist, lays out the case for passive investing and explains how to implement the strategy with index funds and ETFs, even including some model portfolios to get you started.

Frugal Trader of Million Dollar Journey shows you how to become a dividend investor, either by selecting individual stocks or by using dividend-focused ETFs.

Glenn Cooke of Life Insurance Canada.com explains basic insurance principles and helps you determine what coverage is most suited to your needs.

As the title suggests, the book is not designed for advanced investors: it’s an easy-to-read guide intended to help Canadians lay the foundation for a solid financial future. It would be ideal for a young family or anyone else who is just getting started in managing their finances.

How to order the book

The best way to order the book is through Amazon (it’s currently listed on the US site only), where it’s available for $19.95. An electronic version (in PDF format) is also available for $10.

I’m pleased to give away a free copy to one lucky reader: to enter the random draw, just leave a comment below or share this post on Twitter with the hashtag #savingsbook before midnight on July 26. [The draw is now closed.]