I'm on this subreddit almost everyday and this advice is pretty spot on:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFin...ki/money-steps . Have a budget to know where you money is going, have an emergency fund, pay of high interest debt, take advantage of employer matching RSPs (if any), pay off other debt, save.
There's been a rise in High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) these past few years to the point that imo they have rendered term deposits/GICs/government bonds obsolete for your average retail investor - you can get a much higher interest rate (e.g. 2.8% and 3.3%) in HISAs now and they're far more liquid - a great spot to keep emergency funds. The main point of an emergency fund (and why it's so high up on that money steps list) is so that it can be used to cover unexpected expenses without the need to taking on debt (debt that can have the potential to snowball). A handy list of HISA and their rates can be found here:
https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/chart/
The three books on this list are great and are all straightforward, self-contained reads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFin...i/reading-list - I like Millionaire Teacher the best - the initial few chapters talk about getting into the right mindset and having financial discipline when it comes to money (similar to what Thomas J. Stanley advocates for in "The Millionaire Next Door") before jumping into long term saving/investing. Hallam talks extensively about passive index investing, and I do think it's the way to go for the vast majority of the population and if you're just starting out with investing.
As for the mortgage, after establishing an emergency fund (keeping a few thousand in an HISA) and maxing out my TFSA/RSP I personally took advantage of my prepayment without penalty option with my mortgage - it allowed me to attack the principal of the mortgage directly, lowering the interest on all future payments. I agree that interest rates for mortgages are still low, but from a psychological standpoint I enjoyed paying off my mortgage rapidly.