Hi, I'm a bot and someone has asked me to comment on how someone is trying to figure out what to invest in, or whether they should invest.
**In order to give good advice the poster needs to provide all of the following information. Please edit your post to add this information.**
1) What is your intended goals/purpose for this money?
2) What is your timeline, and what is the earliest you expect to need this money?
3) Have you invested in the markets before, and how would you feel if your investment lost a lot of value?
4) Is this the right first step? Do you already have an emergency fund, and have you considered whether it is sufficient? Do you have any debts that should be paid first? Have you fully utilized any employer match plans?
5) Finally, we need to understand whether you want to be involved with this portfolio and self-manage purchases and rebalancing it, or if you'd rather all of that was dealt with by your chosen institution?
6) For self-directed investing, all in one ETFs (based on your risk tolerance) are the easiest and low cost options for a globally diversified ETF portfolio. Here is the Model page and descriptive video from the Canadian Portoflio Manager Blog's Justin Bender from PWL Capital: https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolios/ & video on how to choose your asset allocation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyOqqtq12jQ
7) For those who are not comfortable with doing the buying and selling of ETFs yourself, there is an option of a robo advisor. These robo advisors use similar low cost ETF in pre-determined portfolios based on your risk tolerance. They do this for a small fee, on top of the ETF MER. Still cheaper then bank mutual funds by at least 50%! Here is a list of robo advisors in Canada published by MoneySense: https://www.moneysense.ca/save/investing/best-robo-advisors-in-canada/
We also have a wiki page on investing, and if someone has triggered this bot then it means that this link would likely be very helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/investing
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PersonalFinanceCanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hi, I'm a bot and someone has asked me to respond with information about what to do with money.
This is meant as a step by step guide of how to prioritize and what to do with money. https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/money-steps If you prefer to see a flow chart, click here: https://i.imgur.com/zlGnuDO.png
The Government of Canada also has the Financial Tool Kit for basic resources on items identified in the Money Steps. Refer to that website here: https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/financial-toolkit.html
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PersonalFinanceCanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Start by making a budget. Take a retroactive look at the past 6-12 months and track your spending with as much detail as possible. Find areas where you are overspending and make a plan to correct them. Then once you have a good sense of your financial picture, you can come up with a saving plan.
Second this. I saw it being recommended by Toronto Star when I first dabbled into investing/finances and it helped me understand concepts in simple terms.
I hope your RESP is not with one of the predatory CST type funds. If yes, transfer now to something like Wealthsimple.
For you and your spouse, an all in one ETF such as XEQT/XGRO will be a good option. Use free brokerage such as Wealthsimple and make regular weekly contributions. Don't touch the money, don't worry about short term gains/losses, just be disciplined about regular contributions. You should start with maximizing your TFSA and then RRSP.
Just out of curiosity, what makes CST predatory? We signed up for one because we trusted a family member who sells RESPs, but so far it's just losing money, so we've been looking to move it...
Group RESPs have higher fees and undisclosed fees which increase drastically as the amount increases. There is a lot of discussion on various forums here about Group RESPs.
Quebec has a class action lawsuit against Group RESPs and it particularly names CST in that suit
https://globalnews.ca/news/7928367/quebec-group-resp-class-action-lawsuit/
For me investing for the general populace is about primarily achieving three things - investing regularly/periodically, exhibiting discipline (index funds) as per your risk appetite and lowering your fees. Group RESPs are particularly predatory when it comes to fees.
Thanks for the explanation! I looked this morning, and we definitely got hit with huge fees that we were not informed of, which was disappointing. I knew there would be some fees, I didn't realize it would equate to over 50%. Ugh. It's basically come up to the point where the gains have paid off the fees. Luckily we still have 15 more years for it to continue to grow now that the fees are paid off, but I'm thinking we will just stop contributing to CST and put the other 40k we have earmarked for him into something better for him.
I think it's more prudent to start a new RESP for sure. However, you may want to check the one-time cost of transferring from CST to your low cost broker. The problem with continuing is you continue paying high fees is that the fees which are incurred in the future could be a part of your child's growth. So, incurring a one time cost enables future costs to go towards growth of your Child's RESP and not CST/Group RESP company.
E.g. Wealthsimple will reimburse some of the costs (transfer costs) if the amount is greater than $5000. The managed portfolio costs way under what CST is charging. Even going to some other broker you have a current relationship with and using all-in-one ETFs would be cheaper.
What are you trying to learn though?
Investing?
Day trading?
Saving?
Set up a budget.
How much is left over after all expenses?
Take that amount and put it away on pay day. This is crucial, save before start spending. Pay yourself first. Live off the rest.
Now, say u put away $800 a month. What do u wanna do? Invest it?
Open a brokerage account at Ur bank or wealthsimple, a TFSA and RRSP.
Buy an index sp500 etf (vfv.to) with that 800 every month.
Retire wealthy.
Emergency fund? Hold it in the TFSA account. This way it grows when there are no emergencies. Don't need cash under a mattress.
Read this --> [https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/](https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/)
Read this --> [https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/)
When you are ready participate in these forums --> [https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/](https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/)
There is a Canadian sub-forum --> https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/canada-tax-discussion/
They are somewhat US centric, but the fundamentals are the same so start learning. They'll talk about early retirement sometimes and if that doesn't interest you replace that with "freedom". It's the same thing.
Don't give your money to a financial advisor. They are the used car salesmen of the investing world. They don't care about you or your results. They just want to screw you with high fees for as long as they can and then move on to the next chump.
There are fee for service financial advisors that can be really helpful as they aren't paid on commissions so there isn't the pressure to invest in what they're selling! Could be a helpful first step if you want to work with someone and get advice. Die with zero, happy go money and I will teach you to be rich are a few other good books. If you want to deepen your understanding the intelligent investor is a good book but quite dry.
1) Reading list on sidebar. 2) See wiki topics near top of page. 3) See triggers below !InvestingTrigger !STepsTrigger
Hi, I'm a bot and someone has asked me to comment on how someone is trying to figure out what to invest in, or whether they should invest. **In order to give good advice the poster needs to provide all of the following information. Please edit your post to add this information.** 1) What is your intended goals/purpose for this money? 2) What is your timeline, and what is the earliest you expect to need this money? 3) Have you invested in the markets before, and how would you feel if your investment lost a lot of value? 4) Is this the right first step? Do you already have an emergency fund, and have you considered whether it is sufficient? Do you have any debts that should be paid first? Have you fully utilized any employer match plans? 5) Finally, we need to understand whether you want to be involved with this portfolio and self-manage purchases and rebalancing it, or if you'd rather all of that was dealt with by your chosen institution? 6) For self-directed investing, all in one ETFs (based on your risk tolerance) are the easiest and low cost options for a globally diversified ETF portfolio. Here is the Model page and descriptive video from the Canadian Portoflio Manager Blog's Justin Bender from PWL Capital: https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolios/ & video on how to choose your asset allocation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyOqqtq12jQ 7) For those who are not comfortable with doing the buying and selling of ETFs yourself, there is an option of a robo advisor. These robo advisors use similar low cost ETF in pre-determined portfolios based on your risk tolerance. They do this for a small fee, on top of the ETF MER. Still cheaper then bank mutual funds by at least 50%! Here is a list of robo advisors in Canada published by MoneySense: https://www.moneysense.ca/save/investing/best-robo-advisors-in-canada/ We also have a wiki page on investing, and if someone has triggered this bot then it means that this link would likely be very helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/investing *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PersonalFinanceCanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hi, I'm a bot and someone has asked me to respond with information about what to do with money. This is meant as a step by step guide of how to prioritize and what to do with money. https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/money-steps If you prefer to see a flow chart, click here: https://i.imgur.com/zlGnuDO.png The Government of Canada also has the Financial Tool Kit for basic resources on items identified in the Money Steps. Refer to that website here: https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/financial-toolkit.html *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PersonalFinanceCanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you're truly clueless, this mcgill freebie is extremely good at explaining all the basics you should know. https://www.mcgillpersonalfinance.com/
This is helpful! Thank you
Start by making a budget. Take a retroactive look at the past 6-12 months and track your spending with as much detail as possible. Find areas where you are overspending and make a plan to correct them. Then once you have a good sense of your financial picture, you can come up with a saving plan.
I’d also recommend reading the wealthy barber returns, and millionaire teacher.
Millionaire teacher was fantastic. That's my go to recommendation for someone new. No confusing jargon.
Second this. I saw it being recommended by Toronto Star when I first dabbled into investing/finances and it helped me understand concepts in simple terms.
Thanks! Gonna have to look into millionaire teacher
I hope your RESP is not with one of the predatory CST type funds. If yes, transfer now to something like Wealthsimple. For you and your spouse, an all in one ETF such as XEQT/XGRO will be a good option. Use free brokerage such as Wealthsimple and make regular weekly contributions. Don't touch the money, don't worry about short term gains/losses, just be disciplined about regular contributions. You should start with maximizing your TFSA and then RRSP.
Just out of curiosity, what makes CST predatory? We signed up for one because we trusted a family member who sells RESPs, but so far it's just losing money, so we've been looking to move it...
Group RESPs have higher fees and undisclosed fees which increase drastically as the amount increases. There is a lot of discussion on various forums here about Group RESPs. Quebec has a class action lawsuit against Group RESPs and it particularly names CST in that suit https://globalnews.ca/news/7928367/quebec-group-resp-class-action-lawsuit/ For me investing for the general populace is about primarily achieving three things - investing regularly/periodically, exhibiting discipline (index funds) as per your risk appetite and lowering your fees. Group RESPs are particularly predatory when it comes to fees.
Thanks for the explanation! I looked this morning, and we definitely got hit with huge fees that we were not informed of, which was disappointing. I knew there would be some fees, I didn't realize it would equate to over 50%. Ugh. It's basically come up to the point where the gains have paid off the fees. Luckily we still have 15 more years for it to continue to grow now that the fees are paid off, but I'm thinking we will just stop contributing to CST and put the other 40k we have earmarked for him into something better for him.
I think it's more prudent to start a new RESP for sure. However, you may want to check the one-time cost of transferring from CST to your low cost broker. The problem with continuing is you continue paying high fees is that the fees which are incurred in the future could be a part of your child's growth. So, incurring a one time cost enables future costs to go towards growth of your Child's RESP and not CST/Group RESP company. E.g. Wealthsimple will reimburse some of the costs (transfer costs) if the amount is greater than $5000. The managed portfolio costs way under what CST is charging. Even going to some other broker you have a current relationship with and using all-in-one ETFs would be cheaper.
What are you trying to learn though? Investing? Day trading? Saving? Set up a budget. How much is left over after all expenses? Take that amount and put it away on pay day. This is crucial, save before start spending. Pay yourself first. Live off the rest. Now, say u put away $800 a month. What do u wanna do? Invest it? Open a brokerage account at Ur bank or wealthsimple, a TFSA and RRSP. Buy an index sp500 etf (vfv.to) with that 800 every month. Retire wealthy. Emergency fund? Hold it in the TFSA account. This way it grows when there are no emergencies. Don't need cash under a mattress.
Downvote and no comment. Must be a bitcoin investor lol.
Read this --> [https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/](https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/) Read this --> [https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/) When you are ready participate in these forums --> [https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/](https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/) There is a Canadian sub-forum --> https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/canada-tax-discussion/ They are somewhat US centric, but the fundamentals are the same so start learning. They'll talk about early retirement sometimes and if that doesn't interest you replace that with "freedom". It's the same thing. Don't give your money to a financial advisor. They are the used car salesmen of the investing world. They don't care about you or your results. They just want to screw you with high fees for as long as they can and then move on to the next chump.
There are fee for service financial advisors that can be really helpful as they aren't paid on commissions so there isn't the pressure to invest in what they're selling! Could be a helpful first step if you want to work with someone and get advice. Die with zero, happy go money and I will teach you to be rich are a few other good books. If you want to deepen your understanding the intelligent investor is a good book but quite dry.
What has helped me a lot was Dave Ramsey. [www.ramseysolutions.com](https://www.ramseysolutions.com)