I am a younger Canadian and want to put more thought into investing, and investing in Canada. What would you recommend?
From my reading so far I'm looking at ETFs with WS, and that I should start with the TFSA. Am I on the right track and what do you recommend?
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I don't know but the market is very volatile right now. Whatever you invest now you might lose big in the short term.
But this all depends on your objective. What are you investing for? Short term gains? Retirement revenue? To buy your first property?
If you can answer that, we can give you better advice.
Long term gains, likely for a first property
RRSPs and FHSA is where it's at. Now what to tie them to is another story.
Honestly a good adviser at your bank would probably be better suited to help you.
In these times I would probably go with something low risk with guaranteed capital so you don't lose your initial investment at least. The interest will be lower though.
Edit: I forgot to mention to look up insurance companies as well, like Manulife or Sunlife. They have RRSPs and TFSAs as well with often more and better investment vehicles that bring more returns, but often with no guaranteed capital.
DO NOT take advice from financial advisors at banks in Canada. They are unregulated sales people paid to give advice that serves the interest of their employer.
The only people OP should consider taking professional advice from are flat-fee financial advisors. They will not find them at banks. And they must be flat fee.
If OP is not paying for the advice up front the advice is not going to be in OPs best interest.
Not necessarily. I mean they'll present you with the various investments the bank offers, like mutual funds and ETFs and things like that. They'll have different plans for you depending on how much you're willing to invest and how much risk you want to take, like high risk and no guarantees on your capital to low risk and guaranteed capital.
An independant financial advisors will tell you just about the same thing,
I don't see how one can benefit the bank more than another? If you can enlighten me I'd appreciate it.
And I also forgot to mention that insurance companies also offer TFSAs and RRSPs and often have more and better investment vehicles than banks with better returns.
Yes necessarily. If you have the ability to determine whether they’re pulling the wool over your eyes then you might as well just advise yourself at that point.
Even the internet is often a better place to get advice than an advisor at a Canadian bank who’s job performance is intimately tied with how efficiently he can scam you.
Also, I didn’t say independent financial advisor. You should also not go for advisors who are independent but charge some management fees in exchange for controlling your investments. I said flat fee financial advisor.
A flat fee financial advisor isn't going to sell you a scam mutual fund with 2% MER or advise you to take out a large debt you will not benefit from. They are paid by you and accountable to you with no authority to skim off the top of your assets. Those mutual funds you say are fine often rob people of half their retirement savings over the course of decades due to compounding effects.
You want to get advice ideally from those who have a fiduciary duty to YOU such that their interests are aligned with yours. Failing that, you want someone who has no stake in your money.
Even the internet is often a better place to get advice than an advisor at a Canadian bank who’s job performance is intimately tied with how efficiently he can scam you.
That is terrible advice! Don't listen to strangers on the internet! Not even anybody you know who isn't a professional. That's bad! They're not liable for anything.
If a bank advisor gives you bad advice they are liable. They're supposed to have a financial planner license which gives them the obligation to provide you with correct advice.
The title "financial planner" or its abbreviation "F.Pl." may be used by a person holding a diploma issued by the Institute of Financial Planning (the “Institute”) who has obtained a certificate from the AMF authorizing them to act in financial planning or who belongs to a professional order that has entered into an agreement with the AMF, in which case the person must satisfy the requirements of their professional order (see "Exceptions").
Those mutual funds you say are fine often rob people of half their retirement savings over the course of decades due to compounding effects.
How can they be robbed of their retirement savings? What compounding effects? It all depends what these mutual funds have in them. I really don't see how a mutual fund can purposefully rob someone of their savings. And I especially don't see how the bank benefits from that other than the broker fees.
It is terrible advice. And it’s less terrible than advising them to go to a bank.
I’m sorry but you’re misinformed. When you walk into a bank and ask for financial advice those employees are NOT liable in Canada nor are they required to have full certifications.
They have no fiduciary duty to you and in fact they are PUNISHED for not scamming effectively or often enough for the banks. They have performance quotas to meet that are misaligned with their customers interests.
Pay for someone who is actually qualified.
As for why 1-2% MER actively managed funds pushed by banks can drain roughly half of your retirement savings there’s tons of info out there on how compounding effects work and the downsides of active management.
I encourage you to go pay for a qualified financial planner. It sounds like you’ve been lead astray.
other than the broker fees
EXACTLY. Do you know what compound interest is?
undefinedother than the broker feesEXACTLY. Do you know what compound interest is?
Of course I know what compound interest is. It has nothing to do with broker fees. Broker fees are flat fees you pay for managing a fund. Maybe I don't get your point?
Between brokers fees & management fees those can easily drain half the value of a mutual fund over 30 years.
You don’t need 1-3% in fees to get lower ROI than a passive index fund with 0.25% MER. But a salesman at a bank will absolutely tell you otherwise.
I understand your point. But whether it's at a bank or not it's still the same thing. And it would be stupid for a bank to promote and sell investments that purposefully underperform just to take brokerage fees where the customer ends up losing more money if fees than anything. You'd end up with a class action lawsuit pretty quick.
Both my parents have worked in financial institutions initially as advisors and eventually became certified financial planners. I grew up learning about all the different investments the banks offered and the responsibility they had towards their customers. They wouldn't pull this kind of crap and always had their customers best interest at heart.
However, my mother did work dor a while in an insurance company as a quality assurance monitor on sales calls for insurance policies. The shit the advisors there would pull was stunning. Now THOSE guys were leeches. Selling resellable insurance plans that would cost the customer so much only to find out they were ineligible in the first place and things like that.