What Would You Do? | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Do what your priorities are? Put a little in this. A little in that. After a while you will get where you want to put your money.

I have had a couple of GIC's come due within the last month.With the low rates to reinvest it in GIC's,I am keeping the cash on the sidelines,waiting for a possible 2nd dip for the markets to get in line with the world problems.If the markets happen to stabilise after a few months I will just buy more ETF balanced funds.

Hi. Whatever you do, don't be greedy and avoid the mistake I did couple years ago. I came here and people advised against my plan. I refused. It was fun at the beginning. Very fun. Couple hundred dollars a day but eventually in a year I got out with $22K loss.
I used Questrade. If you know yourself and sure that you won't be getting into the greed day trading game, then go for Questrade. It is great for buying ETFs. I think it is the best.
I recently joined the WealthSimple using their Mutual Fund for my kid's RESP. They re-balance etc for 0.5% fee.
I also like Tangerine Mutual Fund. Very easy platform but high fees which I could avoid so far by selling before Dec. I think that's when they pay dividends and also take the fees. I sold half of what I had on my wife's TFSA in Tangerine today. A good 3% recent in 2 months. Will see how the market shapes by next week for the other half.
Everything else I have are either in GICs are jumping between banks for offers. I had Simplii offer and now in Tangerine 2.75% till end of the month.
Honestly, I got to a point that an average 3-4% interest is good enough.
As you mentioned Do NOT try timing the market. You will lose your mind. Why I didn't buy earlier .. Why I didn't sell earlier. Why I didn't wait more ..
What to do? Do not put all your money in one shot. You can do WealthSimple, TD e-series, Tangerine, etc to have automate contributions.
What I did in this Pandemic? I put couple thousands .. Then started daily contributions. This way I won't keep saying why I didn't buy more yesterday etc.
Hope this helps.

Loonie said
New investors usually don't want to hear this, but if you want to succeed, prepare for a long and boring ride. True success is not spectacular. Banish the stars in your eyes. Avoid everyone who brags about their past spectacular successes as if they had a bad case of Covid-19.

If you've done all that, you might be ready for a modest investment in ETFs. Spread them out over a year. Rebalance when the proportions get significantly out of whack.  

When I heard about EFT's my bank offered a one evening seminar at the branch. I would say 2004-2009 although I could be corrected. I was fully invested in stocks at that time. The bank was interested in selling them. I NEVER purchased any. Not for me. A friend said they were good. I had TWO zeros. Bramalea. A real estate development company in Brampton in late 1990's. Nortel 2009. Nortel is still in my account.

Kidd said
I mentioned somewhere in another thread. If financial advisors are so knowledgeable, why aren't they millionaires themselves? They work 9 to 5, 50 weeks a year making their money off the commission fees they charge you, for telling you what to buy to become rich? It's just crazy.

Added edit.

I try to walk outside everyday for at least an hour and on my journey, I walk past this house with an unkept lawn. On the side of this guy's pickup truck he advertises his business, landscaping/snow removal. I always laugh and shake my head as i walk past. Who in their right mind would hire you?  

Believe it or not I believed in the same idea. If they are so smart why are they still working?

savemoresaveoften said
…I keep hearing stories that IAs take 1%, and all they do is put the client's money into mutual funds, which means another 1-2% hit every year on top for the client. That certainly makes the IA rich as they also get a 0.25-.5% commision from the funds every year on top.
…

The advisor is not supposed to be double dipping like that. One is not supposed to be paying the advisor directly 1% each year for class A mutual fund units that charge 2%/year MER and pay a 1% trailer to the advisor! The advisor is then collecting more than than the mutual fund portfolio manager who is doing the actual active management of the money.

If one is paying the advisor 1% each year directly, then one should be have class F mutual funds units with 1%/year MER and no trailer to the advisor. Alternately, one should be paying nothing to the advisor directly and own those class A mutual funds units with 2%/year MER that pay a 1% per year trailer to the advisor.

If one is a do-it-yourself investor, then one should own class D mutual fund units with 1¼% per year MER that pay a ¼% per year trailer to the dealer for providing the web site.

One needs to develop some "street smarts" to not get ripped off like that by mutual fund salespeople who pretend to be investment managers. Those salespeople really are not investment managers. A one-month course and a multiple choice exam is not enough to become competent in evaluating investments.

I'd go with the robo until such time as you learn more than the robo knows. You could get yourself into a whack of trouble doing it yourself. Most people do.

A few years ago the people at WealthSimple tried to set up a system where they would, for a fee, coach people on how to do it themselves but it proved basically unworkable. People did not learn this stuff easily, were afraid to make trades, did the wrong thing, needed a lot of help, etc. And these were people who wanted to learn, ostensibly. So, they discontinued it because these clients required too much support (=time, money).

Wealthsimple.