What Would You Do? | Page 2 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Norman1 said

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.
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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.  

@Norman1 , your answers on this forum sound a lot like Norbert Schlenker of Financial Wisdom Forum , inventor of Norbert's Gambit and president of Libra Investment Management Inc., based in Salt Spring Island, B.C. That's a compliment !

I have used Itrade for TFSA only. Did all my research, listened here too. And I think I broke even after 10 years. Waste of time......would have been better to just do GIC's. They do have a multitude of GICs and each one will have its own CDIC limit BUT the rates are not good. One stop shop though.

The best I ever did was with a Limited Partnership with Kevin England Group. They buy older condos and turn it into a rental if it wasn't already. I was in a group of 5 condos. They upgrade them and then re sell into a strata title owner ship when each one was ready.

Do-It-Yourself investing is not for everyone. One needs to learn how to invest properly to have good results with DIY platforms like Scotia iTRADE.

For the not-so-great 10 years from 2007 to 2016, my DIY return, with stocks and mutual funds, was about 100% or about 7% per annum. For comparison, any index ETF that tracked the S&P 500 would have returned around 125% or about 8.4% per annum.

If one is just breaking even after 10 years, then one is certainly not ready yet to do it on their own. I would argue that such a person actually destroyed value, at a rate of 7% to 8% per year.

Norman1 said
Do-It-Yourself investing is not for everyone. One needs to learn how to invest properly to have good results with DIY platforms like Scotia iTRADE.

For the not-so-great 10 years from 2007 to 2016, my DIY return, with stocks and mutual funds, was about 100% or about 7% per annum. For comparison, any index ETF that tracked the S&P 500 would have returned around 125% or about 8.4% per annum.

If one is just breaking even after 10 years, then one is certainly not ready yet to do it on their own. I would argue that such a person actually destroyed value, at a rate of 7% to 8% per year.  

7%-8% average is great. Even 6% is quite good. Enjoy the summer.