Author Topic: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice  (Read 2065 times)

Islander

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Hello!

We are a 30 year old couple with 2 young children. Newborn and 2 year old. My husband and I don't earn much but he is super frugal and Iam myself working on it.

I have about 40k in a tfsa account and $7500 in a family resp. Iam able to save about 1200 a month to invest from the Child tax benefit.

I know I should keep up with the saving. I have a lot to learn so Iam just reading as much as I can at the moment but would like some advice or feedback.

We have no debt, house and car paid off. We're able to save 40% of our income. We are a low income family. Iv never opened a rrsp because iv always been in the low bracket in income.

I'm looking into CCP option 1: tangerine investment plan.

Or should I just invest my money with GICs? Seems like the only thing I really understand... are gics no good? Obviously you can tell I'm very new at this investing thing.

Thanks! Any help would be really appreciated. I feel so fortunate to have found this forum. I would love too continue staying at home and raising my children until they go to school.


Heckler

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2017, 06:39:54 AM »
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_investment_philosophy

Copy and paste the link. Stupid (R)

Heckler

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2017, 06:41:44 AM »

Retire-Canada

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2017, 09:52:02 AM »
It's worth reading this even though it's a US perspective: http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/  The general investing advice he gives applies north of the border.

If you are able to save 40% of your income and you are 30 then you should be able to retire in 22yrs or by the time you are 52. If you bump that up to 50% it's more like 17yrs or when you are 47. Since you already have $40K saved you are couple years ahead of that schedule. So all in all things are looking good.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

Read the other links folks have posted and come up with a plan that you can work for a decade and a half. It's important to remember that this is a marathon not a sprint. Don't do anything you can't sustain for the long term. Slower steady improvements are better than going crazy and feeling like saving is a prison you are in. If you work the MMM system properly your spending will decrease and you'll find your enjoyment of life won't change so that there is no downside to the process.

Good luck. I wish I had gotten my butt into gear when I was 30!

RichMoose

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2017, 11:00:45 AM »
We have no debt, house and car paid off. We're able to save 40% of our income. We are a low income family. Iv never opened a rrsp because iv always been in the low bracket in income.

I'm looking into CCP option 1: tangerine investment plan.

Or should I just invest my money with GICs? Seems like the only thing I really understand... are gics no good? Obviously you can tell I'm very new at this investing thing.

I can help out on these factors.

In regards to your RRSP, if you are low income (no individual in your household is earning more than $46,000 in taxable income) then you can avoid the RRSP. However, make sure you fill both TFSA accounts to the max possible before going to taxable investment accounts.

With Tangerine funds, I have to say they are no longer very competitive as a lot has changed since they were rolled out years ago with ING Direct. If you are willing to learn about online brokerages and self-managing investments, you will be much better off over the long run. Questrade notably doesn't charge any commissions on purchases of ETFs. If you are looking for a simple, one ETF solution comparable to the Tangerine product, there are "Portfolio ETFs" on the market.
The iShares Balanced Growth CorePortfolio Index ETF (trades as CBN.TO) is a good example that charges about 25% less in fees than Tangerine. You would be even better off with a lazy portfolio of 3 or 4 ETFs held in a balanced format. With this method, it's easy to drop expenses 90% lower than Tangerine.

GICs are honestly horrible investments right now. They barely match inflation rates if you go with an obscure online spud growers credit union. With the big banks, you're giving them money for free. It's a guaranteed way to lose money over time after factoring in purchasing power.

It's worth your while to learn about self-directed investing! It will pay off for you big time in your savings/investing journey.

RichMoose

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2017, 02:11:13 PM »
Thanks everyone for all the advice!

Rich Moose I read your whole series on renting and buying real estate. So much good information! Please keep writing more. I really enjoyed reading your blog.

It seems so far that the ccp model for tangerine seems the most simplist for me to understand at the moment.  Could I possibly invest in that model in the mean time before I learn more about self direct investing. I just want my 40k in the TFSA to earn more than a measly 0.80% while Iam still learning about investing. I don't want to take very much risk at all at the moment.

So what Iam really asking is although I understand self direct investment will be the way to go for the long term. Would I lose anything investing with tangerine at the moment? Would it be hard to move all the investments from there to like you say a ishare blanced growth with ETFS in the future?

Thanks for reading the blog, I'm glad you enjoy it!

Absolutely, there is no harm at all in using Tangerine funds while you learn more about self-directed investing. The future transfer is painless and the incoming broker should cover any associated transfer fees. Tangerine Balanced Fund would probably be a good starting point. 60/40 allocation of stocks and bonds mean relatively low volatility.

GreatLaker

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Re: Canadian stay at home mom looking for beginners investing advice
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2017, 09:38:38 AM »
Here are a couple more good links:

Finiki.org was pointed out upthread, and I find the Getting Started section particularly good as it gives a simple logical progression on one page:
http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Getting_started

If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly by William Bernstein is a free e-book. The author says more in 16 pages than many say in hundreds. It is US based but the principles apply in Canada; just replace the recommend funds with a portfolio from Canadian Couch Potato or Finiki.org.
https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf

 

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