Thank you, I'm going to make a Tangerine account by the end of the year. I work at a Bank and with my staff account, I can afford to have a lower-than-minimum balance as I wouldn't be charged any fees (unless the rules have changed).
I was thinking of doing some trading on the side, but I'm a novice and that's a risky practice.
I want to mention that I'm in the medium risk portfolio for my current TFSA, which I had changed from the more conservative portfolio a few years ago after being shown a chart of market increase trends for the different portfolios (med-risk beat out even the high risk).
Do you think if it'll be stupid for me to set aside some money (like $2k-$5k) to enter the stock market?
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Its all the little steps that add up over time. I applaud the tangerine account, find a friend (or family member) and swap referral codes, the bonus is a sweet little present to yourselves.
I think its risky to set aside $2-5K for purchasing stocks, perhaps not the best use of money. There are 3 outcomes, you get lucky and do well, you match (reasonably closely) what your conservative portfolio returns are or you under perform (above, match, below - its that simple).
In the first scenario you'll end up confident you know what you're doing and pile more money in. Eventually you'll have a small fortune and think you're amazing. Then reality kicks in and you end up matching the performance of everyone else who stock picks. Which is the average return of the market. Or you lose a lot because you kept piling money in...no one ever brags about the time they lost a lot.
In the latter two cases you realize its easier just to pile more money into your TFSA portfolio and spend your extra time doing something more useful then stock picking; which is pretty much anything. You only lose a little, life goes on.
I did the stupid way and came out even. I don't regret it, I learned a lot, but it was a time waste. If you want to try it then put a hard cap on it (promise yourself not another dollar will go in ever) and consider it tuition money paid to Wall Street. Just like regular school, the school of hardknocks charges tuition. Make sure you focus on the emotional toil of investing, its easy to buy stocks, selling at a loss is a gut punch. Can you handle the gut punch of a losing stock pick? I couldn't, it sucked.
If you really insist on it, do a model portfolio for one year, then come back to tell me how great you did and blame me for advising against it ;) Google "practice investing with CDN banks" and I bet your bank pops up.
A much better plan is to skip the stock market and spend the extra time learning a new work skill. Increase your earnings and you'll out perform the stock market. Its simple and effective, it uses your strengths to succeed.
What kind of random skills and hobbies do you want to try? May I suggest, as a bank employee, you volunteer next tax season at the food bank doing low income tax returns? Sometimes hobbies can be that random, the point is that there's something out there for everyone.