Over the past couple of years, I have been working very hard to spend less, save more, and make smart decisions with my money. So far, so good, and I’ve been able to triple my income, pick up a lot of side jobs, start a retirement savings account, begin a job that has a pension, and buy a house (which, due to it’s status as my primary residence, is not really an investment, but I do have a tenant so that counts for something).
My retirement savings are tied up in mutual funds, but I’ve decided that my next course of action is to begin investing in the stock market.
There are a lot of posts out there that are a beginner’s guide to investing, and I’ve been scouring the blogosphere for more information over the past few years. I try to be as educated as possible before making big money moves, so I’ve learned a lot and now I’m ready to start investing in shares.
It’s funny, because my notion when I was in high school was that it is difficult to grow wealth by investing, but once you actually learn a little bit about it and delve into the topic more, it turns out that it’s easy to buy and sell shares on the stock market. The hard part is knowing yourself, your risk tolerance, and what type of shares are right for you.
Investment Platform
There are many, many things that I think should be done online. Most things, even. My preferred trading investing platform, then, MUST be based online.
I remember a few years ago a tried to sign up for this one platform that indicated on it’s website that it was mainly online. I got several phone calls thereafter (all during my work day) and learned that I had to call in to do almost anything with my account. That was a deal breaker.
Because I spend so much time online, the investment platform that I will be using will be online.
Where I’m Starting
I am thinking that I will be starting with index funds first. I am too “green” for individual stock picking, though one day I’d love to venture into that area of investing.
My RRSPs are tied up in mutual funds, which have been going quite well. But lots of my research has been pointing toward index funds, so that is what I’ll be going with.
Starting investing isn’t easy, especially with all of the information out there about it. Exploring what is right for me, and weeding out opinions, debates, and bad advice, has been involved and difficult but I think after a long period of time doing so, I’ve been able to narrow it down.
When did you start investing? What was your first experience like?
I started investing in my mid-late 20s. I invested very conservatively in Canadian Savings Bonds and Guaranteed Investment Certificates. I kept on extending the term on the GIC,even though the return was averaging less than 1% per year. My CSBs barely gave me any returns as well.
Then a few years ago, I opened up a brokerage account with my bank and invested in stocks. My TFSA account is invested in a monthly income fund, whereas my RRSP account is a more aggressive portfolio with funds from the U.S, international markets and emerging markets. My biggest regret is not educating myself earlier about investments and letting my in-house advisor make all the recommendations.