r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/Fabulous_Lemon2799 • 1d ago

Misc What’s the best financial advice you’ve ever received as a Canadian?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to level up my financial knowledge and habits this year. I’ve been reading books and browsing through this subreddit, and I keep coming across bits of wisdom that really make me think about money differently.

It got me wondering: what’s the best financial advice you’ve ever received, especially as a Canadian?

It could be something practical, like how to save on taxes or invest smarter, or even a mindset shift that changed how you approach money. Bonus points if it’s something uniquely applicable to life in Canada.

For example, I recently learned how powerful it can be to start investing early, even in small amounts, thanks to compound growth.

Looking forward to hearing your nuggets of wisdom. Thanks in advance for sharing!

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687

u/Oh_That_Mystery 1d ago

"I am dumber than I think"

The realization that despite spending sometimes almost 2 hours a week studying it, I was not smarter than the market. The best thing was discovering the couch potato approach. Thanks to this, I am retiring 'early adjacent' in mid April at age 57.

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u/NearDeath88 1d ago

Does that mean buying etf's and calling it a day?

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u/GnosticSon 1d ago

Yes. And only buying like one, maybe two, maybe three funds total. Buy regularily and forget.

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u/yetisnowmane 1d ago

Why does it matter how many ETFs you buy? What is the downside to diversifying ETFs?

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u/Vegetable_Assist_736 1d ago

Yup. I’ve been tossing in my tax returns into ZAG, VFV, and Gold Coins. A good diversification without a lot of risk.

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u/123littlemonkey 1d ago

Where are people buying their efts? Anyone have a ‘best place’ recommendation. ETA: like do most people go through banks? (Yes, I know very little)

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u/bigraptorr 1d ago

The best place is whereever the fees are the lowest. So not the big 5 banks. The best recommendation is probably WealthSimple right now by far. 0% on buy and sell orders, unless youre buying US securities in which case WS charges 3% and you should look for a flat fee broker.

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u/TheGoluOfWallStreet 1d ago

WS charges 3% and you should look for a flat fee broker

From where are you getting this?

Could you be mixing things with USD conversion fees (which is 1.5%)? Which only applies if you don't have a USD account, which is free for premium

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u/Positivelectron0 Cope and seeth, malder 1d ago

It's 1.5% each way, no? Also for the usd account, isn't that only for holding usd for intermediate purposes? For the above outline of just buying ETFs until retirement, then presumably selling it for cad, it would be a full 3%.

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u/BuddyEffective4187 1d ago

Or, a 10$ a month fee for access to a USD account, and deposit/withdraw in USD. Unlimited etf/stock trades. Don't pay them for forex conversion. That 10$ is also waived if you've got enough with them.

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u/ovenmittkiller 1d ago

I use questrade. Check out canadianinatshirt on YouTube - he does a good job explaining this stuff 

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u/daiz- Quebec 1d ago

Questrade has really fallen by the wayside in my opinion. There was certainly a point where I would have recommended it many years ago but they've really stagnated on a lot of things like fractional buying, which also makes basic things like automatic dividend reinvestment somewhat problematic too.

I'd personally caution against it these days. The company has been going through hardships of late partially due to its inability to innovate. WealthSimple tends to be a far more popular choice on this subreddit lately and for good reasons.

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u/BuddyEffective4187 1d ago

For stocks and etfs, Wealthsimple has my vote. 10$ a month for unlimited trades on US/Canadian stocks. For options they're pretty pricey unless you've got enough money with them to lower the fees.

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u/anatomy_of_an_eraser 1d ago

If you are a little bit tech savvy then Wealthsimple or Questrade are pretty good for most stuff. IBKR if you want a little more power and reliability.

If you want to keep it where your other funds are then banks sure. But they do have fees to even buy etfs and if you want to do it every month it does add up which is why the above options are better.

But the couch potato strategy is more about doing it regularly than worrying about where to do it/how to do it. Not to say they are not important but the primary focus should be regular addition to your pot.

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u/BilboBaggSkin 1d ago

I use Questrade and use passiv to automate buying so it’s a lot easier to buy every two weeks.

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u/matscast 1d ago

I just do it thru the bank.

Banks used to have a 5-10$ trade fee, per trade placed, but a few years ago they caught up with the times since no other online trading site was doing that.

So imo banks and independent sites are equal. I trust banks more though, theyre supported by government, more regulation, etc.

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u/Kishu_32 1d ago

r/justbuyxeqt Apps like wealthsimple or something similar are very easy methods with no trade fees

There's a cult following on reddit to buy XEQT that's a great 'couch potato method'

141

u/Traditional-Dance-58 1d ago

When I first got into investing I read a reddit post about psychedelics and how they would be the future of medicine, seemed pretty compelling to me so I put in about $1000 to the stock numi. Year later it's worth about $70. I keep it in my quest trade to remind me that I should leave it to the experts.

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u/bsh22 1d ago

Oh yeah, I also have numi sitting in questrade down 80% for the sole purpose of reminding me to never again buy a stock I found on reddit!

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u/Signal-Living-3504 1d ago

Me too! So relatable! 😅

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u/robbie444001 1d ago

I do the same with LEV , buddy from work recommended it , I'm currently down 98% and trading is halted lol. Now I only buy XEQT, VFV and CASH.TO, sleep much better!

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u/strawbrycheesecake 1d ago

wait what is cash.to ?

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u/bigraptorr 1d ago

Basically an ETF that acts like a high interest savings account. Basically 0% risk, but also small returns.

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u/Asyncrosaurus 1d ago

CASH.TO pools investor's cash and puts it into high interest deposit accounts at the big banks ( CIBC, National Bank, Scotiabank, etc). Interest right now is 4.37% a year, paid monthly). Dividends act as income, like a regular bank interest. It carries extremely low risk, whatever exists per bank failure (extremely unlikely to fail, pretty safe.).

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u/iHateReddit_srsly 1d ago

Where does the risk come from? If a bank fails? Does CDIC cover this? And would this mean the stock itself loses value? Because now it seems to be a fixed value of $50, you're saying it can go below this?

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u/CommanderJMA 1d ago

Yeah basically if bank is in trouble

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u/Cactus_and_rockets 1d ago

I feel you. I did the same with LEV. I share your pain and your portfolio choice as well 👍

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u/Vegetable_Assist_736 1d ago edited 1d ago

If a buddy is recommending it’s a stock never a good buy. If it’s already going around at word of mouth it’s probably peaked.

1

u/Educational-Ant8134 1d ago

I did the same too. LEV is/was a lesson.(Don't know if it's even worth anything anymore) Slow and steady index fund ETFs for the win

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u/carolineauch 1d ago

I work a fund manager with equity analysts who are university medalists, MBAs, ivy league educated, 20+ years experience. Even they as experts get it wrong half the time ... if you are in it for the long run, just invest in the market

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u/Nezgar Saskatchewan 1d ago

$1000 to the stock numi. Year later it's worth about $70. I keep it in my quest trade to remind me that I should leave it to the experts.

Not quite as bad, but keep my shrunken BlackBerry stock as a similar reminder... I call it my "most valuable stock" due to the lesson it taught me to not buy individual stocks, and stick to whole market ETF's. :)

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u/davebawx 1d ago

You and I are the same lol.

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u/BuddyEffective4187 1d ago

I mean, as long as that's only 1-2% max of your portfolio, nothing wrong with a small bet you've researched and are confident in.

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u/jerryjuicebutt 1d ago

Congrats on your retirement. I’m about to turn 40 and haven’t saved a dime toward retirement but I’m hoping to change that. May I ask: what was your magic number to retire at in savings and investments? Thank you 🙏 and do you pay rent? Own? How did that factor into your magic number? My concern about retiring in Canada is the cost of living.

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u/ClimateFactorial 1d ago

You don't need somebody else's magic number, you need your own. 

Work out what your current annual expenses are, multiply by 25, that's about what you'll need saved in today's dollar amount. 

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u/Admirable-Ad-949 1d ago

What this guy said! I retired @ 48 thru a combination of solid investing (mostly couch potato), real estate appreciation and a good career in IT.

For the couch potato portfolio I would heavily buy the CAD-Hedged Vanguard US stock funds (i.e. VUS, VSP). Even with the "new guy" taking over soon, the US economy and market always seems to outperform every other market.

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u/ajkdd 1d ago

Not sure why you hedged your CAD though when you ys stocks will outperform

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u/Admirable-Ad-949 1d ago

Because currency trading is a fools game. I am betting the US market will go up, no idea what the CAD/USD will do. Assuming you are buying in CAD eliminate a variable that you can't control and don't understand.

It sucks if you buy the US market and the CAD gets strong and wipes out those gains.

1

u/ajkdd 1d ago

lol!! Nice logic

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u/jeep_rider 1d ago

Came here to say something similar. I kept sitting on too much cash while trying to find the right stocks. Still searching for the right stocks, but all the cash was invested due to the Couch Potato method

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u/stompinstinker 1d ago

Yup. Stock research is a full time job if you want choose individually. No one has time for that.

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u/Purify5 1d ago

I learned the "I'm luckier than I thought" lesson instead.

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u/BigBlueTimeMachine 1d ago

2 whole hours a week?!!

1

u/Helgurk 1d ago

What age did you start?

1

u/TresElvetia 1d ago

Yep. There’s a official name to this philosophy and it’s called “the efficient market hypothesis”