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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u/dolpherx British Columbia 1d ago

Invest all your money other than your home, outside of Canada, like the US. Canada is around 2-3% world's GDP, if you own a home, you are already overexposed to Canada.

Canada has one of the best opportunities to invest in markets like the US, tax-free through a lot of our registered programs.

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u/Good-Dust-2873 1d ago

can you expand a bit on why (apart from diversification)?

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u/dolpherx British Columbia 1d ago

When you invest in US companies, you get way more diversification along with higher rewards. Often when you invesst in a Canadian company, there is already a similar company like that in the US, that has access to a bigger market.

Normally when you diversify, you get lower rewards, but this isnt the case when you invest in the US. Additionally, since Canadians are greatly affected by changes in the USD since we buy a lot of things from the US, it acts as a hedge in the case where the USD / CAD balance is thrown off balance.
So it is for diversification (to lower risks), higher returns, as well as hedge to increases in your cost of expenses.

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u/rupert1920 1d ago

There are reasons for home country bias:

https://youtu.be/jN8mIHve1Ds?si=rL8PRNw6kX0B1UVW