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Not a day goes by where we don’t get an email asking exactly what to do to start investing for their future Financial Independence. We talk about the strategies we used and how we actually built up our nest egg, but what people kept asking for was a step-by-step guide on how to invest and actually build a portfolio for themselves. Well, we’ll do you one better: I am proud to announce the start of the Millennial Revolution Investment Workshop!
This will be a year-long workshop that we will run right here on Millennial-Revolution.com, where we will walk through the exact steps (with screenshots) of how you, the reader, can invest in low-cost Index ETFs just like we did. And we’re going to do it with REAL money, in the actual stock market LIVE for you to see.
Why? Because we can talk about Modern Portfolio Theory and Index Investing until we’re blue in the face, but it’s not going to help people who are just too new at this to risk doing it themselves. As we build up our portfolio, you’re going see our actual holdings fluctuate up, and crash back down at various times. And through it all, you will see how we deal with the screaming talking heads in the media yelling about how it’s different this time and the sky is falling. It’s never different this time and the sky is NOT falling.
Throughout this whole thing, we will be acting as if we’re in the same boat as many of you are: Still working and just starting to build your portfolio from scratch. As such, we will be starting all the way from the process of opening the right accounts, how to fund them, picking the securities and actually putting in the orders. Oh, and because of our large US audience, we will be running two portfolios in parallel: A Canadian one worth $10,000 and a US also worth $10,000 (USD).
And through it all, you are free to come along. You can match our exact moves with however little or as much money as you want, or maybe put your own twist on our investment strategies, or you can sit there with a bucket of popcorn to see how it goes. Totally up to you.
And your cost for participating: Nothing. I know that apparently what bloggers are supposed to do when they get big is to start hawking some $5000 e-course, but we’re not going to do that because:
- We hate that shit.
- We don’t need the money.
- We believe that knowledge about how to invest for your early retirement is a human right. Unlike those big banks and financial companies trying to screw you every day, we don’t think knowledge about how to invest is something that only the rich or privileged should have access to. Everyone should have access to it, and it should be free.
So we will be conducting this workshop for FREE. We only ask that if you participate, please use the affiliate links we provided to open up your brokerage accounts, so we can cover the costs of running this blog and keep it free.
Standard Disclaimer: We are NOT licensed financial advisors. This Workshop is for demonstrative purposes only, and shouldn’t take the place of a formalized, holistic financial plan created by a licensed financial advisor. You participate at your own risk.
OK, so ready to get started? Let’s start by opening up a Brokerage account.
In the past, we have advocated using TD e-series mutual funds when your portfolio size is smaller because buying/selling ETFs typically incurs trading costs. Those days are gone, because now brokerage companies have started offering accounts where you can trade ETFs for FREE. Knowing this, it now makes little sense to go with mutual funds anymore. Sorry, TD Waterhouse. Them’s the breaks.
How to Invest in CANADA (Questrade)
In Canada, the brokerage account we’ll be using is Questrade. We’ve been toying with them for the past couple months and so far we like what we see. Questrade offers commission-free buying of any Canadian or US-listed ETF. Selling an ETF will incur the normal trading commission of $4.95 to $9.95 (depending on the number of shares sold), but when you’re still working and in the accumulation phase of your portfolio-building, you’re almost always buying and rarely selling (maybe once a year to rebalance if even that). So this is effectively free trading for the average long-term ETF investor, plus you get to take advantage of the much lower management fees inherent in Index ETFs (again, in the 0.1% range). We’ve been using them for a few months now and the fee structure seems legit. No monthly or hidden fees or anything.
Opening up an account is free. If you don’t already have one, use this link as it gives you a $50 rebate on commissions going forward. That might come in handy if we need to rebalance later on down the road.
Questrade offers two types of accounts:
- Self-Directed
- Managed.
Because we’re going to be directing our trades ourselves, we want to select “Self-Directed.”
And for the Self-Directed Account Type, we are going to pick a normal non-registered account “Standard Individual.” (We will talk about RRSP/TFSA accounts in a future post). We won’t be messing with options at all, so pick “No” for the Options trading. And make sure if it’s not there, you add in the offer code of “AFFLT” so you can get your $50 of free trades.
After that, you’ll be asked for your name, address, SIN, etc. Go ahead and fill that out and complete your application.
Once you’re done your application, though, there’s still paperwork you have to mail into them. Questrade requires a “Statement of Acceptance,” which you have print out, sign, scan, and upload back to them. They also require a bank statement (I just download mine from Tangerine and uploaded it), as well as an “Attested ID,” which is SUPER annoying. Basically, you have to photocopy your passport and get a CPA, lawyer, doctor, etc. to sign the paper attesting that you are who you say you are, and then you have snail-mail it to their headquarters in Toronto. Alternatively, if you live in Toronto, you can just pop by their head office near Finch Station and show them your ID there.
If you’re planning on following along, I’d suggest you start this process soon. It took us a few weeks to get everything accepted.
How to Invest in the USA (Vanguard)
And now onto the Americans. For you, we’ll be using Vanguard. Why? Well because they offer commission-free trading on Vanguard ETFs!
Again, for the purposes of this experiment we’ll be opening up an Individual trading account. We will be talking about how to invest using tax-advantaged accounts in a future post, but to keep things simple we will start with this.
The account opening process is fairly straightforward, but at the end you have to print out, sign and snail-mail a whole bunch of documents to their headquarters, so again if you’re planning on following along you might want to do this sooner rather than later as it does take a while.
Personal Capital
And finally, we’re going to be using Personal Capital to analyze our portfolio going forward. Why? While I liked the commission-free trading structure of both brokerages, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the portfolio analysis/visualization tools of either of them. Personal Capital has some nifty visualization tools we can use to track our portfolio, so by linking our accounts to Personal Capital, we’ll be able to show one screen to track our portfolio’s performance. Unfortunately, Personal Capital only works for Americans. Canadians will have to just sit this one out 🙁
Opening an account is free (sensing a theme here?) and pretty straightforward. If you don’t have an account, you can open one using this link…
Opening this account is even simpler than opening up the brokerage ones since you don’t need to print anything out, and once you do link your Vanguard account so that you can see your trading account. Once that’s done you will be ready to rock and roll and learn how to invest!
OK phew, that’s it! Next week we will go over the steps involved in funding our trading accounts and picking out which ETFs we are going to use for our portfolio. Don’t worry if your paperwork hasn’t been approved yet. We’re going to be spending a few weeks talking about overall strategy, so plenty of time for you to get ready.
Thanks for participating, and let us know if you run into any problems in the comments below!
Click here to continue.
WORKSHOP TOOLS
How much does it cost to participate in the Investment Workshop? NOTHING. Because that's how we roll. All we ask is that you sign-up using the following affiliate links to keep it free forever:
For Canadians:
For Americans:
Or, prefer to use a Robo Advisor? Check out Wealthsimple, and get your first $10,000 managed for free!
Disclaimer: The views expressed is provided as a general source of information only and should not be considered to be personal investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell securities. Investors considering any investment should consult with their investment advisor to ensure that it is suitable for the investor’s circumstances and risk tolerance before making any investment decisions. The information contained in this blog was obtained from sources believe to be reliable, however, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete.
F*cking A! Bout time. Keep being awesome!
Hi there I am from Australia! This is sincerar you guys are doing this. I would like to start investing . Is there any place or blog that you can recommend to me to try to invest here ? I mean I am not sure I really don’t have experience in this son not sure where I can buy here in Australia!
Did you find out any information, I am in Australia also and would like to do this
Your link to Personal Capital seems to be broken.
Where are you located? I think there may be issues with overseas user access right now.
Winnipeg!
Bizarre. Could be an issue with the link outside the States. I’ll give Personal Capital a call and get back to you.
Okay, so as it turns out the affiliate program doesn’t work for Canadians. *sigh* Whatever. We’re not in the for the money, so doesn’t matter. Anyhoo…we updated the post to show the regular link for Canadians so just use that.
Thanks for looking into it.
Hi from Singapore, would you consider looking at some international options?
From a 28 year old
The brokerages mentioned aren’t available for Singapore, but you can try to mimic what we’re doing with your own country’s funds. Unfortunately, we don’t have experience with directly investing in the Asian market.
You guys are A+ awesome!! Thank you so much guys!
Hey guys, it was my understanding that Personal Capital is not available in Canada. However, if you are able to link Questrade to it, perhaps it is available?
It is available for Canadians, but the affiliate program isn’t. So we won’t get paid for referrals, but that’s okay. Just use the regular link (updated in the post).
It seems to technically be available, but the only account I was able to link to was my Questrade account. My TD and RBC accounts were not able to be linked, only set up manually, which for me defeats the purpose since I already maintain a manual net worth tracker.
Excellent idea, I guess you guys should get prepared for some extra media coverage! Do you have any particular deadline in mind, like you’re aiming 100k by this time, 500k by that, or you just keep on investing and let the pig get fat in it’s own pace?
Hi Wanderer,
Thanks for doing this. Quick question: For people who have the TD e series mutual funds, is there a free (or low cost) method to transfer the money to Questrade? To make matters a little complicated, I have them in the RRSP umbrella as well.
Let me know.
Thanks.
I think TD charges fees to transfer it out, but sometimes the receiving end re-imburses it. You can give Questrade a call and see if they will cover it. Otherwise, just leave it in the e-series, and mirror our ETFs choices with funds that follow the same indexes.
This is GREAT! I have been obsessed with FI blogs and am a changed person because of them. It started because I saw you guys being interview and got curious about your website. Been obsessed ever since. I’m a bit behind (36 years old ) but am motivated to try to retire by 50 or sooner if things go well. I’ll open my accounts today!
Me too, were in the same boat.
I second that!
Thank you. Just thank you. Reading MMMs blog shamed me into opening up a self-directed account last year. Not with Questrade, so maybe if I like Questrade’s features better after following along, I can switch using your link. So please keep it open (or give advance warning if you’re shutting it down). Incidentally, the brokerage firm I ended up with DID have hidden fees. Not huge hidden fees, but still annoying. Grrrrr.
Two things that I’d like to see covered, a bit later in the process, are: (1) re-balancing and (2) how to set up withdrawals to minimize taxes.
And thank you again.
One thing people should know about Mint.com or Personal Capital is you have to give them your account passwords. If you get hacked and money is stolen from you the brokerage will not be responsible because you gave that info away. Every bank I asked told me the same thing.
If you used Mint or Personal Capital you would know your bank information is not stored in your account. If someone hacks your account they cannot do anything.
That being said, if someone hacked Intuit (Creator of Mint) or Personal Capital themselves they would have access to bank details, sure. But their servers are so secure it is safer to give them your bank details than it is your own bank.
If you are unwilling to use Mint or PC, then you should also be unwilling to use any online banking or purchase anything from any website because your details could be stolen from their (probably less secure) server.
I did use Mint for a few months until I found out about not being covered from unauthorized access. If you get hacked and they find out you have willingly given your login details to these companies or anyone else don’t expect them to reimburse you. There is a big difference between someone stealing your credit card vs giving away all of your login passwords to a company. I do my tracking with a 2 dollar notebook instead.
Clearly you didn’t read my comment. If YOU get hacked on Mint there are no bank login details the hacker can access and as such no money they can take. Babk details are not stored anywhere on your mint account. As such the hacker cannot take any money from you.
Again as I said, your bank details are only held on the Intuit server, just as they would be at BMO’s or TD’s server. There is no more risk using Mint as there is using online banking or any online brokerage.
Anyway, live in fear I guess. I’m sure budgeting on paper must be a walk in the park.
What if you get hacked but not from Mint but your bank says they aren’t paying because you did break their rules of not sharing your passwords? That’s my point. They won’t care if you say Mint is unhackable. To me losing my life savings isn’t worth tracking things I can track already by logging into accounts. Do you also trust insurance companies will do the right thing when it’s time for them to pay? Not if they can avoid it.
I am with Aaron. Don’t trust anybody with your passwords!
That said, a nice step up from a paper notebook or a static spreadsheet is google docs sheet. In my spreadsheet, I have a line for every stock / bond / cash holding in every account (but no actual account numbers). For stocks the doc pulls in latest market price automatically, so overall portfolio value gets updated automatically. Individual bonds and mutual funds don’t work so well but you won’t be using them for this tutorial! Still need to do manual update for things like Dividends, interest, salary but it’s a lot less tedious. Also added asset allocation feature(by marking each security as stock, bond, give, cash) so can see at a glance where I stand.
In my book I just write down everything I buy, earn and invest in during the month and then at the end of the month I total everything up and check my accounts for where all of my investments are at and my net worth. It takes maybe half an hour or less a month. And it’s easy to look at any time I want to see where I was at the start of the year or whenever. I don’t know why people would need to know their daily net worth or account values through Mint or whatever. Once a month is good for me. The best thing is seeing where you are wasting money and getting rid of those habits. I’ve been writing in a spending journal since I was 17 and it’s a habit I can’t imagine not doing. I don’t see how anyone could be successful without doing that. I might like spreadsheets if I knew how to make them.
Urgh, I’m not even going to bother trying. If there is one thing I’ve come to learn it’s that there are some people who live in constant fear and paranoia of technology and society at large. My mother in law is just like this and it drives me nuts. She doesn’t trust all sorts of things for fear of losing money/identity/privacy you name it. I wouldn’t mind but it’s when they push their irrational (and often misguided) fear onto others that it bothers me. And push it she does.
You don’t even understand Mint and how it works. Have you even read about their security, researched the concerns of getting hacked when using Mint? It’s an often debated topic. I don’t think it makes any difference though, all you need to hear is a bank to say “don’t give your bank details out” and that’s enough to never trust any website with any bank details, ever. If that’s how you want to live, fair enough.
And yes I trust insurance companies because I read their terms. As long as you stick within their terms, you’re fine. Don’t read their terms and you’re not. If I get burned from an insurance company it’s my own fault because I didn’t read their terms. You can’t go around complain about it afterwards.
Hacking is becoming prevalent. Every year we hear of major chains being hacked. Target, banks, and many other businesses and institutions are routinely hacked. Providing your bank details to a 3rd party and potentially being hacked without coverage may be a small risk but it is a risk. It is entirely reasonable to prefer notebook or google docs over a 3rd party tracking system.
I specifically asked all of my banks and Questrade if they would recommend me to use Mint or Personal Capital and every one of them said they do not recommend them and if you are hacked they will not be liable for your losses as you gave away your passwords. Maybe you just don’t have much to lose so you are not afraid of that. I do and I worked hard for it. You go ahead and pass out your passwords everywhere, I’m good.
This, right here. I spoke with my bank and they clearly state that we would be in breach of our contract should we provide our login credentials to a third party (Mint/PC). If this is discovered to be the case, the banks could very well choose to not protect under any loss via hacking/security fraud, even outside of that third party.
What if Google’s servers are hacked and someone gets your details from Google docs?
Also, what if your PC is hacked and someone gets your bank passwords?
If you have a burglar, what about your $2 notebook?
I think you should calculate only in your head, instead of notebook or online. That’s safest.
This is so amazing what you guys are doing! Thanks – so looking forward to this and getting everything all signed up!
Hi,
Is anyone else having trouble signing up for an account with Personal Capital? I try to register but it doesn’t do anything when I press: “sign up – its free” button at the bottom of the screen. I’ve checked off that I am not a robot. Thanks!
We had a problem with the affiliate link for Canadians, but it’s been updated to the regular link now. Which one are you using? Can you paste it here?
Very excited about this! Within days of discovering your blog in early September, I opened up a Questrade account and bought a small amount of VCN ETFs. Yes, my dabbling into investments is entirely thanks to you. Now I am thrilled to follow along with this series in order to take it to the next level. Yah!
This is an awesome idea!
The only caveat is the $50 fee Questrade charges on RESPs if all your accounts total under $15,000. So you’d not want to open a RESP with them until that point, and if in BC might want to keep another RESP at a big bank anyway that can hold the $1,200 per child BC education and training grant (even RBC Direct Investing is unable to receive or hold that grant yet).
Good note. Thanks for sharing, Jessica!
I was able to set up TD Ameritrade and fund it today. They didn’t ask me to mail in any paperwork, maybe it is because I funded the account. I hope this is correct.
They asked us for it, but maybe it’s because you have existing products with them? Anyway, should be fine, as long as you make sure the funds show up correctly.
I just made an account with TD Ameritrade and they didnt ask me to mail any paperwork either. I don’t have any TD accounts, I wonder if its because you’re in Canada? My funds aren’t showing up but they said they would process it on the next business day. I’m currently doing this on a Sunday night.
Same here. I didn’t have to mail anything as long as I didn’t sign up for a separate TD checking account.
Also, remember to enroll into the Commission Free ETF Program. I had to call to find out how, but it’s under Research & Ideas tab.
Hello! Thanks so much for sharing! Do you have step by step instructions for Vanguard? If not, should I be opening a retirement account (Roth or traditional?) or Savings?
If Wanderer or FIREcracker have a Questrade account already, they do offer a referral link that you can provide for friends. This link ID (aka Qpass Key) can be generated from the menu options in your account. It also benefits both parties: the referrer gets $25 for each sign up and the new account holder gets an escalating cash bonus of $25-$250 depending on the amount being deposited.
http://www.questrade.com/promotions/refer_a_friend
That’s good to know. We’ll look into it. Thanks!
First off, you guys ROCK! I’ve only been reading your blog for about a month or so but I love it! It’s informative and hilarious, and it helps break down some of the uncertainty that comes with investing. I have no investing experience and am just looking to start saving for retirement and financial independence, and the idea of taking all my hard earned money and investing while having no experience left me a little scared. But, knowing what I know about you guys and your success, I feel better about it! In fact, while filling out the forms for TD Ameritrade, I was actually getting *gasp* EXCITED about the idea of investing! I think I may be giddy!
This is an invaluable service you’re providing! I am so looking forward to your future posts and will be there right alongside you guys! Thank you!
Is there any way I can join from either Europe or New Zealand? Either way, I look forward to following!
The brokerages mentioned aren’t available for Europe, but you can try to mimic what we’re doing with your own country’s funds. Unfortunately, we don’t have experience investing directly in the European market.
Vanguard are a good provider of either ETFs or funds in UK using ISAs or a direct investment. Lifestyle funds can automatically allocate and rebalance to target level such as 40% bond, 60% equity model. Fund fee is 0.22%p a plus plum fee of 0.15%p.a
I think a Smartshares account in NZ would be fairly similar. They have lots of low cost ETFs.
That’s great, thanks for letting me know about Smartshares!
I am so looking forward to this ! Thanks for walking us through it. Should we have initial expectations / goals?
Some simple math says that the initial $10K should be about $12.5K in five years – a gain of $2,625 (assuming 6% average return from a balanced portfolio).
Or if we assume we deposit $10K every year for the next five years ($50K), then we should have $56K by the end of 2021 – a gain of $6,371.
Does this seem about right? I think it’s important to establish that this is not about doubling money in five years or something unrealistic like that.
Very good point and we will be setting clear and realistic expectations. Thanks for your diligence!
Awesome stuff!
Will definitely follow along and sign up with Questrade. I was wondering, I live in Toronto but do have an account with USD with Scotiabank. Could I be able to sign up for TD Ameritrade as well?
Beyond excited and gratefull!!
For Canadians, I’ve found Personal Capital to be extremely buggy and their customer support to be non-existent. I’ve linked it to my Questrade account but unfortunately there are so many bugs it’s almost useless to use. It mis-allocates deposits to the wrong account, making it look like one of your accounts is killing it and the other sucking. One of my accounts is like +10% in a month and the other -8%. Both have been performing average in reality.
It also tries to automatically identify any ETF you are holding and allocate it as equity or bonds etc. This is set up great for US customers but it basically doesn’t recognize any Canadian ETF’s and even recognizes them as the wrong ones. A huge chunk of my portfolio is allocated as equity when it is in fact bonds. Obviously for re-balancing it’s now useless. You can manually allocate your ETF’s holding should you choose, but if it does try and allocate them itself, you can’t change it.
The software is also completely set up for US customers. You can specify how much of your equity is in US equity, but not Canadian. You cannot edit the categories so if you want to track Canadian equity/bonds you have to use “International Equity”, which obviously lumps Canada in with everyone except the US. Not ideal as most Canadian customers care about Canadian equity, not US equity.
The biggest issue is you can’t manually fix or alter these things. The software is completely rigid and if there is an error, it is there forever. I’ve contacted customer support and they basically don’t help at all. At this point the only use for the software is for tracking my overall performance over the long-term (which I can do myself).
I also find the graphs neat but not very detailed. Everything is in % but they never back up their graphs with $ amounts. It makes it very difficult to know how accurate their graphs are. They say your portfolio is up 2%, great! Can I see the numbers behind that? No!
It’s so buggy I basically don’t trust anything it is telling me anymore. I’d rather manually track my investments than a piece of software that seems incapable. I suspect in the long run it will come in useful so I am keeping it around for now, but I certainly wouldn’t rave about it.
Personal Capital has been working pretty well for us so far. We’ll keep an eye on it and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I must also say this is quite a gutsy move opening an account with a 1 year horizon right now. You could quite easily end up down in the current market with a 1 year time span. Hats off to you!
It may very well happen, and that would be a perfect opportunity to learn how to rebalance! 🙂
are you able to canada tsx listed stocks to personal capital? for example, i’m trying to add XIC and it won’t let me…
Personal Capital does not recognise any Canadian ETF to my knowledge.
It will recognize you have XIC but it won’t know what the hell that is. You can manually enter what XIC is though, within their rigid restrictions. So since XIC tracks the TSX, you would have to allocate this as international equity since Canadian equity is not an option.
Correct. We will be allocating TSX-tracking ETFs as an international equity.
This is wonderful. I love reading your blog and I truly appreciate you sharing this info
You guys seriously rock! Thank you times a hundred! My hubby and I were just saying we wished there was a step by step guide and voila! Your next post came around! Bless you both as you fight the good fight.
YES YES YES!
Same – totally intimidated by the idea of investing. SO grateful to Firecracker and Wanderer for making this accessible to everyone! You guys are amazing.
I assume that Canadian Questrade account users will be holding a large percentage of US listed ETFs. Could you please discuss the %2 (hidden) fee that Questrade charges for currency conversion. So that “free” purchase of $10,000 worth of etfs actually costs $200. Also, selling that etf will cost $210.95 rather than the $10.95 advertised. As awesome engineers and financial wizards, you should point out, for your readers, how Questrade really makes its money.
What makes you assume Canadian Questrade users will hold US ETF’s?
You can own the entire US stock market in Canadian ETF’s so there is no real need to hold any US ETF’s anyway. The only reason would be if you want to hold accounts in USD.
I haven’t looked at their fee structure, but why would you convert currency via Questrade if you were wanting to buy US ETF’s anyway? You’d exchange the money at your bank (or wherever you usually exchange CAD to USD) and then send the money to a USD account in Questrade (incurring no fees).
Selling the ETF would not cost $210.95 as you do not need to convert any currency. Questrade can manage both USD and CAD accounts without having to convert anything.
Essentially, convert your money outside of Questrade and send it to whatever (CAD or USD) account you have in Questrade to avoid having to exchange money there. Anyway, anywhere you convert currency you will be charged a fee (hidden or not) in the exchange rate itself.
I’ve been using Questrade for 2 years now and they’ve earned virtually nothing from me as I only buy ETF’s (free) and very rarely sell.
Thank you for your response.
And thank you for setting me straight on the CAD->USD exchange in Questrade. You are totally correct. I should be funding from separate accounts.
Also, I had no idea you could buy ETFs that hold US or international equities in CAD. (Mind blown. Looking forward to following the series)
No worries and you’re welcome. We’re all learning here at various levels of experience.
I’m somewhat new to investing but have been reading FIRE blogs for a couple of years and been investing (on Questrade) for around 2 years now so I think I have most the basics down pat, now moving onto more intermediate stuff (and moving towards a 100% equity portfolio, which I wouldn’t advise most people to do). To be honest though, once you have the basics down it’s mostly just about being disciplined and avoiding emotion. I haven’t been through a market crash so only time will tell how that goes but I’m pretty confident I’d hold out.
In terms of holding equities in CAD, I particularly like the following ETF’s
Canadian Equity – VCN (220 Largest Canadian Companies)
US Equity – VUN (3600 Largest US Companies)
Intl Equity (Exc. US) – VEF (3800 Largest Intl Companies exc. US)
Intl Equity (Exc. Canada) – VXC (8,400 Largest Intl Companies exc. Canada)
These are all Vanguard ETF’s as I prefer to use them wherever possible (https://www.vanguardcanada.ca/individual/etfs/etfs.htm) but iShares also have a lot available (https://www.blackrock.com/ca/individual/en/products/product-list#!type=iSharesETFCA&tab=overview&view=list)
Those are awesome. I heart Vanguard.
I do use a combo of VIU + VEE for international, on the theory that VIU might be marginally better than VXC because it holds stocks directly and isn’t subject to the layer of US dividend taxes VXC is (because that holds US ETFs instead of holding stocks directly). Though VXC is a perfectly good ETF and lets you simplify your portfolio a lot if you want an emphasis on Canada; you can just do VCN (Canada) + VXC (rest of the world) and leave it at that.
Personally I buy VCN (Canada) + VUN (U.S.) + VIU (developed countries outside North America) + VEE (developing countries). The fees across the whole shebang averaged out to 0.14%, last time I updated the various fees in my spreadsheet.
All of the above are in Canadian currency. At some point I plan to start buying some US ETFs (especially to replace VUN) because you can generally get equivalent ETFs with lower fees in the US – the benefits of a bigger population and more efficiencies with products like this. Although I doubt they have an equivalent of *VCN* with a lower fee, because Canada is likely to be the biggest market for that particular ETF (it’s already insanely cheap at 0.06%).
The most cost-efficient way to exchange currencies is using Norbert’s Gambit – you can Google more details, but basically, it means you buy a particular stock on the TSX in Canadian currency, and then you get your brokerage to convert it to the exact same stock listed in the US – there shouldn’t be a fee for this part. Then you just sell it and get the USD. Often people do this with DLR.U, which is an ETF – so no cost to buy it on Questrade – plus it is an ETF for US currency; one unit of DLR.U = one US dollar. So you know when you make the purchase exactly how many US dollars you’re getting. Because there is a cost to sell this on Questrade, you don’t want to do this in small chunks – the more $ you convert at a time, the cheaper it is per dollar. I don’t think I’m going to do it with less than $10K at a time.
My advice to beginners is: stick to just buying ETFs in your local currency until you are much more comfortable with the whole thing. It’s not efficient to do currency conversion until you’ve accumulated a fair chunk of money to do it with anyway. 🙂 And at least in Canada, the local-currency offerings are decent enough that you could stick with them forever and be fine – no need to fiddle further with it if you’re not optimization-obsessed like SOME of us *cough*.
It’s hard not to fiddle the more you learn! I used to have a super simple portfolio but the more you read the more you want to fiddle. Now I hold all sorts of crap like REIT’s, Gold, Energy, Preferred Shares etc. I sometimes want to go back to the basics haha.
Generally though, just VXC and VCN have been killing it this year (especially VCN!)
The minimalist in me is definitely tempted by VXC + VCN. 🙂
Awesome, I really look forward to this workshop.
On an unrelated note, I was wondering what you guys would do in a hyperinflation environment. During intense deflation (2008 crash, am I right?) you constantly rebalaned your portfolio. Is there a similar measure to take in a hyperinflation situation (as unlikely as it is to occur in our lifetimes) to come out on too once the smoke clears?
Essentially the opposite of deflation. Stocks increase when inflation is high as companies are selling their goods for higher prices. If you are trying to keep your portfolio balanced you would end up selling stocks and buying bonds (which would have fallen during inflation).
If you are getting more plucky with your investing and you really expect inflation to kick in in the future, gold and real estate are two good hedges against high inflation. Money tends to flock to both of these as they are seen as “safe” investments. This is why some portfolio managers hold a small amount (<5%) of REIT's and gold ETF's in their portfolios.
If you are just starting out though I certainly wouldn't start dabbling with that just yet.
Thx for starting this…still never ceases to amaze me how ppl are retarded and can’t figure this out. Now they have no excuse with this post and series!
Great info, thanks! As a Millennial, what do you think of the new Fintech product offerings for automated investing, such as BMO SmartFolio and Wealthsimple?
To keep things simple, we’re going to stick with self-directed investing for this workshop. This will help people understand investing better, as you will learn it from the ground up. We’ll leave robo-advisors for a future workshop.
What do you guys think of dividend aristocrats such as SPDR S&P Dividend (SDY), ProShares S&P 500 Aristocrats (NOBL), and SPDR S&P Global Dividend (WDIV).
I was thinking I should just park my money in one of those long term, get the dividends every quarter and watch the fund grow.
In our experience, Canadian dividend aristocrats carry a sector risk since they are heavily weighted toward financials and oil. During the oil rout in 2015, dividend stocks got hit hard. This is why we advocate for index investing instead. You can still rely on fixed income and dividends that your portfolio pays out in the event of a market correction, without having to take the risk of your stocks crashing to zero (this could happen with individual dividend paying stocks, but not for the index)
The American dividend aristocrats may have a different sector weighting, but still carries with it a sector risk over the broad index.
Thanks for your input, Wanderer. I have trying to educate myself more on dividend aristocrats, as they seem to be the “hot” investment vehicle these days.
Here’s another article that might be of interest:
http://tinyurl.com/hjm7l32
You guys are awesome. I’m so excited for this. I have been dying to start investing but was so afraid because I’m savvy enough. I open a robo- investment account and have been monitoring it for 6 months, so far I’m losing money and still don’t know the details of investing.
can’t follow step by step the workshop (I’m European), but I’m here with you 🙂
Amazing idea, thanks for what you’re doing and for doing it for free! You’re definitely awesome!
I am European too and I found it quite trickey to find the best ivestment platform to open my account with? If you dont mind sharing which one do you use I would be super gateful. Thank you
Hi Caroline, I use InteractiveBrokers like most of my friends and colleagues.
I’ve written about it on my blog: https://retireinprogress.com/interactive-brokers-101/
Wanderer,
I just opened an Ameritrade account online, went through all the steps and the correct balance is there. However, got lost your advice for using Personal Capital. Is this found on my Ameritrade page? What’s it for?
Doh! I got it. Just clicked repeatedly on the Personal icon.
Thanks so much for starting this! Also, thanks for your prompt reply via Twitter a few weeks back!
Anyway, quick question. Currently have mutual funds with TD Investment Services, NOT e-series. I’d like to transfer and use these funds for this to Questrade. Am I in the position to suffer any penalties for redeeming these mutual funds, or is there a better way of transferring?
Complete novice here, sorry for the ignorance.
Last time I looked at those funds, there was a 30-day 2% early-redemption penalty, so just stop buying more units and you can liquidate after 30 days if you want. Check your prospectus.
Awesome idea! Can’t wait to follow along. Thank you for literally putting your $$ where your mouth is. Given the number and enthusiasm of comments, this will be an educational and fun public service, no matter where the markets are in 1 year (or 10).
Thank you so much for doing this!! <3
Thank you thank you thank you!! This is the post I’ve been waiting for! I am so excited to go on this journey with you. You have changed my life.
Hopefully for the better 🙂
Mine too!!
I love that you guys are doing this. I set up my Questrade account a few weeks ago, and have only been putting off going to my bank to get my RRSP and TFSA transferred over. Frankly, I haven’t been able to find info online as to how complicated that is. I’m expecting a fee from RBC, and that should get it done, right?
I’m guessing that you guys aren’t doing TFSA and RRSP simply because you already have yours set up and maxed out? The process isn’t any different than doing it in an unsheltered account, is it?
Correct. But we will talk about how to position your investments properly inside TFSA and RRSPs in the workshop.
I could not connect Questrade to any of them PersonalCapital or Mint.com.
How that worked for you?
Do I enable any feature under Questrade? or I need to complete my profile in Mint or personal capital first
My Questrade account to complete it’s application including sending in paperwork before linking worked, so maybe that’s it. Otherwise, it was just a matter of picking Questrade from Personal Capital’s dropdown and signing in.
First time investing for me and I am excited to follow this workshop. Thanks for putting this together!
Not sure it is the best, but for those afraid of linking accounts by providing logins/passwords (I feel the same way), I have played around with Morningstar.com / .ca. You can create multiple portfolios, add the fund, date, units purchased, dollar amount and then it tracks it for you. I have done this for actual portfolios I have and to simulate if I had done something else (“test” portfolio) what would have happened. This might be a suitable solution for some of you, instead of excel or pencil and paper.
Thank you for doing this! I have a BMO investor line account but my TFSA and RRSP is maxed out with them so time for some investments in non registered accounts. I open up my Quest trade account. Just waiting to fund it now. This may be answered in future posts, but are you both planning on doing an initial $10,000 then monthly dollar cost averaging with QT? Say $500 a month?
Thank you both for doing this 🙂
We will cover that in a future post.
Would this challenge work if I only have $5,000 to invest?
I’m planning to allocate it 60/40, but am starting to learn about options and will eventually take out $1,000 to start trading options.
Or is this below the minimum?
Also, if I set up an account on Ameritrade without Options trading, can I change it later?
PS– LOVE that you guys are doing this!!! I’ve been reading tons of blogs, and have learned a lot of strategies, but don’t know how to *actually* start. So, thank you!
I believe both TD Ameritrade and Questrade don’t have account minimums, so $5k should work just fine. Invest with whatever you feel comfortable with, I only picked $10k because it’s a nice round number.
As for options, yes you can add options support later, but we will NOT be trading options for this workshop. You can dabble on your own if you’d like, but I wouldn’t make options trading a serious part of your retirement strategy.
Hi there,
What are the benefits to using a program such as Questrade over a banking institutions online personal investing?
Thanks 🙂
Questrade doesn’t charge account fees or commissions for buying ETFs. I don’t think that many banks have this fee structure.
Thank you for all your free help!!??????
Thanks! Can’t wait for the 2nd part. Opened Questrade and was faster than I thought.
I’m confused about this self investing versus getting signed up with The Bearded One. Are these two ways exclusive from each other, or how do they work together in the big Plan?
The portfolio we have with Garth is a more complex version of the self-investing strategy. It includes preferred shares, REITs, high-yield bonds, etc. Way too complicated for self-directed investing and more geared towards retirees, who are relying on the portfolio for income.
The portfolio we will be building in the Investment Workshop will be simple and straightforward, geared towards people in the accumulation phase. We will be using low-cost index ETFs. This is good for people who are starting out, as it will help them understanding investing from the ground up.
Hope that answers you question.
Yes it does thanks- self direct investing while accumulating, which then rolls into a steady income retirement package at some point 🙂
Thanks so much for your workshop. I have been diligently reading this blog for the past few weeks and starting to slowly wrap my head around investment principles. You have really ignited my interest in taking control of my personal finances. I’m a Canadian ex-pat living in Australia so I’m going to try my best to follow along where I can.
There are unfortunately no brokerage firms that offer commission free buying ETFs in Australia but I did find 2 recommended brokerage firms with the lowest fees but I’m unsure which one to sign up to based on the requirements of this workshop.
Interactive Brokers has a fixed fee of 0.08% of the trade value for ETFs and they also charge a monthly fee of $20. They have US listed ETFs available.
CMC Markets charges a 0.09% trade fee but has no monthly fee. However they don’t have US listed ETFs available. Vanguard Australia offers some ETFs that track the US market that can be bought through CMC.
As this workshop is meant to be passive investing, will we be rebalancing only a few times a year? And are you going to be buying any US listed ETFs or just the Canadian equivalents that track the same indexes? If we’re only rebalancing a few times a year and not investing directly in US listed ETFs it seems like CMC markets might be a better option for me. Would really appreciate if you could point me in the best direction.
We’ll be running a Canadian portfolio denominated in CAD, and a US portfolio denominated in USD, and each will trade in ETFs listed on their own exchanges. So your equivalent would be Australian-listed ETFs tracking, for example, the US indexes. I have zero experience in Australian brokerages, but based on what you’ve told me I’d go with CMC.
Thank you for the clarification!
Anyone know what this statement means:
“Questrade, Inc. may disclose my name, address, email address, security holdings, and preferred language to issuers of securities I own as well as to other persons or companies in accordance with securities laws.”
In what circumstances would my information be disclosed?
When you’re the shareholder of an ETF, you’re entitled to prospectuses and annual stockholder meeting/announcements. They need your information so they can send those things to you.
We get a ton of prospectuses each year because of the ETFs we own (we mostly use them as kindling ;P)
Ah, ok, thanks. Origami party, anyone?
An origami party with our ETF prospectuses. It’s the most hippie, and also least hippiest thing ever. 😉
I’m interested in following along, however from a long term perspective, I was thinking to transfer over my RRSP to the Questrade account.
Does it make sense to set up a an equity fund under RRSP?
You mentioned that we should start with a TFSA; will we be making a one time purchase or will we use dollar cost averaging. Some people don’t have $10 000 to transfer right away, would this matter?
Generally, we like to put equities in TFSA and bonds in RRSP. We’ll be going over the how to set everything up to be tax efficient in a future workshop session.
If you have RRSP room, you can open an RRSP account in Questrade and transfer your them over. Same with TFSA.
And to answer your question, we will be using DCA, so it’s fine if you don’t have $10K right away.
Thank you.
Hey W&F, wanted to let you know that you two finally prompted me to started a Questrade account, but I didn’t finish it, and Questrade just called me to get the job done.
He wasn’t able to use the promo code, so I went in and manually added it to make sure that you guys get a little kick back. Thanks!
Always a big fan of yours,
Melissa
Thanks, Melissa! Appreciate it!
just tried to open the aaccount, why do they need to know about my wife, income employer etc…
Every brokerage account asks for that. (same as if you open a bank account or apply for a credit card). I suspect they are required to by regulators.
ok thanks. one more question, can I transfer funds from an Rsp. do I need to open a margin only or can I open a margin and a Rsp
thanks
patrick
random thought – I’m a reader and would love to invest and allow visability to it’s progress – I have data currently from 2013 to present – but would invest more for the cause and prove the point.. in the ups and downs…
let me know how I can help
I just found your blog recently and am enjoying reading your contents. I’m in the U.S. and already have a Vanguard account with investments in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index funds. I’m not sure I understand the need to open a TD Ameritrade account to invest in Vanguard ETF when I can open an account directly with Vanguard. Can you please clarify? Also is ETF synonymous with index funds? Is there any subtle difference? Thanks!
If you have a Vanguard account already, you don’t need to open a TD Ameritrade account. Our preference for TD Ameritrade is because we used them before but have not used Vanguard directly.
ETF and mutual funds are investment vehicles, whereas indexing is a strategy. So you could have ETFs that are actively managed and aren’t buying the index. For our purposes, we are using index ETFs because they have the lowest fees. Index funds are mutual funds, so they tend to have higher fees.
I think the Personal Capitol link on this page, which works, is the American version. The other 2 links aren’t working for me. Is there a Canadian link? Or does the page look the same?
I am new to the investment world. Does Acorns use the same types of investments or is there a difference?
I’m happy you guys posted up a code – I’ve been meaning to open an RRSP for awhile (I currently have a TFSA with Questrade).
Just finished the application now. I rather support you guys than some random dude’s code I find online 🙂
This is awesome, I’m looking forward to these workshops!
Quick question: I’m already set up with TD e-series … should I make the switch to Quest trade or stick with E-series for now?
I just read the previous comments and saw you already answered this one. Thank you!
Is there any down side to choosing joint rather than individual, if I am married?
Awesome work, I have been waiting for this for a long time.
This is so exciting! My only question is what about certificates or bonds. Do you make any recommendations on putting some money aside for those since they are low risk and continue givinh returns?
Thanks for everything! You guys are an inspiration!
We don’t use individual certificates or individual bonds because usually individual bonds are sold in increments of $10k. Bond ETFs allow us to gain exposure to those assets at a far lower price tag.
One more question. I have money saved up in a 401 k. I’ve considered taking that money out. Do you guys have 401ks or have you used your retirement in your investments?
Thank you!
DO NOT withdraw from your 401ks. You can invest inside your 401ks, you just need to transfer them to a brokerage account that supports commission-free ETF trades. We use TD Ameritrade.
Hi! This is something I’ve been wondering about too after reading your book and browsing the blog. Would love to see more information about what to do with existing accounts. I too, have a 401(k) through work that is managed by Merrill Lynch. Also have a Traditional IRA where I rollover old 401(k)s when I leave a job and a Roth IRA through a RoboAdvisor (ElleVest). After reading the book, I got the impression that I need to be maxing my current 401(k) (ie tax deferred account) first based on my tax bracket, then maxing my Roth IRA (ie tax sheltered account). Then any money leftover after maxing out those accounts could be used to invest in index funds. I don’t necessarily need answers here, but it would be nice to see a future blog or something on this.
Hi – just discovered your blog, and will definitely be doing more reading. Sorry if this is re-opening an older comment feed.
One question I have about Questrade: do you need more than the basic free data package with snap quotes? I have heard that some of the discount brokerages have super low commissions, but charge users more for data and other add-ons that become necessary to get full functionality from the platform.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work!
Any thoughts on Robin Hood? $10/month fee but $0 commission/transaction fees on trades?
Hi. First and foremost, thank you very much for doing this workshop. I know that I’ll learn from it.
One question, I tried signing up for Personal Capital but it says it only support US banks and financial institutions. I clicked the linked for not American. I’m in Toronto btw.
Thank you again.
Personal Capital is mostly for American users. They used to support Questrade but that feature has since been turned off. You can still follow the workshop with Questrade. PC is mostly for drawing pretty graphs.
i have a question. may sound ridiculous.. so if you put a majority of your money into etf, stocks, etc. how about your spending money? do you withdraw every so often? or just keep funds in a regular checking or savings?
Thank you so much for doing this!! One question… As a 23 year old, I’ve had “roth IRA” drilled into my head every time I’ve researched investing. What’s the difference between the roth IRA and the individual account that you have set up here? Many thanks!!!
Hi there, I’m from Canada and not so young anymore. I’m in my fifties. I appreciate tremendously your blog and investment workshop. I’m not very good with stocks. It looked always to me an area in which I will never be good enough. My question:what is your take on having a financial adviser (as I have had for years) AND me instructing him how to invest my money, using the great knowledge from your workshop? I also do not know how much his fees are going to be. Until now his fees were 2.4% for very conservative mutual funds I invested in. If he does what you taught me, will his management fees decrease? Significantly?
Hello! I just discovered your blog and I really like it. I’m from Argentina so can’t follow step by step the workshop. Do you know where I can open an account from here? I love this blog and I want to follow the steps!!!
Thanks!
Love your website! I’m 32 years old and I have no experience whatsoever with trading so this workshop is very, very helpful. My husband and I don’t have very good jobs either but we managed to save $30,000 in a year by moving in with my in-laws and cutting down on silly things. We are moving out next year so we won’t be able to save as much anymore. I have a question: for someone like me that can’t afford to be too risky how much would you recommend investing? We have $10,000 in our emergency fund, so $20,000 left in total. Thank you!!
I wasn’t prompted to send additional paperwork,provide a bank statement, or print and sign an acceptance statement to complete me application. Does that mean I did something wrong?
Just wondering, do you have any individual stock in your own portfolio today or all index funds? What is your average return in the last couple of years? I am sorry if this is available in one of your other post but haven’t come across it yet. Thank you
No, we don’t have individual stocks in our own portfolio. We only buy index funds.
Hi there, I am Canadian (from Ottawa) and I tried to sign up for Personal Capital but it says it is only for Americans at the moment? What do you recommend for Canadians?
Hi there
Your link to Vanguard at the end of the article, in the section ‘For Americans:’ has a strike-through. (I’m guessing its from earlier when you were linking to Ameritrade?).
I discovered your blog and investment workshop a few months ago, and just wanted to say thanks! Its really helpful to have it all so neatly laid out, and your posts are inspiring!
Hi from BC!
Just starting out and I want to follow along with a Questrade account, but it looks like they have updated their website since you posted this. They only have the following options for self-directed accounts:
Margin
RRSP
TFSA
Forex and CFDs
Education
Retirement
Which one should I chose?
I just started today too, and had the same question, but if you look at their screenshot, it says Margin.
Wanderer,
What are your thoughts on WealthSimple in Canada? It appears that they are offering $0 for buying and selling ETFs!
Am I reading that correctly?
Hi, I’m super late to the game but I’m on Personal Capital and it won’t bring up Questrade when I search it.
Sadly, because Personal Capital is American, it doesn’t support Canadian companies. However, you don’t need PC to continue with the workshop.
I tried to open a personal capital account, but it says it’s not available for Canadian accounts. Perhaps this has changed since the writing of the article.
Yeah, it used to be available for Canadians but they changed it. But good news is you don’t absolutely need it for the workshop, it’s just the visualizations are helpful.
Superb and great info. Please do visit our website https://www.cityta.com/ for free financial trading courses online.
Hi there, a big thanks for the valuable information. Just now started my journey, unfortunately, came across your blog and the way you have written is awesome and will follow as early as possible and try to complete it.
Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the blog!
Thanks guys for educating people how to start investing money, youre doing a great job! I have got one question. Does anyone use Vanguard Uk account (I am European and I am looking for the best investment pltform to open my account with, so if anyone has any experience or some advices I will be super grateful). Also I found this information
Vangueard Uk Account fee 0.15%
Our annual account fee is 0.15% on amounts of up to £250,000 and free thereafter, so on larger investments your annual account fee is capped at £375.
What do yu think about it? Does it look like a good deal for opening an account with them? Thank you very uch for your help.
Thank you two for all of your help. I am sooo behind as I am just now hearing about this site. Do you have any recommendations on the best way for someone like me to most benefit from this investment workshop? I imagine that it would be pretty difficult to replicate it.
Hi and welcome to the blog! Don’t worry about following the workshop live. The principals are the same no matter when you start. The point is to invest for the long term, so you simply pick the same ETFs and follow the instructions.
Hi FC and Wanderer,
Thanks for setting up this workshop and giving it way for FREE. Awesome read. One thing though, the offer code on this page is no longer valid.
PhilipY
Really? Which offer code are you referring to?
My TD account is opened in Singapore. It doesn’t seem to be able to link to Personal Capital ?
Hi wx, the bad news is PC doesn’t work for non-US financial institutions. The good news is you don’t absolutely need PC to get through the workshop.
Hi guys, I’ve been reading the blog since a couple days ago, and.. This is awesome content!
Thanks Wanderer and Firecracker
P.s : Any suggestions where to start for someone who lives in the UK?
Hi
Same question here
Did you get any reply ?
Thanks
the game is on, I am ready to play
Really basic question here but in setting up Vanguard account, should be pick general savings or a retirement account? I believe retirement only gives you option to pick Roth or Traditional IRA. We want the general savings option correct? Thank you so much for putting this out there for everyone-can’t wait to get started.
General savings. You can do this in an IRA as well, but you’ll have to coordinate with any other IRA accounts you have.
Hi there.
I watched you two in Yale Chan youtube video.
I interest the all things that you said very much. But I don’t know where should I get start to. So do you have any suggestion to somebody who live in Singapore or Malaysia? >v<
I meant , are QUESTRADE or VANGUARD useful and available to overseas?
Hi Jun, welcome to the workshop! Do you have access to low cost brokerages in Singapore/Malaysia to purchase ETFs? Yale mentioned that he uses TD to buy Vanguard ETFs in Taiwan. Another reader of ours uses Interactive brokers as an expat. Do you have access to either of those brokerages?
Hi FireCracker,
Do you think by using those brokerage that actually changed on buy sell commissions fees will eventually eat up a lot of investment return ?
I’m live in hong kong
How can do it?
Question – is Vanguard Canada not a good option vs questrade?
Vanguard Canada isn’t a full-fledged brokerage. You can’t open an account with Vanguard Canada, but you can in the US. So you still need a seperate brokerage like Questrade.
So excited to start this journey! I’m in the US and I’m opening my Vanguard account, with the Establish Funding section, Dividends and capital gains, should I choose “reinvest” or “transfer to your money market settlement fund”?
I’ve seen it all! Most bloggers just want to give you a little taste and then tell you its $1000 for the meal that turns out to be nothing more then hot air. These Guys are the real deal and no bullsh*t!
For the US Vanguard account, in regards to dividends and capital gains, should I choose “reinvest” or “transfer to your money market settlement fund”?
Did you ever get an answer to this question?? I just opened an account with Vanguard (U.S.) as well and wasn’t sure what to do about this question so I went with “Transfer to your money market settlement fund”… It DID say that this could be changed later but I’m wondering if there’s going to be a fee associated with it, etc.
This is amazing. I just finished your book and was planning on going through this process by walking back through your book but this workshop is amazing. It helped me get through the paralysis of thinking I have no idea what I’m doing and actually breaks it down step by step for me to actually do it 😉
Question though, what do I do with my existing retirement portfolio that I have through my company. It’s through “Empower Retirement”. I have about $72,000 in there and my company does a match but I really don’t ever do much with it. Should I leave that alone? or should I move all the money from there into this initial Vanguard account? If I just start fresh with the new Vanguard account, I only really have about $1000 spare right now (I’m trying to pay down lots of debt currently).
Thank you for all that you do!!
Angela
Thank you! Just finished your book but glad to see the step-by-step all laid out. Will continue this workshop throughout the year. Very generous of you guys to do this.
I’ve been recommending your book when this topic comes up in conversation.
Hi, I have my accounts in TD Ameritrade and they are all linked together. Would prefer opening a self directed account to do this workshop with TD Ameritrade so that I can link this one as well. Would that work the same way and the Vanguard account or would it be best for me to open the Vanguard if following this investment workshop?
Hello! What is the appropriate account for Europe. I am a UK citizen in the EU (still EU citizen for now!!)
And I’m a complete beginner, as you can figure.
Thank you
Hi FireCracker,
First time reading this website and following along. I’m in Canada and want to get started but I noticed that with Questrade, one must open a Margin Account. I personally stay far away from any type of debt instruments.
Was wondering if Questrade has a Cash Account option or if I can just do this (Index Investing) through my TD bank account somehow. Anyway, thank you in advance for your response and thank you for this free resource, you’re helping a lot of people become financially independent.
I saw you as guests on Irish tv recently and was intrigued (Virgin Media).
Found your blog and am very interested in it.
In terms of trading applications, would those ones that you use for Canada and US in this workshop be open for use with Irish residents of any resident outside of North America?
I’ve come across Degiro.ie from the below link:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/8krhlw/serious_question_how_do_you_invest_in_index_funds/
What are your thoughts?
Hello! Quick question on your thoughts about ETFs vs. Mutual Funds/Target Date Funds? Currently investing with VTSAX but after reading up on your guys’ FIRE journey, I’m second guessing and wondering if I should just convert to ETFs? Are these essentially apples and oranges? Can I still achieve FI with what I have currently?
Ok, that was more than a “quick question” but would appreciate some clarity. Thanks guys!
Hello,
Sorry for asking a dumb question.
The Questrade changed its opening account options. Under Self-directed account, there is no”Standard Individual” option. Instead, there are TSFA, RRSP, Forex & CFDS and Margin.
So as a newbie, which one should I pick?(in the article, TSFA & RRSP will be talk about later, so assuming it’s either Forex & CFDS or Margin)
Thank you.
Which one did you end up picking? I have the exact same question. Did you pick Individual Margin, or Individual Tax Free Savings Account? Or Both? and why?
hey! I heard you guys on a podcast recently (So Money) – and love that you have this free workshop! thanks for all the hard work you put into this. I’m in the U.S. and am hearing that Vanguard has high fees for trading – maybe this has changed since you originally put this workshop together but curious if you or anyone else has thoughts on this? Would Fidelity be a better option in 2019/2020? https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/investing/brokers/vanguard
I’ve followed all the steps to set up my Questrade account , but at the very end it’s asking me to fund my account with a minimum of $1000?
I love the philosophy behind your choice to share your knowledge freely! Thank you so much.
Hi, I just starting investing with TD e-series index funds. I was not aware that questrade had lower prices for ETF’s. Would you recommend I switch all my money to questrade? or what would you do in my case?
Your work deserves a reward guys. Congrats!!!
I would like to know if anyone knows how to do the similar thing in France, that is to invest by using a provider like Vanguard or QuestTrade; and if you must be fiscal resident overthere in order to be able to open an account to do that.
Feedback much appreciated! Kind regards!
Hello, I tried to open the account in VANGUARD, but I am a foreigner with a social security number and work permit, the option does not appear for me, because it says that for foreigners the account cannot be opened. Any other alternative? Thank you
Hi,
I am starting today, I am late as I see comments from year 2016. Cannot wait to see where it goes! Thanks to Kristy and Bryce to share their stories.
Firefly, is all this info current or updated? Wanting to start this as soon as possible. Thanks!
I’m also eager and curious about the same thing! I hope they’ll respond.
i tryed to open an account with Vanguard , but it would not allow. when i clicked on sign up link , it takes you to a blank page. i when on the Vanguard website ,to sign up there , but there is know link to sign up there also!
Girl from Michigan here! I am very excited about this. Thank you so much!!
Vanguard (check)
Personal Capital (check)
I’m in the US and I’m opening my Vanguard account, with the Establish Funding section, Dividends and capital gains, should I choose “reinvest” or “transfer to your money market settlement fund”
Hi, Should a Roth IRA be set up first or the Individual Trading account in this article?
Hi Wanderer and FireCracker, I just finished your book and I’m catching up on the blog. I just found out about your podcast… I will check it out soon. Thank you for all of this knowledge and help. I really appreciate it! I wish I knew about this back in 2016. I feel sooooo behind. I’m just wondering if anything has changed since you originally conducted this workshop. I am in the process of opening up a Vanguard account now (American).
Love this series. Would love to see a new post about how these ETFs are doing after two years
Hey there! I’m unable to scroll and read your pages – I’ve tried on 3 different devices and 3 different browsers. Is something possibly buggy in the webpage? I’ve tried Edge, IE, and Firefox
I’m having the same issues but on Chrome. This site keeps “locking”. I thought maybe it was because of ads so I turned on ad blocker but that didn’t help with anything. I cannot even use Page Up or Page Down on the keyboard. The mousewheel doesn’t work, the pages cannot be scrolled up or down.
I think it’s a script issue. I turned on the NoScript browser extension and now I can scroll through the pages on this blog.
Do you have an affiliate link for personal capital? I am in the USA and tried the above one and it did not work. BTW I loved your book! thanks
As a Canadian – wealthica, passiv, weathsimple – how do you choose ?! Thank you for all you do !
Any Vanguard alternative for Europe?
Hola. Si mi dinero para invertir está en. EEUU pero yo no vivo allí. Vivo entre Venezuela y España. Que Broker me recomienda que me permita abrir cuenta en Usa e invertir. Gracias
LOVED your book and so happy you have such in-depth info on your website.
Not sure how often you update the site but I just used your link to create a Questrade account (Canadian here) and it takes NO time at all now. I selected use my SIN to verify my identity and no need to snail mail anything! In less than 15 minutes I had transferred my $1,000 to them. Now. Let’s see how this goes… 🙂
Hello! I’m wondering what your thoughts are about the investment offerings at Tangerine compared with Questrade. Finally read your book, amazing! Thank you!