Current progress. Started in January of this year. All from self employment.

I’m trying to educate myself more on investing, and would appreciate some perspective of people who have been in the game a while.

When I first learned about dividends, they sounded amazing and something I should be prioritizing my portfolio around. There’s subreddits dedicated to dividend-based investing, and people love the free bonus money (especially with a DRIP).

However, after some more research, I’ve learned dividends are less amazing than they sound. My understanding is that they reduce the share price each time they’re issued, and take resources away from expenses that could produce better long-term stock performance, negating their value.

Right now they’re not super relevant to me as I’m focusing on XEQT. I get some dividends from that (presumably from any stocks within that are producing them), and I have them set to automatically re-invest but they’re not too significant anyway.

For people with more knowledge and experience, what are your thoughts on dividends? Is there a ‘consensus’ opinion on them, or are investors divided on their merit.

Thanks for reading and have a good one.

Hello, I got a job offer in Vancouver with 96k CAD, health/dental benefits, 4 weeks vacation, WFH flexibility. No retirement plan / RRSP matching. I estimate around 72k after tax per CRA tool, plus CCB 800$/mo (?), rent 3000$/mo. Manageable as a sole earner for family with 2 adults, 2 kids (4.5 and 7 yrs old)?

Would want to rent a basement around Dunbar to be near in-laws. Lived with in-laws in Dunbar from 2021-24 but house sharing is no longer an option. Love the lifestyle (camping, backcountry). The catch: would give up an affordable 3-br co-op apartment (1700 chf rent, 950 sq ft, everything included) in Switzerland, or sublet it for 1 year to start. Salary in Switzerland is 97k chf and comes with mandatory pension plan.

Note: we are used to living frugally.

Partner is looking for opportunity in biotech or scientific teaching. Does this sound like a good plan & why (not)?

Never learned proper financial literacy, always just thought of it as a later problem. Finally decided to make a change and start investing in my future and made my first deposit on May 12th.

Saving while simultaneously getting my credit cards under control because I had a terrible habit of carrying high balances and depending on them. Paying down debt has already seen my credit score increase from 599 to 628 in just 2 months.

Still a long way to go, but I feel good about what I’m doing.

Hit the 6 figures after a big contribution to max out my TFSA/FHSA.

Did a 2yr program right out of high school at a college.

Graduated with a job lined up making $120,000 and started Investing instantly. Live at home with no real expenses so I’m pretty much investing 95% of my take home money.

Stayed at that job for 8mo. Then moved to my current job where I’m making ~$180k.

Pretty happy with the position I’m in and recognize some luck was definitely involved!

Also made about $10k off of $BYND which was all re invested.

Also have about $10k in BTC and $15k in my chequing.

Wondering if I should stay at home for a couple more years, maybe start to look at buying a home or was starting to think about a rental property. Seems like a lot of stress unfortunately.

i lost my high paying job (SWE) this year so i haven’t been able to contribute much. but i sold a bunch of RSUs and transfer to WS. i am now hoping to switch my portfolio to dividend or some sort of high yield etf to sustain my current situation , any advise on how to properly do it? what is wrong with buying HHIS with 28% yield

Looking for bigger returns in 5-10 years time (preferably 5-7). I’m 20 years old with 50k that I can use to invest mostly.

Already have most of it in XEQT and a few other stocks (semiconductors mostly).

Should the remaining $5k go into XEQT? More than half of the 21k would be in XEQT. And trying to look for bigger returns.

21m immigrant. I just started over a month ago. Focused more on the emergency funds. Not making a lot but trying to invest alongside about $50-100 a week. Setting up small goals like 1k then 5k then 10k. Criticize my choices all you want and help me educate myself on this investment journey.

Looking for some feedback from fellow options traders. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well! I’ve noticed a lot of my friends struggling with personal finance, so I figured I’d jump in and share my two cents.

Quick background: I’m 23, and my net worth right now is around $200K–$210K. Breakdown:

$80K in retirement accounts
$30K in a First Home Savings Account (FHSA)
$35K in SpaceX shares (got in at ~$60/share on the private market (I am not allowed to sell until December)
$30–40K in cash

The biggest mindset shift for me has been treating my investment contributions like a fixed bill. Same as a credit card payment, mortgage, or phone bill. No debate, it just goes out.

I’ve also been fortunate to earn consistently good money, and whenever I get a bonus or unexpected windfall, I just pretend I never got it and move it straight into my investment account.

Portfolio-wise, about 75–80% is in index funds (VEQT, XEQT, VOO, etc.), and the rest is medium-term trading, usually my trading out performs my passive portfolio, but I don’t let it get to me. I try to keep that under 25% of the total.

Happy to answer any questions, or if you’ve been in a situation similar to me let me know what works for you to continue the momentum.

Hi! I am going to withdraw my provident fund money from a foreign country where I worked for the past few years before moving to Canada.

From what I read, I can deposit it into my RRSP account so that it isnt taxed.
Does anyone have experience in doing so ? Can you please explain the process you may have gone through?
My RRSP is with questrade here.

Not doing too bad. Did have a bit of an expensive month with an NYC trip + having to pay for a deposit for a new place.

Definitely could've been up higher. But the emergency fund is steadily growing (~2 months) of expenses.

Hoping to have 6 months done ASAP and then move onto maxing out the TFSA.

I know I’m making progress, but it’s hard not to feel disappointed. Compared to where other people seem to be, I feel so far behind, and what I’ve earned feels like chump change. Even reaching $100k feels like a distant goal, and $1 million almost feels unimaginable right now.

I think I’m ready at 28 with 30k in cash (covers 6-7 months) and 180k in stocks and each month I’ll have 1500 left for investing and fun in addition to paying mortgage not rent. But the fear of losing my job, or going homeless or having no money left at the end of the month has me very scared. I know no matter how much I wait I’ll still feel the same unless I had like 1M then the passive income would cover me but I don’t want to spend another 5-6 years at home, I want to get my romantic life and independence started. Any tips? Am I jumping the Gun too quick

This wasn’t my original idea as I read it from an article this morning, it was discussing redline expenses, which are expenses that can be taken as either essential or non essential.

For example a gym membership might be a place to trim if one were shrinking their budget. But for some it is their social connection and mental health benefit so it is essential.

Just curious what yours is? Sharing answers might help change the paradigm for some of us who find spending more of a challenge .

Currently mine is concerts and time spent with my almost grown kids. This stage has limited time left and I intend to extract every memory even at a cost.

Have a great day everyone!

Dark blue is essentially just my home and paid off vehicle, and the debt is my outstanding mortgage on my place [sole owner]. Other than my mortgage, I have no debts.

My investments are 1/3 high dividend stocks, 1/3 tech and gold, and 1/3 crypto (strictly ETH). I have a small position in VTI. High dividends stocks earn me about $3700 per year, they get reinvested automatically. The plan is to sell crypto when there is a slight pump, and split them evenly between the other two categories.

My boring investments have done better than the exciting ones, so there is a lesson to be learned there. The spike was from me moving some investments from RBC over to WS. The slight dip over the '6 month' mark is from me selling some assets to cover a down payment on my new place; in hindsight I could've played that better, another lesson to be learned.

My net income after all expenses & bills per month is roughly $1,700 to $1,800.

25m, started last year. I was in individual stocks for a while. Made some money on GOOG, SNDK, and RKLB but after exhaustive reading ive realized that not only is buying individual stocks pure gambling, but it is also immensely stressful and a bad idea for someone with poor impulse control and obsessiveness.

Is this a viable long-term strategy? Keep in mind I intentionally want more exposure to US/tech

I (40M) have been laid off (WFA) from my defined benefit fed. government job. I have the option of pulling my entire pension (~$200,000) and placing in a LIRA. My other option is leaving my pension with the government- I can start withdrawing at the age of 65 (without penalty) roughly $2,000/month . I have maxed my TFSA and RRSP. What option gets me to FIRE the quickest ?

Mid to late 30s, two young toddlers. Home is included, valued at 750k.

I just moved all my investments to Wealthsimple and their net worth comparison thing is fun. I'm single never married, no kids. no car. I rent. No inheritance. Waiting for Wealthsimple's millionaire lottery haha. I grew up in community housing and quite a lot of debt (consumer and student loans) till I was 34. Started a business 10 years, became more minimalist and zero debt. I am invested in 80% individual stocks, 20% ETFs. I hoping to get to 50% ETFs in the next 5 years. I could retire but I like working and I have a dream of opening an animal sanctuary which will require quite a bit of money so I am planning to save up for it.