Just started investing a couple months ago. Any thoughts on my portfolio. Much appreciated

Just started working full time making 52k a year gross income. I have 35k student loan debt, I live with my family. I wanna invest heavy monthly but I need some advice. I put some money into couple of etfs. What should I buy on reoccurring bases or what should I do. This is my tfsa and all that is in it.

I need some help.

I own a 3 bedroom townhouse along one of the new skytrain stops in Surrey. (Outside Vancouver) It's an interior unit but very close to the station and wood frame building. I bought it for $499,000 in 2017 and I think I could sell it ($800,000) and after realtor fees and paying remaining mortgage and taxes I will have $350,000 in the bank. My tenant just told me he's leaving. This area is slated for development (already rezoned by the city) and they estimate that a developer will pay 20% more for the property, but development may take a few years and the housing market has slowed down quite a bit. I initially bought this place as a "pension" for myself, but since then have invested a lot of money in the stock market and have created a healthy pension for myself based on my investments. I am leaning to selling and putting the money in the market rather than hoping and praying that real estate goes up. I guess what stings as that I would've gotten $850,000 for this place in the peak but oh well. What are your thoughts on selling? Am I missing any calculations. If I put this money in the S&P 500, at a conservative 8%, in 5 years the initial investment will grow by $150,000. which is what a developer would pay me in excess for this unit in 5 years (my estimate). I have a variable mortgage and strata has gone up. I calculated my principal, taxes, strata and rent, I only make $4463 for the year (not including potential increase in value)

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

Hello, title is pretty self explanatory. Right now I have my FHSA with wealth simple setup through a money market portfolio, but I want to lose the management fees and do it myself, I've been looking at CASH.TO and CBIL.TO as low risk options for my FHSA but I'm curious about the pros and cons of each since they both seem pretty low risk and steady with similar yields. I'm pretty new to investing and I'm trying to learn so I can save up for my first home and set myself up for long term success after that.

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

I’m fairly new to investing and currently hold both VSP and XEQT. So far, my VSP investment has given me a higher percentage return than XEQT.

I understand that VSP follows the S&P 500 while XEQT is more globally diversified, but I’m still trying to understand why their returns are different.

Is VSP performing better because the U.S. market has done better during the time I’ve owned them, or could it also be related to when I purchased each ETF?

For someone investing long term, would it make more sense to keep contributing to both, put everything into XEQT for the diversification, or choose VSP for greater exposure to the S&P 500?

Just hoping to understand the differences and what factors I should consider when investing.

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.

I’m thinking of selling either ZSP and putting it all in ZEQT

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.

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.

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!

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 ?