# Please advise me: how to get started in investing for real



## vitaminsarenecessary (Dec 31, 2014)

Hi CMF,

I'm just glad that I found this place. I feel like right now its a point that I should start considering investing and saving seriously. Im 22 turning 23 and I am a full-time undergrad student. luckily my school has a rather good coop program which allows me to generate some income for a few months out of a year. To be honest i was quite silly when it comes to money, I was the type that thought I deserve to spend my money however I like because I made it myself. Now that I think about it an extra pair of Jordans really dont mean that much to one.

Its funny because im studying mathematical-based finance in school, but to be realistic I was not taught how to invest money 'for real' on an individual level. I have about 3k saved up and its currently sitting in my grandpa's privately managed account which is subject to fees. Should I take the money out and start investing for myself? If so, what's the best way to get started? How can I educate myself in the real finance world?


Happy New Year to all


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## 0xCC (Jan 5, 2012)

You may find you get replies very similar to this thread:
http://canadianmoneyforum.com/showt...dvice-for-a-complete-newbie-aspiring-investor 

Basically, do a bunch a reading, figure out what your goals are first and probably look at index/couch potato investing until you have at least tripled that $3k (even if that takes a "long" time from 23 year old's perspective  )


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## supperfly17 (Apr 18, 2012)

vitaminsarenecessary said:


> Hi CMF,
> 
> I'm just glad that I found this place. I feel like right now its a point that I should start considering investing and saving seriously. Im 22 turning 23 and I am a full-time undergrad student. luckily my school has a rather good coop program which allows me to generate some income for a few months out of a year. To be honest i was quite silly when it comes to money, I was the type that thought I deserve to spend my money however I like because I made it myself. Now that I think about it an extra pair of Jordans really dont mean that much to one.
> 
> ...


Start by reading these 3 books and see if you still feel the same. Read them study them, they are great.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-S...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420064717&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Beating-Stree...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420064717&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-I...id=1420064720&sr=1-1&keywords=benjamin+graham


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

The other thing to look into is what interests you...there are many ways to make money (owning a business, real estate, stocks and bonds). Within each of those, there are nearly infinite ways to make money (your business could be a product or a service in almost anything, real estate can be a landlord, buy and flip, presale, Stocks and bonds can be value investing, preferred shares, couch potato, day trading, buy and hold...etc). 

Each any every method has people who've made, or lost fortunes in them. None are perfect, or work for everyone, but most are viable ways of making money (unless you get sucked into a scam). All have their supporters and their detractors. 

Do a lot of reading, a little experimenting, and see what appeals to you as an investor. Be prepared for losses, it happens to everyone at some point...consider it the cost of an education.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

I always recommend reading The Wealthy Barber Returns- a great introduction to personal finance in Canada, and it's information that is sure to save you thousands of dollars over time. Fun to read also.


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## Fraser19 (Aug 23, 2013)

I'll chime in as well,

I am 25 a have a well built RRSP for my age, although this is mostly due to work. You are entering a stage where you will probably become overloaded with information very quickly. Then once you start to understand some of the information, sometimes that can feed the ego into thinking that you have it all figured out. Or at least that happened to me for a while.

My advise for you at this time is, since you have $3,000.00 I would keep that as some emergency savings. Unless you already have some savings set aside. I am a big fan of the indexing strategy. While it does not have the same appeal of researching, following and buying stocks it works very well and often times better. 

For me I just throw what I have into Index finds and if a stock that appeals to me drops to a price that I deem fair I buy it.

*My word of caution,* trading commissions will kill returns. If I can't buy enough of a stock to keep my trading commission under .5% then I do not buy the stock. So seeing as I am 25 I very rarely buy stocks.

*My word of encouragement, * by thinking and learning about investing at age 23 you have a fantastic opportunity ahead of you. Compounded growth/interest is the goal, so your time invested is your greatest asset.


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## Butters (Apr 20, 2012)

Your ability to earn more money, and spend less will be the best tool you have currently for increasing your networth.

So just develop a monthly budget, where say you make $1000 a month
-100 transport
-500 rent
-200 food
-100 bills
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+200 into TD E-series 33% canada 33% us 33% international


set up something automatic like that for now, revisit it when you have over 20k


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## vitaminsarenecessary (Dec 31, 2014)

thank everyone above for giving me both short and long term advice, I appreciate them.

say that I have access to near 20k now, what's my best move? Still go with TD Eseries with 1/3 to canadian/us/international?


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## Fraser19 (Aug 23, 2013)

There is not really a best move. But the 30/30/30 is generally a good one.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

There is no such thing as a "best move". There are many here who do much better than the market using different investment schemes...some even do it consistently, but that is them, not you.

You have to find what is best for you, with your knowledge, experience and expertise. 

What you propose is a fairly conservative, well respected way to start...it is far from a "best" (which may only be known in hindsight), but far better than laying it all on "red" at the casino (unless it actually landed on red). 

My point is, your question is basically meaningless, unless you have predictive powers better than others or a time machine. Pick what you feel is comfortable.


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## Michel (Mar 7, 2014)

Before any talk about asset allocation you need to define your financial objectives. Might you need to buy a car in 5-6 years? Buy a house in 9-10 years? Do you want kids? 

If 3K is all you have then that should be in a HISA, not in the market. It's much more important to you that this money is available and doesn't suddenly lose half its value than making a few hundreds more over several years.

Above all your goal as a student is to avoid debt and have some money on hand to buy what you need to start your job after. If you still have a lot of money after satisfying these goals then you could think of investing it for the long-term, but with 3K you're very far from that.


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## coptzr (Jan 18, 2013)

You are in a great position to take time and read a book. Sounds crazy, but there's no quick answer here, just suggestions. You likely don't have the pressures of work, family, bills, etc...taking up 99% of your time and sleep. Instead of surfing the web for 3hrs at a time reading articles and a thread about someone else's financial situations, step back, learn the lingo and educate yourself. Than work hard and make some money. Take half of the loot and invest. Take the other half and have a good time, you're young. The previous links posted are all very good.


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## alexasmith (Sep 30, 2014)

First learn the basic terminology of stock market.Choose the companies in which stocks you would like to invest and do some research about the companies Portfolio and about their stocks. Invest in two to three companies stocks.First start with small amount of money


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## dogleg (Feb 5, 2010)

Vitamin....: You sound like a really smart young person. Good luck. Two things I would suggest: Never assume a commissioned advisor is acting in your best interests. Think twice before you decide to do your investing with mutual funds. All the best for the new year.


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## axelis (Jan 13, 2015)

As a newbie here I'll just give you my 2 cents, basically the rules I try to follow and experiences I had (still learning): 

* Question everything you're being told, because there are always 2 sides to the story. When it comes to money, I don't really trust anyone (not even myself sometimes). It does not cost anything to ask more questions, and if you don't understand what you're being sold, ask some more. It does not matter if the person on the other hand of the transaction may think you don't get it or whatever... it needs to make sense for your to put your hard earned cash into something

* You will make mistakes (by not respecting the first rule), but I think it's better to do these mistakes early on when you are not pressured by family, mortgage, etc... and when you're investing smaller amounts. If you invest $3k and it goes down and up and after 5 years you get back your $3k, well it probably wasn't a great investment (depending on the circumstances) but at least it was only $3k sitting there earning nothing. Same thing if you invest in say stocks and you lose 80% of your investment but it was "only" $3k then well it may seems like a lot today but in 20 years it hopefully won't, and you probably learned a lesson on these $3k that will prevent you from making that mistake 20 years down the road on maybe lose $30k - makes sense?

* Start small, learn something, and try some other things. When I moved to Canada in 2005, I did not even know what an RSP was. I had money stuck at the bank (collateral for a credit card when you have no credit history) and they told me to put in a GIC. And at the time I was happy with it. Because I somewhat understood what the risk was (none) and the return (close to none too). It fitted my profile at the time. Then over the years I tried other things, mutual funds, stocks (never was too smart about these), some options and then moving on to more complex investments. Some worked well, some did not. But hopefully I learned something along the way, getting "smarter" every year, learning more, etc...

* If it's too good to be true, it usually is... but what seems "too good" for someone else may still be appropriate for you. I'm sort of still learning on this one. Or maybe it seemed "too good" a while back and now it makes more sense. Not sure how to explain that one

* Excel is your friend

Good luck


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