# Hey everyone! New 20 yr old poster here



## cannadian (Dec 30, 2011)

Hey all, I've been lurking this forum for a few months now and felt that it was finally time to sign up and start posting!

A bit about me,

I'm 20 years old, I'm living and working hard in Cowtown at the moment and saving everything I can because I'm moving to Vancouver next year to attend UBC for finance/economics.

So far I have ~$10,000 in a TFSA with TD waterhouse, 17k in scholarships, and the goal is to max out the TFSA this year (20.5k total if 2012 limit is 5.5k), and save 5k or so for next year's living expenses.

I plan on working part-time throughout university and full-time throughout the summers. I'll try to keep the TFSA maxed out constantly, while making enough money to avoid going into debt for my degree and hopefully earning enough extra to travel a little and still have a good time!

In August I had literally zero investing knowledge, but since then whenever I'm not working I'm keeping up with the markets, reading investing books, watching investing videos/lectures, and just generally trying to get up to speed on the whole investing world. 

I'm also trying to record everything I do, every book I read etc in an investing journal which I can hopefully put online once I figure out how to build a basic website haha.

Any other people my age out there? Anybody with questions, comments, or advice for me?

Thanks everyone and it's great to be here!!


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

cannadian said:


> Any other people my age out there? Anybody with questions, comments, or advice for me?
> 
> Thanks everyone and it's great to be here!!


Sorry, I am having a REALLY rough day today, so my post will probably not be as energetic as it could be, or normally would be, so bear with me 

I am 21 years old, so yes, there are people your age here.

The 2012 TFSA limit is only $5k ($20k total). You can check this on the CRA website.

Advice? Save.

Welcome to the forums!


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## newbie (Dec 12, 2009)

cannadian said:


> Hey all, I've been lurking this forum for a few months now and felt that it was finally time to sign up and start posting!
> 
> A bit about me,
> 
> ...


ha 
welcome to CMF .
not sure how to give advice to u, if any at all.
i started trading awhile ago and i still think that i know vry little about the mkts.
there are much more seasoned traders , i mean investors here that could pitch in.
i learned by making mistakes and losing money before i actually made any money.
good luck in the "casino"
that is what i call the stock mkt nowadays.
there's lots of info here but in the end u should always listen to urself .
dont forget that u cant always win.
happy new year


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## newbie (Dec 12, 2009)

KaeJS said:


> Sorry, I am having a REALLY rough day today, so my post will probably not be as energetic as it could be, or normally would be, so bear with me
> 
> I am 21 years old, so yes, there are people your age here.
> 
> ...


whatts up K?
hope u ended the year alright
happy new year


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

newbie said:


> whatts up K?
> hope u ended the year alright
> happy new year


Female issues. 

But that's another topic for another time.


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## newbie (Dec 12, 2009)

KaeJS said:


> Female issues.
> 
> But that's another topic for another time.


ha
tha ladies issues
sure thing man.
gl with tha lady then


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

I'm close to your age too, Cannadian... 22. I'm from around Edmonton, which means we are born rivals!

17 grand in scholarships, and you're not even in Uni yet. That's pretty good, I must say I'm a little jealous. What made you pick UBC?

You say you have 10,000 in TDW... What is that in, if you don't mind me asking?

You sound like you're looking into active trading. I'm more of a passive investor myself. I've set up a TD e-Series account, where I've been putting 5% of gross income once a month. Changing that to 8% this year.... got a new job with a salary increase. I'll be transferring that into ETFs every year or two, as it builds up. That's my retirement savings, believe it or not.

Poor KaeJS... Women: can't live with them, can't live without them.


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## kaleb0 (Apr 26, 2011)

To the OP; 

Nice to see some more younger people around here. I'm 26, and thought that KaeJS and I were some of the only semi-active younger ones (though I probably cannot call myself "active" on here as I mostly just read posts.)
Also, a shoutout to Barwelle, though I don't recognize your name it's definitely encouraging to see some other young people on here.

Sometimes I think the older folks had a lot more opportunity in their heyday then our generation does, and thus may not be able to relate to our financial outlook the same way - so it's encouraging to see other 20-somethings interested in finances.

@ the OP again - It sounds like you have a very good head on your shoulders to have brought yourself into the position you're in especially considering the scholarships as someone else had mentioned.

You mentioned going to UBC for finance/economics - I've heard from some people that economics is incredibly dry, but if you have your future goals in mind and you're interested in getting into the financial field, then it may be interesting enough.

What made you pick UBC though? Just curious.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

kaleb0 said:


> Sometimes I think the older folks had a lot more opportunity in their heyday then our generation does, and thus may not be able to relate to our financial outlook the same way


As a tail-end boomer I would have to agree with you on this one. That said even we children of the 60s arrived a bit late to the party and those that were coming into the job market during the recession of the early 70s certainly can probably relate to your situation. And just to be clear, we thought that our parents had it even easier than we did when it came to jobs and affordable housing during the post-war boom. It seems like life was simpler then though. Far less things to entice your money away from you, less pressure to consume, and very hard to get into serious trouble with easy credit.

My advice would be to remember to smell the roses. It is great that you are all thinking of the future but don't forget to live in the moment. Don't feel that the most valuable things in life actually cost significant amounts of money.

Go Thunderbirds! Enjoy the left coast!


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

cannadian said:


> Any other people my age out there? Anybody with questions, comments, or advice for me?


I'm 23, working in finance in Toronto.

Best advice I can give you is join any sort of investment club you have at school and network like crazy. If you have a student led investment fund of some sort, join up. You will not regret it, it will open up numerous doors and will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your classmates. 

Another thing, which it seems you're already on top of, is avoid going into debt where possible. Work throughout school part time if you have to, but try and have everything fully paid for by the time you graduate. You'll end up well ahead on completion.


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## cannadian (Dec 30, 2011)

KaeJS said:


> Sorry, I am having a REALLY rough day today, so my post will probably not be as energetic as it could be, or normally would be, so bear with me
> 
> I am 21 years old, so yes, there are people your age here.
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, and I guess they won't be raising the TFSA limit until 2013 then?

I thought it would be 5.5k in 2012.



Barwelle said:


> I'm close to your age too, Cannadian... 22. I'm from around Edmonton, which means we are born rivals!
> 
> 17 grand in scholarships, and you're not even in Uni yet. That's pretty good, I must say I'm a little jealous. What made you pick UBC?
> 
> ...


Hey barwelle, I chose UBC because since I've been a little kid Vancouver has been my favourite city in the world - it's not as hot as california, not as cold as calgary, and seems to be at the centre where nature meets civilization, it's just a real natural/earthy feeling city I mean. And it has a great music scene, political environment, public transportation and more.

The second reason I chose ubc was that it's an incredible university, seems like there's tons going on there and it's a pretty big international institution as well and they're pretty well known for having a great economics program..

Right now I'm trying to invest most of my money into index funds since it's been shown that, statistically, something like 90-95% of retail investors don't consistently beat the index, and only 1 out of every 4 or 5 professionals can consistently beat it.

I figure as I learn more about value investing, and investing in general, I can put most of my money into index funds like DIA and still earn higher returns than the norm..

I also got lucky on my first investment: I thought CLL was incredibly undervalued during the first 2 weeks of opening my account, so I invested 2k into them a few weeks before the company had a buy-out offer and I made 225% on the trade: so now I'm playing it more conservatively - but I'm using the profits I made off CLL (after commisions it was a little over 2k) to buy shares of TGL (transglobe energy) as I think they're extremely undervalued right now due to turmoil in egypt - I'll post up my analysis of the company in a bit if anyone is interested (I wouldn't mind having my analysis critiqued by some more advanced members as well!).

I also bought about 1k worth of silver when it hit $27.50 as more of a speculative play - warren buffett always says to be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy, and right now metals investors are fearful as hell despite the fundamentals for metals actually becomming stronger imo (long-term that is), so I'm going to be greedy and accumulate a small silver position..

My goal is to become a great long-term value investor.

Did/do you go to U of A by any chance??


kaleb0 said:


> To the OP;
> 
> Nice to see some more younger people around here. I'm 26, and thought that KaeJS and I were some of the only semi-active younger ones (though I probably cannot call myself "active" on here as I mostly just read posts.)
> Also, a shoutout to Barwelle, though I don't recognize your name it's definitely encouraging to see some other young people on here.
> ...


Hey thanks for the welcome!!

I answered the ubc bit in the last post, and I agree that our generation is in an extremely unsure time economically, who knows though: I'm sure during the great depression they thought it would never get better, same through the civil war, and world war 2 where the US debt to GDP ratio was like 120% (it's only about 60% right now I believe)..

So even though things look very bleak right now, maybe it's setting the stage for great things to come in the future - or it could all go down the drain as many predict haha, I guess we'll just have to see.

I'm drawn to the theoretical/mathematical aspect of economics, that's just my personality - I'm a huge math nerd and was considering majoring in math but there's no way I can compete with some of those sheldon (from big bang theory) types that I've met with IQs of over 160 haha. 

If I can't make major contributions to physics I figure I'll at least be able to get my financial house in order haha 



Dmoney said:


> I'm 23, working in finance in Toronto.
> 
> Best advice I can give you is join any sort of investment club you have at school and network like crazy. If you have a student led investment fund of some sort, join up. You will not regret it, it will open up numerous doors and will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your classmates.
> 
> Another thing, which it seems you're already on top of, is avoid going into debt where possible. Work throughout school part time if you have to, but try and have everything fully paid for by the time you graduate. You'll end up well ahead on completion.



UBC has a finance club - I think I'll join that right away and hopefully meet some interesting people who wouldn't mind going out for drinks once a week or something and discussing stocks/economics/politics/finance... I don't know anybody in real life even remotely interested in the above haha (most of my current friends are hipsters since I used to be pretty big into the music scene).

ubc also has a 2 million dollar portfolio or something like that which is managed by students/advisors, you apply during the end of your 2nd year and something like 30 students are accepted every year and it seems like an incredible opportunity - I'll work my *** off to hopefully get into that, but with only 30 positions available even a perfect resume is subject to chance so if I can't do that hopefully something else presents itself or I can just work on my own portfolio more

Thanks everyone!!


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## natalie_d (Nov 25, 2009)

I'm 24, just graduated from uni and working in Toronto. Your financial situation is wayyy ahead of me when I was 20. Keep up the good job and try to get co-op / internship opportunities to increase your marketability once you graduate.


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

There are more young'uns on here than I realized! 22 and in accounting full-time, school part-time. 

I'm from Vancouver as well and it is a great city, I'm sure you will enjoy it! GL


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

We gotta start a Young CMFer's Club!

I like Vancouver's atmosphere too. I spent three months there with Katimavik, a youth volunteer program. The attitude of most of the people I met was very refreshing after growing up in small town Alberta. 

Nice job on CLL, though like you say, you can't expect returns like that. That's why I'm sticking to index funds too. Also I'm not a gambler and can't be bothered to put alot of research into each buy, I wouldn't even know what to look for anyway. Couch potato investing is for me.

Nope, not UofA. I have a diploma from NAIT.

We're in a different situation now than in the great depression. If you think about markets and business very simply, it seems to me that growth in value of investments comes from growth in population. An increasing number of customers means more profits for companies, so they gain value and grow their business as populations grow, and so the markets go up. I know there are many more factors than population, but I'm sticking to the basics here. But the many of the developed countries in this world have stagnant and unsustainable birth rates. The only reason why some populations are growing is due to immigration. What does that mean for the future? 

I don't claim to be that educated or smart about these kinds of things, but sometimes I wonder if we're looking at a flat market for the future in North America and Europe, and all the gains are going to come from third world countries as they develop and gain buying power, and become consumers.

But then you have those massive multinational companies that will grow and strengthen as they gain more customers as people in developing countries gain buying power.

I'm just rambling here, don't take me too seriously!


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

cannadian said:


> Thanks mate, and I guess they won't be raising the TFSA limit until 2013 then?
> 
> I thought it would be 5.5k in 2012.


Yeah, going to have to wait until 2013 for the $5.5k amount.


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## myk0 (Jan 14, 2012)

I'm 22 and graduated with a BBA from York University. I will be starting my career as a supply chain analyst at the end of the month.

I definitely agree on networking as much as possible by joining clubs and attending networking events. That is something that I regret not doing during my first and second year, so I am happy that you have the right mindset going into UBC. 

If you are going to be working part-time, increasing your investing knowledge, keeping up with readings, studying for school, and joining clubs as well, time management is crucial (especially if you have a girlfriend as well lol). I was in your position during university, and keeping an agenda and setting priorities was definitely helpful.

I hope to get started on building my investing knowledge this year when I start working full-time. May I ask what you did when you first started? What books did you read? How do you specifically keep up with the markets?

Cheers,
Mike


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## habibi (Jan 26, 2012)

Quite a number of UBC younguns it seems, I go to UBC right now as well in Engineering. Be prepared for the rainy days


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## james1989 (Sep 29, 2011)

Nice to see the young people on here. 

I just turned 22 and I'm attending SFU (Burnaby). I'm in the BBA program and doing a concentration in Finance. I'm starting my 3rd year. I agree with you about Vancouver - I have always lived here and love it. I have traveled all over the world with my father and have to say that I still think I would choose to live here. I have thought though that after school I would consider a move out to Calgary, Saskatoon etc as these resource cities are booming. I would probably only want to work out there though for a few years while trying to save most of my income. I'm not entirely sure where I want to go career wise but at the moment M&A is what interest me the most. I can see myself working in some sort of corporate position for 5 years or so and then trying to go out on my own. I see this as a smarter and more conservative approach then trying to go out on your own from the start. This way I will have the knowledge, skill, and connections needed to succeed. 

You are way ahead of me financially and I'm curious how you have managed to save so much already. Are you just starting your first year of school and have you been working full-time since high school ?


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## cannadian (Dec 30, 2011)

natalie_d said:


> I'm 24, just graduated from uni and working in Toronto. Your financial situation is wayyy ahead of me when I was 20. Keep up the good job and try to get co-op / internship opportunities to increase your marketability once you graduate.


Thanks! Will do.



Young&Ambitious said:


> There are more young'uns on here than I realized! 22 and in accounting full-time, school part-time.
> 
> I'm from Vancouver as well and it is a great city, I'm sure you will enjoy it! GL


How're you likin' the accounting? I'm thinking of minoring in it if that's an option.


Barwelle said:


> We gotta start a Young CMFer's Club!
> 
> I like Vancouver's atmosphere too. I spent three months there with Katimavik, a youth volunteer program. The attitude of most of the people I met was very refreshing after growing up in small town Alberta.
> 
> ...


I think we still have tons of population growth ahead of us! Especially Canada.



KaeJS said:


> Yeah, going to have to wait until 2013 for the $5.5k amount.


Ahhh, darn.


myk0 said:


> I'm 22 and graduated with a BBA from York University. I will be starting my career as a supply chain analyst at the end of the month.
> 
> I definitely agree on networking as much as possible by joining clubs and attending networking events. That is something that I regret not doing during my first and second year, so I am happy that you have the right mindset going into UBC.
> 
> ...


Yeah I'm definitely going to need to get a calendar  I'm excited to get busy though after taking a year off!!

I just hope all goes well and I get into UBC and find a house with some friends and all.

These are the books I've read so far (stock investing for canadians for dummies is soon to be added to that list): http://ratracefreedom.net/category/book-reviews/

I've also been watching the Khan Academy finance videos, and watching other youtube videos/reading finance articles and browsing the investopedia.com website.

Google finance is a great resource for stock quotes, articles, and general investing/economic news!


habibi said:


> Quite a number of UBC younguns it seems, I go to UBC right now as well in Engineering. Be prepared for the rainy days


Great stuff! How are you liking ubc? is the campus pretty bumpin' with clubs and events and all?



james1989 said:


> Nice to see the young people on here.
> 
> I just turned 22 and I'm attending SFU (Burnaby). I'm in the BBA program and doing a concentration in Finance. I'm starting my 3rd year. I agree with you about Vancouver - I have always lived here and love it. I have traveled all over the world with my father and have to say that I still think I would choose to live here. I have thought though that after school I would consider a move out to Calgary, Saskatoon etc as these resource cities are booming. I would probably only want to work out there though for a few years while trying to save most of my income. I'm not entirely sure where I want to go career wise but at the moment M&A is what interest me the most. I can see myself working in some sort of corporate position for 5 years or so and then trying to go out on my own. I see this as a smarter and more conservative approach then trying to go out on your own from the start. This way I will have the knowledge, skill, and connections needed to succeed.
> 
> You are way ahead of me financially and I'm curious how you have managed to save so much already. Are you just starting your first year of school and have you been working full-time since high school ?


Hey, I managed to save so much because I come from a family of poker players! I don't play much anymore, but I made ~$3k a few years ago and ended up putting it in silver when it was under $10 an ounce and sold at $44 (so 3k went to ~13k). 11k of that went into my TFSA and the rest into guitars and stuff  I'm now trying to max the TFSA and save a bit for college/living expenses.

I'm so excited to move to Vancity! Trust me, there's plenty of jobs and money in Calgary, but tbh I can't stand the city. You can't get around without a car, there's a small music scene, the weather is HORRIBLE, and it's just an ugly city imo (not as ugly as Edmonton though!) - don't get mad Calgary friends!

Your plan sounds like mine too, working for a great company for a few years first will definitely build experience, connections, knowledge, and cash needed to start a successful company - the possibilities are endless if you have the right mind and the right knowledge etc!


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