# BMO InvestorLine advice



## zoey123 (Jan 23, 2013)

Hi, I am new to the forum. Both my husband and I are in our 50's, lower middle class. Neither of us were raised to have any money knowledge. Both of our parents were not so
great with money and have/ had very little to leave any of us kids. However we've got three high achieving kids in university and high school (with small RESP we saved for each and lots of scholarship money) and have a paid off home so we are doing OK living within our means with some savings, no debt at all. My husband works for provincial gov't so has some sort of pension later on. 
I haven't worked outside the home since kids were born 20 years ago--I consider myself to be an excellent homemaker, we don't spend a lot outside groceries and our cars (with three kids 16 - 20 we have three cars on the go--one is half owned by our 20 year old who foots half it's bills). 
We have a few investments with a big company which we invested in when we didn't know any better. I would like to get the courage to switch them to self directed investment at some point, but my husband is very concerned we couldn't do a good job on our own with worries we'd make a mistake and lose money. 
So I have been reading this forum for a long time and trying to educate myself reading all the book selections and checking out some self directed investment sites, but I haven't been able to take the plunge.
I have about $5,000 of our money that I would like to invest in a self directed account to try it out. I get the idea that it's good to invest in ETFs and high value liquid stocks--I have read about some of the companies you discuss on this site so have a few ideas. Just trying to decide on a discount brokerage company that people like and use but must be good for beginners like we are. 

I was checking out the BMO Investorline AdviceDirect site and even viewed their webinar the other day. They offer advice, have a pie graph that shows you how your investment is allocated based on your risk tolerance, tells you when it's a good idea to sell etc. Has anyone used this service? I am sure all of you know more than I do, so maybe this is too beginner for those of you who manage your own money. Any advice on how to take the plunge, choose some stocks and a brokerage and just start? I have a terrible fear of failing and having my husband say "I told you so"! At this stage he's not prepared to get very involved and it's "my" money I am using to start up. But I also figure we've trusted the powers that be for long enough and they haven't done much for us. Any advice for an investing virgin?


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

BMO will charge you 1% per year for the advice (IIRC). You can try to do it yourself. Here is where you can start:

From:
http://www.moneysense.ca/2010/05/27/become-a-couch-potato-investor-with-less-than-5000/


> Three great ideas for small potatoes. Here’s how to get started, even if you don’t have thousands to invest


.


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## Echo (Apr 1, 2011)

Investors need a minimum of $100,000 in assets to use BMO's Advice Direct, which charges a fee of 1% per year.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

Welcome to the forum!

BMO InvestorLine charges $29 per transaction if you have less than $50,000 to invest. That's expensive.

http://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/rates-and-fees/il/fees/flat-fee-pricing

leoc2 linked an article that mentions TD eSeries funds. Take a look and give it some thought. You can do a lot worse than that.

You can graduate to a discount brokerage and ETFs (or stocks) later on, when your portfolio is large enough to qualify for $10 trading commissions.

Good luck!


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

zoey i'm impressed with how well you & family have done in life. Jobs, savings, house, cars, no debt, pension coming in later, plus - by far the best of all - 3 kids doing great in university & high school, with resps that you saved yourselves. All this is wonderful, good for you.

it's fine to take a turn in self-directed investing. Leo's link above - to an article by a respected financial journalist about the options that are open for small investors - is perfect for you. Won't you please read this carefully. Whiz through the comments, too, & be sure to open & read all of journo Bortoletti's replies to each comment.

there are good suggestions for you in this thread. You'll see that it's quite likely that td efunds are appropriate for where you're at right now.

it might be the case that you should consider only the 3 equity sectors - canadian, US & international equity efunds - in the event that you already have other funds that are already saved in fixed income vehicles such as GICs or HISA accounts. If so, you could forego the td bond efund, which is the traditional 4th leg in basic couch potato portfolios.

td efund accounts have no fees when they are opened directly with td asset management. I'm not sure that you would want to open an efund account initially with td waterhouse the discount broker. They do have maintenance charges for inactive accounts below $25,000 & it's possible that a new 5,000 account with only efund activitiy would not generate the minimum trades that tdw requires to offset the maintenance charge.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Welcome

First thing I would do is learn what that pension will provide, you your husband must receive statements.


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## zoey123 (Jan 23, 2013)

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone for your feedback. 
Thanks for noticing the fees of the BMO site, I didn't notice that, and the fact that I would need a lot more money to start with. We have larger investments with the financial
advisor, but at this point I am not at all confident to move them over. Hopefully with some time -- I have to start small because it's not coming
naturally to me but this website has given me so much knowledge and information...including why I need to act now. 

Thanks very much for the article and the advice. I am going to read up more and look up old copies of my MoneySense magazine for the Couch Potato
suggestions, then set a deadline for myself and just go ahead and do it. I have procrastinated far too long.

Look at me as a cautionary example of why everyone needs to teach their children the financial basics. Learning about your finances young means you don't have that 
same dread... My 20 year old son is also wishing to start investing his own money...so he and I will be starting out together and learning as we go. 

We have done a few things right by being frugal and debt adverse, but Investing has been a great unknown to us both. 2013 is my year to change this behaviour.
Thank you all for your advice and not laughing at my ignorance. I think i have been learning new things about money daily from this site and books and articles I read.
I really appreciate all your input and advice. Thanks!


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

zooey you're so right when you talk about how financial management should be taught in the high schools.

this topic comes up & gets discussed regularly in the forum. Everybody, even the securities commissions & the mounties who try to keep up with growing financial fraud, agrees on the need for finance education. But we still seem to be lightyears away from anything practical being implemented.

good luck to your son, it will be nice to see him if he visits here.


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