# low MER investing without investment knowledge



## sunworship (Mar 15, 2019)

HI,

I am interested in moving my RSP and TFSA away from TD bank and into something like WealthSimple to take advantage of the lower MER.

Other than WealthSimple, what are my options?

Thanks!


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

sunworship said:


> HI,
> 
> I am interested in moving my RSP and TFSA away from TD bank and into something like WealthSimple to take advantage of the lower MER.
> 
> ...


Move your RSP and TFSA to TDDI brokerage from TD Bank and invest yourself. A simple couch potato portfolio is your lowest cost method to start gaining experience.

ltr


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## sunworship (Mar 15, 2019)

The couch potato portfolio - is that something I still have to pick? What all is invovled in the TDDI brokerage route?


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

sunworship said:


> The couch potato portfolio - is that something I still have to pick? What all is involved in the TDDI brokerage route?


Not too difficult. Just go to TD Bank and fill out the forms to open a brokerage account at TDDI. The TDDI accounts (3 in total) will be accessed online and will be a Non-Registered account, a Registered RRSP account and a TFSA account.

Once the accounts are active you can transfer the contents of the TD Bank TFSA and RRSP to the TDDI accounts.

Your TD Bank cash accounts (chequing, etc) will be linked to the TDDI brokerage so you can move cash online between them.

You can simply invest your available cash in a 50/50 set of passive index funds in the brokerage account (i.e. 50% bond / 50% Canadian Index).

Lots of info online for you to learn about it, and so you won't end up paying the bank or WealthSimple fees.

ltr


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

sunworship said:


> The couch potato portfolio - is that something I still have to pick? What all is invovled in the TDDI brokerage route?


DIY investing is not for everyone, so it is not the end all. However, it would be worth your while to spend 2-3 months learning about Couch Potato passive investing. I'd suggest you start with reading from these two sources:

https://canadiancouchpotato.com/

https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

The biggest leap of faith in DIY investing is flying solo, i.e. making investing decisions and then executing (placing) the trades. You may find that the easiest way to invest is to buy just ONE of the Vanguard asset allocation ETFs as your entire portfolio, all for 0.22% MER. Yes, it can be that simple!!!!

Vanguard has 5 of them now ranging from 100% equity all the way down to 20% equity. Lots of media writings on these things if you google "Vanguard Canada Asset Allocation ETFs"


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

AltaRed said:


> DIY investing is not for everyone


Agreed, but it sure is simple.



AltaRed said:


> You may find that the easiest way to invest is to buy just ONE of the Vanguard asset allocation ETFs as your entire portfolio, all for 0.22% MER. Yes, it can be that simple!!!!


Agree. That 0.22% MER is sure a lot better than funding someone else's retirement at the Bank or WealthSimple with your money. Over time it really adds up.

ltr


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

AltaRed said:


> The biggest leap of faith in DIY investing is flying solo, i.e. making investing decisions and then executing (placing) the trades. You may find that the easiest way to invest is to buy just ONE of the Vanguard asset allocation ETFs as your entire portfolio, all for 0.22% MER. Yes, it can be that simple!!!!


^^ This ... as a starting point.


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## Danny (Oct 17, 2012)

I would recommenced you pick up the book "The Millionaire teacher" by Andrew Hallam. Easy book to read in a few days. Simplifies everything for you and easy to understand. Read that and most things will start to make sense.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

sunworship said:


> I am interested in moving my RSP and TFSA away from TD bank and into something like WealthSimple to take advantage of the lower MER.
> 
> Other than WealthSimple, what are my options?


Buying a single ETF which contains an entire portfolio (VBAL for example) is a really good alternative to WealthSimple. It's basically the same thing; they manage your investments for you and package it up. There are several all-in-one portfolio solutions like this: VBAL, VGRO, VCNS, XBAL, XGRO.

I think this is a better route than the robo advisors like WealthSimple. The providers of the all-in-one portfolios are iShares and Vanguard, which are industry giants with trillions of $ under management. Additionally you can hold them at large bank brokerages (any of the big banks) and the investments are standard securities.

The iShares or Vanguard all-in-one portfolios are going to perform just as well as the robo advisors.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I wouldn't touch the iShares ones yet. They are new having been re-constituted from old ones but they should perform similar to Vanguard. Not likely of interest to most here but VCIP (20% equities) is now trading as well. And then there is a 100% equity one too.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Well, iShares (US) has had these kinds of funds around -- AOK, AOR, etc -- for about 10 years so iShares actually has much more experience with the portfolio ETFs


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

The OP could open TDDI account throw everything into one of these funds.
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/the-best-all-in-one-exchange-traded-funds-etfs/


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Which is what I said up thread, but I'd hesitate with the newcomers until they get some significant Assets Under Management. There is often an 'early drag' (slight under performance) until there is a better (lower ratio) of 'unit creation' vs assets under management. There is a paper somewhere that describes this phenomena.


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## Butter (Nov 26, 2017)

To get a lower mer you just need to get ETFs

TD Bank can set up a brokerage account (stock picking)

You just buy say $30,000 of VGRO.to for $9.95

If you get a brokerage account at Questrade, you won't have to pay that $9.95 fee

If you go with Scotia Bank iTrade you can buy XGRO.to for free as well.


So it's important how much money you start with, and how much money you will add, because that $9.95 fee will eat 1% of gains on $1,000 but only 0.1% on $10,000

Pick the bank that best suits you. Avoid fees.


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