# Investing Advice for 22 Year Old



## Knight Rider (Apr 5, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I graduated from university last year and have been working full time at my parents business ever since. I still live at home, so I have almost no expenses. As a result, my savings account has been growing rapidly and it's about time I diversify my savings. Current income is about 55k pre-tax annually or $1614 bi-weekly after tax.

Assets:
Chequing Account (CIBC) - $500
Savings Account (Ally - 2%) -$65,000
Gold/Silver Coins - $11,000

I opened a TFSA account at Scotia iTrade in 2009 but withdrew the funds before investing as I needed them elsewhere and didn't want to pay $20 per trade in commission on small trades. At least I now have 20k in contribution room which I would like to fill shortly.

Future:
I don’t expect any changes in lifestyle for the near future; however I am considering moving to Florida to start a business there in 3-4 years.

Questions:
1.	What percentage would you recommend I allocate to stocks, ETF’s, precious metals and cash? I would prefer to stay away from GIC’s as I don’t like being locked in for the long term.
2.	Since I have nothing in my iTrade account at the moment, I have the option of choosing another brokerage firm. Which one would you choose? My final three choices are:
CIBC – I would qualify for the $6.95 flat rate commission since my parents have their mortgage there. Only downside to this is I’ve heard their platform isn’t very good. Apparently has a new platform in beta.
Questrade – Cheap trades, questionable customer service/platform.
Scotia iTrade – Could qualify for $9.95 trades if I moved 50k in assets there (20k TFSA / 30k in either cash savings account or more stocks). Best platform of the three.

Any other advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Wow - doing good man!

Definitely use that TFSA to capacity. And are you using your RRSP room as well?

For allocation, at your stage I would keep the amount you need in cash for upcoming expenditures (Car, moving expenses, rent, house etc) (5,20,50k - whatever that amount may be) and put the rest into stocks and ETFs


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## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

Questions:
1. What percentage would you recommend I allocate to stocks, ETF’s, precious metals and cash? I would prefer to stay away from GIC’s as I don’t like being locked in for the long term.
*- Don't invest too much of your income in stocks and ETF's, I would invest 10% of your net income every two weeks maximum, so $160.00* 

2. Since I have nothing in my iTrade account at the moment, I have the option of choosing another brokerage firm. Which one would you choose? My final three choices are:
CIBC – I would qualify for the $6.95 flat rate commission since my parents have their mortgage there. Only downside to this is I’ve heard their platform isn’t very good. Apparently has a new platform in beta.
Questrade – Cheap trades, questionable customer service/platform.
Scotia iTrade – Could qualify for $9.95 trades if I moved 50k in assets there (20k TFSA / 30k in either cash savings account or more stocks). Best platform of the three.
_*- I am with CIBC and recommend them because the online banking/trading is very easy to use.* _

Other than that, your 22 and already have $65K in savings, KEEP IT UP!


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## Knight Rider (Apr 5, 2009)

Montrealer said:


> _*- I am with CIBC and recommend them because the online banking/trading is very easy to use.* _


Thanks for the info. I just signed up for a TFSA account at CIBC Investors Edge as its hard to beat $6.95 commissions from a big bank, plus linking online banking and trading accounts is a plus.


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

I use CIBC Investors Edge. I don't use any of their tools. Dated/limited platform but trading is pretty easy so I use them for that (and $6.95 per trade is reasonable). Support / customer service is A++. We keep things simple too since we do our banking there. Easy to do bank transfers to/from the Edge account.

Congrats on starting early! Wish more young folks were like you!


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## inbetweenworlds (May 13, 2011)

Have you considered buying TD e-funds instead of directly buying ETFs? They have decent MERs, no commission costs, and the usual efficiencies of index funds. If you're building up your assets by regularly investing small chunks of money, not having to pay a commission helps. When you accumulate enough, you can sell the e-funds and buy the corresponding ETFs.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

dave2012 said:


> I use CIBC Investors Edge. I don't use any of their tools. Dated/limited platform but trading is pretty easy so I use them for that (and $6.95 per trade is reasonable). Support / customer service is A++.


I find that every time I call their support I get someone on the other end who I can barely understand because of a terrible accent.


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## arc (May 19, 2012)

With regards to CIBC, does it charge additional fees for synthetic DRIP? I am trading using my RRSP account (maxed out on TFSA) and I can't use a classical DRIP with RRSP since Taxation is a real pain with it.


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