There are a thousand reasons to do so but they all pretty much translate in \u201cbecause nobody care for your money as much as you do<\/em>\u201d. Here are some facts to chew on until part II. Did you know that:<\/p>\n nobody care for your money as much as you do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[97,99,160,193,239,270],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savvy","tag-dividend","tag-do-it-yourself","tag-investing","tag-mer","tag-profit","tag-savings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe so called \u201cinvestment agents\u201d are simply \u201csales agents\u201d and once they make their commission, they will forget about you until next year. You might say to yourself, for good reasons: how am I going to get the knowledge of the markets, or understand all those terms like derivatives, options, beta, EPS, P\/E<\/em> etc. Well, let me tell you the level of knowledge of some of the people you entrust your money with. Before migrating my RRSP investments to Questrade, I asked what fees I will be charged if I wanted to sell them. My agent redirected me to his secretary, being told \u201cI don\u2019t know this kind of thing\u201d. My \u201cagent\u201d didn\u2019t know what are the fees associated with my investments! How much worse can I do?!
\nMy ex went to another agent and asked some trivial questions and made some savvy comments to let her know that she is not completely unaware of investing terms. The investment agent was so enthusiastic that couldn’t help herself ask \u201cDid you ever consider a career as an investment agent?! You seem sooooo knowledgeable\u201d. Otherwise she readily agreed with everything that Brindusa suggested. One would think that you walk into an “expert’s” office to get some insights, not smiling nods.
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\nI will not badmouth a whole profession. I am sure there are good investment agents but, from what I\u2019ve heard, those guys have their hands so full that they mostly focus on big-money and for the smaller investor they are pretty much out of touch. Indeed, you might have an active, REAL investment agent who makes you good money but then stick to him\/her and thank God you are so lucky.
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\nIt just makes sense that the average investment agent will not necessarily recommend you the best investments but the ones that bring the best commission. A standard mutual fund that very seldom, if ever, beats the index mutual fund (the index of the industry the mutual fund is focused on), would charge you 2.5-3%. And that is yearly coming out of your pockets. A well managed fund, with no load \u2013 like Phillips, Hager and North (PH&N), which charge 0.8-1% will not be recommended by agents because the commission is too small. I calculated that the front-loads and back-loads (fees for purchasing a mutual fund: either paid upfront or when you sell them if they are sold before a certain period) cost me with my late agent about 2500$. Those loads are traditionally going into the pockets of the investment agent. Why would they recommend you something that makes YOU money and doesn’t leave much for them?!
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\nI know it seems scary. I heard too the stories with people who lost everything. People asked me if I \u201cplay on the stock market<\/em>\u201d. Oh, God, NO! No such thing, not now and probably not ever. I will NOT play with my hard earned money.
\nYet things are not as complicated as the fear of unknown makes them seem. After all, it’s a guessing game and, while nothing is certain, you can make safe, educated guesses as well as the “agent”, just less expensive. The point is not going for the \u201cget rich quick\u201d scheme, because there is no such scheme. For smart ones amongst us a \u201cget rich slow\u201d scheme is good enough and there are plenty of strategies. I never aim at outrageous performances \u2013 since most of the time they try to hide huge risks and weaknesses. Even so, one could get 5-7-9% dividend from perfectly sound companies, which reinvested, in time, can make the difference between a comfortable retirement and a stingy one.
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\nHere are some initial steps to take:<\/p>\n\n
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Read and understand the basics of investing without bothering too much with the higher level economical knowledge:<\/p>\n
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