Canadian Couch Potato

https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ is my go to! They put out amazing content over the years and have a great set of model portfolios for those just getting into investing.

This book is an excellent start and the author has made it available for free as a PDF (you can also get it on Amazon) http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/ifyoucan.pdf It lays out an effective retirement strategy in the first paragraph or so, and spends the rest of the book explaining it. Short and easy read. The strategy has to be adapted somewhat for non-Americans - if you're Canadian, the adaptations can be found at https://canadiancouchpotato.com/. Like I said, it's a start, but it also recommends a lot of good and trustworthy resources to continue your learning after you read it. I found it through /r/personalfinance as the other commenter suggested.

Maybe these sites: https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ https://www.bogleheads.org/ (Unfortunately the best resources I know of are in my mother tongue, but the links above might be good starting points.)

I was in a similar position. The following helped. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned-ebo… https://canadiancouchpotato.com/

I read that book this year. The entire book can be summarised as. Don't attempt to beat the market. The market cannot be beat (many examples in the book). Invest in index funds long term which is the right mix of risk/reward for most people. It does have a chart in the back which tracks your age and situation. For example as you approach retirement you should start to liquidate your funds and buy government bonds so you aren't hit by a bad year when you have to start drawing on your investments. It did convince me. I opened accounts with Wealthsimple and Questrade the next day. A great site for fellow Canadians is http://canadiancouchpotato.com/ - you can skip the book.

For Canadians interested in learning about index-based investing I recommend the Canadian Couch Potato site[0]. If you don't want to put a lot of thought into it he has some sample portfolios, but also has a lot of resources for learning more. He's also very good about answering questions in the comments on his posts. [0] http://canadiancouchpotato.com/

> I’ve never seen anyone recommend 60/40 at least in the era of forums like Reddit personal finance and Bogleheads. It's recommended all the time in (e.g.) /r/PersonalFinanceCanada if you want a more conservative portfolio (e.g., in or nearing retirement): * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/ or if it suits your risk profile (you'd lose sleep over large dips in your portfolio, even if you aren't in/near retirement): * https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/investing#wiki_con… * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyOqqtq12jQ * https://canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolios/

Portfolio of index funds based on http://canadiancouchpotato.com 25% TSX (Canadian market) 25% S&P500 (US market) 25% MSCI EAFE (Developed market excluding Canada/US) 25% Fixed Income - cash,bonds,'high' interest savings account, etc. Requires about 4-5 hours of time once per year to rebalance portfolio and update some partially automated Google Docs files to track performance. Works for me...also planning to get a rental property at some point.

Millionaire Teacher[0] is what I read for a layman's approach to index investing. It approaches it mostly from an expat's perspective, but the core approach is the same regardless of where you are or plan to retire. And for Canadian-tilted advice I read the Canadian Couch Potato blog[1]. 0 - https://andrewhallam.com/ 1 - http://canadiancouchpotato.com/

> Stocks are just like hens. They lay eggs called “dividends”, The general advice of not worrying about market dips/corrections is good. Even if you only invest at market peaks, if you stick with it and don't sell, things will turn out pretty well: > Meet Bob. > Bob is the world’s worst market timer. * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/ The specific advice of going after dividends is not as prudent, as one should (especially with retirement savings) go after total return: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpXI_Vd51dA There are a whole bunch of myths that have sprung up over dividends: > Dividend Myth #1: Companies that pay dividends are inherently better investments than those that don’t. > Dividend Myth #2: Dividend investors are successful because they select excellent companies and buy them when they are attractively priced. > [Total of six myths.] * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-pa…

Not sure why there was such a knee-jerk reaction, but it's actually fairly straight forward and not scammy at all. You're performing two trades, using a money market ETF that trades at the currency exchange rate, and paying standard brokerage fees + spread instead of currency conversion fees. If you pay $20 in fees + spread for 2 trades, that'll be the cost of the conversion. For a $10k conversion, that's 0.2%. Unless you're suggesting that a money market ETF is prone to manipulation, your brokerage is going to scam you, or you don't like to deal with taxes on your stock purchases/sales, there isn't much drawback other than time. The larger the amount though, the more it'll potentially be worthwhile. More info about this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/norberts-smart-way-to-co… http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-the-complete… http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Norbert's_gambit

"Sadly" I don't really have much cash on the sidelines to buy more equities as prices dip as I generally don't try to time to market / buy the dip: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-cost-averagi… I'm not generally 100% equities, often 80/20, so things will be rebalancing on their own at least at least: * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/ * https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Asset_allocation_ETF * https://www.moneysense.ca/save/investing/etfs/one-etf-portfolio-pros-c… I have a few more decades until retirement, so buying low now would be nice.

We have quite a bit in line with this: https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/blog/ https://community.rationalreminder.ca/ https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.financialwisdomforum.org/forum/index.php https://canadiancouchpotato.com/ Also, we have Ben Felix's podcasts - Rational Reminder

I'll be in this situation soon and was hoping to be able to use Norbert's Gambit: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2013/12/03/norberts-gambit-the-complete…

> If you exclude dividend paying stocks, then the entire stock market starts to look like a giant pyramid scheme casino. Stocks can start paying dividends in the future: MSFT did not in the past, and does now. AAPL did, stopped in the 1990s, and started doing so again. You should be indifferent to the company's dividend scheme since it's the underlying business activity that drives total returns, and not its distribution policy. There is all sorts of magical thinking when it comes to dividends: * https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2011/01/18/debunking-dividend-myths-pa… * https://pwlcapital.com/the-irrelevance-of-dividends-still-a-non-starte… A pyramid scheme can run out of people to keep it going: the stock market is in a sense a 'savings scheme' for future consumption. Younger people work and turn their cash into savings, older people take their savings and turn it back into cash: as long as young people need to think about the future, and older people / retirees need to pay bills, there's a mechanism to maintain this cycle.