I have very little info on investing and I'm affriad of losing my money.
To start out u suggest index funds? Also should I first contact my bank to get Intouch with a wealth advisor. What u recommended for a collage aged guy is decent money saved?
Your bank will not recommend a wealth advisor with broad offerings. They”ll recommend their own people that can only sell mutual funds and a limited set at that. You can still get index funds through them. But they are generally not proper advisors. You are better off contacting Edward Jones, Fisher Investments or IG. Ask your tamily and friends who they or their parent use and ask for an introduction. Usually advisors want people with bigger portfolios already but some will recognize that if you are starting out and young you could be that type of client in 10 years or so and will take you on. Learn the fee structure. Most should get a piece of the MER (management expense ratio). If investing in stocks the fees are different. If a mutual fund has a 2% MER, then the fund needs to earn 9% returns so that you see 7%. The 2% goes to the fund administrator and your advisor (assume 50/50). So, if your portfolio is $100,000 then they’ll earn $2,000 off you but you’d still have $107,000 after a year. Later, once you get a bigger portfolio you can find more sophisticated advisors with broader offerings. Once you hit $1,000,000 in investments then those are easy to find and will often come knocking. Generally you might have to start with the banks until you have $100k plus then move to those companies I already mentioned. Once you are north of $500K then the better wealth management companies begin to get interested. Think of it in terms of sophistication. The banks are less sophisticated, those larger companies are more sophisticated with wealth planning software and other products (life insurance, stock, retirement planning software), and then top companies are more bespoke but are more sophisticated and usually have CFA’s giving investment advice offering other products.
To start you need to understand your goals. Are you investing for a house or other big purchase? Are you investing for retirement? Depending in the answer will determine if a RRSP, a TFSA, a non-registered account is the right product. For example: if you save for a house, you can withdraw from the RRSP tax free up to a limit. Then you pay tax. So, a TFSA. might be better. You need a proper wealth advisor to discuss that with.
Saving money will make you poor. You are already losing money by saving because of inflation. If there is 3%/year inflation then what you paid $100 today will cost you $103 next year, $106.09 the next year, $109.27 the next year and so on. So, after 3 years, your $100 saved lost 9% of it’s value. If your investments earn 7% then you are 4% better off (7% less 3% inflation)..
You won’t lose your money unless you invest in high risk investments (crypto coins, startup companies) or if you panic sell when the market corrects and goes down. Buy and Hold. An Index fund is a mutual fund that “mirrors” the index (e.g the Dow Jones). It will have stocks in it that represent the mix of the stock exchange. So, it will have Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, etc. in it). The stock market can go down so live with it and don’t panic. When Covid hit my portfolio value dropped huge (like 20% at one point). I did not sell so I lost nothing. And now I’m up alot. Buy and Hold.
Go online and find some retirement savings calculators and investment calculators to play around with. It’s a start to be educated. Learn some other investment principles such as Rule of 72 and the 4% Rule. Rule of 72 is a guideline on how many years to double your money (assuming no further annual contributions). It’s faster to double when you continue to invest. Take 72 and divide by rate of return. So, 72 / 7% equals a little over 10 years. 4% Rule is how much do you need to live off in retirement where your cash withdrawals from you investments will last 30 years or more. So, if you need $100k in income then you need $2.5M in investments (today’s money). If you need $80K, then you need $2.0M.
Just remember that investing is a marathon and not a sprint. There is a saying “the first $100K is the hardest”. That is your first milestone. Then the milestones are $250K, $500K, $1M, $2M, end goal. A good goal is that with contributions, try to double your investment value every 6 or 7 years (give or take). That might be faster when you start given the impact of contributions but slower later on when the returns are bigger than your contributions.