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68 topics · every one taught in exactly one place
Getting Started
Why invest at allWhy leaving money in a chequing account quietly costs youF1 · Why Invest?Is your money ready to invest?Five questions to answer privately before a single dollar goes inF0 · Before Your First DollarCredit-card and other expensive debtWhy paying it off is the best guaranteed investment you will ever makeF0 · Before Your First DollarYour emergency fundThe wall between your life and your investmentsF0 · Before Your First DollarYour employer’s matchFree money first — never leave it on the tableF0 · Before Your First DollarCompoundingThe force that makes long-term investing workF1 · Why Invest?Try it: what waiting costsYour monthly amount, your runway — and the price of putting it offToolInflationWhy cash buys a little less every yearF1 · Why Invest?How your plan worksEvery question the platform asks, and whyGP · The Game Plan → Lesson 1Buying your first fundFrom account to owned, step by stepX1 · Buying Your First Fund → Lesson 1Order typesMarket order or limit order, and what surprises first-timersX1 · Buying Your First Fund → Lesson 2The Basics
Asset classesWhat you actually own, and the job each one doesF2 · Asset ClassesETFsOne purchase, hundreds of companies — and the fine printF2 · Asset Classes → Lesson 4Where returns come fromThe two channels money reaches you through — and the only fair scoreF2 · Asset Classes → Lesson 3DividendsWhat’s real, what’s a myth, and why a big yield isn’t automatically good newsX2 · Choosing Funds → Lesson 2What “risk” really meansDown years versus ruin — they are not the same thingF3 · Risk and Return → Lesson 1The range of outcomesWhy your future balance is a range, not a lineF3 · Risk and Return → Lesson 5Choosing a fundThe four published checks, run on real funds, and what decides after themX2 · Choosing Funds → Lesson 2Reading ETF FactsThe same short document for every Canadian ETF, and where each answer sits in itX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 1An ETF’s own websiteWhere the numbers ETF Facts leaves out are kept, under names that differ by companyX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 1How close an ETF stays to its indexComparing an index ETF with its index over the same periodX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 2Leveraged, inverse and options ETFsETFs whose objective says they work differently from a plain index fundX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 2An ETF’s ten biggest holdingsHow much of the fund sits in a few names, and how to check its mixX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 3ETFs that hold other ETFsReading an all-in-one ETF by looking through to the funds inside itX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 3A stock ETF’s P/E and P/BWhere to find them for a fund, and what they can’t tell youX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 5Comparing two ETFsReading two funds line by line without turning it into a rankingX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 6Why index fundsWhy the fund list starts with index funds, what you get and what you give upX2 · Choosing Funds → Lesson 1Building Your Portfolio
DiversificationThe two enemies it fights, and what it can’t protect you fromI1 · Diversification, For Real → Part OneCorrelationWhy four famous stocks can share most of their risksI1 · Diversification, For Real → Part FiveConcentration riskWhen one thing you can’t control decides your outcomeI1 · Diversification, For Real → Part OneInvesting only in CanadaWhy your life is already a bet on CanadaI1 · Diversification, For Real → The building blocksYour mixThe one decision that shapes everythingI1 · Diversification, For Real → Doing itInvesting a bit every monthSpreading when you buy — honestly toldI1 · Diversification, For Real → The building blocksManaging Risk
An ETF’s risk ratingWhat the low-to-high scale on ETF Facts measures, and what it can’t tell youX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 2How much risk suits youThe facts of your life, and what you’d actually do in a fallF6 · Reading Your Situation → Lesson 1Market crashesWhy everything sometimes falls together — and what to expectI1 · Diversification, For Real → The mechanism underneathRebalancingThe maintenance that keeps your chosen risk actually chosenI4 · Rebalancing → Lesson 1CurrencyBuy the world and you buy its currencies tooI2 · Currency: Hedged or Not → Lesson 1Bonds
A bond ETF’s figuresYield to maturity, duration and credit ratings, one line eachX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 6Bonds, actually explainedWhat a bond is, and what moves its priceI9 · How Bonds Actually WorkBond funds, decodedWhat owning bonds through a fund changes, and what its income figures meanI10 · Understanding Bond FundsThe yield curveThe chart behind every rate headline — which tenor moves your mortgage, your GIC, and your stocksA10 · Reading the Yield CurveWhy yields moveFour forces that move the curve, and what a move touches in your lifeA11 · What Moves the Yield CurveFees & Taxes
What an ETF costs each yearThe MER and the TER, and how ETF Facts adds them upX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 4Buying and selling an ETFThe spread you pay on every trade, and what the volume showsX3 · Understanding ETFs → Part 4FeesWhat a “small” fee does to thirty years of savingsF4 · Costs and Taxes → Lesson 1Try it: the fee explorerSlide the fee, watch the gap grow — on real figuresToolTaxes on investmentsThe tax basics that actually change decisionsF4 · Costs and Taxes → Lesson 3Tax on foreign dividendsWhat it is, and the four things it depends onI3 · Foreign Withholding Tax → Lesson 2Account locationWhat the arrangement question is, and what it turns onA1 · Account Location → Lesson 3Behaviour
Rules for your future selfA rule you write on a calm day for the day markets fallI6 · Behavioural Guardrails → Lesson 2Common beginner mistakesWhy last year’s best fund is a poor reason to buy itF7 · Common Mistakes → Lesson 1Staying investedWhy returns go to the people still holding after twenty yearsI1 · Diversification, For Real → YoursAccounts & Planning
Account typesThe account that fits each kind of goalF5 · Account Types → Lesson 1TFSAThe flexible jar — and the mistake most people make with itF5 · Account Types → Lesson 2RRSPThe retirement jar and how the deduction really worksF5 · Account Types → Lesson 2FHSAThe first-home jar with a double perkF5 · Account Types → Lesson 3The age-71 deadlineWhen the RRSP clock runs out, and what happens nextF5 · Account Types → Lesson 2Your IPSYour plan, written down: every section explained.I7 · Reading Your IPSChanging your planWhen to review your plan, and when to leave it aloneA5 · When to Change Your Plan → Lesson 2Markets & Economy
The market environmentReading the market environment — without trading on itcoming soon
Reading an annual reportWhere companies publish their reportsA7 · Understanding the Businesses Inside Your Fund → Lesson 2Profit marginsHow much of each dollar of sales a company keepsA12 · Reading a Company’s Numbers → Lesson 1When a company’s debt is dueWhy the due dates matter as much as the amount owedA12 · Reading a Company’s Numbers → Lesson 2Interest coverageHow much operating profit a company had for each dollar of interestA12 · Reading a Company’s Numbers → Lesson 3Return on equity and on invested capitalWhat a company earns on the money put into it, and why borrowing changes one but not the otherA12 · Reading a Company’s Numbers → Lesson 4Profit versus cashWhy a company’s profit and its cash are not the same numberA7 · Understanding the Businesses Inside Your Fund → Lesson 3What protects a company from competitorsFive common sources of advantage, and the evidence each one should showA7 · Understanding the Businesses Inside Your Fund → Lesson 4