Everything you need to know about investing to improve your returns.
If you are like most people, you probably have one or two different types of investment accounts. Maybe you use a full-service human broker. Or maybe you trust a bank branch to invest in mutual funds. Or perhaps you’ve tried doing it on your own with a discount broker.
But are you satisfied with the results?Â
Ever wondered if perhaps there are other ways to invest that would yield much better returns?
This revised course will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the various investment options available to you. It will delve into 10 distinct account types, each with its own set of investment strategies, and will clarify the various investment vehicles you can utilize.
They are all actual investment accounts of the instructor.Â
We’ll look at a full-service broker (Manulife Financial), a robo-advisor (Wealthsimple), five discount brokerages (Questrade, Qtrade, CIBC Investor’s Edge, RBC Direct Investing and TD Direct Investing), a deposit broker (Fiscal Agents), a bank branch mutual fund account (TD bank branch) and even a cryptocurrency account (Wealthsimple Bitcoin).Â
In each case we’ll look at the asset allocation and holdings of the portfolio, the fees involved, and the returns each portfolio has generated since the account was opened. You will also see a demonstration of each account’s website and the reports that are available so you can easily choose which ones are best for you.
We’ll cover all the different types of portfolios that you can have from ultra-conservative to ultra-aggressive. This will include balanced accounts at a full-service broker and a discount broker. An auto-balanced exchange traded fund (ETF). An aggressive portfolio run by a robo-advisor. An account consisting only of an equal weight banks index ETF. The safest account you can have which is a laddered GIC strategy that has zero exposure to the stock market. An account consisting solely of a bond ETF. An account consisting of one bank mutual fund recommended by a bank branch advisor. We’ll even look at a stock portfolio picked by random dart throws! And a cryptocurrency account consisting of 100% in bitcoin.
At the end of the course, we’ll have a contest that will rank each of the 10 portfolios’ average annualized returns for the past 5 years from best return to worst. It’s likely you’ll find the results surprising.
In a nutshell it will show you all the different options you can choose from so you can maximize your investment returns.
Note this is an update and combination of two previous courses: a 2019 course of the same name and a 3.5 hour course called The Complete Guide to All Your Investing Options created in 2022.
Writer, Trainer, On-demand Course Developer and Acclaimed Author
David Trahair, CPA, CA, is an author, trainer, and eLearning developer who creates on-demand video courses for CPAs across Canada. His courses cover topics including personal finance, ethics, AI, and Microsoft Excel. David is also the author of six personal finance books, three of which are national bestsellers. Through his firm, he helps CPAs build practical skills through engaging, self-paced learning.
Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.
Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.
