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The Complete Guide To All Your Investing Options

A detailed analysis of all the ways to invest

Created byDavid Trahairworkspace_premiumBest Instructor
BeginnerUpdated Jan 21, 2025

What You'll Learn

  • check_circleLearn what it’s like to invest with 10 different platforms
  • check_circleDiscover a simple rule of thumb to determine your asset allocation between equities and fixed income
  • check_circleSee whether a bank ETF beats the returns of simple GICs
  • check_circleFind out if self-balancing ETFs are the best way to get ahead
  • check_circleFind out why GICs may be a better option than bond funds for the fixed income portion of your portfolio
  • check_circleFind out what it’s like to have money invested in the crazy roller coaster of bitcoin
  • check_circleFind out who wins and loses in the contest of annualized returns achieved for each of the 10 portfolios

About This Course

This new course will show you all the different options you have when it comes to investing your money. It will cover 10 different types of accounts with a whole range of different investment strategies. They are all actual investment accounts that the instructor has opened with his own money.

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).

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 ½ years from the best return to worst. It’s likely you’ll find the results surprising.

Course Content

4 activities • 3 videos • duration: 3h 29m

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Section 11 videos • 1.2 hours
  • videocamCGI section 1
    Duration 74:35
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Section 21 videos • 1.2 hours
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Section 31 videos • 1 hour
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Final Assessment1 quiz

Your Instructor

David Trahair

Acclaimed Author and On-demand Course Developer

menu_book39 courses
star13,044 reviews

David Trahair, CPA, CA, is an author 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.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

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.

What Students Are Saying

4.4 out of 5
Student's Choice
106 reviews
  • RB
    Rumina B.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Course provided valuable information on investing and the different vehicles one can use to invest based on their comfort level. Also useful was the different Organizations and the resources available for information.

  • SK
    Shelley K.
    starstarstarstarstar

    It provided a lot of information on the various options and their risks.

  • FG
    Franco G.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Very well presented. Lots of useful tips and knowledge gained here. I will certainly put this knowledge to use when continuing to review and select the varied amounts of investment products. Thanks!

  • AP
    Anthony P.
    starstarstarstarstar

    it's a good match

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 300+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 27 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.

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