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Courses/Finance/Financial Planning

The Complete Guide To All Your Investing Options

A detailed analysis of all the ways to invest

Created byDavid Trahairworkspace_premium
4.4
(106 reviews)
BeginnerUpdated Jan 21, 2025
The Complete Guide To All Your Investing Options

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.

Your Instructor

David Trahair
David Trahair

Writer, Trainer, On-demand Course Developer and Acclaimed Author

menu_book35 courses
star12,352 reviews

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.

Credit Information

Do these courses count toward my professional development requirements?

This portal is provided as a training and development resource for City of Markham employees. Every course is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, is quantifiable in hours, and is verifiable — you receive a documented certificate of completion for every course you finish, stored on LearnFormula indefinitely.

If you hold a professional designation (for example in engineering, accounting, human resources, or law), courses may be counted as professionally relevant, verifiable learning activities toward your continuing professional development. Individual practitioners are responsible for confirming that an activity meets the requirements of their professional body. For questions about the City of Markham's training and development policies, please speak with your people leader or Human Resources.

What Students Are Saying

4.4
Student's Choice
106 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 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.