Where do I start?!

The TD e-Series are an excellent way to start investing in monthly amounts. You don't specify whether you already have other investments, but the e-Series can be purchased in small instalments with no additional fees, plus their expense ratios are low compared to other mutual funds.

You could consider opening up a TD Investment account, and then converting it to an e-Series account. It's fairly easy to do, just contact your local branch and meet with an advisor to open your Investment account. Invest your first lump sum deposit in the TD Money Market Fund. Once the account is opened, you can fill in the paperwork to convert to e-Series, which gives you the full range of mutual funds and cheaper e-Series versions. Plus you can make your contributions weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose.

Decide what you would like to purchase (Canadian Equity, Bonds, U.S. Equity, International Equity) and in which proportions (%), and set up automatic withdrawals from your bank account. I think that would be a good start. Nice and simple. You could start researching stocks, etc., and eventually open a brokerage account once your savings are substantial enough and you feel like wading into ETFs and other more sophisticated investment vehicles.

I think your instincts are good; this approach would allow you to build a good portfolio at reduced fees, and to get your feet wet with relatively low risk. Good luck!

Some ideas.

Hello John,

Hard to give proper investment advice without seeing your full story, but here are some ideas:

1. You seem to make a decent salary. But, what if you or you wife gets layed off (heaven forbid!)? Do you have an emergency fund? Experts often recommend 3 months' salary. A high interest savings account like the one offered by ING should do the trick. I'd recommend your TFSA for this.

2. Your plan for RRSPs seems decent. (Use the tax refund to pay down your mortgage). I'm with another poster here: pay down your mortgage faster. I assume you live there, so you cannot write off the mortgage interest (which you can for rental properties). According to your article, you have 58% debt to equity (190 divided by 325). That is healthy, especially for someone as young as you, but I'd personally aim for 50% or less within a year or two. So little of your mortgage payment is actual principal at the beginning. Also this is insurance, because I think housing prices could still fall a little.

3. As for mutual funds, I'm not a big fan. Most mutual funds do not beat the index they follow. As a couple of posters have mentioned, an index etf can often accomplish the same thing or better. To get a full picture, you may want to talk with a fee for service advisor (do not go to a bank - too much conflict of interest) to get some formalized advice.

4. In these uncertain times, I think the advice of "buy for the long haul" "dollar cost average" "buy and hold" is starting to come into question. I don't know how active you want to be in your trading, but you may want to research this idea further.

5. Also, as hedge against inflation (trust me, it is coming), I'd recommend buying physical gold and silver. The American dollar I figure is very vulnerable to a depreciation because of their astronomical and unpayable debt, increasing budget deficit, plus an American public that is very adverse to tax hikes to pay for it. The Canadian dollar is stronger, I think, but 75% of our trade is with America, so we are fooling ourselves if we think a market calamity in America won't flow north.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Thanks for all of the replies everyone!

A couple of points:

1) Why invest when I can pay down the house? Well, with a low interest rate, I am confident that my investments will yield better than the 4.35% I am paying on the mortgage.

2) Not much of an emergency fund exists... well, near $5000. We didnt spend as much as we could have on our house for a couple reasons. We dont have children yet, and we wanted to be in a position that if someone lost their job, we could still manage to get by. Not easily, but feasibly.

3) Mutual Fund vs ETFs? Hell if I know I know very very little, and understand even less when it comes to these things. I am good at budgeting and earning money, but investing is foreign to me. I would rather do the work, than pay someone out of my earnings.

4) I am young and foolish. A somewhat aggressive portfolio does not scare me much. Perhaps something between aggressive and medium... hehe

5) I should have mentioned that I currently contribute 2% into my employer's SPP (and they match dollar for dollar up to that 2%) (account has maybe $6000 in it). My wife also does the same at her work, and has maybe $13000 in hers.

I like the idea of the e-series and low fee index funds more and more that I read, but need to know where to start gathering all i can know!

Thanks
John