Wealthsimple Invest Portfolio Results After 3 Years (+ I'm Switching To Wealthsimple Trade!)

After investing my money in the same way for the past three years, I’m officially changing up my investment strategy 👀
I’d been using a robo-advisor, Wealthsimple Invest, to invest my money for me since January 2021, so three years almost to the day. A robo-advisor was a great starting point for me, because I could set up my profile, choose my risk level, decide on an amount of money to automatically send from my chequing account to my investment account every month, and then that’s it - I could literally never look at it again if I didn’t want to.
Now, I'm ready to take a 'do it yourself' approach, instead - so I'm switching from Wealthsimple Invest to Wealthsimple Trade.
In this video I'll walk you through why I'm switching, how the process went, and what my investment strategy will look like moving forward.
If you want to open a Wealthsimple Trade account, check out this link - wealthsimple.sjv.io/yRARNB
0:00 I'm changing my investment strategy
2:20 How my investment portfolio performed this year
6:16 I'm now taking a DIY approach
9:08 Switching from Wealthsimple Invest to Wealthsimple Trade
10:12 Setting up my new investment account
➡️ Simplii Financial - Our No Fee Checking Account (up to $400 bonus) - api.fintelconnect.com/t/l/65a...
➡️ EQ Bank - Our High Interest Savings Account - click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/...
➡️ Wealthsimple Invest - Our Robo-Advisor Investment Platform ($25 bonus) - wealthsimple.sjv.io/vnkndW
➡️ Wealthsimple Trade - Our Favourite Stock Trading Platform ($25 bonus) - wealthsimple.sjv.io/yRARNB
➡️ Neo Financial - Our Cash Back Credit Card - neo.cc/refer/N8U6K3S9
➡️ Questrade - Low Fee Investment Platform Canada ($50 in commission free trades) - questrade.sjv.io/AWa9jo
➡️ Borrowell - Free Credit Score Check - api.fintelconnect.com/t/l/612...
The links above are affiliate and/or referral links that provide us compensation when you use them to sign up. Thank you for supporting our channel!
Website - stephandden.com
Instagram - @stephandden
TikTok - @stephandden
➡️ KZbin Filming Equipment - amzn.to/3HrWA4i
➡️ KZbin Editing Equipment - amzn.to/3RXBsri
The links above are affiliate links - Steph & Den are Amazon Associates and we earn from qualifying purchases.
Disclaimer - This content is for education and entertainment purposes only. Steph & Den do not provide tax or investment advice. The information is being presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.

[@stephandden]

3 years down and I'm changing things up! What's your current investment strategy? Let us know! 👀

[@acousticbwoi]

Hi @stephandden great video. I put in $11k on May 24 2021 and set it to $300/monthly deposits at a risk of 7. Haven't touched it since. Today I'm at t 8.63% all time. Would XEQT have been a better investment from the get go? Like you said in the video self trading does not have the luxury of set it and forget it but I'm always second guessing WS Robo's performance to the many ETFs people are talking about in the comments section here.

[@sandeeptanjore1253]

Hi Steph and Den, I have been doing my investment via the mutual fund route through an advisor. My fees is 1.65% (0.5% advisors fee + 1.15% mer for the funds). If I move to WealthSimple they say that their fee is 0.4% (I have over 100K invested) and then the portfolio has it's own MER (you may not see the fees deducted towards this MER but certainly you will see the fees deducted from WealthSimple). Isn't the above true? Were you also paying MER towards your WealthSimple Managed Investing account plus WealthSimple's own fees? If so how much was it? My second question is: The fees (1.65%) that I am paying now, is it on the higher side?

[@danielantunes3252]

1.65 % of your total assets is A LOT . Search for Larry bates T-Rex calculator and you will have a picture of how much of your profit they are takiing from you !

[@notnoternexto]

@@sandeeptanjore1253 as someone who works in the industry. My answer is yes, specially your fund fees are super high. The advisors fee is okay but yikes your average fund management fees are high. This honestly speaks somewhat badly of your advisor because they are supposed to have a fiduciary duty to you (hopefully) and not have you paying that much. There are cheaper options out there. Not sure where you are located but I would look at moving some of your money to cheaper funds. Talk to your advisor..

[@ba5916]

It seems you have US equities in a TFSA account which will taxed. This defeats the purpose of a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). Since a TFSA has a contribution limit,it’s usually better to have Canadian stocks in it. You can always create another account in Wealthsimple for US stocks.

[@plasmicfury0]

8:05 The 9.88% return is annualized, it is actually much higher than what you were getting from Wealthsimple Invest. The cumulative return for XEQT is 51%. The Wealthsimple Invest portfolio massively underperformed that.

[@stephandden]

Yes, that was the average annual return which is great. The cumulative since inception is much higher 😊

[@CanadianFinanceSimplified]

@@stephandden Since both try to globally diversify, I imagine the performance was probably close in general if I had to guess.

[@cabellxue3504]

Hi Steph, I've been following you since you two started this channel 😇 that was also around the time I started taking investing seriously. Your videos are always so informative, concise, and easy to understand! I love them. Interestingly, I am also recently planning to change up my portfolio and investing strategy a little after a few years in the market. I have been dividing my investment between big bank and Wealth Simple, but now after observing the returns for some time I am planning to switch more funds into Wealth Simple instead.

[@bryanduhaney5802]

Wow! I have been watching you guys since your CNBC feature and amazed at how far you have come! Congrats on all your success!

[@stephandden]

Thank you so much! We appreciate it 😊

[@HouseOfBurgz]

I absolutely love this approach and plan you have for the year. Looking forward to updates on your savings journey. All the best and good luck!

[@stephandden]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@L.A.---]

Thank you for explaining dollar cost averaging properly!

[@stephandden]

😊 glad you liked it!

[@dominiquetheeasyminimalist]

👏👏 You can even schedule daily buys for the dollar cost averaging. Congratulations on your results!

[@stephandden]

Such a good feature! + thank you so much 😊

[@themusic6808]

Good job ! You’ll find there’s really not many equity markets outside of the US that consistently make high returns and the majority of large cap US equities have global exposure anyways. Advisors wether robo or not just like to make you feel “balanced” with a smattering of funds but IMO all you really need is a S&P 500 index ETF (I’d recommend VFV or ZSP) which is the benchmark index for the entire global stock market and features the 500 largest US companies weighted by market capitalization. In the growth phase especially when you’ve got lots of years of compounding you don’t want to be missing out on returns by being over diversified with your investments.

[@Lissetabilidad]

I have been thinking about doing the same! Thank you for showing your experience!

[@stephandden]

Yay! Thanks for watching 😊

[@supernumex]

Great video! Since the money from wealthsimple robo was already invested in equities and is quite highly correlated with XEQT, it would be better just to lump sum buy it right away. Which would be equivalent to a rebalancing to be more US heavy. Sure, you might get a better price with DCA, but you could also get a worse price. It would be different if you came into some cash (that wasn't previously invested) and then deciding how to invest it. Psychologically, however, DCA feels safe and I totally get why you might want to do that.

[@stephandden]

Thanks for watching + your comment! 😊

[@CanadianFinanceSimplified]

@@stephandden DCA is great. I think the only thing that you probably already thought of is that you had this large amount completely invested anyways, so lump summing would sort of be a continuation of that BUT doing it your way, you do lower the volatility in the next few months.

[@debh9864]

Hey Steph! I've been following your investment journey for a bit and recently also made the switch from WS robo advisor to the DIY appraoch. Looking forward to seeing the updates.

[@stephandden]

Thanks for following along! Love that we’re only the same path 😊 updates to come!

[@JadenHercules]

Great video and thank you for explaining the average cost approach. That's a question I had before you answered it, so it's great that you're thinking like a lot of us! XEQT seems interesting, but I've been trying to get out of etfs.

[@yardenzimmer5]

So where would you invite? High intrest saving account? Interesting comment.

[@stephandden]

Thanks Jaden! 😊 Also that’s interesting, why are you trying to get out of ETF’s? We’ve actually been getting rid of any single stocks we’ve had from the past.

[@danieldman8515]

Love the videos yall! It’s super helpful 👍😃

[@stephandden]

Thanks so much - we’re glad you like them! 😊✨

[@jared2232]

People over complicate investing. Some months you'll be up some months you'll be down. But if you hold on long term I can almost guarantee you wont regret riding the wave. Have a few ETFs and a few individual stocks of companies you can get behind and you cant go wrong. It keeps things more interesting if you actually use or like the companies you select. Youre 100% not gonna beat the market every year. But some years youll surprise yourself. Youre gonna miss some big plays but you'll got some as well. Dont expect to be perfect and just remember your miles ahead of alot of the people around you just for even trying.

[@OraneenarO]

Really informative info. One topic I'd really appreciate you guys to consider is that of life insurance. I'd love some clarity on that.

[@stephandden]

We've been wanting to do a video about this! Thanks for the suggestion / reminder 😊

[@ja89]

Really helpful videos, and have been following for the past year! Was just curious, are there any risks involved, negative implications, or cons from clearing out your WS Invest account and transferring everything to WS Trade? And I’m looking forward to your video/learning more about the transfer process. Thank you!

[@bnwo]

You finally made it to 100K followers.

[@stephandden]

Such an exciting milestone! 🥹🥳

[@shanepikelin]

I’ve been thinking about the same. I totalled all of my WS invest fees across my multiple accounts (TFSA,RESP,Personal) and the fees definitely add up even though only being 0.4% for me. Might be time to have a bit more hands on..

[@stephandden]

It’s definitely interesting to view it from that lens - that’s exactly how I felt!

[@LMQC]

used your referral link to sign up for WS Trade, thanks guys 👍

[@stephandden]

We love to hear it! Thank you for using the link! 😊

[@factor_null]

XEQT and VEQT are great overall. The only thing that prevents me from moving to those is that if I am not mistaken, those are less tax effiicient. So, because it's an ETF of ETFs of ETFs (VEQT holds VUN, and VUN holds VTI). The dividend withholding tax on non-US residents is applied at every level. For example: VEQT (Canadian ETF): Subject to Canadian withholding tax on dividends received from VUN (which holds VTI). Indirectly subject to U.S. withholding tax on dividends from VTI through the layers of ETFs. VUN (Canadian ETF): Subject to U.S. withholding tax on dividends received from VTI. VTI (U.S. ETF): Subject to U.S. withholding tax on dividends from the underlying U.S. holdings.

[@stephandden]

Hey - thanks for giving your take! 😊 According the Canadian Portfolio Manager’s tax calculator - you’re looking at a tax drag of 0.22% a year if you hold XEQT in a TFSA. To be honest, it’s all about what you value and how well you can stick to your plan over the long term. Trying to run the most cost effective portfolio can be great for some, but it can also be a down fall for others over the long term.

[@veerurs938]

Thank you for sharing! I have a doubt though - isn't TFSA comes with contribution limit? Wouldn't monthly auto investment exceed the max limit?

[@LMQC]

Question about the Recurring Buy feature: Are you potentially overpaying for shares of XEQT because you're not using a Limit Buy? If so, by how much? I'm trying to determine if I should take advantage of the feature or not.

[@hedgefundharry]

Personally, I'm mostly VFV in my TFSA and VTI in my RRSP. I'm not the biggest fan of the 0.09% MER that VFV has when its equal in the US, VOO, is only 0.03%. The S&P 500 is diverse enough for me in my TFSA. I don't care for the global exposure and can't palate the 0.20% MER XEQT has. I'm on the side of lump sum as well as my philosophy is that time in the market usually beats timing the market. I've had my fun stock picking and underperforming the S&P, even by a few percentage points. I've had my fun not focusing on MER. Small losses now but the opportunity cost when compounded up to retirement turns pennies and dollars (MER) and hundreds/thousands of dollars (individual stocks) into serious cash.

[@pedrorondon5912]

Did WS charge you any fee for the Transfer?. Thank you.

[@Whopriest]

I have been using Wealthsimple Trade for 3 years now and it's great. The I am focusing strongly on the Canadian market for a dividend portfolio.

[@AfroSenpai]

Excellent work, keep going, you guys are beautiful.

[@stephandden]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@hazzard]

Awesome video. Super helpful. Would this be in an unregistered account? Because in a previous video you said that you’ve maxed out ur TFSA.

[@stephandden]

So glad you liked it! Yes, I've maxed out my TFSA, and the rest of the money will be invested in other registered accounts (ie. the FHSA and RRSP) - more videos on that coming soon. 😊

[@duncanjoslin9077]

How did you switch I did the trade first then realized I’m in way over my head and want to switch to the robo dude do I just delete my whole wealth simple account and start the new one

[@H4WKGAMING]

Hey guys, can you consider making a video on the best strategy for someone looking to start investing in their late 50s or early 60s? I know it is a niche audience but would be very helpful!

[@stephandden]

Thanks for this suggestion! We can definitely add this to our video idea list 😊

[@Daisy-ku6gd]

@@stephandden This is a is a very good idea. I am sure there are people out there like me who were stay at home moms in the early years, working now but not much savings with 10 to 15 years to retire? how can we invest smart to close the gap?

[@Daisy-ku6gd]

Can you please do a video for the people who started to work and save later in their lives with not much of knowledge and looking for 10 to 15 years to retire? what strategies should be used to close the gap as much as possible?

[@precioussawyerr1519]

Nice video 🥂.

[@stephandden]

Thank you! 😊

[@frank188]

@Steph So just to clarify, now that you've fully switched to Wealth Simple Trade, you're only investing in XEQT every month? That's it? No other ETFs at all? Isn't that putting all your eggs in one basket though? Isn't it better to diversify? I'd appreciate it if you could clarify this in a video :-)

[@JoshDMello]

XEQT is as diversified as it gets

[@sophiesmith722]

Great video!! Do you recommend buying XEQT for the FHSA? or keep that managed so it is less risky?

[@stephandden]

Thank you! One thing to consider with the FHSA is that you’re likely investing for a short term time horizon - aka you’ll want to pull the money out to buy a home within a specific number of years - so you’ll likely want to focus on lower risk investments. I personally won’t be investing in XEQT within my FHSA (but I will for my longer term investment accounts, like my TFSA and likely my RRSP in the future) - we’ll have a video coming out soon though diving into my plan for that account. 😊

[@abhishekjawahirani8366]

Hi Steph & Den, Great content. I am deciding on whether to choose XEQT or VEQT. Did you choose XEQT over VEQT because of the lower management fee which is 0.18%?

[@stephandden]

Hey! Yes, that’s exactly why we chose it. I mean, they’re so close in terms of geographical mix and asset mix so you should be good to go regardless in the long run. 😊

[@abhishekjawahirani8366]

Thanx guys

[@Bdpulse99]

Just curious - are you invrsting in xeqt within your tfsa monthly or as a lump sum once a year? Thanks!

[@stephandden]

Monthly at the moment! 😊

[@jeanfrancoisraynaud]

Thank you for this great video. So how is this strategy working for you so far?

[@AmanBhimani]

It’s more likely that the average price with DCA will be higher than what you get with a lump sum investments. Markets usually go up, so if you invest over the next 6 months, you’ll probably have a higher average price than if you invest it all now.

[@ripeningavocado]

Thanks for this. Could you walk us through the specifics of what you had to do to “click a few buttons” in order to make the switch? Maybe you could talk about what it means to do an “in kind” transfer to avoid creating a taxable event?

[@stephandden]

Yes, we’re going to do a video soon all about setting up a Wealthsimple Trade account, and include a bit more about transferring from Wealthsimple Invest to Trade! It was as simple as clicking ‘Transfer’, selecting my Wealthsimple Invest TFSA, and choosing to transfer it to Wealthsimple Trade, instead. 😊

[@waves.of.indigo]

Doesn't that mean you're taking out your money and so your amount resets?

[@ja89]

I was just about to ask these questions as well!

[@ivopollazii]

Here for the same reason. Planning on moving money with my TFSA kept within wealth simple. I'm not sure if using the transfer feature on wealth simple essentially would be an "in kind" or a sell and buy. I'd like to not lose my contribution room for the year and keep the gains invested.

[@robw4379]

I'm trying to decide if I should lump sum or DCA. Is there a reason why you chose to DCA $10K over 6 months? Wouldn't you be missing out on 2 quarterly dividend payments of the full amount if you DCA over 6 months? And the compounding DRIP?

[@jeannettev5119]

It depends on the size of your portfolio. If the 10K is less than 10% of your portfolio you should lump sum. If it makes up more than 10% of your portfolio then you can DCA. Money guy has a guideline for how long you should DCA depending on the percentage of your portfolio it makes up. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYSuaqFreLGrhq8si=YkaGMOyr9l5PRa2a

[@ryantsui2802]

DCA is a behavioural trick, statistically you should never DCA. However, it can help if you are nervous accept more risk in your portfolio because you're thinking more risk averse than you probably need to be. At least this is helpful when the portfolio is relatively small & your income can come in to support losses. Lump Sum > DCA > not investing because you're hesitant.

[@stephandden]

I typically DCA because I invest from my monthly income, so there isn’t a lump sum to invest 😊 in this case, I’m keeping the same method because it keeps me in the habit of investing in the same way I usually do. You can definitely consider the lump sum approach if you have a lump sum to invest and feel comfortable with that! For me, ultimately 6 months isn’t very long-term, either, so in the long run I’m still getting my money invested pretty quickly.

[@jaysechase]

I currently have a TFSA with WealthSimple Invest and plan on keeping it but I want to open a WealthSimple Trade account to invest in some XEQT also. I think that means that I need to open up a new TFSA account in WealthSimple Trade. Is that correct?

[@stephandden]

Yes, exactly! You’ll open up a second TFSA with Wealthsimple Trade 😊 Just remember that your contribution limit is total, not per account!

[@CanadianFinanceSimplified]

Nice, I am in the same ETF as Steph & Den now! I imagine it was less stressful because Den was into XEQT before right?

[@stephandden]

Amazing! + Yes, that definitely helped with the process 😊

[@jeannettev5119]

Since your 50k was already invested you could just transfer and buy in all at once. You’re essentially buying in at the same price you had in your robo advisor account.

[@stephandden]

I’m investing in a different fund that my robo-advisor account wasn’t buying 😊 but yes, another option would be to buy all at once!

[@jeannettev5119]

True! It’s a fairly similar fund though. Only a slightly different allocation in equities. I would compare it to the time you changed your allocations in your robo advisor account. You didn’t re- dollar cost average into that after you made the change did you? Totally respect your decision to dollar cost average 😊. Especially since we’ve had a really good run in 2023. In the end you probably won’t lose out on a ton of gains dollar cost averaging over 6 months. You may even end up ahead if we see weakness in the market. Just thought it was an interesting choice since you were already invested. Best of luck! ☺️

[@adventurousbec]

So I understand correctly, you shutdown the robo portfolio account in December and made a transfer in January? I hope this question is phrased clearly, I'm trying to understand how you managed theTFSA withdrawal/contribution dates.

[@stephandden]

Hey! I shut down my Wealthsimple Invest portfolio at the very end of November, transferred my money over to Wealthsimple Trade, and then started reinvesting my money as of the beginning of January 😊

[@adventurousbec]

Thanks @@stephandden 😃

[@fandebudget9778]

Can you do a video for Wealthsimple Invest with robot advisor for beginners ? When you invest on Wealthsimple do you get back your money monthly ?

[@stephandden]

Hi! We did one a few years ago called ‘Wealthsimple Platform Review - How To Set Up…’ 😊 With Wealthsimple Invest, you’re ideally investing for the long-term, so your money stays invested for years! If you want to take any money out, you’d have to withdraw it yourself.

[@brunoillipronti8641]

I randomly watched this and considering selling a bunch of XEQT just because international performance holds it to grow more... I am not sure what to do lol

[@shayankhawaja1160]

Hey Steph, I appreciate your assistance for us. Based on your analysis, it seems like the US stocks performed better. Do you think it would be wise for us to increase our exposure to US stocks in our portfolio, perhaps through investments such as Xeqt 80% & Vfv 20%? I believe this approach would offer a good balance of safety and growth. Also, I suggest that you should invest $500 per day rather than $10k per month. Always love your videos 🙏🙏

[@stephandden]

Hey! Thank you for watching 😊 That’s personally why I switched to XEQT, as it has a higher percentage of US equities than I previously was investing in. One thing to consider with investing in two ETFs is the overlap - XEQT and VFV might have some of the same stocks included in both of them.

[@ih1583]

Why did you choose XEQT and not VEQT?

[@stephandden]

XEQT has a slightly lower fee + slightly higher US allocation than VEQT 😊

[@Katrinagaildavis7]

Are there any tax implications to selling your portfolio and re-investing it into trade?

[@ryantsui2802]

Yes, you need to declare all capital gains unless you transferred the assets and chose not to sell them. However, it makes sense in this case to sell everything as early as possible rather than accepting higher fees in the next 40 years.

[@stephandden]

Hi! In my case, no, as my money was in a TFSA (a tax free account) - therefore, any gains made aren’t taxed. However, it does impact your contribution room! You can only re-contribute the amount you withdrew in the next year. Otherwise yes to what Ryan said above, especially to the point of it making sense to do this as early as possible instead of accepting higher fees for the next several decades. 😊

[@jpeterman9699]

If the issuer completes a direct transfer on your behalf there are no tax consequences

[@YuginSkolov]

I guess you should have bought the underlying stocks directly looking at the chart if they are uptrend or not and would do far better than ETF which rise like a snail

[@stephandden]

ETFs diversify your risk 😊

[@Frumbler]

Sofi should be in everyones investment account

[@Kiran.Sharma12]

Hi, can you make videos for the absolute beginners on how to get into investing and trading business in Canada? We need basics. That’d be a great help for people like me who have just landed Canada…

[@stephandden]

Absolutely! You should check out this video 😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKm7kJybm9apoa8

[@Kiran.Sharma12]

@@stephandden thanks heaps! This is gonna be a great help.

[@phaldaz]

I have also decided this year to go all in on XEQT, so this was fantastic, am excited for the dividend reinvestment video breakdown just so I am more informed on that option. Also on 12:51 wouldn't the total be close to $74K instead of $86K? I think the $86K is achievable over the course of 12 months and not 6 months of your $2K monthly contribution, but I may have missed something on that section. Cheers to your 2024 goals!

[@stephandden]

Amazing! That video will be coming in a few weeks 🥳 I mentioned that I’m also investing $12,000 from our end of year bonus that we paid ourselves out 😊 Thank you!

[@scottdaly49]

Anyone else notice WS Invest stopped putting contributions towards VTI? (In the TFSA anyway)

[@stephandden]

My portfolio was still putting contributions towards VTI right before I transferred my money out - but we have noticed that they change up the funds what feels like pretty frequently!

[@scottdaly49]

@@stephandden Hmm Fascinating! I would've thought they had a similar contribution process for everyone. Maybe bc my risk is technically 10 and yours 11... oh well, I'll give them a call. Great vid!

[@stephandden]

Let us know what they say if you call - we’d be curious to know what they say! + thanks so much 😊

[@scottdaly49]

@@stephandden Update! So I called WS and they reviewed everything and got back to me. Personally, in a DIY account, I wouldn't have ignored/avoided contributing to one of my ETFs for almost 2 years.... but that's just me lol. Here's their response: My advisor team has advised me that our security selection depends on the asset class weight based on the risk score. We do this by looking at the total cost of ownership of each ETF and selecting the lowest total cost of ownership. Total cost of ownership includes management fee (MER), other fund expenses, transaction costs like spreads and our FX fee, and taxes. In your case, QUU has a lower total cost of ownership than VTI, so we use QUU within your account instead of VTI.

[@boomdaus]

The geographical break down does not look 'correct' for XEQT. the USA has been deflated by approximately 12% (or more if you just look at developed market which most of the funds on the list are). Canada is around 3% of the actual global markeycap. Usualy I excpect some patriotism but unless its a ESG, I don't see this bettering your own future. The issue might also be that I am used to paying a weighted average of 0.12% on my porfolio (vanguard uk) and would expect. on a postive note the actual performace is in the +/- 1.5% of what is should be (I did a quick compare to FTSE all-world VWRP) as it seems XEQT porfolio out performed the market during covid. Just have a for new funds available every so often if something that suit you comes up before you have finished fully reinvesting

[@waves.of.indigo]

Do you consider socially responsible funds, are there any ETFs like that? Is ethics something you care about when it comes to where your money is going?

[@stephandden]

Yes, there are some ETFs that are marketed as socially responsible! It’s ultimately all about what you want personally after doing your research 😊

[@EchoesofAcoustics]

I recently opened my account with wealth simple trade and i plan to open my first tfsa account. Can anyone guide me about what is my yearly contribution limit? Thanks

[@stephandden]

That’s awesome - congrats!! We have a playlist called investment accounts explained and there’s a great example in our TFSA video 😊

[@yxmichaelxyyxmichaelxy3074]

I did all of My investing too late. I did some minimal investing due to life circumstances and my aversion to risk. Now, I am playing catch-up. Too late.

[@stephandden]

It’s better late than never! It can be frustrating when we feel like you lost time, but it’s great that you’re catching up now 😊

[@JTCal1000]

Are you and Den diversifying into Crypto?

[@stephandden]

Not right now, no 😊

[@loudny1]

The us equity you have had a 15% return so why choose a 9% return

[@stephandden]

That’s the yearly average for XEQT. The cumulative return since the funds inception is actually 51% 😊

[@blackgrandpa7652]

Im in VFV 75% of my portfolio and 25% in VDY o set it and forget it....

[@vikkienos6807]

Well done.

[@stephandden]

Thank you 😊

[@xeltonic9714]

I am still using a ws robo advisor for 7 months now, I'm wondering if I should still continue, but I chose it because I don't want to think about choosing my stocks

[@entertainmentfan1463]

Oh wow, nearly $50,000 after 3 years. Do you remember what was the original amount you put in?

[@stephandden]

I’d contributed about $45,000 😊

[@entertainmentfan1463]

@@stephandden So about 11% for that amount. That's pretty good.

[@dominiquemacool9171]

And here I was hoping she would say 500 😢😂

[@michelbeaulieu300]

I try and they invest in Us market and lost money. So I prefer make my choice and analyse by myself Canada market no fees

[@shahub5]

you better change your portfolio again because VT from vanguard is better and a lower expense ratio and since you're complaining about wanting more u.s. exposure; vt is like 60% u.s.

[@stephandden]

I do have more US exposure with the change I made 😊 I’m happy with my current portfolio, but there’s many options out there.

[@victorcretu7741]

Truth be told if you buy Microsoft stock (MSFT) and Dow Jones's ETF (DIA - SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust, you might have a better return than many, many funds.

[@stephandden]

There are many different investment options you could go with! What you mentioned has more risk, which is something to consider. 😊

[@robloxkidvideos]

my new strategy NEVER BUY PENNY STOCKS!

[@stephandden]

👏🏿👏🏻

[@nueloblack]

Be aware of the 5% fee upon withdrawal.

[@ih1583]

What fee?

[@stephandden]

For what?

[@Ouroporos]

XEQT FTW!

[@stephandden]

🥳🥳

[@samdonohoe9796]

Dont understand why you think 0.5% fees are acceptable, vanguard offers 0.07% for exposure to U.S ETFs

[@stephandden]

I talk in this video about how I switched my investment platform / strategy because I don’t think a 0.5% fee is necessary!

[@klangkarussell4599]

XEQT all the way.

[@stephandden]

🙌🏿🙌🏻

[@TonyMontanaDS]

So much talk....my god All that to say you liquidated your account and will start investing from scratch. This could have been a 30 sec video.

[@stephandden]

I explained my portfolio results, why I’m switching accounts, how the process works + my new investment strategy - there was a lot covered 😊 If you’re not interested, no problem!

[@FactsFromFred]

@stephandden would love to know why ypu dont just invest in S&P 500 or NASDAQ?

[@stephandden]

Hey! We personally want more global diversification - investing in the S&P 500 or Nasdaq means you have geographic concentration risk. It’s definitely an option if you’re okay with that and want to be invested in only US equities, but that’s why we’ve gone with XEQT, instead. 😊

[@FactsFromFred]

@@stephandden everyone has a risk tolerance but with the S&P and the usual 10% average (80% last 5 years) i cant see why you wouldnt take that risk over 10+ years. seems like a no brainer

[@ih1583]

It's not diverse.

[@FactsFromFred]

S&P is diverse@@ih1583

[@dustingunter7609]

I personally use VTI with Vxus, VNQ, SCHD, QQQM, BND, BNDX and SGOL, for Total market, International, REITs, dividends for help reinvesting faster, tech, US Bonds and international Bonds, with some gold. This is core base I use, but doesn't work for everyones needs, I think Stephen is on a journey of Comfort with her research and that comfort will grow as it did with 3 years of a robo before spreading wings, maybe after doing a all in one ETF, that could change with needs/comfort/ age/ experience. Honestly if I was Stephanie age I would bring up a list of top 10 stocks in each sector of the stock market, pick 3 in each category and invest in those companies directly for the best return rates possible but with less time, I've taken a safer strategy for myself. I can't wait to see how Steph and Den evolve. Cheering for your Successes guys great job.