• Do you know if you’re saving enough money?
• Do you feel like you should be doing more with your investments?
• Are you confident you’re on track for retirement (or other financial goals)?
• Do you understand the assets you hold in your investment portfolio?
• Do you know the growth rate of your investments versus inflation over the last ten years?
• Do you know if your financial advisor gives you wise or just safe financial advice?

Financial literacy is undertaught and underappreciated. Too many people go through life without a clear understanding of their finances and investments. The trillion-dollar financial industry tries to convince us that investing is complicated and too difficult to do alone. They claim we need their expensive portfolio management and advice to succeed. However, that’s simply a marketing tactic designed to keep us dependent and to serve their interests rather than ours.

Saving for retirement and building wealth can be simple once you understand the essential concepts. Here are the lessons I’ve learned on my path to financial freedom during my 30+ years as a successful self-directed investor.

🛫 Getting Started

There are five foundational steps that anyone can follow to build wealth:

• Spend less than you earn, ideally less than 80%
• Pay off your high-interest debt
• Open a tax-sheltered investment account
• Buy low-cost, passively managed index funds on a regular schedule
• Track your progress and adjust your savings rate as necessary

It really is that simple, but it may not be easy, depending on your financial situation. There are no shortcuts, just difficult choices. The most underappreciated point is to stop waiting and start acting. Time is your greatest ally when investing—don’t squander it.

📖 Core Concepts

Once you’re comfortable with the basics, here are the essential concepts for becoming financially literate. These will give you sufficient knowledge to filter out the nonsense and distractions and focus on what’s important:

• Why compound interest is the secret to growing your wealth
• Why inflation isn’t what you’ve been told and why that matters
• Why dollar-cost averaging outperforms lump-sum investing
• Why aggressive portfolios are usually safer than conservative
• Why passively managed, low-fee index funds are ideal assets
• How to time the stock market and when you shouldn’t bother
• How to choose the best Canadian investment account type
• How to improve buy & hold investing with tactical allocation
• How to invest in the US stock market (as a Canadian)
• How to estimate how much money you’ll need for retirement [coming soon]

📈 Essential Strategies

Understanding the core investing concepts listed above is sufficient (and necessary) if you want to take control of your investing. Once you do, building a high-performing, diversified, and safe retirement portfolio becomes straightforward with minimal effort. You’ll be able to outpace inflation and outperform most other investors while sleeping well at night because you truly understand your financial situation. Here are the simple strategies I use and suggest:

• US & Canadian Market Investment Strategies

Investing time into building your financial knowledge could net you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime. It lets you avoid costly mistakes (which you may not realize you’re making) and not settle for “safe” mediocre returns (as most people do). No other part of your life likely has the same level of outsized benefit versus the small amount of time it requires to become financially knowledgeable.

📰 Newsletter

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Take control of your finances—your future self will thank you.