Course Description

Take control of your money.

I believe that it's important to invest your money to secure your future -- and that you should understand those investments, and shouldn't have to rely on a salesperson making hidden commissions just to invest.

This course will guide you through investing your money for the long term, with plain-language explanations and step-by-step instructions.

The course has two aims: to show you how to invest, and to help you set up good processes and behaviour so that you can be successful for the long term. Click here to download the syllabus, or see the list of modules below.

It is aimed at people who don't have previous experience investing, and will cover the details of implementation that are often glossed over by other resources: how to set up an account, place a trade, decide between using your TFSA and RRSP, and report any gains on your taxes.

Why Become a Do-It-Yourself Investor?

There are plenty of good reasons, but at the top of the list are fees. Canadians lose massive amounts of money to fees, and may not even notice as those fees are hidden in the small print and fund returns -- you don't receive a separate bill for them. The average Canadian mutual fund charges over 2.4% per year in fees. For someone with $100,000 invested, that's $2,400 every year, when the low-cost do-it-yourself method you'll learn in the course could cost just $200/yr or even less for that same investment. For many people, this course will pay for itself in just a few months!

Compounding over the years, you could lose half of your eventual retirement savings due to fees -- hundreds of thousands of dollars over over a lifetime of investing. While some fees are unavoidable, with just a bit of work (a few hours per year) and the skills this course will help give you, you could cut that down to just a few hundred dollars.

If the course helps give you the knowledge and confidence you need to move from high-cost investments to low-cost ones just a bit sooner, it will pay for itself:

Size of Your Portfolio
 Save 2% on Fees This Much Sooner
$30,000
 6 months
$100,000
 <2 months
$260,000
 <3 weeks

Is DIY Investing Hard?

Purchasing an investment works a little differently than buying a book through Amazon, but once you figure out how, it's not difficult. There will be a little bit of math involved, but nothing you can't handle with a spreadsheet or even pocket calculator. And once you get your plan set up and the first few orders out of the way, it will only take a few hours per year to maintain. The hard part is sticking to your plan for the long term, which is why this course has so much material on behaviour and processes. You'll have to keep yourself on track -- you won't have a salesperson calling you up at RRSP season to remind you to make a contribution (so they can get their commission). But you can do it.

The course will give you the confidence to get started quickly.


From the Author of the Value of Simple

The Value of Simple is a highly rated book on index investing and the practical steps needed to make it happen. This course builds on that foundation and over two years of questions and comments from readers to serve as the best possible introduction and guide for people to become do-it-yourself investors.

Study at Your Own Pace

Study at your own pace, and review the material whenever you want -- there's no built-in expiry. Skip over the sections on taxes if you can do all your investing in a tax-free account, and come back to it when you max that out. As long as the course is online, you can refresh your memory!

Refund Policy: If you're unhappy with the course for any reason, let me know within 7 days and I'll refund your enrollment fee.

Reviews

5 star rating

Great course

Aws Almufleh

John simplifies very complex concepts and emphasizes the behavioural components of successful financial planning. I strongly recommend this course.

John simplifies very complex concepts and emphasizes the behavioural components of successful financial planning. I strongly recommend this course.

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5 star rating

Bridges the gap between theory and how to actually implem...

Kate Smalley

What an incredible course. I love that John never gives prescriptive, one-size-fits-all advice for complex decisions like "Where should I save money for a do...

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What an incredible course. I love that John never gives prescriptive, one-size-fits-all advice for complex decisions like "Where should I save money for a downpayment if I want to buy in 5 years?". He breaks down all the variables, giving you the knowledge you need to make your own best decision. So refreshing! And so rare to find in investing advice. He's the only teacher I've seen be able to successfully bridge the gap between high-level theory and "here's how you actually implement this stuff" step-by-step. I took the course a year and a half ago and I've been happily managing my own investments since. I wrote a whole review on Twitter which you can read here if you are so inclined: https://twitter.com/kateesmalley/status/1083024794038272000. (I had more good things to say/yell about than could fit comfortably in this review box hah.)

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5 star rating

Definitely one of the best investments I made

Paul Decamp

John does an amazing job at explaining the fundamentals of index investing. I like the level of details in this course and I am now confident that I can do...

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John does an amazing job at explaining the fundamentals of index investing. I like the level of details in this course and I am now confident that I can do index investing myself. My money was being managed with a 2% management fee. This would have cost me half of my capital in 30 years... Definitely one of the best investments I made in a long time. Thank you for putting together this information in a clear and concise manner. I highly recommend it for anyone who is curious about passive investing and wants to take action on their financial independence.

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5 star rating

Very Informative!

maureen leslie

This is an excellent course so far. Concepts are explained in various ways to get help it sink in. I would recommend this course for everyone!

This is an excellent course so far. Concepts are explained in various ways to get help it sink in. I would recommend this course for everyone!

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5 star rating

very useful course

k sargent

Hi John I just wanted to thank you so much for your course. It is such a bargain! I am a physician with a professional corporation and despite my (relativ...

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Hi John I just wanted to thank you so much for your course. It is such a bargain! I am a physician with a professional corporation and despite my (relatively) more complicated financial / tax planning situation, the practical investing course has been so useful to me. I'd even say that it has been more helpful to me than the $3500 I paid to a fee only financial planner - they helped me with retirement income projections and how much to save, etc. But your course has helped me with the nuts and bolts of how to actually DIY, and has helped me decide on a course of action for my investments going forward- one of my biggest issues was coming up with a plan for asset location given that I am fortunate to have the ability to invest across many different account types. I've managed to wrap my head around things like foreign witholding taxes, and the quagmire of figuring out ACB in taxable accounts- between swap based funds and my accountant I am largely going to avoid having to do this myself. Keeping that part simple is definitely worth the extra cost trade off for me. I have gone back to the course again and again. Initially I just avoided all the dragons sections because I was too overwhelmed, but tackling it bit by bit and being able to come back to it really helped me. Just like learning medicine, it has been a slow sedimentary process, but I believe I am a much more informed investor now, and better understand the "how to" that so many people are afraid of. I'm even ready to tackle norbert's gambit. Thanks so much for the value you are adding to the Canadian investor education collective. Kim

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5 star rating

confirmation

Patti Moore

This course reiterated important themes and practices to aid a "newer DIY" investor, with explanations & use of research and math as supportive backgroun...

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This course reiterated important themes and practices to aid a "newer DIY" investor, with explanations & use of research and math as supportive background. It was very helpful & affirming for myself. Course is a location which summarized the bits & pieces I've been accessing on web & retirement books since finally becoming a DIY a half-dozen years ago. Even so, I'd been been making many of the common (behavioral) errors. I'm hopeful I've been assisted to cease & desist with the common behavioural errors, safe in confirmations re Index Investing provided in the course. Concrete directions will be helpful to new DIYers. John was correct, at least for myself, that the technical aspects (e.g. setting up discount brokerage, trading stocks & ETFs, rebalancing etc) are much easier than gaining control of the behavioral determinants.

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John Robertson

Dr. Robertson is a scientist, writer, investor, teacher, and all-around nice guy. He specializes in explaining complex topics – scientific or financial – for regular people. He has a PhD from the University of Western Ontario in Medical Biophysics, and spends his days as a science writer and editor for the Techna Institute in Toronto.

John's experience as a teacher includes acting as a teaching assistant and instructor at the University of Western Ontario in the sciences. He developed the curriculum and lectured for MBP573 Intro to Medical Biophysics, a for-credit masters-level course, and delivered many guest lectures. He has received numerous teaching and speaking awards, including the prestigious Drs. Madge and Charles Macklin Fellowship for Teaching from the Schulich School of Medicine in 2009. He is a total nerd, and you'll find more science fiction than sports metaphors in the course.

For personal finance instruction, John has been invited to give many workshops at the Toronto Public Library, and guest lectures for continuing education courses at the University of Toronto. He also worked on a one-on-one basis with clients to help them become do-it-yourself investors.

Personal finance and investing have long been personal passions for John, and he has been an active part of the Canadian personal finance community for over a decade, creating spreadsheets and how-to guides amongst other commentary and analyses. In 2014 he published The Value of Simple to help investors move away from relying on commissioned sales staff to planning and investing on their own. The book focuses on helping people implement simple investment plans and get over behavioural pitfalls to success – this course builds on that material.

Course curriculum

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Learn how to invest in index funds, save on fees, and set yourself up for future success.

Enroll $249.00