How time has flown by: this is the last instalment of Show me the Money, as I’m graduating in December. I will miss college life, but it will be nice to start working full time and have a regular source of income. The field of personal finance and investing is huge and there’s always something new happening, so in this final column, I’ll be recommending a few sources for continued learning.
The first recommendation is reliable news websites or newspapers. Current affairs often have an impact on finance, and staying informed will help you react and make changes to your plans. Personally, I like Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg for news, and The Economist for deep dives on specific issues. Some of these sites require subscriptions to access most of their content, but they often have very good student deals.
On personal finance, there are numerous blogs written by Canadians that provide very useful information; one that I enjoy is Wealth Awesome. Not only do these blogs provide good ideas, they can also point you in the right direction for further learning in the form of books or other websites. There’s also the Personal Finance Canada community on Reddit. I’ve found that people tend to give sound advice there, and I’ve learned a few things from browsing the posts.
Of course, with Reddit and any other forms of social media, always approach things you see with a healthy dose of skepticism. Be prepared to do your own research no matter how great an idea sounds. For instance, during the height of the cryptocurrency and NFT craze, there were countless TikTok and Instagram accounts hyping all sorts of investments that were worthless or complete scams. When it comes to money, “too good to be true” is not a cliché, it’s a rule.
Developing an understanding of the relationship between risk and return can help you avoid potential pitfalls. For instance, I like to use the returns on guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) as a general gauge of what a risk-free investment pays. If a one-year GIC is paying 4%, then something offering a 10% rate of return must surely entail a much higher level of risk. It’s prudent to do your own research and find out what these risks are. A good rule is to avoid investing in something if you do not fully understand the risks involved, or if you just do not feel comfortable with them. Losing out on a 10% return is much better than losing 100% of your investment.
I hope readers of this column have found it helpful. I encourage you to continuously learn about personal finance and investing. Having a healthy relationship with money can help you focus better on the more important aspects of your life as you take away the stress that poor money-management skills can cause. I wish you all the best.