A Dad's Guide to Investing - and how to get $10 FREE BitCoin

First of all, only invest with money you could afford to lose. Of course, that’s not the goal but there’s always a risk with any sort of investments.
Also, as another disclaimer, I’m no expert here so do your own research before spending any money.

You’ve probably heard of the GameStop phenomenon where Redditors boosted the stock price of the undervalued video game store just to mess with ‘the Man’. However, these Meme Stocks aren’t really something to play with. They’re high risk and incredibly volitile.

I spoke to a friend and fellow Dad-Blogger Rob Ainbinder about what’s going on with Gamestop, and he shared some really valuable advice for getting started in investing.

There are plenty of ways to dabble in investing with small amounts of money and see an increase (or potential decrease) in the totals. It’s actually pretty fun.

I personally use WealthSimple, a 0% commission platform that lets you buy, trade, and sell stocks. While I’ve only invested a very small amount, it’s pretty interesting to see what’s going up and why.

This isn’t sponsored – but here’s why I trust them with my hard-earned $100.

Investing Terms to Know

Robo advisor– An online platform that provides automated investment management at a low cost.
Online broker– A self-directed platform that allows investors to trade stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds on their own without the help of an investment advisor. Also known as a discount broker.
ETF–An Exchange Traded Fund typically holds a basket of stocks or bonds from a sector, country, or region.
Index Fund– An ETF or mutual fund that tracks a specific benchmark or market index, like the S&P 500 or the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The goal is for the index fund to match the returns of that benchmark index.
MER– The management expense ratio of an ETF or mutual fund, which includes the fees, operating expenses, taxes, and trailing commissions involved in managing the fund. Typically, the lower the MER the higher the expected future returns.
Equities– Investing in stocks means buying shares of a company – or equity in the business.
Fixed Income– Investments that include an interest payment, such as bonds and GICs, make up the fixed income portion of an investment portfolio.
Asset Mix– The percentage of your portfolio held in equities (stocks) and in fixed income (bonds). This can also include other asset classes such as cash, real estate, and precious metals.

When Should I Start Investing?

GreedyRates.com has a great breakdown for when it might be a good time to start:

How do you know when you’re ready to invest? If you carry a high interest credit card debt balance from month-to-month then you should focus on paying that off first. Next, make sure you’re spending less than you earn, or as I like to say, “earn more than you spend.” Also, consider any upcoming short-term goals or expenses such as a wedding, new car, or home purchase that may impact your overall budget.
If, after considering all of that, you have money left over at the end of the month then you’re ready to start investing. Don’t make the same mistake I did and invest money for retirement that you should have been using for daily living. It meant I didn’t have a good handle on my budget, and I wasn’t ready to invest.
Whatever you do, ignore what’s happening in the market. That’s right. It doesn’t matter. As a new investor with a long-time horizon you shouldn’t care about short-term market movements. And, once you decide on an investment approach and start contributing regularly, stick to your strategy no matter what. Whether it’s a financial crisis or a global pandemic causing markets to gyrate or crash, the upward trajectory of the stock markets always points up over the long term. Stay the course!

I wanted to put a big chart of the Best Canadian Stocks to Invest in Today! but that changes so often it would be already out of date by the time I hit publish.

Generally speaking, buy stocks in companies that you believe in. I prefer to spend my pocket-change on renewable energy and firms that are doing something positive for the planet, like $IDEX ‘Ideanomics Inc’, who are working on the adoption of electric vehicles for commercial fleets, or $FLT ‘Drone Delivery Canada Corp’ who are working on the future of commercial drone delivery logistics. Again, who knows if that’ll go anywhere, but worthy of a little wager I think.

GET FREE MONEY (for us both!)

A Dad's Guide to Investing - and how to get $10 FREE BitCoin - SocialDad.ca (3)

We both Get $10 worth of BitCoin for free! when you sign up to CoinBase and purchasing $100 worth of cryptocurrency
Wealthsimple Trade is Canada’s first $0 commission stock trading app – sign up now and we’ll both get $10 to trade.

What are Crypto Currencies?

A cryptocurrency is a type of currency which uses digital files as money. Usually, the files are created using the same methods as cryptography (the science of hiding information). Cryptocurrencies use ‘decentralized control’, which means that they aren’t controlled by one person or government.

Confused? Yeah me too. Basically, they’re types of money that are entirely digital: No physical coins or notes. The values can go up or down but some are going sky high. I really wish I’d purchased some BitCoin when it was at $10 for 1BTC a few years ago. Now it’s at around $60,000 CAD. Maybe next time!

For investing another $50 in Cryptocurrency, I use Coinbase purely because it’s easy to use and it’s secure. Also, they have surveys and videos to watch aimed at the education of new users like me and they actually give you free cryptocurrency as a reward for correctly answering some questions about what you just watched. Free money? Yes, please.