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Subscribe to The Smallbird BriefFoundation Series
Why Invest at All? Why Saving Isn't Enough
Saving keeps your money safe, but inflation slowly shrinks it. Here's why investing, not just saving, is how Canadians build real wealth over time.
Part 2Before You Invest: Building Your Financial Foundation
Before you buy your first investment, four things put in place first decide whether it sticks: clear goals, steady cash flow, high-interest debt, a cushion.
Part 3How Big Should Your Emergency Fund Be?
Three months of expenses or six? Here's how to size your emergency fund to your own situation, where to keep it, and how to build it without stalling.
Part 4TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA: How Canada's Registered Accounts Work
The TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA explained simply: how each Canadian account taxes your money, who each one suits, and why they're buckets you fill, not investments.
Part 5Which Account Should You Fund First?
Can't max your TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA all at once? Here's a simple order for funding them, and how your income and goals change where your money goes first.
Part 6What Should You Invest In?
Stocks, bonds, GICs, or funds? Here's what each one is, and why a low-cost index fund is where most Canadian beginners are best off starting.
Part 7Why boring investing usually wins
Most professional stock-pickers lose to a simple index fund over time. Here's why that happens, and why it's good news for you.
Part 8The real cost of a 2% fee over a lifetime
A 2% fee sounds tiny, but over an investing lifetime it can take half of what your money would have been worth. Here's the math, with a calculator you can run yourself.
Part 9One-ticket ETFs, and why one fund is enough
A one-ticket ETF holds thousands of holdings around the world and rebalances itself. Here's what sits inside one, what the letters on the label mean, and when it isn't the right fit.
Part 10How much of your money should be in stocks?
Your stock and bond mix shapes your results more than which fund you pick. How to land on your own number using your timeline and your behaviour, and the two reasons to change it.
Part 11Buying your first index fund: what every box on the order screen means
The buy screen is where most first-time investors freeze. What the ticker box, the order type, and the share count are asking you, and why the price you get isn't always the one you saw.
Part 12Building a system you'll stick to
One automatic transfer, one annual check-in, and a rule for the year the market falls. How to build an investing setup that keeps running when you stop paying attention to it.
More posts
The words that make retirement sound harder than it is
CPP, OAS, GIS, RRIF, decumulation, sequence-of-returns risk. The vocabulary you need before any of the retirement questions make sense, and what this series is going to work through.
WelcomeWelcome to the Smallbird Blog
What this blog is for, who it's for, and the money topics I'll cover here.
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