How I Started Out

I would buy Canadian Government Bonds, which you could pay for monthly. Bonds can be bought starting in October each year and I would make monthly payments. When they matured a year later, I would cash the bond in and buy some stock.

There are more options available today. You can use high interest savings accounts for regular savings to get enough money to buy stock. You can go to Canadian Shareowners at http://www.shareowner.com/ to buy stocks on a monthly savings plan. You can take out a line of credit to buy shares, paying back the loan over a period of time. My line of credit demands that I pay 3% of my balance each month, after the interest for the month has been added to my balance.

Another method is to buy index mutual funds or ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds). The index funds simply mirror an index and the MER’s are low. The ETF’s are basically mutual funds traded on a stock exchange, like the TSX. They often mirror some index and their MER’s are also low.