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My old friend, TD Bank

One of my goals for 2009-10 is to save up a couple thousand dollars and muster up the courage to start making investments. Alternate plans are to risk a little bit of my RRSP savings (to take advantage of the tax shelter), or to invest in a self-directed RESP (to take advantage of government incentives, such as the CESG). I currently deposit about $40 a month into a group plan.

Canadian Capitalist has blogged several times about investing with TD-Canada Trust, which has turned my attention back to old TD bank.

If the Toronto-Dominion Bank had a facebook profile, I would Friend them in the spirit of nostalgia. We were friendly back in the nineties, but broke up when I moved onto bigger and better things near the turn of the century.

Half a lifetime ago, when I was sixteen, my roommate Dee (who was a couple of years younger than I am now), told me to get my butt over to the bank and tell them I wanted to invest in mutual funds. I had learned a little bit about compound interest in my grade eleven business math class, and I had a little bit of money from my earnings working as a cashier at the drug store. Dee told me that if I started investing immediately that I would be a millionaire at her age.

Having spent my entire life watching both parents struggle for lack of funds, I decided to listen to an adult (for once) and paid a visit to the TD bank at the mall (this was way before they merged with Canada Trust. I had a CT account once too but closed it due to extraordinarily high service charges). I walked up to the teller at the TD branch at the mall and told her that I wanted to start investing in mutual funds. She appeared to take me seriously and sent me over to a manager. The manager was friendly enough and after hearing my plea took me back to the teller to open two new accounts: a chequing and a savings.

I put my money into the savings account for a few months until I had close to $500 saved. I didn't have a plan. I just deposited what I liked and spent the rest. I didn't get any other guidance from the bankers. Soon enough I had cleared out the account to buy some new clothes, and it was several years before I had that much money in the bank again.

I kept both accounts open until PC financial came along, and then I made the switch. TD wasn't good or bad, but they didn't help me at all with an investment strategy, that's for sure. I'm definately not a millionaire right now.

Now that I am older and wiser I think I'm ready to come up with a plan for investing. I'm not rushing into anything, which will give me the time to do my research and increase my confidence. I would like to get into the market while prices are low, but like every other investor I don't want to lose my savings. As well, investing is a goal, but my financial priority is debt elimination.


Seriously,
Karissa


Comments

  1. Anonymous8:28 PM

    I am in the finance industry, but investing is so out of my understanding.

    TD Bank just opened up right around me, over in Maryland. My bank, Provident, is merging with M&T just found out.

    ReplyDelete

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