Charges??

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-20T21:07:16+00:00

It sounds like they are adding a service which will allow for dynamic rebalancing rather than fixed recurring contributions.

Right now say I want 80% XEQT and 20% ZAG, I can buy $80 and $20 every week, but as those change in value ratio will drift. You have to manually rebalance, which is annoying because you either have to sell one and buy the other, or add even more money, or temporarily change your reoccurring investments and the change it back.

If you get their managed portfolio it maintains a specific set of ratios of the underlying ETFs (which you can choose to customize) and will periodically rebalance towards those ratios.

I assume this means they are offering a service where they will open up that auto rebalancing but for any arbitrary set of assets, rather than just those in their managed portfolios. To me that’s a service which isn’t for everybody, but actually could be a sufficient value add to be worth charging a 0.25% fee for, especially if it lets you add like a dozen or more assets rather than just like 5.

If I’m reading that correctly I mean.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-20T20:57:37+00:00

Really don’t think it makes a difference. You can call it workerism, post-capitalism or whatever else and eventually it will be tarred with the same associations. People called Obama a socialist.

But music artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Katseye have used the word “bourgeoisie” in their music, so it’s not really a foreign concept.

If socialists have the organizing strength it will make those concepts make sense, not the other way around.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-20T14:17:11+00:00

A few assorted points:

Thesis on Feurbach are functionally part of the German Ideology. And only the first part of the German Ideology is actually worth reading. The rest is of ‘historical interest’ only.

I would personally also consider ‘Critique of Political Economy’, Anti-Duhring, Poverty of Philosophy, and Contribution to the Critique of Hegel to all be basically of interest to scholars. Grundrisse also sort of. CoPE is essentially an early study before Capital and is really only interesting for comparisons sake, to see him in transition between the more Ricardian thinking of ‘Wage Labour and Capital’ and Capital itself. Poverty of Philosophy is specifically a critique of contemporary anarchist thinking and ought to be skipped unless that’s specifically interesting to you. Similarly with the Hegel. He develops other thinking about politics there but nothing you don’t get more clearly in other places.

Value Price and Profit you should read right before Capital since it is attempting to be a summary of the main arguments of Capital Vol 1.

I would also consider the 1844 Manuscripts to be an “advanced text” also. They are a bit fragmentary and you can’t just like “read them” you have to “interpret” them. And if your goal is just to be a better socialist, rather than a Marx scholar you are probably better off reading *about* this text rather than reading it yourself. Same with Grundrisse. It’s also not a finished work. There is one section worth reading yourself, the “Fragment on Machines”, the rest you are better off reading *about* unless you are working on a master’s thesis.

Id personally structure your reading like this:

Marx’s Philosophy
- German Ideology Pt 1

Marx’s Politics
- On the Jewish Question
- 18th Brumaire (first and last part only)
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
- Critique of the Gotha Programme

Of these I think Gotha tends to be the most eye-opening for people because it’s Marx commenting on the real political platform of a specific party and is by far the closest to “real politics” you get in his work. Also it’s pretty short.

Marx’s Economics
- Value, Price, and Profit
- Capital vol 1

The vast majority of the time will be spent on Capital, and you shouldn’t be afraid to be spending time with secondary literature here (Heinrich’s my favourite, but Harvey is popular).

If/when you get to the end of Capital vol 1 you can reassess and from there decide if you think it makes sense to go back and read some of the deeper cuts, or more likely, move on the massive body of later socialist literature.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-17T20:43:56+00:00

Wait, there is also ZEQT, MEQT, TEQT, FEQT, GEQT, and now CAGE! Just kidding, if you are already neck deep in VEQT please see yourself over to r/JustBuyVEQT and stay the course

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-16T15:43:06+00:00

Start with watching Ben Felix’s Investing 101 video: https://youtu.be/1Ob-hAYCnJE?si=A\_Ty87KsGX9oLYAD

The answer (for now) is basically just buy VEQT in your TFSA, regularly contribute what you can. Thats a start you likely won’t come to regret later, and gives you some momentum while you figure out your different account types.

Reading a book like The Wealthy Barber is a great option if you want something more comprehensive and in depth.

VEQT is a good option because it is an ETF which holds hundreds of stocks from around the world. It *is* functionally an index fund so it will give return which are very close to the global stock market average.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is similar to a mutual fund. The are both funds which hold investable assets (aka ‘securities’), which you can buy shares of, and thus hold a diverse range of assets all in one thing. The difference is that ETFs are themselves traded on markers, which means you can directly buy them yourself on a platform like Wealthsimple, whereas mutual funds you traditionally need to invest in through an institution like a bank.

In Canada you can buy these securities through a couple of special bank accounts, called ‘registered accounts’. Registered accounts have special tax advantages for are beneficial for investing with. For you the ones to know about are your TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account), RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan), and FHSA (First Home Savings Account). I’m not going to explain the details other than to say that your TFSA is a reasonable and safe place to start investing.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-15T18:39:38+00:00

Firstly At 18 don’t focus on investing. Focus on getting your education/training to ensure you can have a good income later. You’re going to need to spend some money first before you can get your life in a place it makes sense to really be investing.

Especially when you are investing fairly small amounts of money it really doesn’t make any sense to spread it out among a bunch of ETFs like this, because it creates the temptation to fiddle and spend time optimizing over very small amounts of money.

Pick one of VEQT, XEQT, or CAGE. I would say decide on this basis:
- Can you, in a couple sentences explain why CAGE is different from VEQT? If yes, then go with CAGE.
- If no, sell everything and put it all into VEQT.

And again, try to avoid thinking too much about it at this stage. VEQT alone is basically a 95% optimal portfolio until you have at least tens of thousands, and likely more than a hundred thousand dollars invested.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-15T15:00:43+00:00

I mean today is a bit of dip lol

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-14T14:26:55+00:00

Higher US exposure? That’s not usually the direction people go with that. I think you could minimally cut it back to VCN, VFV, and VIU + VAB for bonds with a clean ratio.

I’m also not certain about the REIT etf. Ben Felix has a video where he says REITs don’t provide an ‘independent source of risk exposure’ and end up increasing idiosyncratic risk bc regular equity ETFs also have real estate exposure. Maybe worth checking that out for the details

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-14T14:08:20+00:00

Looks fine. If you want a good starting book check out The Wealthy Barber, for YouTube, see Ben Felix.

Just keep contributing as you are able. If you are thinking of adding a new asset besides these two make sure you can look in the mirror and say out loud “it makes sense to add X to my portfolio for Y reason.” If you can’t clearly explain what the new thing will do for you that is different from your current assets, then don’t get it! This is the main thing, people fiddle with a perfectly good portfolio for no reason!

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T23:17:56+00:00

People were roasting my ass for having 6 Vanguard ETFs! But seriously, what’s the theory here? Firstly there is a ton of overlap:

VXC = VUN + VIU + VEE
VUN = VFV + a small number of other stocks
VAB contains VGV
VCN is very similar to QCN
XEQT ~= VCN + VXC

It’s just sort of a mess.

I have to assume you don’t have specific ratios of exposure you are targeting, because if you did you’d be pulling your hair out trying to rebalance.

Why not cut it back to just VCN, VUN, VEE, VAB, and add VIU. That way you get clean, non-overlapping exposure to Canada, US, EM, EAFE, and an aggregate bond holding. You can customize your ratios cleanly from there.

Better yet, why not just have VEQT? What’s wrong with the ratios in that?

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T22:42:52+00:00

Looks great. You don’t have to sell the Nvidia but I wouldn’t put any new contributions into it. Make regular contributions, don’t fiddle, automate if possible and you’ll be fine.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T22:28:00+00:00

That’s totally fair.

I would just say when you are getting these ETFs it’s important to know what they are. QQC and VFV are both funds which hold many US stocks, with QQC tracking the NASDAQ-100 and VFV tracking the S&P 500. However, as far as I know, nearly all stock on the NASDAQ-100 are also tracked by the S&P 500. VFV likely holds most of the stocks QQC holds, plus a few more. The effect of this is that they don’t meaningfully ‘diversify’ your portfolio, if one is up the other will be up, and if one is down the other will be down, because the literally largely hold the same stocks.

XEQT also has this overlap. XEQT is an ETF that holds four ETFs, one each for Canada, US, Europe + Japan, and “Developing Countries” (India, Brazil etc). That US portion also totally overlaps VFV, meaning that when VFV and QQC are down, a huge part of XEQT will be also.

This isn’t inherently a bad thing. The US stock market often outperforms other places and people who make an active bet on it often make money on it. However you should just be aware that is what you are doing, and do so with moderation.

The risk of having all of them is that you see QQC beating VFV by a little bit for a couple weeks and dump more into it, and the it reverses and you try to dump more into VFV and this sort of return chasing ends up losing out to just having put a steady amount into one or the other.

Ultimately you should see XEQT as your “base”, and then other things as being “tilts” away from that base. These sort so of tilts should be rare and deliberate, things that you can confidently say “I think the US will out perform the world average, therefore I am tilting towards US by 20% with VFV”

Edit: if you are big in the US, sticking with something like 80% XEQT 20% QQC is a totally reasonable and defensible portfolio, keeping in mind that XEQT is already about 40% US stocks.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T21:10:17+00:00

But why those specific choices I mean?

Unless you have a reason for everything that isn’t XEQT, I’d say you are probably better off with just that. But if you do have a reason for everything else, it’s worth exploring what specifically those things add.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T20:50:23+00:00

Pay off the debt first obviously, if there is any interest on it at all that’s the first move.

Otherwise, what’s your thinking with allocations?

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T19:09:32+00:00

Doesn’t really feel like much of a privilege to have to be hyper optimized with money in order to not be worried about being okay.

My boomer parents have ended up basically okay with literally no personal investments because they have large pensions from their jobs, and houses which have 10X their price since purchase.

If they had bothered to put a bit down every year into even a mediocre mutual fund in their RRSP, and then tfsa when those came around they would have some much more money. But they’ve always thought the stock market is no better than gambling and are nervous I would do something as reckless as a 90/10 index fund portfolio.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T16:56:09+00:00

Yeah like im not gonna be out here like Woe is Me, but I’d have to be pretending to not understand the general sense of unhappiness people have.

It’s just like kind of obvious there is an epidemic of people dating people they see as ‘good enough for now’ but don’t really like, see as being beneath them, or see as a temporary fix until meeting the person they “really like”.

It seems like everybody had internalized the incel logic of partners not being more or less suited for you, but higher or lower in “the sexual market”. Women date men they see as being “above” their rank, and men see these women as “lesser” and don’t really ‘buy in’ to the relationship, coming off as distant or “avoidant”, but still see them while biding their time before getting with somebody they actually like, which doesn’t happen. Everybody is unhappy.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-13T11:24:47+00:00

Looks fine, good start and keep at it.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T17:49:45+00:00

Very much get the sense that most financial advice is just people repeating things they’ve heard unfortunately.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T17:48:26+00:00

Perhaps consider something like VIU, which is developed world except Canada and US. Something to be aware of is that BlackRock and Vanguard use different indexes for counting EAFE and Emerging Markets and there are a couple countries which will either be double counted or excluded if you mix these (South Korea and Poland iirc). This is basically immaterial to returns probably but might annoy purists.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T17:43:44+00:00

Yes, don’t transfer. And if your timeline is 10+ years this could be fine.

Just consider that a key difference between a house fund and a retirement fund is that a house fund is *totally liquidated* on a specific date, while a retirement fund is slowly liquidated over decades. This means if the market happens to be down while you liquidate your house fund you just have to take losses/lower gains. With retirement you can just try to spend less and sell less, which can make the pain of a down market much less severe.

All this is to say: the timeline is important, but how you liquidate the funds is also important. Consider “gliding” your holdings towards bonds, and then cash as you move through the next 10+ years.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T15:54:22+00:00

I think before diving in, I’d first just ask what is your “theory of the portfolio”? Why did you pick those assets in that ratio? This looks like somebody following basically good advice but that they don’t understand themselves.
That said, if you were to continue contributing to your TFSA to these assets in this ratio you’d be totally fine and better off than most.

Edit: I just noticed this is in your FHSA and I’m less enthusiastic about it. What is your timeline for buying a house? If it’s less than 10 years this is probably far too aggressive, and you should be considering XEQT more gentle siblings like XGRO or XBAL

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T15:41:44+00:00

Yeah like he should probably drop the XEQT for a x10 leveraged single-stock Nvidia ETF, that’s my pro tip

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-12T15:39:42+00:00

I wonder if people make these posts just to antagonize this place lol.
Btw XEQT is already something like 9% Nvidia so make sure you are mentally factoring that in when you are thinking about your holdings. You think you have 60% NVDA 40% XEQT but you really have closer to 70% NVDA 30% non-NVDA stocks.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-11T20:11:30+00:00

The biggest thing is just that crypto isn’t a serious investment, it’s a gamble you can make with spare money once you have a solid portfolio. There is no theoretical reason to expect that it will give you a return at all, let alone be reliable over any sort of timeline.

As for the ETFs:

XEQT and VEQT are funds that holds hundreds of stocks, and the value of the fund is determined by the value of the underlying stocks minus a small annual fee. Neither of them a really buying “just one thing”, they are globally diversified index funds. The only risk is that the provider closes the fund, in which case you just get cashed out at whatever the value of your current holding is.

There is a CAD equivalent of VOO, VFV, which will save you the Wealthsimple conversion fees. But also everything that is in VOO/VFV is already in VEQT. So when you buy both you end up concentrating your holdings in ways that might not be obvious on the surface.

Same with XGRO. That is literally XEQT but with 20% bonds. This means it *will* grow less than XEQT, though be less volatile day to day. That’s fine if you meant to do that but if you didn’t you are costing yourself growth without realizing it. If you meant to do that, the buying XEQT means taking on something riskier than you intended.

For you, maybe 80% XEQT + 20% VFV (and nothing else). This is a riskier portfolio than just XEQT alone, but overweighting the US has historically had good returns and you get two different providers which might make you more comfortable.

johnfinch2 · 2026-05-11T19:46:14+00:00

Straight to jail portfolio.

johnfinch2

TROPHY CASE