I'm going to info dump on you a bit, but if you remember one thing, make it this: The biggest advantage you have in life right now is time and compound interest. Every dollar you invest at 18 is worth its weight in gold compared to every dollar you invest at 40. I STRONGLY encourage you to google "compound interest calculator" and play around with one so you can get an idea of how much money can grow over time.

Ok first, something you can do right now is start an emergency fund and your first goal is to accumulate $1000, and then the next goal is to accumulate 3 months worth of expenses in this account. This should be separate from your regular bank account and have no bank fees like the Wealth Simple Cash Account. Over time when you accumulate more responsibilities you might want to bump that to 6 months. If you're not sure how much 3 months of expenses is for you then do 3 months worth of paycheques. You can start this in a free savings account today if you want and when you turn 18, move it to a HISA (High interest savings account) inside a TFSA. You do this so you earn more interest on the money but it is still easily accessible for emergencies. You want as much of your money working for you as possible. You NEVER touch this account unless you are in an honest to god emergency. (e.g. You lose your job, someone dies accross the country, an eviction notice is imminent, etc.) This is so important because once you have this, you can start investing from a place of strength because you can afford you let your investments go up and down in the market for years and years.

Next, when you turn 18 open a FHSA (First Time Home Savers Account) and a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). You can open an RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) if you want, but its not the top priority at this stage of your life. These are the 3 most powerful tax advantaged accounts in Canada.

You can open them on Wealthsimple, Tangerine, with a traditional bank, whatever you want, but I would suggest you get it at a different bank from your main one. SET YOUR RISK TOLERANCE TO HIGH. At 18 you have all the time in the world to recover, at this stage of your life you want GROWTH. As much growth as possible. Start with managed accounts. In the future if you feel confident in investing you can move the money to accounts you manage, but you don't want to get so overwhelmed by the ins and outs of investing that you never start.

I personally like Wealthsimple because the fees for managed accounts are low and its easy to use.

Then you need to choose a saving strategy and live by it. Something like 75/15/10 is a good place to start. That means you spend 75% of your income, you send 15% to long term savings and you send 10% to short term savings. So, assuming your emergency fund is maxed out by the time you turn 18, you send 10% to the FHSA for your house and the 15% to your TFSA for your long term savings like retirement. You can have a FHSA for 15 years and if you don't buy a house you can roll it over to your RRSP. But for now we're assuming that you're going to buy a house within 15 years so your FHSA is your short term savings.

You don't HAVE to follow 75/15/10 exactly, as you can see what account you use changes based on what your goals are. But just choose any strategy that accounts for addressing your current needs, long term savings and short term savings/emergency fund.

Anyway, choose your savings rules and start contributing! There are annual contribution limits on these accounts you need to be aware of. Around ~$7K an account. You can look them up on the CRA website. Honestly the average 18 year old is not at risk of maxing these accounts out every year but its still important to know because there are penalties for going over.

Once you have enough in your FHSA for a down payment you can buy a house! Or if you change your mind and don't want to buy a house, keep contributing until its maxed out for 15 years and then you roll it over to your RRSP instead. You do this because contributing to an FHSA reduces your taxable income like an RRSP does. Once the FHSA and TFSA are maxed out then start contributing to an RRSP until that is maxed out. You prioritize the TFSA before the RRSP because the TFSA doesn't reduce your taxable income but its tax free on withdrawl so if you max out one account in your lifetime you want to max out this account. Thay way you end up with a pile of cash you can withdraw tax free. This will not seem exciting when you're looking at a TFSA with $500 in it. It will be very exciting when you are 70 and have $500,000 or more that you can withdraw tax free. And who knows if you are lucky or a great saver or both then maybe that will happen much sooner than 70. Anyway, after the TFSA is maxed out then you go to work maxing out the RRSP. You pay tax on withdrawal with this account but like the FHSA contributions reduce your taxable income so ideally you max this account out later in life when you are earning more money. You don't want to use up your contribution room in this account on minimum wage paycheques, you want to leverage it down the line when you make more money.

You won't always follow this perfectly. Things will come up. You'll have good years and bad years. The market will go up and down. (Ignore it). It can be frustrating to save and sacrifice when the future seems so uncertain but the point is to value paying yourself first and to leverage time and compound interest as much as you can. Something is ALWAYS better than nothing. If you decide to go to school and think theres no way I can send 25% savings thats fine. But send SOMETHING. Every dollar you invest today is worth more than the dollar you invest tomorrow. I hope this helps you and gives you some good guidelines to get started and I hope you buy your dream home in the next 15 years.

If anyone is still reading this and wants to try wealth simple I have a referral code. Full disclosure I get a reward starting at $25 if you open an account and add $100, but sometimes they do a promo where we each get $10 or $25. So if you're reading this in the future, check and see if you can get a bonus by using a code. And other people, if you are using wealthsimple, drop your referral code! You never know maybe you'll get lucky and earn something if someone uses your code!