Let's get this party started.
On my blog here, I do pretty much what blog writers are told not to do. Instead of focusing on one specific topic or trend or idea, I write on every different topic that comes across my mind or that I find interesting. It’s my blog, and I’m allowed to do that 
It may not be the path to becoming the biggest money-making blog in the world, but I don’t care. It’s mine, and I’ll write what I want to write about. With that being said, I would like to take the time in this article to show you how easy it is to change your life and start saving for your retirement.. I’ll tell you something else too.. if you think someone else is going to do a better job of looking after YOU.. well, you’re in for an aweful big surprise.
I’m going to use Questrade for my example here, mainly due to the fact that it’s the one that I use.. it’s got all kinds of great support and service, and it’s cheap to make trades. I highly suggest it – but if you have another broker that you’d rather – go nuts, it just won’t apply to this article. Questrade is also one of the only online discount brokers that will refund you the trailer fees if you currently have mutual funds held with another broker – trailer fees are the fees which come off of your returns each and every year (around 1% generally) which go to the people that you bought them off of. A good article on this (Sept. 2009) is located here.
Another disclaimer I’ll make is that I’m not going to tell you what to buy or give you stock tips – you have to make that decision for yourself. I will however, show you the benefits of dividend paying stocks, the biggest picture, dollar cost averaging, etc. My goal in this series of articles is to get people informed about their choices as a LOT has changed over the last 10-20 years as far as where to put your money and the vehicles for saving.
I will tell you one other thing before you get going (and thank you for reading this far) – and that is this.. This is going to be one of the most rewarding things you ever do for yourself – and it is extremely EASY!
First things first!
Open an account with Questrade. Obviously in Canada we have all kinds of different types of accounts you can open up with the fairly recent TFSA, RRSP, Margin, etc, accounts.. what we would like to do – is open up an RRSP account. Obviously there will be different opinions on which you should open.. but I recommend the RRSP.. after all, we’re saving for retirement – and this will allow you to contribute money regularly, make it difficult (and stupid) to withdrawal – and you get a nice refund (hopefully) during tax season.
It’s free – it’s easy. Let’s go through it together which will conclude this Section.
Step 1. Go to Questrade
Step 2. Click on “Open an Account”
Step 3. Choose Registered Accounts (2nd column)
Step 4. Choose Self-Directed RRSP
Step 5. Choose Trade Currency for your Default Currency
Step 6. Choose ‘Stock, Options and Gold’ as what you’d like to trade
Step 7. Fill in all the rest of your personal information
Step 8. In the promo field – you may as well say you heard about Questrade through me – Referral – Another Questrade Client
So the application may take about 10-20 minutes to complete. But after it is complete, you will have a new account which you can start adding money to.. and this, my friends is the first step in saving for your retirement. Stop putting it off… do it now!
Let me know via the comments if you have any questions, comments or concerns.