The Challenges of an Individual Investor

Managing your investments is complicated. If you're a typical Canadian you've got to keep track of an RRSP, TFSA, and possibly some non-registered stocks/real estate. Unless the same institution is managing all of your accounts, your financial reports are likely fragmented, making it difficult to get an overall picture. If you're managing your own investing you've probably read about the importance of diversification, the risks associated with trading in other currencies, and the importance of lifecycle investing, but you may not have seen the lessons play out firsthand. Even if you could aggregate all of this investment performance, it would be difficult to get a sense of the performance in context. After figuring out your overall return, one question remains: What else could you have gotten for your money?