In Line at Tim Horton’s
Today I was in line at Tim Horton’s with a friend of mine. I was catching up with him after awhile. I asked him how his stock portfolio was doing and he showed me. His portfolio was up nearly 20 percent. His holdings were simple: VFV (Vanguard’s Canadian dollar version of the S&P 500 index), TD Bank and Restaurant Brands International. He was completely new to investing a few years back and only started to invest in his self-directed TFSA after watching my Youtube videos. He has been dollar cost averaging into these three holdings (300 dollars a month) over the last year and a half.
VFV is the ETF I advise anyone new to investing to dollar cost average into because there is nothing to think about — you own the best 500 companies in the United States which have produced 8 to 10 percent returns a year over the last 50 years. TD Bank is a stock I did a lot of research on and even made a video about back when he and I first purchased the stock in 2023/2024. Restaurant Brands is the holding company that owns Tim Horton’s, Burger King, Popeye’s and Firehouse Subs. This stock has performed the worst to date but pays a nice dividend. I believed in it back when we both purchased it and I still believe in it now because Tim Horton’s is just scratching the surface entering into China and India. I also believe that Firehouse Subs will continue to take market share from Subway.
Back to why I’m making this post
While we were talking stocks, another gentleman in line responded to me saying “I’d like some stock tips if you’re giving them out” or something along those lines. He was much older than me, probably in his 50s. I laughed and told him the main thing I tell people is to buy the S&P 500 index (VFV for Canadians) and dollar cost average every month. He knew about this and told his he has kids around our age (his oldest was 24) that do that and buy the index in their Wealthsimple TFSAs. The gentleman went on to say they also take advantage of their FHSA and how important it is nowadays to do this from a young age because time and compounding is everything. I couldn’t agree more. Side note: I was flattered that he thought my friend and I were in our 20s still (I am turning 33 in May).
After I was done being flattered, I just thought how nice it was that kids were learning about stocks and investing in their early 20s. I did not learn until my late 20s and I learned a lot of lessons to get to where I am now (knowledge wise). One of those lessons was to not give people stock tips. I have the tendency to want to help everyone, especially those closest to me. I learned that I only want to teach people to fish instead of handing them the fish.
I walked away from this thinking that this man went out of his way to join our conversation. There are other people like me who are interested in the power of equipping ourselves with financial literacy. I am excited to have more discussions with other people about personal finance and investing.
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