Money Matters - Investing Part 1: The What

Introduction
Welcome to Money Matters, a weekly discussion group relating to topics of personal finance and financial education/literacy.
Attendees are encouraged to share their personal experiences related to finances to help others learn and achieve their financial goals.

Topic
The next few sessions will be about investing.
The first three will be split into parts about "the what" (concepts in the investing space), "the why" (recommendations and explanations why), and "the how" (practical steps to enact an investing plan).
The first topic will be Investing Part 1: The What.
Once you have been able to save some money, you can then invest it and have it grow, during your career for example, to fund your expenses during retirement.
There are many aspects and details, so we will be going over a number of concepts to try and understand the domain of investing.

Discussion Prompts / Questions

• How would you describe investing and what you hope to achieve by doing it?
• Have you heard of the term "asset class"? Can you name any of the 5 traditional asset classes?
• Do all stock markets across the world behave the same at the same time?
• Do you know what investment "risk" is? How do you know how much risk you should take on?
• Do you know about the various investment vehicles available in Canada? Ex. Stock/Bond
• Do you know the difference between active and passive management/investment? What might be the benefits and drawbacks of each?

Additional Materials
Some materials relating to this topic are:

• (article) What is investing?
• (podcast) Investing 101 - Rational Reminder Podcast
• (reference) Asset class correlation matrix
• (reference / blog post) Investment returns by asset class
• (reference) Example of an index-based ETF

Soliciting Notice
Any attempts to advertise, promote, or sell financial products and/or services will not be tolerated.

Financial Advice Disclaimer
The information provided is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial advice. Consult with a qualified financial professional before making financial decisions.