Getting financial advice: Accountant vs. Investment Adviser vs. Internet/self-taught?
"Do I need an Investment Adviser?  No, but you may want to explore the idea of having one. Is he going to tell me anything that my accountant can't?  Probably. How much expertise are you expecting from your accountant here? Do you think your accountant knows everything within the realms of money from taxes, insurance products, investments and all your choices and what would work or wouldn't? Seems like it could be a tall order to my mind. My accountant did say to come to him for advice on investment/business   issues. So, he is willing, but is he able? Not asking about his   competence, but rather ""is there something that only an Investment   Adviser can provide, by law, that an accountant can't""? Not that I know though don't forget how much expertise are you expecting here from one person. Is this person intended to answer all your money questions? But isn't that something that my accountant could/should do? Perhaps though how well are you expecting one person to be aware of so much stuff? I want you to know all the tax law so I can minimize taxes, maximize my investment returns, cover me with adequate insurance, and protect my savings seems like a bit much to put on one entity. Do I need either of them? Won't the Internet and sites like this one   suffice? Need no. However, how much time are you prepared to spend learning the basics of strategies that work for you? How much money are you prepared to put into things to learn what works and doesn't? While it is your decision, consider how to what extent do you diagnose your medical issues through the internet versus going to see a doctor? Be careful of how much of a do it yourself approach you want to go here and recognize that there are multiple approaches that may work. The question is which trade-offs are OK for you." An accountant should be able to advise on the tax consequences of different classes of investments/assets/debts (e.g. RRSP, TFSA, mortgage). But I would not ask an accountant which specific securities to hold in these vehicles, or what asset allocation (in terms of geography, capitalization, or class (equity vs fixed income vs derivatives vs structured notes etc). An investment advisor would be better suited to matching your investments to your risk tolerance. I think the OP is getting lost in designations.  Sounds to me that what he wants is a 'financial advisor' not an 'investment advisor'.  Does he even have investments?  Does he want to be told which securities to buy?   Or is he wanting advice on overall savings, insurance, tax-shelters, retirement planning, mortgages, etc.  Which is a different set of skills - the financial advisor skill set. Accountants don't have that skill set.  They know operating business reporting, taxes and generally how to keep it healthy and growing.  They can do personal tax returns (as a favour to only the owners of the business they keep track of usually). IMO they can deal with the reporting but not the planning or optimization. But IMO the OP should just read up and learn this stuff for himself.  Accreditation mean nothing.  Eg.  the major 'planner' brand teaches factually wrong stuff about RRSPs - which are the backbone of Canadian's finances.
The point of the article is not making your own investments vs. hiring a money manager. It is about passive low cost investments vs. active money managers.  This article is advising people to avoid active money managers because (A) even an extra 1% management fee adds up to a lot, and (B) active managers usually don't beat the low cost passive options anyway. The Investopedia article you linked to is a good start. Its key takeaway is that you should always consider risk-adjusted return when evaluating your portfolio. In general, investors seeking a higher level of return must face a higher likelihood of taking a loss (risk). Different types of stocks (large vs small; international vs US; different industry sectors) have different levels of historical risk and return. Not to mention stocks vs bonds or other financial instruments... So, it's key to make an apples-to-apples comparison against an appropriate benchmark. A benchmark will tell you how your portfolio is doing versus a comparable portfolio. An index, such as the S&P 500, is often used, because it tells you how your portfolio is doing compared against simply passively investing in a diversified basket of securities. First, I would start with analyzing your portfolio to understand its asset allocation. You can use a tool like the Morningstar X-Ray to do this. You may be happy with the asset allocation, or this tool may inform you to adjust your portfolio to meet your long-term goals. The next step will be to choose a benchmark. Given that you are investing primarily in non-US securities, you may want to pick a globally diversified index such as the Dow Jones Global Index. Depending on the region and stock characteristics you are investing in, you may want to pick a more specialized index, such as the ones listed here in this WSJ list. With your benchmark set, you can then see how your portfolio's returns compare to the index over time. IRR and ROI are helpful metrics in general, especially for corporate finance, but the comparison-based approach gives you a better picture of your portfolio's performance. You can still calculate your personal IRR, and make sure to include factors such as tax treatment and investment expenses that may not be fully reflected by just looking at benchmarks. Also, you can calculate the metrics listed in the Investopedia article, such as the Sharpe ratio, to give you another view on the risk-adjusted return. "Short answer:  No. Longer answer:  The only reason to move would be to get out of the condo and into a SFR of equal cost because condos can be quite difficult to sell and you don't really want that potential burden later on.  Moving is expensive though and you can't afford to spend more when you are already living on the financial edge. Speaking of living on the edge, that's a recipe for disaster.  I make, ratio-wise, a similar sort of income.  Even accounting for the generous college tuition, you should be able to save at least $20K per year...at a bare minimum.  And if you were careful, I figure you should be able to save $40K/year.  You need to figure out where you are dumping all of your money and cut WAY back on spending and focus entirely on saving money. 1)  Stop eating out.  Make your own meals.  I average about $2 per meal per person - no junk food.  Eating out is 6 to 30 times as expensive as making meals at home.  Do the math:  $10 * 2 people * number of times you eat out per week * 52 ($1,040 per year for each time/week!) vs $2 * 2 people * 21 (3 meals per day) * 52 ($4,368 per year for both of you...maximum).  Now I know some meals are more expensive to prepare, but the math is not unrealistic - I spend about $140 per month on groceries and make the bulk of my own food.  Eating out is sticker shock for me.  The food I prepare is nutritionally balanced and complete.  Now I'm not a complete health-nut.  I love the occasional deep-fried treat or hamburger, but those are ""once every couple of months"" sort of things, which makes them special. 2)  Stop going to Starbucks or wherever you habitually go.  It takes fuel to get there.  It's also expensive when you get there.  Bring your own drink if you are hanging out with friends. 3)  Drop golf.  Or whatever expensive sport you are sinking money into.  Invest in some cheap running clothes and focus on cardio-based workouts.  Heart health is more important than anything else.  If you can't live without your sport, then find an alternate sport that is ""equal""-ish in challenge but a ton cheaper to play.  For example, if you like playing golf, play discgolf instead (most cities have courses) - there's no cost beyond a couple of discs and the challenge is still there. 4)  Drop entertainment.  Movies at the theater are expensive.  Drop your cable subscription (you are getting financially raped for $1,500/year).  Get a Netflix subscription and find shows via free online streaming services.  Buy some dominoes, card games, and a couple of classic board games.  Keep entertainment simple and cheap. 5)  Drop your cell phone's data plan.  Republic Wireless is the only decent cellular provider and even their $12/month plan is living a luxury lifestyle.  If you spend more than $10/month/person for phone service, you are spending too much. 6)  Stop driving everywhere.  Gas is expensive.  Cars are expensive.  If you have more than two cars, sell the extras.  If your car is worth more than $20,000, sell it and get something cheaper. 7)  Stop drinking alcohol.  Alcohol impairs mental functions, is addictive, smells terrible, and is ridiculously expensive.  There's no actual need to consume it either. By the way, don't go and make major financial changes without the wife's sign-off.  Finances are the #1 reason for divorce.  So get her ""OK"" on this stuff.  Hopefully you already knew that.  The above are just some common financial pitfalls where people sink thousands and thousand of dollars and gain nothing.  You can still have a full and complete life with just a minimum of the above. There is no excuse for living on the edge financially.  Your story is one I'm going to share with those who give me the same excuse because they are ""poor"".  You are ""I want to punch you in the face"" wealthy and you spend every last penny because you think that's how money works.  You are wrong. One final piece of advice:  Find a financial adviser.  It is clear to me that you've been managing money wrong your whole life.  A financial adviser will look at your situation and help you far more than someone on the Internet ever can.  If you attend a church, many churches have the excellent Crown Financial Ministries program available which teaches sound financial management principles.  The education system doesn't show people how to manage money, but that's not an excuse either.  Once you dig yourself out of the financial hole you've dug for yourself, you can pass the knowledge on how to correctly manage money onto other people." "Don't do it until you have educated yourself enough to know what you are doing. I hope you won't take this personally, but given that you are wandering around asking random strangers on the Internet how to ""get into investing,"" I feel safe in concluding that you are by no means a sophisticated enough investor to be choosing individual investments, nor should you be trusting financial advisors to choose investments for you. Believe me, they do not have your interests at heart. I usually advise people in your position to start by reading one book: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. Once you've read the book by Malkiel you'll understand that the best strategy for all but the most sophisticated investors is to buy an index fund, which simply purchases a portfolio of ALL available stocks without trying to pick winners and losers. The best index funds are at Vanguard (there is also a Vanguard site for non-US residents). Vanguard is one of the very, very, very few honest players in the business. Unlike almost any other mutual fund, Vanguard is owned by its investors, so it has no profit motive. They never try to pick individual stocks, so they don't have to pay fancy high-priced analysts to pick stocks. If you find it impossible to open a Vanguard account from wherever you're living, find a local brokerage account that will allow you to invest in the US stock market. Many Vanguard mutual funds are available as ETFs which means that you buy and sell them just like any other stock on the US market, which should be easy to do from any reasonably civilized place." Start at Investopedia. Get basic clarification on all financial terms and in some cases in detail. But get a book. One recommendation would be Hull. It is a basic book, but quite informative. Likewise you can get loads of material targeted at programmers. Wilmott's Forum is a fine place to find coders as well as finance guys. Too little information to give any kind of advice. What is your age, goals, other monies, other investments etc... You need to look at the whole thing. Are you investing already in tax-deferred IRA. Spend the time to learn to be your own investment advisor. Many investment professionals may disagree with me on this, but since you can't trust many of them better you do your own research first. Same with Stocks or ETF, you try to be the expert. Better you have the time to follow your own investments ideas, do not depend on a human or robot to tell you when to buy or sell. Their job is to part you from your money. If you do not have the time to this yourself, save yourself the money, and just do something else with it. I have been investing in the Stock Market since 1986, I have made more money than I lost. Good runs and bad. Today it is all about trading, you can not trust the financials given by anyone, or know what is going to happen in the markets in general. So unless you want to play the game every day, don't be in it. what kind of grades did he have after graduating? because a decent (3.0ish definitely 3.5ish) gpa and middle of the road school gave a lot of people I know their pick of the litter when it came to consulting or analyst roles.  That on top of the fact that accountants are always in demand and if all else fails a feeder role for a bigger company as a call center tech also allows a potential career path.  That being all said, direct MBA is certainly an option, although it is more expensive up front and may or may not pay off after all is said and done.  I still plan on getting one due to a non finance schooling background, but I will probably wait 8 or so more years to figure out exactly what mba would help me the most First pay off all existing debt. Then set up at least 6 month emergency fund.  Freelancing exposes you to way more risks than employment. Then buy GIC's to cover and match the maturity of  your expected education fees. Only 'play' with what is left.  Don't over think it.  Buy a low-cost (less than 0.5%) passive large-index mutual fund covering either the S&P or TSX.