Aria Retirement Program

If you are planning to use your investments to retire, your advisor  may use our Aria Retirement Program to see how long your predicted investments may last. In this example, a customer’s target investments are shown with different monthly withdrawals over 10, 20, and 30 years.**

This example page from an Advice+ Plan shows how your advisor will help forecast how long your pensions saving will last during retirement at different levels of spending. This useful tool helps to frame what your retirement targets might be, during your Advice+ discussions.

Investing Essentials

Your advisor will talk with you about your attitudes to investing, and help you understand some key topics using our Investing Essentials tool. This page helps you see how different asset classes perform very differently over the years, and how a diversified portfolio helps you benefit from each year’s top performers, while lessening impact from those at the bottom.***

Diversification is a key topic of conversation when talking through an investment strategy. This chart shows how over the past 10 years, different asset classes have performed at different levels of growth. This is one example of the ways your Advisor will help explain some of the key concepts in investing.

Portfolio Analyzer

If you have an existing portfolio held elsewhere, it’s often good to get a second opinion. Your advisor will use our Portfolio Analyzer to determine if you currently have a suitable risk profile, sector weighting and regional exposure for your timeline, objective and risk profile.

This chart is a report generated by a Scotia advisor for a customer who already has an investment portfolio held elsewhere, but who has requested a second opinion from Scotiabank. The report analyzes the current portfolio’s asset allocation, sector weightings and regional exposure, and provides alternative recommendations for each factor that your advisor will be happy to talk through as part of your Advice+ conversations.

The big picture

This chart shows how $1,000 invested in various asset classes over the past 84 years would have grown. Having a diversified portfolio across various asset classes and a long-term perspective has historically worked to the investor’s advantage.

When talking about your plan for investments, your advisor may use our Investing Essentials program to help you understand how different asset classes and investment vehicles work. This chart shows historical performance of a variety of asset classes over more than half a decade.

Investing keeps you ahead of inflation

Investing lets you grow your money beyond inflation. If you only keep your money in cash and savings, the impact of inflation could mean you’ll actually lose value in the long term.

This chart is the output of a tool your advisor may use with you in branch. It shows the value of investing as opposed to simply keeping your savings in a cash account. The calculatipn shows that over a period of time, money help in a Balanced investment approach will grow, while money held as cash is likely to decline in real value, due to inflation

Small contributions add up to big gains

Investing on a regular basis through regular Pre-Authorized Contributions can help you build your savings easily and automatically. This example shows how saving $100 every two weeks, and increasing that amount only 10% per year, leads to a huge growth in your savings if you stick with it for 20 years.

This chart shows how much gain there is if a customer makes pre-authorized contributions to an investment fund consistently over years. In this instance, the customer has started with $5,000, contributes $100 every two weeks, and invests it in a balanced portfolio that averages 5% returns. If the customer increases his/her contributions only 10% per year, over the course of 20 years, the fund will be worth over $230,000

Growth after market downturns

Canadian stocks have consistently bounced back after major market downturns. While it’s normal to worry about market fluctuations, investors should be reassured that a balanced portfolio created by you with your advisor will balance risk and growth according to your risk tolerance.

This chart illustrates how the stock market bounces back from even severe corrections. The chart shows 1-5 year recovery averages for the Canadian stock market from the early 80s recession, the dot-com bubble of 2000, and the 2008 global financial crisis.

Getting started with investing

There’s a lot to understand if you’re investing for the first time. With so many terms to learn and different ways to get started, even the thought of moving your money out of a day-to-day bank account and into investments can feel overwhelming.

But if you plan on retiring comfortably and achieving other financial goals along the way, the right investment strategy is essential to growing your money and making this possible.

This how-to investment guide will take you through the basics, so you can feel confident working with your Scotia advisor to create the right strategy for you.

Your Guide to Investing

Common investing questions

Before investing, it’s best to pay down any debt you may have that is costing you in interest or fees. This doesn’t include your mortgage, which is considered good debt. Once your other debt is under control, you can start saving a little every month and investing it.

This answer will vary depending on your life situation and what you’re comfortable with. Before you start working with an advisor to help you figure this out, you can get a better understanding with our Budget Planner tool. Remember that it’s okay to start small. Even setting up automatic contributions for as little as $25 per month may not seem like a lot, but it can make a big difference over time.

If any of this applies to you, it’s worth having a chat with a Scotia advisor :

  • You have money saved up that isn’t already invested or generating much interest  
  • You have an existing portfolio and need a second opinion to make sure it’s performing well
  • You’re interested in starting a regular savings plan
  • You have questions and want to learn more

An advisor can help you figure out if your plan is on track to meet your needs. Depending on the length of time you’re planning on investing, your needs may vary. For example, if you’re investing for a short-term goal or planning on retiring soon, your advisor will adjust your plan to limit your exposure to risk. If you can invest for a longer period of time, you can likely handle more risk in exchange for greater returns in the future. If your life situation changes at any time, an advisor can help you adjust.

Diversifying your investments is how you decrease your risk. Spreading out your investments over a variety of geographies, assets, or sectors ensures that if one type of investment performs poorly, you can still rely on the others, lessening any negative impact. Check out our Weather the unexpected through diversification video for more

Meeting with an advisor means building a relationship. Your first meeting will likely be an hour. This will provide the opportunity for your advisor to ask you questions, become familiar with your financial situation, review any investments you already have, and go over your goals. It can take 2 to 3 meetings to get your plan in a good place. After your first meeting, you can expect to feel confident knowing that you’re in a better position to accomplish your financial goals.

Asking yourself these questions will also be helpful:

  • How much money do I have to invest?
  • What investments do I already have?
  • When did I last speak to an advisor?
  • How much can I spare each month for investing? (Use our Scotiabank Budget Calculator to get a better idea.)
  • Do I have a financial plan and when was it last reviewed?
  • What are my financial goals?
  • How long before I need to reach these targets?
  • How comfortable am I with risk?
  • Do I have an emergency fund?

Even if you have investments at another bank or institution, a Scotia advisor can still give you a second opinion and help you maintain your portfolio. You don’t need to transfer all your money to Scotiabank to benefit from our advice.

Ready to get started?

Now that you know the basics, you’re all set to meet with a Scotia advisor.

For your personalized financial plan, find an advisor and book a meeting at a branch near you.

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