Here’s a brief history of my life in investing.

My first investment ever was in the AIC Advantage Fund in 1996 through Odlum Brown. This was a non-registered (non-RRSP) account. I put in $250 and my dad provided a matching contribution of $250. I then contributed $25 monthly (plus $25 from my dad) for the next X years. I bought this fund because of its smokin’ performance in the previous few years.

In 2000? I sold AIC so I could start a real diversified portfolio. Chris Tidd tried to tell me that this was a bad time to sell. It didn’t matter to me. I wanted to diversify and had realized my mistake of investing in one fund and had also learned an important lesson which I am still having trouble accepting today: “past performance does not indicate future performance.”

I transferred the proceedings from the sell of AIC to TD Canada Trust and bought a diversified list of mutual funds. There, I had a monthly contribution plan which was sporadic because I was only working sporadically, for 4-8 months at a time, during school as part of the co-op program at UBC.

Over the years I put more money in my RRSP and became more and more consistent. When I got full-time employment following grad school, my contributions became very consistent. My portfolio had become ridiculously diversified, however. Buying and selling online through TD’s website can do that to you. I succumbed to over-trading, chasing performance, and over-diversification. In 2005 I read the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and that completely changed the way I think about investing. I decided I needed help, so I sought a professional financial advisor. I needed a middleman between me and my portfolio. So that’s pretty much where I am today!

Other than that, I was born and raised in the Vancouver area, I was married in 2005, I work as a programmer, and I am somewhere in my mid-to-late-20s.