How to start investing in Canada with $100 (the 25-minute setup)

$100 is the right amount to start with

Not $10,000. Not “once I have an emergency fund.” Not “when the market is better.” $100 today, in the right account, beats $10,000 next year in the wrong one.

The reason: the muscle of investing is the habit, not the amount. The first $100 teaches you how the account works, how the money goes in, how the values move. The next $100 stacks on top. Six months later, you’re contributing $300-$500 a month without thinking and you have a real portfolio.

The first $100 is mostly free practice. Use it.

The 25-minute setup

Step 1: Open a Wealthsimple TFSA (10 minutes)

Go to truenorthmoney.ca/wealthsimple (affiliate link). Click “Open an account.” Enter your name, date of birth, SIN, and address. Choose TFSA as the account type.

Why TFSA first: contributions are after-tax (you’ve already paid tax on the $100 in your chequing account), but all growth and withdrawals are tax-free, forever. For your first $100, the TFSA is the right answer 95% of the time.

Why Wealthsimple specifically: zero minimum balance, no monthly fees, the app is the easiest in Canada, and they handle all the rebalancing for you. We have a full comparison of every Canadian robo-advisor if you want to evaluate alternatives.

Step 2: Answer the risk questionnaire honestly (5 minutes)

Wealthsimple will ask you 10-12 questions. There are no right answers — just be honest. The questionnaire builds your portfolio based on your goals and risk tolerance.

Most beginners under 35 with a 10+ year time horizon end up in a “Growth” portfolio (75-85% stocks, 15-25% bonds). Beginners over 50 or with shorter time horizons end up in “Balanced” (60% stocks, 40% bonds) or “Conservative” (40/60).

You can change this later. Pick what feels right.

Step 3: Link your bank account (5 minutes)

Wealthsimple uses Plaid to verify your chequing account. Search for your bank, log in once with your usual credentials. Plaid confirms the connection.

This is secure. Plaid is the same service that powers most Canadian fintechs. Wealthsimple never sees your bank password.

Step 4: Deposit your first $100 (5 minutes)

Click “Add funds” and enter $100. Choose your linked bank. Confirm.

The money usually arrives in 1-2 business days. Wealthsimple buys your portfolio automatically the moment the funds clear.

That’s the whole setup. You now have a real investing account.

What just happened (in plain English)

Your $100 didn’t go into “the stock market” abstractly. It went into a managed portfolio of low-cost ETFs (probably 4-6 of them). Each ETF is a basket of hundreds or thousands of stocks and bonds from around the world.

A typical Wealthsimple “Growth” portfolio for $100 looks something like:

• $60 in global stock ETFs (US, Canadian, international companies)
• $20 in growth-tilted stock ETFs
• $15 in bond ETFs
• $5 in cash equivalents

You don’t need to know which ETFs. Wealthsimple picks them, buys them, and rebalances quarterly. Your job is to keep adding money.

What to do next

This week

Set up an automatic recurring deposit. Even $25 per week. The single biggest predictor of investing success isn’t which fund you pick — it’s whether you keep contributing.

This month

Don’t check the balance. Seriously. The first month is when markets feel scariest. If your $100 dips to $97, you don’t want to know. Set a calendar reminder to check the account 90 days from now.

By month 6

Your contributions will likely have grown the balance to $1,000-$2,500 (depending on how much you added). Now you can think about whether the original portfolio still fits your goals. Most people don’t need to change anything.

By year 1

You’ll know what your real saving rate is. If you can comfortably do $200/month, you’re on pace for $2,400/year, compounding. At 7% average annual returns over 30 years, $200/month becomes $245,000.

The most common first-investor mistakes

1. Waiting until they have “enough” to start

$100 today beats $1,000 in eight months. The habit matters more than the amount.

2. Picking individual stocks

You don’t know which stocks will win. Neither does anyone else. A diversified ETF portfolio is the right answer for almost every Canadian investor for almost every dollar.

3. Checking the balance daily

This is the #1 way new investors quit. The market goes up and down constantly. If you check every day, every dip feels like an emergency. Check quarterly at most.

4. Stopping during a downturn

The worst time to stop investing is when the market is down. That’s when your $100 buys more shares than usual. The investors who stick to their automatic deposits through downturns end up massively ahead of those who panic-pause.

5. Putting it in a chequing account first to “save up”

Inflation eats chequing-account money at 3-5% per year. Investing it earns 5-10% per year on average. Skip the saving-up phase. Just open the account and start with $100.