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The Value of Simple: A Practical Guide to Taking the Complexity Out of Investing

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The Value of A Practical Guide to Taking the Complexity Out of Investing is a plain-language guide to investing for Canadians. This is the revised second edition. Canada has the highest investment fees in the world, as well as a confusing tax system that features four-letter words like RRSP and TFSA. Fortunately there are low-cost index funds that make it easy and rewarding for you to become a do-it-yourself “couch potato” investor. With a focus on developing good processes to minimize the room for human error and step-by-step instructions, the book will walk you through the elements of managing your finances for the long how to devise a savings plan, stick to it through automation, determine how to allocate funds balancing risk and reward, invest using low-cost index funds, track your investments, and deal with the inevitable issue of taxation. Putting your money to work can look suspiciously like math at times, but this book lays out a simple approach that anyone can follow. Inside you will find tools and templates, along with easy suggestions and rules-of-thumb to help prevent analysis paralysis and get you started fast. Control what can be controlled; minimize fees and effort. Investing doesn’t have to be complex to be successful. Keep it simple and you will succeed.

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2014

66 people are currently reading
768 people want to read

About the author

John Robertson

2 books4 followers
John Robertson is a scientist, writer, investor, teacher, and all-around nice guy. He specializes in explaining complex topics – scientific or financial – for regular people. He has a PhD from the University of Western Ontario in Medical Biophysics, and spends his days as a science writer & editor for the Techna Institute in Toronto.

Personal finance and investing have long been personal passions for John. He has been an active part of the Canadian personal finance community for over 7 years, blogging at Blessed by the Potato, creating spreadsheets and how-to guides amongst other commentary, analyses, and plain silly interludes. In 2011 he started an investor "technical support" service to help investors move away from relying on commissioned sales staff to planning and investing on their own. Those experiences helped identify the common issues and underlying need for the material that would become The Value of Simple, and provided a venue to test and refine the explanations and tools that form the book.

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5 stars
228 (39%)
4 stars
251 (43%)
3 stars
79 (13%)
2 stars
14 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for Laura (Kyahgirl).
2,333 reviews151 followers
November 3, 2020
I’d recommend this book to any Canadian who wants to get started with investing, particularly index investing. The author does a pretty good overview of what ‘the market’ is about so a person can get a good feel for it but then he focusses in on how to setup an account with one of four major types of providers and includes step by step instruction on getting started. This is a good approach for people who hesitate to get started because they don’t know how.
I liked the fact that the book allows the reader to take away as much or as little as they have the interest in. For example, there are are pointers to where you can get more info on his website, or even a class you can enroll in for more in-depth training. The author has said he won’t be doing another edition but is committed to keeping the tools and info on his website up to date.
There is a large spread sheet to use as a starting point if a person is looking for financial advice from someone not trying to sell them investments. There is also a good list of recommend reading at the back so a person can round out their knowledge. All in all, this book is a great resource for any one getting started in index investing.
19 reviews1 follower
Read
December 11, 2020
Overall, not the most useful book since I've read a handful of similar books already this year. Some useful notes:

The traditional rule-of-thumb is that bonds should be the first to be sheltered in a TFSA or RRSP – which one doesn’t matter from a tax perspective, though I might again recommend putting bonds in the TFSA first. That’s because if disaster does strike it’s easier to withdraw from the TFSA, and it will likely be the bonds you’ll want to sell.

US stocks are a bit peculiar because there is a best tax shelter for those: the RRSP. This has to do with a small bit of international tax law: the US IRS taxes dividends from US companies going to Canadian investors, but has a tax treaty with Canada to recognize the RRSP as a tax shelter so they don’t apply this tax to dividends going to stocks held in a Canadian RRSP. The tax treaty doesn’t cover TFSAs, so it’s best to put your US stocks in the RRSP. Note further that this exemption within an RRSP only applies if you hold US funds directly.

When buying on Questrade, you always want to select a limit order. What a limit order does is enter a maximum price for what you are willing to pay for your shares (or a minimum price you will sell at).

The US and Canada have a tax treaty: the impact for you is, briefly, that the US will withhold 15% of any dividends going to Canadian investors on US equities. However, the RRSP (but not the TFSA) is exempted from this withholding tax. That means there is a slight advantage to holding US equity ETFs in your RRSP, and buying those from American providers in US dollars.
Profile Image for Valerie Thibaudeau.
327 reviews127 followers
April 30, 2022
This book was exactly what I needed and more! I loved how the author created some excell and word spreadsheets to help us make our own plan. It is very simply explained and it is definitely 2 steps further than most financial books I’ve read so far, talking about investing in stock markets. It is specific to Canadians, so I really appreciated the specificity of this book.
Profile Image for Jeffrey.
44 reviews1 follower
September 25, 2020
Short and concise. Good novice guide on how to passive invest for Canadians. Published in 2018 it's slightly outdated on some new products and offerings, but the presented philosophies are still helpful to the current day. It also includes information for Canadians on how to manage RRSPs and TFSAs that I found to be very easy to follow and practical.
Profile Image for L.
576 reviews43 followers
October 11, 2016
It's a great book for Canadians on investing. It's written very similar to Millionaire Teacher with it's advocate of index investing. It has screenshots on buying Tangerine, TD and Questrade funds similar to Couch Potato. I especially appreciated it's emphasis on developing your own financial management process.

- Keep it simple and not rely overly on forecasting the future.
- Have minimal moving parts, record keeping and other requirements.
- Adaptable, with pre-determined responses to crises.
- Allow for multiple outcomes, rather than betting exclusively on one.
- Focused. Control what can be controlled.
- Using a plan to rein in your emotions.
Profile Image for Jaspal.
13 reviews
February 23, 2017
A lot of self help books are really bloated. "10 simple rules to do whatever" and then the book goes on for 300 pages explain the 10 simple rules.

Now this is a very practical book. It is short and gets right to the point. The first 60 pages are spent going over simple financial topics and then there is a step-by-step section on how you can start investing. It goes over account creation at different banks and brokerages and even over what to invest into. This is a great book for a beginner investor and for those that want a simple solution to investing for their savings and retirement.
Profile Image for Alexa.
266 reviews14 followers
November 14, 2016
Finally, I've found a finance book that focuses more on the HOW than on the WHY. The background info on passive investing has been great in (most of) the other books I've read, but a lot of them fail to give tips on actually implementing those strategies.

This book is great. Short and sweet. It gave me a few pointers on setting up a TD Direct Investing account - and now I've finally got myself started!
Profile Image for Shimista.
373 reviews
December 16, 2018
good book. clear instructions (including screenshots) for getting started right away. has content to download like a directory of canadian advisors/coaches to help (who won't swindle you), sample investment plan, sample tracking tables/spreadsheets.
18 reviews
June 30, 2018
This is a must read work for the Canadian who wants to get started with index investing.

I have been reviewing the investment literature of DYI investors over the last few months and have executed most of the recommendations in the book as I pulled ideas from different sources. This book does a great job of consolidating those recommendations into actionable items while keeping the chaff out. If you're interested in index investing, it's undoubtedly because of its simplicity and hands off process. A book that keeps things short and simple is excellent.

As a Canadian, it can sometimes be hard to separate out the important practical differences between American-style and Canadian-style index investing. There are regulations, financial instruments and financial products in Canada that are dramatically different from those in the U.S., and a portfolio needs to be built with these in mind. This book does that and I picked up many useful points to keep me out of trouble in the long term: tracking non-registered account investments is a must, invest in USD accounts through your RRSP primarily, etc.

I especially appreciated the books approach to developing a financial process. Record your financial plan, set up regular reminders on when to re-adjust amounts, and stick to that plan!

While not the best laid out book, the short length and straightforward style means you can get through it in a relatively short amount of time. Used in conjunction with other index investing sources to round out your particular financial opinion will be useful.

The two things to be wary of is that this book is not meant to convince you of index investing. If you are looking to be convinced of the benefits of index investing, I suggest starting with A Random Walk Down Wall Street or another source. The second thing is that this is not a personal finance book. If you want a broader discussion of personal finance such as budgeting, managing banks and credit cards, saving for expenditures, then I recommend going to another source.
3 reviews7 followers
May 8, 2020
Some useful notes:

A) An index is simply a large well-diversified collection of stocks or bonds. Indexes can be thought of as a way to provide the average return of the stock market by collecting many or all of the companies available.
B)There are five main indexes to be aware of: The TSX composite index consists of approximately 300 companies traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Most are Canadian companies, though many have operations in the US and overseas as well.
There is a concentration of companies in the resource and financial sectors, due to the makeup of the companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but there is a pretty good amount of diversification present. The S&P 500 consists of approximately 500 companies traded in the US. Many are giant
international conglomerates, and it’s well-balanced across many economic sectors. This is one of the most followed indexes in the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a smaller index of 30 US companies. It’s not nearly as well diversified as the S&P 500, and the method of averaging is
different, but it is one of the very first stock market indexes so it has a lot of history and
remains popular. Despite the smaller number of names, it correlates well with the broader S&P 500. I would recommend just sticking with the S&P 500 for US stocks. The MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australia, Far East) index tracks several European markets and developed nations markets around the world (e.g. Japan and Australia). This is the main “international/rest of the world” index for Canadians to follow.

Since the market as a whole can be thought of as the average of all the mutual funds’ trading activity, by going with an index approach you’ll get the average return. But because your fees will be lower than theaverage fund, you’llactually do better thanthe average investor inthose funds.
Passive investing involves minimizing fees while buying broadly diversified funds holding stocks and bonds that track indexes.
Profile Image for Anna.
72 reviews4 followers
February 4, 2024
DNF, pretty early on. Got to about 92 pgs. If I didn’t read Millionaire Teacher alongside this, I wouldn’t understand fuck all. I am sure it is more than helpful if you have some beginner knowledge, I just didn’t. I just didn’t mesh with how it was written it was hard to understand—like there would be parts I had to read a few times. But it highlighted the main points of Millionaire Teacher and essentially gave me ideas of what is important.

Granted, this was a library copy. I think I learned I am a pretty slow reader for non-fiction (I like to take notes) and maybe would have found it worth-while if I paced myself, but nonetheless.

TLDR; this is NOT investing for Dummies. This is Investing for the literate.💀🤣
Profile Image for Tin Mayer.
Author 1 book9 followers
June 25, 2021
The Value of Simple is a great book about personal finances for Canadians. It is more of a starter book where you can get the foundations right and then go on to explore deeper subjects.

I would recommend this book to the young readers. You need to learn this as early as possible and set your life for financial success.

What I took from the book is a better understating for the ways to convert your savings into income when you retire. A lot of books do not cover that part and even though I am far away from that moment it is important to plan for it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sjors.
317 reviews8 followers
August 27, 2023
I came into a stack of finance & investing self-help books and will be doing some skim-reads and reviews. I judge these books along 3 axis: Competence / Usefulness to me / Would recommend. Books containing misleading information and factual errors tend to get 1 star. Books that are well-written, but not particularly useful to me get 3 stars. The best of the best get 5 stars. Now to this book.

COMPETENCE - Good: well-written
USEFUL TO ME - No
RECOMMEND - Yes, for beginner (stock) investors (in Canada)
JUDGEMENT - 2 stars*

*Judgement mainly based on the low "Useful to Me" score.
13 reviews
January 5, 2022
The first half was so good I wish I had read it sooner, the second half I was bored and confused. The first half had broad stroke how-to and the second half went into too much details. The book was also printed a few years ago and by being so detailed, it was out of date. However, maybe because I’ve already made some investments and moved some funds around, perhaps that’s why the second half was boring.
21 reviews
August 26, 2025
Super easy to understand book, with good level of practical advice and anecdotes. I would give it 5 stars, but I don't know how well the investment strategy will hold up and some of the rates being charged by various banks and brokerages seems to differ greatly with current values. Also he suspiciously really likes TD, Questrade, and Tangerine; And while his motives for recommending these services can be pure, it's never certain.
Profile Image for Flora.
72 reviews4 followers
June 6, 2019
The finance book every Canadian needs to read. Why? Because it’s not just all theoretical: actual steps for making a plan, setting up accounts and tracking etc. are all laid out! It was a saviour because all finances books are either a) American or b) leave you to wonder where the eff to buy an index fund. This book has the answer. It’s also short and sweet.
Profile Image for Shim.
243 reviews2 followers
July 14, 2019
Very useful read, especially for Canadians. One of the only books that gives you detailed practical advice on where to get started on index investing. There are bits of more advanced content for the more experienced investor, such as optimizing your RRSP by taking advantage of US-listed securities; and there is lot of content that is suitable for people just starting out too.
Profile Image for Nate.
13 reviews1 follower
May 26, 2020
A great starting point for the beginning Canadian DIY investor. Robertson explains banking and investing terms for the layperson. You finish the book feeling confident and ready to take the reins. I'll be using this book as a reference for years to come. He answered many questions I knew I had and even more that I didn't know I had yet.
42 reviews
January 19, 2019
Great book with many practical advices that correlate to the Canadian investment environment, rather than the US. A must read before beginning to invest, as it introduces the different platforms for investing (Albeit a bit dated, but still useful nonetheless).
Profile Image for Thảo Nguyên.
3 reviews1 follower
August 15, 2019
A simple but very comprehensive book. You need nothing more to get started on your way to your own personal financial freedom . I am so thankful to find this book on The Canadian Couch Potato's bookshelf and spend my time reading it. It was a great book :)
42 reviews
June 11, 2021
Really easy to follow and perfect for Canadians who are absolutely clueless about investing. Gives options such as TD e-series, Questrade and even holds your hand and tells you exactly what you need to do.
Profile Image for Lily.
209 reviews3 followers
July 23, 2024
3 stars

A very solid book that outlines how you should start investing, and especially geared towards Canadians. I thought this book was very helpful and the different guides it recommends was very useful. I will use it to help set up my own plan.
Profile Image for VJ.
170 reviews
November 28, 2017
Good book for starters and resources for Canadian investors.
6 reviews
April 15, 2019
A great to book to start one's personal finance adventure, especially for Canadians. It's to be noted that the author also provides a list of tools and book guides, which is super helpful.
Profile Image for Diane Snobelen.
1 review3 followers
August 30, 2019
Just a fantastic resource. Learned a lot. Great for Canadians. His website and excel resources are wonderful (Though I wish for google docs support!!!)
Profile Image for Julie Compton.
46 reviews
April 13, 2021
Specific and relevant to the Canadian context, with very informative and approachable advice.
2 reviews
September 22, 2021
A must read for any Canadian brand new to investing. This book has everything you need to get started with passive index investing, and explains it in a simple understandable way.
Profile Image for V B.
59 reviews1 follower
February 15, 2022
Excellent book filled with info. I learned so much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

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