What accounts and investments to save funds in
Accounts
The solutions that are best for you will depend on a number of factors: how much you have to save right now, how frequently and much you plan to add to your savings and how quickly you may need access to your savings.
Obviously, short term savings means the funds will be needed shortly, within a year or two. All of these funds should be in a high yield savings account only. This way they will accumulate some interest and be easily accessible when they are needed.
For savings that are farther into the future the accounts should be harder to get at (like Tangerine which has no or few branches) or the investment should be harder to get at (ex. a 3 year GIC only gets full interest if left for 3 years). These types of savings could be in some form of investment, albeit a very very low risk investment. See investments below for more details.
Keep a savings account. Add to your savings account but remember to, and prioritize, moving savings into investment vehicles so the funds get a chance to grow at a faster rate. Funds can be put into:
-higher interest accounts (when rates are higher) or GICs.
-special investment accounts (low risk ETFs, mutual funds or bonds/bond funds).
if new to saving then get some professional advice to make sure savings will remain safe yet appreciate in value.
-Tax Free Savings Accounts - in Canada - this should be 'see more'
These accounts are exceptionally good for anyone that can save properly. Any funds put in the account can be put into any type of savings vehicle like a stock, etf, mutual fund, bond or left as cash. Of course, cash isn't very wise as it will never make enough interest to keep up with inflation. The great thing is that if your cash is turned into an ETF (or whatever), any profit is non-taxable. You simply turn the item back into cash and remove the cash when you wish to use it.
Make sure that you understand that it is not like a RRSP which gives you a tax break against your income for the current year. Your tax break in a TFSA is for any interest or profit created from using your funds in the marketplace. Example: if you put funds into the TFSA, bought an etf and it went up after 2 years and you sold it and made $1000, the funds are tax free. Even when you take the funds out to use them, they are still tax free.
Investments
Medium term savings, five to ten years out, should have some of the savings in high yield savings while the remainder should be in something that will hopefully increase the value of the savings. Depending on the interest rates of the times, it is likely a GIC or a bond may be useful. They won't keep up with inflation but they will be better then savings account interest. A financial manage may suggest an ETF with low risk. Depending on the time frame and how much is needed to save, that might be a reasonable suggestion. But any investment must be low risk. If an investment is used for the savings it must be remembered that due to undulations of the marketplace, the investment should be sold and the funds put back into the savings account to make sure the funds are safe. It wouldn't be nice if the market suddenly dropped and the funds were worth less just when they were needed.
Long term savings usually means retirement and the always means investments. It is considered impossible to save for retirement with just a savings account and interest. It usually falls short simply because interest rates are always lower then inflation. It doesn't mean to put funds in a risky investment either. It means, put funds in low risk investments mainly.
Some GICs, if interest rates are decent enough, will be safe unless interest rates creep up and the GIS interest rate falls short. Bonds may be used because they can be bought and sold although it is easier to buy bond ETFs and leave the buying and selling to professionals. The longer the savings period the more reasonable it is to buy a bond ETF or mutual fund. These are usually very low risk but they can fluctuate. Check with a professional before buying one of these.
Stock ETFs and mutual funds will fluctuate the most but there are ones that are quite safe and should get a very reasonable annual interest rate over the long haul. This is where 7-8% per annum can be attained with reasonably low risk. Check with a professional before buying one of these.
link: see also Investing