INVESTING

It finds you in unexpected places

You're at the grocery store and the sales start looking like normal prices, or at the gas station watching the number tick to a place you hadn't seen before.

And you sigh, because what else can you do?

You're already doing your part. You work hard, you put money aside. But still, the restlessness creeps in, because the goalposts keep shifting—and goals keep getting harder to hit.

It's no mystery. It's inflation. But you've found this guide, and that means you'll soon know how to handle these changes.

What is inflation, really?

At its simplest, inflation is the rate at which the average price of goods and services in an economy increases over a period of time.

That's it. See, no need for an Econ or Business degree to understand what's making your grocery bill higher.

In practice, inflation is the reason your money doesn't stretch as far as it used to. This decline in your money's real-world value is known as a loss of purchasing power.

Growing up, a $5 bill got you a lot more than it does now—depending on how grown up you are now, it might have gotten you a lot more. Today, that same $5 bill won't even get you a sandwich. The bill itself didn't change, but the number on its front did lose its power.

That's inflation. A slow, steady erosion of your money's power.

The uncomfortable math

Even a seemingly small rate of inflation has a real impact. If you have $10,000 saved and inflation is running at 3%, that $10,000 will only have the purchasing power of about $9,700 in a year.

You didn't spend a dime, but you still lost $300 worth of what your money can do.

The truth about your savings account

We are taught to see a savings account as a safe harbour. For day-to-day needs, it is. But for your long-term ambitions, it's a boat anchored in a rising tide. It looks safe and secure and, for a while it is, but the water level is rising.

Staying put is not the safe path. In a world with inflation, it's not even the neutral path. What it really leads to is slowly, steadily falling behind—and that's why your actions are so important.

In other words, there's risk in not taking risks.

Your answer to inflation: investing

You don't need to have a lot of money, or time, or even market knowledge.

You just need to choose to start. Once you make that decision, the rest changes, because instead of letting your money sleep in a savings account, you put it to work as hard as you do.

Your anti-inflation solution for a modern world

To outpace the rising cost of living, your money needs to do more than just sit still—it needs a powerful engine to drive it forward. That's what we've built at Questrade.

• The fuel: low costs
  No account fees, no account minimums, and no trading commissions. That's what every single Questrade customer gets, which means every single Questrade customer's money gets to grow as much as it can. To get ahead, not giving up ground to fees is a big first victory.
• The keys: real-time fractional shares
  The price of stocks used to be a barrier to entry, especially when you have to balance a stock's cost against your grocery bill. But not anymore. Now, with fractional shares, you can own a piece of companies you believe in with as little as $1.

Together, you'll be able to start buying stocks without a big up front investment, and you'll be able to power your investments further without fees slowing you down.

Getting started, made easy: a three-step guide

Turn restlessness into resolution

Prices will rise, and uncertainty will come and go. You can't control those, but you can control how you move through them.

With the right tools and a clear plan, it can be something you build, day by day, on your own terms. That restless feeling? It's a call to action. And today is the day to answer it.