Investing Academy by GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca

What Investing Academy is

Investing Academy is the course section of GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca, the investor education website of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). The site's footer says it is "Brought to you by the OSC Investor Office", and its home page promises "free, unbiased resources". The Academy's own pitch is simple: "Learn the basics about investing, managing your money, and planning for the future, with our free courses."

It is a learner product in the plainest sense. The courses are free; a visitor registers, picks a course and works through it. The courses are short, built for people who are new to investing or who want to get more organized about money, and they sit inside a much larger free library of articles, calculators, quizzes and fraud warnings that the same site maintains. The site is available in English and French.

The courses

The Academy currently lists four courses of about an hour each and one 15-minute mini course:

• Investing 101 is for new investors. The course page says learners will find out "how the stock market works, the different types of investments, risks, and how to get started."
• Investing 102 goes beyond the basics, covering investing in stocks, DIY investing, ESG and crypto.
• Managing Your Money 101 covers making a budget, ways to save and protecting yourself from fraud.
• Planning for the Future deals with important life events, including retirement, buying a home and paying for a child's education.
• Risk, investing and you is the mini course. It is meant to help learners decide what level of risk is right for them.

The benefits section of the page describes how the courses work. They are interactive modules that "include learning activities, quizzes, tips and videos", they can be taken on a desktop computer or a mobile device, and "Each course takes about an hour to complete." Learners "receive a certificate after completing each course." The page also says registration "can be done any time, anywhere": a learner chooses a course, clicks the one they want to take first and enrolls. Nothing on the page fixes an order, so a learner who already understands the basics can go straight to Investing 102 or Planning for the Future.

The wider learning library

The courses are only part of what GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca offers, and much of the rest backs them up with more detail. The site's menu organizes its articles into several sections.

Investing basics covers getting started, understanding risk and risk tolerance, building an investing strategy (asset mix, active versus passive investing), DIY or self-directed investing, the psychology of investing and behavioral insights, working with an advisor, tracking progress, and the rules and regulations that protect investors in Canada.

Types of investments has explainers on annuities, bonds, crypto assets, ESG investing, ETFs, GICs, mutual funds and segregated funds, pension and savings plans, real estate, stocks, and more complex investments, which the menu describes as having "potential for high reward, but also higher risk."

Investing accounts explains the Canadian registered accounts: the RDSP for people with disabilities, the RESP for a child's education, the RRIF, the RRSP and the TFSA.

Managing your money runs from bank accounts and budgeting through life events, making a plan, managing debt, personal insurance, retirement, running a small business, saving money, understanding tax, and wills and estate planning.

The home page adds short, timed reads, such as "Saving versus investing" (5 min read), "How setting goals can help you save" (6 min read), "Preparing for financial emergencies" (4 min read) and "What is diversification?" (8 min read), along with a crypto explainer that takes readers on a tour with a "crypto chameleon".

Tools, calculators and quizzes

A Tools & calculators section lets learners practice what the courses teach. The menu lists calculators for compound interest, savings, debt consolidation and more, and the home page features a Cash Flow Calculator, an RESP Savings Calculator and an Education Cost Calculator. Quizzes and tools test knowledge of scams and behavioral biases. Downloadable worksheets help with planning and budgeting. Videos cover the basics of investment types and frauds to watch for, and investing charts show the impact of market ups and downs based on historic data.

Fraud protection

Because the site comes from a securities regulator, fraud gets its own section. It explains types of fraud and how to spot and avoid scams, how to make a complaint, and how to report fraud, with the advice that anyone who suspects they are a victim should "report it immediately." A "Can you spot the scam?" tool walks through the warning signs. The Checking registration page repeats a rule the site returns to often: "Always check the registration of anyone trying to give advice or sell investments." The site also publishes investor warnings and alerts.

Research, newsletter and outreach

For readers who want more, the Investing insights section offers research and reports on retail investor behavior, attitudes and experiences, an Investing questions page promising "unbiased answers to your investing questions from a trusted source", and Investing Introduction, a multilingual site for people new to Canada or new to investing "in 23 languages." The Investor News newsletter invites readers to "Join 18,000+ subscribers" for timely articles, investor warnings and financial literacy resources, with past issues listed on the page. OSC in the Community, described as taking "the OSC's mandate from Bay Street to Main Street", and an Upcoming Events link round out the outreach side. The contact page offers email or phone.

A note on what the courses are not

The site is careful about its role. Every page carries the notice that it "is provided for informational purposes only and is not a source of official OSC policy or a substitute for legal or financial advice," and recommends consulting "a qualified professional advisor before acting on any information appearing on this website." The courses teach concepts; they do not recommend products.

Who it suits

Investing Academy suits Canadians who are new to investing or want a structured refresher, from someone opening a first TFSA to someone thinking about retirement or a child's education. Because it is free and short, it works well as a first step before paying for anything, and the certificates give a learner a simple record of each course finished. Newcomers to Canada can use the multilingual Investing Introduction site alongside it, and French speakers have the French version of the site.

It is less useful for experienced investors. With four one-hour courses and a mini course, the depth is introductory, and the content is written around Canadian accounts, rules and regulators, so readers investing elsewhere will find much of the account and registration material does not apply to them.