Wealthsimple

So a lot of points, miles and cash back maximizers by Costco.

Costco shop cards online using their Visa card, something like the Wealthsimple Visa cards where they earn 2% cash back or Aeroplan Visa cards where they can get outsized value add redemptions to get 2% or even more value.

And then they take those shop cards and use them in the warehouse.

So this is a great option to consider that you can do, but it does have some drawbacks potentially.

Yeah.

Like, I think your example for you often bring up like Wealthsimple.

What's your online banking experience like when you compare it to Wealthsimple,

right? I could be hit pretty bad.

Yeah, all of them pretty bad.

Joop

JoopIn other challenger bank news from this week, Scotiabank subsidiary Tangerine divulged plans to revamp its offerings to better compete with the likes of Wealthsimple.

Meanwhile, Neo Financial laid off 10% of its workforce, with CEO Andrew Chow saying on LinkedIn, quote, "We're going to build fewer things faster and build them exceptionally well," end quote.

Yay.

By now you've probably heard of prediction markets, or at least the two most prominent players in the space in the United States, Kalshi and Polymarket.

And it looks like we're going to be seeing even more of them given that Canada has begun to allow some of this exact activity in this country, starting with Wealthsimple.

So let's begin with a definition so that we're all on the same page.

Prediction markets are open markets that allow participants to buy and sell contracts whose value depends on the outcome of future events.

Since there's no house to bet against, you're competing against other users, so to win big, someone has to lose big.

Compare this to traditional long-term stock market investments, where there's almost a 100% chance of making a profit after 15 years and well above 50% over probably even a few months, and you'll see that prediction markets are not a place where your average person is very likely at all to improve their financial situation.

So why would any jurisdiction allow prediction markets? Well, in Canada, where Wealthsimple has been given permission to offer clients access to event contracts through Kalshi, we're limiting trades to betting on financial markets, economic indicators, and climate trends.

So there's none of the, frankly, quite strange political sports and entertainment betting that's allowed in the US, at least to begin with, though I'm fairly certain there will be huge pressures to eliminate that restriction as time goes on.

So that's a great thing as you can get in and get investing quickly, even if you have no idea what the fuck is going on.

Some platforms that are robo-advisors, this is not an exhaustive list, but Ellevest, Acorns, Wealthfront, Wealthsimple, Betterment, there's a bunch of other ones out there.

But that's an example of some of the robo-advisors.

So the pro is that you're investing quickly because they're investing for you.

And then I've just been getting finances in order.

Like I need to actually check my Wealthsimple because I was sending a lot of money from Revolut over to Wealthsimple, which is like an app in Canada.

Pretty terrifying just sending like big buckets of money, but it's what you got to do, I guess.

Recognize my face.