Thanks for this. I read it, and will follow this advise.
If you hear about a company called Primerica Financial Services, I will vouch for them. In addition to offering the top, award winning investments that banks can't get PERMISSION to sell, they also operate by a philosophy of TEACHING clients how these financial systems and products work, in plain and simple English, so that they can't be tricked again the same way.
You have to be in GOOD investments though. Your bank does not offer ANY good investments; only your under-informed choice of bad ones, giving you the illusion of control.
Proper investment companies do not have "service fees" either. They take a % of your growth instead (usually around 2% -- if it's over 3%, I'd keep looking) called a Management Expense Ratio (MER). That MER is not shown as part of your returns; if your investment grew 10% last year, it actually grew 12%. Since they profit by a % of how much your investment grows, they are motivated to grow your investment as much as possible.
Banks run very differently: the lower an interest rate they can talk you into accepting (usually using misleading emotional words like "security" and "guaranteed") they get to keep the difference. If they know they can take your money and invest it for an average return of 12%, and they convince you that your money is safest in a CI or GIC earning 1.5%, then they get to keep the other 10.5% for themselves. In fact, they have even more lucrative options, like offering you a credit card with a 25% interest rate, at the same time as they "invest" your savings at 1.5%. There's 23.5% net profits for them, while you tumble deeper and deeper into debt, wondering why none of their advice you ask them for seems to work out in your favour over the long term.
I got a bit lectury. Pardon. Professional and ethical interest on my part. :P