which appealed to me because I'm not that great at maths and finance so the thought of rebalancing the portfolio every year did not appeal to me. @ Angela -- if you can calculate the tip due at the end of a meal, you can rebalance a portfolio. I know it sounds complicated but it's not. I had a computer teacher once who said that the reason why 'computer people' use terms like ram, hd, pc, etc is as a language of exclusion. I feel the same way about finances -- I don't need to understand everything, just enough to be fluent. The main thing is to decide what your balances are. There are cheaper indexes than ING but I think they do the rebalancing for you (TD E-funds series is cheaper, for one but you manage it). Strongly recommend canadiancapitalist.com as a primer. Investing is something we are really lacking in our house and unfortunately a lot of this is due to very low income previously and too much debt now that needs to be paid off asap. In the next 2 years we plan to agressively start saving for retirement, etc. and will be "behind the 8 ball" since we'll be late 30's. At this point I contribute $50 a month just so I could start somewhere and since I have so little to spare and limited knowledge base at the moment I too went with GIC for security. I figure some low risk action is better than