The sooner you open the TFSA the better. Your cap grows by 5k a year as of the moment you open your account. So do it now before you have too little time to bump your cap.

I agree with this realtively new member to Vgchartz. Some of the advice regarding TFSA was good. Just don't put straight cash into them as you are barely making more than inflation. Talk to people you know and have experience with investing. Than go from there. Good luck. 

So is hatmoza('s anus).

I didn't want to be a nuisance so I preferred you say so yourself.

I would generally give the opposite advice ...

Try to get as much information from as many different sources as possible, try to understand the reasons behind the investments they suggest, and figure out why they're giving the advice they're giving.

There really are no "experts" when it comes to investing and it is unlikely that you will ever talk to anyone that has a guaranteed path to success (that's legal). Most people's advice may have worked for them but that doesn't mean it will work for you, after all in 2007 there were countless people who would give the advice "Take out as large of a loan as you can get and buy a home, fix it up and flip it." as being a great strategy to financial independence; and many of these people are bankrupt today as a result of their strategy.

At the same time I have seen a few articles that discussed how investing encourages people to act irrationally. When you typically look to purchase something the price being reduced increases your interest while if the price increased it would reduce your interest in the product; with investing the opposite tends to happen. What this means is that most people are most interested in an investment when it is the worst time to buy in and least interested when it is the best time to buy. This is not meant as investment advice because there is far more to investing than simply the price of the investment but ... If you look at interest in Apple and Research In Motion as an investment you can see this principle at play; because Apple's stock has seen dramatic increases for years people see it as having dramatic room for further increases, while Research in Motion's falling price means that people see no future growth prospects, while (in most similar cases) the opposite is the reality. Basically, it is more likely that Apple's stock will stagnate and/or decline because they're worth about as much as they realistically can be while Research In Motion's stock can rise quite dramatically and the company will still be worth a fraction of what they once were.

The reason I bring this up is that most of the people you trust will be acting irrationally when they invest and their advice to you on what to invest in can (often) be no different from someone recruiting you to join their pyramid scheme.

I like your idea on trees, its good for the environment (until you chop it down but then you are back to square one).

I'm in a similar position, but large-scale inflation would actually be a boon for me because my only expense (for now) is student debt, so if the US had a gargantuan inflation spike i'd actually be in a good position, even though i'm all in cash or savings.

except banana crops in some parts of the world are being destroyed by a disease, a very similar disease to the one that essentially wiped out the dominant  banana some decades ago.   the disease that the current inferior dominant banana was supposed to be resistant too.  its a matter of time before it starts hitting latin american farms.   then those stupid bananas will get what they deserve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease

Hello friendly neighbor (comes from Canada too), I too decided to take interest in my retirement and have done so since the age of 18. Now, at 20, I was able to set aside over 10,000$ and dive into the stock market. Though risky, I believe a venture into the stock market is best. In my portfolio I currently own 300 Nintendo stocks at an average of 14.50$. Apple, and Santander. Including fees, I have heavily invested over 4400$ in Nintendo, I know lol. I see a lot of potential growth in Nintendo as the market sees Nintendo once more as a doom and gloom company even though Nintendo has proven otherwise on countless occasions. With every cycle of new hardware, a month prior to the release, the stock will rise extremely in anticipation. A concrete is example is Sony stock skyrocketed by as much as 6$ in anticipation of the PS3 launch, and the Wii as much as 5$ (google finance). Buy low and sell high. Maybe I am crazy, but I think it is one of the best times to invest in Nintendo and once the hype of the Wii U wears off - SELL.

I already said in the OP I went to the bank and they threw so much at me I was more confused leaving there then before. So I'd like to do some research online ask some people that should know a thing or two (a lot of people recommend TFSA) and get my information straight before I go back.