Henry Ko, 62, Montreal

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What was your first stock?

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My first stock was actually a technology mutual fund that I bought from Altamira Investment Services Inc. in the early 1980s, when I was in university in my early 20s. [Altamira was bought by National Bank in 2002]. I held on to that fund for several years, including when the dot.com bubble burst in 2000 and the value of it dropped significantly. I was shell-shocked, like many other investors, but I stayed invested. Then, as I started earning money in my career as an engineer, I started diversifying my portfolio by purchasing more mutual funds. I watched the value of my portfolio increase as the market recovered and grew. In 2007, I started to read headlines about a subprime mortgage crisis brewing in the U.S. I sold about 35 per cent of my mutual funds in November, 2007, before the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and the market dropped. I suffered less than others because I had reduced my equity holdings and put the money into cash.

What did you do with the cash?

I was organizing a hockey group in December, 2009, and my neighbour, an accountant, had just joined the team. I remember we were sitting on the bench, and I asked her what I should do with the cash. She suggested that I buy a Canadian bank. I was wary, given we had just gone through the global financial crisis, but she said that Canadian banks were much more stable than in the U.S. I decided to buy Bank of Nova Scotia because that’s where I held my mortgage. I bought that stock for about $29 in January, 2010. I’ve owned it and have been collecting dividends ever since. It’s now trading at about $77.

What have you learned from your investing experiences to date?

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I learned to buy solid dividend stocks and be patient. With the introduction of the tax-free savings account and once National Bank Direct Brokerage went to free trading, I tried investing on my own in a few speculative stocks. Generally, I broke even, but I found it too stressful. Today, I stick with dividend stocks in sectors such as utilities and financial and real-estate investment trusts and, in the past couple of years, I have also started buying lower-cost exchange-traded funds.

What’s your advice for someone buying their first stock?

I advise my two kids, who are in their late teens and just opened their own tax-free savings accounts, to buy dividend-paying stocks in companies they understand and watch the payments roll in. Also, when it comes to speculative stocks, like cryptocurrency, only invest in those for fun if you enjoy the exercise and can afford to lose the money.

This interview has been edited and condensed.