Big brother is watching and he knows something you may not know...

Many Canadians have set aside $5,000 a year for 20 years, since 1991, let's say, only to find they don't have $100,000 today.

They will tell you the intention was that this money was supposed to grow all by itself. But has it? Can they even tell? Have they kept tabs? Have they done the math? Over the past several years, they do the same thing all over again with their TFSA accounts.

They don't seem to pay any attention to what it's invested in. And I'll bet they have no idea if it's growing or not. They don't do the math because banks and brokers don't give them the tools.

There is no such thing as a guarantee that if you invest for the 'long haul' that you'll end up with more money. That's a myth. If investments aren't growing, you need to act. Now, not in 20 years.

For years I observed clients socked away money in RRSP's and they didn't care about what it was invested in, they didn't know if made money.

I had to say something because it was just so ridiculous, I couldn't stand it, so I would say something, and most of the time, once they looked at the numbers, they would make a change in what they were doing.

Most of the time, they'd forgotten how much they put in, they had no clue how much they invested or how that compared to what they now hold. They had no idea it was not insured and 100% of their capital was at risk. It was often a shock to them to find out that mutual funds invest in the stock market weren't insured. Did you know that investing in mutual funds is exactly like gambling? You just aren't doing it yourself, you've assigned someone else to do it for you. Can you afford to lose 100% of what you've invested? Because you could, it's not insured.

Your broker or bank investment counsellor, they aren't going to tell you how you're doing, they don't want you to know they've not done very well with your money. It's not in their best interest to have this conversation with you, so they'll steer you off course very quickly.

You don't have to believe me, the part about how much was invested and what it's now worth, you can check the numbers and do the math yourself.

Your investment counsellor won't help you with this. I can tell you they are probably very afraid of the truth. I once had a banker take me out for lunch to tell me how many top bank executives don't sleep because they know this and if Canadian's ever figured it out, they worry about how angry we'd be.

Here's how to check:

Sign up for My Account on the www.cra-arc.gc.ca website. That will take a week to get organized as they have to send you a letter by snail mail so you can sign in securely.

Sign in securely when the letter arrives,

Find out how much you've invested in your RRSP's and TFSA's, for RRSP's back as far as 1991 as CRA has kept track of all your investments and withdrawals. Add it up, and then add up your RRSP accounts. Is it more or less?

Here's the link to the CRA website on Help with My Account:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/myccnt/hlp-eng.html#mao.a1-1

I'm curious, let me know how that works out for you. Just tell me if I'm right or wrong.

Hmmm... CRA knows how much everyone has put into their RRSP's and TFSA's. Who says big brother isn't watching?