This is when a little help might be appropriate.

One option is to work with a financial advisor or portfolio manager whose expertise can help identify ground-floor investing opportunities. Another option is to invest in a stock analysis platform, such as The Motley Fool.

A subscription to The Motley Fool (TMF), offers access to expert research and recommendations backed by analysts. This insight helps investors uncover long-term opportunities without spending hours digging through financial statements and earnings reports.

Right now, new TMF subscribers can get unlimited access to Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada insights for just $1.90 per week. Insight and research from the Motley Fool can help cut through the noise and reduce the guesswork, helping you make smarter investing decisions in just five minutes.

Read more: 3 essential money moves to make once you’ve saved $50,000

Now, any investor can add IPO investments to their portfolio

In reality, most long-term wealth isn’t built through a single moonshot — or a single stock or IPO. Though we all want to believe our next investment is the one that’ll make a life-changing amount of money, even large institutional investors with extensive research teams experience setbacks along the way.

For investors interested in exploring IPO investments, check out Wealthsimple. This Toronto fintech opened access to IPO offerings in late May for any client with a trading account. With this latest offering, retail investors can now request shares of select companies at their offering price, as they become available.

“Big institutions get to buy in at the offering price, while everyday investors are excluded,” Swapnil Parikh, Wealthsimple’s vice-president of product, said in a statement.

Trusted by more than three million Canadians, Wealthsimple manages over $100 billion in assets and provides $1 million in eligible coverage through the CDIC for chequing accounts and CIPF for investments. New Wealthsimple clients can get a $25 bonus when they open their first account and fund at least $1 within 30 days. Visit Wealthsimple for up-to-date terms and conditions.

Don’t gamble with your investment savings

SpaceX may prove to be one of the most successful investments in the OTPP investment history, but other bets didn’t work out nearly as well. After investing $95 million in FTX (6), OTPP eventually wrote the entire position down to zero following the crypto exchange’s collapse.

Like any investor, one investment decision may generate billions for OTPP, while another may be a complete loss.

The success — and failure — of OTPP funds illustrates the importance of consistency and diversification. A portfolio spread across a couple of strong core investments can reduce the impact of any single mistake while still allowing investors to participate in long-term market growth.

For investors who struggle to stay consistent, consider using a robo-advisor. With custom-built and professionally-managed portfolios, robo-advisors help investors put money to work automatically while tailoring the portfolio to their risk tolerance.

One option is through Wealthsimple portfolios. These pre-built portfolios offer an easy, hands-off way to grow your money, tailored to your retirement goals, risk tolerance, and investment horizon. Expert-managed and designed to weather market ups and downs, Wealthsimple takes care of the heavy lifting: Automatic contributions, dividend reinvesting and smart rebalancing keep your investments on track. You can invest through RRSPs, TFSAs or non-registered accounts, all from an intuitive online dashboard or their easy-to-use mobile app.

Another option is Questrade’s Questwealth portfolios. These are perfect for investors who want a hands-off, low-cost investing solution. Using Questwealth portfolios, you’ll get matched to one of five ETF-based portfolios — Aggressive, Growth, Balanced, Income or Conservative — depending on your risk tolerance and financial goals.

Unlike the usual “set-it-and-forget-it” robo platforms that just track the market with passive index funds, Questwealth actually uses actively managed ETFs. In theory, this gives you a better shot at long-term gains, while still keeping fees low. Plus, Questwealth is one of Canada’s cheapest robo-advisors, with all-in fees typically ranging from about 0.37% to 0.47% annually depending on your account size and portfolio selection — a fraction of the roughly 2% fee many Canadians still pay through traditional mutual funds.

Private markets aren’t the only way to access alternative assets

Aside from new opportunities to invest in IPOs, most investors can’t buy into a company like SpaceX years before its IPO. But that doesn’t mean alternative investments are entirely out of reach.

Real estate, for example, has historically played an important role in diversified portfolios, generating income through rent while offering the potential for long-term appreciation. PWL Capital even went so far as to name it the “best investment in history.” (7)

And if you aren’t ready to jump into homeownership (financially or otherwise), there are ways to add real estate exposure to your investment portfolio without the headaches of being a landlord. TSX-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) let you invest in income-producing properties while collecting regular distributions — with yields of 5% or higher common among leading REITs. Since REITs trade like stocks, you can add these investments to a self-directed account, including a TFSA, RRSP or a non-registered account. For instance, a CIBC Investor’s Edge online or mobile app lets you build a diversified portfolio, enjoy no maintenance fees on accounts of $10,000 or more, and get 200 free trades with promo code EDGE2026. Plus, trade more than 180 select ETFs commission-free. Terms and conditions apply. Offer ends September 30, 2026.

SpaceX offers insight into the rise (and potential fall) of higher-risk investments

Not everyone is convinced SpaceX deserves its reported valuation.

Analysts at Morningstar (8) have suggested the company may be worth substantially less than its IPO target, highlighting the uncertainty that often surrounds fast-growing companies. Morningstar analysts peg SpaceX’s valuation at $63 a share, a “53% discount” on the launch price of $135 per share, per CNBC (9).

That’s not unusual. Throughout market history, periods of excitement around emerging technologies have often been accompanied by debates about whether investors are overly optimistic.

For now, investors can take the experience of the teacher’s pension fund as a signal: If you’re willing to do the work and take the risk, the reward can be great. However, for investors more interested in capturing consistent, steady returns, a long-term investment plan combined with a low-cost trading platform is the easiest and most effective tool for achieving financial goals.

What To Read Next

• Prioritize [these 4 critical investments](https://money.ca/investing/retirement/large-long-term-investm?placement_syn=placement_3&native_creative_id=674&targeting_group=347 o’lents?throw=WTRN1_streamline_tt_moc) and watch your net worth skyrocket

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Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (1), (3), (6); Forbes (2); Morgan Stanley (4); Bloomberg (5); PWL Capital (7); Contentstack (8); CNBC (9)

This article originally appeared on Money.ca under the title: $11B jackpot SpaceX IPO could launch Ontario teachers into dream retirement — how to ride the wave

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.