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Reboot Your Portfolio: 9 Steps to Successful Investing with ETFs
Jumpstart your returns with a simple, low-fee investment strategy that beats most professional money managers.
With low-cost investment options widely available to everyone, why do so many Canadians still struggle to manage their money effectively?
Too many of us are seduced into believing that successful investing is about outsmarting the market and forecasting the economy, even though these strategies routinely fail. We focus on short-term market moves and which stocks to buy, losing sight of the fact that a portfolio is simply a tool to help us achieve our buying a house, saving for a comfortable retirement, or putting our kids through university.
Whether your nest egg is $1,000 or $1 million, Reboot Your Portfolio is the roadmap you need to take control of your investments, shake off your bad habits, reduce your money stress, and enjoy the financial future you deserve.
With low-cost investment options widely available to everyone, why do so many Canadians still struggle to manage their money effectively?
Too many of us are seduced into believing that successful investing is about outsmarting the market and forecasting the economy, even though these strategies routinely fail. We focus on short-term market moves and which stocks to buy, losing sight of the fact that a portfolio is simply a tool to help us achieve our buying a house, saving for a comfortable retirement, or putting our kids through university.
Whether your nest egg is $1,000 or $1 million, Reboot Your Portfolio is the roadmap you need to take control of your investments, shake off your bad habits, reduce your money stress, and enjoy the financial future you deserve.
213 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2025
55 people are currently reading
437 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 8, 2022
I started investing in ETFs through Dan’s Canadian Couch Potato portfolio. From there I changed my asset allocations as I keep learning.
So when Dan published a book I knew I have to read it. The book is well written that it wouldn’t overwhelm a beginner investor.
In fact this is a great book for beginners who doesn’t know where to start. The steps are outlined with explanations and simplified actions are encouraged.
Because why would anyone want to complicate his portfolio? I would recommend this book to everyone even if you’ve been investing for years especially if you are tempted to try riskier type of investment (eg. Bitcoin). Do you really have to?
So when Dan published a book I knew I have to read it. The book is well written that it wouldn’t overwhelm a beginner investor.
In fact this is a great book for beginners who doesn’t know where to start. The steps are outlined with explanations and simplified actions are encouraged.
Because why would anyone want to complicate his portfolio? I would recommend this book to everyone even if you’ve been investing for years especially if you are tempted to try riskier type of investment (eg. Bitcoin). Do you really have to?
February 22, 2024
Good introductory book to ETF investing as a Canadian. Does a good job explaining general concepts relating to investing, as well as what kinds of investment options exist. The book is fairly straightforward to understand, and it often uses simple examples to help guide the reader.
A number of "steps" of the book are specifically focused on how you can transition from a financial advisor to self-directed investing and are not really worth reading if you are not in such a situation.
Overall the book gives a good overview of the modern self-directed Canadian investing environment.
If you want very straight to the point portfolio suggestions and don't care as much for the explanation, skip the book and go straight to the model portfolios found on the author's blog: Canadian Couch Potato.
A number of "steps" of the book are specifically focused on how you can transition from a financial advisor to self-directed investing and are not really worth reading if you are not in such a situation.
Overall the book gives a good overview of the modern self-directed Canadian investing environment.
If you want very straight to the point portfolio suggestions and don't care as much for the explanation, skip the book and go straight to the model portfolios found on the author's blog: Canadian Couch Potato.
January 3, 2022
A good foundational how-to for DIY investing. It's a quick read and well worth the time especially if you haven't put much time into thinking about your portfolio or investments in general in awhile.
April 20, 2022
I believe Dan Bortolotti is Canada's best investment writer.
October 12, 2023
Practical tips for Canadian DIY investors :) research backed and easy to read
December 16, 2022
Excellent premier livre pour ceux qui veulent protéger et faire fructifier leur capital. Notions de débutants et c'est parfait pour 99.9% de la population.
January 3, 2025
Perfectly as advertised
February 28, 2022
A masterpiece for Canadians interested in ETF investing.
September 25, 2025
I moved to Canada during Covid. Despite several decades of investing with a brokerage (and before those existed mutual funds) at Vanguard in the US, I needed to learn what's what in the great white north. I read Rob Carrick in the Globe and Mail and applied my own seat of the pants decisions. Built my own direct invest portfolio, dismantled those of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and reconstructed them. Then I found this book. What a genius Mr. Bortolotti is, he completely confirmed all my biases and describes more or less exactly what I did. Great book. Super easy read (I got through it in 2 days). And very salient advice. I particularly liked the last chapter advising against becoming an indexing 'zealot' at the expense of your social relationships, a lesson also applicable to vegans. I learned a few things, like using limit orders, even at market price, never market orders, simply to avoid errors, and never to trade ETFs after hours (which was not a big deal in the old days with mutual funds).
Now to the quibbles. The places where I disagree. (1) I see no reason to invest in bond ETFs. For the fixed income portion of the portfolio, I prefer to invest in GIC's and government bonds directly, and hold them. (2) I disagree that automatically balancing funds (or target date funds, which he does not really discuss), are particularly useful, except for totally hands off people. If you understand what you are doing and control your emotions and all that, do it yourself. Indeed, he even states that he does not follow his own advice, so in this instance, neither will I. (3) he fails to mention, in the bit about not beating averages, that the people who do beat the average are not just lucky, but also the cheaters, insider traders, manipulators, etc. who are definitely beating the average, and thus making the average very good indeed (and hence even harder to beat honestly).
Well, I told my sister-in-law to read the book, so she can see all the things we just did together are backed up by somebody other than me. I hope she reads it. The target audience is really Canadian beginners. And they will be better off having read it.
Now to the quibbles. The places where I disagree. (1) I see no reason to invest in bond ETFs. For the fixed income portion of the portfolio, I prefer to invest in GIC's and government bonds directly, and hold them. (2) I disagree that automatically balancing funds (or target date funds, which he does not really discuss), are particularly useful, except for totally hands off people. If you understand what you are doing and control your emotions and all that, do it yourself. Indeed, he even states that he does not follow his own advice, so in this instance, neither will I. (3) he fails to mention, in the bit about not beating averages, that the people who do beat the average are not just lucky, but also the cheaters, insider traders, manipulators, etc. who are definitely beating the average, and thus making the average very good indeed (and hence even harder to beat honestly).
Well, I told my sister-in-law to read the book, so she can see all the things we just did together are backed up by somebody other than me. I hope she reads it. The target audience is really Canadian beginners. And they will be better off having read it.
January 10, 2023
This book is really for beginners. I think it teaches a person everything they really need to know run a basic bread-and-butter portfolio. I gave it 4-stars because he is the most benevolent/trustworthy and helpful investment writers in Canada. He runs the Canadian Couch Potato blog. For me personally, I would say it is a 3. While I skimmed it in two cardio strolls, I still felt it a bit long to go through, though the information density is right for a beginner on this material. I'm biased as I've probably read over 100 finance books and they are starting to get mundane. But take that into account when reading this review. Bortolotti now works for PWL Capital, they are an amazing information source on investing. Their logic is that they only take high-networth clients, but they'll throw us plebians a bone because they're good bros. Rational Reminder podcast and Ben Felix's YouTube channel is where you can get more advanced/entertaining information - also PWL Capital Affiliates. Overall, I would say this is great for a beginner. It lacks personal finance stuff, and is only focused on investing however. For a one-stop shop for finance, I would always recommend Ramit Sethi's horribly named "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" and Andrew Hallam's "Millionaire Teacher" - precisely what he is - a Canadian teacher that retired in his 30s via investments.
March 7, 2022
Easy to follow and packed with good information. This is a book for people interested in switching from their financial advisor or individual stock picking to a DIY, passive index ETF approach to investing (which I have subscribed to for almost 5 years now).
I don't think this book is for investing beginners because although it does walk you through how to pick your ETFs and set up your brokerage accounts, it does use a lot of investing jargon and expects the reader to have some financial understanding. Probably why the title is "Reboot Your Portfolio" and not "Start Investing With Index ETFs".
I've followed Dan Bortolotti for years now since I stumbled upon his podcast "Canadian Couch Potato" and his website by the same name (Both amazing resources!). He's excellent at dispelling disinformation from the financial industry and knew I had to read his book when I heard he'd published. DIY investing probably isn't for everyone, but if you have any interest in passive index investing for the long term this book may be for you.
I don't think this book is for investing beginners because although it does walk you through how to pick your ETFs and set up your brokerage accounts, it does use a lot of investing jargon and expects the reader to have some financial understanding. Probably why the title is "Reboot Your Portfolio" and not "Start Investing With Index ETFs".
I've followed Dan Bortolotti for years now since I stumbled upon his podcast "Canadian Couch Potato" and his website by the same name (Both amazing resources!). He's excellent at dispelling disinformation from the financial industry and knew I had to read his book when I heard he'd published. DIY investing probably isn't for everyone, but if you have any interest in passive index investing for the long term this book may be for you.
May 10, 2024
Pro: Overall it is great advice conveyed really well with good examples that drive home the points.
Con: As someone who has followed Bortolotti's blog and podcast in the past (and similar authors/writing) I am not sure if I learned much that was new for me. I still enjoyed reading it, and it was a nice refresher on some things, and would very much recommend it to anyone with an interest in investing. It is well written, and fairly compelling as far as a finance book goes but reading more than a chapter or two in a sitting still feels like a bit of a slog some days.
As I type this I realized that part of why I was slightly disappointed is I kept waiting for the "more advanced" bits... which is literally the point of the book - there is no advanced bits :) I am already broadly following his advice/philosophy with a bit a twist (e.g. I use ESG versions of index funds) and I suspect I could be a case study of spending too much time thinking about what goes in what account, etc.) but the ideas he puts forward have massively influenced my approach to saving and investing.
Con: As someone who has followed Bortolotti's blog and podcast in the past (and similar authors/writing) I am not sure if I learned much that was new for me. I still enjoyed reading it, and it was a nice refresher on some things, and would very much recommend it to anyone with an interest in investing. It is well written, and fairly compelling as far as a finance book goes but reading more than a chapter or two in a sitting still feels like a bit of a slog some days.
As I type this I realized that part of why I was slightly disappointed is I kept waiting for the "more advanced" bits... which is literally the point of the book - there is no advanced bits :) I am already broadly following his advice/philosophy with a bit a twist (e.g. I use ESG versions of index funds) and I suspect I could be a case study of spending too much time thinking about what goes in what account, etc.) but the ideas he puts forward have massively influenced my approach to saving and investing.
March 17, 2025
Great advise for the DIY investor. Maybe too much emphasis on saving you from your bad investing instincts, such as selling and buying based on emotions, buying individual stocks, trying to beat the market, etc. I assume the author does this based on his experience working with investors, but I would have liked a little bit of information on the best strategies for investing in ETFs without worrying about how risk adverse I was or how tempted I was to sell in a bear market or how impatient I was. In general, really good information though.
November 30, 2021
A good how-to technical book. It’s helpful and was the last needed step for me but it’s not useful on its own if you’re a beginner. To really get the impact on understanding the stock market and investing, I would highly recommend reading some other books before this one. I loved Millionaire Teacher and Beat the Bank. However, this book helped me with the confidence to move my portfolios and start investing.
May 22, 2022
This is a perfectly readable beginner's guide to ETFs from a Canadian perspective. The author used to blog at Canadian Couch Potato, which is how I learned about investing. Although the book's material is new, you can find similar content scattered through years of free blog posts. If you have been index investing for some time and are confident in your approach, you will not learn much here. However, if you are Canadian and don't know what an index is, this would be the book I recommend.
September 30, 2023
Excellent, Buffett like advice for DIY Investor
I enjoyed Dan’s practical analysis and anecdotes from the world’s top financial experts. Tips from Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Harry Markovitz, Jack Bogle are worth memorising. I hope Dan follows up without the “Canadian lens” as his readership is a global audience and it seems looney to even think about Canadian stocks in the greater context ;-).
I enjoyed Dan’s practical analysis and anecdotes from the world’s top financial experts. Tips from Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Harry Markovitz, Jack Bogle are worth memorising. I hope Dan follows up without the “Canadian lens” as his readership is a global audience and it seems looney to even think about Canadian stocks in the greater context ;-).
August 13, 2024
I read "Millionaire Teacher" by Andrew Hallam to start my couch potato investing. I decided to pick this up as I have some money saved in LIRA accounts and wanted to dig deeper into ETFs. This is a solid book and probably will help you understand a lot. I really like some of his analogies. If you are new to investing like me, I would strongly suggest reading "Millionaire Teacher" first and this second.
December 31, 2024
this wouldve been really helpful 5 years ago
at this point i was already familiar with a large portion of the content and it felt a bit repetetive and boring
even then, the content is good and i like the way he presented the information
really appreciated that it is for the canadian market and mentions our banks, saving accounts, tax situation, etc. it makes the book so much more applicable and straightforward
at this point i was already familiar with a large portion of the content and it felt a bit repetetive and boring
even then, the content is good and i like the way he presented the information
really appreciated that it is for the canadian market and mentions our banks, saving accounts, tax situation, etc. it makes the book so much more applicable and straightforward
June 7, 2023
The last few finance books I read didn't delve too deep into the steps needed to get into indexing and ETFs, so I'm glad I stumbled upon this book.
Much like another reader expressed, I walked into this book wanting to only know about how to pick asset allocation ETFs but walked out with so much more.
Much like another reader expressed, I walked into this book wanting to only know about how to pick asset allocation ETFs but walked out with so much more.
June 21, 2023
A good book for an introduction to passive investing, customized for canadian market.
The author makes the case for investing in index funds quite clearly and it has propelled my newbie lazy ass to start acting on investing as soon as possible.
Its a pity that such concepts are not taught or perhaps, emphasized enough in our schools/college curriculum.
One of the must reads for newbies.
The author makes the case for investing in index funds quite clearly and it has propelled my newbie lazy ass to start acting on investing as soon as possible.
Its a pity that such concepts are not taught or perhaps, emphasized enough in our schools/college curriculum.
One of the must reads for newbies.
July 20, 2025
One thing I’ll just say about Dan is that I just love and admire this man from a far. I listen to every podcast he is featured on, and I just sense such an honest guy who is truly authentic and has such a genuine desire to help people and better the planet. Thank you Dan for sharing your wealth of knowledge and your true authenticity through your work!
July 28, 2025
Not my usual genre of reading! :) I am trying to increase my financial literacy and a family member gave me this to read. I learned so much! Well-written, aimed at Canadians, and very straightforward. Loses a star just for readability (could have used a few visuals, font changes, a glossary - the lack of these contributed to a bit of a self-published vibe.)
May 22, 2025
Dan Bortolotti is also known online as the Canadian Couch Potato and he popularized using all-in-one ETFs for investing simplicity (and it worked). More of the same from this Canadian genius and couch potato!
February 23, 2022
Excellent intermediate DIY investing book. Absolutely loved it.
March 30, 2022
Excellent read for Canadians wanting to invest on their own with ETFs.
December 28, 2022
Great book if you want to make the switch to ETF investing
December 29, 2022
Excellent book. Wish Dan could come back with more Canadian Couch Potato content. Perfect for Canadian investors, beginners or not.
January 1, 2023
Great book for Canadians who want to become investors.
March 16, 2023
Good book in line with how I like to invest
July 20, 2023
Practical, informative, and actionable. Answered some of my edge-case questions despite my good finance backgrounds.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews