If your money is going to be based in Canada, you can use the same setup I have - a basic self-directed brokerage account embedded in a TFSA, invested in various index funds run by the bank(I use TD, but I'm sure other banks have similar options). As long as you keep your money in the same place for at least three months at a time and keep it under the TFSA cap(probably about $25k, depending on your age), you pay no annual fees, no transaction fees, no taxes, and somewhere between 0.2%-0.5% per year to run the fund. It's pretty much impossible to pay less than that for investing.