We Believe Good Things Take Time
For eleven years, we've been teaching people something that goes against almost everything the financial industry shouts at them. Patience isn't just a virtue in investing—it's the whole game.
How We Started
Back in 2014, my colleague Fenwick Talbot and I were sitting in a coffee shop in Edmonton. He'd just walked away from a Bay Street job because he couldn't stomach the pressure to churn client portfolios anymore.
I was teaching economics part-time and getting frustrated watching students graduate with zero understanding of compound interest. We kept coming back to the same question: why does everyone make investing sound so complicated?
The truth is, it's not. But simple doesn't sell products. Simple doesn't generate commissions. So we decided to build something different—education that actually helps people make better long-term decisions without the noise.
What Guides Our Work
Time Perspective
We measure success in decades, not quarters. Our courses emphasize understanding market cycles and building portfolios that can weather real economic storms.
Evidence-Based Learning
Every strategy we teach is backed by historical data and academic research. No hot tips, no market timing schemes—just proven principles that have worked across different eras.
Honest Education
We tell you what we don't know. Markets are unpredictable in the short term, and anyone who claims otherwise is selling something. Our job is to prepare you for uncertainty.
Our Teaching Method
We've refined our curriculum based on feedback from over 3,800 students. Here's how we structure learning to actually stick.
Start With Psychology
Before we touch any numbers, we spend time on behavioral finance. Why do smart people make dumb investment decisions? Understanding your own brain's shortcuts helps you avoid costly mistakes later.
Build Core Knowledge
We cover the fundamentals that actually matter: asset allocation, diversification, cost management, tax efficiency. Boring stuff that compounds into real wealth over time.
Practice With Real Scenarios
You'll work through case studies based on actual market conditions from the past fifty years. What would you do during the 2008 crisis? How about the dot-com bubble? Learning from history beats learning from expensive personal mistakes.
Develop Your Strategy
By the end, you'll have a personalized investment approach that matches your goals, timeline, and risk tolerance. Not a cookie-cutter portfolio—a framework you understand and can adjust as life changes.
Meet Our Lead Instructor
Our courses are taught by people who've spent years in the trenches—both making and learning from investment mistakes.
Fenwick Talbot
Fenwick spent twelve years as a portfolio analyst before joining Thinnor Rise in 2015. He's lived through enough market crashes to know that staying calm is harder than it sounds.
These days, he focuses on translating complex financial concepts into language that doesn't require a CFA to understand. His weekend hobby is collecting historical stock certificates—he finds it grounding to remember that even the mightiest companies eventually fade.
Students appreciate his no-nonsense approach and willingness to admit when certain investment strategies are just guesswork dressed up with fancy terminology.
Ready to Think Long-Term?
Our next comprehensive course begins in September 2025. Twelve weeks to build a foundation that can serve you for decades.