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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successfully investing your money. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Starting a business is a gamble, but payoffs can be huge and planning cuts the risk.” Canadians can still get rich as employees — ask any Canadian bank president. However, high-paying jobs are hard to find. Most corporate structures are pyramid-shaped, with a few high-paying positions at the top and many lower-paying jobs down below. Moreover, because of the recession and continued high unemployment, more people than ever are vying for jobs — especially those that pay well....

The investment industry has created all sorts of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in recent years. However, quality varies. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads, so you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. ETFs offer very low management fees. In addition to low fees, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. Here are five foreign ETFs we like:...

Vestas Wind Systems A/S, $47.70, symbol VWSYF on the Nasdaq over-the-counter bulletin board (Shares outstanding: 203.7 million; Market cap: $9.7 billion), is the world’s leading wind-turbine maker. The company’s main listing is on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in Denmark. Vestas was founded in 1945 as a household-appliance maker. It started making wind turbines in 1979. Today, it controls roughly 23% of the global wind-turbine market. More than 35,500 of its turbines have been installed in 63 countries. Wind power is rarely competitive with other forms of energy due to variations in wind strength and technical problems. The wind power industry has still gone through substantial growth in recent years, thanks to subsidies. However, these subsidies face rising political opposition due to high budget deficits in a number of countries. Vestas faces a particularly uncertain future because 50% of its orders come from the subsidized European market....

Jollibee Foods Corporation, $1.58, symbol JBFCF on the Nasdaq over-the-counter market (Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $1.6 billion), operates the largest American-style fast-food chain in the Philippines. The company’s main listing is on the Philippine Stock Exchange. As of March 31, 2010, Jollibee had 1,570 restaurants in the Philippines. Of these, 692 are Jollibee outlets, 402 are Chowking Chinese fast-food restaurants, 227 are Greenwich pizzerias, 211 use the Red Ribbon bakery name, 24 operate as Delifrance (a European-inspired deli) outlets and 14 are Manong Pepe’s budget eateries. The company also has 334 restaurants outside the Philippines. In China, it has 165 Yonghe King outlets and 46 Hong Zhuang Yuan restaurants. In the U.S., it has 24 Jollibee outlets, 35 Red Ribbon bakeries and 17 Chowking outlets. In Saudi Arabia, it has five Jollibee restaurants and 15 Chowking outlets. The company also has 14 Jollibee restaurants in Vietnam; 11 in Brunei and two in other parts of Asia....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC., $33.08, Toronto symbol SU, owns 60% of the proposed Fort Hills oil-sands project in northern Alberta. The company received its stake in Fort Hills as part of its August 2009 takeover of Petro-Canada. UTS Energy Corp. (Toronto symbol UTS) and Teck Resources (see below) each own 20% of Fort Hills. Suncor rose 7% this week after French oil company Total S.A. agreed to buy UTS at a substantial premium. UTS’s 20% stake in Fort Hills is the company’s major asset, so the takeover helped unlock some of the project’s value. In light of rising construction costs, Suncor is still deciding whether to go ahead with the project. It expects to make a decision by the end of 2010....

TRANSALTA CORP. $20.17 (Toronto symbol TA; Shares outstanding: 218.8 million; Market cap: $4.4 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.8%) dropped 5% following the federal government’s June 23 announcement that it plans to phase out coal-fired power plants by around 2025. TransAlta uses coal to generate 57% of its power. Under the proposals, TransAlta would have to close its coal-fired plants when they reach 45 years of age or when their power-purchase contracts with provinces expire, whichever is later. The new rules would prevent TransAlta from extending the lives of these plants unless it can lower carbon emissions to the same level as natural-gas-fired plants. Ottawa’s plan is still in its early stages, and much could change before the new rules come into effect in 2011. Still, TransAlta feels it can replace some of its older plants with gas-fired facilities. It’s also developing new clean-coal and carbon-storage systems that would help it comply with the new standards....

On July 7, 2010, Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) priced its first public share issue. The bank, which operates nearly 24,000 branches, will sell 25 billion shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for HK$3.20 ($0.41 U.S.), and 22 billion shares on the Shanghai exchange for 2.68 yuan ($0.40 U.S.). Strong investor interest in China, whose economy grew 11.9% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to a year earlier, should help AgBank’s initial public offering (IPO) raise $22.1 billion U.S. That would make it the largest IPO in world stock market history, topping Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which raised $21.6 billion U.S. in 2006. AgBank is the latest in a series of big world stock market IPOs from Asian and emerging markets this year. The world’s 10 biggest IPOs in 2010 include firms from China, Russia, Poland and India. The U.S. is noticeably absent from the list, and only one western European firm (from Spain) was included....

When you join Pat McKeough’s Inner Circle, you get to address investment questions directly to me and my research associates; AND you get to see all other members’ questions, and our answers (of course, we eliminate any personal information). Plus, you get all 4 of my investment advisories, including Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that covers the U.S. markets. (See below for more on one of the global stock market investments we cover in Wall Street Stock Forecaster. The stock has risen over 57% in the past year — and we think it could go even higher.) So you can get a sense of how the service works, I’d like to share a recent question from an investor who is interested in global stock market investing through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)....

Gold now trades at $1,240.70 U.S. an ounce. That’s up 32.7% from $935 a year ago, but down from its all-time high of $1,256.50 U.S., where it closed on June 18, 2010. Investor fears about European sovereign debt — Greek and Spanish debt in particular — have been a major factor in gold’s recent rise. These fears are prompting more investors to buy gold and gold investments, because they believe gold will provide them with additional security. (In a just-published issue of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, we update our buy/sell/hold advice on a gold mining stock that has risen over 132% for us in the past year. That’s more than four times the rise in the price of gold. Read on to learn more.)...

In the first quarter of 2010, India’s economy grew by 8.6% compared to the same period last year. That’s the world’s second-fastest growth rate. Only China, with an 11.9% expansion, saw stronger growth. India’s gain was largely the result of a 16.3% increase in manufacturing, as the country continued its faster-than-expected recovery from the global economic slowdown. India’s strong economic performance is expected to continue: the World Bank recently projected that the country’s economy could grow at an annual rate of 8% to 9% over the next two years....