I want to move away from bank portfolios investments with fees - Don't know where to start

I (29M) want to start by saying that I'm aware I'm in a good financial state, and I'm very lucky to be in my position and definitely have my parents to thank for a big part of this, but I'm also proud of what I've been able to do and save. However, I feel like I'm wasting so much potential with my investments, or lack of (for my situation - numbers to come), and would genuinely appreciate some help.

\edit: clarified post regarding which accounts I own. There is a bank-managed TFSA and RRSP, and self-directed TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA. However, none of the money in those self-directed accounts is invested. They were only moved into these accounts to start my journey to gain control over my finances.*

I've had a TFSA and an RRSP with my bank (National Bank - Wealth Management) since I started my 1st real job out of university 6 years ago. Both my TFSA and RRSP are maxed, and keep getting maxed each year (I live frugally but really don't hold off on my real wants). I also have $16k in my FHSA (currently only in cash for tax reduction in 2024, uninvested, since it's in an NBDB brokeage account and idk what to invest in), and planning on contributing the 2025 $8k limit soon (probably when ill do my first 2025 60days 2024 RRSP contribution to make sure it's maxed).

Last year, I stopped automatically investing in my bank-managed RRSP every week because my job is now offering a match (1:1 up to 5% of my salary), and I'll do the last 8% during those 60days in the NBDB self-directed brokerage account for tax purposes - though will stay in cash-only until i figure out what to do.

However, I still auto-invest the yearly limit of the TFSA divided by 12, every month, every year. These two (TFSA and RRSP) accounts are under bank product portfolios with around 2% fees and my goal is to get away from bank-related products in 2025 and take control of my own finances. There's over 6-figures invested in those 2 accounts, so they're bringing in nice returns for now, but I know that long-term, this could cost me hundreds of thousands down the line.

Here's the kicker: I currently also have over 6-figures in cash, that isn't invested. There is some context to this. I had maybe around 50k that I was keeping around for buying a house with my gf, and which my bank-person told me it wasn't worth placing if I was buying soon and needed to liquid it quickly. The thing is that we didn't find one that matched our criteria, and that number has been increasing ever since. We do plan on buying in 2025.

So currently, not invested I have:

  • $16k in FHSA, soon to be $24k
  • $10k in RRSP in my NBDB brokeage account (2023 contribution made in 2024 that made me realize it was time to get control over my stuff, which obviously hasn't gone well)
  • over $100k in a checking account.

I don't have a specific account for an emergency fund, no HYSA, no unregistered accounts, etc. I'm very well aware that this is costing me thousands per year of returns, hence this post!

My soon to be made contributions are:

  • That $8k FHSA 2025 contribution, in my brokerage account
  • around $8k in RRSP to max the 2024 contribution in the first 2025 60days, in my brokerage account
  • I'd like to put the $7k 2025 TFSA contribution room, in my brokerage account, and stop the auto-contributions every month to the bank product account.

I have no debt other than about anywhere between 1k-2k on a credit card that is on auto-pay every month. (I need to change it too, it's a pretty bad 0.5% cash back basic card from 6 years ago😅)

All of this to say, I definitely need some guidance, resources, or even just tickers of ETFs that are worth looking into. I'm not necessarily looking for people to just tell me 'invest in this' and I do it. I want to be able to research, read, and understand what I'm getting into and really be able to take control over my finances. Any help would be greatly appreciated as my financial knowledge is limited. I'm sorry if this post was long, but it definitely helped me to lay it down in that longer format to paint myself the picture of my full situation!

What would you do? Thank you :)