This winter we witnessed coping with foggy economic conditions in various parts of the world, from China to the Middle East, Ukraine, and North America. Not to say things were dire per se, but we waited for economic clarity on…
Category: Financial Planning
Commentary April 2024 – Getting through Indigestion
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Tax, Uncategorized Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, equities, exchange rate, investment
Commentary October 2023 – Ready for a Turn
This summer into fall, markets have been fixated on the economic “soft landing” narrative and the notion of rates being higher for longer. It is true that circumstances have made it tougher than in past cycles to slow down the…
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Tax, Uncategorized Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, currencies, equities, exchange rate
Commentary April 2023 – Will The Fed Pivot
The first quarter of 2023 had markets driven most dramatically by the US interest rates, their repercussions, and whether the US Federal Reserve would pivot from an interest rate increasing phase to an interest rate decreasing phase. Bonds and Interest…
Posted in All Archives, Estate Planning, Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, economic cycle, equities, exchange rate, investment, long duration bonds, pivot, recession, sector rotation
Commentary April 2022 – Inflation Goes Into Overdrive
As the developed world navigated past the Omicron virus wave, various factors lengthened and/or accelerated the inflation we once hoped would be transitory. On the economic demand-growth side, various economies saw increased consumer activity, especially in leisure spending. On the…
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Tax, Uncategorized Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, covid19, currencies, equities, exchange rate, pandemic
Commentary January 2022 – Digesting Omicron and Persistent Inflation Impact
Commentary January 2022 – Digesting Omicron and Persistent Inflation Impact There were many winds washing through the markets in the months leading up to the New Year. Hence it was a tumultuous time. To name a few: The Delta variant…
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Tax, Uncategorized Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, covid19, embridge, equities, exchange rate, fairfax financial, pandemic, preferred shares
Commentary October 2021 – beyond Delta
This summer’s markets were initially driven primarily by concern regarding the potential impact of the Covid Delta variant worldwide. As summer turned to fall the Delta variant’s fade gradually became clear and the dominant factor shifted to supply chain bottlenecks…
Posted in All Archives, Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management Tagged with: canadian dollar, delta, long term bonds, snowbird, US dollar
Commentary July 2021 – Assessing Economic Progress
With the gradual reopening of businesses post-Covid, we are seeing glimmers of hope regarding the economic recovery. Still, the pandemic created chaos that continues to settle out bit by bit. There were changed buying habits, pent up demand, supply chain…
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Tax, Uncategorized Tagged with: bonds, canadian dollar, covid19, enbridge, equities, exchange rate, fairfax financial, pandemic, preferred shares
Commentary October 2020 – a touch of rationality
After markets recovered this spring from the worst of the pandemic impact, the summer was a season of optimism, perhaps misplaced optimism, while a little bit of realism arrived with the coming of fall. There will likely be more ups…
Rainmaker or Storm-maker? Is this roller coaster coming from Trump?
Recently we in the investment world have been coping with the uncertainty related to the combative trade negotiations between the USA and China. When faced with the Trump regime’s caustic approach to trade negotiations, other nations (e.g. Canada and Mexico)…
Market Pullbacks
Reblogged from Efficertain.com In the last couple months of 2018, the increased volatility of investment markets led two clients to write to get my sense of the market situation and how/if we should react to that. With the sense that…
Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management Tagged with: bear market, contrarian, correction, market correction, pullback, recession
Is 4% an Unsustainable Withdrawal Rate
Historically, 4% was thought to be the withdrawal rate the average portfolio could withstand on a long term basis without eating into capital. Recent research indicates that in today’s lower investment return environment, maybe that’s no longer sustainable. We all…