financial strategy

The fastest market correction in history, that started in the last week of February and bottomed in late March, led to the fastest bounce back over a five-week period, since about 1987 ¹. However, at the time of this writing, most of the major market indexes are still below their February 2020 peaks levels.

Over the past several weeks, provinces across Canada have relaxed social distancing rules and begun the process of "re-opening" for business. Looking back over the past three months, while there have been many moments of stress and anxiety, there have also been moments to be thankful. What is there to be thankful about?

One of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffett, acquired his wealth by following a very simple rule during times of market volatility: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

If you were going to recommend a treatment plan for a loved one suffering with alcoholism, would you prescribe more alcohol as the best course of action to help them to recover or otherwise improve? Now put this question aside for the moment.

Clients often call when markets are looking a bit shaky, or newspaper articles are predicting the next market correction, recession, bubble, etc.

What problems does the financial industry solve for Canadian consumers? Where is the value added for interacting with the financial industry and why use an Advisor versus doing it yourself online?

To address these questions, here is a refresher on why the financial industry exists in the first place.

Simply speaking, there are two basic functions for the financial industry:

Most people want to be wealthy, or at least financially independent. The sad truth is that very few people are financially independent when they reach retirement. The rest are dependent to some extent on others or government benefits for their daily money needs.