Ask The Experts - May 2026
Answers are provided by 5i Research.ca
Q: What advice would you give to a young, middle age and retiree investor? What advice would you give to a beginner, intermediate and experienced investor?
A: Young: Don't be afraid to take risks when you are young. The dollar amounts are smaller and easier to bounce back from if you make mistakes (which you will also learn from), while making a few good investments can be life changing at this age. The older you get and the more responsibilities you have, the harder it becomes to take risks.
Middle Age: In middle age as you can start to see an outline of the finish line, don't make short-term decisions to try to accelerate your trajectory to get to the finish. Whether you are ahead or behind where you thought you would be, don't risk long-term progress by making sloppy or greedy investment decisions in an attempt to get there faster.
Retiree: You can likely (hopefully) spend more than you think. Enjoy it.
Beginner: Save and invest as much as you can, as early as you can. While saving a few hundred dollars here and there may seem futile and like you will never get to a point of a nest egg, you will be amazed looking back in 20 years at what time and compounding can achieve.
Intermediate: Never stop learning and growing, but also know where to draw the lines on things you can do vs. things/strategies you should maybe outsource to others. Start to define your circle of competence.
Experienced: No matter how experienced you think you are, be humble or else the markets will find a way to humble you!
Q: Can you please provide a brief commentary on how you think AI will evolve in the next 5 years (economy, labor market, possible deflation and change in economic model projected by some). I know itís a hot topic that can fill books; I am just wondering about your insights.
A: While there are so many possibilities of what can happen, we subscribe to the school of thought that 'many overestimate what can be accomplished in a year, and underestimate what can be accomplished in five years'.
We think the potential for job losses and deflation as a result of AI in the coming year are quite low, as many corporations are still putting up guardrails and assessing how to best use the technology. Through using these AI tools, it is clear that various jobs will be replaced, but also we think economic activity will expand and new jobs will be created as a result. We see it very much as like the introduction of the internet or even computer and Microsoft tools. These were tools that rapidly expanded productivity and efficiency, and businesses still grew rather than simply doing the same amount of work in less time. At the end of the day, a user still needs to prompt these machines, and even in the case of agentic AI, a user needs to set up and run these machines with a defined purpose. We could eventually get to the point where agents are self-creating and defining their own goals, but unlike humans, machines are not naturally motivated to obtain safety (money, status, etc.).
Q: If you were teaching someone about investing, what are the three most important things you would want them to learn?
A: Starting early can beat picking 'winning' stocks. Most people underestimate how much time does the heavy lifting. A 7% annual return roughly doubles money every 10 years.
Behaviour/psychology matters more than investors think. Selling during crashes, panicking, or buying after big run-ups and chasing after one has sold can all lead to severely underperforming the market.
Diversification and asset allocation can be the key to reducing risk of a substantial loss, and it can smooth out returns.
Q: I was reading the book "1929" [1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History ñ and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin], I would like to know what you think was the one biggest main reason for the crash? Do you think it could happen again?
A: Historians generally see the biggest single driver as rampant speculation financed by debt (buying on margin), which created an unsustainable stock bubble that cracked once confidence faltered. During the late 1920s, millions of investors were pouring into stocks, often putting down only about 10% of the purchase price and borrowing the rest from brokers or banks. This leverage pushed prices far beyond what underlying earnings or dividends could justify, so the market became extremely fragile to any negative shock. Credit then tightened and many investors were forced to sell on margin calls. There are different margin and safety rules in place now, and brokers are very quick to sell to avoid losing money on margin clients. This does not prevent a crash but can prevent at least brokerages from going under in a crash.
Could a crash happen? Sure. Panic is hard to predict. But the 'circuit breakers' now in place can go a long way in slowing down a meltdown. Stocks are halted if they decline to certain levels. This allows investors to pause and think rationally instead of panicking. But, we saw the worst day ever still in 1987, and a pretty bad mini-crash in 2010. Then we had the Covid meltdown as well. The financial crisis of course was probably the scariest time when multiple companies went bankrupt in a short period of time in 2008.