Articles

Whether your traditional investment portfolio is constructed from individual stocks and bonds, mutual funds, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) or any new market-based investments, there is one inescapable reality—your holdings will be subject to the whims and fluctuations of the stock market. And that is not necessarily a bad thing if the gods of investing smile kindly upon you, particularly if you have a properly diversified portfolio suitable for your appetite for risk, time horizon and stage of life. If this sounds like you, then 2025 was probably a banner year.

For younger Canadians, it’s never been more challenging to get into the housing market. Despite the dream, the reality is that rates of home ownership are falling sharply, with nearly a quarter of Canadians ages 18 to 34 owning a home today, down from nearly 50 per cent in 2021. Beyond the down payment, keeping up with mortgage and maintenance costs is becoming more onerous. Mortgage default rates for under-30s are seven times higher than for the rest of the population, based on data from TransUnion.

Q: I believe U.S markets entered a corrective phase last April. Do you think we are entering one now? How often do they normally occur during a year?

The headlines on the front pages of major papers seldom spill over to the headlines of the business section. Instead, the two realms tend to operate as silos. Politics and economics—and more specifically, the vagaries of capital markets—are largely seen as being nearly unrelated. In reality, the spillovers are considerable in normal times, and immense in the current environment.

A great deal of financial advice is built for couples. People with a significant other benefit from two incomes, shared mortgage or rent, split bills, and certain tax advantages. When things go sideways, they have someone to look across the table at and say, “We are in this together, honey.” In a world where inflation remains a persistent and challenging part of reality, those benefits matter. Trying to apply the same advice when you are single does not always quite work.

The classic investment lesson from one of the greatest investors over the last fifty years, Warren Buffett, is to purchase businesses with a “moat”, meaning that investors should look for companies with durable competitive advantages that can withstand the vicissitudes of life.
Why should investors target companies with a “moat”?

The essence of the Client Focused Reforms (CFRs) is to require investment firms and advisors to put their clients' interests first, ahead of their own or their Firm's interests. The expected benefits of the Canadian Securities Administrators' (CSA) Client Focused Reforms for clients center on better investor protection and a more trustworthy, client-centric standard for investment advice. The CFR regulation was passed into law in late 2021. Nearly 4 years later, industry adoption is low.

Change is constant. For six decades, Warren Buffett—the Oracle of Omaha—was the face of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) as CEO, but those days have ended. The 95-year-old has relinquished the reins and his handpicked successor, Canadian Greg Abel, now oversees the massive conglomerate. Mr. Buffett’s investing acumen is unmatched; he walks away as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals with a net worth of approximately $150B USD based primarily on his ownership of Berkshire shares.

Canadians who go online to seek a romantic partner may fall in love and end up spending the rest of their lives with a perfect match. In many cases, however, romance seekers end up just as lonely as they were before, only thousands of dollars poorer.
Every year, roughly one thousand Canadians report to authorities that they’ve fallen for romance scams, with total losses of about $50 million, says the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC).