Past and future predictions Last year I predicted rough waters for 2020’s economy, and suggested 4 investments to protect against uncertainty. How did those suggestions work out so far? National real estate prices are +7% from last year. Year to date my silver stocks (WPM.TO) is +79%. Major telco stocks are down by about -3%. XCB.TO, an ETF… Read More »
The stock market is not the economy The global economy is not doing well so far this year. Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO) believes the “forced closure of businesses across the United States and surge in unemployment will cause U.S. growth to contract by 30% in the second quarter of 2020.” The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a… Read More »
What is driving Canadian FIRE? Everyone is affected by the FIRE economy in one way or another. FIRE is an acronym that stands for Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. Together, these 4 industries are growing over five times faster than the general economy and represent about 1/5th of Canada’s total economic output. FIRE is especially important in BC.… Read More »
Why inflation matters U.S. government bonds in 1990 were paying investors 8% a year. That sounds amazing! Especially for a low risk investment. 🙂 But not everyone was buying them. Why? Because investment returns don’t tell the whole story. The inflation rate that year was 5.4%. That means the real rate of return on those bonds was only… Read More »
Building an Asset Column There were three events that greatly impacted my financial life. This is part two of three, where I will be writing about asset columns. The main idea is to buy income producing assets that generate perennial money over time. I first came across this concept when reading the 1997 book Rich Dad Poor Dad,… Read More »
I don’t trust millionaire florists. They’re always running some kind of pansy scheme. Fortunately there are more legitimate ways to build wealth. I recently watched a YouTube video where a young realtor in California named Graham Stephan explains how he became a millionaire in his 20s. He says just about anyone can become a millionaire in 10 years… Read More »