Do you know how much Canadians pay in taxes? All told, we pay 41.9% percent of our income in taxes. The average family’s tax bill is even greater than what we spend on our basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing.  The average Canadian family’s expenditures as percentage of cash income, 2025 Source: Fraser...Read More

“Bad news sells because the amygdala is always looking for something to fear.” ~ Peter H. Diamandis A little context can provide some good perspective. While headlines are designed to trigger an emotional response in us, creating questions, shocking with language, and featuring unsettling stories, the full picture is often considerably different.  You may even...Read More

There is an old quip to describe the cost of market timing. Q: Why is your portfolio like a bar of soap?  A: The more you touch it, the smaller it gets! Consider the enormous performance gap between long-term buy and hold vs the average investor’s results from market timing:   Wow! And that doesn’t even...Read More

“Diversification is the only free lunch.” ~ Harry Markowitz Retirement is a long-term time horizon, hopefully decades. Those preparing for retirement relatively soon, and retirees face a practical consideration: even the two main investment assets, stocks and bonds, can work against investors for years.  So, what is the risk of being in the wrong market...Read More

“The simpler it is, the more I like it.” ~ Peter Lynch How do you feel when you see a delivery truck? It probably depends on your perspective.  If you are not expecting a delivery, you may not even notice it. If you are expecting a delivery, you will likely feel excited. But if you own...Read More

“Most of the time the world doesn’t come to an end.”  ~ Ben Carlson In 2025, we helped clients to endure another scary stock market correction and to benefit from its subsequent strong recovery.  We are delighted to share with you this brief article which wisely summarizes this current year in financial markets:   Staying the...Read More

We have a question for you! Q: How do you quantify the value people recieve from financial advice? A: By wealth accumulation over time, which is documented here:  Wow! So, why does working with a financial advisor have such a positive impact? One important reason is that financial advisors invest for the long term.  Plus,...Read More

When markets make new all-time highs they can still keep rising for quite some time – and nobody knows when that will change. At times such as these, when stock markets are high, investors especially need effective risk managment. Our “pension-style” portfolio models select specific funds which combine multiple protective strategies: A balanced, diversified, multi-asset strategy...Read More

As the S&P500 recovers from a recent correction we have an opportunity to review the risk vs return of stocks.  Last year, the S&P500 finished up 24.9% with a drawdown of 8.5% – That’s a swing of 33.4%! This year the index fell approximately 20% before rebounding, but of course, we don’t know how this...Read More

We would like to provide you with some relevant perspective on the current market volatility.  Corrections are a process and they are eventually met with an effective policy response. This encouraging chart shows how the S&P500 historically performed during the year following a sucessful resolution:   Source: Alpine Macro The point of maximum financial opportunity occurs during...Read More