Ryan Edward Morris, Investment Advisor at CIBC Wood Gundy

05/08/2024

“Rule No. 1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No. 1.” – Warren Buffett

The golden rule in investing…

01/17/2024

“There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book” – Charlie Munger

12/13/2023

“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable” – Robert Arnott

This is true for most things in life, not just building wealth.

08/10/2023

The world economy is projected to have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approx. $105 trillion dollars by the end of 2023, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The U.S is expected to still be the world’ largest economy in 2023 with a projected GDP of $26.9 trillion dollars. This is approx. 25.54% of the world’s economy.

Generally, when I look at charts like this the first thing I do is go on a “Where’s Waldo?” style search looking for Canada.

Canada is projected to be a respectable 9th place in terms of GDP at $2.1 trillion dollars or 1.99% of the world’s GDP.

An important point to note is that the estimates are for nominal GDP. Nominal GDP does not account for inflation.

One of the toughest challenges for economies around the world is how to find a balance between taming inflation and maintaining growth.

07/27/2023

In 2022, the crude oil market was projected at a staggering $2.1 trillion dollars.

By comparison, the crude oil market is more than twice the size of the top 10 metal markets combined.

This is not to say that oil is more important than metals. The global economy, and the quality of our daily lives depend on various metals (iron ore, copper, and aluminum in particular) and many other commodities.

However, it’s important to keep in perspective the sheer size of the global crude oil market and the current reliance that economies around the world have for crude oil and crude oil byproducts such as fertilizers, cosmetics and plastics.

With the rise of electric vehicles and other innovations, it’s likely future commodity markets will look quite different than they do today. Afterall, there was a time when people heated their homes and lubricated industrial machines with whale oil.

I’m curious to see how this chart would look in 20, 50 or even 100 years from now. Until then, crude oil will continue to be the dominant commodity in the world, with all the economic and geopolitical influence that comes with it.

07/14/2023

It wasn’t too long ago that Canadians were cheering the pause in the Bank of Canada’s rate hike campaign. With the recent +0.25bps hike earlier this week, the days of the short lived pause feel like quite some time ago.

With the Bank of Canada raising interest rates for a 10th time in 16 months, the key interest rate is now at 5.0%. If variable mortgage borrowers weren’t already starting to feel the pressure, they are now.

However, raising interest rates is not without consequences.

Here are some of the ways that higher rates have impacted the mortgage landscape:

1. Mortgage amortizations keep getting longer and in some cases monthly payments are not even fully covering the interest portion.
2. Getting a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) is tougher based on stress tests.
3. The fixed-variable rate spread has gotten wider.
4. More Canadians will need payment relief and exceptions from their banks.
5. Unclear impact on real restate. Higher rates won’t help housing prices

If you’re worried about how higher interest rates might impact your financial situation or portfolio, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Here are five ways the Bank of Canada just changed the mortgage landscape, again

07/12/2023

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets” – Leonardo Da Vinci

06/28/2023

“Before you invest, you must ensure that you have realistically assessed your probability of being right and how you will react to the consequences of being wrong” – Benjamin Graham

06/21/2023

“Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards” – Soren Kierkegaard

06/12/2023

Most people hate thinking of bad things happening.

However, avoiding possible realities doesn’t make them go away. It just makes the situation worse if something does happen.

It may be unpleasant, but it’s important to sit down with your spouse, family, business partners, etc. and have that conversation.

No matter your age, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have an estate plan.

During the onboarding process with new clients, one of the first checks we do is to see if they have a will. If so, when was it last updated?

Your will has two main purposes:

1. Identify your beneficiaries
2. Appoint an executor of your estate

Do it once, do it right and review the plan every 3 to 5 years.

If you’re not sure what to do or who to contact, I’d be happy to connect you with the right people to get the things started.

05/18/2023

What is the Debt Ceiling?

Basically, exactly what it sounds like. It’s a limit set by U.S Congress on the amount that the U.S Treasury is permitted to borrow to fund its operations and pay its obligations.

The current limit is set at $31.4 trillion and was reached on January 19, 2023. Without some sort of agreement, the U.S Treasury could run out of money as early as next month..

What happens without an agreement? Best-case, there could be a partial federal government shutdown. In the worst-case? The U.S Treasury could default on its debt.

The idea of a default alone is enough to spook investors. Especially when what is largely considered the safest financial asset in the world, U.S Treasuries, are involved.

The Debt Ceiling uncertainty only adds more questions for investors and volatility to markets that are already dealing with ripple effects from the U.S regional bank crisis.

As Canadians, we are hypervigilant to U.S policy based on our reliance on their economy. If you’d like to discuss how this could impact you or your portfolio, don’t hesitate to reach out.

05/16/2023

Taxes are a very real investment consideration.

Understanding how different investments are taxed and how they should be held can be the difference in paying considerably more taxes each year or keeping more profits in your pocket.

This is especially true for affluent investors and investments in non-registered accounts.

Part of tax efficient investing is optimizing where capital gains and income are generated.

Capital gains only occur when an investment is sold (or deemed to be disposed).

For example, you decide to buy a stock in a non-registered account.

Eventually, you sell this stock for a profit of $1,000. The taxable capital gain would be half of your profit, or $500. The $500 would be included in your income for tax purposes.

Say you were to generate $1,000 of interest income in the same account. The entire $1,000 would be included on your income for tax purposes.

Both investments are generating $1,000 but the real after tax return is quite different.

With that being said, paying taxes on investments is a reality and part of the game. Knowing how to pay less taxes is just playing it better.

If you’d like to review your account structure or tax efficient investment options, don’t hesitate to reach out.