Its Either Now or Never

I have started to develop a bit of a routine, and although I hate myself for it, I believe I am benefiting from the usual feeling of a daily regime.

Every morning I arrive at the office around 8:30 am, I set up my computer and while it is loading I get myself a coffee from the staff kitchen. On my way back to my work area I will normally say hello to the office assistants, who's early morning work habits make it seem as though they were in the middle of a typing contest. Upon returning to my computer I go through the mass of emails that normally accumulate from the night before, and then proceed to check on the market conditions before they open for another day of unpredictability. After replying to the numerous emails from clients, friends, advisors, and fellow office associates I will generally start to make my daily phone calls to prospects and future clients. etc. etc.



The reason I decided to bore you all with my daily routine is because I wanted to show you that history repeats itself. No matter what you experience from day to day, the general idea is the same. This is where my comparison comes in...



As I just mentioned, history repeats itself; this is also true in the financial markets. If I were to show you a chart of market growth over the past 50 years what would you see? You would see a steady upward slope to the right. Sure, there will be small ups and downs and tiny blips in the markets but the general theme is growth. So what would you say is the smart thing to do right now while we are experiencing a down market?



If you said take your money out and leave it in cash then you're absolutely, positively, wrong! When my clients tell me they want to take their money out of the markets to cut their losses I ask them one thing...Why? Give me one good reason why you want to do that and I will do it for you. If not, then you are leaving your portfolio alone. I bet that out of everyone who reads this blog, there isn't one person who can give me a valid reason for turning their money into cash because you are seeing some losses in your portfolio.



Think of it this way:

When are you most likely to go shopping? When there is a sale on of course! You wouldn't wait for the sale to be over then go buy the product when it is more expensive would you? No you wouldn't, so why would someone wait until the markets are doing extremely well and then buy into them when the unit prices are more expensive? These are the same people who hold on to their investments until the markets weaken, get scared and then put their investments into cash because they think it will be safer.

Let me ask you one question. Do you think that we are headed towards a catastrophe? Are we headed towards a society where all the banks shut down and the economy collapses on itself? If that is the case, you should tell your children to quit school now because there aren't going to be any jobs in the future.

I will leave you with one final thought, something that pops into my head every day and reminds me why I am in this industry...

You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket...the same goes with investing. If you are investing in the markets there is usually one reason why you are doing it, to increase the value of your investment. So if you take your money out how is it going to grow?

Thank you all for reading, I appreciate your comments and feedback.

Happy Investing!

The Markets are Fine!

Hello all, this will be my first of many posts, provided I get the feedback that I intend to.


I am a Financial Planner with Investors Group so I have been seeing the effects of this "credit crunch" up close and personal. Although I.G. has one of the lowest redemption rates in the past two months compared to other money managers in Canada, it is still a daily battle with clients to help them understand the full situation.

People ask me all the time, how is work? You must be going crazy right now. What do I say in return? I tell them things are great, and everything is excellent right now. And truthfully, I don't tell my clients anything that I don't believe in 100%. I have my own investments, and I am not rushing to turn all my money into cash. The value of our investments may have dropped, but that is only on paper...you don't actually realize a loss until you redeem the funds.

One of the top performers and most influencial people in my company once said, "Do you really think that the banks are all going to disapear and not make money in the future? If this is the case then you better tell your children to drop out of school because there will be no jobs when they grow up." I tell this to each and every person who is skeptical about the markets because it is true; I mean do you really think our economy is going to go bankrupt? I don't think so.

I invite anyone and everyone to reply to my posts as I am trying to help people understand the markets a little better. The best thing for our markets right now is confidence, and that is what I am trying to re-store. This is my first of many posts that I intend to publish and your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Take care all, happy investing.