The Times They Are-A Changin’
Welcome to the best year ever – 2022. The year Covid disappeared off the face of the earth and the markets went straight up and everyone was healthy and happy. Ok, well I guess that’s enough of that nonsense!
Regardless of all the inevitable struggles we as humans have to endure, we always have to have one foot in that door called hope. So many things to be thankful for and so many struggles our ancestors went through to get us here. And I’m not just talking about Grandma and Grampa… I’m currently reading “Sapiens – A brief history of humankind”… I’m talking about some pretty crazy adventures they blazoned through in the last 70,000 years or so to get us here!!! Times are forever changing – as per our good friend Bob Dylan.
Some of you might have noticed a change in my Team Name???? It has gone from boring Paul Monette Wealth Management to the much more exciting Monette Seymour Wealth Management. Now you might be asking yourself what is a Seymour???
Jason Seymour is colleague I worked with at Royal Trust 25+ years ago (so he is no spring chicken – he is a few years younger than me – but I have more hair). While I did the move to RBC Dominion Securities, Jason decided to head off to our competitor TD Wealth. At TD Jason built a successful business based on the same values and ethics and quite frankly style that I did. We were both trained by the same great people at Royal Trust – they seriously had a training program envied throughout the financial services industry. Many of these folk have climbed all the way up the corporate ladder at many institutions across Canada and abroad. Anyways, back to Jason … he’s a great guy and we are looking forward to working as partners for years to come.
Partnerships are becoming more and more an integral part of our industry. They allow for more fluid management of portfolios due to holidays, or perhaps health issues that may arise. It is also true, that 2 heads are better than one when making important investment decisions for your clients.
We are particularly fortunate that Jason came over to DS as a package deal with his associate Suzanne LeBreton. Suzanne has been an associate in our industry almost as long as Kristin – and we all know the Associates are way more important than the Advisors!!!! Suzanne will soon be incorporated into helping Kristin and me with our clients as well - she doesn’t know this yet so please keep it under your hat ;).
On a sadder note, as of April 1st we will be losing Theresa. For the past 3 years Theresa has been working for our team half-time and she has now been given the opportunity to work full-time for another team in our office. Throughout Covid, staffing has been a really tough issue and this new team will be very fortunate to have Theresa adding value to their client base.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Protests, Wars and Inflation
The markets are never at a lack for excuses for them to go up and down. The funny thing is most of the things that happen can have them move either way depending on which way people want to spin it. Let’s face it, there are lots of big players out there that love watching smaller investors panic so they can swoop in and take advantage of great buying opportunities.
My old mantra has always been to buy good companies on bad news. I think I said something along those lines in my first Paul’s Prose 25 years ago – I believe in that saying even more so today. The key is always having a quality diversified portfolio – and when I say diversified I really mean diversified. I don’t just mean own Royal Bank and CIBC and a little BCE for good measure.
There are so many types of risk out there and oddly enough one that many seem to forget is company risk: the inherent risk any individual company takes on when it makes decisions about its future. We know all too well how everybody’s sweetheart Nortel ended… and I personally know all too well how Canada’s highest rated financial institution, Royal Trust, went crashing down (Yes Royal Trust had a better credit rating than Royal Bank back in the day).
You may truly believe in a certain company or even an industry but always remember that none of them are too big to fail – the portfolio approach to investing is the only way to manage your pension. Let us take care of that for you so you can relax and read your favourite book.
Personal Thoughts
I was not sure if I was ever going to put this in here, but I decided that I would for a few different reasons… the most important being I might be able to help someone else. About a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Everyone kept telling me it was very curable but of course I also read that after lung cancer it was the next leading cause of death in men – if not detected early. Thanks to my new doctor, my cancer was detected early (stage 2) … my old doctor retired and she did not believe in PSA tests!!!! The science has evolved – there is absolutely no reason for men not to get their PSA checked!!!!! I had absolutely no symptoms, so if I would have waited until they showed up I could have been at stage 3 or 4 and the cancer could have spread by then. So please – get your PSA checked. If you ever watched the show Friends you might remember the Barista ‘Gunther’ – he recently passed away, at 59, from prostate cancer – that could have been me! Anyways, my cancer seemed to be growing a little too quick to just observe so they decided to schedule surgery for me sooner rather than later. On October 19th I went under the robotic knife (6 holes in my stomach) and they completely removed my prostate … 2 months later I was told I was ‘cancer free’ … my new favourite words. I am not quite 100% yet but I am awfully close and feel great. I figured you all share so much with me it is only proper that I also share with you.