Leo’s Blog | The Latest News
Investing in the Trump Era
With the U.S inauguration officially behind us, and President Trump now in the White House, I thought I would send you a list of his major campaign promises as a recap: · Undertake fiscal stimulus measures · Reform the tax system · Repatriate offshore profits ·...
U.S. Interest Rate Hike
During the last Federal Reserve System meeting of 2016, Janet Yellen has announced an increase to interest rates in the United States by 0.25%. As it stands, interest rates in the U.S. are at 0.75% but the Federal Reserve has signaled for approximately three more rate...
U.S. Election Result
I must admit I have been quite surprised by the resilience of the market yesterday and what I am seeing in the futures this morning. Statistically, the day after an election, the U.S market is down on average 1.8%. When President Obama was elected 8 years ago, the...
Fidelity Investments & Renaissance Investments Conferences
Over the past week, I had the privilege of attending conferences from both Fidelity Investments & Renaissance Investments in order to gather some insight on market direction from three of their top portfolio managers. I was lucky enough to listen to Steve...
TD Expects Canada to Run Bigger Deficits Than Budgeted
I wanted to share a report from TD Economics in regards to the larger and more persistent federal budget deficits expected well into 2017. The main causes for the increased deficits appear to be a slowing of economic growth from what was projected by Finance Minister...
New Mortgage Rules
In an effort to ensure that Canadians are not taking on more mortgage debt than they should, the Liberal government announced several changes that will come into effect beginning on October 17th. These changes are: 1.) Expanding the mortgage rate stress test to all...
The importance of dealing with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) I thought I would send you a short video on the importance of dealing with a CFP. The video also provides insight on how much the industry needs to change in terms of who can use the title"Financial Planner". You will be...
How much in taxes, both hidden and visible, did the average Canadian pay in 2015?
I wanted to share the findings of a recent report from the Fraser Institute regarding the amount of hidden taxes paid by Canadians. The Fraser Institute is a Canadian independent non-partisan research organization which operates as a think-tank focused on Canadian...
Which country ranks #1 in retirement security
I came across an interesting article I wanted to share with regards to retirement security and where we stand as Canadians moving forward. Currently, Canada is ranked #10 in the world when it comes to retirement security, mostly due to these factors: Canada has low...
Long term impact of BREXIT
As I am sure you’ve probably heard, UK voters have decided in favour of leaving the European Union. In order to give you some clarity on the issue, attached to this email you will find a special report from BMO Capital Markets on the long-term impact of BREXIT on the...