Author: Paul Fettes

Commentary July 2023 – Déjà vu from 2000

Reblogged from Brintab Corp. The first quarter of 2023 had markets driven most dramatically by US interest rates, their repercussions, and whether the US Federal Reserve would pivot from an interest rate increasing phase to an interest rate decreasing phase.

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Commentary April 2023 – Will the Fed Pivot

Reblogged from Brintab Corp. The first quarter of 2023 had markets driven most dramatically by the US interest rates, their repercussions, and whether the US Federal Reserve would pivot from an interest rate increasing phase to an interest rate decreasing

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Commentary January 2023 – Applying the Brakes Worked

Reblogged from Brintab Corp. As summer led to fall wild rebounding growth began to yield to taming. Markets were somewhat pulled back into line to begin to reflect a more conventional reality. Since investment markets tend to anticipate and “front

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Commentary October 2022 – Interest Rate Increases Start Cooling the Economy

reblogged from Brintab.com During the summer we saw the first shoots starting to appear of interest rate increases reducing the extreme intensity of inflation and thus beginning to cool off the economy. More fading of high single digit inflation is

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Commentary July 2022 – Central Bankers Start Taking Inflation Seriously

reblogged from Brintab Corp. This quarter, as inflation continued to thrust forward, the US Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates to try to get their inflation-busting measures back on track after being caught off-guard earlier in the year.  The only

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Commentary October 2021 – Beyond Delta

reblogged from Brintab This summer’s markets were initially driven primarily by concern regarding the potential impact of the Covid Delta variant worldwide. As summer turned to fall the Delta variant’s fade gradually became clear and the dominant factor shifted to

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Commentary April 2021 – A World Refocusing

Reblogged from Brintab.com As the winter progressed, markets were driven more than anything by increasing signs of successful vaccine rollout and hence risk reduction in the global economy.  Early in the quarter markets bounced around a bit but the month

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Commentary January 2021 – Coping with the Froth

Reblogged from www.brintab.com This fall we saw mostly continuation of trends from the summer best described as splitting of the investment world.  The prospects of a Covid19 vaccine and US government spending triggered major shifts in currency and certain stocks

Posted in Asset Allocation, Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Uncategorized

Commentary October 2020 – a touch of rationality

Reblogged from Brintab.com After markets recovered this spring from the worst of the pandemic impact, the summer was a season of optimism, perhaps misplaced optimism, while a little bit of realism arrived with the coming of fall. There will likely

Posted in Asset Allocation, Investment, Risk Management

We’ve just witnessed the stock market’s echo, echo, echo!

Reblogged from brintab.com The echo has arrived. Over the course of the spring and summer I have often talked about how most major stock market pullbacks are followed by a rise up and then a second pullback. That second pullback

Posted in Asset Allocation, Financial Planning, Investment, Risk Management, Uncategorized

Time to rethink RRSPs?

Is the writing on the wall for cliché RRSP-driven tax strategies? In the past, for many families it was almost a standard response that if you were in the 32% marginal tax bracket in your working years then you should

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Rainmaker or Storm-maker? Is this roller coaster coming from Trump?

Reblogged from First Sovereign Investment Management Recently we in the investment world have been coping with the uncertainty related to the combative trade negotiations between the USA and China. When faced with the Trump regime’s caustic approach to trade negotiations,

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Market pullbacks

Reblogged from: First Sovereign Investment Management In the past couple month, the increased volatility of investment markets has led two clients to write to get my sense of the market situation and how/if we should react to that. With the

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Real Estate Capital Gains Tax: Budget 2017

What’s your game plan for winding down your Capital Gains tax liability? Yesterday Canada’s Finance Minister presented the government’s latest budget. there had been many fears about the potential increase of capital gains taxation. To do so would not only

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TFSA limit boosted – does it change your estate planning game plan?

In the just-released federal budget, the TFSA limit was increased from $5,500 to $10,000/person/year. The new $10,000 amount is not indexed so don’t expect it to rise annually. Does this impact your financial plans? Consider this: Historically spouses often held

Posted in Estate Planning, Financial Planning, Tax

4 Ways High Earners Should Adjust for New Spousal Tax Laws

In recent months the Canadian government has mused about the potential for changes in the tax code so that Canadian couples can start filing their income tax returns jointly once the budget is balanced. Most people outside the financial planning

Posted in All Archives, Financial Planning, Tax

Buffett and Gates on Success

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Cars and Corporations

Many small business owners ask the perennial question of whether they should own their car within the corporation or personally. There are several factors that go into answering that question, such as: -how many kms will you drive in the

Posted in Financial Planning, Risk Management, Tax

Is 4% an Unsustainable Withdrawal Rate

Historically, 4% was thought to be the withdrawal rate the average portfolio could withstand on a long term basis without eating into capital. Recent research indicates that in today’s lower investment return environment, maybe that’s no longer sustainable. We all

Posted in Financial Planning, Investment, Tax