Welcome Patrycja!

February 10, 2020

As a number of my clients know, Natalie and I recently partnered up with another Financial Planner named Patrycja Zborowska-MacLean. Patrycja and I had met a number of years back when we were both taking some financial planning classes at Mount Royal University. We have some mutual friends and had run into each other a few times over the years. Patrycja had completed her Canadian Securities Course and all of the courses for her QAFP™ Designation before having two children with her husband, David. She was looking to get into the industry now that her kids are a bit older and Natalie and I figured we could use some help. After some conversations, Patrycja and I agreed that she would shadow me. We started bringing her into our home office at the end of last year to learn the paperwork and I’ve brought her along to a number of meetings so that she can meet clients. So far, this has worked out really well. Natalie and I are getting help with paperwork and Patrycja is learning the ropes in the Financial Services Industry. On top of that, our arrangement has also allowed us to open the doors to some new clients. Natalie and I really haven’t taken on a lot of new clients over the last few years as we always want to keep our service levels very high. With Patrycja on board, we are working together and newly taking referrals as a value add to current clients for their friends and family. I think we’re all excited about this development and look forward to introducing Patrycja to clients throughout the year. Feel free to let us know if there are people you know who have questions or concerns about their current financial plan!

My last newsletter talked about the very strong 2019 that we had in the Stock Market. We also did well with Bonds and Gold last year so it was a welcome rebound from a tough finish to 2018. The TSX had a final Rate of Return of 19.13%¹ in 2019 which is a very healthy number to see. Since that time, the TSX has hit numerous record highs. As most of my clients live in Alberta and Saskatchewan, this comes as a bit of a surprise. We’re still dealing with high unemployment in AB and SK so it seems strange that the Stock Market is on such a tear. This really has to do with the fact that both the United States and Canada had great job numbers last year and healthy growth in their economies. The United States, with a population of 330 million² people, added approximately 2,100,000 jobs in 2019³. Canada, a country roughly one ninth the population of the USA at 37.6 million people⁴, added net jobs of 320,000 in 2019 according to Huffington Post. Per capita, Canada actually added more jobs than our neighbour to the South. Of the 320,000 jobs mentioned, 283,000 were full-time jobs and wage growth was healthy too. While all of that sounds fantastic, 243,000 of those jobs were added in Ontario⁵. There’s much talk of jobs in States like Texas who added 343,000 jobs last year⁶. Obviously that number is higher than Ontario’s overall gain but Texas has far more people than Ontario does (over 29 million² vs 14.7 million in Ontario⁴). Long story short, Canada added a whole lot of jobs last year but three quarters of those were in Ontario who only represents 39% of the country’s population. This was good news for them and explains some of the growth on our Stock Market but doesn’t exactly ease the pain that we’re experiencing in the Prairie Provinces.

I’d love to tell everyone that the first six weeks of 2020 have been full of good news but as I write this, the world is dealing with the Coronavirus. There have been over two-hundred deaths in China and cases in many other countries. It’s sent shockwaves around the globe and hit us with some bad days on the market. Fear is that it will affect more and more people and impact global trade. As I write this, we’re also getting news that the United States Senate will not be allowing any more evidence or witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. It seems that Justin Trudeau was able to escape the SNC-Lavalin scandal and Donald Trump will escape pressuring foreign governments for dirt on his political opponents. Although a lot of evidence has mounted in recent weeks, the US Senate doesn’t want to see it. So much for draining the swamp!

Please keep in mind that at this time of year, you’ll be getting in your 2019 Annual Statements. You’ll also start to get some Tax Forms in the coming weeks. Please remember that even if you want to file your taxes at the beginning of the year, you won’t necessarily get all the Tax Slips you’ll need to file. Investment Companies don’t have to send these out in the first couple months of the year. You may have to wait on these especially if you invested in a Flow-Through Shares Limited Partnership. If you have a Non-Registered Investment Loan, please make sure to keep the Annual Statement which shows the Interest Payment throughout 2019. You’ll want that number for your Tax Return. Just let me know if you have any questions about these statements/forms and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Bryce A. Borden