Kiera and I hang’n out at Point Pelee, the southernmost tip of mainland Canada. (Middle Island is actually the Southernmost point in Canada.)
The point I’m trying to make (yes, there actually is one!) is exactly what I wrote last year, i.e., personal resources (time and money) directed towards experiences as against “stuff” are the keys to both short and long term happiness. This is one of the reasons we feel so good when we are engaged in acts of giving through its many different levels – not just money, but also time, friendship and, most important … love.
JUN 23, 2025
HOW I EARN MY FEE
BY KEITH THOMSON
"If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”
How do I earn my fee? Hint - It’s probably not what you think.
Suggesting to potential clients that my main value to them is to make sure they and their family never implode financially is, quite frankly, somewhat of a hard sell.....
MAY 23, 2025
FEES VS. FINES
BY KEITH THOMSON
"Be more patient in investing is the sleep eight hours of health. It sounds too simple to take seriously but will probably make a bigger difference than anything else you do.”
It has been my experience that engineers are often bad investors. Why? Because their mindset, quite rightly, focuses on the need for absolute certainty. As an example, the bridge that they design has to have a 100% chance of.....
APR 16, 2025
THE PACKAGE
BY KEITH THOMSON
"Your success as an investor will be determined by how you respond to punctuated moments of terror, not the years spent on cruise control.”
That was definitely not fun … watching the markets decline precipitously in a matter of days. Even worse … watching the effect it had on our individual investment portfolios.....
MAR 26, 2025
THE TRICK IS NOT MINDING THAT IT HURTS
BY KEITH THOMSON
"If you can’t stomach 50% declines in your investment, you will get the mediocre returns you deserve.”
Last May I returned from the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders' Meeting. This was my second visit, counting myself extremely fortunate the year before to have seen, for the last time, both Warren Buffet.....
FEB 20, 2025
WHAT WENT RIGHT IN 2024?
BY KEITH THOMSON
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
What went right in 2024?
Well, for one thing at least, 60 countries went to the polls including India (the largest democracy in the world) and the U.S. (the world’s oldest continuous democracy). To quote the Wall Street Journal.....
JAN 7, 2025
WHAT WE BELIEVE - 2025 EDITION
BY KEITH THOMSON
"People have always had this craving to have someone tell them the future. Long ago, kings would hire people to read sheep guts. There’s always been a market for people who pretend to know the future. Listening to today’s forecasters is just as crazy as when the king hired the guy to look at the sheep guts.”
Long time readers of this newsletter may recall that it is my habit at the beginning of each year to summarize my thoughts regarding the markets and economy from the past year......
DEC 10, 2024
MIDNIGHT OPUS
BY KEITH THOMSON
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”
For the last 11 years it has been my tradition to close out the year by featuring an advert which I feel best captures the spirit of the holidays. Fortunately my 19 year-old daughter, Kiera, loves Christmas commercials and we have spent many happy hours together filtering through dozens......
NOV 21, 2024
WINTER IS COMING
BY KEITH THOMSON
"Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.”
Despite the title of this month’s Wealth with Wisdom, I consider myself a rational optimist. Admittedly, at least when it comes to this year’s incredible returns, my attitude is a relatively easy one to hold. However, winter is indeed coming......
OCT 11, 2024
WOULD YOU TRADE PLACES WITH WARREN BUFFET?
BY KEITH THOMSON
"A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person has only one.”
—Indian proverb
Would you rather have $0 and be 30 years old or have a $141 billion and be 94? (Buffet’s net worth and age.) I can’t think of anyone who wouldn't choose the former, but the interesting reality is that many individuals seem to optimize for the latter.....
SEP 25, 2024
THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN YOUR INVESTING WORLD
BY KEITH THOMSON
"How you behaved in March 2020 was probably more important than what you did in the previous 100 months combined.”
I believe Morgan Housel’s “Covid crash” quotation thoughtfully distills approximately 80% of an investor’s long term success in the stock market. We’ve all heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs but are you familiar with The Hierarchy of Investor Needs?.....
AUG 16, 2024
THE POLITICS OF INVESTING
BY KEITH THOMSON
"The real key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.”
About every four years I receive enquiries from clients regarding how the U.S. presidential election will affect the stock market. Translation … how negatively will the markets react to either a Trump/Vance or Harris/Walz win? Or, more specifically, how much could my portfolio decline?.....
JUL 24, 2024
SHOULD A 19 YEAR-OLD HAVE A WILL?
BY KEITH THOMSON
"I am always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize that I’m listening to it.”
Earlier this year my daughter, Kiera, turned 19 and just recently I encouraged her to create a Will. Actually, I insisted she do this … which, more than likely from her perspective, is a downside of living with a financial advisor as a father. The catalyst for this “suggestion” was.....
JUN 26, 2024
CONFESSIONS OF A FINANCIAL ADVISOR
BY KEITH THOMSON
"Average performance sustained for an above-average period of time leads to extraordinary performance. This is true not just in investing but careers, relationships, and parenting.”
f you know me reasonably well, you would probably agree that one of my worst personality traits is my extreme impatience. The single positive of this trait is that I tend to get stuff done. The negative is.....
MAY 17, 2024
THE TRICK IS NOT MINDING THAT IT HURTS
BY KEITH THOMSON
"If you can’t stomach 50% declines in your investment, you will get the mediocre returns you deserve.”
Earlier this month I returned from the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders' Meeting. This was my second visit, counting myself extremely fortunate in May, 2023 to have seen for the last time both Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger on stage together. It felt as though the “shadow” of Charlie permeated this year’s proceedings, given he passed away this recent November at the age of 99......
MAY 12, 2024
FIND ME A SPECIALIST
BY KEITH THOMSON
Finding the right partner to work with to achieve your philanthropic goals isn’t easy, but choosing wisely can make all the difference.
“This is one of the most important areas of my life and I don’t know who to hire. Frankly, I don’t even know what I should be looking for.....
APR 19, 2024
WHY YOU ARE RICH
BY KEITH THOMSON
“Like all of life’s rich emotional experiences, the full flavor of losing important money cannot be conveyed by literature. You cannot convey to an inexperienced girl what it is truly like to be a wife and mother. There are certain things that cannot be adequately explained to a virgin by words and pictures.”
—Fred Schwed Jr. (Author of “Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?” First published in 1940)
If you are reading this there is a very good chance you are wealthier than 90% of the Canadian population. Have you ever paused to think why this may be.....
MAR 26, 2024
TIME TO FEED THE GOOSE!
BY KEITH THOMSON
“Taxes are our way of feeding the goose that lays the golden eggs of freedom, democracy and enterprise. Someone says, 'Well, the goose eats too much!’. That’s probably true. But better a fat goose than no goose at all.”
—Jim Rohn
Please find below two CI Private Wealth tax resources which may assist you in dealing with your tax reporting.....
FEB 13, 2024
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES - 2024 EDITION
BY KEITH THOMSON
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
—Charles Dickens
Early each year it has been my tradition to share with my readers how our world is making tremendous.....
JAN 24, 2024
WHAT WE BELIEVE - 2024 EDITION
BY KEITH THOMSON
“Recessions and bear markets are very easy to predict, except for the timing, cause, magnitude, duration, location, and policy response.”
—Morgan Housel
It is both simple and genuinely compelling for me to be able to summarize the behaviour of North American equity markets, not only for the last calendar year but over the last two years.....
DEC 21, 2023
A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER
BY KEITH THOMSON
“Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more.”
—Dr. Seuss
For the last decade it has been my tradition to close out the year by featuring an advert which I feel best captures the spirit of the holidays. Fortunately my 18 year-old daughter, Kiera, loves Christmas....
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