Chilliwack (Bill Westmacott) – Canada is officially in recession. Due to anemic economic growth (projected at 1% for the year), consumers are tapped out by high inflation (gas, food, housing, and just about everything else!). The Bank of Canada is stuck in a position where it can’t lower interest rates, as inflation just won’t go away.
The USA continue to have solid growth. The USA faces high inflation, PCE 3.8% over the past year, too, and US consumers are struggling with the same issues as Canadians. The endless on-and-off talks with the Iranian regime continue to cause extreme volatility in the markets, especially with oil prices. Just a reminder to President Trump, “You cannot negotiate with a terrorist regime”!
China and Asian markets have outperformed the Western stock markets and have more resilient economies despite the oil and gas crisis.
The EU countries continue to struggle deeply, mainly due to extremely poor economic policies that hinder growth. Sadly, the Canadian government has mirrored the same policies!
The best performing stock markets YTD: 1) Emerging markets 24.76% 2) Asia Pacific 21.96% 3) USA 10.55% 4) Canada 9.64%’
Why Life Insurance?
I have told the story before, but it still motivates me to help people purchase life insurance to protect loved ones, and it has many other amazing benefits, which I will cover in the Blog. I can still hear the phone ring in the middle of the night when I was 12 years old. My mom staggered out of her bed and reached for the phone. It was the hospital! My dad had his second heart attack the week before, while at my baseball game. Sadly, his third one took his life in the hospital. I can still hear my mom’s words, “No, no, it can’t be true.” Then I heard her cry. I had no idea about my parents’ financial affairs, and I would not learn about them until many years later. My dad was a nice guy, a hard worker, a friendly neighbour, and he worked for Buckerfields in Vancouver for 30 years. What I did not know was that he never purchased life insurance, and in those days, many companies did not provide group plans. So, no life insurance. He also failed to have a will, and there was no joint account with my mom. My father had a sizable amount of money in the bank, but my mom could not access it. My dad left my mom in a very serious financial crisis, and she was 56 years old and had to find work as quickly as possible. Two kids to feed and a mortgage! It would take about a year for my mom to access the money in my dad’s account. How she got through that period as a kind neighbour helped sell Dad’s vehicles, trailer, and her lawyer gave her a loan. Not ideal!
Bill Westmacott, Life insurance broker in BC and wealth solutions provider.
