BY MONICA MAZUN
At the time of writing this, the future is uncertain, to say the least. Talk of tariffs is giving us whiplash with all its pausing and unpausing, while the flood of news headlines is, quite frankly, exhausting. In the last five minutes alone, I received another alert with tariff updates: this time they’re targeting our cows. (Moo! I mean…Boo!) Dairy jokes aside, it’s hard to predict where this will end and, as much as I hope things will have calmed down by the time you read this, it’s quite possible at least some of the chaos will remain.
While the current situation can be unnerving, it would seem that we’ve been talking about unprecedented times since 2020. The tariff drama is only the latest ‘unprecedented’ crisis, and while we have reason to register very real concerns, we’ve also learned to trust the resiliency of a good investment strategy. Of course, the current crisis feels monumental and existential, as they all do while we’re in the depths of them. But we’ve learned that the best way to protect ourselves, to put it simply, is to ensure that we have eggs in different baskets. Reviewing our asset allocation regularly and rebalancing when a basket gets ‘full’ or tippy is an important step to staying diversified.
You might feel like liquidating your U.S. positions during a trade war is the right move and, for some, such an action expresses a moral position — hard stop. Fair enough. But staying calm and continuing to look at your big picture and overall investments will always be the right move. Many U.S. stocks provide global exposure or support global economies. Visa, for example, is domiciled in the United States but has international reach — it’s used all over the world, daily. You don’t want to eliminate U.S. exposure and miss out on returns from strong companies that do more than strengthen the U.S. economy. Again, well-balanced diversification is key.
That being said, it’s never a bad time to reassess what more we can do as Canadians to protect and invest in ourselves and our country. By now you’ve seen all the lists showing which products are made in Canada and as a consumer you can make an impact by modifying your shopping habits and looking for Canadian brands first. You can also speak with your financial advisor about investing in Canadian companies, since Canada is certainly an attractive option from an investment perspective. Thanks to our discounted dollar, great value-driven options, and strong financial companies, cash flows into Canada are ramping up. It’s a great time to be part of the action.
There’s a lot of noise out there but try to remember that we’ve been through trying times before, and with a levelheaded, diversified approach, we’ll come out the other end just fine.
—
All material has been prepared by Monica Mazun, who is an Associate Investment Advisor with the Mactaggart Hryn Team at Richardson Wealth Limited. The opinions expressed in this report are the opinions of the author and readers should not assume they reflect the opinions or recommendations of Richardson Wealth Limited or its affiliates. Richardson Wealth Limited, Member Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Richardson Wealth is a trademark of James Richardson & Sons Limited, used under license.
