Amanda Ashwood | Crawford • Ashwood Financial

If the current COVID-19 situation has taught us anything, it is that we need to be better prepared for unforeseen situations. Having an emergency fund is one of the most important things you can do financially. You don’t want to wait until you have an emergency to start thinking of implementing this into your plan. Just like you shouldn’t put off starting to save for retirement until your 50’s or 60’s. A plan is key here. An emergency fund should be able to cover your major expenses for three to six months, or longer. These savings are basically a pool…

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing hundreds of thousands of Canadians to work from home, some of us have endured increased costs to do so. Whether you’ve had to buy new equipment (not reimbursed or paid for by your employer), or just had an increase in your utilities due to being locked down at home while working full time, there are tax breaks you may be eligible to claim. Most self-employed individuals are well versed in the WFH (work from home) tax advantages, but if you’re an employee who is now working at home (whether just temporarily, or more permanently going…

It’s been a little while since we updated you on the state of the markets. COVID-19 surely caused the global markets to plunge back in March. It was relatively short-lived, and the market bottomed on March 23rd. Since then, markets have rebounded quite nicely already (about 50% up from the bottom) overall. The markets are driven by emotions, and uncertainty brings those emotions high, and causes reactions in either direction. This is what we call volatility – the ups and downs of the stock market. There is no doubt that some sectors were hard hit. With travel at a standstill…

It has been a couple of difficult weeks for global markets. Volatility is soaring. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11th. It is now spreading quickly across the United States. The selling pressure last week is comparable to some of the worst selloffs in market history: 1929- 1932, 1987 and 2008. At times like these, investors can easily get lost in the headlines. As stewards of your capital, our primary job is to make sense of it all, keep the right perspective and, importantly, avoid big mistakes. Often that means keeping things simple. At present and looking ahead, what…

The Bull market rolls on. At least that is what we have been hearing from our economists, strategists, and portfolio managers (PMs) on how they are feeling for the coming year. There has been much discussion in our client meetings recently about how their portfolios and the overall markets might be impacted by things like the US Election this fall (will Trump be re-elected?), or the newsworthy impact of the Coronavirus on world markets. The short story from the industry professionals we hear speak regularly is that 2020 should end the year with positive returns, with some increased volatility throughout…

We wanted to share this short video from one of our favourite investment companies, EdgePoint. The video shares one person’s experience of being invested over the past 10 years, through the ups and down, and why it pays to think “long-term” when investing your hard-earned money. Many of our clients have had a similar road to the character in the video, and we continue to buy these funds for our clients and our own personal portfolios, as we believe in a long-term investment strategy. The take-away is to be patient; and know that both good and bad years don’t last…

As a follow up to our last Market Update blog, we wanted to share a short & fun questionnaire from EdgePoint Wealth, testing your potential response to the next market crisis. How will you fare? Click the image below to take you to the full survey on page 2:

We recently attended our national investment conference and met with various investment & market strategists, and some of your Portfolio Managers. There was much talk around the recent market sell-off that we have seen over the past couple of weeks, so we thought this a good time to share a summary of what has been happening, and the feelings moving forward. The recent sell-offs are thought to be linked to the Federal Reserve (Fed) hiking interest rates, which in-turn negatively affected the bond market. This causes uncertainty and emotions have been running high in day-to-day stock traders who think there…

I recently had a meeting with a Tax & Estate specialist who spoke about Digital Assets, and the importance of covering these assets through your Will (and Powers of Attorney). Even 5-10 years ago, these assets were not of much value, and certainly were never thought to be included in your estate plan. So, What are Digital Assets? Digital Assets are essentially your financial footprint in the online world. Do you collect grocery points, airline rewards, credit card rewards, gas station points? It might seem silly, but there have been studies that have found by the year 2020 (not so…

Every home owner dreams of being mortgage free. In today’s environment, home prices are some of the highest they have been, and with that, mortgage sizes are significantly larger. Today’s home owners tend to feel it is the norm to always have a mortgage and never pay it off completely. The truth is, there are many opportunities to paying down your mortgage more quickly, and this could save you tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage. Accelerated Mortgage Payments Do you pay your mortgage monthly? Call your lender and ask to switch to weekly or accelerated…

Author Archives: Amanda Ashwood

The Importance of Having an Emergency Fund

Work from Home Tax Benefits

Market Update

Keeping The Right Perspective

Market Update 2020

An Investor’s Journey : A Video

Investor Affirmations

Market Update

Digital Assets

Be Mortgage-Free Faster