Written by Paul Siluch
April 11, 2025

Market drops hurt. Especially a 13% decline in four days.

You are going to hear a lot of advice telling you to “stay the course” and “ignore the dips.”

It is correct advice, but it can be hard to follow. We are entering a period of churning because markets need to digest the dramatic changes of the last month. Prepare for more ups and downs in your portfolio until the tariff wars are settled.

And they will be. But it will take time.

The U.S. spends too much. We all do, but the U.S. is the outlier.

In 2024, the U.S. received $4.92 trillion in revenues versus $6.75 trillion in expenditures. The deficit was $1.83 trillion. This amounts to 6.3% of GDP. (bea.gov)

Canada, by contrast, is stingy. Our deficit is large, but only 2.8% of GDP. (macrotrends)

The U.S. cannot continue along this path without encountering some sort of debt or currency crisis in the future. The government does not want to raise taxes, so what can it do other than slash spending?

Written by Paul Siluch
March 21^st, 2025

Did you know that our music memory peaks at age 14? Between the ages of 12 and 22, we experience some of the most significant moments of our lives. Adolescence, puberty, falling in love, breaking up, graduating – all these events become etched in our minds, cemented by the quick-dry action of hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin.