I apologize for those who like reading my blog as I haven’t posted since the new year.It has been a quarter of travel, pickleball, expansion of the team, and loads of work.  I have been playing hard and working hard, and having fun doing it.

Most of you know I love to travel.  I always encourage my clients to do as much travel as they can while they are healthy enough to do so.  Having an amazing team behind me and access to work remotely have brought balance to my life.  It is allowing me to work longer as I check off my life experience list.  I am blessed to say the least.

This year I have been on safari in Africa, to Austria to ski, and to Kelowna to enjoy some spring skiing with my buddies. 

Notice one…if you want to shorten this blog read, skip the next few paragraphs.  J

Travel

Big White, Kelowna – lesson 1

I am actually writing this on the plane coming back from Big White in Kelowna.This was my first adventure with three of my high school friends and my first trip to the interior of British Columbia to ski.  It didn’t disappoint as the snow gods brought some powder late in the season.  It was also so much fun and I had many laughs over the week.  I actually learned new things about the people closest to me in life even after 45 years. 

Lesson one for Miles – just say yes to invites as you never know how much fun you end up having and what you will learn.

Kitzbuhel, Austria – lesson 2

Prior to Big White, Denise, Addison, Lauren (Addison’s friend) and I flew to Kitzbuhel, Austria for some March Break skiing.  It is a historic town as it is the birthplace of downhill ski racing.The first race on the Streif was run here in 1931 and continues unchanged in the course today.  We managed to ski the Streif once albeit not at 140 kms/hr like the racers.

The trip was an interesting adventure before it even started.  The pilots for Lufthansa Airlines for our flight from Germany to Austria went on strike the day we left and we had to change travel plans.Those new plans included four trains from Frankfurt to Kitzbuhel, no small feat with the luggage we were carrying.

Skiing was a challenge at first and improved over the week.  Low lying fog on day one and two made it very difficult to see.Sunshine peaked out on day three and we had blue skies on day four.  We could finally see where we were going and actually see the mountains.   

We ended the trip with a weekend in Salzburg.  The highlight was a tour of the filming sites for the Sound of Music, which also included a lot of singing on the coach bus!

I can speak for the family and say we all had our fill of schnitzel and apple strudel.The trip was pretty epic and reinforced my love for Europe and skiing in the Alps.  Next up on the list is Italy next winter. 

Lesson two for Miles – no matter what life throws in your path, with a little planning and perseverance, you can always get to your destination.

Tanzanian Safari, East Africa – lesson 3

To start the year our adventures took Denise and I to Tanzania for a two-week African safari.  We explored four national parks, stayed in two hotels and four lodges, including one that Jane Goodall spent time at.  We saw every animal and bird possible.  This included the big five, small five and ugly five (I will let you look those up on ChatGPT).  It was birthing season, however, we did not see a birth nor did we see a kill, which could have actually happened at the same time (I will let you stew on that for a minute). 

We were most fascinated by the hyenas, which were big and fat and ugly, unlike how Disney depicts them in the Lion King movie.  We were also fascinated by the eco system of the Serengeti.  There was no waste as the dung beetles would use and clean up elephant poop, other animals and vultures would pick a carcass clean, and the hyenas would eat the bones.  Such an effective and efficient system of life, unaltered by humans.

We also learned of the African tribal way of life, learned about the totalitarian and corrupt political system, and became lifelong friends with our guide, Ashley.Next up will be to hike Kilimanjaro.   

Lesson three for Miles – you never know who, where and when you will make lifelong friends.

If you ever want to chat travel, reach out to me and we can grab a coffee.  I would love to also hear about your travels.

Notice two – this is now the post travel parts of the blog. J

Pickleball

Oshawa Golf and Curling Club needs to be renamed the Oshawa Golf and Pickleball Club as it dropped curling in favour of pickleball this past winter.  Of course, Denise and I jumped on this and learned to play the game.  It is so much fun and I highly recommend trying it.  Just remember that you don’t have to dive for every shot like you are 20 or 30 years old.  It’s okay to let go of a point in favour of playing the next day.  We are just beginners and we are enjoying the sport immensely.

Pickleball with a Purpose

In light of our new found sport, we undertook to share it with others and set forth to create a fun tournament in order to raise money for charity.Pickleball with a Purpose was born one morning.  The event takes place April 9^th with proceeds going to Their Opportunity.  This charity puts underprivileged kids in sports with the caveat that the kids have to give back through community service hours.How good is that?!?  All of GWM and Byron Street Legal have been hard at work securing sponsorships, silent auction items, and players with the hope of raising $25k to $30k.  I will keep you posted on achieving that.  All are welcome to play if you are interested.  https://bit.ly/pickleballwithapurpose

GWM grows again

As many of you know, I have expanded the team to include two more investment advisors.Ryan O’Connor is back with the team.Some of you will remember Ryan worked with me before, looking after trading.  Jamie Sodhi is a young gun doing very well to build a business with younger clients.  Both are spectacular individuals that are most likely destined to take over my business one day.  Don’t worry.I am not retiring anytime soon.  I am loving my job and my clients and having too much fun.  Yes, it is hard work and I have a very busy practice, however, I am newly invigorated with the addition of Ryan and Jamie.  I find my role and responsibility is to mentor others and to leave a legacy through the success of the next generation.  There’s no slowing down on this team…only building for the future.

Notice number three – travel may be mentioned again. J

War, oil and markets

So, what’s up with the price of gas?  I left for Austria at $1.35 and came back to $1.85.  Yikes!And, what’s up with air fares?!?We were looking at summer travel plans to Europe and the flights for three of us were as much as the cost of the rest of the trip!  Yikes again.We have temporarily put travel on hold although I worry that things are going to get worse and not better.

We can thank Israel and the USA for that one.  The USA President is shooting from the hip again and I am not certain he planned out the war in Iran very well or at all.  This one occurs to me to be a bit of a mess and hard to back out of.There is a reason every other president avoided going to war in the Middle East.  The Iranians have had 47 years to prepare for such a situation and they are well organized. 

Of course, one of the biggest issues is the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz and the flow of oil from the Gulf.  Was this not a consideration before striking?  The war is not necessarily a concern for the markets.  The concern is for oil prices to continue to run hotter for longer, causing inflation and ultimately a global recession.  As noted above, we are seeing it at the pumps and in air fares.  Instead of Central Banks considering cutting interest rates, there is speculation they may have to raise rates to curtail inflation.  Short term price spikes can be absorbed however, if this goes on for longer, we may have a bit of an issue on hand for the stock and bond markets.

Overall, the markets have been dragged down by 3.25% to 3.84% YTD in the USA with the tech heavy Nasdaq down 5.86%.  Tech company valuations have been rerated as the potential for higher interest rates cause valuations to compress simply by the calculation of present value of cash flows at higher interest rates.  This doesn’t mean that the business of artificial intelligence is dead however, and we continue to invest and believe in this story as a generational change in our lives.

Mid-term elections should be most interesting, especially if Trump can’t turn this war around and get the price of oil down.  Voters are not going to be happy as “it’s all about the economy, stupid” and most voters are not in favour of being involved in another Gulf war.The president promised to remove America from these wars and yet they are back in, deeper than ever.  We have also seen some strong Democratic wins, with Trump’s own Mar-a-Largo riding falling to a Democrat.  Even if the Democrats can turn the House and Senate, I will be interested to see how the President takes that.  He seems to use executive power and centuries old law to enact his political agenda with abandon.

Stay tuned.It is going to be an interesting ride!

Miles…