Recent News

Looking forward, investors can expect continued market swings to say the least. Financial market volatility and investment uncertainty go hand in hand, but neither says much about overall market direction. Volatility spikes are often associated with market sell-offs (as in 1987), cycles of rising volatility have also been associated with both strong (1995-99) and weak (1965-70) stock market performance trends.

As ever, the best strategy is to hold a well diversified portfolio with an asset allocation to match your risk tolerance and to stay invested for long term growth.

Budget

In March 2007, the Conservative government presented its budget. For the most part, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced a number of tax savings for families, including removing the Registered Education Savings Plan's annual contribution limit and introducing a new Registered Disability Savings Plan.

The government also implemented a child tax credit of $2,000 per child under 18, and the

spousal penalty was phased out.

While there were a number of other tax savings in March, the government revealed even

more tax relief in an October mini-budget, including a further 1% cut to the GST to come into

effect January 1, 2008. As well, the government upped the basic personal amount to

$9,600, effective January 1, and the lowest personal income tax rate was reduced from

15.5% to 15%.

RRSP Contribution Limits for 2008 are 18% of earned income to a maximum of $20,000.

Should you have any questions about how these or other recent events might affect you,

I'd be happy to schedule a time to either speak with you on the telephone or sit down with

you in person.