Here is a transcript of my latest chat with our media consultant.
Q: Why does redev focus primarily on Canada?
RC: Our strategy and focus on Canada goes hand-in-glove with my professional aversion to risk. I only shop for opportunity where risk can be controlled, minimized or eliminated completely. These days this means staying inside our traditional investment zone.
These days when you look at the US home prices are deflating in 21% of the 143 markets according to The Economist. According to the web site zillow.com 1 in 5 home owners are under water on their mortgages especially on the fourth quarter of last year. We see that for this year in the US there have been 4.5 million foreclosure filings up from 2.8 million in 2009, according to Realty Track. When I hear those kinds of numbers, I’m actually scared. I see in the States, quoting from the mortgage bankers association that 15% of homeowners are either in foreclosure or behind at least one payment on their mortgage in quarter four. According to the mortgage bankers association at least 3.9 million Americans are more than 90 days behind on their payments, which is triple the level of two years ago.
In the US in 2010 there were four more regional banks that failed recently bringing the total to 20 banks that have failed. We’re talking 20 billion plus in assets.
Those are the kinds of numbers I hear and see, I have to ask do I really want to invest in a place where things are going so poorly? Being risk averse this is something I just don’t want to do. You have to worry and you have to wonder.
In Canada we have good government and a well-regulated banking system and a safe economy and we have many resources. We should be very thankful to live here in Canada. So the bottom line is, "I go where I know and know where I go..."
Richard Crenian
richardc@redevgroup.ca
http://www.redevgroup.com
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
On risk aversion
Here is a transcript of my latest chat with our media consultant.
Q: Having read a number of your blog posts it seems you have a strong aversion to risk. Why is that?
Richard Crenian: That’s a good question. I think the older you get the more adverse to risk you become. Later in life you realize that if you loose money you don’t have the energy and time you once had to make up the differences. So it’s very import to try and save your money and not blow it on something silly.
So I think that you know that if you lose money at age, (whatever your age is) say your 55 years old and you are planning to retire by age 65 it will be much harder to make that money up in the next 10 years. So you really want to watch where you invest your money and at a minimum make sure you are not going to lose your money which you are saving for retirement.
Beyond your retirement goals being conservative means protecting those you might one day leave behind. Obviously you want to make sure your family is well taken care of. In my view this is the legacy of a good human being.
When you’re 35 years old, the possible losses associated with risk are easier to compensate for, assuming you don’t compromise the welfare and safety of your family.
When you get into 55 and beyond, is there any real need for you to take on unnecessary risks?
Richard Crenian
richardc@redevgroup.ca
www.redevgroup.com
Q: Having read a number of your blog posts it seems you have a strong aversion to risk. Why is that?
Richard Crenian: That’s a good question. I think the older you get the more adverse to risk you become. Later in life you realize that if you loose money you don’t have the energy and time you once had to make up the differences. So it’s very import to try and save your money and not blow it on something silly.
So I think that you know that if you lose money at age, (whatever your age is) say your 55 years old and you are planning to retire by age 65 it will be much harder to make that money up in the next 10 years. So you really want to watch where you invest your money and at a minimum make sure you are not going to lose your money which you are saving for retirement.
Beyond your retirement goals being conservative means protecting those you might one day leave behind. Obviously you want to make sure your family is well taken care of. In my view this is the legacy of a good human being.
When you’re 35 years old, the possible losses associated with risk are easier to compensate for, assuming you don’t compromise the welfare and safety of your family.
When you get into 55 and beyond, is there any real need for you to take on unnecessary risks?
Richard Crenian
richardc@redevgroup.ca
www.redevgroup.com
Friday, February 19, 2010
The New Sheriff by RIchard Crenian
Richard Crenian Blogs
February 19, 2010
The Sherriff of Wall Street
Wow, the Globe reported a story from the Associated Press that former CEO of Bank of America Ken Lewis misled investors about Merrill Lynch before B of A acquired it.
Lovely. Imagine being misled by Wall Street. Who would have thunk.
Bottom line the story is that B of A knew that the losses at Merrill were larger than anticipated but they chose not to tell investors. A Bank doing what? To whom?
Yes those mutual fund cos that bought into B of A and thought they were going great guns. What was the problem anyhow? The Bank had to report full disclosure, right?
Wrong. So here we are that the AG’s (Attorney General’s office) is charging them, and we also learn that B o A were trying to resolve the matters with the SEC as well. (Of course since the SEC was to regulate Bank of America as well.)
Anyhow, Howard and I like investing in what we control. Simple retail shopping centers. It is what it is.
I don’t have to worry about our investments, we have professionals we deal with and life is good. We are not in the get rich quick scheme of things. Just slow and steady. Just imagine, how big your savings would be today if you started investing and saving since day 1. Assuming of course you were choosing safe investments, and not gambling on the stock market.
Call Howard at 4036304544, or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca to discuss strategies, or write me at richardc@redevgroup.ca.
Thanks for reading.
Article attached from the Globe below.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
From the Globe website
Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums
New York — The Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 11:44AM EST
Last updated on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 1:54PM EST
.The New York Attorney General's office said Thursday it filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America Corp. (BAC-N14.90-0.63-4.06%) and its former chief executive officer Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street bank in early 2009.
Civil charges were also being filed against Joe Price, the bank's former chief financial officer.
At the same time Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office was filing its civil charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement to resolve separate federal charges it brought against Bank of America over similar issues. It is the second time the SEC and Bank of America have tried to settle the case.
Bank of America has been accused of failing to properly disclose losses at Merrill and bonuses paid to investment bank employees before the deal closed. Mr. Cuomo called Bank of America's actions “egregious and reprehensible” in deceiving not only shareholders, but also the federal government.
The bank received an additional $20-billion (U.S.) in government bailout funds in January, 2009, to help offset losses it absorbed as part of the Merrill Lynch acquisition. In December, Bank of America repaid the $20-billion, plus the initial $25-billion it received in government bailout money.
Mr. Lewis stepped down as CEO from Bank of America on Dec. 31 after almost a year of strife that followed the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Price became head of the bank's consumer banking division, taking over for Brian Moynihan, who succeeded Mr. Lewis as CEO on Jan. 1.
Mr. Moynihan is not under investigation.
February 19, 2010
The Sherriff of Wall Street
Wow, the Globe reported a story from the Associated Press that former CEO of Bank of America Ken Lewis misled investors about Merrill Lynch before B of A acquired it.
Lovely. Imagine being misled by Wall Street. Who would have thunk.
Bottom line the story is that B of A knew that the losses at Merrill were larger than anticipated but they chose not to tell investors. A Bank doing what? To whom?
Yes those mutual fund cos that bought into B of A and thought they were going great guns. What was the problem anyhow? The Bank had to report full disclosure, right?
Wrong. So here we are that the AG’s (Attorney General’s office) is charging them, and we also learn that B o A were trying to resolve the matters with the SEC as well. (Of course since the SEC was to regulate Bank of America as well.)
Anyhow, Howard and I like investing in what we control. Simple retail shopping centers. It is what it is.
I don’t have to worry about our investments, we have professionals we deal with and life is good. We are not in the get rich quick scheme of things. Just slow and steady. Just imagine, how big your savings would be today if you started investing and saving since day 1. Assuming of course you were choosing safe investments, and not gambling on the stock market.
Call Howard at 4036304544, or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca to discuss strategies, or write me at richardc@redevgroup.ca.
Thanks for reading.
Article attached from the Globe below.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
From the Globe website
Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums
New York — The Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 11:44AM EST
Last updated on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 1:54PM EST
.The New York Attorney General's office said Thursday it filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America Corp. (BAC-N14.90-0.63-4.06%) and its former chief executive officer Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street bank in early 2009.
Civil charges were also being filed against Joe Price, the bank's former chief financial officer.
At the same time Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office was filing its civil charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement to resolve separate federal charges it brought against Bank of America over similar issues. It is the second time the SEC and Bank of America have tried to settle the case.
Bank of America has been accused of failing to properly disclose losses at Merrill and bonuses paid to investment bank employees before the deal closed. Mr. Cuomo called Bank of America's actions “egregious and reprehensible” in deceiving not only shareholders, but also the federal government.
The bank received an additional $20-billion (U.S.) in government bailout funds in January, 2009, to help offset losses it absorbed as part of the Merrill Lynch acquisition. In December, Bank of America repaid the $20-billion, plus the initial $25-billion it received in government bailout money.
Mr. Lewis stepped down as CEO from Bank of America on Dec. 31 after almost a year of strife that followed the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Price became head of the bank's consumer banking division, taking over for Brian Moynihan, who succeeded Mr. Lewis as CEO on Jan. 1.
Mr. Moynihan is not under investigation.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Advising mom on real estate investment
Here is a transcript of my latest chat with our media consultant.
Q: Richard, if you were going to give your mother advice on what to invest in, when it comes to real estate or commercial real estate, what would you tell her?
RC: One of the things that I would do is ask her if the company that she's investing with, or the project that she's investing with, would it have all of the necessary experience regarding management? Does the management have good skills to ensure that they're going to do what they say they're going to do? She needs to do her proper due diligence on the company and the people she's dealing with, first and foremost.
Number two, what I would suggest to her is that she make sure that all of her funds go into a lawyer's trust account, and that when her funds goes into this trust account, that she has some kind of interest attached to this money that goes into this account until it closes. By giving her money to the lawyer's trust account, she ensures that she would get a proper and legal closing. That would be essential to make sure that she plays by the rules, and the company that she invests with, or the project that she's investing into, is also properly following the rules.
I would also ask her, what does the company sell? If it's investment in real estate, is the company an expert in real estate? Has it had a lot of experience selling real estate only, or is it also selling oil and gas, stocks and bonds, mutual funds? Is it selling insurance? Is it selling land banking? I think the most important thing is to always go to a specialist, who works in only one project or one area of expertise. I don't believe that anyone can be an expert in every subject, so I would be very concerned if they're selling everything. My thought would be that they're simply looking for commissions, to make money off of the deal. If they're responsible in selling one type of product, then that's all they're selling, and you know that they're experts, that's it and no worries.
When the monies come to my mom, I'd want to know if there's a third party appointed, to disperse and handle all of the funds. In other words: I love the developer, I think the developer is great and I love the people, but I don't want to love them to the point where I'm going to have to have blind trust in them, I'd want to know if there's a third party appointed to handle and disperse all of the funds. That is just another layer of safety for me, and that is something that I would tell my mother that is absolutely necessary.
I'd want to know if there are any third parties involved, if the third parties are indeed licensed by the provinces, and if indeed they are looking after the investors' interests. Again, you can't be a jack of all trades. If you use third-party, arms-length licensed property managers, what you're doing is adding another layer of disclosure, and another layer of people (and by that I mean the province) looking over the investment. I think it's important to layer yourself in as much protection as possible.
As well, when I get the form from the company, I don't want the company reports - company reports only tell me the nice and glossy things. I want to know that there's a third party, arms-length accounting firm - a proper accounting firm, like a big six CA firm - that's compiling the statements and issuing proper tax forms for investors.
Last but not least, I would tell my mother to go with her gut feeling. If your gut tells you not to invest, or that it's too good to be true, don't invest. I think if you've got a good checklist, and she's gone through it, then she should be fine.
Richard Crenian
richardc@redevgroup.ca
www.redevgroup.com
Q: Richard, if you were going to give your mother advice on what to invest in, when it comes to real estate or commercial real estate, what would you tell her?
RC: One of the things that I would do is ask her if the company that she's investing with, or the project that she's investing with, would it have all of the necessary experience regarding management? Does the management have good skills to ensure that they're going to do what they say they're going to do? She needs to do her proper due diligence on the company and the people she's dealing with, first and foremost.
Number two, what I would suggest to her is that she make sure that all of her funds go into a lawyer's trust account, and that when her funds goes into this trust account, that she has some kind of interest attached to this money that goes into this account until it closes. By giving her money to the lawyer's trust account, she ensures that she would get a proper and legal closing. That would be essential to make sure that she plays by the rules, and the company that she invests with, or the project that she's investing into, is also properly following the rules.
I would also ask her, what does the company sell? If it's investment in real estate, is the company an expert in real estate? Has it had a lot of experience selling real estate only, or is it also selling oil and gas, stocks and bonds, mutual funds? Is it selling insurance? Is it selling land banking? I think the most important thing is to always go to a specialist, who works in only one project or one area of expertise. I don't believe that anyone can be an expert in every subject, so I would be very concerned if they're selling everything. My thought would be that they're simply looking for commissions, to make money off of the deal. If they're responsible in selling one type of product, then that's all they're selling, and you know that they're experts, that's it and no worries.
When the monies come to my mom, I'd want to know if there's a third party appointed, to disperse and handle all of the funds. In other words: I love the developer, I think the developer is great and I love the people, but I don't want to love them to the point where I'm going to have to have blind trust in them, I'd want to know if there's a third party appointed to handle and disperse all of the funds. That is just another layer of safety for me, and that is something that I would tell my mother that is absolutely necessary.
I'd want to know if there are any third parties involved, if the third parties are indeed licensed by the provinces, and if indeed they are looking after the investors' interests. Again, you can't be a jack of all trades. If you use third-party, arms-length licensed property managers, what you're doing is adding another layer of disclosure, and another layer of people (and by that I mean the province) looking over the investment. I think it's important to layer yourself in as much protection as possible.
As well, when I get the form from the company, I don't want the company reports - company reports only tell me the nice and glossy things. I want to know that there's a third party, arms-length accounting firm - a proper accounting firm, like a big six CA firm - that's compiling the statements and issuing proper tax forms for investors.
Last but not least, I would tell my mother to go with her gut feeling. If your gut tells you not to invest, or that it's too good to be true, don't invest. I think if you've got a good checklist, and she's gone through it, then she should be fine.
Richard Crenian
richardc@redevgroup.ca
www.redevgroup.com
A New Sherriff by Richard Crenian
Richard Crenian Blogs
February 8, 2010
The Sherriff of Wall Street
Wow, the Globe reported a story from the Associated Press that former CEO of Bank of America Ken Lewis misled investors about Merrill Lynch before B of A acquired it.
Lovely. Imagine being misled by Wall Street. Who would have thunk.
Bottom line the story is that B of A knew that the losses at Merrill were larger than anticipated but they chose not to tell investors. A Bank doing what? To whom?
Yes those mutual fund cos that bought into B of A and thought they were going great guns. What was the problem anyhow? The Bank had to report full disclosure, right?
Wrong. So here we are that the AG’s (Attorney General’s office) is charging them, and we also learn that B o A were trying to resolve the matters with the SEC as well. (Of course since the SEC was to regulate Bank of America as well.)
Anyhow, Howard and I like investing in what we control. Simple retail shopping centers. It is what it is.
I don’t have to worry about our investments, we have professionals we deal with and life is good. We are not in the get rich quick scheme of things. Just slow and steady. Just imagine, how big your savings would be today if you started investing and saving since day 1. Assuming of course you were choosing safe investments, and not gambling on the stock market.
Call Howard at 4036304544, or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca to discuss strategies, or write me at richardc@redevgroup.ca.
Thanks for reading.
Article attached from the Globe below.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
From the Globe website
Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums
New York — The Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 11:44AM EST
Last updated on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 1:54PM EST
.The New York Attorney General's office said Thursday it filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America Corp. (BAC-N14.90-0.63-4.06%) and its former chief executive officer Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street bank in early 2009.
Civil charges were also being filed against Joe Price, the bank's former chief financial officer.
At the same time Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office was filing its civil charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement to resolve separate federal charges it brought against Bank of America over similar issues. It is the second time the SEC and Bank of America have tried to settle the case.
Bank of America has been accused of failing to properly disclose losses at Merrill and bonuses paid to investment bank employees before the deal closed. Mr. Cuomo called Bank of America's actions “egregious and reprehensible” in deceiving not only shareholders, but also the federal government.
The bank received an additional $20-billion (U.S.) in government bailout funds in January, 2009, to help offset losses it absorbed as part of the Merrill Lynch acquisition. In December, Bank of America repaid the $20-billion, plus the initial $25-billion it received in government bailout money.
Mr. Lewis stepped down as CEO from Bank of America on Dec. 31 after almost a year of strife that followed the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Price became head of the bank's consumer banking division, taking over for Brian Moynihan, who succeeded Mr. Lewis as CEO on Jan. 1.
Mr. Moynihan is not under investigation.
February 8, 2010
The Sherriff of Wall Street
Wow, the Globe reported a story from the Associated Press that former CEO of Bank of America Ken Lewis misled investors about Merrill Lynch before B of A acquired it.
Lovely. Imagine being misled by Wall Street. Who would have thunk.
Bottom line the story is that B of A knew that the losses at Merrill were larger than anticipated but they chose not to tell investors. A Bank doing what? To whom?
Yes those mutual fund cos that bought into B of A and thought they were going great guns. What was the problem anyhow? The Bank had to report full disclosure, right?
Wrong. So here we are that the AG’s (Attorney General’s office) is charging them, and we also learn that B o A were trying to resolve the matters with the SEC as well. (Of course since the SEC was to regulate Bank of America as well.)
Anyhow, Howard and I like investing in what we control. Simple retail shopping centers. It is what it is.
I don’t have to worry about our investments, we have professionals we deal with and life is good. We are not in the get rich quick scheme of things. Just slow and steady. Just imagine, how big your savings would be today if you started investing and saving since day 1. Assuming of course you were choosing safe investments, and not gambling on the stock market.
Call Howard at 4036304544, or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca to discuss strategies, or write me at richardc@redevgroup.ca.
Thanks for reading.
Article attached from the Globe below.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
From the Globe website
Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums
New York — The Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 11:44AM EST
Last updated on Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 1:54PM EST
.The New York Attorney General's office said Thursday it filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America Corp. (BAC-N14.90-0.63-4.06%) and its former chief executive officer Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about Merrill Lynch before it acquired the Wall Street bank in early 2009.
Civil charges were also being filed against Joe Price, the bank's former chief financial officer.
At the same time Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office was filing its civil charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement to resolve separate federal charges it brought against Bank of America over similar issues. It is the second time the SEC and Bank of America have tried to settle the case.
Bank of America has been accused of failing to properly disclose losses at Merrill and bonuses paid to investment bank employees before the deal closed. Mr. Cuomo called Bank of America's actions “egregious and reprehensible” in deceiving not only shareholders, but also the federal government.
The bank received an additional $20-billion (U.S.) in government bailout funds in January, 2009, to help offset losses it absorbed as part of the Merrill Lynch acquisition. In December, Bank of America repaid the $20-billion, plus the initial $25-billion it received in government bailout money.
Mr. Lewis stepped down as CEO from Bank of America on Dec. 31 after almost a year of strife that followed the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Price became head of the bank's consumer banking division, taking over for Brian Moynihan, who succeeded Mr. Lewis as CEO on Jan. 1.
Mr. Moynihan is not under investigation.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Everyone is an Expert? by Richard Crenian
Is it time to change your investments advisor?
Here's a transcript of my latest conversation with our media consultant this week.
Q: Richard, when does one know when it?s time to change their investments adviser?
Richard Crenian: You know, sports and business are so intertwined. I live in Toronto and one of our offices is in Calgary. Yesterday at around noonish in Toronto, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team announced that it was trading a bunch of players to Calgary and Calgary was trading a bunch of players to Toronto, with the idea that it would shake up the team. What happens is, by trading off players and bringing in new players, it sometimes brings new blood into the team, so that the teams have a different approach, a winning approach to playing the game and winning also brings about one important thing, is that the clubs make money. So ideally if sports is business and clubs are there to make money, they?re there wanting to shake up staff to allow themselves to win and make money.
While it?s funny that we don?t realize the kind of approach we have towards our investment advisors. Because they are stockbrokers, we?ve gone through the whole gamut where we?ve lost a bunch of money and now the mutual funds where a lot of people are invested in have started creeping back but not quite to the levels that we lost those big numbers at. So everybody sings the same tune, everybody tells the same thing. What is it about that one special adviser that you need to listen to or go to and every time you sit down with your investment adviser, they tell you the same story that six hundred other advisors tell you about. And the thing is you are always looking for a winner because the investment adviser is giving you advice today isn?t making you money. He is not the guy risking his own money and so if he gives you bad advice, a wrong advice or market advice or some advice that his economists or his staff has told him to give you, then, then maybe it?s time you should be looking at a new investment adviser, someone that will be able to give you different kinds of products. You know if you are only used to stocks and bonds and mutual funds, and there?s an opportunity for you to diversify. You?re a stockbroker there sitting there isn?t telling you to go buy this other product cause he is not making commission doing so.
Anybody can be an investment adviser today. Everybody says that "I am an expert at this", "I?m an expert at that", when in reality they are an expert at making money for themselves. What about making money for you as a client? If you?re really bogged down with the same story that you hear, you read every paper and you hear the same story and you?re tired of it, it?s time to look for somebody new.
Economists. I had a breakfast with the economists that works for a big investment adviser, a wealthy investment company in Toronto one day, and they were telling me that a, a story and I turned around and I said, ?Listen, I appreciate what you?re saying, how you?ve framed the economy, where it?s going and stuff. What products are you selling today?? So he was telling me what kinds of products he was selling and his conversation of what he told me was framed completely to sell his product. So a lot of times when you hear an investment adviser who is giving you advice, it?s because they have hired guns on staff to give you advice to buy their product.
Here it is, here is the rent roll. We say here?s what you look at, here?s the cash flow you can expect to get and you know, you can expect to get it. We, we tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. If everything goes well, this would be the your returns, if it doesn?t go well, we can tell you. We?ll tell you too. We don?t like to tell you bad news, if a tenant leaves or whatever, but that?s the reality of the day. We?ll replace, we?ll replace the tenant. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it doesn?t take as long but you know I think, you need to have somebody telling you the good, the bad, the ugly. We?ve got nothing to hide. So if your investment adviser telling you that everything is great, everything is better, buy gold, buy silver or buy everything else, find out what products they are selling. And if they are selling the products they are harping about, that?s the time you change investment advisers.
Meanwhile, go to our website and you?ll be able to see the products we are selling and you make up your own mind. If you think we are selling good products, come buy from us. If you think we are selling junk, don?t even bother calling us cause, you know what, we don?t want to be there, if, if you think we are selling junk. We just want to be able to sit down and have a heart to heart talk to you. We?ll explain to you our position and if it sounds like we are making sense, come talk to us. If it doesn?t then you know what, no worries at all. We understand and we?ll both carry on.
Call Howard at 4036304544 or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca, or write me if you have any thoughts you would like to share.
Thank you for reading.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
richardc@redevgroup.ca
Here's a transcript of my latest conversation with our media consultant this week.
Q: Richard, when does one know when it?s time to change their investments adviser?
Richard Crenian: You know, sports and business are so intertwined. I live in Toronto and one of our offices is in Calgary. Yesterday at around noonish in Toronto, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team announced that it was trading a bunch of players to Calgary and Calgary was trading a bunch of players to Toronto, with the idea that it would shake up the team. What happens is, by trading off players and bringing in new players, it sometimes brings new blood into the team, so that the teams have a different approach, a winning approach to playing the game and winning also brings about one important thing, is that the clubs make money. So ideally if sports is business and clubs are there to make money, they?re there wanting to shake up staff to allow themselves to win and make money.
While it?s funny that we don?t realize the kind of approach we have towards our investment advisors. Because they are stockbrokers, we?ve gone through the whole gamut where we?ve lost a bunch of money and now the mutual funds where a lot of people are invested in have started creeping back but not quite to the levels that we lost those big numbers at. So everybody sings the same tune, everybody tells the same thing. What is it about that one special adviser that you need to listen to or go to and every time you sit down with your investment adviser, they tell you the same story that six hundred other advisors tell you about. And the thing is you are always looking for a winner because the investment adviser is giving you advice today isn?t making you money. He is not the guy risking his own money and so if he gives you bad advice, a wrong advice or market advice or some advice that his economists or his staff has told him to give you, then, then maybe it?s time you should be looking at a new investment adviser, someone that will be able to give you different kinds of products. You know if you are only used to stocks and bonds and mutual funds, and there?s an opportunity for you to diversify. You?re a stockbroker there sitting there isn?t telling you to go buy this other product cause he is not making commission doing so.
Anybody can be an investment adviser today. Everybody says that "I am an expert at this", "I?m an expert at that", when in reality they are an expert at making money for themselves. What about making money for you as a client? If you?re really bogged down with the same story that you hear, you read every paper and you hear the same story and you?re tired of it, it?s time to look for somebody new.
Economists. I had a breakfast with the economists that works for a big investment adviser, a wealthy investment company in Toronto one day, and they were telling me that a, a story and I turned around and I said, ?Listen, I appreciate what you?re saying, how you?ve framed the economy, where it?s going and stuff. What products are you selling today?? So he was telling me what kinds of products he was selling and his conversation of what he told me was framed completely to sell his product. So a lot of times when you hear an investment adviser who is giving you advice, it?s because they have hired guns on staff to give you advice to buy their product.
Here it is, here is the rent roll. We say here?s what you look at, here?s the cash flow you can expect to get and you know, you can expect to get it. We, we tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. If everything goes well, this would be the your returns, if it doesn?t go well, we can tell you. We?ll tell you too. We don?t like to tell you bad news, if a tenant leaves or whatever, but that?s the reality of the day. We?ll replace, we?ll replace the tenant. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it doesn?t take as long but you know I think, you need to have somebody telling you the good, the bad, the ugly. We?ve got nothing to hide. So if your investment adviser telling you that everything is great, everything is better, buy gold, buy silver or buy everything else, find out what products they are selling. And if they are selling the products they are harping about, that?s the time you change investment advisers.
Meanwhile, go to our website and you?ll be able to see the products we are selling and you make up your own mind. If you think we are selling good products, come buy from us. If you think we are selling junk, don?t even bother calling us cause, you know what, we don?t want to be there, if, if you think we are selling junk. We just want to be able to sit down and have a heart to heart talk to you. We?ll explain to you our position and if it sounds like we are making sense, come talk to us. If it doesn?t then you know what, no worries at all. We understand and we?ll both carry on.
Call Howard at 4036304544 or email him at howardmanley@shaw.ca, or write me if you have any thoughts you would like to share.
Thank you for reading.
Richard Crenian
www.redevgroup.com
richardc@redevgroup.ca
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