Why not go for all-out growth? I say all-out growth? Not like Reckless Stupid, You know Meme Stock growth. Uh, why not? But did you have to give up your license to make you two? So you want you have to surrender your license to go, even make a YouTube video to even wait when you first started. YouTube There wasn't a lot of investing information online nowadays. It's almost like this too.

too much. And you learn from the streets. You learn from doing it. You learn from the streets literally.

And the streets are rough, right? I can imagine. that's why I know there's a blood on the street I'm going to the streets I Don't like those streets if this is your first time tuning into a podcast I interview and share stories, trading strategies and more from some of the most inspiring Traders around the world Our Guest Today is Brandon Beavis one of Canada's top Finance YouTubers and founder of the investing Academy Brandon Started his YouTube channel with a goal of sharing the investing knowledge he learned while working as a financial advisor in Wealth Management In addition to being a full-time creator, entrepreneur, and dad, he's now also a strategic advisor for Blossom, an app that helps Canadians become smarter investors if you're ready to dive into this conversation with. Brandon Please remember to smash the like button and subscribe for more now and we have roller here! Brendan Vives Welcome Hey yeah! We chatted over the years old for like what last three years. Finally we have a video out together.

Well I Remember the first time we met in person I don't know if you remember I remember back when you said you didn't have too many you said I don't have any other YouTuber friends. but we ended up. we ended up being close neighbors. So yeah, you were one of my first YouTuber friends.

but first podcast for sure? Um I don't do I don't do podcasts very often really I feel honored. Oh okay, so we probably have a lot of viewers who don't know who you are yet. so if you could kind of tell people about who you are, what do you do and how, what's your involvement in the stock market? Um, so yeah, my name is Brandon um I run a YouTube channel. It's probably my biggest online presence I was actually one of the first Canadians to do it a number of years back I think it was 2016 or 2017 that I started.

Oh wow, so that's like time flies I was thinking about that. it's like six. How many years is that? Six years now? Seven six years? Yeah, at least over five years. I'm just like it's quite a while.

but yeah, back at the time there weren't too many. um YouTubers there were the big American ones, but not a crazy bunch here in the Canadian Market yeah and I had pursued a career working with my father in the investment space so I had all got my license saying yada yada and I'm thinking oh, this is some pretty valuable information that like my friends should know about at the time I was thinking like Millennials should know about and um I was like this might be a good chance to do a YouTube channel. So yeah, that's uh Gone I'd say decently. Well, we're one of the larger like investing focused YouTube channels in Canada and uh yeah, I would I would say that's kind of my main claim to fame if you will the brand investing YouTube channel now I actually work with my dad.

so if you looked at my channel now there's myself and then my father who networks with me on the the digital sphere. Oh so before you started making content, you were working in the investment space. Tell us a little bit uh, what you were working on with your dad. Yeah, so my dad had a basically a wealth management firm.

okay, an independent firm. So basically you could obviously go. If you want to get your money managed, you can go to the big Banks go work with an advisor. He kind of had his own little practice if you will and there's a lot of benefits doing it on your own because you're not really tied to what the bank tells you to do.

You can don't push certain products for sure. Um, so I did find that attractive. and obviously being my father, there was a good opportunity for me to work there. so pretty early on I mean I was licensed when I was 20.

like I was like actually got all my licensing done by age 20 and I mean I think a lot of my friends at the time weren't really thinking about that type of thing. so I felt very young I felt actually out of place at the time. But the plan was to go work for him kind of learn the ropes and I did that for four years and it was, uh, it was a good experience. Clearly it helped set my foundation for my knowledge.

Yeah, obviously it wasn't the end goal. his end goal would have been that I took over the firm, right? It's like I'll raise my son, take over the firm and pass it down. We see that too because like if I had you know, spent years he was in the space for I think 28 years before he retired. Um, so he spent you know, long, long time building up his his business.

and I can definitely see it's logical to want to pass it down. Yeah, but I kind of had my own ideas and I told him very early on. I'm like I don't know if this is what I want to do like managing the firm? yeah, managing other people, other people's money? yeah and and I think a big reason for that was his clientele was quite I don't want to say old, they're like old People you know, like. but they were certainly older than me, right? right? And you know you think now I'm 28.

But when when you're like a 20 year old, you know going to Sydney with these meetings and you're trying to essentially instruct people what to do with their money? yeah, it's such a big age Gap there's like their respect and credibility thing rightly so. and I definitely felt out of place and had I stuck to it I'm sure it just would have gotten better and better. Yeah, but from very early on I was like I want to come here and learn the knowledge absorb as much as I can. but then I knew I wanted to go do my own thing.

So I think that's kind of the the short brief history there and then obviously I went and did YouTube after. So for for these kind of more mature and wise clients, um, what were some of the things you helped them do well Like what kind of recommendations, what advice were you given them? Yeah, good question. So my dad was actually licensed. Basically, it's a bit different now, but this goes back.

you know, I guess seven, eight, nine years ago. But essentially when you're licensed as an advisor here in Canada you could be kind of like Mutual fundraig licensed or Iraq licensed. essentially able to buy and sell. Securities So my dad was on the security side, which was actually very, very beneficial for me because like, there's a lot of you know, licensed advisors.

Yeah, that. um, you know you go to the bank, you go talk to a quote-unquote licensed advisor and they just pop you into mutual funds. Yeah, and really I mean with all the respect, some of them don't even know what the heck they're doing. Yeah, my dad didn't originally when he started.

You know, however many years ago, he was selling mutual funds, but he then converted over to being able to build a portfolio of Securities So equities. ETFs Okay, right. Um, so essentially what he would do is a client would come in. Let's say, they just sold their business for a million dollars, sometimes more, sometimes less.

They'd come in with a big chunk of cash, they'd have all their goals, whatever the case is, and my dad would be the one to essentially formalize a plan and then actually invest the money on their behalf. Okay, and we did it. For the most part. all of individual stocks.

So yes, ETFs would be incorporated. but building the portfolio, you know. Kind of like what I learned a lot from him was how to manage a portfolio of stocks and how to properly crap, craft and create one and then obviously monitor it with time because that's so important. And then ultimately, what happened.

You know, in the later part of his career, he ended up being what's called a portfolio manager. Yeah, so that is actually a different designation. You have to, you know, get additional. Yeah, so there's like advisors.

Then there's portfolio managers. And it's essentially he ended up crafting up certain funds similar to how let's say Kathy Arc has their different funds right? Kathy Woods Okay, sorry did I say caviar The Arc Innovation So yes, hey to all my OG subscribers. do you remember our old friend? Kathy Wood Don't forget to give her a thumbs up if you miss her. I understand, Excuse me? Yeah Kathy Woods Arc Funds Excuse me.

but she has our Innovation yada. We had like we had like the Bwm Growth fund. the BDM Bwm Balance fund Beavis Wealth Management was the cup was the Oh I See exactly So then. So towards the end of his career, rather than managing let's say 50 or 100 different clients individually, he was managing set portfolios that people would essentially buy into.

Oh, what kind of stocks or assets are in those portfolios? Good. Really good question? Yeah, depends on what the objective of the funds were. Um, but you would get a lot of overlap. We primarily focused on like long-term Big Blue Chip equities.

So not the small caps. Nothing too exciting because again, you think about what the clientele was. These are people that had just sold their business. and yeah, you know, like I said, maybe mid or later in life and they kind of wanted to be more conservative if you will.

Um, so yeah, across the board you'd hold. you know the big Banks uh, the energy companies tech stocks U.S Canada some International companies, but basically kind of the big popular stocks that you'd see held across everywhere. Oh interesting, yeah. do you remember the first stock you ever bought? Was it for yourself or for your clients? for myself? I Do I do? Yeah, so it was a it's a fun story.

It's kind of part of my story because I bought my first stocks when I was like 10 or 11 years old. Like, not many people are buying stocks that early. Obviously that's a benefit of having a dad who's a financial advisor. Yeah, but I do remember that the first two stocks were Coca-Cola and McDonald's okay and I still own them to the to this day I'm sure I've sold off portions of them, but I believe in my portfolio, they still own both.

but yeah. I Remember my dad came home one day and obviously he's trying to get me into investing. Yeah, kind of get me. just just get me absorbed into the space.

and he came home with like a big sheet of paper and had a bunch of company lists like company names, tickers, numbers, paper on a paper like you print out a piece of paper. He sat me and my brother down and okay you know at the time like I'm like what the heck am I looking at and yeah, obviously like in hindsight, what it was was essentially just like a he was a screener and just had a bunch of stocks that he thought were trading at a fair fair value or a fair price like companies like Disney Like companies that we would like recognize. Yeah, a lot of them I didn't recognize. but um yeah, he essentially let us pick what stocks we wanted just to get us like it wasn't so much to make a great return.

And hey, over the years they have made a great return because it was like what 20 years ago? Yeah, but um yeah. essentially the stocks that I picked was McDonald's in Coca-Cola because I knew them and I like going McDonald's like drinking Cokes whatever as a kid like anyone else. but uh yeah, we ended up buying those four. I was like on our behalf you kind of had like a separate account that was called the Intrust for account.

so you obviously can't open an investing account when you're like 10 or 11. No, but there's a thing called a trust for account here in Canada and then when you turn of age that transfers into my name and I remember that very vividly because I got a whole bunch of money into my account. it was my buddy. Exactly so you you unintentionally started with dividend investing.

There you go. Coca-Cola and McDonald's exactly okay. I sure did. So So now after so many years, so obviously when you were 10, so now 20 almost 20 years later, yeah, do you still resonate more with dividend investing or growth investing? Or like a combination? I'd say a combination.

but it's funny. Like that boring style that was a kind of like shown to me at that age is still what? I like today? You know, stocks like Coca-Cola at McDonald's are a little bit on the conservative side for me right now. Yeah, but they're not out of the realm of what I would invest in because I Think what the the principle of what my dad was trying to teach me was that you know when you own stocks, as an investor, you really have to think like a business owner. You really have to understand like hey, what is these quality companies out there yeah that you can take part in and own And obviously Coke and McDonald's are prime examples.

even today. like the companies I aim for are like of that caliber and most of them happen to pay dividends dividends. So it's not that I would ever classify myself as strictly a dividend investor or strictly a growth investor. In fact, when people ask me like I would say I'm a hybrid investor.

Okay, because I like having components of both I have a lot of stocks that don't pay dividends, but a lot of stocks that do and I think like what I was getting at was by Nature If you're looking at a quality company that's been around for X number of years, a lot of them do pay a dividend. they're at a later point in their maturity and whatnot. So yeah, it's It's not that I would only pick stocks for dividends, but a lot of them just by nature of like a byproduct. do have a dividend.

Okay, yeah, so how often do you manage your own put very, not often. Yeah, a passive investor. Yeah, I mean because I do own stocks, it'd be one thing if it was ETFs Well there you go. Hands off.

yeah. but because I do own I think about 20 something individual stocks. Okay, I do like today I was looking at their earnings reports for Brookfield one of my Holdings but more so a lot of interest sake, right? My goal is to pick companies where I don't hey don't have to look at them every day. B you don't have to be looking at them for when they report earnings like if let's assume I'm going to own a company like Brookfield today which I actually just bought more of this week.

If this is a stock that I plan to hold over 20 30 years. like realistically, 30 years. Yeah, let's say retirement age. What happens today? What happens this month? What happens next year for the most part will not matter.

So the more that I can kind of step back and take my hands off of things, the better. in my opinion, that's how I like to structure my investments. So yeah, I'm certainly not looking at it every single day. Good good, yeah.

don't stress me out I I invest too even though I'm a Trader and I would say for most of my investments, I I pretty much never take a look I don't look at earnings I don't Well, I do when I'm trading them. Yeah, the investment long term. it's irrelevant unless it's something so so material that you're like okay, well this is actually gonna change something. and yeah, at that point you'll probably hear about it right? You'll probably hear about on the news if a company is merging with this, this or that.

But if they miss or beat their earnings by x amount, it's like more or less Irrelevant for the time frame that we would have as long further your long-term investing portfolio. Yeah, okay, so have you always been like a long-term investor? Have you ever dabbled in trade in trade? Never, Ever. No. Oh wow.

It's so funny because I know so many people when they come to the stock market. that's the first thing they would go to. They usually start with like swing trading. Usually start with trading.

That's what draws them in like that. quicker cash. and maybe that was just due to my dad getting me started so young. like if you think about it at 10 or 11, I was already being primed to just buy and hold.

Yeah right, buy a company Buy and Hold just boring you know I'm not like uh I like doing fun things like I like speculating in many other areas of my life but never the stock market. that was never interest for me I'll go to the casino I'll Sports bet I like doing sports gambling like I have my fun and I definitely gamble in certain areas but the stock market has just been like sectioned off. Yeah, that's just not where I do it. That's so funny because I never I've never gambled in the casino before.

yeah yeah yeah yeah. every day like I walked in but never been. you know, motivated enough to even put in like ten dollars I don't know. like I watched my friends play yeah I don't know how to play any of the the the the games you put the money in and then do the things oh the what's that thing? slots yeah slots is easy but I think I've done that.

There's card games. Yeah, that's interesting because yeah I mean a lot of people would consider you know, especially if you're uneducated, you go to the stock market. It's basically gambling in many respects. Obviously, when you're educated and you know what you're doing, that changes the dynamic.

But it's funny. It's yeah you'd think and it's similar for me like I Also section them off too. like yeah, but we're the Opposites Yeah, it stresses me out. the stock market.

It stresses me out if I'm looking at it too if I'm got too much money in there and I'm trying to do something over the short term that stresses me out. Oh okay, so when you finally started investing on your own when you're adults, right you You said when you turn 18 or 19, yeah, the account is now yours solely. Um, do you just then like how do you? what's your process like When selecting stocks for you to buy and hold knowing that you're going to hold it for the next 10 20 years and has that philosophy changed over the last couple of years? Yeah, it's definitely changed. I mean that's the thing I mean I I'm obviously still learning, right? Yeah, you never.

Master Picking stocks even the greatest out there make mistakes like I don't think you'd ever have a perfect process that you can just stick to for your whole life. So yeah, over the years it's definitely changed. and as I learned more and more I just adapt. Okay, but I mean fundamentally I mean I could go on for an hour but what? I look for at a stock so that would be probably a bit long.

but um yeah, very high level. I mean geez. I don't even have a checklist so to speak like I know a lot of people ask what's the checklist like what do you look for but my main takeaways would be essentially finding. like I said, a good business to start like that's like essentially, if you look at like a Warren Buffett approach on on stock market, that's kind of where I base a lot of my beliefs off of.

Okay, I do lean more value value-ish as well more value investing style if anything. But yeah, it starts with just like a identifying a stock that I think is a good business and there's many ways you can categorize that like yeah, you know, moats, who's running the company Obviously the numbers you can look at how they're growing and whatnot. There's a million like fundamental metrics you can look at and then you got to marry that up with the price and whether it's looking attractive at the moment because I always have my watch list of stocks of however many stocks that I would ideally love to own but most of them I don't own like that's kind of the fun of a watch list because I have all these stocks like hey, this would be great. this would be great but um, yeah, it's different than people that say well I love Teslas I'm going to buy Tesla I love Apple I'm gonna go buy Apple I may love all those companies, but I'll wait till I find a price that I think is attractive enough for the long term.

I see and that's where I guess I mean there's a million resources I could use to help identify that. Um, but yeah, it's kind of a big patient waiting game and there's like been a lot of scenarios where there's been a stock I've been monitoring for years. like literally years and then it's like finally at a point where I'm like oh, like say they have a 40 sell-off for whatever reason oh Now's the Time I see I think I want to own this. The company's still great.

the company's still going to do well over the you know next 20 years, but it's about being a little bit pickier with the entry. I Guess you may say okay I see this is my Approach Oh interesting. So a list of stocks and watch this that you want to buy at some point as long as they hit the price level that you're looking at possibly like has to be attractive. like are you looking at PE ratios or yeah, exactly exactly And I would say that that's one factor too, right? Another thing to consider: like do I already own X like if I look at my portfolio I already have X amount of tech stocks or x amount of telecom stocks.

As much as I may want another one, it may not make sense relative to the overall portfolio Okay So that's one thing too. And then obviously you can go crazy in terms of like buying stocks and then before you know you have 30, 40, 50 stocks. That's unreasonable and unmanageable as well. Okay, so there's there's the actual independent.

You could look at the stock in and of itself and say is this a good buy? yes or no and then you kind of look at it from like a portfolio management standpoint and says how and say how does this fit into my portfolio. Does it even fit in there and together those kind of you come to a conclusion Like I said, there's no like I wish there was a checklist that I could just say yes or no, but it's like kind of a dance around all these pieces and then sometimes they make it in, sometimes they don't But you look at a waiting and allocation as well. That's an allocation exactly in my Investment Portfolio taught me like 90 Tech growth. There you go.

Maybe that works for you and again, maybe it's the traditional background I come from. But if a client came into our our practice and had a million dollars from a business and they were 90 in Tech like we'd get our heads chopped off right? So that's too aggressive. Too far too aggressive again for most I mean maybe for some maybe it's not, but being very conscious of the different sectors and not just being Diversified for the sake of being Diversified Yeah, but obviously during different economic periods, certain sectors tend to outperform underperformed. Yeah, being able to like massage that right? You kind of have like a base allocation if you will, and then you can manipulate that and massage that.

But in theory, the goal is to like and again, it gets back to what I talked about earlier. We're like I don't want to be checking my portfolio every day. Yeah, if I structure my portfolio in such a way that it is so properly diverse. Whatever happens over the next six months year like there's a war over here or This president's here, it doesn't really shouldn't really matter, right? If you're owning high quality companies in the right amounts relative to each other.

Yeah, it's like a kind of future proofing your future, proofing your portfolio kind of thing. Do you think it's possible to be too overly overly Diversified that you get so average returns? Absolutely. If you want to be that, Diversified just buy the index. Well, there you go.

That's that's such a fair argument. I Think my take on it is that the more convicted you are on a particular stock or a sector even. let's say tech for example. or Tesla whatever your favorite stock is I Mean the more you diversify, the less returns you may receive, right? You're basically like, yeah, it's it's a safer way of playing it.

And there absolutely is a Tipping Point where there's too much right diversification I think when you have an investor who really knows what they're doing. So the more I guess educated they are. If I saw their portfolio and they had, let's say like five stocks, a quite concentrated portfolio. To me, that shows that they have very high conviction in such and such stocks.

Yeah, it could also be crazy if they don't know what they're doing but somebody that the more convicted you are and often the more educated you are, the fewer stocks you can hold, right? Yeah, you take fewer bets and you make bigger bets and often the reward is bigger. Yeah, but for the average person I mean one thing people like. It's funny when people come to me and say oh, you have a YouTube channel you must be an expert expert I'm 28. There's no never claim to be an expert I'm just trying to be your average person who does like investing in stocks and again for my lifestyle I Prefer that more Diversified easygoing approach.

Yeah, more passive, more passive. More hands off. exactly. Because again, I don't want to be as involved as maybe some people do.

I'm actually learning quite a lot from Brandon's investing strategy. What about you do you have any questions for Brandon Feel free to leave them down below. he'll be answering them below. So the portfolio you have now your Investment Portfolio How long does it take for you to build up to this point and have you sold any socks? I definitely sold stocks.

and okay, not as often as buying stocks like I buy way more stocks than I sell. But over the years of course you sell stocks and I remember even you know I think it was a couple years ago, you know I had to buy a home I wanted I wanted to buy a holiday I want to buy a townhouse and like you know, the price of homes here. So yeah, I had to look to my Tfsa that's where I decided. So I actually like wiped it all out to put towards the down payment.

So I mean that was a very sad day because I had been building up my Tlsa for years and you know it's like your little prize little possession and then um, but I need to come up with the money. So I've sold that and I'm working on rebuilding that up. But yeah, I mean I've been technically building my portfolio since I started investing when I was young. Obviously the dollar figures like when I say I started when I was 10 or 11.

like they're so marginal that it's like not even worse. literally 25 bucks. Whatever it is. But I think it is important to get into that habit and doing that over years and years and years and years.

But uh, yeah, more recently I mean obviously I take it more seriously. Actually, right now is a really tricky Point um because interest rates have gone so high and then stupid me on variable, uh mortgage? Oh no, you don't even want to know the mortgage rate. So like I mean my mortgage is like more than doubled in the past year in a bit. Yeah and basically I mean I was paying 3 500 a month for my mortgage originally which is like already okay, that's a good good chunk.

Yeah yeah, now it's up at like seven thousand something per month so you can imagine how stressful that is and like write off some of the interest for my house. No the I do have a rental condo too, which that one obviously you can, but you work from home. but I don't really work from home. Yeah, for my town.

for my townhouse, that's my, that's my home home. I do have an office as well. um So that obviously I do separate them I Guess you could argue I do that. Do stuff at home so there you go.

Maybe give me some ideas. Um, but yeah. anyway so what I was pointing. getting there is like it's not fun getting your mortgage rates doubled like there's a huge trade on your cash flow for sure.

So what's actually been sad is over the past little while I've been putting less and less money into my investments I've been trying to pay it on the mortgage faster because actually what I'm doing like I'm paying. you know, are you in a variable mortgage? No, No. Okay, good good choice because basically I could be paying less and then just it just extends my amortization period like forever like it literally would be 100 plus years and essentially never pay off. the yeah, the term of the mortgage would essentially just go on and on and on.

You're essentially just paying interest, interest and that was something I didn't I could do and just like rent from the bank if you will. but it's just that makes no sense to me. So I've in fact not only kept up my normal amortization period like I've increased my my mortgage payments so that it still pays over the normal time. I've even gone beyond that because I want to pay it down faster.

Oh, I see, and that's just due to the fact that interest rates are. it's a guaranteed return if I do that. Yeah, and the stock market right now I mean even right now, it's a bit, uh, unsure of what the shorter term holds. At least right.

But it sucks. Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. Well, what what would it be like if you switch from variable to fix right now right now I could.

but I don't think I'd want to do that. They I think that's six percent fixed? You certainly could I think that's probably about the range it is. Yeah, but uh yeah. I'm I'm fine with just doing variable going forward I feel like the suckers.

the suckers get scared at the top and then they they want to lock in the face. Is that what you did Sir no no I I uh yeah no I and everyone went on variable smart right? But but yeah I know it's like I remember seeing like literally the bank called me this was maybe a few months ago but they called me and said like oh, do you want to lock in your raid you know, do you want to fix your raid I'm like why are you calling me to fix my RAID like I don't need you to like it it got me suspicious right? I mean Financial YouTube I know I'm talking I'm like I'm thinking if you want me to fix my rate at this percent here like I mean they're doing it because I think it's in their best in interest they they want, they're trying to make as much interest as possible and if they're going out calling everybody um to go fix their rates yeah uh, it's a little sign to me. Maybe if I can stomach the cash flow strain now yeah I mean hey, who knows over the next few years or a couple years. but I think hopefully we see the rates come back down.

Okay yeah so I guess now that you own your home and you have a rental property, so now that you own your home and you mentioned you have a rental property, is that a much bigger allocation than what you have in the stock market? just by nature of the way things are in Vancouver by Nature it's not what I want and that's like to me. I've always wanted you know my stock market to be bigger. um yeah, but you're you nailed it. Like if I want to have a home here even rental aside, like you know, even just my my current town home is just the prices are so expensive.

Um, if you want a place here, a lot of your money gets tied up there. So yeah, technically call me a real estate investor. more money in real estate stocks. not what I want.

but that is how it is. Yeah, but I think percentage-wise your stocks are probably gonna do better than the well, you never really know the real estate. Vancouver Can go another 50, who knows. but that's the thing.

I I Have no clue what to expect? Yeah, and it's like I juggle with that question all the time. because yeah, with the stock market. at least if history has told us anything. I I kind of know what I can expect? Yeah, right? based on structural portfolio, the market real estate market here I have no clue like it's already so expensive can keep going up.

Whatever returns could you get, um it's yeah, it's It's difficult to know, but is there any individual stocks in your portfolio that you think was a mistake investing in? Yeah, Okay, we can talk about your favorite, your your biggest wins and biggest losses too. Don't worry, don't worry, we're not talking. We can talk about the losses. It's um no, it's fine.

it's always such a good question. But yeah of course I over the years had you know obviously stocks that have sucked and even right now I have stocks in my portfolio that have sucked. Um I do every once in a while buy some small caps? Oh you do every once in a while. What happened to the McDonald's the the Brookfield That's one side of the story.

What? Well, if you let me finish okay, they've always bite me in the butt, they've always burned me, and obviously I just limit a very small portion. Again, this goes back to the portfolio construction aspect. Yeah, you know if I'm literally allocating a couple percentage points on my entire portfolio there, it's like a couple hundred bucks, 500 bucks, a thousand bucks. so that's nothing meaningful.

but no. and and literally I think in almost every case I've like lost buddy. So it comes to the point where like why am I even holding this I mean the one I have right now I think Sofi is uh one of my kind of sofa is one of my Duds I think they pick up a little bit as of recently but I'm looking at that in my portfolio I'm like why do I own this like this doesn't belong here. but did you buy in 2021? I bought a uh probably around 2021.

Yeah yeah so that's when all the all the following all the theme stops are going well. so exactly so down pretty bad on that one. but obviously the biggest Duds in my portfolio are like my Chinese stocks I'm like super optimistic on okay on China Okay I mean I'm not trying to say China but Chinese stocks in particular I do actually think um, like are we talking about Alibaba I own 10 cent and Alibaba oh okay yeah so and I even own another one actually called antisports I don't know if you know that one ampdy very lesser known but they're basically big athletic athletic wear company. so okay Nike of China oh yeah okay so those are my three uh Chinese stocks I've held them really since like 20 and to sports I've held since like 2017 Tencent I've held since 2017 so quite a while.

So I've read some like big ups and big Downs yeah the Chinese stocks have soul volatile. so much volatility. yeah like not for the faint of heart and that's why I say like when I'm a more you know a hybrid investor it's like I have a lot of boring stocks but I also have some quite To me that's a quite volatile stock right? Not like a a Bitcoin or a small cap. but they do move like that honestly because yeah, I'm down pretty bad on those, right? I think down close to 30 40 right now.

Um, but that's okay. it's um, yeah. I I am actually overly I'm more optimistic than most on uh China as a country as a nation over the next couple decades. and I think these companies are especially tencent.

I Really like there's a massive, massive company. They they do like a lot of gaming in China right? They do everything. but yeah. gaming.

WeChat Oh, everything they do. but they do all gaming as well. Illegal events. Yeah, and do you hold those stocks in kind of like a Tfsa? Uh, it depends.

It depends on what. Uh, that's another thing when it comes to your portfolio. like you know, Tfsa RSP there are arguments to be made about which stocks should go. Yeah, where? Whether they're dividend stocks, us spending dividend stocks.

Um, for the most part, I don't get too picky about that. Okay, but I I do typically like to hold my U.S stocks in the Rrsp for example. Like, especially if it's a U.S dividend stock because of the withholding tax. Yeah, you actually get to bypass that.

there's a treaty in place. Um, but that said, I'm also completely fine with holding a US dividend stock in my Tfsa A lot of people would like say oh, I'm never going to do that because of the withholding tax and to me, that's just like it's not the right approach. Um, it's good to be aware of that type of thing. but like that shouldn't be the reason why you do or don't invest in a company, right? So for example, there's a stock here which is like an amazing U.S stock and it pays a dividend and you're gonna say I'm not going to hold that in my Tfsa because it pays the dividend because that's the wrong year, You're looking at the wrong way because if that's a stock, that's going to be a 10xer for you.

Yeah, who cares if there's 15 withheld on the dividend, You know what I'm saying. So it's it's not like a law. um, but there is preferential placement of where you put them. Um, okay, yeah.

so I think I own those stocks in my Rrsp. You guys know that on this channel I Always encourage you to diversify into areas outside of trading. And another thing I also ask of you is to smash the like button. What are some of your biggest wins as a investment? I Guess any individual stocks that you think you did like the best on it's a good question and it's probably a very different answer from a lot of your guests and even you because it's unlike a trade where you can say hey, I made this much or I profited this much like I entered and exited I mean some of my biggest wins.

If you look at my portfolio like I think Apple's up like 300 something percent. Oh wow, Amazon's up quite a bit and that's not like from anything special. that's just from holding it was literally buying it and holding it for a long enough time. So it's not.

Um, and those are unrealized gains too. Like in theory, if those companies go bust tomorrow, they're gone. True, So they've done well and it's kind of like that. Snowball Effect Uh, and to me, as an investor, it's like I'm not trying to go for wins.

uh, over the short term like a real win would be 20 years from now. I Look at my portfolio and everything's just snowballed into something so much bigger. Um, so it's a really delayed gratification type thing. but yeah, I don't even classify like the word win like like a Trader would.

Yeah, because they're not realized, not realized And it's also not fast and exciting. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's quite slow. Um, some people can, you know, do options or they can go pick a good stock and make 300 really fast.

It's taken me years to make 300 on such and such stock, right? Yeah, so it's nothing really to be too excited about. But I do believe that I'm on the right track and I'm doing what? I what? I'm supposed to do Um, and over the next 20 years I'll be able to look back and say okay, well that was a big That was a big win that I bought the stock early enough and held it. So since you have a lot of experience working with investors of all different ages, how would you recommend someone to invest in their 20s 30s versus much later on? let's say in 40s and 50s from an investing standpoint, Yeah, well. I think in terms of the actual Investments that's very.

You know whether it's ETS whether it's stocks, that's more preferential right? that's like a personal preference. Do you want to be hands off in passive or do you want to be more active and involved? So that's like based on the individual person. but if you're going to break it up between different age groups I think the better question to ask is like you're like Risk like how much risk are you willing to take yeah, what's your allocation going to be? How are you going to structure the portfolio and what types of investments will you pick? like on the more growth side or on the more conservative side? Um, probably what you'd expect I mean in your 20s, why not go for all outgrowth pretty much right? I say all our growth not like Reckless stupid, you know Meme stock growth? Uh, why not? I mean I guess in your 20s, go for it. You don't probably don't have that much money anyways.

but um, to me, sure, you could do the meme stocks. I Still think it's like start that base for your future. um with a good portfolio. Yeah, um, something.

Diversified like obviously an index fund or whatever. Um, you can honestly leave that for quite some time. like up until even your mid midlife 20s 30s, 40s, 40s. Maybe when you're kind of like really kicking life into gear like kids.

Family Mortgage Um, you need a bit more security, you could start to kind of maybe take some growth off the table and go for a little bit more balance. Like whether that's with like some fixed income cash or bonds, or even just something more like income focused Okay, like dividends? Yeah, dividends. Yeah, for sure. dividends.

Okay, um and then it's really when you're like starting to approach retirement or whenever you're gonna stop working that that's when the real big shift has to come right? Because you've been growing your portfolio all these years and decades now. You have this big pool. It's like let's structure that for a so we don't lose it and B so that we can spin off income like every month. Typically if you're actually going to stop working and that's when I guess you could get you know more more conservative but so hard to put a blanket it answer there Because like right we worked.

You know in our in our past we work with people 60 70 who are like quite aggressive and quite um, they wanted to own the tech, They wanted to own everything. and then you have young kids who are like just super, uh, scared of things and then knocked put their money in a girl. Yeah, weirdly enough. but I guess that is like kind of a blanket, uh, transition.

But so I've heard some people who have a sizeable Investment Portfolio in stocks. Um, what they do is they eventually they borrow against the investment so that works well well. I would imagine I Want to hear your thoughts in a lower interest rate environment where their investment keep on growing and they pay the interest and they just take out whatever is borrowed and live on the borrowed the long. Essentially, what are your thoughts on that and what kind of people would you recommend that for? No I think that's a very fair consideration.

and yeah, I think it would certainly be more favorable in a low interest rate environment than not yet because just borrowing costs. But you? yeah, that's something that actually I don't have a whole bunch of experience that particular strategy I Can't say I've had experience working with that I Mean logically what you said could make sense because if you sell, yeah, you get taxed right, right? and if you borrow against that, you only paying the interest rate. So hypothetically speaking, if you believe in those investments will keep on going even after I'm ready to retire I think I can keep going I don't want to like Miss out another 20 30 50 percent when I'm retired. Let's say you know and if I still have to pay, you know a lot of tax right? So no, it's a fair thought I wish I had more to contribute there.

but maybe I'll ask you what to add. yeah, see what he thinks I feel like he'd have a good answer for that? Yeah, it's really interesting because there's only a couple things searching in life, death, and taxes right? So it's like yeah, true, yeah. So let's talk about your YouTube channel. Now you have now over 200 000 subscribers.

No right I Remember that yeah when I first started my YouTube channel I was like oh, there's not a lot of other Finance YouTubers in Canada you are one of the only ones. Yeah yeah. so what made you to because you were in the traditional Finance space Being an advisor working in wealth management, What made you decide to kind of pivot because you am I right, like you eventually quit writing advisor? What made you decide to do such a big jump? Well I mean first of all I've always loved video creation which is one thing. like if it didn't like that and like then yeah YouTube would be probably not for me.

But I think the honest answer was like as a 20 year old working at my dad's firm I didn't like like talking to the old to the old people like okay so the wise experience wisdom yeah we'll call it what you want okay and like don't get me wrong, they were like the nicest people like his clients were like just like literally like the nicest families. but I'm just like why do I like I'm like a 20 year old I want to play video games all those other stuff I'm like I don't want to be doing this but I did think that the information was valuable and that's why I thought well YouTube is this platform where I can then broadcast that out to like however many people and I saw people having early success on YouTube again mainly in the states. So I'm like why don't I try to do this take the Canadian Focus um kind of try and capture that market and um yeah that's kind of the the reasoning why I started it, it was just I guess as a millennial yeah I'm I think I'm like right at the end of a millennial I'm not quite a gen Z but like I'm still a very Millennial but it was just more my nature to like do something digital and again like you think about it not long ago like like this whole influence or influencer space like wasn't really a thing. Yeah right it got really big like 2019 2020 I think like literally and now it's like a legit thing and there's so many people that just want to do this and it's like careers and everything.

but at the time there was like I kind of had a feeling there would be an idea like this like a space like this but also not entirely sure I saw like just like the start of it with some other people in the states so I was like oh it doesn't hurt to try um and then you know committed to it and just you know, five or six years later like we're still here. So yeah, so far so good. Okay is it difficult I thought you had to quit or like you want my Dad's too nice, she's too nice. see he's like too nice I tell him he's too nice he didn't like make you stay no he um he at first he was super like I mean typical um you know older, you know baby boomers like oh I don't know, like what you do like you know the typical stuff.

but once he started seeing the traction and uh the revenue the money started making. After a little while it just became more and more real. It's like oh well, maybe there is an opportunity. uh here.

um so yeah, but never anything but supportive. Like I said, his goal would have been for me to take over the firm, but I made it very clear and very long. I'm like I don't think this is what I want to do like sitting in an office like you'll never catch me in a suit entirely. That's just not a thing you probably see.

this is I always see you in a T-shirt and you you guys cannot see this but he's literally wearing Crocs it's this same t-shirt so like I have two T-shirts I have they're from Lululemon so I have this one and then my gray one and I kind of cycle between them I hope you watched them every once in a while. every once. Did you wash that shirt yesterday? No wonder it smells. It smells fine though.

it smells fun okay but yeah. like that whole corporate and it's not that it was a big corporate business. it was a very cool family office but it just still wasn't uh entirely for me and I just thought, well maybe YouTube is a pathway more up my alley. Yeah, kind of the focus yeah.

but if you kind of think about the two different career paths in terms of the impact you could have and value you bring, yes you bring a lot of value working in The Firm but we're talking about like 20 50 clients literally on YouTube you can reach millions and so I think if we're talking about like you know how much value you can bring to society in that aspect you you you definitely do. You can reach way more people and educate people about investing all the Canadians us Americans about investing in much better way as a YouTube channel doing a YouTube channel you literally nailed it. Yeah, that's like big facts. Um so is your dad proud of you now? Well he works with you I'm proud of him.

Yeah I'm more proud of him for an older guy who knows YouTube because yeah basically like long story short I mean it actually became full circle I said think about this you know I was kind of like he was like my mentor and I learned from him and I was looking for him. He was my boss. Yeah like literally my boss paid me and got in trouble all this stuff and I ended up branching off to go to YouTube Yeah and then I re I recruited him come to YouTube and he ended up selling his. He sold his firm in 2021.

Oh he sold it. He retired. Yeah! so he basically retired from the tradition to do YouTube because uh so yeah it came full circle and now he works with me. So I'm I'm actually extremely I know he's proud of me, but I'm extremely proud of him for adapting to change and yeah, and just taking on a new project at that time.

like um, and yes for a good reason like it's making an impact and I think yeah, that's what really drives him. like he just genuinely wants to help people and he can help so many more people. So um yeah, it's just a funny Dynamic how that worked but basically how it works. like with the whole compliance and like regulations here in Canada it's quite weird.

like when you are a financial advisor like for example when I was 20 and when I was working for my dad with Manulife so Manulife was kind of like the back end okay we use Manulife yeah I could not make a YouTube video oh or a tweet or a Facebook post like I couldn't say anything about investing online without getting their compliance approval on it. and like you know how slow these people move like dinosaurs like send something in. it's like a week later like I'll revise it like it was ridiculous so was were all your videos. Compliance improved well for the first four years.

For the first few years that I worked with my dad I wasn't doing YouTube I was genuinely just doing this like I was like oh I want to do something else I have a plan yeah but yeah like right when I started work from I Didn't Do YouTube I also didn't know enough like I wanted to learn at least a few years under his under his like okay um guidance right? because the coursework it gives you so far but you you learn from actually like working with the clients and like managing the portfolios. But did you have to give up your license to make you two? So that's that's exactly it. Oh, that's what I'm saying. So I made it pretty.

It was a pretty pivotal point where like after a couple years of working for him yeah, I'm like I want to start this YouTube thing I want to give it a try and I had to give up. like literally it's called surrendering your license. You want you have to surrender your license to go, even make a YouTube video on Twitter to literally make a tweet and I'm thinking it's it's ironic because yeah, I understand it because like let's say for example, like we were licensed with Manulife and that's why let's say I go say a bunch of stupid stuff like go buy this, go do this, whatever it is and then people get mad. it could reflect bad on Manulife if I'm like a registered representative for Manulife that's why they need compliance approval right? So if they're The Firm if Manulife is here they want to know all their advisors are you know doing what they they're not doing anything out of line.

So that's why. if you want to have like a you know extra activity or yeah Oba you need to get there. Basically they're okay on it and everything pass through compliance. So yes, I had to basically make a choice and say I've done all the studying I've been working here Yeah I want to try and pursue YouTube I sacrifice like surrender my license could create whatever I want? Yeah and then like I said in 2021, my Dad decided to do the same thing because so he also surrendered.

Yeah well, he sold his business around his license Exactly. So when people ask you are you licensed advisor right now I'm not I was but you were I was. But in order to make YouTube videos, we had to give it up it would it would not work. Is that a manual life specific? No, no that's everywhere.

That's really because I'm pretty sure there are some other license. Yeah well in the states. if you're looking at the states states is different because I mean I had a million conversations on this. We talked with her when we had to.

but yeah, in the U.S in the US is very different. It depends on how yeah it depends on how the firm is structured and who's overseeing it. But um, yeah, they're very very picky. Wait, but how does that? Channel The Bagel guy playing Bagel yeah he's licensed.

How does he make YouTube videos? Uh, they they get approved by compliance I'm sure. So that's what I'm saying. you can get them. Let's assume I wanted to make a video I could I still made videos actually when I was with my dad but I sent them to compliance I waited two weeks.

They said this is good to post and then I posted it and that's what I'm saying if you look at like playing. Bagel Richard Who's like freaking awesome? He doesn't post videos every day. He's not posting stories and shorts. he's like posting like a video probably every month.

which I'm going to assume he got vetted by his compliance team. I See, so it's doable, but it's like if you're going to be a full-time content creator, it's unrealistic. See: this is why you should be a Trader You don't have to be licensed to be a Trader There you go. Yeah, maybe in another level.

Yeah, a lot of people ask me. oh do you have like a finance background? Well, is there any education college that will help with trading? No. If you are trading swing trading, technicals, momentum or doesn't like those I'm sure it helps, but you really don't need and you learn from the streets. You learn from doing it.

You learn from the streets literally And the streets are rough right? I Can imagine that's why. So I Know your channel mostly talk about investing, but do you have viewers who also trade and like? What are some of the biggest misconceptions you see from your viewers when they are like first approaching a market and mixing trading with investing? Um, it's tough to say like I don't have a really good pulse on what percentage of them do trade and don't trade? Of course there are yeah I would say actually more commonly what I do know is that a lot of people come to us and they've tried trading first and it hasn't worked out and then they are saying well now I want to learn how to invest. Okay, so I'm sure like I said I'm sure there's a lot that are doing both, but more commonly what I see is Oh I tried trading I didn't know what I was doing. lots of money yada, yada but now I'm looking to structure something for for the long term and that's actually like a big part of my audience.

Oh okay, so they have dabbled before or even dabbled more so than I have. Yeah, but for whatever reason, maybe they didn't have a good experience. maybe they lost money. um maybe they didn't want to commit the time that it took to be a successful Trader didn't work with their lifestyle.

They then say you know what I'm just gonna like give up and just try it. Just okay. Park my money into long-term Investments Oh interesting. Yeah for me, it's like if I I also started out with like swing trading with like trading around I thought I was investing so I was that confused Trader slash investor.

Yeah but if I didn't trade then I wouldn't have had a capital to invest like investing with a thousand dollars. It's not like we're talking about a hundred dollars. No, maybe you know a month. then eventually I have a thousand dollars to invest that's tough like you.

that's why I think it's that's the reason I feel like if you have a little amount of money I'm not saying you should trade, but I'm just saying you should use that to to invest in something like a skill or education that can help you make more money then you have something substantial to invest with. Yeah because I'm just thinking like I didn't really invest until I kind of started having like more steady income from Trading and my job yeah because otherwise it would be like ten dollars a a month. I I can agree with that I I can agree with that I guess I'd spin it back on you and say like for what about for a lot of the people that maybe don't have the opportunity to like, maybe they don't have the time or they have a family and they're just like like being an entrepreneur or like doing the side hustles like not not a thing like it's just that's not happening. um should those people then not invest or is it still like the best option they have because I'd assume also trading would be take a lot of time to learn a lot of commitment.

Yeah to me it's like even if I do totally 100 agree with you that if I had a smaller amount of money and I was like young and 20 if I was like in my late teens like rather than just saying oh well I'm just going to park it all away like I would try to learn a skill and try to make more money. That's actually what I would personally do. So I 100 agree with that, but there is a big big portion of the population which like maybe that's just not in their personality type to do or the situation because they have family or work or constraints. Um and for those people, hey, maybe they want to learn trading um in their spare time but if they don't want to do that, I do think like resorting to investing even with smaller amounts, it does make a difference.

Over the years compounding and obviously differences like different people need it for money when they get older, right? So for us we may be striving for such and such amount for this person, they may be starting for this amount for this person. Eve maybe even 400 000 at retirement would be like a huge boost. Yeah, um so even the smaller amounts they can go a long way when you do compound that long enough over long enough times. Um, so yeah, I think it's that's my Approach at least okay, makes sense.

Yeah, no. I don't think that's right or wrong ends I think it's true. it's up to everyone's own Exactly Yeah, exactly Yeah. I Know some people who take that one thousand dollars and go to the casino right? Yeah, it's like which one's better.

Probably investing? That's better Exactly Yeah Exactly. I I Know we talked about earlier that when you first started YouTube there wasn't a lot of investing information online. Nowadays it's almost like this. Too much information.

So whether you're a Trader or investor like for for you, you will have investors coming to you. They get overwhelmed with like where to start. You know where to start building their wealth. Where would you recommend people to start investing in? How? Well geez and like I Guess people want some simple step-by-step process.

Some simple step-by-step process. Well I think you're exactly right. There's like way too many things nowadays, which I think is a blessing and a curse because in my opinion now you have so many options to choose from, right? Yeah, I think it's a good. it's a good thing.

Like I think even between you and I we have different investment. Styles Different personalities, different people resonate with with different people. Yeah and to me if I was like a first-time investor I would want to find some I Would want to find some creators because they're the most enjoyable to watch. They may not know everything the best as an expert, but they're still enjoyable.

And that's like step one in terms of like getting yourself into into the space right? You gotta starts hearing the lingo and just getting yourself engaged in the field. So I think the fact that there are a lot of different creators and a lot of blogs and news sources out there. like if you can find somebody that you a trust and hopefully they have you know experience like someone who's been through it and they're transparent I Think it's a good idea to start at least listening to them, not saying blindly, follow what they say. Yeah, you know, listen to them for a while and get a sense and just kind of start to pick up little things here and there.

and I mean that's to me. YouTube is a really cool place where like even amongst like us creators there's there's like a million. There's like so many yeah like this guy like this from this guy. Yeah to me it'd be so fun to just be like listening like if I do understand it's overwhelming and um I guess some people do make it is quite complex especially when it comes to like certain areas of the stock market.

but there's a ton of beginner resources out there and channels to follow. Um yeah, there's this because they don't teach investing in school? No yeah no yeah. I Remember Googling How to dollar cost average right? What is that right? How to buy a stock? Yeah, yeah, that's like everybody, right? Unless you have maybe friends or family that really encourage you or help you, it's just like you hear that all the time with everybody. and then you see a lot of people out like on the streets.

You meet friends. you're going out like a lot of them. Just don't invest. How many people do you see on the streets every day? Lots of people on the streets.

Yeah, depending on what street it is, there's some busy streets. but I guess I'm uh like I'm saying one or out with let's say a friend or something I mean still a lot of people in my age group. they just don't invest like it's just not. It's just foreign to them.

It's just not a consideration, trade or invest. Um, it's just different. Like it's crazy actually. Yeah so yeah.

I think it's just getting yourself initially exposed to the to the area somehow. I think that's that's step number one. Yeah I have so many friends, they're like oh yeah I contributed to my Tfsa or RSP I'm okay, what's in it I don't know. it's just in my RBC Tfsa accounts cash.

So it's like I think you know people need to know. It's good that they're putting money away, but they need to put it to work too. Yeah yeah, it starts with the education right? Like it starts with if you, it's not their fault that they don't know. Like you said, it's not not taught in the household.

It's not taught in the schools you have to like actively go out of your way to learn it. And then it's also for a lot of people. Not like a necessarily exciting field unless you're like dork or a nerd. But I think that's where um, like on.

YouTube The finance influencers make it fun to start learning about investing. I think so I think that's definitely a bit of. It's starting to bridge it right? Yeah, it's better than like, you know, sitting in front of a lecture hall or like some guy going through a car. Yeah, yeah, that would certainly be very, very nice.

So yeah, I think I mean even think about the content you produce is like it's fun, right? It's it's different. Look at your shirt. It's still kind of fun. You know it's like, you know this is like my best investments of the summer.

Twenty dollars. Everyone loves it. I Love it. It pops up in front of the cameras and um, perfect.

So after hearing our conversation just now about trading versus investing which one would you choose to do first, trading or investing, let me know your thoughts down below. If people are interested in seeing what you're investing like, let's see for me: I Want to know what kind of stocks you're invested in? where can we go see your Investment Portfolio Well that's funny because this was actually one of the things. like when I was younger I always like that was something I actually wanted like I Remember like being in my dad's office and I'm like I wonder what this person's investing I wonder what this person's investing? it's just a good idea. l