The Only News That Matters For Your FIRE Journey This February
Filter financial noise to stay focused on your FIRE journey. Learn which news matters, key investment questions, and how to build wealth efficiently.
FIRE
2/26/20257 min read
Bad News
I don’t know about you, but I feel like the last two months have felt more like a year (you can take me back to 2024 any day now). We have been constantly bombarded with what may appear as bad news for your financial future. Here is a small list of those negative headlines:
President Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada (only to be removed… then re-introduced in 30 days)
President Trump Imposes an additional 25% tariffs on steel imports from Canada
Canadian Dollar hit a 5 year low dropping to 68 cents USD
Canada’s CPI increased to 1.9% despite the GST Holiday
The S&P 500, TSX, & Dow Jones aren’t starting as strong in 2025, as they did in 2024
Tech stocks tumbled over fear of a Chinese competitor DeepSeek
Warren Buffett’s cash pile continues to increase, making investors feel like the stock market is overvalued.
Trudeau confirms that Trump actually wants Canada to be the 51st state (for real!)
Even the scariest movies in the theatres right now couldn’t give me more heart palpitations that these headlines
How I Am Responding
I wouldn’t blame you if these headlines have caused you to run to the hills…
Fear has likely caused many people to sell their stocks, and buy assets such as bonds, GIC’s, or even gold (gold is also the best performing asset so far this year). But even those assets are too scary for some…so they resort to stuffing their money under their mattress (AKA a savings account).
I’m not here to tell you what to do right now. All I can say is what I have done, and continue to do…nothing but continue buying.
My rationale is quite simple, I believe that the long term trajectory of the stock market is up. Unfortunately though, I have absolutely no clue what it will do in the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years. History suggests on timelines longer than 10 years, that the market should be up. And despite what the doomsayers love to tell you, this pattern has occurred through much scarier times then we are currently living in.
What Should Guide Your Investment Decisions
But before you follow in my footsteps, you should ask yourself some questions:
Do you need the money you have invested in the next 5-10 years?
Can you tolerate a 50% drop in your stocks without withdrawing?
Are you diversified across several sectors and countries?
Are you diversified across asset classes (ie. stocks, bonds, gold, crypto, & real estate)?
Do you have a 3-6 month emergency fund?
Is your income dependent on one source?
Can you reduce your spending in case of a lay-off, or are most of your costs fixed (ie. housing, food, car loan)?
These are questions that you should always consider, but especially so during tumultuous times such as the one we are in right now. Your answer to these questions should guide your investment decisions…not the latest and hottest news article.
Good News
Despite all of these bad news articles, there was one good thing that will have a long term positive impact on your FIRE journey that occurred this month. This was the recent changes to Questrade, a discount brokerage in Canada. If you were completely preoccupied with all negative news, you would have missed the following changes they made:
The switch to $0 commission trades on stocks, ETF’s, and options (ie. you pay $0 when you buy and sell)
They are planning to introduce fractional shares. This allows you to buy a fraction of a company’s share for less than the price of a full share (even for $1)
They are planning to introduce crypto currency trading
A 3% cashback transfer on the first $10,000 and 1.5% afterwards on amounts over $10,000 (up until February 28th)
This is fantastic news considering the impact of fees on investment growth. Let’s use an example: Imagine Bob and Barry both invest their money in the same stocks. Bob at a discount brokerage firm, and Barry at a high fee brokerage firm. For simple math lets assume their stocks return 7% annually before fees, and they both invest $500/month for 40 years. After fees, Bob returns 7%, but Barry only makes 6% (due to losing 1% in trading fees). What is the end result?
Bob will retire with $1,243,258
Barry will retire with $958,981
I don’t know about you, but $284,277 seems like a high price to pay for the choice of brokerage firm. This is why options like this are so great for young Canadians such as yourself looking to achieve FIRE.
Conclusion
Who knows what chaotic event(s) March has in store for us. Hopefully, this update provided you with some piece of mind…or maybe not. Regardless, I will be back next month though to spill the tea and try to keep you on track to reaching your FIRE goal. Stay bullish everyone! Until next time.
Disclaimer: The information discussed in this blog is not financial advice, and is meant for educational purposes only. Please consult a personal financial expert before making any financial decisions.
If you like this post you may also like:
Citations
Questrade. (n.d.). Questrade. Retrieved February 26, 2025, from https://www.questrade.com/
Bad News
I don’t know about you, but I feel like the last two months have felt more like a year (you can take me back to 2024 any day now). We have been constantly bombarded with what may appear as bad news for your financial future. Here is a small list of those negative headlines:
President Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada (only to be removed… then re-introduced in 30 days)
President Trump Imposes an additional 25% tariffs on steel imports from Canada
Canadian Dollar hit a 5 year low dropping to 68 cents USD
Canada’s CPI increased to 1.9% despite the GST Holiday
The S&P 500, TSX, & Dow Jones aren’t starting as strong in 2025, as they did in 2024
Tech stocks tumbled over fear of a Chinese competitor DeepSeek
Warren Buffett’s cash pile continues to increase, making investors feel like the stock market is overvalued.
Trudeau confirms that Trump actually wants Canada to be the 51st state (for real!)
Even the scariest movies in the theatres right now couldn’t give me more heart palpitations that these headlines
How I Am Responding
I wouldn’t blame you if these headlines have caused you to run to the hills…
Fear has likely caused many people to sell their stocks, and buy assets such as bonds, GIC’s, or even gold (gold is also the best performing asset so far this year). But even those assets are too scary for some…so they resort to stuffing their money under their mattress (AKA a savings account).
I’m not here to tell you what to do right now. All I can say is what I have done, and continue to do…nothing but continue buying.
My rationale is quite simple, I believe that the long term trajectory of the stock market is up. Unfortunately though, I have absolutely no clue what it will do in the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years. History suggests on timelines longer than 10 years, that the market should be up. And despite what the doomsayers love to tell you, this pattern has occurred through much scarier times then we are currently living in.
What Should Guide Your Investment Decisions
But before you follow in my footsteps, you should ask yourself some questions:
Do you need the money you have invested in the next 5-10 years?
Can you tolerate a 50% drop in your stocks without withdrawing?
Are you diversified across several sectors and countries?
Are you diversified across asset classes (ie. stocks, bonds, gold, crypto, & real estate)?
Do you have a 3-6 month emergency fund?
Is your income dependent on one source?
Can you reduce your spending in case of a lay-off, or are most of your costs fixed (ie. housing, food, car loan)?
These are questions that you should always consider, but especially so during tumultuous times such as the one we are in right now. Your answer to these questions should guide your investment decisions…not the latest and hottest news article.
Good News
Despite all of these bad news articles, there was one good thing that will have a long term positive impact on your FIRE journey that occurred this month. This was the recent changes to Questrade, a discount brokerage in Canada. If you were completely preoccupied with all negative news, you would have missed the following changes they made:
The switch to $0 commission trades on stocks, ETF’s, and options (ie. you pay $0 when you buy and sell)
They are planning to introduce fractional shares. This allows you to buy a fraction of a company’s share for less than the price of a full share (even for $1)
They are planning to introduce crypto currency trading
A 3% cashback transfer on the first $10,000 and 1.5% afterwards on amounts over $10,000 (up until February 28th)
This is fantastic news considering the impact of fees on investment growth. Let’s use an example: Imagine Bob and Barry both invest their money in the same stocks. Bob at a discount brokerage firm, and Barry at a high fee brokerage firm. For simple math lets assume their stocks return 7% annually before fees, and they both invest $500/month for 40 years. After fees, Bob returns 7%, but Barry only makes 6% (due to losing 1% in trading fees). What is the end result?
Bob will retire with $1,243,258
Barry will retire with $958,981
I don’t know about you, but $284,277 seems like a high price to pay for the choice of brokerage firm. This is why options like this are so great for young Canadians such as yourself looking to achieve FIRE.
Conclusion
Who knows what chaotic event(s) March has in store for us. Hopefully, this update provided you with some piece of mind…or maybe not. Regardless, I will be back next month though to spill the tea and try to keep you on track to reaching your FIRE goal. Stay bullish everyone! Until next time.
Disclaimer: The information discussed in this blog is not financial advice, and is meant for educational purposes only. Please consult a personal financial expert before making any financial decisions.
If you like this post you may also like:
Citations
Questrade. (n.d.). Questrade. Retrieved February 26, 2025, from https://www.questrade.com/
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