Kozak Financial Group - KFG Radio Shows

Harry Kozak, Ted Kozak and Chris Porochnuk

Talk to the Experts - Radio Show

September 12, 2026 – “Talk to the Experts” Radio Show

Discusses how geopolitical tensions, inflation, trade disputes, and bond yields affect markets and interest rates expectations in Canada and the U.S.

Wayne Nelson: [00:01:05] Welcome to talk to the experts on QR Calgary. I'm your host, Wayne Nelson, and I'm pleased today to welcome my guests, Harrison Kozak and Chris Porochnuk, wealth management experts with the Kozak Financial Group, CIBC, Wood Gundy, their website Kozak, financialgroup.com, and the phone number (403) 260-0568. Harrison. Chris, thanks for joining us today. Welcome to the show.

Harry: [00:01:49] Thanks for having us, Wayne. It's it's been a good summer.

Chris: [00:01:52] Yeah, good to be back at it.

Wayne Nelson: [00:01:54] First one after the summer break. So lots to talk about. Harrison, what's caught your eye?

Harry: [00:01:59] I mean, it's been an incredibly busy period. Last show for us was back in May. And since then, obviously, we've had a whole bunch of developments in the Iran conflict ongoing. And I mean, just recently, that seems to have heated up again, quite significantly. And then perhaps more importantly, or more and more close to home here, the big trade spat ongoing between ourselves and the US is, is sort of churning markets a little bit. And so there's been a lot of moving pieces, but here locally in Alberta, obviously oil prices are trading high. And that conflict in Iran is is spurring them on. And so that's kind of been a hot topic of conversation around the office. Where do we see oil prices going from here? How long do we think that even if this conflict was to be resolved tomorrow, how long is it going to take before everything's back up and running? And I mean, I think we just heard the past couple of days that the big pipeline that crosses Saudi Arabia, that would have allowed oil to exit into the Red sea, has been struck by, I think, a Yemeni Houthi soldiers. And so there's even more complication going on there. And I think that has a lot of people worried about sort of the global inflation picture. Obviously, it's going to cost more to get goods shipped across oceans or trucked across the country. If the price of gas and diesel and everything is going up through the roof. And so I think that's kind of been top of mind for people, Chris. And inflation is sort of the the big driver of the interest rate conversation too.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:03:37] Yeah. And the topic of inflation is certainly been one that's getting a lot more attention. Of course, you know, following the Covid period, we saw that inflationary pressure hit its peak and we kind of hit a lull for a while there. And now it's starting to be back top of mind. And obviously, cost of living, you know, had not gone down from that last inflationary spike. And now with it sort of reemerging again, a lot of people certainly concerned by that. So looking at the price on the pump for the gasoline for the diesel, certainly top of mind. We just hit a new milestone in the US where the average price of diesel hit $6 per gallon for the first time ever. If you compare that to a year ago, the price of diesel in the United States was averaging at $300.70 per gallon US. So obviously a huge uptick in the price. That's like Harrison mentioned, diesel is a is a big component of the economic, you know, system. It powers the vehicles, powers the trucks and the trains that transport goods. And seeing that price level will obviously trickle down through that inflationary impact through the economy.

Wayne Nelson: [00:04:36] And risk is certainly one of the key metrics that the Bank of Canada looks at, although we did hold steady at our last policy rate announcement earlier this month. Don't know how long that's going to stay.

Harrison Kozak: [00:04:49] Yeah. I mean, that is, I think the, the question of the day, right? Recently, both here in Canada and south of the border in the US where, in, where interest rates go from here, I think is becoming more and more opaque. We're fond of saying around the office if, if you think the stock market is hard to predict, interest rates are about twice as hard and everything that has occurred in the past, you know, month even seemingly has sort of different pressures on those interest rates. So most of our media is obviously sort of us oriented. And the the big concern there is inflation. That's a big concern in Canada too. But sort of separate to that the $40 trillion debt load on the US books has people questioning, you know, whether or not the US economy can sort of with, with withhold or withstand that, I guess. And that is I'm personally not too worried about the US government. It's a lot of debt. I certainly wouldn't want to owe that much money personally, but I'm also not the US government and economy who has almost a limitless supply of economic output they can provide to, to offset that. And so to, to sort of look at the picture across the border, it's a little bit focused on spending and are they, are they going to be able to sort of grow their way out of this debt here in Canada? We're then also up against the trade dispute that's ongoing. And so on the one hand, in Canada, if this trade dispute does cause job loss, if it does cripple the economy in a way, the Bank of Canada has to be prepared to cut rates to support the economy. But equally, if we're contending with that really high inflation, we're sort of hamstrung, right? You want to raise rates on one hand and cut them on the other hand. And I think we're going to have to go sort of day by day to see how that develops over time here.

Wayne Nelson: [00:06:41] Well, the one phrase that caught my attention when Tiff Macklem made that policy announcement, he said the bank is, quote, prepared to adjust monetary policy as needed. Kind of a veiled or semi veiled inference that, yeah, something's going to change next time because we've had seven in a row where we've been sitting stagnant at that 2.25 on the overnight.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:07:05] Yeah. And I think the Bank of Canada has been playing it safe with the with the interest rate hold we've seen throughout the year. Of course, last year we did see interest rate cuts as as the trend in rates overall. But things have been steady for the better part of the year. And I think that is a safe ground because like Harrison said, we're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place where adjusting interest rates to help. One factor of the economic outlook will actually dampen the other. So we'll see where things go from here. Right now, it does look like rates are probably more than not headed towards the upwards direction based on what the bond market's been indicating. We have seen bond pricing coming down which means yields are up on the board. We're also seeing that translating into the long term government yields. If you're looking at the the market yields on U.S. treasuries or Canadian long term bonds, we've seen those yields also starting to to approach higher levels. Right now, the US ten year rate is hovering close to 5% just below but covering close to 5%. And here in Canada it's approaching 4%. So that is moving higher in rates, which again does suggest that the expectation is that interest rates will move higher. We'll see if that's the case of course in the next coming weeks and months. But that's that's what it looks like for the time being.

Wayne Nelson: [00:08:17] Those government yields here in Canada, highest in the past two years, I think. Isn't it something like that?

Harrison Kozak: [00:08:22] I think it's even longer than that. But the, the government yields are obviously sort of like the the leading indicator. Everything else is sort of based off of them. If a Bank of Canada 30 year bond is is the gold standard, then everything else is priced in relation to it. The other big pressure that's been hitting bond markets recently has been the AI hyperscalers. So the big tech companies Amazon, Google, Facebook, Oracle, IBM, even there's a few others in there, have all been issuing a ton of debt as well and kind of flooding the market with demand for capital. And they've been paying really high rates and to an extent, they're now sort of comparable, right? A company the size of Amazon or Google in comparison to a US Treasury or a Bank of Canada bond. They're similarly sized institutions to an extent, isn't it? A little bit. And then you also couple that with the fact that, oh, I actually get a yield premium when I buy the bond from Facebook or from Google over the government bond. And suddenly there's all of this supply pressure being pushed out into the market, there's all these new bonds coming out. And if you want to issue another new bond just to be attractive, you have to be paying really, really well for that kind of duration. And so it's almost sort of a vicious cycle where a new huge bond gets issued, paying lots of interest. Whoever comes out next, if they want to catch the eye of the market, is going to have to match or beat that interest. And then you loop the governments in there and suddenly it becomes a little bit of a mess because everybody kind of has to stay competitive if they want to get their bonds sold.

Wayne Nelson: [00:10:00] All right. Let's continue that train of thought. We're going to pause for a break. You are listening to talk to the Experts. I'm Wayne Nelson, my guests today, Harrison Kozak and Chris Porochnuk from the Kozak Financial Group, CIBC, Wood Gundy, Kozak Financial group.ca. That's the website if you've got any questions. If you'd like a consultation about your investments or retirement plans, the number to call (403) 260-0568. We'll be back with more on Talk to the Experts.

Wayne Nelson: [00:00:01] If you're just joining us today, I'm Wayne Nelson, and my guests are Harrison Kozak and Chris Porochnuk, wealth management experts from the Kozak Financial Group, CIBC, Wood Gundy, Kozak Financial group.ca is their website. Their phone number (403) 260-0568. Chris, just before the break, we were talking about those bond yields. So how do those yields impact the the regular investor right now?

Chris Porochnuk: [00:01:24] Yeah. So as bond investors within our own team our strategy we're certainly approaching the current situation and interest rates quite favorably. We love higher interest rates to, to capitalize on that income earning potential of the fixed income side of our portfolio. So right now, we're happily rolling over our ladder to bonds into those long duration bonds, capturing those higher interest rates. We've been seeing this tick higher over the course of the year. Just with the expectation that interest rates may move higher sort of at an official level, but certainly the bond market has been pricing that in already. So right now we've been seeing interest rates approach and at some points even exceed 5% on those ten year sort of corporate bonds that we'd like to invest for our clients. Like I said, very happy to see those overall income earning yields in the portfolio. From a historical standpoint, you know, four and a half is typically what the average would be on a long term bond. So see them slightly above that is certainly extra, extra favorable in our regard. When, when bond. Bond yields are rising. It does mean bond prices are falling.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:02:27] So there is some compression on valuations when it comes to bonds. So if you bought a bond earlier this year say January or February, chances are it's probably fallen by 1 or 2% in value terms. But the yield there is is still attractive. We were buying it early this year. We're still probably locking in 4.5% or so for that duration. And the loss that you see on a bond is really only on paper, right? When you look at a bond, if you've got a, you know, say, a ten year duration, you know, basically set in stone that in ten years time you'll get that money back. Paid in full. And so you don't necessarily need to worry about these short term blips in the road. And it just means that any other bonds you're buying throughout the next period will be at those attractive interest rates as well. So we approach the overall conditions of rising interest rates quite favorably. We love the income we invest for that income and to. So to see rising rates is a is a benefit to our portfolios in the in the bonds.

Wayne Nelson: [00:03:21] So what you're telling me, Chris, is that you shouldn't be for the everyday investor, you shouldn't be hunched over your computer on a daily basis watching the bond market move because that's what they pay you guys for to help, right? I mean, you're the ones that are taking. But the other point that I wanted to make is you guys at Kozak Financial are investing the same way that you're recommending that your clients invest.

Harrison Kozak: [00:03:46] Exactly. So just speaking for myself here, I know that right now I look at these bonds and I can buy really good quality corporate and government bonds ten years long that are paying, you know, 5% a roundabout there at the moment. I'm jamming my accounts full of these personally. Right. Every little bit of extra cash I have, I'm more than happy to be buying these bonds today. And I have been all year. And then to, to sort of go back a little bit further this past, you know, pretty much three years since the end of 2023 the stock market has been on an absolute tear. There's been bumps along the road with the Iran conflict. And then more recently, the trade spat. But even still, the markets are trading at pretty much all time high valuations. Throughout that whole period, we've been able to take profits off of the stock market side of the account, take that money, buy up really good quality bonds, paying a really attractive interest rates and essentially sheltering that money, taking those profits, putting them into a more guaranteed investment where that bond is being guaranteed by its issuer, the interest payment we know we're going to get and it's going to mature at its maturity date, no questions asked. And in so doing, we're doing we're getting two things out of that. Number one, we're kind of de-risking the accounts because we're taking that money out of the riskier stocks, out of the account, and into the more safe, secure, fixed income side of the account. And in so doing, the second thing we get is we're able to build somewhat of a war chest so that eventually we know the stock market's not going to go up like this forever.

Harrison Kozak: [00:05:20] It's been really nice to see it trucking along. But we know it's, we know it can't just carry on forever at this pace. So what that means is we've built this war chest of money in the bond side of the account. If the stock market starts to come down, we've then got all that dry powder available to go and buy up those stocks at cheaper prices, pick them up at more attractive dividend yields and lather, rinse, repeat. And so for my own accounts, I think, you know, speaking for Chris a little bit here when I'm looking at my accounts, if I see, oh, I'm, I'm over and above my equity allocation, I've been taking that money off the top, taking those profits, shifting them over to the bonds, and resetting, knowing that on the flip side of the coin, if the stock market starts to come down, I can throw that car in reverse, right? Buy those stocks at cheap valuations as those bonds mature, as that cash comes available. And in doing so, we don't have to involve our emotions at all. We don't have to panic about what's going on. We don't have to question whether this is the right choice. We have our strategy well laid out, and we know what we need to do. And so it's just a question of, okay, well, where are the accounts? Are we heavy equities? Are we heavy bonds? What do we need to do to get back to target. You take that action and Bob's your uncle. You're you're back on track and still earning really healthy income regardless of what the markets are doing day to day.

Wayne Nelson: [00:06:39] And that's really the focus at Kozak Financial, isn't it? It's that kind of slow and steady wins the race. That focus though on income generation for your clients.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:06:49] Yeah, absolutely. And so certainly both sides of the portfolio do generate that income. When we're looking at the stock market side, Obviously, the growth has certainly been there, but we're also looking for that dividend income. And that dividend income still continues to pour in regardless of whether the market's going up or down. It's certainly been very nice like Harrison said to see, you know, the three years of basically back to back double digit growth in the stock portfolio. But at the same time, that income is still pouring in to so that we know that if the market does retreat, whether it's for economic reasons or some sort of external sort of shock that that happens, we know that that dividend income is still going to come in. And of course, on the bond side of the portfolio, the fixed income continues to pay us that income as well. And it all builds together to build out a cash flow that we can then support our clients needs, whether that's in retirement for their living or just compounding that growth if they're still in that accumulation phase. And so I would say right now is a is a fantastic time. And, and also just touching back on Harrison's point, you know, certainly what we're looking at for our clients right now is asset allocation, right? As the market has climbed. It's been a fantastic year. It's been a fantastic couple of years.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:07:55] What we want to be making sure that we're doing and what we are doing for our clients is keeping the risk level in check. Because if you're someone that's just been investing and just sort of sitting and watching your your portfolio climb, you have to really look and see how much stock do you now own, right? Are you aiming to be 50%? But now it's deviated all the way to 60 or 70% stock. Because if it has, that means you're potentially taking on too much risk or more risk than you want to do within your portfolio. And what we've been doing, like Harrison said, is rebalancing within our client portfolios, trimming back on those stocks, taking those gains, and then redeploying the money back in the bonds, which again, interest rates being what they are, not a bad time to be doing that. Plus, it takes that money off the table. If we do see a market correction, and it's not to say that we're divesting from stocks, if your target is 50, we're still going to sit at 50% stocks. So we're still participating. If the stock market continues to climb, which we certainly hope it does. But at the same time, we're not taking on too much risk so that if there is a correction or a downtrend, we're not, you know, caught caught off guard and participating oversized downward trajectory in the portfolios.

Wayne Nelson: [00:08:59] Okay, we got about 30s left. Do you make have to make phone calls to your clients to drag them off the ceiling? Or are they pretty much calm? They might call you every now and then.

Harrison Kozak: [00:09:11] I would say everybody's been pretty calm. It's hard not to be pleased, given how strong the markets have been these past few years. If anything, I think the big conversation we're having to have is more about staying focused on the long term and sticking to that strategy and not getting too far over your skis, given how strong the markets have been.

Wayne Nelson: [00:09:29] All right. We're going to pause for that break. If you're looking for some advice on your investment portfolio, then get in touch with the Kozak Financial Group. Their phone number is (403) 260-0568. The website is kozakfinancialgroup.ca, and I'm chatting today with Harrison Kozak and Chris Porochnuk, wealth management experts with the Kozak Financial Group. We'll be back with more on talk to the Experts.

Wayne Nelson: [00:00:00] You're listening to talk to the experts on QR code. I'm Wayne Nelson and my guests today are Harrison Kozak and Chris parents, wealth management experts from the Kozak Financial Group, CIBC, Wood Gundy, the website, KozakFinancial group.ca. If you've got any questions about investing or if you'd like to have one of their team members at Kozak Financial Group, take a look at your portfolio. Then give them a call. The number is (403) 260-0568. Harrison. Chris, just before the break, we were discussing the value of staying the course really for the long term. And that's really the philosophy at the at the Kozak Financial Group.

Harrison Kozak: [00:00:49] Yeah. I mean right before we broke there, we were talking about do we have to peel clients off the ceiling or really prop them up right now? And the answer to that is no. I mean, the mean, the markets have been so strong these past few years, I think you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who has had a bad investment experience in the past couple of years here. If you have certainly give us a call and we're happy to help you out. But right now, really the main conversation we're having to have with clients is, well, let's stick to the long term plan. Right. It's not just, it's not just that we should be maintaining the course, burying our head in the sand and thinking it'll all work out in the end. It's that we need to stay focused on what was the plan that we set out with. Have we strayed from that in any way, and how do we get back to it if we have strayed away? And so we already mentioned, you know, adjusting the asset allocation, if you're heavy on stocks because you've just been letting them ride, now's a great time to be taking some gains there and putting it into the bond side of the account and shoring up the fixed income component of your portfolio.

Harrison Kozak: [00:01:51] But equally, if you have just been letting that market ride and kind of getting used to the idea that the stock market only goes up. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Eventually this this fun comes to an end. Eventually, the market rationalizes and things take a step back. And this past few years we've had, I mean, a few occurrences of kind of a pressure release valve being hit. You know, the tariffs first being introduced at the beginning of last year and then Liberation Day a month after that, was kind of an example of when the market sort of took a step back, a little bit of a haircut, nothing to worry about. But but it did release a bit of pressure. Earlier this year, we had the Iran conflict kick off again. The market came down in response to that in Canada, somewhat irrationally. Right. Higher oil prices are a net benefit to our stock market in general. And yet we still had them come down as a.

Wayne Nelson: [00:02:47] Is that an indication that we're following the US example too closely?

Harrison Kozak: [00:02:51] I wouldn't say that. I think that's just market behavior. I think people here, there's some sort of big conflict going on and say, oh, I better get some cash available, right? And it's whether or not that's completely rational based on your investments depends on what you own.

Wayne Nelson: [00:03:04] And that's the key word rational.

Harrison Kozak: [00:03:05] Yeah, yeah. And as much as I would like to say we're all rational human beings who take into account all the information available, we're just not. Right. Human beings are emotional creatures who are reactive. Yeah, very much so. And it's really hard to beat that out of yourself. And the only way I've ever found to do that is to have a well laid out strategy that basically answers that question for you so that in those moments of high stress or high emotion, you don't have to make a decision. The decision's been made by way of the strategy you've already set out, and you just have to execute on that strategy, which is what we've done for our clients. Chris.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:03:43] Yeah. And that's, that's something that not only have we been doing, you know, the last couple of years, but that's, you know, since inception of our team. You know, that's just our fundamental underlying goal is to rationalize or at least, you know, strategize a way to remove that irrationality from our decision making process when it comes to building a portfolio. And again, that comes to long term planning, long term, looking ahead and saying, what is it that we're trying to achieve in our client portfolios? And then how do we go about doing that? And so that's not only from sort of a top down sort of individual look at saying, okay, here's your asset allocation, Mr. Client. You know, here's how your portfolio is going to look like, but also sort of behind the scenes too, that we're also using internally when it comes to actually building the portfolio, whether that's selecting the bonds or selecting the stocks that we're investing in for our clients, we all try and maintain that, that overview that you know, concrete, quantitative sort of strategy behind building this portfolio such that we don't get ourselves caught up in those things where when there's noise in the markets because there's bound to be noise that's out there somewhere in the stock market or the bond markets or interest rates and whatever it may be. But removing ourselves from that noise so that we can make those rational decisions when it comes to investing for our clients.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:04:55] Again, I think just to touch on what Harrison said there too, you know, we've had a tremendous run in the stock market. And people do forget when things are doing so well that yeah, you know, sometimes there is a bump in the road and, you know, certainly through the month of August, we did see the market's retreat a little bit from their highs. But if you step back and actually look you know, long term, even just this year, you're still more than likely positive year to date. If you're looking at your portfolio again, if you're not, give us a call because we certainly are. And so maybe we can help you out there. But when we look at our client accounts, we have had a tremendous year. And even though we have seen things pull back through the month of August and a little bit here in September as well, we're still in very good shape. If we're looking at the asset allocation and maybe, you know, wanting to make some adjustments there, we're not hesitating on doing that. We want to stay the course, maintain the balance in our portfolios for our clients and continue to earn that income overall. And so we don't let these, you know, these these tumultuous events, whether they're big or small impact? Our guiding principles when it comes to long term strategy within our investment goals.

Wayne Nelson: [00:05:59] Is there any particular segment, Harrison, that that you're focused on right now? And by that, I mean, over this past few months here in Alberta, there's been a lot of talk about data centers, the experience in the US being applied to what's happening or what potentially will happen in Alberta, kind of like apples to oranges. But nevertheless, the talk is still there. Has that focus then taken you away from from the tech sector?

Harrison Kozak: [00:06:30] Well, so I was just going to say there that I mean, like part of the noise that shows up in the markets that Chris was mentioning is that flavor of the month, right? And the flavor of the month for the past few months has been artificial intelligence and the data center build out and how much money is being poured into that whole segment of the market. I wouldn't say we've been more or less focused on it at all. The main thing that we've kind of been looking at is if you look at the tech segment and you look at the broad, you know, stock markets in general, those big technology companies, especially in the US, are making up like 30 to 40% of the total value of the index. Now, there are big companies that do lots of business, but that also feels a little bit top heavy. I'm not down on technology by any means. It's not a big part of our portfolio because they don't pay dividends. They don't pay an income out to their shareholders, or at least not an attractive enough income to, to get us in there in a, in a significant way. But generally speaking, at this point in the market cycle is when I think you start to hear about people saying, oh, well, why don't you own X stock? Whatever the hot item is, whether that's the big chip manufacturers or the data center manufacturers.

Harrison Kozak: [00:07:47] And when I start to hear that from clients, that's when I start to worry a little bit that, okay, maybe we're near the top. And I'm not really hearing that right now, so I don't think the stock market is by any means, you know, reaching its limits. I think if anything, we probably have some room to run. But that's anecdotal and a little bit, you know, kind of woo woo science. And so instead I focus on the portfolio and in the portfolio, we're focused on the income. I don't care who's paying us that income, so long as they are solvent and a good quality company that doesn't have too much debt on its balance sheet, that isn't overpaying its dividend at an unreasonable level. And if we do that, if we buy good quality companies that pay income that we can rely on, we're going to work out just fine. And then we don't have to worry about, well, is it, is it too much tech? Is it too much oil and gas? Is it too much banks? We obviously keep a lid on those things so that they're not outsized to the portfolio. But we also then can focus on, well, what's the best quality income stream we can create without taking unnecessary risk.

Wayne Nelson: [00:08:52] Chris, is is it possible that you can attribute good wealth accumulation to a single factor?

Chris Porochnuk: [00:09:00] Oh, that's a good question. I would say no. It requires a lot of moving pieces, right? I mean, obviously a person who's diligent about saving is going to be able to, you know, save more money than a person. That's not certainly, you know, portfolio performance and portfolio building plays a plays an important role in actually growing what is saved. But it's really not just about all one thing. I mean, I think our, our strategy, our focus on income certainly works for, for our clients and, and for ourselves who invest in that way. I certainly wouldn't look at it any differently than the way we do. And I do think that it works, but I think it's, it's about putting all those pieces together, which is why we do provide those kinds of services for our clients. So, you know, if we have someone come in and meet with us for the first time, you know, we're going to learn about them, learn about how we want to build a portfolio for them and learn about how we can incorporate maybe some financial planning in there to, to build that long term picture. But overall, it's going to be that that long term outlook on building a cashflow, building a portfolio designed around income. Because again, especially for clients in retirement, that income is going to be what drives those the, their cash flow, right? And so when you have a withdrawal to live your life in retirement, that cash flow is paramount to, to funding that. So you don't have to worry about, is the stock market going to keep going up 5% per year? As long as the cash flow is rolling into the portfolio, you can make those withdrawals without impacting the principal value of your portfolio.

Wayne Nelson: [00:10:23] All right. We're going to pause for our last break. We'll be back. I've been speaking with Harrison Kozak and Chris from the Kozak Financial Group. Their website Kozak financialgroup.com. And you can also phone to set up a consultation there, number (403) 260-0568. We'll be back to wrap things up. I'll talk to the experts.

Wayne Nelson: [00:00:08] Wayne Nelson back with you on talk to the Experts. My guests today are Harrison Kozak and Chris Rosnick, wealth management advisors from the Kozak Financial Group, CIBC Wood Gundy. Their phone number is (403) 260-0568. See what they're all about? Check out the website, it's Kozak financialgroup dot c a. Harrison, just before the break, I asked Chris that one question about if people would focus on one single factor for their financial success. So your take on that.

Harrison Kozak: [00:00:42] You know, I would add to what Chris said that you have to get the pinnacle turning point moments, right. It's all well and good if you're sort of coasting through life and you're not adding to your investments, you're paying off your mortgage, you're sort of doing all the right things financially.

Wayne Nelson: [00:01:00] So it's the pinnacle point in your life. Yeah. In the person's own life.

Harrison Kozak: [00:01:03] Those big turning points, right? Whether that be career changes or when if you get laid off from a job or when you retire, or if you lose your spouse, or if you become ill or there's another sickness in your family. There's all these, there's these moments that we all go through, right? They're not rare per se, but they are moments within which you can make mistakes and you have to get it right that first time around. You can't you can't do it wrong one time and then say, well, I'll do a do over. I'll go back ten years and try it again. No, we all each get one of these lives and you have to get it right the first time around. So if there's one thing I would tell people to keep in mind about their own personal finances, it would be pay attention to what's going on in those turning point moments. They're good things like retirement and buying your first home and things like that. And there are also those really bad things that you had to prepare for.

Wayne Nelson: [00:01:57] You can't always predict when they happen, so that's why you have to have that plan in place first.

Harrison Kozak: [00:02:02] Yeah, you have to have that plan in place well in advance. And if you have it there, you can you can reference back to it and you know what you had intended previously when you weren't in a state of emotional turmoil or elation or something. Right. You can think back to, okay, before I won the lottery, my plan was to work a good long career and earn enough money to support my family and have a good retirement. Winning the lottery shouldn't change that perspective. It might mean you don't have to work as long. Maybe you can retire right away.

Wayne Nelson: [00:02:35] But you can also contact your financial manager at Kozak Financial.

Harrison Kozak: [00:02:39] Exactly. And if you if you find yourself in a position where you really don't know where to turn to next, you are in a moment of turmoil. You should give us a call. (403) 260-0568 is the number and we'd be happy to walk you through. What are the next steps? Whether you're going through something amazing or terrible, we want to be there to support you and make sure you're making the right steps for you and your family.

Wayne Nelson: [00:03:02] And once again, because you're in it just like the rest of us, you're making those same decisions. You have the same recommendations for for the portfolio.

Harrison Kozak: [00:03:11] Yeah, we, we either.

Wayne Nelson: [00:03:12] One is customizable, of course.

Harrison Kozak: [00:03:14] Yeah. It's everybody's a little bit different, but we do eat our own cooking, right? Like we, every dollar I invest, every dollar I invest, every dollar Chris invests, every dollar our team invests in the markets. We invest exactly how we invest for our clients. The main difference between portfolios is that proportion between stocks and bonds, how much risk you're willing to take along the way. And that changes through people's lives. It changes based on people's the events that people have gone through, like I just mentioned. But when we're doing our investing in our own accounts, we're doing it exactly how we would do it if it was a client's account. There's no special sauce that we keep back for ourselves. We do what we say we're going to do and we just do it really well. I think.

Wayne Nelson: [00:03:57] Chris, you earlier talked about a lot of noise that's been surrounding the markets. You know, there's always risk in the markets. I think there's a little bit more uncertainty because of the noise that comes out of the white House, seemingly on a daily basis.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:04:13] Yeah. And that certainly has been a trend since since inauguration. You know, President Trump certainly vocal in a number of things. And at times that, that has impacted the market. And certainly we've seen that for, for a little over a year now where you know, social media posts driving market direction, whether that's, you know, specific political commentary, you know, like, obviously the discussion around tariffs having that impact or just other other comments, you know, at times he'll, he'll get onto social media and make make statements or just in press releases, whatnot. And that do drive the market one way or the other. Thankfully, I think the market is getting a little bit more wise to that and having less of an impact as time goes on. I think the, the, the impact that that his direct statements have been having are diminished to somewhat at least somewhat over the last year or so. But it is still certainly a factor, right? You know, when he gets on there and starts making claims or making statements, especially more recently with regards to, you know, Canada-U.S. relations obviously that, that interjects noise into the market. How do we deal with that? Same way we always do with any kind of noise, right? We focus on our long term strategy. Our strategy does not change regardless of who's sitting in power, whether it's here, Canada or here or in the US as well. Those are just kinds of things we can't control. But what we can control is how we structure that portfolio, how we maintain our strategy long term. And one of the most controllable things that we have within the portfolio is that income stream, right? When we're looking at the income that our portfolios are going to generate for our clients, it's pretty, pretty consistent in how that looks over time.

Chris Porochnuk: [00:05:53] Right. Hopefully rising but generally consistent, right. Where we can say, okay, we're earning a four, we're earning a 5% cash flow from the investments that's going to carry on regardless of the market conditions. Like we said, you know, whether the stock market keeps going up or whether it goes down, that income is still going to pour into the portfolio. And so we look for that consistency. And at times, whether it is that unease and our clients do get on the phone with us, although it is rare, we can point to that income and say, don't worry, Mr. Client or Mrs. Client, the income is still pouring in. The withdrawal you're going to take next month and the month after will still be funded from that cash flow that the portfolio is generating. Just because there's some kind of noise factor that has caused whatever it may have been to, to happen, that income is still going to come in. Right? So that is our focus when building those, those those client portfolios. That's the number I look at when I look at my portfolio too. It's nice to see the bottom line figure growing, you know, to, to see that total value growing and after time. But I also like to look at that income number because eventually the goal is to see that income number from my portfolio replace what my income number from working is. And when that day comes, I'll have to turn to Terry and say, Harry, I think I'm done here. I'm going to step out now because my portfolio can do exactly what my employment can do now.

Wayne Nelson: [00:07:06] Harry. Why should Harry. What should people be doing right now about their portfolio as we head into the final quarter of this year?

Harrison Kozak: [00:07:15] That's a good question. I would say like crucial steps, as with every year, are to make sure you're having a look at your tax picture. It's again, it's been a really strong year for investments. If you have had a lot of capital gains occur. Take a look at anything that might be down that you could harvest the capital loss for. We're approaching RRSP season towards the end of the year. And again, looking at your taxes, making sure you're getting your RRSP contribution done to, to pay for or to, to save yourself some tax next year, hopefully. But I would say more broadly speaking, kind of what we touched on earlier in the show, actually have a look at what's in the accounts. If you've been, you know, asleep at the wheel and just letting them do their thing and you find that your equity and bond allocations are really far out of whack, or maybe the tech sector has ballooned in size in your portfolio to a size you're uncomfortable with or something else. There's all sorts of things that could have changed in the past year, and if you haven't been paying attention, markets like I say, are still trading around all time highs. It's a great time to go and rebalance and get back to your targets and really assess how much risk am I taking here, and am I comfortable with how the accounts are stood right now? We do that for our clients automatically.

Wayne Nelson: [00:08:27] We're going to be my next question. So even though the the individual client might have been coasting, they can take a quick review. But really if they haven't heard from you, not really a time to panic. Or should they still be doing that on their own?

Harrison Kozak: [00:08:41] No, no, not a time to panic at all. We, we are taking care of the portfolios for our clients on their behalf, and we get in touch with them on their regular semi-annual basis for their sort of formal reviews. Anyways. But I would say if you haven't been paying attention, if you do it yourself or you're not quite happy with the service you're getting from whoever you're dealing with, now's a great time to reassess. Have a look at what's going on in your accounts, and if you feel you need to give us a call to get a second opinion, you absolutely can. (403) 260-0568 is the phone number.

Wayne Nelson: [00:09:14] And that final quarter of the year, it it moves quickly, especially as I'm finding out the older one gets.

Harrison Kozak: [00:09:21] Oh yeah. I mean, how many days are we away from Christmas and the holiday season? I'm sure somebody out there is already thinking about what they need to be getting to put under the tree. And so this time of year really flies by and it's easy to let it slip past you. So. So don't fall asleep at the switch.

Wayne Nelson: [00:09:36] All right. For expert personal investment advice, contact the Kozak Financial Group. CIBC Wood Gundy where there's a focus on income generation. Phone (403) 260-0568. Go to the website Kozakfinancialgroup.com. I'm Wayne Nelson for Harrison Kozak and Chris Porochnuk, wealth management experts at Kozak Financial Group. Thanks for joining us today on talk to the Experts.