​These are tough times, to say the least. If you are self-employed like me and can't make money or even plan to make money because of the lockdown things, look grim. I took a look at my RRSP and wondered how to invest in recouping the losses. I came up with more questions than answers. 

Have we passed the panic stage selloff? Not sure. People are buying up what they seem to think are bargains, but what is a bargain stock at this point? What happened in the past?  What would a market recovery look like?  Take a look back on the last two bear markets. One started in 2001 and lasted until 2003. The other began in 2008 and ended in 2009. The crash of 2020 bear market could last a while and could drop another 20 percent before it is done or may more. These are times never seen before. 

The crash in 2000 saw a drop of 45% from peak to bottom. 2008 saw a 48% drop. Neither crash saw entire cities shut down. Mind you. The banking system was virtually shut down in the US for a moment in time. There is a possibility that the market may drop another 20%. or..... more. Look at the graph above for the Hong Kong flu. It took some time to recover. 

 What will start the recovery after this crash? What companies will be the 1st to lead us out? What companies are generating income from this situation, who is hiring, What companies oversold, and their earnings will not be affected? So many questions and we have time to research. People have lost billons on this crash and some have cash ready to deploy. 

Covid 19 is changing everything. It is the 1st time in my lifetime that the world is so focused is on healing. The world is turning fear and panic into healing and taking care of one another. Humans are resilient beings; I am sure we will recover.  I hope we keep up supporting one another during this time. 

The ​Isla Mujeres is a magical place; It is the only place we have visited tree time in over 20 annual vacations. It has changed a lot over ten years, but it still has its charm.  Condos and new homes are going up all over the island, some being rented out to tourist and others owned. Ten years ago, there were a few cars, and most people used golf carts. Times have changed. 

There are now car ferries from the mainland and lots of taxies. The problem is not only the congestion on busy holiday periods; it is the smell of burning fuel.  The pollution controls on diesel golf carts are none existent, and this should change. Why not make the whole island electric. It could be done over time — my only complaint. 

This Island is Paradise with beautiful warm turquoise waters and super friendly people, The Marina Paraiso Hotel was a peaceful place to bond with the new puppy with a beautiful property. The whole island had good restaurants in all price ranges. A great place to visit and maybe live one day. 

​Our new puppy named Fabio made the long trip home 7 hours flying time and an overnight stay in Vancouver. We found him to be a joy to travel with. He slept most of the ay home. We used the training puppy pads that he used successfully after two days of having him. Smart dog. After seven days of being home, he is showing signs that house training will be short, he just started barking to go outside. 

Of course, everyone asks what type of dog he is, and we are curious about how many different breads he is combined with. All we know for sure is that he has hound in him. Regardless of what he makes up is, he is sensitive and loves to cuddle, making him a good match for our older dog and our family. 

I am fully aware that we can adopt a puppy in our home town of Victoria but there is something intriguing about bringing home a puppy from a foreign land .

The 1st thing to do is make sure your airline will allow you to do it. West Jet allows for pets for an extra charge. We prepaid for both in cabin and cargo pet space because we have know idea what kind or size of dog we are bringing home.

​and so the journey begins.

​lucky that the Vancouver Airport has great places to sit and write.

As a concerned dad and coach this new smoking tech scares me. 
The CDC and FDA have been working on the case. 

Some other infomation gathered since the last post. 
- women tend to view vaping as more risky than men 
- younger people tend to view vaping as less risky than older generations 
- over 60% of Americans were uncertain how safe vaping was compared to smoking or thought they were roughly the same 

Ok,,,, so we did not get the rail car full last year and even getting is partially full created some challenges. The biggest challenge was getting the food from the rail car to the charity. This is where we needed help and thankfully, Jimmy, from the Bayview team helped make it happen. 

This year we hope to sort the food before shipping and gather from satellite locations and we are are going to need some help. It should be a fun challenge. In the end, the givers and receivers will feel better   

Why would our government accept Vaping tools and liquids? Since when is inhaling Propolyne glyco ever good for humans and how did companies succeed in getting these products allowed to be sold.? Why flavour the vaping juice with sweet candy-like smells using nasty chemicals like diacetyl.  

This whole industry needs to be shut down. When the principal at my kid's middle school says it is an empademic there is a problem that no one is addressing. 12, 13-year-olds smoking liquids loaded with nicotine flavoured with Captian crunch type smells created in a base of Propylene glyco. How stupid are we to let this happen? 
1st there were reports of popcorn lung and no government intervention then this year High school students started getting lung disease and then finally commercials started appearing about the risks. Now people are dead.

This should never have started in the 1st place. Common sense says if you inhale antifreeze ( propylene glycol ) you are going to get sick it is not natural in any way. You don't need a scientist to figure that one out. Once again we have been ginny pigs for big corporate profits.  These corporations don't care about our health. Tey care about Profit. 

If you are a teen or tween vapiong smells yummy and looks cool. Some kids seeing this maybe temped with the sweet smells and cool names of the juice. but the nicotine is the addictive component that will get them hooked. It is like the 50s all over again when cigarettes were considered cool but then quitting was almost impossible for some.  

With the legalization of pot, some big companies like Canopy Growth are investing in TCH Vaping juice. Personally I have pulled my investments from any company involved in this business as the heeling property of Pot is not THC isolated. 

THC isolated should be treated as a pharmaceutical because it is. Currently, there are 380 cases for Lung disease directly related to Vaping this is the tip of the iceberg. Currently there are seven deaths related to vaping unfortunately this number will grow as more investigations proceed. 


The US has taken the lead on this, as Canada sits on there hands. This could be an election issue. This should be an election issue.  How many young people in Canada will die or have died because our Government passed a product that is dangerous to humans and allowed it to be sold? One child is too many.









 

If you have an ear pointed to the investing world you have noticed the rise of legal pot companies.   

Anyone who made a lot of money by buying pot stocks two or more years ago can relax and enjoy. People who came in late or bought the wrong companies are still be trying to find their golden goose. Me? I started three years ago and cashed out in October of last year but then noticed a promising trend. CBD extract. 

Last October I was at a friends design studio and a lady rushed in to drop off what I assumed was Nicotine patches. To my suprise, I was told that they were CBD patches to help with anxiety. The former pot smokers had switched from THC to CBD. One of the reason was that THC was adding to their anxiety. I am no a big fan of inhailing any type of smoke on a regular basis My grandmother died of emesyma, Smoke of any type is bad for the lungs and vaping, don't get me started on that new age poison. 

After research and more research from everything that toutes CBD as a cure all to how dangerious it is. I made a decision to jump back in to the Hemp equity markets. Mostly because stocks can go up on hype alone regardeless of earnings. This is speculatlive investing, risky and not worth betting your life savings on. I did well with my original investments and thought I would take a chance with some of those profits. 

If you have been investing for your future in either TFSA, RRSP, RESP then you have begun to build wealth. My faviourte method has been the automatic withdrawals to savings from one bank to an investment portfilio. I will admit, I am no expert, I do not consider my self finacially rich but I consider my life rich. Mind you I felt that way when I was rolling coins for groceries back when I made a few wrong choices. Being self employed can be a bitch sometimes. 

I bought VFF ( a tomato green house in BC that added green houses to grow hemp) OGI, TGOD WEED and HMMJ (ETF). I don't recommend stocks but I would do some research and follow some of the names below and the prementioned tickers

This is a screen shot of my watch list( I did not buy all of these stocks). A watchlist can be found on online brokerage companies, They allow you to pretend to buy a stock and watch it.  I bought and sold some of these, made money on most and lost money on some ( timing is everything)  This chart was created in 2016 and I added more as I found more.   ​

All stocks go up and down as can be seen below. There are more buying opertuniites coming. If you missed the 1st wave there will be a second. I get excited when the market goes in to a nose dive. I get ready to hit the sell button when it reaches new highs. My finger is on the sell button in reacent weeks. The chart below is a 12 month representative of the above wach list. 

  There are lots of tours to take, all can be found online. We went for the Panama canal tour and jungle tour combined and enjoyed the sites. The Canal is quite the creation. The sloth reserve was probably the high point for my kid as he was not fond of the Crocks that we had seen and sloths are pretty peaceful. 

One of the coolest places in the city was Casa Viejo the efforts of the government and its people is to be commended. This was the original city full of history and character. Well worth the visit. Yes.. a bit of a tourist trap and worth seeing. 

Driving in Panama was not the worst place to drive but not the easiest either thanks to WAZE Gps service we got around pretty good. We made a journey to Coronado. About an hour and 30-minute drive.   ​

We stayed at the Casablanca house. We have never stayed at a house while traveling before. This one has a pool, air conditioning, three bedrooms, and two baths and only a 7-minute walk to the beach. The Casablanca house. 

The Casablanca house is close to grocery store, and a nice Italian restaurant and the beach. It has a nice kitchen and was clean and safe. It can be found on Bookings.com and on Goole maps. Contact Rod for more details and to book @ rodinpanama@gmail.com  

I have driven past the Roundhouse for years. I have admired the red brick heritage buildings and wondered what might happen to them. One day I phoned the owners (Bayview Properties) and asked if I could use one of those building for a Christmas Market. Nomad Holiday Market was born. 

The railyard has huge potential to become a jewel for Victoria and surrounding area, Its close to the water, has a neighbourhood pub and lots of new condos. The Nomad Holiday Market was one of the 1st Markets to be held in an area destined to become a marketplace. It was a privilege to work with the folks at Bayview and the Salvation Army as they let my creative juices flow and produce an impressive market. We were able to raise 2000.00 in donations for the Salvation Army and put 7000 lbs of food in the rail car. Not bad for a 1st show. Hopefully, there is more to come.   ​