I was just reading yet another article on how the Gen X and Gen Y were investing in the stock market and every other day making some money. According to the unnamed author, these people, whoever they are, are driving the markets. Yeah, really. I’ve long held that stock markets are only a place for the wealthy to fleece the greedy newcomers from their hard-earned dollars. Now I’m beginning to wonder if I missed the boat on that one.
Of course the trick with the stock market is very simple: you buy low and sell high. The ordinary investor has no way of knowing when the stock price it is low or high and a mistake can cost you, although your broker will be happy to take his or her commission on your mistake. It is a game of guessing and betting and this is where the big players have the advantage because they move the goal lines without telling the newbies in the market. Not only do the czars of Bay and Wall Streets have inside information but they have the wherewithal to force those little spikes on the line graphs that mean profit for them and a loss for the Gen X and Y investors.
This is not to discourage anyone from betting on, I mean, investing in, the stock market. You surely won’t make any money by saving your funds in a bank or under your mattress. This is where I have a beef with the Bank of Canada. We old folk – call us Gen S for Senior – there are more, and more of us – cannot risk our savings by investing them in the stock market like the Gen X and Ys. Even your scrupulous investment manager will tell you to ease out of the high risk markets as you near retirement age as you have less and less time to replace any losses. Put your money into Guaranteed Investment Certificates, they said. Which was good, sound advice.
Except the Bank of Canada, so intent on fighting inflation to the benefit of some, has kept interest rates so low that the banks no longer give you anything near the cost of living increment for your saved money. This means all those Gen S people (and I repeat there are more and more of us every day) are slowly losing their ability to keep up with the cost of living. The less money I have, the less I will spend. Eventually more and more of the S Gen people will need government support in one form or another just to keep a roof over their heads and a slice of bread on the counter.
And if the Government (through the Bank of Canada) won’t help us with a little inflationary interest rate, it will be up to the Gen X and Y to support us because they will be the only ones with money. Unless they have invested it in the stock market. So please, Mr Governor, give us a little increase in the Bank of Canada rate.
