Finance Nobody could complain that 2020 has been a dull year. The onset of COVID-19 in March wreaked havoc with the world economy, putting millions of people out of work in the matter of a few short weeks. The pandemic also brought an end to the 11-year bull market in spectacular fashion, with stock markets (and investor portfolios) around the world suffering steep losses in the space of a few short weeks. What happens next is hard to say. In many parts of Canada, the worst of the pandemic seems to be over and our economy has reopened, albeit more slowly than anybody would like. Stock markets seem to have crawled their way out of a deep hole, particularly in the U.S., and are within a reasonable distance of their all-time highs once again. Even so, many financial analysts and market pundits remain skeptical that recent gains will hold, particularly with virus “hot spots” still emerging across the globe. It’s probably too early to say that the current bout of market volatility is definitively over − particularly if the so-called “second wave” of coronavirus hits in the fall, or if it takes longer than expected to develop effective vaccines and/or treatments. But the time is definitely right to take stock of what happened, how you responded to it and whether there are key “takeaways” that you could learn from. With that in mind, here are some critical investing lessons, economic lessons and personal finance lessons that we should ponder as we take stock of what happened during the great “corona-crash” of 2020. The 13 critical lessons of the CORONA-CRASH Taking stock of a (very) volatile year in the financial markets by James Dolan 28 | www.snowbirds.org
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