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“Up North: On Top — Life in Canada, Home of the World’s Most Affluent Middle Class.” — New York Times, April 30, 2014

This was the headline just a decade ago. The American middle class, “long the most affluent in the world...lost that distinction.” The new leader? Canada — then seen as a model for the rest of the world.

With our increasing longevity, we seem to be trading our focus on the ‘fountain of youth’ for the ‘fountain of usefulness,’ where having purpose outweighs a desire for youthfulness. In a recent survey, 83 percent of those ages 65 and older say it’s more important to be “useful than youthful” in their retirement years.

Think kids these days are getting too much screen time? There’s another demographic struggling to put down their phones: Baby Boomers. As one 83-year-old put it: “I’m so attached to this thing. If I leave the house and forget (it), I’ll go back.”

When ChatGPT reached 100 million active users in just
two months, it highlighted the accelerating pace at which
technology is transforming the world. Consider that it took the
social media platform Instagram 2.5 years to reach the same
user base1 and the internet 7 years to acquire 50 million users.

It may seem implausible, but some researchers believe that the first person to live to 150 has already been born.1 Our lifespan, and more crucially, our “healthspan” — the period in which we are in good physical and mental shape — continues to extend.

“Change is inevitable...”

The world of investing has never been a stranger to change. A look back at the largest publicly-traded companies globally* provides one such perspective on how things can change. While technology companies have been dominant in more recent times, would you recall that energy companies were the leaders just over a decade ago? And just two decades earlier, six of the 10 largest companies were from Japan; at that time, a nation seemingly poised to overtake the rest of the world.

As the saying goes, “the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” After a difficult year in the financial markets, we may all benefit from a dose of optimism as we enter 2023.

When a leading courier company optimized its delivery routes decades ago, many drivers felt it extended their trips. It favoured right-hand turns at all times, so the most direct route to a destination was almost never taken. Yet, the approach improved efficiency and reduced fuel usage.

These days, investors have needed a significant amount of conviction. After last year’s largely uninterrupted rise in equity markets, 2022 has seen a rapid reversal in direction and sentiment.