2017 could see up to 850,000 bopd pipelined from Alberta to Quebec and New Brunswick resulting in a triple win scenario for oil producers, refiners and consumers. White this oil is expected to eliminate imports, surplus volume might even end up getting exported to buyers overseas at world pricing.

While Ottawa and the Alberta governments are committed to investing in the oilsands which could reduce gas prices, there is little government incentive towards reducing car insurance rates for drivers.  The cost to fill up gas at the pumps nearly doubled in comparison to the average cost a decade ago, and there appears to be no relief in sight.

At the same time, drivers were forced to accept higher insurance rates alongside accelerating gas prices.  Canadians are protesting to their political representatives and their insurance companies that the cost of car insurance is too unaffordable.  In Ontario for example, a proposal to reduce car insurance rates by 15 percent nearly took the province into its second election in less than two years.

Many drivers are turning to online insurance comparison sites to find more affordable insurance options than their current providers.  These websites function as convenient one-stop shop comparison pages, where drivers can compare the best advertised insurance rates from companies all across Canada.  Some of these companies are smaller, less-known businesses yet offer better insurance rates than their larger counterparts.  As a result, drivers can often find a more affordable car insurance plan by spending only a few minutes on the internet.

The cost to drive in Canada is growing year over year, and more people today are focused on reducing the cost to travel than ever before.  The government is right to invest in streamlined oilsands development, but should also commit to reducing the cost for Canadians to legally drive.

Regardless of the amount you want to invest, the basics remain the same. Investing can reward you with financial freedom in the future if done right. The following tips and tricks will help you make smart choices in the fabulous world of investing.

1. Do not waste time contemplating if you should invest or not, this is called wasting time. Start your investment journey as soon as possible because time is money in the long run.
2. Get educated; take the time to read books written by successful investors. Discover how the market functions. If you are truly committed, you will have to invest time in yourself. Focus on the basics of investing initially; there is no need to learn about complex products.
3. Investing requires an online brokerage account so take your time in choosing the right broker. Consider ANZ Online Trading, they offer investors a wide variety of investment products. You can trade stocks, options, funds, ETFs or invest in managed funds, IPOs or structured products online.
4. Take it slow! If you decide to go the stock picking way, you might want to invest very small amounts. Try to gauge your level of risk and your emotions in the face of volatility.
5. Remember that it takes time for your money to grow. There is no easy money in the stock market. You need to be patient, rushing into high risk sectors might end up costing you heavy losses.
6. Consider index funds and ETFs. There is a huge line of products to choose from. There’s no need to hurry into stock picking. Start by buying a dividend paying ETF for example and watch your monthly income roll in.
7. Set a Strategy in place, dollar cost average your way into the market. This means investing a small amount on a monthly basis. There’s no need to invest one big lump sum at once. A major advantage here is taking advantage of the market’s volatility. At the same time, iot is easier emotionally to ride the wild swings the market throws at you especially when you’re invested in index funds.
8. Last but not least, make sure you invest through tax advantaged accounts. You get to save a lot of paperwork tracking income, profits or losses every year. Better yet, your profits are protected and get to grow in the safety of these registered accounts.

So you took the time to search for your dream property and fell in love with a prestigious Montreal condo in the heart of Old Montreal. You made sure you’re at a walking distance from Arts, culture, leisure and entertainment. You picked an urban chic street with quick access to trendy boutiques and restaurants.  You knew what you were looking for and found it! Now however is the time to work on funding your purchase through a mortgage.  While the cheapest monthly payments might seem like the easiest option, this isn’t true because an offer that seems great is probably offset by fine print. Here we will look through some hidden risks to help you identify the perfect mortgage.

• Refinancing – The turmoil that the whole globe is still trying to come to terms with gives you great options with the housing markets – high competition. This means hundreds can be taken off your monthly mortgage bill, but not without problems. First off, this choice will mean that you are basically getting a fresh loan and stretching out the problems you have – it may not save a huge amount long-term. Refinance fees are a second problem that not many people speak about but you better believe they’re there and don’t forget that the more you do it, the more risky it becomes.
• Prepayment penalty – Linked to refinancing is the cheeky little addition of a prepayment penalty. What this means is that there’s a clause which effectively stops you refinancing or paying off your full loan within the first five years in order to protect the lender’s interests.
• What about the long-term? – One of the scariest options within this highly competitive industry is how banks and lenders can deal with mortgages in the long-term. With so many banks letting people enter based solely on low initial payment, they give families the illusion of security before turning into the monsters that lead so many people to lose their homes each and every year. What tends to happen is that you get two or three years fixed before adjustable rates are imposed and because of this payments balloon as much as 70%.
• Not using the right lender – Ultimately, the fine print is always going to be there but whether you take the time to read and understand is up to you – not the bank. So, you either read up on terms and conditions or you could use experienced mortgage brokers to compare the best mortgage rates. Finding the correct lender is absolutely crucial so that you know your finances are protected and you can budget into the long-term.
• Acceleration clause and foreclosure – You may be pretty confident that you’ll be able to make each payment, but how do we know that this will still be the case in a few years? If this is hidden in the fine print then any missed payments could lead to the bank calling in the loan, and if you can’t adhere to this then a foreclosure may be requested and your home sold at auction.
• Adjustable rate mortgage – This is a big, big risk for anyone taking out a mortgage. It’s more about luck than judgement, and if the market works in your favour you can save thousands. If it doesn’t you can lose your home. What an adjustable rate means is that it changes with the market and you can be paying different amounts each month.

There are so many turns that a mortgage can take that it can get too much to know if you have the right deal. Avoid signing up for the lowest mortgage rate without knowing what that entails, mortgages can be a crazy maze. But if you keep your wits about you, you’ll come out with money in your pocket and the property of your dreams.

Fortunately, if you are looking for the best deal on your home insurance coverage, you do not need to look any further than the homeownersinsurance-quotes.org website. There, they specialize in obtaining quotes from a number of different local insurance companies based on your specific preferences and allowing you to easily compare them side-by-side. This saves you a lot of time and hassle in the sense that you will no longer have to worry about contacting each home insurance company individually to request a quote. Furthermore, by being able to compare policies and coverage amounts on your computer screen side by side, it will be easier for you to make the right choice regarding which policy to go with.

Of course, you may be wondering how to go about using a website to obtain multiple free quotes at once. This is especially true if you have never used such a service before. Fortunately, this is a very user-friendly website and the process simply could not be any easier for those who are looking for quick and accurate insurance quotes. To get started, all you need to do is call a licensed agent using the phone number provided on the home page.

From there, you will be asked some questions regarding your home insurance preferences. This can include anything from the type of damages you want to have covered to the monthly insurance cost that you have budgeted for. Furthermore, you will also be asked to provide some basic information about yourself and your home, such as your name, address, the home’s square footage, and other related information that is needed in order to obtain quotes from insurance companies that are as accurate as possible.

Once all of your information has been entered into the system, it will then be sent out to a variety of local insurance companies and you can receive an instant, free quote from each one. Then, you should take the time to carefully review each quote before choosing one that is right for you. Furthermore, it is generally recommended that you take the time to research any home insurance company before you decide to become a customer of theirs.

By doing such research, you can find customer reviews and get a better idea as to what kind of claims service and customer service you should be able to expect from that particular company. A lot of times, reading these reviews can either solidify your decision to go with a certain insurance company or will lead you to think twice. Regardless, taking the time to do this research will ultimately help you to reach the decision that is right for you, so be sure to take full advantage of the resources that are out there when it comes to helping you choose the right home insurance policy.

Home insurance

If you are a homeowner, home insurance is one of the most important types of insurance you’ll need. This is split into two main types: buildings insurance and contents insurance and it is important that you have both to make sure you are covered for your possessions as well as the house itself. You have the option of buying these two insurance components separately, but many people find that it is more cost effective for them to buy them together as quite a few insurers offer special deals or discounts if you get them as part of a package.

Funeral insurance

While we all hate to think about the inevitable, we will face it sooner or later. Losing a loved one is a very stressful event both emotionally and financially. Funeral insurance is designed to to help cover funeral costs and other final expenses. Best pick one that does not demand medical tests offering Guaranteed acceptance. This is one of those insurance types that takes minutes to fill out if you’re with the right provider. For more information check out the GIO funeral insurance page.

Car insurance

Another really important type of personal insurance is car insurance, and as you are probably aware, everyone who drives a car needs to have it. Car insurance will typically cover you for things such as if you get into an accident and subsequently need medical care or to pay for repairs to your car. Depending on your specific car insurance policy, it can also pay for things such as legal costs associated with your car and roadside recovery if you break down; it’s always a good idea to check with your insurer exactly what is included in your policy as it does vary.

A range of factors play a part in how much you pay for your auto insurance, so it’s worth taking action wherever possible in order to keep your costs to a minimum. For instance, just as making your house more secure can minimize the costs of your home insurance, adding security measures (such as an alarm and steering lock) to your car can also help.

You can also help to reduce the cost of your car insurance by ensuring you drive safely, reducing the amount you drive, driving a car that isn’t too powerful and raising your deductible. These are all things that can help you get cheap car insurance and so should be borne in mind when you’re looking to renew your policy; doing an online price comparison can also help you save cash.

Travel insurance

Travel insurance is another type of personal insurance that you need to have if you are going to be traveling anywhere – especially if you will be going out of the country. As with other types of insurance, the chances are you’ll never need to make a claim on your travel insurance but you should always take out a policy just in case.

Holiday insurance will cover you for things such as if your holiday gets delayed, cancelled or finishes early due to a range of circumstances outside your control. It can also pay for healthcare while you’re away and cover your money and personal items, making it a must-have for anyone going on a trip.

This post will not go over detailed economic analysis or complex mathematical equations on variable and fixed mortgages. This post will present some common sense options to consider if you are part of the following 2 groups:

Real Estate Buyers:

If you’re looking to buy property, borrow strictly the amount you will need and not what the amount the bank is able to lend you. It might be overwhelming to see the amount you can borrow and distracting in the same time where you go on looking for more house than you need. Keep both feet firmly on the ground as such decisions have long term consequences on your finances. Buy only what you need and borrow the strict minimum in consequence. Make sure you have some free cash flow after your monthly expenses in case you end up with higher interest rates after refinancing or in the event you decide to put some lump sum payments in order to reduce the loan duration.

Wondering about variable or fixed mortgage rates? If you believe the economy will be slow to recover, there is a chance variable rate makes more sense than a fixed one over the course of the next 3 years. If not, go with the fixed rate. I will not present a case for either point of views; it will be up to you based on your perception of the economy. Do not believe anyone pretending to know where the economy will be in the next 6 or 12 months, no one knows the future. We can only expect the rates to rise gradually and not in leaps and bounds over the next months.

Going with a variable rate can result in sleepless nights if you will keep on wondering when the next rate increase is coming. If you cannot stomach the risk you can go with a fixed rate and keep your normal sleep hours. On the other hand, if you can handle a little bit of risk, you can divide your mortgage into 50/50 fixed/variable combination which is more bearable since the risk is being balanced out. Take note that the variable rate should still be considered low even when the prime gets closer to 4%.

Real Estate Owners

If you currently own a house and your mortgage is due to be renewed consider the following scenarios:

If you can afford lump sums on your mortgage and the amount remaining is not huge relative to your income, it makes sense to go with a variable rate because you will be able to reduce your debt or potentially close it off within the next 3 to 5 years depending on the amount.

Example: I currently have a 155k variable rate mortgage set for renewal in 2013; I plan to pump a total of 30k into my mortgage each year based on a lump sum payment of 20k plus the principal payments. I intend to keep my rate variable for the next 3 years. If I execute my plan properly I would be ending with less than a 60k mortgage which is no longer a danger on my finances if rates were to shoot up subsequently to 8% for example.

By taking advantage of the low rate period, you would save tons of money in interest and potentially the taxes on this interest since the money you are using to pay your mortgage is after tax money.

Example: You have a 200k mortgage with an amortization period of 25 years and a 5% interest rate. You decide to pay a lump sum of 20k for 3 years in a row. The end result is reducing the amount of time by 10 years and saving 84k in interest payments. You can contribute those 84k to your RRSP and recover their taxes or use this money for anything you wish. Anything you do with this money is better than giving it for free to the banks. You can run your own scenario using a mortgage calculator.

For those who would argue for investing the lump sum payments instead will agree that the sense of security provided by lowering or closing the mortgage off is priceless. It’s also nice to know that your house is a piggy bank worth tens of thousands of dollars as a plan B.

If you fear for your job security or cannot afford to divert lump sums on your mortgage, it is best to stick with a fixed rate. If you still decide to go with a variable rate keep in mind that higher mortgage payments later on will increasingly limit your free cash flow and your ability to carry other debts. Whichever type of mortgage you choose to go with, compare mortgage rates before signing up.

I strongly encourage you to throw lump sum payments at your mortgage whether you have a variable or a fixed rate. It’s a win win situation.

How are you preparing for higher interest rates?

I chose a variable rate at the time because I perceived the economy to be somewhat exhausted. I never tried to predict where the rates would be in the long run, I simply said to myself that for the short term, there was a good chance rates would not be moving higher. I also knew that I can always switch to a fixed rate mortgage if I started losing sleep over interest rate increases. My initial variable rate in July of 2008 was 4.25% and I was willing to wait until it broke my psychological risk level of 5.00% before fixing it.

Did you notice that I had my risk level identified? I also acted on my perception of the economy at the time by keeping a close eye on economic data while ignoring any outstanding predictions. Finally, my ace in this game was to be my lump sum payments every year for the first few years which would help me get ahead if interest rates were to rise in the future.

Fast forward to 2010, Canada’s growth is being revised downwards and the US economic recovery has stalled. A hold in interest rate hikes is justified in the short term in my opinion. This makes my decision to stick permanently with a variable rate mortgage more feasible with a low risk since there is still a lot of margin before rates hit 5% again.

The lump sum strategy

My mortgage started at 200k in 2008 and should reach about 130k by the end of 2010. Every year I pay a lump sum of 20k, 10% of my mortgage which is the maximum my bank allows me to pay.

You see every dollar you inject in your mortgage immediately gets to work for you by reducing your principle and saving you interest. You will save time because you just shaved years off of your mortgage time-line and money from the all the interest you would have paid.

Let’s use the average Montreal mortgage for our case study:

Average Montreal Mortgage:

Average Applicant Income: $65,529.00

Average Co-Applicant Income: $44,763.00

Average Loan: $222,582.00 (rounded to $222,000 for our example)

Using the following mortgage calculator, we will take a look at 3 cases for 3 amortization periods (25, 30 and 35 years) assuming a fixed interest rate at 4%.

Case 1: No lump sum payments

Interest paid over 25 years: $128,330

Interest paid over 30 years: $158,035

Interest paid over 35 years: $189,003

Case 2: 10% lump sum paid in the first 2 years ($22,000 in year 1 and $22,000 in year 2)

Interest saved over 25 years: $53,156 + you finish 6 years and 11 months earlier

Interest saved over 30 years: $69,529 + you finish 9 years earlier

Interest saved over 35 years: $87,911 + you finish 11 years and 3 months earlier

Case 3: $10,000 lump sum paid in the first 2 years ($10,000 in year 1 and $10,000 in year 2)

Interest saved over 25 years: $27,486 + you finish 3 years and 5 months earlier

Interest saved over 30 years: $36,627 + you finish 4 years and 6 months earlier

Interest saved over 35 years: $47,273 + you finish 5 years and 9 months earlier

I have linked to the calculator above if you wish to run your own numbers. Those amongst you with bigger mortgages or higher rates will be even more surprised at the results.

Mortgage over Investing

I choose to invest my lump sums in my mortgage before anything else. Even if the return is as low as 2.5% it is risk free return. Higher returns require bigger risks, just look at my portfolio for an example.

The one return that is priceless is the peace of mind once the mortgage is reduced to an insignificant amount or completely paid off. My lifestyle security is above any other return since the household runs on 1 income.

The 2.5% I mentioned is my current mortgage rate, but what I will end up saving is much more than that compared to current fixed rates and especially if the rate increases dramatically during subsequent years that I will avoid paying due to finishing earlier or to having a much lower amount outstanding.

Donating to Banks

Amongst the things I hate the most is giving my money to banks for free. When you don’t make any effort to accelerate payments on your mortgage, you are essentially benevolently giving a lot of your after tax money to the bank in interest payments.

In the scenario above, interest paid over the amortization period is between 2x and 3x the average applicant’s income. Investing a little bit of effort into budgeting would go a long way in saving you the equivalent of a year’s salary pre-tax. Imagine how much money you could recover from the government if the interest you saved is invested in an IRA or an RRSP.

You can do it too

Many amongst you have mortgages; don’t let the lump sum numbers scare you. You can put together a lump sum by the end of each year without sacrificing your family’s lifestyle. Play around with the numbers as it will give you a good idea for a plan and work on it. Any amount of money you decide to put on your mortgage produces a winning scenario in the end whether your mortgage’s interest rate is fixed or variable.

What did you pick for your money? Investing over paying off the mortgage or paying off the mortgage over investing and why?

What is a REIT?

A REIT is a company that owns a portfolio of real estate assets. It buys, develops, manages and sells real estate properties. Investing in REITs is your hassle-free way of buying any form of commercial real estate from shopping malls to hotels and apartments.

Why invest in REITs?

REITs will not make you a millionaire, but they will pay you consistent dividends on a monthly basis. You will receive your proportional share of profits as the properties generate cash flow, and the REIT’s value may appreciate over time as cash flow increases and as additional properties are added to the portfolio. Obviously, you are also buying into a business so a proportional share of losses is also a possibility. Think of the dividends as your share of rent from a set of properties you partially own without the business side of managing them. The major advantage of buying shares in a publically traded REIT over directly investing in real estate comes down to liquidity: you can sell your shares anytime just like any other stock.

In 2006, Jim Flaherty crashed the party for Income Trusts under the “corporate tax avoidance” banner. REITs were spared if they met the requirement of maintaining 90% of their revenue (defined as gross revenues plus capital gains) from their properties. REITs are required to pay 90% of their taxable income in dividends and they are RRSP and RRIF eligible investments.

If you’re looking for diversification, REITs would make an excellent asset class to add to your portfolio. I thought I would share with you a REIT list as a bridgehead into this sector to start your due diligence (closing prices of Dec 20, 2010):

Retail

Diversified Office/Retail/Industrial

Residential

Retirement/Nursing Homes/Hotels

Picking your REIT

If you’re considering investing in REITs, I will provide a few guidelines that you can start with for each of the companies mentioned above.

Start by identifying your sector of interest, it’s always better to pick a company with a diversified property base in different geographic locations because it provides a reliable income stream. Study the management team carefully; a strong team makes a lot of difference. How much experience do they have and how long has the company been around?

Choose those that have quality properties, how many major retailers can you count in their tenant base? Are rents below market level? If yes, these properties have an upside potential as rents can be increased. For those with a sizable percentage of Office or Industrial properties, how does the economy look? What’s the vacancy rate and how is it changing from quarter to quarter?

Among other variables to watch: make sure distributions are lower than cash coming in. How are they financing their investments? What is the cap rate of their latest acquisition?   The capitalization rate = net operating income/purchase price which is equivalent to the yield on the property. The cap rate grows with time as the mortgage is paid. A newly acquired property’s cap rate that is lower than the distribution results in yield dilution. For example buying a property with a cap rate of 7% when your yield is 10% might not be the best idea. Obviously, in some cases management might see potential beyond the cap rate.

Finally, keep in mind that REIT shares are affected by the general sentiment prevailing in the stock market no matter how good they are. Don’t forget 2008-2009.

Final thoughts

With interest rates looking subdued in 2011, investors will be looking beyond bonds and high savings account for income producing investments such as REITs. If you don’t have the time or interest in researching and picking individual REITs you can still get all the exposure you want by buying an ETF such as iShares S&P TSX Capped REIT Index Fund (TSE:XRE) which currently yields about 5.70%.

The list provided above is by no means complete; please feel free to add your picks or suggesting more guidelines by leaving a comment.

People that go with a fixed rate mortgage typically like the predictability of their payment. They prefer to pay a higher rate rather than save a little bit of money in exchange of uncertainty. In my case, the uncertainty was a welcome addition because this level of pressure that I introduced on my finances translated into lump sum annual payments. I was simply racing to pay off as much as possible in a defensive manoeuver against rising rates that have yet to materialize.

The strategy has worked perfectly for 3 reasons starting with enjoying a stable job at the time, having the risk tolerance for variable rates and finally my personal preference of injecting extra cash flow into my mortgage rather than invest it. As a result, my outstanding principle is currently more than 50% lower than the initial starting point.

But with today’s small difference between fixed and variable mortgage rates, is it still worth going with a variable rate? In my opinion, you bet! Brokers, analysts and other pundits have claimed over the past 3 years that creeping mortgage rates were imminent. Yet here we stand with Canada’s rates frozen in time and if you’ve read my last set of interest rate predictions, I believe they’re going nowhere soon.

You see the debt woes of Europe are not something you can fix in a few months. It’s a matter of a few years, there’s a lot of deleveraging to do and a lot of balance sheet fixing to happen. Unless debt is outright wiped out – ie default – there is no easy fix.

Europe’s debt problems are weakening the global economy where even the rising BRIC countries are feeling the impact. The US has its own issues and has declared more than once that its rates will be frozen until the end of 2013 if not beyond. Canada is no island and will have to take the state of the global economy in consideration before raising its rates.

This is the basis of my move, rates will not be moving in the near term and when they do start moving it will be gradual and slow for fear of shocking the economy. The risk of seeing rates exploding higher is mitigated by my lower principle and the fact that I can lock up a fixed rate at any point in time. It’s not like we will wake up one day with a rate bump of 3-400 basis points in one shot.

While I am on track for a happy ending in my mortgage journey so far, I did commit one mistake: I never went shopping for mortgage rates. At the time, I simply went to my bank and signed the dotted line. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good rate but I might have done even better had I visited a mortgage broker. I might have also ended up with better prepayment terms as I am limited to a max of 10% per year – I’ve met some friends with up to 25% for a maximum. No matter, at this point all I am looking forward to is closing off the remaining mortgage in the next 5 years as a maximum timeframe.

Today, would you go with Fixed or Variable mortgage rates? 

One would think that the take rate would be higher than that and sooner than 2020 but this should not be surprising at all. Green driving needs a reality check because of 1 important ingredient: The Battery.

There is a lot of research being done all over the world looking to develop the next generation of lithium batteries. Batteries are critical for the success of electric powered vehicles; the future of this game changing technology depends on them. Why? Because current batteries are lacking the following attributes:

Long-lasting: It would be nice to get more than 100 miles per charge. A limited range will hit drivers with distance anxiety. Do I have enough juice to get to my destination? How will I recharge if I run out of power midway? The Nissan Leaf for example has an EPA-certified range of 73 miles.

Quick Charging: Unless you are a hard core tree hugger, I doubt consumers will be lining up to buy EVs that require 8 hours for a full charge. People are used to filling their car in less than 5 minutes, there’s a huge behavioral change that is required which will be hard for our fast pace lifestyle. According to Nissan, It takes about ~30 minutes to 80% at a 480 volt quick-charge station. Starting from a depleted battery, ~7 hours at 220/240V (depending on amperage), about 20 hours at 110/120V. You want that 480V quick charge installed? That will be another $2,000.

Affordable: Nissan’s cost to manufacture its battery was last reported at $9,000 per unit. Battery prices will certainly go down due to volume manufacturing but it won’t be by next year. Luckily, both Nissan and GM are offering 8 years of 100k miles warranty on the battery which has an estimated life of about 8 years, It will be interesting to see how the first generation models behave as they usually go through all the early teething problems The car is still very expensive compared to a conventional gas powered vehicle and you won’t be recovering your investment in gas savings anytime soon. This means that at least initially, EVs will remain a niche market. Would you buy a second hand car with 2 years left on the warranty? I doubt I would want to fork out $9000 for a replacement battery for an 8 year old car….

Safe: What is the optimal energy density that can be held safely? How far can we push the limit before risk increases?

Reality Check

What would it take in order to achieve a higher take rate?

I think consumers will definitely embrace electric vehicles if they can travel as far as their gas-powered car on a single charge. Don’t get discouraged, battery technology will be evolving and getting better with time but let’s not kid ourselves by believing all the weak points will be solved within a short period of time. After all, advances might involve trade-offs where improving range increases the cost and the size of the battery.

I haven’t even discussed how “green” these cars actually are but that will be for another post.

Final Thoughts

That 10% figure might be a tad optimistic for 2020 if we take hybrid cars as an example: How long have hybrids been around? The first Toyota Prius became widely available in 1997, 14 years ago. What is the current percentage of global car sales in 2010? 2.2% from 44.7 million cars sold.

Carlos Ghosn has all the reasons in the world to optimistic; he’s investing $5.4 billion in EVs. The technology will get there but it will take time to mature. Even if the 10% take rate is hit by 2020 or before, this will have no impact on world oil consumption. Unless a substantial breakthrough in green technology or a significant increase in oil prices takes place, oil will be the dominant transportation fuel for years to come and I intend to profit from it.

Did you really believe EVs were going to impact global oil consumption in this decade?