Icebergs, Puffins, and Investment Wisdom

Vikings landed and checking out puffins and checking out whales . But I think that as we go through the show and we try to look for guests and we try to look for experiences , that will help listeners .

It would be great if we could transmit a little bit of knowledge about some of these countries we visit , so that you could learn more about those countries and ultimately , you might become a better investor , because you'll consider investing in some of these countries and investing in some of the values or some of the things that they do well , because ultimately ,

we don't know where everybody's going to find the best company and what we're trying to do is give you a broader perspective so that your investment IQ will be improved .

So , clem , if we look at your trip as a journey of a lifetime you've been talking about doing it for a long time I love the fact that you did it , and you did it on your own and you just kind of said I want to do this and I'm going to go .

I love that attitude one because I think that most people would say I really want to go , but I'm going to stay home . That's the 80% and the 20% of you that actually go do it . So what is it about Canada and what is it about this trip that has been on your mind for so long and what you know ? What is it that pushed you over the edge ?

Then you know , make plans in your life that would allow you to have the time and the energy and the money to do that , and so that means planning for retirement , a retirement that would allow you to do that , and planning for it . You know , planning even for a retirement that's relatively early , so that you still have the energy to do these things .

Or plan your career so that you know you're not a workaholic , right , and you have time to be able to do some of these things to our audience in terms of making their decisions about their careers and lives , to be able to make time for the things that they want to do , whether it's travel , slash , adventure or some other thing that our audience might want to

do . So I would start off by saying that Now , with respect to this particular trip , you know I like taking trips . Since retiring , I've been on several cross-country US trips . I've been to France for a month , for five weeks , I've been to Japan for a month , and then now this trip up north into Canada , and then now this trip up north into Canada .

The reason I chose eastern Canada was because I wanted to see , I wanted to go north . I like the idea of going north in the summertime and experiencing , you know , sort of different , cooler climates . So that's number one .

Number two , uh , in late May and early June , when you go up to uh , to Newfoundland and Labrador , which is where I went to uh , you have uh the ability to uh experience icebergs , uh and puffins , which are cute little birds that kind of resemble penguins but with bright noses , bright beaks , and also whales , and so I saw all those things , as well as moose

and caribou I saw them as well . And also Newfoundland and Labrador have interesting histories and culture . So , for example , everybody talks about Christopher Columbus discovering America . Well , even before Christopher Columbus , you had the Vikings coming over to northern Newfoundland and , of course , meeting up with the Native Americans who were there already .

Of course they were there already , but the Vikings were the first Europeans that we know of who actually came to North America . They had a colony of some 60 to 100 people

that they maintained for about 30 years . I found that kind of interesting .

But , uh , I also went to a unesco world heritage site that was a basque whaling station and the basque would come and uh and cut up their whales on the shore and take oil and send it back to europe and they , they created a , they created a little community there that was so , uh , basque in nature that they use the same kinds of red , you know , red curved

ceiling tiles that you'll see in Spain and France , and there's a whole , there's a whole slew of those things , you know , still on the beaches there . This is in red Bay , labrador , about 51st parallel .

So , yeah , so it was a lot of driving and I saw a lot of things , got lots of great pictures and , and you know , it was , you know , obviously primarily a , you know , a travel adventure trip .

But you know , you pick up some interesting things as you go along and you know , perhaps I can share some of those , some of those interesting economic and business and political implications .

It's a great way for you to say , hey , a company is paying for me to be here . I'm going to do what I have to for my company , but I'm also going to learn what I can think about and desire out of my life after I finish work .

So I think it's about you should be constantly have your head up and looking at things and saying , gee , what about this , what about this ? And I think that's part of how we grow as a culture and how we grow as individuals is to look for opportunities and try to take them . I think the most important thing for people is patience and planning .

If you want these things to happen , you need to start early , you need to do what you can and you can also make choices . You know you can stay in hostels . You can stay in . You know you can travel in places that are just economically a lot more . Your dollar is going to go a lot further . You're helping that country , You're helping tourism .

Yeah , I think there's a lot of good reasons for travel and I believe that the more we travel , the better we become as citizens of the global economy . So can you give us , like your itinerary or just a high level of , say , your top three spots and like where you traveled from and to and you know ?

And so , being the , the Yankee , um consciously frugal individual , I said let's take the ferry and have lunch in Bainbridge and come back , yeah , and it was the best 350 we ever spent . And I mean , tell me about what thrilled you or what made you happiest in this .

also to see , uh , whales that are coming up . So the whales are , you know , we're just beginning to arrive , and the icebergs , uh , you know , I saw sort of in the middle of their peak , um , so saw lots and lots and lots of icebergs on this trip . So I wanted to see all those things and there's really only a narrow period in which to do it .

And also this was a period when , when Newfoundland and Labrador were coming out of their winter season , at least it felt still felt like winter from my perspective , coming from Baltimore , maryland , but they never get like Baltimore-type weather up there .

I think the warmest they get is like perhaps in the 60s or maybe early low 70s , but when I was there it was mostly in the 50s , going down into the 40s at night , and the icebergs certainly send a chill uh over the land . So those are the things I really wanted to see .

I wanted to experience , uh , you know , the icebergs , the puffins , the whales , and got to see a lot of moose and also one lone caribou . So so , yeah , so a lot of things to see and also , also , um , you know , culture . Now , I knew newfoundland had a strong irish affinity .

There's a lot of irish settled in newfoundland and the uh and newfoundland , uh , you know , still has the people there still speak with an Irish accent . They call it the Newfie accent , but they still speak with an Irish accent . Brogue , yeah , kind of a yeah brogue , you could say . But there's also French influences there and English influences .

Interestingly enough , there's a place called Cupid's C-U-P-I-D-S which in the US , nobody knows about . Do you know about it ? No , I don't .

And even before that English colony , in 1610 , the French were all over Newfoundland and they were not that they were settling , really colonizing , but they had , you know , they , they use the French shores around Newfoundland . In fact they were actually called the French shore and they .

There was a political agreement , a treaty that allowed them to , to , to use the shores for fishing , for drying their fish , repairing nets and that kind of thing , Even after the Newfoundland became an English colony . Well , so , so yeah , Newfoundland has a very interesting history . Of course it has Native American influences as well .

You know , still small Native American population in Newfoundland .

government is concerned about Trump , uh , to some extent the people are people aren't willing to really talk too much about politics . I didn't invite it , I didn't like go up to people and talk to them about politics , but I only had a couple of people approach me and ask me for my opinion .

But it was interesting that at the border , the border guard on the Canadian side going in asked me do you have any guns in the car ? Which you know it's pretty , I think , standard question , right , do you have any guns in the car ? Then they asked do you have any guns at home ?

And I thought that was interesting because I think what they were trying to uh get out of me was you know , are you , um , are you a Trumper who feels that Canada should be part of the U ?

S and uh , and so whether I have a gun at home or not may indicate to them that uh , you know that I come from a particular political uh perspective , so that's how I guessed it . But you know , then again , in Canada people do have rifles , right , hunting rifles . So it's not like hunting isn't unknown to Canadians , right ?

Anyway , so that was one thing I observed . As I mentioned , the people aren't , you know don't want to talk too much about politics I also observed that the roads up there are in horrible shape compared to US roads and you know , obviously they have tough winters , tougher winters than we do in the US .

But I mean , these roads didn't look like they had been repaired for multiple seasons . So I have to believe that that has something to do with , you know , limited fiscal resources .

So I haven't looked into the , into all the details of that , but you know , it does take money to repair roads and these roads , you know , were often in disrepair and there were many places where there were crews repairing them . But you know , the , the , the task would be overwhelming , since it was so there was so many potholes on all the roads .

It just uh , just a very interesting , um , you know , interesting uh aspect , I think , to uh , to traveling into Canada , or at least into that part of Canada . So that was , that was one thing , uh , I noticed .

The other thing I noticed is that is that when I went to some of the touristy locations that , like on iceberg boats , whale boats , um the unesco world heritage sites , I didn't see any real . I didn't see any americans . There were no Americans there . Really there were .

I would say it was 80 to 90% Canadian from other Canadian provinces who were traveling within Canada . And I think there were , you know , some like French , from France , uk , irish , you know , but you know well , under 10% . But it was mostly other Canadians traveling to Newfoundland , people who have never been to Newfoundland who are from .

You know , I met a lot of folks from Alberta , for example , and British Columbia , ontario . I remember one time on the boat , on one of the boats , the captain asked everybody on the boat . On one of the boats , the captain asked everybody on the boat how many of you are from Ontario and three quarters of the boat said they were from Ontario .

So yeah , so Canadians were doing a lot of internal travel and that's because Canada perhaps not surprising has developed an increased sense of self-identity and nationalism in response to the threats from the South .

An example right when you , when you go to a McDonald's and there are some McDonald's up there in Canada when you go into McDonald's they have on the screens . You know , canadian owned , all Canadian product , right ? I mean it's all they emphasize that the product is from canada .

They have a and w root beer , which I hadn't seen in forever down here , but they have a and w up there , lots of them , and they emphasize that it's all canadian owned .

So , yeah , I think , connection to Ireland and the UK and and , uh , and you know , in Quebec there is to France . So I , I see , based on that observation , uh , I see there being uh , a uh prospect for closer coordination between Canada and the EU going forward and with the UK .

So I see , you know , whether it be on the political front , military front , economic front , I see , you know , canada being more integrated with Europe , okay , with the uk and with the the rest of europe .

You know , it's an own province and it's like completely different than Western Canada where it's about the cowboys , it's about the land , it's about the energy , and I almost think they have forged good relations with Asia , because I think that there are a lot of Chinese and other nationalities that look at it and say I can't get to America , but I might be able

to get into Canada .

This guy's brakes go , we're just going to be pancake . You know what I mean . Like you could feel the like . The road wasn't very well paved and they were bouncing along on it and you're like , geez , how do we not hear about truckers going off the road with these loads ? That just looked enormous .

And I'm thinking , gee , I don't know , is this the same as a guy who's a trucker and he takes the milk from the hood factory to ? You know , western Worcester you know what I mean Like being a trucker has very , very different definitions based on your landscape and what you're , what you're trucking .

As far as mineral resources are concerned , there's no question about that , and to some extent , energy resources are concerned . Um , there's no , there's no question about that and and to some extent , energy resources as well .

I mean we've got to say that their legal system and court system would probably be equal to our better .

If I'm looking for a company that is in natural resources or basic materials or chemicals or something that involves , you know , a good deal of energy or , like you said , a good deal of resources , yes , I think I'd probably get good value from companies in Canada .

But can I ask you in the last five , can you give me your three favorite moments of your trip , and then we'll end on ? You know what I mean , what we think is important about travel .

After that I saw lots more icebergs , but seeing my first iceberg on the ferry from , from Nova Scotia to to Newfoundland no , sorry , my first iceberg on the on the from Newfoundland to Labrador OK , that's where I saw my first one was very exciting , and so after that I saw many , many more icebergs , took some iceberg tours . I thought that was , you know , that

was a real , a real highlight to see that first iceberg . The second one was the puffins . And you know , one morning I went to see to this place in Newfoundland called Elliston , which is where there's a puffin colony , big puffin colony and I went in the afternoon and I saw a few puffins at a distance .

Then the next day I went in the morning and there were millions of them and they were all like watching over their all puffing out . They were all watching over their broods and the place where people watched from was from a , was from a , uh , a rocky outcrop , uh , that faced a stack , which is where the puffins were .

And when I was there in the morning there were actually puffins on the , the uh human side of the divide and uh , and that's where I got some really great uh photos and videos of uh , of puffins . I was about 10 , 10 , 15 feet away from , uh , you know , from the puffin family and from another random puffin .

I was about 10 , 10 , 15 feet away from , you know , from the puffin family and from another random puffin and you know some others . So that was , that was , I think , a second highlight of the trip .

A third highlight is probably being screeched in , as I mentioned earlier , being made an honorary Newfoundland citizen , although I would put that , you know , maybe third or fourth , and the other one would be the would be seeing the whale , and there's a whole story to seeing that whale which we don't have time to talk about , but it's , it was .

You know I undertook a particular strategy to go see that whale .

And it sounds like what clint did going on this trip uh , traveling up there and just doing it um , is an inspiration to a lot of people , because I think a lot of people want to travel and want to do things . And I guess I'd say what would you rate this trip ?

Uh one to ten in terms of travel , ten being the best , yeah , ten being the best , yeah , 10 being the best . When's the worst trip you ever went ?

So we look forward to continuing to bring new people , new ideas and better ways to help you improve your wealth management skills . Thank you , have a good day and a good weekend . Thank you everybody .