Scenario: As a financial advisor, you provided a few recommendations to your client, Will to meet his education goal for his child.

We asked the client to Open an RESP account and make an initial lump sum contribution of $20,000.

Secondly, we recommended to annually contribute $2500 for 12 years to meet the remaining $30K RESP limit ensuring they take full advantage of the RESP lifetime contribution limit of $50,000.

Lastly , we recommended them to Open a separate TFSA account for education, and deposit lump sum amount of $19K.

It has been approximately one-year since you last met with your client. Over the last eight months, inflation rose and people and businesses began curtailing their spending, causing the economy to slow down, followed by the financial markets. The central bank increased interest rates to battle inflation and are currently holding the overnight rate steady pending next month's inflation results. Your client's portfolio is now down 12% versus the amount he had when he implemented your recommendations.

How would you explain your client about the progress made towards education so far over the year given that they faced inflation and decrease in their portfolio?