Is it May already?

Something that millennial millionaire investors may not know about is the phenomenon called Sell in May and go away. For we do not know go away. Not per se as in the olden days of vanishing off the face of the earth for a week or more: incommunicado, out of bounds, no mail, no phones. And of course, before the advent of email.

Now, whether we are at a beach or at the cabin in the mountains, we are perennially in touch. God forbid if we do not instantly respond to that email that asks for a quote. For an auto-responder that we are on vacation does not work anymore. We must respond within twenty-four hours (if that is corporate policy) to any and all business email. And as we are anyway sitting with tablets and laptops and smartphones while we are purportedly on vacation, we might as well peek at our investment portfolio and see what it’s up to.

Did we lose 1% yesterday due to fluctuation in currency? Or was the market simply getting jittery due to employment numbers? Is GDP trending downward again? Will that require puts? Let that golf bag remain stationary for a bit while we attempt to make big money all over again.

So, we are not going away anywhere soon, whether in May or August, cruise or just a stayvacation. And as we are here, right where we always are, in touch through technology, let’s just buy some shares and cover them complacently with puts, that are our insurance, almost better than that travel insurance we bought at the airport.

Please contact your investment adviser for investment recommendations. We are available to provide a second opinion and investment analysis. We prepare extensive Capital Gain schedules (Schedule 3, T5018) for Canadian personal taxes. #TrushaDesai.com

#financialcoaching #financialplanning #investments #options

Personal Taxes

As the Canadian personal tax deadline approaches, if we haven't gathered our receipts for the year, there is no time like the present. An ideal way of ensuring that all receipts are always on hand when required, is to keep an annual tax folder, and as receipts arrive in the mail, they should be tucked away in the folder.

What do we do about electronic receipts? Receipts for donations, and other claimable expenses are frequently provided online when we pay by credit card. These maybe (a) printed out immediately on arriving in the inbox, (b) segregated in a separate folder in the cloud (preferably, in the event of a hard drive issue) marked "Taxes - 2016" or (c) both.

With tax software getting more user friendly every year, and software offering skinny deals, it might seem the obvious solution to netfile one's own taxes (or one's family's). However, is this always the correct decision? When there are more than five receipts, it might be worth our while to consult a tax professional, or ask a tax preparer to efile them for us. We may discover little known credits such as the family tax credit or children's fitness credit that should have been applied for. In lieu of payment of a fee, we may arrive at a larger refund than we had deemed possible. We must remember that Canada Revenue Agency requires that our taxes be filed accurately. Taxes must be filed on time when we owe tax. We would also be required to file taxes when we intend to claim a GST / HST credit.

Please contact us rightaway to efile your Canadian personal taxes. I have over ten years' experience in efiling / filing tax returns in Vancouver, BC using a multitude of different tax software. #TrushaDesai.com

#financialcoaching #taxes

Geeky Greeks (not the yogurt kind)

Chart courtesy www.cboe.com

As Spring has sprung and cherry blossom vie with magnolia and tulips for predominance, we are at the close of another weekly options trading day on the $DOW. Did we win? Did we lose? Did we leave with pocket change? Or were we simply assigned? It all depends on our underlying, our bid, our strike, and the all-important Greeks. Whether Delta (rate of change of the option price vis-à-vis the underlying’s price) is your prime focus, or Theta (time sensitivity) and Vega (sensitivity to volatility), it is ideal to look at all the Greeks or as many as you are familiar with, and open your position accordingly. And close it pronto, in a hurry, when the underlying price changes dramatically.

Options have a greater risk possibility than any other financial trade. With stocks, if you have a dividend yield of some sort, there is a high probability of a steady quarterly / monthly / annual income. With bonds, there is the possibility of a steady stream of interest income, provided we have not been too greedy and opted for high yield. With both bonds and stocks, there is a chance of capital gain at some point in the lifetime of the investment or investor … whichever expires earlier. For there is not much of a point in a grow-and-hold investment strategy if you are not going to be around to reap the fruit and all your progeny and heirs will be slapped with is estate duty. Please obtain tax advisory services before you invest. We have over ten years of experience in efiling Canadian personal taxes.

This is merely a dip into a vast mine of information, please obtain advice from your financial planner. We do detailed investment analysis and with over fifteen years of international investment experience, are in a position to provide you with a second opinion. We prepare extensive Capital Gain schedules (Schedule 3, T5018) for Canadian personal taxes.#TrushaDesai.com