Cash Flows like a Brook

As we are almost at the six-month mark of 2016, we can look at the past fifteen years of this millennium, and pause: did the hype of the year 2000 and all its resultant technological ramifications come to pass? Or did we just wing it, thanks to the like of Microsoft, Google and hundreds of thousands of computer programmers around the world?

Perhaps this is why we need to put pause on our worries for tomorrow. What we really need to do is plan, target, and achieve. It may not be necessary to achieve all that we targeted or planned, but it probably moves us from the stationary position. Once we have momentum, we can gain acceleration. Therefore, when the Federal Reserve’s Chair, Janet Yellen announces today that companies are making fewer investments while there is a lukewarm economic prognosis, interest rates will be held steady, we need to understand how a tepid economy will affect us directly.

How does that affect us on a micro-level? We might decide to sock away that mason jar of change into an interest-bearing savings account for year-end and religious festivities. Or we may decide to stash away that extra chunk of change in our chequing account into a savings account for tax liabilities. Or we may decide on (yet another) staycation this summer. Or else, we may simply do a reverse mortgage (if we are fortunate enough to hold real estate) or draw on that line of credit or carry our credit card balance to the max. This is when we realize that cash flow on a personal and business level is an extremely sticky phenomenon and we must siphon a few months’ cash requirements in a touch-me-not account.

In as brief a manner as possible, I would like to state that I am a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, I have experience in porting various software to QuickBooks Online. I can obtain a wholesale rate for you, should you decide to switch. I am highly proficient at other software too. I specialize in year-end reconciliation, GST reporting and payroll. I can assist with your investment analysis, provide a second opinion on your investments. I do strategize innovatively so that your business can flourish. And yes, cash flow is my business. I specialize in cash flow management and forecasting.

I do hope that today’s blog will prompt you to peek at my website and we may strike a mutually symbiotic professional relationship. #TrushaDesai.com

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Bond away

Chart courtesy thismatter.com

When the stock market is in a bullish frenzy, we are all in the game of nabbing capital gain (so that at the end of the year we can write off losses ~ if that is our protocol). We ignore the dividend yield and dividend growth strategies that we had carefully crafted, for gain is instant gratification while dividends are only a quarterly or monthly (or perhaps an annual) phenomenon. For who knows whether the dividend yield that is posted will change in either direction before the next dividend is announced: if yield goes up, we spend it all on a dinner, if gain goes down, we buy frozen dinners and glare at the reality television shows that yesterday were our favorites.

Through all these roller coaster rides of stocks, commodities, currencies, futures, options, we forget the inherent safety net (other than cold hard cash) of bonds.

We have looked at ladders, we have studied ask yields and ask prices, but have we wondered why there are some bonds that do not have corresponding bid yields and bid prices? Ask yields are a conglomerate of the posted interest and ask price. Therefore, other than going for a high-risk, high-yield strategy of what is commonly termed “junk bonds”, we might invest in ETF’s (Exchange-Traded Funds). However, with ETF’s mushrooming in every corner of the investment world, we must study their MER’s (Management Expense Ratios), distribution yields and performance. As always, we must remember that all investment strategies carry risk: and bonds may provide a safe haven, in terms of a hedge, when the rest of the portfolio crashes (or hopefully not).

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

#financialplanning #investments #financialcoaching

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