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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Doing the tire-kicking here on your service (have received magazine for years)...looking over the company reports, at what point to you update them - every 'x' years or if there is a material change to the company? So when I see a company that has a report a year or two old, is that because nothing really has changed regarding the company or you just don't update them every year? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Albert on July 27, 2017
Q: A friend of mine who wanted to access the cash portion of his portfolio was told by his advisor that that the cash was part of a "sleeve" and therefore could not draw on the cash that showed in his statement. He ended by having to sell some of his stocks to get the cash he needed.
Can you please explain what is "sleeve investing" and why he did not have access to the cash portion of his portfolio?
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by shirley on July 26, 2017
Q: I am trying to make a plan for what I will specifically do when the next correction comes. I am making a list of stocks that I will buy. I have set aside some cash. My plan is to spend 25% of my cash at each 5% downturn interval. So when the market corrects 5% I will spend 25%. If the market corrects another 5% I will spend another 25%. My plan is too keep going until I run out of cash. When I do run out of cash (when the market is down 20%) I would tap into a line of credit using the same strategy.

What do you think of this plan? Is it a good way to manage a correction? If not, can you suggest a better way? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Jas on July 25, 2017
Q: Comment: If it's not "fair" to pay taxes when you withdraw from an RRIF, it's not fair to avoid the taxes in the first place. The trouble we all have in calculating our net worth is we forget about the taxes! The tax deferral just doesn't work as well for those of us with high incomes in retirement. I expect there arr many who think that's a good problem to have!
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on July 24, 2017
Q: Have a family member that needs to supplement her monthly income. She received $60,000 recently.Should she use a investment brokerage account buy dividend payers, collect monthly income she derives from that and pay the occurred taxes, or since she does not have a TSFA open one and then (can she) withdraw the monthly dividend from the tsfa tax free on an on going basis. There is investment knowledge in the family to assist her. Thanks you for all your help
Read Answer Asked by James on July 24, 2017
Q: Being 73, I saved most of my life to an RRSP which flipped to a RRIF @71, with mandatory withdrawals. In the process of doing estate planning, and with the RIFF, being taxed @50% of withdrawals which is a difficult pill to follow. Initially I was withdrawing cash, however after further consideration, this year I transferred loss position "Crescent Point".
1. Would it be best to try and tsf everything before you expire and pay the tax.
2. When you tsf, is it best to tsf your losers initially, and then the winners.
3. I assume there is no other means of elevating the tax on RIFF.

For sure, RRSP are great during your working years, but never considered the tax burden after retirement. As an example if you have a 1 million RRSP after taxes $500,000.00 Does not seem fair
Look forward to your rely and thanks for your service
Rick
Read Answer Asked by Rick on July 24, 2017
Q: My overall portfolio is down 3% the last 6-8 weeks which I justify as the downside of having equities in the portfolio. I am 40% in cash so the drawdown could have been worse. My concern is that the 3% drawdown is just over $20000 and that is a lot of money. We are 70 with defined benefit pensions and really don't need any more capital; just want to preserve what we have. You preach the downside of market timing, but I see $ 20000 worth of paper gains slipping through our fingers. Short of investing 100% in gic's should someone with my profile be more of a trader ie use tight downside tolerances and sell when a predetermined gain or loss is met rather than buy and hold. Please comment as I very much value your opinion. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Richard on July 24, 2017
Q: I just read this from a respected member of an American investment service and would like to know your thoughts. Do you agree with his reason that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September? If so, is this the case in Canada also?

"If anyone out there expects to do tax loss selling this year, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
September is the worst month of the year for the market historically. Look it up, you'll see. The reason September is such a poor performing month is that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September because that's the end of their fiscal year. They don't operate on calendar year.
The reason we usually get a Santa Claus rally is because wash rules have been exhausted, cash has been raised, and cash goes back to work because fund charters stipulate they can't hold over a certain percentage of cash.
So, if you are going to sell something for tax losses, and want to buy the company back a little later and establish a lower cost basis, the time to do your selling is in August, prior to the funds doing their selling. You'll have time for the wash rules to play out so that you can reinvest in time for the Santa Claus rally."
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on July 24, 2017
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