At the end of the year, there are number of check lists which come into effect because an individual’s tax season runs from January 1 to December 31. As the season ends, hopefully you have made money (profits) and you begin to look for tax saving avenues. One thing to do is sell any losers to offset the gains you made. You will want to spend a few minutes on your portfolio and consider – when you bought your portfolio you did it right. You made decisions which you have lived with. Another question is knowing what you know (we are all smarter after the fact) would you do it again or make the same decisions. If you are similar to the mythical average person the answer is yes and no. For example tech companies were up over 50%, how much money was in that sector? Oil prices have come up a bit, how much was in that sector? It is easy to second guess yourself.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you first consideration was for the dividend and the dividend has been paid and the company remains profitable and expects to increase the dividend next year, then how much the stock has gone up or down may not be your biggest worry. Markets will move up and down or fluctuate that is all we know, but the past history suggests when the markets goes down, the stocks which first go back up as investors buy quality profitable stocks is dividend companies.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.