Tax Season is in full swing! Good morning friends and welcome to Finance Friday! This month we’ll focus on Tax Planning, a crucial part of your overall Financial Plan.
Taxes are boring, I get it. However, by investing your time to understand your tax return on a simple level along with having annual conversations with your tax professional, you can position yourself to take advantage of many tax breaks and deductions that can save you more money to complete your financial goals. Here are a few questions to ask yourself during tax season:
Are you expecting to sell a property?
Are you planning on doing a major medical procedure?
Are you planning to get married or divorced?
Did you receive a raise at work?
Were you laid off?
Did you start your own business and are using a home office?
The answers to these questions can impact how you file your taxes this year. Tax Professionals are extremely busy right now, however once the dust settles around May, schedule a time to speak with them to ask questions and to discuss how to improve your tax plan.
Now it’s your turn. What important tax questions should people be asking themselves? Please send me your answers and any additional questions to hector@hrcfin.com. Don’t forget to follow HRC Financial on Facebook and LinkedIn for more Finance Friday discussions.
Thank you again everyone, we’ll be off next week for Spring Break. However, I’ll leave you with a quick update on the Iran conflict and how its affecting investors:
While this conflict has added to the already stressed geopolitical backdrop, market reactions have stayed consistent with what we’ve seen in the past: short-term volatility and focus on long-term fundamentals. You can see this with oil prices and precious metals. Oil prices have moved higher; however, the markets are pricing in a temporary disruption instead of a prolong supply shock. I’ve added a chart that shows different conflicts in the last 5 decades and how the S&P500 pushed through, despite volatility and uncertainty during that time.
Once the conflict begins to simmer, investors will focus their attention on earnings, growth and policy, like clockwork. Remember, don’t make emotional decisions based on short term volatility, keep looking ahead towards your long-term objective.