A big thanks to all of you and the team back at home… YOU GUYS ARE ALL THE BEST … Many items were pushed to the coming week … a big thanks for this as we always aim to be there when needed and felt a little helpless with the crazy time change… Thanks again!
With the trip fresh on the mind, wanted to make a few comments, and as always tie our investment theme into the thoughts.
Thoughts
It was fairly easy to stay connected- but see next !
The Time Zone Change is crazy tough (+14 hours -tried to stay loosely connected to home/research with all items occurring – maybe bad idea, but was desired) … anyone working to or from this part of the world and interfacing back with the West… you have our complete respect – never felt rested as the sun also came up at 4:30 AM – says the guy who loves the sunshine too! – Oh…one additional item, it can be HUMID at least it was for most of our trip.
In Texas they say everything is Bigger… Not surprising, the antithesis here – this is the front door of our Airbnb …. No problem…definitely hard headed as the continued bumps did not stop even as the approached double digits …. And that is flat footed … there is a step up just inside the door which I am not standing on!
Thanks to our IT folks at home – With a super sharp eye on technology, the decision to log into our office for almost all usage remote to get two factor authentication, VPN and encryption (safe over sorry and practicing what we preach) the first log in garnered an email and needed verbal confirmation back to our IT folks that it was in fact us, otherwise the connection was to be shut! WOW feeling good about this….
Observations
There is very limited Air traffic, so much so, when something flew over, it garnered attention even drones were not permitted in the airport we arrived in the country.
While only here for a short time, the 20 year old has been here 3 months and counting and is immersed in the true culture and is fluent in the language … some of our collective thoughts:
A general even social economic population- somewhat surprised by this observation after a few public (Google) searches for Economic situations – but this is definitely what we observed.
Proper society in dress, manners and interactions- formal over casual with great etiquette at all times.
With two schools near our location the 9 am start time and 6 pm end time for middle and upper class students along with the formal dress code was impressive AND a large number of Saturday and smaller Sunday attendees.
The Bullet Train is the bomb- actually completing this post while traveling to a city on the coast. BREAK IN – Almost missed our stop as it arrived early….guess that happens at 180 mph – Very cool!
As mentioned in our International Diversification toe post, it makes sense having holdings internationally and after this experience is continual validation.
Thanks again for allowing the Great Week – back in the Saddle Monday with a slight broader/different perspective – Talk then!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
AI Content Authenticity: AI created the splash image. All of the following text content has been completed by myself and has not been edited or created by AI. Occasionally we do use AI for images and will note when appropriate.
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
