Author Archives: John Kvale CFA, CFP

Three Key Tax Items from the New Tax Laws – So Far

Posted on June 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

Recently, in a study group of six long time Professional Financial Planners – including yours truly – someone in the group asked if they had their arms around the new tax code?

None of us were 100%- too many changes and too many possible changes-

That being said, here are three key observations

Three Key Tax Changesirs

  1. The new $12k standard ($24k for couples) will render many itemizers useless and will mandating clumping
  2. Tax Rates are going down- across the board – see our chart here
  3. Largely a loss of deductions – Especially small business owners

The last bullet point may give you pause, but it should not, the net effect (most likely) will be positive for most tax payers —

Have a Great “Less Taxing” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Great News! Summer Project is Rocking – Finding Your Lost Money Update – Watch for an Email – Send us Names of Relatives

Posted on June 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

We are super happy to report we have just scratched the surface of our summer Lost Money Project, initially announce here – and we have Great News.

Found Money Summer Project Update

We are embarking on finding possible lost funds – with a lot of successes already logged.

We have retained a service that scrolls  all 50 states for government owned lost money.

With the totals quickly racking up, already nearing $5k we are spurred further by the initial success. NICE!!!

With relatives (deceased or long lost) being a big source of findings – if you have one, be sure to forward a proper name to us – email monica@jkfinancialinc.com

Currently we are cruising lightly alphabetically through clients and then will go through known relatives.

While only nearing the end of B’s – we look forward to updating you soon!

Have a Great “Found Money” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Clients/Clients Only, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning

Tax Comparison Chart – Link to 2018 Tax Estimator

Posted on June 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

In our continued pursuit of Tax Research and Planning ideas, we wanted to show you these items …

More on this in the coming Newsletter-

Here is a neat graphic comparing 18 and 17 Taxes

TAX Comparison 18 to 17 FINAL-TCJA-Filers-Chart

Broadly – the bottom line, across the board, taxes will be lower.

Favorite Detailed Tax Analyzer

After scrolling the net for a good tax estimator, we came back to our old favorite site, Dinkytown….

Here is our 2018 Dinkytown favorite 2018 Tax Estimator.

This link is to the more detailed version as there is a basic version that did not give us enough comfort in doing estimates….

Have a Great “Less Taxing” Day!

Happy Friday!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related

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Your Guide to how much Tariff talk should Matter – World Exports in One Chart

Posted on June 20, 2018 | Leave a comment

Thanks to our friends at howmuch.net, an absolute timely chart on the total goods and services moving around the world.

We find this interesting given the rhetoric being bantered around in the headlines and giving capital markets an excuse to frown!

Take a moment to see rhetoric versus total exports/trade-

top-exporters-countries-2017-d071

Have a Great “Total Value Export Informed” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Political

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Where did all the stocks go? Implications

Posted on June 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

In a strange and subtle way – we have slowly but surely, had fewer public stocks available.

A preview of our coming Newsletter Article …

Where did all the stocks go?

Economics 101 says if we have the same demand and less supply, price will rise-

2017 Declining Stocks US and World Comparison

We were surprised to find out the total US stock headcount is down by almost 50% over the last two decades….

Key findings and reasons-

  • According to many, the costs have risen dramatically to nearly mid-teens percentage of total public offering
  • Continued initial public offering “Pops” – think SNAP – only to fizzle much below initial offering price
  • Increase demands from governance once public
  • Mergers – big public companies getting bigger through acquisition
  • Public company Buybacks – While an entire article could be written on this subject, in brief buybacks lower the total shares outstanding of a company are an appealing use of extra capital as a buyback increases reported earnings all other items considered AND are more flexible than a dividend. Lowering the dividend is very politically incorrect as it may lead investors to believe there is company weakness, with little to no similar mandates on buybacks.
  • Less flexibility being a public company – this especially true from home grown or family run companies
  • Adequate access to capital – in recent years capital from various sources such as debt offerings or venture investors has made it less necessary to go public, once a mandate for liquidity

So if there are less supply and at least similar demand — valuations may be increased!

Look for complete analysis in our Q 3 Newsletter.

Have a Great “Less Supply- Higher Price” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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Clumping – A must given new tax laws … Friday

Posted on June 15, 2018 | 1 comment

We are finally digging our teeth into the new tax laws … they are not 100% set in stone yet as there are many unanswered items… and likely IRS statements that will clarify and change items as the year progresses…

There is one item we are pretty confident-

Clumping of Expenses

We are going to speak at length on this over the year, so not to worry about being reminded…

The new standard deduction amount is $12k – Making for a hefty hurdle to itemize for married couples ($24k), especially with a NEW $10k SALT (State and Local Taxes) deduction limit…

Clumping TaxesAre your eyes glazed over yet? It’s ok, we will be digging deeper into this throughout the year ….

Drawing from IRA’s is also in play under the appropriate circumstances … look for more on this shortly as well…

Today is a Friday … and while a little heavier than our normal post for the weekend … it sets us up for what is to come on our tax talks… get out and have some fun … talk to you next week!

Oh… and for those wondering, the 13 year old had 9 matches total and won 6 – in some VERY HOT conditions… All good!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related

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TripIt – Re-review of our App of the Quarter – Its already paid for itself many times over!

Posted on June 13, 2018 | Leave a comment

With travel season in full throttle go mode … We thought it timely to update you on an App of the Quarter we did in our Newsletter about a year ago … We will feature it in our coming Newsletter too … it is super neat and deserves the space in our opinion!!

Re-Introducing TripIt — A Second Appearance App of the Quarter

It does not take too many of these notifications to pay for the ~$50 annual pro-version of this app — Kinda like getting a nice present out of no where.

 

IMG_1025

Not sure about you guys, but once the flight is booked, the trip usually falls to the back of the importance line – not with this handy – keeping you frugal app …. It keeps on checking the prices.

I called Southwest and was happily give a credit against my account under the confirmation number. The credit made the next short flight across Texas free!

Look for more detailed review in the Newsletter as this App also has some very neat time departure and check-in time related and cool mapping features for finding lounges in various airports…

Hat tip again to SW for showing this neat tool!

Have a Great “Efficient Traveling” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

 

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Posted in General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, John Kvale, Personal

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