Category Archives: General Financial Planning

Modern Day “Saw Sharpened” … Newsletter Research Findings … Summer Friday …

With a few days out of the office …. that saying of “Sharpening the Saw” comes to mind… Think it speaks more to a solitude down time than we have in this day of technology and need to stay connected… but we get the point, and feel the saw has been sharpened, maybe in a more modern day sense….

Enjoyed catching fish, extra jogs and work outs… and even some movie nights with most of the gang….

The 15 year old even learned to drive a manual “Stick shift” – ouch to the back on the lack of smoothness … fortunately not hitting the roads ANYTIME soon.. not kidding here!

Newsletter Research Findings

While the exact data that was being searched for the next Newsletter (Business Tax Refunds resulting from ERC – Employee Retention Credits – causing a slow motion economic slowing due to remaining stimulus being burned off- wow- what a mouthful) WAS NOT FOUND YET -grrr… we did stumble onto some great IRS feeds via the bird site (Twitter) that we will keep in our pocket for future use… Even AI could not help us, go figure (You mean it doesn’t know EVERYTHING- digressing with a full caffeine intake this am)

Ahhhhh….but TODAY is still a Friday, heading into a drive back home weekend and early summer “Pools are open” weekend!

Enjoy and talk next week!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

May 2023 Audio Video Review – Buffet/Munger Words of Wisdom, Debt Ceiling, – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our May 2023 Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast audio format as well as Video!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets thoughts and current events!

Hope you enjoy!

May 2023 Video –


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Berkshire Hathaway – Buffett Munger Words to Live By

In this post Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet are discussed in great details… along with a secret to speeding the time to listen (1.75x speed)…..

Main thoughts to live by from Charlie and Warren:

  • The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.
  • If you don’t see the world the way it is, it’s like judging something through a distorted lens.
  • All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought:
    Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.
  • If you don’t care whether you are rational or not, you won’t work on it. Then you will stay
    irrational and get lousy results.
  • Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one
    thing for a long time is a huge advantage.
  • There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous. A string of wonderful numbers times zero will always equal zero.

Particularly added this as just last week, saw a review of the meeting that completely missed several of these points in my opinion.

Capital Market Comments

Debt Ceiling Fizzle- All done until after next elections

With several comments from the field, we spoke multiple times, here and here about the Debt Ceiling, the history and the most likely outcome…

Much of our confidence on the matter comes from our contacts that we have developed over the years that try to give us a 100% straight scoop as much as possible…. They could always be wrong, but being numbers folks, we go with the odds…

They were right, once again!

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of June !

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Rates… Fastest Increase Review … Looking Forward for Effects … Newsletter Precursor …

This is an updated chart from our favorite buds Visual Capitalist

Last year we spoke of the speed of interest rate increases a lot… given the unique pace at which rates increased AND the super low level of (zero is about as low as you can go) starting point … it became a shock to the financial system….

So in all likelihood, rates are near their top for the foreseeable future….what lies ahead?

We will have more on this in the coming Newsletter but rates 500 times higher than they were just a few quarters ago AND looking to stay higher… there are major implications..

Debt/Financing costs higher =

Better safe investment returns aka Fixed Income/Bonds

More costs to debtors (lower returns for those using debt because of higher costs)

End of companies requiring very low costs to make profits

Have a Great “Fastest Rate Increase Effect” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend – Oracles of Omaha (Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger) Preview – Turn Around Trip Week Productivity – Friday …

Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all of you very important Mother’s !

Enjoy your very special and much deserved Day!

Nerds in Action

So you guys all know we are Financial Nerds …we are ok with this – calling a spade …..if the shoe fits… or however that goes…ha

Care to guess what Financial Nerds do to multitask?

Turn Around Trip Productivity – Warren and Charlie, Oracles of Omaha

If you click here, you will be directed to the 2023 Annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder meeting… it is a mere 7 hours and 44 minutes long…. eeeekkk

Break In – Think we finally figured out how to make the picture hotlink back to the webpage – lets see if it works when the email is received – fingers crossed!

Shhhhh…. don’t tell anyone, if you increase the speed to 1.75 X it is only a bit over 3 hours AND the voices sound amazingly normal (because everyone is speaking so slow normally) …

Turn around trip completed, lots of fun to a state just north of our resident Texas, great visit with Friends and clients…. AND the complete Berkshire Hathaway Annual meeting digested….

Now that’s multitasking…ya ya.. nerds, but that is ok, we will keep the review short but with the most important stuff!

Full report next week….ahhhh, but that is next week, enjoy your Friday and your Mother’s Day Weekend!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Kastle Back to Work… Stuck on Half Way! Effects beginning to be seen …

It has been a while since we previewed one of our favorite resources from the lock down. A chance article, below, rekindled our attention. We have added more observations.

Per the article:

A San Francisco office building was worth $300 million before the pandemic. Now, it could sell for only $60 million — a perfect example of why downtowns are in trouble

Kastle Systems Analysis and Barometer

Latest release

Publicly trade REIT – Real Estate Investment Trust – Actual Company withheld purposely (Public Venue) – Specializes in office space Assets

About a 75% drop in value. Not sure if the office headcount stays away, but certain office buildings are bearing the brunt!

Have a Great “Kastle Office Asset Analysis” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

April 2023 Audio Video Review – Cyber Reminder, US Dollar Discussions, Chat GPT the modern .COM (Dot Com) – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our April 2023 Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast audio format as well as Video!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets thoughts and current events!

Hope you enjoy!

April 2023 Video –


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Cyber – Fraud Reminder

In this post about cyber fraud and a reminder we point out where some 95% of all intrusions come from….

The trojan horse of clicking on a spam email!

Capital Market Comments

US Dollar Currency Status –

After hearing from four different directions …discussions of the US dollar and weaking in its status… the follow post was born

Likely overstated…but acknowledge there are surely effect from cutting a countries Swift code- (lifeline to wires)

True Foreigners, likely want a WEAKER US dollar – as its strength is not waning currently!

.COM and Chat GPT Comparisons

One of the neat things about staring so young in this industry and doing this for so long, is at a fairly young (this is subjective our course) age we get to recall and remanence about times of old….

…We all know what happened eventually, tons of .COM companies came public and expired in short order… BUT public companies learned by adding .COM to their name or services would drive the stock price up… many times in huge amounts…

.Com rhymes with Chat GPT – in almost every way…. but be sure to follow the revenues, not the narratives!

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of April !

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

US Dollar Reserve Currency, Status and Comments by Ben Hunt, 20 Year Chart of US Dollar …

After a question at my Starbucks Saturday morning coffee buds, several inquiries from you guys in the field a Sunday morning e-mail from my well respected author … then lastly one of our favorites … a one hour podcast Ben Hunt on the Grant Williams podcast on the subject matter … we wanted to summarize some of the items that are occurring around the US dollars reserve currency status.

U.S. dollar Reserve Currency status 

Dramatic shift away from the US Dollar is likely very overstated…..

In our opinion much of this conversation can be traced back through the decision of locking down swift codes during the commencement of the most recent war. While an aggressive tactic some peripheral effects may have commenced.

Smaller countries that may be on the edge of friendships with certain nations most certainly took note when certain countries swift codes (prevents from moving money) were shut down barring them from transactions and from their own funds during the most recent conflict. Not surprisingly a protective move to diversify if one found itself in this own situation would be expected. 

Ben Hunt Chimes in on the Grant Williams Podcast…

  • Both Political Parties can find some power in the Narrative of a US Dollar Reserve issue
  • Crypto enthusiasts have a natural bias towards a loss in US Status
  • US Dollar is 90% of all transactions
  • These comments started 40 years ago and are still not true

US Dollar Chart

International folks understand the dollar itself has not shown much weakness – 20 year chart!

Depending on interest we can do into this in MUCH greater detail in the Newsletter… but until then, thought it worth some clarity!

Have a Great “US Dollar Strength and Longevity” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

March 2023 – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – Taxes, Corrected 1099, No Form Reminder – Coco Bonds Via Advanced Analysis, FOMC Pickle Situation Resolutions – Great Content Video By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our March 2023 Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast audio format as well as Video!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets thoughts and current events!

Hope you enjoy!

March 2023 Video –


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Taxes – Corrected 1099 Down to a Trickle – Reminder

We reminded here earlier in the month and some what pounded our chest that additional Corretions would come…. well … they did, and we have notified all effected,

We left the following in from last months review due to its importance!

IRS Pointer and J.K. Financial, Inc. Important Reminder too

” … We would add, just because you did not receive a tax notice, DOES NOT mean the IRS did not and is looking for the appropriate notation on your tax return (Huge amount of time this occurs with cashing Series EE bonds) … a missing item is an easy automated paper letter audit….and as mentioned here absolutely requires a response …”

Cyber Security & Dall-E-2 (Combo Review)

We reminded once again here, about an abundance of spam and cyber threats coming through the email system…. just by chance a four hour update in person visit with pro’s on the subject was attended and they mentioned a lot of great points that we will dig deeper into soon, but interestingly the subject of AI (Artificial Intelligence) came up as a warning during our Cyber review as well…. recall we rolled out detailed comments here on the subject, with WAY more to come soon!

Capital Market Comments

Coco Pickle ? Huh – (A Second Combo post review)

In our continued and somewhat surprisingly fast accumulating Advanced Analysis Series – this time it was the CoCo Bond (it is so hard not to jump in feet first with a Cereal reference- too serious of a subject) digressing…. Tied into these explanations along with our Pilot Advanced Analysis via M2 was the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decision to raise interest rates again, even with some confidence in banks concern, which we also spoke of as well… Wow all of this tied together quickly!

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of April !

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Q2 2023 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Tax Reminders – Still time for 2022 Savings … M2 Pilot Advanced Analysis Series Review … By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q2 2023 Newsletter. For those on the road or just unable to grab the time to read, our podcast type review gives you the behind the scenes insight to our thoughts, observations and deep views of the entire Newsletter.

Click the Download button below, for a direct link to an electronic version (an early peek-good ole fashion paper versions are on their way to you shortly) and here for our Newsletter page

BREAK IN : From Parting Thoughts in the Newsletter

If you are not receiving our street-cents.com blog posts weekly Monday, Wednesday and Fri-day, please reach out and let us know. We have entered the late cycle portion of this economic slowdown and items are moving much quicker than our quarterly newsletter so we are posting frequent and very important items amongst our sometimes-humorous articles for your review and knowledge.

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q2 2023 Newsletter

(YouTube)

Last Minute Tax Planning and Reminders

After a small top of the mind reminder that it is ok to pay taxes, we do not want to pay zero today and then pay at a much higher rate in the future, we certainly do not want to pay ANY more than we have to, we go into several reminders….

The SEP and the Spousal IRA – two things we can do now that will help last years taxes….

Important Reminder about reporting :

Just because we did not receive a tax form personally, does not mean that the IRS did not receive some type of notification of that taxable event! If you had a transaction, usually of some out of the ordinary type, that you did not receive a tax form for, we are not out of the woods and you should report it.

Lastly, comments about the possible rolling of 529 into Roth… the answer is still up in the air with additional legal clarity on this… but it cannot start until 2024 anyway!

Happy Anniversary Rate Increases

While hard to believe, the monumental rate increases (fastest of a life time in %) just started about a year ago

M2 Broad Liquidity Measure Tightens

In another – not kidding here – never seen before, M2 one of the broadest measures of liquidity, turns negative and makes our Pilot Advanced Analysis Series…

First spoken about in January, the effects are being felt through the financial system.. but not where we had expected so far….

Have a Great Finally Here Spring! Talk in the Summer!

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

CoCo Bonds – Contingent Convertible aka AT 1 Bonds – Advanced Analysis Part 3 of ? BREAK IN: Do NOT add to a Bank Run – Easier than you think to Accidentally Do!

DO NOT DOG ON BANKS

BREAK IN:

At a welcome home family dinner last night, the fact that causing a Bank Run is illegal was brought up . Huh?

Yes it is basically illegal to cause harm to a Bank…. aka create a Bank Run… In today’s Social Media frenzy, this could come in the form of a like, sharing a post or forwarding something to a person of influence .. YIKES…

This is getting LOOOONG… so here is the cliff note version: Coco bonds are European instruments (Not USA) with weird exercise rights that can evaporate an investors money if a Bank gets in trouble. These clauses have been invoked already on a European bank, causing renewed knowledge of these instruments and their weird rights.

Back to our Regularly Scheduled Post

One of the absolute favorite things about the Financial world and our industry is the vast amount of diverse products, structures, programs and for that matter super cult like popularity of instruments that come and go throughout the space of time…. all of which make for constant learning- just continuous!.

Our advanced analysis series is meant to cover very complicated items for our high level collective knowledge…. This is a HEAVY one, just as a heads up!

Advanced Analysis Part 3 – Meet the Coco aka AT-1 Bond – A European thing

Coco’s sizzle because they can essentially be converted at the company’s whim, leaving little control to the actual bond holder!

Bonds are debt instruments unlike Equity (stock ownership) in “MOST” cases that have a front row ownership to the company. Said another way, if something happens to the Company a Bond holder is in most cases the very first person to get paid. Bond holders loan the company money only to hopefully get paid interest on that money and eventually the return of that money in the future.

Convertible Bonds as they are most commonly known, give the bond holder the right to convert or exchange those bonds for another ownership strand of the company. Coco bonds are converted if the Banks hit certain levels, which are stress levels, unlike normal convertibles which are fun/happy levels.

When Coco bonds are converted, investors may actually be taking a step back in ownership (Debt to Equity) have no control in when this happens, and may have large losses immediately for doing so.

Coco bonds do pay more interest, but as some (European banks) are finding out recently, this is not near enough to cover the uncontrolled convert at a less than happy time in the investments life.

Chopped this down a bit, as it is a Monday and wanted to get the Break In to everyone… Just trying to explain, in a very small world, that events across the pond, weird as they may be, have ripple effect here in the USA!

Have a Great “Coco Bond Understanding” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents