Category Archives: Insurance

Why use an Limited Liability Company (LLC) ? In a word, LIABILITY! Make sure you REALLY need one before establishing!

Much like the use of Trusts and our growing fondness on said use, we find more and more uses for LLC’s

Notably the Real Estate (especially commercial) were pioneers in using LLC’s, naturally due to their exposures and inherent risks.

Happily with more and more LLC’s in our office and more questions about them, we pulled a few interesting background information for your perusal… but before we jump into that… two set up warnings…

  • Mind the taxes – Be sure to interface with your tax professional when setting these up and make sure you are not accidentally burying yourself under a load of unnecessary filings…
  • Mind the holdings – An LLC is designed to give you protection…. but if you put everything in it, you may be diluting the benefit

Attorney and Tax professionals are your go to folks on setting this up correctly…..

Recall the old saying “Measure twice cut once!”

We think if fits well!

Background and LLC Details

From Investopedia

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure in the U.S. that protects its owners from personal responsibility for its debts or liabilities. Limited liability companies are hybrid entities that combine the characteristics of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

What Is Limited Liability?

Limited liability is a type of legal structure for an organization where a corporate loss will not exceed the amount invested in a partnership or limited liability company (LLC). In other words, investors’ and owners’ private assets are not at risk if the company fails.

The limited liability feature is one of the biggest advantages of investing in publicly listed companies. While a shareholder can participate wholly in the growth of a company, their liability is restricted to the amount of the investment in the company, even if it subsequently goes bankrupt and has remaining debt obligations.

Also from the IRS

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business structure allowed by state statute. Each state may use different regulations, you should check with your state if you are interested in starting a Limited Liability Company.

Owners of an LLC are called members. Most states do not restrict ownership, so members may include individuals, corporations, other LLCs and foreign entities. There is no maximum number of members. Most states also permit “single-member” LLCs, those having only one owner.

While it may sound neat to have an LLC, be forewarned if you set one up and do not really need one, you have garnered yourself unneeded work!

Have a Great “LLC Review” 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

Have you worked at a legacy company for a number of years? You may be eligible for some type of legacy health insurance from them !

One of the challenges, and concerns of retirement or transitioning from permanent employment before age 65, the current Medicare age for health insurance.

 

Purchasing health insurance as an individual can be challenging, and can also create some angst in the decisions that we make.

 

Have you worked at a legacy company for an extended period of time, maybe 10 years or so?

 

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

We have continually run into situations where a former employee who has worked at a legacy company for an extended period of time, such as 10 years … may have an option for some sort of bridge or supplemental like health insurance coverage from the previous employer.

 

What is meant by legacy company, is a company that has been around for multiple decades …. a new startup tech company as an example, will not have such a benefit. Also, not to worry if your company has maybe changed an official name but has bones going back many decades, you still may have an option.

 

In almost every situation, the key is these plans are not easily discovered. In order to find out if you have an option, it’s best to dig out contact information from HR of your old employer and reach out to them directly.

 

This is an expense to your former employer, so it would be expected not to receive multiple information regarding such a plan, but if available it could greatly help in bridging the gap for Medicare should we be in the situation of needing coverage before age 65. 

 

Almost every situation that we know of … has a slightly different slant of how qualifications are determined, be sure to take copious notes on how and why you may have this offer, and make sure you keep whatever contact person you have  for future use.

 

Qualifications for such benefit can vary greatly, so again make sure that if you were being told something you again or actually able to get this coverage.

Maybe a bit of a hassle to determine if you have an option…. but if you do, will be VERY WELL WORTH the hassle!

Have a Great “Found Bridge Insurance Option” 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

Back to the Basics: Fun New Complete Financial Planning Series/Course, Part 2 : Protection Planning …

Welcome to Part Two of our fun educational “Back to Basics” series original started here with Part One “The Emergency Fund” and continuing with this part, Protection Planning!

The goal of this series is to cover the most important Foundational Financial Planning items in not only order of importance but also order of technical difficulty. Once complete we expect to have a foundational, almost college like course of Financial Planning topics and goals that can be shared all at once in Netflix series drop like format for any that may be in need or interested. Longtime clients will most certainly find a repetition of items we have spoken or written about before but may occasionally uncover a topic that needs addressing due to a change in our situation.

Protection Planning – Health, Home/Auto (PLUP – Umbrella), Life

We could easily spend hours on each of these topics but in order to cover as much ground as possible we’re going to have a high-level discussion that fits neatly in our series as you will see that we will immediately refer back to Part One. “The Emergency Fund” as it affects our Protection Planning.

The following are in order of importance:

Health Insurance:

Never go a day without it as one accident could be devastating to your net worth!

Those of us lucky enough to have a large employer you probably have the best coverage at the most reasonable price. On that note if as we have mentioned in Part One “The Emergency Fund” you have a healthy one and you do not have any chronic or pending health conditions, it may be worth looking at a high deductible type of plan.

Those self-employed, it is a struggle, we understand, and your coverage will likely not be as good and cost more. Again, depending on your situation, a high deductible plan may work well for you. One of our favorite tricks for the self-employed is to try and have coverage via your industry of specialization. As an example, if you are a producer or pilot, you may have special insurance coverage through an organization, we find that specialty organizations offer the most reasonable prices and the most comprehensive coverage.

Home and Auto and Umbrella Protection:

When dealing with your home protection, again never go a day without coverage!

This may seem logical, but loss or lack of coverage can sometimes accidentally occur if you have no mortgage on your residence. If you do have a liability against your home the bank or financial institution will mandate you have good coverage at all times showing the importance of coverage. With our good emergency fund, we like high deductible plans as over the long term they will generally pay for themselves in the savings of premiums.

On our auto insurance, you guessed it we like a high deductible plan and in certain situations once the car is of extreme age it may be worth looking at dropping full coverage as it is easy for our annual premium to more than pay for what the residual insurance coverage would pay should your car be totaled. This situation changes and takes some continued monitoring.

The PLUP or Umbrellas policy is one additional insurance that is tied to our home/residence and auto and is a personal liability umbrella policy which we like anyone that could be seen as a target for whatever reason from bad guys out there that may want to sue us for whatever reason. Umbrella policies are relatively inexpensive and have the good effect of making sure your other coverages are comprehensive enough before the umbrella policy is established

Life Insurance:

The need for life insurance grows as your liabilities increase especially with the primary breadwinner of the family.

Liabilities could include business loans, large mortgages, children or other dependents, or another outside solvency that needs to be replaced should you pass away. As a person or family’s net worth grows there can be an inflection point where there is less of a need for life insurance. Long term life insurance needs can vary on a very personal basis. With various types of life insurance is there are possibilities for very large policies at very reasonable amounts given the specific circumstance.

It is almost impossible to cover every aspect of each of these topics and as such this is not exhaustive, but we think very helpful!

Have a Great “Back to Basics, Protection Planning” 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

Repeat Timely Article – Personal Update Reminder Story, Broken Water Heater at 8222 Douglas … Pertinent Article – When NOT to file an Insurance Claim … USA Today and ABC News Runs Our ORIGINAL Credit.com Article …

This is a repeat article from earlier… given the local and nationwide damage caused by the recent storm we thought it worth a re-run! Much of this article is around when not to file a claim, near the end of this post there are good tips on what to do should there be severe damage!

While at the Perot Museum putting the final details on our November 14th upcoming event … this text hit Jen’s Cell …

Water is leaking in the kitchen and has covered the rug ….

followed shortly by…

Building people are here and have stopped the leak ….

Not even knowing each suite at our building had a small water heater for hot water, we were surprised to find our little friend had given up existence after what seems to be several decades of light use at most:

Water Heater JK Financial

Just by coincidence we were reviewing our Insurance Coverage as the annual bill was in our hands for payment, AND the Perot Museum was asking for coverage as well.

In knee jerk reaction …NOT thinking of our own earlier-written article (see following) the phone number to the insurance company was found, but never dialed…. thankfully …

For the record, we are paying out of our own pocket, a very reasonable rate to have the baby water heater replaced as it is mandated by our lease, but we never created a CLUE report…

Original Post – See Below:

A few years back, Credit.com came to us and asked to write articles occasionally. With good feelings and spreading the better Financial Planning word in mind, we accepted and our first article hit the printers. The following is from the original post here at Street-cents.com AFTER the article had run in the appropriate channels.

USA Today NBC News Runs Our Article

USA Today Article Circle JK

On Monday, August 3, USA Today ran our Insurance claim related article… that originated from YOU, the best friends and clients in the world.

After originally being published by credit.com and having  ABC News run our article, we thought surely we were done … Nope…

ABC News Article

Thanks USA Today, we enjoy your publication very much … even more now!

Here is the Original Article in Full

One of the main reasons for having insurance is to offset risk, especially major risks and losses. We pay many insurance premiums throughout our lives to various carriers for a multitude of different risks. When a possible claim occurs, an initial thought might be “I am finally cashing in on some of those premiums!”

Think Twice Before Filing a ClaimUSA Today Article Circle JK

Not only do you want to strategize before filing your possible claim, you might want to hold off on even calling your insurance company. The premiums paid in our lifetimes reflect an amortization of the possibility of the risk occurring. The greater the risk, the greater the premium. If you are a constant “claimer,” your premiums will reflect this.

Do you have a CLUE?

Various carriers have been known to treat calls as a claim without the insured’s knowledge. Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, CLUE, is a database that keeps records of claims. LexisNexis offers a handy service that allows easy research of five years of claims data. It is a terrific service as a buyer but not a database you want to land on accidentally from an inquisitive phone call.

The easiest defense against this problem is to know your coverages and your deductible amounts. With the knowledge of what your insurance covers and the amount (i.e. ring, roof or fender) you are armed with the power to make your own decisions and not put yourself in a possible accidental or unworthy claim.

ABC News Article

Speaking of deductibles, if at all possible, carrying a high deductible will likely save you money over the long term. Most insurances can be looked at as a defense for a major event. Not reaching to your insurance to cover minor or lower cost repairs or replacements is a terrific defense against higher long term premiums. If you are a claimer with lower deductibles, it is highly likely you will have higher than necessary premiums in your lifetime. One important planning tip is that it is critical to have adequate emergency funds available to cover all of your deductibles.

What are some examples of NOT filing a claim?

The easiest example is a car accident that is just barely over your deductible. It is likely that a $1,500 or even $2,000 claim against a deductible of $1,000, through eventual higher insurance premiums, may quickly turn your claim into a negative financial transaction over the longer period of time. Thinking of your premiums again as an amortization of your claims will help you in determining if you should file a claim or not.

Filing a claim against an asset that has been depreciated in coverage to a small dollar amount may not only hit your CLUE report but could also result in higher immediate premiums, plus put you on the list for being dropped should you have several other claims in a short period of time. If you are dropped by a carrier, your new carrier with this knowledge may adjust your NEW premiums accordingly, as a higher risk. Not all carriers will even offer coverage to someone who has been dropped. That’s another reason to think twice before filing that claim.

Your cherished ring was lost accidentally. Your deductible is $1,000 and you think the ring is worth $3,000 but you have not had it appraised, was not itemized on your policy and have no way of proving the value. It is highly likely you will get little, if any, by claiming this loss and your file will be marked with a claim.

So when should you file a claim, sometimes quickly?

Automobile accidents that involve an injury, personal liability or severe damage to another vehicle, even though your car was not harmed are cause to pick up the phone and bring your insurance company up to speed with the situation. Tell your story first, directly to your carrier, in order to protect yourself and arm your carrier with as much information to help defend in the situation.

Catastrophic damage to your asset is clearly cause for notification and in most cases, the sooner the better. Major geographic damage often causes a large backlog of claims all at once, making it better to be at the front of the line.

Lastly, another money saving tip, if you decide to pay out of your pocket for your repair or replacement, be sure to let the service company know this. There are often different prices for insurance related and out of pocket services.

Have a great “No CLUE Report” Day !

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com
8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225JK Street Cents Logo

Personal Update Reminder Story, Broken Water Heater at 8222 Douglas … Pertinent Article – When NOT to file an Insurance Claim … USA Today and ABC News Runs Our ORIGINAL Credit.com Article …

While at the Perot Museum putting the final details on our November 14th upcoming event … this text hit Jen’s Cell …

Water is leaking in the kitchen and has covered the rug ….

followed shortly by…

Building people are here and have stopped the leak ….

Not even knowing each suite at our building had a small water heater for hot water, we were surprised to find our little friend had given up existence after what seems to be several decades of light use at most:

Water Heater JK Financial

Just by coincidence we were reviewing our Insurance Coverage as the annual bill was in our hands for payment, AND the Perot Museum was asking for coverage as well.

In knee jerk reaction …NOT thinking of our own earlier-written article (see following) the phone number to the insurance company was found, but never dialed…. thankfully …

For the record, we are paying out of our own pocket, a very reasonable rate to have the baby water heater replaced as it is mandated by our lease, but we never created a CLUE report…

Original Post – See Below:

A few years back, Credit.com came to us and asked to write articles occasionally. With good feelings and spreading the better Financial Planning word in mind, we accepted and our first article hit the printers. The following is from the original post here at Street-cents.com AFTER the article had run in the appropriate channels.

USA Today NBC News Runs Our Article

On Monday, August 3, USA Today ran our Insurance claim related article… that originated from YOU, the best friends and clients in the world.USA Today Article Circle JK

After originally being published by credit.com and having  ABC News run our article, we thought surely we were done … Nope…

ABC News ArticleThanks USA Today, we enjoy your publication very much … even more now!

 

 

Here is the Original Article in Full

One of the main reasons for having insurance is to offset risk, especially major risks and losses. We pay many insurance premiums throughout our lives to various carriers for a multitude of different risks. When a possible claim occurs, an initial thought might be “I am finally cashing in on some of those premiums!”

Think Twice Before Filing a ClaimUSA Today Article Circle JK

Not only do you want to strategize before filing your possible claim, you might want to hold off on even calling your insurance company. The premiums paid in our lifetimes reflect an amortization of the possibility of the risk occurring. The greater the risk, the greater the premium. If you are a constant “claimer,” your premiums will reflect this.

Do you have a CLUE?

Various carriers have been known to treat calls as a claim without the insured’s knowledge. Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, CLUE, is a database that keeps records of claims. LexisNexis offers a handy service that allows easy research of five years of claims data. It is a terrific service as a buyer but not a database you want to land on accidentally from an inquisitive phone call.

The easiest defense against this problem is to know your coverages and your deductible amounts. With the knowledge of what your insurance covers and the amount (i.e. ring, roof or fender) you are armed with the power to make your own decisions and not put yourself in a possible accidental or unworthy claim.

Speaking of deductibles, if at all possible, carrying a high deductible will likely save you money over the long term. Most insurances can be looked at as a defense for a major event. Not reaching to your insurance to cover minor or lower cost repairs or replacements is a terrific defense against higher long term premiums. If you are a claimer with lower deductibles, it is highly likely you will have higher than necessary premiums in your lifetime. One important planning tip is that it is critical to have adequate emergency funds available to cover all of your deductibles. ABC News Article

What are some examples of NOT filing a claim?

The easiest example is a car accident that is just barely over your deductible. It is likely that a $1,500 or even $2,000 claim against a deductible of $1,000, through eventual higher insurance premiums, may quickly turn your claim into a negative financial transaction over the longer period of time. Thinking of your premiums again as an amortization of your claims will help you in determining if you should file a claim or not.

Filing a claim against an asset that has been depreciated in coverage to a small dollar amount may not only hit your CLUE report but could also result in higher immediate premiums, plus put you on the list for being dropped should you have several other claims in a short period of time. If you are dropped by a carrier, your new carrier with this knowledge may adjust your NEW premiums accordingly, as a higher risk. Not all carriers will even offer coverage to someone who has been dropped. That’s another reason to think twice before filing that claim.

Your cherished ring was lost accidentally. Your deductible is $1,000 and you think the ring is worth $3,000 but you have not had it appraised, was not itemized on your policy and have no way of proving the value. It is highly likely you will get little, if any, by claiming this loss and your file will be marked with a claim.

So when should you file a claim, sometimes quickly?

Automobile accidents that involve an injury, personal liability or severe damage to another vehicle, even though your car was not harmed are cause to pick up the phone and bring your insurance company up to speed with the situation. Tell your story first, directly to your carrier, in order to protect yourself and arm your carrier with as much information to help defend in the situation.

Catastrophic damage to your asset is clearly cause for notification and in most cases, the sooner the better. Major geographic damage often causes a large backlog of claims all at once, making it better to be at the front of the line.

Lastly, another money saving tip, if you decide to pay out of your pocket for your repair or replacement, be sure to let the service company know this. There are often different prices for insurance related and out of pocket services.

Have a great “No CLUE Report” Day !

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com
8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225JK Street Cents Logo

Why you should be careful when choosing your Beneficiaries

In a continuation of our Why series – if you want to see the entire series just scroll down to the right side of our blog site and change the category to “Why” – there are some neat ideas in our opinion….

And a topic that came up this week with much discussions, once again giving us a subject matter to share…

In a preview article to a more detailed Newsletter article that goes well with our Institutional Trustee article….

Why you should carefully choose your Beneficiariesbeneficiary - 42001392872_ddd235968d_m

The most important point to remember is that whatever your account title  (IRA, Trust, TOD – transfer on death) documentation has deemed a beneficiary, that is where the funds will go, without regard to what your Will or even what Trust documentation may say…

Making sure all of your title documents send fund to where/whom you currently desire….

Want some examples we have seen over the last three decades:

  • Currently married – maybe for a while – but a Parent is still your beneficiary (Easy fix, frequent occurrence)
  • Minor child is the beneficiary – this will not work- courts will end up deciding
  • Ex Spouse – yikes -there are some relief with divorce decrees, but sloppy
  • Sibling that for whatever reason you no longer desire to be a beneficiary
  • Two of your three grown children – by accident, forgetting the third

Don’t let an accidental oversight in your Beneficiary designation slip through the cracks – Review occasionally, and you will be in good shape!

Have a Great “NOT forgotten Beneficiary” 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

October — BOOOO- 2018 Podcast Video, Financial Planning and Capital Market Update – By John Kvale

Hello and Welcome to our October 2018 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 format as well as Video!

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

A Special Congrats to the Capones growing family!

Nathan Elliott Capone

Nathan Capone

October – Booo – 2018 Video

Break In – Holiday Party Reminder

10-9-18 - Holiday Party Invitation

 

Financial Planning Tip (s) –

RMD Season

In our explanative post here, we overview the RMD season items …. and remind those in the first year of their chose to defer or take …

  1. RMD $$ mandated amounts are determined by the value of applicable accounts on the last day of the prior year
  2. Current year age is a necessary factor included in calculating the RMD – see below next, first time exception – each year of seasoning (getting older) we are forced to take more out of the applicable accounts – hey the IRS has never taxed us on these in many cases – it’s their time!
  3. After tax contributions to a qualified account MUST be accounted for in order to avoid taxes – here are greater details and our taxpayer obligations on this –  don’t overpay – the IRS is not tracking this and will not come to the rescue and lower your taxes
  4. All of an individual’s accounts must be included/totaled/value (certain exceptions are made to those continuing to work) to ascertain the needed distribution
  5. Any one account can be used to satisfy the needed distribution (you do not have to take a little from each account, making it easier from an organization standpoint) BUT you must take at least the minimum distribution
  6. Failure to take the mandated distribution amount COULD result in a 100% tax – Break in – our experience has been the IRS is nice about this, but let’s not test them

Social Security COLA Bump

Congratulations to those on a fixed income, the Social Security Administration SSA’s favorite inflation gauge measured a 2.8% increase, which we review in our post here and also even created this neat historical graph for our collective review…

2019 Cola SS

 

Capital Market Comments –

Suddenly it’s Raining?

After a drop at the beginning of 2018 – mostly blamed on a creative synthetic product that bets risk will stay low (XIV) our patience was rewarded and footing found … until Ugly October came to roost…

What Gives?

At this time, no one with 100% certainty, can pin point what turned the market sky’s grey and sent rain…

Oddly, it may not be any one thing, just like an auto accident – usually multiple items occur at the same time that lead to an opening for contact with another …

Here are our best thoughts in order of our priority/possibility – again no one knows for sure…

  1. Trendy high flying stocks that have been a momentum favorite, suddenly took it on the chin – alone in time not a big deal – seen next
  2. Most mutual funds and many other assets managers close their books at the end of October – many heavily invested in the above trendy stocks had their year turn very ugly right at the finish line, possibly setting a musical chair like exit, causing much more volatility than what would have otherwise occurred if not so near the end of many fiscal years – an extra worry juggle ball in the air
  3. Mid-Term elections are finally here, and it is unlikely anyone can predict with any certainty the outcome of the elections – capital market participants hate uncertainty – not a big deal if this was all they are watching, but another juggle/worry ball up in the air
  4. Interest Rate Increase banter on how many an how long rates will increase before being “Normal” – we have discussed in great length the inverted yield curve and while we are no where near this event, yes… another juggle worry ball in the air
  5. Tarif Talk has been around all year, but looks to come to more of a peak near the end of the year – yet another worry/juggle ball up in the air

The good news is the sun will likely come out again soon, but in true rain like fashion, it seems like the days go by SLOOOOWER when your stuck inside, under cover, without sun!

The GREAT news is earnings have been for the most part very good, not GREAT and screaming as they had earlier in the year, but still very good by comparison.

MAYBE ? – we are just overdue for a correction – This fantastic chart from our friends at JPMorgan reminds us all that these type of corrections are more of the norm, not the abnorm – we have just been without regular bouts for some time!

Q4 18 JPMorgan drawdowns

Have a Great Day – Talk to you at the end of November!

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
street-cents

Q 4 2018 Newsletter Video Audio Podcast Review By John Kvale

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q 4 2018 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 Here for 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 – Save the date for the Holiday Party

November 17th – Saturday before Thanksgiving – Dallas Athletic Club from 3-5 pm

DAC

Let’s get going!

Q 4 2018 Newsletter

And here is your review!

Capital Market Talk

Earnings and Markets Eventually Converge

In this hugely in depth article, first we discuss the effect of earnings eventually driving capital markets, but disconnects can occur. It can even be a good thing for Capital Markets to WAY underperform earnings, as they are this year because in brings valuations back in line.

Here is the key graph

7-13-18 EPS Growth and Mkt Growth 10 year avg

Higher Rates, a Short Term Headwind, Eventually a Tailwind

With sustained lower rates over the last decade, memories have faded on the tugging headwinds that higher rates have – IN THE SHORT TERM – on the mandatory safety asset class of bonds.

Higher rates are a great thing as Bonds/Fixed Income Assets have a place for almost all investors due to their safety and liquidity.

Once the headwinds subside our fixed income investments will have ridden the yield curve higher and begin paying more income in the form of yield – into our pockets – Finally!
bond index V Interest Rates

Too High of Rates Can Create Trouble

Too high of rates or an overshoot CAN create trouble … or a recession…

Our friends at JPMorgan – historically show that rate is about 5% – yea FIVE percent –

We disagree and think a lower level may now be this tipping point, due to the decade low interest rate level we have just experienced-

Current at two percent, we have a long way to go before getting too antsy
JPMorgan Rate Level for Slowdown

Inverted Yield Curve Update

So far to good- no inversion yet!
9-28-18 90 day to 10 year Inverted Curve status

Financial Planning

This series of articles came out of no where and in like domino fashion, once one was done the next took form and fell into place-

PLUP graph

App of the Quarter – Hardware

Our editor took the fancy picture out due to copyright fears, but our experience with the Firestick has been exceptional – Here are the highlights of our findings

  • Great Savings compared to just full service in many cases
  • Does not take as much internet speed as we thought
  • Bring your home on the road
  • Multiple devices used at once
  • Cuts back on duplicated services
  • Allows cherry picking services

Enjoy the fall –

See Ya next Year – Wow 2019 here we come!

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

September 2018 Podcast Video, Financial Planning and Capital Market Update – By John Kvale

Hello and Welcome to our September 2018 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 format as well as Video too!

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

This is month two of our upgraded Laptop, which means a new recording system of Audio and Video — while still working the kinks out, we are getting the hang of it – Enjoy!

September 2018 Video

Financial Planning Tip (s) –

The Emergency FundMoney - dollar-941246_1920

In our post here, a shortened version of an article in the coming Newsletter, we review all, about a much needed Emergency Fund, and the levels for certain scenarios.

Reasons to be slightly bigger-

  • Possible Job Change – Need to be higher on emergency funds
  • New Family Member- Higher is better
  • New Home – Expect unforeseen expenses – they always occur (Has anyone ever built or bought a home in less time and for less money than they thought? Nope, it’s in our nature)
  • Salary Fluctuations i.e. Commissions – Error on the higher side of that emergency fund
  • Others dependent on you – Business owner, large family, solo income earners, college or wedding – Higher is better

Reasons for a normal to smaller Emergency fund-

  • Dual Similar Incomes – Lower Emergency fund is ok
  • Very stable Job – Smaller side of the living expenses will
  • Very fixed income stability – Pensions, Social, etc.

High Deductibles – Why to Consider

In this post, we discuss the reasons for considering a Higher Deductible lifestyle –

Break In – There are always situations that a High Deductible will not work, we are just pointing out the advantages, under the correct circumstances!

Auto Insurance: One of the best ideas to consider a high deductible – take a look here at the great examples of why.

Home Owners: Another great coverage to consider a higher deductible.

Health Insurance: Once again a good one, but certain situations can easily negate the advantages of this!

Capital Market Comments – Interest Rates and Bonds

Short Term Headwinds Of Higher Rates on Bonds

This busy chart gives a great picture of the short term effects of interest rates on bond. Coming from such an extended long period of unusually low rates, we are reminding ourselves along with everyone else, this is very normal phenomenon and will correct itself with time by putting extra dollars in our pockets in the form of higher yields.

Have a Great Day – Talk to you at the end of October!

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

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