Category Archives: Monthly Review

August 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – YAY …. Holiday Party Location Revealed – 401k Run Rate – Wall Street Mistake to Our Advantage, Bloated Inventory – Slowdown Contra Bounces and Pivot Narrative Reminder – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on August 31, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our August 2022 … 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!

Break In: Holiday Venue Announced –

Thanks for the tease jabs last week… deserved…haha

Dallas Museum of Art

Details to Come – Saturday Afternoon November 19th before Thanksgiving Weekend

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!

August 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Check that 401k Run Rate – Are we hitting our contribution goals?

Here in this post we remind everyone now is a good time to check the run rate for your 401k contributions….

The reason now is a good time is we have time to make up any shortcomings, should they be discovered…

Bloated Inventories – Wall Street Woes = Main Street Savings

With large public companies fessing up that they have accidentally over inventoried and will be slashing prices to move said bloats….

Now may be a good time for a MANDATORY purchase….

As we mentioned in our post here, we have done some spiffing up of the office in conjunction with our new lease signing… Maybe too many people took our post to heart…. options are greatly reduced on some of our updates…yikes

Capital Market Comments

Hill Street Blues Reminder – Let’s be Careful Out there

In our post here, we highlight as a reminder that slowing/recession markets can have interesting contra bounces… but as our Hill Street Blue’s Chief always stated….

Let’s be careful out there…

Jackson Hole – No Pivot

Along with contra bounces comes a narrative that usually gets some traction…

Sure enough, this bouncing narrative was the Jerome Powell was already Pivoting to a slower hand (Economically not important as the cards have been dealt- digressing) …

Jerome Powell announced in his last weekend speech …. not only NO PIVOT but get ready for some Pain….Wow….

Care to guess when the announcement occurred?

Not to worry we are most definitely …… Being Careful Out there!

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Economy, FOMC, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Reminder, Retirement Planning, Video

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July 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – Back to Basics Tax Return PLANNING – Legacy Health Coverage – Feds Pickle – Yield Curve Inverts – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on August 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our July 2022 … 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!

July 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Back to Basics Series – Income Tax PLANNING

In our final fun “Back to Basics” review we discuss Tax PLANNING….

From the post:

Coincidentally, the most important part of Tax Planning is the second word in the subject, Planning!

As we individual or corporate tax payers traverse the tax year, it’s important to take note of unusual events that may be occurring. We’re certainly not saying you have to worry about this every minute of the day, but should you have an unusual increase in income, or decrease in income, this should be thought about before the end of the year for your tax planning.

Later in the post we discuss the key items in reviewing your return as well….. in step by step format!

Legacy Health Coverages

After running into several situations of legacy health care options for long time former employees… Here in this post we outline the possibilities of bridge Health Coverage from legacy companies and how fantastic of an option this can be…

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. 

Capital Market Comments

Bond Market turns Upside Down – The R Word

After the second negative GDP print … see next note of Fed’s Pickle…. the bond market really began to price in the R Word…. Here in this post we discuss the inversion of long bonds to short and their meaning…

The Fed’s Pickle

In this post, BEFORE the actual GDP announcement, we discussed the Fed’s pickle, with a hot economy (CPI inflation holding tight) BUT an economy that is slowing …..even qualifying as the R Word now – Recession!

From the BLS release after our post :

Q2 2022 (Adv)-0.9%
Q1 2022 (3rd)-1.6%

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, following a decrease of 1.6 percent in the first quarter. The smaller decrease in the second quarter primarily reflected an upturn in exports and a smaller decrease in federal government spending.

The definition of recession is negative two quarters GDP….

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, FOMC, General Financial Planning, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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June 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – Investing KISS – Atlanta Fed GDP Nowcast – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on July 6, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our June 2022 … 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!

June 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Back to Basics Series – Investing – KISS (Keep it simple silly)

In our continued fun “Back To Basics” Series here we discuss Investing our next to last in the series … and just Keeping it Simple in doing so….

From the post:

While many analysis dig so deep into investments that it makes your eyes glaze over, there are really two important parts of investing. KISS – Keep is simple silly

  • 1. Save as much as you possibly can, and s early as you can.
  • 2. Make sure your allocation above is such that during rough rainy times, a.k.a. slowdown/recession you do not eject and sell. Our human nature of fight or flight will take you out of your investment portfolio at exactly the wrong time if you are over allocated to risky investments.

Shady Used Car Offer –

In true musician like unknowing of a popular song… Our post here of a shady used car offer turned out to be a hit…

A true, made as succinct story of a mom having multiple increasing offers of her teenage seniors late model car after being told it was totaled caught a nerve….

We received comments from across the country, many of folks we do not even know, but chimed in to give their two cents worth….

Maybe slightly controversial …. for the record we try to stay away from too much drama as there is enough roaming around the airwaves, but we could just not resist this true story!

Trust but verify those used car offers!

Capital Market Comments

Atlanta Fed Predicts Slowdown – The R Word

Literally in the last week of the quarter, out pops an updated research report from the Atlanta Federal Reserve called their GDP Nowcast…

After holding strong at a 1% Q2 2022 GDP estimate for some time, new data entered into their model dropped the estimate WAY down to -2.1% for their most recent estimate…. see far right green line of the graph….

If correct, this means the US is officially in a recession already!

We will talk much more on this soon, but for the record we were very surprised at much of the Wall Street Reaction to this report, most notably interest rates, which went down dramatically!

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Video

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May 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on June 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our May 2022 … 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 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Back to Basics Series – Estate Planning – No Fears of Fancy Terminology

In our continued fun “Back To Basics” Series here we discuss Estate Planning…

From the post:

Rather than go into the complexities of all of the documents, keeping with our “Back to Basics” theme, we are going to go into what you need to think about to easily complete all of your Estate Documents. Don’t worry about the fancy legal and financial terms, if you can answer the following few questions, your Estate Documents can be easily completed …

The hardest part of doing an Estate Plan is just starting…. Go ahead and read this post if you have been procrastinating its not hare once you start!

Lump Sum Offer Reminder

After running into an unusual offer from a Pension Buy Out, we reminded ourselves these generally come in Waves….

In this Pension Buy Out Reminder post we discuss the most important items…

Trust But Verify, offers can be wildly in accurate!

Capital Market Comments

Look Forward, Not Back

In this early month post here, we discuss Jerome Powell’s 180 turn from stimulus to brake and in particular as it relates to interest rates…

Then again in a similar post an update on Interest Rates….

While counter intuitive, as the FOMC/Jerome Powell raise interest rates, historically interest rates eventually fall as the Brake action kicks in and slows the economy

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Video

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April 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on May 2, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our April 2022 … 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 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Back to Basics Series – Educational Funding

In our continued fun “Back To Basics” Series here we discuss Educational Funding…

Here is one very important item to remember from the post:

Did you notice we put Retirement Planning BEFORE Education planning? Do you recall in Part 3 in Debt Planning we said one of the few good debts are educational related debts ….We of course are not advocating Student debt/loans… but they are available in abundance and again not a bad debt. There are not retirement planning loans…. just saying!

Proxy Vote Reminder

In this post we remind you to please reach out if you have fallen off the list for us to proxy vote for you!

If you are getting those pesky Proxy Notices (some can be small books- oh the trees that are destroyed- digressing) reach out to us, we not only vote the Proxies for you, but we get one single notice for everyone, and Jen has done an excellent job in getting a great deal of those electronically…. Did we say how Green this is?

Capital Market Comments

The Slowdown is Here

We first started speaking of the slowdown in our Q 1 2022 Newsletter here in our “Anatomy of a Slowdown” main aricle actually released in December of 2021….

And then again, here in our Q 2 2022 Newsletter ….

Then again here, here, here, here, and again here.… among a few other times…

Last week the BEA “Officially Released” a negative GDP print as noted here in our post and in this chart….

Never get the timing exactly, but we are not surprised and have been waiving the flag here in our talks and are prepared!

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Reminder, Video

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March 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on April 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our March 2022 … 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 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Homestead Reminder – New Primary Residence in 2021

In our “Reminder to Homestead” Post found here, we discuss/remind anyone who has established a new primary residence in 2021 to check out the Homesteading laws of your state.

Using our home state of Texas as an example, there are ample tax savings and no downside to homesteading your home!

Annual Credit Score Reminder

In this annual reminder post, we direct everyone their free annual credit report, with instructions on how to review your report and why it is a good idea to check that credit…….

From the post….

Why Do I need to Know or protect my score?

While you may not owe anyone, anything i.e. have a loan with anyone … well done by the way….. A bad credit score can still affect items such as your automobile and your homeowners premiums… no kidding (see this  Forbes article.) We cannot blame them, there is data to check and it is their responsibility and ability to review it.

Bottom line a bad credit score or report may be costing you more money.

Capital Market Comments

CPI – Consumer Price Index Further Analysis

More hard comparables come in the form of inflated CPI numbers from last year..

In this post we discuss the large stimulus infusion this time last year and why it will be a giant headwind to further CPI increases….

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of April! Still Going fast this year!!!

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Reminder, Video

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February 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on March 2, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our February 2022 … 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!

February 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Third In Back to Basics Series – “Debt Planning”

The third post of a neat (well we think so) new idea, series we discuss “Protection Planning” !

This series is a review of the basics, and will serve as somewhat of a semester study of the Financial Planning foundations all the way to more advanced topics later in the series…. We plan on a mid month release of each part and somewhere south of double digit parts…. possibly with a video added to each for additional insights…. thanks in advance for sharing with those who may find this series helpful….

In this Debt Planning section we cover from a high level …

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Forms of Debt

Yes there are some debts that or ok, but there are also some that are very much sinners….

Review that Social Security Statement

In this annual reminder post, receiving a weekend email alert directly form the Social Security Administration our review was set in motion and a new post was born….

Happily as mentioned in the post, the SSA had updated the site and there are really neat new features such as a graph for delayed benefits and a neat spousal calculator.. Well done guys!

Please be sure to take 5 minutes and review that your hard earned earnings are being credited to your Social Security Benefit/Number!

Capital Market Comments

Interest Rates Jump Ahead of Fed – Short Term Pressure on Bonds Long Term Gain

While this post concerning how the bond markets, more specifically the two year and ten year treasuries front run the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) we also want to remind that such movement, especially seen in the two year treasury puts pressure (lowers) on the value of the bond but also ups the income from the bond……

So initial headwind, and eventual tail wind…yay

Re-Review “The Anatomy of a Slowdown/Recession” the Snap Back

With market jitters creating headlines and lower values, in this post we reviewed our luckily timed lead article in our Q 1 2022 Newsletter article, called the “Anatomy of a Slowdown”

The main purpose of the article and the re-run is to remind everyone INCLUDING OURSELVES, slowdowns (markets dropping in value) do occur, and while we don’t want them to, they do anyway!

In this post, we review three very large what we coined snap backs…. large rallies of 5%-to over 10% which are for some reason very confusing during slow down times and also tend to totally ignore headlines…

No idea for sure WHY they happen, just know they do … thought worth reminding as some great questions came in on the subject.

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of March! Going fast this year!!!

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Education, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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January 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on January 31, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our January 2022 … the First Month Review of 2022 – YAY … 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!

January 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Second In Back to Basics Series – “Protection Planning”

The second post of a neat (well we think so) new idea, series we discuss “Protection Planning” !

This series is a review of the basics, and will serve as somewhat of a semester study of the Financial Planning foundations all the way to more advanced topics later in the series…. We plan on a mid month release of each part and somewhere south of double digit parts…. possibly with a video added to each for additional insights…. thanks in advance for sharing with those who may find this series helpful….

In this Protection Planning section we cover from a high level … Health, Auto/Home/Umbrella and Life Insurance basics and best ways to implement !

New Uniform Table Gives RMD Break – We are all Younger!

In this post we highlight as the calendar turned, we are all viewed as younger (actually the tables have us living longer- semantics)…

A very important result of this change is to give those mandated by RMD’s (Required Minimum Distributions) relief…. since the tables in effect make us younger/living longer, less money is demanded out (Uncle Sam wants his taxes) thereby lowering taxable income!

Capital Market Comments

Re-Review “The Anatomy of a Slowdown/Recession”

With market jitters creating headlines and lower values, in this post we reviewed our luckily timed lead article in our Q 1 2022 Newsletter article, called the “Anatomy of a Slowdown”

The main purpose of the article and the re-run is to remind everyone INCLUDING OURSELVES, slowdowns (markets dropping in value) do occur, and while we don’t want them to, they do anyway!

In this post, we review the following chart and outline the normal 9-12 month slowdown time line… very much unlike the last three we have experienced…

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Education, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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December 2021 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on January 3, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our December 2021 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!

December 2021 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

First In Back to Basics Series – “The Emergency Fund”

In the inaugural post of a neat (well we think so) new idea, here in our Back to Basics series we discuss the all important Emergency fund.

This series is a review of the basics, and will serve as somewhat of a semester study of the Financial Planning foundations all the way to more advanced topics later in the series…. We plan on a mid month release of each part and somewhere south of double digit parts…. possibly with a video added to each for additional insights…. thanks in advance for sharing with those who may find this series helpful….

With the FOMC holding rates low currently, we remind that the Emergency fund is NOT investment funds, and as such may earn little if any interest in the current environment…. but that is ok, it needs to be safe, safe safe and very liquid!

We also discuss the size of the Emergency fund, depending on your situation!

FHFA Raises Conforming Mortgage Loan Amount

This post came to us due to the much larger than normal increase in the confirming (non-jumbo) loan increase amount. We have spoken at length on inflationary increases in a variety of assets, this includes homes and this much larger than normal increase in the non-jumbo Mortgage amount to $647,200 will be helpful in allowing more entry to many into the Residential Housing market, here is the actual article. and here is the link to the FHFA announcement…..

Capital Market Comments

Interest Rates and the FOMC – On Two Different Pages at Time of Post

With such importance on interest rates, the possible raising of the rates and the FOMC’s (Federal Open Market Committee) adjustment of rates…..

This post on FOMC’s rate increases, versus what the Markets are pricing in, was at the time very different. With Markets pricing in an increase in mid year of about 20% and AT THE TIME FOMC members saying a late 2022 if at all increase.

Fast forward to today and both the markets and the FOMC are saying a 60% increases in the Fed funds rate around March may be in the cards…. hmmmm

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Education, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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November 2021 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale

Posted on December 1, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our November 2021 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!

Break In: The Brain is at it again….

Some very nice publicity for Donald, aka “The Brain” here in this post along with a neat link to the industry article.

November 2021 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

New Retirement Limits

In this post titled “401k Plans Year 2022 Limits ($20,500 + $6,500 Catch Up), IRA Stay Same ($6,000 + $1,000 Catch Up) … Hmmm?” We go over the new limits and discuss why the catch up provisions are staying the same… the Hmmm part!

We go over not only the 401k and similar limits, but also the IRA and Roth limits and catch up provisions as well.

All of this from a handy IRS announcement found here at this link.

Capital Market Comments

TSA Throughput Update

One of our favorite monitoring of information is the individual TSA numbers that check passengers at the point of entrance.


Here in this post we discuss the latest updates and take note of the TSA’s new easier to graph for us, formatting… NICE!

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

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Audio, Clients/Clients Only, General Financial Planning, In The News, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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