Category Archives: Newsletters

Q4 2023 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Good News on Interest Rates for Pensions and Pension Recipients, What? … Don’t Fight the FED Are we Fighting the Fed? Yes … Important True-Up Reminders for Year End Deadlines i.e. 401k … Handy Cyber Tips and Tricks … RMD Age Date Changes and Others … By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q4 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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q4 2023 Newsletter

(YouTube)

Rate Increase GOOD for Pension Plans and Pension Recipients

Special thanks to Milliman and Rebecca head of medial relations for allowing us the ability to reference this fantastic data… also sourced at the end of our post/article.

Here are the top 100 pension plans, a lot of names you likely know and maybe even have a pension with… At least one family member included in this.

With higher interest rates, something we have mentioned numerous times… Notice because of a rather complex future liability projection, pension plans for the most part are FINALLY funded….YAY

2023 Corporate Pension Funding Study

By Zorast WadiaAlan Perry, and Richard J. Bottelli Jr. 20 April 2023

https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/2023-corporate-pension-funding-study#

Don’t Fight the Fed! Wait, are we Fighting the FED? YEP

This unusual correlation especially when the blue line is going down, represents the FED (Federal Open Market Committee) pulling money from the economy or trying to slow the Economy.

Add higher rates, at the fastest pace ever….

Interesting that participants are fighting the FED, even though they regularly quote “Don’t Fight The FED!”

Stimulus still sloshing around in the Economy…

True-Up Reminders – 401k and the Like

In the year 2023 (Currently heading towards a close) the maximum amount WE (not including matching) can contribute is $22.500 and for those either age 50 or older or turning age 50 happily in 2023, you get a nice catch-up amount of $7,500 bringing your deferred amount to a whopping $30,000! 

Pro-Tip – Contribute evenly throughout the year, with a terminal amount of maximizing in late November or early December.

Pro-Trick – Similar to rushing/upping your contributions near the end of employment to maximize levels, if you are new to an employer and wish to maximize your contributions for the year, dump all you can to maximize your contributions now, with the intention of dropping that contribution level down to a normal level (see Pro-Tip above) after the turn of the calendar.  

Do Not Overfill Duplicate Plan Years

Remember, if you have contributed to a plan earlier in the year via another employer, your new employer will not be able to throttle your contributions back if you happen to go over the total annual limit. Reach out for help and clarity on this!

Be Aggressive in New Plans

Lastly, in new plans, starting from scratch with new contributions, allocation should be wide open and aggressive with the hope of choppy entry points as your contributions make up the majoring of the plan and will take advantage of the ups and downs in the early years of the plan.

Cyber Reminder- Tips and Tricks

If there’s one thing, for those of us with little time or patients for a long read that we would like you to take from this article it is that most cyber intrusions come from an e-mail that has a bad actor with a hot link click, do not click on that bad hot link!

The second thing and more encouraging, most cyber security situations are not extremely complicated and are allowed by a simple letting of our guards down- see above point!

  • Handy tip #1– Use an only known to you, phrase or password.
  • Handy tip #2– Do not ignore the recommended updates!
  • USB/Pen Drives a No No Avoid the USB/pen drive at all costs unless you absolutely, 100% know where it came from

RMD Age Changes and other Important Dates

RMD (Required Minimum Distributions)

One of the most important and likely most confusing due to the recent multiple updates is the adjustment of Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) They are now mandatory to commence for those aged 73. Those turning 75 after 2033, your new RMD age is 75.  Recall, these just a few years ago, moved from age 70 1/2 to 72, now to age 73 and eventually age 75. No wonder we are all confused!

Social Security Mandatory Commencement Date reminder age 70

The current maximum age that you may defer commencement of  Social Security still remains at age 70, well below the new younger thresholds that we hopefully are all feeling. 

The earliest one may take Social Security remains age 62, with a 25% discount to the full retirement age (FRA) benefit amount AND has a maximum earnings level of $21,240 from W-2 or 1099 (working income) not pension, investment or other non working types of income.  

Have a Great Fall! Talk after the turn of the Calendar!

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

Q3 2023 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Rate Increases re-review Forward Looking Effects- Research Affiliates Robert Arnott 10 Year Expectations … What we are doing this Summer … By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q3 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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

BREAK IN – The TDAmeritrade Charles Schwab merger will happen over Labor Day Weekend (September 5th, 2023) – Only Changes: Log in portal and account number – Expect (no reply) Legal Paperwork and emails!

Q3 2023 Newsletter

(YouTube)

Looking Forward Now with Regards to Rate Increases

Three Articles Centered around this main leading Article –

In our main lead article, we discuss the look forward expectations of NOT lowering rates as soon as many think. With higher rates, cost of capital will be more expensive for many projects, giving the Federal Reserve the desired slow down in the Economy ! Hopefully, and not too much!

Research Affiliates Robert Arnott 10 Year Expected Returns

Take note of Arnott’s powerful firm with predictions of the slower/safer Bonds earning more than the good ole SP 500 like stocks, earning and inferior 10 year return- Lots of disclaimers of course!

Higher for Longer

Asset Allocation – What’s old is New Again (Wish I would have thought of this title for the Newsletter) – Bonds may be our new Buddy – Especially if Powell is to be taken at his word!

Slow motion Slowdown – It is likely not over yet

Sneaky stimulus remains and with the fencing of Banks, this has the effect of additional stimulus in the system!

A Day in the Life and Summer Plans

While we may not talk Wall Street talk, our days are full of watchful research and fun client interactions!

The return of what we are doing this summer finally makes its way back into the Newsletter – we hope you enjoy!

Have a Great Summer! Talk in the Fall!

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

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

Updated Blog Site – Zoom Zoom – Nice – Had to anyway … Friday – Newsletter Complete ….

College Trips Begin

With a turn around College viewing trip exactly mid week – the lack of sleep, fatigue from an early out late back, six hours of college program listening and walking will be nice to extinguish this weekend… thankfully…

Fun Fact – “Dad, are you tired. because I sure am? So is this what your business meeting trips are like?” Yes, tired for sure! A bit of reality? haha – College Viewing List may be shorter…all good!

Blog Update – Zoom Zoom

Here at street-cents.com our blog has been updated to a “Business” platform … faster, more features (need to figure them out) and more viewing and character formats…. Ok… sounds all cool BUT, we had to as we were pushing the boundaries of our space from the videos and large content….

Would have never believed there were over 2000 – yep – TWO THOUSAND posts to send to you guys…. All are not serious, but all are original… spelling and grammatical mistakes inclusive…haha Thanks for your continued readership and especially the comment!

Who Let the Newsletter Out!

Speaking of writing, articles, posts and grammar…. Our editor did see the post last week of no verbiage on the Newsletter, and sent an email as such…. Prompting a quick continuance of the afore mentioned missing verbiage …. ITS DONE!

Never know how much you guys will like the Newsletter, always a happy surprise — but we can say we have gone to a much avoided subject matter that we will speak very little about in this public venue – you guys can read in the comforts of your home in paper novelty format…. hope you enjoy!

Have a Great Friday and Weekend – 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

Q1 2023 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Estate Tax Law change Heads Up …. Higher Rates for Longer from Stubborn Lagging CPI Inputs … Personal Reflection … By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q1 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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q1 2023 Newsletter

(YouTube)

Personal Reflections –

Entering the 36 year in the Financial and Capital Markets world, a lesson was learned this year (see below) we want to thank everyone for their well wishes, patience and confidence as we went through a unique “Changing of the Tiger Stripes” event this year!

Higher Rates – Longer – CPI Stubbornly High

CPI Causes Tiger Stripes to Change?

Very Lagging Rent and Shelter Numbers keep pushing CPI

Estate Tax Laws Set to Change – Heads Up

At the end of 2025, putting January 1, 2026 into play, without any tax law adjustments the Estate Tax level will adjust back down to somewhere between a $7 to $8 million or $14 to $16 million for couples level. 

While Estate Tax is not a huge revenue earner for the IRS, in our opinion Estate tax is in purpose is to affect the very largest of the states think  $100 million and up. 

Additionally the IRS is having trouble completing regular federal tax returns, by some estimates some 15 to 20 thousand taxpayers are still waiting on their regular federal returns to be blessed by the IRS from 2020 to present.  Lowering the Estate Tax level to an extreme low, while may sound good in the headlines, impracticality, it will likely create a huge bottleneck and more trouble than money earned. 

Bottom Line – We are on this in advance!

Happy New Years and a Great Start to 2023!

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

Q4 2022 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Slowdown Time to Clear, Ben Hunt Narratives, Peter Zeihan Global thoughts … Video Audio Podcast Review ! By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q4 2022 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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q 4 2022 Newsletter

(YouTube)

Patience – Real Slowdowns take a while to clear

Bear Markets about 20 months

Slowdowns average about 14 months

Narratives by Ben Hunt

With the news being the worst near the tail end of a slowdown, after crossing paths with Ben over five times, we thought it a great time to review some of his thoughts and research…

The Missionary Statement or Strong Direct Narrative

Ben and his partner theorized that Missionary statements once saved for Oval Office wartime speeches or the like are now used in part due to the way we consume our information by almost everyone, leading to an overload possibly of missionary or breaking news like headlines and narratives.

The possible effect of strong missionary statements or narratives, again Ben theorizes is that when there is the need for a very strong subject matter or narrative, if we are not careful we have become desensitized to things because of the possible dramatization of other headlines and narratives that it’s not taken serious. Said simply, the boy who cried wolf

“Why am I reading this, and why am I reading it now?”

Dr. Hunt mentions that they have actually had a number of news organizations and authors directly communicate with he and his partner in order to make sure or check that they are not accidentally using a narrative, which is a fantastic possible change moving forward

Peter Zeihan – Russian Ukraine Thoughts – Demographics made It Now or Never

With regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Peter theorizes that this is a recapture of multiple ports of invasion that Russia has given up over the past many decades. He also mentions that because of poor demographics the Russian invasion was an absolute necessity sooner rather than later due too an aging population

Interest Rate Thoughts

“The Federal Reserve led by Jerome Powell, has long wanted to get rates up to a more normalized level”   For the record this has been a known goal in the halls of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve for that matter.

Peter goes on, “Seems to be a feeling from the Fed Officials, that if a recession is going to happen anyway, let’s get our toolkit back of a higher interest rates!”

Talk to you after the turn of the calendar !l!

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

Holiday Party Save the Date Re-reminder … The Newsletter Begins … Early Fall Friday …

26th Annual J.K. Financial, Inc. Holiday Party

Dallas Museum of Art

Saturday November 19th 2 pm meet and greet then tour until 5 pm closing

(Weekend before Thanksgiving)

Ok … those are some large font letters above…. but wanted to get your attention and have you pencil it in your calendar….

Newsletter

With a fast month end approaching due to holidays and the afore mentioned travels… this weekend the Newsletter begins. The subjects have been decided… couple of podcasts interviews and another slowdown reminder…but there are no words as of yet…. that ends this weekend….haha

EARLY Fall Friday

Are you ready for some Football ? Usually means fall is just around the corner…. and it is…

Have a Great Friday and super weekend – Will talk to you on the other side of an initial Newsletter Creation 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

Q3 2022 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Positives Graphic Theme … Video Audio Podcast Review ! By John Kvale CFA, CFP …

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q3 2022 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.

BREAK IN – Our new format of greater articles continues as we received many positive comments last quarter…. this quarter we run with it again, but we do have a constant theme…. Positives!

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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q 3 2022 Newsletter

(YouTube)

With just shy of 10 charts, we plucked out our favorite three and Review them here in great detail:

In the video, we go into great detail and each one and we hope you enjoy!

TSA throughput is back to almost 2019 levels without the road warrior business traveler!

Being social folks, after a large spike in eating at home (red line), the continued progression and overtake of eating out has occurred!

Lot’s of ways to look at this, but in our positive eyes, more inventory means better options, especially for new home owners!

We hope you enjoy our over the top Positives … talk to you in the fall!

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

Newsletter Up to Six Positives… Can We Get to Ten? Thanks for the Tons of Compliments on Wednesday Used Auto Post … Summer Friday yay… Stay Hydrated!

As mentioned last week, the Newsletter is in creation form. With our new format of shorter pieces and more of them … we hit the road in this Newsletter to point out some positives.

It’s easy to find negatives, if you’re like me those hit you in the face almost daily … and are very hard to avoid, but positives on the other hand, can be a bit harder to find.

Not to worry we’re good hunters.

We Understand Why Musicians May Never Know What’s Going to be a HIT!

Wednesdays post, or small story of an actual event about possible crooked used auto offers … hit a chord like we’ve not seen in quite some time. We were contacted from all across the United States and even from some on foreign soil. The funny thing is is we never know what’s going to be a hit … but we really appreciate it when we do, and we thank everyone for taking a moment to read our posts as we know time can be ones most precious commodity.

If you missed it here is a link to one of our more popular posts of recent time. We’re not going to publicly say what dealership it was, we will privately if you want to know, but again thanks for taking time to read our posts and even greater thanks for reaching out to us about it!

Ahhhhhh … but today is a Friday, heading into a 100+ heat index Weekend, stay hydrated, be safe, enjoy, and spend time with those special in your life.

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

Q2 2022 J.K. Financial, Inc. Newsletter … Video Audio Podcast Review ! By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Q2 2022 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.

BREAK IN – We are trying a new format of articles that are shorter, and hit a very wide variety of topics that should interest all ages and chapters…. Let us know what you think?

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

Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!

Q 2 2022 Newsletter

(YouTube)

All about the Stimulus Base Effects and the Coming Comparable (Hurdles)

In our main article, a somewhat follow up article to our Q 1 2022 Newsletter Main Article “Anatomy of a Slowdown” we review the base effects we as an economy are about to have to hurdle.

Sale of many companies exploded higher, similar to the one below, but now must be digested..

Look Back Tax Savings – Spousal IRA – SEP – HSA  , These can be done before your filing due date of April 18 to Possible Lower Your 2021 Taxes 

With tax season officially underway, actually nearing an end, the official filing date for non-extension regular Form 1040 Filers is April 18th, 2022 (this year) for year 2021 tax filings, just a few weeks out. There are a few tax saving ideas that even with the turn of the calendar can be implemented to possibly help last year’s income taxes. 

Self Employed Pension plan-the SEP as it’s commonly called is a great vehicle to offset income that is not of the W2 type, think consulting income.

The Spousal “Qualified IRA” is another handy tool to use if one of the spouses does not have any form of a retirement plan.

The HSA. One of the great parts of the HSA is you only need a high-deductible health insurance plan

Estate and Gift Planning Update – Annual Gifting Amount – Estate Tax Update 

Annual Gift amount upped to $16k per person

Estate Tax Stands at $12.06 million per person or $22.12 million per couple

“Last year certainly garnered many headlines of possible changes in much of the estate tax laws. In all fairness we fielded many questions and thankfully once again stuck to our mantra of until it is law, one should be very careful at making preemptive adjustments. There certainly can be changes in the future, but again short of knee jerk reactions, we tend to like for law mandates to be made for reaction, rather than rumors. “

Financial Planning/Retirement Planning Trick for those Early in the Workforce – Roth contribution for young working

Helping a new worker contribute to a Roth and an early age to jumpstart a retirement program…

From the Article…

“Most likely if a young worker is making a very nominal amount, and possibly still living at home, they will not have the cash flow to contribute to any type of retirement plan. But if someway somehow they can make a Roth contribution at least up to their earnings at a very young age the long term positive consequences of this can obviously be fantastic.”

“If a 17 year old was somehow able to get $6000 in a Roth (one time!) and earn 8% a year at age 66 he/she would have about $191,000. If that same 17 year old were somehow able to get $6000 a year until he or she was 23, (five years), and had the same 8% compounding until he or she was 66 there would be a nest egg of just under $1,000,000. That $1,000,000 would not be subject under current tax laws, to mandatory required minimum distributions (RMS;s) nor again under current tax laws would it be taxable income upon distribution.”

We hope you enjoy … talk to you 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