Category Archives: Podcast

September 2023 Audio Video Review – Break In – Merger Update – Shutdown Averted, For at least 44 Days – Meet the Koyfin – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our September 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: Merger Update: Good News – Little surprises

Its all good,…. main changes are as follows:

  • Different look on Web View, and Transaction type confirmations i.e. Statements, Notifications, Confirms – Still getting our LOGO in some places
  • Maintenance processing is different and therefore slower AT THIS TIME
  • Money moves differently, sometimes faster and other times slower – Please bear with us as we learn the ropes and can set expectations for
  • Funny side problem, Our Blog RIGHT HERE! ha

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!

September 2023 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

US Shutdown Averted -For 44 Days at least

In true Gomer Pyle like, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” Like fashion….. the US shutdown was averted with some come together votes on Saturday…. Here from AP

We will be watching interest rates for relief…. which is what would be expected!

Capital Market Comments

Meet the Koyfin – A Bloomberg Competitor

With so many options of services over the years, and having tried almost all…. we are careful to embrace new systems, but we never avoid….and constantly try to improve…

Hello Koyfin – Very comprehensive, and most importantly very clear in showing information!

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.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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

August 2023 Audio Video Review – The Brain Tests the Systems- Social Security Statement/Web View Reminder – Four Downgrades Reviewed – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our August 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: Donald the Brain WILL BE reviewing the Schwab TDA Merger information only one of 32k folks to be asked!

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 2023 Video


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Check that Social Security Statement no Matter your age

While a late delivery, we managed to remind all (including ourselves) why we need to review annually our Social Security statement, here in this post…. along with some new features from the SSA (Social Security Administration) in their updated website!

From the post:

Confirm your credits via your Earning History

Confirm you received credits for your hard earned money is very important, and easy…. here is what the screen shot look like – Below- oh, there are new drop downs for excellent help if your credits are not showing

Capital Market Comments

Not one, not two, not three …. but FOUR Downgrades with one called by ourselves – Tap Tap on the back

In this first post we commented that Fitch put a shot across the bow of the USA Credit Boat with a mild downgrade from AAA to AA+

Not to be outdone, another of the big three credit agencies, Moody’s chimed in as we discussed here

Then back into the pool goes Fitch with ANOTHER downgrade…. here we discussed Fitch’s second downgrade and mentioned we were surprised the One of the Big Three were silent….

BOOM that night of our above post, the other big three S&P Global Markets came to the party…. as we discussed here along with a timely fun YTD Bankruptcy Graph from our bud at Visual Capitalist

These downgrades among a couple of other items, not surprising, led to an upward push on rates… highlights to the far right…. already headed back to norms!

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

July 2023 Audio Video Review – RMD Reminder -AI – Cyber – FOMC on the Brakes – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our July 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!

BREAK IN – CLIENTS – Early RMD

July 2023 Video


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

AI – Artificial Intelligence Update – Great but Not Saving the World

In this timely post (in our humble opinion – IMHO) we revisit the latest rage… AI – Artificial Intelligence – very similar to Dot.com in our opinion… So we try to clarify…

Oh… Here is a GREAT YouTube resource for explaining AI – Christopher Penn a Marketing Expert we have long followed

From the Post:

AI – Artificial Intelligence Today explained

Program assigns a number to all the words in the English Language – other languages too of course.

Cluster of huge computers located somewhere inexpensive scans everything it can get its eyes on, and tags the patterns of the numbers from the words it has scanned…

Not kidding, this is it!

Cyber Reminder –

They are at it again…. Watch out!

Capital Market Comments

Go Powell Go – Rates a 24 Year High – Both Feet On the Brakes!

Careful what we ask for….

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

June 2023 Audio Video Review -Student Loan Update – Candid Kaplan Review – Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Hello and Welcome to our June 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!

June 2023 Video


YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Student Loan Update – No forgiveness – BUT story not over

Supreme knocks the loan forgiveness down – BUT plans continue – story not over !

There are plans to delay the repayments, what will be interesting to see if interest starts acrueing again and the end result of the forgiveness… stay tuned, likely not over!

Capital Market Comments

Robert Kaplan gets Candid – Accidentally Lets Rabbit out of the Hat

In a stumbled upon podcast, we discover some accidental VERY candid comments from former Dallas Federal Reserve chair, Robert Kaplan, here in this post.

  • There are still TONS of stimulus in the system – We new it!
  • Higher for Longer
  • Good Ole Boys Club – New it again!

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

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

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

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

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