Category Archives: Why

Why We really like YouTube and How We use it!

In no way are we compensated by YouTube…. but we sure do use it… even as Financial Planning Nerds…with some personal examples here too!

Why we love YouTube and How we use it!

Our Channel

As a regular video poster here at our blog on Street-cents.com – we have a YouTube Channel where we post all of our videos- for the record we do not embed them in our posts due to the advertisements that occur after the video is watched….

Subscriptions

What we really like about YouTube is the ability to subscribe to various channels…. Yes, mine is packed with very specific individuals that have garnered trust over the years, such as mentioned here Peter Zeihan, but also a stay updated men’s clothing personality, as well as a Drone person, marketing specialist, and even a few local fishing personalities…

How To Instructions on Anything

The first time YouTube instructions saves you a ton of angst, time and money, you will gravitate to it for ANY fixit troubles you may have… From screen broadcasting in the office, to capping unused sprinklers at the house… to even how to roll tamales was on during our remote working time.

Live Web Cams and 4k Videos

Anyone in the office long enough will spot a Live Webcam somewhere…usually of either the beach or the mountains (tranquility and calm) but sometimes just of up beat music with a backdrop of videos flying over various scenic terrane – great live painting like wall screens!

Feels Good too

Many of these people are making their living with our eyes watching, listening, and learning from their videos and channels…. What an easy and great way to give back!

Have a Great “Why we like YouTube” 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

Proxy Season is Here … Why We Vote For You and What to Do if You are Receiving Proxy Information

Almost all public financial institutions of all shape and form have what is called a Proxy Vote.

The Proxy is an at least Annual Vote for various items such as approval for management salaries, mergers, company stock repurchases and just an annual approval to continue current services.

Break In – The pending fall merger has led to an increase in Schwab related deliveries mostly via email … see below for our easy corrective measures made by use!

Why We Vote Your Proxy

As a regular practice we vote Proxies for all clients. This accomplishes multiple items:

  • Much Greener – We get one statement for literally 100’s of client votes
  • We actually vote – always for management – if we disagreed we would not own the respective asset
  • We keep a permanent record of the vote
  • By voting for you, your mailbox is not stuffed full this time of the year

We try to receive electronic information as much as possible – this is once again green but much of this information is still delivered the old fashion way by snail mail

What to Do If You are Receiving Proxy Information .. Help is Here!

Occasionally Proxy directives for us to vote … for you, falls off the system …

When this occurs your mailbox will begin getting full…

No worry, just reach out and we can easily refresh your directives back to us and stop the pelting of mail.

Given the large number of collective votes, we do not know if you have fallen off the directives list, so please do not hesitate to ask us for a refresh.

Have a Great “Proxy Vote Update” 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

Why October can be a Bumpy Month … Halloween? No

Our content in this venue is sometimes informative (we hope), sometimes clarification of headlines, sometimes educational, sometimes humorous and self-deprivation, and in this post more of a diary for our own education and collective remembrance.

Why October can sometimes be spooky for Capital Markets?

Probably the spookiest October that many may only read about is October 1987, but long-term historians will note that while the fourth quarter is generally a good quarter for capital markets (likely not the case this year with a FOMC yielding an interest rate rocket – ok, digressing), October can be rather spooky.

Why?

Year End for Many Mutual Funds – A very large number of mutual funds in the order of North of 20% have their year-end in October. This creates unique pressures across-the-board both on stocks that have done bad and false increases on stocks that maybe have done good as mutual funds close their books down for the year. As a sidenote last month, September garnered over 10%-year end mutual fund companies.

Black Out – With the official start of earning season being early October, publicly traded companies are restricted from purchasing their own stock. As of the most recent reading approximately 30% of exchange volume was estimated to be company buy backs…. Yes, your read that correct…30% of daily volume … Wow! Once the black out commences, by law companies are no longer allowed to purchase their company stock until a certain date after their public filing. The purpose of this is of course to cut back on any perceived manipulation. This absence of a normal one third volume of trading can make for “thinner” markets and spookier.

Confession Time – The Clock has run out – Publicly traded companies, many of which are on a fiscal year (tax year ends 12/31), the final quarter becomes the quarter of confession especially If earnings are skewed much differently than what capital market participants expect. This force is a pseudo-named “Confession”, as the calendar has just run out of rope forcing the final grade for the year in some cases.

Seasonality – As mentioned above, weird things have happened in October, creating a weird feed back loop. This means, that by knowing sometimes things can get spooky in this month, market participants and thereby Capital Markets can get spooked easier!

Mix it all up and we get a witch’s Brew of spooky times in October. 

But guess what?

We have let you know in advance, and we are not calling for a Spooky month, but there is a reason this post/memoir/diary is coming out now…. Just after a few spooky huge up days in Capital Markets…

Boo… We have your back!

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

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

Why you need to know your Credit Score and where to get your Annual Free Credit Report – Annual Reminder

Knowing your credit score and your credit report has become increasingly important. With updates in technology and increases of consumer related fraud, we all need to keep an eye on our credit and our credit score for protection.

Why Do I need to Know or protect my score?

credit-40673__340

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.

How do I get a copy of my credit report?

After you get your score, you may want to get a detailed copy of your credit report. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com, which is a free service offered for your own protection by the three agencies. There are tons of sites out there that are not free and try to seduce you into paying an unnecessary monthly fee, this site has been checked and is safe.

You may request all three services or just use one and keep the other two available at a later time. This may be handy as you only get one free report per agency per year. If you stagger the reports you can inquire at different times, keep later dates open for inquiry.

If your report is good, there is likely no reason to get more than one agency report.  If your report has deficiencies you may protest from the site as it is reported.

Taking time to review your credit and credit score is easy and may save you angst and money!

Have a great “Safe Credit” day!

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

Why NOT to add AFTER tax funds to your IRA!

With several conversations around this topic of late, we thought this post worth a re-run, freshened up of course… hope you enjoy the reminder!

Every penny we save is great. On a daily basis we are bombarded with buy now pay later, so while it may sound contradicting, there are less complicated ways to save and more difficult ways in the end to save.

Perils of After Tax Dollars in an IRA

After tax dollars as opposed to PRE-TAX (deductible from your income taxes) funds in and IRA are not your friend.

  • Upon eventual distribution you must calculate a distribution basis which will be different from your actual distribution – Easy for the IRS to confuse
  • You must carry the basis on your tax return- forever- IRS Form 8606 must be filed to keep up with your basis
  • Your heirs may also have to deal with this basis upon your death
  • From a really high level, it is confusing
  • IRS Audit Possibility – The IRS will receive a distribution amount of greater than you will be reporting on your tax return, making a paper letter or audit inquiry much more possible upon eventual distribution of assets

How Do After Tax Funds get into an IRA?

There are two basis ways after tax funds enter or get added to an IRA:

  • After-Tax – Non-Deductible IRA contribution: (Very popular about 15 years ago)- Please save the money, but look for a better way to save it and avoid this method
  • 401k or other Corporate Pre-Tax retirement plan is rolled into an IRA along with the after tax funds- Easy fix- Look to take the after tax distribution directly thereby separating the PRE and AFTER tax funds-
  • Watch rollovers that contain a Roth contributions as these are after tax and may be directed to their own separate account, once again simplifying the process

It’s not the end of the world if you have after tax funds in your IRA, great work for saving the funds … But if you have the choice, avoiding comingling after and pre-tax funds in your IRA or other similar retirement account may save complications later!

Have a Great “KISS- keep it simple” day!

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

Why You May Want to Register Your Name on Multiple Email Providers Even if You Do Not Plan on Using that Service!

With the proliferation of spam, cyber attacks and just some bad actors out there, it may be a good idea to register your name as well as your family members name for your own safety…

We have registered all of our family names on the big five at the time of registration, gmail, hotmail, outlook, yahoo and icloud…. these are no longer the biggest…see below

Even if you do not plan on using the provider, it may make sense to register so some “bad Actor” does not pose as you…

Ok, we get it, with a weird last name like ours, it was not that hard, those with more normal names may have a tougher time, but you may still want to try…. bad guys are not going away!

The Largest Email Providers

The following is a snap shot of the last frame of this neat graphic from Statics and Data

Not sure if any of you noticed the last few videos are not coming through email notification well…but we did… and it is currently being fixed….

Hence the Snapshot, we know that will work…

Here is the actual embedded video… if you see a video, it has been fixed, if just a link, not fixed yet…

There you have it… another in our Why series AND a light, fun and hopefully helpful post labor day article!

Have a Great “Register Your Name on that Email” 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

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

Hello and Welcome to our June 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 and current events!

BREAK IN – HOLIDAY PARTY NOVEMBER 20 FROM 3-5 AT DALLAS ATHLETIC CLUB

Hope you enjoy!

June 2021 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Why Not to Overfund a Retirement Plan

In this updated post from a few years ago, we remind how easily it is to overfund a 401k plan and why, while it is not the end of the world, it is not a good tax situation….

Should you accidentally over fund your retirement plan … what occurs is a double taxation!

  1. You do not get the deduction for the contribution
  2. You will likely pay taxes on the eventual distribution

Job change is the most likely reason for overfunding!

Pesky Late Arriving Tax Form Reminder – Form 5498

In this mid month post we remind those of an extra late arriving tax form….

Murphy’s law being applied, the form just arrived last week….about two weeks after our post…..

Reason for receipt:

  • Rollover of a 401k or the like to an IRA – Most frequent
  • Contribution to an IRA
  • Contribution to a SEP

One of the most confusing parts of this form is that even though you may have made a qualified contribution for a prior year i.e. 2020, if you made that contribution in 2021, depending on the type of contribution the Form 5498 MAY show your contribution in year 2021.

Capital Market Comments

Inflation or No Inflation

In this part two post, “The Smartest Guys in the Room” post we discussed via interest rate futures graphs the movement after FOMC dot plot adjustments and the interest rate markets….

This is an updated Graph of the 2 year US Treasury, which is holding lower, (higher yield) possibly due to faster expected rate increases!

This is the ultra long 30 Year Treasury, which continues to trend higher (lower Yield) possible pricing less inflation from the above mentioned expected shorter term rate increases!

Ok…that’s a wrap for the June review…. Hello July!

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

Why You Do Not Want to Overfund Your 401k or Other Retirement Plan and How it Can Happen !

The most common type of Retirement Plan, the 401k in 2021 has a maximum deferral amount of $19,500 with a catch up provision for those age 50 or greater of $6.500 for a total of $26,000 again in year 2021.

Why You Do Not Want to Overfund Your Retirement Plan

Should you accidentally over fund your retirement plan … what occurs is a double taxation!

  1. You do not get the deduction for the contribution
  2. You will likely pay taxes on the eventual distribution

This is not the end of the world, especially if a very small dollar amount, but you still do not want this to happen…

How Does Overfunding a 401k Occur ? – Job Change

While it may seem puzzling at first, upon second thought the most common reason for overfunding a retirement plan is a job change.

It is impossible for your new employer to know your prior contributions, so an accidental overzealous withholding that throws you over the annual maximum will not be allowed from a IRS tax standpoint.

If you change jobs mid year, be sure to carefully determine your prior withholdings and monitor you new withholdings throughout the year as the burden is on us the employee to keep ourselves in check with the maximum.

For those gainfully employed at the same employer we have not seen an accidental over allowance in a very long time, so most employers have systems set up to automatically stop your contribution once the maximum is achieved. Should your employer merge with another company or change administrators, it is a good idea to make sure they pick up your prior contributions, which can be achieved by checking your paycheck’s ytd retirement plan withholdings after the change.

The good news is there are ways in certain cases to unwind this overpayment, but they are frequently very complicated, may create a tax issue for the IRS to review, and in some cases just not available.

Have a Great “No Overfunded 401k” 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

Why You May Want to Accept that Seemingly Lowball Offer for that Small Royalty Interest You Have Acquired Some Time Ago …

While we all envy the person on television like Jud Clampett that receives some great news on a royalty interest, (or misses a rabbit only to hit oil) …in real life frequently this can be more trouble than gift.

Living in Texas a state that produces oil and natural gas royalty rights are very popular and frequently handed down from one generation to the next.

Continued Disposition Problems

We are continuing to run into an ever increasing number of need to dispose of seemingly small mineral right properties that maybe had an offer at one time or another that actually cost more to dispose of them the offer.

Photo by Albert Hyseni on Unsplash

Please don’t run out and dump that long ago relative’s income producing oil or gas property that has been in the family for years producing a nice monthly check … but the hundred dollar or seemingly worthless offer for that very small parcel of land that has a very small mineral right may be a good offer not only from a small tax reporting over the years that you may have to do but also from an organization standpoint in your estate.

While there are exceptions and of course when oil prices were in the mid 100s there were extreme cases of payments, it is very likely if you are receiving a very nominal amount of money from your mineral interest over the past decade that that mineral interest likely has very little value and maybe more of a burden to you from a tax standpoint and especially to your heirs from an estate cleaning standpoint than it’s worth.

No Need to Be Reckless – Do some Research

This is once again not an endorsement to go recklessly sell the mass form of income property but rather a recommendation to maybe think twice and do a little research when receiving a seemingly low offer by a professional mineral person who wants to consolidate his portfolio and take that interest off of your hands!

Have a Great “Cleaner Estate” 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