Tag Archives: technology

Summer Office Technology Improvements … Friday

Each year, excluding last year, we tackle a technology improvement.

About a half a dozen years ago after too much coffee at a vendor related event on the West Coast yours truly came home with multiple technology improvements (New Vault, New Web site just to name a few) all at once, which turned out to be a hard lesson learned, and the team was not happy…..make darn sure the project is not too big!

New Server and Email System

Cyberspace, Data, Wire, Electronic

In a little over a week after reviewing all of our alternatives we have decided to upgrade our server and move our cloud-based email system to a new platform.

Our IT folks have already started the process of mirroring our old server to our new one and are readying the staging of the email.

We are assured this will go without a hitch; we hope to not hear the dreaded words we have heard before …

Wow I have not seen this before!”

The good news is we only have this project and not multiple projects as well as the hard-earned lesson of overcast caffeinated excitement.

Hopefully just steps forward and not back to go forward….

But that is a week or so away and this is a Friday almost dead middle of the summer.

Enjoy your day and your weekend …. Maybe even a little time off if the shoe fits!

Talk to you 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

Hydrogen, a renewable savior option? Maybe!

We stay enamored with the future of our energy sources, and the future of our planet as well….

Another great chart from our friends at Visual Capitalist:

Hydrogen_Part2_V6

Have a Great “Possible Hydrogen future” 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

Preview: Donald “The Brain” On Deck Speaker – History of Our Software – Annual Conference of Thousands – Travels

Mid-week, we (DC and I) travel to the West Coast for an annual gathering of thousands of our peers, along with consultants, asset firms, and as many technology firms that you could shake a stick at…. with a new cell phone (and more importantly camera and battery), twitter followers ( @johnkvale ) can check some pictures that will be posted – and of course we will have items here as well… hopefully later this week….

A History of Planning Technology

Technology allows great things as most everyone knows. Over the last several decades, the Financial Planning and Portfolio Management process has adopted technology… as has our firm.

Originally the seemingly unstoppable power of Excel continued to improve speed, make for greater accuracy, and ever detailed specifications.

As a firm, we gravitated from the powers of Excel (Once upon a time this was done with pencil and paper – we know some that still do it this way today!) on to a heavy server burdening system, then on to a slightly lighter in house/on-line system, finally to the web based/full on-line systems (each time with much heartache and heartburn.)

Enter Donald “The Brain

Donald “The Brain” On Deck this WeekDonald Capone

With an almost from scratch to modern day software background as mentioned above  – Excel to server/web/cloud systems, Donald, who has always been in charge of this, immediately understood the challenges, necessary views, and possibilities when an all-new, completely cloud based on-line system became available.

As a Beta tester, and later almost a technology consultant (offered up enhancements that were eagerly accepted) Donald has been a go-to person for our modern day software and the firm that created it!

In the spirit of helping as many as possible, Donald will be on panels during the annual conference this week helping fellow advisors understand the power, simplicity, accuracy and productivity enhancements that we utilize, much to our software providers pleasure.

It is a great honor to be asked to do this before thousands of your peers- Well Done DC!

Spirit of the Conferencemeetings-1149198__480

We know what your thinking … big party that you get to write off the expenses? Once upon a time many years ago – maybe! NOT TODAY – showing our age I guess…haha

Today, we have a working list of items to review with various providers (all of the team has been gathering wish lists and needed understanding items for the last month from each perspective), multiple meetings as soon as we hit the ground, specific questions from you guys/clients in the field on certain subject matters, as well as a full schedule of planned viewing of panels of others, that we are not specialists in!

Several years ago, while solo and a morning of too much coffee, multiple new items were agreed upon and contracts signed ( i.e. New Web site provider, other tech services). Upon return, the gang was NOT happy (sorry guys) as we tried to digest everything over the next several months… we have learned to keep things bite size, but we will certainly stay informed!

Look for an informative post on Wednesday as we travel, then likely a brief post of Friday as we make our way back home, with frequent twitter posts and likely a deluge of posts here once we get our feet back on the ground …. stay tuned – Can you tell we are excited and ready to go?

Have a Great “Inform and get informed” Day/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

The Wonders of Electronic Communication- Speaking of Technology, Our Nerd Holiday Presents … New Desktops installed today – Patience

There is some disagreement on who suggested we start a blog …

We struggled on the name – Street-Cents was a play on words and meant to decipher, and make fun at times of ridiculous “Breaking News” flashes …

It was really rough writing and no organization originally … Lot’s of writers block too !

Slowly, more people took notice …

Slowly the author learned how to deliver concise information that catered to the lack of time everyone has this day and age …

This post is nearing number 1500 – yes fifteen hundred posts/articles…

Our Blog Review

As of yesterday, our blog has been viewed 30,350 times from the following areas across the world…. WOW !
Stats ‹ $treet-¢ents — WordPress

Technology is making the world small (maybe flat?) and we really enjoy the ability to share information so seamlessly across the world….

Thanks to all of you for taking a few moments three times a week to review our “All Original” posts… We are glad to share the word!

New Desktops Today

After multiple “Blue Screens of Death” on Jen’s computer, we are having new boxes installed today – trying to get in front of the most ill timed crash, even though long time followers know we generally try to do our Technology upgrades during the slower summer season…

Good Bye old Friend….

Old Desktop

The new speed will be welcomed, but P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E  will be needed as we try to get the new machine working seamlessly before years end…

Have a Great “Nerd Christmas” 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

 

 

Social Media Legend – Two Cool Comparitive Charts … 2008 versus today … Enjoy your weekend!

Social Media in it's broadest definition touches us all in one way or another.

You reading this, and us publishing, is a form of social media!

We found it very interesting to see what Social Media looked like nearly a decade ago.

From the cool sight of Visual Capitalist and authors noted:

Social Media Legend 2008

Of course a lot has changed … lot's of mergers, deaths and faded memories!

Social Media Today

We are interested in reviewing as many of these are news to us.

Enjoy your weekend!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com

Happy 15 Year* Anniversary, Congrats to Donald “The Brain” – Technology Update – Friday

Note the * asterisk by the 15 years… it’s really 19 YEARS ! …. Including part time school work.

Congratulations to Donald “The Brain” on his 15 year anniversary.

From an early start while working during the summers driving 30 miles each way, to trudging through the well documented EXTREMELY difficult CFA exam, to helping everyone through the the Great Recession of 07-09 ….

Well done and congrats. Hopefully the next 15 will go a little slower! Doubtful !!

Technology Update

The Monday technology upgrade turned into a Wednesday upgrade and with a turn-around trip Thursday in the calendar, nails were bitten short Wednesday afternoon. We are happy to announce the upgrade has been completed with very few hitches. There are a few follow up items to do when the server is resting from regular use (during the 4th of July holiday), but we are 95% complete.

Each year we take on technology improvements during the summer, this year:

  • More New Vault Features
  • New Web Page
  • Improved internal email systems and management

We will wipe our brow and set in to learn the new features …. thankfully all went well!

Next Week

Donald “The Brain” has much deserved travels on the calendar to a cool climate north East, with a tail end of the week showing travels for myself as well… good time for us to test all this new fancy technology.

Today is a WONDERFUL Friday, enjoy your day, your weekend, be thankful, and talk to you 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.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

Technology Upgrade Update – Rates Rise – Friday

On Monday of next week we hopefully successfully do a major upgrade to our internal email systems. This will mean each of our company emails will be down, but not all at the same time. As the switch occurs, while promised nothing will fall through the cracks by our IT team, if you happen to send an email and you have not heard from us, please re-send it just to be safe.

Rates

Ok, it’s a Friday so we will be brief, Janet Yellen, head of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) notched another rate increase under her belt without disrupting the capital markets. Once thought impossible, so far, slow and steady (tortoise- not the hare) is winning the interest rate normalization race.

This is a good chart of the ever increasing rates… finally !

Fed Funds Rate 6-15-17 fredgraph

Ahhhh…. Today is a Friday… enjoy your day and your weekend !

Talk to you 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.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

Who owns the internet ?

This is a neat chart from our friend at VisualCapitalist.com

Note that google YouTube is # 2, behind google itself… had no idea Youtube was that popular…

See any of your favorites ?

 

100-websites-rule-internet

Hard to believe Yahoo cannot get on its feet with a number 5 ranking ?

Have a “More Informed Internet Ownership” 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

 

 

Presidents Day Schedule … Traveling … Sneak Peek at New Website

Monday is Presidents Day!

Banks, Capital Markets, Post Offices, Schools as well as our office will be closed.

I am traveling out of the office/state today and will be back Tuesday.

New Web Site in the Works

We are happy to announce we are working on a new website to go with our recent fancy New Total Vault addition……

Here is a sneak Peek:

new-website

 

Have a Great Friday and enjoy the extra long weekend!

Talk to you on Wednesday!

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

Technology Wonder Travels – Friday

Sitting in an airport, several hours early (yaya – nerd planner) mid week, the technological wonders smacked me over the head:20160608_134745191_iOS

  • To my right a gentleman closes a contract for some type of weapons (lots of bullet talk)
  • Directly in front a woman runs her office computer and checks in
  • On the left, a gentleman runs a conference call with a bunch of folks on it- very productive
  • To my back, multiple kids on their device, and a mom face timing her family too- amazing
  • For me- other than a tad bit of slower connection via the tethered phone (spoiled by office speed) virtually present in the office

Everyone completely productive and in touch — not possible 10 years ago… AMAZING!

Interestingly, 10 laptops and only one tablet…. definitely a working group again – mid week!

Friday

After two heavy articles this week … How about a light Friday ?

Next week OIL talk!!!

But that is next week … enjoy your weekend!

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