Hybrid Health and Sunset Event Originally this was going to be an in-person client appreciation event. Due to the continuing pandemic, the live Health and Sunset Event was changed into a hybrid event. The online event featured renowned cardiologist Dr. Dennis Goodman. He delivered an outstanding talk about integrative/holistic and preventative cardiology. Dr. Goodman's presentation [...]
This guest post is by Joe Davis, Vanguard Global Chief EconomistThe American mathematician Claude Shannon, who conceived and laid the foundation for information theory. He famously established a lower bound for the number of possible moves in a typical chess match: around 10120. That's 10 with 119 zeroes after it. Reflecting on when the COVID-19 [...]
What is a Roth IRA Conversion and Why Consider it Now? A Roth Conversion is a taxable distribution from an IRA. Proceeds are then contributed to a tax deferred Roth IRA. If taxes are paid using funds outside of the IRA, the full amount of the Roth IRA will grow tax deferred. A Roth IRA is attractive because there is no tax due on distributions at retirement. Please see the following video about the Roth IRA conversion opportunity. [...]
Looking at 2020 in the Distance When I was a youngster growing up in Cape Town in the 70’s, I would try to imagine what the year 2020 would bring. I wondered where I’d be and what my life would be like. It seemed so far in the future. However, the symmetry of the year [...]
Risks and Opportunities of Investing though Covid-19 This is a summary of HK Financial Education Event "Global Economic Update During Covid-19" hosted by Hillel Katzeff on June 25th, 2020 featuring Jeffrey Kleintop, Senior Vice President Global Strategist, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Where he talked about Difficult to Make Predictions We are six months into [...]
A couple of months ago, Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., announced that it had reduced commission for online equity trades to $0. Other discount brokers including: Fidelity, TD Ameritrade (TDA), and E* Trade quickly followed suit. A month later, Schwab announced that they had entered into an agreement to buy TD Ameritrade for $26 billion. Schwab is [...]
As a child growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, and even after arriving in the USA as an 18-year-old in 1978, I often wondered what the world and my life would be like in the far-off year of 2020. There seemed to be such a magical quality to that number twenty twenty. Optometrically speaking, 2020 vision [...]
Every so often, when reviewing the approved investments in the HK Financial Model Portfolios, I like to take a big step back to see if there have been major changes in the investment universe that require a rethinking and makeover of our investment approach. I liken this to the expression - Seeing the Forest for [...]
It was the Best of Times, and Worst of Times In our last newsletter we referred to the opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel by Charles Dickens - "It Was The Best of Times and The Worst of Times" because we thought it aptly applied at that time. A Tale [...]
New Tax Law is Complicated Lawmakers promised that the TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) would allow taxpayers to file their tax returns on a postcard. True, the new Form 1040 is half a page long. But, just about every line requires a detailed accompanying worksheet to provide backup for the calculation for that item. [...]