June 2018

One of the indications of a late-stage bull market is that returns are concentrated in just a handful of stocks. Hello. My name is Paul Carroll. I’m the CEO and founder of Efficient Wealth Management, a boutique wealth management firm here in South Texas. So right now, everybody’s talking about the FAANGS—Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. That’s where all the returns are. In fact, without the FAANGS, the S&P really has no teeth. We’re seeing, outside of that small handful of companies, really flat markets since late last year. On the bond side of course, we’re having to go short. What that means in English is only the short maturities are safe. Because if those interest rates do continue to rise, then the principal value of the bonds is damaged. So, there’s always the logical question: Why did you get me out of Apple, or why didn’t we get...

If you're a pilot with United Airlines, Southwest, American, or any of the other major carriers, I think it's time to say goodbye to the per diem deduction. Hello, my name is Paul Carroll. I'm the CEO and founder of Efficient Wealth Management, a boutique wealth management firm based in South Texas. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act eliminates itemizing for ordinary necessary business expenses paid by pilots. The per diem reimbursement that you receive from your airline is still not taxable. And that's great news. But unfortunately, effective January 1, 2018, pilots can no longer deduct the delta between the per diem reimbursement and the actual business travel expenses incurred. Well, to put that in English, if you're an international pilot and you're getting $48 a day for per diem but the expense rate for Narita, for example, of Tokyo, Japan, is $100 — and I'm pulling these numbers...