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529s have evolved a great deal since they were first designed for funding college. I'm here at Texas A&M, my alma mater here in College Station, visiting clients. I love this place. It's a lovely campus and it's a great opportunity to talk about how we can leverage 529s to do more than just pay for college. The original 529 came in two flavors. The first was prepaid tuition. In most states those have morphed significantly because the deal was too good to be true, and the states ended up with some pretty significant bills. The other type is the more traditional 529 savings plans where you gift for your kids, your grandkids. There's a lot of neat things about the 529. One of them is the opportunity to do what's called a five-year gift. Normally, gifts that are not reported have to be $18,000 per adult per child. So...

Last week, the S&P 500 hit 5,000 for the first time in history. Is this a transient thing, or is this a new normal? The S&P 500 hit the 5,000 mark on Thursday. The markets closed Friday over 5,000. They're up 5% year-to-date. That's pretty nice for six weeks. However, all of this move has been driven by two companies, NVIDIA and Meta. NVIDIA makes the chips that are so popular for gaming and also AI devices. Meta of course, is Facebook. They're both up 30% year-to-date. It's an even more focused rally than we saw last year. In fact, the equal weighted version of the S&P 500 where each stock is given the same weighting rather than what we call cap weighting, the S&P 500 has barely moved below its peak of 2021. In other words, these few companies are leaving the rest of the market behind. Now there's...

Believe it or not, 45% of Americans aged 18 to 45 years old believe that socialism is the ideal economic system for the United States. Well, as a result of my recent travels, I think I might've discovered a fix for that attitude. I just came back from my second trip to Cuba in six years and it's been fascinating. Frankly, I was shocked by the extent of the decay in just six years. I was surprised when I saw what are called "power ships" in the harbor. These are ships from Turkey that have generators and fuel, to generate power and sell it to Cuba because Cuba's generation system, Cuba's transmission system, Cuba's governance, has pretty much come to complete failure. Those who know a little bit about Cuba just know affectionately that the clock stopped in 1959, and a lot of the cars are pre-1959, a lot of...

There's a lot of noise being made about these beneficial ownership information reports that the Treasury is asking anybody who owns an LLC or certain other entities to file immediately. How big of a deal is this, and what can you do about it? The CTA BOIR reporting brings the United States in line with global reporting standards designed to counter money laundering and global crime. Finally, after many years of delay, those rules have come into force this year. There are different deadlines for different entities. If you came into the year with existing entities, you have until the end of the year to make a report. If you create an entity this year, however, you'll have a shorter period of time to make that report, and after next year, it'll be a much shorter period of time. So, this new set of rules creates a number of compliance...

Well, it looks like the economy is finally normalizing. So, the question now becomes "what's next for 2024?" I just got back from a fascinating luncheon at ACG Houston. ACG is the Association for Corporate Growth. We had an economist from First Horizon Bank in New York City speak to the group, and it was a very interesting presentation, one that I somewhat agreed with. Basically, they pointed out what we've talked about - inflation is pretty much under control. It's at 3% and falling. The job market has loosened up. We've gone from "you just can't find people" to "you can find them but they're a little bit expensive". So, that's at least manageable for most employers. A Goldilocks Economic Recovery The interest rate hikes are clearly over and there are some wild bets going on in the market over when and how low these long rates are gonna...

  We've had a sweet rally in the last quarter in both stocks and bonds. So with this beautiful end to 2023, what's the outlook for 2024? The Markets Historically, future returns are driven by attractive valuations, and so when we're looking for the threats and the promises we look at evaluations. The biggest threat to the markets or within the markets are the Magnificent Seven. We've talked about these, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla. A lot of the Magnificent Seven story is highly correlated with the AI stocks and the AI story. The rest of the markets are actually fairly valued. They haven't done a lot in the last few years. In fact, this recent rally, somewhat, has been a more normal rally and not so much a Magnificent Seven rally. And so with markets fairly valued, that means there's all sorts of opportunities as long...

With inflation falling fairly rapidly already at 3%, is it time to rethink commodities? What is a Commodity? Let's begin by defining commodities. The basic goods and raw materials typically sold on specialist exchanges. We're talking about oil, gold, wheat, pork bellies, and there's a number of ways we can own these commodities; four fundamental ways to own commodities. First, we can just own the commodity, direct physical ownership. That's a bit of a pain. Gold coins may be the easiest, but you've still got to buy them. They usually have a pretty big bid-ask spread when you buy a coin, and then you've got to store them somewhere safe. If you want to buy a barrel of oil and bet on the oil market, you've got to figure out where you're going to put those 55 gallon drums. Investing in Commodities Most people don't want to deal with transaction...

Selling a business is a complex and often emotional journey, especially for entrepreneurs who have poured their heart and soul into their ventures. In this era, entrepreneurs are heralded as the champions of modern innovation, effortlessly navigating turbulent waters to create success. Accustomed to the driver's seat, these individuals rarely falter when making executive decisions for their enterprises. However, while they may excel in running their business, the process of selling it introduces unforeseen challenges, predominantly stemming from human nature. This post delves into nine of these human-centric traps, aiming to equip business owners with the insight they need to navigate a sale successfully. 1. The Dangers of "Unknown Unknowns" – the Halo Effect Recognizing one’s own limitations is paramount in business, especially when selling. Coined by Donald Rumsfeld, "unknown unknowns" aptly describes the unforeseen pitfalls lying in ambush for entrepreneurs. A seasoned business owner's innate confidence, while admirable, can...

I'm okay, but things are terrible. There's a general sense that economic conditions right now are absolutely awful and that the outlook is terrible - a sense that is completely and totally refuted by reality. Why is it that the general public feels this way, and how is this impacting the way they invest? The Economic Numbers: Inflation, Interest Rates, the Markets, and Employment So here's a few numbers for perspective. In the last video we talked about how the inflation rate in October was 3%. Interest rate hikes are probably over. Markets have avoided a painful correction. In fact, in November, they had a lovely month. Bond markets are stabilized. Unemployment is 3.9%. Economists call that full employment. Anyone who is able to work and wants a job can get one in this economy. Real Wages Real wages, that's wages after inflation, are up 3% since the end of...

We've all heard, "what goes up must come down." Well, on an interesting twist, what's come down very hard in the form of the bond market looks like it's ready to recover a little bit. Playing the Yield Curve Since 2020, the 30-year Treasury bond has lost 50% of its value. For what some people would consider a safe investment, that's a pretty brutal experience. Combined with an equities rollback through last year, a 60/40 portfolio had the greatest hit since the Great Depression. But on a twist on "what goes up must come down," when something comes down hard enough, it might actually be ready to come back up. This is a great opportunity and it looks like it's time to start playing the yield curve. What do I mean by that? We've had our clients in very short-term bonds for three years now. It's time to start getting...