The Big Picture

JUNE 9, 2024

@TBPInvictus here. About a decade or so ago, the city of Seattle undertook to raise its minimum wage, over time, to $15/hour. (Massive credit to my friend Nick Hanauer for his efforts to make that happen.) What followed in the immediate aftermath of both the announcement and implementation was nothing less than a apocalyptic, collective head explosion on the right about the devastating effects the increase would have, particularly in the food services sector: However, there’s little doubt that t

Food 336

Food Math Numbers 336

Abnormal Returns

JUNE 9, 2024

Top clicks this week The best time to prepare for a bear market is before it begins. (awealthofcommonsense.com) A review of major asset class performance in May 2024. (capitalspectator.com) Why you shouldn't be worried about index funds just yet. (thefinancialbodyguard.com) The current bull market is mid. (tker.co) The market has always been rigged, just not in the way you think.

Retirement 306

Retirement Economy Assets Marketing 306

Wealth Management

JUNE 9, 2024

How sustainable dividends can identify smart capital allocation.

289

289

Abnormal Returns

JUNE 9, 2024

Concentration The S&P 500 has become increasingly concentrated. (apolloacademy.com) Should you be worried? (theirrelevantinvestor.com) Markets Can we finally move past the Gamestock ($GME) era of markets? (herbgreenberg.substack.com) Does anything matter any more in markets? (spyglass.org) Alternatives More investors are facing up to the problem with illiquid alternatives.

Financial Advising 278

Financial Advising Budgeting Economics Media 278

Advertisement

Where are top advisors focusing in 2025? AcquireUp’s 2025 Industry Index reveals it all. Based on insights from 200+ financial professionals nationwide, discover why 74% say seminars and referrals deliver the best ROI, how automation is helping advisors scale faster, and why only 8% are tapping into niche marketing (a major growth opportunity!). Whether you're refining your client acquisition strategy or scaling your practice, this report gives you the real-world data, benchmarks, and action ste

Clients

Calculated Risk

JUNE 9, 2024

Weekend: • Schedule for Week of June 9, 2024 Monday: • No major economic releases scheduled. From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures S&P 500 and DOW futures are little changed (fair value). Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $75.37 per barrel and Brent at $79.53 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $70, and Brent was at $75 - so WTI oil prices are up about 7% year-over-year.

Economics 173

Economics Marketing Marketing 173

A Wealth of Common Sense

JUNE 9, 2024

The bad news about the historic bond bear market is that fixed income investors were forced to deal with large losses in certain areas of the bond market. The good news is the rising rates that caused the bear market in bonds mean yields are in a much better place than they’ve been for the past 10-15 years. Fixed income has income again. In fact, investors in search of yield have all sorts of options — T-bill.

Marketing 125

Marketing Marketing 125

Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT)

JUNE 9, 2024

By Rebecca J. Gonzalez, CFP, CLU Visitors to our office walk in and see a chalkboard with client photos representing their bucket list accomplishments. This is our bucket list board, and we have a different theme every year. This year’s theme is “Defy your age.” We ask our clients to submit photos that demonstrate what they are doing to defy their age.

Financial Planning 104

Financial Planning Numbers Planning CFP 104

Random Roger's Retirement Planning

JUNE 9, 2024

Barron's had a quick writeup on tactical funds that can switch between equity and fixed income exposure, either making big changes to their allocations or small tweaks to their allocations. The implication from the article was that the turnover in these is very high. The reason for the article is that "some of these funds are worthy diversifiers for a traditional fixed allocation portfolio.

Portfolio 97

Portfolio Investments Investing Management 97

Advisor Perspectives

JUNE 9, 2024

Apple Inc. isn’t typically the first to embrace new product categories — as it famously showed with its iPhone, smartwatch and Vision Pro. All those areas were established before the company showed up, but Apple found a way to make its mark.

Planning 64

Planning 64

oXYGen Financial

JUNE 9, 2024

![CDATA[ In today's cutthroat airline industry, companies are constantly seeking new ways to increase their revenue. One of the most effective strategies they've developed is the art of the upsell. This practice of offering additional products or services beyond the basic fare has become a cornerstone of airline revenue management. As you book your flights, you're often enticed with various.

Management 59

Management 59

Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive

Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.

Management

Advisor Perspectives

JUNE 9, 2024

A Tesla Inc. shareholder sued to challenge an upcoming proxy vote about whether the electric-car maker should move its corporate home to Texas and re-approve a $56 billion pay package for co-founder Elon Musk that was thrown out by a Delaware judge.

59

59

The Big Picture

JUNE 9, 2024

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • High-Yield Was Oxy. Private Credit Is Fentanyl. Yet despite the data — and the intuition about higher-yielding loans described above — private lenders assure investors that the extra yield isn’t a result of increased risk and that over time private credit has been less correlated with other asset classes. ( Institutional Investor ) see also The Insulin Empire : How profiteers pushed a lifesaving drug out

Assets 279

Assets Accounting Numbers Clients 279

Advisor Perspectives

JUNE 9, 2024

Investors’ enthusiasm for growth stocks remains high and growth equities are in the midst of another lengthy run of beating value rivals.

45

45

Advisor Perspectives

JUNE 9, 2024

It’s not just bitcoin’s price that’s expanding. The blockchain on which bitcoin resides -- one of the pioneers in the space -- is also rapidly adding heft.

40

40

Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker

Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.

Numbers