As we come off the holiday shortened week, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. If you partook in shopping for Black Friday…I hope you survived!
The markets have finished one of the best Novembers in history and that leaves us hoping that December will be a decent month. Much of November's run was attributed to Trump winning the Presidency. Whether that’s true (correlation/causation?) or not is sort of irrelevant. The bottom line is the market made us all a bit more money.
While being sick for a good chunk of last week I ran across a story that made me scratch my head.
Not at all that I think it’s a bad thing to give money to his foundation (and I applaud his generosity), but here’s my problem.
On one hand, Buffett says how little he pays in taxes. In fact, he usually says he pays less than his secretary does as a percent of income, and this has famously been quoted by politicians for years. Here’s an old ABC news story about this exact issue. On the other hand, he specifically gives this money to his foundation to get a tax write off. If he really wanted to pay more in taxes, he could sell the stock and then put the money in his foundation. Financially, that wouldn’t make a lot of sense, but it would at least be consistent with his stated desire to pay more in taxes. As for you and me, we always say, “Give because you want to, not for a tax break…but don’t miss the tax break if you give!” As we approach year-end, a time when many feel led to give charitably, we invite you to have a conversation with us about how to do so in the most tax-advantaged way. This piece that Andrew wrote a couple years back about giving appreciate assets still remains relevant to such a discussion.
Speaking of appreciated assets, the best returns for all the major markets in November was Bitcoin, up roughly 40% for the month.
It seems to be stuck on the almost $100,000 level as there is much overhead supply waiting for it to puncture that level. Until then it will back and fill and eventually take out some of that overhead supply.
Finally, if you have watched any CNBC over the last 20+ years, you will recognize Art Cashin. He was also such a good person and had seen and been through a lot of turbulence. The 1970’s, the 1987 market crash, numerous other crashes and exuberances, being on the floor when the World Trade Centers were hit, and many other times we would all rather not remember! Through it all, he was known for being consistent, kind, generous…and an old fashioned (he eschewed credit cards and never learned to use a computer!).
May you rest in peace, Art Cashin! I’m not sure we’ll see another quite like you.
Short and sweet for this week. If you have any questions, please reach out and we will be happy to have a conversation.