Who Is Paying Taxes?

Justin here. We're getting near year-end and so taxes are on the brain. I ran across this graphic from Mint.com. They do some really great visual explanations (they recently did one on reverse mortgages) but, seeing as though my second language is "Charts and Graphs", they could probably make a diagram about paint drying and I'd be fascinated. Enjoy.


Personal FinanceSoftware – Mint.com

Paul Krugman Thoughts

Justin here. I went with a friend last night to see Paul Krugman speak at the Guilford College Bryan Series. I've got a number of things on my plate today so my review/thoughts will be brief.

Best Quote: "We can no longer make money by selling each other houses that we bought with money we borrowed from the Chinese."

Second Best Quote: In talking about the similarity between the US and Japan he said something to the effect of "With the exception of our raw fish consumption, we're pretty similar. Both democracies, both have hard working intelligent citizens, both have politicians who aren't the best but aren't idiots."

Comment That Provoked a Slight Gasp from the Woman Beside Me: when answering a question about the N.C. furniture industry, Krugman said he couldn't imagine an industry that is so labor intensive lasting so long in a high wage country like the US. And he followed that up with something to the effect of "before you get too worked up about that, remember that it's only here because the high wage North East US forced the jobs south to cheaper labor." As if to say, this is only a pit stop on the way further south.

Cold Sweat Inducing Statistic: 55% of commercial loans that are to reset in 2014 are underwater. And that's considering that they started with an extremely low Loan/Value ratio that would certainly need to go up if they get rolled forward. Makes me think of a number of friends in the commercial real estate business as well and the impacts that has on other industries.

My Question That I Didn't Get To Ask: what do you do with your excess income (i.e. how do you invest)?

Overall message:

• He talked about how we got into this mess ('shadow banking', poor regulation, leverage),
• How this was/is a global crisis (Spain, UK, even countries without bubbles felt it because they were connected.)
• What we did right (cut interest rates, stimulus, flexible fed),
• How we get out this crisis quickly (no silver bullet that will save us like railroads, world wars, and IT did for recessions past . . . only remote quick fix could be green technology, but even that has a lot of barriers and lag time, and 10% unemployment is a HUGE number will take a lot of GDP growth to get over),
• How, more likely, to get out of it slowly (possibly unions (which, to my surprise got a round of applause), possible further stimulus, cut interest rates if we could go any lower)
• Final point was that Keynes said "the shortage of capital through use, decay and obsolescence causes a sufficiently obvious scarcity to increase the marginal efficiency" meaning that our ipods will break, our computers will become slow, and our tires will wear out. Although slow, this process will create demand and innovation.

Politics aside, it was a good talk. It reinforced our slow growth thesis and our propensity to seek quality dividend paying companies as well as opportunities outside the US and in fixed income.

"If not for Veteran, I have no place to come to"

Some events are so enormous that history’s judgment erects a permanent monument; something that remains long after all the eye witnesses are gone. Last Saturday, I boarded US Airways Flight 9092 to Washington, DC as part of the Triad’s Flight of Honor to take 101 World War II Veterans to see such a monument, their monument: the World War II Memorial.

I was chosen to be one of thirty-six guardians, each of us assigned to accompany three of the Veterans (pictured, myself in red). Before the flight, knowing that seniors prize familiarity, I made an effort to both call and meet my 83, 86, and 91 year-old companions at the ‘pre-flight’ meeting. When the eldest couldn’t make the meeting because he was under the weather, I drove out to his home. I learned how much the last ten years have demanded of him, but I got to hear a lot of happy memories too, and I could see that the more we talked, the better he felt. The only problem, I learned, was that the t-shirt he’d been given for the trip was an XXL but he needed an L at most. Before I could reel back in my words, I told him I’d take care of it.

After finding out there were no more shirts available, I called the seamstress who has repaired my dress shirts over the years. “Could you take a size XXL and make it into a size large?” I asked. “Sure,” she said, in broken English, “You bring large t-shirt too when you come, ok? When you come?”

Ten minutes later, the owner of Alternation Studio, a petite Vietnamese woman and I were comparing a size L to the size XXL. The shirt had the Flight of Honor logo, which she asked about. “Honor Flight,” she said, “what this?” I offered the short answer. “This you wear?” she asked. “No, no, my 91 year-old Veteran friend will wear it when we go to see the World War II Memorial in Washington,” I answered. “Veteran,” she said, her mind working, “I do for him, yes,” and with a bigger smile, said this powerful truth, “If not for Veteran I have no place to come to.”

Two days later, as promised, she produced the transformed size L t-shirt. Knowing how no one likes to wait for something, I delivered the shirt on my way home. At first I had a little trouble explaining how a t-shirt labeled XXL was really a size L, but when he understood that it had been remade just for him, you would have thought he just made a hole-in-one.

Other than t-shirt alterations, the job description of guardian was to accompany the Veterans through airport security, help them board and disembark, sit, walk and talk with them, point out access ramps and restrooms, tote cameras and pill bottles, provide an arm to lean on, circle up chairs under a big tent, and secure our box lunches. But much more importantly, we were there to listen, offer strength, and stand by them as they, the heroes, gazed into the Memorial, reflected on their own thoughts, and opened up the history books of their lives to us on that magnificent day not one of us will ever forget.

I haven’t been able to get that day out of my mind. It was such a privilege and honor to be with those men on such a gift of a day. But I’ve also been thinking about how much my job that day mirrors our job here, as Financial Guardians. We listen and plan, we direct and monitor, we share highs and lows, and offer our support and strength through all the stages of life’s journey.

This year has been a journey indeed, and our job as guardians has never been harder or more needed. Seven short months ago, a media-dominated, worried nation wondered if this time the headlines might be right. Investors whose parents lost everything during the Great Depression told us so. Fear spiraled. Sellers sold, buyers backed away. Stocks skidded, hitting low levels not seen in many years. As advisors, we bore down to figure out what our investments were really worth and what was really driving the market. The answer: bad news begat fear begat selling begat more fear and so on. We remembered John Templeton saying, “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria.” We clung to that, hung on to our positions, owning more stocks than we normally would, while strategically moving up the quality chain and diversifying away some risk. We waited for rationality to return, figuring it could be many quarters or years away.

Then out of nowhere, here we are today (written 10/6/2009): the S&P500 is up nearly 20% for the year (and up nearly 60% off the March lows), corporate bonds are up nearly 15% and 10 year treasuries are down 6% year to date. Again, we have to ask where we are, how we’ve gotten here, and most importantly what it means to be a guardian. Our short answer: the market has gone far past “fair value,” mostly on the backs of low-quality stocks, and caution is the order of the day.

A Low-Quality, Speculative Rally. Like a tightly coiled spring, the assets that were most depressed in 2008 and early 2009 let loose when the world did not, in fact, come to an end. Any way you slice it, this six-month rally has been driven by the lowest-quality assets (in both stocks and bonds). Small stocks have outperformed large stocks, Newspapers and Financials have outperformed Regulated Utilities, and, most telling, No Moat stocks have outperformed Wide Moat stocks (for more about moats, see our Q1 2009 commentary “What’s Really Important: Price, Moat and Uncertainty).

Instability in the Background. Throughout this rally, we’ve seen large improvements in the real economy, but we’re nowhere close to out of the woods. After shooting up to record levels, the personal savings rate has slowly drifted from 5% in June, to 4% in July, 3% in August and although September data is not yet available (written October 6, 2009), our best guess is that the trend continues. Unemployment has crept up to 9.8% (and even that number doesn’t capture the underemployed and discouraged who are no longer looking for work.) The government has promised a $1 trillion per year deficit for the next ten years. Housing and Consumer sales have been temporarily bolstered by government programs that are all but over.

Caution is the Order of the Day. The need for caution doesn’t just come from the gloomy statistics mentioned above, but it also seems that caution could provide very satisfactory absolute (not just in raw numbers, we see the market as a whole selling for approximately what it’s worth (102% of fair value, see above.) However, the businesses with Wide Moats are selling for 88% of fair value (a 12% discount!) in contrast to the No Moat businesses that are currently overvalued (109% of fair value). Using the same yardstick, the US stocks in our separately managed portfolios are selling for 74% of fair value, with a 3.4% dividend yield on top of that. We structure these investments along with foreign stocks, domestic and foreign bonds, commodities, and real estate to provide our clients with a diversified portfolio that delivers a large portion of its expected return in the form of interest and dividends (which can then be used for income needs or reinvested in the market.)

I have a good friend who could probably sleep through a jackhammer pounding in the next room, but if he heard a set of keys rattle in the middle of the night, he’d shoot straight out of bed. Why? He was a prisoner of war for a long, long time. Although he learned quite a lot during those solitary years, he never quite learned to like the sound of a jailer’s keys. As guardians, we’re constantly learning to ignore the sound of the jackhammer, however loud it gets, and listen for the keys that the average investor might miss. Seven short months ago that jackhammer was unmistakable: “sell now, get out, run for cover.” We mostly ignored the rumble of the pavement and thankfully went about our business. Today, the jackhammer is a little more subtle (mostly from uncertainty), encouraging the investor to “seek the highest risk, make up lost ground” without regard for what the investor can stomach financially or emotionally.

We recently met with a client who, while happy with her portfolio going back up, wondered if she’d ever get back to the high water mark. That’s the sound of the jackhammer. We reminded her that we were accomplishing her goals now: producing a dependable income stream that meets her needs, on the backs of high quality, diversified investments that still have plenty of potential to appreciate. Now, that’s the sound of the keys jiggling that many investors miss. She quickly recognized the difference and wanted to pursue meeting her real-life goals, rather than just a number.

And even though we’ve been financial guardians for nearly three decades, we never know what Mr. Market’s next move will be; that’s a fool’s errand anyway. But, we do know that businesses that tend to produce high returns on capital will increase in intrinsic value over time and that those companies will tend to outperform the market. We know that owning investments across a number of different asset classes smoothes out the volatility of returns. We know that we sleep better when a large portion of our expected return is being paid in the form of interest and dividends. And we know that we’ve never felt better positioned for a quickly changing and uncertain world.

Risk Appetite Hits Highest Level in Over Three Years

Warren Buffett said “Occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community. The timing of these epidemics is equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree. Therefore we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Seems like the speedometer is going fro "Zero to Greedy" in 7 months.

Risk Appetite Hits Highest Level in Over Three Years

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Surprise Call From a Congressman

Justin here. Congressman Howard Coble has been in US House about as long as I've been out of preschool. He's on our quarterly mailing list and knows Jonathan fairly well (I don't think it's just because he requests a new flag every couple of years, but maybe.)

You can imagine my surprise today when he called asking for me. It went roughly like this:

Congressman Coble: "Well son, I got your press release with your recent commentary and was just calling to congratulate you on the CFA."

Me: "Well, thank you sir."

Congressman Coble: "Now that was pretty hard wasn't it? How long did it take?"

Me: "About 3 years and a thousand hours."

Congressman Coble: "Yes, I don't imagine they're just handing those CFA's out in the restroom stalls, now are they?"

Me: "No sir, not in any of the restrooms I've been in."

What a surprise joy. Something happens in a phone call, letter, or meeting that just can't happen over facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, or even email. I'll try to remember that.

What's important Part II - Dividends, Diversification, and Safety

Jonathan here: One of the two best best ideas we've ever had is having an enduring investment process. The other is focusing more energy and resources on process than on outcome. In What’s Important Part II, we explore three ordinary but frequently underestimated components of an enduring investment process.  

Our part of the world gets, on average, 43 inches of rainfall each year. That’s too much to worry about the price of rain barrels going up, but not enough that your average gardener can really trust Mother Nature for all watering needs. It seems the popular and cost-effective solution of choice is Drip Irrigation. My introduction to it was nine years ago, in Sacramento, California. My son-in-law hooked up miniature hoses and nozzles, which sputtered, stuttered, and sprayed a fine water mist for three whole minutes twice a day, onto ferns, banana trees, morning glory, oleander, hibiscus, and bird of paradise. His “backyard” was literally a beautiful pool and a cement pool deck with huge terra cotta pots containing mammoth plants. I was astonished that the plants flourished in these conditions. Seriously convinced, once home I visited Lowes in search of all things drip irrigation. I threaded rubber hose no thicker than a pencil through a maze of rhododendron, yew, azaleas, hydrangeas, moon vines, morning glories, black eyed Susan, cardinal vines and impatiens. I attached, at various intervals, micro sprinklers and nozzles, balanced the water output with Y-splitters, and screwed into the nerve center of this hydroponic contraption, one battery operated Gilmour automatic water timer.

But not every gardener has it so easy (so to speak). Parts of California, Nevada and New Mexico, for instance, get between 8 and 16 inches of water per year. There’s a saying that farming is just gambling in slow motion – you have to wait nine months to find out if you’ve won. Recently, Morning Edition featured Zach Sheely, a farmer who can’t afford to place a bet on (or wait nine months to find out) whether he waters too much or too little. Sheely uses a system designed by PureSense (pictured right) to help him rebalance the moisture levels on his 10,000 acre, California vegetable farm. “Using probes, sensors, weather instruments and meters, PureSense calculates the moisture and nutrients in the soil; it uses the Internet to send the information to servers, and then uses software to analyze whether or not the crops are getting the right amount of water.” The data is then transmitted wirelessly to Sheely’s iPhone; he can literally make it rain on any section of his crops with the tap of a button.

The principles governing agriculture and investing are much the same. Plant the best seeds at the right time in good soil, then water, fertilize, weed, thin out, protect against threats, harvest, enjoy, repeat as often as necessary. Too much or too little of any of these activities can create undue risk. But, hit the right balance and you stack the odds of reaping a harvest in your favor. In our last commentary, we outlined six “prism tweaks” we’ve put in motion. We discussed, in detail, the importance of Price, Moat, and Uncertainty; this quarter, we’ll cover Dividends, Diversification, and Safety.

Dividends. Sometimes it helps us to think about investing in terms of being a gardener who sells vegetables, whole vegetable plants, and potted flowers at the local farmers’ market. On any given Saturday, she can decide to sell her hand picked vegetables (which, in investing, is similar to collecting dividends), or she can sell a whole plant (selling a dividend paying stock), or she can also sell her potted flowers (selling a non-dividend paying stock). The problem the gardener faces with buying and selling too many potted flowers (buying non-dividend paying stocks) is that the only way to make a profit is if her buyers think the flowers are worth more than she paid for them. That’s all well and good if her time horizon is long enough or the market for plants is stable. But what if (like many investors today) her time horizon is shorter and the market for plant buyers isn’t especially stable? Or what if the price of soil skyrockets or news reports circulate that recreational gardening is a health risk? People won’t want to plant in their gardens and prices of these plants will drop. If our gardener is depending on selling her plants (vegetable or flowering) for her income, she would have to sell them at an inopportune time. As advisors, we aim to set up our clients’ gardens (portfolios) in such a way that their vegetables (dividends) provide for the majority of their income needs and they aren’t dependent on the price of their plants (stocks) on the day they need income. There’s much more to dividends than finding the highest yield (for example, determining a company’s ability to keep paying it, management’s commitment to upholding it, and what we can expect in terms of its growth) but that’s for another commentary.

Diversification. Suppose our gardener needs to choose between planting squash, cucumbers, or both. She figures each will produce approximately the same amount of income for her and will need the same amount of sunlight, water, and care. The only difference: squash are susceptible to squash bugs while cucumbers are vulnerable to cucumber beetles. With an equal chance of either insect showing up hungry and harming a crop; it makes sense to plant both squash and cucumbers while still trying to ward off both insects. This is the case not only for stock diversification (owning more than just a handful of stocks), but even more so for asset class diversification (owning more than just a couple asset classes such as US Stocks, Bonds, Foreign Stocks, Commodities or Real Estate.) While it does get more complex meshing multiple asset classes, the outcome is still the same. An investor can take a number of inherently risky assets and combine them in a portfolio that delivers the highest expected return for a given level of volatility (determined by what the investor can stomach both financially and emotionally.)

Safety. Sometimes, what could seem safe (taking shelter in a storm under a tree or taking money out of stocks last March) can actually be the most dangerous option possible (both “lightning” and “missing a 30% rally” can really knock the wind out of someone). As portfolio managers, we want to make sure we’re always learning from our mistakes . . . but just not learning too much. We’re conscious to look at the important data points, not the prevailing perception that might say seeking sustainable dividends, wide moats, and low uncertainty is being too “safe” to provide any meaningful returns. We might normally agree, however today is far from normal. We’re in a market where companies with the widest moats are selling for the largest discounts (78% of their worth) while the companies without moats, see chart, are trading for no discount (100% of their value).

Author Annie Dillard says “Danger is the safest thing in the world if you go about it right.” While investing is and will continue to be “dangerous” in terms of uncertainty and volatility, we’re confident that we’re “going about it right.” As we said last quarter, we’re doing that by: concentrating on buying undervalued assets (Price), owning businesses with sustainable competitive advantages (Moat), and investing in areas where we have a narrower range of outcomes (Uncertainty). By adding to those the areas we’ve covered this quarter, we’re able to take calculated risks that line up with our clients’ ability and willingness to take those risks.