Little Drummer Girl

On this Valentine’s Day, we often find the feeling of this special day in relationships between people so different you’d never imagine a relationship ever forming.

This is one of those stories you often receive in emails with the admonition:

      ​Must watch!

Many of those can make your day. We hope this one helps to send a Valentine’s message to you from all of us at RFS..

Ten-year-old Nandi Bushell hails from Ipswich, England—half a world away from her idol, Dave Grohl, world-famous drummer for the band Nirvana and the one he founded, Foo Fighters.

Sold-out concerts, hit records, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—these make Dave’s resume shine. Nandi plays in her basement.

If you haven’t noticed, kids these days think Rock & Roll belongs only to those Old Boomers, a generation whose time has come. But don’t tell that to little Nandi. Rock & Roll is her life.

The pandemic cooped her up. But she worked and worked at her drumming craft and began to post videos of herself and her drum on YouTube. One day she recorded her “cover” of Dave Grohl’s biggest hit, a song called Everlong, first released in 1997, long before Nandi was born.

As the video began, she twirled her stick, stared straight into the camera, and issued her challenge:

      ​“Dave Grohl, I challenge you to a drum off!”

Asked why she challenged an icon, Nandi’s logic was refreshingly simple:

      “He’s a drummer, he thrashes the kit really hard, which I like, so why not? My dream is to one day jam with Dave Grohl.”

When the video started to go viral, Dave Grohl’s phone blew up with texts.

      “You’ve been called out by a 10-year old, Dave. What are you going to do about it?”

Most famous Hollywood types would smile, pat themselves on the back, and go on with their glimmering lives.

But not Dave. He went about recording his own video, where he said:

      “Nandi, I’ve gotten at least 100 texts from people all around the world saying, ‘This girl is challenging you to a drum-off.’

      ​You’re an incredible drummer! I’m really flattered that you’ve picked some of my songs to do for your videos, and you’ve done them all            perfectly. So today, I’m going to give you something you may never have heard before. This is my response to your challenge—so now          the ball is in your court!”

​Nandi watched the video, listened to Grohl’s song—and two days later, recorded her own rendition of it, saying:

      ​“Dave Grohl, that was epic! It’s an honor to battle you!”

A friendship then blossomed. Dave and Nandi started meeting on Zoom. He then told her he was writing a new song just for her:

      ​“She’s got the power / She’s got the sound / Nandi on the drums makes the world go round!”

Not to be outdone, Nandi wrote her own song, titled “Rock and Grohl”:

      ​“Rock n’ roll’s my love / Rock n’ roll’s my soul / Rock n’ Grohl will help me change the world!”

Whatever kind of music you listen to, it’s impossible not to smile when you see these two very different people—with kindred souls—come together over the instrument they love. Their videos have now been watched by millions of people, and the two have made plans for Nandi to realize her dream and play with the Foo Fighters onstage as soon as the pandemic is over.

According to Grohl:

      ​“There’s something about seeing the joy and energy of a kid in love with an instrument, She’s a force of nature. But [she’ll have to play]           at the end of [our concert] because she’s going to steal the show!”

A force of nature, indeed.

Here’s the Little Drummer Girl. Watch and enjoy. So far, 3,901,493 people already have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRvHI8tgx8A

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

With best wishes,

Research Financial Strategies

Investment advice offered through Research Financial Strategies, a registered investment advisor.
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Investment advice offered through Research Financial Strategies, a registered investment advisor.

How Long Can This Last?

Performance Numbers

Our aggressive growth model is once again outpacing the S&P 500 Index. We’re up 8.48%  year-to-date, while the S&P sports a mere 4.25%. And get this: that 8.48% performance occurred while holding 18% of assets in cash.

There’s more: our fixed income accounts now enjoy a 4.16% gain, just barely behind the S&P itself.

So far, so good.

The Market

I have no idea when this party will end. We remain on guard for a pullback, if (and when) it ever happens.

Right now, the market likes President Biden and his stimulus package. Stimulus money means more consumer spending, and money printing means ever-increasing demand for assets … such as the stock market. Low interest rates continue to fuel the boom in new home sales. Those low rates and the increase in the money supply also propel our holdings in XLY (consumer spending) and TQQQ (technology companies).

Bitcoin

Yesterday, the financial world absorbed the news that Elon Musk (whose net worth now exceeds Jeff Bezos’s bottom line) has purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin for Tesla’s treasury account. Further crypto news included the move by Bill Miller to devote 15% of his Miller Opportunity Trust to Bitcoin exposure through purchases of Grayscale’s GBTC (a trust instrument backed by Bitcoin).

Mr. Miller, we should note, is a very old-school value investor. He gained much of his fame when he led the old Legg Mason Value Trust. His move might just resemble your 90-year-old grandmother signing up for Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all on the same day. In a word: jaw-dropping.

Our Exposure

Some might ask about our approach to Bitcoin. Right now, we enjoy significant Bitcoin exposure through our ownership of Tesla. We own four ETFs with significant Tesla holdings:

·         QCLN – Tesla is the #1 holding

·         PBW – Tesla is the #1 holding

·         XLY – Tesla is the #2 holding

·         TQQQ – Tesla is the #4 holding

Strategy to Protect Your Wealth

Why are we holding 18% cash? Shouldn’t that be invested to enjoy these amazing gains? Why sit on money that’s just sitting there?

Because we stand ready to play defense.

Remember last Spring? The market plummeted very quickly. We weren’t caught unawares. We bought some ETFs that go up when the market goes down. Using this leverage, we protected our clients against one of the most frightening declines in recent stock-market history.

If our technical analysis portends similar dives in the market, we are ready to deploy that cash to a defensive position that will protect your account.

As Always

Please feel free to call my cell number whenever you have any questions or comments: 240-401-2355.

Have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,

Jack

Time to Take Stock

Bye-bye 2020. For everything not financial, we don’t hate to see you go. Pandemics. Riots. Elections. Safe Distancing. Masks. Lockdowns.

The parade of horrors just doesn’t stop.

But for matters financial, 2020 was a very good year. And when the year is new, it’s time to take stock … or … it’s time to buy stocks.

Look What The S&P Did

On December 31, 2020, the S&P closed at 3,756.07, making a year-to-date gain of +16.258%—a fairly respectable gain. Many investors hope to match the performance of the S&P 500 Index. But here at Research Financial Strategies, we seek to beat it.

And beat it we did. In a big way. Our aggressive growth model racked up a year-to-date gain of 32% (net of all fees). Even our income model clocked a gain of 8.5% (and that’s an income portfolio).

Here’s a one-year chart of the S&P 500. We wonder how many “buy and hold” investors managed to survive the gut-wrenching drop in March 2020.

When the big drop came, we were ready: we played defense; we pared our long positions; we took on certain ETFs that go up when the markets go down. We not only survived. We won.

And we hope we made things less stressful for you.

Please Forward This Email

You might have friends, family, and colleagues who’re wedded to “matching the S&P.” If so, please forward this email to them. If they’re doing only as well as the S&P, then they’re leaving serious money on the table.

Or you might have other accounts that you manage or that have sat around gathering dust (and losses). If so, give me a call at 240-401-2355.

A Note to Those Who Receive This Forwarded Email

If your investments didn’t return over 30% this year, then we need to talk.

Overall, 2020 laid an egg. But your investments don’t have to.

Give me a call. Share your portfolio with me. Our financial advisors will perform a free, no-obligation second opinion on your investments.

No pressure, just conversation.

Call My Cell

Get out your smart phone and make a smart call right now. Call my cell at 240-401-2355. We’ll arrange a virtual meeting to get to know each other and to look over your portfolio.

Then together, we can make 2021 a very good year, indeed.

Wishing Everyone All the Best

We thank you for entrusting your wealth to us at Research Financial Strategies. We guard it as we would guard our own.

All of us here at Research Financial Strategies wish you a Happy New Year.

​Sincerely,

Jack

The market likes President-Elect Joe Biden’s selection of Janet Yellen to serve as Treasury Secretary. Many Wall Streeters feared that Biden would appoint Elizabeth Warren, while many progressives feared he would appoint someone too friendly to big banks and the wealthy.[1]

According to Bloomberg:

With Yellen in charge, Biden’s Treasury department will be prepared to join Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s policy of lower-for-longer interest rates with extended, expansionary government spending.[2]

Yellen faces severe conditions, as COVID-19 infections continue to soar and the number of Americans in need of immediate financial help soars right along with it. As Bloomberg points out, her most immediate challenge is “breaking a logjam on Capitol Hill to deliver economic relief to long and growing unemployment lines.”[3]

Janet Yellen certainly comes to the position with a surfeit of credentials. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from Yale, taught at Harvard, and as early as 1977 joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. During the Clinton administration, she was the head of the Council of Economic Advisors. She then became the president of San Francisco’s Federal Reserve Bank.

In 2014, President Obama appoint Ms. Yellen to serve as the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve.

She will now bring this experience and background to tackle the problems of unemployment and perhaps slowing economic growth—both sparked by the virus.

Yellen’s appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street is likely the real reason for Mr. Market’s excitement. She said: “It would be a substantial change to give the Federal Reserve the ability to buy stock.” And she said:

I frankly don’t think [Fed stock ownership] is necessary at this point. I think intervention to support the credit markets is more important, but longer term it wouldn’t be a bad thing for Congress to reconsider the powers that the Fed has with respect to assets it can own.

We can only say: When the Federal Reserve starts buying stock, free market price discovery goes out the window.

But meanwhile, the bulls are roaring their approval of one of Biden’s most important appointments.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-23/biden-plans-to-nominate-janet-yellen-as-treasury-secretary?cmpid=BBD112320_CUS&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201123&utm_campaign=closeamericas&sref=otZgjKT7[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-24/yellen-as-treasury-secretary-sets-up-biden-to-go-big-on-stimulus?cmpid=BBD112420_MKT&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201124&utm_campaign=markets&sref=otZgjKT7
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-23/biden-plans-to-nominate-janet-yellen-as-treasury-secretary?cmpid=BBD112320_CUS&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201123&utm_campaign=closeamericas&sref=otZgjKT7

When we were young, Thanksgiving was simple. It was a day off from school, or from work. A day for watching football, or for eating as much turkey and pie as we could manage. As we’ve gotten older, though, our relationship with Thanksgiving has changed. It’s not just a day for eating, or relaxing, or even visiting with family, as enjoyable as all those things are. 

It’s a day for reflecting.

When we look back and reflect, we often realize just how many simple joys and surprises we’ve been blessed with throughout the year. Every last-minute change of plan that led to something better. Every hardship endured that made us that much stronger for the next. Every door that closed only for another to open. Every goal achieved; every obstacle overcome. Every much-needed hug or kind word spoken. Every new friendship made or old rekindled. Every person who ever lent their hand to hold, their arm to lean on, their heart to touch. 

Too often, we let the most golden moments of our lives go by without noticing. But Thanksgiving is a chance to count and catalog them all. So they don’t go to waste. So we remember them always. 

Recently, we discovered a Thanksgiving poem written by a poet named Ella Wheeler Wilcox in the 19th century. It perfectly encapsulates what the day now means to us – and why Thanksgiving is so important. We wanted to share it with you because, we think you will enjoy it, too. 

Thanksgiving 
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

We walk on starry fields of white 
And do not see the daisies; 
For blessings common in our sight 
We rarely offer praises. 
We sigh for some supreme delight 
To crown our lives with splendor, 
And quite ignore our daily store 
Of pleasures sweet and tender. 

Upon our thought and feeling. 
They hang about us all the day, 
Our time from pleasure stealing. 
So unobtrusive many a joy 
We pass by and forget it, 
But worry strives to own our lives 
And conquers if we let it. 

There’s not a day in all the year 
But holds some hidden pleasure, 
And looking back, joys oft appear 
To brim the past’s wide measure. 
But blessings are like friends, 
I hold, Who love and labor near us. 
We ought to raise our notes of praise 
While living hearts can hear us. 

Full many a blessing wears the guise 
Of worry or of trouble. 
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double. 
But he who has the faith and strength 
To thank his God for sorrow 
Has found a joy without alloy 
To gladden every morrow. 

We ought to make the moments notes 
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving; 
The hours and days a silent phrase 
Of music we are living. 
And so the theme should swell and grow 
As weeks and months pass o’er us, 
And rise sublime at this good time, 
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

We hope this Thanksgiving gives you a chance to reflect on all the joys, pleasures, and blessings in your life. 

On behalf of our entire team at Research Financial Strategies​, we hope you have a wonderful holiday! ​

Veterans Day – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

On March 4, 1921, the United States Congress approved the burial of an unidentified soldier who fought and died in World War I. He was buried on a Virginia hillside not far from the Potomac River in the Arlington National Cemetery—a symbol of those who have died to protect our freedoms. In respect, soldiers stand guard to protect his tomb.

Intriguing … who was this man? What was his story? Why do soldiers stand guard? What makes today’s solider want to be chosen for this duty? How did this tradition come about?

The Story

The story begins in France on Memorial Day 1921 when wounded Army Sergeant Edward F. Younger was given the task to choose from four caskets of unknown soldiers to receive this honor. He placed a wreath of white roses on the third casket from the left. The casket was sent to the Capitol Rotunda where the unknown soldier lies in state from the day his casket arrived until November 11, 1921. President Warren G. Harding officiated at the interment ceremony.

In 1958, several “unknowns” were exhumed from cemeteries in Europe, Africa, Hawaii, and the Philippines to represent World War II. Two of these exhumed soldiers were chosen—one from the European Theater, and one from the Pacific Theater. These two caskets were taken aboard the USS Canberra where Navy Hospitalman 1st Class, William R. Charette selected the Unknown Soldier of World War II. The casket not chosen received a burial at sea.

This same year, four unknown Korean War Veterans were chosen from the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. The final selection of two caskets was made by Army Master Sgt. Ned Lyle. President Eisenhower conducted the ceremony of internment for the World War II and Korean War Veterans at Arlington Cemetery.

The Unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War was designated by U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allan Jay Kellogg Jr. on May 17, 1984. President Reagan presided over this internment. In 1998, the Unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War was exhumed and, through DNA testing, was determined to be Air Force 1^st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie. It was decided that the crypt containing 1^st Lt. Blassie’s remains would remain empty.

The Guards of the Tomb

Guards of the tomb were created in 1926 as too many visitors were using the original crypt as a picnic table. By 1937, guards were stationed from the moment gates were opened in the morning until gates closed at night. Guards are charged to prevent any desecration or disrespect to the tomb and crypts.

These guards are military soldiers who come from every walk of life, from every state in the union, and are hand picked. Training for these men and women is rigorous. Over 80% of those who try out for this duty do not make it. Knowledge must be extensive about this monument, and strong military bearing a must. There are three Reliefs assigned with each guard, consisting of nine soldiers. And each Relief is based on height of the soldiers. The Tomb is completely run by Non-Commissioned Officers. Each soldier has a specific post to cover.

To serve at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a great honor.

Please join with us this Veterans Day to remember those who have died so all of us may enjoy the freedoms we all have today.