December 15, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Are tariffs the Grinch of this Christmas? Does it change holiday budgeting?
Guest: Nicholas Colantuono – Certified Financial Planner
Powerball jackpot surges to $1.1 billion! Tonight’s the next big drawing. The amount is one of the largest jackpots in Powerball history!
Guest: Mark William Bracken - Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery
The #1 Worst Christmas Gift This Year, according to research. & In general gift options best avoided when gifting.
Guest: Valerie Sokolosky – Etiquette expert & author
The naughty list: BBB's 12 scams of the holidays.
Guest: Paula Fleming - Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Better Business Bureau - Boston
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night's Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm going you razy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well here we are here, we are on a Monday night,
and it is still cold. It was a very bitterly
cold weekend here in New England, and the weather people
are saying it might warm up just a little bit Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. We will see. I hope all of
you watched Tracker last night on CBS. We talked about
that on Friday night. I hope I've introduced some of
(00:28):
you to a new television show that you might like
on on Sunday nights, excuse me, on Sunday nights at
nine o'clock. But we did talk about it on Friday
night at eleven o'clock. We have a four really interesting
guests here in the night side news Update. We're going
to talk about the closing of the Boston Arena is
now named the Matthews Arena, but for those of us
(00:50):
to played ice hockey there in high school or college
or high school, landro college, it's a very special place.
We'll be talking with Bill Stewart. I'm a former college
coach and also a longtime referee member of what we
would call hockey Royalty. Really a royal family here, the
Stewart family in the Greater Boston area. With three special
(01:12):
guests coming up at nine o'clock and then at ten
o'clock we will talk about the conviction of Brian Walsh.
My only question is what took the jury so long,
but we will deal with that first up tonight. Amongst
our first guests, we're going to talk with Nicholas Colin Tuno.
Nicholas challenging last name for me, but did I get it? Was?
(01:32):
I close? Dan?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
You nailed it, my friend, So bonus points for you.
I appreciate you having me on. It's a pleasure to
be with you tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Pleasure to be with you. Nicholas, you're a certified financial planner.
Of the question we're asking our tariffs, the grinch that's
called this Christmas? Does it change holiday budgeting? I've done
a number of shows on tariffs, and it sounds to
me like there are specific areas that are impacted, a
lot of areas that are not impacted. Thank goodness, gasoline
(02:03):
is not apparently impacted. Gasoline shore hunkers down around three
three dollars a gallon, at least in this part of
the cold Northeast. What sort of an impact what Some
of these stories get a little overplayed, but I want
to I hope that you're going to give me the
true skinny on this. We had the tariff changes last April. Second,
(02:25):
the President has constantly fiddled with them and raised some,
lowered others, vacated, vacated a few. What sort of an
impact does it have on Christmas? I read a story
that said American consumers are going to spend a billion
dollars this holiday season, which might be the first not
a billion, excuse me, it was it a trillion dollars,
which might be the first trillion dollar holiday season. Is
(02:47):
that conceivable?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, look, Dan, it it doesn't surprise me. It's a
daunting number when you think about it. And it's worth
prefacing the conversation by talking about the folks we work with.
So it's more what I see day to day. We're
working with folks who are in this phase of life
where we're more often than not they're retired. In other words,
they're addressing the need for income at a point where
(03:11):
their income is relatively fixed. You know, if they're fortunate,
they have pensions, maybe they have a social security but
at the end of the day, you know, retirees find
themselves in a point where all the money they have
is all the money they'll have. So what you're really
getting at here with this tariff question is what we
all basically knew the case was, and it's the reality
(03:31):
that the world we live in just gets more and
more and more and more expensive every single day, year
in and year out. And I think we're feeling that
accelerate over the last year, whether it's due to you know,
monetary policy, or whether it's due to trade policy that
results in tariffs. But yeah, you know, to answer your question,
(03:51):
tariffs can certainly be a bit of a grinch, and
I think a lot of people are feeling that this
year in particular, and where we're seeing it, as you mentioned,
is is just higher gift prices around the board. You know,
typically things that are imported, toys, electronics, small appliances, things
that are coming from overseas. That's where a lot of
(04:13):
those higher costs as a result of tariffs that these
companies now have to face are getting passed directly to consumers.
And you know, it's also worth mentioning we're we're helping folks.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
When it comes to this income planning.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
And you know, this time of year, I typically get
the emails or the calls from clients and they say, Nick,
I need you know, one thousand dollars for my Christmas
gifts or my holiday shopping. You know, it's not surprising
for us to get that call this year and the numbers,
you know, maybe one and a half, if not two
times the amount.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It was last year.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Now, again, a lot.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Of our clients might be fortunate and they're having more kids,
more grandkids or whatnot. Their families are expanding. But what
we also see is that the budget's expanding as well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So give me a few examples of of items that
are Look, everything goes up. One of the things that
I see on you know, there was a period of
time when eggs went up dramatically, and I think that
the Avian flew, which was going on last spring, had
as much to do with that as tariffs, particularly in
(05:17):
view of the fact we most eggs are way to manufacture.
What if you want to call them here, but I'd
be curious if there's a few that you can cite.
I can tell you that I know that chocolate has
gone up dramatically because I like chocolate and it's good
for me. I'm going to cut back on chocolate and
a lot of cookies. Pepperage farm cookies I know have
(05:40):
gone up dramatically and it's stayed up. But amongst toys,
amongst gifts, what of people finding substantially you know, more
difficult this year to what?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, and I like cookies as well, my friend, I
also love steak, and I don't know if you've had
a steak lately, but they are way more expensed than
they were and you know, more towards your question on
what consumers are feeling around holiday season, A lot of
it is is in the toys, you know, the electronics,
anything that might have chips in it or anything that
(06:13):
has you know.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Processing systems involved.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So you know a lot of things like even you know,
laptops or small appliances as I mentioned, or you know
even toys that have some sort of you know chip
element or technology element. Again, you think of where a
lot of these products get made. They get made overseas
by overseas companies. So any company here domestically that's looking
(06:37):
to import those goods and then sell them to US
consumers that I mean, those are that's where we're really
seeing the tariffs come into play because these consumers are
not necessarily I'm sorry, these these resilers or these retailers
are not necessarily just willing to eat those costs. They
have higher expenses as a result, and what we're seeing
(06:58):
is that's getting passed directly onto the onto the US consumer.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So some of these would be electronic items that are
primarily toys, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Small appliances, laptops, tablets, you know, smart devices, whether it's
smart watches, things along those lines.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
So you know, you think of everything that we use,
you know, day in and day out.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I you know, I'm a big I use the the Amazon,
like the fire TV stick. Right, I don't know if
we so all these things that are just you know, smaller,
smaller appliances might this is.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A really dumb question, but I got to be honest
with you, Nick, I'm not sure. What is a fire
TV stick? That sounds a little scary.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So it's a it's it's essentially a device that you
plug into a TV that allows you to get access
to multiple streaming platforms. Now again, you know that's just
the device itself, and it doesn't retail at a huge
dollar You know, there's not a huge, uh price tag
associated with it, but you know, again the difference between
(08:03):
maybe being sold for thirty dollars last year, but maybe
it's thirty five or thirty six dollars this year. So
it might not seem like a huge increase from a
dollar standpoint, but you take a step back, you look
at it on a percentage basic it's really the again
that you know, that's where a client or folks are
are really being faced with it.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Okay, is there an item that you can point to one? Again,
I'm not trying to cross examine. I'm trying to understand,
for example, a laptop, a decent laptop. I'm sure that
like anything like with cars, you can go all the
way up to you know, to a Rolls Royce. I'm
not talking about Rolls Royces. But in a laptop, what
(08:44):
would a laptop cost a year ago? What would it
cost today?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well, and it's hard to say, right everything, there's there's
a range, there are levels to it, but it depends
on where that laptop is being manufactured.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Obviously, a company like Apple.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Computers, you know, they're manufacturing things here in the US,
and they've sort of always had a higher price point
associated with them. You look at those companies that manufacture overseas,
Samsung for example, right, a Taiwanese based company. Right, what
we're seeing is a good or a service produced there
(09:20):
is coming at a pretty significantly higher price tag than
it had in the past, even though again from a
competition standpoint, it might still be a more affordable option.
But what we're seeing is that the floor just continues
to get, you know, higher and higher, and unfortunately that's.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Getting passed on.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
One of the aspects.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Oftting passed on to consumers.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, one of the aspects of that is that the
President Trump wants to bring jobs back to America. So
if if people in wherever manufacturing laptops here, they'll have
more money to spend. There'll be better jobs on it.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
You know, it's worth positioning, right, it's not all coal
in the stocking, if you will. You know, domestically produced
goods are actually becoming more competitive.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Right, So you're seeing the.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I guess the benefit of this type of policy at
least accomplishing what he was looking to accomplish in the
first place, is making us goods and services more competitive, right,
And as a result, it's it's kept a lot of
those prices down, which is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, Nick, I could talk to you about talk with
you for hours about this, and maybe what we'll do
is we do an hour something night and have people
call in, maybe even after the holiday season. But I
just want to thank you. You explain yourself very clearly.
You make it interesting to talk about and love to
have you back. How could folks get in touch with
you as a financial planner if they're looking for some help?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, thanks Dan, I appreciate the floor. So our firm,
Johnson Burnetti where a registered investment advisor. We've got four
offices throughout Massachusetts. We also have eight offices in Connecticut.
So we are a you know, for a small feel firm.
I mean we are certainly you know, we're very good
at what we do. We serve thousands and thousands of
(11:09):
households all across in New England.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
The easiest way to get in touch with us is
go to our website Johnson Brenetti dot com. Uh, and
we'd love to have you as a guest. We're always
doing educational workshops. You know, if you're in the area
and you're sort of of the retiree or pre retiree demographic.
You've probably gotten one of our invitations in the mail
to come to one of our educational events.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Okay, it's all one Johnson.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Everybody knows how to spell pressure way to just get
a feel for who we are, what we do, and
and see if we could be the right fit to
help me navigate these uh these changes.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Let me give that website one more time. Johnson. Everybody
knows how to spell Johnson. Brenetti is b R U
N E T t I dot com. Thank you, Nick. Well,
we'll talk again. We may get back to you and
let's do a longer, longer version when we can really
get drilled down. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Sounds like a plan, Dan, Thanks a lot, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
We're gonna We're gonna come back when to show you
how you've become a billionaire tonight. Yeah, believe it or not,
a billionaire tonight is possible. We're gonna talk with Mark
Bracken of the Massachusetts State Lottery. Right after the break.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Boston's News radio delighted.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What welcome back. Mark Bracken a friend for many years.
He's the executive director of the Massachusetts State Lottery, and
he's not gonna tell us the winning numbers that will
be drawn tonight somewhere in America at eleven o'clock or no,
he can't do that. Hi, Mark, how are you?
Speaker 5 (12:31):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I just wanted to give you a thrill there. You
might have thought it lost my mind. No, no one
knows those numbers. Where do they do the drawing these days?
For the national drawing? Where's it located?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Is drawn out of Florida, Oh, Florida lottery across the
ball game?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Okay, and it's one point one billion on the line
tonight it is. Let me yet, I probably ask you
a question or two that you don't know the answer to.
Would you send fear every time they have these these
big numbers? I mean, everybody is getting tickets. I'm assuming
(13:12):
that there will be more than one point one billion
tickets sold tonight?
Speaker 5 (13:17):
No, no, no?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Oh? So how many tickets would be sold on a
night like so.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
We have.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
So it's a couple of nights, right, So this is
a carryover from Saturday. Yeah, because it didn't hit on Saturday,
and Saturday's jackpot was just one or just one billion,
just a billion, one hundred million, so bill two hundred
million A little bit over one hundred million tickets.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Really.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Oh so yeah, the gaming You gotta think of this.
The game's really it's really a fifty to fifty split.
So about fifty cents on the dollar goes towards the
rolling jackpot, and then the other fifty cents on the
dollar goes to the state, and then the state pays
out all the low tail price winters, so all the
people that have that matches the powerball or anything like that,
and then whatever's left over is the profit. So if
(14:09):
it grew by one hundred million, about they were about
two hundred million in wages, then give or take get
I get it.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, yeah, it's when you think of it as being
up to one point one billion, and you think about
the people, what is it six? Is it six numbers?
And then an additional number that has.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
To Michigan five plus one.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Five plus one. Okay, So can you think of somebody
who hits the five numbers and then just this is
the big power number by one?
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well, Dan, I'll hey, in the last three weeks since
November twenty second, we've had seven people hit four numbers
out of five plus the one, so they were only
missing one number. So sin since the twenty second of November.
All they up until Saturday, we had a winter in
Greenfield out in Greenfield that had four plus one. There
were only one number off to hit that pays fifty.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Wow, well that's not bad, that's not bad. But can
you imagine you wake up in the middle of the
night and you say, why did whatever the number that
they missed? Mother? It was, you know, thirty three Larry
Bird or eight Colia Streemsky or ten Derek May whatever,
you know, whatever number or whatever sort of machination you're
playing with. You know, if if you did miss eight,
(15:23):
you're gonna say, why didn't I think?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, no, right, everyone everyone has has an association with
the number. For the most part.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
You know, that's his.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Birthday, that's her birthday, that's the day. You know, that's
my address, that's you know, my office number. So it
gets tough, it gets the mind rolling.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For me, it's it's baseball numbers, you know, you know, three,
all there's baby Rows, nine, Ted Williams, okay us there.
But yeah, it's it's unbelievable. But but someone might win
it tonight, and wouldn't it be great? Have we ever
had a billionaire winner in Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Yet, No, we haven't. The highest is you gotta remember
Mavis right back in August at twenty seventeen, she had
seven hundred just shy is seven hundred and fifty nine
million dollars on poleball. That's our highest jackpot ever.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You know, Mark what I never see I never see
a follow up story on someone who hits the big number,
you know, I mean, do they tend to just want
to disappear?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Yeah, I have a blend into the blend into the darkness.
You know, it's it's and you can't blame them, right, No.
A lot of times, first of all, a lot of times,
you know, Mayvis came in the next morning with their
winning ticket. A lot of times people especially in Massachusetts,
they they can claim it as a trust, so they
try to they can remain anonymous, and the trust claims
it and the trust see comes in on behalf. Some
(16:50):
states they have to claim it in person, so you know,
their identity gets you know, put out there. Bus you know,
you got to think about it. There's a lot of
people out there. There's a lot of scams, there's a
lot of you know, you know, you know, you kind
of hear stories over the years of you know, theft
and crime and murder, threats and ransom and kidnapping, and
you know it's it can get there and it's like
(17:11):
you know, it's life changing. It's absolutely life changing. Especially
you know, a million dollars is life changing, but a
number like this significantly life changing. So you know, as
I will say real quick, you know we met I
just mentioned Navies team in the next day, we strongly
advise we can't give people financial advice. Someone's listening tonight,
does win Please don't come in tomorrow morning. Your money's safe.
(17:32):
You're going to get it. Contact the lawyer, contact the
financial advisor, figure out what's right for you and then
come forward once you're ready.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And take that ticket and put it somewhere under your
But if you're with me, so when you wake up
in the morning, it will be there. And you know,
I mean I would find someone in your family that
that that is law enforcement related and have them drive you.
Don't drive yourself to wherever you're driving. You know, seriously,
(18:02):
do it do it the right way? Mark, how's the
lot to be doing? Generally?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Do you know it down? This year most lotteries are
down across the country. We're not down significantly, but we're
not up. So we're down, you know a little bit
over a percentage point. But you know, holiday season is
one of ours strong seasons. So we're waiting to see
you know, we run a live a week holiday season. Yeah,
you know, I just think things are tough. You know,
you hear and you you just had a financial advisor
(18:28):
on and uh, you know, times are tough for people.
There's only so much you know, there's only so much
expendable money. Gaming an entertaining space is growing. You know, competitive,
I'm not you know, sports betting and casino betting isn't
direct competitors, but there's you know, there's event diagram that
goes on there.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So you know, I will I will still say that
one of the nicest gifts anyway. You know, if you've
got to get a gifts for someone, whatever the denomination,
buy them a couple of lottery tickets or buy them
a twenty dollars scratch ticket or whatever. Uh, if it's
something that they look forward to. You know, you look
at the Christmas gifts. You go out and you spend
(19:07):
for someone and and you have to wrap the thing
and uh, and it's a tie that they put in
the closet. I have so many ties in my closet.
I'm serious. Do something that is good for you, good
for the person who is going to receive your gift,
and who knows it might be a gift that that
they're going to be able to talk about forever they
won five hundred dollars, thousand dollars and so uh and
(19:30):
help and help the state lottery. I endorsed this.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I appreciate that. And it helps cities and towns all
of our profit those straights, municipalities, unrestricted local aid. You know, yes,
cities and towns and spenter on the want. But you
know you can talk to your cities in town that
pays for schools, that pay for park it pays to
add police and fire and teach us to the school systems.
You know, so the money really doesn't come in handy
to three hundred and fifty one municipalities.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I'm telling you, you tell the treasurer that I would
be happy to do any sort of public service announcement
or whatever for the lottery, because if not, my old
friend Robert Q. Crane would be very upset with me
if I did. It's it's a great way at this
time of ye have to give someone just that extra gift.
It's a little bit of fun. Uh, And I just
I think it's a great gift. So hopefully that will
(20:15):
push you back into the into into the into the
black this year. Okay, I hope.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Thanks Mark, We'll talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Yeah, happy holidays.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
You celebrate Christmas? And what do you celebrate Honka? What
do you celebrate?
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I thought, no, I celebrate Christmas, but I was at
a Honka partty last night. Yeah, well I have Personally
I celebrate Christmas, but I love to celebrate all the holidays.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah. Well, ours is a blended family, so we have
we celebrate Honiker as well as Christmas. So uh, I
wish you merry Christmas if that's your holiday at choice.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Thank you, Thank you, dan By.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So say hi to the treasure for me. Thanks. We'll
be back. We have two more guests coming up. We're
going to talk about what might be the worst Christmas
gift of the season. The best Christmas gift of the
season might be a lottery ticket, particularly if you happen
to pick the billion number. The numbers tonight back on
Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm telling you Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
All right, we're talking with Valerie Sokolowski. Hi, Valerie, welcome
to Nightside.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Oh it's good to be with you again.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Dan.
Speaker 7 (21:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I love your passion and I hear it once again,
and I thank you for joining us. So tonight you're
going to talk to us about the number one worst
Christmas gift. I can think of a few, but I
want to hear from you. What is the number one worst?
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Oh, my goodness, you know what anything. The worst gifts
basically are those things that say I guessed, I guessed,
And the best are the ones that say I see you.
In other words, give gifts that you know are going
to land.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
And I'll tell you a funny story. I got a
gift for Christmas last year, I think it was, and
I opened it and the little ticket on the side
said to Mary love Joan and my name is Valerie.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yes, so.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
They just grabbed something. If it's not meaningful for you
to give, just don't do it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah. I know that's true. But you you've got some
ideas this year that when I read them, they read
and I read this story your idea. It makes a
lot of sense.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Yes, thank you, and I'll just say that it's the season,
yes to be jolly, but you've got to watch watch out.
You don't want to give folly. And one of the
one of the things that I just received, and this
is to a tip, is to give something back to
my point that is personal enough that the person has
(23:01):
taken the time and done something intentionally. And so this
just happened perfect for the show because it was yesterday
and a lady that I've known only for about a year,
but we work out together, and she brought me a
little small I'm going to say, a Christmas tree. I
don't know what the fur is called the tree itself,
(23:23):
but it's a real live little tree. Now, I'll tell
you how personal that is. Not only is it pretty,
and it's got little lights and it'll last for a
long time in my home. But I live in a
condo and we are going to have a country home,
a little cabin type thing and I can plant it.
And she hadn't even thought about that, and so it
(23:46):
was such a win win, joyful gift.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Oh that's a great gift. But I do I think
you're going to tell us about the number one worst
Christmas gift this year?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Guess I am.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
Oh anything that is silly. Remember the flapping fish long
time ago was something stupid, but people gave yeah anything,
oh yeah, anything that is that you haven't thought well enough.
For example, I live in a condo now and a
(24:21):
friend gave me this huge, big thing. I won't say
what it is, but it couldn't fit anywhere on any
shelf in my condo. And so, you know, think about
giving even experiences. For example, my son for Christmas gave
me tickets to go see one of my favorite artists. Well, now,
(24:46):
how cool is that? And another friend gave me a
ticket to go to a cooking class.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I love to cook.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
How cool is that? And on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, I've read a story that was in RAID magazine
that said the single worst gift this year is to
give someone a self help book.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I mean, it says a lot about what you think
about Uh. Now, I don't know what you do with
somebody who really does need a self help book, but
maybe yeah, well they probably don't know it, but you
don't give them to it's a gift. I mean, you
can give them something nice and and then say, oh,
(25:28):
by the way, I think you're in your seventh class
of wine here, and if I'm not mistaken, you're just
one a face plant on the floor. How about whatever?
You know? I mean, I just think that that you.
I'm sure that sometimes those self help books can probably help,
(25:51):
but I don't know that anyone wants them as a
Christmas gift.
Speaker 7 (25:53):
That's that's that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah, it's always tough, you know, at this time of year,
because there's always pressure pressure on you and I what
is it? Well, I don't know if I should tell
you this story. I think I know you well enough,
so I'm going to tell.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You this story.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We had a baby granddaughter who was born last April,
and my wife and I was supposed to be going
to a big event in Boston that night, but of
course we didn't go. It's an annual event that happens
every springtime in Boston and so one of the it's
a great event, but we didn't go. So I thought
(26:42):
to myself, I don't know what I'm going to get
my now seven month old daughter. And so what I
did was a friend of mine and I said, we
didn't get a chance to go. We have purchased tickets
and all of that, which is fine because it's a
great charity. I said, could you send me a program
and also the invitation that we had return to you,
And so I'm wrapping that up and giving it to
(27:03):
my son and daughter in law to present at some
point in the future, probably after long after I've left
this veil of tears. As he reminded her of something
very significant that was going on in the city of
Boston the actual night that she was born.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Oh now, see, that is what I call an intentional gift.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I just hope that on her eighteenth
Christmas or her twenty first birthday or something, my son
and daughter in law presented to her. Have wrapped it up.
I've included a note, and it was an event at
the Boston Public It was what they call the Literary
Lights Dinner, which is a great dinner to support the
(27:46):
Boston Public Library. And it's so well done. It's a
highlight of the It tells you spring has arrived in
Boston because of the timing of it as well. So
that's what I'm doing, because again, she was born literally
while that dinner was going on. We weren't there. We
were waiting at home for the good news, but there's
(28:08):
no way we were going to go to the dinner
in case anything didn't work out perfectly. So that's my
story of a good gift.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
Well, you know what I love about that story, Dan,
is that you are a person who and I know you,
you are an authentic person who does things right. And
of course you know my podcast is called doing it Right.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yes I do, and.
Speaker 7 (28:30):
I yeah, and I mean that when people will just
go into their own heart and think about things they.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Would appreciate or wouldn't.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
And what's the intention behind it? And you know another
thing that's so easy to do, Dan, is if you
write a little note. All the gifts likely have a
tag on them, maybe, but wouldn't it wouldn't it be
a little bit more special to write a note on
the gift. Now, you can't do it to everyone, not
if you're a corporate rat, but when you can personalize
(29:04):
as you can.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Absolutely and people people should write letters more. You know
George Bush, former President Bush forty one, used to write
personalized letters, but he's from a different time, in a
different generation. Valerie, give us you a podcast so people
get catch up with you. Go right, ahead.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Oh, thank you so much. It's on YouTube, so it's
YouTube dot com. Forward slash doing it. I'm sorry, Forward
Slash Valerie and Company. But the name of the show
is doing it right, the stories that make us.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
I was a guest on Valerie Show. It's a great show,
even even if I do say so. Valerie, thank you
so much on great holidays to you this Christmas, this Hanukah,
this New Year's. I hope everything, all of your dreams
come through and we will talk in the new year.
I'm sure as well.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
I hope so Dan back at Hugh. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Thanks Vallery. We'll talk soon. Valerie Sokolowski Valerie and Company.
That's her podcast. We'll be back and we're going to
talk about the Naughty List. I'm gonna talk with Paula
Fleming the Boston the Better Business Bureau, Boston's Better Business Bureau.
Twelve scams of the holidays. You know there's always twelve
this and eleven that and ten this and five five whatever,
(30:23):
pep pipe, some peeping and whatever. Look with this is
twelve things you want to stay away from. Valerie is
rather Paula Fleming joins us right after this break.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Delighted to welcome back Paula Fleming, Chief Marketing and sales
Officer the Better Business Bureau of Boston, the Boston Better
Business Bureau. Four bees there the Hi, Paula, welcome back.
How it's been a while.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
It's been a while.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I feel like it's been since July, which is too
long not to talk with you. So if you have
twelve scams for the holiday, I think we should make it.
We should drop it in the you know, twelve prince
of printing on whatever they are, eleven giesea laying. I
could never remember all those or whatever, but twelve scams
are scamming. They all basically the commonality is if they
(31:22):
look too good to be true, like your mother told you,
they probably are too good to be true, and therefore
a scam. That's the common answer.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
That is exactly correct. Yees. So I always say, if
a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
And that is true during these holiday seasons. We want
your listeners to make sure that they're arming themselves with knowledge.
Holiday scams are obviously nuisances. They lead to financial loss, identity, theft,
and severe emotional stress. Already, it's a holiday season. While cheerful,
(31:55):
it's also very stressful, and we want to try and
help to eliminate the stress by not leaving you vulnerable
to these scams.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
So let's talk. We could go through the twelve of them,
but we probably don't have the time. The commonality is
that they reach out. The first thing you need to do,
I think is check the sender. This. I do this
all the time. I get so much stuff where it's
they're looking for some help or whatever, or they're offering
(32:25):
something that sounds too good to be true. Just go
up and click on the email address of the sender.
And if they say, oh, we're looking for support for
the Red Cross, and you click the sender and it's
you know, you know, you know, Harold Smith at you
know whatever, you know, Transylvania. I mean, it's just you
(32:45):
just look at the address of the center and say
this has to be phony.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
And just absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And many people don't do that.
They don't realize when they receive an email that by
simply looking at who it's coming from, they can determ
and if it is in fact a legitimate email. It's
one way of doing that, and research first. Always check
businesses and the charities. You can go to BBB dot
org as one resource before paying or donating. Sometimes some
(33:13):
a few simple research steps can help save you from
financial and personal uh grief in the long run.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Well, let's say, let's say that's something simple. Let's I'll
just use an example. Contribute to the United Way and
everybody says ways, great, and it'll say United Way will
be spelled improperly instead of United U n i t
E d w a y It'll be U n i
t E d w y a right away.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
Very common. Unfortunately, Yes, they're using well known companies charities,
and they are taking that you are going to fall
uh for their name or it may even look real
in the email, like a legitimate business that you're familiar with,
but you go to the center as you mentioned, and
(34:02):
it is in fact misspelled or not the you know
dot com that it would be. So you have to
take that into consideration before you click on any items.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
What are some of the other And again, I know
that some of the items that you have here is misleading.
Social media ads, social media gift exchanges, people saying oh,
we want you to believe to join a secret center
and you don't know the people secret sandws will fine
if you know the people who evolve faith told collection text.
(34:33):
You owe seven hundred and thirteen dollars to the Pennsylvania
turnpi Well maybe they owe seventy dollars to the Pennsylvania
Turnpike Authority. You haven't driven in Pennsylvania. Why would you
be getting that? Please you? They just will send out
millions hoping that some people have driven through Pennsylvania and
feeling guilty.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Absolutely. Yeah, Fake tol and delivery texts are becoming more
and more common. These criminals are posing as legitimate services
asking for payment via phony links and that could be
via email or text. People unfortunately fall for this because
they're in feared that something is going to happen. They're
going to be you know, possibly arrested, or they call
(35:15):
the phone number and they get threatened and they just
immediately want to pay it, giving a credit card, sometimes
venmoing money. So you have to be extremely cautious. Avoid
unsolicited links, whether it's email or text. Don't click on
links in text, emails or social posts. Go directly to
the official websites.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I get these things. Please confirm that you have purchased uh,
you know, you know, you know, Bob's anti virus for
your computer. Obviously it make they make it sound a
little bit more than that, but it's like I haven't
purchased an anti virus for my computer. I have anti viruses.
I know what they are. And again you look at
(35:57):
the sender and it's you know, you know, you know,
Bob Smith and the returning address is Stockholm, Sweden or something,
and it's like, you know, come on and at least
make it, make it a challenge. Just just check it out, guys,
don't be taken, you know, right right to you, Paul,
(36:17):
I know I've kind of thrown somebod these out, but
I'm getting better at this, and I'm just trying to
share the stuff that i'm seeing.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Absolutely yeah, and I appreciate that, and I'm happy that
you are getting better at this because I think it's important.
I've been doing this for over twenty years, and unfortunately,
these scammers just get more and more savvy, and as
we rely on technology more and more in our day
to day lives, it becomes very hard to identify what
is real and what is fake, and so I think
(36:46):
it's important that we just keep repeating and go back
to your gut if it seems too good to be true,
as you started off the segment saying, it probably is.
Make sure that you're using secure payments, so prefer credit
cards over venmo or debit cards. Avoid prepaidor gift card
based payments for unknown sellers. Simple steps you can take
(37:07):
to protect yourself. Not everything is one hundred percent, but
some simple steps can really help in the long run
prevent financial and personal fraud.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, I'm still waiting for that Nigerian princess to show
up with the taking dollars she promised me. And you know,
I mean, I'm beginning to think that's a scam too.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
You know, it's bad, but I will tell you that
I can't. You know, every day we receive hundreds of
scam hundreds of scam reports, and these these are some
of those people that fall victim to that as well
as you know, one recent one I thought read today
was a puppy scam. You know, they thought they were
getting one to put under the tree, and unfortunately they're
out over one thousand dollars from a puppy scam.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And so if If anyone wants get information, they can
go to the Boston been a business field. What's the website, Paulum.
All of a sudden, my producers telling me we're running
out of time. What's the web?
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Not a problem. It is BBB dot org. BBB dot org.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Perfect, Paula Fleming. We will talk to you earlier in
the new year. Okay, thank you so much. Happy Holidays,
Merry Christmas, Happy Honica, happy Kwanzi, happy Festivus, whatever you celebrate. Okay, Paula,
thanks so much. All Right, nine o'clock News is coming up,
and after that we're going to talk about the closing
of a Boston institution. What we all knew is the
(38:25):
Boston Arena and recently has been called the Matthews Arena
at Northeastern
It's Night's Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm going you razy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well here we are here, we are on a Monday night,
and it is still cold. It was a very bitterly
cold weekend here in New England, and the weather people
are saying it might warm up just a little bit Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. We will see. I hope all of
you watched Tracker last night on CBS. We talked about
that on Friday night. I hope I've introduced some of
(00:28):
you to a new television show that you might like
on on Sunday nights, excuse me, on Sunday nights at
nine o'clock. But we did talk about it on Friday
night at eleven o'clock. We have a four really interesting
guests here in the night side news Update. We're going
to talk about the closing of the Boston Arena is
now named the Matthews Arena, but for those of us
(00:50):
to played ice hockey there in high school or college
or high school, landro college, it's a very special place.
We'll be talking with Bill Stewart. I'm a former college
coach and also a longtime referee member of what we
would call hockey Royalty. Really a royal family here, the
Stewart family in the Greater Boston area. With three special
(01:12):
guests coming up at nine o'clock and then at ten
o'clock we will talk about the conviction of Brian Walsh.
My only question is what took the jury so long,
but we will deal with that first up tonight. Amongst
our first guests, we're going to talk with Nicholas Colin Tuno.
Nicholas challenging last name for me, but did I get it? Was?
(01:32):
I close? Dan?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
You nailed it, my friend, So bonus points for you.
I appreciate you having me on. It's a pleasure to
be with you tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Pleasure to be with you. Nicholas, you're a certified financial planner.
Of the question we're asking our tariffs, the grinch that's
called this Christmas? Does it change holiday budgeting? I've done
a number of shows on tariffs, and it sounds to
me like there are specific areas that are impacted, a
lot of areas that are not impacted. Thank goodness, gasoline
(02:03):
is not apparently impacted. Gasoline shore hunkers down around three
three dollars a gallon, at least in this part of
the cold Northeast. What sort of an impact what Some
of these stories get a little overplayed, but I want
to I hope that you're going to give me the
true skinny on this. We had the tariff changes last April. Second,
(02:25):
the President has constantly fiddled with them and raised some,
lowered others, vacated, vacated a few. What sort of an
impact does it have on Christmas? I read a story
that said American consumers are going to spend a billion
dollars this holiday season, which might be the first not
a billion, excuse me, it was it a trillion dollars,
which might be the first trillion dollar holiday season. Is
(02:47):
that conceivable?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, look, Dan, it it doesn't surprise me. It's a
daunting number when you think about it. And it's worth
prefacing the conversation by talking about the folks we work with.
So it's more what I see day to day. We're
working with folks who are in this phase of life
where we're more often than not they're retired. In other words,
they're addressing the need for income at a point where
(03:11):
their income is relatively fixed. You know, if they're fortunate,
they have pensions, maybe they have a social security but
at the end of the day, you know, retirees find
themselves in a point where all the money they have
is all the money they'll have. So what you're really
getting at here with this tariff question is what we
all basically knew the case was, and it's the reality
(03:31):
that the world we live in just gets more and
more and more and more expensive every single day, year
in and year out. And I think we're feeling that
accelerate over the last year, whether it's due to you know,
monetary policy, or whether it's due to trade policy that
results in tariffs. But yeah, you know, to answer your question,
(03:51):
tariffs can certainly be a bit of a grinch, and
I think a lot of people are feeling that this
year in particular, and where we're seeing it, as you mentioned,
is is just higher gift prices around the board. You know,
typically things that are imported, toys, electronics, small appliances, things
that are coming from overseas. That's where a lot of
(04:13):
those higher costs as a result of tariffs that these
companies now have to face are getting passed directly to consumers.
And you know, it's also worth mentioning we're we're helping folks.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
When it comes to this income planning.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
And you know, this time of year, I typically get
the emails or the calls from clients and they say, Nick,
I need you know, one thousand dollars for my Christmas
gifts or my holiday shopping. You know, it's not surprising
for us to get that call this year and the numbers,
you know, maybe one and a half, if not two
times the amount.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It was last year.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Now, again, a lot.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Of our clients might be fortunate and they're having more kids,
more grandkids or whatnot. Their families are expanding. But what
we also see is that the budget's expanding as well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So give me a few examples of of items that
are Look, everything goes up. One of the things that
I see on you know, there was a period of
time when eggs went up dramatically, and I think that
the Avian flew, which was going on last spring, had
as much to do with that as tariffs, particularly in
(05:17):
view of the fact we most eggs are way to manufacture.
What if you want to call them here, but I'd
be curious if there's a few that you can cite.
I can tell you that I know that chocolate has
gone up dramatically because I like chocolate and it's good
for me. I'm going to cut back on chocolate and
a lot of cookies. Pepperage farm cookies I know have
(05:40):
gone up dramatically and it's stayed up. But amongst toys,
amongst gifts, what of people finding substantially you know, more
difficult this year to what?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, and I like cookies as well, my friend, I
also love steak, and I don't know if you've had
a steak lately, but they are way more expensed than
they were and you know, more towards your question on
what consumers are feeling around holiday season, A lot of
it is is in the toys, you know, the electronics,
anything that might have chips in it or anything that
(06:13):
has you know.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Processing systems involved.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So you know a lot of things like even you know,
laptops or small appliances as I mentioned, or you know
even toys that have some sort of you know chip
element or technology element. Again, you think of where a
lot of these products get made. They get made overseas
by overseas companies. So any company here domestically that's looking
(06:37):
to import those goods and then sell them to US
consumers that I mean, those are that's where we're really
seeing the tariffs come into play because these consumers are
not necessarily I'm sorry, these these resilers or these retailers
are not necessarily just willing to eat those costs. They
have higher expenses as a result, and what we're seeing
(06:58):
is that's getting passed directly onto the onto the US consumer.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So some of these would be electronic items that are
primarily toys, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Small appliances, laptops, tablets, you know, smart devices, whether it's
smart watches, things along those lines.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
So you know, you think of everything that we use,
you know, day in and day out.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I you know, I'm a big I use the the Amazon,
like the fire TV stick. Right, I don't know if
we so all these things that are just you know, smaller,
smaller appliances might this is.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A really dumb question, but I got to be honest
with you, Nick, I'm not sure. What is a fire
TV stick? That sounds a little scary.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So it's a it's it's essentially a device that you
plug into a TV that allows you to get access
to multiple streaming platforms. Now again, you know that's just
the device itself, and it doesn't retail at a huge
dollar You know, there's not a huge, uh price tag
associated with it, but you know, again the difference between
(08:03):
maybe being sold for thirty dollars last year, but maybe
it's thirty five or thirty six dollars this year. So
it might not seem like a huge increase from a
dollar standpoint, but you take a step back, you look
at it on a percentage basic it's really the again
that you know, that's where a client or folks are
are really being faced with it.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Okay, is there an item that you can point to one? Again,
I'm not trying to cross examine. I'm trying to understand,
for example, a laptop, a decent laptop. I'm sure that
like anything like with cars, you can go all the
way up to you know, to a Rolls Royce. I'm
not talking about Rolls Royces. But in a laptop, what
(08:44):
would a laptop cost a year ago? What would it
cost today?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well, and it's hard to say, right everything, there's there's
a range, there are levels to it, but it depends
on where that laptop is being manufactured.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Obviously, a company like Apple.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Computers, you know, they're manufacturing things here in the US,
and they've sort of always had a higher price point
associated with them. You look at those companies that manufacture overseas,
Samsung for example, right, a Taiwanese based company. Right, what
we're seeing is a good or a service produced there
(09:20):
is coming at a pretty significantly higher price tag than
it had in the past, even though again from a
competition standpoint, it might still be a more affordable option.
But what we're seeing is that the floor just continues
to get, you know, higher and higher, and unfortunately that's.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Getting passed on.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
One of the aspects.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Oftting passed on to consumers.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, one of the aspects of that is that the
President Trump wants to bring jobs back to America. So
if if people in wherever manufacturing laptops here, they'll have
more money to spend. There'll be better jobs on it.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
You know, it's worth positioning, right, it's not all coal
in the stocking, if you will. You know, domestically produced
goods are actually becoming more competitive.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Right, So you're seeing the.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I guess the benefit of this type of policy at
least accomplishing what he was looking to accomplish in the
first place, is making us goods and services more competitive, right,
And as a result, it's it's kept a lot of
those prices down, which is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, Nick, I could talk to you about talk with
you for hours about this, and maybe what we'll do
is we do an hour something night and have people
call in, maybe even after the holiday season. But I
just want to thank you. You explain yourself very clearly.
You make it interesting to talk about and love to
have you back. How could folks get in touch with
you as a financial planner if they're looking for some help?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, thanks Dan, I appreciate the floor. So our firm,
Johnson Burnetti where a registered investment advisor. We've got four
offices throughout Massachusetts. We also have eight offices in Connecticut.
So we are a you know, for a small feel firm.
I mean we are certainly you know, we're very good
at what we do. We serve thousands and thousands of
(11:09):
households all across in New England.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
The easiest way to get in touch with us is
go to our website Johnson Brenetti dot com. Uh, and
we'd love to have you as a guest. We're always
doing educational workshops. You know, if you're in the area
and you're sort of of the retiree or pre retiree demographic.
You've probably gotten one of our invitations in the mail
to come to one of our educational events.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Okay, it's all one Johnson.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Everybody knows how to spell pressure way to just get
a feel for who we are, what we do, and
and see if we could be the right fit to
help me navigate these uh these changes.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Let me give that website one more time. Johnson. Everybody
knows how to spell Johnson. Brenetti is b R U
N E T t I dot com. Thank you, Nick. Well,
we'll talk again. We may get back to you and
let's do a longer, longer version when we can really
get drilled down. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Sounds like a plan, Dan, Thanks a lot, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
We're gonna We're gonna come back when to show you
how you've become a billionaire tonight. Yeah, believe it or not,
a billionaire tonight is possible. We're gonna talk with Mark
Bracken of the Massachusetts State Lottery. Right after the break.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Boston's News radio delighted.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What welcome back. Mark Bracken a friend for many years.
He's the executive director of the Massachusetts State Lottery, and
he's not gonna tell us the winning numbers that will
be drawn tonight somewhere in America at eleven o'clock or no,
he can't do that. Hi, Mark, how are you?
Speaker 5 (12:31):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I just wanted to give you a thrill there. You
might have thought it lost my mind. No, no one
knows those numbers. Where do they do the drawing these days?
For the national drawing? Where's it located?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Is drawn out of Florida, Oh, Florida lottery across the
ball game?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Okay, and it's one point one billion on the line
tonight it is. Let me yet, I probably ask you
a question or two that you don't know the answer to.
Would you send fear every time they have these these
big numbers? I mean, everybody is getting tickets. I'm assuming
(13:12):
that there will be more than one point one billion
tickets sold tonight?
Speaker 5 (13:17):
No, no, no?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Oh? So how many tickets would be sold on a
night like so.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
We have.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
So it's a couple of nights, right, So this is
a carryover from Saturday. Yeah, because it didn't hit on Saturday,
and Saturday's jackpot was just one or just one billion,
just a billion, one hundred million, so bill two hundred
million A little bit over one hundred million tickets.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Really.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Oh so yeah, the gaming You gotta think of this.
The game's really it's really a fifty to fifty split.
So about fifty cents on the dollar goes towards the
rolling jackpot, and then the other fifty cents on the
dollar goes to the state, and then the state pays
out all the low tail price winters, so all the
people that have that matches the powerball or anything like that,
and then whatever's left over is the profit. So if
(14:09):
it grew by one hundred million, about they were about
two hundred million in wages, then give or take get
I get it.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, yeah, it's when you think of it as being
up to one point one billion, and you think about
the people, what is it six? Is it six numbers?
And then an additional number that has.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
To Michigan five plus one.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Five plus one. Okay, So can you think of somebody
who hits the five numbers and then just this is
the big power number by one?
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well, Dan, I'll hey, in the last three weeks since
November twenty second, we've had seven people hit four numbers
out of five plus the one, so they were only
missing one number. So sin since the twenty second of November.
All they up until Saturday, we had a winter in
Greenfield out in Greenfield that had four plus one. There
were only one number off to hit that pays fifty.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Wow, well that's not bad, that's not bad. But can
you imagine you wake up in the middle of the
night and you say, why did whatever the number that
they missed? Mother? It was, you know, thirty three Larry
Bird or eight Colia Streemsky or ten Derek May whatever,
you know, whatever number or whatever sort of machination you're
playing with. You know, if if you did miss eight,
(15:23):
you're gonna say, why didn't I think?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, no, right, everyone everyone has has an association with
the number. For the most part.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
You know, that's his.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Birthday, that's her birthday, that's the day. You know, that's
my address, that's you know, my office number. So it
gets tough, it gets the mind rolling.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For me, it's it's baseball numbers, you know, you know, three,
all there's baby Rows, nine, Ted Williams, okay us there.
But yeah, it's it's unbelievable. But but someone might win
it tonight, and wouldn't it be great? Have we ever
had a billionaire winner in Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Yet, No, we haven't. The highest is you gotta remember
Mavis right back in August at twenty seventeen, she had
seven hundred just shy is seven hundred and fifty nine
million dollars on poleball. That's our highest jackpot ever.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
You know, Mark what I never see I never see
a follow up story on someone who hits the big number,
you know, I mean, do they tend to just want
to disappear?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Yeah, I have a blend into the blend into the darkness.
You know, it's it's and you can't blame them, right, No.
A lot of times, first of all, a lot of times,
you know, Mayvis came in the next morning with their
winning ticket. A lot of times people especially in Massachusetts,
they they can claim it as a trust, so they
try to they can remain anonymous, and the trust claims
it and the trust see comes in on behalf. Some
(16:50):
states they have to claim it in person, so you know,
their identity gets you know, put out there. Bus you know,
you got to think about it. There's a lot of
people out there. There's a lot of scams, there's a
lot of you know, you know, you know, you kind
of hear stories over the years of you know, theft
and crime and murder, threats and ransom and kidnapping, and
you know it's it can get there and it's like
(17:11):
you know, it's life changing. It's absolutely life changing. Especially
you know, a million dollars is life changing, but a
number like this significantly life changing. So you know, as
I will say real quick, you know we met I
just mentioned Navies team in the next day, we strongly
advise we can't give people financial advice. Someone's listening tonight,
does win Please don't come in tomorrow morning. Your money's safe.
(17:32):
You're going to get it. Contact the lawyer, contact the
financial advisor, figure out what's right for you and then
come forward once you're ready.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And take that ticket and put it somewhere under your
But if you're with me, so when you wake up
in the morning, it will be there. And you know,
I mean I would find someone in your family that
that that is law enforcement related and have them drive you.
Don't drive yourself to wherever you're driving. You know, seriously,
(18:02):
do it do it the right way? Mark, how's the
lot to be doing? Generally?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Do you know it down? This year most lotteries are
down across the country. We're not down significantly, but we're
not up. So we're down, you know a little bit
over a percentage point. But you know, holiday season is
one of ours strong seasons. So we're waiting to see
you know, we run a live a week holiday season. Yeah,
you know, I just think things are tough. You know,
you hear and you you just had a financial advisor
(18:28):
on and uh, you know, times are tough for people.
There's only so much you know, there's only so much
expendable money. Gaming an entertaining space is growing. You know, competitive,
I'm not you know, sports betting and casino betting isn't
direct competitors, but there's you know, there's event diagram that
goes on there.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So you know, I will I will still say that
one of the nicest gifts anyway. You know, if you've
got to get a gifts for someone, whatever the denomination,
buy them a couple of lottery tickets or buy them
a twenty dollars scratch ticket or whatever. Uh, if it's
something that they look forward to. You know, you look
at the Christmas gifts. You go out and you spend
(19:07):
for someone and and you have to wrap the thing
and uh, and it's a tie that they put in
the closet. I have so many ties in my closet.
I'm serious. Do something that is good for you, good
for the person who is going to receive your gift,
and who knows it might be a gift that that
they're going to be able to talk about forever they
won five hundred dollars, thousand dollars and so uh and
(19:30):
help and help the state lottery. I endorsed this.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I appreciate that. And it helps cities and towns all
of our profit those straights, municipalities, unrestricted local aid. You know, yes,
cities and towns and spenter on the want. But you
know you can talk to your cities in town that
pays for schools, that pay for park it pays to
add police and fire and teach us to the school systems.
You know, so the money really doesn't come in handy
to three hundred and fifty one municipalities.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I'm telling you, you tell the treasurer that I would
be happy to do any sort of public service announcement
or whatever for the lottery, because if not, my old
friend Robert Q. Crane would be very upset with me
if I did. It's it's a great way at this
time of ye have to give someone just that extra gift.
It's a little bit of fun. Uh, And I just
I think it's a great gift. So hopefully that will
(20:15):
push you back into the into into the into the
black this year. Okay, I hope.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Thanks Mark, We'll talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Yeah, happy holidays.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
You celebrate Christmas? And what do you celebrate Honka? What
do you celebrate?
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I thought, no, I celebrate Christmas, but I was at
a Honka partty last night. Yeah, well I have Personally
I celebrate Christmas, but I love to celebrate all the holidays.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah. Well, ours is a blended family, so we have
we celebrate Honiker as well as Christmas. So uh, I
wish you merry Christmas if that's your holiday at choice.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Thank you, Thank you, dan By.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So say hi to the treasure for me. Thanks. We'll
be back. We have two more guests coming up. We're
going to talk about what might be the worst Christmas
gift of the season. The best Christmas gift of the
season might be a lottery ticket, particularly if you happen
to pick the billion number. The numbers tonight back on
Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm telling you Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
All right, we're talking with Valerie Sokolowski. Hi, Valerie, welcome
to Nightside.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Oh it's good to be with you again.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Dan.
Speaker 7 (21:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I love your passion and I hear it once again,
and I thank you for joining us. So tonight you're
going to talk to us about the number one worst
Christmas gift. I can think of a few, but I
want to hear from you. What is the number one worst?
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Oh, my goodness, you know what anything. The worst gifts
basically are those things that say I guessed, I guessed,
And the best are the ones that say I see you.
In other words, give gifts that you know are going
to land.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
And I'll tell you a funny story. I got a
gift for Christmas last year, I think it was, and
I opened it and the little ticket on the side
said to Mary love Joan and my name is Valerie.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yes, so.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
They just grabbed something. If it's not meaningful for you
to give, just don't do it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah. I know that's true. But you you've got some
ideas this year that when I read them, they read
and I read this story your idea. It makes a
lot of sense.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Yes, thank you, and I'll just say that it's the season,
yes to be jolly, but you've got to watch watch out.
You don't want to give folly. And one of the
one of the things that I just received, and this
is to a tip, is to give something back to
my point that is personal enough that the person has
(23:01):
taken the time and done something intentionally. And so this
just happened perfect for the show because it was yesterday
and a lady that I've known only for about a year,
but we work out together, and she brought me a
little small I'm going to say, a Christmas tree. I
don't know what the fur is called the tree itself,
(23:23):
but it's a real live little tree. Now, I'll tell
you how personal that is. Not only is it pretty,
and it's got little lights and it'll last for a
long time in my home. But I live in a
condo and we are going to have a country home,
a little cabin type thing and I can plant it.
And she hadn't even thought about that, and so it
(23:46):
was such a win win, joyful gift.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Oh that's a great gift. But I do I think
you're going to tell us about the number one worst
Christmas gift this year?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Guess I am.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
Oh anything that is silly. Remember the flapping fish long
time ago was something stupid, but people gave yeah anything,
oh yeah, anything that is that you haven't thought well enough.
For example, I live in a condo now and a
(24:21):
friend gave me this huge, big thing. I won't say
what it is, but it couldn't fit anywhere on any
shelf in my condo. And so, you know, think about
giving even experiences. For example, my son for Christmas gave
me tickets to go see one of my favorite artists. Well, now,
(24:46):
how cool is that? And another friend gave me a
ticket to go to a cooking class.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I love to cook.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
How cool is that? And on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, I've read a story that was in RAID magazine
that said the single worst gift this year is to
give someone a self help book.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I mean, it says a lot about what you think
about Uh. Now, I don't know what you do with
somebody who really does need a self help book, but
maybe yeah, well they probably don't know it, but you
don't give them to it's a gift. I mean, you
can give them something nice and and then say, oh,
(25:28):
by the way, I think you're in your seventh class
of wine here, and if I'm not mistaken, you're just
one a face plant on the floor. How about whatever?
You know? I mean, I just think that that you.
I'm sure that sometimes those self help books can probably help,
(25:51):
but I don't know that anyone wants them as a
Christmas gift.
Speaker 7 (25:53):
That's that's that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah, it's always tough, you know, at this time of year,
because there's always pressure pressure on you and I what
is it? Well, I don't know if I should tell
you this story. I think I know you well enough,
so I'm going to tell.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You this story.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We had a baby granddaughter who was born last April,
and my wife and I was supposed to be going
to a big event in Boston that night, but of
course we didn't go. It's an annual event that happens
every springtime in Boston and so one of the it's
a great event, but we didn't go. So I thought
(26:42):
to myself, I don't know what I'm going to get
my now seven month old daughter. And so what I
did was a friend of mine and I said, we
didn't get a chance to go. We have purchased tickets
and all of that, which is fine because it's a
great charity. I said, could you send me a program
and also the invitation that we had return to you,
And so I'm wrapping that up and giving it to
(27:03):
my son and daughter in law to present at some
point in the future, probably after long after I've left
this veil of tears. As he reminded her of something
very significant that was going on in the city of
Boston the actual night that she was born.
Speaker 7 (27:21):
Oh now, see, that is what I call an intentional gift.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I just hope that on her eighteenth
Christmas or her twenty first birthday or something, my son
and daughter in law presented to her. Have wrapped it up.
I've included a note, and it was an event at
the Boston Public It was what they call the Literary
Lights Dinner, which is a great dinner to support the
(27:46):
Boston Public Library. And it's so well done. It's a
highlight of the It tells you spring has arrived in
Boston because of the timing of it as well. So
that's what I'm doing, because again, she was born literally
while that dinner was going on. We weren't there. We
were waiting at home for the good news, but there's
(28:08):
no way we were going to go to the dinner
in case anything didn't work out perfectly. So that's my
story of a good gift.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
Well, you know what I love about that story, Dan,
is that you are a person who and I know you,
you are an authentic person who does things right. And
of course you know my podcast is called doing it Right.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yes I do, and.
Speaker 7 (28:30):
I yeah, and I mean that when people will just
go into their own heart and think about things they.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Would appreciate or wouldn't.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
And what's the intention behind it? And you know another
thing that's so easy to do, Dan, is if you
write a little note. All the gifts likely have a
tag on them, maybe, but wouldn't it wouldn't it be
a little bit more special to write a note on
the gift. Now, you can't do it to everyone, not
if you're a corporate rat, but when you can personalize
(29:04):
as you can.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Absolutely and people people should write letters more. You know
George Bush, former President Bush forty one, used to write
personalized letters, but he's from a different time, in a
different generation. Valerie, give us you a podcast so people
get catch up with you. Go right, ahead.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Oh, thank you so much. It's on YouTube, so it's
YouTube dot com. Forward slash doing it. I'm sorry, Forward
Slash Valerie and Company. But the name of the show
is doing it right, the stories that make us.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
I was a guest on Valerie Show. It's a great show,
even even if I do say so. Valerie, thank you
so much on great holidays to you this Christmas, this Hanukah,
this New Year's. I hope everything, all of your dreams
come through and we will talk in the new year.
I'm sure as well.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
I hope so Dan back at Hugh. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Thanks Vallery. We'll talk soon. Valerie Sokolowski Valerie and Company.
That's her podcast. We'll be back and we're going to
talk about the Naughty List. I'm gonna talk with Paula
Fleming the Boston the Better Business Bureau, Boston's Better Business Bureau.
Twelve scams of the holidays. You know there's always twelve
this and eleven that and ten this and five five whatever,
(30:23):
pep pipe, some peeping and whatever. Look with this is
twelve things you want to stay away from. Valerie is
rather Paula Fleming joins us right after this break.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Delighted to welcome back Paula Fleming, Chief Marketing and sales
Officer the Better Business Bureau of Boston, the Boston Better
Business Bureau. Four bees there the Hi, Paula, welcome back.
How it's been a while.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
It's been a while.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I feel like it's been since July, which is too
long not to talk with you. So if you have
twelve scams for the holiday, I think we should make it.
We should drop it in the you know, twelve prince
of printing on whatever they are, eleven giesea laying. I
could never remember all those or whatever, but twelve scams
are scamming. They all basically the commonality is if they
(31:22):
look too good to be true, like your mother told you,
they probably are too good to be true, and therefore
a scam. That's the common answer.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
That is exactly correct. Yees. So I always say, if
a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
And that is true during these holiday seasons. We want
your listeners to make sure that they're arming themselves with knowledge.
Holiday scams are obviously nuisances. They lead to financial loss, identity, theft,
and severe emotional stress. Already, it's a holiday season. While cheerful,
(31:55):
it's also very stressful, and we want to try and
help to eliminate the stress by not leaving you vulnerable
to these scams.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
So let's talk. We could go through the twelve of them,
but we probably don't have the time. The commonality is
that they reach out. The first thing you need to do,
I think is check the sender. This. I do this
all the time. I get so much stuff where it's
they're looking for some help or whatever, or they're offering
(32:25):
something that sounds too good to be true. Just go
up and click on the email address of the sender.
And if they say, oh, we're looking for support for
the Red Cross, and you click the sender and it's
you know, you know, you know, Harold Smith at you
know whatever, you know, Transylvania. I mean, it's just you
(32:45):
just look at the address of the center and say
this has to be phony.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
And just absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And many people don't do that.
They don't realize when they receive an email that by
simply looking at who it's coming from, they can determ
and if it is in fact a legitimate email. It's
one way of doing that, and research first. Always check
businesses and the charities. You can go to BBB dot
org as one resource before paying or donating. Sometimes some
(33:13):
a few simple research steps can help save you from
financial and personal uh grief in the long run.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Well, let's say, let's say that's something simple. Let's I'll
just use an example. Contribute to the United Way and
everybody says ways, great, and it'll say United Way will
be spelled improperly instead of United U n i t
E d w a y It'll be U n i
t E d w y a right away.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
Very common. Unfortunately, Yes, they're using well known companies charities,
and they are taking that you are going to fall
uh for their name or it may even look real
in the email, like a legitimate business that you're familiar with,
but you go to the center as you mentioned, and
(34:02):
it is in fact misspelled or not the you know
dot com that it would be. So you have to
take that into consideration before you click on any items.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
What are some of the other And again, I know
that some of the items that you have here is misleading.
Social media ads, social media gift exchanges, people saying oh,
we want you to believe to join a secret center
and you don't know the people secret sandws will fine
if you know the people who evolve faith told collection text.
(34:33):
You owe seven hundred and thirteen dollars to the Pennsylvania
turnpi Well maybe they owe seventy dollars to the Pennsylvania
Turnpike Authority. You haven't driven in Pennsylvania. Why would you
be getting that? Please you? They just will send out
millions hoping that some people have driven through Pennsylvania and
feeling guilty.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Absolutely. Yeah, Fake tol and delivery texts are becoming more
and more common. These criminals are posing as legitimate services
asking for payment via phony links and that could be
via email or text. People unfortunately fall for this because
they're in feared that something is going to happen. They're
going to be you know, possibly arrested, or they call
(35:15):
the phone number and they get threatened and they just
immediately want to pay it, giving a credit card, sometimes
venmoing money. So you have to be extremely cautious. Avoid
unsolicited links, whether it's email or text. Don't click on
links in text, emails or social posts. Go directly to
the official websites.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I get these things. Please confirm that you have purchased uh,
you know, you know, you know, Bob's anti virus for
your computer. Obviously it make they make it sound a
little bit more than that, but it's like I haven't
purchased an anti virus for my computer. I have anti viruses.
I know what they are. And again you look at
(35:57):
the sender and it's you know, you know, you know,
Bob Smith and the returning address is Stockholm, Sweden or something,
and it's like, you know, come on and at least
make it, make it a challenge. Just just check it out, guys,
don't be taken, you know, right right to you, Paul,
(36:17):
I know I've kind of thrown somebod these out, but
I'm getting better at this, and I'm just trying to
share the stuff that i'm seeing.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Absolutely yeah, and I appreciate that, and I'm happy that
you are getting better at this because I think it's important.
I've been doing this for over twenty years, and unfortunately,
these scammers just get more and more savvy, and as
we rely on technology more and more in our day
to day lives, it becomes very hard to identify what
is real and what is fake, and so I think
(36:46):
it's important that we just keep repeating and go back
to your gut if it seems too good to be true,
as you started off the segment saying, it probably is.
Make sure that you're using secure payments, so prefer credit
cards over venmo or debit cards. Avoid prepaidor gift card
based payments for unknown sellers. Simple steps you can take
(37:07):
to protect yourself. Not everything is one hundred percent, but
some simple steps can really help in the long run
prevent financial and personal fraud.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, I'm still waiting for that Nigerian princess to show
up with the taking dollars she promised me. And you know,
I mean, I'm beginning to think that's a scam too.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
You know, it's bad, but I will tell you that
I can't. You know, every day we receive hundreds of
scam hundreds of scam reports, and these these are some
of those people that fall victim to that as well
as you know, one recent one I thought read today
was a puppy scam. You know, they thought they were
getting one to put under the tree, and unfortunately they're
out over one thousand dollars from a puppy scam.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And so if If anyone wants get information, they can
go to the Boston been a business field. What's the website, Paulum.
All of a sudden, my producers telling me we're running
out of time. What's the web?
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Not a problem. It is BBB dot org. BBB dot org.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Perfect, Paula Fleming. We will talk to you earlier in
the new year. Okay, thank you so much. Happy Holidays,
Merry Christmas, Happy Honica, happy Kwanzi, happy Festivus, whatever you celebrate. Okay, Paula,
thanks so much. All Right, nine o'clock News is coming up,
and after that we're going to talk about the closing
of a Boston institution. What we all knew is the
(38:25):
Boston Arena and recently has been called the Matthews Arena
at Northeastern
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