January 16, 2025 • 39 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews CEO of Amplify Credit Union Kendall Garrison on banking fees.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? You remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed
decisions for a healthier, happier life and Bronze roofing repair
(00:44):
or replacement. Bronze roofing has you covered? And now fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Fifty plus starts right now. Thank you all for listening
on this beautiful Thursday afternoon. Still got a couple of
more days before the bottom drops out and we get
three or so nights of sub freezing temperatures across Southeast Texas.
Officially the weather from Texas IAQ dot net. That would
be Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists. They do ducwork and
(01:12):
if your house, if the air seems a little musty,
or just get scratchy throats or something, or there's something
just wrong about going in to the house, you sneeze whatever.
Get them to come out there and do what they do,
and you won't have to worry about You'll be breathing cleaner,
healthier air for years to come.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Texasiaq dot net looks all the way.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's really good all the way through Monday, if you
don't mind those colder temperatures that night Sunday night on
Tuesday with the same thirty seven degree high as Monday,
and Alo they're saying we'll be around twenty six degrees.
It's also supposed to snow or sleeve or rain or
somehow make moisture hit the ground. There's talk of that snow,
(01:58):
but I've heard that before, and you're gonna have to
show me when I see snow on the ground in
my yard, then I'll be a believer in the markets.
Let's move to that Houston gooldexchange dot com courtesy. Thank
you very much, Brad and your company. I was out
there just a couple of days ago. I think I
mentioned that, went out and got to see an exchange
(02:20):
of and I'm certain taken to even a more secure
location something like three hundred pounds of silver coins that
a family had brought in.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
That was pretty impressive, I gotta say.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Anyway, the four market indicators that I watched most closely
settled down after making those giant leaps forward yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The same with oil, that's good news.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
It jumped up yesterday, threatened eighty bucks a barrel, but
has retreated more recently to about seventy eight and a
half somewhere in there, and hopefully, hopefully we'll keep doing
that and find its way down to a more more
tolerable level. Gold looked at what the markets did yesterday
(03:07):
and apparently set hold my beer today.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Gold up thirty six.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Dollars an ounce at eleven fifteen to a robust and
this may be an all time high. I'm not sure,
but I think it may be two thousand, seven hundred
and fifty four.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Dollars per troy ounce.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Headline story in today's news is that a career criminal
yesterday shot and killed a seventeen year Brazoia County deputy.
Heyesus Vargas. And then, after a big time manhunt that
actually went through the neighborhood of one of my co
workers here, they found this guy hiding in a dumpster
(03:48):
in southwest Houston. They've been chasing him all over town
ever since he was they were trying to serve him
a felony warrant, and he decided to shoot his way
out of it and killed off Cervarus. And they found
this guy hiding in a dumpster, and a canine officer
named Rocky, big old German shepherd sniffed out the bad guy.
(04:10):
Not sure how exactly, but Rocky ends up getting shot
by the bad guy, and officers then opened fire and,
as they say, eliminated the threat. Deputy Vargas is survived
by a wife and three children. He served this community
for seventeen years. And he left work yesterday, probably like
(04:34):
he had done almost every day for being in that
job that long, thinking about what he was going to
have for dinner, thinking about how the kids were doing
in school, thinking about what he and his wife might
do this weekend. And then this garbage guy decide bad,
decides to take Vargas's life because he doesn't want to
go back to prison. It's just another page in the
(04:57):
book of what happens when you put career by criminals
back on the street. That guy's got a pretty good
rap sheet, and at some point you just have to
look at these things. These people are.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offenders.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
They're not gonna stop, and the only way they're gonna
get stopped is because they've done something like this, and
law enforcement goes after him full force.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
There's video of kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Right after they found him and took him out of
the cars, and the people converging on that location because
they finally had eyes on this guy. And you would
not believe how many US marshals, how many police and
deputies and constable, everybody with a light and a siren
(05:49):
and a whole bunch, a whole bunch of unmarked cars
went flying into that parking lot. And I would estimate
it at least one hundred members of law enforcement were
there when it all came down.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It was just staggering, just absolutely staggering.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In his final address to the nation, President Biden's inability
to say anything nice or positive about President Trump shows
just how out of touch he.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Is with what the American people want.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
And not only did he denigrate President Trump, he also
took credit for several things he didn't do, hasn't done,
never will do. Quick example, and then I'll move on.
He's all puffed up now about this questionable ceasefire deal
between Israel and Hamas, taking full credit for it. He
got it done on his way out, he says. But
(06:44):
since the first day that happened, the Biden administration wasn't
able to get anywhere near a ceasefire, anywhere near a
release of the hostages. President Trump a few weeks ago
let it be known that if it wasn't done by
the day he took office, there be quote hell to
pay for Hamas.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And here we are just a few days before the inauguration.
What do you know?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
What do you know?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Hamas wants to sit down, talk, wants to make a deal.
By the way, when Biden talked about this country being
overtaken and becoming an oligarchy, he neglected to mention some
pretty powerful contributors to the Democratic Party who hold they
certainly held sway over him. I'll guarantee you this whole
(07:30):
four years. George Sorows, his son, Alex Michael Bloomberg, Reid Hoffmann,
the founder of LinkedIn, and a couple of more folks
who donated literally staggering amounts of money to Biden over
the years. Bloomberg is said to have dropped something somewhere
between nineteen and twenty million dollars into Biden's twenty twenty
(07:51):
four campaign. He won't miss it though. That'd be like
one of us dropping a dollar into a Salvation Army
bucket around Christmas. Yeah, Soros has gotten money. All of
those guys have money, every one of them, Bloomberg sorows.
They all have money, but they were conveniently omitted in
(08:13):
talk about oligarchy all right, one time, on your way out,
on my way out. Ut Health Institute on Nation Aging. Wow,
slow down, doug ut Heals Institute on Aging. The collaborative
effort among thousands now providers from every medical discipline who
(08:33):
practice their craft all over town, mostly in the medical
center as you might suspect, but many of them visit
outlying hospitals and clinics in every corner of greater Metropolitan Houston,
so that those of us who are a little older,
maybe a little hesitant to drive into the med center,
we can be treated by people who have done what
(08:56):
everybody in the Institute on Aging has done as a provider,
and that is go back for additional training as to
how they can apply their specific expertise and knowledge to seniors.
We're different than younger people there's no doubt about it.
Look in the mirror. Sometime we are different and we
need to be seen by people. It's best to be
(09:18):
seen by people who understand that and can work with us.
Go to the website, look at all the resources they
have available for us at no charge, and then try
to find your way to one of these providers. Ut
h dot edu slash Aging, ut dot edu slash Aging,
(09:38):
Aged to Perfection.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
This is fifty plus with dougpike.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Bi.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Welcome back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Thanks for listening on a sunshiny Thursday. Boy, we're about
to get our teeth kicked in by the cold, and
next week it's not And I've already I've been watching
daily to see what the low temperatures are predicted to be,
and they actually came up a notch. They came up
a notch yesterday and today, and so hopefully that will
(10:24):
become a trend and it won't be just so horrible.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I still feel like.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Most of us are grown ups in this city and
have knowledge of what to do when it gets really,
really cold, and we do whatever it is we have
to do to make sure we get through there. Trying
to keep the pipes from bursting, trying to keep outside
plants covered in all of this, and we just recently
(10:56):
relative when relatively recently historically been through a severe free
with no power, and most of us have made it
through that one. I don't know. Maybe it's just me
and I'm not I'll never be a chicken little. What
I'm gonna do is prepare to the extent that I
can for the severity of what's coming at us. And
(11:18):
that doesn't include a couple of things that I've already
had neighbors tell me they were going to do.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I feel pretty comfortable.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Once I get my my hatches battened down, that my
wife and my son and I will make it through unscathed.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I came across the story this morning about all the
best jobs in the country overall, the best paying jobs,
the best healthcare jobs, and nowhere on there did I
see anything that mentioned radio hosting or working as a producer.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Really, I know, I couldn't believe it either. You sound studied.
Just your jaw just hit the floor.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Ada.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Wow. Number one overall.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Nurse practitioner, which also was the top healthcare job. Number
two overall it manager than physician assistant, then financial manager,
software developer, Information security analyst. Boy, that's going to become
even more and more popular and in need.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Medical and health services manager.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I don't know what that is, really, it's it's a
big long title that I don't know. A data scientist
would What would you think that is?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Will? Oh, it's somebody who studies data. I would have
never known.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
You don't have any more than that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's enough, honestly, it's the number eight anyway.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
The only two below that, well, I guess our jobs
are below the next two, but uh, speech language pathologist
and actuary. Top five best paying jobs OBGYN, psychiatrist, emergency
medicine physician, orthodontist, and anesthesiologist. I could I could have
(13:11):
guessed at least three, maybe four of those, And it
makes sense too. They're all very critically needed and if
you don't have one of those there when you need them,
you're in trouble. Interesting the top five best healthcare jobs.
You know what's number four?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Will?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
What? Veterinarian? Yeah that's kind of cool. Yeah, I deal
with animals and work on animals. I like that. So
if you weren't in radio, did have we ever talked
about this?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
What you thought you might be doing when you were
this age, if it weren't radio, we thought about it
ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Yeah, I had no idea, to be honest, I had
no idea that radio would even be a thing in
my future. Did you think it was just going to
go away? No, I just didn't know that it was.
It was going to come into my perviews.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Didn't know you could if you could cut it? Sure,
you know. No, you're doing fun here.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You're one of the few, and I do mean a
few will because I've had probably I've had.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I'll guess two dozen, maybe.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Thirty producers overall since I've been around here. I've been
here since two thousand, okay, and I've had a lot
of them come and go very quickly, especially on the
Outdoors Show, because we're looking at mostly young men and
a couple of young women who were expected to be
here on Saturday morning by about six thirty.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
For a lot of young young adults, male or female
being here at six thirty from wherever they had spent
the night, wherever their home was, then that was.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Tough on a few of them, and they didn't last.
They kind of washed out.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But you, I think because of your ability to multitask
and to get your stuff done. I think that's good.
I want you to participate more. And I'm telling you
that on the air, so that so that I'm putting
a little a little bit on your back to make
sure that you understand.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Putting me on blasts is what you're saying. I am.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm saying, hey, let's go, let's let's get some Will
Melbourne stuff in here.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Man. All right, all right, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Incoming President Trump is shuffling the White House news room.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
And boy, he's gonna have so much fun with all
of that and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Is expected to actually oust most of the mainstream legacy
media people, anti Trump media people off the front row
in that room. And after after nearly a decade of
negativity toward him, those folks are about to They're about
to pay the piper for their mistakes, and we'll have
to shout louder to be heard from where they will
(15:51):
hence be sitting in the new spots row six, eight,
nine ten. It's gonna be funny too, because those people,
they live and breathe for airtime on television during these
press conferences, and if they're not seen on TV, not
only their audiences but their bosses tend to consider them
(16:16):
just a little less relevant than maybe they think they are.
And all these ones who've been just puffed up and
sat up so proud, had their tie on just rider,
had the blouse just buttoned up just right to look
like they were very professional and responsible. You're not even
gonna see them. They'll just be little little heads bobbing
in the background. The effort is to provide more fairly
(16:42):
balanced media outlets and opportunity to get up there and
ask some real questions that deserve real answers. Last four
years of White House Press conferences, honestly, they've just been
nothing but theater.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
They're designed not to answer questions at all, really, but
to just perpetually prop up administration And to give KJP
a little credit, she had to dance around a lot
of awkward stuff in the last year and a half
or so. What I didn't like though about her was
that when she would get a really tough question that
(17:15):
she knew she couldn't answer without getting in trouble if
she answered truthfully or getting called out if she answered falsely,
she would just shut down the whole shut down the
whole gathering. It's kind of like, you know, take your
ball and go home when things get tough, and that's
not exactly what the American people deserve from the press secretary.
(17:37):
On a lighter note, Will this is I found kind
of interesting. There's a growing trend in this country toward
what younger people are calling granny hobbies.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You don't have any idea what that is.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
What I didn't until about an hour ago. Well, uh, say,
in decorps, for example, if you're if you're putting your
home together and picking out furniture and picking out whatever,
you're seeing a lot of old school hardwood furniture. You're
seeing a lot of lace in table coverings and things
(18:11):
like that, where else a lot of vintage looking things.
Some of this piggybacks on the trad wife trend and
just a general regression to simpler times combined actually somehow,
And you got to think that all of this is
going on concurrent to men and women and couples still
(18:32):
trying to balance work and family.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Everybody's trying to do a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And I think that coming home to a something that
looks old school, kind of like Grandma's house, might be
a little more comforting than to have a bunch of
multi media screens blasting through your house and whatnot. It's
not easy to not easy to balance a family and
a career for anybody, and so maybe that just gives
(18:58):
them a little better sense of of home, if you will,
all right, we got to take another little break here.
When we get back, will and I will see you.
I've got that taken care of. I've got that taken
care of. It'll be another nice little blend I hope
of good stuff and weird stuff and humorous stuff and
(19:18):
everything else I've got in front of me here on
about six or eight pages of paper, more of fifty
plus right after this.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
All right, welcome back, thanks for listening to fifty plus
on this lovely Thursday.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Got some outdoors plans this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I've got to go to the dermatologists first to make
sure that my previous outdoors plans haven't caused me any worries.
I don't have anything to show him that isn't that
appears to be a big deal. But I like to
get checked out and get get the once over, the
look from head to toe once a year, just to
(20:15):
make sure it's been a couple of things burned off
and frozen off and sliced off over the years. Kind
of goes with the territory of being an outdoors kid
and outdoors adult. For as many years as I've been
on this planet, I was playing outdoors probably since the
time I could walk, running around the backyard, running around
(20:37):
the front yard, running around baseball fields, football fields, no
soccer fields.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Back then.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
We really didn't have any organized soccer and I don't
even remember seeing anyone playing soccer. The game just hadn't
been properly introduced to our country back then, but it
has been now. Tennis I played some tennis, didn't start.
Aren't really playing golf seriously until after I came back
(21:04):
from college, But I certainly made up for lost time
since then, and all the fishing and all the hunting.
And I'm very fortunate, knock on wood, to have my
mother and my I think it's an ant on her
mother's side. I have their skin and it's holding up
(21:27):
fairly well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I'm told I.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Don't look my age which is nice. But I'll get
that done and then I'm gonna go do some outdoor
stuff again, and sunscreen maybe I don't know. I tend
to kind of ignore it a little bit in the
winter because I'm usually wearing long sleeves when I'm outside,
but today.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
May be different.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
An interesting story I saw about airport security, an expert
in that field listed some weird things that you might
be doing in the airport that will get you flagged
by the TSA. This one, it would make sense to
me if I were flying, let's say, from here to
(22:06):
Minnesota this time of year, rather than packing a heavy coat,
I might be wearing it, even though the temperature outside
here might be seventy degrees. Wearing clothing that is not
appropriate for the weather is said to be kind of
a red flag, which bothers me a little bit because
(22:27):
you and somebody from up there in Minnesota flying to
Miami might want to celebrate getting away from the cold
and going to the warm by flying in shorts and
a short sleeved shirt. But that'll get you picked. Be
careful yawning a lot. I don't know why that would
(22:48):
bother you bothered the TSA unless there's some psychological thing
about how maybe somebody who has got issues, either as
a smuggler or a tearst or whatever, maybe they were
just up all night worrying about their plans. There's that
to think about. Being you've got a three am flight,
(23:10):
I'm gonna be yawning. Yeah, I'll just I'll just put
my hands on the wall and spread them, let them
pat me down and get it over with and then
get on get on down the road. That's a good
point making Not making eye contact, excuse me, not making
eye contact is a red flag.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I kind of get that.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Because somebody who is doing something suspicious or or maybe
has plans to do something bad probably wouldn't want everybody
looking at them and getting a good look at their
eyes and their face.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Right, Why would I want to look at their ugly mugs? Huh?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I couldn't agree with you more really, And this is
another one that I found interesting. Wearing too much cologne.
Do you know why that that one will get you flagged?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Why?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Because they think you're trying to mask the smell of
drugs from the dogs that.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Are walking around you. What if you just stink?
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Well, what if it's a three am flight, and you
didn't shower, and you just needed a spray on some column.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
And then just run into the airplane bathroom and take
your clothes off and sit down in that sink and
take care of business, a clean up paper towels.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It's interesting that you brought that up. Has that ever
occurred in your line there? Lord, No, I just want
to know. I mean, that's a pretty specific example.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
No, I was just trying to be comedic, even the
air in the airplane bathroom. Ye, that would be difficult
at best. A lot of other things go on in
airplane bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But hey, not that. Fasten your seatbelts. We're about to
experience some turbulence.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm tumbling out the door. Lukewarm water dripping off your
bath is one way to get permanently bad. From Delta
Airlines and easy Way.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
There was some guy speaking of this week.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
There was a guy who got fined ten thousand dollars
ten thousand dollars because for some reason I didn't get
the details, but he urinated in his seat on the airplane. Wow,
And so let that be a lesson to you and I,
honestly with at my age, Okay, gentlemen of my age,
(25:26):
we have to go to the bathroom a lot as
a rule, and they make it so restrictive as to
when you can go, and then when you have to
sit down and never get back up until you're at
the gate, that's a long time for some of us.
I've actually thought I think about it when I fly.
I don't fly as much as I used to, but
(25:47):
I think about it now when I do, because I
need to make sure that about thirty minutes before we're
supposed to land, I get up and make that trip.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So are you drinking water on the flight? Not much?
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Not much.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I try to drink water, to be honest, and.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
We're supposed to because the air in those things is
very dry. But if you do, then you might be
sitting there just tapping your foot and holding as much
as you can, just trying to like hell to get
on the ground so you can go to the bathroom.
And then when you get out in an unfamiliar airport,
you typically got to walk about a quarter mile to
(26:24):
find that little stick figure of a guy up there
on the on the wall.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
From the.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, this one was a good one.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
From the who cares about this useless world record? Four
hundred and sixty eight people dressed up as what will
to break a world record that never should.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Have been a world record as gumby. No, No, that's
not even close. Animal animal, an animal. I'll give you
three guesses dress and you can ask three questions they dress.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So is it a cartoon animal?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Is it so it's a it's a real animal.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Why is he calling me? Oh my gosh, we're supposed
to call this guy? Okay, I'll deal with that. I'm
gonna give you a phone number to call. Let's go
ahead and take this break, and then we're going to
do that and we are gonna make a little make
up for some lost ground here.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
All right, all right, we'll take a break. We'll be
right back. Dougpie Showings or No, it's fifty plus on
AM nine, fifty kp RC. What's life without a nap?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
If I suggest to go to bed, sleep it off,
just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
All right, welcome back fifty plus, Thanks for listening. Something
we do appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We'll talk in this segment about about banking and financial
institutions and how some of them not all or not
even most really, but a handful around this country have
been caught over the years with their hands in the
cookie jar, so to speak, and gotten themselves in trouble.
To share without naming name what sort of taxics tactics,
(28:02):
he said, correctly cost consumers millions and even sometimes billions
of dollars in fees and lost interest in other things.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I will bring in now.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Kendall Garrison, CEO of Amplify Credit Union, Welcome aboard.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Kendall, Hey, thanks for having me this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Well, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I don't want to name specific company, he says, I
don't want to get anybody in any trouble unnecessarily, but
I would like to peel back a few layers of
the onion that kind of contain the hidden fees and
charges on accounts that some of us, especially older people
who may not be especially savvy with their money. How
some financial institutions occasionally drop in fees that can cause
(28:39):
balances to go up or down instead of going up.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
What are some of those fees, Well.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
You know, obviously they're they're the ones that are abundantly clear.
If you overdraw your checking account, you're going to pay
an overdraft fee okay, And unsurprisingly a number of financial
institutions will actually reorder the way that they clear your check.
So if you have multiple debits to your account on
(29:10):
a day, they'll rearrange the order, sometimes maybe to maximize
their fee income and maximize the cost to you, which
which is just sort of unfair.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
If I'm understanding this correctly. Let's say I wrote four
checks in a day.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Three of them were for twenty five dollars and onemost
for five hundred dollars, and I had four hundred dollars
in my checking account. They run that five hundred first,
so I'd be overdrafted then and then try to bounce
those other three behind it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Right, Yes, sir, that has been known to happen.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Wow, that's pretty tricky, and that it's nothing we would
know about unless we really understood that industry, would we?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
You generally wouldn't. And I'll tell you something else. I
looked at an unnamed big banks account agreement today that
everyone finds when they open an account with them, and
it is thirty six pages, and who's going to read
this right and right? And essentially it says, oh, yeah,
(30:16):
by the way, we can change the rules at any time.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
So that's convenient.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
That is very very convenible.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Holy, Now where is that? Where is that phrase? Is
that upfront or is that at the thirty five pages
and a half.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Oh, you've got to you've got to be down to
about you know, it's thirteen thousand words in this in
this particular.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Days just to open a checking account.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Or something, just to open an account, yessir?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Oh my ward.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, that's unrealistic that anybody would read that. And it
sounds it's kind of like deliberate, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
You know, well, you know, many, many financial institutions exist
to maximize the profits to their shareholders up and and uh,
you know, we we see the world in a slightly
different way. Credit unions really exist to improve the financial
(31:10):
lives of their members, as opposed to enrich their shareholders.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Well, yeah, you know, I don't know much about credit
unions to be perfectly honest. So explain the difference between
a bank and a credit union.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Well, it really comes down to the ownership. Banks are
generally owned by shareholders that are looking to maximize their return,
and credit unions are owned by its members. So if
you're an account holder, whether it's a deposit account or
or a loan account. You're an owner member of the
(31:43):
credit union, and because we were chartered in a way
that requires that we maximize the benefit to our member,
it is it's a banking system where our interests are
aligned with yours.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Okay, yeah, there's a there's still there's plenty of room
for banks out there. I deal with banks every day almost,
it seems like, and they would, I'm sure, have a
different version of what you just said. They would want
to tout their ability to help their customers. But it
going back to let's let's just agree to disagree. If
I'm a banker, I'm going to disagree with you, and
(32:20):
if you're you're a credit union guy, you're going to
disagree with me. But let's get back to these fees
for a minute. If I might, and let's say I
was with X y Z bank and I saw a
fee I didn't recognize, would it be easy maybe to
get an explanation and even get a refund for.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
That, or would it just take forever?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
You know, it's certainly easy to get an explanation, uh,
but it's a heck of a lot harder to get
a refund because because they publish. Everyone publishes a schedule
of their fees and they stick to it and and
that's a part of that account agreement.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, the thirty six page one. We talked about it.
It's in there somewhere, isn't it. Kendal, Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
My audience obviously a little bit older at least. Well,
I have thirty five year olds who listen for their parents,
and I applaud them for that, I really do.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But as an older.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Audience, we're not necessarily wiser when it comes to managing
money on a one to ten scale. How transparent would
you say that this industry.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Is on the whole, I would say that as a whole,
financial services is not very transparent. The way that business operates,
how they operate really, as I said, are designed to
increase the profits of those institutions and not really to
(33:42):
provide clarity or to build trust.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Okay, kend Garrison here from Amplify Credit Union. When people
decide it's time to either put their money into something
other than checking in savings accounts, what sort of questions
should they be asking the people who are about to
become caretakers of that person's life savings?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Well, I think The first thing that they need to
look at is the safety and soundness of the institution
that they're going to put some money in. So there
are some rating services bower Wise and bank Rate actually
all issue ratings for banks and credit unions, So you
should understand the safety and soundness there. And then if
(34:23):
you're going to invest in a certificate of deposit or
what have you really understand the terms. If you have
to withdraw the money early, what penalties will you pay,
What happens at the end of the term of that CD.
Does it automatically roll over or you disperse the money
back into a checking account, So just understanding how that
(34:45):
account operates, I think and asking those questions on the
front end is important.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Certainly, I believe it's important also not to put all
your eggs in one basket, but I'm also hesitant to
put too many different eggs in the basket. For somebody
at or really close to retirement, that's a good time
to become increasingly conservative with the risk they're taking.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Right Well, you know, it depends on your individual worldview.
I personally am not that far away from retirement, but
I remain almost fully invested in the stock market with
a little bit of bonds and of course some cash
to go along with that. And so it just depends
(35:25):
on your individual risk tolerance and how you see funding
your retirement.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
From where you sit, do you see any short term
investment option for seniors now that offer pretty good bang
for the bucks, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
I think that there are plenty of very good short
term CD opportunities. For example, the shorter the term today,
the higher the interest rates. So you can do a
three month or a nine month certificate of deposit at
a higher interest rate than you would on a twelve
or an eighteen month.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Really, that's correct, That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, I've got I've got a couple of six month ones,
and and I was considering maybe going longer term and
trying to get more interest.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
But that's not the case. Why is that? Uh?
Speaker 4 (36:13):
It really is due to a an anomaly in the
bond market where, uh, until recently, short term bond yields
have been higher than longer term bond yields. That's called
an inversion in the yield curve. Okay, uh, And that's
been the case for the last two years, and it
recently flipped.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And so I don't know that that anomaly will be
in place for an extended period of time. But that's
the way it is today.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah, take it while you can get it right.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
That's and that that explains why my bank was calling
me about a year ago and saying, hey, you know
you might want to move some of this over here.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Is it okay? Fine?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Very good?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
And this is exactly why Kendall It went talking to
you just in these few minutes. This is why it's
so important for somebody who's who's nearing retirement, especially to
talk to somebody in your industry and gather information and
not count on neighbors and friends and what not to
give them financial advice.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It's be the same as.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Trying to get trying to learn how to play golf
from a guy who's only played putt putt exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And you know, the other thing I would add is
to choose a financial partner that their interests are aligned
with yours. And and that's the that's the main thing
that one has to worry about when choosing a financial partner.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Are there any good, good resources online sites that you
would recommend going to to learn more about money? Uh?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Of course. Uh. Bank rate is a great place to
learn more about money. Uh. Nerd Wallet is a great
place to learn more about money.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Motley Fool is a great place to learn more about money.
And uh you know, interestingly enough, we offer financial education
tools on our website as well, so many of your
many of your financial institutions will offer you tools to
help customers become more educated. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
As as I look around, I see that so many people,
especially in my age group in yours, I suppose, are
really they haven't learned much about how to take care
of their money. And any place is a good place
to start to teach these old dog new tricks. Kendall Garrison,
thank you very much, Kendall Garrison, who happens to be
the CEO of Amplify Credit Union. I greatly appreciate your
(38:34):
time this afternoon, sir.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Thanks, and I appreciate yours.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Have a good afternoon, Yes, sir, audios all right boy,
we are rapidly coming to the close of this program.
Will see if I can find something to quickly amuse
you or the audience. Okay, real quick, will we got
twenty seconds? Nobody knows and that's spelled nose off to
a good start or how to they survive.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
How do they survive?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Young woman on TikTok shocked she was to discover that
you're supposed to add water to.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Some Campbell soups.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Wow, I'm gonna go have some tomato soup and a
grilled cheese sandwich.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
That sounds good. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks a lot,
audios
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? You remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed
decisions for a healthier, happier life and Bronze roofing repair
(00:44):
or replacement. Bronze roofing has you covered? And now fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Fifty plus starts right now. Thank you all for listening
on this beautiful Thursday afternoon. Still got a couple of
more days before the bottom drops out and we get
three or so nights of sub freezing temperatures across Southeast Texas.
Officially the weather from Texas IAQ dot net. That would
be Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists. They do ducwork and
(01:12):
if your house, if the air seems a little musty,
or just get scratchy throats or something, or there's something
just wrong about going in to the house, you sneeze whatever.
Get them to come out there and do what they do,
and you won't have to worry about You'll be breathing cleaner,
healthier air for years to come.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Texasiaq dot net looks all the way.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's really good all the way through Monday, if you
don't mind those colder temperatures that night Sunday night on
Tuesday with the same thirty seven degree high as Monday,
and Alo they're saying we'll be around twenty six degrees.
It's also supposed to snow or sleeve or rain or
somehow make moisture hit the ground. There's talk of that snow,
(01:58):
but I've heard that before, and you're gonna have to
show me when I see snow on the ground in
my yard, then I'll be a believer in the markets.
Let's move to that Houston gooldexchange dot com courtesy. Thank
you very much, Brad and your company. I was out
there just a couple of days ago. I think I
mentioned that, went out and got to see an exchange
(02:20):
of and I'm certain taken to even a more secure
location something like three hundred pounds of silver coins that
a family had brought in.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
That was pretty impressive, I gotta say.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Anyway, the four market indicators that I watched most closely
settled down after making those giant leaps forward yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The same with oil, that's good news.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
It jumped up yesterday, threatened eighty bucks a barrel, but
has retreated more recently to about seventy eight and a
half somewhere in there, and hopefully, hopefully we'll keep doing
that and find its way down to a more more
tolerable level. Gold looked at what the markets did yesterday
(03:07):
and apparently set hold my beer today.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Gold up thirty six.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Dollars an ounce at eleven fifteen to a robust and
this may be an all time high. I'm not sure,
but I think it may be two thousand, seven hundred
and fifty four.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Dollars per troy ounce.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Headline story in today's news is that a career criminal
yesterday shot and killed a seventeen year Brazoia County deputy.
Heyesus Vargas. And then, after a big time manhunt that
actually went through the neighborhood of one of my co
workers here, they found this guy hiding in a dumpster
(03:48):
in southwest Houston. They've been chasing him all over town
ever since he was they were trying to serve him
a felony warrant, and he decided to shoot his way
out of it and killed off Cervarus. And they found
this guy hiding in a dumpster, and a canine officer
named Rocky, big old German shepherd sniffed out the bad guy.
(04:10):
Not sure how exactly, but Rocky ends up getting shot
by the bad guy, and officers then opened fire and,
as they say, eliminated the threat. Deputy Vargas is survived
by a wife and three children. He served this community
for seventeen years. And he left work yesterday, probably like
(04:34):
he had done almost every day for being in that
job that long, thinking about what he was going to
have for dinner, thinking about how the kids were doing
in school, thinking about what he and his wife might
do this weekend. And then this garbage guy decide bad,
decides to take Vargas's life because he doesn't want to
go back to prison. It's just another page in the
(04:57):
book of what happens when you put career by criminals
back on the street. That guy's got a pretty good
rap sheet, and at some point you just have to
look at these things. These people are.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offenders.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
They're not gonna stop, and the only way they're gonna
get stopped is because they've done something like this, and
law enforcement goes after him full force.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
There's video of kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Right after they found him and took him out of
the cars, and the people converging on that location because
they finally had eyes on this guy. And you would
not believe how many US marshals, how many police and
deputies and constable, everybody with a light and a siren
(05:49):
and a whole bunch, a whole bunch of unmarked cars
went flying into that parking lot. And I would estimate
it at least one hundred members of law enforcement were
there when it all came down.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It was just staggering, just absolutely staggering.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In his final address to the nation, President Biden's inability
to say anything nice or positive about President Trump shows
just how out of touch he.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Is with what the American people want.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
And not only did he denigrate President Trump, he also
took credit for several things he didn't do, hasn't done,
never will do. Quick example, and then I'll move on.
He's all puffed up now about this questionable ceasefire deal
between Israel and Hamas, taking full credit for it. He
got it done on his way out, he says. But
(06:44):
since the first day that happened, the Biden administration wasn't
able to get anywhere near a ceasefire, anywhere near a
release of the hostages. President Trump a few weeks ago
let it be known that if it wasn't done by
the day he took office, there be quote hell to
pay for Hamas.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And here we are just a few days before the inauguration.
What do you know?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
What do you know?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Hamas wants to sit down, talk, wants to make a deal.
By the way, when Biden talked about this country being
overtaken and becoming an oligarchy, he neglected to mention some
pretty powerful contributors to the Democratic Party who hold they
certainly held sway over him. I'll guarantee you this whole
(07:30):
four years. George Sorows, his son, Alex Michael Bloomberg, Reid Hoffmann,
the founder of LinkedIn, and a couple of more folks
who donated literally staggering amounts of money to Biden over
the years. Bloomberg is said to have dropped something somewhere
between nineteen and twenty million dollars into Biden's twenty twenty
(07:51):
four campaign. He won't miss it though. That'd be like
one of us dropping a dollar into a Salvation Army
bucket around Christmas. Yeah, Soros has gotten money. All of
those guys have money, every one of them, Bloomberg sorows.
They all have money, but they were conveniently omitted in
(08:13):
talk about oligarchy all right, one time, on your way out,
on my way out. Ut Health Institute on Nation Aging. Wow,
slow down, doug ut Heals Institute on Aging. The collaborative
effort among thousands now providers from every medical discipline who
(08:33):
practice their craft all over town, mostly in the medical
center as you might suspect, but many of them visit
outlying hospitals and clinics in every corner of greater Metropolitan Houston,
so that those of us who are a little older,
maybe a little hesitant to drive into the med center,
we can be treated by people who have done what
(08:56):
everybody in the Institute on Aging has done as a provider,
and that is go back for additional training as to
how they can apply their specific expertise and knowledge to seniors.
We're different than younger people there's no doubt about it.
Look in the mirror. Sometime we are different and we
need to be seen by people. It's best to be
(09:18):
seen by people who understand that and can work with us.
Go to the website, look at all the resources they
have available for us at no charge, and then try
to find your way to one of these providers. Ut
h dot edu slash Aging, ut dot edu slash Aging,
(09:38):
Aged to Perfection.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
This is fifty plus with dougpike.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Bi.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Welcome back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Thanks for listening on a sunshiny Thursday. Boy, we're about
to get our teeth kicked in by the cold, and
next week it's not And I've already I've been watching
daily to see what the low temperatures are predicted to be,
and they actually came up a notch. They came up
a notch yesterday and today, and so hopefully that will
(10:24):
become a trend and it won't be just so horrible.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I still feel like.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Most of us are grown ups in this city and
have knowledge of what to do when it gets really,
really cold, and we do whatever it is we have
to do to make sure we get through there. Trying
to keep the pipes from bursting, trying to keep outside
plants covered in all of this, and we just recently
(10:56):
relative when relatively recently historically been through a severe free
with no power, and most of us have made it
through that one. I don't know. Maybe it's just me
and I'm not I'll never be a chicken little. What
I'm gonna do is prepare to the extent that I
can for the severity of what's coming at us. And
(11:18):
that doesn't include a couple of things that I've already
had neighbors tell me they were going to do.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I feel pretty comfortable.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Once I get my my hatches battened down, that my
wife and my son and I will make it through unscathed.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I came across the story this morning about all the
best jobs in the country overall, the best paying jobs,
the best healthcare jobs, and nowhere on there did I
see anything that mentioned radio hosting or working as a producer.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Really, I know, I couldn't believe it either. You sound studied.
Just your jaw just hit the floor.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Ada.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Wow. Number one overall.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Nurse practitioner, which also was the top healthcare job. Number
two overall it manager than physician assistant, then financial manager,
software developer, Information security analyst. Boy, that's going to become
even more and more popular and in need.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Medical and health services manager.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I don't know what that is, really, it's it's a
big long title that I don't know. A data scientist
would What would you think that is?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Will? Oh, it's somebody who studies data. I would have
never known.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
You don't have any more than that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's enough, honestly, it's the number eight anyway.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
The only two below that, well, I guess our jobs
are below the next two, but uh, speech language pathologist
and actuary. Top five best paying jobs OBGYN, psychiatrist, emergency
medicine physician, orthodontist, and anesthesiologist. I could I could have
(13:11):
guessed at least three, maybe four of those, And it
makes sense too. They're all very critically needed and if
you don't have one of those there when you need them,
you're in trouble. Interesting the top five best healthcare jobs.
You know what's number four?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Will?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
What? Veterinarian? Yeah that's kind of cool. Yeah, I deal
with animals and work on animals. I like that. So
if you weren't in radio, did have we ever talked
about this?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
What you thought you might be doing when you were
this age, if it weren't radio, we thought about it
ten years ago.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Yeah, I had no idea, to be honest, I had
no idea that radio would even be a thing in
my future. Did you think it was just going to
go away? No, I just didn't know that it was.
It was going to come into my perviews.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Didn't know you could if you could cut it? Sure,
you know. No, you're doing fun here.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You're one of the few, and I do mean a
few will because I've had probably I've had.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I'll guess two dozen, maybe.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Thirty producers overall since I've been around here. I've been
here since two thousand, okay, and I've had a lot
of them come and go very quickly, especially on the
Outdoors Show, because we're looking at mostly young men and
a couple of young women who were expected to be
here on Saturday morning by about six thirty.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
For a lot of young young adults, male or female
being here at six thirty from wherever they had spent
the night, wherever their home was, then that was.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Tough on a few of them, and they didn't last.
They kind of washed out.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But you, I think because of your ability to multitask
and to get your stuff done. I think that's good.
I want you to participate more. And I'm telling you
that on the air, so that so that I'm putting
a little a little bit on your back to make
sure that you understand.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Putting me on blasts is what you're saying. I am.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm saying, hey, let's go, let's let's get some Will
Melbourne stuff in here.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Man. All right, all right, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Incoming President Trump is shuffling the White House news room.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
And boy, he's gonna have so much fun with all
of that and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Is expected to actually oust most of the mainstream legacy
media people, anti Trump media people off the front row
in that room. And after after nearly a decade of
negativity toward him, those folks are about to They're about
to pay the piper for their mistakes, and we'll have
to shout louder to be heard from where they will
(15:51):
hence be sitting in the new spots row six, eight,
nine ten. It's gonna be funny too, because those people,
they live and breathe for airtime on television during these
press conferences, and if they're not seen on TV, not
only their audiences but their bosses tend to consider them
(16:16):
just a little less relevant than maybe they think they are.
And all these ones who've been just puffed up and
sat up so proud, had their tie on just rider,
had the blouse just buttoned up just right to look
like they were very professional and responsible. You're not even
gonna see them. They'll just be little little heads bobbing
in the background. The effort is to provide more fairly
(16:42):
balanced media outlets and opportunity to get up there and
ask some real questions that deserve real answers. Last four
years of White House Press conferences, honestly, they've just been
nothing but theater.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
They're designed not to answer questions at all, really, but
to just perpetually prop up administration And to give KJP
a little credit, she had to dance around a lot
of awkward stuff in the last year and a half
or so. What I didn't like though about her was
that when she would get a really tough question that
(17:15):
she knew she couldn't answer without getting in trouble if
she answered truthfully or getting called out if she answered falsely,
she would just shut down the whole shut down the
whole gathering. It's kind of like, you know, take your
ball and go home when things get tough, and that's
not exactly what the American people deserve from the press secretary.
(17:37):
On a lighter note, Will this is I found kind
of interesting. There's a growing trend in this country toward
what younger people are calling granny hobbies.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You don't have any idea what that is.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
What I didn't until about an hour ago. Well, uh, say,
in decorps, for example, if you're if you're putting your
home together and picking out furniture and picking out whatever,
you're seeing a lot of old school hardwood furniture. You're
seeing a lot of lace in table coverings and things
(18:11):
like that, where else a lot of vintage looking things.
Some of this piggybacks on the trad wife trend and
just a general regression to simpler times combined actually somehow,
And you got to think that all of this is
going on concurrent to men and women and couples still
(18:32):
trying to balance work and family.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Everybody's trying to do a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And I think that coming home to a something that
looks old school, kind of like Grandma's house, might be
a little more comforting than to have a bunch of
multi media screens blasting through your house and whatnot. It's
not easy to not easy to balance a family and
a career for anybody, and so maybe that just gives
(18:58):
them a little better sense of of home, if you will,
all right, we got to take another little break here.
When we get back, will and I will see you.
I've got that taken care of. I've got that taken
care of. It'll be another nice little blend I hope
of good stuff and weird stuff and humorous stuff and
(19:18):
everything else I've got in front of me here on
about six or eight pages of paper, more of fifty
plus right after this.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
All right, welcome back, thanks for listening to fifty plus
on this lovely Thursday.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Got some outdoors plans this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I've got to go to the dermatologists first to make
sure that my previous outdoors plans haven't caused me any worries.
I don't have anything to show him that isn't that
appears to be a big deal. But I like to
get checked out and get get the once over, the
look from head to toe once a year, just to
(20:15):
make sure it's been a couple of things burned off
and frozen off and sliced off over the years. Kind
of goes with the territory of being an outdoors kid
and outdoors adult. For as many years as I've been
on this planet, I was playing outdoors probably since the
time I could walk, running around the backyard, running around
(20:37):
the front yard, running around baseball fields, football fields, no
soccer fields.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Back then.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
We really didn't have any organized soccer and I don't
even remember seeing anyone playing soccer. The game just hadn't
been properly introduced to our country back then, but it
has been now. Tennis I played some tennis, didn't start.
Aren't really playing golf seriously until after I came back
(21:04):
from college, But I certainly made up for lost time
since then, and all the fishing and all the hunting.
And I'm very fortunate, knock on wood, to have my
mother and my I think it's an ant on her
mother's side. I have their skin and it's holding up
(21:27):
fairly well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I'm told I.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Don't look my age which is nice. But I'll get
that done and then I'm gonna go do some outdoor
stuff again, and sunscreen maybe I don't know. I tend
to kind of ignore it a little bit in the
winter because I'm usually wearing long sleeves when I'm outside,
but today.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
May be different.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
An interesting story I saw about airport security, an expert
in that field listed some weird things that you might
be doing in the airport that will get you flagged
by the TSA. This one, it would make sense to
me if I were flying, let's say, from here to
(22:06):
Minnesota this time of year, rather than packing a heavy coat,
I might be wearing it, even though the temperature outside
here might be seventy degrees. Wearing clothing that is not
appropriate for the weather is said to be kind of
a red flag, which bothers me a little bit because
(22:27):
you and somebody from up there in Minnesota flying to
Miami might want to celebrate getting away from the cold
and going to the warm by flying in shorts and
a short sleeved shirt. But that'll get you picked. Be
careful yawning a lot. I don't know why that would
(22:48):
bother you bothered the TSA unless there's some psychological thing
about how maybe somebody who has got issues, either as
a smuggler or a tearst or whatever, maybe they were
just up all night worrying about their plans. There's that
to think about. Being you've got a three am flight,
(23:10):
I'm gonna be yawning. Yeah, I'll just I'll just put
my hands on the wall and spread them, let them
pat me down and get it over with and then
get on get on down the road. That's a good
point making Not making eye contact, excuse me, not making
eye contact is a red flag.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I kind of get that.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Because somebody who is doing something suspicious or or maybe
has plans to do something bad probably wouldn't want everybody
looking at them and getting a good look at their
eyes and their face.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Right, Why would I want to look at their ugly mugs? Huh?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I couldn't agree with you more really, And this is
another one that I found interesting. Wearing too much cologne.
Do you know why that that one will get you flagged?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Why?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Because they think you're trying to mask the smell of
drugs from the dogs that.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Are walking around you. What if you just stink?
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Well, what if it's a three am flight, and you
didn't shower, and you just needed a spray on some column.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
And then just run into the airplane bathroom and take
your clothes off and sit down in that sink and
take care of business, a clean up paper towels.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It's interesting that you brought that up. Has that ever
occurred in your line there? Lord, No, I just want
to know. I mean, that's a pretty specific example.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
No, I was just trying to be comedic, even the
air in the airplane bathroom. Ye, that would be difficult
at best. A lot of other things go on in
airplane bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But hey, not that. Fasten your seatbelts. We're about to
experience some turbulence.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm tumbling out the door. Lukewarm water dripping off your
bath is one way to get permanently bad. From Delta
Airlines and easy Way.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
There was some guy speaking of this week.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
There was a guy who got fined ten thousand dollars
ten thousand dollars because for some reason I didn't get
the details, but he urinated in his seat on the airplane. Wow,
And so let that be a lesson to you and I,
honestly with at my age, Okay, gentlemen of my age,
(25:26):
we have to go to the bathroom a lot as
a rule, and they make it so restrictive as to
when you can go, and then when you have to
sit down and never get back up until you're at
the gate, that's a long time for some of us.
I've actually thought I think about it when I fly.
I don't fly as much as I used to, but
(25:47):
I think about it now when I do, because I
need to make sure that about thirty minutes before we're
supposed to land, I get up and make that trip.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So are you drinking water on the flight? Not much?
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Not much.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I try to drink water, to be honest, and.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
We're supposed to because the air in those things is
very dry. But if you do, then you might be
sitting there just tapping your foot and holding as much
as you can, just trying to like hell to get
on the ground so you can go to the bathroom.
And then when you get out in an unfamiliar airport,
you typically got to walk about a quarter mile to
(26:24):
find that little stick figure of a guy up there
on the on the wall.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
From the.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, this one was a good one.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
From the who cares about this useless world record? Four
hundred and sixty eight people dressed up as what will
to break a world record that never should.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Have been a world record as gumby. No, No, that's
not even close. Animal animal, an animal. I'll give you
three guesses dress and you can ask three questions they dress.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So is it a cartoon animal?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Is it so it's a it's a real animal.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Why is he calling me? Oh my gosh, we're supposed
to call this guy? Okay, I'll deal with that. I'm
gonna give you a phone number to call. Let's go
ahead and take this break, and then we're going to
do that and we are gonna make a little make
up for some lost ground here.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
All right, all right, we'll take a break. We'll be
right back. Dougpie Showings or No, it's fifty plus on
AM nine, fifty kp RC. What's life without a nap?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
If I suggest to go to bed, sleep it off,
just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
All right, welcome back fifty plus, Thanks for listening. Something
we do appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We'll talk in this segment about about banking and financial
institutions and how some of them not all or not
even most really, but a handful around this country have
been caught over the years with their hands in the
cookie jar, so to speak, and gotten themselves in trouble.
To share without naming name what sort of taxics tactics,
(28:02):
he said, correctly cost consumers millions and even sometimes billions
of dollars in fees and lost interest in other things.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I will bring in now.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Kendall Garrison, CEO of Amplify Credit Union, Welcome aboard.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Kendall, Hey, thanks for having me this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Well, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I don't want to name specific company, he says, I
don't want to get anybody in any trouble unnecessarily, but
I would like to peel back a few layers of
the onion that kind of contain the hidden fees and
charges on accounts that some of us, especially older people
who may not be especially savvy with their money. How
some financial institutions occasionally drop in fees that can cause
(28:39):
balances to go up or down instead of going up.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
What are some of those fees, Well.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
You know, obviously they're they're the ones that are abundantly clear.
If you overdraw your checking account, you're going to pay
an overdraft fee okay, And unsurprisingly a number of financial
institutions will actually reorder the way that they clear your check.
So if you have multiple debits to your account on
(29:10):
a day, they'll rearrange the order, sometimes maybe to maximize
their fee income and maximize the cost to you, which
which is just sort of unfair.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
If I'm understanding this correctly. Let's say I wrote four
checks in a day.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Three of them were for twenty five dollars and onemost
for five hundred dollars, and I had four hundred dollars
in my checking account. They run that five hundred first,
so I'd be overdrafted then and then try to bounce
those other three behind it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Right, Yes, sir, that has been known to happen.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Wow, that's pretty tricky, and that it's nothing we would
know about unless we really understood that industry, would we?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
You generally wouldn't. And I'll tell you something else. I
looked at an unnamed big banks account agreement today that
everyone finds when they open an account with them, and
it is thirty six pages, and who's going to read
this right and right? And essentially it says, oh, yeah,
(30:16):
by the way, we can change the rules at any time.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
So that's convenient.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
That is very very convenible.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Holy, Now where is that? Where is that phrase? Is
that upfront or is that at the thirty five pages
and a half.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Oh, you've got to you've got to be down to
about you know, it's thirteen thousand words in this in
this particular.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Days just to open a checking account.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Or something, just to open an account, yessir?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Oh my ward.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, that's unrealistic that anybody would read that. And it
sounds it's kind of like deliberate, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
You know, well, you know, many, many financial institutions exist
to maximize the profits to their shareholders up and and uh,
you know, we we see the world in a slightly
different way. Credit unions really exist to improve the financial
(31:10):
lives of their members, as opposed to enrich their shareholders.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Well, yeah, you know, I don't know much about credit
unions to be perfectly honest. So explain the difference between
a bank and a credit union.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Well, it really comes down to the ownership. Banks are
generally owned by shareholders that are looking to maximize their return,
and credit unions are owned by its members. So if
you're an account holder, whether it's a deposit account or
or a loan account. You're an owner member of the
(31:43):
credit union, and because we were chartered in a way
that requires that we maximize the benefit to our member,
it is it's a banking system where our interests are
aligned with yours.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Okay, yeah, there's a there's still there's plenty of room
for banks out there. I deal with banks every day almost,
it seems like, and they would, I'm sure, have a
different version of what you just said. They would want
to tout their ability to help their customers. But it
going back to let's let's just agree to disagree. If
I'm a banker, I'm going to disagree with you, and
(32:20):
if you're you're a credit union guy, you're going to
disagree with me. But let's get back to these fees
for a minute. If I might, and let's say I
was with X y Z bank and I saw a
fee I didn't recognize, would it be easy maybe to
get an explanation and even get a refund for.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
That, or would it just take forever?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
You know, it's certainly easy to get an explanation, uh,
but it's a heck of a lot harder to get
a refund because because they publish. Everyone publishes a schedule
of their fees and they stick to it and and
that's a part of that account agreement.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, the thirty six page one. We talked about it.
It's in there somewhere, isn't it. Kendal, Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
My audience obviously a little bit older at least. Well,
I have thirty five year olds who listen for their parents,
and I applaud them for that, I really do.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But as an older.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Audience, we're not necessarily wiser when it comes to managing
money on a one to ten scale. How transparent would
you say that this industry.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Is on the whole, I would say that as a whole,
financial services is not very transparent. The way that business operates,
how they operate really, as I said, are designed to
increase the profits of those institutions and not really to
(33:42):
provide clarity or to build trust.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Okay, kend Garrison here from Amplify Credit Union. When people
decide it's time to either put their money into something
other than checking in savings accounts, what sort of questions
should they be asking the people who are about to
become caretakers of that person's life savings?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Well, I think The first thing that they need to
look at is the safety and soundness of the institution
that they're going to put some money in. So there
are some rating services bower Wise and bank Rate actually
all issue ratings for banks and credit unions, So you
should understand the safety and soundness there. And then if
(34:23):
you're going to invest in a certificate of deposit or
what have you really understand the terms. If you have
to withdraw the money early, what penalties will you pay,
What happens at the end of the term of that CD.
Does it automatically roll over or you disperse the money
back into a checking account, So just understanding how that
(34:45):
account operates, I think and asking those questions on the
front end is important.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Certainly, I believe it's important also not to put all
your eggs in one basket, but I'm also hesitant to
put too many different eggs in the basket. For somebody
at or really close to retirement, that's a good time
to become increasingly conservative with the risk they're taking.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Right Well, you know, it depends on your individual worldview.
I personally am not that far away from retirement, but
I remain almost fully invested in the stock market with
a little bit of bonds and of course some cash
to go along with that. And so it just depends
(35:25):
on your individual risk tolerance and how you see funding
your retirement.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
From where you sit, do you see any short term
investment option for seniors now that offer pretty good bang
for the bucks, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
I think that there are plenty of very good short
term CD opportunities. For example, the shorter the term today,
the higher the interest rates. So you can do a
three month or a nine month certificate of deposit at
a higher interest rate than you would on a twelve
or an eighteen month.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Really, that's correct, That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, I've got I've got a couple of six month ones,
and and I was considering maybe going longer term and
trying to get more interest.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
But that's not the case. Why is that? Uh?
Speaker 4 (36:13):
It really is due to a an anomaly in the
bond market where, uh, until recently, short term bond yields
have been higher than longer term bond yields. That's called
an inversion in the yield curve. Okay, uh, And that's
been the case for the last two years, and it
recently flipped.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And so I don't know that that anomaly will be
in place for an extended period of time. But that's
the way it is today.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah, take it while you can get it right.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
That's and that that explains why my bank was calling
me about a year ago and saying, hey, you know
you might want to move some of this over here.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Is it okay? Fine?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Very good?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
And this is exactly why Kendall It went talking to
you just in these few minutes. This is why it's
so important for somebody who's who's nearing retirement, especially to
talk to somebody in your industry and gather information and
not count on neighbors and friends and what not to
give them financial advice.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It's be the same as.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Trying to get trying to learn how to play golf
from a guy who's only played putt putt exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And you know, the other thing I would add is
to choose a financial partner that their interests are aligned
with yours. And and that's the that's the main thing
that one has to worry about when choosing a financial partner.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Are there any good, good resources online sites that you
would recommend going to to learn more about money? Uh?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Of course. Uh. Bank rate is a great place to
learn more about money. Uh. Nerd Wallet is a great
place to learn more about money.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Motley Fool is a great place to learn more about money.
And uh you know, interestingly enough, we offer financial education
tools on our website as well, so many of your
many of your financial institutions will offer you tools to
help customers become more educated. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
As as I look around, I see that so many people,
especially in my age group in yours, I suppose, are
really they haven't learned much about how to take care
of their money. And any place is a good place
to start to teach these old dog new tricks. Kendall Garrison,
thank you very much, Kendall Garrison, who happens to be
the CEO of Amplify Credit Union. I greatly appreciate your
(38:34):
time this afternoon, sir.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Thanks, and I appreciate yours.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Have a good afternoon, Yes, sir, audios all right boy,
we are rapidly coming to the close of this program.
Will see if I can find something to quickly amuse
you or the audience. Okay, real quick, will we got
twenty seconds? Nobody knows and that's spelled nose off to
a good start or how to they survive.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
How do they survive?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Young woman on TikTok shocked she was to discover that
you're supposed to add water to.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Some Campbell soups.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Wow, I'm gonna go have some tomato soup and a
grilled cheese sandwich.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
That sounds good. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks a lot,
audios
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