November 14, 2024 • 24 mins
Host of “How to Money” on KFI Joel Larsgaard joins the show to discuss social security in trouble and 67% of people thing they are good with money BUT they are not. Many officers in LAPD photo lawsuit aren’t undercover, city admits. UN faces uncertainty with Trump.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It is a Thursday morning, November fourteenth. A bunch of
stuff going on. We now know the Republicans will retain
control of the House, the Senate is going to be
in Republican hands. And of course Donald Trump's president of
the United States, and some of the real big political
news that came out this morning. Matt Gates is Trump's
(00:31):
pick for Attorney General of the United States. Matt Gates,
who has a whole three years of experience as a
lawyer in a small nine person law firm in Florida.
And it was I don't even think you ever made
junior partner the Attorney General of the United States.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I'm wondering.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Did anybody in Trump's inner circle say, hey, maybe this
is not a great idea, Maybe you want someone with credit. Now,
I'm gonna have a great time with this. Oh boy,
am I gonna have a great time with this, Okay.
Joel Larsguard has heard every Sunday twelve pm to two
pm here on KFI how to Money his social address
(01:13):
at how to Money.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Joel. Good morning, Joel Morning, Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
All right, a little bit of politics, and this one
is the holy grail of politics. You get anywhere near
social Security, you are as a politician, you're in deep trouble. Now,
when social security was first kicked in, I think it
was nineteen thirty five, it was hugely controversial.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I mean, it was a fight.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Can you imagine today a fight over social security? Trump
had said that he was going to look at social
security and then all of a sudden back backed immediately
away from that, say, oh, I'm just talking about the
wasst Realistically, something's got to give you. You can't put
ten pounds and a five pound bag. Social Security is
in trouble, is it not?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That it is?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It is, And you're right, I mean, this is one
of those things that it is the holy grail. And
it's like the first rule of fight club is don't
talk about fight club. Well, the first rule of politics
is like, don't touch those security.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
But that rule.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Has only led to the problem becoming magnified and getting
worse and worse. And it's you know, we're starting to
see just real. I mean, the problems are are real,
and they're significant, and they're coming The chickens are coming home.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
To roost sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And so when it comes to Social Security and it's
viability over the coming decades, something has to be done.
And actually, like the opposite of what needs to be
done is is happening. So, you know, President elect Trump
has talked about not taxing Social Security benefits for a
significant number of people, and that would only compound the
problem for future generations. So maybe it's a nice thing
(02:49):
to dole out to some of your current constituents, but
then the you know, millennials and zoomers are going to
be left holding the bag at some point in the future.
Soci Security we need to if we want to stick
around for future generation, certain reforms need to be bade.
And you harken back to the beginning of Social Security Bill,
and the life expectancy of Americans was much lower back
(03:11):
then when Social Security was instituted, so it wasn't thought of.
It's this thing that people are going to get paid
for three decades upon retirement, and we just haven't changed
the system enough to reflect the realities of modern life.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
What do you think, Well, just a quick example, my
mother who retired at sixty two and got Social Security
and she died at ninety eight, collecting social Security every
minute of that.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so we're talking.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know, the life expectancy was not when the sixty
five year retirement the age of retirement as far as
so security is concerned, at sixty five made all the
sense in the world. People didn't live past sixty five.
You'd retire, live a couple of years, you die, and
social Security fund stayed solvent. And now there has in
(04:00):
a couple of things. I think now it's sixty seven
is when you can retire. But there's only three things
that we can do. Increase the age you're not retiring
until you're seventy and getting social security, or decrease the
benefits or and or any combination of the three. Make
it more expensive, your social security taxes more expensive. I
(04:22):
remember when it was a couple of dollars and that
was it when I first started working. Now it is
it's expensive now.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, I mean, social security at this point is something
like twenty five percent or at least it's taking closer
to twenty five percent of the overall government budget. And
then when you kind of look at what's happening with
demographics in the country and just really around the world,
but specifically in our country, it doesn't bode well for
social Security sticking around in its current formula. We're talking
(04:50):
about an aging population, not enough people in the workforce
to continue to fund social security, and so we're talking
about the Social Security Trust Fund running out of money
and essentially a cut of benefits happening when that comes about,
probably something like a twenty percent cut and benefit. So
something has to be done. And you're right, those are
(05:12):
kind of the three options. The hiking the payroll taxes,
raising the minimum retirement age, or modifying benefits and and like,
nobody wants to make any of those choices, and nobody
wants to upset the people who are getting social Security
now or who are getting it in the future. But
if we want this to remain around in any way,
form or fashion, we're going to have to make some
of those hard choices. We just don't have elected leaders
(05:33):
who are are willing to kind of step.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
In it too.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, because it is like this, you know, it's this
thing that nobody wants to touch.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, No one has the balls to do that, nobody
because as again, you know, you first of all people
that are on social Security, that's them or one issue,
and people that are over sixty five vote and they
have a lot of power, right, and.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You've got ARP you know, ARP Seal talking to you.
When you look, by the way.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
At what younger people are saying and doing, like most
of them, especially zoomers, are saying, I'm not counting on
it at all. Yeah, taking my retirement into my own hands.
And I think that's wise. I mean, I think in
all likelihood there will be some sort of Social Security
benefit that exists. But I do think at some point,
like things are, it's going to hit the fan, and
you have to know that you are at least mostly
(06:21):
responsible for your own retirement, especially for all the younger
listeners out there.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The only good news I think about this is that
the younger people that are working, the zoomers are exactly
what you said, They are looking at it realistically. I
cannot rely on Social Security, not to the extent it
is because when it runs out of money, I think
it is twenty thirty four or two or twenty thirty five,
it is not running out of money. I mean, there'll
(06:46):
still be money there, it's just they'll be able to
only pay seventy or seventy five or eighty percent of
the benefits. And what's also a joke is a Social
Security trust fund. There's no money in that trust fund.
The Highway trust Fund is real money in the trust fund.
That is a pile of money. Social Security is not.
It comes out of the general budget and I don't
(07:07):
even know why they call it a trust fund. It
basically is just an expense every year. Yeah, social Security
is a mess, and I'm such a mess. Yeah, and
I'll be getting full tilt so and then I'm gonna
die and then I don't care, you know, let my
kids work about it.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean, like, I think you're joking there, but there is.
That is part of the problem, right And you're when
you're talking about the trust fund running out of money
in twenty thirty five, Well, if we if we reduce
taxes on social security people who are you know, the
social Security income right now, it's that's gonna happen sooner,
and we have to start thinking about like prolonging this
for the future or like we're just talking about the
(07:41):
people who are currently you know, in social security territory.
They're taking advantage of the system, and then future generations
are going to suffer.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, Well, let me repeat, Okay, I'll be dead. I'm
getting my full benefits until I die. Thank you very much.
All right, Joel, interesting stat you came up with, and
that is two thirds of folks think they're.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Good with money and they are not.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, that's interesting, number one words you get that figure,
and I think it's more than two thirds, because everybody
I know is not particularly good with money.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And those who say they're good with money are usually worse. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, No, It's amazing how people can be that delusional,
like I'm awesome at this thing that I actually am
really really bad at. And so this was a USA
Today survey, and so Americans basically they self report as
making really well in foreign financial decisions, like yeah, I'm
pretty good with money. I just think most of the
people around me aren't. But then when you get kind
(08:38):
of down into some of the other elements of that survey,
you find that people are admitting the vast majority of
the survey takers say I don't have an emergency fund.
What is an emergency fund? And so it's pretty like that.
To me, that dichotomy is pretty revealing about how people.
(08:59):
It's like you think one thing, but you don't know
what an emergency fund is, and you don't have one,
you really can't be great with money, I think if
you don't understand the most basic building block of personal finance.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, let's get into the weeds a moment, because one
of the things about credit card spending is for the
most part, at the end of the month you have
no idea how much you spent until until you get
that statement at the end of the month. Really, I
spent all this much money. So it's a question of
personal finance. And I mean it's real easy. Don't spend
more than what you make. Okay, that's easy to say
(09:28):
now to go from A to B. Also, the other
side is, and it's a little more complicated, the investment side,
if you want to go beyond just putting money in
a bank or putting in a money into an index,
mutual fund index across the board, either the sp five
hundred or the Dow or whatever. Now you're talking about
some pretty sophisticated stuff. And everybody I know who invests
(09:50):
on their own, except for a couple of people, I
look at them and I go, you're crazy. The amount
of work that it takes to actually know what you're
talking about is more than a full time job?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
How do people think that way? It's like the you know,
I want to do my own surgery.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Why not? Well, I think there's actually.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
A really big difference though, between trying to perform surgery
on your leg or your abdomen and investing. And I
think when you think about the index funds have actually
made that you referred to, index funds have made that
much simpler. And I think workplace retirement accounts and iras
and low cost brokerage firms have made this simpler too.
So I think once you understand just some of the
(10:31):
basics and there's you know, information up on howdomoney dot
com about what index funds are and how you should
start out as an investor, but ultimately like if, yeah,
there are ways to make it super duper sophisticated. But
I think this is actually one of the great lies
that Wall Street has perpetrated, which is like, you can't
do it on your own. It's really really difficult. There's
no way you're going to be able to, you know,
(10:52):
become a millionaire by investing in your tax advantage retirement accounts.
And what I preach all day every day, is yes,
you can, and you don't necessarily need fancy wall three
people or people are an expensive financial advisor, Like you
might need a financial advisor at points in time along
the way, but you don't need one to become a
millionaire if you just do the right thing consistently, dollar
(11:13):
cost averaging into that four oh one k into low
cost index funds, maxing out your roth IRA hopefully each
and every years. That's how you're going to get there.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, let me move real quickly because there's a holiday
season coming up, and these gift cards and I'm thinking
Costco because I'm there all the time and they have rows.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Of you get a great deal.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You buy a gift card, you get one hundred dollars
and you pay seventy five dollars for every restaurant you've
ever heard of. I just saw one for Southwest Airlines
for example. Let's talk about gift cards for the holidays,
restaurant cards, service cards, Disneyland cards, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
So you're talking about gift cards, Like, normally I am
not a big fan of gift cards, but the instance
that you mentioned them in that's when I like them.
When you're getting a discount on a gift card. When
you're able to get seventy five, you spend seventy five,
and you get one hundred dollars worth of value. That's
when I think buying gift cards can make sense. And
then then hey, that's a good gift if there's somebody
(12:11):
you know loves that restaurant or loves that retailer, give
that gift card that you got essentially at a discount.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But they're when you're trading one hundred dollars bill that.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Can be spent anywhere for one hundred dollars gift card
that can be spent in only one location, That to
me is a bad trade off. And I don't love that,
and I think it seems like it's this intentional, thoughtful gift,
but at times it's just trying to hit the easy button.
And then what you're doing is you're putting yourself in
or the person who's receiving the gift at a disadvantage
because they only have one place they can spend that
(12:42):
money now. And there are examples of companies going bust
and people with gift cards for that restaurant or that retailer, well,
now they're completely out of luck. Like TGI Fridays is
kind of in the middle of filing for bankruptcy Locate.
They've shut down a bunch of locations and in their
filings they have there's fifty million dollars in unspent gift
(13:03):
cards at TGI Fridays that people are holding on to
that are in their underwear d or or something or
that have.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Been completely lost. And this is what you run the
risk of.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think when you buy gift cards is that they
just kind of go unused, they get lost in the shuffle,
and then you know, the retailers happy because they already
made the money, but you, as a consumer, are out
of luck.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And also what I love and I don't buy gift cards.
I don't because I don't give anybody anything. But when
you go to the costco and you spend seventy five
eighty dollars for one hundred dollars worth of of a product,
you've given one hundred dollars gift and it's only cost
you seventy five or eighty dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You see, yes, And this is the time of year
where retailers are more likely to offer discounts on gift cards,
like we're getting really, really close to this thing where
you're going to see some promos, even local restaurants saying hey,
get by two hundred dollars worth of gift cards and
it will only costs you one fifty or something like that.
And so if that's the case, and that's one of
your favorite places, or you know somebody who loves that
place that makes a great gift, you're giving them something extra. Essentially,
(14:03):
they cost you less than the face value. I'm totally
for that. Just be careful. Like spending one hundred bucks
to get a hundred dollars gift card. That's the kind
of thing I think is a loser.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So I think we're going to pick up and we
can't do it now, so maybe next week. The issue
of fraud with gift cards and how I get calls
on Handle on the Law saying Bill, I got a
gift card and there's no money in it. What would happen?
So we'll probably pick that up next week because we're
we're in gift card season. Joel, catch you this Sunday
twelve o'clock for how to Money. Okay, Now I want
(14:35):
to talk about a lawsuit going on. This is a
very interesting, well interesting, it's really troubling to a lot
of people. And this is a case around the publication
of some officer LAPD officer photos on a website called
Watch the Watchers, and the city released the images of
cops in response to a public require records request. So
(14:59):
if you look at the court filings, the city attorneys
argue that the nine hundred cops involved here, whose names
have been kept secret, don't have a right to rename
remain anonymous in a lawsuit over those photos. They're suing,
but they don't want their names being used. The city
originally backed them up and said, you're right.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
These are undercover cops. As soon as their names are released,
they're undercover cops. They're no longer undercover, and they are
at risk.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And the cops are saying, we do not want our
names out there, we don't want our photos out there.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We're just John Doe's officer. John Doe.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well, they've turned the cities turned it around. Now they're
saying the officers don't have the right to be anonymous.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Moreover, the city is now arguing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That again these nine hundred officers, their names so far
have been kept secret. They've asked the judge to order
the identities be disclosed if the lawsuit, their lawsuit against
the city is to proceed.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Matter of fact, the city wants a lawsuit dismissed entirely.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And it has to do with a publication of these
photos on the website Watch the Wasters, Watch the Washer Watchers.
By this quote, journalist Ben Camacho and an activist group said,
stop LAPD Spying coalition. And what these photos do is
they have cops. Do you want to look up cops?
There they are, they're their names, they are their photos,
(16:30):
except you're not allowed to do that. And the Watch
the Watcher folks did exactly that put them up there.
And it used to be that there was already a
public Facebook page for the LAPD Museum where you could
go on and get these photos anyway. That was published
in twenty nineteen. It's a yearbook with names, ranks, assignments
(16:53):
there it is for everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
To see undercover not undercover.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
By the way, that yearbook you can still buy, but
only if you're a cop, a current or a former
law enforcement person. However, the Assistance of the Attorney said
that those were weren't in place as recently as November
twenty twenty two. When the lawsuit was filed, so the
city said, we ain't responsible now for moreover, the city says,
(17:19):
let's talk about undercover the names of real undercover cops,
and we're talking about cops who work deep cover operations
like with outlaw biker gangs or terrorist groups or drug
card tells those guys they're undercover, even to the point
(17:41):
where the cops don't know who they are. Very few
people in the upper echelons of the department know who
they are.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Most have changed how they look.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You know, they dress up as gang bangers, they have
the long hair, their bikers. They get fictitious identities, new
driver's license, new everything.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Those are the only ones we really have to protect.
The rest. It's all out there.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's available anyway, and the cops are saying no, because
by the very release of that information we are at risk.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
We have to move.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
We're getting calls because frankly, people hate the police, which
is true. Unfortunately the police well, and the police had
some real issues. The police were not questioned for many,
many years, and there was a lot of police abuse,
and then it turned over with a Black Lives Matter
movement came in and the police were all horrific human beings,
and all they were were officers who violated people's civil liberties,
(18:41):
civil rights. And now it's swinging back. Welcome to the pendulum.
It's gonna be an interesting lawsuit. And this is where
the city has just Okay, we were fine on Tuesday,
and let's.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Go the other way on Wednesday. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I want to finish up the program with what's happening
at the United Nations.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It's not just the US that's looking at the new
administration coming up. The United Nations and international organizations are
all sweating bullets and bracing. And that's the word that's
being used for the new administration. Four more years of
the Trump administration, and you look back just before becoming
(19:22):
president the first time, he described the UN one hundred
and thirty nine, one hundred and ninety three members as
just a club for people to get together, talk and
have a good time. That's it. By the way, he's right.
In his first term, he suspended funding for the UN
Health and Family Planning agencies, withdrew from the cultural organizations
(19:45):
and the top human rights body, jacked up tariffs on China,
and turned the World Trade Organization's rule book upside down,
and he said, you know, we're the biggest owner of
the United Nations. We paid twenty two percent of the
regular budget and it doesn't do anything, and it doesn't
the United Nations is well. First of all, Trump is
(20:05):
a huge defender of Israel, as you know, and the
United Nations is as about as eight anti Israel as
you can get. The most number of resolutions the United
Nations has passed since its exception happened against Israel. No,
you've got one hundred and ninety three quoit, you got
one hundred and ninety three countries out there. And on
(20:29):
top of the anti Semitism, you also have they love
the underdog, and they are more underdog countries out there
than are not. And they view Israel as kicking the
crap out of the Palestinians, which they have, and they
you view Israel as having occupied the West Bank, which
they have, so you know what, or on different sides.
(20:52):
And then the big issue is UNRUNN and that is
the US funding for the United Nations and this for
Agency for Palestine Refugees, and this is a big one.
Unrah's the organization that actually feeds the Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
It's huge. Thousands of people work for UNRA.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And the problem is is that UNRA, well, it's been
accused of and it has panned out that some members
of UNRA are.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Part of Hamas.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And the accusation is and I buy it, by the way,
that there were members of UNRA that were in on
the attack on Israel October seventh. And so Trump is saying,
you know what, too bad. One thing about Trump, he's
got balls. You know, he's willing to go to fight
with China. He guys, listen, you are not playing by
(21:49):
our rules. You're throwing the tariffs against us. You're making
it very difficult for us to sell to you.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We're not going to.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Take this anymore. And he's the president who's had the
balls to do that. I mean, I totally agree with that. Now,
a couple of things he's done. Pulled out the US,
pulled the US out of the twenty fifteen Pairs Climate Accord.
You know, because climate change is not very big on
his schedule. He still believes doesn't exist. So after he
(22:19):
pulls out of the twenty fifteen Pairs Climate Accord, Joe
Biden gets elected, he puts US back into the Accord.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Trump is going to take us out again of the accord.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Also the UNESCO, the UN backed Human Rights Council, actually
he claimed that they were totally anti Israel and pulled
out of those. Cut funding for the UN Population Agency
for Reproductive Health Services, claimed it was funding abortions.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you know, as far as abortions, you know, you
know where that goes politically. And the bottom line is
that Trump is the first president in many, many years
who does not believe in multi lateralism.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
He is an America firster. That's it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
He is an isolationist and by definition, being an isolationist
means you're not an internationalist.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And that's where we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And it's going to change everything because there is a phrase,
and it is absolutely true when the president, when a
US president sneezes, everybody else in the world gets a cold.
And that is one tree. And I've told you we're
in for And I don't even know how far it's
going to go. I don't know how No, I don't
(23:43):
know how far Trump is going to take. What he does.
Are there guardrails?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
There? Not many.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
He's got Congress, he's got the Senate, and he's got himself,
so we'll see now a few things I think he's
not going to be able to get through. And the
pundits are now going crazy figuring what is it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Anyway, we're done and hopefully my cold gets a little better.
I'll be back again tomorrow. It starts with Amy five
o'clock with wake up Call, and Neil and I come
aboard with Amy from six to nine, and of course
and Conor here and everybody is getting my cold, which
is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So we're all gonna hok and.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Sneeze and kick up some phlem and it's gonna be
delightful around here. It's gonna be absolutely great. You should
see this mic sock. I mean, it is just it's
a piece of art, it really is. This is KFI
AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It is a Thursday morning, November fourteenth. A bunch of
stuff going on. We now know the Republicans will retain
control of the House, the Senate is going to be
in Republican hands. And of course Donald Trump's president of
the United States, and some of the real big political
news that came out this morning. Matt Gates is Trump's
(00:31):
pick for Attorney General of the United States. Matt Gates,
who has a whole three years of experience as a
lawyer in a small nine person law firm in Florida.
And it was I don't even think you ever made
junior partner the Attorney General of the United States.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I'm wondering.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Did anybody in Trump's inner circle say, hey, maybe this
is not a great idea, Maybe you want someone with credit. Now,
I'm gonna have a great time with this. Oh boy,
am I gonna have a great time with this, Okay.
Joel Larsguard has heard every Sunday twelve pm to two
pm here on KFI how to Money his social address
(01:13):
at how to Money.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Joel. Good morning, Joel Morning, Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
All right, a little bit of politics, and this one
is the holy grail of politics. You get anywhere near
social Security, you are as a politician, you're in deep trouble. Now,
when social security was first kicked in, I think it
was nineteen thirty five, it was hugely controversial.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I mean, it was a fight.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Can you imagine today a fight over social security? Trump
had said that he was going to look at social
security and then all of a sudden back backed immediately
away from that, say, oh, I'm just talking about the
wasst Realistically, something's got to give you. You can't put
ten pounds and a five pound bag. Social Security is
in trouble, is it not?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That it is?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It is, And you're right, I mean, this is one
of those things that it is the holy grail. And
it's like the first rule of fight club is don't
talk about fight club. Well, the first rule of politics
is like, don't touch those security.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
But that rule.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Has only led to the problem becoming magnified and getting
worse and worse. And it's you know, we're starting to
see just real. I mean, the problems are are real,
and they're significant, and they're coming The chickens are coming home.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
To roost sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And so when it comes to Social Security and it's
viability over the coming decades, something has to be done.
And actually, like the opposite of what needs to be
done is is happening. So, you know, President elect Trump
has talked about not taxing Social Security benefits for a
significant number of people, and that would only compound the
problem for future generations. So maybe it's a nice thing
(02:49):
to dole out to some of your current constituents, but
then the you know, millennials and zoomers are going to
be left holding the bag at some point in the future.
Soci Security we need to if we want to stick
around for future generation, certain reforms need to be bade.
And you harken back to the beginning of Social Security Bill,
and the life expectancy of Americans was much lower back
(03:11):
then when Social Security was instituted, so it wasn't thought of.
It's this thing that people are going to get paid
for three decades upon retirement, and we just haven't changed
the system enough to reflect the realities of modern life.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
What do you think, Well, just a quick example, my
mother who retired at sixty two and got Social Security
and she died at ninety eight, collecting social Security every
minute of that.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so we're talking.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know, the life expectancy was not when the sixty
five year retirement the age of retirement as far as
so security is concerned, at sixty five made all the
sense in the world. People didn't live past sixty five.
You'd retire, live a couple of years, you die, and
social Security fund stayed solvent. And now there has in
(04:00):
a couple of things. I think now it's sixty seven
is when you can retire. But there's only three things
that we can do. Increase the age you're not retiring
until you're seventy and getting social security, or decrease the
benefits or and or any combination of the three. Make
it more expensive, your social security taxes more expensive. I
(04:22):
remember when it was a couple of dollars and that
was it when I first started working. Now it is
it's expensive now.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, I mean, social security at this point is something
like twenty five percent or at least it's taking closer
to twenty five percent of the overall government budget. And
then when you kind of look at what's happening with
demographics in the country and just really around the world,
but specifically in our country, it doesn't bode well for
social Security sticking around in its current formula. We're talking
(04:50):
about an aging population, not enough people in the workforce
to continue to fund social security, and so we're talking
about the Social Security Trust Fund running out of money
and essentially a cut of benefits happening when that comes about,
probably something like a twenty percent cut and benefit. So
something has to be done. And you're right, those are
(05:12):
kind of the three options. The hiking the payroll taxes,
raising the minimum retirement age, or modifying benefits and and like,
nobody wants to make any of those choices, and nobody
wants to upset the people who are getting social Security
now or who are getting it in the future. But
if we want this to remain around in any way,
form or fashion, we're going to have to make some
of those hard choices. We just don't have elected leaders
(05:33):
who are are willing to kind of step.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
In it too.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, because it is like this, you know, it's this
thing that nobody wants to touch.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, No one has the balls to do that, nobody
because as again, you know, you first of all people
that are on social Security, that's them or one issue,
and people that are over sixty five vote and they
have a lot of power, right, and.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You've got ARP you know, ARP Seal talking to you.
When you look, by the way.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
At what younger people are saying and doing, like most
of them, especially zoomers, are saying, I'm not counting on
it at all. Yeah, taking my retirement into my own hands.
And I think that's wise. I mean, I think in
all likelihood there will be some sort of Social Security
benefit that exists. But I do think at some point,
like things are, it's going to hit the fan, and
you have to know that you are at least mostly
(06:21):
responsible for your own retirement, especially for all the younger
listeners out there.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The only good news I think about this is that
the younger people that are working, the zoomers are exactly
what you said, They are looking at it realistically. I
cannot rely on Social Security, not to the extent it
is because when it runs out of money, I think
it is twenty thirty four or two or twenty thirty five,
it is not running out of money. I mean, there'll
(06:46):
still be money there, it's just they'll be able to
only pay seventy or seventy five or eighty percent of
the benefits. And what's also a joke is a Social
Security trust fund. There's no money in that trust fund.
The Highway trust Fund is real money in the trust fund.
That is a pile of money. Social Security is not.
It comes out of the general budget and I don't
(07:07):
even know why they call it a trust fund. It
basically is just an expense every year. Yeah, social Security
is a mess, and I'm such a mess. Yeah, and
I'll be getting full tilt so and then I'm gonna
die and then I don't care, you know, let my
kids work about it.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean, like, I think you're joking there, but there is.
That is part of the problem, right And you're when
you're talking about the trust fund running out of money
in twenty thirty five, Well, if we if we reduce
taxes on social security people who are you know, the
social Security income right now, it's that's gonna happen sooner,
and we have to start thinking about like prolonging this
for the future or like we're just talking about the
(07:41):
people who are currently you know, in social security territory.
They're taking advantage of the system, and then future generations
are going to suffer.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, Well, let me repeat, Okay, I'll be dead. I'm
getting my full benefits until I die. Thank you very much.
All right, Joel, interesting stat you came up with, and
that is two thirds of folks think they're.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Good with money and they are not.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, that's interesting, number one words you get that figure,
and I think it's more than two thirds, because everybody
I know is not particularly good with money.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And those who say they're good with money are usually worse. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, No, It's amazing how people can be that delusional,
like I'm awesome at this thing that I actually am
really really bad at. And so this was a USA
Today survey, and so Americans basically they self report as
making really well in foreign financial decisions, like yeah, I'm
pretty good with money. I just think most of the
people around me aren't. But then when you get kind
(08:38):
of down into some of the other elements of that survey,
you find that people are admitting the vast majority of
the survey takers say I don't have an emergency fund.
What is an emergency fund? And so it's pretty like that.
To me, that dichotomy is pretty revealing about how people.
(08:59):
It's like you think one thing, but you don't know
what an emergency fund is, and you don't have one,
you really can't be great with money, I think if
you don't understand the most basic building block of personal finance.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, let's get into the weeds a moment, because one
of the things about credit card spending is for the
most part, at the end of the month you have
no idea how much you spent until until you get
that statement at the end of the month. Really, I
spent all this much money. So it's a question of
personal finance. And I mean it's real easy. Don't spend
more than what you make. Okay, that's easy to say
(09:28):
now to go from A to B. Also, the other
side is, and it's a little more complicated, the investment side,
if you want to go beyond just putting money in
a bank or putting in a money into an index,
mutual fund index across the board, either the sp five
hundred or the Dow or whatever. Now you're talking about
some pretty sophisticated stuff. And everybody I know who invests
(09:50):
on their own, except for a couple of people, I
look at them and I go, you're crazy. The amount
of work that it takes to actually know what you're
talking about is more than a full time job?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
How do people think that way? It's like the you know,
I want to do my own surgery.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Why not? Well, I think there's actually.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
A really big difference though, between trying to perform surgery
on your leg or your abdomen and investing. And I
think when you think about the index funds have actually
made that you referred to, index funds have made that
much simpler. And I think workplace retirement accounts and iras
and low cost brokerage firms have made this simpler too.
So I think once you understand just some of the
(10:31):
basics and there's you know, information up on howdomoney dot
com about what index funds are and how you should
start out as an investor, but ultimately like if, yeah,
there are ways to make it super duper sophisticated. But
I think this is actually one of the great lies
that Wall Street has perpetrated, which is like, you can't
do it on your own. It's really really difficult. There's
no way you're going to be able to, you know,
(10:52):
become a millionaire by investing in your tax advantage retirement accounts.
And what I preach all day every day, is yes,
you can, and you don't necessarily need fancy wall three
people or people are an expensive financial advisor, Like you
might need a financial advisor at points in time along
the way, but you don't need one to become a
millionaire if you just do the right thing consistently, dollar
(11:13):
cost averaging into that four oh one k into low
cost index funds, maxing out your roth IRA hopefully each
and every years. That's how you're going to get there.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, let me move real quickly because there's a holiday
season coming up, and these gift cards and I'm thinking
Costco because I'm there all the time and they have rows.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Of you get a great deal.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You buy a gift card, you get one hundred dollars
and you pay seventy five dollars for every restaurant you've
ever heard of. I just saw one for Southwest Airlines
for example. Let's talk about gift cards for the holidays,
restaurant cards, service cards, Disneyland cards, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
So you're talking about gift cards, Like, normally I am
not a big fan of gift cards, but the instance
that you mentioned them in that's when I like them.
When you're getting a discount on a gift card. When
you're able to get seventy five, you spend seventy five,
and you get one hundred dollars worth of value. That's
when I think buying gift cards can make sense. And
then then hey, that's a good gift if there's somebody
(12:11):
you know loves that restaurant or loves that retailer, give
that gift card that you got essentially at a discount.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
But they're when you're trading one hundred dollars bill that.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Can be spent anywhere for one hundred dollars gift card
that can be spent in only one location, That to
me is a bad trade off. And I don't love that,
and I think it seems like it's this intentional, thoughtful gift,
but at times it's just trying to hit the easy button.
And then what you're doing is you're putting yourself in
or the person who's receiving the gift at a disadvantage
because they only have one place they can spend that
(12:42):
money now. And there are examples of companies going bust
and people with gift cards for that restaurant or that retailer, well,
now they're completely out of luck. Like TGI Fridays is
kind of in the middle of filing for bankruptcy Locate.
They've shut down a bunch of locations and in their
filings they have there's fifty million dollars in unspent gift
(13:03):
cards at TGI Fridays that people are holding on to
that are in their underwear d or or something or
that have.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Been completely lost. And this is what you run the
risk of.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think when you buy gift cards is that they
just kind of go unused, they get lost in the shuffle,
and then you know, the retailers happy because they already
made the money, but you, as a consumer, are out
of luck.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And also what I love and I don't buy gift cards.
I don't because I don't give anybody anything. But when
you go to the costco and you spend seventy five
eighty dollars for one hundred dollars worth of of a product,
you've given one hundred dollars gift and it's only cost
you seventy five or eighty dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You see, yes, And this is the time of year
where retailers are more likely to offer discounts on gift cards,
like we're getting really, really close to this thing where
you're going to see some promos, even local restaurants saying hey,
get by two hundred dollars worth of gift cards and
it will only costs you one fifty or something like that.
And so if that's the case, and that's one of
your favorite places, or you know somebody who loves that
place that makes a great gift, you're giving them something extra. Essentially,
(14:03):
they cost you less than the face value. I'm totally
for that. Just be careful. Like spending one hundred bucks
to get a hundred dollars gift card. That's the kind
of thing I think is a loser.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So I think we're going to pick up and we
can't do it now, so maybe next week. The issue
of fraud with gift cards and how I get calls
on Handle on the Law saying Bill, I got a
gift card and there's no money in it. What would happen?
So we'll probably pick that up next week because we're
we're in gift card season. Joel, catch you this Sunday
twelve o'clock for how to Money. Okay, Now I want
(14:35):
to talk about a lawsuit going on. This is a
very interesting, well interesting, it's really troubling to a lot
of people. And this is a case around the publication
of some officer LAPD officer photos on a website called
Watch the Watchers, and the city released the images of
cops in response to a public require records request. So
(14:59):
if you look at the court filings, the city attorneys
argue that the nine hundred cops involved here, whose names
have been kept secret, don't have a right to rename
remain anonymous in a lawsuit over those photos. They're suing,
but they don't want their names being used. The city
originally backed them up and said, you're right.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
These are undercover cops. As soon as their names are released,
they're undercover cops. They're no longer undercover, and they are
at risk.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And the cops are saying, we do not want our
names out there, we don't want our photos out there.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We're just John Doe's officer. John Doe.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well, they've turned the cities turned it around. Now they're
saying the officers don't have the right to be anonymous.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Moreover, the city is now arguing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That again these nine hundred officers, their names so far
have been kept secret. They've asked the judge to order
the identities be disclosed if the lawsuit, their lawsuit against
the city is to proceed.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Matter of fact, the city wants a lawsuit dismissed entirely.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And it has to do with a publication of these
photos on the website Watch the Wasters, Watch the Washer Watchers.
By this quote, journalist Ben Camacho and an activist group said,
stop LAPD Spying coalition. And what these photos do is
they have cops. Do you want to look up cops?
There they are, they're their names, they are their photos,
(16:30):
except you're not allowed to do that. And the Watch
the Watcher folks did exactly that put them up there.
And it used to be that there was already a
public Facebook page for the LAPD Museum where you could
go on and get these photos anyway. That was published
in twenty nineteen. It's a yearbook with names, ranks, assignments
(16:53):
there it is for everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
To see undercover not undercover.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
By the way, that yearbook you can still buy, but
only if you're a cop, a current or a former
law enforcement person. However, the Assistance of the Attorney said
that those were weren't in place as recently as November
twenty twenty two. When the lawsuit was filed, so the
city said, we ain't responsible now for moreover, the city says,
(17:19):
let's talk about undercover the names of real undercover cops,
and we're talking about cops who work deep cover operations
like with outlaw biker gangs or terrorist groups or drug
card tells those guys they're undercover, even to the point
(17:41):
where the cops don't know who they are. Very few
people in the upper echelons of the department know who
they are.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Most have changed how they look.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You know, they dress up as gang bangers, they have
the long hair, their bikers. They get fictitious identities, new
driver's license, new everything.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Those are the only ones we really have to protect.
The rest. It's all out there.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's available anyway, and the cops are saying no, because
by the very release of that information we are at risk.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
We have to move.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
We're getting calls because frankly, people hate the police, which
is true. Unfortunately the police well, and the police had
some real issues. The police were not questioned for many,
many years, and there was a lot of police abuse,
and then it turned over with a Black Lives Matter
movement came in and the police were all horrific human beings,
and all they were were officers who violated people's civil liberties,
(18:41):
civil rights. And now it's swinging back. Welcome to the pendulum.
It's gonna be an interesting lawsuit. And this is where
the city has just Okay, we were fine on Tuesday,
and let's.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Go the other way on Wednesday. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I want to finish up the program with what's happening
at the United Nations.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It's not just the US that's looking at the new
administration coming up. The United Nations and international organizations are
all sweating bullets and bracing. And that's the word that's
being used for the new administration. Four more years of
the Trump administration, and you look back just before becoming
(19:22):
president the first time, he described the UN one hundred
and thirty nine, one hundred and ninety three members as
just a club for people to get together, talk and
have a good time. That's it. By the way, he's right.
In his first term, he suspended funding for the UN
Health and Family Planning agencies, withdrew from the cultural organizations
(19:45):
and the top human rights body, jacked up tariffs on China,
and turned the World Trade Organization's rule book upside down,
and he said, you know, we're the biggest owner of
the United Nations. We paid twenty two percent of the
regular budget and it doesn't do anything, and it doesn't
the United Nations is well. First of all, Trump is
(20:05):
a huge defender of Israel, as you know, and the
United Nations is as about as eight anti Israel as
you can get. The most number of resolutions the United
Nations has passed since its exception happened against Israel. No,
you've got one hundred and ninety three quoit, you got
one hundred and ninety three countries out there. And on
(20:29):
top of the anti Semitism, you also have they love
the underdog, and they are more underdog countries out there
than are not. And they view Israel as kicking the
crap out of the Palestinians, which they have, and they
you view Israel as having occupied the West Bank, which
they have, so you know what, or on different sides.
(20:52):
And then the big issue is UNRUNN and that is
the US funding for the United Nations and this for
Agency for Palestine Refugees, and this is a big one.
Unrah's the organization that actually feeds the Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
It's huge. Thousands of people work for UNRA.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And the problem is is that UNRA, well, it's been
accused of and it has panned out that some members
of UNRA are.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Part of Hamas.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And the accusation is and I buy it, by the way,
that there were members of UNRA that were in on
the attack on Israel October seventh. And so Trump is saying,
you know what, too bad. One thing about Trump, he's
got balls. You know, he's willing to go to fight
with China. He guys, listen, you are not playing by
(21:49):
our rules. You're throwing the tariffs against us. You're making
it very difficult for us to sell to you.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We're not going to.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Take this anymore. And he's the president who's had the
balls to do that. I mean, I totally agree with that. Now,
a couple of things he's done. Pulled out the US,
pulled the US out of the twenty fifteen Pairs Climate Accord.
You know, because climate change is not very big on
his schedule. He still believes doesn't exist. So after he
(22:19):
pulls out of the twenty fifteen Pairs Climate Accord, Joe
Biden gets elected, he puts US back into the Accord.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Trump is going to take us out again of the accord.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Also the UNESCO, the UN backed Human Rights Council, actually
he claimed that they were totally anti Israel and pulled
out of those. Cut funding for the UN Population Agency
for Reproductive Health Services, claimed it was funding abortions.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you know, as far as abortions, you know, you
know where that goes politically. And the bottom line is
that Trump is the first president in many, many years
who does not believe in multi lateralism.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
He is an America firster. That's it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
He is an isolationist and by definition, being an isolationist
means you're not an internationalist.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And that's where we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And it's going to change everything because there is a phrase,
and it is absolutely true when the president, when a
US president sneezes, everybody else in the world gets a cold.
And that is one tree. And I've told you we're
in for And I don't even know how far it's
going to go. I don't know how No, I don't
(23:43):
know how far Trump is going to take. What he does.
Are there guardrails?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
There? Not many.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
He's got Congress, he's got the Senate, and he's got himself,
so we'll see now a few things I think he's
not going to be able to get through. And the
pundits are now going crazy figuring what is it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Anyway, we're done and hopefully my cold gets a little better.
I'll be back again tomorrow. It starts with Amy five
o'clock with wake up Call, and Neil and I come
aboard with Amy from six to nine, and of course
and Conor here and everybody is getting my cold, which
is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So we're all gonna hok and.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Sneeze and kick up some phlem and it's gonna be
delightful around here. It's gonna be absolutely great. You should
see this mic sock. I mean, it is just it's
a piece of art, it really is. This is KFI
AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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