Is the Stock Market Too Smooth? Ep. 120

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Marty and Jess Ansen loved going on cruises so much they opted to cruise indefinitely. I came across an article that said, A retired couple have been living on back-to-back cruises for two years, and claim it's 'cheaper' than if they stayed in a nursing home in their retirement years. Hopefully you’re not feeling our inflation problem quite that much. 

I don’t know about you, but that would be too long a boat for me. Although, I’ve never gone a cruise. Do you think you could live on a cruise ship? I guess it would depend on how smooth or choppy the water was.

From the Wall Street Journal, “Markets are unusually calm—and that’s making Wall Street nervous. Stocks have been on a steady climb, with the S&P 500 up 14% nearly halfway through 2024 and closing at 29 records along the way.” The S&P 500 continues to climb up, and as of this past Monday it’s up 15.22% for the year.

Read more about our financial planning approach here. 

Investment advisory services offered through CreativeOne Wealth, LLC. Clients Excel, LLC and CreativeOne Wealth are not affiliated companies. Licensed Insurance Professionals. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Any references to protection or lifetime income generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying abilities of the insuring carrier. Annuity withdrawals are subject to ordinary income taxes and potentially a 10% IRS penalty before age 59-1/2. Roth distributions are tax free after age 59-1/2 and the account has been open for at least 5 years. This video is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet particular needs of an individual’s situation. Clients Excel is not permitted to offer and no statement made during this show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Clients Excel. The use of logos and/or trademarks of hosting sites are the property of their respective owners and are not an endorsement by those owners of our firm or our program.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Excel in Retirement podcast,
where we help good people makewise financial decisions so that
they may excel in retirementwith confidence.
Learn more at clientsexcel.com.
Now to your host, David Treese.

SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
Welcome back to episode 120 of the Excel in
Retirement show.
I am so excited It is hot andmuggy here in Spartanburg, South

(00:47):
Carolina, but that didn't stopme from getting outside this
weekend.
Went on a couple mountain bikerides over at Croft State Park.
It's a huge state park here inSouth Carolina.
They used to be a militarytraining ground years ago, and
they have miles and miles oftrails, and so it was pretty
muggy out there, but had a great70-minute ride on Sunday

(01:10):
afternoon, about two hours onSaturday, and so It is always
good getting outside.
I love getting outside.
It is good for the soul.
So Marty and Jess Anson, thiscouple from Australia, they
loved going on cruises so muchthat they opted to cruise
indefinitely.
And so I came across thisarticle about these folks from

(01:33):
Australia, and they have beenliving on back-to-back cruises
for two years.
And they say it's cheaper thanif they stayed in a nursing home
or in a retirement community.
Hopefully, you're not feelinginflation quite that much
because these folks werethinking that this was a cheaper

(01:55):
route than staying in some kindof community home or nursing
home or something like that.
They love the convenience ofhaving everything structured and
so forth.
I don't know about you, though,but being on a boat that long, I
don't think that would be forme.
Although I've never gone on acruise.
I don't know if I like cruisesor not, I guess.

(02:16):
I guess it would depend on howsmooth or how choppy the water
was, right?
If it was choppy all the timeand you had to walk around like
you were an astronaut walking onthe moon, I don't think that
would be for me, right?
Something else, though, is goingremarkably smooth.
The stock market.
From the Wall Street Journal, itsays, unusually calm and that's

(02:38):
making wall street nervousstocks have been on a steady
climb with the s&p 500 up 14nearly halfway through 2024 and
closing at 29 records along theway so that article was from
last week and as of this week asof earlier this week on monday
the s&p had uh I had climbed forthe year up to 15.22.

(03:03):
Actually, that was as of theclose last Friday, and it is...
the end of June right now.
And so that's a pretty goodreturn in about six months.
Interest rates are elevated andthe government states inflation
is cooling.
Company revenues are up.
Publicly traded company revenuesare up.

(03:23):
But the interesting thing aboutit is technology giants like
Apple and Nvidia are drivingmuch of the growth of the S&P
500.
And the government's leaving thedoor open for lowering interest
rates later this year.
But who Who knows if that'llhappen?
We are in for quite aninteresting time over the next

(03:43):
six to nine months with theupcoming election and figuring
out how that plays out.
That's going to certainly affectthe economy, I believe, and it
could be some interesting timesas the summer goes on and into
the fall.
Well, a couple years ago, we hadAmelia in swim lessons.
And I'm not sure what went wrongwith that scenario, but she did

(04:06):
not like it.
And Mallory, my wife, she'spretty doggone persistent.
And she insisted on Ameliatrying swim lessons again this
year.
She wants her to be ready forthe beach in a couple weeks and
to be comfortable around thewater.
And we are looking for a housenow.
We looked at a house with a poolrecently.
And I think that that is part ofwhat prompted her to want to to

(04:29):
get the girls swimming as if wewere to find a house with a
pool, wanting them to beproficient at swimming and so
forth.
Ansley, our two-year-old, sheloves it so far.
And Amelia seems to be makingstrides.
She has a swim instructor andthis girl is so patient with her
and has been good for her.
And she has this boy, boy board.

(04:50):
I have a hard time saying thatword.
Boy board or kick board thatAmelia thought was the coolest
thing since sliced cheese.
And she just had to have one.
Well, Amazon fatefully deliveredit on Saturday and she
practically pleaded with us togo to the pool to try it.
It's like she didn't believe itwas going to float.
And And when we told her wedidn't have time to go to the

(05:11):
pool on Saturday, she wanted toknow if she could try it out in
the bathtub.
Well, we finally made it to thepool on Sunday afternoon.
And guess who didn't want to getin the pool after we got there?
It didn't matter if she couldhave sat on top of that board
that wasn't going to sink.
And if she wouldn't have got adrop of water on her, she wasn't

(05:32):
having it.
She wouldn't get anywhere nearthe water hardly.
And Mallory and I just sat thereand scratched our heads trying
to figure out what her deal was.
That didn't really go asplanned.
We thought that she was going tobe all about getting in the
water with this board that wasgoing to help hold her up and
help her float, but she didn'twant to have anything to do with
it when we actually got there.
And that's what we have to lookout for in retirement, right?

(05:55):
When out of the blue somethinghappens that nobody expected.
When we're still working andwe're not using our retirement
savings, we have the benefit oftime for market losses or
unplanned expenses to workthemselves out.
But when a lifetime of savingconcludes and it's time to reap
the benefits of our prudentsavings, things not going as

(06:17):
planned, they can lead to rippleeffects.
And if we haven't madeallowances for those likely
ripples, it can be devastatingto us.
Let's face it, unexpected thingscome up more frequently than we
would like, right?
Will you agree to that?
A couple of weeks ago Mallorygot a nail in the inside wall of
her tire and her car is allwheel drive.

(06:39):
So that meant that if one tireis bad, they all have to be
replaced.
They can't be at different treadwears on the tires.
They have to be equal for thecar to work properly.
And there went$1,000 with littlenotice.
That's what it costs to replaceall the tires.
And this example might be minor.
$1,000 isn't that much in thegreater scheme of things.

(07:01):
But unintended spending inretirement like that or more
costly things may hurt us as weare watching our balances go
down over time.
What we can do when we'regetting ready for retirement to
try to lessen the impact ofthese unexpected things coming
up is ensuring we have anemergency fund of at least six

(07:22):
months of bill paying money.
So figuring out what it takes topay our bills every month and
having at least six months.
If you're an extra cautiousperson and you really like to
pad the situation, maybe leavinga year's worth of bill paying
money in an accessible bankaccount would be helpful.
Then we want to earmark apercentage of our funds for
short term income.

(07:43):
And we normally do that for thenext 10 years.
And all of our other funds arethere to be used for long term
growth.
And so we invest those for longterm growth.
The nuance to these three typesof money is going to vary from
person to person, but it can beimportant to have these three
types of money.
So our emergency money, our next10 years money, and then our

(08:07):
long term money after that.
And We call this our three rolesof money process, and we color
code these types of money.
And I will link in the shownotes to an article I've written
for Kiplinger where you canlearn more about this.
But I'd love to hear from you.
Please reach out whenever youhave an opportunity and let us
know what's on your mind.

(08:28):
I hope you have a great day andcheck out another episode next
week.

SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
Investment advisory services offered through
Creative One Wealth, LLC.
Clients Excel, LLC, and CreativeOne Wealth are not affiliated
companies.
Licensed insuranceprofessionals.
Investing involves risk,including potential loss of
principal.
Any references to protection orlifetime income generally refer
to fixed insurance products,never securities or investments.

(08:57):
Insurance guarantees are backedby the financial strength and
claims-paying abilities of theinsuring carrier.
We'll be right back.

(09:33):
Thank you for watching.
The information and opinionscontained herein provided by
third parties have been obtainedfrom sources believed to be
reliable, but accuracy andcompleteness cannot be

(09:54):
guaranteed by clients Excel.
The use of logos and ortrademarks of hosting sites are
the property of their respectiveowners and are not an
endorsement by those owners ofour firm or our program.