Let's Talk Money

September 23rd, 2023

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and good morning everybody. I'mStephen Bouchet, sitting here live ready to
talk with you, hopefully answer anyquestions you have pertaining to your financial future,
whatever that may be. Folks,give me a call because I would
love, would love to get youpointed in the right direction. I promise

(00:21):
you, I'll give you my honestopinion. Get you when you go to
work on Monday morning or get readyto you know, take care of your
financial business. Hopefully I can helpget you pointed in the right direction.
One eight hundred talk w G Y. That's one eight hundred eight two five

(00:42):
five nine four nine. Any questionswhatsoever? One eight hundred eight two five
fifty nine forty nine. Give mea call. Let's get your questions answered.
And remember there's no silly question,none whatsoever with regards to your financial
future. You really deserve to getthe answers and hopefully know how you can

(01:08):
hopefully retire sooner than later. That'sthat's the key. And when you do
retire, you want to be ableto have that quality of life that you
always dreamt about. You work fordecades decades, think about that, how
many decades you work and you havemuch shorter time period in retirement, so

(01:30):
you want to make sure you canenjoy your retirement years one, eight hundred,
eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine. So
you know, I hate to youknow, the headlines in today's Wall Street
Journal s and P five hundred postsits worst week since March. The cover

(01:53):
of barrens today, A brutal weekfor stocks. What's now? Oh my
god, I know it's It wasone of those weeks, you know,
we had, and well, theFed, we we talked about it for
the last few weeks. What wouldthe Fed do? The Fed did just
what they were expected to do.Nothing, But they continued their tough talk

(02:17):
on how many more interest rate hikesthey plan on having. So they said
one more hike and they expect ratesto be hind through twenty twenty four.
And now, remember, folks,this is a moving target, so you
have to take it at face value. They could change their mind on a

(02:38):
dime. On a dime, theycould change their mind. And a lot
of economists feel differently. They don'tagree with the Fed, but the Fed
has to talk tough. They havethat. They just had to, you
know, so we had that.Obviously, the strikes, the strikes,
the strikes, the strikes. Theunion leverages the biggest asset, and that's

(03:00):
striking companies, whether it be youknow, the writers out in Hollywood Land
or the UAW. The strikes aregoing to affect our economy. It's already
affecting your fall lineup on Netflix orwhatever you're binge watching. You're just not
getting the same quality right because they'rerunning reruns. And then the UAW that

(03:23):
is going to trickle down into theeconomy. And we got so many other
things that happened this week. Oneeight hundred eight, two, five,
five, nine, four nine.Let's go to the phone lines where we
have Allen in Glenville. Hello,Allen, Hey, good morning, Steve.
Great show. Got a couple ofquestions. I'm hoping you could answer

(03:46):
them for me and have them makesense. So, the Fed funds rate
is approximately five and a half tenyear T bill. Let's see his round
four and a half, is it? I assume they go hand in hand,
But there are scenarios where hypothetically theFED funds rate can kind of hold

(04:13):
where it's at, but the tenyear T bill go up to six,
seven or eight percent. And thenthe other thing too, with the feder
Role Reserve unwinding out of their youknow, bonds, Doesn't that put pressure
on the bonds to go lower becausenow there'll be more of a demand.

(04:36):
In other words, rates will haveto go up because the Fed's liquidating the
bond portfolio, but there's not enoughdemand on the opposite side to purchase those
bonds. So intuitively, won't tenyear rates continue to go up? Irrelevant,

(04:57):
irrelevant of the FED funds rate?Like to get your thoughts on that,
and then I have one more question. All right, you have some
good, good questions there. Ironically, my son Ryan, who really is
leading the charge for our investment committee, he and Paulo la Pietra, so
we talked about it yesterday. Isaid to Rhyan, you know, the

(05:18):
ten year hit four point four five, and that was really a nice yield.
We haven't seen it. I haveegg on my face. I said
that when the ten year hit fourpoint two, I didn't think we were
going to see that again, andobviously we had. It went past four

(05:38):
point two, up to four pointthree, all the way this week up
to four point five five. Becauseof the fear that the FED is going
to hike rates again, they won'tjust come out and say Hey, the
eleven hikes we've put in place alreadyare working. They just want to make
sure they make us feel that pain. They're also talking about wanting unemployment rate

(06:02):
to go up, which means millionsof people are going to have to lose
their jobs, which I hope doesn'tplay out. But everything in hindsight's crystal
clear, Allen. So the Fed, the ten year trip note went all
the way up to four point fivefive. As we sit here, it's
dropped down. It's at four pointfour three percent. You can buy a

(06:26):
you know, six month T billat five point five So short term rates
are higher than long term rates.As far as that ten year rate continuing
to go up, at the FEDfunds rate stays where it's at, it
could happen, but I don't thinkit will, Allen. You know,
you know, we'll see, we'llreaddress it. We'll see what the Fed

(06:48):
does when they meet next later inthe year. But if the Fed holds
steady and they don't have any moreincreases, more than likely we've probably seen
the high water mark for the tenyear treasury. But we'll see, And
you know, the Fed does alot of things. They do unwind its

(07:11):
bond holdings, basically reducing the sizeof its balance sheet by selling bonds or
allowing them to mature, and theydo that for a host of reasons,
alan a little inflation pressure and oneof the big reasons that FED may choose
to do this is to combat inflation. However, if they do it too
quickly, it could lead to deflationor economic contraction. Having that right balances

(07:39):
is key interest rates. Unwinding bondsgenerally puts upward pressure on interest rates the
financial markets. Selling off a largeamount of bonds could impact the financial markets.
That FED will generally try to avoidcausing a lot of disruptions in the
bond markets, which could also affectequities and other you know, financial instruments.

(08:03):
The FED has to be They haveto be clear on its communication and
obviously the global impact. The USdollar and US Treasury bonds are global assets.
Any actions taken by the FED canhave repercussions across the world, and
they need to be really careful goback to communicating. They need to make

(08:26):
sure that. Unfortunately, there's politicalpressure. While the FED is supposed to
be independent, a lot of youknow, politicians may try to influence their
decision hopefully, hopefully every FED governorstays true to their their oath, and
they don't. They don't allow anypolitical pressure. So there's a lot of

(08:46):
reasons why the Fed could unwind bonds. Well, we'll see what happens.
As I said, I'm in thecamp that I'm hoping we get another favorable
CPI report next month where inflation isn'ttrending up, but it's basically you know,

(09:07):
holding steady, if not coming down. We've come down a long way
from last June June of twenty twentytwo nine point one percent all the way
down to three percent. So we'llsee in hindsight, we'll be able to
talk Alan and I'll be able totell you if I was right or wrong.
I'm hoping, I'm hoping. Isaid to Ryan yesterday, Ryan,
let's take advantage of these rates.They still may go higher, and that

(09:31):
could happen, but they could alsogo lower. And for clients that we
need to buy some fixed income instruments, let's really take advantage of these rates.
I'm very comfortable with these rates.There's not an investor out there that
if they go and they ladder abond portfolio from three months all the way
out to ten year and get arange of five point five all the way

(09:54):
out to five or I'm sorry,four point four. There's nothing wrong with
that. Rates may go up alittle bit more, but they could also
go down real quick. What wasyour second question? Yes, and on
that point, and again thank youfor answering the first question. As we
enter what I perceive to be astax flationary environment, I actually think we're

(10:18):
in one right now and we haven'tbeen in one probably for forty years.
Just wanted to get your thoughts onwhat is the best instrument financial instrument to
combat that. I'll hang up andlet you have have had it, and
thank you for the show. Steveoh Well, I thank you for calling

(10:41):
in and hopefully I kind of giveyou some of the answers that that that
you're looking for. You know,they basically you're asking good questions. Stack
Flation it's a term. Basically itdescribes a situation where an economy has stagnant
growth, high unemployment, which hopefullywon't happen. Believe me, I want

(11:07):
to see people stay working. Soyou know, the stagnant growth, high
unemployment, and high inflation all atthe same time. It's it's it's not
good. It creates havoc for theFED, and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully
it won't happen. You know,some of the causes of stagflation. You

(11:31):
know, you've got supply shocks,which we know and believe me is uaw
strike is not going to help things, folks. I'm not a fan of
people going out on strike. Iwould like to think that people can really
truly come meet in the middle withoutit disrupting the American consumer. And these

(11:54):
strikes absolutely disrupt the American consumer.You could have reduced productive vid you know,
monetary policy, fiscal policy, theseare all all things that could you
know, kind of lead to stagflation. You know, as far as investing,
you know, if we go intothat period of time, some in

(12:18):
the history obviously everything in hindsight's crystalclear, but history has shown that that
commodities, real assets, tips,treasury, inflation protected securities, some good
dividend paying stocks, energy, naturalresources, defensive stocks, a real good,
solid portfolio of conservative investments works.Hopefully that helps you Allen, Thank

(12:43):
you for calling, Thank you foryour comments. One eight hundred eight two
five, five, nine, fournine. Let's go back to the phone
lines. We have Chris on hold. Hello Chris, Hello sir, good
morning. Two quick topics silver andAI. Just wondering what your take is
is on adding silver to the wellbuy instead of getting getting bars through like

(13:07):
a broker. Is that's something youcan buy on the exchange like shares of
silver. Oh yeah, absolutely youcan, whether you hold listen. Nowadays,
there's really no reason for people togo out and buy hard commodities.
They always say, if you buygold and you keep it under your mattress

(13:31):
when you're at the neighborhood picnic,don't don't go bragging about that because you're
gonna have a lot of neighbors thatmay want to break in when you go
to the stewarts and get your milkand bread and look for that gold.
The same with silver. You don'tneed to do that. You can buy
some really good ETFs that do that, believe it or not. Ironically,
you know, the SMP was downalmost three percent this week, NASTAC,

(13:52):
the composite was down over three pointsix percent. QQQ down three point three
percent. Silver was the number oneperforming sector this week. Chris up two
point zero three percent. So youknow, going back to the tail end
of Alan's question, we were ableto you know, if if stagflation does

(14:15):
come or hard times do come,you know, having some of these these
real assets could help in the portfolio. But I don't think you need to
go out and and and and buythe hard metal you can buy. For
instance, there's there's slv is anETF that tracks the prices silver. You
know, year to date, silver'sdown two percent, gold is up about

(14:39):
five percent. You have the SMPyear to date up about twelve and a
half percent, with dividends about thirteenand a half percent, So it's lagging
the market. But there are timeshere there where silver gold will will do
well. I we do not.We do not own any precious metals outright.

(15:01):
I've watched gold go from two thousanddollars announce in two thousand and eleven,
all the way down to eleven hundreddollars announced, all the way back
up to two thousand dollars announce it. Actually the fifty two week high of
gold was two thousand, forty eightdollars announced. And we we don't have
it in the portfolios. At themoment. Gold trades on fear and greed.

(15:24):
There's no intrinsic value silver. Yougotta be careful as well, but
would I would suggest maybe buying anETF something like SLV if you want to
buy silver. Great question, Chris, thank you for calling it. One
eight hundred eight two five five ninefour nine. Let's go to Tom and
Clipton Park. Oops, Zach,thank you. Tom. Come on back.

(15:48):
I know I guess we lost you. So Tom, come on back.
One eight hundred eight two five fiftynine forty nine. Let's go to
Ron and Leads. Hello Ron,close. See, I'm retired. I
have a ROTH account. I canput seventy five hundred annually. And of
course, and does that money haveto come from my deferred account or can

(16:15):
it be from any money? Yeah? So are you working Ron? No?
No, I'm retired. Yes.So you can't put money in without
having earned income. So unfortunately,even though you may be over the age
of fifty, where the the inYou're right, anybody that's under the age

(16:38):
of fifty, they can put sixtyfive hundred dollars into an into a traditional
or roth ira. If you're overfifty year older this year, you can
do seventy five hundred, but youneed you need earned income. And if
you don't have earned income. Youreally can't, you know, whether it
be income from wages, salary,self employment income. You need some income.

(17:02):
So the only thing you can donow really run is you can always
convert money from a traditional I arrayinto a raw THI ray. So you
can take money out, you'll paytax on it and put it into a
row THI ra. What would bethe pros and constant doing that? We'll
always remember the biggest con is thetax that's due on the amount that you

(17:26):
convert. So if you convert froma traditional to a raw taxes owed,
that's added income. The other conis, depending on what you pay for
Medicare premiums, it could shoot youinto where your Medicare premiums go up,
and also your income tax cracket couldgo up, so be careful before doing

(17:48):
that. Obviously, in New YorkState, you live in New York State,
the first twenty thousand dollars of pensionincome is New York State tax free,
but you still will lower federal taxon that. The pros of doing
it is the money continues to growtax the fur just like it did in
a traditional liarra, and then there'sreally no RMD that you have to take

(18:11):
out, but you have to kindof weigh it out ron to make sure
that it's worked for you to paythose taxes up front now in order to
get the benefit of a grown taxdeferred. We always say the best time
to put money into a roth irais when you're in a very low income
tax bracket. You have time onyour side where that money can grow tax

(18:32):
deferred, turn into a real windfallfor you, and then during retirement it's
all tax free to you. Sothose are the pros and cons. But
unfortunately, you need earned income runand I'm not pushing you to go out
and mow lawns or you know,maybe greet me at Walmart. But Steve,

(18:52):
right now, in my TSP account, I'm putting money into my wrath
from my deferred account. Yes,so that's what you're doing, right,
That's what I'm saying. So you'reconverting money from your TSP into a roth
You can do that with a traditionalira into a roth but you can't contribute

(19:14):
to a roth ira unless you haveearned income. You were your spot other
than my deferred TSP. I can'tcorrect put money in correct not into a
roth ira RA and can I putover and above the RMD because the RMD
doesn't go into roth Well, nowyou're you know that that that RMD isn't

(19:45):
earned income. That doesn't have anythingto do with whether you can put money
into a roth ira. Okay,and the other downside for all right,
Ron, thank you for the call. The other downside for the listening audiences.
If you earn too much money,you can't put money into a wroth
i ray. So you have toreally, you know, check it out

(20:12):
with your your tax preparer, yourCPA, whoever does does your taxes.
But if you earn too much money, you can't put money into a roth
ira. You know, they're abeautiful thing. Anybody who's listening to this
show knows that I'm a fan ofroth iras. I am truly truly a

(20:33):
fan. But if you're single,you know, up to one hundred and
twenty nine thousand dollars you may beable to put money away. If you're
married, filing jointly up to twohundred and four thousand. Now there's there's
there's phase out, so like ifyou're single, you can do a full
full wroth contribution up to one hundredand twenty nine thousand dollars of income,

(20:55):
and then it phases out up toone hundred and forty four thousand if you're
married. From two o four totwo fourteen, there's no contribution limit.
If you earn more than two hundredfourteen thousand, that's your modified adjusted gross
income. So there you have it, folks. I love roth iras.
I mean I've I've said it moretimes than not on this show. If

(21:18):
you qualify for a roth ira,it's one of the best loopholes that IRS
has ever given us. And youshould absolutely take advantage of a roth ira.
Somehow, some way get money intoa roth ira. Don't even think
twice about it. One eight hundredeight two five five nine four nine.
I'm gonna take a quick fifteen secondbreak. I'll be right back. Hello,

(21:47):
thanks for letting me do that.I'm actually today, I'm sitting in
our Saratoga Springs office looking overlooking Broadway. A little cloudy out there. Boy,
what a week we had this weekthough, How folks, what a
week. But I'm sitting on anice iced tea today from the Saratoga Tea
and Honey, they're right downstairs fromus. Actually, Piper Boutique is right

(22:08):
downstairs a great dress shop for youladies. We're right across the street from
the Starbucks location in Saratoga Springs.We're coming up to the bottom of the
hour soon, so the phone linesare open. If you have any questions,
give us a call. One eighthundred eight two five five nine four

(22:29):
nine. One eight hundred eight twofive fifty nine forty nine any questions,
folks, I would love to talkyou. We've had some really, really
good, good questions roth iras.As I said before I took that fifteen
second break, I love them.Unfortunately, you know one of the questions
that Ron had rmds are not consideredearned income for the purposes of contributing to

(22:52):
a roth IRA or any any ira. Earned income basically income received from employment,
self employment, wages, salaries,tips, professional fees. You're listening
to let's talk money brought. Doyou buy bouchef an instriment where we helped
our clients with their prioritize their theirhealth while we manage their wealth for life.

(23:15):
I got tongue tied there. Ifyou have any questions, any questions
whatsoever. One eight hundred eight twofive five nine four nine. See on
the other side. Of the newsbreak. Okay, hello and welcome back,

(23:56):
folks. It's me Stephen Bouche,your host, not one of my
capable colleagues, although I do havea lot of capable colleagues that help me
with the show, and when theydo the show, it's really pretty dynamic.
They really do a great job.But I'm here sitting with you today.
I can't thank you enough for hangingin through the news and for tuning

(24:18):
in today. I really I thankyou so much, so much. We
had a good first half of theshow, a lot of great questions,
and if you have any questions,please feel free to give us a call.
One eight hundred talk w g Yone eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. Any questions,there's no silly question. One eight hundred

(24:41):
eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, give me a
call. So you know, youknow, the Fed came out, they
left interest rates alone. They basicallyreminded us they could hike interest rates before

(25:02):
the end of the year again andthat interest rates more than likely will be
high. And that's one of thereasons why the markets sold off. You
had bond yields go up. Theten year, and Allen and Glennville had
great questions. The ten year yieldwent all the way up, the four
point five five percent settled in atfour point four three. The you can

(25:26):
get a six month now treasury buildfor five and a half percent. Pretty
good yields, pretty good yields.And we're you know, as I said
in the first half of the show, Ryan and I talked about it yesterday,
we can't buy individual bonds for allclients. Their portfolios just may not
be of the size. But forour for our clients that have the assets

(25:49):
where we're able to, we buyindividual bonds, and we're looking to load
up even more with some individual bonds. As I said, it's a good
time, folks at if you're lookingfor a fixed income in the portfolio.
You know, listen, rates couldgo up more. I didn't think we'd
ever see rates this high, butwe did, and that's a good thing.

(26:11):
Take advantage of it, even ifthey go up higher. Don't be
embarrassed. Don't think you cut yourselfshort because you took advantage of the ten
year being four point four percent,or the five year being four point five
six or the one year being fivepoint four six percent. Don't. Don't
feel bad or guilty about that.They may go up more. The key

(26:33):
is you're ladder and a good bondportfolio, and why ladder, Why shouldn't
you just load up on that sixmonth at five point five four percent?
Because when that six month comes towhere will interest rates be? Will they
be lower? Now you have totake those proceeds because they're Uncle Sam's giving
you your money back, and youhave to take those proceeds and reinvest them

(26:56):
into another bond, a new bond. And if interest rates are lower,
you don't want to do that.That's why you don't get greedy when it
comes to investing. If I canteach you anything, don't let greed and
fear dictate your investment diligence. Makesure that you ladder a good portfolio.
We would recommend six months all theway out to a ten year portfolio and

(27:21):
had that that that good solid ladderbond portfolio or CDs if you're if you're
going into a bank, take advantageof these of these yields. And remember
the difference between a CD and thereare some good paying CDs out there,
but you're paying New York State taxon it. Guess what with the US

(27:42):
treasure. You're not paying any statetax, so that, for instance,
the ten year at four point fourfour is actually a little bit higher because
you're not paying state tax on theincome that you earn on it. It's
a beautiful thing when you don't paytax. That's why I like the questions
on roth iraise. I am sucha fan of roth I raise more than

(28:07):
you know it, and if youqualify for a roth ira, please take
advantage of it. So the FEDmore than likely hopefully we're done with any
more rate hikes. I'm in thatcamp, but we'll see. Time,
we'll tell the UAW strike is reallyjust throwing a monkey wrench into the scenario.

(28:30):
You have oil over ninety dollars abarrow. And on the week the
dial fell almost two percent, theSMP down almost three percent, NASTAC more
than three point six percent. Itwas not a pretty weak folks, It
was not a pretty weak whatsoever.Just you know, it is what it

(28:52):
is. It is what it is. The SMP down about five percent from
its peak in August. You know, you got the government shutdown. Yep,
we're talking about that again, theseidiots in Washington. You know,
we should not be talking about thisas often as we do, and whatever,

(29:14):
whatever, wherever it leads. Donot let these bozos in Washington scare
you out of a well diversified,well thought out investment philosophy. Do not
let them scare you out of it. The shutdowns come and go, but
yes, we're still talking about governmentshutdowns. You got the UAW strike,

(29:37):
you got you know, Will's studentloan payment that's resuming. You got oil,
as I just said, over ninetydollars a barrel. Interest rates are
higher. People are feeling kind ofdown and out, especially with the FED
talking about him wanting unemployment rate togo up, where millions of people will

(30:00):
be unemployed. A lot of shortterm pain, but long term, I'm
optimistic. We are optimistic as aas a firm, and that's how we're
invested. One eight hundred eight twofive five, nine four nine. Let's
go back to the phone lines.We have Chris in Vermont, Hello,

(30:21):
Chris, Hi, Steve. I'vewondered how to buy treasuries in a custodial
account or an IRA. My advisordoesn't seem to be offering the same rates
that I get on from whatever sourceI get the daily quotes from CNBC or
whatever. Do I need to seekanother advisor or yeah? Probably for me

(30:49):
to say, right, yeah,yeah, that's right. Yeah, I
guess I didn't quite ask the rightquestion, did I. Oh, I'm
if I'm buying treasuries in a ina custodial account or an IRA, I
don't get the tax advantage when Imake my withdrawals because they become taxed.

(31:12):
I'm also in Vermont, so Imean treasuries or tax exempt from Vermond income
tax where we're bid and IRA?Where are you in in vermont Land?
Roland? Okay? All right,you know so the short yes, you

(31:32):
probably should do need a new financialadvisor because you can buy us treasuries in
an IRA through any financial institution youknow, you know, basically open up
that IRA account you already have oneand and have you know, we're buying
a boatload of treasuries and that itis what it is is My wife likes

(31:53):
to say, it is what itis. There's there's there's you know,
every day the yields changed, somaybe that's what your your advisors is talking
about. But you know it rateschange every day. So depending on unless

(32:13):
you're going to auction where the government'syou know, selling a boatload of let's
say ten year treasury notes. Unlessyou're buying at an auction. There's there's
market rate fluctuations every day. Whatis that bond trading? But for the
most part, it is what itis. You you should be able to
get near that rate whenever you goto buy a treasury What if you buy

(32:38):
a bond in a custodial account andyou're getting a five five percent return and
he's getting point eight to one pointtwo percent management fee on an annual basis,
you're kind of kicking yourself. Oh, that's a different thing. That's
that's a different that's a different scenario. Listen, we our firm, you

(33:02):
know, we do the same thing. But remember a lot of our clients.
They're putting their trust in us toget them maximum yield with as little
risk as possible. And that meansthat we are going out there, we're
putting together a portfolio and it couldinclude US treasuries or CDs in it,

(33:23):
and we do get a management feeon that, but our clients are okay
with that because at the end ofthe data, the total return, including
those fixed income instruments, are givingthem a better return than they may get
on themselves, and we get paidto take the emotion out of the decision
making process. So that's okay.Don't hold that against your advisor. But

(33:46):
if the advisor says that he orshe can't buy treasuries, hold that point
against your advisor. They may begreen new you know, Listen, there's
a lot of people, especially insurancecompanies, high these kids out of college
and the first thing they want themto do is sell a nuities and insurance
products to all their family and friendsbecause the insurance company gets to keep those

(34:10):
products on the books. Now,I don't know what the percent is any
longer, but when I was ontop of it, most of these kids
don't make it more than a yeartwo years into that career because it's so
hard. Well, again, Imay not be asking the question right of
my advisor. I'm probably asking tosee creates and duplicate, duplicate or get

(34:37):
close to what it is offered.Still, go on, I mean,
Chris, go on CNBC dot comand under markets. Just pull up bonds,
you can, you know, that'sthe easiest way. You know,
our clients, we we custody ourclients accounts at Charles Schwab. We listen,

(34:58):
I've been I've benefit Luciery for overthirty years. Back thirty years ago,
Charles Schwab was the biggest and thebest in this world. And they're
still the biggest and the best inthis world. We do not get anything
in return from Charles Schwab. Wecould have our clients accounts at Fidelity,
at Vanguard, anywhere. We choseSchwab because they're the biggest and the best

(35:20):
in our clients. You know,they can see what the what the rates
are. You should be able toget information. I'm not sure where where
your your advisor is working, butyou know, grill grill he or she,
you know, make them, makethem work for you. They're making
money off if you make them workfor you. Right well, they do
do some of the ETF kick backto advisors. I mean, I get

(35:45):
there's this national company that's after meall the time and they tell me that
if my broker's got me in blackRock, that he's getting a kick back.
Is that not true? Yeah?Are they no ETFs? So it's
money Probably the same national company thatwent after one of our clients. One
of our clients called me and said, Steve, I gotta come in.

(36:08):
It's not going to be good,but I have to liquidate my accounts.
I said, oh, really,come on in, let's talk about this.
And long story short, this nationalcompany, the jokers that they are,
made this guy led him to believethat we were doing so much bad

(36:28):
for him and they could do somuch better. They basically lied right through
their teeth. And I pointed outI had ed Wilhelm, my portfolio trader,
do the analysis, put everything together. And this guy was fuming at
this national company. And what upsethim the most was he wanted to talk

(36:50):
to whoever was going to pick hisinvestments. And this bozo on the phone
said, oh no, I'm justthe salesperson. Once you become a client,
you know, we send it andyou get put in with everybody else.
So be careful of these national companies. This national company almost did my
client a real bad this service.But ETFs don't pay commissions. That's why

(37:15):
we use them. You know.We buy ETFs at through Charles Schwab,
we use black Rock, we useVanguard, we use Eye shares. We
don't get paid a commission on that. Now mutual funds pay commissions, and
not all mutual funds. But ifyou buy a mutual fund through a broker,

(37:35):
they're being paid a commission. Butalways remember, Chris, if you're
buying any investment vehicle through your broker, they're making money somehow, some way.
They If they tell you they're notmaking money on you, fire them
immediately because what they're not doing isdisclosing how they're making money. So if

(37:58):
you buy an ETF through your advisor, they will be charging you a fee
above and beyond that or a rapperfee. But they're making money somehow.
But if you go out and buyan ETF, ETFs do not pay commissions.
I didn't mean commission, but thenational company claims that they get a

(38:21):
portion of a like the one percentper year bee that typical advisors that I
think this was black Rock they werereferring to. But on the other hand,
you know what I'd love to haveyou do. I'd love I'd love
to have you call me in theoffice and and let's call this eight hundred

(38:42):
number of this national advisor. Let'sreally I wish we could see him because
I'll have him sweating bullets when Iget done with the questions I ask of
them. If you're up to itthis week with me a call. Okay,
where's your offices again? Historic downtownTroy and served Joga Springs. But
we have clients in thirty four states, so we and we have a lot

(39:05):
of clients in Vermont. Yeah,all right, let's call you this week.
Thank you, all right, Chrispe Well amazing. I've just amazed
at the sales tactics out there.I guess as a fiduciary, we we
disclose off these were really fully transparent. There's no fooling around with us,

(39:30):
no fooling around at all. Iam so proud of how we work with
clients. We signed out a coupleof new clients this week and I looked
them each in the eye and Isaid, when you put your trust and
faith in me and my team tomanage your wealth, it's something that I
don't take lightly. I've I've surroundedmyself by nineteen professionals, and the top

(39:59):
qualification to work for this firm isyour values, your ethics. You need
to care for clients like I do. And I've taught each and every one
of them, all nineteen of them. I've taught how to take care of
their clients and how to work withthe clients. I mean, I have
a lot of experience. I gottwice as much experience as is my most

(40:22):
senior advisors. So I have alot that I can teach, teach my
team and coach them and mentor them. But the one thing, if you
want to work with our firm,you have to have the same value in
ethics that I have, or youdon't have a shot. One eight hundred

(40:45):
eight two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eight two five fifty
nine forty nine. Any questions,folks, give me a call. Hopefully
I can get you pointed in theright direction or at least give you something
to talk over with your advisor.Or if you're doing investments on your own,
maybe rethink should you be doing iton your own? So any questions

(41:07):
at all. One eight hundred eighttwo five fifty nine forty nine. So
you know, yesterday not a goodday. You know, the SMP was
all the in Texas were down yesterday. As I said, the SMP down
two point nine percent for the week. NASTAC, you know, down three

(41:29):
point six two percent QQQ, whichis when you buy NASTAC, you're actually
buying one hundred largest companies through anet have called q q Q that was
down three point three percent for theweek. The ten year bond as I
been talking about up to four pointfour four percent almost yields. You know,

(41:51):
since since the FED came out onWednesday after their two day meeting the
FED Open Market Committee, where ChairJerome Powell basically he let the world know
that the doors open. There couldbe another interest rate height coming, and
central banks, you know, willwill be expected to keep rates higher for

(42:14):
longer than than than some people thought. But that's a moving target. I
can't stress that enough. I'm inthe camp that they they they don't need
to go up like that, thatthe FED will will will be done.
I'm in that, and I'm inthat camp. So you know, as

(42:36):
they said, the SMP is downfive percent from its peak, and there's
a lot of things. You knowthis listen. Nobody wants a government shutdown
or a strike, but you know, both of these will may happen and
will pass. Hopefully the shutdown won'thappen. You know, usually the people
that we elect to represent us asthe people of this great country of ours,

(43:04):
they usually take us right up tothe edge of the cliff and then
all of a sudden they find amiraculous way of not having a shutdown where
this great country of ours doesn't payits bills. And I'm hopeful, but
we're gonna, We're gonna, We'regonna live through the nonsense and the talk
about that is for as far asthe strike goes, Folks, I think,

(43:28):
I think this ua W strike isin for a while. This is
not going to be resolved. Listen. The UAW wants forty percent pay hike.
The big three automakers, GM,Ford and still Aires, they're they're
they're at twenty percent. Will theymeet in the middle somewhere. Listen.

(43:50):
It's a hefty, hefty package,and the UAW is going through the juggular.
They're They're biggest ass that they canleverage is having the workers go on
strike, so that everybody listening justabout will be affected by whether it be
higher prices for used cars, notbeing able to get your car repaired because

(44:15):
you can't get parts, not beingable to order a new car. This
strike is not good. No strikesare good. How about how about the
writer's strike out Glamorous Hollywood. Youknow that's been going on since early summer,
and you know listen. With artificialintelligence, I'm guessing you can just

(44:38):
go and put in Yellowstone and it'llcome up with a pretty darned good storyline.
Artificial intelligence is a really scary thing. AI is here to stay,
and you know the writers are scaredabout that. So listen. Technology changes
everything. But these strikes aren't good. Will the student loan repayments, you

(45:01):
know, will it be noise ora problem we'll see. Or the price
of oil is up because supplies,you know, listen, the Sauty production
cuts are real and probably through theend of the year. So oil oil
is up, not good. Gasolineis up, and this hits the consumers

(45:22):
wallets the hardest, the hardest.You know. Even Jay Powell said that
the price of gas that takes thattakes that food takes more money out of
the consumer's pocket than anything else.The food and energy and gasoline is up.

(45:44):
Remember a couple of years ago,gasoline was closer to two dollars a
barrel. A year ago was closeto five dollars a barrel, and here
we are almost four dollars. I'msorry a gallon, a gallon, a
gallon, four dollars a gallon.You know what's the cure for high oil
prices. You know, basically youneed supplying demand. You can't have production

(46:07):
comps. Will the White House cuta deal with OPEK hopefully, you know,
the outcome is unknown. Well,we'll see. Household spending on energy,
you know, is still fairly low, but but it's high oil.
You know, oil is is notfun when when the price of oil is

(46:34):
going up like it is. Andhigher interest rates, Hey, listen,
that's affecting mortgage rates, costs ofall loans. It's putting pressure on companies,
especially growth companies, technology companies.Higher interest rates hurts the future cash
flow projections of these companies, andthe stock market gets a little crazy,

(46:59):
a little volatile. You know.Listen, We'll see what happens. I'm
in the camp that the Fed willnot reach their two percent inflation target rate.
I just don't know how they canwhen you think that the ninety year
history for inflation, the historical rateis three point four percent. But the

(47:22):
Fed got kind of spoiled over thelast fifteen years after the Great Recession,
interest rates were low, inflation wasalmost non existent. I don't think two
percent is realistic. I think threepercent is more realistic. We'll see what
happens. Folks, you're listening toLet's Talk Money, brought to you by
Bouche and Andrew Group, where wehelp our clients prioritize their health while we

(47:45):
manage their wealth for life. Goto our boot our website Bouche dot com
Bouche y to get more information onus and my team. I'm surrounded by
nineteen amazing, well well talented professionals. I hope you come back tomorrow morning.

(48:05):
I'll be here eight am. Inthe meantime, enjoy this day and
stay healthy. Thanks for listening.