Let's Talk Money

February 15th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hello, and welcome folks this Valentine's weekend. Happy Valentine's Day
and everybody out there, let's celebrate at the entire weekend.
And I'm Stephen Bouchet. You have me on radio this
entire weekend, so it's nice to be back with you.
I took last weekend off truly surrounded by colleagues that

(00:37):
can fill in for me, and it's a beautiful thing.
But I thank you for tuning in today. I thank
you for tuning in every Saturday at ten Sunday at eight.
I can't thank you enough. If you have any questions,
any questions whatsoever, the phone lines are open. I would
love to talk to you. One eight hundred and eight
two five five eight hundred eight two five fifty nine

(01:02):
forty nine, any questions whatsoever, one eight hundred talk w GY.
So we had a good week in the markets, you know,
it was all all the indexes were up, including the
Russell two thousands. So that was a good thing. You know,
we started off the week. You know the White House.
Believe me, President Trump is not afraid to use tariffs

(01:28):
as a negotiating tool. And I say that because a
lot of people get freaked out and nervous about terriffs.
I think President Trump is really using them to make
sure that this great country of ours gets treated fairly
and not taking advantage of So when he uses tariffs,
he's using tariffs so that other countries realize they can't

(01:50):
pull the wool over our eyes anymore. And we've had
that happen a lot. So, you know, the beginning of
the week, the White House levy to twenty five percent
tariff on steer and aluminum imports starting on March fourth.
You know, metal prices rose stocks fell. Reciprocal tariffs in April. Basically,

(02:11):
any country that tariffs us, we're going to tariff them.
And that's fair, right, what's wrong with that? So don't
get don't get too nervous. And I say that because
I don't get nervous about it. I kind of, you know,
as I said, he's a businessman and he's using these
tariffs to make sure that we get our fair share,

(02:33):
that we're not paying more than we should pay. And
there's nothing wrong with that. One of the reasons why
I'm optimistic on the economy. I don't think these tariffs
are going to hurt us as much as some people
think and I think some of these terrffs may diminish,
but we'll see in hindsight, everything's crystal clear. You had
President Trump talking to Russian you know, President Putin promising

(02:56):
to end the Ukraine War while the Defense Secretary is
you know, basically saying that the US will no longer
prioritize European security once again. If he gets this war
settled between Ukraine and Russia, that'll be a huge positive.
That'll be a good, good thing, and I'm pretty sure

(03:20):
he'll get it done. You know, he's not afraid to
go toe to toe, nose to nose with any leader
around the world, and that's you know, that's that's a
sign of strength. There's a lot of countries that just
didn't believe we were as strong as we really are.
And Trump's going to make sure that this country doesn't
get taken advantage of and make sure that other countries

(03:41):
pay their fair share, especially when it comes to security.
So you got a lot going on overseas, and you know,
then we had an inflation number coming in hotter than expected,
three percent. The FEDCE target is two percent. Well, you know,
you can blame it on eggs. Listen, eggs are over
five dollars a dozen. Who would ever think there's some

(04:03):
stores that are selling eggs three at a time. Eggs
that was a staple, you know, a lot of diets,
breakfasts and everything else. But the price of eggs is
up a whole lot more than inflation. So for the
week you had to dial up about six tens of
a percent. The s and P up one point five percent,
Nastack composite up two point six percent, and QQQ, believe

(04:27):
it or not, was up two point nine percent, almost
three percent QQQ. And that's a beautiful thing for our clients. Anyway,
Our clients own a lot of QQQ as much as
the broad stock market. It's one of our core holdings.
And as I say, often it will be into I'm
either mentally incompetent and they dragged me out of the

(04:50):
office or you know, I'm not able to wake up.
I like Nanstak. Nansdak's been part of our portfolio for
a long time, and there's nothing wrong. Believe me, folks.
It's a more volatile asset class then let's say the
broad stock market index. That means when the stock market

(05:10):
goes up, you'll see NASDAC over time has outperformed the market.
But when the market goes down, NASDAK goes down as
well because it has so many growth companies. I call
it our technology slant on the portfolio. He's almost sixty
percent of companies in those you know, the one hundred
largest companies in the Nasdaq composite. That's why they call

(05:33):
it the Nasdaq one hundred. It's the hundred largest companies QQQ.
When you buy QQQ, you're not buying the entire Nasdaq composite.
You're just buying one hundred largest companies, and about sixty
percent of those are technology. So we look at it
as the growth side of our business and over time,

(05:53):
once again, our clients understand that when there's volatility, they
may see more volatility in their portfolios because of it.
But one of the reasons why we've had such stellar
returns is because we're not afraid to have some growth
in the portfolio to have a slant towards technology, which
were overweight. I think technology isn't going away, and I

(06:16):
believe in technology. The technology companies of today that make
up NASDAK are a whole lot different than the technology
companies twenty five years ago, the silver anniversary when we
had the dot com bus at the turn of the century.
Twenty five years ago. Doesn't seem possible. It's spent twenty
five years, but it is. It's spent twenty five years.

(06:38):
And you know, the market went down and NASDAC went down,
but a lot of the companies that were in NASDAC
back then they disappeared. NASDAC today is a pretty pretty
solid indeck. When you look at the at the companies
that make up you know, the top holdings of NANA today,

(07:00):
they are really just solid, solid holdings and nothing to
be afraid of. We're not afraid of it. When you
look at you know, the top ten holdings, you know,
they make up half of NASDAK. You got Apple, the Video, Microsoft, Amazon, Broadcom,
Meta which is Facebook, Tesla Costco, you know a great company, Netflix, Google,

(07:26):
Those are the top ten holdings and all of those companies.
So when you buy qqq, the top ten, those top
ten account for fifty percent of the NASDAK. So when
you're buying QQQ, you're really getting a good allocation towards
those top ten companies. And a lot of those companies

(07:49):
are what we call the Magnificent seven. Once again, these
Magnificent seven companies have done extremely well and there's nothing
to be afraid of them. Sure they've done better than
the overall market, yes they have, but it's there's good
reason why. You know, Apple has one of the most
loyal customer base out of any any retailer. And they're

(08:13):
not just in the selling iPhones, iPads, watches. They're into
so many other services. It's our number one holding Amazon.
Same thing, when you buy Amazon, you're not just buying
somebody who's going to ship you groceries or clothes or
whatever you order on Amazon within the next day or two.
You know, they're in the web services, They're in a

(08:35):
whole lot of different things other than just you know,
shipping items that you need that you can return if
you don't like. So those are our top two holdings
in our portfolios, and I'm very comfortable having those. So
you got Apple as the number one holding in NANSDAC
represents about nine percent and the video represents just over

(08:56):
eight percent. Microsoft about seven and a half percent, in
Amazon just about six percent of NASDAK. So when you're
buying QQQ, you're really getting some good companies. If you
don't want to buy individual stocks, you can buy QQQ,
and it's almost like you're buying those individual stocks because,
as I said, the top ten holdings of NANSDAK can

(09:18):
count for fifty percent fifty percent of QQQ. There's nothing
wrong with that. So yere to date, so we had
a good week in the markets. All the indexes were up,
including the Russell two thousand. Now, hold on to the
seat of your pants. I told you QQQ was up
two point nine percent. Russell two thousand was up point

(09:40):
zero one percent, point zero one percent, So you didn't
make a whole lot of money in Russell two thousand,
but it wasn't down. And we need that index to
start shining because that means that the entire mid caps
and small caps are taking part in the rally. So
here to date you have the Nasdaq Composite up three
point seven percent. QQQ is up five point two percent.

(10:04):
So those hundred largest companies you're to date up five
point two percent. S and P five hundred up four percent,
the Russell two thousand up two point two percent. It's positive,
not as not doing as good as the broad stock market,
or as there's back one hundred but still doing good.
If you look at the rest of the world, the

(10:25):
rest of the world without this great country of ours,
so all the other countries and the developed nations up
six point nine percent, first time that we've seen that
outperform the SMP. Now does that mean I'm looking to
RUSSI into international holdings. Absolutely not. I feel that we

(10:47):
we get great value in stocks that we buy, so
we aren't invested overseas. I don't know if we'll get
back into foreign investments, but now as I sit here,
we don't have any plans to get back into foreign
investments anytime too soon. And emerging markets are actually outperforming

(11:09):
the broad Stock Market Index up four point six percent
compared to the SMP. You're to date up four percent.
So there you have it. Those are the major indexes.
So it was a nice week with a lot going
on on the individual stock side of things. You know,
Trump paused Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement for six months,

(11:31):
gave Elon Musk his partner in crime, who's overseeing DOGE
the you know, basically, you know, Elon Muskers is in
charge of hiring and firing across the government, and he
is really shaking things up. We have a lot of
waste in our government. And if you're a federal worker,

(11:52):
a couple of things have happened over the last few weeks.
One you can't work from home anymore. You're coming into
work or you won't have job. And two you may
not have a job anyway, because if those feels that,
you know, there's unnecessary jobs out there. If there's waste,
he's going to cut especially when it comes to the IRS.

(12:13):
You had the last administration that wanted to hire eighty
seven thousand new IRS enrolled agents, and right now this
administration is firing people in the IRS. So there's a
lot of there's a lot of trimming, and that's not
a bad thing. Folks. Whether you like Trump or not,
I really it doesn't matter to me whether you like

(12:35):
him as a person, whether you like him as a Republican,
it doesn't matter. What matters is he's looking at this
country like a business and we haven't had that in
quite some time. And there's nothing wrong with that. Good
business people make smart decisions. Because he is going to
run this country like a business. And if there's waste,

(12:57):
guess what the waste is going to go away or
be trimmed. Down.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
We have it.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Listen, we're thirty six trillion dollars. There's twelve zeros at
the end of one trillion. Think about that, thirty six
trillion dollars. And every year we're growing our deficit by
trillions of dollars. We can't go on doing that, folks.
We will be bankrupt as a country. So it's time

(13:24):
that we really take a look at it. And that's
that's really what this administration is doing, and that's what
Elon Musk is doing once again. You know, it's all good,
I think, and this is why I'm not afraid of
the tariffs. I'm not afraid of what's going on in Washington.
I think it's going to play out to be refreshing
for this country. The Justice Department this week told Apple

(13:47):
and Google it wouldn't be prosecuted for restoring TikTok to
its app stores. So for you TikTok fans, go and
download the app or you want on Apple and Google platforms,
you can do that. The Wall Street Journal reported the
White House was, you know, basically looking at folding the
FDIC into Treasury once again, trimming meta platforms, which is

(14:11):
Facebook twenty days in a row, it's been up twenty
days in a row. Go Who would ever think you know?
It was huge? Folks. I'm gonna take a quick fifteen
second break. The phone lines are open. If you have
any questions, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. One

(14:33):
eight hundred eight two five five nine, four nine, one
eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. There
we go, little music, a little break. Thank you, folks

(14:53):
for letting me wet my whistle. As I said, the
phone lines are open. I would love to talk to you.
One eight hundre under eight two five five nine four
nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions whatsoever, give me a call. Anything I can
help you out with pertaining to your financial situation. I

(15:15):
like to say you get one opportunity to retire. And
you know this isn't a cardinal rule, but if you're
not saving ten to fifteen percent of your paycheck and
you haven't done any serious financial planning, more than likely
you're not saving enough, folks. And I know ten to
fifteen percent sounds like a lot, but I can assure
you try it if you're only saving three, four or

(15:38):
five percent go into work on Monday and let hr
know you want to do ten percent or better, yet
fifteen percent. I assure you, for the first few paychecks
you will not like my advice because you're going to
have less money to spend on frivolous things. But after
a few paychecks, listen, we we it's human nature. We

(16:02):
get used to spending what we have in our pocket
or in our checking account, right, you get used to
spending that. So if you have less money there, you'll
still spend what you have. But the key is you're
paying yourself first. You're saving money towards retirement. There's nothing
worse than making it to retirement age and not being

(16:23):
able to retire. If you're relying on social Security, you
know this year, the average social Security check is about
fifteen thousand dollars a year, So if you're married, you
know your in your spouse maybe thirty thousand dollars a year.
Some people will be less, some people will be more,
but that's not the average. So if you need more
than thirty thousand dollars a year to retire on, you've

(16:44):
got to draw from your savings. That means you have
to all those decades that you were working, you need
to start putting some of that money away. That's why
it's important to save. So go into work and tell
your business office you want to save warren to your
pension plan, especially if they're matching. For instance, if you

(17:05):
have a match up to six percent of your salary,
that's free money, folks. There's nothing better than taking money
from the boss. And if the boss is willing to
give you an incentive to save for retirement, take advantage
of that, that's like a raise. And if you're only
saving two to three percent and the incentive is up

(17:25):
to six percent, which is on average what most matches are,
make sure you're at least taking advantage of that match.
But try to do ten to fifteen percent. If you're
not doing that, much more than likely you're not doing enough.
One eight hundred eight two five, five, nine four nine.
Let's go to the phone lines where we had Ron
in Queensberry. Good morning, Ron.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Good morning Steve. How w you?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm doing great?

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, I just wanted to give you a little updable.
First of all, the four or three B has been
set up for for my daughter, and fifteen percent is
going in there, and Ed in your office has has
given given me, you know, a great advice in terms
of where where to put it. So we we're good there,

(18:16):
and it's fifteen percent out of a paycheck. So so
that's that's really good. I don't even since I've been
joining you, I don't even look at c NBC. I
don't care what's going on. So so I'm very very
pleased that we we got a chance to join your company.
And so, you know, not now I don't even care anymore.

(18:36):
So but one quick question she had that we also
set up a taxable Schwab account, and so she right
now the CD came came to do, so we put
it into the Schwab cash uh uh And and so

(18:57):
Ed gave us, uh, you know to because we already
set up where it goes. But now she has this
money in cash. And so there's two funds, which is
Q is one of them. And my question to you is,
regardless of what the market is doing on Tuesday morning,

(19:19):
should we just you know, put everything into those two
funds that he gave us and don't even look where
the stock market is right now?

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Is that for your daughter?

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yes? It is, yeah, yeah, yeah, as far as as
far as that's me, me, and and and my wife.
No no, I don't even look at the stock market. No, no, no.
Then he takes care of that for me, so I don't.
I don't care. So you know, it's it's the other
it's it's strictly for my daughter.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
So I'm telling you, Ron, Yeah, you're like the best
or so I could possibly have promoting my firm. So, folks, Ron,
Ron has been a long time listener, became a client
and within the last few months, and you know, we
helped Ron out with his daughter and he put us

(20:15):
trust in us. He came into the office. And now
because Ron's a client, we still continue to help his
daughter and we do that a lot. Ron for our clients,
whether it be for their children or their grandchildren. We
you know, we met with a family this week and
we told them, listen, your children and you know, when
they graduate from college, and your grandchildren when they get

(20:37):
to that age, use us. We have. There's a reason
why I'm surrounded by twenty professionals. That's because I continue
to invest in my firm and invest in human capital
so that we can better serve our clients. So Ron
is a is a client, and Ron that's that's what
we do. So Tuesday morning. Yes, believe me, it sounds

(21:00):
good the dollar cost average, and if you're lucky, maybe
it works. If you're unlucky, maybe it won't work. But
it feels good. But I can show you a lot
of statistics that show putting that money in, getting that
money to work is better for you than dollar cost averaging,
especially since the Great Recession ended over fifteen years ago.
Seventeen years ago, you know, the Great Recession ended where

(21:24):
the stock market was down fifty percent. You know, we've
had an unbelievable fifteen years and the average returns in
the stock market have been so much better than long
time over the last ninety to one hundred years. So
it's been a good run. And if you've been invested,
you did well in if you put your money in
ONMP sum. So what happens ron, Let's make believe your

(21:46):
daughter goes all in on Tuesday, because the markets are
closed Monday for the holiday. So if your daughter goes
in on Tuesday, if the market has a correction on Wednesday,
your daughter has time for that market to recover. I'm
not worried about your daughter going into the market putting
that money in and at her age. Listen, at my age,

(22:07):
I'm one hundred percent invested in the stock market. At
her age, there's absolutely nothing wrong being invested. And if
you're just going to have two holdings, I would choose
either the Total stock Market Index. We use the swab
Rug stock Market Index SCHB is the symbol, and sometimes

(22:27):
we use the Vanguard Total Market which is vas in
Vanguard TIVTI. They both measure the same thing, and it's
a little better than the SMP. We feel because with
the SMP you're just getting the five hundred largest companies.
With the total stock market, you're getting not only the
largest five hundred, you're getting the next four hundred, which

(22:51):
is considered the mid Camp index. And then you're getting
the next six hundred companies, which is considered the small
Camp index. So that's why we like that. But yeah,
I would, I would go in. Don't even think twice,
you know, I think that's that's the way to go.
Folks were coming up to the bottom of the hour.
Ron thank you for calling. You're listening to Let's Talk Money,

(23:13):
brought to you by a Bouchet Fin answer group, where
we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage
their wealth for life. Please, if you have any questions,
any questions whatsoever, give me a call. I would love
love to talk to you. And the phone mines are
open one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.

(23:34):
You can call during the news break one eight hundred
eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
I'll see you right after the newsbreak, Folks.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'm just very good boys. Sometimes I hate to interrupt
the music. Zach Harres, my longtime producer, does an amazing
job with producing our show and giving you some nice
tunes to listen to. Folks, Thank you for tuning in.
It's Valentine's Day weekend, so make sure you share the

(24:27):
whole weekend with your sweetie pie he or she and
just enjoy each other and celebrate the whole weekend. You know,
Valentine's may have fallen on a Friday, but you got
Saturday and Sunday to enjoy each other. Why you know
why ended that on Friday? Right? Happy Valentine's Day weekend.

(24:50):
Thank you for tuning in. I can't thank you enough
for tuning in. I love I love doing the show.
I am with you this weekend, and I would love
to talk to you. I'm not sure we can help do.
Ron who who was a client who called in and
just you know, praised our firm, and that makes me
feel so good. We try to do such an awesome

(25:12):
job on behalf of our clients. We really care for
our clients. We take care of our clients like there's
no tomorrow. As you know, we had a couple initials
this week and I told prospective clients of my money
is invested just like our clients. And it's just a

(25:33):
beautiful thing to be able to say to a client,
you're invested just like I am. I wouldn't listen. I'm
a foodie. I love to cook. I couldn't imagine inviting
you to dinner and cooking something different for me than
I'm cooking for you. We're going to eat the same meal, man,
jaman Jamanja right, we're going to invest together as well.

(25:54):
I wouldn't have my money invested any other way other
than right alongside my clients, and that's important. There's a
lot of wealth advisors out there that don't do that.
The only difference is, you know, my investments are one
hundred percent investment in the stock market, I'm very comfortable
with the stock market. I could care less if the
stock market goes through a correction or you know, bear market,

(26:17):
because it always recovers. So as long as I don't
panic and have any neat jerk reactions, which I don't.
Thirty five years in business, thirty years with you on
the radio, I've been advising the listening audience for thirty
years on radio. Doesn't seem so long. Some people get tired.
I don't get tired. I get energized coming in because
I know I'm helping you. I know, you know when

(26:41):
people come in and they say, I've been listening to
you for a long time, and I truly, you know,
respect what you say. And when callers like Ron, after
listening for a long time, finally came in, kicked the tires,
looked under the hood like what he heard, liked our story,
like how we work with clients, and then for him

(27:01):
to praise us like he did, that's the best compliment
that a client can can give us, that in referring
family or friends to us. So the phone lines are open, folks,
and if you have any questions. One eight hundred eight two, five, five, nine,
four nine, one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine
forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, I would love to talk

(27:24):
to you. So first half of the show we recap
what went on last week. A couple things this week. Monday,
Remember sleep in, don't get up and check your portfolio.
I guarantee you you will not lose anything on Monday
because the markets are closed. Both stock and fixed income
markets are closed on Monday. So I guarantee you you're

(27:47):
not going to lose any money on Monday. No matter
what you think, I guarantee you you won't lose any
money on Monday. That's a beautiful thing. Boy, I sound brilliant,
don't I I like being able to give those guarantees. Tuesday,
we got earning season winding down. We got about forty

(28:07):
of the five hundred companies that make up the SMP.
They're going to report this week, and you know a
lot of the big companies have already reported. On Wednesday,
you got the Federal Open Market Committee releases the minutes
from its late January Monetary Policy meeting, and that's always
nice to see what the Fed said in their meetings.

(28:29):
So that'll be released on Wednesday. We'll see what they're thinking.
On Friday, we got a couple more reports. You got
the SMP Global releases both its manufacturing and Servicing purchasing
managers in decks for February. The estimate, we'll see what happens.
Come back next weekend. I'll tell you if they were

(28:50):
writer or not. The estimate is for a fifty one
point one reading for the manufacturing PMI and a fifty
three services PMI. That compares with readings of fifty one
point two and fifty two point nine, respectively in January.
Then you had the National Association of Realtors reports existing

(29:11):
home sales for January. Economists forecast to seasonally adjusted annual
rate of about four point one three million homes sold
about one hundred thousand fewer than in December. And listen,
in twenty twenty four, existing home sales hit their lowest
level since nineteen ninety five. Mortgage rates are up, folks. Listen,

(29:34):
we lived in a time where if you were saving money,
you weren't being paid anything on your savings. You were
buying CDs and bonds paying next to zero, and mortgage
rates were, you know, two to three percent. It didn't
get any better than two to three percent. Now you

(29:54):
got interest rates. Listen, you can buy a US tenure
Treasury yielding almost four point five percent of one year
yielding four point two percent. Money market accounts are yielding
over four percent, and mortgage rates are close to seven
percent depending on what type mortgage you get, And that's
really one of the biggest reasons a lot of people

(30:16):
can't afford to buy a home because mortgage rates, you know,
just going from two to three percent to closer to
seven percent in the mortgage. You know, you're you're adding
one hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to your monthly
payment just because mortgage rates are up. So there's a
lot of people that can't afford to go out and

(30:37):
buy that home that they wanted to buy, and a
lot of people that maybe were buying second homes put
it on hold because the mortgage rates are so high
they just want to wait till it comes down. I'm
not sure how much it's going to come down. I
thought we were going to have more cuts, but we
had a hotter than expected inflation report this week, and

(30:59):
the Fed, I think is going to seriously you know, look,
we've at their last meeting. They pause. So we had
eleven interest rate hikes and then we had followed by
three cuts at the end of last year. In January,
they paused. That means they didn't cut nor did they
raise interest rates. Because they're looking at things. Inflation is

(31:22):
coming down. Remember it was nine point one at its
peak a few years ago and down. You know, right
now we're hovering around three percent. The Fed wants to
get it down to about two percent. Why. I have
no clue, folks, when you look at inflation over the
last ninety hundred years yielding around three point four percent,

(31:45):
absolutely definitely over three percent. Why does the Fed have
a two percent target in mind? Because they got spoiled
they're supposed to listen. These are economists that really never
left college. They had their nose stuck in their textbook,
still looking at data, and haven't helped them lift their
head from their nose. You know, remember when they thought

(32:07):
inflation was transitory and inflation was hitting nine point one
percent because they had their nose stuck in the textbook.
These are economists. There's a reason why corporations don't like
to hire economists because, you know, as Truman says, show
me on one handed economist, it's it's always on one
hand this and on the other hand that it's the
way it is. Truman nailed it there. An economists will

(32:33):
not give it to you straight. It just they just
don't know how to give it to you straight another
you know. Listen, we talked a little bit about about
the the Elon Musk and Doge. He is actually questioning,
how do people that have been that have been in

(32:57):
public service their entire life, not making much money, how
do they have tens and tens and tens of millions
of dollars networth? How do you do that when you're
making just a nominal salary working for the government. You
have to scratch your head. Maybe Elon Musk is onto something, folks. Listen,

(33:21):
I've been managing money for clients for thirty five years,
helping clients for almost forty years. I know what it
takes to become rich. You have to put money away
and invest it in the right way. And if you're
just making a nominal salary, you're not able to You
can't accumulate that kind of wealth. And Elon Musk is

(33:43):
going after these politicians, God bless him. He should be
going after these politicians. There is something to be said
about term limits where there's nothing wrong with business people
getting into politics and getting out. Let them go back
to running their businesses. Business people know how to run business.
Business people know how to run a government, not long

(34:06):
term politicians who can care less about us. They spend
our money. They spend our money like drunken salors in
a port. So another quote that Harry Truman had, you
can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. Let
that sink in if you're against Elon Musk going in

(34:29):
to look at how did these politicians get so rich.
You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. Boy.
I sound negative, don't I? But it's a true folks,
it's the truth. Don't be offended by the truth. There's
a lot of good that's going to come out of

(34:49):
looking under every rock, every stone, and that's what those
is going to do. And if we can cut our
deficit and trim that thirty six tr dollars, that's how
much we're in debt, and with higher interest rates, believe me,
with that hotter than expected inflation report, you know the

(35:11):
Fed made pause again. They may not be cutting which
means mortgage rates are going to stay in the six
to seven percent range, maybe a little over seven percent,
depending on where you get your mortgage. That makes it
expensive to buy home, makes it expensive to buy a
second home. First time home buyers are struggling. And this

(35:33):
is why more and more people are renting. This is
why you're seeing so many apartment complexes going up. Just
look at historic downtown Troy. How many apartment complexes are
are going up. And I'm going to upset some people
when I say this, I am not a fan of
pilot programs. You know, payments in lieu of taxes. That

(35:56):
means that a lot of these developers, they cry poor
mouth and these suckers that are running the IDAs that
have no clue, none whatsoever, are giving these developers pilot
programs because they promised, oh, we're going to be good
for your economy. We're going to in the historic downtown Troy,

(36:18):
no less where people would love to have. You know,
the historic downtown Troy is coming back, and we're giving
out these pilot programs left and right in lieu of taxes.
And those suckers like me who are paying their fair
sheriff taxes because I own an expensive brownstone and paying

(36:39):
way more in taxes than I should because all these
developers are getting deals, deals on top of deals on
top of deals. So there you have it, folks. That's
my take on the IDA board. I actually served on
it in Troy a long, long, long time ago, and
I had to get off it because it just made

(37:01):
me sick that we were giving these pilot programs out
to developers. These developers would build in downtown Troy regardless
of a pilot program, but they're not paying their fair
share of taxes. And the rest of us are in
cities like Troy, especially where you have a lot of
non for profits that aren't paying taxes. It makes it difficult. Listen.

(37:26):
I'm all in favor of pilots. Put a pilot program
for South Troy that is just disappearing before our eyes
are North Central where you know, the gunslingers are out,
you know, having a shoot them up, you know at
night on the town. You know, get pilot programs for
those areas, but not in an area that is a

(37:49):
destination spot like historic downtown Troy or even downtown Saratoga,
downtown Schenectady that are thriving. There you have it, folks,
I'm against pilot programs. I'm against people not paying their
fair share of taxes, these developers that are making money
left and right. Oh boy, I sound negative. I'm so sorry.

(38:11):
I'm just trying to make sense of taxes and why
we shouldn't be paying any more in taxes than we
need to. The phone lines are open one eight hundred
eighty five five nine four nine. Let's go back to
the phone lines where we have Lisa in Delmar. Hello, Lisa,
good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
I just want to say I agree with everything you
just said. You don't sound negative, you sound smart and logical,
and I think you should run for the next governor.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Owner Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, Well, thank you. You know I
call it like it is. I always I always promise
new clients I won't tell you what you want to hear.
That's for the salespeople. I'll tell you how I feel,
and professionally we advise our clients that way. But when

(39:00):
it comes to politics, and I'm not a Republican, I'm
not a Democrat. I used to think I was an independent,
and God love them Senator Joe Bruno, who I admired
there was a politician who could work with both sides
of the aisle. They may roll up their sleeves and
duke it out behind closed doors, but in front of
the public, they came out holding hands, hugging each other

(39:23):
and kissing each other's cheeks.

Speaker 5 (39:27):
Party.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
No, I'm a blank, so Joe Bruno, God love them
told me. He said, Steve, you're a blank. I said,
I thought you liked me, Senator Bruno. He said no, no, no,
he says, I do like it. He says, but you're
a blank. You're not registered in any party. I said,
I like it like that. I always say, no, I
vote for the politician who I think will lie to

(39:51):
me the least.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
Oh, you're independent, and I guess no, I.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Thought I was. I'm not even registered Pendent Party. I'm
a blaying I'm not registered in any party. So I
can vote for Democrats, Republicans. I could vote for anybody
I want. But I do like what's going on in Washington. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
so I do like what's going on in Washington. A
lot of people don't like Trump because of this or that,

(40:19):
and I say, get past the personality. If he can
get the job done. And yeah, but if he can
get the job done and save us money.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
I'm a good person. I'm like, I'm an honest, good person.
I donate my money, I save my money, I work hard.
I've never got a government hand on in my life.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
I've worked for.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Everything I've had.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
Wasn't born with a silver spood in my mouth. And
he is a little brash, I get it. But I
love Trump. And there's so many people keep calling him,
you know, such naked, but he's doing the best country.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
But listen, let's you go back to President Clinton. There's
a president who was not an altar boy, right, but
he was a Democrat, and you know, you put the
personality aside. What kind of a job will they do
when they're sitting behind the desk in the Oval office. Lisa,
I can't thank you for enough for calling in and

(41:12):
thank you for the compliments. This country does need to
start thinking about how much money it spends. We can't
continue to grow our deficit like we are thirty six
trillion dollars in debt. We can't continue in that way.
So I like what I see and that's why I'm
optimistic on the stock market. Lisa, thank you for calling in,

(41:34):
thank you for your comments. The well, stay healthy eight
hundred eighty two five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go
back to the phone lines where we have Daniel in
beautiful some of the beautiful, most the most beautiful countryside
in the area in upstate New York, Cobylskille, New York. Daniel,

(41:55):
what can I help you with today?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Well, I just wanted to call and it's Valentine's Day
and I've been helping a lot of widows out and
I just wanted to put the word out the husband's
put your widow. Put your wife's name on everything, otherwise
you make a miserable life for her. I don't know that.
I've a dozen widows who have no clue and their

(42:21):
name's on nothing. It's just.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Daniel, you know, Daniel, Well, you know what, you know what, Daniel.
On a serious note, and I'm glad you're doing your
share to help people. Listen, you have no idea how
many times people die and they had their expouses listed
as beneficiaries or they you know, people die and and

(42:48):
I hate to be gender specific, but most times it's
the men who think they dominate the relationship. And whenever
we have a new client and they say, oh, my
wife doesn't have to come in, I stop them dead
in their tracks, I say, oh, yes, she does have
to come in. I believe in women and wealth. I
believe in helping women be more financially independent and help

(43:12):
them know what's going on. And the more I can
do that, the more proud I am to be able
to do that. And there's a lot of men that
are still chauffingistic that shouldn't be when it comes to
financial matters and when it comes to when it comes
to the the you know, dying and not having a

(43:34):
clue where everything is. Listen, I lost my wife last
year and I've been advising clients helping them for thirty
five years. Until I lost suit Daniel. I didn't realize
just how much goes into settling in a state and
kind of wrapping things up and dotting the eyes and
crossing the t's. I just never realized what went into it. So,

(43:58):
you know what, if you're helling out some widows and
Cobel skilled, God bless you and I admire you for that,
Keep up, keep up the good work. And if there's
anything you think I could say on the radio, give
me a call now and then and let me know
so that I can help those widows as well. There's
nothing there's nothing better than helping people with their financial matters. Daniel,

(44:21):
thank you very much. One eight hundred eight two five
five nine four nine. Let's go back to the phone
lines we have Lisa. Yup, Lisa's gone one eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine. Any questions whatsoever? Folks,
give me a call. Love to talk to you, and
you can go on our website. You know, listen our website.

(44:44):
Wait till after the show. But our website has a
lot of good stuff on it. I told you I
have twenty professionals that I'm surrounded by, and they are
so talented, and we have I'm looking right now the
top three things that pop up on our homepage. Should
investors be concerned about the rising US national debt? Ironically

(45:04):
I just talked about that. Yes, they should be. John Malay,
who's a CPA, he's my COEO on my leadership team.
He recently wrote something Samantha Macy CFP, how to maximize
your retirement savings this year beautiful, beautiful, beautiful article a

(45:25):
new Year, New Texas. What can I do? Vincenzo Testa,
another one of my advisors CPA and CFP and Eca
you know, Vinnie is so committed to to listen. There's
a lot of advisors out there. We had two clients.

(45:46):
One of the best best compliments I can get is
when when when prospective clients come to us. And we
had two prospective clients this week come from us to
us from the same firm, and as they said, you
know this firm, you know they don't have any cfps.
These people haven't put their time into doing the right

(46:07):
thing and paying attention to their career. I have ten
certified financial Planners cfps. I have four CPAs, two I
R s and roll tax agents, and probably a gentleman
who used to work with me a long time ago,
and I love, love this guy. He called me yesterday

(46:29):
and he's helping out as sad sad stories, helping out
this woman who he's friends with, whose husband has you know,
basically Alzheimer's and unfortunately a mid sixties and she's trying
to do it all on her own and just isn't
getting the advice from their current advisor. And he asked

(46:51):
me if I would help her. I said absolutely, I
would help her. And you know, just there's nothing that
breaks my heart more than seeing people that need help
that aren't getting it. Listen. You could be working with
a big financial service firm like Marill Lynch or Wells

(47:13):
Fargo or all of those firms. And when you go
in you think you're doing business with thousands of thousands
of thousands of people. You aren't. You're doing business with
a broker. Maybe that broker has a partner, and maybe
they have an administrative assistant. So you got one or
two or three people. That's who you're working with. I

(47:33):
got twenty professionals, twenty professionals in my firm, and we
really take pay attention to our clients. So go on
our website Bouchet dot com. You'll get some information. Folks.
I can't believe the end of the show is coming up.
You are listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you
by Bouchet and and Group, where we help our clients

(47:54):
prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Folks,
go to our website bouchett and if you want to,
you know, come in for a free initial consultation. Please
come in, take take advantage of it. There's no charge.
See who we are. If you're not getting the advice
that you feel you deserve, or you're doing it on

(48:15):
your own and you want some help. Let us take
a look, analyze things, tell you what we can do. Folks,
have a great, happy Valentine's Day weekend. Thank you for
tuning in. Bye bye