Let's Talk Money

May 17th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You want to know about me. But I am here
sitting in the studio with Deliah, our new producer, and
we would love to talk to you with any questions,
any questions whatsoever that you may have pertaining your investment
portfolio and maybe even more things. Believe me, there was
a day in the seventies and early eighties when I

(00:20):
used the bartend casey Z East Troy, New York, one
of the finest restaurants in this time, and I listened
to a lot of stories. So if I can't help
you with your financial manners, maybe I can help you
with something else. But in all seriousness, folks, if you
have any questions pertaining to your portfolio, one eight hundred

(00:42):
talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five, nine,
four nine, any questions whatsoever. It was a listen. You know,
this year has been one one one heck of a
roller coaster arrived, however you want to look at it.
It's been just one heck of a roller coaster ride.

(01:06):
And as promised, you know, every correction corrects itself on
the upside as well, and we're almost that new all
time high. So for those of you that got scared
out of the market you really shouldn't have. Hopefully you
listen to me and you just stayed put. You can't
have knee jerk reactions. You can't panic when there's volatility,

(01:29):
when there's noise in the marketplace, when you know your
brother in law at Sunday dinner is trying to be
the expert guru on investing in where you should invest
your money. And it was a great week. Actually, it
was a phenomenal week for our clients. NASDAK up seven

(01:51):
s and p up five point three percent. Even Russell
two thousand up four and a half percent. Those are
our major three in Texas and NASDAC and the SMP
make up a big part of our client's portfolio. And
they did well, really really well. So it was a
good week. What eight hundred eighty two five five nine,

(02:13):
four nine. If you have any questions, give me a
call and I would love, as I said, love to
get you pointed in the right direction. So today it's
like a new day for me. You know, as you know,
last year I wasn't on radio much. I went through
some stuff and lost my wife a year ago yesterday,

(02:33):
so you know, a lot of the first of the
first you know, soon I shared the same birthday forever
and the first of all the holidays and anniversary and yesterday,
you know, I spent with my daughter and it was,
you know, the first anniversary of Seus's passing. So it

(02:54):
was a long, long year and you know today is
is like a new beginning. I like to say and
remind you often when when you have your help folks,
you have everything and you can't mess around with that.
Don't take that for granted. You never know when that changes.

(03:16):
And you also hear me say often when you have
your love, when your spouse, your partner, whoever means so
much to you in your world, you know you're pretty blessed,
and financially you can do things. Don't mess around because
you never know when number one and number two, your
health and or your loved one may change the status

(03:38):
of that. And it changed for me last year. And
you know, as much as I advise clients, and I've
been helping clients for almost forty years, thirty five years
in business, and I always try to remind clients that
they have to My job is to plan for their retirement,
plan for their future, and you know that's my job.

(04:00):
But I also remind clients because as part of my job,
I do what I call life planning, helping clients just
think about life, what they should do. If they're going
to die a multi millionaire and not have you know,
any financial worries at all, why wait till they're ninety

(04:20):
five to leave their children money who may be you know,
well into their sixties seventies and may not need the
money as much as they did when they were in
their forties or fifties. Or help your grandchildren. You know,
why you're alive and well and you can see the
joy that it brings in the difference that it makes

(04:41):
in their life. The you know, and as I said,
my job is, you know, obviously being a certified financial
planner a CFP professional. I have nine of them in
my farm, nine CFP professionals that plan our clients future
along with or CPA, So we really do a lot

(05:02):
of planning, but we really take time to remind people that,
you know, we'll plan for your future. We're going to
plan hopefully you're going to live into your late eighties
early nineties, and we're going to make sure you have
enough money, but we're also going to remind you to
live for today, Enjoy today, do not do not take

(05:25):
today for granted, because you don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow. So there you have it. You know, it's
it's it's just a friendly reminder for you to kind
of think about today. One eight hundred eighty two five
five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five

(05:47):
fifty nine forty nine. If you have any questions, give
me a call, let me help you get pointed in
the right direction if I may. That's what I'm here for.
It was you know, I had listen sometimes you just
you know, yesterday was was a sad day in many ways.
And you know, there's there's there's this place in Troy

(06:08):
called Famous Lunch, and it's famous for different reasons, probably
some of the best food you'll ever get. They're obviously
known for the little many hot dogs, which I mean,
you can't get enough of them, and they have amazing
hamburgers and cheeseburgers and homemade not only fresh cut French fries,
but homemade rice pudding. And it's even a great place

(06:30):
for breakfast. But you know, I just after I left
the cemetery, I went down there and I had you know,
just kind of sat at the bar, Scottie, the owner
and his daughter. I mean, these are amazing people, RPI
grads and just brilliant so many ways. You know. Scotty
was there and he says, gee, Steve, he says, you

(06:53):
know you're you're you're you're looking good now he hasn't
seen me in a while. Then he adds, he says,
but you're not good looking. He says, that doesn't mean
you're good looking. He says, it just means you're looking good.
And you know, I guess I feel good. You know,
I'm starting to eat and I feel like, you know,

(07:13):
a new person, a different person with a new lease
on life. So I'm trying to take all of that
in stride and make sure that I enjoy life. But
more importantly, I want to take care of those around me,
people that I can help make a difference in their lives,
Those in a community that may not have so much

(07:34):
and can use a little help. Those are the people
that I want to help. I want to really make
sure I go out of my way to help as
many people as I can. You know, you've heard me
say this. I walk the streets and carry gift cards
for Stewart's, which I was there this morning picking up
my Wall Street Journal en Barns, and it's important for

(07:58):
me to to you know, you know, if I see
somebody who I think is down and out in need,
I'm handing gift cards out left and right. And I
love it when I have to go with plenished to
gift cards. It's just a beautiful thing. There's obviously Stuart's
in just about every neighborhood, so I feel I can

(08:20):
give somebody a Stewart's gift card and they can maybe
get some milk and bread and other necessities. Stuarts has
so much, even you know, a hot meal. Stewart's is
really broadening into food. So it just it just makes
me feel good. But in Famous lunch yesterday, a gentleman

(08:41):
came up to me after he heard me talking to Scott.
He says, you know, I know that voice. And he
was a nice gentleman, and I don't know if he's listening.
He says he listens every Saturday. He says, I know
that voice. He says, you're Steve. You're Steve Bouchet on
the radio. And I kind of kiddingly said, yeah. They
say I have a face for radio. But it's nice
when people when when people recognize the fact that year

(09:06):
you know, I'm here week in, week out. I get
energized doing the show. I love doing the show, and
I want to do my best to give back to
the listening audience. Some of you may not be able
to have the first clue where to go for financial advice,
and that's what I'm here for. So it made me
feel good yesterday having this gentleman just hear my voice

(09:29):
and know that it was me. Folks, I'm going to
take a quick fifteen second break. I'm not going anywhere.
I'm just going to take a quick break. Wet my
whistle one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four
nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
If you have any questions, give me a call. Some

(09:54):
nice jazzy music on this Saturday morning. God May seventeen.
You know it doesn't seem possible before we know it.
Today is the Preakness. Who do you like in the Preakness?
I think I like Sandman in American Promise. Those are
my two picks. We'll see. Journalism is going to be

(10:16):
a good contender too, But in these big races, you
never know anybody can win. And you have a few
horses like Sandman and Journalism, that an American promise that
raced in the Derby, and here they are two weeks
later racing again. Now that's the sign of a good horse.
So we'll see how those horses do. Should be a

(10:38):
good day. And three weeks from today you got the
Belmont and Saratoga. That's pretty huge having the Belmont and Saratoga,
So it's going to be a good summer. Saratoga is
the summer place to be. One eight hundred eighty two
five five nine four nine. Let's go to the phone lines.
We have Hank in Stillwater. Good morning, Hank. Oh, Hank,

(11:05):
let's mute Hank. Uh bozo that or he's temporarily delusional.
One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.
Any questions you have, And Hank, believe me, if that
was by a mistake, if you thought that newsbreak was

(11:25):
going to be longer, you can try calling it in again.
But you know, we just don't have room for that.
One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
You know I don't get many Frank calls, you know,
sometimes every once in a while. So I've been doing
radio thirty years. Not many, not many, not not much

(11:45):
at all. One eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine
forty nine. So the US and you know, for the week,
let's let's let's let's talk about the week. US and
China cut tariffs for ninety days. Big news, folks, No surprise.
Actually I got some calls last week because you know,

(12:06):
I put on social media my show last Sunday where
I really spent a lot of time talking about terroriffs
and how you shouldn't be afraid of terriffs and you
really shouldn't be afraid of tariffs. I've been saying this
for months, ever since President Trump. No matter what you
think of him, I don't care, folks, I really don't
care what you think of them. Okay, I don't care

(12:27):
what your political views are. When I tell you, I
could care less, I could care less what your political
views are. But I will talk policy, and I'll talk
policy all day. And I do believe at the end
of the day. You know, we know that President Trump
is a very let's say, I call him like a
schoolyard bullied type of a guy. He's very confident in himself. Obviously,

(12:52):
he wrote a book, The Art of the Deal. Whether
you like him or not, he knows how to get
things done. I think he's proven that this week loan
in the Middle East, and I think he's used these
tariffs to kind of square up the playing field, which
I think is a beautiful thing for this great country
of ours. You know, I said that, you know, tariffs

(13:17):
made up eighty percent of our you know, the revenue
this great country of ours needed right up to nineteen thirteen,
and that's when the income tax was created, believe it
or not, nineteen eight or nineteen thirteen, that's when you
started funding the money that this great country of ours

(13:38):
needs to provide the services that they provide. And right
now we're paying a lot of money and income taxes.
Not everybody half the population doesn't pay any income tax.
Half of them do, and some are paying more than others.
But income taxes make up the bulk of what we need,
whereas tariffs, you know, it used to make up eighty

(14:01):
percent of the revenue in this country needed. And I
know things were different in the eighteen hundreds and early
nineteen hundreds, but the point is there's nothing wrong with
this president kind of having countries treat us more fair. Listen,
just about every country around the globe is taxing the

(14:22):
living daylights out of our exports. That means that any
goods and services that we export into their countries, they
are taxing us left and right, which means that our
goods are more expensive for their citizens to use. So
why shouldn't we square up the playing field. That's what
this guy is doing. And he listened whether you like

(14:44):
him or not, and I could care less if you
like him or not. You have to look at the
policies and say, listen, you got to put your political
differences aside and look at the policies. How came people
on the left think that everybody on the right bozos?
And how come people on the right think that people
on the left are bozos. That's the world we live in.

(15:07):
What happened in the days of Ronald Reagan and Tip
O'Neil having a drink together and getting along and slapping
each other on the back, and you know, they each
realize that each side of the aisle can have some
good ideas. There's nothing wrong with good ideas coming from
the other side of the Aisle, so I said last Sunday.

(15:30):
I spent a lot of time the first half of
the show, and it's up on our website the first
half of the show, or just download your podcasts. You
know you get bouchet and answer group podcasts. If you
miss our show, it's on whatever your favorite podcasts on
platform is. And I spent the first half of the
show talking teriffs, and all of a sudden, you know,

(15:51):
US and China cut terror for ninety days. That set
the market sky high, and it just proved. As I
said last week, do not do not sell your investments
because of tariffs. Before we know, we're going to wake
up one day and the tariffs are going to be okay.
The world's not coming to an end. Little did we

(16:14):
know we were gonna wake up Monday morning and tariffs
were okay. There's a ninety day pause and I'll bet
you over the next ninety days in China, and China's
important and the second largest economy, believe it or not,
Japan owns most of our debt. We have like nine trillion,
ten trillion dollars of our bonds are owned by foreign countries.

(16:36):
Japan owns. They are the biggest. That means they've loaned
us money more than any other country because they buy
our bonds. They're buying our bonds, they're giving us money
and we're paying them interest in return. They think we're
a pretty safe bet. UK is number two in China's
number three. China used to be number one at owning

(16:59):
our debt. Right now China's number three, but Japan owns
most of our debt. But China is the second largest economy.
And this is why tariffs with China is so important.
And you know, the President's already alluded to the fact
that you know, hey, maybe, maybe, just maybe, you know

(17:19):
we're not going to tax this, We're not going to
tax that. So your iPhone may not cost as much.
It may not be you know, your thousand dollars iPhone
may not cost you twenty five hundred dollars like you
thought a couple of weeks ago. And that's that's that's
where I believe I could be proven wrong, and I
will be the first one on this show to say, hey, folks,

(17:40):
I was wrong, but I got a pretty good intuition.
I've managed money now thirty five years, and I have
a pretty good intuition of what you know investors should do.
And our clients, because they believe in us, we educate them,
we communicate with them, we coach them, we hold their

(18:00):
hands during volatile times. We actually communicate more with clients
during volatile times than not. Our clients believe in us.
They give us discretion to manage their portfolios. And our
clients they do not panic, So you shouldn't panic either.
You have to look at the policies. I mean, just

(18:22):
look at the last four days that this president's spent
in the Middle East. Listen, people are worried because we're
going to accept the four hundred million dollar aircraft. Do
you remember we spent seventy two billion dollars we left
on the table in Afghanistan when we pulled out in

(18:45):
the blink of an eye and left all of that
that oh, tanks and helicopters and so many things that
that was the last country. We should have left billions
in billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of
stuff behind. And people are complaining that we may accept

(19:07):
a four hundred million dollar aircraft. Listen, the Statue of
Liberty was gifted to us, for God's sakes. It was
a gift. So you know, if cot Carra wants to
gift us a plane, let them gift us a plane.
It's better than walking out of a country. And you know,
with losing some some some military personnel that we should

(19:31):
have never lost in leaving military equipment behind billions and
billions and billions for them to use in a bad, bad,
bad way. So I'm okay with terrorts, I'm okay with
the policies, And that's how you have to look at it.
And that's why I'm very optimistic on the stock market.
And that was very optimistic this week. With the S

(19:52):
and P up five point three percent, NaN's, that QQQ
up almost seven percent, NaN's that composite up seven point
one five percent, even the Russell two thousand MidCap small
caps up almost four and a half percent. That's a
beautiful thing, folks, that's a beautiful thing. One eight hundred
eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred

(20:15):
eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, any
questions whatsoever, give me a call. I would love to
talk to you. So we started off the week US
and China cut tariffs for ninety days. US you know,
on China goods. You know, now the tariffs went from
like one hundred and forty five percent down at thirty

(20:35):
percent China on US goods to ten percent. Stocks treasury
yields and the dollar rows. Gold fell, Gold came off
its perch. Gold is you know, gold's high was about
I don't know, thirty one forty or I'm sorry, thirty
four or eleven, and now today it's under thirty two hundred.

(20:56):
So gold fell off its perch, and that's what's going
to happen. You know, we don't own gold. Gold has
had one heck of a run. But you know, listen,
when when when when the world looks to be more
at peace and all looks good, you know gold, you know,
gold may may even come down more so even even

(21:20):
gold fell. You know, listen, on Monday, Nasdaq was up
four percent s and p three percent. April inflation fell
to two point three percent. Investors, you know, basically are
are you know what will the federal reserve?

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Do?

Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know? I think you're going to see some cuts
before the year is out. They paused, which is no surprise.
I kind of thought they would pause, which means they
did nothing, And they did nothing they pause. That's what
pause means. Boy, if you own the vidual stocks, I
guess if you own the United Health Group. This week,

(22:04):
you know they suspended good guidance. They you know, the
CEO quit. You know, I think it was down twenty
six percent for the week. So this is why you
should never invest in individual stocks. Now, we own two
Amazon and Apple, and I know they he'll go up

(22:25):
and down, and it hasn't been the best of times,
but I believe in those two companies. They're the only
two individual companies that we own. Wall Street reported that
you know, United Health was under investigation for Medicare for
an oil slipped on upbeat comments from President Trump over

(22:46):
talks with Iran. Listen, there's a lot going on, and
it was a good week in the market, even with
this great country of ours having its having it's it's
it's triple A credit rating, you know, brought down a
little bit. Folks. You're listening to let's brought money. That's

(23:07):
let me start over again. You're listening to let's talk money,
brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Group, where we
help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth.
For life one eight hundred eight two five five nine
four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine
forty nine. Give me a call. I'll see you on
the other side of the news break. Folks, I'm telling you,

(23:31):
for years were really moving quickly. I thank you for
hanging in through the news, and I thank you for
tuning in today. I can't thank you enough why we
were taking that break for the news, the headlines. I mean,
you can't make this stuff up. Ukraine and Russia are
going to have direct talks the first time in three years.

(23:52):
And this is a quote from President Trump. We'll meet
with Putin as soon as we can. Let's hope and
pray to God that comes to a resolution. There's nothing
nice about wars. So that was some good news, breaking news.
So let's hope that that there's some resolution there. And
you know, it looks like we came out of the

(24:13):
Middle East in a better way than we had had
ever expected to come out of the Middle East. And
looks like, you know, there are some olive branches being offered.
And you know, I'm you know, I say a prayer
every day and I love this new pope. Actually, I

(24:33):
think I'm going to meet with him in October. I
was supposed to meet with Pope Francis, as you know,
a couple of weeks ago. We passed just two days
before I was supposed to meet with him. But I'm hoping.
I think I'm going to meet with the new Pope
in October. But you know, I pray every day and listen,
I don't want to see anybody. Anybody had their lives upgrouted,

(24:55):
whether it be mother nature. You look at what's going
on a cruss the middle part of our country with
these weather patterns and the people that have lost their
lives or war or anything else. So I say a
prayer for everybody, especially people that are sick. One eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight
hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Let's go

(25:18):
back to the phone lines. We have Carolyn in Clifton Park.
Good morning, Carolyn, good morning. How are you? I'm good.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
And how are you well?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
I'm doing good, Carolyn, now that I'm talking to you,
I've been waiting for you all day.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Okay, well, thank you for that. And I'm calling in.
This is my first time ever doing a CALLI in
and so I just thought I just call you and
just asks you a money question. Are you nervous about earlier? Yes?

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Very Oh yeah, but you got a nice smile. I
can see you through the mic.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, thank you for that. Okay. So what I wanted
to ask was, if you're close to a retirement and
have funds scattered around different places like an annuities or
a one KS pensions, life insurance and mutual funds, what

(26:24):
do you recommend?

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Well? Just how young are you?

Speaker 3 (26:33):
In my sixties?

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Okay? All right, So it sounds as though you may
be retiring soon. So the first thing you want to
do is consolidate all You can't believe, Carolyn, how many
people come into the office and they say, you know,
I forgot I had that job when it was in
my thirties, and I think I have money left in
a four oh one K or they changed addresses in

(26:57):
their financial institution, may not have their updated address, and
they forget that they had this or that. So what
you want to do? And if you were my client, Carolyn,
you would not own any annuities, none whatsoever. But that's
for another day. I can have that conversation with you.
But what you want to do is if they're retirement accounts,

(27:20):
you want to consolidate them and get them into what
we call an IRA, an individual retirement account. And you know,
have somebody help you manage that, because even though you're
in your sixties, you're still a spring chicken. We're going
to be looking at you hanging out to your in
your late eighties early nineties. So we want you to

(27:41):
make sure that your portfolio is invested for the right reasons,
and we want you to make money and enjoy your retirement.
You're going to be taking Social Security if you haven't already.
There's a lot of decisions you have to make. But
you want to consolidate your investments. And you know the

(28:01):
days of opening up, you know, twenty CDs with twenty
different bank spies, you get a toaster. Those days are over.
You know, each bank has FDIC insurance up to two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So I always like to
see people consolidate their investments. And interest rates are pretty

(28:22):
good right now. I mean the US ten year treasury
is four point five four point six percent depending on
what day we look at it. That's a beautiful yield.
The longer bond is yielded more than five percent, so
you can get you know, if you're for the conservative
part of your portfolio, you can get some good interest rates,

(28:42):
whether it be CDs or bonds. But consolidate those accounts
and then make sure they're invested for the right reason.
Make sure you're in good, diversified, well managed investments. We
recommend exchange trade of funds. We manage almost one point
five billion dollars and we recommend exchange traded funds over

(29:04):
mutual funds or annudies because there's fees in all different investments.
So our core position is an internal management fee. It's
built in zero point zero three percent, and according to
the morning Star, the average fee for mutual funds is
somewhere around one percent. They come down all the time
because mutual funds realize that they're competing with exchange traded funds,

(29:27):
and you know, that's leaving money on a table, and
annuities could be three percent or more. So knowing what
you own, knowing why you own it is really what
matters for you right now is you approach retirement. And remember, Carolyn,
just because you're going to retire soon, does it man
you plan? That doesn't mean you plan on leaving us,

(29:49):
you still if you're in your sixties, we're looking at
thirty years that we want to plan out for you.
So that's what you have to keep in the back
of your mind. Did I help answer your question?

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yes, that sounds really good. The thirty years plan out,
you know, for longevity purposes good. And yeah, and so yeah,
I do have the four oh one K I mean IRA,
wroth and regular. I don't know which is better to have,
you know, one from the other, but I do have
both of those.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, well, there's there are pros and cons, you know,
when you when you hit that magic age of you know,
heck now it's seventy two, seventy four, seventy five. The
IRS has so many rules. But when you hit that
Manchiic age where you have to take your R and
D your required minimum distribution with the raw, you don't
have to take it. And the beauty is when you

(30:44):
do take money out of the raw, you don't even
have to pay income tax on it. With the traditional irate,
you do have to take an R and D. Not
right now. You got plenty of time to think about it.
And you know, the money you take from an IRA
is taxable. So it sounds like you have the best
of both worlds. Carolyn, you're in a good spot.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yes, all right, oh great, glad that wasn't bad. Thank you, well,
not bad you called. I don't know, well, it's just
like thanks like our.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
First dance today, Carolyn.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yes, yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well. Thank you calling. You'd be well, you stay healthy, okay.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, thank you so much for your help. I appreciate
it from your information.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Thank thank you.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
What a great day.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Bye bye. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine
four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine
forty nine. What a lovely sweet person. She was call
nervous her first time calling. That's okay. I'm glad she
called it, and hopefully I was able to help her. So,
you know, as I said, we had a great week.
A lot of news US China, tariffs, you know, the

(32:00):
Middle East, US getting along, the breaking news I just
gave to you that Ukraine and Russia are going to meet,
and Trump's going to meet with Putin asap. There's a
lot to be optimistic about, which is why I'm positive
on the stock market. Now. Listen, I don't know what's
going to happen on Monday, or this week or even

(32:23):
this month. But I am optimistic on the stock market. Actually,
if I were to be honest with you, I'm always
optimistic when it comes to the stock market. The stock
market is by far if you look at all your
asset classes, you have stocks, bonds, you have commodities like gold,
you have real estate, you have cash, they're all what

(32:45):
we call asset classes. Over time, the best performing asset
class is stocks. Unfortunately, people think of stocks as being risky.
Why because it goes up and down, and stocks is
in our face every single day. You can't not turn
on the news or especially if you watch the financial

(33:07):
news programs. It's all about the stock market, the stock market.
This the stock market that it's all about the stock market.
So everybody thinks that stocks is risky. Stocks aren't risky,
not long term, not in my eyes, folatile. Yes, stocks
go down more than other asset classes, up and down,

(33:28):
up and down, up and down. But every asset class
goes up and down, up and down, up and down.
We've seen that with bonds, we've seen that with you know,
every asset class. It's like your house. When was the
last time you had your house appraised? Why why don't
you get that appraised every week? The way you look

(33:49):
at your stock portfolio every week the reason why you
plan on staying in your house for a long time.
Guess what your stock portfolio is the same thing you
plan on hopefully being invested for a long time. So
why do you get worried looking at it? Maybe every
day or numerous times a day, or once a week,

(34:14):
stop put it away. If you're a well diversified portfolio.
Do not do not let do not let the world
come to an end in your mind. Do not get
worried about what's happening day to day. Do not do
not do that. You know, even even bitcoin was as

(34:34):
low as eighty four thousand, and here we are at
one hundred and three thousand dollars. Even bitcoins having a
nice little run. The stock market. You know, the S
and P is positive year to date. God it we're
still off. It's high, but you know there was a
time when when when it was down seventeen percent. NASDAK

(34:55):
is positive. QQQ is positive year to date, up two
percent year today. It's a beautiful thing. Stocks long term.
Don't be afraid of them. Eighty two five five nine
four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We
have Lisa in Delmar. Good morning, Lisa.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Good morning. I'm calling because of looking a difference between
like Yahoo, I'm sorry, Yaho, excuse me, Vanguard and Fidelity
for some of like a municipal bond fund that is
exempt from state and federal taxes. Yeah, so how do
you feel about that? Can I just and I just
want to say every time I talk to a RESET

(35:37):
representer for either one of those companies, and you know,
they're saying, well, you can put your money and these
other funds make so much more money, and you know
you're paying taxes, but they don't know my tax situations.
Easier than to say that, And I'm really looking for
some non taxable investments.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, okay, let me try to help clarify this a
little bit for you, Lisa. So you know a lot
of people. I'm just going to start block by saying
a lot of people buy municipal bonds because they don't
want to pay taxes. And I get it. Nobody wants
to pay tax You heard me last weekend and this weekend,
I'm telling you. You know teriffs, you know teriffs in

(36:16):
the eighteen hundreds. Up until nineteen thirteen represented eighty percent
of the US government. Today it's less than two percent.
Because income taxes have replaced that, we're paying more on
income taxes than we've ever paid before. So with that
being said, a lot of people buy municipal bonds and
their tax free New York State tax free or state

(36:39):
tax free, and some are just federal tax free. Some
are both. If you live in New York City, you
even have a local tax on top of that. But
sometimes people buy municipal bonds for the wrong reason. They
really don't need to buy municipal bonds and get less
interest because they're in a low tax bracket. So that's
first and foremost anybody listening, Before you buy a municipal bomb,

(37:01):
make sure that it makes sense for you. But Lisa,
to answer your question specifically, yep, to answer your question,
Vanguard has some amazing municipal bond. We use a lot
of Vanguard Investments. Now our clients' assets are held with
Charles Schwab, but we're still able to buy Vanguard investments

(37:22):
through Charles Schwab in the same fidelity. But I like Vanguard.
Vanguard has some great, really diligent managed diligently managed municipal
bond funds. And as I said, depending on whether you
want federal tax free or New York State tax free,

(37:43):
you need to do some homework. But Vanguard has some
good ones.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yes, I have one right here that I put a
little bit of money in and I wasn't sure if
I should, you know, dump a lot more money into it.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
But how old?

Speaker 4 (37:58):
Are not quite retirement age? I got a wye to go.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
So with that being said, now can I have you
rethink your investment philosophy?

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Well, the problem is is that like I have all
of our my husband, I have our ross maxed out.
We add a diligently to the five twenty nine plan
to get the New York state deduction of ten thousand
a year. We have his four one k is maxed out.
He does a ross qora one k. So we're just
building all of our houses paid off. So we have

(38:35):
all of this cash building and building building, but we're
investing in those other things. So we have all this
cash and we don't know what to do with it.
And if I don't invest it, he might spend it.
He's like, we needed our d.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
By this and by that.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
What's the point of living if we have hundreds of
thousands of dollars or Sunday, so.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
I need to invest in asap.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Oh oh, get it out of his hands. Huh. Well,
you know, my wife used to laugh at me because
I'm a foodie. I'd love to go shopping and I'd
go to Roma's now it's Cardona's, and you know, I'd
go and and you know, I'd come home with things
that we would never use. Or I'd go to the
farmer's market and she says, I can't let you go

(39:17):
to the store. You buy things that we don't even need.
We're never going to eat this stuff. And she was
right most of the time. But it just looks good.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
I love her.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Well, she told me, she used to say all the time,
because I would see this new tag and that new tag,
and you know how those little plastic things that are
attached to clothing and they get stuck on your toes
as you're walking through the bedroom. And I'd say, you know,
is this new? And she'd say, don't make me lie

(39:49):
to you. But she would always say listen. I'd never
buy anything full price. I buy everything on sale. And
I'd say, oh, great, we're going to go bankrupt with
all the money you're saving us. And if you think
about that statement, sometimes people buy things they don't need,
so you can literally go bankrupt by spending money even

(40:09):
though you're buying things on sale for things that you
don't need. But no, let me get to your question. So,
being as young as you are, I'm a whole lot
older than you. I'm one hundred percent invested in the
stock market and I'm very comfortable. So hopefully if you
and your husband have all these investment accounts, and I
applaud you, it sounds as though you're very diligent with saving,

(40:32):
and that's a beautiful thing. You're going to be able
to retire, not only retire, but probably have the quality
of lifestyle that you always strength about. But make sure
that you're more growth invested than not. And even with
the money outside of your retirement accounts, there's nothing wrong, Listen.
Would you rather pay income tax on money that you

(40:54):
were earned through interest on a CD or a bond
or maybe have it invested in the total stock market
that pays you know, no capital gains until you sell it,
and you know, have a really well tax managed investment.
So I'm gonna leave you with that thought. Lisa, you
and your husband talk it over, but it sounds as

(41:16):
though you're both in a good place, and that's a
beautiful thing. I'm really really happy for you. I'm proud
of you. That's that's really good.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
All right, Lisa, you'd be well, stay healthy, and tell
your husband to stop spending so much money. One eight
hundred eight two five five nine four nine one eight
hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. So you know,
what are you know, you know, municipal bonds paying right now,
you know, right now about three and a half percent

(41:51):
for ten year triple A rated. You have high yield
municipal bonds better known as junk municipal bonds. You may
be investing in cities or projects that may not be
you know, stellar, let's say, and you can get even
you know, five five point six percent. So you know,

(42:12):
if you're in a federal at the top federal tax
bracket thirty seven percent plus three point eight percent of
net investment income tax, the tax equivalent yield is almost
seven percent. So going back to what I said to Lisa,
you know, if you're in a low tax bracket, then

(42:34):
maybe you're better off buying a US Treasury bond that
that right now is yielding pretty good. You know, I
like I like US treasuries because they're they're they're state
tax free. It's a beautiful thing. And you know, if
you look, as I said, the ten year right now

(42:57):
is yielding about right now as we sit, four point
four or five, a one year four point one three
and if you want to go all the way out
to a thirty year, almost five percent. But you got
to look at your tax bracket. So many times, so
many people come in and they want municipal bonds, but

(43:18):
they're just not in a high tax bracket. They don't
need minicimal bonds. Maybe a taxable bond would be better
off for them. And that's you know, only you know
what your tax situation is, and talk it over with
your tax preparer. Let he or she help you figure
this out. Or if you're working with the financial advisor,
let you know, let that financial advisor help you figure

(43:43):
it out. I know, in our as I said in
the beginning of the show, I have nine CFP professionals,
nine of them on my team, four CPAs I'm telling you,
we are chucked full of of professionals nineteen professionals to
be exact, soon to be twenty or twenty one professionals

(44:07):
to help manage our clients wealth. And we do a
good job, folks. Actually we do an amazing job, a
really spellar job at managing our clients wealth. I can't
begin to tell you how proud I am of my
team and the wealth that we manage and how we
manage it for them. Our clients are really, really in

(44:29):
a good situation. Tomorrow morning, I will not be on
with you, but you will have Vincenzo Tesla, who's CFP
CPA and also certified with employee stock options in Paula
La Pietra, who is a CFP professional as well, and
also our portfolio strategist. So both of those guys, they're

(44:53):
dynamic guys, they're smart guys. They're going to do the
program tomorrow, and I think you're going to like the
program tomorrow. Those guys are pretty entertaining. One of the
best of friends. But they're really really smart, like really
really smart. They do a good job. They're going to
do the show tomorrow. Give me a little break, you know,
I had our I took our entire team out the breakfast.

(45:16):
We went to Sweet Memi's and Saratoga on Thursday, and
what a breakfast if you're ever in Saratoga, if you're
looking for a breakfast, Oh my god, I'm telling you,
Oh Mama Mia, it's a good breakfast, especially if you
if every once in a while, I always say you
need a pancake, And you know, I made sure that
the table had some lemon gott of pancakes, one of

(45:39):
their specialties for us, though all sometimes it's just a
bite of a pancake goes a long way, you know,
slatthered with butter and maple syrup. Sometimes, folks, you just
need that, and it's okay to have that once in
a while. Everything in moderation. But I took everybody out
and then we had like a firm wide team meeting

(46:01):
on Thursday, and I look at my team and it's
just I am so proud of each and every one
of them. I'm telling you, sometimes I pinch myself at
who I'm surrounded by and just the expertise that I have.

(46:22):
They're all smarter than I am, which is a job requirement.
Everybody I hire to be part of my team has
to be smarter than me because they make me look good.
They if they're smarter than me, that we're in a
good position. They also need to have the same values
that I have. They need to make sure they care
first and foremost for our clients and always put our

(46:45):
clients' best interests first above everything else. They have to
be just good people, down to earth, good people. And
I said to my team, I said, listen, I said,
not only do we get along well at work, not
everybody does that, but we get along well outside of work.

(47:06):
We're all friends. That night, five of our colleagues did
the CDPHP race down in Albany. We really get along
and it's a beautiful thing. Folks, you are listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bruschef and Andrew Group,
where we help our clients prioritize their health while we
manage the wealth for life. I can't thank you enough

(47:28):
for tuning in today. Go to our website Bouchet dot
com biz and bloy ou ch e y dot com.
There's some good information on there. Polo and Ryan just
did a webinar this week and it's chuck full of
good information right on our homepage. Folks, you have a
great day, Thank you for tuning in. Come back tomorrow

(47:49):
morning eight o'clock. Polo and Vincenzo will be your host.
Have a beautiful weekend. Bye bye,