Let's Talk Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Insviewpoints and promises made during the following program are not
those of WGY it's staff, management, or parent company, iHeartMedia.
This WGY programming time is brought to you by the
Bouchet Financial Group.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Are you working with a true fiduciary to manage your wealth?
For over thirty five years, Stephen Bouche and Bouchet Financial
Group have been dedicated to putting clients first. As a fiduciary,
our only priority is what's best for you, providing transparent,
fee only asset management with no hidden sales or commissions,
with offices in historic downtown Troy, Saratoga Springs, Boston, and

(00:36):
South Florida. We're here to guide you through life's financial decisions.
Learn more at Bouche dot com. That's boucchey dot com.
Catch Ryan Bouchet's expert financial insights every Wednesday on WGY
Mornings with Dave Allen. Have you recently come into sudden money,
whether from life insurance proceeds, divorce settlement, retirement, lump sum payout,

(00:59):
even winning the lottery? Do you know what to do next?
Call in now with your financial questions at one eight
hundred Talk WGY one eight hundred eight two, five, five,
nine four nine. Now here's WGY's financial analyst, Stephen Bouche
or one of his expert colleagues.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Hello, folks, I'm Stephen Bouchet, sitting here live. I can't
wait to talk to you. I've been waiting to talk
to you all week since I was on radio last
and boy have things turned around. So if you have
any questions for me today, give me a call. The

(01:52):
phone lines are open one eight hundred talk WGY one
eight hundred eighty two, five, five, nine four nine. Any
question whatsoever, Folks, I would love to talk to you
and just, you know, hopefully help you. It's it's it's
one of the best things that I can do for

(02:14):
those out there that aren't sure what to do with
their finances is be able to point them in the
right direction. And I take great pride in doing that.
I promise to give you my honest opinion. May not
be an opinion that you want to hear, but it'll
be my honest opinion as best as I can say
professionally speaking. So one eight hundred eight two, five fifty

(02:39):
nine forty nine are the phone numbers. So a lot
to talk about. I mean, it was really when you
think about last week. You know, obviously we had Memorial
Day on Monday, so the markets were closed. You know,
President Trump and the delay on the fifty percent tariffs

(03:01):
for the European European Union, stocks, as expected, you know,
bounced with that. It's still all about tariffs, folks, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs,
whatever whatever comes out on tariffs, any news on teriffs,
the stock market will react this way or that way.
And as I said, as expected, stocks bounce with the

(03:22):
delay of tariffs. The S and P was up over
two percent. May. Consumer confidence made the biggest gain in
over four years. It's important for the consumer to feel
good because the consumer makes up two thirds of the economy.
Two thirds of the GDP is because of the consumers.

(03:42):
So when the consumer feels good, that's great news for
the economy. You had, you know, a week auction of
forty year Japanese bonds the video, So a first quarter
revenue rise sixty nine percent over last year. The US
Court of International Trade ruled Trump's broad tariffs illegal, then

(04:07):
it's like a roller coaster ride. Then and appeals court
stayed the decision. A second federal court came to a
similar conclusion. So tariffs are still ago. For the week,
the dial up one point six percent, the S and
P one point nine percent, NAS, that composite two percent. Folks,

(04:29):
that's good news. And for the first time in weeks.
I can tell you the S and P is up
point five percent year to date, NAS that QQQ up
one point six percent. If you're buying NASDAK through QQQ,
you're buying one hundred largest companies. Now the entire composite

(04:50):
of NANSDAK is down one percent year to date. But
when you buy QQQ, you're buying one hundred largest companies
up one point six percent, and year to date. Russell
two thousand is still taking it on the chin, down
seven point three percent year to date. We need the
small and mid cap market to come back. That means

(05:11):
that this rally is really it has some legs and
has ways to go, and I do believe that that
we're going to be just fine over time. You can't
you can't get spooked out of the markets because of
all this tariff talks. I keep saying it, and I
know Jamie Diamond came out yesterday. Jamie's one of the

(05:34):
you know, he's really probably one of the guys in
the world. He's the CEO chair and JP Morgan, and
he's a smart guy. I respect what he says. And
he says, you know, don't worry about China, worry about
the US. The US has to get its act together.
And he wants talks of tariffs to come to a fruition.

(05:56):
Let's get it behind us. Let's you know, business know
what they're up against. Let them know what it will
the consumer be affected, will prices go up? And I
keep saying, I think this president is like a schoolyard bully.
That's probably the best way of saying. And he does things,

(06:16):
says things that are unorthodox that most especially politicians, especially
career politicians, would never ever in the world think or say,
but he says it. He just blurts it out. But
at the end of the day, I think this country
is going to be fine. And I'm not saying that
for any other reason. Then I believe we're going to

(06:39):
get through these tariffs. I believe that the economy is
going to do fine. This coming week we have on Monday,
the Institute for Supply Management will get the manufacturing and
Services purchasing managers in DEXes for May. The estimate for
the manufacturing PMI, it's going to be about a forty

(07:01):
nine point five reading the services which will be released
on Wednesday, about fifty two point one compared to forty
eight point seven and fifty one point six respectively for April.
So up a little bit. That's good news. And then
on Friday, obviously, all eyes will be focused on the
jobs report. We'll have that released on Friday morning about

(07:24):
eight thirty. The consensus is about seven point one million
job I'm sorry. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Turnover Survey,
the consensus is about seven point one million job openings
as of the last day of April, about one hundred
thousand fewer than in March. So we'll see what happens there.

(07:46):
But Friday, Friday, Friday is the jobs report for May,
and all eyes will be focused on Friday. Economists forecast
and increase of about one hundred and twenty five thousand
for non farm payrolls after gain of about one hundred
and seventy seven thousand in April. Unemployment rate is expected
to remain unchanged at four point two percent. But as

(08:09):
I say often, folks, it's always in the revisions because
they'll go back a month and two months before and
revise those numbers, give you a more accurate picture of
what really happened, what the numbers truly were. And it's
always in the revisions, folks, always in the revisions. So
we'll see what those revised numbers are. We'll see if

(08:31):
they're up or down. You know, remember these economists don't
have a clue. They just give their best guesstimate. I
love watching them on TV try to sound like they
know what they're doing, and then most times they're proven wrong.
Is President Truman said, you know, show me on one

(08:51):
sided economist, because every economist that comes out they say
on one hand or I'm one handed economists not one sided,
But every economist that comes out says, on one hand,
it's this, but on the other hand, it's that President
Truman just wanted a one handed economist. I go through
the same thing with the economists that I talked to.

(09:12):
I got economists in my office, and you know, they
always hedge their bets. Give it to you, you know,
give us what you really think. That's what you want
from economists. So you can't really put a lot of
a lot of them. You shouldn't be betting on what
the economists think. It's just the projection. We'll see what

(09:32):
the real numbers are. And as I said, all eyes
this coming week will be focused on made Jobs report
because that's Listen, the more people that this economy has
been pretty resilient and it's held up pretty good. I'm
not afraid of any recessions, and I don't think tariffs
are going to throw us in recessions. Do I think

(09:54):
there's going to be tariffs. Yes, I think there are
tariffs that that will be put in place, and some
of it will be justified. I don't think some of
them will be as high. We already know that China.
You know, the one hundred and fifty percent tariffs that
President Trump talked about. You know he's already you know,

(10:15):
backed off of that. I don't think we're going to
have one hundred and fifty percent tariffs in China. I
think it's down to like five. You know, there's a
lot of talk on This is one of the reasons
why Friday the markets were off Beijing. You know, basically
they held up approval for export licenses for rare earths

(10:36):
and other elements needed to make cars chips, other products,
and you know President Trump was was you know, he
was in a state of flux. China's decision to stall
on these rare earths, according to people that you know
are being quoted on, this was in response to the
US Commerce departments May thirteenth warning against the use of

(11:00):
away technologies artificial intelligence chips. This is a quote from
President Trump. China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, and this
is all in caps. This is what he wrote, has
totally violated its agreement with US. Trump was not happy

(11:21):
about that. That's what he put out on his social
media platform. So we'll see the tensions rise between US
and China. Well, you know, everything they agreed to in
Geneva is probably off the table. But that should be
no surprise to people. When was the last time you
could trust anything coming out of China, including the reports

(11:42):
on their economy. You know, listen, it's a communist country.
And you know, listen, you may love going to your
favorite Chinese restaurant, but I can tell you, folks, the
information coming out of China, you just never know what
the believer or not. The belief in China is a
force to be reckoned with. I say that so often.
They are the second largest economy in the world, right

(12:03):
behind this great country of ours, and you have to
take you know them seriously. So you know, our economy
is over twenty trillion, China's in the mid teens, and
then everybody else is under five trillion dollars. So China
is a force to be reckoned with. They would love

(12:24):
to be number one. I don't think they will, and
hopefully they will never be number one in the world.
Hopefully we'll keep our standing there. And you know, but
when China talks, you know, the world listens, and the
tension between Trump and China is something that the markets

(12:45):
look at. So I'm not always sure you know, the
information coming out of China, what to think, what not
to think? Are they spying on us or not? You know,
there's there's so much out there. But that's why China
is so important, and that's why people should take China seriously.
One eight hundred eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine

(13:06):
are the phone numbers. We're gonna take a quick fifteen
second break. Don't go anywhere, folks.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
If you want to learn more about Bouchet Financial Group,
visit their website Bouche dot com. That's b O U
C h E y dot com. Sign up for their blog,
which is updated every week Stephenbouche dot com. Follow them
on Twitter at Bouchet Group. Like them on Facebook. The
phone lines are open eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight

(13:33):
hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Here is
Stephen Bouchet.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Some nice jazzy music. Thanks folks for hanging in for
that quick fifteen second break. Can you believe tomorrow's June first?

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Wow? How did that happen? How are we into June
first already? I mean, where where did we go? You know?
The music still playing? Is that music still playing? Top? Man?
Oh man? This will be like, you know, the studio

(14:18):
fifty four days so June first tomorrow. The year is flying.
And as I said, you know, the markets, I'm happy
to sit here and say are up year to date.
The S and P up, you know, half a percent
but still up, and QQQ up one point six percent

(14:41):
year to date. That's that's you know, you should be
happy about that. We were down the S and P
was down almost twenty percent, and ASTAK was down well
over twenty percent at one point from the high. As
we sit here, S and P is still off about
four percent from its high. So we're still believe me,

(15:02):
we're still you know, we're not back to all time highs,
but we will be, folks, we will be back to
all time highs. That's what you always have to remember
about the stock market. The stock market goes up, and
I guarantee you it goes down when it goes down.
Don't don't get scared out of the markets. It comes.

(15:24):
It comes with the territory of investing up and down,
up and down, up and down. The funny part is
it always goes back to make new all time highs.
The key is not to sell, not to panic, not
to have knee jerk reactions when you see a correction.
A correction comes. The average high to low peak the

(15:47):
trough is about fourteen percent over the last forty plus years.
Year in year out, the market swings fourteen percent high
to low. So you know, we were from high, we
were down almost twenty percent. And I know you thought
the world was coming to an end. But guess what, folks,

(16:08):
the world didn't come to an end. And if you
got spooke out of the out of the markets, you missed.
April was one of the best or you know, May,
I should say was one of the best months since
twenty twenty three. This month, as it ends today at midnight,
was one of the best months for return since twenty

(16:30):
twenty three. That's why you can't panic. One eight hundred
eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred
eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Let's go to
the phone lines. We have Jeff and Mechanicville.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
Hello, Jeff, Hello, how are you? I'm doing okay, I
just have a question for you. I'm eighty four years old.
I don't own a car or a home. My only
a's are the contents of my apartment and my bank accounts.

(17:05):
Do I need will or trust? And if so, which
one would be most advantageous for my survivors?

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah? So ballpark? Ballpark? Jeff, what would you say you
have in those investment or savings.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Accounts somewhere in the area of around ten thousand?

Speaker 3 (17:26):
All right? Do you have children?

Speaker 4 (17:30):
No?

Speaker 3 (17:31):
No children? Do you have a grandchildren?

Speaker 4 (17:35):
No?

Speaker 3 (17:36):
All right, so it's just you. Are you married? No? Okay,
So if you weren't to wake up tomorrow morning, like
really your assets are really the ten thousand dollars is
it something you want to equate to a favorite charity
where or do you have other family members you would

(17:58):
want that to go to.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yes, I want everything to go to one of my brothers,
just one.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
So what you want to do. You could probably make
this easy jet beause you don't have a lot of assets.
And once again I'm not here to give legal advice,
but you could probably make it real simple. Go to
your bank and do what they call a t D
transfer on death and add it to your account with

(18:28):
your brother's name. And if you know, you know, if
you want everything to go to your brother when you
pass away, that account will automatically go to your brother.
And if that's really the only investment account you have,
the only savings you have, it'll be pretty simple. You

(18:48):
won't go through probate, your brother won't have to jump
through any hoops. It'll just transfer to your brother on death.
And like any of your other the contents of your home,
I mean, are there like collectibles or anything or is
it just basically couch chair, kitchen table and so.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Forth, just the basic stuff.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, so let your brother do what he wants with that,
but that savings account, have the bank add a transfer
on death, and that's probably all you need. You don't
need a trust. You don't have a lot of money
if you were to go into a nursing home the state.
You know, because you're not married, you'll be able to

(19:32):
have enough money to make burial arrangements and they'll probably
spend the rest of it if you were going to
go into a nursing home. Once again, I'm not a lawyer,
so I can't give you information on that, but it
sounds as though you're it's pretty simple. Jet. Hopefully that
helps you, all right, Jet?

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Does that does help somebody? I just have one more
quick question. I already have my bank accounts are already.
The beneficiary is already. The brother that I want things
to go to dois so I have to get the
DOV good.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Well, are they IRA accounts?

Speaker 4 (20:15):
Excuse me?

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Are they IRA accounts or just an account in your
individual name?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Just in my individual name?

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Yeah, so there are no beneficiaries on individual accounts. You
probably have a transfer on death in place. Just double
check with the bank, Okay, perfect, Jeff, and next week,
Jeff right before us I at nine o'clock on Saturdays,

(20:44):
Loopiro And that's a legal show. I would ask him
the same question and see if he it's free advice
for you, Jeff, and he'll be able to tell you
legally what you can do and not do.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
Okay, all right, I thank you very much for your help, Jeff.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
You be well, stay healthy. Thank you for calling Jeff. Okay.
One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.
One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions that you have, folks, give me a call.
I would love love to talk to you, just you know,

(21:22):
why not. I'm here for the whole hour, so let
me talk to you rather than talk to myself. One
eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. So
you know, I sound like a broken record, but I
sound like that on purpose, because, as I said, we
just finished the best month since twenty twenty three. And

(21:45):
if over you know, five six weeks ago, you know, listen,
when the SMP was down almost twenty percent, NANSDAK was
down over twenty percent. NANSDAK was actually in bear market territory,
and the S and P almost almost bear market territory.
But if you got spooked out of the markets, guess

(22:06):
what you did? Not ride it back up? And we're
now we're almost you know, we're only four percent off
the high for the S and P. And that's why
you can't get spooked out of the markets. Folks, if
you have a well diversified portfolio, if you're in stocks
and bonds, Believe me, stocks go up and down, so

(22:27):
do bonds, so do commodities like gold, and so does
real estate. I always joke around, you buy your house,
you don't have the appraiser come every week and appraise it.
Why because you plan on living there long term. Well, folks,
if you have a well diversified portfolio, and for most
people you're saving for retirement or other long term goals,

(22:50):
guess what, forget about it. If the market goes down
like it did in February and March, so what who cares?
It comes with the territory. Don't get scared, don't feel
the world's coming to an end. Don't jump out of
the market and sell, because then you realize those losses.

(23:14):
You can't make up those losses because now you're out
of the market when the market decides to turn around.
And that's just what the markets did in May. The
markets listen, there was a four day period when the
the S and P was down, you know, a pretty

(23:35):
fair amount, and then all of a sudden, the S
and P up six percent in May, putting it within
four percent of a record close. I'm telling you, you know,
the Dow, which I hate. I hate quoting the Dow,
so I don't even know why I'm doing it. It's
a popular index. But forget about the Dow as well, folks.

(23:58):
Look at the S and P. The SMP he was
up six percent in May. It has five hundred stocks,
represents represents most of the market. The Nasdaq was nine
point six percent higher in the month of May, almost
ten percent. You made up more than half of the

(24:19):
worst of the losses, folks. That's why if you're a
long term investor, when you see volatility, and that's all
it is is volatility, And as I said, there's volatility. Listen,
if you own the bond indecks. If you don't think
you lose money, believe me you do. Over the last
ten years, there were two years twenty twenty one year

(24:42):
were down two percent, twenty twenty two year were down
thirteen percent. You lost money, folks. Even in bonds twenty
fifteen you're up a half a percent Holy Mody twenty
eighteen point one percent point one percent over the last
fifteen years. Your average return was for the fifteen years

(25:07):
year in, year out two point two one percent. Now,
over the last ten years, if you were invested in stocks,
you were also down two years twenty eighteen down four
and a half percent, twenty twenty two down eighteen percent.
But over the last fifteen years of fourteen percent year in,
year out. Folks, you're listening to let Stalk Money brought

(25:30):
to you by Bouchef and Andrew It where we help
our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth
for life. We're going to be back right after the
news one eight hundred eight two, five, five, nine four nine.
Give me a coll Sun sixty two seventy two with
a passing shower Monday from the wg y Weather Center.

Speaker 5 (25:52):
I'm Mediarov, just Jeff Nordine.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
You only get one shot at retirement. Are you truly prepared?
There's no dual over when it comes to securing your
financial future. Do you have the right plan in place?
Does your advisor have the expertise and experience to manage
your wealth? More importantly, do you trust their advice At
Bouchet Financial Group. We bring decades of experience to the

(26:16):
table with offices in historic Downtown Troy, Saratoga Springs, Boston,
and South Florida. Schedule a complimentary in person or virtual
consultation today where we'll assess your financial well being and
help you plan for the future. Call our client concierge
at five one eight seven two zero thirty three thirty three.
That's five one eight seven two zero thirty three thirty three,

(26:40):
or visit www dot Bouche dot com. That's bou c
h e y dot com. Stephen Bouche has built a
team of twenty skilled professionals, including nine certified financial planners,
three CPAs, one IRS enrolled agent, one accredited investment fiduciary,

(27:01):
one certified private wealth advisor. To name some expertise you
can trust, confidence you deserve. Thanks for staying with us
through the news break. The phone lines are now open.
Call one eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred, eight
two five five nine four nine And now here's WGY's

(27:22):
financial analyst, Stephen Bouche or one of his expert colleagues.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Hello, folks, I'm Stephen Bouche. I'm sitting here live. I
got some great colleagues. I got nineteen of them, a
team second to none, twenty professionals in our firm, and
they are as good as they and I'm so lucky
and blessed after thirty years of doing radio where they

(28:05):
helped me out. Tomorrow we're going to have Marty Shields
and Ed Wilhelm on the show. I will not be
here tomorrow, but Marty and Ed will be and you
will enjoy everything they have to say. But today you
have me Stephen Bouchet, and I can't thank you enough
for tuning in. I can't thank you enough for hanging

(28:26):
in through the news. And if you have any questions,
any questions whatsoever. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty
nine forty nine, I know. I talked to you about,
you know, bonds and stocks just before we took a
break for the news, and as I said, there's volatility

(28:49):
in every asset class. You can't you can't be you
can't be spooked. I told you over the last fifteen years,
your average return in bonds what's two point two percent?
And the SMP, which is really the Broad Stock Market
Index fourteen percent year in, year out. You know, if
you look at nanstac QQQ nineteen percent, nineteen percent. This

(29:14):
is why it's one of our core holdings. I love
nanstak Is. As part of our core holdings. We have
the broad Stock Market Index and nansdak is our two
top holdings. Actually, Amazon and Apple are are really two
top holdings. If you were to break down. It's funny,
a lot of clients say, because we manage about one

(29:35):
point five billion dollars all in exchange traded funds ETFs,
except for those two stocks, Apple and Amazon. And every
once in a while clients will say, oh, Steve, I
you know, god, I went out to dinner with friends
on Saturday night and they're talking about you know they
own you know, they own these great stocks. They own

(29:58):
you know, Microsoft and Vidia and Apple and you know
Tesla and Netflix, and you know they they're bragging about,
you know how they own these stocks. And on the
value side, you know, they got Birdshare half the way
and you know all these great stocks. I said, yeah,

(30:19):
you own them too. No, Steve, I don't e t
X exchange straight of funds. I said, listen, Exchange strad
of funds is just a package basket of whether it
be stocks or bonds, or commodities or reets, depends on
what style, what flavor it's like on the Snowman ice
cream my favorite ice cream place, well, I have two

(30:41):
Baton Guples. Some days you'll find me at both. I'm
an ice cream aholic for those of you that don't know,
I love my ice cream and those are two of
my favorite spots. But you go and you have your
choice of you know, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, black raspberry, you know,

(31:02):
you name it. You got your choice. Well, the same
with exchange traded funds. So I tell my clients, I said,
you own all those stocks too, but we're not taking
as much risk because if you own just individual stocks.
There's a reason why sixty five to eighty five percent
of the time people who buy and sell stocks cannot

(31:24):
cannot outperform their respective benchmarkt For the most part, in stocks,
it's the broad stock market index. It's either the S
and P five hundred or the total stock market indecks
are very highly correlated too, of the same almost but
they cannot outperform them because it's hard buying and selling stocks.

(31:46):
So we do it in a more let's say, less
risk manner, and our returns are pretty stellar. The key
is having that well diversified portfolio. One eight hundred eighty
two five four nine. Any questions, give me a call, folks,
any questions whatsoever, Give me a call. Let me talk

(32:07):
to you. I would love to talk to you. Jeff
had a good question, you know, he thought he had
a beneficiary. But what you have with individual accounts or
joint accounts is what we call obviously a joint account
that goes to the joint account holder. But if both
you know, if God, you know, God help us, if

(32:27):
something were to happen to you know, a mom and
dad in a car accident at the same time. But
if you have an individual account, a non like with
I rays four owen k's four or three b's retirement accounts,
you have beneficiaries with insurance policies. You have beneficiaries with annuities,

(32:48):
which you know, I don't like. You have beneficiaries. But
a lot of people don't realize what their non qualified accounts.
Individual joint accounts you can actually put a transfer on
debt and when it's not if it's when you know
It's like I always say, with stock market corrections and

(33:09):
bear markets, it's not if there'll be another one, it's
when will there be another one. I guarantee there will
be stock market corrections, stock market bear markets and recessions.
Same thing with passing away. When you pass away, those
accounts will be transferred on that and they will automatically,

(33:33):
like a beneficiary, go to whoever you have. And as
long as we're talking about beneficiaries, folks, if you haven't,
you know, if you've had a life changing you know,
the event in your life, if you by chance got
the boris or and you can't believe, including one of
my dear friends you know, got divorced and still had

(33:57):
the ex wife on his beneficiary and vice versa. They
neither of them ever changed their beneficiaries. We still laugh
about it. They say, well, thank god we get along.
I said, yeah, but what do you think about your
new husband? What do you think he would say if
you were to pass away and you know your ex
husband got all the proceeds. So if you have a

(34:21):
life changing event like a divorce or a death. You know,
my wife, as you know, passed a year ago May sixteenth,
and it's been a rough year, a real rough year.
So you know, I'm in the process. I'm still updating
my estate. I got everything in place, but kind of
you know, just changing things around and making sure that

(34:44):
my children and grandchildren are taking care of if something
were to happen to me prematurely. I know something will happen,
but hopefully it's down the road, like years and decades
down the road. But you need to have a plan
in place. You need to plan for that. And having
to transfer on debt this way, who especially if it's easy,

(35:08):
if it's your children or you know your spouse, if
you have an individual account, make sure you put your
spouse down and it just transfers on debt. They don't
have to wait through probate. And I can assure you
going through. And I've been in business for thirty five
years helping clients plan for these events and until it

(35:28):
happens to you, you know, until Sue passed away a
year ago, May, I never realized just how many hoops
you have to jump through. Just this week alone, I
can tell you I spent three and a half hours
on hold with the Social Security Office, three and a
half hours on hold yesterday, two hours twenty four minutes

(35:54):
with United help the bozos. There just just people should
not have to deal with this, And my heart aches
for anybody that has to deal with anybody, anybody in
these scenarios. You shouldn't have to. You know, listen, we

(36:15):
know the government is not efficient whatsoever, and that's a
problem with career politicians. And because they don't have a
clue either, their career politicians, they're part of the problem.
You need business people in office that wants to serve
a term or two. There should be term limits for

(36:37):
every political position as far as I'm concerned, every political position.
How do politicians become multimillionaires acting as a public servant
from the time they get out of college till the
time they retire? How do they accumulate millions and millions
and millions of dollars? So you scratch your head, right,

(36:58):
because if you're a public servant being paid a whole
lot of money, you're being paid really just enough to
be able to put food on a table, pay mortgage,
take care of your family. You shouldn't be multi million years.
Look at just look at some of these people. You see,
you know, mildling off in the news, and look at
their net worth. Google it do artificial intelligence. You'll be

(37:20):
surprised that how do public servants, career oriented public servants
become multi millionaires and billionaires? How does that happen? Well,
I still scratch my head. I don't know. But a
business person that's willing to take risks and lose it
all they deserve. They deserve whatever comes, especially when they

(37:43):
take care of their employees and make sure they do
well in the community. They deserve good things to happen
to them. 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, folks, give me
a call. I would love to talk to you and

(38:05):
you know, get you appointed in the in the right direction. So,
as I said, stocks, you know, the best month since
late twenty twenty three. You know, every twist and turn
of tariff news, corporate earning season, you know, these indexes
were just you know, boy, you know they were just

(38:28):
coming and going right the fallout from the trade war.
They remain just below the surface. And as I said
in the first half of the show on Friday yesterday,
JP Morgan chases Jamie Diamond. He's the CEO JP Morgan
is the largest US bank. He implored Washington resolveds to

(38:52):
resolve its differences with China and and and he says,
China is not scared, folks. This is Diamond about China
the US. We have to get our act together, and
we have to do it very quickly. And I'm sure
Trump listens to people like Jamie Diamond. Jamie diamonds a

(39:13):
pretty smart guy. But for most of May stock investors,
you know, they were learning to tune out all the noise,
let's call it the bad news bears, and all of
the views from the economists, you know, investors. If you
hung in there, folks, you had a pretty good month.

(39:35):
May was a good month, as I said. The s
and P up six percent in May, putting it within
four percent of its all time high. Hot. Hot, Hot,
It's hot, baby, It's hot. The hot tech sector, encouraging
inflation data, grown consensus that the Trump administration won't will

(39:58):
not follow through on its serious severe tariff threats help
power those gains. They, you know. NASDAC, as I said,
was up almost ten percent for the month of May alone,
and near to date, q Q is up one point
six percent. There's still downside, risks, Folks. You know, on Friday,

(40:22):
President Trump accused China violating a tariff agreement, and you
know trade it talks between the two countries is at
risk of falling apart, and who knows it might. Although
I was watching when Trump and Elon Musk were in
the Oval office, Trump said, yeah, I'm pretty sure we'll

(40:43):
probably talk over the weekend. President, she and I. So
you know, listen, he's a school yard bowie. Like him
or not. I could care less if you like him
or not. He's a school yard bowie. At the end
of the day, I think we'll be fine. I really
think we'll be fine, Folks. I'm not worried. I'm not scared.
I haven't even looked at my portfolio, my investment committee

(41:05):
because I'm invested like my clients, they do a good job.
I don't need to look at it. I like, I
like being a long term investor, and I could care
less what happens day to day, week to week, or
even month to month. One eight hundred eighty two five
five four nine. That's the phone lines one eight hundred

(41:26):
eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. If you have
any questions, give me a call. I'm going to go
back to the phone lines where we have Jim in Massachusetts.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
Hello, Jim, Hi Steve. Yeah, I have a I think
I just a simple question. I hope I heard you.
You know that you were today and often you talk
about ETFs. Can you explain the difference between an ETF

(41:58):
and a mutual fund?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Absolutely, it's a great question. Actually, you know, as I
said on the first half of the show, Jim, we
manage about one point five billion dollars. That's a lot
of money on behalf of our clients, and our clients
give us discretion, so we buy and sell when we
feel the need to make changes in the portfolio. Will
either be more aggressive or defensive. Will will we'll we'll

(42:25):
get in the areas we want to get into. So really,
there's three ways, four ways that people can can invest
the You know, people can buy individual stocks or individual bonds.
But if you want pooled investments where you have a
basket of stocks or bonds, or commodities or real estate
or whatever the flavor is, you can buy it in

(42:47):
three ways. I'll start with the worst. You have annuities,
which is a wrap around product sold by an insurance
agent where they tell you your taxes are deferred till
you get out. But if you invest one hundred and
it grows to two hundred, you have one hundred thousand dollars.

(43:08):
That's ordinary income tax at a high rate. Plus you
got a lot of internal management fees. And this is
what I want you to think about, Jim. With all
of these investments I'm going to talk about, there's always
fees embedded internally. Annuities, the fees could be around three
percent more or less. That's a lot of money. That

(43:28):
means if you buy annuity, a variable annuity, there's fixed
annuities too. If you buy a variable and annuity and
you're investing in one of their investment choices and let's
say the S and P, that means that annuity product
has to outperform the S and P three percent for
you to be on even keel with the S and

(43:49):
P because of those internal fees. Then you have mutual
funds in morning Star says the average internal mutual fund
fee is about one percent, and mutual funds you can
only buy and sell. At the end of the day.
They have what they call a net asset value. They're
not always transparent. If you want to get in. If

(44:09):
you see the market react at ten in the morning
and you want to buy a mutual fund, believe it
or not, you can put your order in, but it
won't buy till that day. At four o'clock after the
market closes, they'll see what the net asset value is
and then you buy in at the NAV. And then
there's exchange traded funds, which trade like individual stocks. You

(44:31):
can buy and sell during the day. The fees are
usually a lot less. Our core position is the broad
stock market index. Point zero three percent is the internal
fee point zero three That means that the S and
P returns ten percent for this year, Our exchange traded

(44:52):
fund will return nine point seven because there's a point
zero three percent internal fee, whereas the will only return
seven percent and the mutual fund nine percent. You see
where I'm going with this. So exchange traded funds are
really the internal management fees are less than mutual funds,

(45:13):
not all of them, but like our positions, we spend
a lot of time researching and we're very comfortable with
our portfolio. That's the biggest difference. It's usually just more
transparent and you can get into areas in the markets
in a more efficient manner, and they are for the
most part. Like you could buy a mutual fund in

(45:34):
December first, and on December tenth they issue a capital
gains and you're being taxed even though you only owned
it for ten days. With exchange traded funds, that doesn't happen, Jim,
I hope that helps you. Great question. Really good. Well listen,
you'll be well, stay healthy. Thank you for calling in

(45:54):
one eight hundred eight two, five, five, nine, four nine.
Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Laurie
in Bloomville. Laurie, before you ask me your question, where
the heck is Bloomville?

Speaker 6 (46:08):
Oh, it's it's way out in the boonies. Is over
by Oneonta.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Oh wow, we have a good client in Oneonta. How
are you today?

Speaker 6 (46:20):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (46:21):
What?

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Yeah, I know, I know it's gonna get nicer though
summer's coming, you know, by by August it should be
really nice.

Speaker 6 (46:31):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
Just to find Twitter again. What can I help you
with today?

Speaker 6 (46:41):
Well, I've always listened to your to your program, and
I'm recently widowed and I've never handled any of my investments.
If my husband's nephew was our financial advisor, you know,
family member, and he turned over all of our account

(47:05):
and everything after my husband passed away to his boss
because he was going through something. Well, what's the process.
I really want to move everything up here. I want
to go local because I don't even know this person.
He's down in the city. I'm not going down to
the city. I want to speak to somebody one on

(47:28):
one because now I've got to take control of this
and it's a whole new world for me. It's something
I'm not familiar with. So what's the first step?

Speaker 3 (47:39):
I mean, Laurie, you're my question. Yeah, you're asking a
question that's near and dear to my heart. And first
of all, let me say, being recently widowed myself as
a widower, I'm sorry about losing your husband. I lost
my wife a year ago May sixteenth, and it's been

(47:59):
the longest year that I could ever imagine living. And
it's tough, but it's funny. We had a prospective client
that interviewed us recently and they had a long term
broker too, who was doing a lousy job, a lousy
job managing the portfolio, like terrible job. Long story, short,

(48:23):
his wife would not come in to meet with us,
and I begged him. I said, listen, I want to
meet your wife, because if something happens to you and
this gentleman is not feeling great, his health isn't one
hundred percent. And that's the purpose of why he interviewed.
He interviewed us another firm and he still had his

(48:44):
old broker. And when I get done with this story,
you'll see where I'm going with this. And I said,
you need to bring your wife in. For God's sakes,
I don't like meeting with just one spouse because if
something happens to you, guess what your spouse is going
to be let in the dark and not have a
clue of what to do. Who we are, we want

(49:06):
to meet your spouse. And ironically it's mostly husbands that say, oh, no,
my wife doesn't need to come in, and I say, bs,
your wife absolutely needs to come in. Bring your wife in.
I want to meet your wife. So long story short,
do you know that this prospective client, he told me,

(49:27):
because when you do business with a broker at Merrill
Lynch or you know, one of these insurance companies, you're
really only doing business with one person. Maybe two. You
think you're doing business with Merrill Lynch, you think you're
doing business with ABC insurance company. You're just doing business

(49:47):
with a broker or an insurance agent. Maybe they have
a partner, maybe they have an administrative assistant. That's it.
You're doing business with one or two people. You may
have thinking that Caryl Lynch is behind yet they're not.
These are just people that work and clear your account
through Merrill Lynch or whatever the insurance company is, or

(50:10):
whatever the financial institution is. It could be Wells Farbroo,
it could be any of them. I have twenty professionals
on my team. I have nine Certified Financial Planners CFP professionals.
I have four CPAs, I have a certified Private Wealth Advisor.
I have more expertise than most firms in the country,

(50:34):
which is why Charles Schwab rates US in the top
three to five percent of all wealth management firms in
the country. With that being said, this gentleman decided to
stay with this broker who did a just a down
and out terrible job for him because he just didn't

(50:54):
want to make the change. And I told him, I'm
pretty open, I'm pretty blunt. I said, you are doing
your wife disservice, and I just want you to know
I respect your decision. You may have a long term relationship,
but you know in your heart this guy did not
do a good job for you. You know in your
heart if not, if Wendys, this gentleman is not healthy.

(51:18):
When something happens to you, your wife is going to
be left out in the cold, in the rain, just
like the weather. You are going to do your wife
a disservice, and shame on you. With that being said,
I want you to call my office on Monday. I
want you to tell them you and I talk. We
have a five hundred thousand dollars minimum, but I don't

(51:41):
care if you meet the minimum or not. You tell
my client concierge. It'll be my daughter, Actually, Lauren, you
tell her you and I talk, And I said the
call and I'm going to take you on as a
client beause my heart goes out to you. Hey, Laurie,
I got it. We're almost coming to the end end
of the show. Thank you. You'll be well, stay healthy.

(52:03):
Call my office, okay, folks, Laurals probably the yes, probably
the best question of all. I hope I'm not too harsh,
but That's how I feel. One you are listening to
Let's Talk Money.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
You remember that.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Boy? I miss that Tom all right? Thanks Tom.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
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