Lets Talk Money

June 22nd 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Oh a sharp thing. Whoever has such teams and his
shows the early way? Oh yeah, Stellia, you did good
with the music this weeks old magazine. I mean, we
could listen to this entire second. No, folks, you did
not set to listen to music. There's other stations for that.

(00:28):
I am Stephen Bouche and I am live with you today.
You are stuck with me for the next hour, and
I would love to talk to anybody, anybody who wants
to call in on this. Well, you know, yesterday I
kind of misled you, right. I thought we were going
to have a really beautiful weekend. Yesterday it was absolutely gorgeous.
It was a nice, nice weekend starting out. And then

(00:52):
this morning I woke up to the war of thunder
at five point thirty, so I said, I might as
well get out of bed watch the rainfall. Supposedly it's
going to end and maybe get nicers that day gets longer.
But enough of this rain. I mean, the flowers are
doing just fine. We don't need any more rain, folks.
Thank you for tuning in on this Sunday morning, June

(01:14):
twenty second, And if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever,
the phone lines are open one eight hundred talk WGY.
That's one eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine,
Any questions whatsoever, Love to talk to you. We had
a good show yesterday, talked about a lot of topics,

(01:35):
and you know, it was a weak heck, you know,
I mean, what what can we say? Right The headlines
were just horrific in many ways. You know, the big
news obviously was the was was the FED rate decision.
From a money standpoint, they basically led, you know, left

(02:00):
interest rates alone fork meeting where they basically what we
call pause. So that was big news on the money front.
But on the political front, I mean, right now, you
got Pentagon addressing the nation, is you know this this
war in the Middle East. Trump salutes US troops after

(02:20):
strike shake Iran's nuclear core. So it looks as though,
I guess yesterday we were gonna wait two weeks, but
I don't think we waited two hours. It looks as
though we went writing maybe those B fifty two bombers
going towards Guam weren't really going towards Guam anyway. That's
going to probably rock the markets a little bit this week.

(02:42):
And all I can say is with the Middle East
tension and the bad news. The markets will be volidle.
The markets will react to it, but you can't. You
have good portfolio. Leave it alone. The market will survive
whatever goes on in the Middle East. It may be
rough for a little bit. We'll see what happens as

(03:03):
the day goes on and as we enter the trading week.
Who knows. I don't have a crystal ball, but all
I can say is the market doesn't like unexpected surprises.
And I think, you know, there's a lot of right
now that FED says they're going to have a couple
of rape cuts later on in the year, and I
think that's built into the market. I think the market

(03:26):
is ready for that. I think the market thinks that
will happen. So that's baked into the cake, as they say.
But what's going on in the Middle East between Israel,
Iran and now the USA, I can't answer for that.
It's it's listen. Do I think Iran should have any

(03:46):
kind of nuclear capabilities? Now? I don't. They're They're They're
an evil, evil country and they hate America and so
many others around the world. And I'm not sitting here
to you know, be political about this, but I do
not think they should have any nuclear capabilities. So whatever happens,
maybe maybe we'll put an end to a real threat

(04:10):
in the world. And that's not a bad thing at
the end of the day. It really is a bad thing.
One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine
one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine
any any questions in all, folks, Let's let's get you started.
As I said, we had kind of a with all

(04:31):
the news this week, and man, man, I mean, did
we have some news this week or or what Obviously,
the FED came out Tuesday Wednesday left interest rates alone
at four point two five to four point five percent,
fourth time this year that they pause. Basically, you know,

(04:51):
they are not listening to President Trump, who feels that
not only should the FED cut, but they should cut big.
The FED is independent. I said this yesterday. They are
not supposed to look to any political you know, be
influenced at all politically, and this Fed, Jay Powell is
sticking to his guns. Trump is not going to threaten him.

(05:13):
And that's the one it should be, folks. It's they
need to be an independent organization. And you know, who
knows whether Jay Powell will be kept on or not
when his term is up. You know, as a betting man,
I would probably say Trump would would like to replace him.
He's made no secrets about that, and he's you know,

(05:36):
he should give the guy, you know, some room to
do his job. Was The FED isn't always right. Sometimes
the FED is late. We know that. A couple of
years ago, when inflation was nine point two percent, the
Fed was late to the party. It took them a
while before they started raising interest rates, but then all
of a sudden they did. They started aggressively raising interest rates.

(05:59):
We brought inflation from nine point two percent down to
somewhere between two and a half and three percent, depending
on how you want to measure it. There's different indicators
out there. In this coming Friday, we're going to have
the PCEE Personal Consumption Expenditure Index and that's one of
the feds favorable indexes. So we'll see what that brings us.

(06:22):
But probably two and a half to three percent is
where we are. And as I said yesterday, you know
the FED has a target of two percent. Why I
don't know. I think they're a little greedy to be honest,
if you look over the last fifty years, the last
one hundred years, inflation has averaged over three percent three
point four percent, if you want to be exact. And

(06:44):
why the Fed feels that we should have a two
percent target? I have no idea, but they're they're you know, bonded, determined,
they got their heels, you know, dug in, and they
want two percent target. They feel that's where should be.
I'll take three percent all day long, seeing that history

(07:05):
shows us that inflation average three point four percent, So
I'll take two percent of all day long. But their
projection for the future, they anticipate two more rate cuts
by the year end. We have. So there's nineteen Board
of governors, twelve of them vote, including J. Powell, the

(07:27):
Fed Reserve chair. Twelve of the nineteen vote, Seven of
them expect no cuts in twenty twenty five, So they're divided.
We'll see how that plays out when they meet next.
You know, share power. Basically, emphasize inflation risks to the tariffs. Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.
That's what we were talking about for a long time.

(07:48):
And I'm not afraid of tariffs either, folks, Neither should you.
At the end of the day. Tariffs will be good
for this great country of ours, will even out the
playing field. It may hurt, we may have some short
term pain, but it'll feel better. It's like I guess
getting a roof in that right, all of a sudden,
you feel better. You can go on and eat again,

(08:09):
your teeth feel good. Well. Teriffs, you know, a little
short term pain and long term and you have to
think long term. And the market survived terriffs. Sure they
went down. We were almost in the bear market territory
as that was actually over twenty percent down from the
highs SMP almost touched twenty percent, and that did not

(08:31):
feel good. And the markets have recovered from that. Year
to date, the SMP is up one point five percent,
the entire Nastac composite up seven tenths of a percent,
and QQQ, one of my favorite holdings in our portfolio
of year to date, up about three percent. Russell two
thousand is still down five almost five and a half percent.

(08:54):
Russell two thousand was one of the major indexes this
week that was up. Believe it or not, said yesterday,
I like to see that because that means that it's
not just the magnificent seven that is responsible for the
market gains. Russell two thousand includes mid cap small cap.
That means that the market breadth is widening and you

(09:18):
have more companies that are taking part of the rally.
So I like to see that Russell two thousand gain
ground and being up almost a half a percent this
week Nansdak, the one hundred QQQ was up, you know,
just about two tenths of a percent. Now as far
as the S and P down point one five percent

(09:41):
in Nansdak, you know, one hundred down point zero two percent,
down point zero two percent, So that's how the market's fared.
You have gold off the high once again. You would
have thought with all the headlines, especially with the geopolitical
follow two weighing on the market as heavily as it is,

(10:02):
that gold would be making record highs and it did.
You know, the record high was thirty four thirty one
an ounce and it closed on Friday thirty three sixty
eight an ounce, So it's off the high. You would
think that gold really should continue going up because you know,
people buy gold when they get fearful in the world

(10:25):
they feel is coming to an end. They like gold.
I don't know why you can't bring gold in those
stewards and buy milk and bread with it. You have
to cash it in somehow. And you know, the price
of gold is always determined by a buyer and a seller.
So if you have gold and you want to sell it,
you hope that somebody is looking to buy it, and

(10:45):
vice versa. If you're looking to buy gold, you're looking
for somebody to sell it to you. There's no intrinsic value.
Gold does not pay a dividend. It's really it looks pretty.
There's a lot of guys and gals wear a lot
of gold and they look beautiful, don't they. Yeah, that's
what gold does. It makes people look glitzy. But the

(11:07):
price of gold is off. It's high, and I would
have thought that it would have been higher by the
end of the week with all the headlines, and maybe
after this weekend gold will be And oil we're up
to about seventy five dollars a barrel, and that's you know,
actually that's a I think it's a five month high.

(11:30):
And crypto is you know, Bitcoin is down a little bit.
Yesterday was about one hundred and four thousand, you know
for bitcoin today it's just shy of one hundred and
three thousand. So we'll see what happens. As they said,
all eyes are are are focused on what's going on.
How involved will the US get? And you know, basically,

(11:57):
I guess Trump said I missed it. I must have
been sleeping. I went to bed early last night. But
Trump said that the USS bomb three nuclear sites in Iran. Three,
So I guess we're involved. You know, there's satellite images
show the activity at you know, I guess the big
nuclear site is the fourth oh Iran's fourdo nuclear facility

(12:22):
before and after the strikes. But I guess I guess
that means we're in Folks, you know, nobody likes war.
But we'll we'll see what happens to markets probably will
not be too happy about this. Tomorrow, I'm going to
take a quick fifteen second break. I would love to
talk to you with any questions you may have one

(12:45):
eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine, one
eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine, any
questions whatsoever. Folks, give me a call here. I am.
I'm back. Thank you for letting me wet my whistle
for a quick fifteen seconds. Thank you, for tuning in today.
You know, it's one of those days where, if I

(13:07):
were to be honest with you, I did not want
to get out of bed. I could have stayed in bed,
you know, when it's gloomy and doing me out and
the rain is falling and you just kind of listen
to it. It's nice the past couple of weeks. Boy,
it's so nice to be able to sleep. I have
all my patio doors open and getting that fresh air,
although I closed them yesterday. Yesterday it was hot, hot, hot, hot,

(13:29):
I mean it was it was hot. I did the radio,
then I went saw my exercise trainer. I'm trying to
take care of myself. As you hear me say probably weekly,
your health is what's matter, what's important, and you need
to take care of your health. And no matter how
young or mature, you may be doing something. I don't

(13:50):
care if it's a simple walk, but exercising a little
is good. So I found a trainer that I feel
comfortable with. I told her yesterday I thought she was
gonna kill me, and she said, no, I won't kill you.
She says, just keep breathing during all of these you
know things that she has me doing I said, well,
what if I stop breathing, She says, I'll just, you know,

(14:11):
slap you in the face a couple of times get
you to remember to breathe. But as long as you're breathing,
I won't kill you. But boy, I left here yesterday
I thought she could have she came close to killing me.
And today I'm going to do some hot yoga. I
found this hot yoga place in Saratoga. I guess it's
called Hot Yoga Saratoga, and talk about hot. It's hot

(14:32):
in there as well. And I like hot yoga. I'm
not really good at it. I'm kind of still a novice.
But I want to be able to touch my toes, as
they say, and I want to be able to be flexible,
and hot yoga is helping me with that, helping me
move balance. So those are the two things that I'm

(14:52):
trying to do, just trying to take care of myself
as best I can. One eight hundred eighty five five
nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions, any questions whatsoever. One eight hundred eight two
five five nine four nine, give me a call. Let's

(15:14):
get your pointed in the right direction. You get one
opportunity to retire, you can't go back if if you
always wanted to retire. Listen, I have client for fifty
five and god darn it, we were able to get
him to retire fifty five and he's living the life
of Riley. And that's what it's all about. Is as
I say, when you have your health, you have everything.

(15:34):
If you have your loved one, you're pretty fortunate. And
if financially you can do it, why mess around. You
never know when number one and two, you never know
when your health or something may happen with your loved
one that could change on any given day. And this
client we were able to help retire and he is,

(15:54):
you know, he is doing just fine. I think they
celebrated their thirty fourth wedding anniversary yesterday, and I'm happy
for them. They're living the life that they always dreamt about.
But we planned a long time for it, and he
put he and his wife put their trust in us

(16:15):
to manage their portfolio. And those are our best clients,
the clients that just trust us, the clients that when
there's volatility, they don't call us saying, hey, the world's
coming to an end. We have to sell out of
our investments these. Once you sell when the market's down,
once you sell, you realize those losses. Guess what, folks,

(16:36):
when the market rebounds, and the market always rebounds, it
always goes on to make new all time highs. Crazy
how that happens, isn't it. But that's what happens with
the market yesterday. I gave the stat and I give
it often. Over the last forty four years, the average
high to low Pete de trough fourteen percent. If you

(16:56):
want to be a swinger, be invested in the style
market is over the last forty four years, the average
swing from high to low is fourteen percent. Fourteen percent
from high to low every calendar year. That's the average.
Some years more, some years less. That's why they call
it the average. But that's that's you know, that's what

(17:20):
you have to expect. The market doesn't just go straight
up to the moon and the world's not going to
come to them. And even even with the Middle East tension,
you know, at the end of the day, the market
will be fine. Just you know, just during times like this,
forget you own stocks. If you have a good portfolio,

(17:43):
leave it alone. If you wanted to make changes during
times of volatility. That's an investor's opportunity. That's when you're
optimistic and you go in and maybe sell some dogs,
buy some things that may have been too expensive before.
Now they're a little more let's say, reasonable price, fairly

(18:03):
on sale. There's nothing better than buying stocks when the
stocks are on sale. And that's how you have to
look at your investment portfolio. Don't look at it any
other way. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine
four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine
forty nine give me a call. So you know, this week,

(18:29):
as I said, you know, fears of the Middle East
war put Wall Street. You know, basically I just gave
the weekly stats Russell two thousand and the NASNAC composit
were up a little bit, and the QQQ and the
SMP were down a little bit. Just this mention down

(18:49):
just Asmidcheon and with the tensions in the Middle East,
in this war that's going on, and it is a war.
Iran in Israel are at war and there's no holding back,
there's there's you know, Israel's protecting their their their their
their country. And Iran has been thorn in Israel's side

(19:11):
and our country side for a long time, and maybe
it's all coming to a head. So you had the
Middle East war put Wall Street on holding pattern. Oil,
you know higher, as I said, you know, a lot
of investors flocked to oil, and oil was at a
five month high closed just about seventy five dollars a barrel,

(19:36):
you know, eleven percent jump since Israel launched you know,
their they're ferocious air campaign against Iran. Traders feared the
worst case scenario in which Teyrane could shock the global
economy by cutting off ship traffic through the Strait of Hormones,

(19:58):
a choke point for oil and supplies. We'll see what
happens there. So for those worries really haven't materialized. But
after I guess, after yesterday and what went on, we'll
see what happens tomorrow when the market's open up. Oil prices,
you know, on Friday, believer it or not cooled a
little bit. The White House at President Trump would make

(20:20):
a decision on whether to strike. I ran within two weeks,
well from the time he said that. I think it
took them about just a few hours. We were over
there striking. We struck you know, three three nuclear sites
we struck. So you know, the yield on a ten

(20:41):
year treasury. Higher Fed officials left interest rates unchanged and
signaled that they were open to cutting rates in the
second half of the year, as I said at the
beginning of the show, supposedly two more rate cuts. So
the ten year treasury settled at about four point four percent,
just shy four point four percent. The US economy, you know,

(21:03):
it wasn't back in the seventies. We we we needed oil.
We were heavily dependent on oil. We're not as dependent
on oil. We have a lot of oil, folks, and
this president is not only willing for us to use
that oil, he's willing to let other countries buy our oil.
He wants to turn our oil into a profit center.

(21:25):
We have a lot of oil, and Canada does is
as as well. So we'll see what happens with with
with that. You know, the weekly moves, as they said,
the NANSDAC completely composite up to tens and percents and
peaked down zero point two percent. Energy stocks with the

(21:48):
big gainers you know in this week and you know,
no surprise there, right, So we'll we'll see what happens Israel.
Strikes have disrupted Iran's domestic energy infrastructure, and you know
it's not going to get any better. Folks, guess what
you are listening to. Let's talk money, brought to you

(22:11):
by bluchef and Answer, where we help our clients prioritize
their health while we manage their wealth for life. I
appreciate you tuning in today. We're going to take a
quick break for the news, but I will be here
on the other side of the news break, and I
would love to talk to you. One eight hundred eight
two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eighty

(22:31):
two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, Folks,
give me a call. I would love to talk to you.
One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Okay,

(23:16):
as I'm on, you know, I get kind of I
like listening to the music, folks. I'm an old soul
one in a way. To be honest, I'm I'm here
daydreaming about going to hot yoga after the show's over.
I didn't I went to church yesterday, so I don't
have to go to church this morning. But I ain't
going to hot yoga. Maybe I should go to church

(23:38):
again and forget hot yoga because I don't know what
I'm doing to myself. But there you have it. That's
what I plan on doing. And maybe if the sun
comes out, you know, you know, maybe I'll go up
on the wake and take the boat out. I did
not use the boat last year. I didn't really do anything.
That year was a tough year. This year, I'm hoping

(23:59):
to do more. But hopefully the sun will come out.
Let's see if the weather people are correct. I would
like that. But in the meantime, I'm here for you
right up until nine o'clock and I would love to
talk to you. One eight hundred eighty two five five
nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty
nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, give me a call.

(24:23):
During a newsbreak, I was just trying to catch up
on what actually went on and got I guess we
did we really did, you know, we put a low
end too Iran's nuclear capabilities. And you know, the President
Trump says it was a spectacular display and success. So

(24:47):
we'll see how the markets react to that tomorrow. As
they said, don't be surprised if there's a little volatility.
Maybe the markets will applaud what went on. If it
looks as though the worst is behind us, you know,
that's how the mark it goes. But whatever happens, don't
don't do not sell out of your investments. If you
have a good portfolio, hang in there. Do not be

(25:08):
scared out of the markets. That's the worst thing you
can do is be scared out of the markets. You
just don't want to get out of the markets. The
world is not coming to an end, folks, I promise
you the world is not coming to an end. It
was a tough week. You know, we we we know that.
You know, Israel hit Iranian soil and gas depots, oil

(25:32):
and gold boat edged up. Gold has since retreated a
little bit. Gold stayed up. He got the Persian Gulf shipping.
You know, we'll see what happens there. President Trump left,
you know, he was with you know, seven countries around
the world, and he left early. He did the Irish goodbye,

(25:54):
Hello in goodbye. He went in and said what he
had to say, and he got out of there. I
guess he didn't want to eat the stuffed chicken breast
dinners that they that they serve. No I think they
get better food than that. But you know he left
that left that meeting early telling Iranians to free Tyran
and you know, surrender. He wanted them to surrender. Well,

(26:18):
yesterday he said it was going to be two weeks
before he would make a decision, and it was within hours.
He went in and took out three nuclear facilities. Federal
Reserve held interest rates steady. FED poll chair warned of
inflation and teariff risks. We'll see how that plays out.

(26:39):
You know, as they said the S and P Fello
nas that composite. The entire composite was up two tenths
of a percent, So kind of let's call it a
mixed market. You have j. Powell on Tuesday will be
addressing the you know, House Financial Services Committe, and then

(27:00):
on Wednesday he'll address the Senate. We'll see what he
has to say. Sometimes he doesn't say a whole lot.
You know, they all, not just jpo all these Federal
Reserve chairs. They talk and at the end of their
conversation you scratch your head, you say, what did they
really say? And on Friday, a big report on inflation.

(27:22):
The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases its personal Consumption Expenditure
Price Index f May economists are looking for two point
three percent year over year increase two tens for percent
more than in April. The core is expected to rise
two point six compared to two point five the previous report.

(27:44):
So we'll see what what what happens. And as I said,
that's the Federal Reserves favorite gauge. They like, they like
that report. They like looking at that report, and they
really and something that that they look at. And if
you're inclined to invest in energy, because you think this

(28:07):
war is going to carry on and you think energy
is going to be you know, the place to be,
you know, don't don't don't don't choose Exon or Chevron
or Conico, Phillips or Williams or EOG or Kinder Morgan
or Marathon or Phillips or seump lumbers A buy xl E.

(28:28):
Those are all all the energy companies that trade in
the S and P five hundred and by buying XLE
you're going to get those are the top ten holdings, folks,
you know, so you're getting some good companies. Exon makes
up twenty three percent of xl E. So if you
buy xl E, a quarter of your investment is allocated

(28:52):
towards Exon. You got Chevron at fifteen percent and then
drops down the seven percent for Conical Phillips and five
percent for Williams Companies, and everything else is less than that.
And that's the way to play it, I said yesterday.
If you know, listen, we manage one point five billion dollars.
We only have two individual stocks, Apple and Amazon. And

(29:14):
Apple and Amazon are our top holdings, and they're your
top holdings too. If you own the broad Stock Market
Index like we do, or the S and P, which
just doesn't have MidCap and small cap. We like the
MidCap and small cap arena. So we chose to invest
in the total Stock Market Index on behalf of our clients,
not just the SMP. So if you own that, and

(29:37):
if you own QQQ, guess what you know and their
top ten holdings, you got Apple and Amazon. Apple and
Amazon is closer to the top, Microsoft and NA Video
one and two. So you own you own these stocks.
You know. I love it when a client calls and says, oh, man,
I was out with friends for dinner, and you know,

(29:58):
my buddy's bragg Now he owns this stock and that
stock and he says, ah, I wish, Steve, do you
ever think of buying stocks? And I said, listen, you
own those stocks too, but you own it in a
let's say you own it with less risk, because if
we want to overweight technology, and we are overweight technology,

(30:20):
you have all those great companies in your portfolio. They
are part of all the ETFs that make up your portfolio.
So you own those great companies, they're in your portfolio.
We're just taking less risk because sixty five to eighty
five percent of the time people that are buying and

(30:41):
selling stocks cannot outperform their respective benchmark index. They just
cannot do that. And that's why we decided we don't
want to be buying and selling stocks every day. We
have a nice portfolio. My son, Ryan, Paulo La Pietra,
Ed Wilhelm Bird, Dave Clark. They do a good job

(31:03):
putting our portfolios together, a lot of discipline, and you know,
patience goes into our portfolios and our returns are pretty stellar.
We we like what we own, we like why we
own it, and we let our clients know if we
make a broad move, whether we sell something or buy something,

(31:25):
we let our clients know it, and every couple of weeks,
Ryan sends a little you know, blurb onto our clients
letting them know how we think. So our clients always
know what we're thinking and how we feel about the
markets and the economy. And as I said, and I
say it often listen when there's volatility, just remember the

(31:46):
world is not coming to an end all, not all.
A lot of investors feel the world's coming to an
end when they lose a little bit of money on paper,
and that's all it is. You're losing a little bit
of money on paper. You know, you don't really lose
until you sell. When you sell, now you're losing some
real money because then when you get back in, Like

(32:08):
I hit a client, I've told the story more than
once a few years ago when the markets were really,
you know, going through some short term pain, and this
client says, Steve, you got to get me out. I
can't lose any more money. I said, really, He said, yeah, yeah,
you just got to get me out. When the markets
go back up, let's get back in. And I just pause,

(32:33):
and he heard me, you know, just kind of stop talking.
And I finally said, did you just hear what you
said to me? He says, what do you mean, Steve,
I said, so you want me to sell, well, realize
all the losses because you're a nervous nelly right now
at the moment, and then when the market rebounds, when

(32:54):
the market goes back and makes new all time highs,
you want to get back in. Well he started laughing.
He said, yeah, I guess that doesn't make sense, does it.
I said, absolutely not, and you do not want to
do that, And thank god he listened to me. These
the markets did turn around and they did go back
and make new all time hires. That's it's a beautiful

(33:16):
thing when the market does that, and it does that often.
It's done that historically speaking, every correction the market's bounced
back from. And you want to be invested when the
market bounces back because sometimes that bounce, that rebound is nice,
feels good. As I said, you know, the S and
P is up, you no, not much, up one point

(33:38):
five percent year to date, and they ask that QQQ
is up three percent year to date. What's wrong with that?
You know, we're up, We're not down. We were down
for a couple of months. Did not feel good. But
if you got out, guess what you never recovered when
the when the S and P was down twenty percent,

(34:01):
you missed out when that market rebounded and recovered those losses.
NASTAC was down over twenty percent. I gave out the
returns yesterday. Over the last fifteen years, your average return
in NASDAK was nineteen percent a year, Your average return
and the SMP was fourteen percent a year, and your
average return in bonds. If you want to invest in

(34:23):
bonds to be conservative and have let's say less volatility,
because bonds go down in price, two folks, a couple
of years ago, bonds were down thirteen percent. Long term
bonds were down over twenty percent. So just because now
if you buy individual bonds you hold on to them
to maturity, No, you won't lose money, you'll get your
money back and you'll get interest along the way. But

(34:45):
if you're buying and selling bond, mutual funds or exchange
traded funds, you know they go up and down, just
like stocks. There's volatility in every asset class. There's even
volatility in cash. If you feel that you're you're you're
you're making a good move by holding cash. Listen, if cash,

(35:08):
you got to look at your real rate to return,
and if inflation is more than what you're earning on cash,
you're actually losing money your real rate of return. You're
you're you're losing a little bit. Why do you want
to lose money? You don't want to lose money, folks,
you don't want to lose money. Let me take a
quick fifteen second break. One eight hundred eight two five

(35:29):
five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five
fifty nine forty nine. Give me a call. I'll see
you in fifteen quick seconds. Here I am, I'm back.
Thank you for letting me take that short break. Sometimes
you just need a quick break. One eight hundred eighty
two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two,

(35:52):
five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, give me a call.
I would love to talk to you. So go back
to those returns. You know, you can't be afraid of
stocks long term, over over time. You know stocks listen,
there's volatility, but as I just shared with you, there's

(36:14):
volatility in all asset classes. And you don't want to
be loaded up on gold either. You know I never
thought to be honest. I was dead wrong on gold.
I would have never thought gold would go up as
much as it did. Gold's having a great year. I
think it's up twenty seven percent year to date. And
you know, I would have never thought we'd be sitting

(36:36):
here at thirty four hundred for an ounce of gold.
Makes those zero rings and belly rings look pretty expensive.
I mean, when you see somebody walking around with some
nice gold, some glitter hanging on them or you know,
attached to them, you know, you know, you know this

(36:58):
person's got some money. You know, gold thirty four hundred
dollars an ounce. You know this person, this person's wearing
some gold. Gold's expensive. Gold's worth something. But you know,
we we we we missed that ride on gold. Our
returns are still good. But if you do own gold
in your portfolio, don't don't get carried away. Five allocation

(37:22):
is probably a good allocation. You don't want to really
have a whole lot more than that. As I said
in the first half of the show, gold really doesn't
have any intrinsic value. You can't you don't get a
dividend for it. It's got very little industrial use. Gold
looks good, It looks good on you. It looks good,

(37:43):
you know, bring smiles to people's faces when when when
they open up, you know, a nice little gift and
there's gold be there. In the Far East Asian countries,
you know, believe it or not. You know how we
give cash and and en below, well, believe it or not,
they they use gold as a way to give. And

(38:06):
there's a lot of people in the Pacific Rim that
you know, give gold. That's that's really one of their
you know, that's that's what they give people as gifts
is gold. But in your portfolio five ten percent, it's
probably probably a good allocation, and you've got to find
your comfort level for risk. I'm one hundred percent investment

(38:29):
in the stock market, and I'm comfortable with that when
the market goes down. I never look folks, I never
look at my portfolio. I know that my investment team
they do a good job. I know what's in the
portfolio because they report to me every week, so I
know what's in the portfolio. And I don't need to
look at that at that value every day. And why

(38:51):
don't you go up and down? Why why do that
to yourself? I mean there's some people that are on
the computer all day long looking at their at their
folio it'd be better off, you know, read a book, meditate.
You know, I got into meditating. Meditating is you know,
kind of healthy, good for your good for your mind
and soul. I'd rather see and meditate than look at

(39:13):
your portfolio all day long, you know, just food for thought.
There's some good medication or medication meditation apps. I which
one do I use? I use one called insight what's
it called. It's actually a pretty pretty good one. Do
like six to ten minute six to ten minute meditation

(39:40):
and you just sit there. Insight Timer. It's called there's
another one called Calm, but insight Timer is the one
that that I use, and it's you know, I like it,
and I never understood meditation before, and you know I
I like it. One eight hundred eight two five five

(40:01):
ninety nine. If you have any questions, give me a call.
I would love to talk to you. You know, kind
of a mixed week in the markets, and we're going
to have probably a crazy week in the market this
coming week, as I said, depending on how the world
reacts to what's going on in Iran and to us

(40:25):
getting involved. And I guess you can say we're involved.
We you know, we just we we we we just
bomb three nuclear facilities. They they call it midnight hammers.
What they call it the the the mission, midnight hammer
is what they called it. They were very successful at

(40:48):
taking out three nuclear facilities. So we'll see how the
markets react to that. We had a nice you know.
The Leading Index shows a little slow down in growth,
and that's that's good because that means that maybe the
Fed will cut interest rates to stimulate the economy. The

(41:09):
outlook for the US economy dimmed a little bit and
may hit by basically weaken consumer sentiment, believe it or not,
in low demand for manufactured goods, you know, mostly among
the uncertainty by Trump's you know, trade policies, mostly tariffs.
The Leading Economic Index l EI it's called, which was

(41:32):
published Friday, it's fell one tenth of a percent to
ninety nine and may matching expectations. That's what the consensus
of economists pulled by the Wall Street Journal we're looking for.
And it was revised one point four in April, so
it shows it's it's slowing down a little bit. Consumer's pessimism,

(41:55):
persistently weak new orders and manufacturing, you know, second consecutive
month of rising initial claims for unemployment, insurance, and decline
in housing permits weight on the index. So you put
all those things in a blender and there you go,
little little, you know, leading index came down a little

(42:18):
bit over the last six months. It's fallen by two
point seven percent, much faster rate than the one point
four during the previous six months before that. The you know,
they don't expect a recession. I don't expect a recession.
I know some bad news bears are calling for a

(42:39):
recession and a huge, huge, huge, you know, correction in
the SMP. I'm hoping that doesn't happen. I don't have
a crystal ball, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen. But
I don't see any reason why we should have a recession.
I'm not fearful of a recession, nor should you. There's
just there's really nothing on the horizon shows that we

(43:01):
should have a recession. So hopefully we won't have a recession.
I don't see it. I could be wrong. If i'm wrong,
i'll tell you, but I don't see a recession on
the horizon, and I don't see the SMP going down
twenty five percent. Listen, we were already down twenty percent,
almost from its high just a couple of months ago,

(43:21):
and we recovered from that with the with the you know,
just the grueling headlines that we're watching day in day out.
I don't care if it's Terri made, these tensions, Oil
put them all together, and you know, the headlines are
enough to scare you out of the market. And hopefully,

(43:44):
hopefully if you're a good investor, hopefully, if you listen
to this show. Because it's not only myself, it's you know, Ryan, John,
Marty Harmony, you know, whoever's doing the show, we all
have the same message. We're all on board that. You know, investors,
they just have to hang tight. They can't they can't

(44:04):
get scared out of the markets just because there's a
little bad news or you know, you watch some of
these financial shows and some expert comes on and says, oh, oh,
you have to be scared. You have to get out
of the markets. The markets are going to do this.
The markets are going to do that. Not only do
I not have a crystal ball, they don't have a
crystal ball either. And President Truman said, you know, just

(44:29):
show me at one handed economists, because economists, they always
say on one hand. This on the other hand, that right,
they're never wrong because they got two hands. You know,
if it's not this, it's not that's how that's how
they they they act. And I don't think there's too
many one handed economists out there to be honest. So

(44:50):
as they said, they don't have a crystal ball, I
don't have a crystal ball. Nobody, nobody, nobody knows really
what's what's going to happen in the markets. And whatever
happens in the market, take it in stride, don't get nervous,
don't do something crazy like sell out of the markets

(45:12):
just because there's a little volatility. Hang in there, Hang
in there as best you can. The markets always go down. Always.
It's the only guarantee I give new clients. I look
at them in the eye and they say, I guarantee
you you're going to lose money. They kind of look
at me. I said, this way when you call me

(45:34):
and you say, hey, Steve, I got my statement and
I lost money, And I said, yep, I know. I
guarantee you that we knew this was going to happen.
Markets don't just go up. They go up and down,
up and down, up and down. Over the last forty
four years fourteen percent on average, swing high to low,
peak to trough, fourteen percent swing in the market year

(45:57):
in year out on average, some years more, some years less. Folks,
I can't believe we're coming up to the end of
the show. What happened? You know? You're listening to Let's
Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group, where
we help our clients prioritize their help while we manage
their wealth for life. You're looking listening to, you know,

(46:20):
Let's Talk Money. I love doing the show with you.
Go to our website. We had some good stuff on
our homepage. If you go down to the bottom, there's
some good, good, good good stuff there. And if you
ever miss a show, you can always listen to it
on your favorite podcast platform. Or go to our website.
We always have past shows on there, so if by

(46:40):
chance you're sleeping you miss us, you can always find us. Folks.
It was a great, great show. I thank you for
letting me talk to you for the last hour. And
if you have any questions about your financial situation, give
our office a call five point eight seven two zero
thirty three three twenty three, or go to our website

(47:01):
bruche dot com. In the meantime, you have a good Sunday.
Thanks for listening. Portions of the following program were pre
recorded dou w e g y A M. Skinec to
me w g y F m Almady live on the
free iHeartRadio I use Radio one old