Let's Talk Money

July 20th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, we're seeing a little bit higher inflation going
back to June. That's crept up a little bit. But
outside of that, you know, overall economic data has been
very strong, and we'll talk about you know why that's
important right now this latest week of earnings reports. We've
had a lot of banks report earnings this past week.

(00:22):
While that was critical and so important to where we
see the markets right now. Even though it didn't have
a huge impact on what markets we're doing this week,
it was I think an important week when you look
at corporate America and some of the especially the financial
institutions that are you know, leading the way in our

(00:43):
economy in our country. So interesting earnings and positive earnings there.
We'll talk a little bit about that, and you know,
talk about just planning in general. I can get into
some topics and some you know, examples of how we've
been working with our clients. I gave a presentation maybe

(01:03):
a month ago, and you know, talk just about how
do you plan in these uncertain times and you know,
whether it's uncertain based on what the market's doing, uncertain
based on hey, maybe you've been working for the last
forty plus years and you are approaching or nearing retirement

(01:24):
and you know, just the change in that in something
we talk to clients often about just that psychological shift
and mentality of when you're working, you know, adding to
your retirement accounts, still earning a paycheck and transitioning to
a phase where that paycheck goes away, and maybe you're

(01:46):
living off of distributions from your portfolio versus accumulation and
your portfolio. So just how that that difference can come
to be and kind of the uncertainty that maybe you're
feeling around that. Well, we gave a great presentation a
few weeks ago just talking about, you know, focusing on
what we can control. Right, there's a lot of elements

(02:10):
of financial planning or you know, investment management that you
know sometimes can be out of our control, whether it's
the markets on a day to day basis, right. I
think when you go over a longer period of time,
there is more stability when it comes to the markets,
but on a day to day, week to week basis,
sometimes there's there's not as much control there. We saw that, Uh,

(02:33):
perfect example was the first half of this year and
what we went through through the first quarter again kind
of the tariff headlines and uncertainty around that we led
to a strong recovery and we're at all time highs now.
So uh, you know, we're right back to I guess,
you know, a certain type of normalcy, but a lot

(02:55):
of things that are outside of our control when it
comes to maybe you know the markets or your portfolio
to a certain extent, but there's so much that we
can control, both in our portfolios and in the investment process,
but also outside of the portfolios, more in the planning process,
and just how important it is to really you know,

(03:16):
when you're going through working with an advisor like our team,
when you're trying to look forward, right, it's about controlling
what we can control. It's so important to focus on
those areas and some of the things that we're working
with clients on that are in our control to help

(03:38):
drive successful in positive outcomes. So we can touch upon
all of that, and like I said, anything that you
as a listener may have questions thoughts about the markets, investments, planning,
retirement planning, give me a call one eight hundred TALKWGY.
That's one eight hundred eight two five five to nine

(04:01):
four nine. And so we'll look about look back to
this week's markets a little bit and just kind of
you know, for the most part, it was kind of
an up and down week. Nothing nothing too crazy. The
you know, the NASDAC led the way. Some of those
growth companies were up close to one and a half
percent for the week. The SMP was up a little

(04:24):
bit more than a half percent, about point six percent,
the Dow was relatively flat. Didn't get as much of
a booze through some of the positive news, but certainly
we had kind of an up and down week. And
you know, one of the headlines in one of what
we talked about in our quarterly webinar this week is
focusing not only what we can control, right, talked about

(04:47):
that a little bit earlier.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
But focusing on.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
You know, blocking out the noise, right, trying to look
at what's really going to be at this stage, right
where we're at this year, where we're at in the markets,
really trying to focus on what's important at this point,
tuning out the noise. And you know, we got a
little bit of some noise in the middle of the week,
and I think it was an interesting dynamic.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
It was actually on Wednesday, because we were giving our
webinar live at about nude, and I think five minutes
before going live, I saw the headline that you know,
the Trump administration was moving forward on firing Jerome Powell
as FED chair, and you saw the markets, as they

(05:35):
would probably be expected to do, decline rather sharply. And
you know, I think by the time we were done
with it an hour later, the Trump had came out
and said no, no, no, we're not considering that. So
whether that was a test of the markets to see
what the market reaction would be, who knows. But again,

(05:56):
these are some of the headlines that you know, play
more into the noise of what's going on in the market.
You know, things that you know, especially at the FED
right now, in terms of where we're at in this
economic cycle. I think where we're at in the market
cycle to a certain extent, right, we have to kind
of focus in and hone in on what's really important
at this point. And you know, I think in terms

(06:19):
of interest rates, obviously they have a big impact on
you know, blending, you know, impact especially you and I.
Right if you're going to get a you know, car loan,
maybe you're looking for a mortgage, Certainly interest rates right
now are having a big impact when we look across
the lending and credit landscape today. But in terms of

(06:43):
kind of what's been driving the market, right that was
the FED and what the FED was going to do next,
you know, for quite a long period of time, dating
back to twenty twenty two when rates were going up,
the last two years in terms of what next, when's
the FED gonna cut? You know, I think some of
those headlines were really driving some market performance. But I

(07:06):
think as we've gotten further along, and you know, the
economy continues to kind of chug along, especially at these
certainly elevated interest rates, you know, I do think there's
less of an impact on what the Fed is doing,
you know, clearly, and I do think when you see
what happened on Wednesday, in particular with with some of
those headlines, you know, I don't think it would be

(07:27):
a good thing to fire Jerome Powell at this point,
you know, whether you agree with everything he's done or not,
when you look back, I mean, you know, to be
at this stage in where we're at, with the economy
still doing quite well, inflation for the most part under
control again, you know, the June numbers were a little

(07:48):
bit higher than we've seen in the past about two
point seven percent year over year inflation. You know, the
FED target of two percent we're trying to get back
down to. And I think we're all trying to find
a way to get back to that number. And you know,
that's something that, like I said earlier, we all feel
whether it's at the grocery store, you know, construction, whatever,

(08:12):
whatever it may be. I do think that's played a
such a big or it's had such a big impact
on consumers in particular. But you know, you take a
step back, the economy is doing well, and you know,
Jerome Powell and again the FED may not have been
perfect of these last three or four years, but you know,

(08:32):
we're not in a bad place I think overall with
the economy. So you know, needless to say, I do
think any sort of intervention there and disruption with it
could certainly have an impact on the markets. But you know,
taking a step back looking big picture, you know, right
now we've gotten through a lot of the uncertainty with tarifs.

(08:55):
Right even the last couple of weeks, we're seeing, you know,
some of these tariff conversations are coming back to the forefront.
Right a few months ago they were pushed out given
you know, three month delays, three months pause in terms
of when these were going to be implemented, And now
we're getting closer to that due date. We're getting closer
and closer to when uh these will take effect if

(09:18):
there's not been a new negotiated rate. But as they've
popped up and been more of the headlines the last
few weeks, you're seeing less and less of an impact.
Right if you go back three months ago into that
February March timeframe when it was really front and center, uh,
and you know, I forget what the with the rollout date,

(09:39):
but I remember the uh, the images of being on
the front lawn of the White House and going through
that chart of where those UH teriff rates were going
and what they were going to be across the world.
You know, the markets were on high alert and there
was huge volatility, uh, you know, two three four percent
on some days. And the last few weeks, as tarifts

(10:02):
have come back to the you know, forefront to again
headlines and just being talking points out of the administration,
you're seeing a less impact on the overall market. So
I think the markets at this point are kind of
shrugging them off, right, they're not as concerned as they
were three months ago, as we were kind of getting
towards the end of the first quarter. And like I

(10:23):
said that, this divergence from first quarter to second quarter
and in the major changes we saw in the market environment.
But you know, we kind of shrugged past that. We've
gotten over some of what was the big concerns, the
major worries with tariffs, and you know, then we got
through this big beautiful belt, right. We got that through

(10:45):
and passed right before the fourth of July, acted as
a little bit of a catalyst for the markets. And
you know, now as we stand here today, right we're
at or just about at all time highs. There's been
a you know, less volatility.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Certainly.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
You know, the VIX right now is under its historical
sort of average of where you see that and the
VIX is a measure of just the overall volatility within
the markets. And so you know, you couple all this
together and take a step back and you think.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, you know, the market's in you know, a pretty
decent place right now.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
And I would tend to agree, you know, it's it's
you know, from a fundamental standpoint, maybe a little overvalue
and we can talk about you know, how we should
be thinking about that in this type of environment. But
you know, we get through some of the uncertainties and
you know, on top of that, and like I said,
we're going to dive into this more in today's show.

(11:43):
But you know, the economic data that is coming out
is supporting where we're at in the markets. It's supporting
being at these all time highs. So that is all
good stuff. And again, our phone lines are open if
you have any questions you want to talk about the markets,
talk about you know, maybe quite as they pertain to
you know, financial planning topic of yours or retirement planning question.

(12:06):
Give me a call. You can reach me at one
eight hundred talk WGY. That's one eight hundred eight two
five five nine four nine. With that, I am going
to head to a quick commercial break. When we come back,
why don't we talk a little bit more about, you know,
some of the data that that came in this week,
how that's helping support the markets, and we'll talk about,

(12:28):
you know, all time highs, how we should be thinking
about the markets, and you know, later on in the
show we'll get more into some of the ways that
we've been helping clients outside of managing their portfolios, but
some of the you know, in depth planning work that
we've been doing and why that's so important and as
I said earlier, doing those things that we can control

(12:49):
when it comes to our financial planning picture. So with that,
we're going to take a quick commercial break. You're listening
to Let's Talk Money here on eight ten and one
oh three one WGY. And welcome back to Let's Talk
Money here on eight ten, one oh three one WGY.
I'm Ryan Bouchet and we'll be your host for the

(13:11):
rest of this hour. So happy to have all those
listeners out there tuning in today and joining me on
this nice Sunday morning. For the listeners that do have questions,
give me a call one eight hundred talk WGY. That's
one eight hundred eight two five, five, nine four nine.
As always love hearing from you. Always come with great

(13:31):
questions or talking points and helps, you know, bring new
topics to the conversation. Like I said before our commercial break,
wanted to just dive in a little bit of you know,
how we're thinking about the markets, what we're looking at,
and you know, what we feel will be driving us
forward as we enter the second half of twenty twenty five,

(13:53):
which is hard to imagine, but you know, as we
look at the first half, right, we we had such
the uncertainty in the first quarter, right the market's almost
bottomed out right at the end of the first quarter,
really bottomed out on about April eighth or so. And
you know, much like COVID, we we had that sort
of V shaped down in the market selloff in a

(14:17):
quick V recovery which you know didn't take long for
us to get back to all time highs as as
we recover from the tariff conversations, the tariff uncertainty, and
you know, as we again have gotten through the second
quarter and into this third quarter here in twenty twenty five,
the economic data, you know, surprisingly, and I will be

(14:37):
the first to admit, I am, you know, to a
certain extent shocked at how little impact we saw from
you know, some of the hard data numbers, whether it's
in the labor market, whether it's from consumer spending, because
you know, there was a lot of disruption. I do think,
you know, even though maybe not a lot of the
tariffs were actually into effect. You know, when when CEO

(15:00):
or corporate America have to plan around what's happening. You know,
the last thing they want is uncertainty. And it doesn't
maybe doesn't mean they're they're pulling back or cutting anything.
But if they're not, you know, aggressively investing or putting
money to work, then it may have some sort of
impact in how some of this data played out and
the economy played out. But you know, lo and behold.

(15:22):
You know we're here and you know most of the data.
You know, right, the labor market has been solid. We're
still at four point one percent unemployment rate. The June
labor report was quite strong, you know, much more jobs
than we're expected. You know, maybe the the little when

(15:42):
you look under the hood a little bit, you know,
maybe there's some concerns around private payroll growth not as strong.
A lot more jobs are being created in the public sector,
but for better or for worse, still a strong labor market.
You look at consumer retail spending reports came back this

(16:03):
this week and you know, expectations on month over month
basis was you know, kind of in the point one
percent growth phase and they were up zero point six
percent retail sales. I mean, these are just numbers that
again when you take a step back and say, you know,
where are we at as an economy? Where can the
markets go? You know, as the economy continues to stay strong,

(16:27):
these are all great signs and indications that hey, maybe
we have more room to grow from here again, even
though markets are at all time highs, the foundation is
there to maybe move this forward. And you know, what
we really saw and something that I presented on and
like I said, we did our quarterly webinar just a

(16:49):
market economic update with my colleague Paolo La Pietra. So
if you go to our website you can find it
under you know, you go to bouchet dot com under
our Insights to you go to webinars and videos, you'll
see our Q two twenty twenty five market update. Take
a look at some of the charts graphs that we're
looking at. It's about a half hour presentation, so it

(17:11):
wouldn't take too much time if you wanted to give
a listen or give a watch. But you know, one
of the things that we were looking at and discussing
is this huge discrepancy between what the soft data has
been so soft data meaning you know, sentiment. If you
remember again going back to March April this year, when

(17:32):
things are really bad, things were looking really rocky. Sentiment
was way way down. And that was both consumer sentiment,
it was you know, small business sentiment, it was Wall
Street Corporate America sentiment. The you know readings from that
were very, very bad. But you know, we call that

(17:54):
soft data for a reason, right, It's more driven by
you know, feelings versus what's act actually happening. And when
we look at you know, the latest quarter or so
in you know, Bloomberg has a surprise index, meaning, you know,
how is the data coming in versus where the expectations were. Well, again,
on all of those soft data components coming in way under, right,

(18:18):
they were missing the mark. But when you look at
the hard data, the actuality of what's happening in our economy,
what's happening in corporate America, those numbers were coming in
above and beyond you know that surprise indecks. They were
coming in better than expected. And that's been a good thing.
That's been a real positive driver of where we're at

(18:40):
right now in the market. And you know, on top
of that, you have you know, the big beautiful bill
that pass and not that it makes any huge changes
right now or differences, but it's more of a tailwind
right than it is a hend wind. Certainly, it's more
of a stimulus type bill than a you know, slowing
down of the economy bills, So you factor that into

(19:02):
the mix too, with you know, less concerns on terris.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know, great economic data. We had bank earnings coming
in this week, which you know, we can dive into
a little bit more with with how that came through,
but you know, all these were super positive when you
look at the momentum in the market and what we
see from here. So those are all, you know, good
sentiment indicators of where we're at and you know what

(19:29):
we're looking at because you know from here on out
it is it's going to be economy and it's going
to be earnings. Those are going to be the two
big factors of I think, where this market can head to.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
So we're we're.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Approaching our break for the news. When we come back
on the other side, we can talk about markets, we
can get a little bit more into you know, what
we're thinking, what we're looking at, but we'll also talk
a little bit more of some of the capabilities that
we have and what we're doing for clients, so stick
with us. You are listening to Let's Talk Money here
in eight ten in one O three one WGY. We'll

(20:07):
talk to you after the news break and welcome back
to Let's Talk Money here in eight ten in one
O three one WGY. I'm Ryan Bouchet, so happy to
be here with all of you this lovely Sunday morning,
and we got one half down, one half to go.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Would love to have you be part of the show.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
So if you have any questions out there, you want
to give me a call, you can reach us at
one eight hundred talk WGY. That's one eight hundred, eight two, five, five,
nine four nine. Talked a little bit about the markets
in the first half, just you know what we saw
in the first half of twenty twenty five, where we're
at today, what's what's helping drive the markets. We'll get

(20:52):
into some planning and retirement topics as we enter the
second half, but we're going to go to our phone
lines as we have Jerry, Jerry, good morning, how are
you today?

Speaker 3 (21:02):
Good morning? I uh, how are you good?

Speaker 2 (21:05):
I'm great? Thank you, well, that's good.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
I have a question on QQQ. It's been a great performer.
But like you said, you've been talking about all time highs.
It's getting up there. Even for me. I can't afford
it anymore. So is it gonna it most likely will
slow down. And what do you folks do? Do you
start looking at something like qqq M which is basically

(21:30):
very similar in what you're buying or is that too
much overlap? And what what your what you what you
guys do basically when you see something like qqq so high?

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's a great question, and appreciate it. Yeah, No,
QQQM is actually you know something that we're we're our
investment committee that we meet every week. We're actually looking
to you know, use that actually as a replacement just
because of you know, not as something to add to
qqq per se, but as a replacement as it's it

(22:01):
trades a little bit different and actually as a you know,
slightly lesser expense ratio, which is a good thing, right,
But now that it's gotten big enough size that that
we can invest in it. But when you take a
step back and look at QQQ as an index or
as a holding, right, we love it. It's it's a
huge core position of ours, you know, the Nasdaq one hundred.

(22:25):
It's it's the companies that are driving, you know, and
have been responsible for driving this market forward. I think
a big fear comes in right when you think about
the NASAC and you think about all time highs, as
you mentioned, you know, maybe you go back to you know,
the two thousands, right, we had a tech bubble and
in markets kind of getting out of hand. A little
bit I actually used and you can find it as

(22:47):
I said that webinar I gave this week. One of
the slides I used is actually a comparison of today's
market versus the nineties in similarities, going back to kind
of like the mid nineties with nineteen ninety five very
simpler interest rate environment. The Fed had rose interest rates
in ninety four ninety five, pretty similar to how we

(23:08):
the Fed was raising interest rates a.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Few years ago here.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
And so when you look over the last two three years,
the you know, the trajectory of QQQ or the Nasdaq
versus the Nasdaq back then is very similar. But you know,
the biggest difference and what's driving where we're at today
when we think about all time highs and where the
market is, and especially with you know, a more growth

(23:32):
oriented index like the Nasdaq and and etf F follows
it like QQQ. Is you know, looking at valuations, looking
at you know, what can drive this market forward. And yes,
valuations are you know, historically pretty high right now. The
overall markets trading at twenty three twenty four times forwards earnings.

(23:54):
That's above the historical average of about seventeen eighteen. So
you know, markets are frothy right now. But at the
same time, you know a big portion of our stock
market right now is driven by technology companies. And technology
companies require higher valuations right because most of their value

(24:17):
or price point is based on future growth and future
earnings growth. And so that's not unreasonable per se or
uncharacteristic of this type of market environment. And what we're
seeing right now is that we do have a catalyst
in place, right It's everything that's going on with AI
right now again is similar to sort of the Internet

(24:38):
boom of twenty twenty five years ago that we saw
and you know, probably your thinking or maybe asking, well,
you know, didn't that end kind of poorly? And it
certainly did at a certain point, right, But I do
think we're where we're at right now. Right we have
a solid foundation with the economy we're seeing.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
To throw.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Looking yeah, so looking so looking at QQQ, which is
so expensive right now, I want to get in on
another good performer, like maybe qq Q M is so
so would that would that be something probably worth qq
is going to the next best ETF coming up, But.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well it's going to be the same thing as QQQ,
right It's it's no different. It won't trade any different.
It's just it is a different fund and has a
different entry price point, but they track you know, at
a one quarter.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
It's just more affordable for me at this time. Qq do.
I have a lot of QQQ, but I'm just like,
I can't buy it anymore price me and and and
one more question I did when I first started, I
didn't know so much. And I've been listening and I've
learned a lot and I've gotten When I first started,
I had to roll my four oh one K and

(25:55):
then I went with Charles Swab and they put me
in what they call an intelligent portfolio, which it doesn't
It doesn't do the disidends. It reinvests like cash flow
what you make, they kind of reinvest the cash sort
of does that. It's been performing okay, But it's a
lot of Charles Schwab stuff in large cap small cap.

(26:15):
What's your take on that?

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, I think you know, no different than if you're
in like a four to one K plan with maybe
a target date fund or a you know, risk based
tolerance fund in a four to one K plan. I mean,
these are going to be for someone who wants to
set it, forget it. Something like that will generally be
pretty good for you.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
It's it's not the worst option. It's usually low cost.
I mean, you know, a Schwab platform with their intelligent portfolios, Yes,
they're going to use Schwab funds. However, they're you know,
we use a few Schwab funds because they're the cheapest.
Like our US equity exposure s e HB is point
zero three expense ratio and it's just a US UH

(26:59):
broad market index.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
So you get, you get.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Mine's been men performing pretty well and it's it's not
bad what it's been doing, and I I think it's
you know, it's been right up there, So I guess
I'll just leave it and let it keep rolling and reinvesting.
It's just like you always say, reinvest in dividend dividends,
and it doesn't, but it does sort of.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, no, and it should do that. And like I said,
it's it's going to give you the broad diversification. It
won't give you any sort of tactical sort of uh
approach to it. But again for like a set it,
forget it. Uh, you know, low cost option they can
be pretty good. It's really you know, what's what's the
right allocation for you or you you have the right

(27:46):
exposure to both stocks, bonds, whatever that looks like in
terms of what you're comfortable with, and uh, you know,
it can be a good Like I said, you're not
going to get sort of the tactical investment growth is
going to be more based on sort of that traditional
full diversification, which sometimes can be good right in the
first quarter. That helps when you have a little bit

(28:07):
the international when it's finally outperformed, but you look like
a year like last year, international underperformed the US stocks
by twenty percent, which has kind of been the case
for the last ten or fifteen years.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
And they asked you the same similar question. I went
more with our stocks here, the US stocks, a little
bit of international, but you can you can set it
up that way too.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
When you can you get a little bit Okay, that's good.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, and I went very aggressive with it. But anyways,
I think, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, yeah, Jerry, appreciate the call. It's it's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
And you know that's something we're talking to clients a
lot about right now, you know, whether.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
It's QQQ or yes.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Seeing that we're at these alter eyes right now, sometimes
I can feel a little scary getting invested in, you know,
believe it or not. When you look back and we
have charts, it wasn't. I didn't use this chart in
this recent presentation, but you can take a look at
you know, investing at all time highs is actually tends
to be a good time to invest. You actually tend

(29:08):
to have longer term outperformance because you know, all time
highs brings about more all time highs. Sometimes momentum in
the market is such a positive force. Uh, it's hard
to slow that down. And investing at all time highs
again can be a good thing. So, you know, I
think you know, understanding your risk profile, understanding how you're invested,

(29:28):
understanding your total portfolio allocation is critical. You know, one
of the themes that we talked about on Wednesday was
you know, staying disciplined in this time right it is
so important, you know, not to chase something, not to
you know, get out over your skis because you know,
you see the market doing well and now you want

(29:49):
to you know, maybe you were under invested or maybe
you were sitting in cash and now you want to
chase returns.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
You know, it's not the time for that.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
But I do think a well thought out, disciplined approach
in this type of environment can be a good thing.
Like I said, there's there's a lot of positive momentum
and catalysts right now in the market, but you know,
we're still at all time highs. We're still at pretty
elevated valuation, so you just have to stay disciplined. Again,
our phone lines are open. Give me a call one

(30:19):
eight hundred TALKWGI. That's one eight hundred eight two five, five, nine,
four nine. We are going to go back to the
phone lines. We have Bill in Clifton Park. Bill, how
are you this morning?

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Hi?

Speaker 4 (30:31):
I'm doing good, Ryan, Thank you for taking my phone call.
Just to build on the last call, I'm interested in
dividend funds as well and there's a new one out,
a new player out in the market getting a lot
of hype. Perhaps you could give some insights on it.
It's called omah so Vista Shar's target fifteen birdshere select

(30:52):
income ETF.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Let me take a look so time fifteen.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
I'm so, I'll be honest with you, I'm not off
the top of my head and not as familiar with it.
What is it that has drawn your eye to it?
Or what's some of it as I look it up?
What what's the driver of the CTF? And I'll give
you some thoughts on it.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Yeah, so it's it's supposed to be paying a very
high monthly dividend growth. I'm looking at a dividend growth
ETF funds and I've been researching some of them out
like sc HD, this, Charles Schwab one Er, Vanguard, v
y M one and then I've came across this one

(31:38):
and it's like a brand new fund, you know, getting
quite a bit of a buzz on the internet in
recent months because it came out in January and it's
supposed to be performing pretty well. And see what's your
guidance that would be on that.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, I'm looking at it now.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
So, you know, I think when when I take a
step back, I'll kind of paint a kind of more
of a broader picture. I'll try to give some thoughts
on this fund in particular, but like I said, I'm
not as familiar with it. I'm just looking it up now.
But so there's a few things that we think about
and something in it. It's a good point to because
it's something we talk to clients about a lot as well.
Is you know, historically, especially in the last twenty years,

(32:16):
we've been in such a low interest rate environment, it's
been really.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Difficult to build portfolios.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
That only generate income for you know, maybe a retiree
so that they're living on those that income, right, That's
been difficult thing to do, and so we've kind of
taken this total return approach, right, So we haven't focused
as much on pure dividends because you know, again, dividend
yield and the S and B has been relatively low.

(32:44):
Interest rate market has been really low as well, and
so there has been a lot of places to get yield.
So you know, being too conservative could actually be you know,
a detriment to a long term retirement. When we look
at dividend yielding stocks. You know, sometimes you know, if
you just focus on that, yes you can get into
like a three four you know, probably not getting too

(33:06):
close to five percent. There's not you know without taking
really you know, concentrated you know, undue risk.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
But maybe you know three four.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Percent yield on some dividend payers, you know, the problem
can be is that you know, they tend to be
in certain parts of the market, right energy, real estate,
you know, more either defensive or you know, in some
cases areas that got beaten up while the rest of
the market was driving forward. And so when we see

(33:35):
some of these portfolios and we get client, we get
new clients that come in with portfolios that are just
built around high dividend yield.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Again, yes, maybe your yield looks good.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
But your total return sometimes does not keep up with
the market because you're not getting a lot of exposure
to some of these great you know, growth companies that
have been really driving our market for the last fifteen
twenty years. So that's where you have to be somewhat
careful in terms of Okay, if you're looking for yield,
what are you getting exposure to and why do you
have it in your portfolio? I think it's great to

(34:09):
have it as a piece of the portfolio, right giving
you the diversification, giving you access and exposure to other
parts of the market. I would just caution being careful
of trying to build a portfolio around too much of
a focus on yield, because again, sometimes that can miss
out on areas of the market that you know tend

(34:30):
to do well in these growth types of environments. It
looks like this one is kind of like some holdings
with like an options maybe overlay strategy. You know, we
hold something similar if it's if it's the same type
of setup. You know, we hold Jeppy, which again is
more of a defensive stock with an option a call

(34:52):
cover call writing options overlay strategy, which gives you yield
from the options being written out of market options being
written on those. So you know, we like some of
those as a piece of the portfolio. But it's really
about understanding the makeup of it, how it fits into
your portfolio, how you're using it, and you know what's

(35:13):
the pros and cons because again, sometimes you give up
something for additional yield, and just understanding what you're what
you're giving up or what you're gaining.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
By that does that does that help it all?

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Bill again, sorry, because I don't I'm not as familiar
with this fund in particular, but that's kind of how
I think about these types of funds, or even like
a dividend strategy is part of a portfolio, right, I mean,
I think it has to be used as a diversifier
and something that helps, you know, play a role within
the portfolio, but maybe not a full driver of a portfolio.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
It does.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
When I first read about this fund, the first thing
that came to mind is it's like a Jetby like
j E.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
P I.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Right.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
It sounds to me like along the stage. That's the
first thought I had, just like you did. And I said,
it's one of those type of funds. So that's what
I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
To get at. Yeah, yeah, And this looks like a
Jetpy with a little less diversification. It's a little bit
more concentrated because it's top ten holdings. It's got Apple
at about eleven percent, Berkshire at ten percent, American Express
at nine percent. You know, it's actually got about fifty
percent financials, which financials have done very well so far
here todate, so that could be a good driver. But

(36:27):
this one is this seems to be a little bit
more concentrated at least how it's made up now. I
don't know if they have like a quarterly rebalance in
terms of how they determine what the what the biggest
holdings are within the category. But Jepy, like knowing Jefpy
Jeppy is much more diversified where it's kind of like

(36:48):
a defensive SMP type of structure. But this one definitely
has more concentration, which can be good or bad, right,
depends on the market environment or maybe you know, the
given day or week.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
You still recommend Jeppie.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, we like it.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
We we hold that as part of our alternative sleeve.
Right with with you know, we've we've kind of gone
more into you know, in the last twelve eighteen months,
we've we've solidified our you know, fixed income piece of
the portfolio. But as you know, going back two three
years ago, right, we've were unwinding this. But when rates
in the FED was raising interest rates really quickly, you know,

(37:26):
we kind of moved out of some of our fixed
income and as we've gotten more into it, right, our
alts aren't as big of a sleep. But something like
Jeffy to us. We hold that as an alternative asset
sleeve in our portfolio makeup, and you know, we still
like being able to get a little bit of additional yield.
And again with some of the you know, not that

(37:48):
some of the uncertainties around tariffs and inflation still being
where it's at, we think it's just a nice diversifier
within the portfolio. Okay, thank you, Yeah, no, I appreciate
the call. Bill, good talking points, and like I said,
you know, we always looking at the portfolio and the
makeup of our portfolio is one of the key things
is you know, understanding what each holding is doing for

(38:12):
the portfolio, how it you know, works within other positions,
and how it can add diversification or you know, what
its main purpose. And you know, some of these diven
like we like instead of maybe just a high yield
fund in this type of market environment, especially economic environment,
where again we were I think we have solid foundation

(38:33):
in the in the economy, but we have seen a
little bit of a slowing growth over the last year
or two, you know, more so probably in the last
six to twelve months, and so instead of just having
high you know, dividend payers, we like dividend growers like
you know, traditional aristocrat type of ETF and you know,
having these companies that are able to grow dividends over

(38:56):
a fifteen twenty year period. Again, that just means that
you know, they're cashflow positive, they have really strong balance sheets,
they're able to grow in good markets and bad economic times. Right,
it may not be ideal when the economy's slowing down,
but they tend to hold up better. So these are
you know, to me, great diversifiers, especially if you have
some growth exposure, which we do have in our portfolio.

(39:18):
So you know, just kind of thinking about how balancing
some of that risk and how having different exposure in
the portfolio. Right, You'll see, you know, you talk about
the first half of this year, you'll see those types
of positions do very well and in you know, versus
the market in the first quarter. Now they may lag
a little bit as you're coming out of the first
quarter and having this strong recovery in the second quarter,

(39:41):
but again understanding why it's there, the role it's playing
in your portfolio is critical. So we are heading We
got about you know, five six minutes left in the show.
Phone lines are open one eight hundred talk WGY one
eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine. We're
going to go back to the phone lines from Troy,

(40:01):
my original hometown. How are you, Tom?

Speaker 5 (40:05):
Good? Good? Thank you? How you doing?

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I'm doing well? Thanks?

Speaker 5 (40:10):
Okay, I think I think I have a simple question
concerning the new tax laws that are in effect. As
a married couple, if we itemize our deductions, is there
any limit to the amount that we can contribute to
the donor advisory fund for contributions?

Speaker 1 (40:29):
So donor advisory funds, there shouldn't be a minimum. We're
we're actually doing a webinar on the big beautiful build
more from the tax side, So I am not fully
up on all the changes to it, but yeah, from
a itemized perspective, you know, outside of the typical, you know,

(40:55):
standards of what was there before. I you know, off
the top of my head, Tom, I I don't know
that quite yet, but it's something that you could definitely
look into, and you know, maybe given our offices a
call this week. Okay, we actually have Vinnie and Scott
from our office, or two of our tax team members
and tax experts, are doing a more granular webinar in

(41:18):
about two weeks.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
We'll send some infects out or you notices on that, so.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
I can look for that. Yep, yeah, yeah, well that's okay.
The other the other question, which is kind of related,
and I don't know if you know this either, but
I think I read that if if you if you
don't itemize and you take the standard deduction, you're still
allowed to contribute up to two thousand dollars as a

(41:46):
charitable contribution and take the deduction. Have you heard that.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
I did see that through the the bill this, you know,
the past couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Let me see. I think you're right on the two thous.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I gotta double check it, but it might be less
than that. I gotta I need it again. I need
a double check on that text.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
But I just don't want to know.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
The dust hasn't settled. I know that.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, yeah, I don't want to give wrong, wrong advice,
especially when it comes to the specific numbers. So this
is where I try to rely on of our our
more experts in this area. But I do think I
did read there was a ability to give up to
the two thousand, and that was kind of the big

(42:43):
change versus in the past.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
I think, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll keep listening, and I'll
h I'll watch for the news because I know everything
is still getting looked at.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah. Perfect, I well, I appreciate the call. I wish
I was more useful this morning, but maybe maybe next time.
All right, Yeah, thank you, have a good one. Appreciate
the call.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
And as I'm as I'm looking at it, yeah, it
does look like it's the two thousand is allowed now
through the new bill. But certainly want to check with
and I'll check with with our tax experts internally as well,
because they're much more well versed in this, and I
know they're putting out a blog. I think we'll hit
beginning of this week, and like I said, we're going

(43:31):
to be doing a webinar. I believe it's August eighth,
but I'm sure maybe it's the sixth. Actually, I know
it's going to be that first week in August. So
we'll share more on the radio and you can find
ways if you want to join and be a part
of that. So we are approaching the end of the show,
but it was a great hour here with all of you.

(43:55):
Appreciate all the listeners tuning in, Appreciate the calls. As
I said to Tom, wish I was a little bit
more helpful this morning, but maybe next time we'll be
more prepared for some of these new bill laws. And
with that, make sure to join us next week on
Saturdays at ten am Sundays at eight am listening to
Let's Talk Money here on A ten one O three

(44:15):
one WG.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
I have a great rest of your weekend. Take care,