Let's Talk Money

August 9th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, folks, and thank you for tuning in today.
Thank you for being here. It's a gorgeous day outside
August night. I'm telling you I had this conversation yesterday
with somebody you know there's we've had a couple of
days of rain after the month of June where it
rained every day, But days like today are absolutely gorgeous

(00:23):
out and before we know it, Labor Day will be here.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And then before we know it, you.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Know what happens next The leaves start changing, falling, Then
you get your shovel out and we do it again
next year. So enjoy this weather. But more importantly, thank
you for tuning in today. I am Stephen Bouchet. I
am sitting here live with you. Tomorrow my son Ryan
will be doing this show. So you have me today.

(00:49):
And if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, CLAUW
one eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two
five five to nine four nine, any questions whatsoever, I
would love to talk to you, especially to the week
we had this week. Oh mowie, was this a beautiful week?

(01:11):
In the markets? Nasdak up almost four percent, the S
and P five hundred up almost two and a half percent.
Even Russell two thousand was up almost two and a
half percent, folks, that's a beautiful week in the markets.
Year today, we have the SMP up almost nine percent,
with dividends over nine percent, closer to ten percent. You

(01:35):
have the NASDAK composed it up eleven percent. QQQ, one
of my favorite holdings, you know that up twelve and
a half percent. Russell two thousand down a smidgeon year
to date, down half a percent. But other than that, folks,
you know, if you weren't scared out of the market,
then you are making money with a well diversified portfolio.

(01:58):
I can't begin to tell you. It's a beautiful thing
when you can make money. Even even if you're in
the bond market. You're making two and a half percent.
I know it's not the nine percent that the SMP
is making. But the reason you have bonds in your
portfolio is to soften the volatility, because bonds to refresh

(02:19):
your memory. Bonds are risky as well. Every asset class
is risky, folks. I don't care if it's cash, bonds,
real estate, commodities, stocks, crypto. I don't care what the
asset class is there's volatility in them all. Unfortunately, the
stock market takes the worst of it. Why I don't know,

(02:40):
because it's what everybody looks at. They think that when
the stock market's down, you know, they forget to look
to see if their bonds are down. And when was
the last time you had that real estate It can
come in value your house, you'd be surprised. It probably
goes up and down as well. So there's volatility in
all last of class. That's the key for you is

(03:02):
to have a portfolio that you're comfortable with that allows
you to sleep at night no matter how great the
returns are. And believe me, the returns in the stock
market have been just amazing. I mean you hear me
give this out almost weekly. I remind you your average

(03:24):
return in the S and P five hundred over the
last fifteen years is just about fourteen to fifteen percent,
Your average return and QQQ, which is a core holding
of ours, almost twenty percent, and your average return in
bonds over the last fifteen years two point one six percent.

(03:47):
So overtime, as much volatility as there is in the
stock market, overtime stocks have been historically the best performing
asset class, but day to day there's ups and downs,
but there's ups and downs with every other asset class
as well. Unfortunately, people don't look at it that way.
They really just want to look at their stock portfolio.

(04:09):
So if you did not get scared out of the markets,
you're doing pretty good being up. As I said, almost
nine percent for the SMP, twelve percent for QQQ. Those
are our top two holdings. Actually, Apple and Amazon are
really our top two holdings. Those are those are the
number two one and two holdings in our portfolio is

(04:33):
Apple and Amazon. And Apple had a good week, very
good week, and I like what I've seen, and you know,
they're they're they're good companies, just great companies. You had
Cook Tim Cook down in the White House talking with

(04:54):
President Trump investing, you know, a boatload of money in
this country to make some iPhones, I guess. And it helps.
And you see how it lights up President Trump's face
when companies like App will basically go to him and say, hey,
we're we want to be on your team. We're going
to bring some manufacturing jobs from overseas to this great

(05:17):
country of ours. And that that's one of the positive outcomes, folks,
of what's going on with the terriffs. You know, whether
you like it or not. And believe me, tariffs sound scary.
But I really, and I say this, and I've said
this often, at the end of the day, I don't
think they're going to be scary. I think at the

(05:39):
end of the day, tariffs are going to be good
for this country. We're going to have a little short
term pain, which we've seen. We've experienced some ups and
downs in the market over the last few months, but
now things may be the worst is behind us. I
don't know so tariffs. You know, they're scaring a lot
of countries. They're scaring a lot of companies. Company like

(06:00):
Apple to make a huge investment is a beautiful thing
for this great country of ours. One eight hundred eight
two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eight
two five fifty nine forty nine. If you have any questions, folks,
give me a call. I'm gonna take a quick fifteen
second break. Don't go anywhere. The fall lines are open

(06:22):
and I am sitting here live. I had to just
take a sip of water. Folks. Thanks for hanging in
for those long fifteen seconds. One eight hundred eighty two
five five nine four nine. Any questions whatsoever, give me
a call. So, as I said, it was a good
week in the markets. I was very, very very pleased
with the week in the markets. You know, tariffs were

(06:45):
the focus. They seem to be the focus weekend week out,
and the markets really, you know, they kind of took
it in stride. Thursday, you had some levies kicked in
on a boat bunch of countries for months of extensions.
We we hit India with an additional twenty five percent

(07:08):
teriff punishment because they were buying oil from Russia. I mean,
this is how this president operates. He's you know, he
doesn't mess around. So you know that's now fifty percent
tariff on goods from India. Now listen for the consumers,
that's not good. But next week we'll see what happens.

(07:30):
We know that this president is like a schoolyard bully
and he changes his mind a lot. So President Trump
will also put roughly one hundred percent tax on semiconductors,
exempting tech companies that invest in US manufacturing, which is
why a company like Apple will invest one hundred billion

(07:53):
dollars in the United States, bringing the total to approximately
six hundred billion over four years. Now, that's progress. That's
good for this country. That creates jobs. It really, you know,
it's good all around. It's good all around. Gold hit

(08:14):
high on Friday. It actually touched thirty five hundred dollars
an ounce. Touched thirty five hundred dollars an ounce. You know,
anybody who who has been following gold, it's settled down
at thirty four to thirty nine, which was ten cents
off the closing high, but intra day touched thirty five
hundred dollars an ounce. That's a lot of money. Now,

(08:37):
as a consumer, that's a lot of money as well.
That's a lot of money. That means you are going
to pay more if you plan on buying a little
something gold for that love one of yours, well, plan
on spending a little bit extra because thirty five hundred
dollars an ounce, A lot of people are looking to

(08:59):
other types of jewelry. You can't blame them. Thirty five
hundred dollars an ounces a lot gold is. Really it's
been on a run, that's for sure. If you're wondering,
I know you are, I know you are, So just wait,
just wait. If you bought the gold ind i told

(09:19):
you bonds, your average return was about two point one
percent over the last fifteen years. The S and P
five hundred approximately fourteen to fifteen percent, QQQ approximately twenty percent.
If you held on to gold over the last fifteen years,
your average return year in year out would be approximately

(09:42):
just under seven percent. So as good as gold is doing,
it's still not outperforming stocks over time. I keep repeating this,
stocks have been the best performing asset class. Go back
one hundred years, go back fifty years, go back twenty
five years. Overtime stocks is the best asse a class,

(10:03):
which is why most investors should have some stocks in
their portfolio. Every one of our investors has stock in
the portfolio. Every every client of ours has stock in
the portfolio. So you know, on Monday, I guess the

(10:24):
White House it's going to clarify any misinformation about tariffs
on on gold coming out of Switzerland, especially crazy right well,
tariffs tariffs around on everything. This week, Trump nominated economist
Stephen Myron to fill the Federal Reserve Board vacancy. There's

(10:45):
the list is narrowed down to under ten. Who will
replace j Powell when his term ends next year. I
don't think Jay Powell will step down, but he will
not be renominated to Fed Reserve chair. And we'll see
if he's stays he's on the Federal Reserve board. This
president feels that interest rates should have been cut, and

(11:06):
you know, the Federal Reserve is kind of sitting on
their hands, waiting for more data, more data, more data.
I said last week on Wednesday, they came out a
week ago Wednesday, so ten eleven days ago they came
out and left interest rates alone. When two days later
the jobs reports showed that the economy is slowing. Maybe
they should have cut interest rates. We know this Fed

(11:30):
is slow at making decisions. They missed increasing interest rates
to cool down the economy when the economy was was
going up, and you know, inflation was just crazy nine
point two percent, and they thought it was transitory. They
thought it was temporary. I don't need to repeat myself.

(11:52):
I've talked about it so much, and now maybe maybe
they're just dragging their feet. Maybe they're waiting too long
they cut interests. Maybe they should should cut interest rates
if the economy looks like it's slow, and it does
look like it's slow. One eight hundred eighty two five
five nine four nine one, eight hundred eighty two five

(12:14):
fifty nine forty nine. So some other news about companies
you had. Firefly Aerospace started trading on Thursday seventy dollars
a share that was fifty six percent above its offering price.
I say it often if you want to get in
on an initial public offering like Firefly, Well, as soon

(12:35):
as it started trading, it was up fifty six percent.
If you bought it, you were really, really really sorry
the next day because the next day is slowed seventeen percent.
So give these IPOs a few days to kind of
let the dust settle before you jump in. Folks, if
you can't get in on an IPO as an ipo

(12:57):
as soon as that new stock trade, be careful, don't
go rush to buy it. Wait till the dust settles.
Trump Trump called Intel's CEO Live Tom to resign following
questions over his ties to Chinese firms. You have open.
AI unveiled its newest AI model, GP T five. If folks,

(13:24):
you haven't played with artificial intelligence, please please play with it.
Get a feel for it. It's here to stay. It's amazing,
it's going to be It will help productivity in so
many ways. I mean, we're getting ready to hire a
couple new people in the firm, and I know John Malay,

(13:45):
my CEO and now partner John Marty Ryan, and my
daughter Lauren are all shareholders of the firm now and
I'm grateful to have them as shareholders. They've done a
great job helping me manage the firm and grow the firm.
So they are now shareholders fellow shareholders of mine. And

(14:06):
you know, with my son and daughter as shareholders, it
just proves that my firm will continue to be a
family owned firm. And we got some great leadership that
are just truly you know, folks, when I tell you
I'm surrounded by a team second to none, I am
surrounded by a team second to none. So going back,

(14:29):
we're going to hire somebody for our service team. And
rather than have one of my experienced service team members trading.
For instance, if they need to know what kind of
a form they we have a client, let's say that's
going to open up an IRA account or transfer money
here or there, artificial intelligence will tell them exactly what

(14:51):
form they need and where to find it. I mean,
it's crazy. So if you haven't played with artificial intelligence,
go out there and play with it. You'll you'll you'll,
you'll be you'll be really impressed. I'm pretty sure. Listen,
this is different than AOL. AOL was pretty dynamic when

(15:11):
that came out decades ago. And now you know, I
laugh when I see somebody with an AOL email. I
mean that really dates them, right, anybody who's who's still
using an AOL email? And there's a lot of people
out there using it. But AI artificial intelligence is here.
You had. President Trump is considering making Fanny May and

(15:34):
Freddie Nac and I p O. I'm offering, uh, you know,
letting you buy and invest in these two mammoth firms.
I don't even know what to call them. But President
Trump's thinking about. He thinks you can rake in billions

(15:54):
and billions and billions of dollars by selling shares of
Fanny Maine Freddie Mac some deals. This week, Tesla gave
their CEO Elon Musk, you know that guy, twenty three
almost twenty four billion dollar stock award to stick around
for two years. Well, I tell you I would stick

(16:15):
around for twenty four billion dollars. Although to him it's
probably not that big of a deal. But no, I
would stick around, right, Who want to stick around for
twenty four billion dollars one eight hundred talk WGY one
eight hundred eight two, five, five, nine, four nine. Any questions, folks,

(16:35):
give me a call. My producer today is Ashley Ashley,
and I would love to talk to you and get you,
as we say in the radio business, on the board,
so I can take your question and answer it. Anything
you want to talk about. Maybe maybe you're doing your
own thing, managing your own portfolio, and you let your
emotions get the best of you. Well, I say often,

(17:00):
that's you know, the one thing we get paid for
is to take emotion out of the decision making process.
That's that's one of the biggest things we do for
clients is take the decision making out of or the
emotion out of the decision making process. Because we're all human.
We all think with our heart. Believe me, when the
market goes down and I know my portfolio goes down,

(17:23):
guess what, I'm human. I don't like it. I understand it.
I never look, never ever do I look. Some people
are looking on the hour all day long, every day.
Me I never look at my returns. I really don't.
I know my investment team is doing a good job.
I know we have great diversification. I know that. I don't,

(17:46):
you know, because my investment team, my money's managed just
like my client's money. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm one hundred percent in the stock market. I'm very
comfortable with stocks in my portfolio. I don't care that
they go up and down. I really don't care. It
doesn't bother me when they go up and down. They
go up and down. So what over time that happens.

(18:08):
If you look over the last ten years, you know
the market, the markets were down. You know, in twenty
eighteen they were down point one two percent. Twenty twenty
two was the biggie down thirty three percent. That's for
qqq S and P not as much. So you know,

(18:28):
I don't you know, I don't really look. I because
if I look, I made like what I see. And
we're all human. Our heart tells us. You know, I
told this story many times. I had a client a
couple of years ago, when the market was down, call
me and say, Steve, Steve, I can't lose any more money.

(18:51):
Let's sell out of everything. And when the market goes
back up, we'll buy back in. How's that sound, Steve? Well,
if I could have gone through the phone line, I
would have been like, really seriously, And actually that's what
I said to him. I said, really seriously, think about
what you just told me. I said, One, you haven't

(19:11):
lost anything because you haven't sold, so sure on paper,
maybe the number is down from the last time you
looked at it. You know, if you got your monthly
statement and it's down from the month before, So what,
it's only a paper loss. Once you sell, then you
realize that loss. Once you sell, you've booked the loss.

(19:36):
And I said to this client, so you want me
to sell now why the market is down, and then
you want me to buy back in when the market
makes its new all time high. I said, that's crazy,
and he kind of laughed. He said, yeah, I guess
that's why we hired you, huh. I said, absolutely. Listen,
have a great day, see you later. One eight hundred
talk WGY one eight hundred eight two five four nine.

(20:01):
Let's go to the phone lines where we have Mary
in Schenectady.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Hello, Mary, I'm.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Gonna laugh along with you.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Mary.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
I don't know what was so funny. I thought you
had a question. But I guess you just wanted to
giggle a little Well, Mary, Mary, Mary quite contrary giggling
on live radio. I guess that made her day. Have
a great day, Mary. What eight hundred eight two five
five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five

(20:42):
fifty nine forty nine. Oh well, you know, I don't
get many prank calls. Every once in a great while
we get somebody funny like Mary. But that was quite
the giggle, wasn't it. Eight hundred eight two five fifty
nine forty nine. So this coming week, we have a
big report coming out on the Consumer Price Index for July.

(21:05):
The estimate is for just under three percent two point
eight percent year over year increase, just a little bit
higher than in June. That's that's the estimate. The core CPI,
which excludes food and energy prices, is expected to rise
about three percent, and as I said previously, it was

(21:25):
two point nine percent, So up just a little bit.
We have right now a ninety percent chance of an
interest rate cut by the Federal Open Market Committee in
mid September, that that's their next meeting, up from forty
percent before the release of that Job's report that I
talked about on August first shown July's jobs. July's jobs

(21:48):
were really dismal, but what was worse was the revised
number for the two previous months, So May in June,
I mean just decimated. So the jobs just weren't there.
And you you know, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee
met that week earlier, and if they had that information,

(22:12):
I'm guessing they might have cut interest rates. So now
the chance was forty percent for a cut in September,
now it's ninety percent because of that jobs report. Maybe heck,
maybe we'll get a strong jobs report in September. And
remember it's that revised, revised number. You want to look at.

(22:33):
What will that revised number be? And that's that's really
what you want to look at. So CPI is going
to be up a little bit, and I'm guessing the
Fed probably will cut, should cut. We'll see. You got
ninety percent of the S and P five hundred companies
have announced earnings, and of the ninety percent that have

(22:57):
released all their corporate earnings, more than eighty percent have
beaten earnings per share. More than eighty percent, I mean, folks,
that's pretty dynamic. More than an eighty percent have beaten estimates,
so corporate earnings are fundamental of what stocks look at.
You are listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you

(23:19):
by Bouchet fin Answer Group, where we help our clients
prioritize their help while we manage the wealth for life.
If you have any questions, folks, any questions whatsoever, give
me a call. The fall mines are open. I will
be here on the other side of the news because
we have to break for the news. One eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine. Any questions that

(23:40):
you can think of pertaining to your financial future, give
me a call. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. I'll see you in a couple of
quick minutes, folks. I have a lot of expert colleagues,
but today, folks, you have me Stevie B. Stephen Bouchet.

(24:04):
I'm here live on this beautiful, gorgeous day, Saturday, August ninth.
The phone lines are opened. One eight eight two five
five nine four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines.
We have Phil from Shoesbury, Vermont. Hello, Phil, how are
you doing?

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Great? Steve and it's Shaftsberry outside of.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
That, oh Shaftsberry, Okay, no worries exactly. So I'm still
from Shaftsberry doing doing great.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
But you need some help. After that last phone call.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
You got, you know, my poor producer, Ashley said, she's apologized,
and I said, don't apologize. I said, every one somewhile
you get people down there that think they're funny. It's okay.
We take it in stride. What can I help you
with today?

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well, well, I'm going to give you something you can
with on your your your your show today in a
good way. Is my wife and I first of all,
love listening to you on the weekends. We have a
lot of fun we listening to your stories. But uh,
as far as the market's concerned, you keep you kept
us on the straight and narrow and kept us from

(25:18):
being scared when the market drops. And long story short,
not to brag, but I want to tell you what
we did. I sold Applestock. Now you might be mad
at that, but I took it all and put it
on in Vidia a year and a half to two
years ago. And you know where Nvidia has gone. And

(25:39):
same with Tallenteer and and some other great tech stocks
which you love to talk about. And anyway, and this
is all led to my wife went down and bought
a brand new Corolla for cash.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Nice, Well you know what, so I thought i'd tell
you that so that you could bring that with your readers.
That's what the stock market can do for you.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
No, you know, a film, your your you know, your
your comments are some of the best comments that the
listening audience can hear, because you are right. You know,
if if I can stop somebody from thinking with emotion,
if I was able to keep you and your wife
invested when maybe you wanted to sell because of emotion,

(26:29):
then I did a beautiful thing for you. You and your
wife are now so much better off because you stayed
in the market. And that's that's the key. It's it's
not time in the market. It's time in the market
that really makes a difference. And any investor who sells
when there's volatility, they can't go back and make up

(26:49):
for them. They just they just can't. So I'm glad
I was able to help you and your wife. And
it's believe me, as much as I love Apple and
Amazon and Video all those other great technology companies are
in on top holding Sapple and Amazon happened to be
number one and number two. The video was pretty good

(27:10):
to you, Phil, I mean you should have let her
buy a nice little you know, convertible.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
No, no, that we're not. We're not convertible type I got.
I got a Harley that it can go ride just afternoon.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Oh all right, right, well, you know tomorrow I think
I may be taking a ride up through the hills
of Vermont. There's a great French restaurant. My dear friend
Dominique Reality has bistro what's it called in Who's It Falls? Bistro,
the Bistro, Bistro forty two or whatever, nice little French restaurant.

(27:45):
Someday take your your your bike and your wife down
for a beautiful, beautiful meal at Bistro forty two or
fifty two and Who's It Falls? Hey, Phil, thanks for
the phone call. I'm glad I was able to help you.
Take care, all right. And that's what it's all about, Folksville.
Just something about some that some it up better than

(28:07):
I can ever sum it up. It's not timing the market,
it's time in the market. One eight hundred eighty two
five five nine four nine. So before the news break,
I said, how ninety percent of the s and p
Five hundred companies have announced, and eighty percent of them
have beaten EPs earnings per share. This coming week we

(28:28):
only have a few left. Cisco, Applied Materials, Deer so
Cisco on Wednesday, Applied Materials and Deer on Thursday, and
on Friday you have the Census Bureau reports retail sales
for July. The forecast is point five percent month over month.
In June it was point six percent. But we'll see

(28:49):
what what what happens? Statistic in this Week's Parents, And
you know, I go to Stewart's every every Saturday morning.
They pick up the Wall Street Journal, weekend addition and
Barons which comes out on Saturday, and Stuarts has it all.
So I go and the people, you know, the people
that work at Stuarts are so friendly, just really that

(29:12):
they have a good way about them. So I enjoyed
going there. I like, you know, there's usually people hanging out.
It's like a neighborhood place, right. But in this Week's Parents,
there was a statistic which made me smile because I
talk about this often. You're ready for this, folks. If
you're standing up, you may want to sit down, sit down,

(29:35):
sit on your hands, because you're going to get all
excited about this because I talk about this just about
every week for the last thirty years that I've been
doing radio. I've been with you thirty years on the airwaves,
thirty years. I've been here, and I love being here.
You know, I love being here, But I talk often.

(29:57):
How you know? The reason why we don't have mutual
funds or individual stocks is because it's it's almost impossible
to outperform their benchmark. And most most stock managers and
stock pickers are measured against the S and P five hundred.

(30:21):
So if you're if you're using a money manager who's
buying and selling stock, or a mutual fund where the
manager's buying and selling stock, it's hard for them to
beat the respective benchmark. So are you ready? I gave
you time to sit down right. Eight percent? Eight percent

(30:43):
is the portion of actively managed large cap US stock
funds that beat their passive benchmark rivals over the past
ten years. You heard me correctly, I say sixty five
to eighty five percent of the time they can't beat it.
But over the last ten years, ninety two percent of

(31:05):
them can't beat their respected benchmark, which if you're looking
at you know, measuring your portfolio against something. Look at
the S and P five hundred. That's really the best
benchmark if you have stock funds to look at. So
ninety two percent of stock pickers over the last ten

(31:25):
years could not outperform their respected benchmark. We get this
statistic to our clients often because sometimes they say, oh, man,
my neighbor, you know, his guy or gal is buying
and selling and god, And I said, well, a couple
things I said. That may sound like a beautiful thing.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
And.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
They probably should sit down with their advisor and have
their advisor do a couple of things. One, show them
how their performance has measured against let's say them or
whatever the benchmark is. And two, look at your advisor
eyeball the eyeball, face to face, and ask he or

(32:10):
she how their money is managed. Now if they're managing
their money differently than yours, Now you have to ask
why why Listen. I'm a foodie. I love to cook.
If I invite you over to dinner, I can't imagine
cooking myself something different than what I'm cooking for you.
We're all going to eat the same thing. And that's why,

(32:31):
not only myself, but my advisors. They have all their
money invested just like our clients. We would not have
it any other way. My money, I mean, I have
some sandbox accounts, folks. I have some accounts that I
play with because I'm human. I like to play in
the sand like a kid, right playing in the sandbox.

(32:52):
That was a fun thing to do. So I have
some sandbox accounts where I play. And you know my
portfolio trader Ed Wilhelm, who just passed his CFA Level one.
He's got two more to go to be a Certified
Financial Analyst, one of the hardest designations to get. I'm
so proud of it. Now. Not only am I proud

(33:13):
of it, but for the month of October, real men
wear pink, the campaign that the American Cancer Society does
for breast cancer awareness. And my wife, God bless her
head breast cancer, so you know it's near and dear
to my heart. Cosses like that. And this week I

(33:34):
went to a fundraiser at the Village Pizzeria and Restaurante
in Middle Grove, exactly twelve miles a beautiful twelve mile
ride from downtown Saratoga. Turn on twenty nine where Starbucks says,
just go twelve miles west. You can't miss it. Twelve
miles west. You got the coolest little pizzeria and restaurante,

(33:57):
The Village Pizzeria and Restaurante. Sandy Foster and her husband Joe.
They have a wineless to choke a horse. This little
place out there in the Boonies gets the Wine Spectator
Reward for having a great whyeless ear in year out.
So she had a little fundraiser for this five year

(34:17):
old girl, Lily, five years old, and I brought a
bag of gifts for little Lily, and I tell you
it just I mean, it brought tears to my eyes.
I spent some time talking with her, told her that
I said, Lily, you're not in this alone. I said

(34:38):
I was sick too, We're both in this together. And
she just smiled at me. Oh man, she just put
that smile on. And I'm telling you, if you're on
social media or Twitter, to go to my page. I
put a picture of her and I there. But she
just put a smile on my face, like there's no tomorrow.

(35:00):
Five years old, so strong fighting cancer and it shouldn't be.
So I'm proud that ed Paula La Pietra and Vincenzo
Testa are all taking part in the Real Men Wear
Pink campaign for the month of October to raise awareness
and money. What's nice about raising money for the local

(35:21):
cancer Society is all that money stays right here locally.
It doesn't go anywhere else. It stays right here locally,
and that's that's good. One eight hundred eighty two five
five nine four nine. One eight hundred eighty two five
fifty nine forty nine. Folks, let me take a quick
break fifteen seconds. That's it. Don't go anywhay here. I

(35:45):
am Stephen Bouchet. One eight hundred eighty two five five
nine four nine. You know all of the deal makers
on Wall Street, they skip their vacations, they they listen.
We had a lot going on in the markets this week,
Apple pledging one hundred billion dollars in manufacturing, turning the

(36:09):
chip war into a game. Because Apple had a good
week this week. One of the reasons why the markets
were up you had Planet Tear. You know, Phil from
Shaftsbury was talking about Planet tear philed. They just hit
a billion dollars in revenue. What's that mean for artificial
intelligence and government? I'm guessing you know, government could probably

(36:32):
lay off half, if not more, of its workers with
artificial intelligence. And you know you had the CEO of
intellig criticize and dragged down because of their ties to China.
This administration just does not like that, does not like
that at all. Nastack up almost four percent this week,

(36:55):
new all time high. The S and P up almost
two and a half percent, almost a new all time high.
But close enough, right, folks. And if you need money
over the next twelve to twenty four months, right now
with the markets near we're at all time highs. It's
a good time. It's a good time to free up

(37:15):
some money. Why not. You know, Apple up five percent,
Planet Teer up almost eight percent. What a beautiful, beautiful
week in the markets. Pfizer McDonald's saw gains stronger outlook.
You know, Pfizer makes that blue pill, so it's always
going up, right, No, not really. If you look at Pizer,

(37:37):
Pfizer's head a rough going. Even a blue pill didn't
it help Pfiser. But McDonald's, you know, those five dollars
meals are back to all beat Patty special sauce, pickles, lettuce.
I'm trying to remember the big mac song or the
quarter pounder song. It was quite the jingle when McDonald's

(38:00):
that used to have it. You know, the Fed cut rates,
but the Bank of England they cry twenty BIPs zero
point two five percent. They're down to four percent. Inflation
is around four percent, so they're cutting with high inflation numbers.

(38:21):
You got Canada, listen. Canada is pretty worried about US,
and they should be. What we've been doing business with Canada,
I'm not sure, but Canada knows that it's dicey, and
they are reaching out to Mexico, trying to get Mexico
to invest in Canada because they're worried about their future
with US, and they should be worried about their future

(38:43):
with US. You know, as they said, one thing about tariffs,
terriffs is going to change the ballgame. A lot of
countries that may not have been paying their fair share
are going to pay their fair share. And you know,
as I said, we may have a little short term pain, folks,
but long term, I think Terrence will be good for us.

(39:05):
Long term. I think I think at the end of
the day, Terrence, we're going to look back and say, Wow,
that made a difference. And I truly do think it
will make a difference. You know, I love this great
country of hours. It's why we're not invested overseas. And
this great country of ours is pretty good. So where

(39:28):
you know, you have the ten year US treasure, you know,
yielding about four point two percent. But in this week's
parients there's there's a little article about four stocks that
deliver more than five percent yield. Now, before you rush
out and buy these stocks, and believe me, we love dividends.

(39:49):
If you look back over time, I told you over
the last one hundred years, stocks have been up. They're
up more than they're down. And the dividend yield in
the S and P right now is about one point
four one point five percent. I think it over time
it's averaged more than that. But there's not much yield

(40:10):
right now. Even the dividend paying ETFs and funds are
only you know, just over two percent. But there's there's
some stocks that Barons reported that's you know, paying five
percent more. And as they said, you know, the average
yield for the SMP in the eighties was three to

(40:32):
four percent, and you know now now we're down to
you know, one point two five percent. I think if
I were to be exact, So you have Bristol Myers
yielding five point four percent, Edison International yielding six percent,
Interpublic Group yielding five point three percent, Crudential Financial yielding

(40:55):
five point two percent. Before you go rush out and
buy those stocks because of the yield, let me tell you. You know,
the sm P is up up nine percent year to date,
Bristol meyer is sure, you're getting a five point four
percent yield, put you down nineteen percent year to date.
Even after the yield, you're losing money. Edison, Sure, it's

(41:18):
nice six percent dividend yield, but year to date you're
down thirty one percent. So after the dividend yield, you're
still down twenty five percent. Into Public Group, sure, nice
five point three percent yield, but you're down twelve percent
year to date. And the same with Credential. Sure, you're
getting a five point two percent, but folks, you're down

(41:41):
thirteen percent year to date, while the sm P is
up nine percent. QQQ is up twelve percent. So before
you rush out and buy something just for the dividend,
put it all in perspective. Sometimes there's a reason why
you have a high dial. You know, a lot more

(42:01):
companies are, you know, taking it on the chin, and
when when share price goes down and you got to
ask yourself, why is the share price down? Is it
worth me investing in that company? So don't invest in
a company just with the dividend. Make sure that company

(42:21):
warrants you investing in it. Make sure that company fits
in your portfolio. Don't invest just because of the dividend.
I can't begin to tell you that would be crazy,
crazy to do, you know, Listen. I gave that statistic

(42:42):
a little bit ago. Ninety two percent of active stock pickers,
whether that's your favorite stockbroker or managing that mutual fund
picking stocks, ninety two percent of them over the last
ten years could not outperform their passive bench, which for
the most part is the SMP. Nine of them could

(43:04):
not outperform it. So you know, you don't listen, we
manage almost one point five billion. We only had two
individual stocks too, Apple and Amazon. We're thinking about adding
Berkshire halfway. I like Berkshire Halfaway a lot, and we're
thinking about adding Berkshire Halthaway because it's like a mutual

(43:25):
fund in itself. You know, when you look at Berkshire Halfaway.
When you buy that, you're you're really buying. As I said,
it's almost like a mutual fund. It's got so many,
so many you know stocks in it. I mean recently

(43:46):
they purchased ser Serious ExM which which is interesting. The
Vita was sold recently. Their core holdings Apple, American Express,
Coca Cola, Bank of America, Chevron. They also have Occidental
Petroleum craft Lines, Constellation Brands, Domino's Pizza, Moovies, Mits of Isshi.

(44:11):
On the insurance side, you know they got Geico General,
Ree Railroad, they have Burlington National South Railway. You have
Birchshire Hathaway Energy. You got you know, Precision Cast Parts,
Benjamin Moore, you got Dairy Queen, anybody who likes a

(44:35):
good milkshake, net Jets, Seas candies. You see Warren Buffett
at ninety four are always sipping on uh Coca Cola
and his his Seas Carmel's. So, you know, Birshire Hathaway
is almost almost like a mutual fund. And that's why
we're thinking, we're looking at it, thinking about holding it.

(44:57):
It's down since Warren Buffing in May at his annual meeting.
It's down a little bit, but that doesn't concern me.
It's down because investors are worried. Warn Buffet's not going
to be around. He's going to retire at the end
of the year. But he's put a good team in place.
It's just like my folks, if for some reason I

(45:18):
wasn't able to come into work on Monday morning. I
have a rock solid team in place. I'm surrounded by
twenty colleagues, twenty talented and loyal colleagues that are so
good to our clients and good to me. I can't
begin to tell you how proud I am of my team,

(45:41):
my leadership team, and my entire team. I'm surrounded by
some of the best in the business. We are second
to none. I'm proud to say second to none, and
very few firms can say that. I know how blessed
I am to have the professionals that I have. We

(46:01):
have nine cfps, we have three c p as, we
have an I r S enrolled agent add on his
way to being a c f A. Vincenzo is not
only a c p A, he's a CFP and he
got a new designation. Companies like all these, you know

(46:22):
companies that we have with stock options and everything. Benny
is the expert on that, so there's not much we
can't help our clients with. And as I said, when
I tell you, I'm surrounded by the team second to none,
I am surrounded by a team second to not. Go
to our website. If you go to our website, you'll

(46:43):
you'll you'll see everything that I'm telling you. I'm not
making this stuff up. Folks, go to our website and
on our homepage you you will see it all. You'll
be able to meet our team. And down on the
bottom we have white paper that we do every week.
We just did a webinar and one big beautiful bill

(47:06):
understand and the key tax provisions for individuals. So if
you're wondering, we did a webinar this week. That's up there,
and really you know what's in the new tax bill.
Vincenzo Testa wrote a great piece on that. So that's
all on our website. You can go and look at
that and get a feel for our firm. We're fiduciary.

(47:31):
We put our clients best interest first. That's all that
matters to us. We don't sell investments. All we care
about is what's right for our clients. Folks, you are
listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchef
and Intro, where we help our clients prioritize their health
while we manage their wealth for life. I'm telling you
we do a beautiful job for our clients. Go to

(47:54):
our website get some more information. Look for our State
of the Economy press, which we do every year. That'll
give you a real good feel for just how dynamic
my team is. I can't thank you enough for tuning
in today. I hope you enjoy the wind. Stay healthy, folks.
Tomorrow Ryan will be on. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.