Let's Talk Money

August 30th, 2025. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everybody, and welcome here we are in August thirtieth.
I mean, can you believe it? Monday is Labor Day,
September one? What happened to this year? What happened to
the summer? What happened to the track?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Me?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's all disappearing. But I'm here with you live today,
not one of my colleagues, and believe me, I have
amazing colleagues, very very capable colleagues, but today you have me,
Stephen Bouchet, and it's a few I hope that I
can help you any way that I can. On this
last I always say when Labor Day comes in a way,

(00:38):
it's kind of a Debbie downer. You know, it's kind
of the end of summer, even though summer still has
a few weeks to go. But you know what I mean,
mentally psychologically, it's just, you know, it's sad. We had
a great summer. A couple of days of rain, I
guess thirty days of rain if we include June. But
right now, you know, the weather's been and just gorgeous.

(01:01):
Today is gorgeous. The whole weekend is going to be gorgeous.
Next week is going to be gorgeous as the little
kids go back to school. There's a lot to be
thankful for. And if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever,
please give me a call. I would love to talk
to you. Any questions that you have one eight hundred
talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five nine

(01:26):
four nine. Any questions whatsoever, folks, pertaining to your portfolio, investments,
financial planning, whatever it may be. One eight hundred eighty
two five fifty nine forty nine. I would love to
talk to you and get your pointed in the right direction.
So you know, we kind of gave a little bit

(01:48):
back this week. That's okay. You know, you can't have
up weeks all the time. We didn't give that much back.
It was just a smidget really that we gave back.
The Russell two thousand out of the major indexes was
the winner, up point one nine percent. That's pretty good.
The S and P down point one O and the

(02:10):
Nasdaq Composite down point one nine. QQQ is down less
than a half a percent, down point three five. So
we gave a little bit back, and that's okay. As
I said, you can't have enough week every week. You're
to date. The SMP is up ten percent, over ten
percent with dividends. Nasdaq is up eleven point one. QQQ,

(02:34):
my favorite, one of our top holdings, up eleven point
four in the Russell two thousand is even up six
point one percent. So there you have it. You know,
there's there's just so much, so much going on in
the markets, and the you know, the FED is going

(02:58):
to be probably cutting rates in September. They should cut
rates in September. Hopefully they will cut rates in September.
They owe it to the economy. There's signs that the
economy is you know, slipping a little. There's other signs
that show the economy is still pretty good. The markets

(03:19):
will be closed on Monday, and next Friday, you'll have
the jobs report. Believe me, the Fed is data, you know,
focused on all data that comes out on the economy,
and we'll see what it shows. You have the consumer

(03:40):
and producer indexes coming out I think September tenth and
the eleventh, respectively, so we'll see what happens there. The Fed,
believe me, will be looking at it. All Interest rates
are still you know, if you're saving money in the
savings account, you're you're getting between four and five percent
on whether your short term or long term bonds or

(04:04):
CDs or whatever it may be. You know, good time
to buy. More than likely interest rates will be cut,
So buying these bonds now will be good. I like
treasuries US treasuries. They're state tax free. You can buy
them one year and get almost four percent. One year
right now is yielding three point eight five percent. Five

(04:27):
years yielding three point seven, ten years yielding four point two.
If you want to go all the way out to
thirty years, you can get almost five percent, So somewhere
between four and five percent, depending on just how you know,
short term or long term you want to get. And
I like Bonce. I've I've been saying this or quite

(04:47):
some time. You know, bonds have been pretty good for
those of you that want bonds in the portfolio. Bons
are pretty good. And you know, if you put bonds
in your portfolio, don't feel bad. You know, sure the
interest rates were a little higher not too long ago,
but they're still pretty high. And you know, that's what

(05:08):
you have to remember is interest rates are are pretty good.
Don't get greedy. You know, if you get greedy before
you know it, you can miss out. Maybe maybe interest
rates will be between three and four percent instead of
four and five percent. Mortgage rates have come down a

(05:29):
little bit. That's helped a lot of consumers be able
to buy houses. And you know, believing the consumer makes
up two thirds of the economy, so it's important that
the consumer feel good, and it's important that the consumer
be able to go out and do things, you know,

(05:50):
whether buy a house, whether for those consumers that always
wanted a second home, buying a second home, whatever it
may be. You know, it's it's it's it's it's pretty good.
And interest rates for a long time, savers weren't getting
paid anything. I don't have any bonds in my personal portfolio,

(06:11):
but I'm one hundred percent investment in the stock market,
and I'm okay with that. You know, as I said,
if you if you look at the at the returns,
you know, I give these figures out all the time.
The SMP over the last fifteen years somewhere between fourteen
and fifteen percent a year, year in year out, NASDAK

(06:35):
almost twenty percent year in year out your average return
and both are sitting at you know, all time highs
or just a smidgeon off the of all time highs.
It's it's it's pretty good, folks, it's pretty good. Gold
is even at all time highs. Everything is at an
all time high. International stocks over the last fifteen years

(06:58):
just about five six percent, bonds just about two and
a half percent. So even though international stocks are, you know,
really outperforming US stocks, we don't own any foreign stocks
in our portfolios. We would just assume invest in this
great country of ours, even though for the last eight months,

(07:19):
you know, sure we could have done well by having
some international holdings in the portfolio. But when you go
back the last two decades, international holdings would have really
dragged you down. Now maybe that'll change over the next
two decades. Who knows. I don't know. I just know
we're able to get good returns in this great country
of ours, and that's what we're focused on. So our

(07:41):
portfolios are dependent on, you know, the returns that that
we're able to get, and that's that's fine by me.
I just assume invest in this country, you know, the
regulations that we have, the court companies that we know.
Then go overseas one eight hundred eight two five five

(08:04):
nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty
nine forty nine. If you have any any questions, folks,
give me a call. I would love to talk to you.
I'm gonna take a quick fifteen second break. I'll see
you on the other side of that break. One eight
hundred eight two five five nine four nine. If you

(08:24):
have any questions, folks, give me a call. I would
love to talk to you. I was out for a
couple of weeks, but my colleagues did a great job.
You know, you had Vinnie and Marty and John and Ryan.
I forget who else helped me do radio, but it
gives me a little break. I've been doing radio now
for heck, for thirty years, and I love doing radio.

(08:48):
But every once in a while, you know, working every
weekend for thirty years, every once in a while, I
need a little break. So I'm grateful to have the
team that I have, be surrounded by such talent. They
are so professional, and I'm really I love when they
want to help do radio and I give them that opportunity.

(09:12):
They really do an amazing job. Especially you know, now
I have fellow shareholders, John, Marty and Ryan, my leadership
team are now partners in the firm, and I'm elated
about that. It's really a beautiful thing for me, for
our clients and for that. So you know, we're all

(09:34):
winners with that. And they've been, you know, just helping
me grow the firm for so long, and it's just
nice to have them be fellow shareholders sitting alongside me,
not just help me manage the firm, but help me
really you know, have a direct interest in growing the firm.
So I'm happy about that. So, you know, you know,

(09:58):
a lot going on, you know, August, so for you know,
the month the markets were rough just a little bit,
and that was nice. Supposedly September supposed to be the
worst month of the year to be invested. I don't know,

(10:20):
we'll see, you know, every time you think about that,
you know, heck, if you go back to the beginning
of the year, when the markets were down almost twenty percent,
Bear market Territory NASDAK was actually down more than that,
and here we are, NASDAK is up about eleven and

(10:40):
a half percent, and the S and P is up
ten percent, over ten percent when you add back in
the dividends, and the Russell two thousand is up over
six percent. So if you got scared out of the markets,
back in the spring when they went through that fi
little time, having a little temper tantrum. Well, if you

(11:01):
get out of the markets, folks, you missed not only
recovering that twenty percent, but making a whole lot more money.
You know, y're to date being up, the S and
P being up ten percent. I'll take that all day
long if you go back, you know, I know, the
last fifteen years was a beautiful thing for the markets,
with the markets being up, you know, the S and

(11:23):
P almost fifteen percent a year. But when you go
back over the last fifty and one hundred years, the
SMP on average is up about ten percent, so we're
right there on average. And remember over the last forty
four years, the market swings almost fourteen percent year in
year out from pete to trap, high to low, the

(11:44):
market swings almost fourteen percent. So hopefully, if you listen
to our show every weekend, you probably stayed invested and
did not get scared out of the markets. Bank in
the spring and believing, folks, there's going to be more
time is when the market goes through those corrections, and
sometimes maybe we dip into a bear market territory, so

(12:07):
a correction, you know, technically is when the market is
down ten percent from it's it's high, and the bear
market is when it's down twenty percent. And we're going
to listen. If you're an investor, you're going to have
a lot of corrections and a lot of bear markets.
But the market is up eighty percent of the time.

(12:29):
The market is up more than it's down, and you
have to keep that in perspective. The market is up
more than it's down. So knowing that and knowing that
every correction, every bear market, sometimes we get into one
of those ugly recessionary periods. Guess what, the market always
comes out of it and it always goes on to

(12:52):
make new all time highs. What's wrong with that? There's
absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's time in the market,
not timing the market that makes investors money. So if
you get scared out of the market, or you think
you're smarter than the market and you are market timing,
you're not going to make any money that way. And

(13:13):
the best thing to do when the market's down is
forget you own stocks. If anything, take our advice look
at volatility as an opportunity. Look at times when the
markets are down. Is time to maybe reshuffle some holdings,
maybe get rid of some holdings that you just don't

(13:36):
want anymore, and bring in new holdings that are a
whole lot less expensive. That's how you want to manage
your portfolio. If you're don't get on your own, or
if you're working with an advisor, hopefully that advisor heeds
our advice and uses volatility as an opportunity. What you

(13:57):
don't want is an advisor who scare you out of
the market because they just don't know how to handle
the volatility. The one thing that we don't do is
panic or have any knee jerk reactions. Nor should you,
nor should your advisor. You know you're paying then, and
believe me, if they tell you they're not getting paid,
fire them immediately because they are getting paid. The key

(14:19):
is will they disclose to you how they are getting paid,
Especially those advisors who sell mutual funds. There's three different
share classes of mutual funds. You have a class where
the sales charge is right up front. If you invest
one hundred thousand dollars, maybe only ninety four ninety five

(14:39):
thousand gets invested, because there could be up to you know,
five and three quarter percent sales charge. If you're investing
in B shares, I apologize for you right now because
you're having the wall brought down over your eyes. A
lot of people out there sell B shares is technically
no load funds because you're not paying an upfront sale charge. Well,

(15:00):
this is where the rough comes in, folks, and hopefully
I can help educate you if you're thinking about buying
a mutual fund from a financial representative registered representative because
they have licenses to sell investments. So with a B share,
sure there's no upfront sales charge, but if you get
out of it, usually within the first six years, you're

(15:22):
going to get a kick in the rear end on
your way out. As you sell, there's going to be
what we call a deferred sales charge. But worse than that, folks.
You know the average the average fee in a mutual
fund is about one percent, but with B shares usually
they're over two percent. That means if the SMP returns

(15:42):
ten percent, well that mutual fund, that B share mutual
fund has to return twelve percent to have the same
return as the SMP at ten percent. It's just not
going to happen. Sure, there's a couple active managers out
there that sometimes be the market, but sixty five to
eighty percent of the time they can't, and they don't

(16:05):
outperform the market. Very few managers consistently outperform the market.
The same goes if you have a stockbroker, they just
have them. Have he or she explained your returns, look
at them over the last year of five years, ten years,
see how you did compare to the market. That's what

(16:25):
you want to do. So you have they shares upfront
sales charge B shares, back end sales charge, high internal
management fees, and if you are going to buy a
mutual fund from a registered representative, the best classes C
share usually it's a one percent sales charge, lower internal

(16:47):
management fees. So C shares is the way to go.
And then obviously let's talk about the you know, eight
hundred pound gorilla in the room. Annuities, annuities, annuities, annudies. Yeah,
there's a lot of guarantees that come with them. The
biggest guarantee is if you invest one hundred thousand dollars
and let's make believe you invested one hundred thousand dollars

(17:08):
on you know, January Thursday, you died in February or
March when the market was down almost twenty percent. Guess
what your beneficiaries get one hundred thousand, not the eighty
thousand that the annuity is worked. This is one of
the big guarantees of buying an annuity. Well, folks, there's
some things you just don't want to play out in
order to take advantage of the guarantee. You don't want

(17:31):
to die to take advantage of the guarantee. You just
don't want to do that. With annuities come a lot
of high sales charges. Internal fees are through the roof.
And you know, I think of our core holding, our
broad stock market index, internal management via point zero three
percent You heard me right, point zero three percent compared

(17:54):
to the average mutual funds somewhere around one percent, be
shared mutual funds somewhere around two percent, and annuities could
be three percent or more. So there you have it, folks.
That's the rundown of how to buy mutual punts and
why not to buy annuities. I'm not saying there's never
a good reason to buy annuities. Every once in a while,

(18:17):
there might be, especially if you're nervous and you need
the guaranteed let's say interest rate that they're willing to
pay you. But it all comes at a price. And
if you have a well managed portfolio and you're discipline
not to touch the money, you can do the same
thing working with a professional wealth manager, somebody who can

(18:39):
put together a portfolio for you, give you some income
off that portfolio, get some growth on that portfolio. You
don't need to buy and lock into an annuity to
do that. One eight hundred eight two, five five nine
four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine
forty nine. Any questions whatsoever. You know, as I said,

(19:02):
August was a good month. The markets were up for
the fourth straight month, and you're to date. We know
the markets are up overall. August was was good even
with all the bad news out there, even with those tariffs,
the markets have been good over the last four months.
Funny since Liberation Day, since Trump came out and said

(19:24):
that he was putting a tariff on everybody in the world. Listen,
at the end of the day, tariffs are going to
be good for this great country of ours. I truly
believe that. Yes, little short term pain, we don't know
what to expect that comes with the territory the unknown.
But we'll get through it. The markets have proven that
we'll get through it. And at the end of the day,

(19:45):
whether you like this president or not, I really could
care less. I don't care if you're a Democrat or
a Republican. I could care less. Folks. You know, we
all have our opinions. I'm a blank I'm not a Democrat,
nor am I a Republican. I'm not even depend I
always say I vote for who I think will lie
to me the least. But whether you like this president

(20:06):
or not, listen to this president has put some policies
in place that will help this country. And you know,
if you take politics out of it, if you put
a mask on, you didn't know if the president was
a Republican or a Democrat. But after a year, two years,
five years, and you see the results of the policies

(20:27):
that weren't put in place, you'll realize that they are
going to be good for this country. They are going
to help reduce Listen, we're in debt over thirty trillion dollars, folks.
There's twelve zeros in a trillion, twelve zeros in a
trillion we'ren't debt thirty of those over thirty trillion dollars

(20:48):
for debt. We keep running a deficit every year in
the budget. So getting some income from foreign countries who
have been really riding our coketails and having a pretty
good deal with this great country of ours. Listen, it's
time that everybody, you know, just square up the game,

(21:08):
you know, make the living the playing field level. You
want to level that playing field. You want to square
up the deficits in the trade and balances, and that's
what this president is doing. Yes, you know, maybe that's
Chanel perfume may cost you a little bit more, or
that BMW car or that you know, Toyota car made

(21:35):
in Japan may cost you a little bit more. But
there's going to be more companies like Apple making products
in this great country of ours, which means more jobs
for all the good people in this great country of ours.
And you know, after a while you'll see the results

(21:57):
of that. So a little short term pain from long
term gain. That's how I look at terriffs. But the markets,
they actually performed pretty good with all that news on terraffs.
The markets, you know, did just find the markets have
as I said, four straight months of gains including August,
A lot of reason to be nervous, a lot of

(22:19):
reason to have, you know, just be not one of
own stocks. There's a lot of those reasons. But if
you if you did get out of the market, well,
unfortunately you got out at the wrong time. Use The
markets right now are trading just near their all time highs.

(22:40):
And that's what you have to remember. The markets are
always going to go through corrections in bear markets. Markets
are always going to swing from high to low, peak
to trough. And guess what, Historically speaking, the markets that
always always always come back to make new all time highs.
Nothing wrong with that, Folks were coming up to the

(23:02):
news break. I am going to be here with you
for you during the news break. I'm not going anywhere.
If you have any questions, give us a call. One
eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one
eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. You're
listening to Let's Talk Money, you know, brought to you

(23:25):
by Bouchet and answer it. Where we help our clients
prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life.
If you have questions, give us a call one eight
hundred eight two five five nine four nine. I'll be
here on the other side of the news break seeing
a couple of quick minutes. No, no expert colleagues, and

(23:46):
I have a lot of expert colleagues. I have twenty professionals.
You know. We have a great firm, folks. We're managing
one point five billion dollars. We are one of the
premiere wealth management firms in the huntry and I'm very
proud of the firm that that that we have built
and created. We are truly a force to be reckoned with.

(24:09):
And we have a team. I am surrounded by a
team second to none. I mean second to none. You know,
my team is as good as as you could ever
expect a team to be. They care for our clients,
They take care of our clients. Our clients are in

(24:29):
good hands. But you're stuck with me today. I'm Stephen Bouchet,
sitting here live and I would love to talk to
you if you have any questions. One eight hundred eight
two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eight
two five fifty nine forty nine, any questions whatsoever, Give
me a call. So you know this week the big

(24:52):
news was and is and will be until I guess
the Fed cuts rates. You know, I think right now
there's a high probability that in September, when the Fed meets,
there will be a rate cut. There should probably be
a rate cut. You know, last month's dismal job report,
and this coming Friday will have the month of August

(25:15):
jobs report release. But more importantly, we'll see what kind
of revisions there were to the past two months. It's
always in the revisions the revised number. So it's one
thing to you know, have seventy three thousand jobs, but
if that gets revised up or down, especially by a
meaningful number, well that's pretty important. So the initial jobs

(25:39):
report is a good indicator, but it's the revised number
for the past two months that you really want to
pay attention to. So next Friday we'll have that. You
have you know, right now, investors are paying to inflation.
You know, resilient assets like energy stocks, equity rates. You

(26:00):
know you have tips, Treasury inflation protected securities, and believe
it or not, high yield junk bonds you know you
have tips right now are yielding real yield after inflation
one point eight percent. High yield bonds are yielding up
about five point eight percent. But remember there's a lot

(26:20):
of risk that comes with high yield bonds. There's a
reason why they're nicknamed junk bonds. They're not investment great bonds.
They're companies that aren't as let's say stellar, as investment
great companies are, So there's risk that comes with that.
I always say, if you're going to buy jump bonds,

(26:41):
probably better off buying the stock market, and you know,
put your risk there, because you can lose money and
jump bonds as well as you can lose money in stocks.
So I think long term. I gave you the historical
figures the last fifteen years. Your average return and ye're
in year out about two point five percent, and your

(27:04):
average return for the SMP between fourteen and fifteen percent.
Your average return for NASDAK, our top holding along with
the broad stock market indexes between nineteen and twenty percent.
So when you think about that, with all the bad
news over the last fifteen years, hey, I'll take the
stocks all day long. That's why my money is invested

(27:25):
right alongside our clients' money. The difference is I'm in
our all equity portfolio that doesn't bother me when the
market goes down. If anything, when the market goes down,
I look for cash. I want to get that cash
to work. One eight hundred eighty five five nine four nine.
Let's go to the phone lines. We have Sue waiting
patiently from Amsterdam. Hello, Sue, Hi, how are you hear me?

(27:52):
I can hear you, Sue. I've been waiting for you.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
How are you.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Good?

Speaker 4 (27:57):
How are we good?

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I'm doing fantastic, Sue. I think you may want to
call back in your I seem to be losing you.
I'm sorry, call back in, Sue. The phone lines are
open for Sue and anybody else. Won eight eight two
five five nine four nine. So, as I said, you

(28:21):
want to watch for the Faugust jobs report, you also
have on September seventeen. We'll see what the FED does.
You know if you look, the Fed's preferred gauge for
inflation is the PCE price Index and the headline, which

(28:41):
for the month of July the headline year over years
plus two point six percent. The Fed's target is two percent.
And I keep saying and asking this question. Nobody can
answer it. If over the last hundred years, if over
the last fifty years, the average inflation year in year
out is over three percent. I'm not making that number up, folks,

(29:04):
that's true. Then why is the Fed looking for two percent?
I think the answer is because they got greedy after
the great financial collapse back in March ninth of two
thousand and nine. That's when the market hit its bottom,
down almost fifty percent from the high of October in
two thousand and seven. The Fed got greedy, I think

(29:28):
because inflation was nowhere to be found. So why for
a group of people nineteen governors, that had their heads
stuck in the textbook, always looking at historical data, why
do they have a gauge a target of two percent? Why?
Nobody can explain that to me. Why some of the

(29:50):
smartest economists can't explain it to me. I keep asking
why two percent if historically speaking, inflation is three percent.
So we've come a long way from a few years
ago with inflation at nine point two percent. So here
we are headline PCEE two point six percent, core PC

(30:11):
without food and energy two point nine percent, closer to
three percent than two percent. I'll take this inflation. Listen.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
You know, the markets and a lot of Fed officials
are still leaning toward a rate cut in September, and
they should probably cut rates, but they're going to look
at the labor market that's cool off.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Consumer activity is easing a little bit, So why will
they cut rates? Why should they cut rates? I should
say they should cut rates to stimulate the economy. That's
what happens when you see a rate cut. They're trying
to give a little boost to the economy. Stimulate the economy,
get the economy going. That's why they cut rates. To

(30:59):
get gets going. Make money more affordable for people, let
people go out and borrow money. Remember you heard me
say in the first half of the show that the
consumer makes up two thirds of the you know, the economy,
two thirds of it is made up by the consumer.

(31:22):
So you want the consumer out there buying a car,
buying a house, you know, making fixes to their house.
You know, right now, there's not a lot of consumers
that are willing to sell their house with interest rates
being where they're at, because for them to turn around
and buy a new house with high mortgage rates, they

(31:42):
it's almost unaffordable. So more consumers are holding down to
their house and maybe kind of putting that new kitchen in,
or scrucing up the bathroom, or maybe a swimming pool,
just doing things rather than go out and buy a
new house. Now, when mortgage rates were between two and
four percent, which they were for a long, long, long,

(32:03):
long time. Now that's a lot of longs, but that's
how long, no punintended, mortgage rates were cheap. I hate
the word cheap, but interest rates were so low the
fed the heck, they were almost giving you money. When
you can get a mortgage rate two three four percent, folks,
those were good times. They're behind us. But don't trip

(32:28):
over what's behind you is something that my wife taught me.
Don't trip over what's behind you. And you can use
that believe me, it's not I've didn't make that up.
My wife taught me that you can. You can use
that message in a lot of things. But when it
comes to mortgages. You know, right now martgage rates have
come down a little bit. And listen, historically speaking, you know,

(32:53):
we're probably right around where mortgage rates have always spent.
So you know, get used to these rates. They're probably
here for a while, and you know, maybe you won't
be able to afford that expensive house. You know, just

(33:20):
you know, you got to you gotta kind of get
used to it. I guess if you look between the
seventies and the eighties, you know, the average thirty year
fixed mortgage rate was seven and a half percent. If
you look from nineteen nineties to two thousand, you know,
the average mortgage rate, you know.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
We're high. During twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, you know,
the thirty year fell to two point six five percent.
In January of twenty twenty one, fifteen year mortgage was
two point one percent. Well, now here we are, the
average thirty year is about six point five six percent. So,

(34:04):
as I said, I think, you know, it's a whole
lot lower.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Back in nineteen eighty one, the peak for thirty year
mortgage was sixteen to eighteen percent. Holy moly, right that
was the peak. I mean, so you know, if you
bought a house in the early eighties, holy moly. Sure
you were getting paid a lot of money on your

(34:28):
savings with high interest rates, but you were also paying
a lot of money with mortgage rates being sixteen to
eighteen percent. So right now we're about six and a
half percent. And as they said, I think that's that's
what you're stuck with and you have to just accept that.
You know, if you find the right house that you're

(34:49):
happy with, great, If not, you know, if you're waiting
for mortgage trates to come down. If the Fed cuts
rates in September, and that may be one of more
to come, mortgage rates should come down, so you know
when it comes buying a home, it's lower interest rates

(35:10):
will stimulate the economy. These more people will find it
more affordable to buy a home. One eight hundred eighty
two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two,
five fifty nine forty nine crypto Pitcoin down the one
hundred and eight thousand dollars. Uh. You know, I own

(35:31):
bitcoin in my play account, my sandbox account. I don't
know if we'll buy it for our clients. We talk
about it. If we see bitcoin come down a little
bit more, we may nibble at it, put a little
bit in the portfolioels. I don't think you should be
concerned and afraid of bitcoin or crypto like you used to. Actually,

(35:53):
I think you should probably be a little bit bulletsho
on crypto cryptos here to stay. I truly believe that
we're accepting it, and I as I said, I've made
a lot of money in my sandbox account bitcoin. I
used to own Eat Them and Bitcoin, and I sold
the eight theorem and use the proceeds to just load

(36:17):
up on a bitcoin. You know, Bitcoin is the most popular.
I know there's others there that you can gamble with,
and I say gamble because they're just not as popular
or play with. But Bitcoin is really really the place
to be if you're if you're going to get into crypto.
I truly believe that. And they're making it easier and
easier to get into bitcoin soon. I think you're going

(36:39):
to be finding Bitcoin added to your four one K plans. Now,
you don't want to go crazy five percent of your
overall investable network, don't don't get crazy. The same with gold.
If you have gold five percent five to ten percent,
don't get crazy. You absolutely don't want to get crazy
with some of these alternative invests. Since one, eight, two, five, four, nine,

(37:04):
we'll go back to the pull lines where we have
Nancy and all. But hello, Nancy.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Christ how are you today?

Speaker 1 (37:11):
I'm doing wonderful. How are you today?

Speaker 4 (37:15):
Very good?

Speaker 5 (37:16):
I have a question. I've met with your wonderful staff
in your office at Troy and I am getting ready
to retire. I've got a question about the pension buyouts.
I work for a company that has a pension buyout option,
and it is based on the dreaded GAT rate, which

(37:39):
is much higher now than it has been in previous years.
And I was wondering, if you know, when the interest
rates come down, does the GAT rate come down at
this same rate as an interest rate?

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, you know it's it's a moving target. And one
thank you for coming in and interviewing our firm. Hopefully
you you you like what you saw off and that
we we can help you when you do retire. So
thank you for that, and let us analyze that for you, Nancy,

(38:11):
so that you make the right decision. I can't begin
to to stress how important it is to make that
right decision when it comes to pension buyout. Every once
in a while, you know it makes sense not to
do the buyout, but most times if you and I'm
not poundering our firm, but I'm very proud with the
way we manage money and we do a pretty pretty

(38:35):
remarkable job for our clients. So if you have a
well diversified portfolio, taking the buy out, having that money
invested and living off that money through your retirement years
along with social Security, you should be a pretty good shape.
But let us let us take a look at that
and when interest rates you come down, I'm pretty sure

(38:56):
that that that rate will probably follow. You know, it's
funny people that retire when when that rate is at
its peak. You know what a difference compared to people.

Speaker 5 (39:06):
That that's my superpower that is not been optimal for me.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah. No, you know, there there's two things that we
just don't know about. Death and taxes and interest rates
are are you know, I guess you can say there's
three things because we just don't know what's going to
happen with interest rates. That fed more than likely will cut.
There's a lot of reason why they should cut. But

(39:37):
they also should have raised interest rates a few years
ago when inflation was nine point two percent. They didn't.
They thought it was temporary. They thought you and I
paying you know, up four to five dollars for a
gallon of gas, or you know, having the price of
bread and milk be so much more and our heating
bills be so much more. Well, they obviously have somebody

(39:59):
cooked for them, shot for them, and pay their bills
for them because they had no clue that you and
I and everybody listening was paying a whole lot more
money for products and services. And that's what we call inflation.
So we've come down a long way, but inflation. I
think they need to cut just to stimulate the economy
a little bit, and we'll see what happens to that

(40:21):
rate of yours. But coming into the office, let us
an analyze it for you.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
Nancy, absolutely, thank you very much, have a good day,
all right, and.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Thank you for coming in to interview US one eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight
hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. I love
it when when clients are are you know, call in
and you know, talk good about our team. I'm telling you, folks,
when I tell you I'm proud of the team that

(40:51):
I'm surrounded by, I can't begin to tell you how
proud I am. They are so talented, you know, every
our service team, are traders, our operations, our advisors, my
leadership team, everybody is just amazing. They are just the
true professional. They take such good care of our minds

(41:14):
and their needs. We manage money and very you know,
Ryan and our investment committee manages our clients' portfolios so well.
I just I can't begin to tell you how proud
I am of the team that I'm surrounded by. So
we ended August on Friday, you know, kind of on

(41:36):
a sour note. You know, the markets were down a
little bit, but heck, we are smidgeing away. You like
that word smidgen. We are smidging away from all time highs.
And August was good. The last four months have been good.
You know, the SMP and NASDAK were down about one
tenth percent to tenth on Friday. For they all rallied,

(42:01):
you know, somewhere around one point six percent, So that
was pretty good. Eighty two five nine four nine. Let's
go back to the phone lines we have packed in Troy. Hello,
pack from my hometown Troy.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
How are we doing?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I'm doing good. How are you doing well?

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Thank you? I wanted to get your take on the
institutional uh, decentralized finance are supposed to defy it all
in the crypto space. I know you, uh Clautia, you
were mentioned in bitcoin.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, no, I'm you know I say that again, what
do you call it?

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Decentralized finance.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, you know, there's so many, so many ways to
play crypto. You know, basically, you know, when when when
when you look at industrial finance, it basically refers to banking, lending,
capital raising that supports industrial companies, manufacturing, construction, energy, you know,

(43:10):
whether it be loans for building factories, financing equipment. This
is all what we call industrial finance, now industrialized finance
as a concept. Basically, it's it's it's it's industrial finance
to describe how financial services themselves have become scaled, automated,

(43:30):
or systematized, similar to how the Industrial Revolution change manufacturing.
So it implies that finance is no longer you know
what what what it was, but mass produced, whether it
be uh, you know, structured products like ETFs, platform finance

(43:51):
like what we're talking about, fintech apps, scaling services and
so forth. So there's so much to that, to that
to that statement path that you really, you know, we
don't have enough time on this show. I'd have to
dedicate No.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
I know, I've been I've been seeing some institutions have
been dedicating some of the reserves into the decentralized financial
base of crypto, and I didn't know if you were
both all. But I appreciate your break down there. It
is very.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Uh we are my yep, thank you, Pat, and thank
you for calling. We are not as a firm, but
you're Pats right. You know, there's a lot of companies
that are bringing crypto into their reserves, their little cash account,
you know. And that's why I'm not afraid of crypto.

(44:42):
I think cryptos here. You know. Sure bitcoin is off
the high of somewhere around one hundred and twenty thousand.
Right now, you can pick it up for one hundred
and eight thousand. Is that a good time to buy
being down ten percent? I don't know. It could be,
you know, be down ten percent better than buying it

(45:02):
when it goes back to one hundred and twenty. Right.
That's how you have to look at it, or at
least that's how I look at it. As I said,
I own crypto, and I've made a lot of money
in my sandbox account, one of my sandbox accounts. I
have probably five sandbox accounts that I play with because
that's what you do in a sandbox, right, as a kid,
you play in the sand So we have clients that

(45:28):
have sandbox accounts where they play, but the majority of
their wealth, the core portion. We manage that in a
very disciplined manner so that they don't get carried away
playing and gambling and shooting for the stars and swinging
for the you know, Grand Slam home run. We're managing

(45:48):
the bulk of our client's wealth. But listen, as a kid,
you like to play in a sandbox, I you know,
so I have some sandbox accounts. I you know, I
like playing in the sand once in a while. And
Bitcoin is one of my sandbox accounts. And as I said,
I'm not afraid of it anymore. You may see us

(46:11):
added to the portfolios, but we do not. Our cash
reserves is really just cash, and I always keep a
lot of cash because you never know when a rainy
day comes, You never know. You go back to two
thousand and seven, two thousand and nine, I remember telling
my team that I secured a line of credit. None

(46:32):
of them had to worry about their jobs. I wasn't
going to lay off on one colleague because of that
financial crisis, not one. And my colleagues knew that that
their jobs were safe, and I would have carried them
for as long as I needed to carry them. Hey, folks,
we're coming up to the end of the show. You

(46:53):
are listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to your Aibu
Shape and Andrew Group, where we help our clients prioritize
their help while we manage their wealth for life. I
can't thank you enough for tuning in. Go to our
website booshay dot com. That's b as and' boy o
U c ch e y dot com. There's a lot
of good stuff on our website. You can get past

(47:15):
radio shows if you miss them. We have a lot
of white paper that we do. We do a webinar
with some good stuff. Our best is the Annual State
of the Economy, which is up there, So go to
our website. In the meantime, folks, be well, stay healthy.
Thank you for tuning in today. I'll be back tomorrow
morning eight am. Have a great weekend.