Let's Talk Money

September 21st, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Another gorgeous day in Upstate New York.
A little nippy out there, but attle warm up, put
a sweater on. That's why you go out shopping right
to buy all these fall clothes. Now you get to
wear them. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, so
it's only appropriate that it's a little nippy outside. Well.
I can't thank you enough for waking up with me

(00:21):
this morning and being here to you know, basically, let
me hopefully help you get pointed in the right direction
to get on your way to retirement. You get one opportunity,
as I like to say, one opportunity to retire. The
key is to be prepared to do it right. And
if you have to work during retirement, hopefully you're doing

(00:44):
that because you're just bored, silly and you just need
something to do, not because you need to make ends meet.
That's my goal. Help get you to retirement with the
quality of life that you always dreamt of. When you
work as hard as you do for as long as
you do, you deserve to be able to retire in
the way that you want. The phone lines are open today.

(01:05):
I have my producer Ashley and I and we would
love to talk to you. So if you have any
questions books, any questions whatsoever, one eight hundred talk WGY
one eight hundred eight two, five five nine four nine,
any questions whatsoever. One eight hundred eighty two, five fifty

(01:27):
nine forty nine. Or the phone numbers this morning. I
guess there are the phone numbers all the time. So
you know, you hear about people laundering money, and you
know you see movies made about it, and you you know,
you love to read about it in those fictions. Hey, folks,

(01:49):
guess what I did yesterday? I laundered some money. Yeah, no, literally,
I told you. After the show, I went to see
my trainer, and I go downtown, had my coffee, went
to the ATM machine, came home, you know, did a
load of wash, go to get the clothes out to

(02:09):
put them in the dryer, and I see this pile
of money just kind of floating through the washer, and
I forgot to take the money and the ATM card
out of my pocket. So I guess I laundered money yesterday,
literally speaking, Well, there you have it. I let it
dry out. This morning. I woke up, folded them. I

(02:32):
should have ironed all those bills, and you know, just
put them back in my wallet and now I guess
I get to spend some launder money. One eight eight
two five five nine four nine. Any questions, any questions whatsoever,
give me a call. Yesterday we had a good show,

(02:52):
some great questions, and I talked about just what a
stellar week the markets had this past week. One hundred
which is QQQ and the NANSDAK composite up two point
two percent, SMP up one point two two percent, Russell
two thousand up two point one six percent on the week.

(03:15):
The Nasdaq, SMP and now all closed at record highs
on Friday, and on Thursday, even the Russell two thousand
closed and a record high, And you know, I get
giddy about that because that means that this market is
really a good market. When small caps and mid caps

(03:36):
take part in the rally, it's not just those magnificent
seven technology companies, it's not just you know, the top
dogs of the SMP. This means that the advance the
rally is broadening out, and that's good news. That's good
news for the market. So I was happy to see

(03:57):
all those record highs. I'm always happy to see record
high but especially with Russell two thousand. They're Russell two
thousand making a record high. That was that was pretty stellar,
And that just kind of tells me that I'm very optimistic.
I don't think there's any reason for this market to slip, although, well,
it'll take a breather. It needs to take a breather.

(04:19):
We've had a good run. You think all the way
back to March and April, when investors thought the world
was coming to an end, the SMP was down nineteen
point something percent. Nanstak Russell two thousand, both down in
the mid twenty percent bear market territory, and people, you know,

(04:40):
people always question why do I Why do I own stocks?
Why do I own stocks? Why do I own stocks?
They're too risky. I just can't take it anymore. Well,
guess what that's going to come with the territory, and
it's going to happen again and again and again. So
don't don't don't get all you know doubt that that

(05:01):
the markets go through corrections. I say this almost every
show that I do. Over the last forty four years,
the average swing in the market high to low pik
the trough is about fourteen percent over forty four years.
The stock market is up about eighty percent of the time.
I don't invest for those rainy days. We know those

(05:22):
rainy days are going to come and then all of
a sudden, the rain stops and the sun comes back out.
And with stock investing, you have to just you just
have to realize that you're going to have some volatility.
And volatility is okay. I always say volatility really is
an opportunity for good investors. It allows them to go

(05:43):
in and buy companies that might have been too expensive.
It allows them to maybe reshuffle their portfolio, get into
areas that they wanted to get into. So don't do
not get nervous when you see volatility. Volatility is okay.
And as they said, if you look at it in
the right way, it's really it's it's it's what makes

(06:06):
the world go around. The market can't just go straight up.
Eighty two five, five nine, four nine. If you have
any questions, give me a call. I would love to
talk to you. So this past week, you know the
big news the Fed cut interest rates by twenty five
on basis points twenty five BIPs, as we say in

(06:28):
the business, a quarter of a percent on Wednesday. So
the key rate the Fed funds rate is now sitting
at four to four point two five percent. This marks
the first cut since December of twenty twenty four. You know,

(06:51):
even though they cut the rate, FED officials emphasized caution. Basically,
they said future rate cuts depend on incoming economic data.
We know, oh that they look at all kinds of data.
They are driven by dad data. So if the data
comes in and it shows that inflation is heating up,

(07:12):
well there may not be as many cuts. If the
data comes in and shows that the economy is softening,
jobs are weakening, the consumer confidence and sentiment is getting
you know, a little, let's say worse, they will continue
to cut rates to stimulate the economy. It's like walking

(07:35):
a tighteline. They really they they don't want to do
anything wrong, and we know they do get things wrong.
In hindsight, everything's crystal clear, but we'll see. I'm glad
they cut rates. I felt they needed to cut rates,
I said the last meeting they had. Really I felt

(07:56):
they should have cut rates then. But I'm not a
FED governor. So it was nice to see that they
cut rates by a quarter of a percent. Some people
were hoping for half a percent. That would be a
little aggressive, but a quarter of a percent is good.
We'll see if we get more rate cuts over the
next couple of meetings. I'm guessing we'll get one or

(08:18):
two more before the end of the year. But stay tuned.
I'll tell you as I continue to do the show
through the end of the year, whether they cut rates
or not. Inflation still remains high in the Fed's you
know eyes. The FED wants a two percent target, and

(08:38):
right now we got inflation just shy of three percent,
and it seems to be stubborn, kind of hanging out
at just under three percent. I don't know if the
FED will be able to get inflation down to two percent.
That's you know, it would be a beautiful thing. If
the FED can get its tard and have inflation around

(09:02):
two percent. It means that, you know, we can live
with two percent. It means the price of milk and bread,
the price of gas going into the car going up
just a little bit, We can live with that. It's
when it goes up a lot that we can't look
at it. Like a few years ago when inflation was
nine point one percent, that was that was pretty high.

(09:25):
That was an eye opener. That was like getting sucker
punched by Mike Tyson. It was just scary. So the
FED did a good job bringing it from over nine
percent down to under three percent. But they're still working
at a two percent target. And I say this often.
Over fifty hundred years, inflation has averaged above three percent.

(09:50):
So I'm not sure where they came up with the
two percent number. I think they got kind of used
to after the financial collapse back in two thousand and nine.
When that ended, inflation was nowhere to be found. Interest
rates were near zero, and I think they got used
to that, so they think they can get it down
to two percent. I'm not so sure, but anywhere between

(10:12):
two and three percent I can live with. We'll see
what happens. You know, the labor market, if that continues
the weekend. You know, we've had less jobs over the
last couple of months being added, so with job gains,
sloan unemployment rising, although it's still low, we'll see what happens.

(10:34):
You have housing related stocks out performing recently partly because
lower mortgage rates. I said yesterday, when interest rates get cut,
and believe it or not, the mortgage rates started coming
down before the FED cut their interest rates. Mortgage rates
were you know, in anticipation of cuts mortgage rates now

(10:56):
or you know, it's a whole lot less expensive to
buy a house now than it was just a few
weeks ago or a few months ago. Now, listen, I
know we were got how nice was it when mortgage
rates were two three four percent? That was a beautiful thing,
But no more. Now they're six percent, closer to six

(11:20):
than seven. Not too long ago, mortgage rates were closer
to seven percent. So now we have mortgage rates coming
down being closer to six percent, and that that that's important.
That allows consumers to go out and buy a house.
Remember when mortgage rates were two three four percent, people

(11:41):
didn't think twice about maybe selling their house and upgrading
a little bit, or getting a second home somewhere where
it's a little let's say, warmer and sunnier than it
is in upstate New York. So with lower mortgage rates,
that helps the consumer. And you know, when mortgage rates

(12:01):
were really low, people didn't think twice about going out
buying a new house because they could get a mortgage
with you know, the low rates, with low mortgage payments.
Well now that's not the case, so people aren't really
selling their home because they would have to turn around
and buy another home with a much higher mortgage. So

(12:24):
it's you know, housing related stocks to outperform because of
lower mortgage rates. There's nothing, nothing wrong with that. So
we'll see what happens with with the FED. As they said,
all eyes will be focused on any data that comes
out over the next couple months, regarding whether it be jobs,

(12:50):
any report on the economy. The FED is going to
be looking at. I'm going to take a quick fifteen
second break. Don't go anywhere. One eighty two five five nine.
I'm back, folks. Thank you for hanging in. I just
wanted to wet my whistle so I can talk to you.
Eighty two five five nine four nine. I'm actually looking

(13:13):
at our website now and I should promote it more
because we got some really good stuff on our website
right now. There's you know, white paper on a pattern
emerges in the US employment market written by my son Ryan.
We have Simplifying Your Estate for your loved Ones written

(13:36):
by Katie Buck, one of our wealth advisors. And we
have three of my colleagues, Paulo la Pietra, Ed Wilhelm
and Vincenzo Testa are all taking part in the Real
Men Wear Pink Cancer campaign for the month of October,
and they're going to have some good fundraisers which we'll

(13:57):
talk about. Nice way to win some money. They really
are creative with how they're going to raise money. So listen,
you know, over the next month. And I'm very much
in support of this. I was so happy when when
they decided to do this. You know, my wife Sue,
she fought cancer and breast cancer, and you know, it's

(14:21):
cancer is just it doesn't discriminate folks. And once you
have it, you're part of what I call the C Club,
the cancer club, and you're in that club forever. And
it doesn't matter whether you drive a car, take a
bus to work. It doesn't matter whether you wear a
fancy suit or jeans and a T shirt to work.

(14:44):
It doesn't matter you know, what your religion is, who
you want to pray to, who you decide to love,
the color of your skin. Cancer doesn't discriminate. It just it.
And so many times, just in the last couple of weeks,
I heard about people that came down with lung cancer
that never smoked before. I mean, it's crazy, right, So

(15:10):
you wonder why I'm a big believer that a lot
of a lot of health problems are caused by the
food that we eat in this country. I think we
eat terribly in this country. The food that we eat
is just really pathetic. If you go to a lot
of places in Europe, you're not going to find the

(15:31):
food that that that that we we eat, and we
just can't get enough of it, right. You know, you
go in a supermarket here and it's just full of
processed foods and you know, snacks and you know, things
that just aren't good for you. You go to you know, Italy,

(15:53):
You're not going to find that in the supermarkets. You're
you're just not going to find it. They're not using
as many chemicals and you know whatever. So the food
that we put in our body, I think I think
that's I've been trying to eat much healthier. I guess

(16:14):
when you go seven months not eating at all, when
you start eating, it's easy to start eating healthier because
you don't miss you know, listen, there's a reason why sugar.
Take sugar. You know, you get addicted to sugar, and
the more sugar you have, the more you want. Then
when you go and you don't have sugar for a

(16:35):
long time. There's some good diets out there. One of
the best diets I ever did was the South Beach Diet,
where you basically cut out sugar for about a month
and let your body adjust and kind of reset itself,
not craving those those sugar. And there's sugar and a
lot of stuff. Folks, you'd be amazed if you read

(16:58):
the back of a label sugars and stuff and don't
think that the low fat stuff is any better, because
that's just that's just man made sugar. That's just chemicals
to give you this sweetness, and you're you're literally putting
stuff in your body that you shouldn't. Well enough enough
about that. I'm just proud that Paullo Ed and Vincenzo

(17:21):
are giving back and looking to raise money for the
American Cancer Society. Somebody asked me, is it a good
cause to donate to? I said absolutely, because one hundred
percent of the proceeds stay right here locally. It's not
going to a national organization to pay for big salaries
and all that stuff. It stays right here locally. And

(17:43):
that's what's nice about supporting the American Cancer Society. In
the Capital region. It's it's all for our benefit and
that money stays right here. One eight eight two, five
four nine, one to five fifty nine forty nine. If
you have any questions, folks, give me a call. I

(18:05):
would love to talk to you, you know, anything at
all that that you want to talk about. The phone
lines are open. Ashley, my producer, will will get you up.
She's a nice person to talk to. Say hi, door
one eight eighty two, five five nine four nine. So

(18:26):
you know, interest rates, you know a lot depends on
interest rates. A lot of people were scared about tariffs.
Will tariffs create inflation because the price of stuff is
going to go up because of triffs? And you know, somehow,
some way we've survived the initial stages of terri if.

(18:48):
I talked about this yesterday on the show, and I
was never afraid of tariffs. I didn't think tariffs were
going to kill the country. You know. President Trump basically
just wants to, let's say, level the playing field and
other countries that we've been paying tariffs to or haven't been,

(19:10):
you know, sharing, let's say in the cost of doing business.
You know, teriffs is a way to leverage that, and
you know it hurts. If you go and buy anything
coming from a country with tariffs, it's going to cost

(19:30):
you a little bit more. Now, I think, and I'm
good with this. A lot of companies are actually absorbing
some of the tariff increased costs. How long they'll be
able to do that, I don't know. I know we
just finished second quarter earnings and second quarter earnings were
pretty good. They you know, nothing there to be scared

(19:53):
up with those second quarter earnings. And just in a
couple more weeks we'll have third quarter earn coming in,
so we'll see what what what happens with third quarter earnings.
And if third quarter earnings come in and they're good,
then you know, I think, I think we're going to

(20:14):
survive terraffs. Now, how do tariffs because if if you're
not sure what a tariff is, and I guess in
a way you can call it attacks. Right for consumers,
you've got higher prices because the the important goods. If
it's a BMW at Toyota, if it's your favorite perfume dress, whatever, uh,

(20:36):
you know, it's basically a tax on those items, and
companies often pass those costs along. So whether it's electronics
to groceries. You know, they get to be a little
bit more expensive. You know, we we know past tariffs
on steel and aluminum raised costs for cars, appliance is

(20:57):
construction materials and more in Paris on Chinese imports, raised
prices and consumer goods like furniture and clothing. So that's
that's the impact to consumers is that basically, uh, you know,
those those higher costs of doom business get passed on
to the consumer. The consumer pays a little bit more

(21:20):
for businesses. You know, you got domestic producers in protected
industries like steel makers benefiting from higher prices for for
imported steel. You have the other side of the coin.
Companies relying on imports for parts or materials face higher costs.
You know, just take auto manufacturers and all the all

(21:44):
the parts that they import in well, you know that
means the price of or the cost of making a
car goes up, and you have supply chains. Many many
businesses in this country shifted so to avoid terraffs and
that kind of disrupted things. Basically instead of getting it

(22:06):
from there, they're getting it from here. Just trying to
you know, find their way through that maze of terraffs farmers.
You know, you got the retaliatory terrffs from countries like China.
They hit the farmers hard. And you know, you think
of being a farmer, it's not an easy life. You know,

(22:29):
farmers I think are pretty hard workers and you know,
you hate to see them get get hurt. You know,
you'll see sometimes the government will have subsidies to help
farmers offset the losses. And I'm okay with that to farmers.
You know, not many people can can do farming. And

(22:54):
when you look at who works on most of the farms, folks,
there are people that come from other countries. There's and
these people are happy to do these jobs that a
lot of people don't want to do because they just
you know, a lot of people just don't want to

(23:15):
do it. A lot of people won't do it. So
there you have it. You are listening to Let's Talk
Money brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew, where we
help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their
wealth for life. We're going to take a quick break
for the news. On the other side of the news break,

(23:35):
I would love to talk to you 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, give Ashley and myself a call and let
us get your pointed in the right direction. I know
we have a caller on hold. Jerry, I'll pick you
up on the other side of the news break one

(23:57):
eight hundred eight two five five four nine. Hello, everybody,
Thank you for hanging in through the news. I truly
appreciate you being part of the show every week. You're
so loyal. I can't thank you enough every Saturday at ten,
every Sunday mornings at eight. And you know, I think
we have one of the most premiere talk shows in

(24:20):
the country on investing, financial planning, basically anything revolving around money.
That's why we call the show Let's Talk Money, and
it's you know, it's because of the listening audience that
it makes our show so popular. And if you have
any questions, give us a call. One eight two, five, five,

(24:40):
nine four nine. Let's go to the phone lines where
I promised Jerry I would pick them up after the news.
Good morning, Jerry, good morning.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
I love your show and I like it when you
do the show. It's not that I don't like when
people do it, but you add that vibe, that little
bit sparked get you going in life. I like it.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh, thank you Jerry for the comments. You know, I'm
surrounded by some really talented colleagues and I've been doing
the show now. This is my thirtieth year doing the
show and working every weekend. You know, you know, it
gets to be a lot working every weekend. So it's
nice when my colleagues help me out and they do

(25:23):
a show here and there. It gives me a little break.
But I love Jerry. I say it often doing the
show energizes me. I love coming on the air waves
and talking to the listening audience and trying to give
them things to think of. Sometimes I'm their best devil's advocate.

(25:43):
Sometimes I'm confirming what they already think. Whatever it is,
it's just I love doing the show. So I truly
appreciate those comments.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
You made my morning. And that's the thing. You give,
that little bit of that energy, that vibe, and I
like it. But anyways, thank you. I was going to
have a question or to have a question on QQQ,
which I own. I just received some mail from Charles
Schwab wanting to wanting me to vote on whether to

(26:13):
vote open ended ETF or keep it the way it was.
I know some of it and understand some of it.
I guess with the open end of DTF, they want
to have more transparency, they want to lower the expense ratio.
And I was wondering if you could just elaborate and
maybe give me a little bit more information before I
send my mail back to them, if you could, and

(26:35):
I'll hang up with great job. I love the energy
you're bringing to the show. Thanks to Bie.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Thank you, thank you. Yeah, they're you know, they're going
through a structural change basically from a unit investment trust
UT into an open and fund. If approved, you know, basically,
it'll it'll allow for more flexibility like securities lending, maybe

(27:00):
lower fees. Shareholders are are going to you know, basically
give the company investco what they think, how they feel
about it, Jerry, So depending on how you vote, you know,
this will end sometime in October. I don't know if
it's the end of October that you have, but it'll

(27:24):
end sometime in October. But you know, I don't think
there's anything wrong with it. Qqq is you know, it's
one of our top holdings that in the broad stock market.
I vone QQQ on behalf of our clients for a
long time, thank god, because QQQ has You know, when

(27:45):
you look over the last fifteen years, you got almost
a twenty percent return on QQQ compared to the S
and P at like fourteen percent, in bonds at two
point four percent, and international stocks less than six percent.
So QQQ and our portfolios said really really helped kind

(28:08):
of you know, give us a nice bang for the buck.
Twenty percent annual return over the last fifteen years is
pretty good when you think of all the headlines, all
the reasons that that investor shouldn't be invested, and that
includes COVID. You know, the scare of COVID. Qkq's just

(28:28):
been a great holding. But you know, I don't see
anything wrong with it, Jerry, to be honest, and you know,
I'm going to be voting for it. But you know,
as a shareholder, you get a vote, you get to say,
so that's nice. Now there's a lot of shareholders, so
I'm not sure just you know, how much of a
how much of a say you're going to have, But

(28:50):
you know, it's like voting in an election. If you
don't vote, well, you know you're you lost out on
your right right, no pun intended, because you do have
that right to vote, and even though your candidate may
not make it, you still you have that right to vote.
And that's what QQQ is doing. They're giving every shareholder

(29:11):
their right to vote. Jerry, thanks for the call, Thanks
for the comments and compliments. I'll keep that between us.
I won't tell my colleagues. I don't want to hurt
their feelings, if you know what I mean. One eight
hundred eight two five five nine four nine one eight
hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. If you

(29:32):
have any questions, give me a call. I would love
to talk to you. So, what are some other hot
investment topics? You know you got listen tech in AI.
I love technology, and I've been saying for a long time.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. It's not like AOL

(29:55):
where it's a flash in a hand. AI is here
to stay. And if you have I'm played with it.
Play with the folks. There's some free programs out there.
Get used to it because it's going to play a
role in your life somehow, some way. AI will play
a role in your life. Another reason why I love technology.
I said it yesterday. As long as I'm alive and well,

(30:19):
and you know, walking into our office, I think will
always be overweight technology. There's no reason. Sometimes I get
pushed back. Well, you know, when the market goes down,
technology goes down more than the market. I said, okay,
So if the market's up eighty percent of the time,
are we going to really not make money eighty percent

(30:41):
of the time because we're worried about the twenty percent
of the time that the markets go down. That just
doesn't make sense to me. You have to be in
it to win it. You have to be invested, and
you know I'm not. You know, our portfolios are more
set up to be growth oriented portfolios. We have said
a lot of technologies are number one holding. As far

(31:03):
as a sector goes it's well into the thirty percent range.
And that doesn't scare me. It's you know, and I
say QQQ is is a benchmark because when you look
at at QQQ, you know, for the most part, you
know they are for the most part technology driven. QQQ

(31:29):
over half over half of the portfolio is in technology,
and the top holdings. Navidia Microsoft, Apple, broad Com, Amazon,
Meta which is Facebook, Tesla Alphabet which is Google, Netflix.
You know, those are the top holdings of the Nano

(31:49):
Snack one QQQ. They're they're, they're they're pretty good. Fifty
three percent of the assets are in those top ten holdings.
And as they said, the makeup of QQQ basically is
technology and then you have some consumer stuff. Remember Amazon

(32:12):
is now considered a consumer stock, not a technology stock.
It's one of our well. Apples are number one holding,
Amazon's are number two holding, and I'm okay with that,
even though you're to date both of those companies haven't
done as well. They they're great companies and I believe

(32:34):
in them. We don't buy a lot of individual stocks.
I said yesterday on the radio. We just crusted big
milestone one point five billion dollars. That's billion with a
b of assets under management that we're managing on behalf
of our clients. And it's nothing that we you know, listen,

(32:56):
we put a lot of thought and we do our
due de gens on the investments that we buy, and
we mostly buy ets. There's only two individual stocks, Apple
and Amazon, and the portfolio, no mutual funds. Everything else
are ETFs. That's what that's how we manage our client's
portfolios with ETFs, and QQQ is one of our top holdings.

(33:21):
So I'm not afraid of I'm not afraid of them
being open ended. One eight hundred eighty two five five
nine four nine. If you have any questions, I would
love to talk to you. Let's see what cryptos doing today.
It's the only action you get on the weekend. It's
just under one hundred and sixteen thousand. You know, I

(33:42):
said yesterday how I own bitcoin in one of my
sandbox accounts, one of my play accounts. I'm not afraid
of it. A lot of people are afraid of it.
I don't think there's any need to be afraid of
bitcoin or crypto anymore. I think it's here to stay.
I think that, you know, having a little bit in

(34:04):
your portfolio isn't going to hurt nothing crazy. No more
than five percent should be in you know, crypto. But
if you have a little bit in your portfolio, you know,
I bought it. I never sell it. I just watch it,
and believe me, it hurts when it goes down. It

(34:25):
just seems like not too long ago. It was in
the eighty thousand dollars range. Then it was one hundred
and twenty thousand, then it was one hundred and eight
thousand a couple of weeks ago, and now we're up
back to about one hundred and sixteen thousand. So there's
a lot of volatility. There will probably always be volatility
with crypto, but as long as you can take the volatility.

(34:50):
Not everybody can take volatility. Some people get scared, they
get nervous, they can't sleep at night. Well, then you
shouldn't have those type investments in your portfolio. If if
you're okay with it, or if you have a good
money manager that you trust and you're going with their
you know, decision, it could it could be good to you.

(35:13):
Interest rates, you know, the ten year treasury yield right
now is about four point one three percent, and I
talked yesterday it was you know, almost five percent and
as low as three point six percent all in recent times,
and today we're sitting at about four point one percent.
If the Fed continues to cut, you'll probably see that

(35:35):
rate come down even a little bit more. Maybe we'll
go into the high threes with that rate, but it's
still a pretty good rate and you're not paying state
tax on it, so it's even a little bit better
than four point one three, you know. For not to
repeat myself, but when that financial crisis ended back in
March ninth, two thousand and nine, interest rates were near

(35:58):
zero for a long time. So it's nice to have
interest rates. Your money market funds, you're getting about four percent.
There's nothing wrong with that. You're being paid to save,
you know. The downside to the consumer when the Fed
cuts rates is that your savings rates may go down.
The plus to the consumer when rates come down is

(36:21):
it the cost of borrowing, whether you're boning for a house,
a car, a boat, whatever they cost a borrowing comes down.
For businesses especially, it comes down. So you have the
tenure at four point one. If you want to go
all the way out the thirty year, you can get
four point seventy five, the twenty year four point seven

(36:44):
to one. So if you really want to buy something
long term, you know, those aren't bad interest rates. The
one year is three point six and the six months
three point eight. So the interest rates are let's say,
you know, anywhere from three point six all the way
out to four point seven five percent. If you want

(37:06):
a ladder a portfolio of treasuries. You can do that
what I mean by laddering, and it's really a cool
way of buying bonds or CDs. If you buy treasury bonds,
you know, maybe maybe ladder of portfolio. You buy six months,
one year, a three year, a five year or seven year,

(37:27):
a ten year, twenty year, or thirty year, and when
that six month comes due, you buy another maybe ten year.
When that one year comes due, maybe you buy another
ten year, and you have bonds that are maturing over
the near term and looking out, so that if you
need money, you know that you have these these treasuries

(37:49):
that are maturing, which isn't a bad thing. You don't
have to worry about dipping into your pity bank, if
you know what I mean. So there's nothing you know,
there's nothing wrong. I like ladder and a bond portfolio
and just have have it come do if you really,
you know, listen, if you want to make sure you

(38:10):
have access to money, buy a six month, buy a
one year, buy a two year, buy a three year,
buy a five year. That way, every every year you
got something mature, and if you need that money, it matures.
If you don't need it, you just re up, just
buy another bond. And that's what we refer to as

(38:31):
ladder in the bond portfolio. And there's nothing, nothing wrong
with that at all. One eight hundred eight two five
five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five
fifty nine forty nine. I'm going to take a quick
fifteen second break. Don't go anywhere. Hello, folks, thank you
for letting me take that quick break. Sometimes you just

(38:52):
need a little break. I appreciate you letting me take it. Hey. Hey,
the iPhone seventeen goes on sale. I'm picking mine up tomorrow.
I'm all excited. I love when the new iPhones come out.
Do I need it? No? But do I want it? Yes?
And I like all the technology. And we'll see, you know,

(39:17):
we'll we'll, we'll see what happens. Tim Cook, the CEO
of Apple, says that the iPhone price hikes are not
tied to tariffs. So he basically says that, you know,
Apple is is you know, basically absorbing the tariff increased
to any costs. But you know, listen, the components of

(39:39):
an iPhone go up whether there's tariffs or not. But
Apple's CEO says that the price hikes are not tied
to tariffs, and I respect that a lot of companies
will do what Apple does two five five nine four nine.
I'm going to go back to the phone lines where
with tongue tied, where we have from Sarahtoga Hello, Rick, Oh.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Hello there. I just had a question about how Medicare
premiums are determined. I know there's a window of three
months before you turn sixty five and like four months after,
and it's all based on your text return from two
years prior. Is that a two years prior to the
calendar year you turn sixty five or two years prior

(40:26):
to when you apply, which could be a few months before.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, And it's kind of crazy, isn't it that they
go back, you know, two years like that. You know,
basically you have you know, Parts B and Part D.
Most people pay the standard monthly premium for Part B
and any Part D, which is really a drug program
they enroll in. The income is above certain thresholds, you

(40:56):
pay higher premiums better known as i r MA income
related Monthly Adjustment amount and it uses your modified adjusted
gross income and it looks back at your tax return
from two years ago. So, for instance, if you have

(41:20):
a twenty twenty three tax return filed in twenty twenty four.
It's used to set your twenty twenty five Medicare premiums.
So your twenty twenty five Medicare premiums would be based
on your twenty twenty three tax return. It's basically the
two year rules, so it's basically tax returns from the

(41:40):
year two years prior. So in twenty twenty six, they'll
be looking at your twenty twenty four tax returns.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
From the calendar year.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Well, so my birthdays in early Sebtuary, so if I
have four, I'm swearing if it would be for that
year which I turned sixty five.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Nope, it's your tax return. So when you go to
file for Medicare, if you're filing in twenty twenty six,
any time, they're going to go back. You know, whenever
you turn sixty five, it doesn't matter if it's January
or December of twenty twenty six, you're going to go
back and look at your twenty twenty four tax return.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Okay, so it is the year that you turn that's
two years prior to that, all right, correct, And.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
You know, if there's a life changing event, Rick, you know, retirement,
death of a spouse, divorce, loss of a pension. I
still my heart aches for those Saint Clair employees. You know,
could how could that pension plan disappear like that? It's
it's really it's fraudulent. But you can ask Social Security

(42:48):
to recalculate your premium sooner if there's a life changing event,
and a lot of people never think of doing that,
and a lot of people do have life changing events.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Does it eventually reset?

Speaker 4 (43:04):
I mean like five years afterwards. Once that rate is set,
that's it forever.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
No, no, no, no, it resets, you know they yeah,
each year they look at it. Each year resets and
every you know, basically yep. You know. The open enrollment
is going to be October fifteenth through December seventh, So
it's coming up for anybody who's listening, you know, your

(43:34):
open enrollment is coming up. Hey, Rick, good question, Thank you.
You'll be well stayed up YouTube by bye two five five, nine,
four nine. I got a friend of mine sending me
pictures from the Bloom Festival this morning. Thirty seven degrees.
That's nippy, folks, but beautiful, Oh my god, the balloons

(43:58):
with that blue sky background, just beautiful. Breath taking. I've
never been to the Glens Falls Balloon Festival. Can you
believe that? I don't know why I've never been, but
you know, obviously I missed it this year. Maybe next
year I'll go. Maybe we'll do the show from the

(44:20):
Balloon Festival and I'll have somebody take me up on
the balloon and we'll do the show from a balloon
high in the air. One five, five, nine, four nine.
You know you got going back to to you know,

(44:43):
what's what's going on this week? You know, tech and
AI are really fund managers are are pointing to AI
boosting us labor productivity, helping reduce mismatches and employment without
you know, inflation, you know being affected. So AI, you

(45:06):
know that could create some new opportunities. Listen, we just
hired a new service person in an firm, and we
don't need somebody sitting with her, you know, twenty four
to seven to teach her what form to use and
everything else. You can just use AI and they can,
you know, basically do their own research. And I encouraged

(45:29):
this and then ask is this the form I should use?
And you know basically AI will will give them if
you need a I ra application from Charles Schwab. What's
the form look like, What's what's the the you know
number of the form. It's it's crazy what AI is

(45:51):
going to do. And that's why I say, folks, if
you haven't played with it, really you should play with
AI Artificial intelligence. You should. You should really take and
dip your big toe in the water and get used
to it because it's going to be here to stay.
It's it's going to help out in all areas, including medicine,

(46:12):
including everything. AI is here to stay. I can't believe
the show is coming to an end, but you are
listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet
and Andrew, where we help our clients prioritize their health
while we manage their wealth for life. Folks, I can't
thank you enough for tuning in every weekend and making

(46:33):
this show is as popular as you've made it. I
love doing this show. Go to our website to learn
more about our firm Bouchet dot com. That's b AS
and boy ou c ch e y dot com. There's
some really good stuff. If you miss the show, it's
posted on there. We got good blogs. Look for our

(46:56):
State of the economy pretation. One of the best, one
of the best things that you can do is look
at them. But for now, I hope you enjoy this
gorgeous day outside. I hope you come back next weekend
and in the meantime, be well, stay healthy. Thank you
for listening.