Let's Talk Money

December 20th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everybody, and welcome as we celebrate Hanukkah. We're going
into Christmas this coming week. I can't believe it's Saturday,
December twentieth.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's a nice sunny day out there in upstate New York. Anyway,
Hopefully wherever you're listening, you had some sun and enjoying
this weather. Listen, it may be a little nippy out there,
but boy, you know, a little bit of snow is nice.
What's not nice is when it rains and makes everything
messy that just should not be. Why does that happen?

(00:36):
I don't know, but you know I was in New
York City the last few days, and you know I
can tell you it just wasn't nice too, had the winds,
the rain and everything. You know. The good news is
I was down for some follow up appointments and tests
and thank God, and I thank God every day. Folks.

(01:00):
You know you hear me say often. When you have
your health, you have everything. And right now I can
sit here with you, I can tell you that I
have my health. I have a new lease on life,
and I'm not going to waste it. My mission right
now is to help as many people as I can,
people that have you know less people that can use

(01:22):
some help. That's really that's really what I've dedicated, you know,
this new lease on life Forest to help help those
around me and help those that I don't even know.
You know, I shared with you a couple of weeks
ago that this young girl in Amsterdam, Lily five years old,

(01:43):
five years old, suffering through cancer. I had the opportunity
of meeting her this summer AT's are at Sandy Foster's
Village Pizzeria and Restaurante in Middle Grove, exactly twelve miles. Folks,
take a left at Starbucks. You can only one way
at Starbucks in downtown Saratoga. Basically go out twelve miles

(02:06):
and you'll hit the Village Pizzerian restaurant. One of the
best hidden secrets there is. But I met Lily five
years old. I brought her a gift, knowing that the
fundraiser was for her, and she stole my heart. So
a couple of weeks ago, I gifted a van to
Flutter Express, which is a non for profit that is

(02:29):
headed up by Francescolporto Brandau, and she started this to
help families get back and forth to Boston and New York.
It's a shuttle bus to help them get to their appointments,
and I gifted a little van equipped for children. It
will be used in Lillie's honor to take her to

(02:49):
all her treatments beginning Monday for five weeks, and then
it'll be used for other children to have just a
quiet place to get back and forth to those appointments
that most of us can't even understand what it's like.
So giving back feels good, and I hope everybody's able
to give back a little. And it doesn't mean you

(03:10):
have to use money, folks. Sometimes a simple hello on
the street to somebody that may look lonely, or somebody
you know that that that that may be struggling, just
letting them know that boy, what a beautiful sweater that is,
or something to pick them up that that goes a
long way. Anyway, you're here today for let's talk money.

(03:31):
The phone mines are open. It's one eight hundred talk WGY.
That's 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, any questions, give me a call.
We're gonna kick off the show with Stephen from Boston, SPA. Steven,

(03:53):
I gotta tell you that's a great name. I like
that name, Stephen.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, it's a good one. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Okay, I got a couple of questions. We put my
parents' house in a trust years ago so that when
they went to nursing home or whatever, you know, the
government would have get it whatever. And now she's she's
in a nursing home and Medicaids paying for it and
the house is rented, so the money.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Goes to help.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
So when she passes the money, that's like, when we
sell that property, is that money taxable?

Speaker 3 (04:26):
And how could I invest that without getting hit with
more taxes? Yeah that makes sense to you.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, well so you're probably and this is a great
question for who does your tax esteem.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
My sister in law is actually an accountant.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
You're not doing business with your in laws, are you.
I'm only kidding.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
So when the time comes, that's what I'm saying, you know, like, yeah,
the household tax passes and we'll get that money. And
I just don't want to get like hammered down taxes,
So you know, can it be invested in rough iras?
Or different things that are you know, you know, yeah,
let me tell you how specifics, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Let me let me help you here. It really depends
how the trust is written. You know, if the house
is in a revocable living trust, the trust continues after
you know, and it's just your mom who's alive.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah, it's an irrevocable trust, you're all right, So with
with with that, the trust should be tax on that
each year if if there's rent coming in.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And I'm not a tax advisor, I have four CPAs
I r S enrolled agents in my firm. If any
of them are listening to the show, call in guys
and help me with this question for Steve, because I'm
not a tax advisor. But I'm guessing that that income
is taxed each year because it's it's it's basically being

(06:06):
recorded each year and then you know, when mom passes
that that money should be basically tax freak, you know,
But it really it depends how that trust is written
and in what goes on. But I'm guessing. I'm guessing
the income is taxed each year. I don't know how,

(06:30):
especially in New York.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
I don't Yeah, we went through this just this year
because she had to go into the nursing home, and
you know, you had to look back, you know, five years.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
They wanted all the bank statements.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
And ultimately, at the end of the year, whatever income
is there, we either have to give to medicaid or
we pay like a thirty seven percent tax on it. However,
that so basically at the end of the year, there's
never any money in the trust.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
It's all given to the nursing home.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
That's the way it works, or you pay the thirty
seven percent tax on it.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
And that makes sense. And you know, going back to
the trust, you know there I think there's a five
year look back period. So if you if you drew
up the trust a year ago, well for the next
four years, you're going to it's like you don't have
a trust because they wan't.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
No, we did that like ten years ago. That's it's
the look back whatever. I guess the bigger question was
when we sell the house, when Mom passes and we
each get say whatever, I don't know, it's one hundred
grand whatever the number is. Now that money is not
taxable because it's an inheritance.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
I'm assuming, but I don't know if you know the
answer to that.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
But I guess turn around and invest at like our
roth I rais there's a maximum you can put.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
In every year.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Correct for yourself.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's if you have earned income. You have to have
earned income. Are you still working?

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I'm working and I'm retired from the state. I
do both, so I have yes.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah. So you have to remember when mom passes, and
hopefully she will never suffer. But when she passest week,
so oh well tell her, I said, happy birthday. What's
her name?

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Will you?

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Liian? What's her?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
What is it? Lil lil lil Louis. I just got
talking about Lily, this five year old girl who stole
my heart this summer, and I'm trying to help her out. So, boy,
this is an omen Stephen, this you were meant to
call in. So let me just sum it up and
wrap it up this way, you know, get downside to

(08:40):
a near revokable trust. It cannot be changed. You know,
the terms are already spelled out, and hopefully your attorney
helped you spell them out. Who benefits, who receives income
when the house transfers or is sold, and ownership does
not change at that the house is already owned by
the trust, not by mom, So no probate, no automatic transfer.

(09:02):
The trustee simply continues managing the partner or partner property
and there you know, I you know, once again you
got to get the rent either goes to the main
beneficiaries or it stays in the trust to pay expenses.
But I think you already said it goes to the

(09:22):
nursing home and when the houses is sold. Capital gains
are based on you know, obviously costs and all that,
but you probably will have very little tax maramnifications. But
ask your tax payer, Steve, and thank you for calling in.
Say happy birthday to your mom. It's it's an omen

(09:44):
I swear happy birthday and merry Christmases as well, Steve
one eight hundred talk w G y one eight hundred
eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred
eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. If you haven't
any questions, folks, any questions whatsoever, give me a call.
I would love to talk to you, love to get

(10:07):
you pointed in the right direction. You know, listen, it's
the holiday time, a lot to be grateful and hopefully
hopefully you know not every family has you know, it
has it good. There's a lot of families out there
that really truly struggle internal conflicts and emotions and everything.

(10:29):
So hopefully in your family you have it good. But
every family has stuff, stuff that goes on, and hopefully
you can put that stuff behind you and move forward.
A statement that my wife learned before she passed last
year was don't trip over what's behind you. When you

(10:50):
put that in context, don't trip over what's behind you.
She and I used it often, we laughed about it,
and it helped us get beyond some you know, let's
say debates, some some chats. You know, we would just
one of us would look at each other and say,
don't trip over what's behind you. And and it's powerful statement.

(11:13):
If more people use that, I'm telling you more people
would would would would be a lot happier. One eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. I got
Katie and Ashley this morning. Give me a call. They're
my producers. They would love to talk to you. Answer
your call and put you up on the board. That's

(11:34):
what we call it in radio language. So I can
I can pick you up and talk with you. One
eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. So
you know, this past week. We started the week and
it was a crazy week. Another crazy week. The good
news is we were up a little bit, not down,

(11:55):
you know, Oracle, Broadcom Core We've sank as the week began.
You had Chinese manufacturing output growth hit a fifteen month low,
Retail sales SAG. I mean, man, how much more bad news?
Oil hit a five year low on Ukraine. Piece hopes

(12:15):
that's actually good news because with oil, you know, listen,
when you have to put gas in your car, I'm
telling you, and even if you don't have a car,
if you're taking a bus er, even if you get
a pizza delivered to your home, the price of oil
goes into a lot of things that affect our lives.

(12:37):
The lower oil prices hopefully mean that consumers are paying
less at the gas pump, and you know, that's really
what it's all about. Finally, finally, finally, the jobs report
came out, lost last late because of the government shutdown,

(12:58):
but it finally came out. Were lost one hundred and
five thousand jobs. November gain sixty four thousand jobs. We'll
see what that revised number is next month. If we
get the jobs report on time. Unemployment rose to four
point six percent. Oil rose as President Trump ordered a

(13:18):
partial oil blockaate around Venezuela, so oil was on a tear.
This week you had November inflation came in at two
point seven percent, a little bit less. That gives the Fed.
And believe me, right now, that's a good report because

(13:39):
the Fed will probably cut interest rates because as inflation
gets closer to that two percent target that the Fed wants,
you know, that means we're in check. So the Fed
may cut again in twenty twenty six. We'll see how
many more rate cuts are in store. Remember the that

(14:00):
is data dependent. They're looking at every report on the economy,
jobs report, and every report that they can get their
hands on. They literally have their nose deep into the
textbooks looking at at data. So we'll see what you know,
December's jobs report has in store and what inflation looks

(14:23):
like in December. There's a lot of people that think
that the number was artificially low because of the government
shut down. We just weren't able to get accurate information.
Who knows, but it was two point seven percent. And
for the week, you know, the Dow fell zero point
seven percent. But remember on this show, we could care

(14:43):
less about the dial. The Dow is a popular index,
an index that people love to watch, but it's only
made up of thirty stocks, so we could care less
about the doll. There you have it. I don't talk
about the Dow, so I'm just talking about it today
because just because the dial was down doesn't mean the
other indexes were down. So the Dial was down, but

(15:07):
the S and P was up one tenth of a percent.
I know, it's like kissing your grandmother right, up one
tenth of a percent, but still better being up than
being down. And Nasdak gained a half a percent. Once again,
better to be up than being down. Right, So you're
to date, we have the S and P up oh

(15:28):
with dibenends about seventeen percent, and you have Nansdak and Nasdak,
the one hundred composite indecks, both the composite indecks and
the NANSDAK one hundred up about twenty one percent. That's
not bad. Russell two thousand, even though it had a
down week, Russell two thousand was down almost percent. You're

(15:49):
to date, we're up about thirteen point four percent. You
have oil, as I said, settled in around fifty six
point sixty six dollars a barrel. The low over the
last year was fifty five point two seven a barrel.
In gold, gold hit another record high forty three sixty one.
That's a record. Near to day, gold's up sixty six percent.

(16:11):
I admitted last year, last week on the phone lines
or on the radio airwaves, that we we missed this
rally in gold, and some people feel gold can continue
to go somewhere anywhere. Right, We'll see where gold ends up.

(16:31):
You know. The good news is bitcoin is up today.
You know, we're up to about eighty eight thousand. It's
a followed all asset to watch. We put it in
our client's portfolios. Pretty soon, just about every four to
one K plan in the land, we'll be able to
invest in bitcoin. So it's coming your way, even if

(16:52):
four on one ks are your only investments. And for
a lot of people listening, I'm guessing that you know, listen,
things are tight. I get that. With prices of food
and gas and your your utility bills being high. You know,
we don't have a lot of leftover money, a lot
of discretionary income, so things are tight. I get that.

(17:17):
And what you have to remember is that somehow, some way,
you gotta you got to try to save for retirement somehow,
some way, and the best way is to save it
through your your paycheck. At work, most employers have a
retirement plan, whether it be a four on one K
or four H three being a non for profit sector,

(17:39):
or simple irray, whatever it is. And if by chance,
your your your employer doesn't have a retirement plan, then
open up. You're allowed to do this no matter what
your income limits are. Open up an I ray and
put some money away. And if you're in a low
tax bracket, put some money away into a wrath ir ray.
You you don't get tax break for putting it in,

(18:01):
but it grows tax deferred. And the beauty is get
ready for this? Are you ready? Drum roll? Please? It's
tax free when you take it out at retirement. So
wroth irays are a beautiful thing. And I used to
say on the show, if you're maxing out your pension
plan at work and you are allowed by the IRS

(18:24):
to contribute to a roth ira, and you can afford
to contribute to a roth ira, don't mess around. One
of the best best tax benefits that that IRS has
given you. Even though it's not an immediate tax deduction
for you. What I mean by that is if you
put ten thousand dollars in to your four to one

(18:44):
k at work into a traditional four oh one K,
or you put money into an irra, that money is
not taxed to you. So that's you know, if you
make one hundred thousand dollars a year and you contribute
ten percent of your salary ten thousand dollars to your
forum and K your tax one thousand dollars, so that

(19:07):
ten thousand dollars, you know, heck, it could only cost you,
maybe you know, seven thousand to save ten thousand because
you're getting a tax break. It's a beautiful thing when
you get a tax break. But everybody, everybody needs to
prepare themselves for retirement. And unless you can live, the

(19:27):
average social Security check is, you know, somewhere under twenty
thousand dollars a year. If you can live on that,
then you don't need to save for retirement. If you're married,
that's forty thousand dollars on average, you and your spouse
getting from Social Security. No, that's enough for you. Then
spend all your money now you don't need money. If
you need more than forty thousand dollars a year, or

(19:50):
if you're single, twenty thousand dollars a year, and if
that's your average security benefit, then you need to have
money saved up that you can draw on or you
continue to work. You get one opportunity to retire. Folks,
I say it often, don't flow it. Make sure you
you are able to retire somehow, some way. Make sure

(20:14):
you're able to retire, because it's it could be lonely
out there working and working and working. Now, if you
like to work, that's okay. But if you if you
always dreamt about having a a nice retirement life, well
you have to have some money saved up. And I

(20:34):
hope that that that you're able to do that somehow.
Someway one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four
nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
So you know, that was the news for the week,
and Corporate America land Ford Motor took almost a twenty
billion dollar right down and killed several electric vehicle models.

(20:59):
I get it. There was a time not too long
ago when people running this country thought that we were
going to be one hundred percent electric vehicles folks. It
is not going to happen. It can't happen. There's no
way in the world it can happen. Where some of
these people live on La La Land. I don't know.

(21:21):
I had an electric vehicle. I had one of the fastest,
best built electric vehicles that you can buy in the world.
I finally had to get rid of it. It was
a pain in the neck if I wanted to take
a trip. I had a hope that the you know,
the rest area on the throughway was open with some

(21:42):
electric charging stations and that they worked, or maybe there
weren't a lot of people in line doing the same thing.
There's very few places to charge your vehicle, folks. It's
not going to happen. So it doesn't surprise me that
Ford is write downs and getting rid of you know, listen,

(22:03):
these car companies thought they were going to have to
live under a mandate to produce only electric cars. It
ain't happening, folks, It's not happening. So go out, you know,
you know, think back to the muscle car gas guzzling days,
the roar of the engine. It's not going away. We're

(22:25):
gonna have gas pumps, gas pumps. They're on every corner.
Almost there's a reason why there's not charging stations for
these electric vehicles on every corner. It's a pain in
the neck to try to find a place to charge
your car. And then if you do, now you're alone

(22:46):
in some parking lot, all by yourself, sitting there twiddling
your thumbs waiting for the battery to charge. Could be
an hour longer. It just doesn't make sense. So it's
nice when you have an electric car. You feel good,
you know, But if you did your homework, go to
artificial intelligence AI, folks, I think you'll be really surprised

(23:08):
at what it takes to manufacture a battery that goes
into these cars so that you can run. But it
makes you feel good. You're not using gas, the carbon
footprints a little less, there's no noise. You get a
whole lot of power in electric cars. I can tell

(23:29):
you that the power is scary at times, but it's
nice if you just always drive local. There you have
it my take on electric vehicles, so I'm not surprised
that for IT and other companies that are getting rid
of their electric vehicle projects. Hey, you're listening to let's
talk money. Brought to you by bouchef and introgroup, where

(23:51):
we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage
their wealth for life. We're going to take a break
for the news. The phone lines are open one eight
hundred eight two, five five nine four nine one eight
hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. I'll see
you right after the news break. I'm back, folks.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
Thank you for hanging in through the news. I thank
you for tuning in today. December twentieth, we're you know,
we're celebrating Hanukkah. We got Christmas in five days before
we know it. We're going to have the New years
coming in, and year to date, we're doing pretty good.
The markets are good. That means that over the last
eleven years, unless there's a severe correction over the next

(24:36):
ten days, over over the last eleven years, the stock
market was up nine out of eleven years, nine out
of eleven years. That's how the stock market performed. That's
why you hear me, I'm not here to promote stocks. Well, wait, meet, folks.
I get paid the same whether our clients are in

(24:57):
guaranteed CDs or US treasuries, which you know I love
us treasuries or stocks. You know, we're we're fiduciary. We
get paid to advise our clients. We spend a lot
of time educating our clients. We truly go out of
our way to help our clients understand that there's risk

(25:17):
in all asset classes. I don't care if it's stocks,
I don't care. If it's comme outities like gold, I
don't care.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I don't care. There's risk in all all you know,
asset classes. There's risk in cash. Heck, you can invest
all your money in cash, and after inflation, your real
way to return most years is zippity doo do day.
You're actually losing money. You're real you're real return. So

(25:46):
you gotta you gotta realize there's there's risk in all
asset classes. The key in life is to know those risks,
to understand those risks, and to have a well diversified portfolio.
Not be garrett when the markets go through some volatile periods,
because all markets go through volatile periods, not just stocks. Folks, Listen,

(26:09):
you know commodities like gold. Listen. I can't begin to
tell you sure we're having a you know, just one
of the best periods that gold has ever seen gold
is is just you know, going through the roof, right.
But if you look over the last eleven years, gold

(26:30):
had you know, four years with negative returns, four years
with negative returns, Bonds had two years, stocks had two
years over the last eleven years. So there you have it.
There's there's volatility in all asset classes. You got to
just be careful which asks that class that that you're

(26:52):
investing in. The phone lines are open. Katie and Ashley
are with me today. My producers won eight hundred and
eighty five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eight
two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, folks,
give me a call. I would love to talk to you,
would love to get your pointed in the right direction.

(27:13):
Any questions whatsoever. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. So you know I had a treat
last night. You know, I'm a Troy boy. You know,
there's nothing like a Troy boy. The girls love Troy boys.
And you know Angie Gavin, my longtime concierge. She and
Lauren share that duty. Now Angie's down the working part

(27:36):
time and Lauren is full time. My daughter, my favorite daughter. Yes,
I only have one daughter, so I can call her
my favorite daughter. Lauren and Angie are are client concierge.
They do anything that our clients need, just like a
concierge at a beautiful hotel, right, you go to the
concierge to get things done, to be treated special. That's

(27:58):
what Angie and Lauren do. You know. There's there's an
old old school restaurant, Red Front Pizza Rea in Troy,
and you know, I haven't been there in ages, ages ages.
So I took car service up from New York City.
I told you I was in the city for a
few days. Took car service up and it so happened.

(28:20):
I reached out to Angie, I said, are you and
Timmy are going to be at Redfront? They said yes, so,
and you know, I had my driver dropped me off
at Red Front and I had a some good, delicious
greens and beans with some hot sausage to start out,
and then a cop pizza. What's a cop pizza? Cheese

(28:41):
on bottom and Red Front perfects the cheese on bottom pizza.
I haven't had a cheese on bottom pizza forever and
ever and ever. So I treated myself. Then I went
to the Crab Club. Yep, there's a club called the
Crab Club. It's it's it's a tucked away and you know,

(29:02):
just outside a little Italy and South Troy, and it's
it's it's a great club. My father, when he was alive,
God bless him, you know, lived there, literally lived there
just about and I haven't been there forever. So we
stopped there and it was nice to see some old

(29:24):
friends that I haven't seen and bring back memories of
my dad and you know, being there as a young
guy picking him up or whatever. There you have it, folks,
that that was my Friday night. And tonight I'm blessed. Uh.
You know, every year I put my I booked the
Hotel of Delphi for my colleagues, treat them to a

(29:46):
nice weekend in Saratoga Springs, and we're going to have
a beautiful Christmas dinner. We're taking them over the second
floor of the infamous Noah's Italian, you know, a restaurant,
and we're taking that over tonight. And I always enjoy
it being with my colleagues. The success of our firm
isn't because of me. The success of our firm is

(30:09):
because of my colleagues. I can't begin to say how
much I love, love, love my colleagues. They are you know,
now they are my family. So they mean the world
to me. And it'll be it'll be nice to spend
the night with them and break bread and have some

(30:29):
stories and you know, it's it's just nice. There you
have it. That's going to be my weekend, folks. But
right now I'm here with you, and tomorrow morning I'm
going to be with you as well at eight am.
So if you have any questions for me on eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine, give me
a call. So this coming week we have you know,

(30:51):
because of the government shutdown. You know, the reports we're
getting are just not On tom pro Economics releases its
initial estimate of third quarter GDP gross domestic product growth,
and the estimate is GDP grown at an annual rate

(31:11):
of three point two percent, down from three point eight
percent in the second quarter. This was originally scheduled for
October but was delayed obviously, so we'll see, we'll see
what happens. It's a little late by the time it
comes out. Heck, we're going to have the fourth quarter numbers.
You'll also on Tuesday head, So Tuesday is going to

(31:32):
be a big day for reports. The Census Bureau releases
the Durable Goods Report for October. New orders for manufactured
durable goods. These are the goods that are meant to last, folks.
These aren't the you know, fragile goods. These are are
are the big boys. So we're expecting a decline of

(31:55):
one point five percent month over month, down the three
point or one hundred and thirteen billion dollars excluding transportation.
New orders are scene rising zero point three percent compared
to point six percent in September. And then also on Tuesday,
you heard me say it. It's going to be a
busy day. The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index

(32:19):
for December. Economists basically are forecasting a ninety one point
seven reading, three points more than in November. Consumers continue
to have a debbie downer look on the economy, with
November's reading the second lowest since basically the onset of
COVID five six years ago. We'll see what happens. A

(32:41):
lot of people are still worried about tariffs, and they
should be. You know, tariffs are going to be felt
by consumers and in businesses and hopefully a lot of
businesses will will take over. Yesterday we had some good
news out of the administration. They are going after the
big barma company. Needs to cut the price of drugs.

(33:04):
Legal drugs, folks, not illegal drugs. You know. President Trump
already took care of the at least the weed earlier
in the week and signed an executive order of dealing
with that. I still don't understand it. The closest I've
come to smoking weed is when Snoop Dogg like my
horse a few years ago at Pegasus and called me over.

(33:27):
His security tried to stop me, and he said, nope,
come here and introduced himself to me, and I introduced
myself to him. He's a tall guy, long arms. He says,
give me your phone. I want to take a selfie.
I like your outfit. Well, folks, I can only I
can only let you think about how Snoop Dogg the
aroma that he carries when he takes you under his arm.

(33:51):
That's as closest I've come to dooing weed. So I
still don't understand that. But it was good news that
the president is is working hard basically embarrassing the pharmaceutical companies.
And they should be embarrassed. I think there's a lot
of politicians. I'm not going to talk politics, but let
me talk about this a little bit. I think there's
a lot of politicians out there that have gotten a

(34:14):
lot of money from big pharmaceutical companies. How come you
can have a drug made in New Jersey and in
this country it costs thirteen hundred dollars for the patient
to get that drug, but in London only eighty eight dollars.
How come, folks go ahead answer that question. How come? Well,

(34:35):
this president wants to put a stop to that, and
he should. So maybe you know, we actually sold our
healthcare We were invested in healthcare, and we kind of
sold our healthcare holdings and for good reason, you know,

(34:56):
this being one of them. And I can say, you know,
since my investment committee sold it, you know, it's it's
it's it's it's been a zero point two one percent
we ended up buying. I've given you this, these these numbers.
Back in the middle of November, we bought some bitcoin.

(35:20):
We bought an e TF that focuses on nuclear energy,
and we bought an e TF that focuses on semiconductor.
We sold a little bit of our dividend paying ETF
and trimmed Apple a little Not that we don't love Apple,
it's our number one holding, but Apple got to be
so highly weighted because of the run up. Our clients

(35:45):
have made a lot of money with Apple, maybe not
this year as much, but they've made a lot of
money through the years with Apple and are still our
number one holding. Amazon's are number two holding. So we
trended it a little bit. What I mean by that is,
if our target is five percent and clients had a
seven or eight percent waiting in it, we trend it

(36:06):
back to five percent. They still own Apple to our target,
but we took advantage of the volatility to trim some
positions and we sold completely out of our healthcare ETF.
And since since we did that, the changes that the
investment committee made is up almost six percent. That's the difference.
So that means, to keep it simple, folks, on our

(36:29):
clients have made six percent more on those changes. Because
my investment committee felt the time was right, they did
their due diligence, They made sure the eyes were not
that the t's were crossed, and they made some brilliant moves,
and there you have it. You know our clients benefited
from that. Just sure, I know it's only a month.

(36:51):
Tomorrow will be exactly a month. I know it's only
a month. That's okay, don't you know. Don't get all
spooked by that. But it's still good news right as
we enter the Santa Claus Rally, that our clients did
that much better because of the work that my investment
committee put into it. There you have it, folks. That's
how we manage money. We're always looking to make our

(37:14):
clients money without taking any undue risk in using the best,
the best, most efficient investment vehicles we can use. What
do I mean by that? You hear me say this often?
There's always internal management fees. Folks. If you're sitting down
with an advisor and they say, yeah, this isn't going
to cost you any money and I don't get paid,

(37:36):
don't believe them. He or she is lying to you
right through their teeth. They are lying to you. A lie, lie,
lie pants on fire, your nose is growing. They're lying
to you, folks. In there in every investment vehicle there's
internal what we call internal management fees. On average annuities,
they are about three percent mutual funds about one percent,

(38:00):
and ETFs, you know, has a range, and most of
the ETFs we use are are have low internal management fees.
Our core position point zero three percent, you heard me right,
point zero three percent compared to one percent for mutual funds,
three percent for annuities. And if you're buying B shares

(38:24):
mutual funds, you know, it's even more than than one percent.
It's it's crazy. What goes on our total portfolio all
in is less than point two zero percent. So my
investment committee, they did a good job. I'm going to
take a quick fifteen second break, folks. The phone lines

(38:47):
are open one eight hundred eighty two five five nine
four nine, eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
Let me take this quick break. I'll see it real shortly.
Here I am. Thank you for letting me take that break,
and most importantly, thank you for tuning in today. You
hear me say often I get energized when I do

(39:09):
the radio, and I do Marty, my dear colleague. It
was also now my partner. You know, he offered to
do the radio today because he knew I had a
long week. And they said, now Marty, I said, coming
in and doing the radio, being here in front of
the listening audience, letting them see me. I can see
you through the mic, folks, believe it or not, I

(39:29):
can see you. And and you know, look look hard
into the radio airwaves. You can almost see me. I
have a face for radio. But I told Marty, I
truly appreciate he does a great job on the radio.
I truly appreciate him wanting to come in and give
me a break. But I love doing the radio, and
I you know, I just love doing the radio. One

(39:52):
eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine eight
two five fifty nine forty nine. So I tell you
often use artificial intelligence to get updated information, and if
you're using the free version of like chat GDP, you
need to know that a lot of that information is outdated.
The new version you're going to pay a little bit

(40:14):
of money for, but the information is more up to date.
So for the heck of it, I threw into AI
during that quick fifteen second break, I said, hey, what
are the average fees in plain English? This is coming
from chat GBT, not me. Average internal management fees annuities,
average all in costs two point five to four percent

(40:36):
per year. You have mortality and expense that are known
as M and E charges one to one point five percent.
Sub account the investment fees when you're buying a variable annuity,
you're buying mutual funds wrapped with an annuity wrapper. Point
seventy five to one point five percent. Riders. You know,
all these guarantees income that benefit YOUAVIDAVID two point five

(40:58):
to one point five percent. You add them all up.
The internal management fees for annudies two point five to
four percent. I know I'm going to get some phone
calls over the week from some of my friends who
sell annuities because they're making a lot of money. The
average commission on annuities that if you buy one hundred
thousand dollars annuity, the person selling it is getting six

(41:19):
thousand dollars commission. Ho ha, oh baby, that's making some
real money. Mutual funds, the average fees are point six
to one percent. Actively manage mutual funds point seventy five
to one point two five percent, Index mutual funds point
five to basically point twenty five percent, and a lot

(41:40):
of mutual funds have what we call twelve B one
marketing fees. That's so that the broker can continue to
get paid folks, even after they get paid that money
upfront and ETFs. As I said, the average expense ratio
point three to two point two percent broad market ETFs,
our core positions are point three percent. We just sold

(42:02):
out of QQQ. You know, I love QQQ. We did
not get rid of it. We sold out of it
and replace it with QQQN, the exact same investment vehicle.
The differences. We reduced our internal management fee in QQQ
the internal management fee was point two percent, QQQM the
exact same holdings point one five percent. That's what I

(42:25):
mean when I tell you we're always looking to, you know,
have our clients make money by using the best vehicles possible.
So there you go. On average, a newities costs between
two and a half and four percent, mutual funds three
quarters of a percent to one percent ETFs. You know, cheap, cheap,
I hate the word cheap. Fees compound just like returns,

(42:49):
except the compound against you, folks. So the less you pay,
the more you keep. You heard me say that the
less you pay, the more you keep. One eight hundred
eighty two five five nine four nine. Give me a call.
You know. You know, as we sit here on this
Saturday morning, the sun is out just about a lot

(43:11):
of the snow is gone. I guess when you have
temperatures rise into the fifties and some rain, that that's
what happens. There you go. For those of you that
want a white Christmas, I'm not so sure we're going
to get a white Christmas or not. But the snow
is gone for the most part. There's snow, a couple
of snow piles. So go take a selfie in front
of a snow pile if you if you want to

(43:33):
have that that Christmas, get decked out in your your
Christmas gear because this week I think the weather's going
to be above freezing. So if those snow piles, you know,
they may be gone over the next couple of days.
We only have five days till Christmas five one, two,
three four, five, five days till till Christmas one eight
hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. So you know,

(43:57):
we got the you know, I said an am, I'm
up and I met Stewart's I love Stewarts, Love love
love Stuarts. You know, I love seeing I see the
same woman at the Saratoga Store on Broadway, and she's
always a sweetheart. I grabbed my papers, and you know,
it's just a good place. There's always people in Stuarts

(44:20):
and they're always happy, and the employees are always happy
because they're partners of Gary and Bill Dake, the owners
because of their estop. So, you know, I picked up
my papers, and you know, I'm just kind of The
weekend edition of Wall Street Journals pretty good. But you know,
according to that, the S and P swung in either

(44:42):
direction this past week before ending really just about where
we started. Jitters about the future of artificial intelligence continued
away on tech stocks, folks. I'm behind AI artificial intelligence.
As I said, we we we own artificial intelligence. We
feel it's here to stay. And if you don't have it,

(45:05):
you know this, this minor correction that it's going through
could be buying opportunity for you. You know. We we
we bought the semiconductor et F s m H by
Van k and we're we're happy we bought into it.
We took advantage of the volatility and there's still volatility. Yeah,

(45:26):
you heard me say. We had a pair of reports
on delayed reports market and believe me offered, offered very
little direction about the state and the economy as we
as we close out twenty twenty five and head into
twenty twenty six, and the US equity markets, you know,

(45:47):
they were back and forth all week long, back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth. The SMP on Friday,
thank god, thank god it's Friday. The S and P
was up almost a percent on Friday, but for the
week it was only up point one percent, so we
needed that big boost being up nine tenths of a
percent on Friday. NASDA climb one point three percent on Friday,

(46:11):
thank god, it was up point five percent for the week.
So thank god it's Friday. Thank god we had Friday,
because you know, the S and P and the NASDAY
both had a great day on Friday. Now we know
they're closed on the weekends. That's why I always like
to guarantee my clients they will not lose any money
on the weekends. I put their mind at ease. They

(46:33):
don't worry about a thing on the weekends. I tell
them all the time, you won't lose a penny this weekend.
The markets are closed. The only action you have are
betting football games. Horse races. I happen to have, you know,
two horses. I talked about my electric car or earlier
on how fast it was. The other thing I like
are other than fast cars, are fast horses. I got

(46:56):
Escapade running racing in the fourth race at Gulf Stream
today Escapades, and tomorrow I have Empire West racing in
the tenth race at Turfway. So I have a little action.
It's a hobby, folks, don't judge me. A lot of
people lose money and horses, me included, and a lot
of people lose money owning restaurants.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
But we all have fun.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
You need to have fun. Heck, we deserve to have
a little bit of fun. So it's a hobby for me.
I do not invest our clients money and horse racing
non at all. It's a hobby. But the only other
action is crypto and you have Bitcoin up a little
bit eighty eight to eighty nine thousand dollars. Hey, folks,

(47:38):
we are coming up to the end of the show.
I can't believe it. I hope you come back tomorrow.
I'll be here at eight am. You are listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchhepe and and
your group where we help our clients prioritize their health
while we manage their wealth for life. Give me a
call over the week if you want to talk and
hear about our services. Lauren, my my favorite daughter, will

(48:02):
pick up the phone. Lines five O eight seven, two, zero,
thirty three thirty three our office numbers. Go to our
website Bouchet dot com. For now, enjoy your weekend. I'll
see you tomorrow morning, bright and early, eight a m.