Let's Talk Money

De3cember 27th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good morning, and welcome to Let's Talk Money on
eight ten WGY. I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday
season and staying warm on this December morning. We've got
a nice recent snowstorm there so brought some white snow
to the area, which I will tell you, as a skier,
I am glad to see that. Hopefully this morning you're

(00:23):
gonna get a chance to relax, have a cup of coffee.
Maybe you're sitting by the fire as we head into
the final days of twenty twenty five and the final
trading days of the year. I'm your host, John Malay,
and I'm glad you're spending part of this snowy December
morning with me. I'm a certified public accountant and serve
as the chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and a

(00:47):
wealth advisor at Bouchet Financial Group. As always, we truly
appreciate you taking time out of your weekend to tune in.
We've got a great show lined up for today. With
only a few trading days left in the year. We'll
talk about what's been happening in the markets, what investors
are thinking of as we wrap up twenty twenty five,

(01:09):
and some smart financial and tax planning ideas to keep
in mind as we look ahead to twenty twenty six.
As always, this is a call in show. If you
have questions about investing, retirement, really anything money related, we'd
love to hear from you. You can reach me at
eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five

(01:29):
five nine four nine. So let's take a few minutes
and you know, really talk about what's happening in the markets.
You know, as we head in as I mentioned the
final trading days of the year, it's hard to believe
this year. It has been a lot of uncertainty this year,
some ups and downs, but here we are. We've made it.
We're coming down the home stretch, as we say. So,

(01:52):
you know, overall was a very quiet week, low trading volume,
especially have Friday sets some records for low volume. But
you know it's a positive week for the markets. You know,
with holidays behind us, we now start to look at
the you know, the Santa Claus rally. Are we going
to have one this year? Are we not? You know,
it's kind of like you know a kid the night

(02:13):
before Christmas and they're wondering, as Santa going to come
the next day. Well, that's what we as investors we wonder,
is are we going to have a Santa Claus rally
or not, because we don't always, but so far, you know,
with uh, you know, typically we're looking at the last
five trading days of the year and the first two
of the next year. So so far, you know, the

(02:35):
sand is delivering, and we had a nice some nice
activity this week. You know, all major indexes you know,
finish slightly higher. Really no big headline news that kind
of caused any you know, market movement, but just steady,
steady movement, which is nice to see. Technology stocks certainly,
you know, provided the leadership like they have most of

(02:56):
the year, but other sectors like financials and dustrys stepped
up as well. So overall, you know, for the week,
SMP was up about one point four percent, the NASDAC
and were both up one point two percent, and then
Russell finished up almost flat, little zero point two percent increase,
So all markets up and hey, you know, finishing out

(03:19):
the year, it's always nice to get a little pop,
you know, I mentioned we have a few trading days
left next week, you know, we'll see if that positive
momentum carries forward into into next week. It'd be great
to you know, close out the year with a nice
strong finish. So, you know, this is the time of
year too. Investors are looking at their portfolio. Maybe they're
doing a little tax planning, deciding what capital gains they

(03:42):
want to take, maybe doing a little portfolio restructuring. So
certainly you can have some profit taking this time of year.
But it's been you know, you know, the consumers are
continuing to drive the economy, even though there is some caution,
and you know, really this year was all about uncertain
right when you look at it, and I've looked, you know,
I was looking through preparing for the show, found some

(04:05):
different charts. You know, this year you know logged more
so thirteen daily moves of two percent of more than
two percent, and that included six where it moved higher,
you know, upward two percent, and then seven down, and
so we certainly had uncertainty, right, And you know that

(04:25):
exceeded the combined two years in total. Right, So if
you took twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four in total,
you didn't have thirteen moves where you had a more
than two percent move in a day, and as expected,
twelve of those thirteen days happened in the first half
of the year, right, you know, we remember, you know,

(04:47):
the first half was a pretty pretty uncertain time, right.
We had the tariff conversation was hot and heavy. Uh,
and we we saw it, right, we saw markets dropped
and we had markets go up. So certain this year
was a year of uncertainty, you know, the prior to
or a little bit more steady. So this one, although
you know, certainly the results have been great year today

(05:10):
and we'll talk about that. You know, there's certainly a
lot of uncertain you know, uncertainty this year. We all
felt it in if you're investing, and you know, some
other charts I was kind of looking at is you know,
interesting chart that shows stocks and the number of stocks
in the S and P five hundred that doubled each year.
And if you go back, you know, like the last

(05:30):
forty years, on average is about ten stocks that do
that where they actually double in the year. This year
we had thirteen, so a little bit above average. So interesting.
You know, we're seeing uh, you know, some volatility, but
volatility and upside as well. Right when we see that
with overall returns another excuse me, this time of year,

(05:54):
you know, dealing with all this dry heat and a
little bit cold weather, voices having a little trouble there.
But another chart, you know, looking we talked a lot
about the concentration, right, concentration in the market, the Mag
seven and just looking you know, and this is you know,
year to date numbers, so it could finish up the
year a little bit different. But if we look back,

(06:15):
you know, really over the last five years, you know,
this year, you know we're looking at right now, you know,
year to date S and P up about seventeen percent.
You know, the Mag seven represents about forty six percent
of that. In twenty twenty four, the Mag seven represented

(06:35):
about fifty nine percent of the total return of the
S and P five hundred, and back in twenty twenty three,
Mag seven represented sixty five percent of the S and
P five hundred return. So you know, no question the
Mag seven still is a dominant force. We felt it
this year, those Mag seven high technology stocks you know,

(06:57):
really drove. But we are seeing, you know, a little
bit lessening of that concentration from sixty five percent only
twenty twenty three down to forty six percent this year.
So you know, as we look at year to date numbers.
I mentioned the weeklies, you know, the year to day
as I mentioned, SMP up almost seventeen point eight it's
almost eighteen percent tech heavy, NASDAC up twenty two percent,

(07:20):
year to day DOW up about fourteen and a half percent,
in the Russell two thousand up about about thirteen point
six percent. So you know, we'll see how the next
few trading days end up. But if we look at
you know, three straight years a double digit returns on
the S and P five hundred, I mean we got
to feel good about that, right, I mean, no question,

(07:42):
And you know, certainly that brings up what's going to
happen next year? And this we are certainly in the
you know, the prediction season, and you know we'll see
a lot of that over the next couple of weeks,
as you'll you know, there'll be no shortage of experts
coming out with where's the SMP going to end up
in twenty twenty six? You know, I know I'll be

(08:04):
hosting a show in early January and we'll kind of
do a recap of that. Now. It is interesting when
you look back and say, okay, going into twenty twenty five,
where were market predictions and how do they compare to
what we actually achieved. It's hard, you know, you especially
you know, I mentioned the uncertainty that we saw this
year in the volatility we did, right we saw major

(08:26):
major market swings, you know, going into next year, you know,
I would say most experts right now we're expecting, you know,
really more of a steady year. But I will say,
you know, in with all the global economy and global tensions,
it just takes a little you know, spark to change

(08:48):
that significantly. So you know, you got to take those
year you know, annual predictions for what they're worth, you know,
with the information they have at hand, you know, which
is really you know, looking at earnings, where earning you know,
tend to be going, what kind of trends we're seeing.
You know, I think we have a good sense of
what the Fed is going to do with rates, but
certainly there's exterior you know, you know, from a political

(09:11):
I think the feeling is twenty twenty five certainly was
a year with political uncertainty. You know, we saw the
impact that the terror of conversation and negotiations had. I
think the expectation is heading into twenty twenty six, we
expect a little bit more certainty on the on the
governmental side, however, we will be seeing, you know, a
new leader of the FOMC, so you know, certainly, you

(09:34):
know we'll see some movement there. But I mean, we
know in this global economy that it could be any
spark that could change the economic outlooks. So again I
always just you know, caution. We're going to see numbers.
You're going to see a lot of you know, press
highlighting some of the big numbers. You know, so you know,

(09:57):
some economists or analysts who are making you know, pretty
strong predictions of the S and P. Five hundred, and
you're also going to see some highlight of some negative. Right,
You're always going to have the contrarian who's going to say, hey,
markets are going to retreat. And I will say, you know,
when you factor in, hey we've had three years back
to back of double digit growth in the S and

(10:19):
P five hundred, you know, we know as investors that
can't continue forever. But again, when you look at the economics,
you look at you know, the earnings trends, you look
at the consumer health. Certainly, when we'll talk more about it,
when I get into some FOMC discussion. You know about
the FED, and you know they're gonna be meeting again
in January. We saw it. They met in December and

(10:42):
reduce interest rates by another quarter point, which was a
strong move. What are they going to do in twenty
twenty six, You know they've telegraphed that a little bit,
but who knows for sure, So certainly we'll keep our
eyes out on that. But you know, we do know
there's always global events that can happen that could good

(11:03):
impact markets, for sure. But I think most economists, I
think you're gonna see if on the prediction side, are
going to predict maybe some slower growth, but some steady
growth without some of the uncertainty that we saw this year.
So all positive. But I will say you're gonna see,
and we'll talk more about that in January, but you'll
see an onslaught of predictions, and I guess I would

(11:24):
just say I would take all those with a caution.
Nobody has the crystal ball and guess what. Every analysis
has the potential to be write sometimes right, So you know,
I know sometimes you hear an expert of this guy
called this big movement. He must now be the expert. Well,
guess what if you make a call every year, you
know occasionally you're gonna get a big one, right, So
I encourage listeners to call in with questions. You can

(11:47):
reach me at eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine. Well, I'm looking
out the window right now and seeing some snow and
and I'm in our Saratoga office. I'm watching plows, uh
you know, continue to move snow around. So I will say,
as a skier, I appreciate all this, uh this white stuff.

(12:10):
I have a little trip planned in January to head
out to Vermont skiing. So the more snow, the better.
I really do appreciate that. So hopefully, uh, you know,
you've got somebody who's gonna uh you know, take care
of your driveway for you and you can just enjoy
the snow. So for sure. So we talked about you know,

(12:31):
the Fed a little bit, and you know they did
meet in December and uh you know they did again
reduced interest rates, right, so they cut rates by a
quarter basis point. So that's a third cut they they
did in a row. And now you know they'll be
getting meeting again in uh you know, late January, and
you know, as a is, the FED predicts you know,

(12:54):
what they're gonna do going forward with their dot plot.
You know, they're expecting or at least signaling another rate
cut in twenty twenty six, but it's going to be
data dependent and they've they've been very clear about that.
And the concern, you know, inflation certainly seems to be
getting under control. And you know, and one thing I

(13:16):
do talk a lot to individuals, and you know, remember
the inflation is the rated change of prices year over year. Right,
so if as a consumer we feel they're elevated, you know,
we could have low inflation because it's it's just saying, hey,
from where they are right now, they're only increasing at

(13:37):
a slow rate. Right. And remember the FEDCE target is
two percent, and the consumer sometimes like, well, we don't
want them to go up, we want them to go backwards, right,
We want to rate reduction, and you know we are
seeing that. You know, gasoline certainly has been an area
where we've seen you know, some reduction, not so much
on the food side and then the service side. So

(14:00):
you know, so again I think that generally the FED
is feeling based on the data that inflation. So the
rate of change in the increase of pricing is getting
under control. It's been pretty steady most of twenty twenty five.
And now, you know, all eyes on labor, and you know,
there's certainly some softening of labor. We've seen the unemployment

(14:22):
rate tick up, and really, you know, now it's what
happens from here. If we do start to see some
major layoffs or some significant weakening, right, that will that
will hurt consumer confidence, that will hurt consumer spending. And
as we know, you know, the consumer spending makes up
seventy percent of our economy. They have a huge impact
on our economy. So if we see that happening, you know,

(14:45):
we could see some changes on the economic front for sure,
But right now, you know, it's more of just a
softening of labor and really you know, not requiring the
Fed to take significant action. So again, but we'll see that.
You know, they have their first meeting end of January,
and you know, I mentioned, you know, one of the

(15:06):
big changes that's gonna happen this year is Chairman Powell
will be stepping down in the May timeframe. So there's
been some you'll hear I think an uptake of discussion
of you know, who is going to take that over.
Certainly President Trump has some you know favorites that he's
talked about, uh, and he's been very clear, you know,

(15:28):
he's he he prefers someone in that office who is
going to have a friendly approach to reducing rates. So
it'll be interesting to see how that plays out because certainly,
you know, the belief is the market is pricing in
you know, more than one interest rate cut in twenty
twenty six, FED from their dot plot is you know,

(15:51):
really signaling one. So there is a little mismatch there.
So it'll be interesting to see as the chairman as
that see changes over this year, you know, what is
going to be kind of the direction of the FED
and how they're going to look at things. So and
we know, you know, the FED has a huge impact.
We've talked about that, you know, for for a lot

(16:13):
over the last few years because as they've been you know,
when you have steady interest rates, you know, and and
no you know, quantitative easing going on. You know, it's
we're pretty quiet about the FED. They're kind of in
the background doing their thing. But as we saw you know,
rates being risen pretty dramatically. And and and now we're

(16:33):
looking at rates coming down. FED plays a big role.
Interest rates have a big impact on affordability of housing,
really impacts you know, how companies are spending money and
whether they're willing to leverage. So certainly, you know eyes
will still be on the FED this year for sure.
Uh And and you know with a new leader that

(16:54):
that certainly is going to provide you know, some different
color for sure. So he here I am on this
cool December morning. And if you have questions, I also
have questions for you. So if somebody calls in, I'm
gonna not only listen to your question, I'm gonna I'm
gonna hit you with a question too. So hopefully if
somebody does call in, they'll play along with me there.
So I encourage listeners. You can reach me at eight

(17:17):
hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five, five,
nine four nine. We're gonna take a quick commercial break,
so please stay tuned and we'll be right back with
let's talk money on eight ten WGY. Well, thank you
for staying with me through that quick break. Gave me
a chance to drink some water and sue the voice.
There a little bit. So I'm John Malay, I'm your

(17:39):
host for this morning show. I appreciate you tuning in.
Hopefully you are in somewhere warm, whether that's in your
house or in your car. Some of you may be
out shoveling snow with AirPods in. So you know, we're
here to talk all things financial. So if you have
any questions, please don't hesitate to pick up the phone.

(17:59):
You can reached me at eight hundred talk WGY. That's
eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. So
we're wrapping up, you know, discussion of the markets. Uh,
you know, only what three trading days left of the year.
Been a solid, solid year for sure. Last week it
was a quiet week, but a positive week. We'll see

(18:21):
if the last three days feed into a positive Santa
Claus rally. But you know, when we look at the
s and P up eighteen percent, Nasdaq up twenty two percent,
UH and even the Russell two thousand up almost fourteen percent,
solid solid year and as investors, you know you may
be wondering, okay, uh, here we are, as I mentioned,
three years back to back with double digit UH returns

(18:45):
in the SMP. What what's gonna happen next year. And
the reality is nobody's got that crystal ball. I talked
a little about it. You know, we're heading into prediction
season and you're going to see a lot of those.
But the reality is nobody has a crystal ball. But
there are certain things as an investor, you know, you
can be looking at with your portfolio and it's certainly

(19:07):
you know, not the time to uh, you know, run
for the hills and say, you know, there is certainly
potential markets could go down. You know, we tell clients
all the time. You know, you look at the average,
you know, swing from peak to trough. You're you're looking
at fourteen percent in a year, right, and so markets
can go up and down and they will they you know,
as an equity investor, you have to be ready for

(19:30):
that and prepared. So as you wrap up the year,
you know, you got a few more days left and
you know a good time to really look at your
portfolios and say, hey, are they out of whack? You
know you may have if you've had some you know,
tech ETFs or holdings, you really got to look at
to make sure your uh, you know, really the balance

(19:50):
of your portfolio. Uh, make sure it's in line with
your risk tolerance, right, and so I will say, you know,
we call that rebalancing. And you know, if you've ever
heard you know, Paolo la Pietra or Ed Wilhelm uh
two members of our investment committee, you know, a big
part of their job is, you know, we look at
our portfolios. And it happens, right if you have equities

(20:12):
run up, you know, you get portfolios that could be
out of balance and you've got to go through rebalancing.
So as an individual investor, you know you should do
the same thing. Look at your uh you know, look
at the composition of your portfolio. If you've got some
you know, especially if you've got some individual tech stocks,
you know, maybe they've grown significantly, and you know, maybe

(20:34):
now your your portfolio because of that is riskier than
what you're you are comfortable with. And particularly you know,
here we are, with a few days left of the year,
taking a look, you know, and from a tax planning
point of view, you know, maybe if you have those
holdings in a taxable account, you know, maybe it's a

(20:54):
time to look and say, hey, you know, if I
have got a little bit of concentration, maybe some individual
uh tech holdings. Maybe you've been lucky enough to hang
out in the video the last five years and you've
got some significant gains there, you know, good from from
a tax planning, maybe it's time to say, hey, maybe
I start to trim that position, take some gains and

(21:16):
then look at you know really from a tax perspective,
you know how that's going to impact you. Uh, but again, rebalance.
Maybe maybe you sell some of your holdings in those
those techs that have really performed well and then reinvest
that right maybe into fixed income or maybe another part
of your portfolio to help balancings out. So certainly, and

(21:38):
I'll talk more about it after the break. I know
we're going to be heading into the break in a
few minutes. You know, as an investor, you know you
look and you say, you look and say we've got
you know, when we wrap this year up three years
at double digit you know that can't go on forever. Right,
But that doesn't mean run for the hill, right, just
means okay, now it's time. There's some moves you can take.

(22:01):
You know, there's some things to look at. And if
you work with an advisor, hopefully they're having these conversations.
If you don't work with an advisor. You can still
go through these and just make you know, some things
steps you can take right that can position that. Hey,
if we do head into a year that has volatility,
that you're positioned well for that and you can handle that.

(22:21):
So you know, after the break, we're gonna take a
break in about it a little bit. We'll we'll get
back into that in a little bit more detailed way.
So you know, this is also you know, time of year,
you're spending a lot of time with family and hopefully
and you know, including kids, and I would just say,
you know, have conversations. You know, this is it's great
to talk about finances, especially with your children or grandchildren.

(22:45):
It is interesting, you know, I will say children seem
to know a lot more about investing. There's a lot
more conversation that I remember as a child. And so
I would say encourage that, really embrace that, have those conversations.
I do believe you know, kids that are more tuned, right,
they just it helps them whether they just understand the

(23:07):
topics or just better with money. So it's really, you know,
good to have those conversations. Well, we are halfway through
today's show. We're gonna be taking a quick commercial break,
so thanks for tuning in. We hope you're enjoying the
conversation so far. Don't go anywhere. We've got plenty of
show left. And if you have any questions or something

(23:27):
you'd like to talk about, I want to hear from you,
you can give me a call at eight hundred Talk WGY.
That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.
We'll be right back after the break. You are listening
to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group,
where we help our clients prioritize their health well we
manage their wealth for life. Thanks for tuning in and

(23:47):
hopefully I'll hear you see you over the break. Well,
good morning, and thank you for staying with us through
that quick commercial break. I'm John Malay, I'm your host
for this morning show. I'm a CPA and I'm the
financial officer, chief operating officer and a wealth advisor at
Boose Financial Group. I appreciate you tuning in this morning.

(24:07):
Hopefully you're in a warm environment right now, maybe with
a cup of coffee, just enjoying the morning. Starting the
day with a little investment news and conversation. So I
appreciate you tuning in. I know you have a lot
of options with your time, and we do appreciate you
taking the time to tune in listen to the show

(24:30):
because we do appreciate that. And I just you know,
this is a call in show, so if you have
any questions, please don't hesitate to reach us. You can
get us at eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred
eight two five, five, nine four nine. You know, first
part is show, you know, really talking about markets and

(24:52):
you know how things have performed. And here we are
heading into just three trading days left. You know, this
past week was a shortened week and but some positive momentum.
We'll see how that momentum carries over Monday Tuesday and
heading into the final part of the year. And I

(25:14):
will say, I we are it's always nice to finish
up the year and a positive note. So we'll see.
So far we've got the start of a Santa Claus rally.
We'll see how that continues and whether you know that
we we end up in positive news here again. That's
it is interesting, you know, with with some analysis going

(25:36):
you know back for a long time, you know, fifty
years or so. You know that Santa Claus rally does perform,
does historically perform well, and you know, but it's not guaranteed.
It has not the last couple of years, so we'll
see how it does this year. So certainly not guaranteed,
but it is I think it's just a nice way

(25:58):
to finish out the year, start off the new year
and a fresh footing. So you know, one of the
things we were talking about right before that we went
to the break was okay, you know, we've got now
three years, uh, you know, barring any significant changes next week,
three years of double digit growth in the S and
P five hundred, which is great. We do know, as

(26:22):
equity holders, markets go up and markets go down, and
you know, certainly that does not mean that markets are
going to go down next year, but certainly, you know,
as it is prudent, I would say as an investor
to look at your portfolio, make sure that you're positioned
well in case there is some volatility. Let's face it,
this year was an extremely volatile year, right, We had

(26:44):
a lot of uncertainty. You look at what happened, you know,
between the first half of the year and the second
half It's a tail of two worlds, right. You know,
in the back in April, you know, with all the
tariff announcements and negotiations, you know, we saw markets pull
back significantly, and if you had you know, panicked and

(27:04):
taking your money out of the market and hit under
a rock, you would have missed all that recovery. So
you know, here we are the s and p up
you know, eighteen percent for the year. If you had
decided you couldn't handle that volatility and just reacted emotionally,
you would have missed out on that recovery and not

(27:24):
been in a good spot. So but here we are, right,
You're now at the end of the year. We're looking
at twenty twenty six, and you know, as I mentioned,
you get we're gonna be in the height of prediction
season soon and everyone's gonna be making their calls on
you know, what's the SMP gonna do next year? Where's
it going to end up? And again, as we talked about,
those are just a lot of numbers, right, nobody's got

(27:45):
the crystal ball. They're doing the best they can with
the data at hand, but the reality is it's usually
some external data that nobody's thinking of that usually drives
some big changes, right. So, but you're gonna see a
lot of predictions, and so I would just say there
are things you can do, right. It doesn't mean you
know that there's nothing you can do with your portfolio.
I talked about rebalancing, right. All that means is, you know,

(28:07):
if you've invested in a certain amount of stocks and
fixed income, and maybe within those stocks you've got you know,
a certain percentage allocated the more you know volatile, you know,
tech stocks, and then you know, maybe a certain percentage
allocated to defensive stocks. You know that may have gotten
out of balance. Most likely it has gotten out of

(28:27):
balance this year. And if you haven't rebalanced in a
little bit, you know, certainly with I talked about the
MAG seven and what they've done over the last three
years in what percentage you know, just to recap, you know,
for going back to twenty twenty three, the MAG seven
represented sixty five percent of the S and P five

(28:49):
hundred return fifty nine percent in twenty twenty four and
so far forty six percent of this year. So if
you had you know, heavy concentration in tech or particularly
in any one of those individual stocks of the mac seven.
You know, you're portfolio maybe out of balance right now.
You might have higher percentage in those type of investments
than that it's prudent. So now is the time to

(29:11):
look and say, hey, you know, is that is that
happen and is there an opportunity to trim those positions?
Certainly if it's in a taxable account, right, you want
to be very tax conscious. You just don't want to
sell a position with a lot of gain just to
reduce concentration if it's going to create a significant tax burden. Right,
But there's a way to do that in a very
planful way. I will say that at our firm, this

(29:35):
is really one of our hallmarks and really how we've
set our self apart. You know, we have a very
very strong tax presence, have a tax practice and you've
you've heard some of the you know, we've got enrolled
agents CPAs. I'm a CPO and myself with other CPAs
and we so we do a little bit of tax prep.
But the most important thing is we do a lot

(29:55):
of tax planning. And that's really, you know, really the
most important, uh, you know, the thing that you want
to come behind with your financial plan and you're investing
because taxes have such a huge impact, and that's whether
you're working or whether you're in retirement, and a lot
of times as a bigger impact on retirement. You know
what you can do from a planning perspective, you know

(30:16):
what's happened, and just this is just the reality of
you know, really with the removal of pension plans for
for most workers and I know, I know some workers,
do you know most are you know investing in uh
four oh when K plans or four three B which
are all tax deferred vehicles, and then when they're retiring,

(30:37):
really they've got this huge unknown tax liability, right because
it's tax deferred, it's not tax free. So if you've
got your money, you know, sitting into four oh one
K and then you retire and roll it over to
an IRA, you're going to be taxed on every single
dollar that you take out of that account, right, And
so you want to be planned well and thoughtful about
how you do that. And so I would just say,

(31:00):
as you're looking from a rebalancing point of view, right,
if that if you have your holdings in a taxable account,
there's ways to be Again, look at it from a
planful way look at you know, do some tax projections
and start to trim some of those positions. Now clearly,
if it's if it's more in an IRA account, there's
no tax implications right of selling, so you should really

(31:23):
just trim. You don't have to worry about any gains
or losses right within. If it's in that IRA account,
you can sell in Navidia or Microsoft, w Apple whatever
you've got that concentration risk right, and then reinvest it
where it's appropriate from a risk allocation perspective. Or if
you've got concentration risks right where maybe you've got you know,

(31:44):
single stock in your IRA account or a single ETF.
Maybe it's a technology. You know, we talk a lot
about QQQ. Maybe that has grown significantly and it's taken
over too much of your percentage of your balance, especially
if you're in an IRA, you can and trim that, reallocate,
kind of rebalance your portfolio, you know, without any tax consequences.

(32:07):
The other thing, and you know, this is where you know,
I would say having a planned right and you know,
we do very detailed, comprehensive financial plan. If you don't
work with an advisor, you can do some simple financial
planning and really it's you know, revisiting your cash because
that's that's really important. Uh And really there's two perspectives
on that. You know, as the FED is so if

(32:28):
you've got a lot of cash sitting on the sideline, right,
let's face it, you know, prior to twenty twenty five
and even through parts to twenty other five, you've been
able to invest that, you know, in short term whether
it's CDs or treasuries and get decent return. Well, as
the FED is cutting rates, you're seeing that those short
term vehicles, those rates are coming down as well, and
that's going to continue into twenty twenty six. So one,

(32:50):
if you've got cash on the sideline, if you've accumulated it,
you know, it's a time, you know it, it may
be a time to look and you know maybeed to
you know, put that another vehicles to get it to
yield better for you. Right, So there's you know, there
may be some other ETFs, bond fixed income ETFs where
you're you're getting a great yield, but you're not you know,

(33:11):
it's not tied to that short term interest rate as much.
So also it may be a time where you say, hey,
I've got this some bucket of cash, and I'm gonna
sit on the sideline and I'm going to wait for
markets to dip, right, And so I think that's where
having some discipline, if you if that is one of
your plans to say, I've got cash, I'm gonna I'm
gonna let it ride on the side, and then as

(33:32):
I see, if I see markets go down ten percent,
fifteen percent, twelve percent, I'm gonna put that to work.
It's certainly a buying opportunity. You know, your clients work
with who did that this year in April and uh
it paid handsomely. Right, they had some cash that they
knew they wanted to put to work. We saw a
big market correction back in April, and they put that

(33:52):
to work and uh and benefited greatly. And the other
thing about cash and this is, you know, an important
part from the financial perspective, is is understand what your
cash needs are. You know, what do you need to
take out of your portfolio? And if you listen to
the show, you've probably heard us talk about this a lot,
but it really is so important and it's it's important

(34:13):
why it's you know, it highlights why having a plan
is so critical, right, It's like, if you're investing, you know,
what are you investing for? What's your horizon? And if
you know, so, whether you're retired or whether you're you know,
maybe saving for a child's education or for to buy
a home or buy something, you know, as you get

(34:35):
closer to when you're going to need that, right, and
generally I would say within two years, you want to
start to take that out of the market, right, and
you can put it into more vehicles where it's still
yielding return. Right, maybe it's more into treasury ladder, but
it's it's not subject to the market fluctuations. And that's important,

(34:57):
right because if we if you are concerned that you
may see is involved ability this year and you need
to take money out. Let's say your you've got money
and your child starts college and September and you've had money,
you know investing in the market. You know you should
take a hard look at that and say, you know,
you don't want to be writing a tuition bill and
having to sell some equities and then being a time

(35:19):
where the markets sound fifteen percent, right, because if you
knew that, you're gonna have to write that check, right,
with some simple planning, you could make a move now
while markets are all time high still, right, and then
free up that cash so you're you're it kind of
takes a risk off the table that would happened with market.
So I would just say from a cash really important

(35:39):
because there is still a lot of cash on the sideline.
And yeah, that's great because it does give it does
create opportunities. But I think it's important to make sure,
you know, for you know, for people have been really
for like for twenty twenty three, been able to be
a little lazy with cash, right because they could put
it into short term saving vehicles still yielding great rate

(36:02):
and say, hey, I'm getting four percent and it's just
that's great, you know, but those days are gone, right,
the short term interest rates are are have impacted that.
So if you've got cash on the sideline, I think
it's time to look at a more long term vehicle
or also if you've you know, got the risk tolerance

(36:22):
and it fits into your plan holding on for a
time to put into the market if we see any
market dips and and as I mentioned, cash full of timing, right,
if you need to spend money out of your portfolio,
and that could be Hey, I am, I'm retired, I've
got money in my IRA and now I have to
start taking required minium distributions next year. So the IRIS

(36:45):
is making me take money out, right, Well, then you
should start to take that money out of the market, right,
so it's protected. So things you can do with your portfolio,
for sure, you know, other than just saying, you know, uh,
hey I'm concerned and I'm gonna I'm gonna overreact, right,
because one thing we do know is, you know, take
the psychology out of those moves, right, And that's something

(37:10):
you know, working with an advisor does, uh, you know,
making sure that hey, if you're you're panicking, let's have
a conversation what's happening here? Obviously if somebody is uh,
you know, overly concerned about the markets and it's and
it's really uh, they can't sleep at night either, you know,
then then you know we say, let's, you know, let's
make some moves, right. But it's what we try to

(37:32):
do is prevent clients from panicking. And it's hard, right.
You see markets go down, you see your statement go
down ten percent, and you know it can be challenging
for sure. So again, as we head into twenty twenty six,
most likely wrapping up our third year of double digit
returns in the SMP. You know, there's things you can

(37:53):
do with the portfolio that I just you know, outline
to make sure you're you're headed for the most success possible.
So we're going to take a quick commercial break, so
please stay tuned and we'll be right back with Let's
Talk Money on ten WGY. Well, thank you for allowing
me that quick break to get a little drink. I'm
John Malay, I'm your host for this morning show. Here

(38:13):
we are in this late December morning, nice and cold
and some snow on the ground. I know, I'm looking
forward to finishing out the weekend being outside getting some exercise,
so hopefully, you know, everybody has a chance to enjoy
some of this snow. I'm a skier as well, so
definitely looking forward to getting out getting on the slopes.

(38:37):
Certainly is shaping up to be a good ski year
so far. So got a little trip plan in Vermont
in January, so gonna hopefully get to West Mountain or
Gore some local mountains beforehand to exercise the legs a
little bit and get in shape for that so again
I appreciate you tuning into our show this morning. Encourage listeners,

(39:01):
if you do have questions, just pick up the phone,
give us a call. You can reach me at eight
hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. Well, as you mentioned, you know, we're
we're heading into the last week of twenty twenty five,
and boy, you know what a year. It's been a
lot of uncertainty, and you know, it certaintly creates opportunity.

(39:24):
So hopefully as an investor, you're able to take advantage
of some of that opportunity. And you know, certainly, you know, uh,
setting yourself up for success for next year. You know,
this is also the time of year you know, we
look forward and you know, maybe there's some you know,
on your balance sheet. I will tell you, you know, we
have more and more clients who really, you know, trying

(39:46):
to get debt free. And you know, it's interesting, not
all debt is bad debt. And certainly when we had
historically low mortgages, you know, we have clients who may
have a little bit of mortgage left and maybe they've
got a balance on a three percent mortgage and they're
questioning do we pay it off? Do we not? And
most times when you run numbers, it does not make

(40:08):
sense financially to do that. But I understand, you know,
sometimes there's a psychological feeling of hey, I'm heading into retirement,
I don't want debt, and certainly understand that. But really,
you know, when you when you look at debt, it's
you know, not all debt is bad. As a consumer. Certainly,
if you've got a holdover of really low mortgage interest rates,

(40:35):
you know, maybe you're in that sub three percent or
just around three percent, I would look hard before taking
money out of a portfolio to pay that debt off.
Most times when you run the analysis, it does not
make sense at all. And then when you know, when
you really just understand, hey, if you really look at
what the impact is to your portfolio of taking that out,

(40:56):
what you're losing an opportunity cost with having that in
the market, it really most times does not make sense. Now, certainly,
if you've got high interest rate debt, certainly that debt
you'd want to pay off, pay it off in a
prudent way. So but I would say, you know, as
you as a lot of times, you know you start
off the year people are setting their financial goals. What

(41:19):
are the things that I want to accomplish. I would say,
as we're seeing you know, consumer debt start to rise again, certainly,
you know with automobiles. You know, the interest rates were
again historically low for a number of years, and you
know we're getting one percent interest rates on an auto loan.
That's no longer the case. Certainly, as you look in

(41:40):
and if one of your goals is to you know,
reduce your debt, I would just say, do it in
a thoughtful way and just and just understand that not
all debt is bad, and certainly you want to target
the debt with the highest interest rate first. And but
I wouldn't I would highly recommend, you know, not if

(42:01):
you've got a significant amount of money still owed on
a on a very low interest rate mortgage, I would
not recommend you know, liquidating holdings to pay that off.
Is uh, you know, you just say, you know, again,
if it's on a mortgage, you look at also the
tax effective everything and say is it worth you know,
if you again, if you can itemize, is it worth

(42:24):
you know, liquidating maybe paying capital gains, but then also
having that money out of the market. Right, and and
you know we do know historically, right, you're going to
earn more than three percent on money in the market, right,
So certainly something to think about. You know, as we
talk about taxes, you know, again a few just a
few days left in the year, right, But from a

(42:46):
tax planning perspective, certainly some moves you can make. I'd
encourage you to go to our website. You know, we
have a lot of great information and content. We had
two of our colleagues, Vincenzo Testa, Scott Strohecker do a
webinar on the one big beautiful bill, uh tax bill,

(43:06):
and uh, just some great information. You know, a lot
of individuals are gonna be impacted positively by that, right.
And so you got things like the senior deduction, you know,
new car Loan inst rate deduction, and so there's a
number of items, and you know there are phase outs
on some of them. So but I would say, uh,

(43:28):
certainly we've got some great information on our website. I
would go check it out. Again. This is a year
where you could be you know, greatly benefited by you know,
some of the changes that came through that bill. But again,
some of our little complex with with some phase out,
so you really have to know, you know, how are
you know, is your income going to phase out that deduction? Certainly,

(43:50):
the senior deduction certainly is getting a lot of discussion,
and just need to make sure, uh, you know, how
that impacts you from attack perspective. So I would say, certainly,
you know, check out our website bouchet dot com, great webinar,
we have all that information plus a blog on that
the one big Beautiful Bill, so some great content. I

(44:13):
know we'll be hosting a show with Scott and Vinnie,
you know in January February time frames. I'll certainly have
some conversation for a great you know, real tax focused show.
But I would say, hey, we're, as we're finding out,
finishing out the year. You do have time to you know,
take some gains. Look at that from a tax perspective,

(44:33):
make sure that's not going to cause any issues. And
also you know, from a you know, charitable contribution perspective,
you know where the things you should be doing, you know,
right before year end, you know, still not too late
to take advantage of that, right. So certainly some moves
from a tax point of view, you can still take

(44:53):
in the last few days of the year. Again, charitable
giving is certainly you know we're employing and I've heard,
I know you've heard us talk about a number of
strategies that we use with clients, including qualified charitable distributions qcds,
donor advise funds, some really uh interesting vehicles you can do,

(45:15):
uh from a tax planning perspective, and and again I
highlighted earlier just how important tax planning is as a firm,
how much focus we've put into that, and really as
an individual, how much you really should because uh, you know,
there are things you can do from a from a
planning perspective, but if you you don't have a plan,

(45:35):
it's just about filing the return. And you know, there's
nothing somebody find who's just preparing your return. At that point,
everything's been done, all the decisions have it made. All
they're doing is filling out a tax return with the
results of what happened. Or some real tax planning is
putting some strategy in place, right, So it may be
you know we talk about donor advise funds, there are

(45:55):
moves you can take where you're bunching. You know, maybe
you know, if ten years worth of charitable giving into
one year, putting the money into a donor advice fund,
getting that deduction right away. So just some interesting moves
you can do there. I would say it's the time
of year too. If you are working right reevaluate what
you're putting into your you know, your retirement accounts. You know,

(46:20):
make sure you're maximizing what you can put in. If
you're employed and you're getting a match. You know, I
do you know, get the question from time to time
to clients. You know, I'm saving for my retirement, but
I also have a child and I want to start,
you know, putting more money into their you know, education fund.
And I'll just say this, you know, you know, when

(46:42):
when you're on an airplane, you know, what do they
tell you to do, is they tell you to put
your mask on first, and then put the mask on
the child. And I will say the same thing, like
I would, you know, recommend that clients not reduce what
they're putting into their retirement so they can put more
into child's education. Take care of your retirement first. It's

(47:04):
going to put you in a better position to help
help your child out. So some number of tactics you
can take there, and then obviously wroth conversions. We talked
a ton about roth conversions this past year, and certainly
if there is any market volatility next year, it could
be some great opportunities. So you know we are coming
to the end of the show. I want to thank
you for tuning in with me today. I hope you

(47:25):
enjoyed the show as much as I did. I hope
you enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a
great week ahead. Be sure to join us again next
week for another edition of Let's Talk Money. In the meantime,
visit our website Booche dot com, b o U c
Hui dot com, where you'll find great content and helpful
information on a variety of topics on investing, financial planning,

(47:50):
and tax. We want to thank you for listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group,
where we help our clients prioritize their health while we
may image their wealth for life.