Let's Talk Money

June 14th, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone. My name is Martin Shields. I'm the
chief well Provisor at Bouchet Finite Group, and I'm your
host today for Let's Talk Money. It's great to be
here with you on this. I'm gonna say gorgeous summer morning,
and I hope that you're doing well and that your
weekend's going well. We have a lot to discuss, both
things going on in the markets and just things going

(00:22):
on in the world. A lot of big headlines and
interesting topics to discuss, so I hope that you're doing well.
As always, you can call in and we can chat.
You can give me your questions. I'll give you some answers.
You can reach me at one a hundred Talk WGY
that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine,

(00:43):
or you can email me and ask Bouchet at Bouchet
dot com. That's ask Bouche at Bouchet dot com and
Bouchet is spelled b O U d h E Y and
any question. As I always say, there's no or silly
question except for the one you don't ask, and you
may be doing your fellow listener favor by asking that

(01:06):
question that they have as well. So give me a
call or shoot an email and we can chat. But
as I mentioned, a lot to discuss today. First, a
few personal items want to put out there. One congratulations
to my colleague Lauren Bouschet. We were at her wedding

(01:28):
last night up in the Late George Club to Patrick Kramer,
and it was just an amazing event. They're both two
fantastic people. It was so great there to be there
to celebrate with them, with many of our colleagues and
with Steve and Ryan. So congratulations to Lauren and Patrick,

(01:48):
and I'm sure that they have an amazing life together.
And then also just a shout out, as many of
you know, if you've been listening to the show, I
was the board chair of the Bomb McDonald House for
a number of years. I was on that board for
nine years and our family has always gone down to
get involved with the house. Has been a great connection

(02:09):
as the kids have grown grown up and we've done
the Ramadonalds a five k fun run since it started
four years ago and we've been a sponsor and we
went down there and ran and we all ran. I
used to be a runner, not so much these days,
but I did run wellly the five k and it
was a gorgeous day raising money for a great cause.

(02:32):
And you know, if you're familiar with the raw McDonald House,
you know what they do. Basically, it's both a house
for families who are at albany Med and they have
children at albany Med or it could be Premi Babies,
and they also have Nicky Room and a family room
in albany Med and they have a retreat for families

(02:54):
up at Lake George. So when I was involved with
the board, it was just a fantastic experience and just
a great organization and it was great to have the
fun run and have it be sunny and warm. We've
done it four years and two of the years we've
done it it has been an absolute galius down for
so it was nice to not have it be adapt

(03:17):
So let's move on to finances and financial planning. Certainly
one of the big headlines this week with SpaceX. Unless
you were living under a rock, you know that SpaceX,
Elon musks Ai and Rocket Company went public on Friday yesterday,

(03:37):
and the initial public offering price was one hundred and
thirty five dollars. It basically ended around one hundred and
sixty dollars, which is a nice pop, but not you know,
certainly as large as maybe some people were expecting. And
you know, I think this is what I would tell folks.
You know, one, there were individuals that got some allocation

(04:02):
to the IPO, but in general it was very small,
meaning that let's say you had requested to get a
thousand shares, they got somewhere in the neighborhood of ten
or fifteen shares. That's how high the demand was for
this trying to get the IPO price. And then two,
you know, for in people are interested in getting exposure.

(04:24):
You can go ahead and buy it now, of course,
but you we're just looking at data to see what
happens with IPOs when they come out and where does
it go, you know, the next twelve months, let's say,
and it is amazing this list that our investment team
put together of how many of them over the next
year have a draw down, meaning that from wherever the

(04:48):
high was, it's in someone in the neighborhood of between
down thirty percent, down fifty percent from where that was
at a high, so that the max draw down and
so well, all I would tell you is the likelihood
that we could see some volatility, whether it be in
the market broadly speaking and or specifically with space X,

(05:10):
it's probably pretty good. It's probably pretty high that there's
going to be volatility, So you know, I would say
it's just keep your eye open. You know. See, you
know what happens with SpaceX, and I think you may
have an opportunity to enter at a lower price. You
never known that it could be wrong. So if you

(05:31):
really want to make sure you have an allocation, go
ahead and buy it now. The ticker is s P
the X. But you know, the thing you have to
appreciate this was the largest I PO I think it
was only five or percent or something around there of
the actual float of the shares we're actually put on

(05:52):
the market, so very small percentage of the shares that
actually exist out there we're put on the market. And
you know, it's a great company. I mean, you know,
when you see what they do with these rockets, it's amazing. Uh.
You know Elon Moss definitely people uh he has a
cult fault following by all means. But you know, they're

(06:12):
not a profitable company right now, and you know, you
have to appreciate that. At the end of the day,
We've talked about this. Companies do well, uh, and their
stock price goes up because of expectation either expectations of
profits but better yet actual profits. Right. So you have

(06:32):
a company like Navidia that's you know, worth four or
five trillion dollars. Uh, they have huge profit margins and
submit substantial revenue growth and substantial profit growth. Uh. You know,
that's a little bit easier to get behind. And you know,
like every company, they have some challenges, of course, but
it's just a little clearer. Is that exactly what are

(06:55):
you buying? I think with SpaceX, you're buying what could be,
what can be based on Elon Musk's you know, kind
of ideas and this implementation of that, which again the
guy's brilliant. So there's at least, you know, some roadmap
of what that looks like, but it's not a given.

(07:15):
So just to be aware that. The other thing that's
important is that you know, if you listen to the show,
you know that we own we'll have been big owners
in QQQ, the Nasdaq one hundred for many years, and
that is one of the indices that is going to
forego the one year waiting period. So quite often when
a company comes out before they will put them in

(07:39):
an index, even if the size warrants them being put in,
and certainly at over a trillion dollars, uh, SpaceX is
in that category. But like the s P five hundred
is going to be waiting a year uh before it
goes into the SP five hundred index. That's just their
requirement for the Nasdaq. They're going to forego that and

(08:01):
within fifteen days, uh that space X will be in
the Nasdaq. So if if you owned the Nasdaq one
QQ or q Q q M, you will be owning SpaceX.
So you know, that's another way to get exposure. And
again if you listen to the show, you know that
OC usually we own the individual stock, but in general, uh,

(08:24):
you know, we like an ETF because you know, we
it's hard to always pick the winners. But if you
can own an ETF, you get that basket of what
will be at least some winners. Now you may have
a loser in there as well, and you may not
get the super grand slams of owning the individual stock,
but you'll get a lot of doubles and triples, and uh,

(08:48):
you know, in general that works very well. And so
just a good way to get that, you know, get
that allocation without worrying about buying the individual stock and uh,
you know, always a good way to approach him. Let's
go on to a different topic. It's certainly a little
bit more volatility in the markets this week, uh, you know,

(09:09):
some uncertainty of what's going on with Oran. Uh. We
continue to see that hopefully that situation will be resolved
for many reasons. You know, one, uh, you know, the
potential of having that escalate is not anything that any
roy wants to see. And then two, obviously with the
straight of Hormuz, having that still blocked, uh and uncertain

(09:32):
as to you know, when that will open up. Uh.
It's problematic as we've seen for lots of goods that
are actually exported from that area. I think most of
us didn't realize how much stuff we get from that area.
Certainly oil, but a lot of other products have been impacted.

(09:53):
And you know we're starting to see, uh, those rising
oil prices flow through to inflation. U. So both in
the CPI report they came out last week, and then
also with what's called a producer price index, which is
more of the wholesale price index. Inflation is starting to
move higher, and you know that's problematic. We've talked about

(10:17):
the challenges with that, and you know, you see it
in conversations with folks right whether it's oil prices and
and what they're paying at the pump, or airline prices,
or you know, at some point trucking and shipping companies
sort of raise their prices. Inflation as it gets higher,

(10:38):
it's a problem. Uh. You know, we've had decades without
really any inflation, and since it's come back, uh, you know,
people see that it's problematic. So uh, you know, hopefully
that will be if we can get the ranting war
resolved and behind us, you can open up the strait
of Hormus and there'll be some relief in the oil

(11:01):
markets and that will alsully flow through sam inflation. And
you know, Kevin Wosh, who's the new FED chair, you
know he's going to have a tough situation because we
started the year with expectations that the FED was going
to be lowering interest rates. And you know we've talked
about this. With the FED lowering interest rates, that allows

(11:23):
for got prices to rise for a number of reasons. One,
companies can borrow at lower dollar amounts two. When investors
look at the cash flow from a company, they're going
to be discounting it on the future cash flow at
a lower interest rate. So there's a lot of positives
that exists when rates are lower. But right now, you know,

(11:45):
the market for interest rates are showing that they're expecting
rates maybe to certainly stay the same or go up.
And that's the important thing to remember is that the
Federal Reserve Chair and the Federal Reserve Board only controls
the very short overnight interest rate. That's all they control.
Now they have a few other lover lovers to control

(12:09):
some element of the broader interest rate market, but for
the most part, the participants in the market, the people
who are buying and selling bonds, they really control the
long term rates, and those are the rates that really
impact all of us. And the ten year US Treasury rate,
the thirty year US Treasury rate over the last you know,

(12:30):
three or four months, has has gone up quite a bit.
And that's basically that market saying, hey, inflation is coming in.
At some point, rates are going to be going higher
and staying higher. And you know, at that point what
happens is the Fed is almost forced to raise interest rates,
So we'll see what happens. But you know, it's definitely

(12:52):
he's in a bit of a tough spot. You know,
he was put in there by President Trump with the
expert patients that he would be lowering rates. Certainly that's
what President Trump wants. But you know, I think anybody
that is put in that spot, you know, they may
want to try to accommodate the president that put them

(13:14):
in there, but they're going to do what's best for
the country, the economy, and for their reputation. Right, no
federal chair banker wants to be known as the banker
that allowed inflation to really ramp up and become a problem.
And we saw that back in twenty twenty two when
inflation hit nine percent. Right, that's it's not a good thing.

(13:39):
You know, especially middle to lower income folks are really
impacted by that higher inflation. So you know, hopefully that
does not become a problem. Well, folks, we're gonna go
a commercial break, but come back and join us as
we take your calls or emails and your questions. You're
listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet
Financial Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health

(14:02):
while we manage their wealth for life. Welcome back, folks
for those of you who just join us. My name
is Martin Shields. I'm the chief Wealth Visor at Bouchet
Financial Group and as always, it's great to be here
with you to answer any questions you may have regarding
your financial planning or investment management concerns. And I encourage
you to either email me at ask Bouchet at Bouchet

(14:24):
dot com and Bouchet is spelled b O U v
h e y, or give me a call and you
can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. Again that's eight hundred eight two five
five nine four nine. So let's move on to some
financial planning topics. So you know, every week we're meeting

(14:47):
with our clients. And I had an initial meeting and
client was asking how often do we meet with them?
And does it vary depending on the size of the client,
And you know, all I would say is our goal
is to make sure our clients are educated and informed
at whatever level they want. And you know, when a

(15:08):
couple comes on or an individual or family comes on, uh,
you know that first three, six, nine months or even
a year. Uh, there can be a lot of meetings
of phone calls, zoom calls, whatever works best for that client.
And you know, again our goal is to make sure
as they transition on as a client, Uh, they're just
really aware of everything that's going on, whether it's with

(15:30):
their portfolio, whether it's their financial plan, you know, whether
it's with their accounts and things with Schwab making sure
they can get on and see those. So you know,
the basic answer to that is it doesn't really matter.
You know, our from our biggest clients to our smallest clients,
we want to make sure that, you know, they're in
a good spot. Now. Our bigger clients are going to

(15:52):
have more complex matters, that's just the way it usually
sets up. So in those situations, they usually do require
a little more handholding and you know, making sure that
everything that is supposed to be in place is in place.
But you know, even with some of the smaller clients,
you know, those clients, it's just very important to us.

(16:13):
And you know we talk about this, you know, as
a fiduciary, as an independently owned organization or you know
us as partners. We our main goal is to take
care of our colleagues or team members, and if we
do that, then they're going to take care of our clients,
and you know, and that just requires just always doing

(16:34):
what they need done. So that's just so important. But
so when we meet with our clients and we you know,
I would say we were usually having anywhere from five
to ten client meetings a week. And when we have
those meetings, you know what I love about it is
we're covering the gamut of items. And you know, we

(16:56):
described this as our personal CFO service, but it's also
with their financial quarterback. So what that means is, you know,
anything that you've got finance related, we're going to give
the guidance on, but we're also going to coordinate with
your advisors to make sure that everything lines up right.
Because if your CPA is doing one thing, your state
planning attorney's doing another, your mortgage bankers doing this thing,

(17:18):
and then we're doing something different and they're all not
lined up, that's usually a problem. So we'd like to
be the financial quarterback of about all that to make
sure that everything lines up properly. And the communication that
exists between us and your other advisors, and one of
the areas that we definitely get involved with is from
the state planning perspective, and I think it's just important

(17:41):
out there that you know, for most folks, you know,
even if you just get the basic state documents in place, right,
you get a will and then will just going to
outline everything that happens to any assets, any more nuanced things,
maybe the specific jewelry you want to go to certain individuals,
that all gets spelled out in the will. Then you're

(18:02):
going to have of power of attorneys for both finance
and healthcare. Uh, you know, that's just basically if you
become incapacitated, you know, somebody can make those decisions for
you for your health care and also for your finances.
So those two are very important medical directives. What do

(18:23):
you want done or not done? You know, if you
do become incapacity capacitated and have health issues, anything with
guardianship with your children, and then you know these caves
though for most of your accounts you can go ahead
and put either a beneficiary on them. So for i

(18:43):
RAS raws or traditionals for and case life insurance policies,
you can put a beneficiary on there that's going to
determine where that asset goes. Now, we always say make
sure you update those beneficiaries because even if you don't
want that person and getting those assets, things have changed.
Whatever it is. If they're the beneficiary, they're going to

(19:05):
be getting those assets. So you've just got to make
sure that you always, if you've got a life change,
you update your beneficiaries. And even with taxable accounts or
bank accounts, you could put a POD a transfer on death.
And I had a client say she didn't realize what
a TOD was, and then she found out. She didn't

(19:26):
love the name a transfer on death, but that's what
that's what it is. You put it on a broken account,
you put it on a bank account, and it's the
same idea, right, which is if you were to pass,
then you put that and it moves just like a
beneficiary and it doesn't need to go through probate. So
that's really beneficial for most folks and in many in

(19:47):
most cases you don't need to trust these days. Now,
there are some situations if you have children or grandchildren
with special needs, you might want to establish a special
needs trust for them. If you're doing medicaid planning that
you're trying to remove assets from your estate to qualify

(20:07):
for Medicaid for launch er care, then you may need
a trust. And if you have real concerns over your children.
I'm not talking about younger children who are not eighteen,
I'm talking about you know, adult children. You're concerned about
their ability to handle assets, then a trust can be beneficial.

(20:27):
But in most in many cases, you don't need a
trust and you need to save yourself a lot of money. Now,
the one exception to that as well is if you
own a home. Now that's you and your wife or spouse,
then you know if something happens to one of you,
it's going to get transferred to the other one, so
you don't have to worry about that. But if it's
just now you lost your spouse, it's just you if

(20:50):
you don't put it into trust, or you can also
put it to basically a TOD transfer on death deed right,
which basically if you pass the deed goes right to
the next person. So that's another way. You can put
a TOD on a on a ded as well for
real estate, or you can put it into trust. So

(21:11):
that is you know two options for property and real estate.
But again, if you're married, you don't have to worry
about that at least when the first spouse dies. The
other thing that we always recommend is that as you
get older and you know, if you lose your spouse,
it's just you, if possible, putting a child or a

(21:32):
trusted person on with you for a banking account because
that way, you know, at any point they can access
those funds even if you have passed, they're on their
joint and they can access the funds and have cash.
Because the thing that's important to remember that in most cases,

(21:53):
if you have a power of attorney, a financial power attorney,
it will not once that person passes, it's null and void. Right,
So that's very important that. Uh, it is important to
have that the joint ownership on a bank account that
when you pass, if there's expenses that need to be handled, uh,

(22:14):
they can be handled before the estate is settled. So
that's one thing I would always recommend that folks do.
But getting that in place is extremely important. But it's
it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg, right,
that's the big thing. Uh. You know, we always say,
one you want to work with a state or an
attorney who is in the state planning attorney right has

(22:36):
some expertise in this and you know can help you
if you have specific situations. But you know, you don't
need most people don't need the Cadillac of estate plans. Uh,
you know, getting some of these basic documents in place,
working with you know, a good attorney who's a great communicator,
and he's going to you know, let you know what
needs to be done. Uh. That's that will do it right,

(22:59):
and it'll save you a lot of headache and getting
out there and getting in place becomes very important. Well, folks,
we're gonna go to commercial break, but come back and
join us as we take your questions. You'll listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bruchet Finance Group
while we help our clients prioritize their health while we
manage their wealth for life. Come back and join us, folks.

(23:21):
Welcome back, folks. For those of you just joining us,
my name is Martin Shields. I'm the chief Wealth Advisor
at Bruchet Finance Group and I'm your host today for
Let's Talk Money. It's great to be here with you
on the scurgeous summer morning, and I hope that you're
doing well as I mentioned a lot to discuss from
a financial perspective, a lot of things going on, but

(23:42):
also just in the world. So I don't know, it's
hard to live in New York State and not be
rooting for the Knicks. It's just their playoff and final
series have been amazing and to see them win last
night and take the whole thing first time since nineteen
seventy three, fifty three years, and you know, I think,

(24:06):
to me, what I like about that team is that
they just scrappers, right, you know, certainly Oklahoma City and
San Antonio. You know, they had the big names, the
big superstars, and you know, the Knicks with Jalen Brunson,
you know, you can't help them. But like these guys,

(24:27):
you know, they seem to find themselves down. Even yesterday
they were down not by as much, but you know,
down in the third quarter, but they find a way
to get back. And you know, Jalen Brunson, I don't
you know, again, I don't really follow the Knicks too much,
but boy, he seems like such an understazed guy, kind
of underestimated his whole career and he's just shown himself

(24:48):
to be a leader and in a way that I appreciate. Right,
he's not showy. You know, you had Wemby from the
San Antonio Spurs kind of talking trash, and you know,
Jalen just went and did his job and you know,
was the leader on that team to have them win.
Uh So it's that's awesome to me. And I think
you know, most people you talk with are are appreciating,

(25:10):
you know, that win and you know, just the way
they want it as well. And then of course, you know,
you have the World Cup here in the US. And
I don't know if you had an opportunity to watch
the US play, but they played against Paraguay on Friday,
and I played soccer in college. I'm a soccer player.
Uh it was probably the best game I've ever seen

(25:33):
the US men's team play. And you know, here in
the US, it's the women's team, the national team that
has all the success, and the men's team has really struggled.
They just have not had the talent and they have
been able to put it into place. But we saw
them play against Paraguay, who's, you know, a pretty solid
team and they won four to one, and some of

(25:53):
the goals and just the way they played, Uh, it's
it's hopeful. So they play next on Friday the nineteenth,
So next Friday at three and then the following Friday
at ten pm against Turkey. So we'll see how they
do in these opening rounds, but certainly after that game
it gives us some hope that they may do well

(26:16):
in this tournament. But let's move on to finance right
as always, and if you have any questions, give me
a call. You can reach me at eight hundred eight
two five five nine four nine, or you can email
me at ask Bouchet at bouchet dot com. And Bouchet
is spelled b o U d h e y, so

(26:38):
you can go ahead and give me a call or
email me and we can chat. So a couple of
things to talk about. One is, you know, we talk
about how do we manage portfolios? And you know, just
we talked about this a lot of initial meetings and
to me, I haven't been with the firm for fourteen
years and haven't been at other firms. We just do

(27:01):
an amazing job. And you know what's great is we
have an investment team that is phenomenal with the research
and also this is important, very good at implementing ideas
and then communicating those ideas to our team and to
our clients. And I think that's where other firms may
fall down, and it is in that execution and then

(27:21):
the communication. So we just put in a new what
we call tactical allocation. So it's an ETF that has
exposure to AI, power and infrastructure. And again I talked
about the reason we like ETFs versus individual stocks is
that way, you know, we can say, hey, we like
that sector. We're not certain which one of those companies

(27:43):
are really going to be the winner, but we're going
to get exposure to that sector. And you know, yes,
we may give up on the Super Grand Slam if
we pick the right company, but it's very tough to
always do that. And so in this situation, we're going
to have a number of these companies in that area.
And you know, you can't know anything about AI and

(28:04):
know that it is driven. You know, you've got to
have a power, absolutely have to have the electricity to
drive these data centers. So having exposure to that space
is going to be very valuable. So again what's great
is our in mestment team does the research, they go
ahead and they put these trades in place. It happens

(28:25):
across all of our client portfolios. So you know, we
manage about one point eight billion dollars for our clients.
They go ahead and within hours put those trades across
all the I rays and trust and broken accounts for
our clients, and then you know, within hours after that,
they're sending out an email explaining the trade. And I

(28:46):
will tell you, as an advisor, you know, to have
that consistent approach for all the portfolios that are our
team is out there talking about with our clients is invaluable.
You know, I can be sitting talking to one client
that is in our growth and income allocation and then
the next meeting with another client that's in that allocation,

(29:08):
and the performance is within tens, if not hundreds of
percentage points of each other. And that, to me is
something I'm very proud of, is to have that consistency
across all of our clients so that we make a trade,
we do it across all of our client portfolios. And
that way, you know, you know that we're going to
be you know, it's not like you get left out

(29:30):
of that or it's not like I as an advisor
have some ideas I put in place and then another advisor,
you know, does that. No. Our investment team handles it
so that we can focus on dealing with our clients.
And I think this new ETF is going to be
a great one. The ticker is a I POS and

(29:52):
again it's with the AI and power infrastructure. I'm sorry,
AI PO, I added an s there have. AI PO
is the ticker. And you know, we've added a number
of exposures to the AI space over the last six
months and they've been very beneficial for our clients, both

(30:13):
UH adding Memory UH in March and then adding Chips
in November. And you know, again, this is to me,
the real value of having this great investment team be
able to implement these ideas. It goes across all of
our client portfolios. And what we always tell individuals is,

(30:33):
you know a couple of things. One is if we
need to customize that. Let's say, you know, we have
a situation where a client doesn't want exposure to a
certain sector, we can we can customize that. And there's
different situations why they may not. Let's say somebody's in healthcare,
they have a ton of healthcare stock and they don't
want that. We can customize it for them, that's definitely

(30:55):
a possibility. You know. The other thing too is we
always tell clients, right, which is, you know, let us
manage the bulk of your wealth. And then if you
want a what we call a sandbox account to go
ahead and you know, buy some individual companies, right, then
go ahead and do that. You know, we we won't
manage that account. That's your account to play with, and

(31:19):
you know, we're going to manage the bulk of your
of your wealth. That's to me for many times who
with clients they have managed their portfolios in the past. Uh,
this is a great way that they don't have to
worry about their portfolios anymore, the emotion, the stress, and
also you know, kind of helping to protect their spouse

(31:39):
in case something happens to them. They have our firm
do the bulk of that while they still have the
opportunity to go out and buy a stock if they
see that, right, And for many folks that's that's what
they want. They want the ability to go out and
buy a stock here or there, get exposure to a company. Uh,
and they don't have to worry about having you know,

(31:59):
all their money is tied up in that and making
a mistake, and I think that's so important. And you know,
we had a number of initial meetings this week and
it was individuals that you know, said, listen, I'm getting
a little bit older. I just want to make sure
my spouse is in a good spot. And you know,
I will tell you it's invaluable because we see it

(32:20):
on the backside sometimes where that doesn't happen. Right. So
somebody's coming into us and they just lost their spouse,
and you know, sometimes their financial situations in good order.
Sometimes it's not. And so not only any dealing with
the grief of just losing a spouse, h and also
taking on all these additional responsibilities. You know, I don't

(32:42):
think you realize that when you're married and you know
your spouse does some things and you do some things.
Now when one of you has gone, you know, you
got everything to do. We have this older couple that's great,
and she calls herself, she's accounts payable, she paid all
the bills and heats, accounts receivable. He's responsible for bringing

(33:03):
in all the money, all the income, and so usually
there's some element of delegation of duties. But now when
you lose your spouse, you're responsible for all that. And yes,
you can have your kids or individuals help out, but
ultimately you know you're responsible. So you know, when we
have somebody come in that you know that one spouse

(33:23):
has been doing it all their own. And again sometimes
it's uh, you know, with a number of different financial
custodians and you know, not in a great order. Uh,
it's a lot, it's it's a lot to handle. And
so I would really encourage you to at least consider
that as you're getting older, that if you're managing your

(33:44):
own portfolio, to say, hey, you know what what happens
if I'm not here? And you know, you need to
really think about making sure you have a firm that
is going to be here for a long time. And
I think that's a big element too, right with our clients.
You know, our firm is set up for multiple generations.
You know, we're an independent firm. We've made the decision

(34:05):
to be that way going forward. And you know, I'm
fifty six. I'll be here for a number of more years,
but at some point I won't be. And we have
other advisors they're in their forties and thirties and twenties,
and the goal is that our firm is going to
continue to grow and be here for our clients. And

(34:25):
that's important when you're working with an advisor or you're
working with a firm, you know, you want to make
sure that to me that they're going to be there,
they're going to be independent, and they're there for you
and your family because in most situations, you know, you're
creating and you have family wealth, right, That's that's what

(34:45):
it is. You know, people don't quite appreciate that, but
you know, as you grow those assets and you have
a portfolio. You know, I always tell clients that think
about that, that's a small business that you have that
portfolio is. You know, it's a small business. It grows
for you, it produces income, and you know you really
want somebody to manage that small business for yourself or

(35:07):
your family and for future generations. And you know, that's
that's what we do. And that's a good perspective is
to you know, what does it mean to work with
a fiduciary and an investment firm? Is this think about
this idea delegating that management of that portfolio or your
small business uh to our team UH. And I also

(35:27):
use that analogy when you think about making changes to
a portfolio, especially in times of volatility. And what I
always say is, you know, if you owned a small
business and times were challenging, right, economy was a little tough,
you want just decide to close up shop and you know,
say what we're done. I mean maybe you would, but
both cases, you want you're going to figure out a

(35:48):
way to get through it. And that's you know what
I always tell folks with your portfolio. You know, when
there's volatility or concerns or volatility, you might make adjustments.
But you know, sometimes when folks want to go to cash,
you're like, why would you do that? Why would you
just you know, decide that your small business is done
and you're going to go to cash. So, you know,
I think sometimes having perspective of what you have there

(36:12):
and you know what you've done to accumulate them. Uh,
you know, you've worked hard to have those dollars. You
want to make sure it's protected for yourself and for
your spouse. Uh. If you're you're not in the picture anymore.
Let's go on a few of the topics to discuss.
But again, if you have any questions, you can reach
me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.

(36:34):
Again that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine,
Or you can email me at ask Bouchet at bouchet
dot com and Bouchet spelled b o U d h
e y. One of the things I want to talk about.
If you've listened to the show, you know I post
on LinkedIn and I just put a new blog out

(36:57):
there on LinkedIn, just talking about I call it the
transition of I'm sorry, the milestone of milestones. And our
daughter is Bell graduated from the University of Vermont this
May and is heading down to d C. She has
a job down there in pr and lobbying. And you know,

(37:17):
as a parent, you know, your life with your children's
all about milestones, right for the very minute they're born.
There's all these little milestones that go through. But to
me as a parent, I think my wife would agree
with this, even more so than going to college, is
going off now and starting their career. And for Isabelle
moving to DC and you know, this is when they're

(37:39):
really becoming an adult financially an adult. Now. Yes, we'll
probably still cover herself phone bill for a few months,
maybe a year. She'll probably be on our Netflix bill
for a little bit health insurance until she's twenty six,
so there's a few little strengths attached, but all things considered,
she's really going to be going out there on her own.

(38:01):
And you know, to me, it's that change. It's a
much different situation as we move forward, and you know,
it kind of requires you to step back and assess, hey,
do we do a good job getting them in the
right spot? And simply think with Isabelle, she's an amazing spot.
She know, she's just done such a great job to
get where she is. But then it also says, you know,

(38:24):
assess where where do you stand? And I think, you know,
with my wife and I now our youngest is going
to be going off to Fordham next fall, so all
three kids will be out of the house and we
need to assess, hey, you know, what what is what
are we going to do next year, the next five years?
And our do we know exactly what that is? And
are we I don't want to say it a good

(38:45):
spot financially, we are, but it's more so even what
do we want to do with our life? Right And
it's it's different than what it was over the last
twenty plus years. Uh, So you know, we're going to
have to make sure we're in a good spot, and
I think we are, but also just being aware of
each other and how we communicate. And you know, as
a guy, I have that problem of trying to solve

(39:07):
problems versus just listening and being thoughtful with it. So,
you know, trying to be aware of that as we
move into this new chapter. So anyway that's on LinkedIn,
you can connect and see that my blog. And I think,
you know, as you go through these life changes, it's
good to take a step back and appreciate one how

(39:27):
fortunate we are. You know, I think to me, I
always talk about the importance of gratitude, and certainly I'm
very grateful for everything in my life, but you know,
also doing some planning for the future and make sure
you're in a good spot. Let's move on to another topic.
And again, if you have any questions, we got about

(39:49):
ten minutes left. You can either email me or give
me a call. You can reach me at eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine, or you can
email me at ask Bruchet at bouchet dot com. You know,
one of the things I want to talk about, uh,
is concentrated stock positions and it okay, and it's just

(40:09):
so important. Uh with that, but we're gonna get the
phone lines. Uh, do we have our collor there? Mike
be there? Yep? Oh you know today. Good question. I
have a question. I have a question.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
I want you to think about gambling stocks. These days,
they're pretty beaten up and everyone. I think gambling stocks
is like the nineties cocaine. Everybody's trying it, everybody's doing it,
and I see people so much addicted to it. And
I want to invest in some good gambling stocks. I'm
just wondering if it's too early to get in the
more or too late to get in on him.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, that's a lot. That's a great question. I have
a teenager or his twenty year old son, so I
do familiar with that. Not so much with him, although
he's on kelshi uh, but certainly his his buddies. Yeah.
I mean I think that space is going to be there.
The only issue you'd have is, uh, you know, forever reason.
You know, from a legislative perspective, they decide to, you know,

(41:08):
kind of cut back on what's available. But yeah, I
think you know, they like you said, they're they're beating up.
You know, if you want to get exposure to that space,
probably not a bad idea because you know, there's definitely
they're not going away that that is going to be
the case. And you know, it's definitely one of those
things where you know, having a twenty some year old

(41:30):
son and there's there's pros and cons. We're actually going
down to the Philadelphia today. We're gonna see Ivory Coast
versus Ecuador, and uh, you know, we put a bet
on uh to Kelsey uh on Ivory Coast just to
kind of have fun with it. So that's great, but
you know, it's also it can be a problem when
you can bet at any point. Uh. For some people

(41:52):
that's just it's too much. So but I think from
an investment perspective, it's probably not a bad idea to
get in if you want some exposure. Now, Okay, thank
you very much. Yep, take care. Yeah, that's a good,
good question. You know. Again, it's one of those things
where if you can handle it in moderation, you know,

(42:13):
it's a lot of fun. But if you can and
that's unfortunately the case with some folks, when it's that easy,
it's right there on your phone. It can be a challenge,
but I do think those companies will do well from
my cash flow perspective. So let's talk about constrated stock positions.
I just want to bring this up. We have a
number of clients that are corporate executives, and you know,

(42:34):
we see it. It's not every company whose stock is
doing very well, but certainly if you're in the tech space,
the AI space, you know, if you're working at Corning Glass,
if you're working in Walmart. You've got a number of
companies where we have executives that have had constray stock positions.
And in some cases, we have an individual that works

(42:55):
at Micron. You know, at one point he had about
a five hundred thousand dollars plus exposure. Now he's got
about a five million dollar exposure because Micron stock has
got up by so much. And all I would tell
you is, and we talked about this with him, which
is you have to start to look at that as

(43:15):
risk management and how do you get out of that
position and moving to more diversified positions in a tax
efficient way. You know, you have to take that perspective.
And you know, I had a blog that I put
out there, you know, a month or two ago just
talking about Corning, perfect example, right, I mean, it is
doing so well. They've got these big contracts. You know,

(43:37):
I expected to continue to do well. It's just a
great company. You know, they stayed in Cornering, New York.
There's so much about that community. CEO has been there
a long time. But you know, this isn't their first
rodeo with technology. And you know a boom and their
stock price that happened back in nineteen ninety nine with
fiber and it quickly came back down to earth. Now,

(44:00):
I'm not saying that's necessarily what's going to happen with
Corny stock now. But what I am saying is that
when you have any stock there has risen as quickly
as some of these companies, you have to do a
job of managing that risk because you don't know, right,
I mean, there are things that can change very quickly.
And you know what I always tell folks is if

(44:20):
you have restricted stock units or you have stock options
and they're in the money, and they're in many cases
highly in the money, that is a win. That just
call it a win right there. And if you can,
you know, get those dollars out, you're going to pay
a lot in taxes on them. I mean in general,
you know, like this individual I know with Micron, they're

(44:41):
high income earner, They're going to pay a lot in taxes.
It's just it is what it is. But what you
don't want is that stock to come, you know, crashing
back down and you didn't start to manage that risk.
So just I would highly recommend, whether you're working with
an advisor where you're doing this on your own or
you're working with their CPA, start to put a plan

(45:04):
in to mitigate that risk. And I would say that's
where our team is fantastic, you know, kind of putting
that plan in, being systematic with it, thinking about how
do you minimize the taxes, but at the same time
not preventing that from you from selling some of those positions.
And you know, we see it with our clients sometimes,
which is they have this kind of crazy fear of

(45:28):
not wanting to pay any taxes. And again I get it.
I don't want to pay taxes if I or minimize
my tax bill if I can. But at the same time,
you have to make decisions based first and foremost, you know,
considering taxes, But what is best from an investment perspective,
and you know in this case, it's it's risk management. Right.
You have this concentrated stock position that now makes up

(45:50):
a huge part of your net worth, and you know
it's at risk. And you know it's always say it's
concentrated stock positions that create wealth. That's not how you
necessarily preserve wealth. And you know I also tell clients,
which is, you know, if you're selling, you're not selling
all of it, right, and you're not leaving the company.

(46:10):
You still have great exposure to it. So you're hoping
and expecting that that's going to go up that stock price.
But nothing in life is guaranteed, certainly in business. And
the other thing to appreciate is, you know, if you're
working up, if you're working at the company, not only
do you have, you know, the contratstock position, but you
also work there that's where your income is and your

(46:32):
future growth and income is. And so it just becomes
that much more important that you take the time to
diversify out of that. And again you're trying to get
some guidance from an expert. It becomes very important that
you're going to be successful with them, So something to consider,
and you know, we see more and more individuals that

(46:54):
have that exposure. And again I'll also just tell you
which is you want to minimize your access, you know,
and certainly working with your CPA or an advisor to
do tax planning. But at the end of the day,
we always say to our clients, if we create you
a huge tax build, we know we're going to try
to minimize it. But that's because we made you a

(47:15):
ton of money and we want to make adjustments on
the investment side. And sometimes it's the right decision to
create that tax build. So something to consider. So we
just have a few minutes left. As always, folks, it's
been great to be here with you to answer any
questions you have, to give you a perspective, and you know,

(47:38):
I hope that you're able to get out there and
enjoy the day. As always, I appreciate talk with you
and giving you some thoughts. You listen, let's talk money.
Brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group. Well, we help
our clients prioritize their health, will we manage their wealth
for life? Take care of yourself and take care of
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