Let's Talk Money

June 28th, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good morning everybody. I'm Stephen Bouchet. You don't have
one of my colleagues. You have me today and yesterday.
If you tuned in yesterday, you know I get excited
about doing this show. I'm like a broken record. People say,
after thirty one years of being on radio just about
every weekend, do you ever you know is it hard

(00:22):
to do? I said, absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I love doing this show.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
I love waking up and being with you, and I
appreciate you waking up and tuning in. You are why
this is probably one of the premiere money shows in
the country. And I can't thank you enough for listening,
for your loyalty, for your comments. So many of you
will reach out to me if you see me out

(00:47):
and you recognize my face. Or what always surprises me
is if I'm talking to somebody and somebody says, hey,
I know that boys. So I truly appreciate all those
comments and hope I can help get you started, get
you doing what you need to do in order to retire.
When you want to retire, everybody's different about retiring, but

(01:11):
if you want to retire at sixty sixty five, seventy
seventy five, whatever, it is folks. War Buffett worked till
he was ninety four years old before he retired, So
there's a lot of people that want to retire sooner
some later, and that's okay. The key is when you retire,
will you have enough money.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
To live on?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, I'm sitting here live with my producer Katie, and
if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, we would
love to have you call in one eight hundred talk
WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five, nine, four nine,
Any questions whatsoever, folks, give me a call. I know

(01:53):
we have listeners really all over the country. I know
we got somebody listening down on the beach at Jupiter
walking a little puppy. And there's so many people that
tune in with the World Wide Web. You really, it's
not like the old days where you needed a radio signal.
In WGY, they had the strongest signal in the country, folks,

(02:15):
fifty thousand station, back in the days when people listen
to actual radios. Now, with the iHeart app, you can
listen to the show and with our podcasts, you can
go to our website. If you miss the show, folks,
you're only a click away. You can you can listen
in any time you want. One eight hundred eight two

(02:37):
five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two
five fifty nine forty nine. We talked a little bit
of yesterday about the tech sell off and that's really
put people on edge this week, especially with NNSDAK being
down more than twice the SMP. Basically, in a nutshell,

(02:58):
NANSDAC was down about four and a half percent, where
the SMP was down just just shy of two percent,
and that that that hurts for our clients. It was
it was a week where our clients saw some volatility
because we we own we are overweight technology as I

(03:19):
said yesterday and Nasdaq one hundred, which is QQQ. When
you buy QQQ, folks, you are buying the Nasdaq one hundred,
the top one hundred largest companies in the Nasdaq, and QQQ,
you know, down four point four point two four point

(03:40):
three percent, and you know that that that hurts. But
it's one of our core positions. Our clients know that
we are because of our overweight in technology and our
core position of NANSDAK. We own as munch NANSDAK as
we do the stock market Index, our clients know that

(04:02):
there will be weeks like this where we you know,
we we we feel that that that pain of nastac't
going down so much. But when you put it in perspective, folks,
and I give these numbers out often because I want
you to always remember that taking on the amount of
risk that is right for you is really what matters.

(04:26):
If you like the returns of the stock market, but
you can't sleep at night, then you probably shouldn't be
in the stock market because it doesn't matter what great
returns you may get. Over time, there's a lot of volatility,
and if it keeps you up at night, that's not
good for your health.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
And when you.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Look over the last fifteen years, the average return for
the S and P, the average return year in year
out is just shy of fifteen percent. NASDAC just shy
of twenty percent. And that's why I talk so much
about nansday, because I do the broad stock Market Index
because our clients own both. And for the nervous nellies

(05:06):
that want to be in bonds, the I Shares Core
US Aggregate Bond Index fifteen years same fifteen year period
as the NASDAC and the S and PAY two point
two percent is your average return.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
And that's okay if you can't sleep at night and
you want to have that.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
You know, let's say less volatility, because you lose money
in bonds too, folks. I said it yesterday. Over the
last eleven years, there were two years where stocks were down.
There were two years when bonds were down. So you're
not just because you have bonds doesn't mean that you're
you're not going to lose money. You will have losses,
and their paper losses. If the value of your bond

(05:49):
goes up and down, if you don't sell it, it's
just a paper loss. And I try to instill that
same thinking with stocks, because people think when the stock
market goes down, there have to sell. They can't risk
losing any more money. And I try to point out
to them, you're not losing any money, no money whatsoever,
until you sell. When you sell, yes, you're locking in

(06:12):
that loss.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And what's the loss.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
If you've boned stocks for a long time, you probably
don't have a lot of losses. You probably have a
lot of gains. But from the high point to the
low point, you're down a little bit. And that doesn't
feel good. And for those gold bugs out there. I
talked about gold yesterday. If you're wondering the last fifteen years,
what your your average return for gold, and a lot

(06:40):
of people listen, gold was as high as fifty three
hundred dollars an ounce recently, and today we sit here
just shy of forty one hundred dollars an ounce. And
over the same fifteen year period, even though the last
couple of years, believe me, gold over the last three
years average twenty eight percent, twenty eight percent a year

(07:02):
for the last three years, compared to twenty one percent
for the broad Stock Market index. But over the last
fifteen years, where the SMP average just shy of fifteen percent,
Danstack just shy of twenty percent. Gold your average return,
according to the ETF which tracks gold, the big ETF,

(07:23):
the Spider Gold Shares, your average return is about six
point four or five percent year in year out. And
a lot of people, you know, they think that they
should have been in gold for all that time. But
if you had a well diversified portfolio that was mostly
made up of stock like investments, being invested in equity,

(07:44):
you did much better than you would have done in
bonds or gold. So with with well.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Diversed lilied portfolio.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
You're going to have all these asset classes, and all
these asset classes go up.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
And down, up and down, up and down.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
You can't get away from it. So when you see volatility,
somebody said, I went to a fundraiser last night for
the American Cancer Society, the Red, White, and Blue, and
it was a beautiful party. They raised over four hundred
thousand dollars. And it's one of the causes that I
believe in. Cancer is something that affects everybody. It affected me,

(08:22):
It affected my wife and I within a four month
time period. What are the chances of that, right, two
people being affected by cancer within four months of each other.
And it's near and dear to my heart. Cancer does
not discriminate folks. Cancer doesn't care whether you take the

(08:46):
bus to work or you drive a nice car. It
doesn't matter whether you wear work boots and a T
shirt or a beautiful Italian suit. It doesn't matter who
you choose to love, who you choose to prey to.
It doesn't matter the color of your skin. Cancer does
not discriminate. Cancer is truly it's it's it's non discriminatory,

(09:08):
and it hurts when you get the news that you
have cancer, because once you join that sea club, you're
in it for life. You may be told you don't
have cancer, but in the back of your mind, you're
always wondering, do I have cancer or not?

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Will it come back or not?

Speaker 1 (09:24):
And you're part of that sea club, and people that
are in that sea club get it. So it's one
of the causes that we truly give a lot of
money too. And it's Last night was a beautiful night,
just you know, thet's see all these people come out.
We last night we we honored Brian Martel. Brian and

(09:45):
his two brothers, Chris and Scott started Druthers, a really
really phenomenal, amazing brew pub and they make beer. They
sell their beer. I'm not a beer drinker, but they
tell me it's pretty good. And Brian passed away of
cancer not too long ago. And last night we honored

(10:06):
really the the Martel brothers, but especially Brian and his
wife Natasha, and it was it was, it was great,
and we raised four hundred thousand dollars. Over four hundred
thousand dollars, so they did last night.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
But I talked to.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Somebody, you know, about volatility and you know, as I
try to tell everybody, if I get this statistic of loppies,
I don't want you to forget it. If over the
last forty seven years, stocks from high to low peaked,

(10:42):
the trough swing fourteen percent a year, that means from
their high point to their low point on average, on
average fourteen percent a year. And when that happens. Somebody
asked me last night, is this a good time to
put money in? I said, well, when you look at history,
the history of the stock market, it's always excuse me, folks,

(11:06):
it's always a.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Good time to put money in the stock market.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
We we talk about dollar cost averaging, but dollar cost
averaging is not one of my favorite tools. It's for
the nervous people. It's for people that think that the
market's going to crash. If they dollar cost average, maybe
they get an opportunity, but over time most people lose
out my dollar cost averaging, you'd actually be better off

(11:30):
to put money in as a as a lump sum.
I'm gonna take a quick break because I have to
wet my whistle. Don't go anywhere, folks, Hello, thank you, folks.
I had to just take a little, you know, sip
of water. I appreciate you tuning in today. The phone
lines are opened. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine. One eight hundred eighty two five fifty

(11:53):
nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, give me a call.
I would love, really love to talk to you. One
eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. So
the the you know when when when you think of
where we're at and so forth, listen, it's it's this

(12:17):
was an ugly week, and there's there's no getting around it.
The tech sell off hurt a lot of people own tech,
people that listen to the show over the last thirty
one years. I know own tech because I've been telling
you it's a good investment. We are overweight tech, and I
joke in the office until I'm mentally inconfident, not able

(12:40):
to make you know two words sound good together, or
I'm not with you anymore. Folks, we will probably always
be overweight tech because tech is part of our It's
just part of our DNA at this point, and it
just why wouldn't you be overweight tech? Why wouldn't you

(13:02):
have tech in your portfolio? Tech is it's you know,
you gotta ring, you gotta watch you gotta fit bit,
you got you know your phone technology has just been
taking over the world and artificial intelligence. Will talk more
about it on the other end of the show, especially

(13:23):
for you young folks in college. Listen, learn AI, get
into artificial intelligence. You absolutely want to be part of
this phenomenon better known as AI artificial intelligence. So for
the last few weeks, there's some things that's happened.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
One of the sparks Broadcoms fiscal second quarter earnings beat
expectations on revenue and earnings per share. But there's always
a butt, right, but three short letters be ut. But
it's third quarter AI chip sales guidance was sixteen billion dollars.

(14:07):
That was short of what the analysts were looking for
seventeen just over seventeen billion, and broad Com basically did
not raise its full year AI forecast. So this triggered
to sell the news reaction. There's a saying sell the news,
buy on the rumors, sell the news reaction, sending Calm

(14:30):
down fourteen percent, and that just carried over across the
entire chip supply chain. The broader correction NASTAC down four
percent in one session, down for the week four point
three semiconductor stocks losing more than one point three.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Trillion dollars of market value.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
One point three trillion, folks, there's twelve zeros in a trillion.
Think about that, not a million, not a billion, a trillion,
twelve zeros at the end of one trillion, and semiconductor
stocks lost one point three trillion.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
And this you know, it.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Wasn't driven by deteriorating fundamentals, but basically expectations reset after
such an amazing you know, great valuations, great outlooks. So
you have that, you have the factors included the Fed policy, uncertainty,
valuation concerns after a great rally and profit taken following

(15:35):
nine weeks, nine weeks where the S and P was
up nine weeks, So we gave some back this week,
but you're to date the Nasdaq composites up about nine
percent QQQ, the Nasdaq one hundred folks. Are you ready
for this? You know you may want to take a seat,

(15:58):
Go ahead, sit down, I'm going to give you this.
So the sm P is up seven point four percent,
with dividends probably eight percent year to day QQQ or
for our clients QQQN beause it has lower internal management
fees that's why we we switched out to QQQ for
qq and we're saving our clients money. That's a beautiful thing,

(16:20):
isn't it. I would love to save our clients money
and make them more money by the money that they're
not spending in internal management fees. So QQQ up fifteen
point three percent year today compared to the SMP up
seven point four in the winner folks, Russell two thousand,
small mccapp indecks up almost twenty two percent. So we

(16:44):
gave some back this week. But that's okay.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
You can't be up. Listen, the rocket ship.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Doesn't you know, always just go straight to the moon
and keep going it comes back down to the land.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Right look at SpaceX.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
The IPO came out and it looked like it was
going to the moon.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
And right now you can.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Buy SpaceX at or near the ipo price. And if
you wanted to get into space X and you're broker
couldn't get you any shares, buy it now. You're not
losing anything.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
But no, all seriousness, stock markets go up and down,
up and down, up and down. It's just that's the
that's that's in the nature of the beast, folks. So
this week we gave a little bit back Mag seven.
We talked about MAG seven, right, Why how can we
not talk about mag Mag seven?

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I mean, you know, the.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Magnificent seven is Listen, how many times do we say
the Mag seven has been responsible for the stock market returns?
It and it truly has. I mean, the Mag seven
is just wow, you know, it's it's it's it's been.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Where all the action is.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean, there's no getting around it. It's it's been
responsible for the stock market returns. So the Mag seven,
the top ten names in the SMP have been driving
about sixty percent of the first quarter earnings growth eighty
three percent of year to date index games. So the

(18:20):
top ten names that narrow leadership created real vulnerability to
sudden reversals.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
When when sentiment shifts.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
And when you look at the top names in the SMP,
I mean the top ten makeup thirty six percent. You
got Navidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Broadcom, Micround Technology, Facebook,
Tesla round it out with the tenth holding being JP

(18:52):
Morgan Chase. So those top ten holdings in the SMP
account for thirty six percent of thirty six percent of
the of the total index. And when you look at QQQ,
the top ten account for forty five percent, and you

(19:13):
have the same names. The only name that's that's different
is you have advanced micro devices. Obviously, JP Morgan doesn't
trade on mans deck, so you're not going to see
JP Morgan in the QQQ setting. So we you know
meg seven's been taking in on the CHIN and you

(19:34):
got sort sort South Koreas. Their index is very, very
overweight technology that was about ten percent lower, sk Heinex
and Samsung each down more than twelve percent. Is there
a baring opportunity in AI stocks or is the bull

(19:57):
run in semis over? You know you have passive index
fund that are very exposed.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
I just gave you the waitings. What do you do?

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, as I said yesterday, I now have a crystal ball,
and it's real crystal and it's a client that gifted
it to me. It was in her family and she
heard me for thirty one years say that I don't
have a crystal ball, but now I do. She get
me a couple of weeks ago and I have my
own crystal ball. The crystal ball doesn't give me too

(20:31):
much information, folks, but I really love looking at it.
Sometimes I just stare into it. I'll tell you what
I'm doing. I bought this week in my sandbox account.
You know my portfolios. Man, it's just like my client's portfolios.
So my investment team takes care of that. But I
have some play accounts, some sand box accounts, as you
hear us refer to it.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
As on the show, and I bought.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
I mean, I love.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Volatility, and maybe it'll go down more this week. I'm
looking for money in the cookie jars and under the
mattress to see if I can buy some more. So
I'm looking at it as you know. When this war
gets over, folks, this stock market I think will continue
to go up, and I think it'll be pretty pretty
handsome the way it goes up. I can't believe you

(21:19):
are listening to Let's Talk money. It's the bottom of
the news. We need to take a break, brought to
you by bouche Fing Group, where we help our clients
prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life.
I'll be back right down the other side, and the
news don't go anywhere. One eight hundred and eight two five, five,
nine four nine. Give us a call with any questions.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
I like the jazzy music. Katie. Thank you very much, folks,
thank you for tuning in.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
I am here live with you. Stephen Bouchet, certified Financial Planner.
I've built Bouche fing Inti Group over the last thirty
six years. We have twenty two amazing colleagues that you
just heard about, and I truly leave from the bottom
of my heart in helping women and wealth. I've had

(22:06):
this inside me for decades and it's something I believe
in and within my firm, we have a big, big,
big push on helping women in wealth. We do a
couple seminars a year and this year we're partnering up
with Palette and they have an all day, full day

(22:29):
just revolving around women and wealth on Tuesday, August twenty fifth,
And if you go to our website, you'll see right
at the top of our home screen a little gold
gold bar and you'll see women in Wealth Reserve your seat.
It's going to be a sellout focus. It's at the
uph Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga. We have Sam Harmony,

(22:55):
my daughter Lauren are all going to be part of
the day. They're bringing in experts from all so many
different industries. It's it's going to be an exciting day,
and it's revolves around women and wealth. One eight hundred
eighty two five five nine four nine, one eight hundred

(23:16):
eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, folks,
any questions whatsoever, give me a call. So I talked
a little bit about dollar cost average and lump sum,
and I've been mentoring my advisors on this for quite
some time. And listen, whatever however you look at it,

(23:37):
you can break it down. It feels good to dollar
cost average because what that means. Let's make believe we'll
keep numbers simply. You have one hundred thousand dollars, one
hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Do you put it all in at once?

Speaker 3 (23:51):
It kind of makes you feel a little uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Or your broker says, all right, let's spread it out
over two, three, four months. You feel better, right, because
now you're prolonging the chance that the market may go down. Well,
dollar cost averaging sounds like it's it's it's it's for
most people, but it's not, folks. If you come into money,

(24:16):
especially sudden money money, whether it be death benefit, inheritance
proceeds of a divorce, selling a piece of property, whatever
it is, sudden money and let's make believe you have
one hundred thousand dollars. Believe it or not if you
if you, Dollar cost average prolong the risk of putting

(24:39):
that money into the stock market. Dollar cost averaging outperforms
lump sum maybe a third of the time, twenty five
to thirty percent of the time. Vanguard did a study
from nineteen twenty six to twenty fifteen. Lump some wins

(25:00):
sixty eight percent of the time in an all equity portfolio.
Northwestern Mutual did one that that showed seventy five percent
of the time a sixty forty portfolio, lump some wins
eighty percent of the time lump sum. Listen, it wins
when when you have a bull market, and I'd like
to say I'm the optimist. I'm forever the optimist bull

(25:25):
because I know stocks go up more than they go down.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
They do, folks, it's look it up.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Stocks are up more than they are down, and so
over time, I guess you're always in a sustained bull market.
But especially when you're in and you heard me say
it on the first half of the show. You heard
me say yesterday, You've heard me say it several times
over the last several months. When not if, when, when

(25:56):
this war is over? I think this market really takes off.
I don't see anything stopping it. We don't have any
bad times that we're worried about. We don't have a
recession that we're thinking about. Sure, we may have a
quarter point hike in interest rates before the end of

(26:16):
the year. We talked about that yesterday. But so what
a quarter point It's not going to end your life
unless you're borrowing money for a mortgage, and then yeah, maybe,
But if you're a nervous nelly and you're saving money,
a quarter point hike means you'll probably get more interest.
But when you're in a sustainable market, lump some wins
when you have usually a long time horizon, and most

(26:40):
people do. When you put money in even let's make
believe you come into money, you're fifty five, you plan
on retiring at sixty five. You may say, yeah, I
only have ten years that market that I'll be in
the market.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Well that's not true, folks, because when you hit sixty five,
you don't plan on dying. You're going to have another
twenty five years.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
To live.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
You know, people are living well into their eighties. So
when you retire, that doesn't mean your money should stop
working for you.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
You need to continue to.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Let that money work because over time, a well diversified
portfolio is much better than keeping your money in bonds
or savings accounts. Having some more volatile, growth oriented asset
classes in your portfolio will be better for you if
you can stomach short term volatility. Now, I guarantee you

(27:36):
every week that the stock market goes down, that's not
going to end, folks, forever.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
And ever and ever.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
The stock market will go up and down, up and down,
up and down forever and ever. Let me give you
one more. Ever, there's three forevers. So knowing that the
stock market could go down, maybe you invest the money
on Monday, maybe goes down next Monday, or a month
from now or a year from now. It's going to

(28:05):
go down, but it's temporary. Every stock market correction in
bear market comes back, goes on, makes new all time highs.
So no, if you put your money in lump sum,
know that you're going to have some volatility, maybe short term,
maybe sooner than later. Dollar cost averaging, when do you

(28:29):
do that? Well, if the markets are at all time
highs and you think the market's going to hit a correction. Yeah,
that's a good time to dollar cost average.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
But you never know.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Remember, I'm the only one right now, out of all listeners,
I'm guessing. I'm guessing I'm the only one with a
crystal ball. So you never know when the next correction
or a bear market is going to happen.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
You just know it will happen.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
So even when markets are at all time highs, and
I like to joke when investors say, yeah, I don't
want to invest now it's at an all time highs
and now no, wait, wait a couple of years when
it's higher, and they kind of laugh. So you know,
dollar cross averaging works when you think there's a correction,

(29:18):
if that correction comes, if markets are declining and you
think they're going to decline over time. When sometimes investing
in small camps are emerging markets because they're more volatile.
Sometimes that makes sense if you're heavily invested in those areas.
We don't own any foreign investments, We don't own any

(29:39):
emerging markets, not at this point. We do own small caps,
and I just told you the Russell two thousand indexes
up twenty one twenty two percent year to date.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
That's that's pretty.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Good if if you're one of those, like an engineer
type thinker where you need discipline and you need to
keep yourself in check in dollar cost averaging allows you to.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Do that thing, and great in best but not least.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
The only time to dollar cost averaging, in my mind,
is adding money to your pension plan.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Your four h one K at work four three B.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
If you have money coming out of your your checking
account going into a ROTH or traditional IRA, that's what
we call dollar cost averaging. Putting money in every paycheck
or once a month, that's dollar cost averaging. That's the
only time that I feel dollar cost averaging makes sense.

(30:43):
But that's just my personal my personal opinion. So lump
sum investing basically generated higher returns over twelve month periods
in sixty eight percent. Are you ready for this? Sixty
eight percent of rolling ten year per it's going back
to nineteen twenty six. What I mean by that is

(31:04):
in nineteen twenty six that was a new ten year
rolling period. Nineteen twenty seven another new ten year rolling period.
You get to think of how many ten year rolling
periods there have been since nineteen twenty six and lump
sum investing outperform dollar cost averaging sixty eight percent of

(31:28):
the time of a rolling ten year period. JP Morgan
did an analysis of twenty year rolling periods from nineteen
fifty to twenty twenty showed that missing just the ten
best market days reduced Think about this, so you're a
nervous nelle. You're not in the market because usually the

(31:49):
market takes off in rebounds right after it goes down.
And I always like to say you want to be
invested when the market bounces. You don't want to miss
that bound when it springboards from the low point. And
if you missed the ten best days going back from

(32:09):
nineteen fifty to twenty twenty, missed the ten best market
days reduced annualized returns. Instead of getting nine point two percent,
it brings it down to five point six percent. So
with dollar cost averaging, half your capital sits in cash
while you're waiting to put it to work. Whether you

(32:31):
do a two month, three month, four month, six month
dollar cost averaging, most of the time you are going
to miss potential gains. So one hundred thousand dollars slum
some investment made at the start of two thousand and
nine would have grown to approximately a million dollars, just

(32:51):
over a million dollars through the end of last year.
If you did a dollar cost averaging over twenty four months,
you get about one hundred and eighty I'm sorry, eight
hundred and ninety two thousand. You missed out on almost
two hundred thousand dollars of gains in that portfolio. And

(33:12):
this is just really going back the last seventeen years.
So that's that's my take on dollar cost averaging and
lump some I don't talk enough about it.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
I don't talk a lot about it.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
I should talk more about it because it's it's so important.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
So many people make the wrong decisions.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
And I'm here to hopefully get you to make the
right decisions. We're going to take a quick break, folks.
The phone lines are open. One eight hundred eighty two
five five nine four nine. Hello, folks, thanks for letting
me wet my whistle.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
The phone lines are open. I would love to talk.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
One eight hundred eighty two five nine four nine. So
you know, I talked early about should students learn artificial
intelligence and should it be taught? You know, the share
of middle and high school students using AI for homework
jump from forty eight percent just over a year ago

(34:12):
to sixty two percent within a six month period. Eighty
four percent of high school students reported using AI tools
for school work. You know, more and more and more,
and should they learn AI? Should schools teacher properly or

(34:32):
let students figure it out on their own? I guess
it all depends what camp you're you're you're in US
job postings right now require AI skills. More and more
companies are they want to see AI skills for these

(34:53):
these candidates looking for a job. The AI basically, you know,
it's a lot of people think that we lose jobs,
but it's created over a million new jobs globally in
just two years. You got AI engineers, forward deployed engineers, data,

(35:14):
and it goes on and on and on. Sixty three
percent of employers believe that if a candidate lacks AI skills,
it's the biggest, biggest barrier holding educational and economic progress back.
Just think about this. Just twenty percent of leaders believe

(35:39):
education systems are effectively teaching the necessary AI data skills
for today's workforce. You know, the CEO of Navidity have
just said, he won't even look at a resume. He
doesn't care how smart, how dynamic, what school a candidate
came from, unless they have on their AI. So I

(36:03):
say this because I know there's a lot of a
lot of young people listening. I know there's a lot
of parents and grandparents listening. Talk it over with with
the kids, folks, and talk to them about AI.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Don't be afraid of it. If you haven't, if you.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Listening to me right now, if you haven't played with AI,
play with it's it's it's scary, the you know. Paulo
la Pietro in my office said it perfectly. He was
the one who taught me AI early on, he.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Said, Steve, think of it this way.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
When you put something in Google, you get maybe ten
links that you have to click on each link. When
you put something in AI, whether it's Chat, GBT, CLAUDE,
I use both side by side so I can compare them.
Whatever whatever program you're using. When you put something there,

(37:01):
it basically digests what those ten links are and gives
you an all overall analysis or summary. That's the difference
between putting something in Google and putting something into your
latest greatest artificial intelligence software. So for all the parents

(37:22):
and grandparents. And by chance, if you're in the car
listening and you hear me, learn artificial intelligence, get involved
in school, look for those classes. Bring it into your day.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
AI is not AOL, AOL cane and gone.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
For the most part. Still I love it.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
I got clients that still use AOL emails and everything,
and I kind of chuckle a little bit, but really,
you want to you you want.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
To be really.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
You want to be up on things, and you can't
let it go. Bitcoin we were you know, June was
not a good month to bitcoin. We were up over
seventy seven thousand and came down to the high fifties
this past week. Right now as I sit here, it's

(38:25):
the only action you can get, folks, except for betting
on soccer, football or basketball. We got bitcoin just over
sixty thousand. But it's been it's been pretty pretty volatile.
I know we own it for our clients. We own
a small amount for our clients, but we do own
bitcoin for our clients and we're holding on to it.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
We're not scared.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
We know we knew going in and that's why we
have just a small waiting. We just wanted to be exposed.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
To it a little bit.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
We know that it could have big drops and it
also when it takes off it it.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Can go up pretty good.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
So bitcoin, you know, June was not a good month
for bitcoin. The you know, you have a lot of people,
you know, risk on, risk go off. Bitcoin is considered
one of those risks on. So people invest in bitcoin
when they feel that that it's time to take on risk.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Believe me, for those that bought bitcoin at one hundred
and twenty thousand, right now, you're sitting at a fifty
percent discount to that Bitcoin you know, shot up to
one hundred and twenty thousand last October and here we
are sitting at sixty thousand.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Is bitcoin dead?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Is this you know, maybe just another Is it what
we call a buying opportunity before it takes off again?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Buying it in an ETF form is probably smart if
you're looking to get in at these levels. H O
D L is what we use. H O D isn't
David L. That's that's what we use and we we
we do believe it. I have it in my in

(40:21):
my sandbox account. I bought it.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
I don't know in the mid eighties. I think.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
So I'm down on it, but I'm holding holding, holding
on to it.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
I'm not I'm not getting out of it.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
One eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine.
You know, I can't, I can't. I can't leave you
without talking about you know, these earthquakes in Venezuela. It
breaks your heart. You know, we got almost right now,

(40:55):
probably fifteen hundred to two thousand people have been confirmed.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
We have thirty two.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Hundred people injured, seventy almost seventy thousand people folks are
reported missing, and many of those reports they're not verified.
You know, some may be duplicated, outdated missing reports and
so forth. But it's it's it's not good. And I

(41:22):
say often, especially if you're listening, if you're in the
upstate New York area, very seldom does mother nature throw
us something we can't we can't deal with. But in
you know, just this country alone. You think of the flooding,
the fires, and what mother Nature does, but earthquakes. This

(41:42):
latest about of earthquakes a couple of days ago in
Venezuela is listen. These are good people that that you know,
fourteen fifteen hundred confirmed now to be probably, as I
say here, I don't have the most recent numbers, but
it's probably closer to two thousand. And you know, it's

(42:06):
almost seventy thousand reported missing. So whether that's cut in
half or whatever, the magnitude is just it's just sad.
So maybe a little take a moment out of your
day and just you know, whether you give it just
a moment of thought or a prayer, if you have it,

(42:26):
and that you pray, you know, pray for these people
that they they get through this and out of this.
I don't know if they ever, especially that part of
their country, if they ever recover from this. I don't
think so. I just don't know how they can recover

(42:50):
from this. You know, I talked early about interest rates,
and you know a month ago we were talking about
interest rate cuts. The FED will cut interest rates. Inflation
look to be in check. Well, inflation is pretty stubborn,

(43:11):
and as I said yesterday, we have a labor market
that's really healthy. The FED is becoming more concerned about
inflation than it is slow in growth. So remember when
you see talk about interest rate cuts, they're cutting interest
rates because they think that they need to stimulate the
economy and give it a kickstart, kind of get it going.

(43:34):
That's why they cut interest rates, and that's what they
were talking about just a month ago. Now we know
the FED is very data dependent. We know we have
a new Fed Reserve Governor, Kevin Walsh, who's a friend
of mine, a brilliant, brilliant man. I think he's going
to do some wonderful things. But you know, they look

(43:56):
at data, so this could change. But right now inflation
is higher than they want it to be, and they're
actually talking about hiking interest rates a little bit. But
hopefully they get some reports where they don't. I said yesterday,
if we have a hike, I'm guessing one hike for
the rest of the year. Some people think three. Some

(44:18):
people think non folks. You are listening to Let's Talk Money,
brought to you by Bouche Financial Group, where we help
our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth
for life. Please go to our website Bouchet dot com.
That's biz and boy o U c ch e y
dot com. There's so much information there. You can learn

(44:38):
about my team. I got an amazing team. You can
learn about our firm, you can learn about all that
we do in and around the community, but for now,
enjoy this beautiful day. The weather is spectacular out there.
I'll see you next weekend. Bye bye.