Retirement Planning Show

December 27th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The opinions, viewpoints, and promises made during the following program
are not those of wgy it's staff, management, or parent company. iHeartMedia.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, good morning. I got a little bit of
a head cold, so I apologize. I might have to
blow my nose throughout the show a couple of times.
But woke up yesterday and had a little bit of
a sniffle, took my zy cam and my vics and

(00:41):
I'm up and running. But I'll be here until nine.
My son will be in from eight to nine. But boy,
it's over with. O ho ho. The twenty seventh. Hard
to believe how quick time goes by. I know I
keep on saying this over and over again. People are

(01:02):
probably saying, good here he goes again. But holidays are
pretty much over with. We're gonna have a little family
get together on Sunday tomorrow and then, uh, that's it.
Julie and I are in that big on New Year's Eve.
Never have been, never will be. To me, it's an
amateur hour. So looking forward two thousand and twenty six,

(01:31):
which is hard to believe. Twenty and twenty six, twenty
six years since we turned the page from the nineteens
to the two thousand and here we go. We just
keep on quarter of a century more than quarter of
a century now, so I'm live. Do you want to

(01:57):
call in WGY that's one eight, two, five forty nine.
But overall, everybody should be pretty happy for twenty twenty five.
You know, global equities, bonds, excuse me, delivered positive gains,

(02:24):
a lot of the uncertainty, a lot of the anxiety
that was out there about what tariff tariff, tariff, tariff tariff.
You know, these people just get it wrong all the time, folks.
I can say this to you all the time. They
really don't know what the hell they're talking about. And uh,
you know, I keep on saying over and over again.
You want to find out what's going on in the

(02:45):
economy and you want to get facts, turn on Larry
Cudlow and watch that show in the Analyst that he
has on. You'll get a lot of good information and
they're consistently right. But you know, we're coming. I think
we have three days left. Yeah, we have three trading

(03:07):
days left, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That's it. But overall, if
you look at the markets, you're a date. Last week
wasn't too bad, even though it was delayed week as
far as days that were closed in early closing on Wednesday,

(03:32):
but the doll for the week was up one point two,
which we're at fourteen and a half s and P
five hundred up one point four almost eighteen percent, and
then Nasdaq was up another one point two twenty two
point two percent, and then of course the Treasury tenure
is still at four thirteen. But if you were in

(03:53):
bonds this year, you made money, and if you're in
high yield bonds, you've got stock market rates or returns,
which we talk about all the time. I think high
yield ended up around twelve percent year to date. So
you know, bottom line gets down to is that how

(04:15):
do you get ready for twenty and twenty six and
what should you be doing? You know, you don't want
to make any dramatic changes to your all investment philosophy,
and the path that your financial team has put you on.
Fixed income fared well. I think it's going to fare

(04:36):
better in twenty twenty six. I think high yield maybe
some of the emerging market debt. If you're in a
multi ascid class fixed income portfolio, you know what we
call the yield enhancer portfolios. They're really kicking off some
substantial cash flow still. And you know, after relative calm

(05:03):
in the markets over the past couple of years, twenty
twenty five we saw, you know, a little bit of
volatility for some people. They didn't like it the early
part of the year. We're still setting on over seven
trillion dollars of cash in money market accounts, and ultimately,

(05:26):
I think you'll start seeing that money gradually come back
into the market and we'll see what happens here with
the Supreme Court regards to tariffs. But the bottom line
gets down to is that I don't see were tariffs
for having any impact whatsoever in regards to the financial markets.

(05:47):
And also, uh, if you look what it's doing, everybody's
worried about it. If it's going to cause inflation, it's
not happening. So I'm in the camp that I think
twenty twenty six will be low, us disruptive. And if
you listen to any of the economists, the Monday morning quarterbacks,

(06:07):
the screaming monkeys, they're all pretty positive for twenty twenty
spec twenty six, and uh, you know, I think we're
setting up for a pretty good year here domestically, here
in the United States. But as always, no one knows
when a black swan event's going to happen. Make sure

(06:29):
your portfolio is set up that you have hedge. You've
got it, whether it's fixed income, whether it's cash positions.
I'm not big on alts, as anybody knows. You know,
I don't like to get involved in any type of
investment that I can't get out of in a very
short period of time, like right now. And you know,

(06:50):
there's been horror stories on some of these alternative products
private equity, private credit, etc. Where people are trying to
get their money and they can't get their money. You know,
the portfolio manager gives it to you when he wants
to give it to you, and meno like that. You know,
if I want my money, I want it immediately. But
you got to be careful because there's a lot of

(07:11):
platforms that are coming out now that are basically trying
to get into private equity and private credit. They're trying
to give you the liquidity. So one in particular that
was advertised as recently and the internal rady to return
as far as the expenses is fifteen percent. So I
hold my nose and I run away from that too much.
You know, I'm a big believer that you know, for

(07:33):
certain types of products, you're gonna pay more fees. That's
just the way it is. You go buy a brand
new car, you buy a Cadillact, You're gonna pay a
hell of lot more than you're gonna be paying for
a Honda, Right, More sizzle, more bells and whistles. That's
true in the investment banking business too. More sizzle, more

(07:54):
bells and whistles, You're gonna pay a little bit more
in regard to fees. So if we look this year, uh,
you know, I guess the Trump administration's April tariff announcements
would probably be top of the list, you know, top

(08:17):
of the list as far as uncertainty, uncertainty, and you know,
as we go into twenty and twenty six, there's still
a little bit of uncertainty. What is the Supreme Court
going to do in regard to the terriffs. And of
course I'm not telling anybody about techs, tech stocks. I mean,

(08:42):
some of these gains are nosebleed, but earnings and assets
what's different about this? And I had a long chat
with a good buddy of mine who's extremely successful Wall Street,
the guy that I started with over forty years ago,
and this is at the time of the year that
we tased with one another and have chats, and he said, Dave,

(09:05):
you know the difference between what you and I went
through with the technology bubble is all these companies are
sitting on truckloads of cash cash, and they're making unbelievable earnings.
So a lot of people believe that if they keep
on delivering, they're going to keep on going up. All right,

(09:28):
that was a quick first segment. I'm Dave Callbeck. This
is the Retirement Planning Show. I'm live. If you want
to call in one eight hundred talk to me GUI
one eight two five fifty ninety nine will be right back.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Retirement might feel far off, or maybe it's just around
the corner. Either way, it's never too early to start planning.
The experienced team at Retirement Planning Group makes the process simple,
straightforward and all about you. No pressure, just smart advice
to help you feel confident about what's next. Visit rpgretire
dot com or give them a call at eight eight

(10:06):
eight five eight zero nineteen nineteen to schedule your consultation today.
That's rpgretire dot com. Your future self well, thank you.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Retirement is in a Sunday thing. It's a now thing.
Whether you're just starting out or nearing the finish line.
The best time to build your retirement plan is today.
Don't wait for the right moment. Let's create a plan
that works for you. Secure your future and the freedom
that comes with it. Call my office today and take action.

(10:35):
Eighty eight eight five eight zero one nine one nine.
That's eight eight eight five eight zero one nine one nine,
and your future will thank you. SUTURE retirees twenty and
twenty five is gone, in twenty twenty six is here.
Are you still thinking about retiring? Procrastination will hurt you.
Every year you wait to implement your personal retirement plan
is expensive. Stop putting your retirement future on the back burner.

(10:59):
It's time to take action. Call the Retirement Planning Group
for a complementary retirement planning consultation and make twenty twenty
six the year your retirement dreams became a reality. Call
eighty eight eight five eight zero nine one nine and
take action today your retirement future. Are you dreaming of
a comfortable, financially secure retirement. It's closer than you think.

(11:20):
The best time to start planning was yesterday. The second
best time is now. Even small, consistent contributions make a
huge difference over time thanks to the power of compound.
Don't let your retirement dreams just remain dreams. Start setting
up your goals today. Take control of your future. Call
eighty eight five eight zero one nine one nine. That's
eighty eight five eight zero nine one nine for a

(11:42):
free consultation. Right. Not my kind of weather at all.
Boom boom boom, boom boom. I hate it. I hate it.

(12:08):
I don't like eating my peas. You know, you know
the kid says, I don't want to eat that. I
don't want any snow. I'm too old for snow. I
just said to my very competent producers here that this
is it. No more snow, no more no moss, but
be careful. I got up early and my wife said,

(12:34):
you're going in to do the show, and I said, yep,
I am, darling, but I have to go to the
office first. So I got in my car and I
went up to our offices in Malta about a quarter
after four, twenty after four something like that, And to

(12:54):
make a long story short. I got on the north
Way at exit nine. I figured that would be good.
I'll take it nice and easy up the north Way.
I'll got off the exit for Malta, go to the office,
grab my laptop computer which I left my son left it.
I'm going to beat him up when he gets here.

(13:16):
At eight o'clock and got in. The gentleman was plowing
the yard at our office, so I had a nice
chat with him. Wished the happy New Year. I asked
him as Santa Claus came to his house, and he
said he did. And then I got out back on

(13:36):
Route nine. I went through the circle there, then malted
the new circle and passed the state troopers and I'm
heading south and what do I get behind? The New
York State Dot plows And I had never seen how
they plow Route nine before, and it was kind of cool.

(14:01):
Three of the big trucks are side by side. The
one on the left leads, the one on the center
is a little bit behind, and the other one is
a little bit behind that one one's doing the medium right.
So you gotta be careful because there's some medians that

(14:24):
are actually they have to go around, and the other
one kind of wiggles around in order to pick up
the rest and then the one on the right is
doing the shoulder. But pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. I remember
when I came back from South Dakota one year, because

(14:46):
South Dakota, when you're out on the planes, when I
went to school out there, you'll get like one big
truck coming down the road and you're high fiving and
jumping up and down. Is the wind in the planes? Right?
And I used to always be flabbergasted when I landed
here in Albany when I used to see the dot

(15:07):
trucks because there was the size of them and how
they would Basically, it's just weird how your mind works, right,
you're impressed by snowplow trucks and a couple of headlines here.
I know that some people you Albany has a new
football coach, which is good. This guy's coming out of Susquehanna.

(15:29):
The river Hawks got a really good track record, so
that should be very good for you, Albany. Michigan has
a new football coach, and I know my best friend
Brian is ecstatic, and a lot of my friends that
are Michigan supporters, and it looks like the brothers a CBA,

(15:50):
who are ranked in the top twenty five of high
school basketball. How's the hell of a team this year?
So I'm gonna have to go watch them play. I
think I think my nephew might play against. My nephew
plays for Boston SPA. I told you he's a freshman
playing for Boston SPA on varsity and he's gonna be

(16:10):
a real deal. Janice Logan Janis watch that name. So
I'm gonna have to watch them against Cbacuse I love
high school basketball because it isn't tainted, it isn't rotten yet.
You got guys now, guys and gals that are sports nuts.

(16:32):
You'll get a kick out of this. Pro athletes now
are going back to college. There's a guy that just
left the G League and he's going back to Baylor.
And I can remember Calipari saying not that long ago,
a couple of weeks ago, I was reading an art
called Calipari and he was basically saying, is that you

(16:56):
got guys now playing college basketball. You got full beards,
they got a wife, and they got three kids sitting
in the stands. That's the new college basketball. It's not
college basketball anymore. I talked about this with some friends
of mine the other day. It semipro. That's what college
basketball is. It's like Triple A and double A for baseball.

(17:21):
No more thing, no such thing as the purity of
college basketball. It's goe. It's off the window and it sucks.
Just between you and I, I think it's like anything else.
Money ruins everything, but it's going to ruin. You've seen
too many guys, some of your best coaches you've seen
leave college basketball. One of the guys that I have

(17:46):
huge respects for that I thought he was a phenomenal
coach and he did it the right way. Tony Bennett
from University of Virginia said he can't do this anymore.
Can't do this anymore. And it's sad. But I'll still watch,
but I don't have the enthusiasm that I had before.

(18:08):
How does the Cianna compete? They just got blown out
by Indiana. They're never going to compete these top tier
teams never. They don't have the money. That's the game now, moneyball.
That's what they should call it. No longer basketball, that's moneyball.

(18:31):
Go down of the uh. This is my last Brant,
Go down of the arena in Albany and see the attendance,
what it is for college basketball down there. They got
a decent team this year too. The last game they
were saying they had like thirty six hundred people. What
they ought to do is bring it back to the
campus is what they ought to do, because they'll never

(18:53):
fill that thing again in my opinion. That's my opinion. Well,
as I said, everybody should be happy with their net
returns and their portfolios based on their rtqs. Right, some
of you will say, oh, geez, you know, how come
I'm not up thirty percent. Well, you're not up thirty
percent because on your form you basically say you don't

(19:17):
like to go on the roller coaster. Right, You don't
want I have high highs and low lows. You don't
want to have a lot of volatility. But the thing
is is that you should have a very competitive rate
of return this year in regards to your net net
what you've earned on your portfolio for the year two
thousand and twenty five. So as we're all quite well aware,

(19:41):
technology played a major role in economic growth in twenty
and twenty five. Data centers, Data centers, this whole thing
with chat GPT. Well, you know, they say, well, data

(20:02):
centers represent a small share of overall US investment, right,
but they grew. They grew at an annualized rate about
eight point I think about eight point five percent, eight
point four eight point five. They're massive. There are like
four football fields under one roof. And I you know,

(20:28):
as I've said, we are in the process. My son.
This week Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we will be working
on our platform, will be going over where we are
where we want to be in twenty twenty six, and
then we're going to be taking some action with AI.

(20:48):
We are implementing AI into the retirement planning group as
I speak because I personally believe it will be a
powerful long term net driver of economic growth for the
retirement planning group, and it will drive more profits. More profits.

(21:12):
I can do more for my employees. I can put
more bread and butter on their table, I can give
them more benefits. Right. And when I say it's a
long driver of economic it simplifies the process. And I
know that my son is much more involved than this,

(21:33):
and the younger guys in the office, Jared who's a
recent graduate of Siena College, they understand the opportunity that
exists right now and the power of AI. And there's concern.
There's an article today and Barons that goes over how

(21:54):
AI could possibly be affecting what's that social security? Because
social security is based off of the people that are working,
that are paying into the system for the people that
are now drawing benefit off the system. So you might

(22:16):
want to take a peek at that. And if you
get Barons, I haven't read the article yet. I basically
skimmed it this morning. And of course, as you sit
down and you look at your portfolio, you know, I
am not a big believer and I haven't been for
a long time since we got burned, and we got

(22:39):
burned international stocks and we had a company come in
that built out models for us. They were supposedly you know,
emerging markets, international stocks, you know, go through all international bonds,

(23:02):
the terrible and I said, give me the reins. I'm
taking the horseback, all right. If I'm gonna be responsible
for it, I'm gonna select the investments. I'm not going
to have somebody come in here and then I get
beat up because of their inability to draft a plan

(23:24):
that basically supposedly gives me more diversification, global diversification. So
at the retirement planning group, if we've got Microsoft ge
go to the whole laundry list. I'm not going to
mention all the stocks. You know, they're international. I don't
have to go out and pick a stock or an NDC.

(23:49):
I'm very happy here domestically, here in the United States.
So you know, emerging markets. Some people like to play
that game, you know some of them. I've worked out,
you know, Korea this year, China. But when they go down,
hold on to your underwear because you ain't gonna like

(24:11):
the ride. You're not gonna like the ride. So so
take action. Call your team. Twenty twenty six will be
here in another four days, and you want to make
sure that you're prepared, prepared. I'll be right back after
the news. This is Dave Kopek. This is Retirement Planning Show.
Please be safe out there. It is slippery. If you

(24:33):
don't have to go outside. Don't wait until the sun
comes out. And I think that's gonna be tuesday. All right,
we are back. We get your next hot cup of
coffee tea. I started drinking tea tea. My wife bought

(24:58):
some lemon ginger tea and I have it with honey.
My next door neighbor, Butchi Pingalski, who just turned ninety eight,
has hives, and we go over and get the raw
honey and we love it. And I take the raw

(25:26):
honey with my lemon and ginger tea and hot hot, hot,
boiling water. Let it steep. Boys it good, yumyum, yummy, yummy,
yummy yummy. You Albany's doing terrible this year basketball. There's
a guy that should I don't personally, I don't think

(25:46):
you should have kept this job, but that's my own
personal opinion. He hasn't had much success. M Vermont of
course beat Sienna at Vermont. They're tough out in their gym.

(26:08):
They always seem to rise to the occasion. But you know,
college sports is full throttle right now. You've got college football,
you've got college basketball, you got I don't know who's
gonna win the championship this year, the CFP College Football Playoffs.

(26:38):
I think it's anybody's this year. I think anybody can win.
It might be a dark horse, might be somebody that
you're least expect. Right So, what's the action for investors
right now? As we work our way into twenty twenty six. Well,

(27:04):
our book of business is very different now than it
was ten years ago because we're working with three generations.
Some of the families we're working with are four generations.
But when you've been in the businesses now my forty

(27:27):
it will be my forty fourth year in twenty twenty six,
forty four years. Double four's that's my father at the
age of My father died at It's hard to believe
I'd been in the business as long as my dad
lived forty four years. But it's time at this year

(27:50):
that you should be sitting down with your team. I
know that Nico and my son Christopher, and then Chris
McCarthy and Jared have been sitting down and going over portfolios.
But it's smart to take a look at your portfolio
in December, especially with some of the unbelievable returns that

(28:14):
we've had on some of these individual stock positions. And
to say that tech has been a bull ride is
an understatement is an understatement. But as I've said over
and over and over again, the stocks that are just
blowing me out of the water that I can't believe

(28:36):
are ge Ge Verona, ge Aerospace, and even GE Healthcare
is had a decent ride this year, but GE Verona
and GE Healthcare or not g GE Aerospace unbelievable, unbelievable.
The people that held on to that, those stocks that

(29:00):
believed in Larry Culp, you ought to send him a
Christmas card or a Happy New Year, because he's definitely
put jingle jangle in your pocket over the last three
to four years. So when you're looking at for a

(29:21):
lot of us, it depends on you know, there's so
many variables. When they talk about the basics as far
as how you should allocate money during your retirement years,
it's a crapshoot, folks, you know, don't believe all this
crap that you hear as far as the classic sixty
forty portfolio and how you need to allocate the money.

(29:41):
You know what, everybody's different. Everybody's appetite for risk is different.
Everyone has certain needs, right as far as the money
that has to come out of the portfolio in order
to satisfy creature comforts. What I have found over all
the years that I've been doing this, which will soon

(30:03):
be forty four years, I believe in February, I have
to look at that. There's a lot of people that
I meet with say consistently, I just had this happen
when I was out in Boston seeing some clients a
mine in Boston. They said, Jesus, you know, can we

(30:25):
turn this thing off? We don't really need all this money.
We're sitting on all this cash at the bank. And
they said, well, you can turn it off, but there's
a thing called RMD required minimum distribution that you can't

(30:47):
turn off. That's mandatory. Required minimum distribution means it's mandatory
that you've got to start taking and that doray me
out the door and spending it or gifting it, or
doing something with it, burying it inside the house or

(31:09):
the safe, however you want to do it. Anything over
and above that you don't have to take out. But
that's we're all quite well aware. If you've been listening
to this show for years, which a lot of people have,
you know, I'm not a big believer on sitting in
it on IRA accounts, four L three B accounts New

(31:30):
York State deferred accounts, because all you're doing is creating
what a problem. You're not creating a legacy, You're not
creating anything except a problem. Because that money's coming out
when you least want it. The distribution's become the greatest,
and you're sitting there eating your Mapo, figuring out why

(31:51):
am I now or what the hell am I going
to do with this seventy five thousand dollars check? Right?
For a lot of you, that's the plan, right. The
common theme that I hear over and over again, I
don't care. You know if they got to pay tax,
they got to pay tax on it. Okay, you don't care.

(32:13):
I don't care, right, But ird is not fun. But
in Barons today there's another article. I didn't read it,
but I'll tell you about it. The headline is is
that there's a lot of people out there that are
not doing what taking their required Vanguard says, there's a

(32:35):
lot of people out there and that are not satisfying
they are required minimum distributions and guess what, they're getting
hit with penalties because they're not satisfying how much money
has to come out on a annual basis. The headline reads, Now,

(32:57):
this is not me, This is Barons from Vanguard forgot
an IRA withdrawal. The mistake is costing investors billions with
a B billions billions billions. Not's wo smart, is it?
But when you have to take required annual withdrawals and

(33:21):
you don't take required annual withdrawals, there are costly tax penalties.
Right now, that's just Vanguard. We're not talking about all
the other investment banking firms that are out there, and
you don't want to be calling them now this week

(33:41):
because they're going to say, probably, chances are we're not
going to be able to get it out the door
to you. Right there's trillions of dollars, folks, there are
trillions of dollars in I rays. Vanguard estimates that investors.
Now I'm reading their bullet points here, so this is

(34:02):
not me. I'm reading it right out of barons. Vanguard
estimates that investors face up to one point seventy billion
dollars annually in text penalties for not taking what required
minimum distributions. Why is that, Well, I'll tell you the

(34:28):
reason why it is. I'm in one of those moods
today because I'm kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
He knows.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
It's cold out and I'm looking at snow. When I
say to individuals, consolidate, simplify because it will make it
much easier for you and of course the person that
you love. It's not because we don't have enough money

(34:58):
under management, right, It's not like we're trying to grab
more money. I know after doing this for so many years,
simplification and consolidation is your friend, and it eliminates what
mistakes and failing to take those funds out of retirement

(35:20):
accounts would generate what penalties? Do you want penalties? So
we stay over and over again. You know, Lisa's been
on the telephone for probably a month. Hey Bob, you
didn't take as much. Okay, Hey Gene, you got to
take some more. Or people call us and say, hey, Lisa,

(35:40):
where do we stand. You're good, You're more than satisfying
your RMD. We get a report and then we get
proactive right with what we manage. I'm not going to
call you about stuff that you got somewhere else. But
that's also goes to you know what I tell the
guys that work with me. You know, I believe that

(36:01):
autonomy and independence is probably you know, when people come
to work for the Retirement Planning Group, one of the
first questions I asked them, I don't have to babysit you, right,
because I'm not good at babysitting. You're an adult. You
got work to do here. We expect you to do
your work and then you know what, we're gonna everybody's
gonna have a great time. But bottom line gets down

(36:23):
to you've got to make sure that you're dotting your
eyes and crussing your t's because when you consolidate and
simplify and you put your assets with one investment advisory firm,
it's not because you're doing it because you know these

(36:44):
guys are the greatest things since sliced bread as far
as the net return. You're doing it because you want
to make it easy for your loved ones. That's why
you're doing it. We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
The biggest mistake in retirement planning waiting too long. The
sooner you start, the more options and peace of mind
you'll have. Dave Kopek and the Retirement Planning Group are
here to help you build a smart plan that grows
with you. With you're five years out or just getting serious,
now is the time. Don't put it off. Visit rpgretire

(37:26):
dot com or call eight eight eight five eight zero
nineteen nineteen to schedule your consultation today. Start early retire better.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Are you ready for retirement or just hoping it works out.
Don't leave your future to chance. At the Retirement Planning Group,
we help you create a personalized retirement plan so you
can relax knowing you are prepared. Take action today called
eight eight eight five eight zero one nine one nine.
That's eight eight eight five eight zero one nine one nine.
Or visit us at our website rpgretire dot com. Dischedule

(38:00):
your complementary consultation. Your future will say thank you. SUTURE
retirees twenty and twenty five is gone. In twenty and
twenty six is here? Are you still thinking about retirement?
Procrastination will hurt you. Every year you wait to implement
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(38:21):
Call the Retirement Planning Group for a complementary retirement planning
consultation and make twenty and twenty six the year your
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(38:44):
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zero one nine one nine for your complimentary consultation. All right,

(39:17):
we play the same music over and over again. Now, folks,
it's called the big Brother. You can't play music anymore.
The artist, I guess the artist came after iHeartRadio and
said we want our vig we want our money. So
we got to play boom boom something just playing YUCKI corny.

(39:44):
I think my producer should change that up every once
in a while. What do you think. She's shacking her head. Yes,
that's kind of sad, but it is what it is.
We used to get a lot of compliments on some
of the music that we used to play, played some
of the goldies and goodies. But I was talking about
consolidation and simplification. That's that time of year, right, rm

(40:07):
ds have to come out December thirty first. I don't
know if you can still get them out, you know,
if you haven't done what you're supposed to do. But
missus Ashford from Vanguard basically says, keep in mind that
you may want to take more or less depending right
and your income needs, but you have to take at
least least your rm D. But bottom line, she says,

(40:31):
it's consolidation and simplification at later in your life. Investors
with several retirement accounts consolidate them so rm D is
easier to calculate and manage. And I agree and I
agree with that. So what are the actions that you

(40:57):
should be taking for twenty twenty six. You know, I've
been pushing bonds for the last couple of years and
for a lot of our clients they don't like the
volatility of the stock and the bond market. But as
we've said over and over again, you know, there's a

(41:20):
lot of cash out there, folks. You know, we're very
bullish in tax remunicipal bonds, which have done extremely well recently.
And you know, the thing is is that if you're
looking to park some money and get it out of
a taxable investment, it could be an option. Talk to
your financial team to see if tax freeze are suitable

(41:42):
for you. Right. What's nice about it is that it's
tax free, and you know, I think the FED will
continue to modestly ease monetary policy and the year twenty
twenty six, it's kind of a flip of a coin, right, now,

(42:04):
what's gonna happen in January? And what does that do?
It puts more downward pressure on interest rates and gives
you the potential for total return in a bond. Right,
it's gonna limit. It's gonna limit. If you're in cash,
you've already seen it money market accounts. You know, it
used to be around five. Now we're at four, going

(42:25):
you know, under four, handle three and change. So if
you're holding excess cash what I call lazy money, lazy money,
you might want to consider reallocating it to other asset classes, right,

(42:46):
such as what I just said one, tax free municipal bonds.
Depending on your state of residency. If you're a Florida resident,
you don't have to buy Florida bonds. You can buy
national bonds because guess what, they have no state income tax.

(43:08):
If you're New York, you might want to consider doing
a state specific portfolio because then you get the benefit
of not only the tax exempt status federal but also state.
We are also big believers in nyga's multi year guaranteed annuities,

(43:31):
which are just like CDs most of the time, you're
going to get a much more competitive rate of return
they can get at the local bank. It grows on
a tax deferred basis, meaning you pay the tax when
you want to pay the tax, and you can do

(43:52):
maturities three, five, seven, ten years, depending on how long
you want to tie the money up right based on
your rest tolerance when you want to get into the cash,
when you don't want to get into the cash. But
it's a way for you to limit, right, limit the

(44:13):
amount of money that's going out the door come April,
because they've grown that all that interest that you would
be paying on an annual basis right to the tax
man is now working for you compounding, And there's all
sorts of grass and charts where you can see it's
more advantageous for you to do it because you're basically

(44:34):
allowing that money to compound to your benefit. So despite
all the challenges that we've faced down the path of
twenty twenty five, you know it worked out. Diversification was
your friend. Equities and bonds both delivering strong returns for

(44:59):
you as a consumer were and I believe twenty and
twenty six. I don't have a crystal ball, right, but
if I look at the fundamentals and I see how
things are starting, I mean we were almost I think
GDP last quarter, even with all the nonsense going on,

(45:20):
with the total imbeciles in Washington shutting the government down,
GDP still grew at four point three percent. They're saying
the first quarter of twenty twenty six, they're looking at
a five handle. You know what that means? Five percent

(45:42):
GDP compared to where we were. So if you want
some help, you want somebody to stand alongside of you,
step by step, don't forget we offer a complimentary consultation.
Be more than happy to sit down with you, have

(46:03):
a chat to see if our services can be a
benefit to you. Worst thing that can happen is we
meet a new friend and you know, when I'm out
and about, you can say, hey, Dave, how you doing,
Say Bob, by you been? How come you haven't called back? Bob?
Weh waiting? I'm thinking about it. Well, you keep on

(46:24):
thinking about it, Bob. But overall we do the numbers,
about eighty percent of the people that come into the
retirement Planning Group, it's like seventy eight percent something like that,
seventy nine percent implement through us. Very high percentage of
people that actually walk in the door end up doing
business with the retirement Planning Group. And I think the
reason for that is pretty simple. We don't blow any smoke.

(46:47):
We tell you exactly the way it is, right, We
don't have any biases, we don't tell you lies, right,
we don't tell you stuff that's not true, and we hope, hopefully,
hopefully hold your hand during difficult times and help you
navigate through them. You know, one of the things that

(47:10):
we consistently say, and I know that Chris McCarthy said
it last week when we were on the radio together,
we don't have all the answers. One, sure, we don't
have all the answers. But after being in the business
for as long as Chris and I have been in
the business, when we added up about eighty five years,

(47:32):
eighty five eighty six years, when you aggregate the amount
of years that he's been in business, and all he
did was retirement income distribution planning for like forty years.
That was his expertise, that's what he did for the
company that he was working with. And then our investment
strategy team. Of course, you know we don't do it locally.

(47:56):
You know, we have an input, but we got the mothership.
They have thousands of employees, hundreds of CFAs and portfolio managers.
We're part of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Advisors FAIWA. Not everybody is,
but we are, and it gives us a lot of
benefit to you, the consumer of financial products, because it

(48:20):
allows you to basically get a lot of talent that
you wouldn't necessarily get if you knocked on the door
and said, I want to come in and have you
guys manage my money. Typically what happens you walk into
a Fidelity office, you have a chat with them, right
and there's a little person that puts you in a
booth and they basically say, blah blah blah, this is

(48:43):
what we're going to do. As far as managing your money.
We're a little bit more in depth than that. So,
as I said, we have Syracus is doing phenomenal for us.
Syracuse is a very busy office for the retirement Planning
Group Albany, the capital District region. You know, we have

(49:05):
an office in downtown Albany if you want to meet
with us. We have an office in Oneana locations that
are available. We will soon have an office we're still
working on it in the Kingston area for all of
our listeners down at w KIP. For now, we use
executive suites where we can meet you face to face

(49:26):
if you have any questions on how we can help
facilitate your pre and post retirement planning. But like anything else,
stay within you. You know your your guardrails. Don't go
outside your guardrails. If it sounds too good to be true, folks,

(49:50):
it's too good to be true. I actually have to
make a very difficult phone call on Monday. I have
an older client I believe is getting scammed. I had
a chat with my son about it, and I'm going
to tell him on Monday that he needs to come
in and see me face to face and I want

(50:11):
to see what's going on. And if I don't like
the answers, I'm either going to tell him he's got
to go somewhere else or he needs to cancel this
relationship with this I don't know who this woman is,
but she's given him ideas that are unrealistic as far
as the net return, as far as guarantees, and we're

(50:33):
going to have to nip it in the butt immediately.
And that's something I'm very comfortable doing after doing this
now for almost forty four years. So my son is
going to commend and do the second hour with me,
thank God, as I sit here blowing my horn. But again,

(50:55):
if you have any questions or comments in the second hour,
we would love to hear from you. It's pret pretty easy.
It's a toll free number. It's one eight hundred talk WGY.
That's one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine.
And as I've always said, uh, we're more than happy
to come to you by training, plane, boat, car, whatever

(51:17):
it is. If you want to sit down with us
face to face. If we can't facilitate it on the phone,
bye e money by zoom by rings Central, we'll physically
come to you. We enjoy traveling and we would love
the opportunity to compete for your business in twenty twenty six,

(51:39):
So give us a call today. We're here live one
eight hundred talk WGY of Dave Kolpek. My son's going
to be here, Christopher William and we'll see on the
other side of the news. All right, wea be back

(52:18):
on this sunny, warm, fantastic day in upstate New York.
I guess if you're a skier, you're probably high five
and jumping up and down. But we still had we
had quite a bit of snow up in Lake George already.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Yeah, my car was in about a foot of snow
this morning, so we definitely got some.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Well you're a happy camper because you're a skier. Yeah, no,
it's nice.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
We were actually talking about if we were gonna go
at some point this weekend, but I don't think we're
gonna too much going on.

Speaker 5 (52:59):
Yeah, well, you and Marissa can come up to my
house and shovel Oh beautiful. I actually think we're busy today, Ashley,
grab your mic.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
What's up, Dave?

Speaker 2 (53:17):
All right? We had a gentleman that called in. What
was his name?

Speaker 3 (53:21):
His name is Pete.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
And what did Pete say? He said, you guys were great,
So we were great. And Pete works for who I
believe he said he worked for a fidelity Yeah, all right, Well,
if he calls back, we'll get him on the air.
I will make sure you. Hopefully Pete's listening, we can
say Happy New Year and see him at the next

(53:43):
event in Boston. Did you have to dig your car
out today? Yes, there was so much no I thought
my car was going to crash. You live in Albany.
I live in Troy right now. Yeah, I'll tell you what.
I lived in Aumanie for about four or five years

(54:04):
when I was going to college. I hated it because
they plow yet and it's such a pain to try
to get out. The roads were quite bad this morning,
I'll say. Yeah, I was waiting for you to call.
Tell me you're on the show. Yea like, Hey, dave
a minute, just right now. Hey, I'm coming to get you.

(54:27):
I'll come get you, Darling, I'll help you. I'll help you,
all right. Uh, my son is here, Christopher William A
pretty good year in twenty twenty five. Yeah, we had
a great year. It's not finished yet. We got three
days left. But overall, if you look at the net returns,
it's been a pretty good year. Consumers, communication, information technology, industrials,

(54:52):
S and P five hundred, financials, healthcare, even healthcare bounce
back later part of the year. I got kicked in
the tea a little bit. So what's your overall THEE
only for twenty twenty six bullish or bearish? I think
we still are are bullish.

Speaker 4 (55:14):
I mean, I think that the way it's set up
right now with technology and what we're seeing out of
this AI wave, and not only that, and just where
rates are at.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
You know, if inflation stays low and.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
The number we keep hitting the numbers that the Fed's
looking to hit, you know, I don't see why we
can't keep cutting rates. And then in that case, you know,
bond small caps look good. Bonds look good. If technology
keeps advancing well and doing its thing as far as
hitting these technology companies keep hitting their their earnings, you know,

(55:55):
I don't see why we can't continuously grow through twenty
twenty six. They're already predicting. I think they said, you know,
two percent real GDP growth for twenty twenty six, and
if that's the case, they usually say the SMP is
it five percent for every percent of GDP growth, So
they're predicting, you know, a ten percent return by the

(56:17):
end of twenty twenty six on the S and P
five hundred. That's the case, it's going to be a
pretty good year. Another double digit year and in the
S and P five hundred would be great. So we're
very optimistic, you know, we're but obviously you know, you
you're cautiously optimistic. You know, you're hitting all time highs
market just rallied within the last two weeks here after

(56:37):
selling off a little bit. But yeah, going into twenty
twenty six, i'd say we're cautiously optimistic.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
And I know that we've done a lot Chris and
tax Freeze, which have done well recently on the fixed
income side for people that are looking for alternative ways
to reduce some tax liabilit and old you know, diversify
their portfolio a little bit. Tax freeze probably makes sense

(57:05):
for people are a little bit higher net worth.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Yeah, they still make sense. We just you know, have
been putting tax freeze into a lot of people's portfolios
who find themselves and you know, the thirty two percent
tax bracket and above just because the dividends. You know,
you're still seeing three four percent dividends in these municipal

(57:28):
bond or high yield municipal bond funds, so they're they're
still really attractive. You know, we like that space right now,
just because like your tax equivalent yield, you know, if
you're thirty two percent tax bracket or above is pretty attractive.
You're six six six, six and a half seven percent
around that range, So you know, it looks it looks good.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
And as we we've got really four days of trading.
We got muddy Tuesday and Wednesday, then we got Friday,
but muddy Tuesday and Wednesday basically wrap up the year
for twenty twenty five of see a Santa Claus. If
the rally continues. As far as net returns on portfolios,

(58:17):
you'll you'll get a lot of selling and you'll get
a lot of repositioning for your right. Yeah, so I
expect this coming week to be a bouncy week as
far as volatility, because you're going to have a lot
of portfolio managers they're going to lock in lock in
so they get their bonuses for the year, and then
you're also going to get a lot of portfolio managers
that they're going to do window dressing. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Yeah, there's always a lot of cleanup at the end
of the year as far as rebalancing accounts or tax
lost harvesting. But another area that I think isn't being
talked about enough as far as going into twenty twenty six,
is energy and where all this power is going to
come from to keep this AI data center movement that

(59:05):
we're seeing out of all these you know, mag seven
big technology companies running. And we saw a huge year
for nuclear energy, you know, just in that space of
the energy well that specific space in the energy sector,
and I think personally that it's going to continue to

(59:26):
get more and more and more relevant over the next
you know, twelve months here because the amount of the
amount of data centers that they're putting in, you know,
the amount of technology that's being utilized in the AI space.
You know, a lot of these companies are are using
it and having these teams build out you know, AI

(59:46):
development teams and all this other stuff. But they're going
to need lots and lots of power to power these
data centers. That is what AI is run on. So
I think that's going to be another theme of twenty
twenty six is energy and where is all this energy
going to come from?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
And a lot of it well they're restarting nuclear facilities.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Again, yeah, I know, And I talked to we talked
to a client about this and it's and the you know,
the true thing that he threw out there is, well,
you know, it's not necessarily the issue of the energy itself,
it's it's who. It's the people who wants who wants
a mini nuclear reactor site in their backyard. So there

(01:00:30):
could be some pushback, which you know, I would assume
that's going to happen from you know, what people want.
If if they say, hey, you know your town is
getting a mini nuclear reactor site or they're building one.
I don't think anybody's going to be really jumping for
joy that that's happening. But I do think that. I mean,

(01:00:50):
they're testing them right now, so I think it's coming.
It's just a matter of when. All right here in
the I just did a real quick search on the
barns that tech companies are desperate for electricity for their
AI data centers, causing to band for power to surge

(01:01:12):
around the country.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
It's usually good side, yeah, you know, when there's not
enough product for the demand.

Speaker 4 (01:01:21):
And there's definitely not enough. Yeah, So we'll be right back.
I'm Dave Kopek. I'm hearing my son Chris.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Got any questions or comments, you can give us a
call one eight hundred talk WGY. That's one eight hundred
eight two five fifty nine.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Planning for retirement doesn't have to be overwhelming, especially when
you have the right team by your side. At Retirement
Planning Group, Dave Kopek and his team are here to
help you build a strategy tailored to your goals and lifestyle.
Whether you're nearing retirement or just getting started, now's the
time to take control of your future. Schedule your free
consultation today at RPG Retired or call eight eight eight

(01:02:01):
five eight zero nineteen nineteen Retirement Planning Group Retire with confidence.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Attention, future retirees. A financial threat is putting your retirement
at risk. The cost of long term care can be
well over one hundred thousand dollars a year fidelities. Recent
studies suggests retirees could need hundreds of thousands of dollars
just to cover medical expenses in retirement. You need to
address this risk now. To be prepared, call my office

(01:02:29):
to find out your options well eighty eight five eight
zero one nine one nine eighty eight five eight zero
one nine one nine for a complementary consultation. Future Retirees
twenty and twenty five is gone in twenty and twenty
six is here. Are you still thinking about retiring? Procrastination
will hurt you Every year you wait to implement your
personal retirement plan is expensive. Stop putting your retirement future

(01:02:52):
on the back burner. It's time to take action. Well
the Retirement Planning Group for a complementary retirement planning consultation
and make two thousand in the twenty six, the year
your retirement dreams became a reality. Call eighty eight eight
five eight zero one nine one nine and take action. Today,
we are living through the greatest wealth transfer in the
history of mankind. Trillions of dollars of wealth will change

(01:03:13):
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(01:03:33):
zero one nine one nine. That's eight eight eight five
eight zero one nine one nine. All right, we are back.
Good morning on a snowy morning and upstate New York.
If you're listening in Florida other parts of the country,

(01:03:56):
and it's sunny and warm and green grass and you're
going out golfing or sit a the beach. Please don't
call us, Please don't let us know anything about that.
I agree with you. I think energy you're going to

(01:04:16):
have to find. You know, there was a few couple
of IPOs last year in energy that didn't that bode
well for a lot of reasons. But I think AI
right is going to these centers that are being built,
they're going to have to facilitate the demand for power.

(01:04:39):
And I don't know how many they've built. They've built
a whole bunch like twenty six, twenty eight of these
data centers, and I think it's on the books for
them to build like another twenty five or twenty six.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Right, Well, they're realizing that these data centers are taking
up enough power as like like a city National grids.
You know, it's it's it's insane much power they're pulling.
So this is becoming more and more relevant. But what
they're saying they're going to do is it's going to
be much more watched, I guess, and much more safe

(01:05:14):
because of the the smaller reactor sites also it's more efficient.
I guess they can somehow reuse their uranium that they're
using in a more efficient way. But also they're gonna
have AI track it. You know, what you're powering, you're
going to have track you through you know, different sensors
and numbers. So as far as the risk and regulation,

(01:05:38):
you know, AI systems are going to be monitoring the
nuclear system powering it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Which is pretty crazy to think about. But well that's
why ge Verona has been on a run. Yep, one
of the big favorite that's my favorite. Yeah, she gets
you like a foam finger or something. Ge foam finger.
I hate to say I said it, but I said it.

(01:06:08):
You know, I've been a bowl for the last three
four years on GE And I'll tell you what. Like
I said, are you buying it for all the right reasons?
And I thought I was buying it for all the
right reasons. And it's a guy they named Larry Cope.
So but geev Rohna, which is right down the road
here is an electric power industry, right generators, nuclear power, wind.

(01:06:38):
I don't I don't know what's going to happen with wind. No,
those are gone, they're gone. I think that's pretty much
a dead issue.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
I don't think a windmill produces enough power in it's
lifetime that it takes to put it up, right. I
think someone ran the numbers on that, and it's pretty shocking.
They're gone those those even solar soul on the way
out like it's not it doesn't produce enough power for
the demand.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Yeah, so I think they're the only real way Switzerland
or Sweden, sorry that Switzerland. Sweden is looking into nuclear
their nuclear capacity. China is already doing this. They're looking
at small modular reactors as well. It's just as this
AI era, the demand for this energy is going to

(01:07:26):
continuously increase year over year over year. So I think
they're going to go hand in hand. I think with
this much reliance on AI, and you got every company
trying to intertwine itself with AI and and somehow work
you know, and become more efficient around it, you're going
to see that. You know, these data centers are just

(01:07:48):
going to continuously grow and grow, and the more those
pop up, the more energy you're going to need to
keep the lights on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Yeah, Trump gave some cash to pell us, says Nuclear
Power Department Energy worded eight hundred million dollars of grants
to two nuclear reactor projects in Michigan and Tennessee, matching
private placement. Whole Tech International received funding for Too Small,

(01:08:19):
which you just talked about modular reactors, right, And the
Tennessee Valley Authority will use its grant for a three
hundred megawatt reactor at a Clinch River wherever the hell
Clinch River is. So it's starting to happen, and what
you're talking about is starting to happen. But what they're

(01:08:40):
trying to do, the Trump administration is trying to jumpstart
the nuclear energy where you know, for a lot of
years nobody wanted it in their backyard.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Excuse me, Yeah, well he ran on energy too, so
I think it goes hand in hand with you know,
some of the policies that he had originally ran on.
So he was talking about energy independence as is one
of his talking points when he was running. So if
that's the case, you know, I think this upcoming year
could be a shift. Now that rates are you know,

(01:09:15):
semi in control. You know, they're they're they've cut the
last couple of times. Now they kind of got to
handle on inflation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
The next buzzword or talking point could be you know,
energy and getting their arms around, you know, how they're
going to power all this AI. But earlier in the year,
you know what sparked all this for me was Three
Mile Island in Pennsylvania earlier in the year was bought

(01:09:43):
out by Microsoft. So that facility was you know, restarted
and rebranded, which has never happened before in the history
of a nuclear power plant?

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
Is that what they did, and they're and they're using that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
For data centers and AI infrastructure. They bought it out
earlier in this year, and I saw that and was like, wow,
this is this is no joke. That's never happened before. Yeah,
So they hired their own team and they have a
long term agreement, you know, to supply power to their
data centers and AI infrastructure through Three Mile Island.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
So once that happened, I was like, all right, this
is everyone else is going to be doing it now,
just you know, either reinstating these old nuclear facilities that
were shut down because the infrastructure is already there, or
building these new, new and improved many nuclear reactor sites.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
I think that's great, but you know, the thing is,
in all honesty ninety nine percent of our investors are
not individual stock investors. No, there's there's ETFs that cover
the space, but there's I mean, what we're really talking
about is the ability. Actually, well that's what I was
trying to say. I mean, if you want to get
into this, we would probably if you a you know,
a desire. Yeah, yeah, there's a few.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
There's you know nlr is one nukes and Youkzy nukes.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
Yeah, you've been a big You've been bigger than that
for a while. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
I mean I just watched it. I think it was
up fifty percent this year. So it's like one of
those things where it's like all right, I mean, yeah,
you see it earlier in the year and then you
look back and you're like wow, every now and then
you check in on it, and it just continuously was
growing and growing throughout the year, and it's not even
being really just I mean it is you know, you're
there's there's stuff out there, they're talking about it, but
it's not you know, it's not the buzzword of the market.

(01:11:32):
And you know, energy even conversations that we're having these
year end conversations with all the companies, I'm always asking like, hey,
is nuclear. You know, is energy on your guy's docket.
And you know, for the most part, you know, they
see the relevance in that space, but they're the big
name guys are really not looking too much into the
energy space, at least from the conversations I've had. But

(01:11:56):
a lot of their focus is mainly on tech, you know,
with AI. You know, tech they think is going to
remain strong. But you know, if that's the case in
my mind, if tech remains strong, well, then energy's got
to wiggle its way in there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Somehow. I'm kind of flabbergassed that we're not hearing more.
You know what, really has one skyrocketed this year and
a lot of people are not talking about his commodities
commodities silver, oh yes, yeah, Gold, Yeah yeah, platinum. You
know silver is up one hundred and forty so far

(01:12:32):
in twenty twenty five. Yeah right, it's you know, I
think that you know, we we've had this conversation internally
a lot of times when you buy hard assets like that,
our clients are typically looking for what cash flow dividend? Right,

(01:12:52):
So hard assets like that gold and silver, you know,
if you buy the actual metal themselves, they don't pay
a dividend, right, but if you get into the miners,
you know, you can get a dividend off the portfolio.
But it's just how much would you allocate in alternative investments,

(01:13:14):
And that's another that's another topic, because we have found
that alternative investments have historically they've over delivered or underdelivered.
Made promises and underdelivered as far as far as the
net result.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
Yeah, I mean gold and silver. Like we always recommend
people if they're interested in gold and silver, like, go
buy I always say, just go buy it physically, you know,
if you have like a space for it in your house.
I know, you got to get like a safe or
some secure location to have gold and silver.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
But that's why not just get a portfolio? Why not
just buy a commodity portfolio? You can you can also
do that. We say we have the ability to do both. Yeah.
But you like the idea, you know, carrying a safe
around run out of the house. Yeah, yeah, I like
the idea. I do. Hey, look what Santa brought me.
H it's a safe.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Open it up, yep, yep, throw your gold and silver
in there. Well you can see it, touch it. It's
an alternative investment. So it's completely you know, well, while
it's supposed to be completely disassociated with your stock investments,
I mean, how much do you want online? That's the
other thing too, It's like people are like, who are
all nervous about, you know, online and everything being on

(01:14:27):
the internet. Now, at least it's something that you can
go look, touch, make you feel better. You got some
money stashed away and you're safe, whether it's cash and
in gold and silver.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
I'm starting to see all the gold advertisements again, all
over TV and radio, and I'm saying this is a
top There's no doubt because anytime you I mean, you know,
you got the guy that you know, Yeah, I was
a plumber for twenty six years. You know, I'm a
gold trader. You know, I've made so much money it's unbelievable.
I'm not gonna plumb. I'm not gonna be a plumber anymore.

(01:14:57):
I'm gonna be a gold trader. That's usually you know,
it's usually time to take your yeah, take your bag
and run.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Who knows, though, I mean it could be it could continue, obviously,
but we've seen crazy growth in gold and silver silver.
I was someone was saying this earlier in the year
that silver relative to gold is very undervalued because it's
utilized a lot more on you know, for it's very
conductive as a metal, so like electric cars, gold.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
And silver and plat and bitcoin and bin animal Yeah,
I know, but you take all these alternatives. I just
think that you you buy a portfolio that has the
tactical ability to get into all these alternative investments, you know.
And there are portfolios which we're not going to given
the names too because we can't legally on the air,

(01:15:49):
but you know, some of them that have done phenomenal
and some of them have done pitiful. Yeah, I mean,
you know, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:57):
I think that the yeah, you're to date, bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies in general have well underperformed the S and P
five hundred. Absolutely, but look at their five years, they're
five years insane.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
All Right, that was a quick half hour. I'm here
with my son Chris. This is a retirement planning show.
Well back for our last half hour. Give any questions
or comments on talk to me, g Y. We'll see
you right after the news. All right, we are back.

(01:16:48):
I apologize for my voice, but I woke up yesterday
morning with a sniffle, which it's turned into more than
a sniffle loaded up with vics. I can tee, honey,
had a fire in the fireplace all day yesterday. There

(01:17:09):
you go, vix more, vix more, vex. Well, she you
should come up and take care of daddy. When I'm saying, ah,
I don't know if you want me taking care of you.
I said to my kids one time, I said, you
know I took care of you when you're younger, you
have to take care of me. And my daughter goes, hell, no,

(01:17:33):
that's what's appointing, MICHAELA. You won't take care of daddy.
You won't change my diapers and stuff. She goes, hell, No,
you're a tough patient. You don't think i'd be a
good patient. No, Chriss, I think you'd be a high
maintenance patient. Chriss. Go get me this, will you please.

(01:17:57):
That's why I married a younger woman, your mom, because
they knew she would stay active for much longer in
life than me. And when I need something done, she's
gonna come a running. She promised me that it's in
our contract, signed off on it. Overall, how would you
reach your holidays? So far?

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
Great holidays are always great? Yep, see a lot of
family and friends. Ye saw some friends from Florida that
were up.

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
Yeah. Last night you had dinner at Novote How do
you pronounce it? A Novo. That's a great restaurant. Ye, ready,
street here. I've never had a bad meal there. That's
where I go with W. G Y when we go
out have lunch at dinner. Yeah, it's good. It's my
first time going there, so it's just good. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:45):
The roads were horrendous, were they? Oh my gosh, horrible?
We got stuck in the Novo parking lot trying to
leave last night, and uh, just floor, Well we got this,
you know, we're in his pickup truck, and how the
hell can you get what? Well, you'll you'll if you

(01:19:05):
let me finish the story, you know you'll you'll hear.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
All right, let me sit back, all right? Did you
give me a Are you listening? Did you give me
a cup of tea at break? No? No, no, no,
I'll sit back and listen. All right, Here we go.
So here we go. The truck.

Speaker 4 (01:19:23):
We're trying to figure out, you know, why we're stuck
in the parking lot, and this guy is plowing the
parking lot and he sees us. You know, we're sitting
there spinning the tire, spinning tires. I'm like, wow, we're
we are stuck. Huh how do you get stuck in
a Ford f one fifty?

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
And uh?

Speaker 4 (01:19:40):
This guy pulls up next to us, rolls down his
window and he's, you know, giving us like an eyebrow up.
He's like, you guys are right, and we're like, yeah,
you know, we're just you know, stuck, trying to trying
to get out of here. And he's like, is it
in four wheel drive? And he looked down him like dude,
you don't even have it in four wheel drive, do you?
And he's like, nope, pressed the four wheel drive button.

(01:20:01):
Oh he cooked right through the snow. Yeah, Like Butter Lorenzo,
he's a moron. No, it was actually Marco. Yeah, so yeah, yeah,
what the hell was he driving a pickup truck? It
was like one of the work his dad's work truck
or something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
Yeah, well we can blame that that he lives in
Florida and Fort Lauder now yeah, he's a Florida guy. Now,
so I guess he gets he gets some slack feet.
It's one exemption on that. What's the overall. Is he
happy in Florida?

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
Of course, how can't you be except for the summer obviously,
But yeah, he come up here and visit, right, and
then he makes a couple of trips up here.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:20:37):
But I don't know. I mean, you know, the same
weather all year round probably gets old after a few years.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
Eighty degrees in sunny, that gets old. I don't think so.
I hear both sides of the Chris sister said to
me the other day, she's gonna run to the plane. Well, yeah,
he just got a foot of snow. So you know
on Wednesday when she flies back, she's fly back to Tuesday. Yeah,
she fled back, slice back on Tuesday. So you want

(01:21:06):
to talk more about alternatives, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:21:09):
Yeah, So the alternative investments space, we've heard more and
more about it in the last couple of years, specifically
from the Fidelity conference that we go to in Boston.
You know, they've they've mentioned it this past year and
the year before that. You know, they had speakers going
up there talking about different portions of your portfolio and

(01:21:30):
how much should you be allocating into these alternative investments,
whether it's precious metals or cryptocurrency. Or private investments. In
the private equity, private equity, private credit space. You know,
there's a lot of different alternatives out there.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
If you go to their website, I don't know if
you've done this or not. To the alternative fidelities, there's
got to be at least one hundred alternative investments. Oh
there's a ton, Yeah, there's a ton now. I mean
it's just it's page after page page of selling agreements
that he has with alternative investments companies. Yeah. Yeah, there's

(01:22:08):
a bunch in private credit long short right, private equity,
combination of all of it, it's it's just amazing. I
mean it's a you know, everything from Goldman Sachs to
you know, JP Morgan, all the major players that are
in that space that you know they want to work
through the Fidelity platform. So you really have to have

(01:22:32):
someone that has expertise in that arena. Yeah, in my
that's my opinion. Well, no, that's yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:22:37):
That's what I was going to hit at, is the
the private space, especially when you get into private equity
and private credit.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
You like, the the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:45):
Numbers on the top managers in the private space, between
the returns from the top managers and the bottom managers
as far as performance is huge. I mean, we just
saw a chart from I don't know who brought it in,
one of the companies that we just met with brought
it in, and it was like there was like a

(01:23:06):
double digit difference in performance from the top managing private
equity in private credit space, mutual funds or whatever investments
that you're getting in versus the bottom, you know, the
rest of the grouping. So there's such a disparity in
that space. You need to know really what you're getting into,
and you don't want to get into something too.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
What happens in the private space, you know behind the scenes,
is if you're loading up these mutual funds with money
and these companies are getting money and money and money
and there's nothing to buy, Well, they got to buy
something because they can't have that much cash sitting on
book on their books. So yeah, some of these private
investments go out and buy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
So they stretch, they stretch their investment criteria.

Speaker 4 (01:23:49):
Right, and then you get like some pretty junk investments
or private companies or something just because they got to
go buy something. So you got to get you know,
some understanding. I guess it all comes down to just
knowing what you own obviously, but understanding that these these
alternative investments, you know, they're not really all built the same.
They're not built like you know, the S and P

(01:24:09):
five hundred where you can go into spy Voo or
something else and get you know, the same returns pretty much.
You can have a very very different, uh, set of returns,
you know, between each of these mutual funds. So it's
it's and some of them have different liquidity lock ups
as well. So what happens is you can only you

(01:24:31):
can invest in these funds, but you can only pull
your money out on a quarterly basis. Yeah, so that's
that's the hurdle you know, for a lot of people
to get into these as.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
Well, and there's no guarantee and get all of it. Yeah,
there's no guarantee, yeah, that you can pull all your
money out right, and then so you might end up,
you know, you want to get one hundred percent of
it out because you think the guy's a jerk or
the girls a jerk, or they can't manage money properly,
and then you're stuck. And then you got to sit
there and wait and wait and wait. Wait. You know,

(01:25:02):
my position is this, most of the people that come
to the retirement planning group are in their late fifties
early sixties, Right, For most of them, they're not really
trying to hit triples and home runs. They're trying to
get good, consistent singles in every once in a while
at double right. I just don't think I don't have

(01:25:22):
the appetite for it. I've gone through some of these
alternative investments and it has cost me personally thousands and
thousands and thousands of dollars for me to make clients
whole that I felt that they were basically sold a
pipe dream, right.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
Yeah, I think they're a little different now though from
the one you got a knew the uh, because there's
just so the space itself is growing so much so
alternative investments they're saying like a sixty forty portfolio, there's
more like a sixty thirty ten.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
Now. Is Andrews still in the investment banking industry.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
I'm having dinner with him tonight actually, But no, he's
in financial technology sales now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
Is that what he's doing? Yeah? Yeah, So he's no
longer with what was Blackrock. He was with black Rock
yet black Crack so he's out of the city. He's
still in the city. Still in the city. Yeah, yeah,
so I'd be interested in having a chat with him
as far as what his perspective is. Were you guys
having dinner if I invited.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
Uh, we are having dinner somewhere in Saratoga. I should
not know the name of the rest. Yeah, why not,
you know, just show on up. Yeah, Mom and I
don't think we have anything playing.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
Oh beautiful, We'll pull up a chair. Probably got a
big expense account. Yeah, you might want to do business. Yeah,
he's got the company card on him. It's a company card.
Did you guys go to know as yet? I did
go to Noah's. How was it phenomenal? It was? Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
And you went to school with him at CBA. Yeah,
he went to CBA. He's a few years older than
I am, but yeah he was. He come out and
say high. No, no, no, I don't I don't even
know if he remembers me. I just remember, you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Didn't say hey. You didn't say hey, this is Chris Collpec. Nope,
you didn't say that. No CBA guy.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
No, No, he was in the back chef and doing
chef you know. Or Mom and I went the other
night for my favorite dish. Uh, lake Ridge. I went
in the kitchen. I said, Hi, of.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
Course you did, storm right back there, didn't you give
him a big hug with some Uh. If you're in
that area, Bolston Lake, Bolston Spa, Uh, go to lake
Ridge Restaurant. They they have the best appetizer called lobster betty. Yeah, yeah,

(01:27:42):
you love that. I think he. I think he threw
in an extra one for me the other night. Yeah,
probably did because I give him so much good press
and my my wife loves their crack crab cake. They
got good food. Yeah, I've really never really had a
bad meal there.

Speaker 4 (01:27:57):
That's good stuff. So he went to Knows and it
was good Phenomenalon. You guys haven't dinner where tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
I figured it out. No, we have we have juice. No,
no juice Kindred if you've heard of that, I have Hindred.

Speaker 2 (01:28:13):
I'll be I'll be with my vix and my I
can't That's what I'll be doing tonight. So all right,
we got one segment left. We're talking about alternative products.
We're talking a little bit buyer beware. I'm not a
fan of alternative products. Folks, I'm telling you right now
for a lot of reasons. If it's got liquidity, I
probably am. If it doesn't have liquidity or I can't

(01:28:36):
get rid of it, then I don't want it. So
we'll be back after this last break. This is the
Retirement Planning Show.

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):
M.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
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Whether you're just starting out or nearing the finish line.
The best time to build your retirement plan is today.
Don't wait for the right moment. Let's create a plan
that works for you. Secure your future and the freedom
that comes with it. Call my office today and take action.

(01:29:19):
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(01:29:42):
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(01:30:04):
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(01:30:35):
All right, you're back for our last segment when eight
hundred talk to beat you? Why if you have a
question or a comment? Can't believe it, folks. Three days
left Sunday, No, four days Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And
then Santa Clause beats feet. He's gone, He's back to

(01:30:59):
the north wall. We get back to work, all right, yep.
Would you ever be stupid enough to go stand for
hours well to see the ball drop in the city? Nope?
Never put a diaper on. Nope, because you can't leave
once you go in.

Speaker 4 (01:31:14):
Yeah, I heard that. That's half those people in the
front and are wearing diapers. Yeah, no, no, thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Like that. Have you ever done that, Ashley? No, I'll
stay away from the city during years. Yeah, me too. Yeah,
you gotta be some type of stupid. Yeah to stand there.
Did you go to the city much when you were
living down in Poughkeepsie area?

Speaker 5 (01:31:34):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
Yeah, I used to go for my birthday and stuff.
It's only like a hour half away from down there,
So I liked going to the train. Yes, I love
taking the train of the north Way. Yeah, I don't
blame it. My wife was supposed to go to the
city today and she canceled out. She was supposed to
go with Nick's mother and Nick and my daughter, and

(01:31:55):
she said, nope, we ain't doing it because of the weather.
So they're gonna go, I guess in the spring. Sometime
in the spring. So all right, So as of right now,
mm hmm. Designing out portfolios for two thousand and twenty six. Yes,
you know you're gonna start seeing the coupon drop. You're

(01:32:17):
gonna start seeing yields becoming less attractive. If the Fed
does what we think they're going to do, especially with
the mantra that Trump administration has when the new FED
chair comes. Poll's gone in May. Don't know if he's
gone in April or May's. May is his last day.

(01:32:39):
But I think that that's going to be an indicator
that we're going to start seeing a much more aggressive
FED policy. As far as interest rates, which means fixed
income investors. In my opinion, this is just my opinion.
I used to trade a lot of bonds when I
was younger in this business. I think fixed income is
going to be very attractive this year. Yeah, it's been.

(01:32:59):
It's been good this year. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:01):
I mean as far as fixed income, you're getting pretty
attractive yields and you don't really have to take that
much risk. You're getting six seven percent as far as
like a high yield fund, you know, something that is
inherently taking not a lot of risk, you know, through

(01:33:23):
the bonds themselves, and they look attractive. So as yields
or as raids continue to cut, those bonds will appreciate
as well. So the fixed income portfolio that we have,
you know, our income model has done pretty well.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
You're to date. I'm pretty sure it's it's it was close.

Speaker 4 (01:33:40):
I mean it's got to be over ten percent at
this point over the last you know, a month here.
As far as what that return, I think so, yeah,
oh it is it's like eleven in change. Yeah, it's
I had Neico check it the other day. So that's great.
I mean, something that's taken inherently about half the risk
of something like the S and P five hundred. And

(01:34:01):
this is where that Nitrogen software system that we utilize
is just great for all this information knowing where you're
at as far as how much inherent risk are you
taking versus your potential upside?

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
How well does that received Nitrogen very well by perspective
and existing clients very well.

Speaker 4 (01:34:18):
I think that that platform itself has completely rebranded how
we structure our portfolios.

Speaker 2 (01:34:26):
They don't disagree, but I wanted to. You're basically saying
something that I wanted other people to hear.

Speaker 4 (01:34:31):
Yeah, it's it's unbelievable. And the ability for it to
to transfer over you know, current investments of you know,
clients who get onboarded, we roll their portfolio over as is,
you know, without selling, and then upload it into Nitrogen.
It'll you know, grade them, give them a score, you know,

(01:34:53):
we can go in and look and then give our
opinion on what should be changed and how to tweak
it to get it closer closer to a more highly
graded portfolio. Just on a risk perspective, you know, how
much inherent risk are you taking for your potential return?
And it's just based on historical numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
Bitcoin was recently at one hundred and twenty two thousand
dollars in change. As we sit here today, it's at
eighty seven thousand, eighty seven eighty seven four fifty three. Well, yeah,
so if that is the case, you see that as
any type of an asset class that retiree should be it.
I do you do? I do?

Speaker 4 (01:35:35):
Yeah, I see the value in it. It's it's it's
like a gold right. I mean, I own not Bitcoin,
but Ethereum, the other cryptocurrency, because you know Bitcoin's. Bitcoin's
big selling point is that it's it has limited supply,
so there's only a certain amount of bitcoins that are

(01:35:55):
ever going to be out there, and that's like the
whole value to it. It's a decentralized currency that will
eventually well it's finite, so it's there's there's a there's
a limited amount.

Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
Have you ever heard Trump's son Eric talk about crypto.
I have not, Uh, pretty interesting. You know they got debanked?
Who got debanked? Trump and his family when they were
going through all that nonsense, and the son Eric, not Donald.
But Eric is extremely knowledgeable. I think he is. That's

(01:36:29):
my my personal feeling. But he also has his own
personal feelings as far as where it's going this whole
thing with crypto, and I'm at being specific to bitcoin
and stuff. But when you say that he's a cheerleader,
it's kind of an understatement. But in essence, what he's
saying is that it's it's the future.

Speaker 4 (01:36:49):
It's yeah, it's there's definitely a use for it. I
don't know if every single crypto out there is going
to be great, but when you're looking at it's capabilities,
it's just you know, being able to transfer large, large
amounts of money instantaneously with it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
If I had one hundred and twenty, if I bought
it one hundred and twenty two thousand, yep, and it's
sitting at eighty seven thousand, I wouldn't really be happy.
Well no, obviously not no. If you bought the S
and P five hundred, no, I understand, but what I'm
saying to you is that I don't know how anyone
can look at that as a good alternative way in
order to manage your assets with that type of volatility.

(01:37:28):
You know, it's very volatile, it's very well, that's an understatement.
But my question too is that you know, could this
thing wake up? You can wake up one day and
it's at thirteen thousand, yes, yeah, and I mean nothing's
not possible. You could wake up and so because it's
twenty four hours around the clock, yes, you could wake

(01:37:48):
up and have it be nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:37:50):
It's it's just the name of the game. But in
the last five years it's up over two hundred and
seventy percent.

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
I have a very good friend of mine that's been
in the business longer than me, and he runs a
very successful office in the southern part of the country.
I won't mention where, but his mantra is when he
meets with individuals, high net worth people, people that have

(01:38:18):
bade their money blah blah blah, he says, my job
is to keep your money, not for you to lose
your money. We want to have you continue to be
wealthy and content, not high anxiety and worrying about you know,
market fluctuations, and yeah, and that's that's his messaging. And
I honestly think that most when you look at seven

(01:38:40):
out of ten people that retire don't want a lot
of risk with their assets. It's the bulk of the
people that are retiring, right And that's the bulk of
people regardless. But when you're talking about folks who are
interested in the crypto space, are looking to get involved
in some type of alternative investment, I just like this.
I just don't think for the average guy, they should
be playing around with it.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
I mean, the average Joe probably shouldn't be. But if
you take five percent of your money and put it
towards crypto, I don't necessarily think that that's a bad allocation.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
I don't. I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:39:12):
I mean the last five years, bitcoins up two hundred
and seventy percent, Ethereum's up three hundred and seventy percent.
You know, the numbers are there. It's very volatile. You
have to understand that. Obviously you're going to get into it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
But if this is the way that the world.

Speaker 4 (01:39:28):
Is shifting in, the crypto market's going to become more
and more adapt or adopted through things that you know,
everything across the board, you know, currency wise, through online,
through video games, through like there's different ways now that
they're trying to incorporate all this stuff into How many
of your technology I know, your brother's evolved in it, David,

(01:39:52):
how many of your friends, I'd say, I don't know.
Fifty percent of the people. Fifty percent are involved in it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:01):
There's an article that I just recently read that your
generation is a generation that likes to play. They look
at the stock market more as a gambling than they
do as far as a long term investment because so
much of your generation are option buyers. Yeah, yeah, you
hit it. That's exactly why.

Speaker 4 (01:40:18):
Because you have every guru on social media now trying
to sell you a course on how you can be
a day trader and turn into a multi multimillionaire. But
little do you know that those those gurus who are
selling you that course are rich off the course, not
day trading. So they give you a basic script on
how to day trade and what the fundamentals are, but

(01:40:38):
realistically they're laughing to themselves taking, you know, driving to
the bank because the course itself is making them a millionaire,
not the not the day trading so day trading, eighty
five percent of day traders are non profitable. So that's
a that's an industry where if you're telling me eighty
five percent of the time in anything it ain't gonna

(01:40:58):
work out, you probably shouldn't put all your eggs in
that basket.

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
I mean a small portion of your money.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
Obviously you want a sandbox account, go for it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
But I had made a mention too, we got to
have a chat with our friend on Monday, the gentleman
that needs another distribution of cash, that's got to be
nipped in the butt because something's going on there that
I smell a wolf, all right, you know what I'm

(01:41:28):
talking about. You know what I'm talking about, right, yeah, yeah, Well,
we have to have a chat with him to make
sure we understand what's going on there, so protect them.
That's all all right? What do you want to do?

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
As far as summerze here, twenty twenty five was a
great year. You know, we've had a lot of growth,
a lot of things are looking good going into twenty
twenty six. You know, all factors considered, If inflation stays low,
twenty twenty six could be another great year. So we're
going to remain optimistic and hopefully you know, structure everything

(01:42:05):
well so that twenty twenty six is another green year.

Speaker 2 (01:42:08):
All right, Listen everyone, God bless, happy holidays, Happy New Year.
Wishing much health, happiness and success in the year twenty
twenty six, and more than anything else, stay warm.