Retirement Planning Show

May 20th, 2023

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to the Retirement Planning Show withhost Dave Kopak in the financial services business
for over thirty five years. TheirRetirement Planning Group LLLC is a registered investment
advisor. David M. Kopak isalso a registered representative of persh kaplan Sterling
Investments Incorporated PKS in their separate capacities. A registered representative of PKS, David

(00:23):
M. Copack may recommend the implementationof securities through PKS instead of Retirement Planning
Group LC. Persh caplan Sterling Investmentsand Retirement Planning Group LLC are not affiliated
companies. Now it's time for theRetirement Planning Show on WGY. She looks

(00:47):
in the mirror and stares at theripples, But weren't there yesterday? Thinks
of the young man that she almostmarried. What would you think give me
saw her this way? She picksup her apron in little girl fashion as

(01:08):
something comes into her mind, slowlystarts dancing, remembering her Girllod and all
the boys she had waiting in life. Suchhart dreams of everyday housewife you see

(01:30):
everywhere, anytime over day, andeveryday housewife who gave up to the delight
for me all right, good morning. The photograph album she picks them,

(01:52):
owing too, owing to the Celtics. Can't believe it? Can you?
You're happy about that? Yeah?Makes my next look better? Yeah?
All right, whatever floats your boat, brother, Happy Saturday, hard to

(02:21):
believe, twentieth of May. Maytwentieth already, which is hard to believe.
Flick your eye, and we're gonnabe in the fall. So and
of course it's the weekend. Soduring the summer months, ms all rain,
right, it's have some rain Saturdaysand Sundays and bright and sunny and
beautiful Monday through Friday. You know, I listened to that show driving down

(02:49):
the Pill show A good sack.I gotta get me some of them pills.
You gotta wady, beautiful, dark, voluptuous, silky hair, Your
teeth are as white as chicklets,your heart wonderful. Why we all don't

(03:15):
have those pills in our house?But whatever? All right, we're here.
This is a retirement planning show.I'm Dave Kopeck, your host.
It's hard to believe. I've beendoing this almost twenty five years on radio.
Been on the Mother's Ship here fora few years. W g Y,

(03:37):
which we always love and always meetinteresting and wonderful people on a weekly
basis that listened to our show,that have listened to it for some time.
And as we're quite well aware,we have four locations now, Oneana,
Albany, Malta and Glenn's Falls.All four locations. I was in

(04:00):
this week at some great people.So if you're looking for some path,
whether it's pre or post retirement planning, you're looking for an independent objective advice,
no acts to grind. We wouldlove to have the opportunity to sit
down with you, but we startedat our golf league this week at the

(04:26):
Eagle Crest, so a little bitnippy. I'm Thursday, and the sun
was going down when he brought thebags into the clubhouse. But it's good
to be out there playing some golf, getting some fresh air and spending a
lot of time with our clients.A lot of laughs, always lots of

(04:46):
laughs. I'm gonna go down atHistory, folks. I showed Zach this
morning the golf ball I hit.I hit the ball so hard that a
quant on fire melted it on bothsides. If Matt is listening one of

(05:09):
our clients, I know that he'schuckling right now about my golf shot.
So but we have fun. Itwas a great time and happy ninety first
birthday to a good client of oursdown in the Southern Tier. If you're
listening this morning, I try toreach you twice. You know that I
spoke to your wife, but Ididn't get a chance to speak to you.

(05:30):
Hopefully you had a wonderful day ninetyone years young. I left a
message. I hope he's got anotherninety one underneath you. But life's changing.
There's a perfect example that we're allgoing to live longer than what we
expect. And because of that,we're gonna be talking about some topics today
that will be of interest, Ithink to everyone. But I've got to

(05:53):
do a little bit bit of technical. I'm gonna take my break early today,
and the reason why I'm to dothat is I've got some technical things
that I need to straighten out here, and so let's take our first break,
and then after the break we'll getinto the show. The eighty six
percenters. Do you know that eightysix percent of the population has no defined

(06:16):
benefit pension plan. For most ofus, we have to take our life
savings and create a paycheck for therest of our lives in retirement. What
is your plan for retirement income distribution? How you manage your assets during the
most critical years of your lifetime.Nobel Prize winning economists William Sharpe has called
retirement income distribution the nastiest, hardestproblem in finance. He points out that

(06:39):
investment, uncertainty, and mortality canderail the most careful laid out retirement income
plan. Call our offices today tostart the process of building your retirement income
distribution plan. After forty one yearsof being in the financial services business,
you need to start taking action tostart building your own personal retirement income distribution
plan. How do you do that? To take action? Five one eight

(07:00):
five eight zero one nine one nine. That's five one eight five eight zero
one nine one nine or RPG retireon the web. Don't procrastinate, motivate
to start building your retirement income distributionplan five one eight five eight zero one
nine one nine. If you haveany questions, please call in now at
one eight hundred eight two five fiftynine forty nine. That's one eight hundred

(07:23):
talk w g Y one eight hundredtalk w g Y. We are live
in studio to answer your questions.So then nine have you Webb belt ser

(07:46):
then nine three year not to mentionthe tree whisting tunes that you know and
the soul so then just as good. All right, we are back.

(08:16):
Sorry about that, to do acouple adjustments here in the studio. Now
we're ready to rock and roll andagain, good morning, glad to be
here. It's the weekend, andwe're gonna we've got a special guess.
We got Droella coming on. We'regonna talk a little bit about the data

(08:37):
they came out this week. We'regonna talk about some of the things that
are going on domestically here in theUnited States. And believe it or not,
folks, a lot of people,a lot of people are getting laid
off, a lot of people,And we're gonna talk a little bit about

(08:58):
if you're in that situation and you'regetting laid off, what do you do?
How do you handle it? Whatare the options that are available to
you. What are some of thethings that you're going to have to consider
during your time that you're considering whatyou're gonna do with the rest of your

(09:18):
life. I know that I,believe it or not, a lot of
people don't understand because they're kind ofout of the loop. They're busy doing
their jobs. But here's here's somestatistics that you've got to be aware of.
Microsoft is laying off twenty two thousandpeople, Alphabet twelve thousand, black

(09:46):
Rock about five hundred, Goldman sacksthirty two hundred, Amazon eighteen thousand people,
salesforce approximately seven thousand people. SoI can go through the whole laundry

(10:07):
list here. So as we're quitewell aware as we ended the year in
two thousand and twenty two, cutbackswe're starting to be announced. But one
of the big things is that thesecond highest level of job games on record,

(10:28):
with four point five million in twothousand and twenty two. But the
jobs report is consistently showing lower andlower monthly gains over the last few months.
So if you're in that situation andyou have to worry about what's going
to happen to me. Now you'remiddle age, maybe you're later the middle

(10:48):
age, you're not that far away. We're going to talk about some topics
today, some of the things thatyou need to consider if you're walking into
that storm. What am I gonnado with my life now? Where am
I gonna go and UM even thoughyou know, one of the things I
saw, I saw a program justrecently that was shocking to me, and

(11:13):
I actually saw it this week.I'm bloomberg. I believe and AI and
automation, how it's changing, howit's changing the world and every every everything
that you could possibly imagine, medical, surgical. They showed a robot with

(11:37):
UM software that changes tires in anautomotive center and it's all done robotically and
it's like twice as fast if youhad a human there and you've got no
one, you know, no wages, no benefits, no time off.
I got to go to the doctortoday. You know, I don't feel

(12:00):
good. I got a cold.I won't be in today. That thing
just keeps on cranking, good timesand bad times. But you have your
initial investment, of course, thecapital they have to put into it.
You know, what's my increase thisyear, what's my salary, what's my
health insurance, my pension benefit?I'm matching four owen K throw that all

(12:24):
out the window, and that's thefate of our economy. That's what's happening.
And we'll talk a little bit aboutthat too. But as are quite
well aware seventy percent of US GDPcomes from you personal consumers, and ours

(12:45):
are all quite well aware. Consumerspending has been particularly strong, including a
strong start this year in two thousandand twenty three, with consumption growing believe
it or not, at three pointseven percent in the first quarter of this
year and that's the best in twoyears. But there are some signs that

(13:09):
it's starting to slow down a littlebit. There's some cracks, and one
of the things that we're starting tosee is at the quarterly earnings announcements,
a lot of the big retailers Walmart, Target, Home Depot came in ahead
of expectations, which is a goodsign. However, I want to emphasize

(13:33):
however, comments indicated that there's somesoftness and it has emerged just recently,
showing up in smaller ticket items,less demand for discretionary items clothing, electronics,
home goods, etc. So thebottom line, consumers have been resilient

(13:56):
with household spending growing. But bottomline gets down to the data confirms that
consumers are beginning to get a littlebit tired winded, and it's the feeling
of Fidelity Investments. They think agradual slowdown in household consumption. Not a
plunge, but a gradual slowdown islikely to appear this year in two thousand

(14:24):
and twenty four. But you know, you put ten economists in the room,
you're gonna get ten different answers asfar as what their indications are for
the economy, interest rates, andcan go through the whole laundry list.
But as we ended the week,the markets did pretty well. That was

(14:46):
up about a half a percentage point. It's still up just a little bit
less, a little bit less thanone percent of the year. SMP five
hundred was up one point six.Year to date, it's up nine point
two. And the killer, thebig dog in the house, the Nasdaq
is up three percent, a littlebit over twenty percent right now, twenty
point nine. And the ten yearTreasury ticked up a little bit this week,

(15:09):
the three point seven three point sevenzero. But the bottom line,
I think my personal feeling a mildmild recession remains on the outlook, but
it may not look or feel likeprior recessions thanks to the consumer that I

(15:31):
just talked about, the upshot,the positive and this is my gut telling
me this. There's no hard indicationthat this is factual. But the stock
market's low in last October I thinkcaptured a lot of the negative news,

(15:54):
and I think we've tested the lows, and for some of us, we've
had pretty good returns net so farover that period of time November December and
January through May right now. Sothe consumer maintains some resiliency, some purchasing
power. The economic downturn should bemild. And as we always talk about

(16:22):
this, the markets don't look today. They look over the next six to
twelve months. They look ahead andthe eventual rebound and economics and earnings growth,
that's the mother's milk of the pemultiple earnings growth should show up a
decent recovery here, you know,like anything else. Last year was unique

(16:48):
and different. We've talked about thatnumerous times. There was no ballast in
your portfolio with bonds. Bonds gaveyou the coupon, but they didn't give
you any total return. Capital appreciationbecause interest rates were rising as the market
was selling off, so on ahistorical basis is one of the worst things
that we've seen. But bottom linegets down to if you stayed the course

(17:15):
and you allowed your dividends to reinvestor, if you took your capital gains
and put them into your portfolio,you should be in a pretty good spot.
You should be seeing some green onthose statements. I know it was
a difficult, difficult twelve to fifteenmonth period of time, but it's important

(17:37):
to recommend or recommend to remember thatyou're in a long term investment, long
term, not a short term investment. Anytime you invest in stocks and bonds,
you should be in it for noless than five years. Warren Buffett
says, if you're not willing tostay five to ten years, you shouldn't

(17:59):
stay five to ten minutes. It'snot the right investment for you. And
for people that sit there on aday to day basis, minute by minute,
second by second, you're just drivingyourself crazy. There's got to be
better things to do than to putthat on your agenda for on a daily
basis. So here we sit,not too bad so far or January to

(18:27):
May twentieth has come and go onpretty quickly. Here. So the bottom
line gets down to there's an articlethat's out right now that I read.
I think it was either on Baron's. I think it was in Barns.
I read it this morning. Baroncomes out on Saturday. So I usually
get up around four four thirty onSaturdays and I start going through barons and

(18:49):
all the other financial data from theprevious week. And it was basically saying
is that if you are a couponperson, if you like guarantees, if
you like to be in types ofinvestments that guarantees principle and interests, now

(19:11):
might be the time for you tojump in in order to capture some of
those coupons, because it's their positionis that we're probably going to go into
a lower interest rate environment, andsome of these guaranteed rates will still offer
you somewhere between four to five percent, depending on the type of contract,
whether it's a cd A get aguaranteed insurance contract, an MYGA multiple year

(19:37):
guaranteed adity. But it makes sensefor people that are adverse to risk,
that want a certain amount of moneyguaranteed, and like I said, we
can get somewhere between four and fivepercent right now with those guaranteed rates.
We've done more in treasuries. Ikeep on saying this over and over again

(20:00):
in the last few months, andwe've done in the last few years.
People are pulling money out of banksthey want the safety and the guarantees of
the treasury, and you know that'sfine and right now, depending on what
you're looking to do with your cash. I spoke to a woman the other
day, wonderful lady, former businesswoman. I would mention her business and you

(20:26):
would recognize it. And she hadjust a little bit. She only had
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars sittingin a money market account, basically getting
nothing. And I said to her, I said, you know, bottom
line is is that we can putyou in a better spot as far as
safety, but also we can putyou in a better spot in regards to

(20:48):
your net return. And she wantedto know what the rates were as far
as the treasuries. So the threemonth right now, this is as of
the clothes on Friday, three monthtreasury yield was five twenty two, six

(21:11):
months was six was six month fivetwenty nine and twelve month four point nine
eight. The tenure of course tickedup a little bit and just mentioned what
it was trading at. So ifyou're looking for guarantees sleep at night,
you think you're allocated too much inyour local bank, you might want to

(21:36):
consider using the treasury as an optionfor you, and those are I think
very attractive yields. So to summarizehere a little bit, the labor market
is not bulletproof, but we thinkit will remain strong for support for the

(22:03):
economy. Just said seventy of GDPis the consumer. Slower hiring, additional
layoff announcements, moderate wage growth arelikely to happen this year. But barring
any sizable jump in unemployment, Fidloitythinks employment trends will be more help than

(22:33):
hurt for the consumer and less andthus the economy should actually tick pretty strong
here. So, as I saidat the beginning of the show, today,
we're going to talk a little bitabout what happens when the unthinkable transpires.
You're there on a Friday afternoon andthe boss calls are you in and

(22:56):
says, listen, we need tohave a chat, and your future becomes
fuzzy. I'm actually in the camp. Depending on your safety net, the
amount of cash that you have onthe sidelines, it could be a blessing
in disguise, and we'll talk alittle bit about that. The warning.
We're gonna talk much more about thisin the second hour of our program because

(23:21):
we're gonna have Druello on the swarningBut bottom mind gets down to is that
we look forward that having you participateif you wish. This is talk radio,
we always have some great conversations.If you'd like to contact us,
it's pretty easy. One eight hundredTalk WGY. That's one eight hundred eight

(23:45):
two five fifty nine forty nine.One eight hundred Talk w g Y one
eight hundred eight two, five fiftynine forty nine. I'm Dave Kopak.
This is the Retirement Planning Show.We're here every Saturday on the mothership WGY.
We've had some great, great,great contacts with individuals, and those

(24:08):
individuals that we've made contact with justhad great conversations. Some have elected to
move forward, some have elected tobecome clients of the Retirement Planning Group,
and we look forward to working withthem for many, many years to come.

(24:30):
As I said, Druello is goingto be on this morning. He's
going to be with me from seventhirty until the top of the hour.
We're gonna talk a little bit aboutthe data they came out this week.
But as always, if you wouldlike to partake, one eight hundred Talk
WGY went eight hundred eight to fivefifty nine forty nine. We'll be right

(24:52):
back after this quick message. I'vebeen walking these streets so long, singing
the same old song. I knewevery cracking, these dirty sidewalks of Broadway,

(25:18):
where hustle's the name of the gameand nice guys get washed away like
the snow and the rain. There'sbeen a load of compromising on the road
to my horizon. But I'm gonnabe where the lights are shining on me

(25:48):
like a rhyme stone cowboy. Igot on a horse right t sip of
my cathay. Here we are back. This is a retirement planning show.
We've been on radio now for abouttwenty five years. This is my forty

(26:10):
first year in the business, whichis hard to believe. And with that
announcement, I'll bring that young buckin droello forty one years. Damn,
I lost money on this one.You bet, you bet, you bet,
you lost money on this and yourmarriage bet the under baby away.

(26:42):
Damn. That's why I don't gamble. What's going on with you? You
say you had a whole bunch ofwork done in your house and you're moving
back in. What's going on?Yeah, that's what we're doing. I
had the hardward floors replaced and hfinally can put them for urniture and this
weekend, so trying to get mylight back to normal. It's always fun.

(27:04):
It's always fun when you're trying toredo a house when you're living in
it. Oh, nightmare, nightmare. I said, that's it. That's
it. No more remodels, feetfirst out of this house. That's it.
So that might happen sooner than youthink, exactly exactly. When your

(27:26):
wife's a decorator, it's a toughit's a tough road to hope. So
all right, tell me, tellme your thoughts about this week. Yeah,
this week is interesting. So sojust to recap, I was,
I think since January February, wehad May tenth marked on the calendar as
a monumental day with inflation, andthat was the CPI report Consumer Price Index,

(27:49):
and it moved down, which wasgood. Bonds reacted positively. It
didn't move down as much as Iwas hoping for, but that was due
to b LS Bureau Labor Statistics.They changed the April twenty twenty two inflation

(28:10):
number lower, so when this numbercame in, it didn't have as big
as an impact as what I wasexpecting. They literally changed that number the
weekend before May tenth, so kindof caught us all by surprise. But
overall, inflation did go down.Mortgage rates the bomb markets reacted positively.

(28:30):
We're down from I think a peakof about nine percent down to where it
is today. Uh I forget probablyabout four point nine percent. It is
moving in the right direction, right, that's I don't I think that's exactly
what it is. Drove four pointnine yeah, so uh no, go

(28:53):
ahead, it's yeah. So soinflation is coming down, and this is
not the destiny, This is justthe beginning of the destiny of the of
the transition. I think the summeris going to be really good for mortgage
rates. I think June numbers,which obviously will be the main numbers,

(29:14):
will show improve improvement. You know, the Producer Price Index year year,
you know, went from two pointseven down to two point three. So
that's good. That peaked at elevenpoint seven if you can imagine, you
know, CPI. I think,yes, it did hit nine percent.
Now it's down to four point ninepercent. The core went from six point

(29:37):
seven down to five and a half. So inflation is coming down no matter
what metric that you look at atthe moment. And here's a bold forecast.
I love doing these, and let'ssee what happens. But in the
next two months, I would saythe consumer price index goes from four point
nine to three and a half andthe core goes from five point five down

(30:00):
to four point nine. In thenext two months, we shall see.
And why I follow this, I'min the mortgage business. I've been in
the mortgage business twenty eight years.But I talk about inflation and all these
economic indicators. It's just because obviouslyinflation will dictate where mortgage rates and interest
rates go. So that's why Ifollow this stuff. Not to get too

(30:22):
much in the weeds, but youknow, you're looking at the leading economic
indicators. They've been down now forthirteen consecutive months. It's in the past.
It's one hundred percent certainty that wego into recession when you see that
kind of statistic like the Median followingthat kind of move down and leading economic

(30:44):
indicators as a recession follows within elevenmonths. And we're actually in month sixteen
right now, so we're it peakedin December of twenty one. So we
shall see, but everything points torecession, slow down the economy, which
obviously say we'll bring down interest rates. Uh. They even had the Fed
Funds. I don't know if yousaw that, the Fed Funds Future are

(31:07):
predicting a one hundred percent um decreasea quarter point decrease in the Fed Funds
rate in September of this year.Right, So well, here here's the
interest here's the number. You know, Freddie Mack gives out that weekly survey
which I know you're quite well away, and the average fixed rate mortgage with
six point three that came out ona Thursday. So what would they say?

(31:30):
It was a six point six pointthree nine. Yeah, okay,
it sounds about right. Yeah,so yeah, we're go ahead, Yeah,
we're about We're about. Its funnyyou said that because I looked at
I looked at the rates. Uhyou know this week versus this time last
year, they're about a point inan eighth higher than where they were this
time last year. That's exactly whatthey set up about. What to put

(31:52):
it in perspective, about one percentagepoint higher, right, right, So
it's amazing the housing you know,on a national level, I think the
housing market locally is doing much betterthan the national numbers. But you know,
you look at the headline numbers,home sales are down twenty three percent

(32:12):
year every year, and it's notbecause people aren't buying. There's just no
inventory. Inventories increased a little bitlast months, which was good. There's
about two point nine months of supplyon the market, which put in perspective,
four and a half months is normalwhere supplying demand are balanced. So
right now it's obviously still a seller'smarket. I think there's some million homes

(32:37):
on the market, but you know, there's probably five hundred thousand those million
homes are already under contract. It'sreally really tight. Barons got out today.
The fifty percent of the nation ofseeing increases, in the other fifty
percent of seeing declines. Surprisingly,it's the western part of the country that's
seeing the declines, and where we'regetting the biggest gain is in the northeast,

(33:01):
gaining two point eight percent. Yeah, that's amazing. Uh. Medium
price overall up about three and ahalf percent from last month. I think
the medium price along across the nation, which is kind of I don't know,
I thought it was kind of highas three eighty eight is what they're
saying average days on markets down.It used to be twenty nine days.

(33:24):
Now it's down to twenty two days. But about seventy five percent the homes
are selling in less than thirty days. So housing is the way it's been
since COVID, the bedrock of theeconomy at the moment. You know,
manufacturing is down, and you knowthe jobless claims are up and continue claims

(33:45):
are up, so all that stuff. A lot of weakness in all parts
of the economy. But housing,just because of the supply demand is super
super strong. So um right nowthough if you noticed, I'm sure you
did. Um. Interest rates tickedup a little bit this week, starting
actually about a week ago Friday.And what I think is happening, I

(34:09):
think it's a short term phenomenon rightnow is that these banks are are people
are taking out money out of thebank. You know, I'm gonna say
something, this is not good forlocal banks and community banks and you know
Credit Union, but that this isnot good. When you got a five
over a five handle, I justgave out the rates. The rates right

(34:30):
now, Drew, listen to theserates right A three month is five twenty
two, a six month is fivetwenty nine. A twelve month is almost
five. It's four point nine eight. And you go to your local bank,
you know, uh, and they'regonna give you what one two percent
maybe in the money market account ifyou got checking or whatever. It is,
right, all right, yeah,And that's what's happening. It's not

(34:52):
good. It's not good. Andyou know I've said this before, but
just to reiterate, banks they takein your hundred dollars, they're lending out
ninety dollars of your hundred dollars.They only are required to keep ten dollars
or ten percent of what you depositin that bank because they're trying to make
money on money bank deposits. Youdeposit money at a bank, it's actually

(35:15):
a liability for the bank. Theyhave to take that money and make more
money from it. Car Loans,credit cards, mortgages, you name it.
They have to lend that money out. So when you have these big
withdrawals on banks, there's really nota ton of money sitting in the bank
for these withdrawals. I know,I went I went to take out again

(35:37):
for the home improvement project, totake out some cash out of the bank,
and it wasn't even a lot ofmoney. They just they said,
yeah, we can do it thistime, but next time you take out
this kind of money, give usa week's advanced notice. Yeah, that's
like, that's the situation. Andthis is a major bank with you know,

(35:58):
that's owned by Royal Bank of Scotland. You know, it's it's a
it's not a local bank. Thiswas a major institutional bank. So so
it's it's amazing. And what's happeningright now because people are taking out their
money out of the banks is thebanks are forced to sell their ten year

(36:19):
treasury positions. You know, they'vehad these huge treasury positions over the last
few years because of COVID, Sonow they're selling their treasuries to raise capital
to be able to help people withdrawtheir money or give them their cash.
So there's temporarily at least a bigsupply of treasuries on the market that's trying
to get stopped up. So that'swhy I think we see interest rates go

(36:43):
up a little bit this week.I think that's a short term thing,
but that's what's happening at least intoday's world this week. Yeah, it's
with interest rates, it's it's adouble edged sword. And I'll tell you
what I understand what the Fed's tryingto do. But what they're doing is
that they're kicking a lot of thesesmaller banks and the teeth and you know,
regional banks. You know, thishas been the anxiety attack on Wall

(37:07):
Street is that how long can theybasically liquidate assets at a loss because a
lot of these fixed income, thesebonds that they're selling with five or ten
year durations and you know, ifpeople don't know what that means, it
means duration means the amount of timethat the bond would mature, right,

(37:29):
And you know, they bought thesebonds either at par or maybe a little
bit of premium, and now they'retrading them at a discount or sell them
at a discount from what they actuallypaid paid for him. Yeah, they're
raising revenue, but they're losing moneyall right, big time because those who
wants the three percent when you canget the five percent today, right,
So it's really not a value anda lot of value in that three percent

(37:52):
treasury anymore. So they're getting crushed. And that's why that's why the FED
opened that window for banks to goto that window and get face value for
those treasuries so that they're not Iguess technically underwater on those so, uh,
they've taken a beating and that fatwindow has been opened now since Silicon

(38:15):
Valley Bank defaulted or went under,and you know, you look at pat
Quest, you look at you know, it's just just it's it's yeah,
it's a little it's a little unnerving. At the moment um, I think
everybody needs to reevaluate where their moneyis and how much money they have in
the bank and make sure they're protected. Obviously, the FDIC only goes to

(38:37):
two hundred fifty thousand right per person, per personally careful that stuff per person
right, So husband and wife,you can protect five hundred thousand w with
the FDIC um. But bottom linegets down to is this is that you
know, one of the one ofthe things that I'm this is I'm we're
not trying to scare anybody here.There's reality, folks. The reality is

(39:00):
is that if you're sitting at alocal bank and you've got you know,
one two percent, and I canbuy a treasury at five point two two
or five point two nine, oreven a two year at four point two
seven. You know, but youknow, if you look at the yield
curve right now, three month isat five twenty two, and like you
just said, you know, thefive years at three seventy three. Even

(39:21):
if you go all the way outto the ten year, it's three sixty
seven. I mean, that's almostone hundred and fifty BIPs. Yeah,
right, one point five one pointfive percent difference between the three month and
the ten year triple A rated guaranteed. I don't I don't think. Do
you have any fears over the deathceiling? I don't think no. I
mean, it's just it's that thatcould be wrong. But I don't think

(39:45):
they're gonna let that happen. Well, I know they're you know, they're
not. You don't have rocket scientistsdown there, that's for damn sure.
But the bottom line is is thatthat would be cataclysmic if they allowed that
to happen, because it's not onlydomestic here, it's what would happen internationally
if that happens, because the dollaris the currency of the world. We

(40:06):
all know that. So they justneed to get their head out there,
you know what, and and youknow, get to work. So but
here's here's something that I read.I was reading it this morning in Barrens.
Spring home buying season is looking prettybleak. This is the headline with
a record low share of Americans sayingthat now is a good time to buy.
You know what the percentage is,Now is a good time to buy?

(40:29):
What? What's that? Wow,that's what twenty one percent feel.
It's a good time to buy rightnow, right now? Yeah. Yeah,
yeah, that's nuts. That's nuts, at least not in the not
in the Capitol region. Yeah,that's for sure. Seeing multiple offers.
I had a couple come in.They're moving here, retirees moving here from

(40:51):
Charlotte. What's here? Yeah,yeah, family, they're more further more
from Charlotte to New York. Yeahyeah, And and you know, their
household in two days for more thanwhat they had it on the market for

(41:12):
Charlotte. We're yeah, I preprovedthem yesterday. They're looking at a house
for about two fifty but uh no, no, two seventy five. But
I wrote the letter for two ninetyjust because I know, you know,
it's not going to go at twoseventy five. And we'll see how they
make out. But that's the market. You know, if something's on the
market, for two fifty two sixtythree hundred. We're always looking at three

(41:36):
twenty five, you know, twentyfive thirty thousand dollars higher than what the
house is listed for and then that'swhat it's coming in at. So it's
uh, it's unique. I thinkdid you watch the Feds? The FED
spoke yesterday, they had they hadBernaki and Powell on yesterday, right,
and Powell he kind of set thestage at least for the June fourteenth meeting.

(42:00):
You have a pause, right,right, I think I don't think.
I think my personal feeling is you'regoing to get a pause, but
there's going to be you know,they're gonna say it's going to be uh
determined by the environment, the economicenvironment, you know. Uh, so
you know they're they're going to dowhat they have to do. But I
think a pause is coming, whichI believe is going to be extremely extremely

(42:22):
bullish. I don't think they cango any higher because if they do,
they're going to do a lot ofdestruction with these regional local banks drew,
uh right, Like I said,they've already done enough. They've done enough.
That's exactly right. And you know, and a lot of the bankers
won't come out and say this,but they're getting kicked in the teeth,
right. They can't say it rightright. They don't want to. They

(42:42):
don't want to panic situation right there. But yeah, they've done enough.
They obviously went too far. Theyusually do. They waited too long,
and now they went too far.It's the typical why we see these ups
and downs in the economy and recessionsand bowl markets and all that. You
know, it's just it's just sothey can never like figure out to get
the pendulum to swing somewhere in themiddle, so usually wait to the left,

(43:05):
way to the right, and wehave these extremes up and downs.
I don't think it's I don't thinkwe're going to have that soft landing.
And everybody just every every economic indicatorthat you see out there seems some point
to a recession. And you know, we're look at almost everything out there.
It seems like everything's slowing down,which it needed to. Obviously the

(43:27):
prices were spiraling, but but thingsare coming down, which is what what
we need. Use cars prices,they had a little pop beginning of April.
Obviously that can't go on forever.I think that's skewed that consumer price
index estimate a little bit. Oilprices spiked the beginning of April that obviously,

(43:47):
you know, with the OLPEC cuttingback, so that kind of skewed
that number. So you take outthose two little little things that probably aren't
going to can can you Actually we'vealready seen them come down in May so
far. Uh you know, Ithink the inflation inflation is coming down,
and I think the biggest question forthe FED is how far is it going

(44:09):
to come down? And how fastis it coming down. I think that'll
be a big piece of how theyfigure out monetary policy going forward. It's
just we need them to look forwardand stop looking or they they they're just
there. They keep looking in therear view mirror and they get there.
I feel like they're not seeing likewhat's happening today. So I hope they

(44:31):
do pause to tune fourteenth when theymeet, because, like you said,
there's a lot of damage being doneto the banks um and just well not
only this is the unintended consequences thatwe always talk about. Well, here's
here's my last question. And Idon't know the answer to this, but
you kind of gave me the answerto it, but was on my hit

(44:52):
list here reefish. I know thatthey're down dramatically, but as an example,
like you, you got some ashout of your house in order to
you know, pretty it up anddo some TLC and put the wood floors
in and all that. So whatprocess did you have to go through and
order? Did you do a reef? You didn't do a refi. You

(45:15):
just did a line of credit rightin the house. No, I actually
I didn't do either, but speakspeaking of that. So right now,
like you said, so it's hardsomeone has a three percent interest rate,
and uh, it's hard for themto get their head around doing a catch

(45:37):
out refi right now at six anda half or seven because that's where the
refi rates are. They're always higherthan purchase rates. But but there's a
trillion dollars right now and credit carddebt out there. Yeah trillion. Yeah,
it's it's astronomical. And people havea tremendous amount of equity in their
homes right now. So so Isomeone then I spoke to last week,

(46:01):
we did a cash out refly.We consolidated a lot of their debt and
we you know, we called thatconsumer debt where you don't get any tax
benefits for and what have you.They're saving twenty nine hundred dollars a month,
just almost thirty six thousand dollars ayear by using the equity in their

(46:22):
house to kind of get their personalbalance sheet in shape. Obviously, if
they take that savings of almost threethousand dollars a month and blow it,
that's a problem. But if theytake that savings and either pay down their
mortgage or invest more money in theirIRA four K the kids accounts, then
they're using that money wisely. Soso obviously, I always when we do

(46:43):
these things, we kind of haveto read the room. But this is
life changing for this couple because that'sa significant amount of money that they that
they're able to save on a monthlybasis. That's the environment lawren't They were
just loaded up with credit card debt. You know that those those gloaded and
those damn things are like what twentytwenty five percent some of these credit cards

(47:05):
ridiculous, right, I think aboutits prime rates eight in a quarter,
they're praying prime plus. You know, God knows what, right, it's
only going to be north of that. I think it's to be honest with
your drive said this for years.I think it's illegal. I don't know
how this government, our government allowsthis to happen. You know, the
people that can least afford that typeof interest rates are typically the ones that

(47:25):
are involved in those types of situationsbecause you know, they're basically just trying
to catch up pay their bills whateverthey have. One you have one bad
event, you only have a thousanddollars sit in your bank account. You've
got to do seven or eight thousanddollars to put a new heating system in
your house or whatever to help mebe you know, I mean, I'm
just saying this that the people,the people that least can afford to have

(47:46):
that type of an interest rate arethe ones. So these guys must have
been dancing down the street when theywhen you saved them twenty nine hundred dollars
a month. Yeah, first mortgage, second mortgage. You know, those
whole equity lines are credit. Theywere great a few years back at three
point two five percent, which wasthe primary, and now they're at eight
in a quarter, and a lotof them are are Prime plus one,

(48:07):
so they're really nine in the quarter. So just there on your whole equity
line of credit. You're at ninein the quarter, and then you add
in some credit card debt, likeyou said, probably twenty five twenty nine
percent um, and you know,here we go. Even those you know,
those people go to I see itall the time because I do a
lot of I do a lot ofpurchases more than refised uh Ray Moore and

(48:29):
Flannagan. You know they gave youthe Wells Fargo credit line. Uh no
interest for six months, no interestfor twelve months. But guess what,
it's still a four hundred dollars amonth payment even though there's no interest,
right then, right, they knowthat's sixty percent of the people that do
that are are not going to payit off. They're going to carry a
balance, and that's how they maketheir money. So uh yeah, they

(48:52):
pay. They paid for the furnitureten times over, at least at least
exactly all right, So what's theSo what's what's the environment? What's the
tidbit? You're helpful head this week, not only in regards to individuals at
own homes, people that might wantto think about purchasing that second home a

(49:13):
refi reverse mortgage. What's what's yourtidbit? Well, the purchase market is
really competitive. You have to bereally you got to be aggressive. You
don't want to go crazy crazy,but you got to be aggressive. You
can't go in there at asking price. So you got to have your ducks
in a row paced ups W two'sbank statements, doctor lender, get pre

(49:35):
qualified. Actually you should probably getpre approved. We actually take it one
step further. We get people acommitment letter before they even find a house
so that their offer stands out amongstthe competition. So make sure you get
your ducks and around the purchase side. And then, like we were saying,
if you do have miscellaneous consumer debtthat's eating you aligned right now,

(49:55):
take advantage of the equity you havein your house and try to consolidate that.
Talk to your financial planner and tryto get a game plan to consolidate
that and put more money in yourinvestable assets. So it's a combination.
You know, home equity lines arecredit are great in a way. You
know, I saw some teaser ratesout there at two point nine percent for
the first twelve months, but thenit goes to prime and prime plus one.

(50:20):
So you know that could be goodshort term, but long term right
now, until the FED starts loweringrates, you know, it might bite
you into you know what next year. So that's what we're seeing. And
then reverse mortgages, like you know, this equity that we have in our
house because of home appreciation could beused as a huge tool financial tool if

(50:42):
there are gaps and holes in thefinancial plan to supplement your income in retirement.
So you know, we always sayit's not one shoe fits all,
but it's something to consider and lookat if if you're finding you do have
holes in your financial plan, needa little bit of income supplement doing come
on a monthly basis to make endsme from point A to point B.

(51:04):
So, yeah, there's a lotof things you can do in this environment
take advantage of. Yeah, especiallyif you have no children, you know,
and if especially if you have childrenthat have no desire, no need
for wealth transfer. You know,the thing that I always hear over and
over and again, you know,our kids are doing a hell of a
lot better than we ever did.You know, they don't need our money,

(51:27):
and they're sitting on this pool ofcash that they you know, they're
they're wondering, can I get thisor do this, or can we go
on a trip. Well, theanswer is an emphatic yes. You just
got to look outside the boundaries ofwhat we consider to be traditional types of
investments or opportunities. See, wedon't we don't get a vague. People
don't realize that. People say,well, you talk about this all the
time because you know you get wedon't get compensated. There's no compensation for

(51:51):
the retirement planning group. But forthe right situation. I've seen life changing
events as as Drew has with reversemortgages. And you only got a minute
left, drews or thirty seconds.So wrap it up with telling people with
what do you think? Yeah,I agree that in the reverse morrises are
much different Now they're only lending aboutfifty to fifty five percent of the value

(52:14):
of the home, So there isthere is significant equity still in your home
if you want to have that transferto your kids when you pass. So
so that helps. But yeah,any situation need mortgage call me, all
right, listen, what's your number? Five, seven, three, twenty
four thirty five? All right,brother, I'll give it out one more
time. God blessed, Thanks Drew, have a great day. We'll be

(52:36):
right back. Folks, Welcome tothe Retirement Planning Show with host Dave Kopak
in the financial services business for overthirty five years. Their Retirement Planning Group
LLLC is a registered investment advisor.David M. Kopac is also a registered
representative of Parish Kaplan Sterling Investments IncorporatedPKS in their separate capacities. A registered

(52:58):
representative a PKS, David M.Copak may recommend the implementation of securities through
pks instead of Retirement Planning Group LLC. PIRST Capital and Sterling Investments and Retirement
Planning Group l ELSE are not affiliatedcompanies. Now it's time for the Retirement
Planning Show on w G y MM. Just the facts, ma'am, Just

(53:22):
the facts. You want answers.I think I'm entitled. You want answer
the truth. You can't handle thetruth. It's all the fugazzi. You
know what if you guys, heis poogazy. It's a fake gas fugazzi.
It's a wasi, it's a woozy, it's a very dust. It
doesn't exist. Show me the money. I need to feel. Jerry,
show me the money, jarybody elseshow me? Where's the peace? Where's

(53:47):
the feat? Hey, where's themeat? By the time I get to
Phoenix, she'll be rising. She'llfind the note I left hanging on her

(54:20):
door. She'll have when you reachthe part that says I'm leaving because I've
left that girl so many times before. By the time I make Albuquerque,

(54:51):
she'll be working. She'll probably stopat lunch and give me a call,
but she'll just here that fall,keep on ringing off the wall. That's

(55:25):
all. By the time I makeOlahoma, she'll be sleeping. God bless
everybody. I can listen to GlenCampbell all day long, all day long,

(55:47):
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful music.Talented man. A lot of people
don't realize he was played guitar withthe Beach Boys. Very talented John.
It's always nice to listening nice musiclike that. Rick. Rick wants to

(56:07):
talk about gold. I'm not sureI want. I thank you. I'm
not sure I want to talk aboutgold, but want I want to show
a real quick story, all right, Buddy, recently recently retired. Um.
Most of the time when I'm nototherwise engaged, I'm listening to conservative

(56:28):
talk radio and and thirty times aweek I am exposed to commercials suggesting that
you know, retirement savings should beplaced in precious metals, and they even
go as far as saying that ourLord encourages that that you know that we

(56:49):
hold investments in gold and sell.And I was wondering if you would just
take a few moments to inform yourlistening audience as to why that it's probably
not a sound strategy for long termsaying, there is no one thing.
You know, the Lord says tolisten to this show every Saturday from seven
to nine two. You know that, right? Oh, I've heard that.

(57:13):
I've heard that, and I followedthe word amen, brother, Amen,
brother, listen. This is whatI'll say to you. God bless
you for calling in. I ama big believer in the D word diversification.
There is any there's not one anyasset that you can purchase that you
should put one hundred percent of yourmoney in. Now, should you have

(57:36):
commodities such as gold as part ofyour overall investment program? The answer to
that is an emphatic yes, gold, silver, lumber. You go through
the whole list of a diversified,platinum, diversified portfolio, and most modern
portfolio theory will tell you that youshould have somewhere between two to five percent

(58:00):
allocated into that type of investment,especially especially if you're an accumulator. Now,
the problem with gold when you buyit and you put it in your
safety deposit box or get buried inthe backyard, there is one key thing,
and what's that called. There's nocash, there's no dividend. So
what am I gonna do. I'mgonna go down to the gas station and

(58:21):
I'm gonna take out my hammer andgonna ship off a piece and we're going
to weigh it and say, allright, I guess I gotta fill up
now for the next two weeks.You know, it doesn't make sense.
Sure, it's not negotiable, Yeah, I mean it's The thing is is
that it's it's a feel good.Gold is considered a hedge against what turmoil

(58:45):
and inflation, right, and thatfluctuates. Gold fluctuates as much as any
other type of investment. So itwas good to invest in gold, and
two thousand and twenty three experts aregoing to say yes. So we're gonna
say no. For investors looking totake advantage of the ability to diversify.

(59:07):
The answer from me is yes,that's all, but don't put one hundred
percent of your money in anything,Rick, And just realize is that like
Fidelity, we clear all of ourbusiness through Fidelity. We actually buy the
gold for you, whether it's acoin, depending on how you ultimately want

(59:27):
to have it, we can havea ship to you or it can be
held in safe keeping in your brokerageaccount. Okay, so to me,
that's the easiest way to do it. Now do you own gold yourself?
Oh? Over the years, I'vepurchased this bullion, you know, some
gold coins, some silver coins andnot not a substantial amount. And I
do keep them in my home andyou're right, they're not negotiable. And

(59:52):
yeah, probably going to pass themon to the legacy. Yeah, right,
exactly, that's exact. That's exactlyright. And you know what,
I don't disagree. It's like geStock. You know, ge Stock for
years was a horrible investment. Youknow, this year, over the last
seven eight nine months, I thinkthe stock is up almost one hundred percent

(01:00:14):
Gee. For people that want it, you know, it was heartfelt.
They wanted to keep it because myfather worked there for years or whatever it
may be. It's it's individual anda specific to the person. Sure,
how do I do? I agree? I do own some G Healthcare stock
and it's been doing quite well.Yeah, both both are doing fantastic.

(01:00:37):
But if you listen to the screamingmonkeys, they always say the same thing,
you know, they always talk aboutYesterday, I've been talking about GE
and GE Healthcare. I've been talkingabout a matter of fact, there's GE
has been all over the news recentlyover the last month or so. But
here's my question. Do you whenyou go to the racetrack, do you

(01:00:58):
bet the horse or do you betthe jockey? I tend to bet numbers
quite on it. Yeah, wellthere you go. So you've got your
own system. And see, I'ma I'm a guy. If I go
to the track, I'm I'm particularto certain jockeys and the jockey that I
like. The jockey that I likea Gee is a guy by named Larry
Culp. Culp because I saw,I saw what he did at Danaher Corporation.

(01:01:23):
And if he just does a fractionat Gee what he did at Dana
Her, We're all going to behappy that the jockey. That's exactly right.
God bless you, God bless you. Okay, brother, Okay,
I mean it's everything is specific.Everything is specific to you as as the

(01:01:47):
investor. Okay, it's like thescreaming monkeys that get out there and they
talk about don't buy this, don'tbuy that. You know what. We
don't have that attitude. That's notour proper position. There are certain investments
out there that make all the sensein the world, all the sense in
the world, depending on your situationand your adversity to risk. It's just

(01:02:12):
a question. It's just a question, what are you looking for. That's
why we just had this discussion withprospective clients of ours the other day in
our office. Open architecture. What'sthat mean? Open architectural? Open architecture
means that we do not have aacts to grind. Every investment that's out

(01:02:32):
there could be suitable for the peoplethat are sitting across the table from us,
depending on the pool of money andhow they ultimately want to have their
assets managed. And like Rick calledin and said, gold, what do
you think about it? You know, God told me to buy gold last
night. You know what, everybody'sgot a pitch, everybody's got a you

(01:02:53):
know, a hook. The hookis is that they're dealing on emotion and
fear. Right, the world's comingto an end. The dollar is gonna,
you know, drop dramatically. Youknow, who knows what's going to
happen. My crystal ball is broken. But I know, after forty one
years of being in the business,there's one thing that's a positive diversification.

(01:03:15):
Diversification is your friend. But we'vegot too many people out there that want
immediate gratification. They you know,they want. My portfolio has to be
the touchdown portfolio. Every year.It's got to go up, right,
you can't have any negative years.It's only got to go up. You
can't go down. Well, historyis shown over time trying to time the

(01:03:42):
market, you're going to be aloser. You're gonna lose, You're not
gonna win. What history has shownus is that being diversified and having multiple
asset classes and allowing your money toreap the benefits of lower prices, which
we saw last year. If yousit tight markets rebound days gets sunnier and

(01:04:05):
your statements, instead of throwing themin the back of the table, you
open them up and say, boy, we did good this month. Right,
that's reality. But a lot ofpeople don't like to deal with reality.
But I do like to deal withreality. That's why sometimes we have
hard conversations with people because they haveexpectations that we can't meet, and nobody

(01:04:30):
can meet. No one can meetexcept you know, the screaming monkeys.
They can meet it because they haveall the answers in their box of tricks.
So but we try to tell itthe way it is. We're realistic.
If you start right in the verybeginning, you're gonna be fine.
And that's what we're going to talkabout when we come back. We're going

(01:04:50):
to talk about the wave of layoffsand terminations. Some people that are listening
are going to listen to the USand say, you know what, that's
me. Other people are going tosay, well, I hope it doesn't
happen to me. But the realityis is that thousands and thousands of people
are getting laid off, And whatare your options, what should you be

(01:05:12):
doing? What's the effective way toprepare for a layoff if it happens to
you. But as always, ifyou have a question like Rick did,
it's one eight hundred talk WGY oneeight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty
nine, and again we offer acomplimentary consultation. In ONEATA all I was
down in Albany this week. OurAlbany office on State Street. Our corporate

(01:05:36):
headquarters is in Malta, and ofcourse Glen's Falls. You can call us
at five wint eight five eight zeroone nine one nine five point eight five
eight zero one nine one nine orRPG retired on the web. We'll be
right back the eighty six percenters.Do you know that eighty six percent of
the population has no defined benefit pensionplan? For most of us, we

(01:05:58):
have to take our life savings andcreate a paycheck for the rest of our
lives in retirement. What is yourplan for retirement income distribution? How will
you manage your assets during the mostcritical years of your lifetime. Nobel Prize
winning economists William Sharpe has called retirementincome distribution the nastiest, hardest problem in
finance. He points out that investment, uncertainty, and mortality can derail the

(01:06:20):
most careful laid out retirement income plan. Call our offices today to start the
process of building your retirement income distributionplan. After forty one years of being
in the financial services business, youneed to start taking action to start building
your own personal retirement income distribution plan. How do you do that to take
action five one eight five eight zeroone nine one nine. That's five one

(01:06:43):
eight five eight zero one nine onenine or RPG retire on the web.
Don't procrastinate, motivate to start buildingyour retirement income Distribution plan five one eight
five eight zero one nine one nine. If you have any questions, please
call in now at one eight hundredeight two five nine. That's one eight
hundred talk w G Y one eighthundred talk w G. Why we are

(01:07:05):
live in studio to answer your questions. Pretty paper, pretty ribbs, oh
blue, wrap your presents to yourdarling from you, Pretty pencils to run,

(01:07:42):
pretty paper, pretty ribbins. Crowdedstreets, busy feet, hustled by
him downtown on shoppers chrismas nice.There he sits all along the side,

(01:08:13):
walls open. You won't pass himby, should you stop? Better?
Night much too busy, in ahurry, my hout timely and in the

(01:08:42):
distance the ring of left and inthe midst of the left her all right,
we're back, pretty, i'd sing, but you'd all turn your phone

(01:09:05):
off radio. You know the worldis changing dramatically, and with that change
headlines every day, AI, robots, everything else it will change the workforce,
and it already has. And asI said, in the year two

(01:09:31):
thousand and twenty two, we hadsecond highest level of job gains four and
a half million. But as theyear started to subside and we went into
two thousand and twenty three, alot of major corporations came out and said,

(01:09:51):
guess what we use a going We'regoing to cut you. You're no
longer going to be employed by XYZcorporations. So bottom line is is that
we've seen thousands and thousands of jobscut from major corporations, and I'm in
the camp folks that it's going tocontinue. I love getting up early in

(01:10:17):
the morning, and I love todo research, and I love to read,
specifically on the computer. And whenyou read some of the things that
are going to happen with artificial intelligencein nanotechnology, which is right here in
our backyard, it's amazing what ourkids are going to see. I'm hoping

(01:10:43):
that I'd live long enough to seesome of these things. They talk about
three D printing, where you're goingto be able to basically take some of
your DNA and they're gonna be ableto do a heart for your new heart
put in a new kidney anew thisA knew that. I guess they're already
testing it as we speak. Sothe world's going to change, and the

(01:11:05):
world changing also means that our abilityto work and how we work is going
to change. A good portion ofthe people that come in to our office
that are in their fifties now thatare starting to think about their retirement.
A lot of these people are nowworking from home. There's no such thing

(01:11:28):
as a hub, a main officethat they go to on a daily basis.
They might go occasionally once or twicea month, but effectively they're almost
like independent contractors. You know,if I had a nickel for every time
somebody says, yeah, I've gotmy office set up in my home.
You know, I took the oldbedroom and I turned it into an office.

(01:11:48):
Or you know, I've got myspace downstairs in the basement. You
know, we converted the basement over. That's the world that we live in
today, and because this world,we're gonna have to start thinking a little
bit differently. If you get thechance of getting that knock at the door

(01:12:08):
and the guy says, oh,by the way, I need to have
a chat with you, and theywalk into HR and they say you're no
longer employed here. Your job hasbeen eliminated. So I would over emphasize
this to our younger listening audience.Okay, never assume that your job is
secure in today's world, and alwayshave Plan B. Plan B. Plan

(01:12:40):
B is prepared to be unemployed.So what does that mean. That means
that first and foremost right, insteadof buying the BMW, in the jet
SKI and all the TLC, allthe stuff that you want, what you
want to do is you want tomake sure that you have an emergency fund

(01:13:01):
and make it at least six monthsof living expenses. So if you're spending
three to four thousand dollars a month, if your basic living expenses, make
sure you have somewhere between ballpark twentyto twenty five thousand dollars. Allocate it
into that type of investment money marketliquid that you can get to in case

(01:13:24):
there is a nine one one orthere is an emergency that only makes economic
sense anyway, So start the emergencyfund immediately, whether you're starting your career,
whether you're in the middle of yourcareer, wherever it may be,
wherever you are in the ruler,you want to make sure that you've got
an emergency fund and you can putit into a lot of I mean,

(01:13:45):
right now, our money market accountat Fidelity is paying almost five percent in
a money market account. When youwalk in to the HR guy or gal,
don't sign anything until you have legalrepresentation. Don't sign anything. Here's

(01:14:09):
sign this today's your last day.Now. I'm not going to sign anything.
No in order for you. Youknow you can't go back to your
office. That's fine, grab mystuff, but I'm not signing anything until
I have legal representation. Don't signanything because you might be giving up benefits.
Right then you say, please putin writing, sir, what options

(01:14:30):
I have available to me now ora man, and please be very specific
in detailed at what my options willbe in the future as far as healthcare,
any other types of benefits that Iwill receive, and is there any
monetary payment to me seeing that I'mno longer going to be working here at

(01:14:51):
this location. And then bring itto your attorney, whoever that may be,
and read the fine print. Readthe fine print, okay, and
the big one of course, whichI talked to Jamie yesterday on on w

(01:15:12):
TRY, we do a segment withJamie every Friday to talk a little bit
about what we're going to be discussingon today's show. Make sure you talk
about the H word health insurance,because if you're in your fifties and you
need healthcare, bottom line is it'sgoing to cost you a lot of money,

(01:15:39):
a lot of money, especially ifyou have a wife in children that
need to be covered under that plan. The H word is huge, as
Billy would say, huge. Sotake stock or where you are, understand
what's available to you. What arethey gonna do? Are they going to

(01:16:00):
pay for healthcare? Are they goingto give you a severance? Are they
going to do this? They're goingto do that, But do not sign
anything and ask for a letter fromHR stating that you were laid off.
It wasn't you. You didn't walkout the door, so they can't try
to stop you from receiving unemployment benefitsand inquire as I said, about insurance

(01:16:26):
coverage, your payout, your finalcheck, and any severance. But don't
sign anything because then you can't negotiateit if your signature is in what black
and white? Right, Zach?That's right, brother. So when you're
asked when you're getting laid off.Here are some of the questions that you

(01:16:48):
want to ask. Okay, whatis my last day right now? Okay,
thank you? When will I getpaid for any unused vacation time?
They'll probably hold their breath. Whathappens to my bonuses or commissions that are
due me? What about my fourone K options? I mean, I'm

(01:17:09):
gonna go through the launderness. Theseare just some bullet points that things that
you need to think about. We'vedone numerous meetings with this over the last
few months, but the bottom linegets down to is that make sure you
understand your options. Let's go quicklyto Tim and Lathan. Morning. Tim,
Hey, hey Dave, thanks fortaking my call. You bet brother

(01:17:30):
listen. Yeah, hey, um, you know, I think it would
be helpful. You know, you'reyou're talking annuities and so on, and
you know the other people aren't forhim, you know, trying to get
my head around why I would wantthem. I've listened to you a lot,
but I think it would be helpfulfor your audience if you did a
debate get the other side. I'vejust there's a guy on the radio here.

(01:17:54):
There's a guy on the radio herethat you know tells everybody that annuities
or pieces of you know what.I've called and asked him to debate.
I've asked him to actually step upand sit across from me, and he
won't return my phone call. Sothat's the bottom line. I'd love a
debate. Whoever wants to step up. I'll debate him about a nuities all
day long because I know him insideand out, upside down, round and

(01:18:15):
round, and like anything else,the door is open for the debate.
But listen, I gotta take abreak. If you want to stay on
the line, I'll be more thanhappy to talk to you, Tim,
But we got a hard break inabout fifteen seconds. Why don't you stick
around and we can talk about thisa little bit more. Will be right
back I. He works hard togive her. He thinks she three car

(01:18:55):
garage her own CD. He pullsit light to wake her up with a
kiss good night. If he couldonly read her mind. Shit, say

(01:19:21):
buy me rose, call me fromwork, burn the door, shoot me
he's a live fee most All right, we are back, man. I

(01:19:45):
love that guy. That is goodmusic. Did Tim stay on the line.
If he did, all right,brother, I got you. I'll
listen to what you have to say, and then I'll give you my my
my spiel. Okay, but letme ask you question. What do you
know about annuities yourself? Um,other than what I've heard you talk about,

(01:20:06):
not a lot. Ok So,Um. I understand diversifying, and
you know it's easier to pass onwealth to the next generation and so on.
I understand all of that. Mything is and like you said,
you know the cost right. Soif that's a misnomer and inaccurate, you

(01:20:27):
know, because I've owned whole lifepolicies with major you know, with the
major insurance companies, and quite honestly, I wasn't happy with it. And
you know, when they give youthe perspectives, hey, it's going to
do X, Y and Z,well that's rarely true. So you know,
I'm jaded towards I think they're overpriced. But in listening to you,

(01:20:50):
you said they're not loaded and thefees aren't aren't like they were in
the past. So I think Ithink a debate would be very helpful to
your listeners. I'm all for it. Bring it on, Bring it on.
I'll try to have the station tohave somebody come on that you know,
basically pooh poo's annuities and how terriblethey are. This is the analogy,

(01:21:14):
Tim, that I've used over andover and over again. Okay,
you know what, I can goto Grecian gardens and get myself a beautiful
lunch for twenty five to thirty dollars. Or I can go to I won't
mention the restaurant, but there's onein Saratoga where it's gonna cost me one

(01:21:35):
hundred dollars for lunch. It's gonnabe the same consumption, it's gonna be
similar food, but I'm getting alunch for a hundred bucks rather than twenty
five dollars. Right, It's thesame thing with annuities. Okay, I
can buy an annuity today that's twentydollars a month, that the average expense

(01:21:59):
on it is fifteen point one fivefifteen basis points, three hundred and fifty
investment options, and basically you havea more cost effective platform than the screaming
monkeys talk about. As far asno liquidity, high sales charges, the
only reason why they're recommending it isbecause they get a big fat commission seven

(01:22:25):
percent. It's all bull. Youknow what you step in it, it's
a marketing ploy. It doesn't exist. And the final thing that I'll say,
in order to do an annuity contracttoday, you have to go through
two to three days at least beforeyour compliance department will come back to you

(01:22:45):
and say yes, this is suitablefor the client and you can move forward.
That's the reality. Now you'll havethe people get on the other side
of the fence that will talk outa chassis that was designed years ago,
years ago, not currently what's availablein the marketplace today. But here's the

(01:23:08):
keyword. Here's the keyword, andthey pooh pooh this too like it doesn't
mean anything. It gives you comfort, comfort to know that there's a certain
part of your portfolio that will bewith you for as long as you shall
live, just like a pension,because eighty six percent of us don't have

(01:23:29):
what pensions got it. So letme ask you, if you have a
pension, do you need an annuity? Most likely no? Most likely no.
For some people they take, well, here here's an example. I'll
give you an example, because I'vesold hundreds of millions of dollars of annuities.

(01:23:53):
Husband and wife. He retires fromthe state in New York. She
didn't work he has a pension benefit, but he says, I'm not going
to leave a s VIBER benefit foryou because we've got all this money in
the deferred compensation plan, and Ican replace that money if I die prematurely
with an annuity, and you're gonnaget retirement income for as long as you

(01:24:13):
shall live. So I'll take themaximum pension with the State of New York,
and I'll buy you an annuity,and that annuity will kick on once
I predecease you. If it doesn't. If I don't predecease you, then
I can get rid of it becauseI don't need it anymore. And the
thing is is that I still havethe maximum pension benefit that was offered me
by the State of New York.Does that sound fair? Does that sound

(01:24:38):
like something that you're trying to do. You're a shark or you're a bad
person because you're recommending something to aspouse that would give you lifetime income.
No. No, That's why Ithink the information people need to be educated
on both sides, and a debatewould be healthy. I believe, well,

(01:24:59):
I'll tell what I'm more than willingto debate. I've asked. Nobody
shows up I've said, call me. You want to talk about annuities,
you better do your homework because Iknow him inside and out. I know
what's good in bed. It's likeI was listening to the show one day
and there's a guy who calls anyga. I got an myga. It's
a guaranteed rate for six percent.Blah blah blah blah blah. The guy

(01:25:21):
didn't even know what the hell annyga was. An myga is no different
than a CD. It's a multiyear, guaranteed annuity, fixed, guaranteed
at the end of the term.You can take your money and run.
What that? What is wrong withthat? Well it's an annuity? Well
big deal. What do you meanit's a nuity? Why would you throw
it out? Because it's annuity?It just doesn't make any It's a marketing

(01:25:42):
ploy. It's a sales pitch.I'm smarter than the insurance company. That's
basically what it is. And it'sa bunch of you know what. Well,
thanks for your time, Daves,Hey brother, if we can help
you give us a quale. We'llgo to Paul and can I get morning
Paul? Dave, I'm the guyand maybe you didn't read it. Who

(01:26:04):
sent you a few pieces of paperin a grid on the several reserve history
of payments states. Okay, Soin defense of what you just said,
I didn't even know you would bringup that MAGA. I called it.
I'm going to be harsh share Iagree with you, okay, and I'm
not. You don't even know me. I don't live around here. I'm

(01:26:25):
popaily here. The deal is thatmost people don't want to do homework and
annuities on three of the six showsin this area, maybe seven, depending
on what you include. Because ofthese shows about Medicaid, trust are pooh
pooing them at least three of them, maybe four, It depends on the

(01:26:45):
day and your point about MAGA.I was a guy who called up one
of the shows and said, lookat in Connecticut when yields were one,
if you were lucky and you werestuck with GICs in four to one case
at two, I called standing annuityman and I'm not here to market stay
it. I've talked to him forhours. No, no, no,

(01:27:06):
that's fine. Okay. Who's thenumber one annuity individual uh operator in the
country and he's getting worn out.I think he's a great guy. And
I he's worn out. He usedto but maybe because he has so much
business. Yeah, that's what Imean. I'm sorry, No, it's

(01:27:27):
funny, and what the deal isthat Amiga is where I focus. But
I've done a couple of indexed annuitiesand the point is that I did my
calculations instead. If I'm getting zero, maybe I get two. If I'm
getting two, I know i'm gettingfour in the environment from two o nine
to two thousand and twenty two,let's say. So that's topic one.

(01:27:51):
Most of these people are dead wrong. And I've sent that same thing to
at least three of them. Aretwo of them and the ones that are
like you and no offense that youdidn't respond actually called me back and complimented
me. And I've sent this toa cousin because I know one of my

(01:28:12):
cousins has a son in law who'sworking for let's say, Northwestern Mutual Life.
Now they probably sell them. Butthe point is, I'm a very
educated guy about this. You're right, and if you sat down with people
and had stands, books and nooffense, I'm not marketing and stand it
is a complex landscape. After myguys in fixed index because you got to

(01:28:33):
start thinking about variables and contracts andtheir prospectuses. So when people say I
don't sell them or I don't likethem, they're dead wrong. That's point
one. Point two is that thecommission that some people get. And I'm
going to wrap this up because Ido have a question for a friend.

(01:28:54):
That the commission that some people getstaggered me. And I don't care if
you make Dave, Okay, that'syour business, just like a garbage pickup
guy or a guy landscaping or whateveryour field of expertise is. You've done
your work. You've been in thisa long time. But what bothers me?

(01:29:15):
As one? I get a calculatorout and go if they're going to
charge me a bit one hundred andfifty basis points and I know that I'm
getting a four percent of a nudynet for four years, which was the
fact, and now they're higher.And I went to him or her and
tried to buy and this is whereI never got into the weeds fixed income

(01:29:40):
return instruments. And it was atea bill. If they're not going to
charge me a point in a half, I'm pretty sure because I go through
Merrill winch or some stuff. Butthe point is they're dead wrong. It's
not even debatable. In the closingthis down went and I listened to Barry
rid Holts a lot on Bloomberg Radio, and I need to know if you

(01:30:00):
could clarify the environment when a companybreaks up and people leave, is it
really crystal clear on moving your assetswith the advisor? Aren't there all these
contractual NDAs and self worth depending onthe unique state of affairs with that And
it's in the case it's were gatalman. They broke up, Yeah, they

(01:30:25):
sold out the private Do you knowanything about that? Yeah? No,
I know a lot about it.I've been in the business forty one.
I've been in the business forty one. There are there are nda, there
are na yea. NDAs do existin this world, and there has to
be. Hey, listen, Ican't invite you into my house and let
you stay for eight to ten yearsand then when I come home one day,

(01:30:45):
all my furniture and all my appliancesare gone. My house is still
right, My house is still there, but you took everything. I mean.
The thing is that there's a sacredbond and trust and oh, by
the way, you can't take anyfining all information. You cannot take any
soul security numbers. You cannot takeaddresses and telephone numbers of existing clients.

(01:31:10):
That is against the law. Thatis against the law. So the bottom
line, okay, that actually helps. Yeah, yeah, I know enough
to be dangerous because rid Holes wastalking to one of the big lawyers kind
of what went on back then.But now it seems in one of your

(01:31:30):
for example, one of your guysleft. He used to be on Sunday
Night, right, and I thinkhe's independent. I'm not. It's a
very fluid environment, let's face it, right, So here's the key question.
If the person liked that person,Joe Smith, can they then just
call him and say, look it, I liked you. I'm moving all
my money to you. I'm pullingit. Can't they do that? Maybe?

(01:31:55):
Okay, maybe that's so it's nota slam dunk. That's interesting.
That's all I needed to know.You do a great job. I just
want to say that, thank you. Okay. Can I ask you one
question? Yeah? Yeah, beforeyou hang up. You know, I
appreciate you calling in. You mighthave been the gentleman. First thing.
I don't I never really I callpeople. I don't. I'm not good

(01:32:15):
at sending emails or text messages becauseI never want them. I never want
them to be misinterpreted, you knowwhat I mean? Sometimes you send something
as a joke and the guy said, what the hell did you do this
for? You know what's that supposedto me? Right? So I'm so
glad that you called in, becauseyou sound like you're an educated man and
you understand finance and economics. You'relook and I'm I'm a CPA who's been

(01:32:42):
investing my own money and was mentoredby the guy who ran Mariat Corporations profit
sharing when they were booming in asixties and seventies and eighties, and became
one of my best friends, whodied a year and a half ago at
ninety six years old. He mentoredme, and he's the guy who took
me to the trap. And I'mgonna hammer you on this one. The
most important sacker in racing is thehorse in the trainer. I don't even

(01:33:08):
look. I write articles every weekfor Horse Racing Nation. I've never mentioned
a jockey at the Preakness. Ifyou're bringing in, if you're bringing in
a guy from Charlestown, he's aBush league jockey. He's not going to
be there at the Ortiz Brothers,Flavian prot and all these class one jockeys.
I don't even I don't even lookat who rides the horse. I

(01:33:31):
tell you I never did, butbut you do. But you gotta give
you credit. You do like theanalogy, right, No, it's absolutely
correct. But I'm I would arguethat put it this way, I could
have my own radio show on alot of subjects as I'm a quick talker
and I haven't had coffee yet,but I'm such an overwhelmingly pushy guy about

(01:33:55):
what I believe. But you werea little bit like me, And at
least these other people walk like oneggshells, and I know if they really
had some intestinal fortitude, they're they'rereserved. And one guy told me in
particular, he takes the show inadvance because his compliance department is monitoring it.

(01:34:16):
Right, But at the same time, you've got to just really let
it all hang out. As longas you're not breaking a lot, obviously
you're not right, and it's andthat's good because these people just there's this
lethargic what are the indexes do lastweek? Yeah, right exactly, and
I'm falling asleep or gibby something beyondwhat I can flip on the internet on

(01:34:42):
Bloomberg. I'm going on too long. Well, there's there's one thing I
was going to say to you.You know. The thing is is that
most people don't understand it because theydon't do it fifty sixty hours a week,
and they haven't done it for fortyone years. When I when I
started my practice and eighteen ninety Ileft Morgan Stanley Dean Winner, I said

(01:35:02):
to myself, I will never havean agenda. My agenda is always gonna
be when you walk in the door, we're gonna fit the product to what
you're looking for in your wrist tolerance. And that has been an ad trt.
Always do the right thing for theclient and it will come back in
spades. And it has for me, and that's how I live my life.

(01:35:27):
That's good. Hey, I agree. I believe you too. YEA,
God bless you. It's yourself.Okay, that was a great phone
call. Oh, it's a greatphone call. I know there's somebody else
called him, Dave. You wantto call back, Dave, give us
a call. It's open Lines oneeight hundred talk to WGY We get probably
time for one more phone call oneeight hundred talk to w g Y one

(01:35:51):
eight hundred two five fifty nine fortynine. Anybody wants to debate me about
annuities, step on up call Zach. I'll be more than happy to sit
down with you. We'll be rightback the eighty six percenters. Do you
know that eighty six percent of thepopulation has no defined benefit pension plan?
For most of us, we haveto take our life savings and create a
paycheck for the rest of our livesin retirement. What is your plan for

(01:36:14):
retirement income distribution? How will youmanage your assets during the most critical years
of your lifetime. Nobel Prize winningeconomists William Sharpe has called retirement income distribution
the nastiest, hardest problem in finance. He points out that investment, uncertainty,
and mortality can derail the most carefullaid out retirement income plan. Call
our offices today to start the processof building your retirement income distribution plan.

(01:36:39):
After forty one years of being inthe financial services business, you need to
start taking action to start building yourown personal retirement income distribution plan. How
do you do that to take actionfive one eight five eight zero one nine
one nine. That's five one eightfive eight zero one nine one nine,
or RPG retire on the web,don't procrastinate to eight to start building your

(01:37:00):
retirement income Distribution Plan five one eightfive eight zero one nine one nine.
If you have any questions, pleasecall in now at one eight hundred eight
two five fifty nine forty nine.That's one eight hundred talk w G y
one eight hundred talk w G.Why we are live in studio to answer
your questions? All right, Rback. You know, I don't know

(01:37:56):
that gentleman that just called in fromConnecticut, but what a breath of fresh
air. And Tim, I guessTim started it off. And Latham okay.
But you know if I walk intoBen and Jerry's and I say,
you know, what's your flavors forthe day and they say, we got
vanilla? Okay, well, e'swe got well in this bucket, we
got vanilla. Move down? Whatelse you got? We got vanilla?

(01:38:19):
Vanillava? You know everyone's vanilla?Okay. There's no investment that one hundercent
of it is wrong for consumers.There's not one. There's not one investment
out there. Don't give me thiscrap that annuities are bad, because they're
not. They're not. Okay,that's reality. It's a sales pitch.

(01:38:43):
Let me charge you one and ahalf percent a year to manage your money.
Okay, that's great. Okay,that's great. We're a fiduciary,
We're this, we're that. Youknow, we're always looking in your best
interests. Everybody does that, folks. Do you think anybody in our business
is acting in their own personal benefitin today's world without the risk of good
getting handcuffed and going away to thepokey. That's reality. That is reality.

(01:39:09):
And this guy talked about this guystand, I gotta look him up
because I gotta find out what hedoes, what he talks about. If
you can shoot me an email,let me know the gentleman from Connecticut.
I would love to either listen tohis show or look at his information.
But bottom line gets down to isthat, you know what, some people

(01:39:30):
are adverse to risk, adverse torisk, and some people want safety and
guarantees. Not I think this willhappen or I got my fingers crossed.
And history has shown I don't careabout history. Okay, like my father
in law. I always say this. I bought my father in law a

(01:39:50):
fixed guaranteed annuity when he retired sixpercent, six percent. It was guaranteed
for ten years at six percent.Every day he would go and look at
his six percent growth. You don'twant to risk, you don't want to
stock market. He wanted to fixguaranteed rate, six percent, guaranteed for

(01:40:14):
ten years. Right now you getfive percent ballpark, ballpark. The new
rates come out Monday. The ballpark, you can get five percent. What's
modern portfolio theories say four percent?Four percent should come off a portfolio without
the risk. You know, Ialways say, over and over again,
what's the greatest risk for people today? Longevity? Living a long life?

(01:40:43):
Right, And when I see agentleman that I have great respect for and
he does the Sharp ratio William Sharp, and he comes out and says that
annuity solved. The greatest risk forretirees not outliving your assets. This guy's
a Stanford Award winning Nobel economists,Nobel Prize winning economists. Do you think

(01:41:06):
he's got an ax to grind?Let's go to Gene real quick and then
George will be right with you.Gene, go ahead, Hi, I
just wanted to speak to you aboutthe goals that Um the gentleman said,
well, it's really hard to goand you know, spend your gold elsewhere.
I'd like to let your audience knowabout a product called gold back Am.

(01:41:28):
I've been purchasing them. They're fulldollar bills. They've actually been able
to put goals on paper on theselittle beautiful pieces of you know, scripture
that they have. UM. Okay, thank you for Hampshire. Okay,
thank you, we appreciate that.We'll look into that. Let's go quickly
to George. We only got afew minutes left. George and Colony warned

(01:41:49):
George, Yes, good morning.You probably don't have enough time for me,
but well let's make all right.So I'm a retiree sixty six years
old. My wife passed away threeyears ago and I get I collect her

(01:42:12):
soul security from the State of NewYork for another I think six years,
because it was a ten year thinganyway, So I'm living off of that
in my soul security. My questionis, though, is when I retired
from my company, I got paida lump sum. It wasn't a lot,

(01:42:32):
maybe fifty thousand dollars. I thensold my wife and and mysells house
and bought my parents' house who hadpassed away from myself and my two brothers.
Took that money and put it ina savings account through through the bank.

(01:42:55):
But I took my retirement money andput it in my fall with my
fall one k from with fidality.What was the smarter thing for me to
do with that money that I stillhave of seventy thousand dollars in my savings
account. Well, I think itreally gets down to your risk tolerance,

(01:43:16):
and I think it gets down toare you maximizing those dollars in order to
get the most income if it's importantto it. I mean, if you
have more than enough income right nowand what you're trying to do is to
you know, preserve and protect thoseassets. I mean there's a multitude of
investment options that are available to you. So what I would say to you,

(01:43:39):
are you working with a financial advisor? If you're not, you should
reach out to one and just youknow, sit down with them and say,
you know, am am, Imaking the sauce right? Do I
have the write ingredients for what I'mtrying to accomplish? Okay? But so
I guess the answer is is probablynot leave that seventy thous and in my

(01:44:00):
safe in the savings account with acredit union. Correct, Well, how
much money are you making on itright now? Sir? You know what?
I don't even know. Well,well, let's then then I'll tell
you what. Let's let's do this, okay, because I only got a
minute left. You find out whatyou what you're making on it, and
then you call me next week forthe show and we'll have a nice chat

(01:44:23):
about it. How does that soundI'll make I'll make it a point to
pick you up first. How's thatokay, I'll try to do that.
So what you're asking though, isfor me to take a look at the
what I'm making on the savings accountthrough the credit union. Yeah, and
then give me a buzz back.We've got a break because we're at the
end here. But God bless youand give me a call next week and

(01:44:45):
hopefully I can help you. We'llsee you next week. Folks. It
was a great show. Be Safe. This is Dave Kopeck. This is
a retirement planning show. If wecan help give us a buzz five one
eight five eight zero one nine onenine, Be safe. We'll see you
next week. The information provided isfor educational informational purposes only. It does
not constitute investment advice and it shouldnot be relied on as such. It

(01:45:08):
should not be considered a solicitation tobuyer or to offer a sales security.
It does not take into account anyinvestors particular investment objectives, strategies, tax
status, or investment horizon. Youshould consult your attorney or tax advisor.
Thank you for listening to the RetirementPlanning Show hosted by David Kopeck. If
you would like to talk with Daveor someone at the Retirement Planning Group called
five one eight five eight zero onenine one nine. That's five one eight

(01:45:30):
five eight zero one nine one nineduring business hours, or visit us at
RPNG retire dot com. The RetirementPlanning Group has three convenient offices located in
Albany, Malta and Glens Falls.Retirement Planning Group LLC is a registered investment
advisor. David M. Kopeck isalso a registered representative of persch kaplan Sterling
Investments Inc. PKS in their separatecapacities. A registered representative of PKS,

(01:45:55):
David M. Kopeck may recommend theimplementation of securities through pks instead of Retirement
Planning Group LLC, PERSH Camplin,Sterlin Investments and Retirement Planning Group LLC are
not affiliated companies. Tune in againnext week for retirement planning Strategies with David
Kopeck on the Retirement Planning Ship