December 17, 2024 • 38 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Brad Schweiss of Houston Gold Exchange about the price of gold.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed
Decisions for a healthier, happier life and Bronze Roofing repair
(00:44):
or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered? And now fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, here we go. Tuesday edition of the program
starts right now. My first your second day of the
work week, if you still work. Mine runs Tuesday through Sunday.
I take that Monday off and I do kind of
babysit it. I try not to schedule too much stuff,
but it's also a good time to take care of
household things like Christmas shopping. I did some of that
(01:11):
yesterday and I'll probably actually do some again this afternoon.
Not done yet. I think my son's gotten about all
he's gonna get to open on Christmas morning next week,
and he should be he should be happy. He's had
a couple of things that my wife and I have
gotten for him in the past, call it six months
(01:33):
that were big, big parts of Christmas eight pretty deeply,
I would say, into the Christmas budget up to and
not excluding certainly a brand new little pickup truck that
he's he appreciates, There's no question about it. He appreciates it,
he likes it, and he just can't get enough of
(01:54):
driving it. He's got I don't know, he's got a
he's on page to run a bo the same mile
count I have. I'm driving a twenty one model SUV
that has eighty three thousand and change on it. A
lot of miles. Huh, Will how many miles do you
think you log per year? Well, it's a three year
(02:16):
old car and it's got eighty three thousand miles on it.
So you tell me what twenty eight, twenty seven? Wow?
They driving to Well most of that, I would say,
there were a couple of trips that a couple of
Corpus Christie trips, so they put on a chunk. But
other than that, and I think once, yeah, once, we
(02:37):
went to Dallas for a baseball tournament in the very
early history of that car. Most of it was just
baseball tournaments around here. He played nine months out of
the year. If if any of you has a son
or daughter who plays the same sport all year round
because the coaches or management division or whatever are telling
(02:58):
you that that's gonna be good for you your kids,
go talk to an orthopedic surgeon before you let him
play all year round. They need to take one season
off and do an entirely different sport, otherwise it's gonna
mess up their muscle development. And that's not me talking.
That's a couple of a couple of good friends and
good acquaintances with some of the best orthopedics in town,
(03:23):
one of whom, well, one of whom is a guy
who did my son's knee and also happened to do
There's a guy named Tom Brady. Maybe you've heard of him.
Oh yeah, I think he's a football Yeah you know
who I'm talking about. I mean, the uh commentator, the commentator,
Yeah that guy, Yeah, what does he care about? Good knees?
Only kept him in what in the league for long
(03:45):
enough to make a bajillion dollars, I'm sure, and still
doing well now. Great player no question about it anyway.
That's that's where some of this information came from, and
I took it to heart early on with my son.
He played basketball, he played golf, he played tag or
flag football. All these one or two season deals that
(04:07):
he did just to spread it all out, and he
came out pretty good. I would say he's doing very well.
Back to what we need to be talking about. Late
late summer is about to go away. It's been nice,
but I'm ready for some cooler weather again, and it's coming.
The hot stuff is coming to a halt tomorrow night
when yet another cool snap comes rolling down the state.
(04:29):
With that in mind, I'll go ahead and lay out
today's highs and lows and haiku courtesy again of Texas
Indoor Air Quality Specialists. Because cleaner air is healthier air.
Let's go to Texas IAQ dot net and go check
it out. Are you ready well hit me you like force,
well like four Seasons, then you'd best move way up
(04:49):
north forty short ones here. At first, I thought it
was going to be maybe having to do with the
Four Seasons Hotel, or the popular singing group from the fifties, sixties,
seventies and eighties they had as many I think they
had hits in as many decades as the Beatles, I
really do. I think that's correct, and I haven't checked it,
(05:13):
but it just reminds me of the Beatles had longevity,
and so did the Four Seasons. But the Four Seasons
story is every bit as interesting, if not more.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Do you really know?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, well, why don't you regale that? Well, they they
kind of grew up on the city streets up north
and kind of you know, they had interaction with some
pretty pretty suss people. Okay, And there's a story where
one of these guys kind of took advantage of something
(05:44):
and ended up running up a big tab that could
have cost him more than just money and what is mecaps,
possibly or worse. But anyway, the head, the lead guy
in the group, made a promise that he would keep
working until that debt was paid off. And that man
(06:04):
still he's wheeling him well he's not in a wheelchair,
but he's dragging himself back onto the stage still to
perform to this day. And that's from way back when
that's a that's the shortest version of that story. There's
a great movie about it. You should watch that movie
will Oh yeah, what's it called? Phone? Ask me what
the name of it is. I can't remember, Okay, they can't.
(06:27):
It couldn't have been that great. If you can't even
remember the name, just look up Four Seasons movie and
tell me the name of it right now before you
have to go to break TikTok, TikTok, TikTok. No pressure,
I feel pressure. You should put me on the spot
like that. Well, there's a there's a movie called The
(06:51):
Four Seasons. That's probably it. It's a romantic comedy. No,
that's not it. It could be. Technically, this is more
a biographic type of a thing. They had some really
great hits, uh and all the toe Jersey boy Jersey boys. Yes,
that's it, Thank you very much. The whole audience probably
(07:13):
is going, come on, Doug, you can get this with
a franky valley, freaky valley. That's the guy. That's the
guy who's still performing, still performing. So back to the haiku, though,
what are you rating it? Do you want to hear
it again? Yeah? I need to hear it again, like
four long seasons. Then you'd best move way up north
forty short ones here. I I like it, Okay. On
(07:40):
the second run through. Yeah, it's pretty good. And the
score I'm gonna give it. I'm gonna give it a
seven point nine. Oh my lord, since when? What what
have you been drinking? You? That's so generous. I had
I had up a little six seven there, I would
(08:02):
have accepted anything around that. Okay, we have to take
a little break, don't we. We'll take a break. We'll
come right back and then we'll talk some more. I'll
get into the markets and I'll get into something. That's
where this weather's headed for the end of the week.
As if you already don't know, I may not dwell
on that long. We all know what's coming a late health.
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and what they do is go in and identify the
(08:44):
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If you know the symptoms, you know them and you
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Same with fibroids for women. Same with even head pain
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Speaker 1 (09:59):
Aged to prefer this is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All right, welcome back, Thanks for listening. We got word
during the break that Brad Schwice from Houston Gold Exchange
was interested in getting on the phone early, probably because
he's got a big deal in the wings just waiting
to happen. So let's do that. Brad.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
You there, man, Yes, sir, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Welcome aboard. Bred schwis from Houston Goldexchange dot com. I've
talked with him and about him for a long time
on this program, and I'm happy to know the guy.
So what the heck's going on with gold prices? Man?
First of all, what pushed him so high this past
year and what's kind of picking them back down now?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well, what the biggest driver is is all the money
that our government has printed and h and there's no
end in sight to when our financial pain is going
to be over. Okay, every ninety days we have a
trillion dollars added to our debts. So we're not gonna
bail ourselves out very quickly.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, it's gonna be a hot minute hunt. Why why
the little drop we've had lately.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, she's like anything else. There's different driving factors. But
you got to look at it like over a one
year or five year period and see where it's going.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We'll make a little more sense that longer term than
short obviously.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, if you look at the history, if you went
over five years, it's it's like a yo yo. It
goes up and down, up and down, but the steady
trend has been up.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I read something a couple of days ago Brad about, uh,
somewhere in the world the discovery of the huge just
gold reserve. Ever, did you see that? It's probably not.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, that's out of China. Okay, it's out of China,
and it's supposedly the largest find ever. Now how much
we trust our Chinese friends all the time, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
But supposedly it's a ninety billion dollar reserve. But it's
one point nine miles deep in the earth. So that's
not gonna come out that.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Quick like you can just go pan for it, can you. Yeah,
that's interesting that stay at.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
The at the end of the day. There's a lot
of gold buyers in the in the in the world,
and you know, China for a long time has been
the world's largest gold producer. Okay, so you're talking about
a worldwide commodity. I think the most important tidbit that
your listeners need to hear is the fact that Chase
(12:42):
Bank as well as Bank of America have called for
gold to be three thousand dollars announced by the middle
of next year.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's interesting. Yeah, that's a good boy. You know, if
they're right now, it'd be the time to buy, because
it's not that far from three grand Is it twenty
six something like that?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yes, yes, sir, it is. And uh, like I said,
if you look at the long term, it's of momentarily
has a small dip in the market, but it's gonna
go back up. And uh, you know, I don't see
it not passing twenty seven hundred by the end of
this month. But the longer term in six months is
still gonna go up to probably three thousand dollars and
(13:20):
it's not going to stop anytime soon or other. The
other thing that go ahead, go say. The other thing
is driving money in different markets is the fact that
the bitcoin has gone crazy. Yeah, and it's gone from
thirty thousand to one hundred and seven thousand within a
twelve month period, only because the new administration is very
(13:41):
pro crypto.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That's a good point. So let me ask you this.
Are other precious metals tied to gold or do they
all move independently?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
You know, they's somewhat tied, probably the biggest ties between
gold and silver. And that's one of the ratios that
I've studied now for forty years. And that being said,
even though I see upside and gold, I see a
bigger percentage upside in silver right now.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I mean, I got to go get those little silver
dimes and quarters I got around the house stacked up
on worth anything they do add up? You, sir? What
does it?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The silver quarter, Well you.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Got a whole shoe box full of and they don't
bot a single quarter? What's it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
How much three in a quarter?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I don't know on what a quarter's worth, but.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, well it's worth more than a quarter. That's just
it's safe to say that. What about diamonds, where do
they come into this conversation?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You know, as far as the investment world, uh, and
what people are putting their money into right now. I
saw a lot of people buying two carried investments in diamonds,
say twenty five thirty years ago, and that that trends
all that stopped. Yeah, I think those type of people
are putting their money into bigcoin and gold right now.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Does that have anything to do with this? I don't
even you know what a lab grown dimond. It's not
like you plant a diamond seed and then water it
and you get a big diamond. They're just they're just
compressing carbon or something like that. But is that fueling
some of it?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, Yeah, So basically as far as diamonds go, the
thing that's driving the market right now is the man
made diamonds and the uh the worldwide diamond prices have
gone down about thirty percent in the last twelve months
because of the influx of man made diamonds. And the
younger generation doesn't care if it's natural or man made,
(15:33):
so they're going to go with whatever's cheaper.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, they don't know the difference. And what's the difference
in price and a two carrot man made and a
two carrot flawless natural?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Oh yeah, about a ten x difference? It's not warm.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, I can't. And how many people would know the
difference if you showed them both and one hundred people,
how many could tell the difference just looking?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Okay, well, here's the thing. Even I can't the difference
without sophisticated laboratory equipment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
By all rights. It is a diamondsion's manufactured in a
laboratory and.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Under controlled conditions which eliminate most of the potential flaws. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know it has varying degrees of how they're crystallized,
but there's not a direct correlation there.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Okay, what about watches? That's something else.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You you buy and sell over there at Houston Gold Exchange.
How are they holding up?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You know? I think with bitcoin getting more popular two
years ago, rolex was a super hot commodity and it
reached a peak and it is cool off in pricing.
It's still highly popular. So it's the number one bought
and sold unit of pre on watches on the market,
which you know drives the rest of the market.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Sure, or any any particular new brands of watches coming
out that make sense? I guess, Well, the way you're
putting it though. There aren't really any watches that would
compare to bitcoin or gold right.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Well. As first, if you're just trying to invest in
safeguard your net worth and all of that, No, watches
are not the place to be putting your money.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You're you're riding on bitcoin, huh.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I'm not personally because I'm in the gold business.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's a good point, okay, Ye, that's fair enough.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I do read up on it as it's relatively new
to my part of the business, so I need to keep,
you know, on top of things. But I heard a
lot of articles say that, you know, bitcoin might be
at a big bubble right now too. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's a good point. Yeah, gold, Yeah, you're kind of right.
When you and I talked about me bringing that little
palm full of gold over to sell to you a
while back, what you pointed out to me is that
when I bought that stuff, it was only about three
hundred dollars an ounce, and I didn't even realize that
it had gone up that much in the amount of
time that had passed since I was buying that stuff.
(17:58):
But that's that's a significant increase in value. It really
is about six seven times absolutely, that's pretty good stuff.
So so you still encourage selling, just whenever you get
around to it, right.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So basically my adage on that is what's right for
mister Smith is not always right for mister Jones. So
everybody has a different need. I had a guy come
in this morning and sell me fifty seven thousand dollars
worth of various gold coins and billion because he's putting
a down payment on a new house.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That makes sense. You can see that the house is
going to go up. And you can't live in a quarter.
You can't do that, can't live in an old coin
Good for him, man, all right, So how do they
get a hold of you, Brad? Because I'm fasted out
of time. I'm so sorry, but I want to make sure.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Pissed out a problem, I Doug. I'm semi retired these days,
but my cell phone number people are welcome to contact
me is two eight one eight five one three nine five.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Five one eight five one three five five five.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Three nine five.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
God, you know, when I said it, I knew better
because I knew there was a different number in there.
And I'm gonna do it right this time. Two eight
one eight five one three nine five five. That's the
number we'll call to get you, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
That's the one I'll answer. That's for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
All right, Well, thank you, Brett. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
We'll be back in touch, all.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Right, appreciate it. Good day, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's Brad Swiss from Houston Gold Exchange two eight one
eight five one three nine five five he. I found
him very easy to work with and I know people
who have worked with him in the past, and he'll
fare and square you for sure. He'll he'll do your
right whatever you whether you want to buy or sell.
UT Health Institute on Aging, there's a good place where
(19:50):
they'll take good care of you too, if you're a senior.
The UT Health Institute on Aging is a collaborative of
more than a thousand providers. I think it is right now.
I do need to get the exact number four. Anyway,
all of these people, no matter what medicine they're in,
no matter what aspect of healthcare they're in, have gone
back and gott an additional training and education so that
(20:12):
they can apply their knowledge, their school learning, if you will,
to seniors specifically. And that's a big deal for us.
We're different from younger people. We're plainly different if you
just look at a mirror and that the insides are
just as different. What you'll get with one of these
providers is someone who understands that difference and can address
(20:34):
whatever's bothering you from that perspective. Also, if you go
to the website, you're gonna find tons of resources that
are of tremendous value that don'll cost you a dime,
and just all kinds of access and things you might
think about doing for your own health. All of that's
there at the Utch Institute on Aging's website, which is
(20:55):
ut dot edu slash aging, Utah edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Bright. Welcome back, Thanks for listening to fifty plus today. Well,
how you doing, man? How you doing to do it?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
All? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Doug?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Good? Got all your shopping done for the holidays?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Well, it's honest and probably you're probably in line with
most people. I would say that, honestly, I believe that
a lot of people waited to do anything until after
the election. They didn't want to get they didn't want
to get caught spending money that maybe wasn't going to
be there. And I think there's at least from the
(21:59):
clients with whom I work, and from a lot of
people I know, just friends and neighbors and golf buddies
and all that, there's a sense of relief and a
sense of optimism that I haven't seen in many years
around here. So hopefully, hopefully that's the way we're headed.
And I do feel like it is moving to the
markets because we didn't get to them before. Also back
(22:21):
to it from Houston Gold Exchange, the whole board was
red around eleven and significantly so in several cases. Even
gold was down down twenty bucks an ounce, but still comfortably.
It was north of twenty six hundred dollars. Oil in
the red as well, by more than a dollar a barrel, too,
(22:42):
which is good news. And honestly, I feel like it's
just the beginning on our way back to energy independence.
That's going to bring our prices for oil and gas
way back down. And the oil companies and the gas companies,
many of they're the same in many case, but the
bottom line is they're going to be doing quite well
because they will be selling to points around the world,
(23:06):
to countries all over the world, rather than us having
to buy from enemy nations, which just makes absolutely no
sense at all, And I'll never understand why that had
to turn out that way. Of course, understanding the current
administration's pretty difficult somebody who's not delusional, I'm afraid. Stepping
(23:30):
into the news cycle, there was that horrific school shooting
up in Wisconsin. It was the first I've seen, or
at least that I recall, that was committed by a girl,
a young woman fifteen years old, whatever, girl, young woman,
whichever you want to choose. She killed a teacher and
a student, and several others in her Christian school were wounded.
(23:52):
And then she's also said to have turned the gun
on herself, which I hate to hear, I really do.
In any situation, any such act of violence just horrifying.
But I still contend that it's incorrect to blame the gun.
If the Left ever succeeds in banning our right to
self defense with firearms, which I don't foresee really happening
(24:14):
anytime soon. People bent on hurting other people are just
going to use alternative methods, as has happened so many
times throughout history. People who couldn't get a gun use
their car, or they used explosives, or they used fire
or any other sort of horrific thing. Poisons have been
used throughout history to perpetrate all kinds of bad things
(24:40):
on other people. I pray for the families impacted by
that senseless event down the road. I maybe bring up
scenarios in which this type of incident possibly could have
been stopped before so many people were shot, But it's
too early. I don't want to get into that just yet.
I want to read and hear as much as I
can about the circumstances surrounding it before I judge what
(25:05):
happened up there. Now that we've hit more than five
thousand drone sightings, will apparently you and I are the
only people in the United States who haven't seen a
drone yet. You seen one lately? No, I mean either,
I'm looking too. I'm looking man. I saw a very
kind of a funny chart said how to identify things
(25:26):
you see in the sky, And it was just a
little chart of illustrations of a big passenger jet, a
small jet, a piper, cub a hot air balloon, an eagle,
all these things you might see in the sky, a rainbow,
and every one of them was identified as drone. It
(25:46):
was pretty funny. Would you agree or disagree or were
you paying attention? What was that? Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay,
moving on, so anyway, I honestly I wish to govern
would just come clean and tell us exactly what that
is and why they're there. Five thousand people you can
(26:08):
throw out. Even if you throw out twenty percent of them,
you throw out forty percent. There are still a lot
of people who have witnessed something that's very impactful that
they are highly confident was a drone. And the government's
not denying that these are drones in the sky. They
just won't tell us why they're there. And there's not
(26:29):
a snowball chance anywhere on a hot August sidewalk. That's
kind of what I do in my outdoor shows, so
I don't have to use any other term to describe this.
The bottom line is there's no way that the government
doesn't know exactly what those drones are, where they're from,
and why they're in the air. They know. I can't
(26:52):
believe they don't know. There's no way, and I can't.
I also can't believe that the truth in this situation
would be so alarming and so frightening as to cause
widespread fear or panic among Americans. Hey, if we can
make it through these last four years, we can pretty
much stomach anything they want to throw our away. My
(27:14):
guess is that they're looking for something. I don't know
what they're looking for, but they're looking or maybe someone
that they're confident is in that quadrant of the country.
So strap on your ten four hats and some of
your thoughts on this one. I'm really curious. What do
you think they're looking for? Doug Pike at iHeartMedia dot
(27:35):
Com and by day I mean our government, and they've
come right out and said there's nothing for us to fear,
nothing at all from these drones, which means they know
that they're not enemy spycraft. They know they're hours. So
what are they looking for? I mentioned last week will
I think I did the photography challenge, the outer space
(27:59):
photograph graphy challenge from back in the nineteen sixties late
sixties between our country and the Soviet Union. Did I
tell you about that? No, So my dad told the
story of being in a room with some people from
NASA who relayed this story and this is, like I said,
his way back when, maybe late sixties somewhere in there,
(28:21):
and there was this friendly competition as satellite technology emerged.
I think that was the right time frame. Again, I
was fairly young when I heard the story the first time,
and heard it a couple of other times when my
parents had company or whatever. Anyway, there was a competition
to see which country had the best satellite photography back then,
(28:44):
and the Russians came out with, Oh, I want to say,
maybe it was a park set. I don't know whether
I'm trying to figure out which remember which the first was.
I believe it was a park setting. And then it
kind of came down to a smaller and smaller thing
and some kids playing or whatever, and maybe they were Oh,
(29:05):
I know what it was, I know what it was.
They had They had a guy on his back porch.
This was the original guy on his back porch. They
zoom in. You can see him clearly sitting in a
chair in the back on the back porch. Zoom zoom, zoom,
zom zoom, all the way down to being able to
read the headlines of the newspaper. It's pretty good. It's
pretty good. It's even better now, But it was pretty
(29:26):
really good back then. The Americans countered with a picture
of New York and then zoom in tighter, tighter, tighter
to a tennis court where there was a man serving
a tennis ball, and at the top of the leap
they had captured the tennis ball in the air, and
(29:47):
you could read Wilson on the tennis ball. That's pretty
good too. I don't know if that's better. That's probably
better than a newspaper headline by small margin. Nonetheless, that
technology was a back then, according to the story, and
it came from plausible sources. I know, I know who
my dad knew at NASA, and they were high enough
(30:09):
up to know stuff like that. Let's make it fun,
will well, we gotta go, we do. We'll make it
fun when we get back then. Okay, is that fair
with you? You up for that? Are you in a good mood? Yeah?
I'm in a great, jolly mood. Would you call yourself
jolly or Mary? At this point? Come on, man, just
trying to get trying to get an am I'm fine,
They're the same, aren't they Jolly and Mary the same?
(30:32):
I tell me them to get back. There are synonyms, Yeah,
I would say so, kirk Holmbs. That'll make you Jolly
and Mary if you let them build your dream home
wherever you want, really, from north west Houston all the
way out through the hill country and all points in between.
A hill country is pretty big area. Certainly you can
find yourself some beautiful lots somewhere on a hillside. You
(30:54):
get the right sun angle on the house so that
you get the right exposure whether you want to see
the sun cut up or go down from your porch
while you're either sipping a little coffee or maybe a
cocktail to end the day. Kirk Holmbs has been doing
this for thirty something years and they are very very
good at what they do. Third Generation Custom Builder, Southern
(31:15):
Living Builder of the Year for twenty twenty four, and
I'll continue to tell you about that for until they
win their next award, which probably won't take very long.
What they do is that the only things come. There's
two things common to all their homes that they've built
for the last thirty plus years three generations of people.
A two by six exterior wall which is more than
(31:38):
the standard two by four that most builders use. And
then that and that helps greatly with insulation. You can
imagine fifty percent more insulation around the entire perimeter of
that house is going to make a big difference. And
then on top of that, a twenty year structural warranty.
Twenty years. Your structure is not going to fail you,
(31:58):
and if it does, they'll they'll take care of it.
Southern Living Builder of the Year, let them. And look,
you gotta meet with the design team. You got to
meet with the architectural team. You'll you'll get to meet
the owners of the company. All of that is waiting
for you if you're ready. Now that the election has passed,
now that you're feeling a little more optimistic, looks like
(32:19):
interest rates might come down to tad. All of that
means it's time to really put the hammer down on
that beautiful new home you've wanted for so long. Kirkholmes
dot com that's ky you are k because at kirk
Holmes it's all about you.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Old guys rule, and of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Heller, I think that sounds like a good Plan.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with doug By.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Welcome back to fifty plus. Listen, Will and I both
truly do appreciate it. And and by the way, I'm
gonna take some vacation next week who pay attention to
the holidays and get a few chores done. If I'm lucky,
I'll play a little bit of golf maybe probably, certainly.
I think I think it's fair to say that I'll
(33:16):
get in one round at least will during an extended holiday.
And my new Year's resolution is going to be to
to take a couple of days earlier in the year
to recharge short just a little short bursts, a couple
of days just to recharge my batteries because I like
what I do. And that's kind of a double edged sword,
(33:37):
because I enjoy being in here talking to all of you.
And by the way, next year, sorry Will, but yeah,
we're gonna start taking phone calls on this show, which
I think is gonna make it much better. I know
you it bothers. You Now are you apologizing to me
because I know you don't want to do it. I'm
fine with taking your phone calls. I'm fine with Well,
(33:58):
we'll start tomorrow. Then all right, we'll see how that
works out. I can make noises too, so if it
rings nineteen times and it still hasn't been picked up,
you'll know how Will feels about phone calls. I think
it's going to add to the show. I really do.
And it's been a long time. It's been a long time.
(34:20):
I know that, I know that a lot of you
have questions, and I don't know how well it might
work out. If I'm interviewing a doctor, I think the
best thing to do there would be to email me
during that conversation so that if we do have time,
I would happily ask your question on your behalf. But
that'll have to happen pretty quickly, and we'll see how
(34:42):
that works out as well. Up in Chicago, a city
budget hearing turned just crazy after speakers at the public
meeting express their enthusiastic displeasure at the notion of continuing
just to pour buckets of money into my gagrant benefits
at the expense of the city's own long time tax
(35:04):
paying residents. They got hot. They just one after another
hot under the collar to the point where they had
to clear the room. And you can pretty much count
on more of that at more budget meetings. And I
would venture to say almost every sanctuary city in the
country where they are brave enough to have open budget
(35:26):
meetings because people are just fed up with this. They're
absolutely fed up with it. And we found that out
back in November, now, didn't we. Oh no, I'll hold
that one for tomorrow, and that one will. Let's have
a little fun. We got just a couple of minutes.
That's what you said last segment, that we were gonna
do well. I know, but I just I wanted to
give that little Chicago story. But then when I did,
(35:48):
I thought, Okay, I have several others here, but I'm
just gonna hold on to them. Flip the switch unwrapped
or which way is the right way? Flip the switch?
The record will and this is you've walked yourself into
a pop quiz. The record for most lights on a property,
most Christmas lights on a property is how many? Thin
(36:15):
could guess you go with? I mean those are tiny,
little lights. They are a lot of them are tiny,
A lot of them are big. I would say maybe
one hundred thousand lights. Huh. I probably got that on
one tree. Will six hundred and one thousand and seven
hundred and thirty six, and they wonder why the grid
(36:38):
goes down sometimes. You know what, boy, if we had
one of those big old winter what was it uri
they called it now that we're naming winter storms now,
as if that were necessary. But yeah, if we had
one of those barrel in our way the week before, yeah, barreling,
not caroling. That sounded verably different. And we also had
(37:00):
a storm. Oh oh that barrel. I was spelling it differently.
I'm sorry, but that's a really that's a really good catch.
Will I like that? I have to I'll give you
a seven point seven for that, A seven point seven. Really, Yeah,
that was on the fly. It was on the fly
and on the money. But I have to leave room
in case you top that someday. I get it. Unlikely
(37:23):
as it may be, that was that was cruel. That
was unusual. Really, I will acknowledge your your quick wit.
I will will thank you. Okay, sounds about right. In
a poll, only six percent of US adults say twenty
(37:44):
twenty four was one of the best years in American history.
Six percent only that's it. Forty four percent called it average,
which frankly, I think is just about delusional. I don't
know what they thought an average year should look like,
but if they that, that means they had to have
looked back on the previous four years as being pretty
(38:06):
dang good thirty eight percent. This is very telling. Said
it was one of the worst years in American history,
but we got good things coming. Seeing them on audios,
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed
Decisions for a healthier, happier life and Bronze Roofing repair
(00:44):
or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered? And now fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, here we go. Tuesday edition of the program
starts right now. My first your second day of the
work week, if you still work. Mine runs Tuesday through Sunday.
I take that Monday off and I do kind of
babysit it. I try not to schedule too much stuff,
but it's also a good time to take care of
household things like Christmas shopping. I did some of that
(01:11):
yesterday and I'll probably actually do some again this afternoon.
Not done yet. I think my son's gotten about all
he's gonna get to open on Christmas morning next week,
and he should be he should be happy. He's had
a couple of things that my wife and I have
gotten for him in the past, call it six months
(01:33):
that were big, big parts of Christmas eight pretty deeply,
I would say, into the Christmas budget up to and
not excluding certainly a brand new little pickup truck that
he's he appreciates, There's no question about it. He appreciates it,
he likes it, and he just can't get enough of
(01:54):
driving it. He's got I don't know, he's got a
he's on page to run a bo the same mile
count I have. I'm driving a twenty one model SUV
that has eighty three thousand and change on it. A
lot of miles. Huh, Will how many miles do you
think you log per year? Well, it's a three year
(02:16):
old car and it's got eighty three thousand miles on it.
So you tell me what twenty eight, twenty seven? Wow?
They driving to Well most of that, I would say,
there were a couple of trips that a couple of
Corpus Christie trips, so they put on a chunk. But
other than that, and I think once, yeah, once, we
(02:37):
went to Dallas for a baseball tournament in the very
early history of that car. Most of it was just
baseball tournaments around here. He played nine months out of
the year. If if any of you has a son
or daughter who plays the same sport all year round
because the coaches or management division or whatever are telling
(02:58):
you that that's gonna be good for you your kids,
go talk to an orthopedic surgeon before you let him
play all year round. They need to take one season
off and do an entirely different sport, otherwise it's gonna
mess up their muscle development. And that's not me talking.
That's a couple of a couple of good friends and
good acquaintances with some of the best orthopedics in town,
(03:23):
one of whom, well, one of whom is a guy
who did my son's knee and also happened to do
There's a guy named Tom Brady. Maybe you've heard of him.
Oh yeah, I think he's a football Yeah you know
who I'm talking about. I mean, the uh commentator, the commentator,
Yeah that guy, Yeah, what does he care about? Good knees?
Only kept him in what in the league for long
(03:45):
enough to make a bajillion dollars, I'm sure, and still
doing well now. Great player no question about it anyway.
That's that's where some of this information came from, and
I took it to heart early on with my son.
He played basketball, he played golf, he played tag or
flag football. All these one or two season deals that
(04:07):
he did just to spread it all out, and he
came out pretty good. I would say he's doing very well.
Back to what we need to be talking about. Late
late summer is about to go away. It's been nice,
but I'm ready for some cooler weather again, and it's coming.
The hot stuff is coming to a halt tomorrow night
when yet another cool snap comes rolling down the state.
(04:29):
With that in mind, I'll go ahead and lay out
today's highs and lows and haiku courtesy again of Texas
Indoor Air Quality Specialists. Because cleaner air is healthier air.
Let's go to Texas IAQ dot net and go check
it out. Are you ready well hit me you like force,
well like four Seasons, then you'd best move way up
(04:49):
north forty short ones here. At first, I thought it
was going to be maybe having to do with the
Four Seasons Hotel, or the popular singing group from the fifties, sixties,
seventies and eighties they had as many I think they
had hits in as many decades as the Beatles, I
really do. I think that's correct, and I haven't checked it,
(05:13):
but it just reminds me of the Beatles had longevity,
and so did the Four Seasons. But the Four Seasons
story is every bit as interesting, if not more.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Do you really know?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, well, why don't you regale that? Well, they they
kind of grew up on the city streets up north
and kind of you know, they had interaction with some
pretty pretty suss people. Okay, And there's a story where
one of these guys kind of took advantage of something
(05:44):
and ended up running up a big tab that could
have cost him more than just money and what is mecaps,
possibly or worse. But anyway, the head, the lead guy
in the group, made a promise that he would keep
working until that debt was paid off. And that man
(06:04):
still he's wheeling him well he's not in a wheelchair,
but he's dragging himself back onto the stage still to
perform to this day. And that's from way back when
that's a that's the shortest version of that story. There's
a great movie about it. You should watch that movie
will Oh yeah, what's it called? Phone? Ask me what
the name of it is. I can't remember, Okay, they can't.
(06:27):
It couldn't have been that great. If you can't even
remember the name, just look up Four Seasons movie and
tell me the name of it right now before you
have to go to break TikTok, TikTok, TikTok. No pressure,
I feel pressure. You should put me on the spot
like that. Well, there's a there's a movie called The
(06:51):
Four Seasons. That's probably it. It's a romantic comedy. No,
that's not it. It could be. Technically, this is more
a biographic type of a thing. They had some really
great hits, uh and all the toe Jersey boy Jersey boys. Yes,
that's it, Thank you very much. The whole audience probably
(07:13):
is going, come on, Doug, you can get this with
a franky valley, freaky valley. That's the guy. That's the
guy who's still performing, still performing. So back to the haiku, though,
what are you rating it? Do you want to hear
it again? Yeah? I need to hear it again, like
four long seasons. Then you'd best move way up north
forty short ones here. I I like it, Okay. On
(07:40):
the second run through. Yeah, it's pretty good. And the
score I'm gonna give it. I'm gonna give it a
seven point nine. Oh my lord, since when? What what
have you been drinking? You? That's so generous. I had
I had up a little six seven there, I would
(08:02):
have accepted anything around that. Okay, we have to take
a little break, don't we. We'll take a break. We'll
come right back and then we'll talk some more. I'll
get into the markets and I'll get into something. That's
where this weather's headed for the end of the week.
As if you already don't know, I may not dwell
on that long. We all know what's coming a late health.
(08:22):
Here's something else you'll know what's coming. If you're a
guy in your fifties, you know that at some point
you are likely to end up with an enlarged, non
cancerous prostate, and if you do a late health, the
vascular clinics around town can help you with that. What
they do is go in. It's called prostate artery embolization,
and what they do is go in and identify the
(08:44):
specific artery that is supplying that prostate with blood and
what's essentially giving it the energy to cause you problems.
If you know the symptoms, you know them and you
hate them. If you don't look them up, and if
you have some of them, consumer getting on the phone
with a late Health and getting them to help you.
Same with fibroids for women. Same with even head pain
(09:05):
in some instances can be alleviated and relieved almost entirely
with vascular procedures. And then the ugly veins. Everybody knows
what they look like, and if you have them, you
hate them, you don't want them, and you don't have
to have them with a late Health everything they do
typically is done in a couple of hours in one
of their clinics. They don't have to go to the
(09:26):
hospital and do all that stuff you don't want to
bother with that. Then you get to go straight up.
Somebody's gonna have to drive you, but you go home
to recuperate, where you're gonna be nice and comfy and
don't have to worry about bringing home something you didn't
have when you went into the hospital. A Latehealth dot
Com ala t e A latehealth dot Com is the website.
They also do regenerative medicine too, by the way, and
(09:47):
much of what they do is covered by Medicare and
Medicaid seven one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty
eight seven one three five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Aged to prefer this is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All right, welcome back, Thanks for listening. We got word
during the break that Brad Schwice from Houston Gold Exchange
was interested in getting on the phone early, probably because
he's got a big deal in the wings just waiting
to happen. So let's do that. Brad.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
You there, man, Yes, sir, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Welcome aboard. Bred schwis from Houston Goldexchange dot com. I've
talked with him and about him for a long time
on this program, and I'm happy to know the guy.
So what the heck's going on with gold prices? Man?
First of all, what pushed him so high this past
year and what's kind of picking them back down now?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well, what the biggest driver is is all the money
that our government has printed and h and there's no
end in sight to when our financial pain is going
to be over. Okay, every ninety days we have a
trillion dollars added to our debts. So we're not gonna
bail ourselves out very quickly.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, it's gonna be a hot minute hunt. Why why
the little drop we've had lately.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, she's like anything else. There's different driving factors. But
you got to look at it like over a one
year or five year period and see where it's going.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We'll make a little more sense that longer term than
short obviously.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, if you look at the history, if you went
over five years, it's it's like a yo yo. It
goes up and down, up and down, but the steady
trend has been up.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I read something a couple of days ago Brad about, uh,
somewhere in the world the discovery of the huge just
gold reserve. Ever, did you see that? It's probably not.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, that's out of China. Okay, it's out of China,
and it's supposedly the largest find ever. Now how much
we trust our Chinese friends all the time, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
But supposedly it's a ninety billion dollar reserve. But it's
one point nine miles deep in the earth. So that's
not gonna come out that.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Quick like you can just go pan for it, can you. Yeah,
that's interesting that stay at.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
The at the end of the day. There's a lot
of gold buyers in the in the in the world,
and you know, China for a long time has been
the world's largest gold producer. Okay, so you're talking about
a worldwide commodity. I think the most important tidbit that
your listeners need to hear is the fact that Chase
(12:42):
Bank as well as Bank of America have called for
gold to be three thousand dollars announced by the middle
of next year.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's interesting. Yeah, that's a good boy. You know, if
they're right now, it'd be the time to buy, because
it's not that far from three grand Is it twenty
six something like that?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yes, yes, sir, it is. And uh, like I said,
if you look at the long term, it's of momentarily
has a small dip in the market, but it's gonna
go back up. And uh, you know, I don't see
it not passing twenty seven hundred by the end of
this month. But the longer term in six months is
still gonna go up to probably three thousand dollars and
(13:20):
it's not going to stop anytime soon or other. The
other thing that go ahead, go say. The other thing
is driving money in different markets is the fact that
the bitcoin has gone crazy. Yeah, and it's gone from
thirty thousand to one hundred and seven thousand within a
twelve month period, only because the new administration is very
(13:41):
pro crypto.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That's a good point. So let me ask you this.
Are other precious metals tied to gold or do they
all move independently?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
You know, they's somewhat tied, probably the biggest ties between
gold and silver. And that's one of the ratios that
I've studied now for forty years. And that being said,
even though I see upside and gold, I see a
bigger percentage upside in silver right now.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I mean, I got to go get those little silver
dimes and quarters I got around the house stacked up
on worth anything they do add up? You, sir? What
does it?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The silver quarter, Well you.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Got a whole shoe box full of and they don't
bot a single quarter? What's it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
How much three in a quarter?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I don't know on what a quarter's worth, but.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, well it's worth more than a quarter. That's just
it's safe to say that. What about diamonds, where do
they come into this conversation?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You know, as far as the investment world, uh, and
what people are putting their money into right now. I
saw a lot of people buying two carried investments in diamonds,
say twenty five thirty years ago, and that that trends
all that stopped. Yeah, I think those type of people
are putting their money into bigcoin and gold right now.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Does that have anything to do with this? I don't
even you know what a lab grown dimond. It's not
like you plant a diamond seed and then water it
and you get a big diamond. They're just they're just
compressing carbon or something like that. But is that fueling
some of it?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, Yeah, So basically as far as diamonds go, the
thing that's driving the market right now is the man
made diamonds and the uh the worldwide diamond prices have
gone down about thirty percent in the last twelve months
because of the influx of man made diamonds. And the
younger generation doesn't care if it's natural or man made,
(15:33):
so they're going to go with whatever's cheaper.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, they don't know the difference. And what's the difference
in price and a two carrot man made and a
two carrot flawless natural?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Oh yeah, about a ten x difference? It's not warm.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, I can't. And how many people would know the
difference if you showed them both and one hundred people,
how many could tell the difference just looking?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Okay, well, here's the thing. Even I can't the difference
without sophisticated laboratory equipment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
By all rights. It is a diamondsion's manufactured in a
laboratory and.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Under controlled conditions which eliminate most of the potential flaws. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know it has varying degrees of how they're crystallized,
but there's not a direct correlation there.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Okay, what about watches? That's something else.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You you buy and sell over there at Houston Gold Exchange.
How are they holding up?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You know? I think with bitcoin getting more popular two
years ago, rolex was a super hot commodity and it
reached a peak and it is cool off in pricing.
It's still highly popular. So it's the number one bought
and sold unit of pre on watches on the market,
which you know drives the rest of the market.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Sure, or any any particular new brands of watches coming
out that make sense? I guess, Well, the way you're
putting it though. There aren't really any watches that would
compare to bitcoin or gold right.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Well. As first, if you're just trying to invest in
safeguard your net worth and all of that, No, watches
are not the place to be putting your money.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You're you're riding on bitcoin, huh.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I'm not personally because I'm in the gold business.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's a good point, okay, Ye, that's fair enough.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I do read up on it as it's relatively new
to my part of the business, so I need to keep,
you know, on top of things. But I heard a
lot of articles say that, you know, bitcoin might be
at a big bubble right now too. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's a good point. Yeah, gold, Yeah, you're kind of right.
When you and I talked about me bringing that little
palm full of gold over to sell to you a
while back, what you pointed out to me is that
when I bought that stuff, it was only about three
hundred dollars an ounce, and I didn't even realize that
it had gone up that much in the amount of
time that had passed since I was buying that stuff.
(17:58):
But that's that's a significant increase in value. It really
is about six seven times absolutely, that's pretty good stuff.
So so you still encourage selling, just whenever you get
around to it, right.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So basically my adage on that is what's right for
mister Smith is not always right for mister Jones. So
everybody has a different need. I had a guy come
in this morning and sell me fifty seven thousand dollars
worth of various gold coins and billion because he's putting
a down payment on a new house.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That makes sense. You can see that the house is
going to go up. And you can't live in a quarter.
You can't do that, can't live in an old coin
Good for him, man, all right, So how do they
get a hold of you, Brad? Because I'm fasted out
of time. I'm so sorry, but I want to make sure.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Pissed out a problem, I Doug. I'm semi retired these days,
but my cell phone number people are welcome to contact
me is two eight one eight five one three nine five.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Five one eight five one three five five five.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Three nine five.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
God, you know, when I said it, I knew better
because I knew there was a different number in there.
And I'm gonna do it right this time. Two eight
one eight five one three nine five five. That's the
number we'll call to get you, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
That's the one I'll answer. That's for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
All right, Well, thank you, Brett. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
We'll be back in touch, all.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Right, appreciate it. Good day, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's Brad Swiss from Houston Gold Exchange two eight one
eight five one three nine five five he. I found
him very easy to work with and I know people
who have worked with him in the past, and he'll
fare and square you for sure. He'll he'll do your
right whatever you whether you want to buy or sell.
UT Health Institute on Aging, there's a good place where
(19:50):
they'll take good care of you too, if you're a senior.
The UT Health Institute on Aging is a collaborative of
more than a thousand providers. I think it is right now.
I do need to get the exact number four. Anyway,
all of these people, no matter what medicine they're in,
no matter what aspect of healthcare they're in, have gone
back and gott an additional training and education so that
(20:12):
they can apply their knowledge, their school learning, if you will,
to seniors specifically. And that's a big deal for us.
We're different from younger people. We're plainly different if you
just look at a mirror and that the insides are
just as different. What you'll get with one of these
providers is someone who understands that difference and can address
(20:34):
whatever's bothering you from that perspective. Also, if you go
to the website, you're gonna find tons of resources that
are of tremendous value that don'll cost you a dime,
and just all kinds of access and things you might
think about doing for your own health. All of that's
there at the Utch Institute on Aging's website, which is
(20:55):
ut dot edu slash aging, Utah edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Bright. Welcome back, Thanks for listening to fifty plus today. Well,
how you doing, man? How you doing to do it?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
All? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Doug?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Good? Got all your shopping done for the holidays?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Well, it's honest and probably you're probably in line with
most people. I would say that, honestly, I believe that
a lot of people waited to do anything until after
the election. They didn't want to get they didn't want
to get caught spending money that maybe wasn't going to
be there. And I think there's at least from the
(21:59):
clients with whom I work, and from a lot of
people I know, just friends and neighbors and golf buddies
and all that, there's a sense of relief and a
sense of optimism that I haven't seen in many years
around here. So hopefully, hopefully that's the way we're headed.
And I do feel like it is moving to the
markets because we didn't get to them before. Also back
(22:21):
to it from Houston Gold Exchange, the whole board was
red around eleven and significantly so in several cases. Even
gold was down down twenty bucks an ounce, but still comfortably.
It was north of twenty six hundred dollars. Oil in
the red as well, by more than a dollar a barrel, too,
(22:42):
which is good news. And honestly, I feel like it's
just the beginning on our way back to energy independence.
That's going to bring our prices for oil and gas
way back down. And the oil companies and the gas companies,
many of they're the same in many case, but the
bottom line is they're going to be doing quite well
because they will be selling to points around the world,
(23:06):
to countries all over the world, rather than us having
to buy from enemy nations, which just makes absolutely no
sense at all, And I'll never understand why that had
to turn out that way. Of course, understanding the current
administration's pretty difficult somebody who's not delusional, I'm afraid. Stepping
(23:30):
into the news cycle, there was that horrific school shooting
up in Wisconsin. It was the first I've seen, or
at least that I recall, that was committed by a girl,
a young woman fifteen years old, whatever, girl, young woman,
whichever you want to choose. She killed a teacher and
a student, and several others in her Christian school were wounded.
(23:52):
And then she's also said to have turned the gun
on herself, which I hate to hear, I really do.
In any situation, any such act of violence just horrifying.
But I still contend that it's incorrect to blame the gun.
If the Left ever succeeds in banning our right to
self defense with firearms, which I don't foresee really happening
(24:14):
anytime soon. People bent on hurting other people are just
going to use alternative methods, as has happened so many
times throughout history. People who couldn't get a gun use
their car, or they used explosives, or they used fire
or any other sort of horrific thing. Poisons have been
used throughout history to perpetrate all kinds of bad things
(24:40):
on other people. I pray for the families impacted by
that senseless event down the road. I maybe bring up
scenarios in which this type of incident possibly could have
been stopped before so many people were shot, But it's
too early. I don't want to get into that just yet.
I want to read and hear as much as I
can about the circumstances surrounding it before I judge what
(25:05):
happened up there. Now that we've hit more than five
thousand drone sightings, will apparently you and I are the
only people in the United States who haven't seen a
drone yet. You seen one lately? No, I mean either,
I'm looking too. I'm looking man. I saw a very
kind of a funny chart said how to identify things
(25:26):
you see in the sky, And it was just a
little chart of illustrations of a big passenger jet, a
small jet, a piper, cub a hot air balloon, an eagle,
all these things you might see in the sky, a rainbow,
and every one of them was identified as drone. It
(25:46):
was pretty funny. Would you agree or disagree or were
you paying attention? What was that? Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay,
moving on, so anyway, I honestly I wish to govern
would just come clean and tell us exactly what that
is and why they're there. Five thousand people you can
(26:08):
throw out. Even if you throw out twenty percent of them,
you throw out forty percent. There are still a lot
of people who have witnessed something that's very impactful that
they are highly confident was a drone. And the government's
not denying that these are drones in the sky. They
just won't tell us why they're there. And there's not
(26:29):
a snowball chance anywhere on a hot August sidewalk. That's
kind of what I do in my outdoor shows, so
I don't have to use any other term to describe this.
The bottom line is there's no way that the government
doesn't know exactly what those drones are, where they're from,
and why they're in the air. They know. I can't
(26:52):
believe they don't know. There's no way, and I can't.
I also can't believe that the truth in this situation
would be so alarming and so frightening as to cause
widespread fear or panic among Americans. Hey, if we can
make it through these last four years, we can pretty
much stomach anything they want to throw our away. My
(27:14):
guess is that they're looking for something. I don't know
what they're looking for, but they're looking or maybe someone
that they're confident is in that quadrant of the country.
So strap on your ten four hats and some of
your thoughts on this one. I'm really curious. What do
you think they're looking for? Doug Pike at iHeartMedia dot
(27:35):
Com and by day I mean our government, and they've
come right out and said there's nothing for us to fear,
nothing at all from these drones, which means they know
that they're not enemy spycraft. They know they're hours. So
what are they looking for? I mentioned last week will
I think I did the photography challenge, the outer space
(27:59):
photograph graphy challenge from back in the nineteen sixties late
sixties between our country and the Soviet Union. Did I
tell you about that? No, So my dad told the
story of being in a room with some people from
NASA who relayed this story and this is, like I said,
his way back when, maybe late sixties somewhere in there,
(28:21):
and there was this friendly competition as satellite technology emerged.
I think that was the right time frame. Again, I
was fairly young when I heard the story the first time,
and heard it a couple of other times when my
parents had company or whatever. Anyway, there was a competition
to see which country had the best satellite photography back then,
(28:44):
and the Russians came out with, Oh, I want to say,
maybe it was a park set. I don't know whether
I'm trying to figure out which remember which the first was.
I believe it was a park setting. And then it
kind of came down to a smaller and smaller thing
and some kids playing or whatever, and maybe they were Oh,
(29:05):
I know what it was, I know what it was.
They had They had a guy on his back porch.
This was the original guy on his back porch. They
zoom in. You can see him clearly sitting in a
chair in the back on the back porch. Zoom zoom, zoom,
zom zoom, all the way down to being able to
read the headlines of the newspaper. It's pretty good. It's
pretty good. It's even better now, But it was pretty
(29:26):
really good back then. The Americans countered with a picture
of New York and then zoom in tighter, tighter, tighter
to a tennis court where there was a man serving
a tennis ball, and at the top of the leap
they had captured the tennis ball in the air, and
(29:47):
you could read Wilson on the tennis ball. That's pretty
good too. I don't know if that's better. That's probably
better than a newspaper headline by small margin. Nonetheless, that
technology was a back then, according to the story, and
it came from plausible sources. I know, I know who
my dad knew at NASA, and they were high enough
(30:09):
up to know stuff like that. Let's make it fun,
will well, we gotta go, we do. We'll make it
fun when we get back then. Okay, is that fair
with you? You up for that? Are you in a good mood? Yeah?
I'm in a great, jolly mood. Would you call yourself
jolly or Mary? At this point? Come on, man, just
trying to get trying to get an am I'm fine,
They're the same, aren't they Jolly and Mary the same?
(30:32):
I tell me them to get back. There are synonyms, Yeah,
I would say so, kirk Holmbs. That'll make you Jolly
and Mary if you let them build your dream home
wherever you want, really, from north west Houston all the
way out through the hill country and all points in between.
A hill country is pretty big area. Certainly you can
find yourself some beautiful lots somewhere on a hillside. You
(30:54):
get the right sun angle on the house so that
you get the right exposure whether you want to see
the sun cut up or go down from your porch
while you're either sipping a little coffee or maybe a
cocktail to end the day. Kirk Holmbs has been doing
this for thirty something years and they are very very
good at what they do. Third Generation Custom Builder, Southern
(31:15):
Living Builder of the Year for twenty twenty four, and
I'll continue to tell you about that for until they
win their next award, which probably won't take very long.
What they do is that the only things come. There's
two things common to all their homes that they've built
for the last thirty plus years three generations of people.
A two by six exterior wall which is more than
(31:38):
the standard two by four that most builders use. And
then that and that helps greatly with insulation. You can
imagine fifty percent more insulation around the entire perimeter of
that house is going to make a big difference. And
then on top of that, a twenty year structural warranty.
Twenty years. Your structure is not going to fail you,
(31:58):
and if it does, they'll they'll take care of it.
Southern Living Builder of the Year, let them. And look,
you gotta meet with the design team. You got to
meet with the architectural team. You'll you'll get to meet
the owners of the company. All of that is waiting
for you if you're ready. Now that the election has passed,
now that you're feeling a little more optimistic, looks like
(32:19):
interest rates might come down to tad. All of that
means it's time to really put the hammer down on
that beautiful new home you've wanted for so long. Kirkholmes
dot com that's ky you are k because at kirk
Holmes it's all about you.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Old guys rule, and of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Heller, I think that sounds like a good Plan.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with doug By.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Welcome back to fifty plus. Listen, Will and I both
truly do appreciate it. And and by the way, I'm
gonna take some vacation next week who pay attention to
the holidays and get a few chores done. If I'm lucky,
I'll play a little bit of golf maybe probably, certainly.
I think I think it's fair to say that I'll
(33:16):
get in one round at least will during an extended holiday.
And my new Year's resolution is going to be to
to take a couple of days earlier in the year
to recharge short just a little short bursts, a couple
of days just to recharge my batteries because I like
what I do. And that's kind of a double edged sword,
(33:37):
because I enjoy being in here talking to all of you.
And by the way, next year, sorry Will, but yeah,
we're gonna start taking phone calls on this show, which
I think is gonna make it much better. I know
you it bothers. You Now are you apologizing to me
because I know you don't want to do it. I'm
fine with taking your phone calls. I'm fine with Well,
(33:58):
we'll start tomorrow. Then all right, we'll see how that
works out. I can make noises too, so if it
rings nineteen times and it still hasn't been picked up,
you'll know how Will feels about phone calls. I think
it's going to add to the show. I really do.
And it's been a long time. It's been a long time.
(34:20):
I know that, I know that a lot of you
have questions, and I don't know how well it might
work out. If I'm interviewing a doctor, I think the
best thing to do there would be to email me
during that conversation so that if we do have time,
I would happily ask your question on your behalf. But
that'll have to happen pretty quickly, and we'll see how
(34:42):
that works out as well. Up in Chicago, a city
budget hearing turned just crazy after speakers at the public
meeting express their enthusiastic displeasure at the notion of continuing
just to pour buckets of money into my gagrant benefits
at the expense of the city's own long time tax
(35:04):
paying residents. They got hot. They just one after another
hot under the collar to the point where they had
to clear the room. And you can pretty much count
on more of that at more budget meetings. And I
would venture to say almost every sanctuary city in the
country where they are brave enough to have open budget
(35:26):
meetings because people are just fed up with this. They're
absolutely fed up with it. And we found that out
back in November, now, didn't we. Oh no, I'll hold
that one for tomorrow, and that one will. Let's have
a little fun. We got just a couple of minutes.
That's what you said last segment, that we were gonna
do well. I know, but I just I wanted to
give that little Chicago story. But then when I did,
(35:48):
I thought, Okay, I have several others here, but I'm
just gonna hold on to them. Flip the switch unwrapped
or which way is the right way? Flip the switch?
The record will and this is you've walked yourself into
a pop quiz. The record for most lights on a property,
most Christmas lights on a property is how many? Thin
(36:15):
could guess you go with? I mean those are tiny,
little lights. They are a lot of them are tiny,
A lot of them are big. I would say maybe
one hundred thousand lights. Huh. I probably got that on
one tree. Will six hundred and one thousand and seven
hundred and thirty six, and they wonder why the grid
(36:38):
goes down sometimes. You know what, boy, if we had
one of those big old winter what was it uri
they called it now that we're naming winter storms now,
as if that were necessary. But yeah, if we had
one of those barrel in our way the week before, yeah, barreling,
not caroling. That sounded verably different. And we also had
(37:00):
a storm. Oh oh that barrel. I was spelling it differently.
I'm sorry, but that's a really that's a really good catch.
Will I like that? I have to I'll give you
a seven point seven for that, A seven point seven. Really, Yeah,
that was on the fly. It was on the fly
and on the money. But I have to leave room
in case you top that someday. I get it. Unlikely
(37:23):
as it may be, that was that was cruel. That
was unusual. Really, I will acknowledge your your quick wit.
I will will thank you. Okay, sounds about right. In
a poll, only six percent of US adults say twenty
(37:44):
twenty four was one of the best years in American history.
Six percent only that's it. Forty four percent called it average,
which frankly, I think is just about delusional. I don't
know what they thought an average year should look like,
but if they that, that means they had to have
looked back on the previous four years as being pretty
(38:06):
dang good thirty eight percent. This is very telling. Said
it was one of the worst years in American history,
but we got good things coming. Seeing them on audios,
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