Mattson Financial

Gary Mattson, friend of Talk of the Town, joins us for another conversation.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And this is Talk of the TownNews Radio with thirteen hundred one oh six
nine FM. Buy the iHeart Radioapp. Brett Pikita, Steve Kelly from
West Michigan's Morning News, the matriarchof Matson Financial. Have we ever introduced
you that way? Gary Matson?I don't know, but I definitely didn't
have as much coffee as you guys. Get I noticed that mattson financial dot
com money Mentors Saturdays at ten,Sundays at eleven. So interest rates are

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headed higher again after the most recentFED hike from the Federal Reserve in late
July. We haven't seen rates thishigh, Gary in twenty two years.
What does this mean for our finances? Well, if you're somebody out there
that has no debt and you're puttingmoney in the bank, that's good news.
I mean, there's some great ratesout there, four or five six
percent we've seen, and so gettingthose returns on savings and CDs and those

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type of things is something that we'renow turning back to, which is really
really good. The bad part ofthat is, of course, if you're
looking for mortgage or credit cards orautos to buy, you're really looking at
finances and We're looking at those numbersand going like, wow, this is
really really crazy times when you thinkabout it, But it's not really true.
I mean, if you look athistory over time, insest rates,

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who really need to be around fivesix percent, you know, instrates on
savings, you know, over threeThat really makes the economy a balanced economy.
And that's where we're going to walkaway from. I mean, people
are going to slow down. It'snow, an inflation will come down.
We've already seen that happen. Sothe beginning of the turn of this is
starting to work. Gary, wewere just talking about this, I think

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last week on the show. Despitehigher interest rates, real estate prices are
still pretty healthy here in West Michigan. But I want you to do a
little bit deeper dive here. Howdo those high prices help or hurt us
as home or business owners? Well, it's all relative, you know.
It's that my daughter who actually builda brand new home about twenty four months

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ago. Interest rates are really low, but of course to supply was very
very bad, and they actually hadto put up money to actually buy stuff
ahead of time to keep their pricesrelative, so they got really good interest
rates. Well, now prices arelower in the lumbers and those type of
things, but higher interest rates.It's kind of a trade off for me.

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I'd rather have a short term highinterest rate or short term higher cost
of goods than long term rates.So if you're going to buy a home
now, should you do it?Should you not? The question is remember
this, you can always refinance,So getting out there buying the home you
want that you can afford within theint rates now and then later down the

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road differ rates come back down,refinance that is always a great option,
and look for those possibilities. Ithink the rates are going to come down
and real estate right now, nieceto slow down a little bit. It's
still pretty hot out there, likewe talked about, and I can't believe
the prices that people are getting foron lake property. So US baby boomers

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really need to look at that andsay is this something I really want.
We're seeing homes that we're three fourhundred thousand dollars going for twice that seven
eight hundred thousand dollars and just twoyears ago. So it's crazy money out
there when it comes to real estate, especially in areas that are populous with
people wanting to be on Lakes timemachine would really come in handy. Wasn't

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it some huge news in the worldof medicine offering hope to those suffering with
Alzheimer's. The FDA proved its firstdrug in twenty years to treat the disease.
It does come, though, garywith a hefty cost, more than
twenty six thousand dollars a year.Now Medicare is paying some coverage. I'm
also reading it could lead to higherpremiums for everyone on the program. What's
your take? Well, first off, I think legislatures should look at this

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and say, there's reasonable premiums,there's reasonable costs for drugs, and then
there's unreasonable. We have known clientsout there that had a drug and they
were paying fourteen thousand dollars a month. Yeah, and luckily they had insurance
that paid half. I mean,can you look at that, saying just
a drug for seven thousand dollars amonth. I don't know about you,

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but I think that's ridiculous. Notthat we don't want to save our lives
and those those type of things,but there's got to be reasonable. So,
first off, we need the legislationto look at this. Second,
is that insurance is the process ofmany people pooling their assets so we all
can afford something that goes on,and that's what's going to happen. So

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we're going to have Medicare prices goingup. You're going to see that that's
gonna happen. We're all going tohelp pay for this. But again,
it should be done from a reasonablepoint of view. So that's what we
do for our clients. We makesure the plans flexible, that we can
increase income I needed over time.And healthcare is wheel is it's always unexpected
of knowing what dollars we're going toneed, so we call it wealthcare.

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We plan for that for our clientsand making sure that no matter what comes
down, they can afford it.Gary, The University of Michigan's latest Consumer
Sentiment Index shows Americans were feeling betterabout out the economy in June. It's
also twenty eight percent higher than thistime last year. But what's the mood
among your clients. You're finding ourpeople optimistic about where we're headed. Well,

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first off, you said Universe Universityof Michigan. Wow, we got
to look at that and say thata good source to get information. Again,
MSU fans, and you know,we've been talking about it even this
morning, that we're coming football season. It's going to be a lean,
mean fight out there at Spartan Stadium. So with that mind, it's good
news. I mean, let's faceit, we we know we're past the

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worst of the worst. Doesn't meanwe're getting better, but I do believe
that JP Morgan announced that they're onmy side. That we're not going to
see a recession by the end ofthe year. Doesn't mean things can happen
next year. But if everything staysthe same as we're seeing it go now,
the market's going to recover nicely.Companies are hiring, people are slowing

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down a little bit of this highinflation when I call, because people changing
jobs are getting thirty forty percent moremoney. That has slowed down as well.
So we're getting back out of acrazy economy to what i'd called normal
now. Normal is always going tobe different each and every year, but
we are getting more normal, andour clients are optimistic. Matsen Financial dot

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com get free advice just by listeningto money mentors Saturday's ten AM, Sunday's
eleven AM. Gary Matson has alwaysgreat stuff. Thank you so much for
your time today. Thank you,and we just want to say thank you
to everyone who listens to our show. We're so blessed and I think we're
coming up on our five hundred andfiftieth show, So thank you very much.

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Wow, congratulations. This is Talkof the Town on NewsRadio with thirteen
hundred and one oh six nine FM.