Simply Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Tonight, do you feel like you might need a survival
guide for stock turbulence? Fasten your seatbelts. We'll get into it.
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I mean you Wagner along with Bob Sponseller. I mean,
it has been an interesting few weeks for the stock market.
A hot inflation report, talk of tariffs. How much are

(00:26):
you paying for eggs right now? Like it is enough
to drive you crazy involved. There's just a lot of
noise out there, and I think the impact here is
far reaching. We're talking Wall Street and Main Street.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, take a look at just the headlines that you
just cited, you know, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, inflation, what the
Fed's doing, the price of eggs.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
If you just.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Read news highline headlines and stayed in your bedroom and
just read those for the last two weeks, what would
you have guessed the S and P would be at
for the year so far?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean, free fall, sky is falling. Run for the health.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
As of this morning, Amy, it's up two point nine percent,
And I think that's the best point we can make here.
As far as ignoring the nose, do we need to
pay attention to economic news.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yes, is the FED important? Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
If tariffs end up coming down the pike, does that
potentially change things?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
But what the media does with all these headlines and
blowing things out of proportion, it's more of a business
model than advice. It's meant to get eyeballs, keep you watching,
scare the you know what out of you, and unfortunately
that can really mess with people's minds and emotions and
result in them making decisions that they will later regret.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
There are lots and lots of headlines out there right
doing exactly what you're talking about. And here's just one
of them, and this is from market Watch. You and
I both look at MarketWatch every day and it's the
headline is a forty percent stock market crash. How AI
hype could unravel? Investors can brace for a selloff that

(02:18):
sounds like scary stuff. Forty percent stock market crash? You know,
I think that, you know, for many people, hearkens back
to two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. You know,
no one wants to go by. It's like a punch
in the gut. Is that realistically what we're facing right now?
I would argue probably not.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, and most of the big drops that end up coming.
You know, no one sees them coming. So we can't
sit here amy and say it won't happen. It can't happen,
because someday it will happen, you know. For example, in
October of nineteen eighty seven, Black Monday, the Dow fell
twenty two percent in one day.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Who saw that coming.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Nobody, But two days later the market had already regained
over ten percent of its losses. And then as recently
as COVID, which we all remember, in March of twenty twenty,
the S and P five hundred dropped thirty four percent
in one month. It fully recovered by August, and by
the end of the year in twenty twenty, the S

(03:20):
and P five hundred had finished up by sixteen percent
all in one year. That entire round trip. It's mind boggling.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I'm glad that you're bringing up the entire year, right,
because let's just look at that COVID year of twenty twenty.
You know, Ed Fink and Nathan Backgrach used to say,
if you were Ripvandwinkle, right, you woke up on the
first of every year and then slept for the rest
of the year. And pop back up again on the first.
What would your perspective be at the end of twenty twenty,

(03:50):
It would have been that was a great year for
the markets, right up sixteen percent. Who wouldn't take that?
You know? The S and P five hundred average is
about ten percent, you know, every year, so that's way
above the average. Yet in the middle of it, markets
were in a free fall, global pandemic, economy shut down,

(04:11):
people lost jobs. It was scary, scary stuff. And so
I think, though, it's so interesting how we can learn
lessons like that and then turn right around and forget them. Right,
We have been in this period, I would say, the
last year or so where there's been relatively little volatility.
So this volatility almost feels brand new to us. We've

(04:32):
forgotten what it feels like.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
But this is.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Actually a normal part of participation in the stock market.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Well, and we really haven't had any volatility, yeah this year, Amy,
I mean, the market has not moved much at all.
That the headline volatility has been tremendous, but the market
volatility pretty tame. So let's just get into a couple
of things, you know, as far as how to prepare
for potential volatility, because these are things we should always

(05:02):
do irrespective of what news is happening today. You know,
I harken back to you know, our chief investment officer,
Andy Stout, who was with us on Monday, reminded everybody
that in a normal year, you know, irrespective of who's
in the White House, what the policy ramifications are, all
that you should expect one to three pullbacks of between

(05:24):
ten and fourteen percent a year.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
That is normal.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
And to the point you just made, Amy, it's been
a while now since we've seen anything like that. I
mean it's been three years, twenty twenty two.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, and I think it's important to remember that. And
you know, we see there's two points that I think
you have to live by daily as an investor or,
at least keep top of mind. And one of them
is every time markets have gone down, right, you mentioned COVID,
you mentioned Black Monday, we had nine to eleven, we

(05:58):
had the housing market crowd. We've experienced so many of these.
But the one thing I always drag people back to
is one hundred percent of the time, one hundred percent. Right,
we're back in one thousand here, the market has rebounded
to new highs and The second point I think is
worth keeping in mind. Top of mind here is the

(06:20):
best days in the market come on the heels of
the worst days. There's nothing that changes in the headlines
that makes you think the sunshine is going to come
out in any particular day and it's going to be a
great day. But if you try to time the market
when you get scared, or you sense volatility or the headlines,
or you're worried about tariffs, or you went to croker

(06:40):
today and the prices of eggs freaked you out. Now
you want to pull all your money out of the
market because you know the economy is going south like
all of those things. I would say put a pause
on it, because you know, then you pull your money
out of the market, even what if the next day
is a great day. Right, no one has a crystal ball,
no one knows when it's coming. You're listening to simply
Money by all Worth Financial. I mean me Wagner along

(07:02):
with Bob sponseller. Bob, I love your perspective.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
Right.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
The S and P five hundred is actually up over
two percent this year. Nobody's talking about it, Yeah, almost
three percent. Nobody's talking about that because everyone is freaked
out about all the headlines. We don't know how things
like tariffs are going to play out in the long term.
But I'm having these conversations with some clients now of
just these reminders of, hey, if you're a long term investor,

(07:27):
let's just keep an eye on your plan, not these headlines.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, and along with that, I do want to go
back to a great point that you made earlier this
week that you talked about with your clients that are
coming into the office, and it's something that I do
as well, is this all comes down to time in
the market, not timing the market. Now, the flip side
of that is we should expect volatility from time to time.
How do you prepare for that with your overall comprehensive

(07:54):
financial plan. Money that you know you're going to need
or want to spend for lump some per just as
like home improvements, buying a car, things like that. You
know you want to raise your emergency fund balance so
that you don't have to sell at the bottom of
short term whipsaws and volatility. That's really the practical advice here.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Control.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
We talk about it all the time. Control what you
could control, and money should have an assignment, so to speak,
for the timing over which it needs to be used.
And that's really what we need to keep everybody focused
on here, not day to day headlines.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was just having this conversation with a couple of
my favorite clients yesterday. They're just such good people, smart investors,
and he just said, you know what, like, hey, why
shouldn't I just put all my money in a money
market right now? I mean, you know, money market's doing
better better than the you know, of the broad market.
And I said, well, like, let's talk about this. Do

(08:54):
we need any of this money that are in these
accounts in the next one to three years? Nope? Okay, Well,
any losses, any short term volatility, not that we'ven seeing
that right now would be just on paper. And then
do you have any idea when the market might turn around?
Do you not want to participate in it? Because you know,
to pull your money out, you got to get two

(09:15):
things right. You got to pull it out at the
right time and you got to put it back in
at the right time. And I've seen very very few,
if anyone, actually be able to time that correctly.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
It's extremely difficult, and there's a lot of psychology behind
those decisions. Yes, when you pull out, you want to
prove to yourself that you made the right decision, and
oftentimes people would just sit and sit and sit.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
I knew I was right. I knew I was right.
I knew I was right.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
You look up, the market's back up fifteen seventeen percent,
and you missed it all.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
One of my favorite stories is actually one of our
colleague Andy Schaeffer's clients, and I was talking to them
last year and they were just, you know, kind of
rave about Andy and saying, hey, we've had such a
great experience. And you know, we originally bought a condo
in Florida in our portfolio did so well for us
we ended up upgrading to exactly where we wanted to be.

(10:12):
And afterwards I was talking to Andy and I was like, man, like,
great job with those clients. They are so happy. And
he said, did they tell you they pulled out of
the markets during the pandemic? And I said, they didn't
even mention it. And he said they would have lost
so much money in the long term if they had
not gone back in, if they had locked in those losses.

(10:32):
He said, I called them every single day and said,
let's get back in. Let's get back in, and he said,
and they trusted me. They were only out of the
markets for I don't know, a week or couple of weeks,
and we got back in and they were able to
take advantage of the upside there, right. And if you
remember back to during the pandemic, there was no sign
that things were turning around in the economy, yet the

(10:53):
markets were rebounding.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah. Well, that's a sign of a good advisor, right there. Ye,
somebody that knows and studies history, and then more importantly,
somebody that cares, you know, to call that client every
day and really be on their side and be that
advocate and fiduciary that everybody wants to have.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Good for Andy and good for those clients. And I'm
glad it had a happy ending.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, you were talking about kind of the emotional part
of this, right, and that there is a behavioral finance
component to how you think about your money, and sometimes
it's just partnering with someone who can check you, keep
you in check on Hey, maybe you're tempted to make
crazy decisions with your money, or if you're walking off
the ledge exactly. Here's the all Worth advice, please tune

(11:38):
out the doomsday headlines. Successful investors stick to their strategy
and their plan. They ignore the hype and the fear.
Coming up next, the President talking about extending tax cuts
set to expire at the end of the year. What
can you do about it? How do you take advantage
of it? We're going to get to that next. You're
listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. Here
in fifty five krs the talk station. You're listening to

(12:06):
Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. I mean you
Wagner along with Bob Sponsor.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Or.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
If you can't listen to our show every night, you
don't have to miss the thing we talk about. We've
got a daily podcast for you, Just Serve Simply Money.
It's right there on the iHeart app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Coming up at six forty three, we're
going to talk about something called dollar cost averaging. How
does it work? Is it a good strategy for you?
Love talking about the hometown teams, especially when there's some

(12:32):
good news. Earlier this week, we talked about a few layoffs,
a couple hundred positions eliminated from Kroger. Tonight, though, Kroger
has some great news when it comes to their loyalty
and rewards program.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
According to a recent USA Today study you know, conducted
by USA Today and their research partner, Kroger is among
the three hundred and fifty companies with the best loyalty
and rewards program in the entire country.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
So that's great new. I know.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
I use it every day and I love taking that
Kroger Plus card, throwing that into the gas pump. And
my wife's responsible for getting all the rewards because she shops.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
And you know, maybe she spends too much. But but
that's a whole other story. But I love seeing that.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Would you like fifty cents a gallon off your guess?

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yes? I would. I hit number one, fill up my
gas tank.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I love it, same, same, It's brilliant. I think it's
really well run. Earlier this week, a couple pieces of
mail from Kroger came to our house, one of my name,
one of my husband's name, and they were coupons like
personalized US and we were cracking up because we always
use my Kroger Plus number or whatever. I don't even
he didn't even have one, but the coupons were They

(13:48):
came in my name were exactly what we buy all
the time. The coupons that came in Jason's name were
the most random stuff ever. And I was like, Babe,
I don't think they get you at one. He was like, well,
we just always use your number. But it's funny because
it goes to show if you're not participating in the program, right,
they don't have your data. And you can say what

(14:10):
you want about someone having your data. I'm okay with
it if it's working to my advantage and it appears
to be in this situation, you know, but to send
me coupons that are exactly what I'm buying so I
can save on those products like well done Kroger.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Well, on the flip side, good for Jason. He stays
out of that store, doesn't shop. They don't know things
about him that he doesn't want them to know.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Actually, right, he does a lot of our shopping. He
just uses my number. So that's oh, okay, So this.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Is why you're getting coupons for fifty percent off beef
Jerky and bud Light and yep.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yep, exactly all the stuff he loves. All right. Understand
the President is looking at renewing his signature twenty seventeen
tax overhaul. Bobby, You and I had, I know, so
many conversations about this last year, when the Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act looked like it was going to sunset
at the end of the year. I think a lot
of people didn't understand that when it kind of became

(15:05):
law back in twenty seventeen, that some of these things
weren't permanent. And now that President Trump is back in office,
these things might stick around.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, And it's been a topic of conversation for a
few years now, and obviously, you know, coming off of
presidential election. I mean, I think there will end up
being repercussions here, you know, based on who won the
presidential election last November, I can tell you. And it's
just an opinion, but I know, since this is a

(15:37):
campaign promise the president, you know, made and ran on,
he is going to try to move heaven and earth
to get those twenty seventeen tax cuts permanent. And we
talk about balancing that with what the Fed needs to
do to control inflation and tariffs. It's going to be
interesting to see how this all plays out, because pretty

(15:59):
soon now you're going to you're going to start to
see legislation start getting crafted, you know, around the March
April timeframe.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
And now now's where we got to.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Put where the rubber meets the road here on what
are some of the trade offs we're going to need
to make with budgeting considerations to be able to pass
permanent tax legislation.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I agree, I think these are likely sticking around.
President Trump has made this a focus of a lot
of his administration, and you know, thinking back to when
you passed these, originally many of us that lowered our
tax brackets some of the lowest that we had seen
in years. And the conversation we were having last year
with clients when we were not sure whether these were

(16:40):
going to stick around, was should we do some Wroth
conversions now and these these tax deferred accounts, because if
your tax bracket's going to go up next year, right,
it's going to be cheaper to do these conversions.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Now.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
I think if these do stick around, the cool thing
for us is it makes sense to continue to have
these conversations moving forward with clients about Wroth conversions. But
also there's lots of other ways you can keep an
eye on being really tax efficient well.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
And there's certain things that we should all be doing
irrespective of what the tax rates are. Right, So things
like contributing you know, to your WROTH iras four oh
one k's HSA accounts, things where you can get a
tax break for contributing to those accounts that remains true
and valid, whether irrespective of what the proposed changes and

(17:37):
tax rates are some of these other things. And I
don't know about you, Amy, but I model it both
ways for clients. When we're looking at WROTH conversions, you know,
and we run projections on what they're required minimum distributions
might be in latter years. We look at it both
ways just so people could see it. Hey, what if
tax rates stay the same? What if we sunset back

(17:58):
to the pre twenty seventeen you know, tax law, And
then we're looking at it with both eyes wide open,
and we can make good, sound decisions. And in my opinion,
that's what any good fiduciary financial advisors should be doing,
you know, with his or her clients.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
My concern is that these conversations aren't happening enough, and
someone will land in my office. They've either been a
di wire, they're coming from somewhere else, and they have
a lot of money saved, that's great, but a lot
of it is either in a traditional four one K
or traditional iras, and there won't be wroth accounts. There

(18:35):
won't be you know, taxable accounts where the favorable aspect
of that is your tax at long term capital games
for some people that you don't pay taxes at all.
For some people that can be fifteen percent compared to
your ordinary income. Right, So there's ways that you can
plan and save that can be incredibly beneficial to you
from a tax standpoint.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, and I know you and I have talked about
specific clients in recent days where they're trying to retire
you know, at fifty five instead of fifty nine and
a half, and some folks that have concentrated stock positions.
So this is just a reminder, and you just brought
it up that capital gains rate this year, you know,
up to ninety six, five hundred dollars of taxable income,

(19:18):
your long term capital.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Gain rate is zero zero.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
So that's a tremendous opportunity to do some planning, to rebalance,
reallocate your portfolio, get things better diversified. There's a lot
of things that we can and should be doing rather
than just worrying about what the tax legislation might be.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Here's the all Worth advice. While extended tax cuts could
give you some advantages, your core strategy should always prioritize diversification,
risk management and tax efficiency. Coming up next, Know anyone
who's received maybe a random offer to buy their home
seller Beware, we'll explain. You're listening to Simply Money presented
by all Worth Financial. Here in fifty five K the

(20:00):
talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented by all
Worth Financial. I Amy Wagner along with Bob spawnsell Or.
Have you ever gotten one of those texts that comes
through on your phone You don't recognize the number, and
it says, Hey, Amy, are you willing to sell your property?
And one two three Main Street I'll buy it for

(20:21):
full price? Is this something you should even consider? Is
this a legitimate offer? Joining us tonight our real estate
expert Michelle Sloan, of course, owner of Remax Time. You
can also catch our podcast Loan Sells Homes on iHeartRadio
or anywhere you get your podcast. Michelle, I've gone several
several of these texts through the years. I normally ignore them,

(20:44):
but what should we do.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
They are very It's interesting because when people want to
buy your home and they say I will make you
an offer right now today, and it's going to be
a great offer, you just have to be really, really careful.
There's a couple of questions you need to ask. The
first question is if you even respond. And I'm going
to tell you, if you get a text, an unsolicited

(21:09):
text to your phone, do not respond. Just delete it
because there's a really really good chance it is someone
who is phishing for your information, to get your just
to engage with you. So it can be very it
can be a little scary because I've gotten postcards, I've

(21:29):
gotten emails, I've gotten text messages any way that I
can possibly get someone who is trying to buy a
property that I own. There are some telltale signs. Maybe
they're texting me on my phone, but they're using my
husband's name, so they're saying, hey, Scott, are you interested

(21:49):
in selling one two three Main Street? And no, that's
that's not happening. If you get a phone call and
somebody actually has the nerve to call you and say, hey, listen,
are you the owner of such and such address? And
you may be the owner of that address. Be very
very careful. Your first question is going to be are

(22:11):
you an Ohio real estate agent? Or if you're in
Kentucky or Indiana or wherever you can hear us right now,
are you a licensed real estate agent? That's going to
be your first question. Now, they may lie to you
and say they are. Again, I'm never going to call
you and say would you are you interested in selling

(22:33):
your home? It's not likely something that I'm going to do.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
A follow up question.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Just you know, we talk about what not to do
in some of these you know, inappropriate ways to fish
and contact people for information. Let me take it in
a different direction talking about how to do this, and
I'm not I don't want to put you on the spot,
but I'm sure you have clients and customers, probably hundreds
of them that you've helped over the years where you know,

(22:59):
everything's for sale for the right price, right So I'm
sure clients have come to you and said, hey, I
really like this.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
House or that house or that street.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
And neither go fishing for me, you know, on a
on a professional basis, how should people be going about this,
you know, in the in terms of a professional way
of contact of conduct, based on what you've seen actually
happen in the industry with your clients.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
And and Bob, this is a great question because I
will send out postcards if I have a client, If
I truly have a client who is interested in a
certain neighborhood, I will target that neighborhood with a mailer usually,
and I will say, I have a buyer who wants
to be in this neighborhood. Are you interested in selling
your home? Now, I'm legitimate because I have my information

(23:49):
on it. My face is probably on it. You can
contact me directly.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
And you can your real estate license number.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
I mean all you can all you can know that
I'm and you know if you need some more information
to know. Because a lot of real estate agents have
more buyers than sellers, and buyers are very specific. You
may even get something in your mailbox from the actual buyer.
My buyers have done that. They've taken it on Yeah,

(24:19):
I've taken it on themselves, and they put a little
handwritten note, Hi, mister and missus seller or mister or
missus homeowner, I want to buy your house is would
you sell it to me? And a lot of times
it's just buyers being a little bit desperate and they
might be real. But at the same time, if you

(24:40):
get those handwritten letters in your mailbox, they could also
be a scam, so you have to be really careful.
My best advice again is talk to a licensed real
estate agent and check things out. Have someone who's working
on your behalf to make sure that it's legitimate. And
it may very well work out. It may be something

(25:02):
that you know, I don't know, the sun is shining
and that person just came along at the right time
and timing was absolutely perfect, and that does happen. And Bob,
that's a great question because a lot of people think, yeah,
Michelle's you just want my listing, you don't really have
a buyer. But I don't send those postcards out unless.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I really do have a buyer. It's just the way
I roll.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
But you know, there may be some agents out there
who just want your listening, so you do have to
be a little bit careful.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
I'm glad you brought up that point because I have
gotten actually one or two of those postcards through the years.
Looked legit had a realtor on It wasn't in a
position where I was interested in selling, but at that point, right,
maybe that's worth responding to that realtor if you are interested.
But again, text messages, emails, phone calls, making full price offers.

(25:56):
It doesn't matter if this is real estate or in
a different investment or anything. I think that the number
one rule always applies. If it sounds too good to
be true, it probably is. I know you love your
house and you think it's worth a gazillion dollars because
you've got so many beautiful memories there. But I think
you've got to proceed with caution if someone is unsolicited

(26:19):
making you an offer to purchase your home your property.
Great advice as always from Michelle Sloan, a real estate
expert from Remax Time. And of course you can catch
your podcasts and sells homes on iHeartRadio or anywhere you
get your podcasts. You're listening to Simply Money presented by
all Worth Financial here on fifty five KRC, the talk station.

(26:44):
You're listening to you Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I Memi Wagner along with Bob spawn Cellar. Do you
have a financial question you and your spouse maybe not
on the same page, or it's just keeping you up
at night because you can't exactly figure out what the
right path is to go. Well, there's a red button
you can click on while you're listening to the show.
It's right there on the iHeart out record your question.
It's coming straight to us and straight ahead. Look at

(27:07):
the skyrocketing cost of auto insurance and what you can
do about it. This is a move I made within
the past year, and we had significant savings in our house.
So we'll get to that in a few minutes. But
tonight we also want to talk about one of the
simplest and smartest investment strategies out there. It's called dollar

(27:27):
cost averaging.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
So let's first talk about what dollar cost averaging is.
It's basically a way of investing that involves putting a
fixed amount of money into the market at regular intervals,
whether that's weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, you know, irrespective of
what the stock market's doing. And as you might imagine,
if you have a volatile market, putting regular amounts of

(27:52):
money in at regular intervals take some of that volatility
out of things as the money is going into your accounts,
and that way you don't have to try to time
the market or worry about whether it's high or low,
just state discipline. Put it in there, and it tends
to work out pretty well and you get kind of
an average over a period of time without worrying about

(28:13):
did you time it right?

Speaker 1 (28:15):
And I think it's important to understand too, if you're
putting money into your four one K, you're probably already
doing it. If it's coming out of your paycheck right
at a regular interval, and you're putting the same amount
in with every paycheck, you are already dollar cost averaging.
I think where this becomes more of a strategy that
we even think about or become aware of is maybe

(28:35):
you get a lump sum and all of a sudden
you're like, oh, do I put this all in at once?
What if I put it all in in the market,
go sell the next day, and then you can look
at Okay, say you've got you know, ten thousand dollars,
a large bonus and inheritance, whatever it is. Maybe you
put in one thousand dollars on the fifteenth of the month.

(28:56):
For the first ten months of the year, some days
are going to be up, markets are going to be down,
and it kind of all averages out.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, I think you bring up The major point that
I wanted to make sure we talked about, and that's
how to dollar cost average in lump sums. Most people
that we encounter, they get the whole you know, hey,
let's put it into our four to one k every month,
and people understand that where the emotion comes into it
is exactly what you just said, an inheritance, a big
chunk of money, a bonus. That that's where people want

(29:27):
to call and say, hey, is this the right time
to invest it?

Speaker 3 (29:31):
You know?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Or I think you know, Trump's going to put tariffs in,
or I think Biden's going to win and the country's
you know, gonna come to it all all those kind
of discussions, and that's where oftentimes Amy, I don't know
about you, but things that I've done is just say, hey,
let's let's dollar cost average in the lump sum, you know,
because I'm not smart enough to know when the market's

(29:54):
at a high or a low. Neither are you, and
neither are these talking heads on you know, in the
media every day. So let's take six months, eight months,
let's divide this thing up, and if you give me
permission to do so, I will put it in on
the same month and average, you know, same day of
each month for eight months, average it in and that

(30:14):
tends to calm people down and feel a little bitter,
feel a little better about how we are deploying a
larger sum of money.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
It is just really, really hard to divorce your emotions
from your money. I think a lot of people think, oh, yeah,
no problem for me. But yeah, if you're sitting in
this situation where you've got a lump sum ten thousand
dollars or whatever it is, and you're trying to figure
out when to put it in the markets, research actually
shows mathematically you're better off to just put it in

(30:43):
whatever day it is, put it in all at once,
as soon as possible. That's what math shows us. The
problem is there's the human aspect of this, and it
becomes you go down this rabbit hole. And I've seen
people do it. They're doing research on all, you know,
what do we think the economy is going to do
in the next week or so, and what about this?
And what about that? And I'm just gonna wait another week.

(31:05):
And then you wait another week and then you're like, oh,
I don't know, I don't feel good about it, And
all of a sudden time has gone by and the
money hasn't been in the market. Uh, and so dollar
cost averaging really takes the emotion out of it. It's
a system. You're putting money in in a systematic way.
You're taking the emotion out of it, knowing that some
days you're going to win, some days you're going to lose.

(31:25):
But also you're putting money into the market hopefully that
you're not going to need for the next one to
three years. So if you're if there's if you're putting
it in on days when markets are down, those aren't
losses that are locked in, they're just on paper.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Now, you're exactly right. And again we just made the
point in the last segment. You know it's time in
the market, not timing the market.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
But it goes back to when how long do you
plan to have this money invested?

Speaker 2 (31:50):
And if that, if that answered that question is five, seven, ten, fifteen,
twenty years?

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, Amy, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, I mean if things move two or three percent,
you know, no one's gonna know or notice ten twelve, fifteen,
you know, years from now. But if you sat on
that money for eight, ten, twelve months and miss out
on a twelve thirteen fifteen percent move in the market.
That tends to add up over time. So I agree

(32:17):
with you. If we know that money is devoted for
long term purposes, put it in there and don't worry
about it. By the time you know you actually need
the money, you will have forgotten about where the market
was at in February of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
I was just gonna say, you know, how many times
are you like ough, I still can't get over December
of twenty seventeen, that was a bad month. I mean,
long term investors do not have that perspective. You just
look back over the years and the decades and you
see the power of compounding. So for anyone who yes
might be getting a lump sum anytime coming up, I

(32:55):
think dollar cost averaging can be a really great strategy
to pull the motion out of it, get the money
into the market, and years later just be glad, Just
be glad that you had that time in the market.
Here's the all Worth advice. Investing consistently over time, regardless
of market conditions, can really help you grow your wealth

(33:16):
while also reducing risk. Coming up next, how to combat
high auto insurance rates What you can do about it?
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial
here on fifty five KRC the talk station. You're listening
to simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. I mean

(33:37):
you Wagner along with Bob's spawnseller. If it just feels
a little tighter every month, you know bill's coming in.
I'm going to ask you this question. Have you looked
specifically at how much your car insurance bill has gone up?
And you should be because people are just getting nailed
right now with sky high premiums. Bob, have you shopped

(33:58):
around for auto insurance?

Speaker 3 (34:00):
I have not.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
I'm embarrassed to say I've not shopped mine in years,
if not decades.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
So I'm going to give you homework.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah, do it.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Yeah, that's your homework.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, here's here's why we should probably shop at this
And to be brutally honest, I'm shocked at this data
point here, the average cost of full coverage car insurance
is twelve percent higher nationwide in twenty twenty five compared
to last year. So you want to talk about three
percent inflation? You know, time I checked, twelve is three

(34:34):
times four.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
That's a lot of inflation.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Amy, that's a lot of inflation. Average annual premium right
now twenty six hundred dollars. That's two hundred and twenty
bucks a month. Bob. The good thing for you is
you live in Ohio and the actual average annual premium
there about sixteen hundred dollars, So that's more than one
thousand bucks less in the national average. So like, good

(34:56):
for you when you live in Ohio. Unfortunately, for this one,
I'm on the other side of the river, and in
Kentucky it's a different story. Average annual premium just on
this side of the Ohio twenty seven hundred dollars, right,
that's a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Amy, there's a reason why you're paying more for auto
insurance in Kentucky. I mean, over here in Ohio, we
drive the speed limit, we obey traffic laws. I've heard
you talk about how you drive your SUV around in Kentucky.
Are you sure that the way you operate your vehicle
is not causing the whole state to pay higher premiums.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
No, I actually think I should apologize to every Kentucky
and because your insurance is probably higher because of me.
Even just last night, my son and I were in
the car, was going through the ATM and hit a
curb and he was like, oh my goodness, Mom, Like
you're so anyway, regardless of how good or bad of
a driver anyone is what you should be smart about

(35:55):
is how much you're paying for auto insurance. Listen, I
have three three teenage drivers in my house, and my
husband had shopped for car insurance several years ago. And
when we had the first driver, and then we added
the second one, and we added the third, and we
didn't even think about it. And finally last year, when
I was sitting down really looking at our monthly expenses,

(36:16):
I was like, this is astronomical. This is astronomical. We
had just talked about a website on the show called
insurify dot com insurify dot com, and I.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
Was like, I'm writing it down.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
You should be writing it. And so I jumped on
that website. I put in basic information. I was shopping
apples to apples coverage. It was super easy to use.
I'm telling you we saved four hundred dollars a month
by doing this. Four hundred dollars.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
That's a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah, And I think, you know, we get so used
to just setting it and forget it right it's not
fun to shop for car insurance, home insurance. There's just
some things that you just you get it set and
you just want to not deal with it again. But
in a time, in a period that we've gone through
in the past few years, where inflation is higher, it's
just harder and harder to make ends meet, I would say, hey,

(37:11):
revisit that stuff. Look at your subscriptions. Are you still
using them all? Look at the monthly costs that you have.
How can you save on them? I'm sure it's maddening
to my husband. It would be really hard to be
married to me from a financial standpoint because I'm always
looking at these things. But it drives me crazy to

(37:31):
pay more for something than i'd have to.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, and for the rest of us that haven't shopped
at recently me, I have done these kind of simple
things that I think everybody should do. I mean, there
are discounts available, like multi car discounts, safety feature discounts,
if you've been accident, free, have multiple cars, have automatic
bill pay for your premiums, go paperless on your statements.

(37:56):
Most insurance carriers will give you some discounts for those
type things. And that's on top of actually going and
shopping the rates.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
I was just thinking, I hope my insurance person is
not listening to this show, or I'm saying, oh my
rates went way down and they're going to go back
way up because I'm talking about what a terrible driver
I am. But yeah, this is just a smart thing
to shop around. We're not saying, hey, every month you
should be looking at it, you will drive yourself crazy.
But once a year, once every other year, definitely shop around.

(38:27):
You can absolutely save yourself some money. Thanks for listening.
We hope you're going to tune in tomorrow. We're talking
about how to keep from just getting sucked into this
twenty four to seven culture when it comes to investing
in your money. You've been listening to Simply Money, presented
by all Worth Financial here on fifty five KRC, the
talk station