Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It is a Thursday Morning, June fifth, Joe Larsgard, who
is host of how to Monday, how to Money Sunday's
twelve pm to two pm here on KFI and his
social address at how to Money.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Joel.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning, Joel, morning Bill. Oh, we're such happy campers.
Here is a story, and the way it works is
because I'm incredibly lazy. I don't come up with the stories.
I ask Joel, Okay, what do you want to talk about?
What's in your wheelhouse? And if I like it, we
talk about it. If not, I say, now we're going.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
To do something else.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
In any case, a story about Amazon that one in
eight wardrobe purchases comes from Amazon.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Now a quick aside.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I happen to be married to someone who lives for
buying from Amazon and buys clothes and will buy I
three different sizes and fifteen different colors and returns ninety
percent of the boxes. And I'm serious. I had to
(01:11):
get an extra garbage pant. I had to get an
extra one of those garbage cans just for recycle because
of the boxes that I have to take apart and
put together.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So the point is it's costing us all money. But
how is that possible because I'm paying for you know,
the Amazon Prime, and I get free obviously, free returns,
et cetera. So how does it cost you money if
I'm paying for it? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
All right, So that's a good question, and one your
partner is not alone in that Amazon obsession. And it's fascinating,
like this status came out that like, people buy way
more clothing on Amazon than they even do at Walmart, right,
and think about Walmart has these physical stores and an
online presence all around the country, and people are buying
more than twice as much on Amazon, and then they
(02:00):
are via Walmart, both physical and online. And so it's
just it's crazy to think about that. And Okay, why
is this costing us money? And I think it's exactly
what you refer to with the Amazon Prime. It's like
frictionless and people are like, I mean, I wasn't planning
on buying a new skirt or a new t shirt,
or some shorts or some socks or whatever it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Is today, But my goodness, it's so easy. And I
was on Amazon anyway, and it feeds me.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
It fed me this thing it popped up, and I'm like, yeah,
I was about to check out, but yeah, I guess
I could use some new socks. Throw them into the cart,
you get them shipped to your house, and for most people,
amazing if your spouse actually does make those returns, Bill,
I have to make the returns in my house because
nobody else is doing it, and sometimes if I don't
do it, it doesn't get done and you're stuck with that.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Good.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
So, I just think that frictionless reality that Amazon has
created in so many of our lives has led to
just consuming more, buying more stuff, and buy stuff that
we otherwise wouldn't have bought.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay, fair enough, But how again, I'm going to ask
the question, I am paying for the servis of being
able to return. How does it cost me or how
does it cost you money? Because I'm doing it and
paying for it.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Okay, so when you're making those returns, there's a cost
to the retailer. Right, So even if you're buying stuff,
and let's say your spouse buys in a bunch of
different sizes, a bunch of different colors, and says, I'm
probably gonna keep twenty percent of it.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And I'm going to return the rest.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Well, the return looks like it's free for you if
you drop it off at the right place, you jump
through the right hoops, and you have a package correctly.
But and so that feels all nice and good, but
it's obviously it's put into the price of the items
that we're buying. So everything that we buy costs more
because of the friction list returns also that we're able
(03:42):
to get. And it is nice where it looks like
it's free, but it is, of course it's functionally put
into the price of the goods that we're buying.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, mean, that makes sense, But that's second, third tier
down the road, and it just sort of disappears. And
let's say I'm buying a twenty dollars item.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Is where twenty.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Dollars normally would am I? Am I paying twenty two
dollars for it? Is it a substantial amount? Is there
real money involved in this?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah? I mean I think so.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
There's Actually there's another interesting story I saw in the
New York Post this week, and what they were saying
is like the way that people in the United States
have gotten accustomed to making returns, many of them have
gained the system. And so it's not even just the
fact that you can return something you decided you didn't want.
It's that people are saying are essentially trying to cheat
the system, returning stuff that they otherwise wouldn't be able
(04:32):
to return. Some people are taking items out of electronics,
returning the now unusable, unworkable electronics, and retailers aren't catching it.
And so I think, what this is what's going to
happen because of fraudulent returns and because of the growing
number of overall returns, which which eats into the bottom
line of retailers. I believe in the very near future,
(04:53):
similar to dynamic pricing for tickets that we buy, you're
going to have like dynamic return policies. So there's gonna
be one return policy that Bill Handle is held to,
and there's another return policy that I'm held to by
certain retailers based on the way I have returned goods
that purchased from that retailer in the past.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Also, it's interesting, and again this is because of my
experience here. When a product is let's say you return
to a product that's said defective, it's the honor system
because you're returning a product. You don't like it, and
so you call the retailer and they say keep it,
(05:30):
just keep it, well, refund the money, just keep it.
And it really is an honor system. It's much like
you at offices where you have those little boxes of
candy bars and snacks, where they say it's a buck
and it's the honor system. There's no way to check.
And I'll tell you what I do, and people have
seen me on the show. What I do is I
(05:52):
grab a candy bar and take money out of the box.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
See, you're the problem. You're the problem here.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
See Okay, good enough, Joel.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
We talk a lot about retirement because, first of all,
you rightly are concerned about.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It because it is no fun being old.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
No one wants to put the address of a dumpster
when receiving Social Security checks. And there is a general
rule of four percent. I mean, at the end of
it all, when you retire, you should pull out four
percent of your savings, retirement plan, etc. And that theoretically
keeps you going forever until you die. Actually, the secret
(06:37):
is to know exactly when you're going to die, and
if you can calendar it, you spend all your money
until that last day.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's the magic.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But let's talk about that four percent rule, because frankly,
in my life, I'm looking at the five percent rule
and I plan on doing that with my retirement when
I do, so, tell me what's going on and tell
me how wrong I am. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
I mean, if you go see a psychic, you're right,
and you can find that exact date of death. It's
so much easier to plan for retirement. But because we
can't or I haven't met anybody that can accurately predict
that yet, you kind of have to like do your
best and go buy rules of thumb. And this four
percent rule of thumb has been around now for many decades.
And this guy, Bill Bengen, he did like a bunch
(07:20):
of studies about market returns and inflation and longevity, and hey,
how long will you pull your portfolio last your entire
retirement if you're drawing down four percent of it? And
that's basically what it was. The magic number that he
found was like, with inflation and potentially inconsistent market returns,
the vast majority of people are going to be okay
(07:40):
taking four percent of their overall portfolio out every single year,
and and so that has been kind of It's interesting
because it got rounded down. Even the original rule he
had found that it was like four point one five percent,
but he rounded it down to four just because it
was it's gonna stick in people's minds better. Well, he
has gone back to the drawing board and ran more numbers,
(08:01):
and you said five percent. Actually it's closer to five
percent now, according to Bill Banngen. He says four point
seven percent is what you can more likely take draw
down from your portfolio every single year in retirement and
not run the risk of exhausting it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, and that leaves, and then the principle is left.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You start with a million dollars, you pull out five percent,
that's fifty thousand dollars a year. Add so security to that,
let's say three thousand dollars a month. Now you're at
eight thousand dollars one hundred grand a year. I mean,
you're going to be fine at one hundred thousand dollars
a year. I mean that really, you can really do
a nice job with your dumpster at one hundred thousand
dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
But you know the other issue.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I talked to some money people and they say, you
may want to take out more initially because at the
end of your life, as you get.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Older, you're not going to spend as much money.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Well that that's the other thing. There's so many things
to factor into this. That's why this is all so
like a rule of thumb, not an actual hardened past rule.
And there's just so many different things that people have
to consider when they're trying to figure out, well, how
much will I need from my retirement portfolio.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think this is good news on a couple fronts.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
If you can delay Social Security, it means you need
even less because you're going to get a bigger Social
Security check. And on top of that, it means you
actually might have to save up less than you think.
I mean, sometimes people get those numbers from the retirement
company commercials, the brokerage firm, saying your magic number is
four million dollars, that's how much you need to save up,
and I think it boggles people's minds and they're like,
(09:35):
I'm never going to get there. And when you realize
that you can take a larger percentage of your portfolio
every year, you know, keep most of that principle intact
and survive retirement incredibly. Well, then it means you can,
instead of trying to save up more and live life
high on the hog with just more money coming in,
you can just deprioritize how much you need to have
(09:56):
in reserves when you reach retirement. Which might sound like
terrible advice from from someone who wants you to have
a great life in retirement, but for a lot of people,
what that means is skimping out on life in the
here and now, spending less on these really was Yeah,
and so you're investing so much for those future years
and then you're like, am I actually going to be
alive to enjoy them? So I think this should give
(10:18):
people a little bit of a sigh of relief. Yeah,
maybe I can spend something close to that upper four
low five percent range in some of those retirement years,
not run out of money, and not feel like I
have to break my back during those working years to
a mass even more than I actually need.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
My mother died at ninety eight, and her retirement plan
was terrific. She ran out of money when she was
about eighty five, but she had a secret retirement plan
named Bill Handle And let me tell you when you
know what, When she passed away. I became fairly wealthy
(10:54):
because I didn't have to pay one hundred thousand dollars
a year to support her. But that's the other issue,
and we'll do that probably in the next few weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
If you need.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Care in your elder years assisted living, you are screwed
beyond unscrewed.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And that's another subject for another day. Is long term
care insurance and when does it make sense? Because it's
quite expensive and the average person doesn't have the money
to fund a long term care plan because of how
expensive they gotten. The premiums have gotten out of control
and for some people it's necessary, but for others it's not.
So we could definitely talk about that one of these days.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, my mom lost it at ninety three. She was
in serious de men. She didn't know where she was
and I kept her at that place. I should have
put her on the sidewalk. She wouldn't know the difference.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Okay, we're done, John damn right.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I am Joel This Sunday twelve to two pm here
on KFI. He's at how to Money, Joel catch over
the weekend, Joel take Care, Thanks Bill. Normally, Jim Keeney
is with us on Wednesday, but we're doing on Thursday.
Jim being chief medical officers for Dignity Saint Mary Medical
Center in Long Beach, also an er doctor, and Jim,
(12:11):
you know, I would go here with the brain eating
amiba that ate the square brain and killed.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Of course, out of town story as.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
They see, and I know, I know it's going to
be on your radar.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Right, so clearly tapwater is going to kill you, and
explain what this is about, because literally only five or
six cases I assume, in the United States that this happens,
so it's pretty rare, but it makes for a great story.
What's this about?
Speaker 5 (12:37):
So yeah, I mean these amiva stories always pop up
in fresh water warm freshwater areas, right because that's where
the amiba like warm fresh water. So in places like
Texas and the South where people go to lakes real
frequently in California, you know, at higher altitudes of the
lakes are often cold, so not as common as in
these other areas. And then you know, and tap water,
(12:59):
by the way, is allowed to have a certain amount
of micro organisms in it, and it's legal and it's
not harmful for you. So if you swallow one of
these amobas your stomach kills it, but it's when you
put it in your sinuses that it can actually work
its way up into the brain and cause an abcess.
So yeah, that's what happens. Is basically the amoeba makes
(13:20):
its way up through the sinus passages to the brain
and causes a brain infection.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And once you get it, I understand that once this
hits it's basically one hundred percent fatal.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
You don't get out of this, do you, right, because
I mean it's already by the time you're having seizures
and everything else, it's already caused quite a bit of
brain damage and brain swelling. And you know, are the
agents that we use to treat this aren't super fast
as far as fixing the problem. So you're dying rapidly,
but the solution is not really killing this organism off
(13:55):
fast enough. And typically people don't survive this type of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
How rare is this?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I mean literally really really rare. Yeah, you've never seen it, right.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Never seen it. And we're talking about two hundred cases
over the last five years from all causes in the
United States, not specific to you know, the sinuses, but
two hundred cases from people. So that's why they recommend. Look,
if you're going to swim in warm water lakes that
are known for amibas, then put in a you know,
like put a nasal clip on when you're swimming in
(14:29):
the water. And if you're going to use you know,
tap water to flush or sinuses, they recommend that you
boil the water for at least one minute U and
then that helps, you know, kill off all these things.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
How do you know that someone has it if it's that.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Rare, well, that's the problem, right. They come in complaining
of symptoms of meningitis, which is you know, a headache,
blurred vision, confusion, stiff neck, and then you get a
spinal tap like you would with anybody with meningitis, but
it takes the bacteria all comes back negative and it
(15:03):
may take a while to discover that it's a meeba
in the actual spinal food and not and not bacteria.
So you know, you can it's pretty obvious when they
come in that they are seriously and critically ill from
the descriptions, but what you can do about it is
pretty limited.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
All right, Now a new COVID strain, isn't this one?
How serious? And are people going to die of this one.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Yeah, So, I mean apparently in Europe and elsewhere, the
new COVID strain is causing you know, more hospitalizations again
and increased death rate, especially in older people. But it
doesn't sound like it's as bad as the first go around.
But again, it's just every year. This is going to
be like the flu, right every year now forever, we're
(15:53):
going to have COVID as part of our kind of
our population of things that we get. And so it's
clean back around. And again it's it's an opportunity if
people are interested in COVID vaccines and we haven't had
a booster in a while, maybe a chance to get
a booster, especially if you're at a high risk, like
people with lung disease like copd aro amphazima, people with asthma,
(16:17):
older people, you know, people are that are immunosuppressed because
they're on chemotherapy or for other reasons. So you know,
it's again, I don't know that we're going to change much,
but it's just like the flu season coming back around again.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
All right, Jim, I'll see you Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You're joining us at Yeah, I know it's gonna.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Be winners are so.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, you're going to just have All you have to
do is listen to the next segment because.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That's coming up.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Okay, Now, Saturday night, for the first time we've ever
done it, the Morning Crew is hosting a dinner at
the Anaheim White House. Fantastic food and a lot of fun.
And we had a contest and people recorded why they
either wanted to come or should come to dinner with us.
(17:04):
And there were finalists. I mean several hundred calls came in.
Neil listened to every one of them, took some finalists,
threw them into a hat and just pulled people out
of the hat, and five people won. So it's five
people were going to join us Saturday night, and we're
gonna play all five of the winners. I haven't heard
(17:27):
which ones are there, And Neil, I don't think you
heard the winners.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yet, have you?
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Oh you have.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm talking about the five. You've heard the five? Oh yeah,
you already heard them before, but you don't know which
five one? Yeah, I'm sorry, Yes, you don't know which
five though?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Have one correct? He's okay?
Speaker 6 (17:43):
I had to pull him, I randomly.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
That's oh, you had to pull them. So what an
ann do.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
She's the one who gave me the numbers so that
it was random, so she didn't hear them, so she
couldn't be biased.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
All she gave me.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Now I hold them based on their numbers.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, great, I still don't understand. Okay, we got it,
got it?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Okay, with with that, with that, there's uh there's five
of them, and it's gonna take a couple of minutes,
fifteen twenty seconds apiece, all right, Kono the first winner.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Hey, for your June seventh show.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I think it'd be funny as hell to drag my
daughter along as plus one to have to have dinner
with you.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
She was subjected to your show all through junior high
in high.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
School, absolutely hates your show, absolutely hates listening to you.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I think it'd be the funniest ever to have to
I have to have dinner with you now.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
But hmm, okay, so that's the only one. We don't
have information. So if if he recognizes his voice, he's
got to leave another.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Uh oh yeah, yeah, we have to get hold of you.
By the way, he's so fine. Okay, he's a finalist.
In the dumbest call that came in all the time. Okay,
so we've got one maybe all right? Uh the next one.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
Uh okay, well they said the Little Doubles Sablanca, but Alacena.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
He okay, a quick word about that.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Much like when I do a recording, I'm not actually there,
So this caller is not actually there.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
He's already been deported.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Uh, but he has in fact left his message.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
So he just said that.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
He would he would like to be considered.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, I understand that.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
He said that he would like to bring some ethnicity
variety to the group and hang out and be a
companion to me.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
All he has in reality, all he could bring is
in the Ice agent that was involved in deporting him,
and so we may see.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'm sorry, keep listening it gets more interesting when you.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Okay, next call.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
My name is Tommy Patila.
Speaker 7 (20:16):
As a retired veteran in combat marine, I listened to
the Bill Handle's show because he's always gonna say some
shit that doesn't make sense. And while you're in combat,
you need those guys around you that will take you away.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
From the environment.
Speaker 7 (20:32):
If you ever want somebody to take you away and
say some shit that don't make sense, listen.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
To Bill Handle.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Hm hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Combat marine. That's impressive. That's impressive. You know what they
say that even if you don't believe in God in
a fox hole, you're you always believe in God. No,
I think you just die in the fox hole when
you're in combat. Okay, so he's joining us and that
(21:00):
should be a lot of fun. I'm gonna you know,
we're gonna be sitting around by the way, just a
quick word is all. We're all gonna share and sort
of do musical chairs. Okay, next one.
Speaker 8 (21:11):
Hi, my name is Sylvia, and I want to attend
the Anaheim White House lunch dinner with the cast and
crew of a Bill Handle show. And I just want
to let you know I wor to get Trader Joe's
and Bill. I will give you my discount for two
(21:31):
months if you.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Let me go to this thing.
Speaker 8 (21:35):
Okay, twenty percent off.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Now, will she be bringing her prozac with her that
she'll share with the crowd.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
Twenty percent off for you for two months, and that's
all you have to say for yourself.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, yeah, this woman is an oil painting.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Okay, there's a.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Hey, Hey, I'd like to go to with you. So far,
h this is good. We're gonna share.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
She will be asleep, her face will be in the
pasta plate, I'll tell you right now, because she'll be
far asleep.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
A Hawaiian shirt and smeltuli oil.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
That would be great, wouldn't that? That would be great?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh, I should get one of those. Oh, I'll tell
you what she could do.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Call her back and see if she can get me
a Trader Joe's little name tag and I'll wear a
Hawaiian shirt. There was a Mormon who uh, an elder
who actually got me one of those pins. You know
those name tags, uh say Elder Bill or Elder Handle.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
And I wore it for years, remember that?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
And I went, I wore and I had a short
sleeve shirt, white shirt with a tie, and there it
was Elder Bill shirts, white shirt tie. That okay, So
call her back and I have her bring a name
tag that says Bill handle.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
All right, that's that's important, all right.
Speaker 9 (23:03):
Next one, here are my reasons for Saturday. Number one,
I used to work for Immigration and Customs enforcement, specifically
in deportation, so I have a lot of inside baseball stories.
Number two, I'm East Indian, so dot's not feathers Quickie
Mountin and Casinos and my first address was seven to
one one, so I told everyone it owned a seven
eleven and number three. My husband came here on an
(23:25):
H one B visa just like the Raj Mahal. This
is Michelle, thank you.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, now here's what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Uh. If our friend who was deported is able to
show up, Neil, we have to put her next to him.
This just in and they're going to have will not
be showing that. Wow, Rodrigo will not be showing up.
He's already gone. You can call him in Mexico. Okay,
(23:54):
do we have one more?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
No?
Speaker 9 (23:56):
That was it?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Those were okay? Those were the got it? Okay, this
is gonna be fun. All right, So you know what
I'm gonna do. I have a couple of minutes, so
hang on a minute.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I'm going to tell you about what's going on coming
up at on the what date is this June twenty
eighth and every year you know IMC the Lawyer's Philharmonic
where it's at Disney Music Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall,
And I'll be telling you more about that. It's a
(24:27):
benefit for people who can't afford legal services, which is everybody,
and so I'll tell you about that, and I would
love to have you come. It's going to be it's
a lot of fun with lawyers and judges playing these
musical instruments, and it's a really good orchestra, and there's
a choral aspect of it, and the lawyers or LA
(24:50):
voices anyway, So go to LA Lawyers phil as in
Philharmonic l A Lawyers phil dot or. And that's just
another one where we can get together and to see
memc this thing.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I'm in a tuxedo. To see mem see this thing,
I go out of my mind. It's great fun.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So I'll talk more about that a little bit later
on throughout the next couple of weeks. In any case,
I'm taking phone calls eight seven seven five two zero
eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
I'll do that in just a few moments for handle
on the law Off the air. All right, we're back
again tomorrow, Foody Friday. It starts at five am wake
(25:31):
up call with Will and Amy Neil and I come
aboard and kno and and I guess you're not gonna
be deported because you guys are Yeah, you're born here,
So that's the way it works.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
See that would be huge matters anymore. I think he
goes Amy me me Mine mos.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
That's probably two, probably too.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I have a better chance of being deported than anybody
else because I was born in Brazil. So we'll be
back again tomorrow. Gary and Shannon up next. K f
I A M six forty