Financial Issues - 08.20.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Financial Issues, where we join reality with truth,
helping you make the most of your money by honoring
God with your investments. Now listen man, as we give
you the practical tools and advice you need to become
a biblically responsible investor.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, folks, welcome to Financial Issues. It is Wednesday.
We've made it to the middle of the week.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Here.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Grateful to have you this August the twentieth Sethi Dinski
here with you as well as Sam Case the studio
a team.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Our friend Mark Manila is going to join us a
little later on in the.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Show as well. We got a great show today, Sam.
Let's do it buddy once again. Ready to roll. We
gonna have some fun.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
We're here to roll, man.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
That's right, So we.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Got Mark joined us later in the show, folks. He's
going to discuss the right ways we should discern and
decipher the information that we receive during earning season. I'm
excited to hear Mark's take on that. Speaking of earning season,
we didn't get a few more retail companies reporting this morning,
so we'll take a look at those. Also, your comments
and questions. Make sure to say hello wherever you're watching
a special hello to our friends in the FISM live chat.

(01:09):
Good to see you all there this morning. But anyone,
if you're watching or listening this morning, we're happy to
have you as well. Also, if you saw the show yesterday, folks,
Nick Vuyacich joined me to share his experience on getting
D banked. Nick, of course very famous author and speaker,
and he also had his own experience of getting D banked. Well, today,
apparently we got some news out actually yesterday that we're

(01:30):
going to talk about today. Apparently there were some pretty
powerful forces behind this whole d banking mess that we
saw in these last couple of years. Nick was actually
ended up being somewhat tertiarily affected by this. They just
so happened those forces to be the forty fourth and
forty sixth presidents of these United States. No surprise there.
We'll discuss what that means and the implications of it.

(01:52):
Let's get it started. Say, I'm with some earnings reports here.
Lowe's reported this morning it beat slightly on earnings per share,
It actually hit right.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
On target for revenue.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
But I think Lowe's feeling pretty good, especially coming off
of home depots. Rather disappointing report yesterday, Low's might be
the beneficiary of that. Target also reported before the bell
this morning not as good a showing as Low's. Sam,
I think earnings per share beat slightly. It also beat
slightly on revenue. However, the pre market trading is down significantly.

(02:23):
Target's CEO has stepped down, and of course you've heard
on this show there's been a lot of hullabaloo surrounding Target,
much of it from its own hand, and so of
course there still seems to be some concerns surrounding Target.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
They acknowledge in that earning report that there's still bleeding sales,
so the markets weren't too happy about that. That's not
too impressed.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, you can see if you're watching our TV feed
right now, folks, you'll see some images coming up from
twenty twenty three of when Target was selling the tuck
friendly bathing suits and appealing to all the gay stuff.
They have not recovered from that. They've gotten backlashed now
from both sides also, Sam, I think this flies into
the radar too. But Target, it has been an unfortunate
victim of what has happened throughout many Democrat led cities

(03:06):
where crime is rampant. And so Target has suffered from
that as well. So that's what's happening there.

Speaker 5 (03:10):
One more, we saw that with the George Floyd riots.
One of the first things that happened was people raided
Target and they saw the Target and they took advantage
of it.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Target's capital city, Minneapolis. It's all that same area there,
So interesting to see that. Tj Max also reported this morning.
It beat on earnings per share, beat slightly on revenue
as well. So we got one more big retailer to report.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
That's Walmart. They're going to report tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
The markets meanwhile, folks, So yesterday, following Home Depot's disappointing
earnings call, the markets opened in mixed territory. There was
some optimism, notwithstanding, especially in the Dow Jones. Actually, midday,
the Nasdaq was struggling, the S and P five hundred
a little bit as well. By late afternoon we did
see some tech selloffs, so the Nasdaq was down pretty heavily.
The Dow Jones finished with its head above water. The

(03:56):
S and P finished about a half percent half percent negative,
excuse me, and then as Deck was down well over
a full percent negative. Pre markets this morning, we're kind
of muted and they still are right now, they're slightly
negative pricing into open slightly negative. But they're awaiting the
FED meeting minutes from July, which comes out later today,
right around two pm Eastern time. So that's the big
news for today again. Walmart reports tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Folks, it's great to be here with you.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Let's turn our attention now to a headline that I
found somewhat fascinating. Sam, this idea of job hugging. Can
you tell us what in the world is job hugging?
And how are we Well, you've ever been lonely and
you just need a hug? People are hugging their job.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Love my job. I just don't know how I could
get it. It's kind of weird.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
Jobs don't really have arms anything to hold you near
and dear, but that's what people are doing. So yeah,
this comes on the heels of less than stellar labor data.
But you know, during the COVID era we heard of
the great resignation. Now employees are pulling a one to eighty,
basically clinging to their jobs for dear life. That's what
the report said. As employees are now holding onto their

(04:55):
jobs at levels we've not seen in nearly a decade. Now,
let's break into the numbers a little bit. The quits
rate among US workers dropped to two percent in June,
far below the three percent peak of November twenty twenty one.
So we are getting back into more healthy levels. But
I think the mindset behind this isn't nearly as productive
as we want to be, because people are actually afraid

(05:18):
right now to quit their job out of fears they're
not going to be able to find something else. So
there's kind of this weight and see attitude taking hold
across the entire economy from we've talked about with the FED,
but also the labor market now and earlier this week
we talked about the home builder market. So that's not
the best type of health you want to see in
the economy, and it does come with some risks. People

(05:40):
think about keeping their job because it's going to protect them,
but as we've talked about repeatedly on the show as well,
everything comes with risks. So with job hugging, as they're
calling it, it actually makes you a little skill stagnant
in the job market, so once things improve, it's less
likely you are going to be hired. By the way,
people also offer to switch jobs to improve their income.

(06:02):
It's one of the best ways to improve income is
to switch jobs rather than waiting for a raise at
your current job. So that is also a problem as well.
People are not seeing higher income partially because of this
as well.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Sam, I appreciate you bringing that up to us. You
know these concepts, folks, They're vital to consider for any
in the workforce. I know much of our audience is retired.
A good portion of our audience also, like me, like Sam,
are in the workforce full time. I would encourage you.
So we're having Mark on later in the show. I
did an interview with Mark a few weeks ago. I
think was July thirty first was the date of it,
so July thirty first. We talked about the biblical definition

(06:37):
of work and how to make sense of when is
it time to leave a job? How often should you
stay in the job, How can you make the most
of your job and find joy in it even if
it's a job that you don't really like. It's a
good interview. I'd encourage you to check it out. It's
from July thirty first. Sam, I wanted to ask you. You
had a fascinating take yesterday when we were prepping concerning
your own experience of leaving a job or should I
say not leaving a job. You had a very good

(06:59):
reason for every time you left a job. Could you
share that, Sam with our audience.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
Well, I think the instinct of staying put at your job,
at least while you have it is pretty good unless
you're fired keeping your job. I've always been confused about
the idea of I want to switch careers. I'm not
too happy with what I'm doing. So what people do
is just outright quit and then try to work it out. Rather,
what I've always done is kept the job I had
and started hunting on the side, usually growing from opportunities

(07:26):
I have that way. Yeah, you're playing it safe a
little bit, but it just seems much more wise and
you can make use of opportunities in a much more
stable way. Sam, That's exactly the Then you don't have
to panic and just settle for whatever job comes along.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
You can actually pick what you want exactly right.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
The job transition before my job transition to FISM, So
the transition before that one to the job that I
took and from that job I came to FM. That
transition I kind of did what you said not to
do a little bit there, Sam, I kind of left
a job. I had a little thing lined up, but
it wasn't something as solid as I probably should have had.
I was already married at that point, so I had

(08:05):
a wife to provide for at that point.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Didn't do as good of a job with that.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Thankfully, the Lord in his grace watched out for me
and I was able to do that with the transition
from my former job to f I s m uh,
you know, Sam, I'm I'm truthfully not opposed to the
job hugging idea.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Uh I.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think part of it comes down to the fact
that you've got to eat, you've got to pay the bills,
you've got to provide for your family, and especially it
becomes so sharp when you have kids. I found that
after having multiple children, I've suddenly become much more willing
to do certain jobs that I probably would not have
been as willing to do when I didn't have kids,

(08:41):
because you know, now the stakes are higher.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
You have to find a way to provide for your family.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
So, if if it came to it, would I would
I be a garbage man?

Speaker 6 (08:50):
Sure?

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Absolutely would I be a janitor. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
If the garbage man actually pays pretty that might be
a job you want to hug on to.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Absolutely, But would you you know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
You know, there's certain jobs that are considered maybe kind
of lower on the totem pole, jobs being an aid
for special needs children. I do any of that stuff
absolutely means providing for my family. I do agree that
there are inherent risks in staying at the job that
you're at, and I also understand Sam. Look, it's easy
for me to say that when I speak from a
position of having a job right now that I absolutely

(09:21):
love and I actually look forward to coming to every
day and genuinely miss it when I'm not here. So
I get maybe I'm not exactly in the position to
speak from someone who hates their jobs, considering the fact
that I love mine. But I still think there's something
to be said for longevity and consistent faithfulness.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
For years at a time.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
You know, that's a concept that we apply to our
investing as well, Sam, that there's something good about that.
You know, if you could say, you know what, I've
been at a job for years now, I've been able
to build up to build up a good reputation to
also grow, to get raises to contribute to an employer
sponsored retirement plan. I mean, that's really good, I Sam, truthfully,
you know, I'm proud of the fact if my five

(09:57):
year anniversary at FISAM is coming up at the end
of this year, I have now been at FISM for
more than half of my entire marriage.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
It's crazy to think impressive.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
But it's.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, it's fun. And I know you're doing it.

Speaker 7 (10:08):
Because you love it.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
You're not doing it out of fear exactly that you're
not able to find something else, and you're not taking
risks because of that.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, And I know, Sam, you've been here even longer
than I have, and that's and it's it's the exact
same thing.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think one of the good lessons here, folks is
that work is good and no matter what you choose,
you know, it's it's certainly not a sin to leave
your job, absolutely not a sin, but you have to
do it in the right way.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
You have to do it wisely, and especially if.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
You're a man that has a family to provide for it,
you have to consider that as probably the most important
factor when you're choosing what job you need to be
in and you're choosing to continue to work in somewhere
else or to stay.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
In a job that you might not like as much.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
Good to be here with you, all, folks.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Will continue this conversation on the other side of this break.
We'll talk about that dbanking that happened recently and what
to make of that on financial issues more to commat
with us.

Speaker 6 (11:01):
There are moments in life to find us choice system.

Speaker 7 (11:09):
Welcome back, folks.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Hey, today's show brought to you in part by our
friends over at the Timothy Plan.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
I love Timothy Plan.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I love the assurance of investing with them with the
funds that they have, knowing that they're biblically responsible, art
ally and his team they do just such an amazing
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So you can check them out Timothyplan dot com. Also, folks,
we do have a partner commentary that is out.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
You're gonna want to.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Read that as a very good reads as always, especially
considering some of the things that I can't really speak
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Shanna will speak to in more depth on tomorrow's conference call,
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(11:53):
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(12:17):
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Speaker 4 (12:31):
A couple quick headlines here.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
The US economy is maintaining its high s and P
credit rating as analysts are finding the Trump tariffs offset
his tax cuts. Meanwhile, a Reuter's IPSOS poll is saying
seventy one percent are fearing AI will permanently take worker's job. Sam,
I know something that we've talked about before. I'm of
the mindset that, as this is coming from someone who
does not trust AI one bit, but understands that we

(12:55):
need to reckon with it in the world that we
live in, I think AI might more enhance the opportunities
for jobs then it will necessarily take jobs. I'm hopeful
for that for sure, and I think that's what's going
to happen.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Well, the data is showing so far. I mean, of
course there's certain jobs that are going to go OVERAIT.
There's a lot of bookkeeping data entry type jobs that
AI will obviously replace, but I think it will also
create many more new opportunities as well.

Speaker 6 (13:16):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Meanwhile, Scott Besson is saying US tariff revenues will rise substantially.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
Yeah, he's up voting his three hundred billion. He's going
to say it's a lot more than that, actually so
and he even said initially that was an underestimate. He
likes to hedge conservatively with his estimates. And now he's saying, yeah,
it's probably going to be just a tad more. Actually
a lot more than three hundred billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Nice, and finally one more here, over twenty attorneys general
calling on the FDA to reinstate abortion pill safeguards. Now, Sam,
is that safeguards to allow the abortion pill to continue
to be active?

Speaker 4 (13:52):
No, this is conservatives.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
They're trying to add new safeguards, or rather reinstate old
ones from the abortion pill that just were removed under
demic presidents.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Good, so we can we can pray to that end
for sure, and also consider, folks, how you might help
organizations like Preborn and the great work that they do
in fighting for the lives of the precious little ones
whom God loves and who we should love as well.
All right, Sam, let's get to this headline here. So
banks are now coming out and claiming that they were
under pressure from some old friends of ours, as our

(14:23):
founder Dan Seely used to call them, the O Biden administration.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
Pretty much, yep, yep, Yep's what's going on here, Sam?

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeap?

Speaker 5 (14:30):
So this comes on the heels of our conversations with
Nick Foodchik about being debanked. Also last week President Trump
revealing he himself was debanked. And now we might have
a culprit. Now, it should be noted that this story
comes from some anonymous sources. You always have to take
those with a grain of salt. We don't know who
they are or even what banks they work for. Anonymous

(14:51):
sources always have an agenda. But even with that disclaimer
out of the way, this is still pretty interesting. They
are blaming the Obama and Biden administrations as the reason,
saying they were under immense pressure to debank certain individuals
and businesses, exploiting ambiguous language in the law to deny
services or even get this, with this language quote, choke

(15:11):
out companies disfavored by the administration. And obvious example of
this would be gun manufacturers, which Obama frankly didn't like
too much. Now, also, what's interesting about this, This was
kind of like a mob boss technique where they were
never told explicitly what was supposed to be debanked, but
it was well understood if a group was not liked

(15:32):
by the Obama or Biden administration, we knew they were
on the chopping block. One executive he said this, these
pressures were very, very real. When your regulator gives you
a suggestion, it's not really a suggestion, it's actually an order.
The political stuff is very real and those pressures are real,
of course. Set This also led to banks outright denying

(15:52):
services to new customers as well, with another official saying,
you know, it's pretty much safer just not to accept one,
then accept someone we think the administration's not going to like,
and then six months later say, eh, it kind of
messed up. You got to get rid of them. So
this led them to being much more let's say conservative
with conservative customers.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
So what do you think, Seth, Well, first of all,
it makes a lot of sense the work that Nick
Vuychik and his team doing over at pro Life Fintech
starting that makes a whole lot of sense here, Sam,
I appreciate you bringing this up. It's a sad headline,
but you know it's also one that should not be
the least bit surprising folks with anyone with common sense.
And forgive me for if this turns into a rant,
but we have to analyze this in several ways. First

(16:35):
of all, it is my belief that you do not
hate the twelve year Obama Biden dictatorship enough. Our founder
Dan Ceelia, as I said earlier, he rightly referred to
this alliance as the O Biden administration, it really was.
What was really happening is Barack Obama, who if you remember,
was president of these great United States from two thousand

(16:55):
and nine to twenty seventeen, was still pulling the strings
from twenty twenty one one to twenty twenty five when
his puppet Joe Biden was president. It was really like
a continuation of the Obama administration, and basically, like he
was president for twelve years, let's not be fooled here,
he was still ruling through his puppet. In our nation's history,
I'll come out and say it. I believe there have

(17:16):
been few administrations as disastrous and catastrophic as that twelve
year dictatorship under these two men. Think about this O Bergafell,
the rise of dei, anti Christian bias on social media,
weaponization of a two tiered justice system, topless transsexual fetishizers

(17:38):
on the White House lawn to celebrate Pride Month. This administration,
I'm calling it one administration. I know technically it was two,
but this whole O Biden administration was the most godless
in our nation's history.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
I firmly believe that, and.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I do believe that God and his grace brought our
nation to the brink in twenty twenty four, granted us
an undeserved reprieve of grace and a second chance. Folks,
we see oftentimes throughout history and throughout scripture, which really
is just history, it's biblical history, that God judges a
nation oftentimes through wicked rulers, which means during those twelve

(18:15):
years we were clearly under God's judgment. God has shown
his grace to us, not that we have done anything
to deserve it necessarily, but He's shown us his grace
to give us a chance to come back and obey
him and confess him that if my people, who are
called by my name will humble themselves and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will

(18:35):
hear from heaven and heal their land. That's what we
have to do, and we have a chance to do that. Folks,
we cannot be surprised to understand that during the Obama
dictatorship those twelve years, that rampant debanking of conservatives was happening,
even though Sam you pointed out it's almost even more
insidious that there wasn't an official ruling, but it was

(18:56):
more the mob boss mentality.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Of it was the who will ridden some priest types.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Exactly, you could do whatever you want, but we maybe
suggest you do it our way.

Speaker 7 (19:05):
And we know they did this.

Speaker 5 (19:07):
You know, there's been a question about do the banks
want to do this? Are they under pressure to do it? It
could be a mix of both. It probably depends on
the bank in some way who's in charge. But this
is well in line with what we know about the
Obama administration and how it's kind of back door through
indirect threats and pressure leveraged organizations. We saw this with

(19:28):
social media. It's particularly Twitter and Facebook saying that they
had FED officials come to them and say without saying, hey,
you really need to shadow band conservatives, knock them off
your platform, or at very least make sure they're just
shouting into the void and no one sees them that way.
You're the ones doing it. We're not technically violating the

(19:48):
First Amendment, but we do think that's a good thing
you can do. Or there might be some consequences. We're
not going to say what they are, but there might
be some.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
There is a paper trail that leads to these guys.
In spite of the fact that they did a bang
up job to try to cover it up.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
That's for darn sure.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
And Sam, it's interesting that stuff was happening during the
Obama proper administration, so up until twenty seventeen, his two
thousand and nine to twenty seventeen administration, But of course
it was also happening in much more greater numbers and
in much greater scope during the Biden years of the
Obama administration. What we just came out of the last
four years. The second thing I want to share with

(20:23):
you here, folks, in light of all this, is that
you have got to fight for your country.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
You have to. We talk about that on the show
all the time.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I know it's probably going to sound overused, and
I get it, but fighting for your nation is a
biblical command. Okay, it's a biblical command. A lot of
people try to say, no, it's not. We just got
to be about the you know, we got to be
about the eternal kingdom and we can't busy ourselves with
trivial matters down here. I disagree. I think that's actually
a really foolish way to go about things. Because God

(20:51):
has commanded you to be a good steward of everything
and I think I think I could be wrong, but
I think your nation is not. Somehow it can excused
from the definition of everything. You are called to be
a good steward of your nation as much as you
are your money and your family and the Gospel and
your church.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
And your city.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Especially a nation like ours where technically we are the
sovereigns we are. That's not the president of the United States,
so the authority rest with us. Yeah, so the stewardship
responsibility is so much.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
More according to the Constitution, according to our founding fathers,
we have such a heavy stewardship responsibility our nation, Sam,
you hit it right on the head. It is our nation.
Here's the deal. I'm gonna say this too. Trump is
not a Messianic savior. He's not our savior.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
We already have one.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
His name is Jesus Christ. However, God has given Christians
at the very least in his grace. Barring something catastrophic
happening to the president, and I pray it doesn't. God
has given us a four year window that we're now in,
you know, six seven months of so we've got about
three and a half years left to learn how to
be good stewards of our nation once again, and we
have to take this opportunity.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Folks.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
We have to make sure that men such as the
Obama Biden cabal never again have that so great of
a power in our nation. So we got to steward
our vote well for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
By the way, finally, I'll say this, and Sam, I'd
love to hear your thoughts on this too, if we
have time. The bankers who cave to the Obama dictatorship
and debanked Conservatives and Christians to keep political cred. Part

(22:18):
of me wants to give an extension of grace to them,
but the larger part of me just says, shame on you,
because you also had a stewardship responsibility. Those bankers who
obeyed this you know, cabal sort of ruling, they had
an obligation to their customers, they did not fulfill it.
They obeyed the state. They save their own skin rather

(22:38):
than doing their job. And folks, this has to be
a lesson for us. Acts five twenty nine says we
obey God rather than men. We obey God rather than men.
I hope the banks that caved can be someone of
an archetype for you, of what not to be.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Well, why did they say something at the time.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
Absolutely, if they're so, even if you say you don't
got guns to my head, we had to dbank so
and so well, at least come out and say it too,
say like, here's why we did it. It's because the
government's putting so much pressure on us. We don't want
to do this right and you know, put the blame
back on the government. At least then they'd be fighting
back in something that's right and it's and Sam, I
do think the reason they're coming out now is.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Because it's safe to do so, it's convenient to do so,
and that really is shameful. And listen, I understand it's
easy for me to say this. I'm behind a screen,
I'm behind a microphone, and we have a friendly administration.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
But folks, it becomes much.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Harder when you are risking losing social credit, when you're
risking losing popularity, good vibes, good relationships with family and friends.
I know that one personally, we must be faithful to
God rather than men.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
We must obey God rather than men. I hope that
can be of encouragement for you here, folks.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
You've got to take a break now. If you have
to leave us, we have a great rest of the day.
Mark Manilla is coming up on the other side of
this break. We got more financial.

Speaker 7 (23:52):
Issues right after this, folks.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
Welcome back to financial issues.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
It is great to be here with you all today,
and I'm excited because we've got a special guest joining us,
dear friend of our ministry, my personal friend, Mark Manila.
Mark is a financial expert with lots of great insight
FISM contributor, Mark.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
It's great to have you back. Brother. Welcome.

Speaker 6 (24:26):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
You know, I was thinking about it when you said
financial expert. I think that's a term to give to
somebody who just grows old in the industry.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Right. Well, I'm listening.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
I'm not going to comment on your age, but I'll
just say listen, brother, gray hair is a crown for
the agent.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Okay, that's all I'm saying. All right, Okay, sorry, we'll
go with that. That's right.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
I'm working towards that as I see more and more
gray hairs in my head, which the Thankfully the camera
zoom far back enough.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
So you're telling us this is a coping mechanism.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Right exactly, That's exactly what I'm saying exactly what I said. Hey, Mark,
Before we get to our first topic here on earnings reports,
let me just say quickly that the market's just opened up.
The dal Jones is continuing in its trend from yesterday positive,
up about a fifth of one percent. Meanwhile, SMB five
hundred is down about an eighth and the Nasdaq down
about half percent, so mirroring much of what the markets
did yesterday.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Actually, so Mark, you know, one of.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
The big things that's going on today, and obviously these
last couple weeks has been earning season, and I'd love
to get your expertise as we start here on just
how to rightly decipher earnings reports. So we're coming to
the end of the earning season for quarter two. A
lot of companies have already reported. Many of them have
done well, Sam and I mentioned some of the big
retailers that reported this morning.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
We've got Walmart coming tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Let's start here, Mark, how do we rightly read the
room when companies report earnings?

Speaker 6 (25:43):
That's a great question.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
Actually, a first part of the question I like better,
you know, in general, the idea of what how do
we look at all this? And I don't know if
you notice it or even felt it. But every time
they start talking about quarterly reports, people start leaning in
and they start being drawn in, and it's almost like
the sirens of Wall Street are calling, and everybody's focus

(26:05):
starts going off into the different direction of the Cordilla reports.
And I think we really need to be concerned about that,
because this is something that Dan really really had a
heart for, is that we're long term investors. We don't
the short term isn't that important. It's important to know
because it could be indicators of a longer term trend coming,

(26:26):
but not to be sucked into it. And if you
look at if you look at Cordia reports, you know,
we see that that they that somebody say, well they
missed their you know, analysts were predicting this and they
missed it, and they this and that and and I've
seen the stock market drop three five percent on these
type of things just from missed expectations. Of course that

(26:51):
doesn't last, it's a blip. But we don't want to
be sucked into that. We want to make sure that
our heart stays true to the long term investing. Now, well,
when I started thinking about this, I also started thinking
about oftentimes people will confuse long term investing with long
term horizons. And that's something else that Dan really trying

(27:15):
to explain over and over, and I think it's really important.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
And Mark Mark, how are those two things different, because
in my mind they sound similar, but they.

Speaker 6 (27:23):
Are and often interchange, but they're not.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Long Term investing is how we approach how we look
at a stock, whether we're going to buy it or not.
When we look at a stock, we're looking at a
long term investment. We're looking for something that's made well,
a company that's working well, a company that's financed well,
that's led well. All those kind of things will give
us a long term investment as this company continues.

Speaker 6 (27:49):
To grow and grow and grow hopefully.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Whereas long term horizon a horizon might be I'm retiring
in a year and a half. Well, I don't want
to base my stock picks based on I'm retiring in
a year and a half. That's where our asset allocation
comes in by diversifying and moving our diversification, changing our
diversification based on her time horizon, moving more towards safer

(28:14):
assets or less volatile assets as we get closer to
that horizon. But that doesn't determine the stocks that go
into that.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
Did that make sense?

Speaker 4 (28:23):
It does? It absolutely does, Mark, thank you.

Speaker 6 (28:25):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
So we need to approach the quarterlies the same way
because we get pulled into it. You know, you'll find,
oh they missed their expectations. Oh they had a blip,
and we've seen this or that in them, and all
of a sudden that stock takes a hit. Well, so
what stocks takes its What caused that blip, what caused
that thing? But all that said, I just want people

(28:49):
to be aware, our investors, you know, the financial issue investors,
the partners, to realize that quarterly reports are nothing to
knee jerk from, just information that over time trends are
formed from that that help us understand things for longer
term investing and taking it inside that bubble that understanding,

(29:13):
we can look at Cordia returns and not get seduced
by Wall Street, which is trying to get you to
look at the short term, get emotional and then start
making moves because wall Street.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
The more mooves may the more wall Street makes bottom.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Line, whether those moves are correct or not. So we
want to make sure that we're not seduced into that
like those who don't have Jesus Christ as their savior,
those who don't have God as their source of peace,
because those people are putting their hope in the market,
not in God.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
We have God. We know where our peace comes from.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
We know that God's going to provide our needs, and
he provides so much more because it's the froth of
those blessings God gives us that we put in the markets.
We're at peace no matter what happens.

Speaker 6 (30:02):
In the short term. There we have a we have
peace that surpasses all understanding.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Okay, yeah, and looking at all that, let's take a
look at what do I look at.

Speaker 6 (30:13):
The first thing I look at is the income sheet.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
I mean it's bottom line revenues, revenues, revenues, revenues, That's
what it's all about. You know, what is the company
bringing in? Are those revenues positive, are you know, growing?
Do we see a trend? And even if they're not
growing strong at you know, like straight up, are they
year after year or quarter after quarter? Are they increasing?

(30:35):
That's very important to be looking at. We want to
we want to see those revenues growing, and we want
to look at the net income as well. That's very important.
Net income. You know, like we're revenues is the top line.
We want to look at the net income and the
bottom line because that tells us how well the company
is managing those revenues and managing their business. Now, there

(30:58):
can be things like like one time, you know, building
a new factory, so maybe some debt was brought in,
maybe some expenditures went out, capital expenditures, those kinds of
things that can make that net income and the bottom
line numbers look bad. But between the two you can
tell pretty much, and that gives you an idea of

(31:19):
what's going on. If those numbers are heading down, you
need to start questioning why is that happening and dig deeper.
But the first thing I look at is that and
the balance sheet. The balance sheet is so important. This
I have this thing about debt. It really concerns me.
And I've seen over the last thirty years, thirty five

(31:39):
years that have been in the industry, small companies, micro companies,
even some large companies go under because of their debt.
The debt just keeps accumulating and growing and growing, and
who's ever running the companies? They seem to think, well,
if I don't have enough revenues, coming in and I'll
just finance more, and pretty soon they can't manage their debt.
So we want to look at the balance sheet, look

(32:01):
at the assets and liabilities and see if they have
the cash reserves to manage the debt that they're carrying.
And is that debt increasing steadily over time or is
that debt coming down over time.

Speaker 6 (32:16):
Now.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
I know there are some analysts, most analysts, most Wall
Street handalists, that would say there's nothing wrong with debt.
But in my book, and my book is the Bible,
we are worn continuously that we should minimize debt, to
stay away from it, not presume upon the future. And
those companies that have heavy cash reserves, even if they

(32:41):
have a little debt, they can pay it off. They
have more reserves than debt. Analysts would say, well, they're
not being efficient with the reserves and that kind of stuff.
I say, they're being very efficient with the reserves by
not having debt. Those kind of companies when the market changes,
when the economy slows down, if we went through a
serious recession or a serious depression, those companies will still

(33:04):
be around. Those who had the heavy debt won't. So
when we're looking at long term investing. Those ratios, debt, equity,
debt cash, those are very very important, you know.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Folks talking to Mark Manila here, Mark, that's great, brother.
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
What about a company's forecast as well, because I know
that's something that comes out with earnings reports too.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
What do we make of this, Well, the forecast is
what it sounds like. It's somebody telling you what we
think is going to happen. Predicting the future. What does
what does the Bible say about predicting the future?

Speaker 4 (33:38):
We can't do it.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
We can't do it, but you know we can get
to the issue there is. I mean, think about all
the companies when when things are going good, they predict lower.
They predict the future as good, maybe not as good,
so expectations are lower so they can beat those expectators.

Speaker 6 (33:59):
There's a lot of manipulation that goes on, is what
I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
When when when things are bad, they try to make
it sound good. So I I don't pay a lot
of attention to those predictions from the companies. They just
don't mean to me what they do mean to other
maybe uh financial analysts or Wall Street analysts. I don't

(34:24):
trust them and I actually we have to be very careful,
especially with short term numbers as well, because they're manipulated.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
They can be manipulated. They're not always manipulated.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
And there and yes, over time they are seeing But
think of the corporations that our past. The one that
just jumped to my mind was remember in Ron or
you might be too young, I don't.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
Know, I remember people talking about it.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah, in Ron, you know, they they went out of business.
They kept multiple sets of books. They're reported on the
books they liked, and they you know, and they just
issued more debt than they could handle.

Speaker 6 (34:59):
It was just really good. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Mark.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
I'm gonna interrupt you for just a second, brother, because
I want to hear more of what you have to say.
We're coming up on a break here, but let's continue
this conversation on the other side of the break, folks,
I got Mark Manila with me again. A great conversation. Mark,
i'men join it so much and learn a lot. If
you've got questions, folks, make sure to put them in
the chat as well. Our chat's open right now. Will
be sure to say hello to those of you who
have responded. Make sure to say hello as well.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
We'll be right back after this break sticker.

Speaker 8 (35:32):
The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
the program sponsors may not be known by the program.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Grateful to have each of you on the show this morning.
Our chat audience as lively today as usual. George from
North Carolina, saying, very good advice. Mark reminds me of
my father's advice many years ago. That's awesome, George, I'd
love to know her. Talking during the break, Sam brought
up a good point. What was your father's advice exactly?
I'm sure it was good advice, but I love to
know exactly what it was.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
If it's a father's advice, it's good.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
I'm sure it is. George.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
That's awesome. And George again from North Carolina. Thank you
for your encouragement.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Brother.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
I always see such encouraging comments from you in the
chat and it just means the world man, So thank you.
Good to see James from Texas. Good to see Eddie
in Tennessee. We've got too else, I think the other
George from North Carolina is in there as well.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Actually, both George's.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Are from North Carolina. We've got who else is in here? Lisa,
Hello Lisa, Nice to see you there. William from Mississippi
is in the chat as well. Darryl Doctor Darryl from Texas.
Andy from Kansas City, Hello, Andy, Nice to see you.
I'm sorry not Kansas City and he's just from Kansas.
I'm not sure how close you are to Kansas City, Andy,
but it's good to see you there, nonetheless.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
John from Alabama.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Claude from Louisiana, Nelson, thank you for your encouragement Nelson
on my Dan rant earlier. I hope it wasn't too crazy,
but had to share that about the O Biden administration,
of course. Nathan from Miss Sippy, Uncle John, Debbie from Kentucky.
Good to see you as well. Brian and Kara, Stephen
and Oklahoma. A lot of people in the chat this morning.
Great to see you guys. All right, Mark, let's let's
switch gears here for just a moment. Brother, I would

(37:10):
love to hear and you can go as deep as
you want to with this, Mark, I give you free
reign to do as much as you want with this
I'd love to hear some of your personal experience when
it came to investing. You've been doing this now for decades,
a lot longer than I have. And again, that is
not a comment about your age. A crowd of great
a crown for the age of my friend. But let's

(37:31):
you coping.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
That's right, it's a coping mechanism. Mark, let's start here.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
What are some of let's let's say three, what are
three of the most important lessons that you have learned
during your investing career.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Oh, that's that's a that's a great question, you know
the I would say that to remember that the first lesson,
the most important lesson, well, it's as an investor, the
most important lesson is that emotions are the enemy. That

(38:06):
would be the most important thing because of all the
mistakes I made, it's been from emotions in the markets.
It's from letting my emotions get the best of me.
And that probably takes me to probably two more. One
is that if you're going to be an investor, you
should have rules on how you invest and then follow

(38:27):
those rules. So emotions are the enemy. Have rules, follow
those rules. Those rules should be derived from things you
can prove you know you can back test or you've
lived through them, bend the proof to them, and then
follow those rules until you find a way to do
it better and you can prove it's better. But don't
let emotions get in there, because emotions are what caused

(38:48):
us to do silly things like I remember, Oh my gosh,
I can't remember which poolback it was because it was
quite a while ago, but it seemed like it was
going to be a huge poolback. And I started watching
my portfolios I was managing at that time, dropping and
I'm talking about more than ten percent, ten twelve percent,
and I'm starting to panic. So I start I start

(39:10):
getting rid of all the week. I got rid of
about half of the portfolio within two days, of the stocks,
the weaker stocks and those that didn't have weren't made
of the same metal like we were talking about earlier,
we were talking about quarterly reports. I started getting rid
of those and the spec stocks and stuff. And within

(39:31):
days the markets turned, and of course it was the
spec stocks that went through the ceiling, and I missed it,
and it was every other stock that.

Speaker 6 (39:41):
Were following those up.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
So I missed probably one of the biggest opportunities to
make money that year in that market from letting my
emotions run and the fear set in. So remember emotions
are the enemy. Don't manage your portfolio and emotion if
you're doing that, Walk away from the computer, get away,

(40:05):
go what you know, come out to financial issues, watch
some videos, Calm down, go before the Lord, pray, get
to a place a piece. Then go back and manage
your portfolio, and then manage it an alignment with those
things you know to be true, the longer term investing

(40:25):
and things like that. Stay in line knowing that your
asset allocation is there to absorb some of the risks,
to cut some of the some of the volatility out
of there for the shorter term horizons, but investing in
itself as a longer term proposition.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Mark.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It reminds me of what the scripture says, And forgive me,
I can't remember where it is in the scriptures.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
I know it's the Old Testament. But talking about how
the heart.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Is deceitful and desperately with me and boy, that we've
we've got to lead our hearts, you know, because because
you're exactly right, our hearts are going to naturally lead
us in in foolish directions. We're going to make rash
decisions on wise decisions. That's why what's so much more
important for us is to focus on what we know,
just just like what you said, focus on what we

(41:11):
know rather than on what we feel like. That's that's
so good man, and thank you for sharing that with
our audience.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
And you know, it's really good to be communicating with
other people. I used to have a meeting on Fridays
with other managers and.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
What would do is we just.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Discussed what we're doing and why. And you know, some
of them were very emotional, and their portfolios never did well.
You know, the ones that they were managing, the most
emotional portfolio managers, I knew their returns were dismal at best.
You know they might you might as well have just

(41:50):
socked it away in a money market and you would
have done just as well or better, you know, over
over the over the same periods of time.

Speaker 6 (41:57):
So emotions, remember, I mean think about this.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
I mean, you're working on stuff and all of a sudden,
it's not just you're getting scared because the markets are
pulling back, and you, oh, how am I gonna? You
know what happens if it doesn't come back. You know,
I've never seen a market that didn't come back since
the markets began.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
That doesn't mean they won't. I'm sure someday after. You know, there's.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Some something someday that might happen, you know, biblical or
otherwise that, but that's okay. We don't have to worry
about it at that time. What the markets do come back,
and even in terrible economic times, markets can do good
as well. You can see gains and markets. But what
happens is our minds start projecting. We start it's not

(42:41):
just the fear, it's like, oh, I'm worried about my income.
I work so hard for this, I worked so hard
for these investments to put this money away.

Speaker 6 (42:49):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
You know, I'm not not minimize that, but it's God
who who decides our income. But anyway, it goes past that.
Start projecting the future. You know, we start seeing all
sorts of dismal things. We start making these movies up
in our heads about what's going to happen if if
this all crashes, and how am I going to you know,

(43:12):
this and that, and who knows? I might end up
like that guy or this guy and all these different
kinds of things. It takes over and it steals our peace.
And we can't let that happen. This Wall Street and stocks,
they've become idols in our society. You know, in the
early seventies, less than thirty percent of households we're in

(43:33):
the stock market. We have over eighty percent of the
households in the stock market today.

Speaker 6 (43:38):
Wow, I mean think about that.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
That's it's become an idol, and it's replacing our idol
for security, our God.

Speaker 6 (43:46):
We can't let that happen. There's two things happening here.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
One, the emotions that you're allowing into your portfolios are
going to cause you to make mistakes and knee jerk reactions,
and they're going to steal the peace.

Speaker 6 (44:02):
That God has given you as well.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
So step away from the computer when that starts happening,
Get on your knees, go before the father, get to
that place a piece. Then you can come back and
manage your long term portfolio.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
It's great, great stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Mark, Thank you. That verse I mentioned by the way
I apologize, I had to find it. Jeremiah seventeen to
nine is the heart is deceitful above all things. Desperately wicked.
Who can understand it? Such a good reminder for us. Brother,
I do appreciate that mark.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
This might be the only thing we have time left for.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
But you know, all of us at some point have
made a financial decision that we regret. We have bought
something that we you know, maybe bought sold at a loss,
bought something couldn't afford. How would you encourage those of
us who've done that to have steadfastness fortitude to come
back from that.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Well, okay, so we make mistakes, that's yesterday. God doesn't
call us to be looking back and chain to those mistakes.
You know, oftentimes we let fear, we let our emotions
again chain us to our past mistakes, including making mistakes
in the market, overreacting, underreacting, you know, whatever it may be.

(45:09):
We can't let that happen. If you really look back
and you see what's guiding you. If you're being held
back by past mistakes, it's not the past mistakes holding
you back. You're holding on to the past mistakes. It's
time to turn towards God, look forward and look up,
look up and start talking to God again, because that's

(45:30):
where our peace comes from. And that's who's going to
supply all our needs. So you do that and you
start moving forward. You meet with godly men and women
who are trying to do the right things, even in
the stock market. And this is so important. Financial issues
is here specifically for that. There's all sorts of reasons

(45:50):
to come to financial issues, but the main one is
it's focused on glorifying God. It's focused on investing in
a way that doesn't grieve God's heart, and by doing that,
we honor God, and God promises us all sorts of
blessings from that.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
I'm not saying he's gonna dump cash in your lap,
or every stock thing decision you make is gonna come,
is gonna blossom, but it does mean he's gonna bless us.
And I think one of the best blessings of that
is the piece that we receive not only in the future,
but right now.

Speaker 6 (46:24):
Well said Mark, So we need to be all over
that and realize that.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Absolutely, Mark, we've come out of time. Brother. I appreciate
your insight and wisdom so much.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Man.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
I always enjoy talking to you on and off the air. Hey, folks,
one quick thing I forgot to mention earlier in the
show we have our Tesla petition right now.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
That petition is live.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
We've got just about five hundred signatures on it right now.
That's going to be running live until Friday, so you've
got about two days left. If you've not signed it,
you got to sign it right now. Folks. We're gonna
get this over to Elon Musk's desk once we close
it on Friday, so make sure that you sign it today.
You got a Financial Issues dot Org just click that
sign our petition up that comes up on the page.

(47:01):
Great to be here with you today, folks. Remember everything
you have belongs to the Lord. Let's be good and
faithful stewards with it. God bless you all, see you
next time.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Thank you for joining us.