December 13, 2025 • 39 mins
Chris Markowski discusses the importance of prioritizing financial planning over conventional retirement planning. He emphasizes the need for individuals to focus on what truly matters in life, such as family and experiences, rather than material possessions. The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by the Federal Reserve and the impact of private equity on financial advisories, highlighting the need for individuals to be cautious in their investment decisions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, no one authored investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, trader.
Chris Markowski is the watchdog on Wall Street? Do you
want to answer exposing the lines and myths that the
big brokerage firms, the mainstream press, and the government are
pushing to keep Americans away from financial freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You can't handle the true.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Proof bringing America the truth about what really happens in
the financial world.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We're not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political
and economic reality.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is the Watchdog on Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, welcome everyone.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh, always honored to be in front of the microphone
here at the Watchdog on Wall Street Show. I wanted
to let's start off today. We're gonna talk a little
bit about you know a little different how about this priorities,
sand castles, turtles, and financial planning versus financial preparation. As
(01:09):
you can tell, I had a bit of an epiphany
this past week sitting back.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Doing a little homework.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
We always do a little prep work here and there,
and I had a couple you know, pictures actually pop.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Up on my phone, you know how it does that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
From time to time, and stimulated some memories for me,
and it's teas. You never know how you come up
with various different ideas and teachable moments. But I want
to talk a little bit about this and I'm gonna
use this and I've talked about priorities before here on
the program. Priorities get you in trouble. Priorites plural.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Distract you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
They they take you, They divide your time in an
improper way. There's no such a word. Let's put to
this way, there's no such word as priorities.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You can't. You can only have one priority. That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
What is your priority? What is the most important thing
to you? What drives you every single day? And we
all have to have it, we all have to find one.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Again. It's something I talk to my kids about all
the time. Three kids.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
They're all different, they have different talents, abilities, and I
tell them, I said, you got.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
To figure out figure out.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
What you need to be doing, what God wants you
to do, and you build your life around that. That
is your priority. I know what my priority is and
it hasn't changed in decades.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And it shouldn't. My priority is to take care of
my family period the end. Take care of.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
My family the way God would want me to take
care of my family.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That is my priority.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Everything else falls underneath that umbrella. It's all a part
of that, but that is my priority. Turtles, what does
turtles have to do with this?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Now?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This is actually had this one told to me, and
it was it was kind of a great analogy. Here
in the state of Florida, there are the places around
the country, so we get sea turtles, and sea.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Turtles lay their eggs at the beach. They're buried, and
when the sea turtles hatched, they come out and they're
guided by in essence, the light of the moon on
the water, and then they walk into the water and
away they go.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Now, sea turtles can get distracted. It's an issue down
here in a certain areas, and rightfully so. If you
live along the beach certain times a year when the
sea turtles are hatching, you're not allowed to put your
outdoor lights on because the sea turtles will get confused
and they'll go in the wrong direction. They'll follow all
(04:10):
these things.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And this is what happens to us in life. We
have all these other little lights and distractions and things
that take us off on the wrong path, distract us
from what our true calling. Is what our priority is now.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Each and every individual is different, just like our firm.
I talk about this all the time. We don't have
any two porfolios alike. I don't run a hedge fund.
Everyone's situation is unique and different.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
This is where.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Sort of sand castles come in. I'm compiling right now.
I'm working with some people. As many of you know,
I've been writing for Even Law. This show's been on
the air for twenty five years. I've been doing my
columns for thirty and a lot of them and I'm
trying to compile them and put them together, and I'm
(05:04):
looking to release, hopefully this year, another book. And it's
actually along with these these stories different times, what was
going through our mind, what was happening at Markowski Investments
at that point time. It's gonna be a bit of
a history of this firm, and also, you know, the
past thirty years as far as the financial markets are concerned.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I pulled up a story.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Was going through these things that I wrote back in
July of two thousand and six, and my my eldest
at the time was four years old, and I wrote,
I love watching my son build sandcastles, the determination in
his face while turning over buckets of sand, the carving
of tunnels with his plastic shovel, the intricate motes to
(05:46):
keep the bad guys out, you know, the old action
figures back in the day. And again, these are some
of the pictures that popped up on my phone. Priceless stuff.
I realized something while watching my spend so much time
and effort on his castle. He was spending time, work, time,
and effort in an endeavor that he could not take
(06:09):
home to admire and play with tomorrow, a project that
would surely be destroyed by the rising tides of the
Gulf of Mexico. Yet he pressed on, enjoying every minute
of his work. My son knew his castle wouldn't last.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
He didn't care. The building of the castle was the joy.
The process is what mattered.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Now there's a lesson to this, an important lesson in
my young son's architectural endeavor at the beach. And this
is when I want to talk a little bit about
retirement planning versus financial preparation, because this is something and
I confused people a little bit with this because I
(06:55):
talk about it often here on the program, because so
many people have been conditioned again conventional wisdom sold to
you by Madison Avenue and Wall Street is retirement planning.
Retirement planning, retirement planning, like this ultimate goal in life
is to just stop working. That is the ultimate goal.
(07:19):
This is how it's presented to you, and it's easy.
It's great for Wall Street, it's great for banks. It's
how they want to structure everything because they can sell
you stuff retirement planning.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I'm a tirement planner. We got to put together a
retirement plan. Man. No, I've never agreed with that.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I don't even like calling ourselves and we have to
legal financial planners.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Planning. You want to make God laugh, tell them your plans.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I've said that countless times here on the program. Quite frankly, people,
this conventional wisdom, this way of setting up your life nefarious.
It is a nefarious carrot that has been held out
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It has here. This is a great idea. This is
what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We're gonna kill ourselves for thirty forty years. We're gonna
grind and grind and grind and grind and grind.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, gotta work more, gonna neglect our health, you know,
not spend time can't make the kids little league games
because I've gotta work even harder. Oh yeah, then then
then when I get.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Old, then when I'm thirty or forty years old, then
I can go out and I can play some golfer,
pick a ball?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How you kidding me? Kid me? You understand that this
is not the way life is supposed to.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
This is completely This is a completely manufactured idea. This
is a manufactured idea designed by the elites. I got
a let's take all my younger years, let's trade them in, Yeah,
to get rid of those things. Oh yes, I can
(09:09):
have more money. No, no, does it make any sense?
This is the difference. This is why it's about financial preparation.
We're about obviously being prudent, not chasing stuff. I talk
(09:31):
about that all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
What about all the time you're collecting as many items
and things that we need.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That's nonsense, that's nonsense. What is your photo real look
like on your phone? How many trips have you gone
on with your significant other, with your family, teams that
you coached, Never missing a ballgame, never missing a concert.
Those are the things that are a zillion times more.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Valuable than anything else, period. The end. I see it
all the time.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
See it all the time, people destroying themselves, destroying themselves,
and yeah, oh they look great man, nice time piece,
nice suit, nice boat, nice car, nice house. Yep, they're
tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt and
they're grinding and they're grinding, and they're grinding to keep
up with what their Instagram posts so they can look
(10:28):
good on social media.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
There's not a single thing in my house that I own,
not a single thing that is more valuable than the
time that I have spent with my family, period the end.
And this is how this is how you should design
you want to be happy, This is how you design
(10:54):
your life.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And this is what financial preparation is all about. Why
there's no need in life.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Okay, there's no need in life to push off joy,
to push off purpose, health relationships.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Oh yeah, so I can get the last couple of
decades and play as much golf as I possibly can
at the villages.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Are you kidding me? I'd rather stick to hot poker.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
In my eye, everyone needs to come to the realization
that life is short and you better live it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You see stories all the time. One just you know,
I'm at the lacrosse community.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We had a lacrosse coach, college coach from upstate New York,
forty one years old, horrible accident.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Three kids died, and.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Again the whole community rallies together because it's you know,
it's what we do. But he didn't know that was
gonna happen, and nobody does. And this is the point,
this is why it's not about planning.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Again.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You don't know what's gonna happen next week, next month.
You have to live more in the moment people, And
that's why you constantly need to prepare for whatever hits
you and whatever great things are gonna happen, whatever opportunities
are gonna present themselves. You don't want to say no
(12:31):
to that because you want to be able to take
advantage of that. Oh I can't do that because I
gotta make sure that I'm gonna be retired. That's sixty
five years. Let you out of your mind. And actually
people say that to me when they're in their forties.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I say, but you have no idea what type of
raise you're gonna get, what type of job you can
keep doing the right thing? Yeah, you work hard, Okay,
I work my butt off, work my butt off. But
you know what, like you also must have a you
have to allocate time to the things that are most important. Oh,
(13:06):
I'm used a retirement planner. Here, we're gonna prepare to
make sure we can play. Let's pick a ball. Come on, man, No,
I mean I you know, taking.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Fun of a lot of financial planners and shlock brokers.
I do it all the time here on the program.
That's what they're told to do, that's what they're trained. Okay,
here's your here's the things that you have to go
out and sell. Go sell them.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Here's the thing you gotta go. Go sell out, Go
sell these target date funds.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Ask them when they want to retire, and set everything
in place and set it and forget it and then
move on to the next person.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, no, no, that's not the relationship that I have with
my clients. It's done work that way that that's just
not how we operate at Markowski Investments. Take a couple
of steps back it's holiday season.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
And evaluate where you are, evaluate your life, what you're doing,
what you what is your priority?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Hopefully your priority.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Is not a bigger boat, another car, a bigger house,
or you know, being able to golf at sixty two.
If that's your priority, you know, Markowski Investments not you know,
we're gonna have a different type of mindset and a
different type of philosophy. Your priority should be to spend
(14:24):
as much time as you can with the people that
are most important you and enjoying that time.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Simple as that.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Got to take a break, Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com.
That's despiting you to get to become part of our family,
the Markowski Investments family, our personal CFO program, our podcast,
our newsletter, all sorts of great stuff right there at
our site, Watchdog on Wall Street dot com. We also
have a twenty four hour day Hell Hotline eight hundred
(14:57):
four seven one fifty eight.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
It does so, says us up and brought Ung Kong.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Is different when you're missing some body ticking Wall streets, liars,
crooks and cheeks out behind the woodshed, you're listening to
the Watchdog on Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Okay, we got to get into the well, for lack
of a better word, rough economic numbers that we've got
to get into, and we're gonna talk a little bit about.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
The FED Big FED meeting this past week, lots of boxes,
lots of Brady, bunch of boxes with people discussing j Powell.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Okay, the best way I can describe the position the
FED is in and Jay Powell would be the nineteen
seventies tune made popular made popular in the movie Reservoir
Dogs by Steeler's Wheel. Stuck in the middle with you,
you know, clowns to the left of me, jokers to
the right.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Who here, I am stuck in the middle with you.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Well for the Fed, it's inflation to the left of me,
higher unemployment to the right of me.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Stuck in the middle with you.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I'm gonna use that word that we talked about in
the first segment, priorities. This is the problem with the
Federal Reserve. I've been saying this. Judy Shelton has been
saying The great Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, came out
and said the same exact thing. Dual mandate priorities. No good,
(16:38):
no point, No, the Federal Reserve should have one job,
one job, and one job only, making sure inflation is
null and void, null and void. We talk about this
ridiculous two percent target. Fred's got a two percent inflation target?
(17:02):
Why why why too?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Why not zero?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Why shouldn't why not have an inflation target at zero?
It's basically it's the dollar, right, It's a dollar, it's
a unit of measure.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Why is it that we've got to have this inflation
where our purchasing power has dropped fifty four percent in
the past thirty years?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Thirty years?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Do you understand if you're broker, you're broker, your advisor
out there is just basically showing you what the S
and P five hundred is doing over that period of time.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You've basically broken even. You got that, you've basically broken even.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And most of these yahoo's out there decided to have
a sixty to forty portfolio, which probably showed you a
much lower return.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So you probably lost money. Even though it looks like.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
You made money, You didn't make money because the value
of what you have, even though it went.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Up, is worthless. It should be zero. That should be
the Fed's job.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Unemployment, well, you think by you think the Fed lowering
by another quarter basis point is going to get everybody,
so you know excited out there that they're gonna start
hiring your kidd right, you think that small businesses and again,
I know it's anecdotal, but ge whiz, we've got hundreds
(18:39):
and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of small business clients
all over the country.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Be catered to small businesses. You think that they're all,
oh okay, oh g look at that own that special. J.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Powell just lowered rates by twenty five basis points.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I'm gonna go out and hire five new workers. Are
you kidding? Now?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
This is stuff that has to come from wallet Washington.
This is based upon policy. People have to be excited,
they have to have animal spirits. That's what works, That's
what's gonna make things better. We get a lot of
uncertainty out there. We got layoff announcements topping one point
(19:20):
one million this year. That's the most since twenty twenty,
since COVID manufacturing shrunk for the ninth month in a row.
Most Americans say they're spending more on groceries than utilities
this year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Well, they are.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Seventy one percent say they're spending more on groceries, Fifty
nine percent say they're spending more on utilities, Forty three
percent say they're spending more on healthcare. Thirty nine percent
say they're spending more on housing. You go right on
down the list. We're gonna talk about this later on
the program. Farmers needing bailouts to survive another year. Credit
card debt highest ever, auto loan defaults highest in fifteen years,
(20:05):
Lowest consumer confidence ever.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I mean, I can go on. These are the problems
that need to be fixed.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
If you want to fix unemployment, the Fed should have nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean when I say nothing, absolutely nothing to do
with that.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
We're gonna have solutions to many of these problems because
again that separates us, you know, getting arguments here or
bring people on and bat heads over nothing. We solve
problems here at the Watchdog on Wall Street. You've been
doing it for twenty five years. Watchdog on Wallstreet dot
com is our site.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Become a part of our family, the Markowski Investments Family,
Personal CFO program, podcast, Watchdog on Wallstreet dot Com. We'll
be back.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
This is the Watchdog on Wall Street.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
All right, Welcome back, everybody. It is the Watchdog on
Wall Street show. A man.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
I had this sent to me, and I actually I
appreciate it. You know, we do our best to scour
everywhere in regards to finding everything out when it comes
to news. But you know, sometimes sometimes we miss things,
and there was the actually a sixty minutes it wasn't,
but it wasn't even on sixty minutes. It was one
of those sixty minutes things where they don't air it.
(21:40):
And it didn't surprise me why they didn't air it,
because it went after when after the powers that b
it went after the big banks and they were actually
interviewing Michael Lewis and they were talking about something that
we have warned everyone about for a very long time,
the fact that the big banks and the big trading
(22:01):
firms out there, for years and years and years have
been fleecing you little by little, little by little, a
penny well, penny here, a nickel, there, various different trades.
How everything is structured. This started way back when with
the high frequency trading firms.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Best way I can explain this to you, I guess
is I'm gonna use it through film. Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
There have been movies over the years where this grift
has been used. Actually a real bad movie, Superman three
with Christopher Reeve and Richard Pryor, Office Space, which was
a great movie. And there was also that action movie
Swordfish with Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry and John Travolta,
(22:47):
and basically what you know the story. They found out
that all of these high frequency trading firms basically they
front run your trades. They front run your trades. They're
able to get in front of what you do. They're
that much faster. They actually talked about a line that
(23:11):
they put into the ground that costs I mean, over
one hundred million dollars just to shave off milliseconds so
they can they know what you are going to do
when you place an They're that quick.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's how fast the algorithms are.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
They can get in front of you, execute, do what
they need to do, and you again, you're not going
to notice it. Penny here five. You know that that's
how they go about operating. But it makes them a
fortune if you think about the amount of money that
they spent engineering these things. Yeah, it's funny. This has
happened before. This has happened before. I wrote about this
(23:49):
scam the mutual funds were doing back in November of
two thousand and four, and I called it three coins
in a fountain, you know, the Trevy Fountain in Rome.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And you know, the legend has it that if.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You toss a coin into the fountain over your shoulder
that one day you're going to return to the eternal city.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, you know it's funny, is that.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Back back in two thousand and four, they found out
that some guy was going into the Trevy fountain every
single day and taking all of that money. Take it,
all that money. It was just you know, coins here
and there and again. The money was supposed to be
taken out and given to some charity. But this guy
just did it every single day, and nobody said a
(24:34):
word until they ended up catching him.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And again, this is how this operates on Wall Street.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
And you can go back, go back again to when
really things went off the rails as far as Wall
Street is concerned. I know, I'm an old school purist
when it comes to Wall Street. We need to go back.
I wish we had exchanges again. I wish we had specialists.
I wish you were humans that are involved. Try to
explain to me, you know, all of this high frequency
(25:00):
nonsense and all of this training. You see these crazy
fluctuations in the market, with all these various different derivative items.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
How has it made anything? How's it made it better
for anyone?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
You know, what would measure whether or not was it
was doing better for people's people doing better with their portfolios.
Are they making more money? Are they continuing to lose money?
Because if they were actually making money, they tell you,
but they're not. The individual investor, for lack of a
better word, get screwed time and time again, nothing new.
(25:32):
All of these bells, whistles and nonsense have not been
the slightest bit helpful anyway. Okay, I know I've talked
a lot about this over the past past several months,
past several months, and it's going into overdrive with what's
happening with private equity and some of the blow ups
(25:54):
and disasters and some of the things that I'm seeing
happening down the pike. And actually, at this point in time,
they're hiding in playing sight. They don't even care at
My jaw dropped. My jaw dropped again. This is the
Wall Street Journal, and a lot of people, you know,
I believe it or not, most people do not read
the Wall Street Journal. The golden handcuffs are off private
(26:17):
equity employees.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Are they're jumping ship? Oh? Why is that?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, I'm going to explain this to you and how
it's going to end up hurting a lot of investors
sooner rather than later. And again, how to go about
protecting yourself. We're gonna take quick break right here. You're
listening to the Watchdog on Wall Street show. Watchdog on
Wallstreet dot com is our site again, our personal CFO program.
You can pump become a part of our family at
(26:47):
Markowski Investments. Everything is right there. Personal CFO podcast newsletter.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You name it.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Watchdog on Wall Street dot com or give us a
call eight seven fifty nine eighty four.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Do you see it?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
The only man who is taking on the Walls Street establishment.
You're listening to the Watchdog on Wall Street with Chris Markowski. Again.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I couldn't believe it, and they actually are.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
They don't care, They're owning it right now, and I
guess they just assume nobody can do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Here's the story.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
A job at a big private equity firm was once
a ticket to lifelong riches. Now employees tired of waiting
for payouts or leaving for jobs at smaller shops. Usually
the bigger the private equity firm, the bigger the payday.
But with the industry struggling to profitably out unload companies.
(27:59):
Many employees are heading for the exits, opting for smaller
jobs at smaller firms where they're binning that they could
earn more. A key form of compensation is driving the moves,
with mid level employees at big, prestigious firms, leaving potential paydays.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Worth millions of dollars on the table.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
They are worried about when and if they're carried interest
or carry pay tied to the performance of their deals
well materialize. We told you, we told you earlier this year,
and we railed against this. The Trump administr Trump administration
allowed for this. I was disgusted by it. I'm glad
(28:40):
it's not materializing because people were starting to recognize. Allowing
for private equity, these alternative investments to be sold in
iras and four to one k's to individual investors. Why
did they want to do this? Because they wanted to unload.
They wanted to get out. Now, the employees at these
(29:03):
private equity companies, let me put it this way. If
they're working at these private equity firms, they're working there
and they're giving up paydays that if they could unload,
would be worth millions upon millions of dollars. Why are
they leaving. Why are they leaving Because they don't think
(29:23):
that they're going to be able to unload. They don't
think they're going to be able to get out. That's
the scenario that they're in. We told you this was
going to happen. This is why you have to be
very very careful, very careful with anything any sort of
(29:48):
alternative investment at all. You have to check in this again,
we're a resource with this, your advisor, your slock brokers
pushing something on you more often than Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Again, they're just salespeople.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
They especially if they're working at these bigger firms, they've
got a sales manager that tells them what to do
and what to sell and what they need to move.
And if the powers that be Okay and the C
suite at these big firms say, you know what, we
need to get some of our big guys out, our
big clients out. We need you guys to push this
(30:26):
on your clients, They're gonna do it. That's how the
system works. It's disgusting, but it's how it works. This
is going back. This is going back to them pushing
bad dot com companies on people back in the day
they knew that they were garbage. We had all the
(30:46):
emails between analysts, but they didn't care.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
You're just a bloody number at one of these big firms.
You're there to buy what they are selling now, all
of these companies that they overpaid for. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Again, the people that are still invested in these private equities,
they're still having to pay their fees. They still have.
They haven't marked properly to market what these things are worth,
and they're going to continue to collect. But the big
paydays means the insiders know. The insiders know that they're
not going to be able to get out unless they
can find a sucker. And don't let that sucker be you.
(31:30):
More on this when we get back. Watchdog Onmallstreet dot com.
Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com is our site. Get all
the help you need right there Watchdog on Wallstreet dot
com or give us a call eight hundred four seven.
(31:52):
I think that I remember a sofiget we're to delve
to sell.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You should believe in math, not magic. You're listening to
the Watchdog in Wall Street with Chris Markowski.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
There's another part of this, And I know I've brought
this up and I am I'm sounding the alarm, sounding
the alarm, and when we sound the alarm here on
the program, better pay attention and just take a look
at our track record when we sound alarms. One of
the things that private equity has been buying up, and
(32:31):
they're still buying up, is investment advisories companies like mine.
The reality right now is that there's not enough good
advisors out there.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
There's not.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
We are we're doing our darndist here to train and
bring people on as quickly as we possibly can. But
a lot of a lot of advisors out there are
looking to retire small around the country. And here comes
knocking on the door, mister private equity guy, telling them that, hey, listen,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We'll take over your business. We've got all look at
all this technology, we're gonna do all this stuff. We're
gonna we're gonna take care of your clients.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
And they give them, they offer them an absolutely ridiculous
valuation that makes no sense whatsoever in the real world.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And again it's enticing.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Get the you know, it's the old animal house there,
you get the devil and the angel on the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Sell it to us, sell it to us sell it
to us sell.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
It to us, and what is going to happen. What's
going to happen, people, is that these advisory firms that
have been bought out and will be bought out in
the future, clients are gonna get screwed. I used that
word twice today on the program. I'm sorry, but you're
(33:53):
gonna You're going to get it because the only way,
the only way that they're able to make their money back,
quite frankly, is again they have to sell it at
a higher valuation than what they bought it at. And
they're buying them at ten to twelve times, which is insane.
(34:13):
They're putting it on their books at fifteen, meaning they
got to even sell it for higher than that, which
they're not gonna be able to do. So what I
see happening, the plan I think is going to be
this is that they're gonna use those clients that they
bought when they bought that firm to in essence.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Buy them out so they can unload.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they're gonna take care of you,
you know, eight months to a year, and then they're
gonna start talking about this wonderful, great alternative investment which
would be great for your portfolio and guess what. Even
on top of that, you're gonna be the you're gonna
own part of the firm that you've got your money at.
For crying out loud, can't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that
be great?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Right? Sure, it's not going to end well, not Well,
it's funny.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I'm getting emails about these these deals that are taking place.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Got one this past week.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Oh this morning, we announced that our firm enter into
an agreement to join this firm and independent, fundamentally driven
investment manager. And they go on and on and on,
and they talk about how nothing is going to change.
I've never seen this before in my entire never, never,
the entire the entire basically statement was a page and
(35:37):
a half. The disclaimer. The disclaimer in this email was
five pages, starting with cautionary note regarding forward looking statements.
Five pages of a disclaimer. I've never seen that before.
They are covering their buttocks. Listen, you know you have
(36:03):
to be careful. You have to protect yourself. Okay, I
I you know, I get it.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know, you work with my advisor for a long
time and he was great, and I was gonna he's
gonna sell out because he wants to retire. He's selling
to who? Selling to what firm? What are they planning
on doing? Is their private equity involved?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
That's all well and good, but you know, there's one
thing that we will never.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Ever do at Markowski Investments. And we get asked all
the time, Oh, I back in the day, the guys
should go public. Oh you can join us, We're gonna
pay you. No.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
No, there's three shareholders at Markowski Investments.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It's my brother and myself, My brothers and must That's it.
That's it.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's who we have to answer to, our clients and
each other. Certain businesses out there, professions, profession I'm sorry,
they should be structured in one way and one way only.
And you're seeing it right now. Okay, here's a challenge
to you. You don't believe me. We're seeing it all
the time because people are complaining about it all the time,
(37:11):
with private equity buying up veterinary clinics, private equity buying
up sandwich shops, private equity buying up plumbers and HVAC
companies and coffee shops.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Let me ask you a question, because we've all encountered
it at this point in time. Have they made the
customer experience better at any of those spots.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Any of the places that you've had to deal with
in your life where private equity has gotten involved, have
they made the experience better?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Do you have to call this? It was interesting at
the center the doorman fallacy. Listen, private equity steps in.
You got a five star hotel. Private equity steps in.
But the five star hotel has a doorman, nice doorman
and their welcoming guests. Oh, here comes private equity, and
here comes all the Ivy League types and the consultants
(38:07):
and McKenzie and accenture. And they say, well, you know
what your doorman costs you?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You know x amount of thousands of dollars a year.
Oh no, no, we've defined his or her function as opening
the door. We'll replace the doorman with an automatic door
opening mechanism and an infrared human detector, and we'll save
you thirty to forty thousand dollars a year. They walk away, Ah,
look at us, pat ourselves on the back, a look
at all the cost savings we have. Yeah, two years later,
(38:35):
hotel's a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Why a doorman was doing multiple things, many of which
were human security would be one, and now they got
vagrants asleep in the doorway. Hailing taxis dealing with luggage,
recognizing regular guests, providing status to the hotel, all the
value created by that human being which isn't captured by
(39:01):
private equity, and these ivy League little Weasley mckinseye types.
We will never participate in that nonsense. Get the help
you need. Get to our website. Watchdog on wallstreet dot com.
Watchdog on wallstreet dot com is our site, personal CFO program, podcast, newsletter,
(39:24):
you name it.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Watchdog on wallstreet dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Chris Markowski is the watchdog of Wall Streets
Well, no one authored investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, trader.
Chris Markowski is the watchdog on Wall Street? Do you
want to answer exposing the lines and myths that the
big brokerage firms, the mainstream press, and the government are
pushing to keep Americans away from financial freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You can't handle the true.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Proof bringing America the truth about what really happens in
the financial world.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We're not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political
and economic reality.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is the Watchdog on Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, welcome everyone.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh, always honored to be in front of the microphone
here at the Watchdog on Wall Street Show. I wanted
to let's start off today. We're gonna talk a little
bit about you know a little different how about this priorities,
sand castles, turtles, and financial planning versus financial preparation. As
(01:09):
you can tell, I had a bit of an epiphany
this past week sitting back.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Doing a little homework.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
We always do a little prep work here and there,
and I had a couple you know, pictures actually pop.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Up on my phone, you know how it does that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
From time to time, and stimulated some memories for me,
and it's teas. You never know how you come up
with various different ideas and teachable moments. But I want
to talk a little bit about this and I'm gonna
use this and I've talked about priorities before here on
the program. Priorities get you in trouble. Priorites plural.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Distract you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
They they take you, They divide your time in an
improper way. There's no such a word. Let's put to
this way, there's no such word as priorities.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You can't. You can only have one priority. That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
What is your priority? What is the most important thing
to you? What drives you every single day? And we
all have to have it, we all have to find one.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Again. It's something I talk to my kids about all
the time. Three kids.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
They're all different, they have different talents, abilities, and I
tell them, I said, you got.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
To figure out figure out.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
What you need to be doing, what God wants you
to do, and you build your life around that. That
is your priority. I know what my priority is and
it hasn't changed in decades.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And it shouldn't. My priority is to take care of
my family period the end. Take care of.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
My family the way God would want me to take
care of my family.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That is my priority.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Everything else falls underneath that umbrella. It's all a part
of that, but that is my priority. Turtles, what does
turtles have to do with this?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Now?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This is actually had this one told to me, and
it was it was kind of a great analogy. Here
in the state of Florida, there are the places around
the country, so we get sea turtles, and sea.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Turtles lay their eggs at the beach. They're buried, and
when the sea turtles hatched, they come out and they're
guided by in essence, the light of the moon on
the water, and then they walk into the water and
away they go.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Now, sea turtles can get distracted. It's an issue down
here in a certain areas, and rightfully so. If you
live along the beach certain times a year when the
sea turtles are hatching, you're not allowed to put your
outdoor lights on because the sea turtles will get confused
and they'll go in the wrong direction. They'll follow all
(04:10):
these things.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And this is what happens to us in life. We
have all these other little lights and distractions and things
that take us off on the wrong path, distract us
from what our true calling. Is what our priority is now.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Each and every individual is different, just like our firm.
I talk about this all the time. We don't have
any two porfolios alike. I don't run a hedge fund.
Everyone's situation is unique and different.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
This is where.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Sort of sand castles come in. I'm compiling right now.
I'm working with some people. As many of you know,
I've been writing for Even Law. This show's been on
the air for twenty five years. I've been doing my
columns for thirty and a lot of them and I'm
trying to compile them and put them together, and I'm
(05:04):
looking to release, hopefully this year, another book. And it's
actually along with these these stories different times, what was
going through our mind, what was happening at Markowski Investments
at that point time. It's gonna be a bit of
a history of this firm, and also, you know, the
past thirty years as far as the financial markets are concerned.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I pulled up a story.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Was going through these things that I wrote back in
July of two thousand and six, and my my eldest
at the time was four years old, and I wrote,
I love watching my son build sandcastles, the determination in
his face while turning over buckets of sand, the carving
of tunnels with his plastic shovel, the intricate motes to
(05:46):
keep the bad guys out, you know, the old action
figures back in the day. And again, these are some
of the pictures that popped up on my phone. Priceless stuff.
I realized something while watching my spend so much time
and effort on his castle. He was spending time, work, time,
and effort in an endeavor that he could not take
(06:09):
home to admire and play with tomorrow, a project that
would surely be destroyed by the rising tides of the
Gulf of Mexico. Yet he pressed on, enjoying every minute
of his work. My son knew his castle wouldn't last.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
He didn't care. The building of the castle was the joy.
The process is what mattered.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Now there's a lesson to this, an important lesson in
my young son's architectural endeavor at the beach. And this
is when I want to talk a little bit about
retirement planning versus financial preparation, because this is something and
I confused people a little bit with this because I
(06:55):
talk about it often here on the program, because so
many people have been conditioned again conventional wisdom sold to
you by Madison Avenue and Wall Street is retirement planning.
Retirement planning, retirement planning, like this ultimate goal in life
is to just stop working. That is the ultimate goal.
(07:19):
This is how it's presented to you, and it's easy.
It's great for Wall Street, it's great for banks. It's
how they want to structure everything because they can sell
you stuff retirement planning.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I'm a tirement planner. We got to put together a
retirement plan. Man. No, I've never agreed with that.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I don't even like calling ourselves and we have to
legal financial planners.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Planning. You want to make God laugh, tell them your plans.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I've said that countless times here on the program. Quite frankly, people,
this conventional wisdom, this way of setting up your life nefarious.
It is a nefarious carrot that has been held out
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It has here. This is a great idea. This is
what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We're gonna kill ourselves for thirty forty years. We're gonna
grind and grind and grind and grind and grind.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, gotta work more, gonna neglect our health, you know,
not spend time can't make the kids little league games
because I've gotta work even harder. Oh yeah, then then
then when I get.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Old, then when I'm thirty or forty years old, then
I can go out and I can play some golfer,
pick a ball?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How you kidding me? Kid me? You understand that this
is not the way life is supposed to.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
This is completely This is a completely manufactured idea. This
is a manufactured idea designed by the elites. I got
a let's take all my younger years, let's trade them in, Yeah,
to get rid of those things. Oh yes, I can
(09:09):
have more money. No, no, does it make any sense?
This is the difference. This is why it's about financial preparation.
We're about obviously being prudent, not chasing stuff. I talk
(09:31):
about that all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
What about all the time you're collecting as many items
and things that we need.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That's nonsense, that's nonsense. What is your photo real look
like on your phone? How many trips have you gone
on with your significant other, with your family, teams that
you coached, Never missing a ballgame, never missing a concert.
Those are the things that are a zillion times more.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Valuable than anything else, period. The end. I see it
all the time.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
See it all the time, people destroying themselves, destroying themselves,
and yeah, oh they look great man, nice time piece,
nice suit, nice boat, nice car, nice house. Yep, they're
tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt and
they're grinding and they're grinding, and they're grinding to keep
up with what their Instagram posts so they can look
(10:28):
good on social media.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
There's not a single thing in my house that I own,
not a single thing that is more valuable than the
time that I have spent with my family, period the end.
And this is how this is how you should design
you want to be happy, This is how you design
(10:54):
your life.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And this is what financial preparation is all about. Why
there's no need in life.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Okay, there's no need in life to push off joy,
to push off purpose, health relationships.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Oh yeah, so I can get the last couple of
decades and play as much golf as I possibly can
at the villages.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Are you kidding me? I'd rather stick to hot poker.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
In my eye, everyone needs to come to the realization
that life is short and you better live it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You see stories all the time. One just you know,
I'm at the lacrosse community.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We had a lacrosse coach, college coach from upstate New York,
forty one years old, horrible accident.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Three kids died, and.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Again the whole community rallies together because it's you know,
it's what we do. But he didn't know that was
gonna happen, and nobody does. And this is the point,
this is why it's not about planning.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Again.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You don't know what's gonna happen next week, next month.
You have to live more in the moment people, And
that's why you constantly need to prepare for whatever hits
you and whatever great things are gonna happen, whatever opportunities
are gonna present themselves. You don't want to say no
(12:31):
to that because you want to be able to take
advantage of that. Oh I can't do that because I
gotta make sure that I'm gonna be retired. That's sixty
five years. Let you out of your mind. And actually
people say that to me when they're in their forties.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I say, but you have no idea what type of
raise you're gonna get, what type of job you can
keep doing the right thing? Yeah, you work hard, Okay,
I work my butt off, work my butt off. But
you know what, like you also must have a you
have to allocate time to the things that are most important. Oh,
(13:06):
I'm used a retirement planner. Here, we're gonna prepare to
make sure we can play. Let's pick a ball. Come on, man, No,
I mean I you know, taking.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Fun of a lot of financial planners and shlock brokers.
I do it all the time here on the program.
That's what they're told to do, that's what they're trained. Okay,
here's your here's the things that you have to go
out and sell. Go sell them.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Here's the thing you gotta go. Go sell out, Go
sell these target date funds.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Ask them when they want to retire, and set everything
in place and set it and forget it and then
move on to the next person.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, no, no, that's not the relationship that I have with
my clients. It's done work that way that that's just
not how we operate at Markowski Investments. Take a couple
of steps back it's holiday season.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
And evaluate where you are, evaluate your life, what you're doing,
what you what is your priority?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Hopefully your priority.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Is not a bigger boat, another car, a bigger house,
or you know, being able to golf at sixty two.
If that's your priority, you know, Markowski Investments not you know,
we're gonna have a different type of mindset and a
different type of philosophy. Your priority should be to spend
(14:24):
as much time as you can with the people that
are most important you and enjoying that time.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Simple as that.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Got to take a break, Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com.
That's despiting you to get to become part of our family,
the Markowski Investments family, our personal CFO program, our podcast,
our newsletter, all sorts of great stuff right there at
our site, Watchdog on Wall Street dot com. We also
have a twenty four hour day Hell Hotline eight hundred
(14:57):
four seven one fifty eight.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
It does so, says us up and brought Ung Kong.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Is different when you're missing some body ticking Wall streets, liars,
crooks and cheeks out behind the woodshed, you're listening to
the Watchdog on Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Okay, we got to get into the well, for lack
of a better word, rough economic numbers that we've got
to get into, and we're gonna talk a little bit about.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
The FED Big FED meeting this past week, lots of boxes,
lots of Brady, bunch of boxes with people discussing j Powell.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Okay, the best way I can describe the position the
FED is in and Jay Powell would be the nineteen
seventies tune made popular made popular in the movie Reservoir
Dogs by Steeler's Wheel. Stuck in the middle with you,
you know, clowns to the left of me, jokers to
the right.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Who here, I am stuck in the middle with you.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Well for the Fed, it's inflation to the left of me,
higher unemployment to the right of me.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Stuck in the middle with you.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I'm gonna use that word that we talked about in
the first segment, priorities. This is the problem with the
Federal Reserve. I've been saying this. Judy Shelton has been
saying The great Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, came out
and said the same exact thing. Dual mandate priorities. No good,
(16:38):
no point, No, the Federal Reserve should have one job,
one job, and one job only, making sure inflation is
null and void, null and void. We talk about this
ridiculous two percent target. Fred's got a two percent inflation target?
(17:02):
Why why why too?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Why not zero?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Why shouldn't why not have an inflation target at zero?
It's basically it's the dollar, right, It's a dollar, it's
a unit of measure.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Why is it that we've got to have this inflation
where our purchasing power has dropped fifty four percent in
the past thirty years?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Thirty years?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Do you understand if you're broker, you're broker, your advisor
out there is just basically showing you what the S
and P five hundred is doing over that period of time.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You've basically broken even. You got that, you've basically broken even.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And most of these yahoo's out there decided to have
a sixty to forty portfolio, which probably showed you a
much lower return.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So you probably lost money. Even though it looks like.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
You made money, You didn't make money because the value
of what you have, even though it went.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Up, is worthless. It should be zero. That should be
the Fed's job.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Unemployment, well, you think by you think the Fed lowering
by another quarter basis point is going to get everybody,
so you know excited out there that they're gonna start
hiring your kidd right, you think that small businesses and again,
I know it's anecdotal, but ge whiz, we've got hundreds
(18:39):
and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of small business clients
all over the country.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Be catered to small businesses. You think that they're all,
oh okay, oh g look at that own that special. J.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Powell just lowered rates by twenty five basis points.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I'm gonna go out and hire five new workers. Are
you kidding? Now?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
This is stuff that has to come from wallet Washington.
This is based upon policy. People have to be excited,
they have to have animal spirits. That's what works, That's
what's gonna make things better. We get a lot of
uncertainty out there. We got layoff announcements topping one point
(19:20):
one million this year. That's the most since twenty twenty,
since COVID manufacturing shrunk for the ninth month in a row.
Most Americans say they're spending more on groceries than utilities
this year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Well, they are.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Seventy one percent say they're spending more on groceries, Fifty
nine percent say they're spending more on utilities, Forty three
percent say they're spending more on healthcare. Thirty nine percent
say they're spending more on housing. You go right on
down the list. We're gonna talk about this later on
the program. Farmers needing bailouts to survive another year. Credit
card debt highest ever, auto loan defaults highest in fifteen years,
(20:05):
Lowest consumer confidence ever.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I mean, I can go on. These are the problems
that need to be fixed.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
If you want to fix unemployment, the Fed should have nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean when I say nothing, absolutely nothing to do
with that.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
We're gonna have solutions to many of these problems because
again that separates us, you know, getting arguments here or
bring people on and bat heads over nothing. We solve
problems here at the Watchdog on Wall Street. You've been
doing it for twenty five years. Watchdog on Wallstreet dot
com is our site.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Become a part of our family, the Markowski Investments Family,
Personal CFO program, podcast, Watchdog on Wallstreet dot Com. We'll
be back.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
This is the Watchdog on Wall Street.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
All right, Welcome back, everybody. It is the Watchdog on
Wall Street show. A man.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
I had this sent to me, and I actually I
appreciate it. You know, we do our best to scour
everywhere in regards to finding everything out when it comes
to news. But you know, sometimes sometimes we miss things,
and there was the actually a sixty minutes it wasn't,
but it wasn't even on sixty minutes. It was one
of those sixty minutes things where they don't air it.
(21:40):
And it didn't surprise me why they didn't air it,
because it went after when after the powers that b
it went after the big banks and they were actually
interviewing Michael Lewis and they were talking about something that
we have warned everyone about for a very long time,
the fact that the big banks and the big trading
(22:01):
firms out there, for years and years and years have
been fleecing you little by little, little by little, a
penny well, penny here, a nickel, there, various different trades.
How everything is structured. This started way back when with
the high frequency trading firms.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Best way I can explain this to you, I guess
is I'm gonna use it through film. Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
There have been movies over the years where this grift
has been used. Actually a real bad movie, Superman three
with Christopher Reeve and Richard Pryor, Office Space, which was
a great movie. And there was also that action movie
Swordfish with Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry and John Travolta,
(22:47):
and basically what you know the story. They found out
that all of these high frequency trading firms basically they
front run your trades. They front run your trades. They're
able to get in front of what you do. They're
that much faster. They actually talked about a line that
(23:11):
they put into the ground that costs I mean, over
one hundred million dollars just to shave off milliseconds so
they can they know what you are going to do
when you place an They're that quick.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's how fast the algorithms are.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
They can get in front of you, execute, do what
they need to do, and you again, you're not going
to notice it. Penny here five. You know that that's
how they go about operating. But it makes them a
fortune if you think about the amount of money that
they spent engineering these things. Yeah, it's funny. This has
happened before. This has happened before. I wrote about this
(23:49):
scam the mutual funds were doing back in November of
two thousand and four, and I called it three coins
in a fountain, you know, the Trevy Fountain in Rome.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And you know, the legend has it that if.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You toss a coin into the fountain over your shoulder
that one day you're going to return to the eternal city.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, you know it's funny, is that.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Back back in two thousand and four, they found out
that some guy was going into the Trevy fountain every
single day and taking all of that money. Take it,
all that money. It was just you know, coins here
and there and again. The money was supposed to be
taken out and given to some charity. But this guy
just did it every single day, and nobody said a
(24:34):
word until they ended up catching him.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And again, this is how this operates on Wall Street.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
And you can go back, go back again to when
really things went off the rails as far as Wall
Street is concerned. I know, I'm an old school purist
when it comes to Wall Street. We need to go back.
I wish we had exchanges again. I wish we had specialists.
I wish you were humans that are involved. Try to
explain to me, you know, all of this high frequency
(25:00):
nonsense and all of this training. You see these crazy
fluctuations in the market, with all these various different derivative items.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
How has it made anything? How's it made it better
for anyone?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
You know, what would measure whether or not was it
was doing better for people's people doing better with their portfolios.
Are they making more money? Are they continuing to lose money?
Because if they were actually making money, they tell you,
but they're not. The individual investor, for lack of a
better word, get screwed time and time again, nothing new.
(25:32):
All of these bells, whistles and nonsense have not been
the slightest bit helpful anyway. Okay, I know I've talked
a lot about this over the past past several months,
past several months, and it's going into overdrive with what's
happening with private equity and some of the blow ups
(25:54):
and disasters and some of the things that I'm seeing
happening down the pike. And actually, at this point in time,
they're hiding in playing sight. They don't even care at
My jaw dropped. My jaw dropped again. This is the
Wall Street Journal, and a lot of people, you know,
I believe it or not, most people do not read
the Wall Street Journal. The golden handcuffs are off private
(26:17):
equity employees.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Are they're jumping ship? Oh? Why is that?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, I'm going to explain this to you and how
it's going to end up hurting a lot of investors
sooner rather than later. And again, how to go about
protecting yourself. We're gonna take quick break right here. You're
listening to the Watchdog on Wall Street show. Watchdog on
Wallstreet dot com is our site again, our personal CFO program.
You can pump become a part of our family at
(26:47):
Markowski Investments. Everything is right there. Personal CFO podcast newsletter.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You name it.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Watchdog on Wall Street dot com or give us a
call eight seven fifty nine eighty four.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Do you see it?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
The only man who is taking on the Walls Street establishment.
You're listening to the Watchdog on Wall Street with Chris Markowski. Again.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I couldn't believe it, and they actually are.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
They don't care, They're owning it right now, and I
guess they just assume nobody can do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Here's the story.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
A job at a big private equity firm was once
a ticket to lifelong riches. Now employees tired of waiting
for payouts or leaving for jobs at smaller shops. Usually
the bigger the private equity firm, the bigger the payday.
But with the industry struggling to profitably out unload companies.
(27:59):
Many employees are heading for the exits, opting for smaller
jobs at smaller firms where they're binning that they could
earn more. A key form of compensation is driving the moves,
with mid level employees at big, prestigious firms, leaving potential paydays.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Worth millions of dollars on the table.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
They are worried about when and if they're carried interest
or carry pay tied to the performance of their deals
well materialize. We told you, we told you earlier this year,
and we railed against this. The Trump administr Trump administration
allowed for this. I was disgusted by it. I'm glad
(28:40):
it's not materializing because people were starting to recognize. Allowing
for private equity, these alternative investments to be sold in
iras and four to one k's to individual investors. Why
did they want to do this? Because they wanted to unload.
They wanted to get out. Now, the employees at these
(29:03):
private equity companies, let me put it this way. If
they're working at these private equity firms, they're working there
and they're giving up paydays that if they could unload,
would be worth millions upon millions of dollars. Why are
they leaving. Why are they leaving Because they don't think
(29:23):
that they're going to be able to unload. They don't
think they're going to be able to get out. That's
the scenario that they're in. We told you this was
going to happen. This is why you have to be
very very careful, very careful with anything any sort of
(29:48):
alternative investment at all. You have to check in this again,
we're a resource with this, your advisor, your slock brokers
pushing something on you more often than Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Again, they're just salespeople.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
They especially if they're working at these bigger firms, they've
got a sales manager that tells them what to do
and what to sell and what they need to move.
And if the powers that be Okay and the C
suite at these big firms say, you know what, we
need to get some of our big guys out, our
big clients out. We need you guys to push this
(30:26):
on your clients, They're gonna do it. That's how the
system works. It's disgusting, but it's how it works. This
is going back. This is going back to them pushing
bad dot com companies on people back in the day
they knew that they were garbage. We had all the
(30:46):
emails between analysts, but they didn't care.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
You're just a bloody number at one of these big firms.
You're there to buy what they are selling now, all
of these companies that they overpaid for. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Again, the people that are still invested in these private equities,
they're still having to pay their fees. They still have.
They haven't marked properly to market what these things are worth,
and they're going to continue to collect. But the big
paydays means the insiders know. The insiders know that they're
not going to be able to get out unless they
can find a sucker. And don't let that sucker be you.
(31:30):
More on this when we get back. Watchdog Onmallstreet dot com.
Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com is our site. Get all
the help you need right there Watchdog on Wallstreet dot
com or give us a call eight hundred four seven.
(31:52):
I think that I remember a sofiget we're to delve
to sell.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You should believe in math, not magic. You're listening to
the Watchdog in Wall Street with Chris Markowski.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
There's another part of this, And I know I've brought
this up and I am I'm sounding the alarm, sounding
the alarm, and when we sound the alarm here on
the program, better pay attention and just take a look
at our track record when we sound alarms. One of
the things that private equity has been buying up, and
(32:31):
they're still buying up, is investment advisories companies like mine.
The reality right now is that there's not enough good
advisors out there.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
There's not.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
We are we're doing our darndist here to train and
bring people on as quickly as we possibly can. But
a lot of a lot of advisors out there are
looking to retire small around the country. And here comes
knocking on the door, mister private equity guy, telling them that, hey, listen,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
We'll take over your business. We've got all look at
all this technology, we're gonna do all this stuff. We're
gonna we're gonna take care of your clients.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
And they give them, they offer them an absolutely ridiculous
valuation that makes no sense whatsoever in the real world.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And again it's enticing.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Get the you know, it's the old animal house there,
you get the devil and the angel on the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Sell it to us, sell it to us sell it
to us sell.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
It to us, and what is going to happen. What's
going to happen, people, is that these advisory firms that
have been bought out and will be bought out in
the future, clients are gonna get screwed. I used that
word twice today on the program. I'm sorry, but you're
(33:53):
gonna You're going to get it because the only way,
the only way that they're able to make their money back,
quite frankly, is again they have to sell it at
a higher valuation than what they bought it at. And
they're buying them at ten to twelve times, which is insane.
(34:13):
They're putting it on their books at fifteen, meaning they
got to even sell it for higher than that, which
they're not gonna be able to do. So what I
see happening, the plan I think is going to be
this is that they're gonna use those clients that they
bought when they bought that firm to in essence.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Buy them out so they can unload.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they're gonna take care of you,
you know, eight months to a year, and then they're
gonna start talking about this wonderful, great alternative investment which
would be great for your portfolio and guess what. Even
on top of that, you're gonna be the you're gonna
own part of the firm that you've got your money at.
For crying out loud, can't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that
be great?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Right? Sure, it's not going to end well, not Well,
it's funny.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I'm getting emails about these these deals that are taking place.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Got one this past week.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Oh this morning, we announced that our firm enter into
an agreement to join this firm and independent, fundamentally driven
investment manager. And they go on and on and on,
and they talk about how nothing is going to change.
I've never seen this before in my entire never, never,
the entire the entire basically statement was a page and
(35:37):
a half. The disclaimer. The disclaimer in this email was
five pages, starting with cautionary note regarding forward looking statements.
Five pages of a disclaimer. I've never seen that before.
They are covering their buttocks. Listen, you know you have
(36:03):
to be careful. You have to protect yourself. Okay, I
I you know, I get it.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know, you work with my advisor for a long
time and he was great, and I was gonna he's
gonna sell out because he wants to retire. He's selling
to who? Selling to what firm? What are they planning
on doing? Is their private equity involved?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
That's all well and good, but you know, there's one
thing that we will never.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Ever do at Markowski Investments. And we get asked all
the time, Oh, I back in the day, the guys
should go public. Oh you can join us, We're gonna
pay you. No.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
No, there's three shareholders at Markowski Investments.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It's my brother and myself, My brothers and must That's it.
That's it.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's who we have to answer to, our clients and
each other. Certain businesses out there, professions, profession I'm sorry,
they should be structured in one way and one way only.
And you're seeing it right now. Okay, here's a challenge
to you. You don't believe me. We're seeing it all
the time because people are complaining about it all the time,
(37:11):
with private equity buying up veterinary clinics, private equity buying
up sandwich shops, private equity buying up plumbers and HVAC
companies and coffee shops.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Let me ask you a question, because we've all encountered
it at this point in time. Have they made the
customer experience better at any of those spots.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Any of the places that you've had to deal with
in your life where private equity has gotten involved, have
they made the experience better?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Do you have to call this? It was interesting at
the center the doorman fallacy. Listen, private equity steps in.
You got a five star hotel. Private equity steps in.
But the five star hotel has a doorman, nice doorman
and their welcoming guests. Oh, here comes private equity, and
here comes all the Ivy League types and the consultants
(38:07):
and McKenzie and accenture. And they say, well, you know
what your doorman costs you?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You know x amount of thousands of dollars a year.
Oh no, no, we've defined his or her function as opening
the door. We'll replace the doorman with an automatic door
opening mechanism and an infrared human detector, and we'll save
you thirty to forty thousand dollars a year. They walk away, Ah,
look at us, pat ourselves on the back, a look
at all the cost savings we have. Yeah, two years later,
(38:35):
hotel's a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Why a doorman was doing multiple things, many of which
were human security would be one, and now they got
vagrants asleep in the doorway. Hailing taxis dealing with luggage,
recognizing regular guests, providing status to the hotel, all the
value created by that human being which isn't captured by
(39:01):
private equity, and these ivy League little Weasley mckinseye types.
We will never participate in that nonsense. Get the help
you need. Get to our website. Watchdog on wallstreet dot com.
Watchdog on wallstreet dot com is our site, personal CFO program, podcast, newsletter,
(39:24):
you name it.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Watchdog on wallstreet dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Chris Markowski is the watchdog of Wall Streets
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