Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
This week. Oh yeah, Zach, I'm not sure I want
to do my show. No, keep the music going. That's
a good song to get people warmed up and ready
to go. Hello, everybody, it's Thanksgiving week. Oh my god,
it's it's it's it's November twenty third. Can you believe it? Well?
(00:28):
I thank you for tuning in today, as I do
every week. I can't thank you enough for tuning in.
I'm Stephen Bouchet. I'm your host today. I'm here live
as live can be, and I would love to talk
to you. I know I was off last week, but
I'm back this week. And if you have any questions,
any questions whatsoever, folks, give me a call. The phone
numbers are open for thirty years. The phone numbers haven't changed.
(00:53):
One eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eight two
five five nine four nine. That's one eight hundred eighty
two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, folks pertaining
to your financial future, give me a call. Is I
say often, you get one opportunity to retire. You can't
(01:15):
blow it because you can't go back and make up
for those decades of working. So you need to be prepared.
And that's what I'm here for, to help get you prepared.
And I'm telling you, I you know, even this week
I'm in an airport and I get a tap on
the shoulder, a nice gentleman getting on the plane walking
in a cane, and he stopped me before he got
(01:38):
on with the preboarding. He says, sir. I said, Hi,
I'm Steve. He says, I know who you are. He says,
I listen to you all the time. He says, I'm retired,
I'm a veteran. What about this USAA company? And you
could just see how proud he was being a veteran.
And I said, you know, first of all, let me
(01:59):
thank you for your sir. I said, and USAA was
a company that really going out of its way, out
of its way to help veterans. I said, it's a
solid company. It's a good company. He couldn't thank me enough.
And that's when I know, all these thirty years of
being here with you every weekend and doing the show
(02:19):
with you makes it worth my while. It gets me
all excited. I never get bored, and I can't I
can't thank you enough for tuning in once again. If
you have any questions, that I can help you out
with one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.
So I got some good news and bad news for you.
Zack and I were just talking and Zach, you're an
(02:43):
old soul. I mean, that was a great song you played. Well,
I have to play that on the bottom of the
hour two. And I asked Zach what he was doing,
and you know, he's Zach is a special guy, folks,
for for for those of you that don't know, he's
been my producer for a long time now, and he
does things from a family perspective that a lot of
(03:04):
people don't realize. He's one of the good ones. And
he says, I'm gonna go shop for my turkey dinner.
I said, well, let me tell you, Zach, I got
some news for you. Good news, bad news. The average
price for a bird is expected to fall six point
one percent. That's the good news. The bad news is
a pecan pie may cost eight percent or more. There,
(03:26):
you habit, folks. You know the Wall Street Journal did
a nice piece and the Farm Bureau forecasts at the
costs of the average thanksgiving me for a group of
ten people at about fifty eight dollars. You got cranberries up,
stuffing mix up, turkey down, frozen peas. If you're into
(03:47):
that down, dinner rolls up, you probably don't need the carbs.
But on Thanksgiving Day, dinner rolls with some butter. Slather
that butter on, folks. There's nothing wrong with butter. I
put butter in spaghetti sauce when I cook. You know,
I'm a foodie. I like to cook. I put butter
on my spaghetti sauce. But dinner rolls are up, pie
(04:08):
cross are down if you're making your own pie. Pumpkin
pie mixes down. Sweet potatoes is down huge, down twenty
six percent. So there you go. That's the recap of
your Thanksgiving meal and what you can expect financially speaking,
to spend this coming week. But it is a good holiday.
(04:31):
It's a good holiday to spend with family and friends.
It's a good holiday to spread the cheer and help others.
And you always feel good helping others. Helping people always
feels good. So Thanksgiving week is before us. We're going
to be closing out twenty twenty four. And what a
year it's been. I mean, if you're an investor, I mean,
(04:57):
it just goes to show you when everybody says that,
you know, the market can't continue to go up. Folks,
listen the market. The market truly truly trades on fundamentals.
It could care less who is in the office. It
(05:18):
really could. It could care less. And the markets are
up in the you know, since election day, I haven't been.
I haven't been with you, but you know you have
NASTAC up about five percent, the S and P is up.
I mean, the markets are up. Whether I don't care
who you voted for. I don't really really care who
(05:38):
you voted for. Everybody has their personal choice, and I
respect everybody's personal choice. But I am. I am excited
to see President Electron putting in some business people into office,
and people that probably will make a difference. And I
always say it's it's too bad that so many business people,
(05:59):
smart people that know how to you know, work within
a budget and not spend more than the company can,
or the company we'll go out of business. Unfortunately, in Washington,
politicians just spend, spend, spend, They don't care because we
can print money, and all of a sudden we're in debt.
We're in debt, thirty five trillion dollars that's a trillion.
With a tea that's twelve zeros. At the end of
(06:20):
a trillion, we're in debt. So I'm I'm kind of
I'm kind of pleased, and I'm going to give you
one money saving tip, folks. This is my big tip
of the holiday season. If you want to save money
on Christmas gifts, not buying them this coming Thursday, talk
politics at Thanksgiving dinner. I assure you you won't have
(06:45):
as many people to buy Christmas gifts for a guarantee.
One eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine.
Let's go to the phone lines. We have less on
hold and less. What are you doing hanging out while
your wife's getting her hair downe.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah. I have a situation that I will be facing
some time as far as a beneficiary. I have three granddaughters,
and whenever the time comes, would I pass. You know,
they're looking at possibly thirty thousand apiece that they will receive.
(07:29):
The problem is my middle granddaughter, which is a sister
of the orders, and if she's ruined her life in
her drugs and it's chaotic, I can't pull myself to
give her a thirty thousand to throw away on drugs?
(07:50):
How do I handle the situation?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And I'm going to hang up.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm going to hang on.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I want to I want to get an update. I
want to get an update on how beautiful your wife
looks getting your hair done. So you know, hey, hey,
stay on the stay on the phone line with me. One.
I admire you. I'm actually I'm actually doing the same thing.
I'm setting up trust for my grandchildren. Something that my
wife and I talked about before she passed, that we
(08:19):
wanted to make sure that our grandchildren knew, you know,
how much we cared for them, and leave them a
little trust with some babysitting instructions. My daughter will actually
be the trustee, the rant of the trust, and I'm
setting up trusts, three individual trusts for each of my grandchildren,
and my daughter will have the powers to you know,
(08:42):
you know, give them money as needed and so forth.
So in your situation, one, I admire you for doing
this for your granddaughters, but you should probably be careful
about the middle grand daughter. Unfortunately, as we know, depression,
substance abuse, alcohol abuse, it's it's prevalent, and it's it's
(09:04):
like wildfire. Just spreading. So many people are affected by it,
and it sounds as though your daughter granddaughter is affected
by it. So what you want to do is one
of two things you may want to see. And at
eleven o'clock after my show, you got the you know,
loop hero Inas group and their attorneys and it's free advice.
(09:26):
I would I would stay tuned in. Hopefully your wife's
getting a perm and you're going to be there a
couple hours, so you could give give Lou Lou's show
a call and ask him. But you may want to
set up a real easy trust that basically says the
money can go to your granddaughter for welfare, but not
(09:47):
for discretion. Everything's like drugs until she gets on her feet,
or you know, ask your other two granddaughters. And it's
a big ask to kind of oversee the the inherent
for your middle granddaughter. But you do want to be
careful because more than likely your middle granddaughter will probably
spend it on things that that you just would not
(10:10):
want her to spend it on. And you're you're smart
and wise for being aware of it and still wanting
to leave her something and and and unless I'm telling you,
and it would be a hard conversation. But if you
and I were buddies and we were having a glass
of wine later and you asked my opinion, I would
(10:32):
say to you, Less, sit down with your middle granddaughter
and tell her what you just told me, and tell
her why you don't think you can leave her that money,
and try to and encourage her to get help to
break away from the downward spiral that her life's going.
(10:53):
You never know less what what words can do to
help somebody, especially somebody in your granddaughter's situation. If you
and I were buddies and I was sitting next to
you later, that's exactly what I would tell you. You
know what, what's the worst that's going to happen. Your
granddaughter's going to get upset with you and not talk
to you. Is she probably not talking to you now
(11:14):
because she's involved in this life of hers. So as
a grandfather, you know you have nothing to lose. Give
it a shot and give it to her straight anyway, Less, listen,
great question, Take a picture and send send it to
me through the airwaves of your wife.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And one of my concerns would be the relationship between
the three granddaughters. If I hold back on that middle one.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
You know, I know, I know. No, I mean, treating
them equal is one thing, but being careful for the
middle one and protecting her from her own demons is
the best thing you can do. Less, you're thinking the
right way. All right, send me a picture of your
wife when the hair gets done. All right, that was
(12:07):
a good call. He's literally sitting waiting for his wife
to get her hair done. Great call. Less one, eight, two, five, five, nine,
four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We
have Jim in Rockland County. Hello, Jim, good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Good morning, Steve. I've got a h I've got a
question for you on SMAs separately managed accounts. A friend
of mine has been talking to me about them because
he's an investor in them, and i'd like to get
your take on what they are and whether you use
them in your practice or not.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, so, in and in that nut show, SMAs separately
managed to count. So what you're doing is, let's say,
let's make believe you have an account of Charles Schwap
and they have a whole whole host of professionally managed
portfolios that you can pick one to meet your specific
(13:06):
needs for you know, whatever, you know, it could be
social investing, it could be growth investing, it could be
dividend paying, it could be a well balanced Basically, you're
hiring a manager to manage your portfolio, so we don't
use them in our practice. But we don't use them
because we really are our clients separately managed account manager.
(13:32):
We manage our client's portfolio, so our clients put their
trust and faith in us to manage their portfolio. We
do a darn good job, a knockout job. I'm very
proud of our returns. So our clients don't really need
SMAs because we act as that professional manager. We're managing
our portfolios. But there's a lot of people that open
(13:54):
up an account at like a Charles Schwab, and you know,
the retail guys and as that are sitting in the office,
they really don't know, you know, they don't manage money.
They can't really give the advice that we get, so
they may recommend an SMA and then it's, as I said,
any flavor you can. It's like going into Stewarts and
(14:15):
I was in Stewarts bright and earlier this morning getting
my papers, and you know, you look at the list
of ice cream flavors. I mean, just about any ice
cream flavor you want, you can get at Stewarts, and
Stewarts has some pretty darn good ice cream. The same
with SMAs. Just about you know, you can get them.
It could be customized. It's professionally managed. You own it,
(14:37):
so you have direct ownership. But the managers are making
the investment decisions. A lot of them are tax efficient,
which is good. They're all transparent, which is good. Something
that two points that we believe in. For our clients.
A lot of them ask for for a higher a
higher minimum investment. So using SMAs or a combination of
(15:02):
separate managed you know, managers to achieve your financial goals.
There's nothing wrong with it. So your buddy it sounds
as though he's in one, he's happy with one. You
always want to look at the returns if you do
get invested in a SMA, you know, do your homework,
(15:24):
your due diligence, you know what's their style investing? How
have their returns been compared to the benchmark. And for
most stock investors, the benchmark really is it should be
the S and P five hundred indecks. That's really the
proxy that you want to and you know, compare yourself
to and you're to date the S and P is
up twenty five percent, with dividends about twenty six and
(15:47):
a half percent. So that's what you want to compare
yourself to. But go ahead.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
One thing they seem to emphasize is that you can
at some point do some tax loss harvestings. So for example,
if you have a growth portfolio, you've got apple in there,
apple drops five or ten percent, you can sell that
chunk of it, the apple portion and realize tax loss.
(16:15):
Is that correct that right now?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Well, sometimes the managers do that. We do that automatically
for our clients. Once again, it's it's a powerful tool
to be able to recognize losses and harvest them if
you can't use them all to offset gains. You know
the rule with that and people should be aware of it, Jim,
as we come up to the end of the year,
especially people that go out and buy a mutual fund,
(16:40):
because they could buy a mutual fund today in the
first week of December. The mutual funds, you know, could
could you know basically declare a dividend or taxable income
and you've only owned that mutual fund for a short
period of time, but you're going to pay tax on
those gains. That's why I don't like mutual funds. You
(17:01):
have no control over that, and you know you're in
it for a short period of time, and sometimes you
could be paying a pretty good hefty tax depending on
the distribution that to mutual fund company does. But we
automatically every year we harvest losses, and we actually have
for our higher networth clients, we actually have a system
(17:24):
set up where we really you know, it's pretty sophisticated,
where we do it all year long. And the returns,
as I said, our returns in that program are are
pretty good. But let's make believe you have ten thousand
dollars of gains this year, and let's make believe you
have fifteen thousand dollars of losses. If you sell all
(17:44):
of those losers. Two things, you can't buy it back
for thirty days. That's the wash sale rule. So you
have to wait thirty days before you can buy it back.
And you can use those fifteen thousand dollars of losses
to offset ten one thousand dollars a gain, then another
three thousand dollars, but you have two thousand dollars of
(18:06):
losses left over. What happens is that carries forward to
next year's tax return and you can save and harvest.
This is what we mean by harvesting. Harvest that two
thousand dollars of extra losses to offset gains for next year.
But not every separate account manager does this. So once again,
(18:29):
that's another good question, Jim, for you to ask as
you interview these SMAs. But there's thousands of them out there.
Some are good, some are not so good. Make sure
you compare the returns the benchmark, make sure you understand
their style of investing, and make sure that you're comfortable.
(18:49):
And as long as you're interviewing SMAs, I'm going to
throw this out. It's selfless of me. God help me.
How can I be on international radio in and and
take this opportunity to say, Jim, give our office a call,
kick our tires, look under our hood. We have clients
in thirty seven states, so you being in Rockland County
(19:12):
doesn't scare us. But give us a call and let
us explain to you what we do for our clients
and how we do it. And then now with all
that information, you'll be able to make a more logical,
more rational decision on what you think is best for you.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
That sounds good, all right, Okay, listen, Thank you Steve,
and I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thank you, Jim and you as well. Enjoy your family
and friends, and thank you for tuning in. Okay, good calls,
Lesson Jim. I can't wait to see Less's wife's haircut.
I hope he remembers Zach to send us a picture
of that. I don't want to see it with the
court with her and her curls underneath that big dome
that they that the ladies sit in. But the end
(19:58):
product we you know, let's to us to send us
a selfie with he and his wife. That was That
was great. I've never had anybody wait waiting for their
wife to get their hair done. And and you have
to admire Less as a husband. I mean, how many
hubbies go out there and hang out and wait for
their wife to get their hair done. Good for you, Less,
But he had an emotional question, and you know, those
(20:22):
are those are situations that are tough. You know, I
understand the demons that people go through. Not everybody does.
But if if, if you ever get the opportunity to
really open up with family and friends, and sometimes it's
you listening that are fighting some of these demons. They're hard,
(20:44):
especially depression. Depression is one of those demons where you
don't know who's being affected by it. So many people
covered up and then you know, sometimes they try to
mask mask the feelings of depression with alcohol, which really
just makes them feel that much more depressed, and it's
a downward vicious cycle on others like Lessa's granddaughter fighting
(21:07):
substance abuse this country. Obviously, we know the headlines in
the paper. We know just reading the obituaries, you can
kind of put two together and realize how many people
are are dying unexpectedly because they're fighting demons. So I'm
glad Less called and Jim had a great call too
on eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine
(21:30):
one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
Love to talk to you with whatever's on your mind,
whatever you're thinking about, if you have any questions, you know,
give give me a call. Zach and I are here
love to get you on the wide world web. You know,
(21:51):
if you got the iHeartRadio app, you can listen to
us from anywhere around the world. And believe me, people
listen to us from all all over. It's amazing where
some of the phone calls come in. So this week,
you know, we began with you know, let's call it
the Trump trades being unwound. As interest rates once again
took front and center on the stage. President Biden cleared
(22:15):
Ukraine to use US missiles to strike into Russia, and
Vladimir Putin rattled his nuclear arms, and that just sent
a message where investors went into safe investments like treasuries
and gold and the dollar as a place to be safe.
(22:36):
You know that that was big news for us. Listen,
you know, in the beginning, I thought it was great
that we were helping Ukraine, but to send them over
two hundred billion dollars when we had cities in this
country that look worse than Ukraine just doesn't make sense
to me anymore. There there has to be an end
(22:57):
to that thing, and hopefully it'll it'll be soon. In
addition to that, on the political stage, you had in
the video beat huge expectations, and you know, people were
expecting you know, almost a ten percent movement in the
video and in the overseas markets. You know, there was
(23:17):
a lot of movement. But the next day when the
markets opened up, the video was actually down. Big company, right,
the video was actually down. So there you have it.
You know, you never know how a stock is going
to react. You got bitcoin almost at one hundred thousand dollars.
I think it's safe to say Bitcoin is here to stay.
(23:40):
I don't think bitcoin is going anywhere. Bitcoin is is
literally here to stay. It's it's it's amazing what's going
on with bitcoin. You know, the markets were up. I'll
get into that on the other side of the news.
(24:01):
We're gonna take a quick break, folks. You're listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Group,
where we help our clients prioritize their health while we
manage their wealth for life. And I take pride in
managing our clients wealth. One eight, eight, two, five, five, nine,
four nine. Give us a call during the news. I'll
see in a couple of quick minutes, square.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
On the scene somewhere my love us stands on gold
and sad. Then watch just the shims.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I'm here, folks. I just love this song Beyond the
Sea Bobby Darren. It's a great song. Zach has some
good taste putting this music up. Thank you Zach for that.
So you know I'm getting in a way. The phone
lines are lighting up. I gave a money saving tip.
You know, I was talking about turkey prices being down,
(25:09):
but are pecan pies being up? And you know, the
average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for a group of
ten is about fifty eight dollars And it's a great meal, right.
As much of a food as I am and I
love to cook, it's probably the messiest dinner to cook,
but boy, it sure tastes good. And there's nothing like
(25:30):
a nice turkey sandwich later that night or the next day,
white bread, mayo, little cranberry sauce on it. Nothing, nothing,
nothing beats that. But I gave a money saving tip
and a lot of people got to chuckle out of it.
So one more money saving tip this Christmas season. If
you want to save money on gifts, talk politics at
(25:53):
Thanksgiving dinner. It's a guarantee you will have less people
at the Christmas dinner table, less people to buy for.
Talk politics at Thanksgiving dinner, and it's an instant, instant
way to save money on Christmas gifts. There you have it. Folks.
That's my money saving tip for this holiday season. And
(26:15):
on a serious note, I really do believe that. You know, listen,
sometimes the old fashioned way is the best way. And
opening up Christmas is as silly as it sounds. At
Christmas Club, remember that every week you would put money
into a little account and at Christmas time you'd get
the cash and you go out and buy Christmas gifts.
Do not do not, do not, do not, do not.
(26:37):
Did I say that do not enough times? Do not
go out and charge on credit cards, especially you know,
thirty percent more, you know, whether it be TJ Max, Macy's,
these these stores, the interest rate charges, folks, you can't
(26:57):
get ahead that way. Then financial failure is to load
up your credit cards buying. And don't take this the
wrong way, folks. Sometimes we buy useless gifts fees. We
feel we need to have something under the tree. I
love those families where you know, you pick out one
person to buy for, where you go out and buy
(27:19):
a meaningful gift and put some thought into it, rather
than getting a bunch of things that you may never
never use. So I'm not being grouch or scrooge. I'm
just being honest with you. Try not to load up
your credit cards. Please don't think, don't don't get enticed
(27:40):
to open up a new credit card because you're getting
these things in the mail. Please do not do it.
If you're walking through the stores and you got these,
you know people that say, oh, open up a credit
card with us, all the advantages. Don't do it, folks.
The interest rate charges are astronomical, astronomical eighty two nine
(28:01):
four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines where
we have Ron on hold.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Hello, Ron, Hi, Steve.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I don't have any questions today. I just wanted to
let you know that both Lauren and Angie have been
incredible in working with me. I am so excited. I
am going to be seeing you on December ninth in
Saratoga to talk about what you can do for me.
(28:30):
They've been incredible, and I just wanted to let you
know that. I hope you don't mind if I bring
along a couple of questions about my daughter, who you've
been helping me along the way.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
No, Ron, listen, I'm honored that you want to come in.
And Lauren, who's my daughter, and Angie they act as
are client concierge. I'm glad they're taking good care of you.
You've been a long time listener and I've been able
to help you out. This is what brings me the
most joy doing the show for thirty years now. Almost
(29:03):
doing the show is helping people like you or that
gentleman who tapped me on the shoulder while I was
getting on a plane the other night, or sometimes I'm
walking the streets and sometimes it's just my voice. Somebody
will say, oh, I know that voice. You're You're, You're,
you're Stephen Bouchet. I said, I am, and I thought
I had a face for radio. But no, I'm honored
(29:25):
that Ron, you're you're coming in. You know, I hope
we can help you, but I know we help you
with your daughter, and that that that that's a beautiful thing.
It's like, you know less, our first caller of the
day being able to help him. So no, thank you
for calling in. You know who doesn't like compliments, Ron
(29:45):
I you know you make me smile, and that's the
best compliment you can give me is saying how impressed
you were with just banking a phone call to schedule
and appointment to come in. So I look forward to
meeting you, Ron, and I thank you for calling in
today and and letting them listening. Well, Dans know that
(30:06):
you know you're you're going to come in to see
what we can do for you. So thank you. One
eight hundred talk w g Y one eight hundred eight
two five five, nine four nine. Ron's been listening for
a long time, a long time, so he finally decided.
And this happens a lot. We had another new client
(30:28):
a couple of weeks ago. I don't know, they've been
listening for like over ten years. I said, well, what
took you so long to come in? I mean, we've
had one heck of a ten year run. You know
what took you so long? But you know, sometimes people
are you know, just take some people longer than others
to call and and schedule an initial consultation. And there's
(30:51):
no charge or an initial consultation. Folks. I'm so proud
of the team that I've built and created, you know,
the firm that I have. You know, we're twenty for
professionals that I'm surrounded by. And I have one rule
when I bring on any any new colleague to our firm,
I want them to be smarter than me. I want
them to feel comfortable to talk up. To help grow
(31:15):
the way we work with our clients, they have to
have that. They need to have that sense of value
and integrity. Taking care of our clients first and foremost.
That's all I care about is taking care of our clients,
making sure our clients are in a good place. So
we have a lot of people that come in. Some
(31:35):
some listen to the show once or twice and scheduling
and appointment. Some it takes longer, but I guess at
the end of the day at least they call them.
They come in. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty
nine forty nine. So I talked about the stock markets.
(31:55):
You know, it was actually a pretty pretty good week.
It wasn't a good day for Navidia, but the rest
of the markets. You hear me talk about this often,
the small and mid cap markets. The equal weighted index
all up almost between four and five percent this week.
(32:16):
Now what that means is the equal weighted index. You
hear me talk about this so so so often when
when you look at the you know, just the the
S and P five hundred. When when you look at
the S and P five hundred. And you think about
the weighting of the top ten holdings, especially you know
(32:38):
you got you got na Video now is number one.
That represents over seven percent, Apple seven percent, Microsoft six percent,
Amazon almost four percent, Alphabet four percent, Meta, which is
Facebook two and a half percent. You know, it's it's
(32:59):
it's the top Those top ten holdings account for thirty
five percent of the S and P. And when when
when you look at the equal weight, and I say this,
if you want diversification in your portfolio, take a look
at the equal weight, the the Invesco equal Weight ETF
(33:20):
the SMP. So instead of instead of you know, having
a company like Navidia and the other nine companies make
up for thirty five percent, each holding is equally weighted,
so about let's say approximately point two five percent, you know,
so instead of Navidia being seven point two percent weighted
(33:44):
in the S and P and the equal weight, na
Vidia is point two five percent approximately along with Apple
and Microsoft and all those other companies, especially the magnificent
seven companies. So it's nice to see the market broadening out.
This is important. Listen, I'm a bull, although I'm always
(34:04):
a bull. You know, it's it's funny. I've said this
in my office more times than not, and I try
to mentor especially my investment guys, mentor them that listen,
do not invest for the rainy days. I could care
less that the market goes down for a day, a week,
(34:26):
a month. It happens. It comes with the territory. But
over time, being invested in a good portfolio will bring
you better returns. And yes, there will be days, weeks, months,
sometimes a year where you're down. It comes with the territory, folks,
And I just don't want to hear it that you
(34:48):
can't take those down days. If you can't take those
down days, then you shouldn't be invested in stocks at all.
You know, suffer with your money under the mattress. Sure
you can get by a US ten year treasury and
get you know, over four percent and for the next
for the next ten years. If you're happy with four
percent and you're able to sleep at night, that's all
(35:10):
that matters. But I would much rather in every one
of our clients. We don't have any client that doesn't
have stocks in their portfolio because we take the time
to educate them. You know, over the last ten years,
the average return in the SMP was thirteen fourteen percent
year in, year out. That's a whole lot better than
(35:32):
four percent. Yes, you're gonna have days and weeks, you know.
Over the last ten years there were two years where
the markets were down and two out of eleven years,
including this year, because we're almost in for the year
two out of eleven years. That's okay, folks. That comes
with the territory of investing. Don't get don't get all
(35:53):
freaked out about it. You know, rather than talking about
politics at the dinner table, talk about investing. Talk about
what I just shared with you, with with especially with
your brother in law who thinks he knows everything about investing.
Let your brother in law know, Hey, stocks are up
more than they're down over the last ten fifteen years,
(36:14):
fourteen percent a year, compared to bonds at two point
five percent. This is why having a well diversified portfolio
makes sense. There you have it, folks. One eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine. Boy, I'm creating
a lot of conversation for Thanksgiving dinner, aren't i? One
eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. We
(36:36):
have Bill and Kobelskill. Hello, Bill, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
I'm good.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Oh good? How are you know? I haven't been in
Cobelschool in a long time. How are things down there?
Speaker 6 (36:50):
Things are pretty good. Things are looking up, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Good, good, good. It's always a beautiful ride to go
down there. And it's been a while, you know. I
should put the convertible down and take a ride down someday.
Maybe maybe not for a few months till it warms up. Bill,
But yeah, you may be surprised. I may come down
to Cobel Skill. I'll be beeping my horn looking for bills.
So I'll give you a head sign. Anyone. What can
(37:16):
I help you with?
Speaker 6 (37:18):
Giving you a call? Just quick question. I've got about
fifty thousand dollars in savings and looking to pay off
my house. I'm thinking or should I start really heavily
putting money aside for paying for college for kids? I
got four kids to putting the couch?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
M So can I talk to you frankly? Blunt? Yeah, okay,
I don't know you know your whole financial picture. Do
you have other investments or retirement plans?
Speaker 5 (37:54):
I do.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
I work for the States. I've got a pension going
on good also a side about about one thousand dollars
a month for retirement good and pretty much we only
owe about about fifty thousand dollars between the car and
the house, all right, So that's that's our entire debt
(38:19):
level right now.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, So you're managing your debt good, which is means
you're living within your means and your discipline and saving.
So I'm just going to be I'll generalize this not
obviously not and it's not something that we can answer
on the showbies. There's so much that goes into it.
But I'll just plant some seeds with you, build some
things that think about. What I tell people all the
(38:42):
time is it's great that you want to help your children,
but don't do it at the expense of it hurting
your retirement. Your children can always go to college, they
can always listen. So many kids, there's so many opportunities
for them to start out with the two year associates
degree at a two year college where it costs next
(39:04):
to nothing, and then transfer those credits. You don't always
have to and nowadays, I would you know, if I
got to, if I got a resume from one of
these IVY schools, I would probably not even interview the applicant.
With everything that's been going on with these ivy schools
and these snotty nosed kids, but you don't need to
be spending eighty ninety thousand dollars a year for a
(39:25):
private education. We got some good, great state schools. When
I interview people, and I've been interviewing, you know, January
first will be thirty five years that I've been in business,
I always look at the person, and you know, I
always like to see that they've gone to college. I
do believe in having young people go to college, although
(39:46):
with that being said, there's a lot of young people
that really maybe not be cut out for college, but
could go to a trade school like Hudson Valley has
trade schools. I just specialize in jobs at global foundries
where you can really make a really darn good living,
or trade schools in other areas of the trade industry.
(40:07):
But bottom line, you don't So I don't know the
answer to this in your situation, but if if it
affects your ability to retire, then you have to prioritize
your retirement first. Now, if you're in a good situation
between your pension, you can do it all. I would
(40:27):
not pay off more than likely. I'm guessing Bill, with
you only having more than likely, you have a low
interest rate on your mortgage, I'm assuming that is that true. Yeah,
so you know, let's make believe you have one of
those mortgages that you got at three percent. Well, I
just gave the statistics. If you had that money invested
(40:50):
in the stock market, you're going to make thirteen fourteen
percent a year over the last ninety years. The average
return is ten to twelve percent. So that's a whole
lot more than three percent. So you really don't want
to pay off your mortgage. Whether you put that money
towards college savings or not, that's another question. But I
want to be paying off your mortgage if you have
a low mortgage rate, and if you do, decide, Bill
(41:12):
to put money away for your children's education. Look at
I think the plan that New York has is the
best in the country, the New York Saves ny saves
dot org. It's managed by Vanguard. You can open up
an account right online. You can put as little as
twenty five dollars a month into it. It's a great program,
(41:34):
and the beauty about it is not knowing how old
your children are, but you get a New York state
tax deduction up to five thousand dollars per individual ten
thousand dollars per married couple. So that saves you seven
eight hundred dollars of New York state taxes. And that's
a nice benefit. But it's the investments internally are managed
(41:56):
by Vanguard and Vanguards. You know, we use a lot
of van Guard in our portfolios, so you know, it's
one of the best best plans out there. And when
you cash that out when your children go to college,
you're not taxed on the gain if it's used for
qualified college expenses. Now let's make belief all four of
(42:18):
your kids get a free ride to college and you
don't need that money. Well, you can use that money
for something else. And the downside is you'll pay on
the growth of it. And that's okay if it's not
used for qualified college expenses, because you would have paid
money on the growth anyway. So that's that's something to
think about. Nysaves dot com. It's a great program. So
(42:42):
there you have it. You know, I gave you a
lot to think about, but at the end of the day,
I would not either way. I would not pay off
your mortgage at the end of the day. You know,
I heard you say you're doing one thousand dollars a
month if you don't have a raw ira. I'm just
going to plant the seed for you have a wroth ira,
(43:02):
open that up. The beauty is you don't get any
tax right off for the money going in, but that
money will grow tax to fer be tax free when
you take it out. That's a beautiful thing when you
don't have to pay taxes. So I'm not sure where
you're putting that thousand dollars a month, but you and
your wife can open up a wroth ira and have
that money going to a roth ira. There's some great, great,
(43:25):
you know, investments out there. So I gave you a
lot to think about, didn't I.
Speaker 6 (43:31):
Yes, you did.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Well. I hope it helps you.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
I'm only three years old, so would that.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Mean oh you got time? Man? Oh man, Yeah, you
got time. So I'm guessing your children are young unless
you had them at ten years old. So yeah, yeah,
So you have a young family and you're young, God
bless you. So you have time to save for retirement.
And if you're in a situation where you can save college,
(44:01):
you got a lot of years ahead of you. Bill.
It sounds as though like you have a good head
on your shoulders and that you can really, you know,
accomplish a lot for yourself and for your family. So
good for you. Hats off goes my hat goes off
to you.
Speaker 6 (44:18):
Well, thank you. You have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Bill, you have a good Thanksgiving as well, and stay healthy.
One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.
One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions, folks, give me a call, love love, love
to talk to you. Anything you want to talk about.
Believe me, I used to bartend in the late seventies
(44:43):
early eighties, so I've talked to people about everything, and
I can assure you some of the people on the
other side of the bar they had no clue what
I was saying, because by then they were out of it.
But anything you want to talk about. One one hundred
eighty two five nine four nine. So let me recap
(45:04):
you know, the the markets. You know, a good week
in the markets, the SMP up one point seven percent,
NASDAK one point nine percent, Russell two thousand and four
and a half percent. Year to date, the s and
p is up twenty five percent, twenty six and a
half percent with dividends, NASDAK up twenty seven percent, QQQ
(45:29):
up almost twenty four percent, Russell two thousand up nineteen
percent year today. That's a beautiful thing, folks. Not to
talk politics, but how many people were worried about how
the elections were going to go. And if you were
scared out of the markets, forget about it. Forget about
(45:49):
whoever's in that big white house down there in DC.
The stock markets really trade on the fundamentals, and sure
there's going to be voluntility here or there, but the
stock market's pretty you know, it's been doing this for
a long time. Democrat, Republican, doesn't matter who's sitting in
the Oval office. The stock market's pretty good. This coming week,
(46:12):
he got you know, it's a quiet week on earnings,
a couple couple of big names. On Tuesday, we're gonna
get the minutes released from the early November meeting for
the Fed Open Market Committee. We'll see really how those
board governors were thinking. And hey, how about the news.
We have a local boy that that was almost elected
(46:32):
Treasury secretary, and I'm guessing there's big things that happen
with Kevin Walsh. He's actually allowed the colony guy went
to Colony High and he's done well. Smart. I know Kevin.
I happen to know Kevin Smart, smart, smart guy, and
it was so nice to see him being on a
short list of you know, one of President Trump's you
(46:57):
know who he wanted to name for secretary. He ended
up going with another Scott Bestner, who's a hedge fund manager.
And you know, these are all smart people. Whether you
like him or not, folks, And I don't care if
you like him or not. He is surrounding himself by
some pretty smart people and it's okay that they're not
(47:18):
career long politicians. Actually it's refreshing. It's more than refreshing.
I mean, how many times have you heard me say
Elon Musk may be one of the most brilliant people
in the world. And I think that he and Vivek
are going to be cutting, cutting, cutting. I told you
we have this country spends way more money than it
(47:39):
brings in, and that is why we have thirty five
trillion dollars. Since twenty twenty, we've added twelve trillion dollars
onto our bottom line. It was in the low twenties.
We're up to thirty five trillion dollars of debt. If
we don't wrap our arms around that, we are going
(47:59):
to go bankrupt as a country. We can't allow that
to happen. So it's nice to see some business people
with the courage and strength to go in and make changes,
changes for the better, changes that we will all benefit from. Folks,
we will all benefit from from the changes that that's
(48:22):
going to be made. Whoever you voted for, I don't
care who you voted for. I'm just saying, and I'm
not here to be political, but it's refreshing to see
some of the changes that are going to happen. And
I'm very optimistic that the stock market will continue to
go up. And I can't believe that we're coming up
to the end of the show. I just can't believe that, Folks,
(48:46):
you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by
Bouchet Finns Group, where we help our clients prioritize their
health while we manage their wealth for life. I can't
thank you enough for tuning in. Go to our website
Bouchet dot com. That's Bis and boy O U c
H e Y dot com. Look at our webinars. We
did a great economy on the economy, on on the
(49:09):
economic state of the economy. This week we did a
nice tax one. Enjoy your day, come back tomorrow morning.
I'll be here eight am.
This week. Oh yeah, Zach, I'm not sure I want
to do my show. No, keep the music going. That's
a good song to get people warmed up and ready
to go. Hello, everybody, it's Thanksgiving week. Oh my god,
it's it's it's it's November twenty third. Can you believe it? Well?
(00:28):
I thank you for tuning in today, as I do
every week. I can't thank you enough for tuning in.
I'm Stephen Bouchet. I'm your host today. I'm here live
as live can be, and I would love to talk
to you. I know I was off last week, but
I'm back this week. And if you have any questions,
any questions whatsoever, folks, give me a call. The phone
numbers are open for thirty years. The phone numbers haven't changed.
(00:53):
One eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eight two
five five nine four nine. That's one eight hundred eighty
two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, folks pertaining
to your financial future, give me a call. Is I
say often, you get one opportunity to retire. You can't
(01:15):
blow it because you can't go back and make up
for those decades of working. So you need to be prepared.
And that's what I'm here for, to help get you prepared.
And I'm telling you, I you know, even this week
I'm in an airport and I get a tap on
the shoulder, a nice gentleman getting on the plane walking
in a cane, and he stopped me before he got
(01:38):
on with the preboarding. He says, sir. I said, Hi,
I'm Steve. He says, I know who you are. He says,
I listen to you all the time. He says, I'm retired,
I'm a veteran. What about this USAA company? And you
could just see how proud he was being a veteran.
And I said, you know, first of all, let me
(01:59):
thank you for your sir. I said, and USAA was
a company that really going out of its way, out
of its way to help veterans. I said, it's a
solid company. It's a good company. He couldn't thank me enough.
And that's when I know, all these thirty years of
being here with you every weekend and doing the show
(02:19):
with you makes it worth my while. It gets me
all excited. I never get bored, and I can't I
can't thank you enough for tuning in once again. If
you have any questions, that I can help you out
with one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.
So I got some good news and bad news for you.
Zack and I were just talking and Zach, you're an
(02:43):
old soul. I mean, that was a great song you played. Well,
I have to play that on the bottom of the
hour two. And I asked Zach what he was doing,
and you know, he's Zach is a special guy, folks,
for for for those of you that don't know, he's
been my producer for a long time now, and he
does things from a family perspective that a lot of
(03:04):
people don't realize. He's one of the good ones. And
he says, I'm gonna go shop for my turkey dinner.
I said, well, let me tell you, Zach, I got
some news for you. Good news, bad news. The average
price for a bird is expected to fall six point
one percent. That's the good news. The bad news is
a pecan pie may cost eight percent or more. There,
(03:26):
you habit, folks. You know the Wall Street Journal did
a nice piece and the Farm Bureau forecasts at the
costs of the average thanksgiving me for a group of
ten people at about fifty eight dollars. You got cranberries up,
stuffing mix up, turkey down, frozen peas. If you're into
(03:47):
that down, dinner rolls up, you probably don't need the carbs.
But on Thanksgiving Day, dinner rolls with some butter. Slather
that butter on, folks. There's nothing wrong with butter. I
put butter in spaghetti sauce when I cook. You know,
I'm a foodie. I like to cook. I put butter
on my spaghetti sauce. But dinner rolls are up, pie
(04:08):
cross are down if you're making your own pie. Pumpkin
pie mixes down. Sweet potatoes is down huge, down twenty
six percent. So there you go. That's the recap of
your Thanksgiving meal and what you can expect financially speaking,
to spend this coming week. But it is a good holiday.
(04:31):
It's a good holiday to spend with family and friends.
It's a good holiday to spread the cheer and help others.
And you always feel good helping others. Helping people always
feels good. So Thanksgiving week is before us. We're going
to be closing out twenty twenty four. And what a
year it's been. I mean, if you're an investor, I mean,
(04:57):
it just goes to show you when everybody says that,
you know, the market can't continue to go up. Folks,
listen the market. The market truly truly trades on fundamentals.
It could care less who is in the office. It
(05:18):
really could. It could care less. And the markets are
up in the you know, since election day, I haven't been.
I haven't been with you, but you know you have
NASTAC up about five percent, the S and P is up.
I mean, the markets are up. Whether I don't care
who you voted for. I don't really really care who
(05:38):
you voted for. Everybody has their personal choice, and I
respect everybody's personal choice. But I am. I am excited
to see President Electron putting in some business people into office,
and people that probably will make a difference. And I
always say it's it's too bad that so many business people,
(05:59):
smart people that know how to you know, work within
a budget and not spend more than the company can,
or the company we'll go out of business. Unfortunately, in Washington,
politicians just spend, spend, spend, They don't care because we
can print money, and all of a sudden we're in debt.
We're in debt, thirty five trillion dollars that's a trillion.
With a tea that's twelve zeros. At the end of
(06:20):
a trillion, we're in debt. So I'm I'm kind of
I'm kind of pleased, and I'm going to give you
one money saving tip, folks. This is my big tip
of the holiday season. If you want to save money
on Christmas gifts, not buying them this coming Thursday, talk
politics at Thanksgiving dinner. I assure you you won't have
(06:45):
as many people to buy Christmas gifts for a guarantee.
One eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine.
Let's go to the phone lines. We have less on
hold and less. What are you doing hanging out while
your wife's getting her hair downe.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah. I have a situation that I will be facing
some time as far as a beneficiary. I have three granddaughters,
and whenever the time comes, would I pass. You know,
they're looking at possibly thirty thousand apiece that they will receive.
(07:29):
The problem is my middle granddaughter, which is a sister
of the orders, and if she's ruined her life in
her drugs and it's chaotic, I can't pull myself to
give her a thirty thousand to throw away on drugs?
(07:50):
How do I handle the situation?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And I'm going to hang up.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm going to hang on.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I want to I want to get an update. I
want to get an update on how beautiful your wife
looks getting your hair done. So you know, hey, hey,
stay on the stay on the phone line with me. One.
I admire you. I'm actually I'm actually doing the same thing.
I'm setting up trust for my grandchildren. Something that my
wife and I talked about before she passed, that we
(08:19):
wanted to make sure that our grandchildren knew, you know,
how much we cared for them, and leave them a
little trust with some babysitting instructions. My daughter will actually
be the trustee, the rant of the trust, and I'm
setting up trusts, three individual trusts for each of my grandchildren,
and my daughter will have the powers to you know,
(08:42):
you know, give them money as needed and so forth.
So in your situation, one, I admire you for doing
this for your granddaughters, but you should probably be careful
about the middle grand daughter. Unfortunately, as we know, depression,
substance abuse, alcohol abuse, it's it's prevalent, and it's it's
(09:04):
like wildfire. Just spreading. So many people are affected by it,
and it sounds as though your daughter granddaughter is affected
by it. So what you want to do is one
of two things you may want to see. And at
eleven o'clock after my show, you got the you know,
loop hero Inas group and their attorneys and it's free advice.
(09:26):
I would I would stay tuned in. Hopefully your wife's
getting a perm and you're going to be there a
couple hours, so you could give give Lou Lou's show
a call and ask him. But you may want to
set up a real easy trust that basically says the
money can go to your granddaughter for welfare, but not
(09:47):
for discretion. Everything's like drugs until she gets on her feet,
or you know, ask your other two granddaughters. And it's
a big ask to kind of oversee the the inherent
for your middle granddaughter. But you do want to be
careful because more than likely your middle granddaughter will probably
spend it on things that that you just would not
(10:10):
want her to spend it on. And you're you're smart
and wise for being aware of it and still wanting
to leave her something and and and unless I'm telling you,
and it would be a hard conversation. But if you
and I were buddies and we were having a glass
of wine later and you asked my opinion, I would
(10:32):
say to you, Less, sit down with your middle granddaughter
and tell her what you just told me, and tell
her why you don't think you can leave her that money,
and try to and encourage her to get help to
break away from the downward spiral that her life's going.
(10:53):
You never know less what what words can do to
help somebody, especially somebody in your granddaughter's situation. If you
and I were buddies and I was sitting next to
you later, that's exactly what I would tell you. You
know what, what's the worst that's going to happen. Your
granddaughter's going to get upset with you and not talk
to you. Is she probably not talking to you now
(11:14):
because she's involved in this life of hers. So as
a grandfather, you know you have nothing to lose. Give
it a shot and give it to her straight anyway, Less, listen,
great question, Take a picture and send send it to
me through the airwaves of your wife.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And one of my concerns would be the relationship between
the three granddaughters. If I hold back on that middle one.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
You know, I know, I know. No, I mean, treating
them equal is one thing, but being careful for the
middle one and protecting her from her own demons is
the best thing you can do. Less, you're thinking the
right way. All right, send me a picture of your
wife when the hair gets done. All right, that was
(12:07):
a good call. He's literally sitting waiting for his wife
to get her hair done. Great call. Less one, eight, two, five, five, nine,
four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We
have Jim in Rockland County. Hello, Jim, good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Good morning, Steve. I've got a h I've got a
question for you on SMAs separately managed accounts. A friend
of mine has been talking to me about them because
he's an investor in them, and i'd like to get
your take on what they are and whether you use
them in your practice or not.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, so, in and in that nut show, SMAs separately
managed to count. So what you're doing is, let's say,
let's make believe you have an account of Charles Schwap
and they have a whole whole host of professionally managed
portfolios that you can pick one to meet your specific
(13:06):
needs for you know, whatever, you know, it could be
social investing, it could be growth investing, it could be
dividend paying, it could be a well balanced Basically, you're
hiring a manager to manage your portfolio, so we don't
use them in our practice. But we don't use them
because we really are our clients separately managed account manager.
(13:32):
We manage our client's portfolio, so our clients put their
trust and faith in us to manage their portfolio. We
do a darn good job, a knockout job. I'm very
proud of our returns. So our clients don't really need
SMAs because we act as that professional manager. We're managing
our portfolios. But there's a lot of people that open
(13:54):
up an account at like a Charles Schwab, and you know,
the retail guys and as that are sitting in the office,
they really don't know, you know, they don't manage money.
They can't really give the advice that we get, so
they may recommend an SMA and then it's, as I said,
any flavor you can. It's like going into Stewarts and
(14:15):
I was in Stewarts bright and earlier this morning getting
my papers, and you know, you look at the list
of ice cream flavors. I mean, just about any ice
cream flavor you want, you can get at Stewarts, and
Stewarts has some pretty darn good ice cream. The same
with SMAs. Just about you know, you can get them.
It could be customized. It's professionally managed. You own it,
(14:37):
so you have direct ownership. But the managers are making
the investment decisions. A lot of them are tax efficient,
which is good. They're all transparent, which is good. Something
that two points that we believe in. For our clients.
A lot of them ask for for a higher a
higher minimum investment. So using SMAs or a combination of
(15:02):
separate managed you know, managers to achieve your financial goals.
There's nothing wrong with it. So your buddy it sounds
as though he's in one, he's happy with one. You
always want to look at the returns if you do
get invested in a SMA, you know, do your homework,
(15:24):
your due diligence, you know what's their style investing? How
have their returns been compared to the benchmark. And for
most stock investors, the benchmark really is it should be
the S and P five hundred indecks. That's really the
proxy that you want to and you know, compare yourself
to and you're to date the S and P is
up twenty five percent, with dividends about twenty six and
(15:47):
a half percent. So that's what you want to compare
yourself to. But go ahead.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
One thing they seem to emphasize is that you can
at some point do some tax loss harvestings. So for example,
if you have a growth portfolio, you've got apple in there,
apple drops five or ten percent, you can sell that
chunk of it, the apple portion and realize tax loss.
(16:15):
Is that correct that right now?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Well, sometimes the managers do that. We do that automatically
for our clients. Once again, it's it's a powerful tool
to be able to recognize losses and harvest them if
you can't use them all to offset gains. You know
the rule with that and people should be aware of it, Jim,
as we come up to the end of the year,
especially people that go out and buy a mutual fund,
(16:40):
because they could buy a mutual fund today in the
first week of December. The mutual funds, you know, could
could you know basically declare a dividend or taxable income
and you've only owned that mutual fund for a short
period of time, but you're going to pay tax on
those gains. That's why I don't like mutual funds. You
(17:01):
have no control over that, and you know you're in
it for a short period of time, and sometimes you
could be paying a pretty good hefty tax depending on
the distribution that to mutual fund company does. But we
automatically every year we harvest losses, and we actually have
for our higher networth clients, we actually have a system
(17:24):
set up where we really you know, it's pretty sophisticated,
where we do it all year long. And the returns,
as I said, our returns in that program are are
pretty good. But let's make believe you have ten thousand
dollars of gains this year, and let's make believe you
have fifteen thousand dollars of losses. If you sell all
(17:44):
of those losers. Two things, you can't buy it back
for thirty days. That's the wash sale rule. So you
have to wait thirty days before you can buy it back.
And you can use those fifteen thousand dollars of losses
to offset ten one thousand dollars a gain, then another
three thousand dollars, but you have two thousand dollars of
(18:06):
losses left over. What happens is that carries forward to
next year's tax return and you can save and harvest.
This is what we mean by harvesting. Harvest that two
thousand dollars of extra losses to offset gains for next year.
But not every separate account manager does this. So once again,
(18:29):
that's another good question, Jim, for you to ask as
you interview these SMAs. But there's thousands of them out there.
Some are good, some are not so good. Make sure
you compare the returns the benchmark, make sure you understand
their style of investing, and make sure that you're comfortable.
(18:49):
And as long as you're interviewing SMAs, I'm going to
throw this out. It's selfless of me. God help me.
How can I be on international radio in and and
take this opportunity to say, Jim, give our office a call,
kick our tires, look under our hood. We have clients
in thirty seven states, so you being in Rockland County
(19:12):
doesn't scare us. But give us a call and let
us explain to you what we do for our clients
and how we do it. And then now with all
that information, you'll be able to make a more logical,
more rational decision on what you think is best for you.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
That sounds good, all right, Okay, listen, Thank you Steve,
and I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thank you, Jim and you as well. Enjoy your family
and friends, and thank you for tuning in. Okay, good calls,
Lesson Jim. I can't wait to see Less's wife's haircut.
I hope he remembers Zach to send us a picture
of that. I don't want to see it with the
court with her and her curls underneath that big dome
that they that the ladies sit in. But the end
(19:58):
product we you know, let's to us to send us
a selfie with he and his wife. That was That
was great. I've never had anybody wait waiting for their
wife to get their hair done. And and you have
to admire Less as a husband. I mean, how many
hubbies go out there and hang out and wait for
their wife to get their hair done. Good for you, Less,
But he had an emotional question, and you know, those
(20:22):
are those are situations that are tough. You know, I
understand the demons that people go through. Not everybody does.
But if if, if you ever get the opportunity to
really open up with family and friends, and sometimes it's
you listening that are fighting some of these demons. They're hard,
(20:44):
especially depression. Depression is one of those demons where you
don't know who's being affected by it. So many people
covered up and then you know, sometimes they try to
mask mask the feelings of depression with alcohol, which really
just makes them feel that much more depressed, and it's
a downward vicious cycle on others like Lessa's granddaughter fighting
(21:07):
substance abuse this country. Obviously, we know the headlines in
the paper. We know just reading the obituaries, you can
kind of put two together and realize how many people
are are dying unexpectedly because they're fighting demons. So I'm
glad Less called and Jim had a great call too
on eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine
(21:30):
one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
Love to talk to you with whatever's on your mind,
whatever you're thinking about, if you have any questions, you know,
give give me a call. Zach and I are here
love to get you on the wide world web. You know,
(21:51):
if you got the iHeartRadio app, you can listen to
us from anywhere around the world. And believe me, people
listen to us from all all over. It's amazing where
some of the phone calls come in. So this week,
you know, we began with you know, let's call it
the Trump trades being unwound. As interest rates once again
took front and center on the stage. President Biden cleared
(22:15):
Ukraine to use US missiles to strike into Russia, and
Vladimir Putin rattled his nuclear arms, and that just sent
a message where investors went into safe investments like treasuries
and gold and the dollar as a place to be safe.
(22:36):
You know that that was big news for us. Listen,
you know, in the beginning, I thought it was great
that we were helping Ukraine, but to send them over
two hundred billion dollars when we had cities in this
country that look worse than Ukraine just doesn't make sense
to me anymore. There there has to be an end
(22:57):
to that thing, and hopefully it'll it'll be soon. In
addition to that, on the political stage, you had in
the video beat huge expectations, and you know, people were
expecting you know, almost a ten percent movement in the
video and in the overseas markets. You know, there was
(23:17):
a lot of movement. But the next day when the
markets opened up, the video was actually down. Big company, right,
the video was actually down. So there you have it.
You know, you never know how a stock is going
to react. You got bitcoin almost at one hundred thousand dollars.
I think it's safe to say Bitcoin is here to stay.
(23:40):
I don't think bitcoin is going anywhere. Bitcoin is is
literally here to stay. It's it's it's amazing what's going
on with bitcoin. You know, the markets were up. I'll
get into that on the other side of the news.
(24:01):
We're gonna take a quick break, folks. You're listening to
Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Group,
where we help our clients prioritize their health while we
manage their wealth for life. And I take pride in
managing our clients wealth. One eight, eight, two, five, five, nine,
four nine. Give us a call during the news. I'll
see in a couple of quick minutes, square.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
On the scene somewhere my love us stands on gold
and sad. Then watch just the shims.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I'm here, folks. I just love this song Beyond the
Sea Bobby Darren. It's a great song. Zach has some
good taste putting this music up. Thank you Zach for that.
So you know I'm getting in a way. The phone
lines are lighting up. I gave a money saving tip.
You know, I was talking about turkey prices being down,
(25:09):
but are pecan pies being up? And you know, the
average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for a group of
ten is about fifty eight dollars And it's a great meal, right.
As much of a food as I am and I
love to cook, it's probably the messiest dinner to cook,
but boy, it sure tastes good. And there's nothing like
(25:30):
a nice turkey sandwich later that night or the next day,
white bread, mayo, little cranberry sauce on it. Nothing, nothing,
nothing beats that. But I gave a money saving tip
and a lot of people got to chuckle out of it.
So one more money saving tip this Christmas season. If
you want to save money on gifts, talk politics at
(25:53):
Thanksgiving dinner. It's a guarantee you will have less people
at the Christmas dinner table, less people to buy for.
Talk politics at Thanksgiving dinner, and it's an instant, instant
way to save money on Christmas gifts. There you have it. Folks.
That's my money saving tip for this holiday season. And
(26:15):
on a serious note, I really do believe that. You know, listen,
sometimes the old fashioned way is the best way. And
opening up Christmas is as silly as it sounds. At
Christmas Club, remember that every week you would put money
into a little account and at Christmas time you'd get
the cash and you go out and buy Christmas gifts.
Do not do not, do not, do not, do not.
(26:37):
Did I say that do not enough times? Do not
go out and charge on credit cards, especially you know,
thirty percent more, you know, whether it be TJ Max, Macy's,
these these stores, the interest rate charges, folks, you can't
(26:57):
get ahead that way. Then financial failure is to load
up your credit cards buying. And don't take this the
wrong way, folks. Sometimes we buy useless gifts fees. We
feel we need to have something under the tree. I
love those families where you know, you pick out one
person to buy for, where you go out and buy
(27:19):
a meaningful gift and put some thought into it, rather
than getting a bunch of things that you may never
never use. So I'm not being grouch or scrooge. I'm
just being honest with you. Try not to load up
your credit cards. Please don't think, don't don't get enticed
(27:40):
to open up a new credit card because you're getting
these things in the mail. Please do not do it.
If you're walking through the stores and you got these,
you know people that say, oh, open up a credit
card with us, all the advantages. Don't do it, folks.
The interest rate charges are astronomical, astronomical eighty two nine
(28:01):
four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines where
we have Ron on hold.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Hello, Ron, Hi, Steve.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I don't have any questions today. I just wanted to
let you know that both Lauren and Angie have been
incredible in working with me. I am so excited. I
am going to be seeing you on December ninth in
Saratoga to talk about what you can do for me.
(28:30):
They've been incredible, and I just wanted to let you
know that. I hope you don't mind if I bring
along a couple of questions about my daughter, who you've
been helping me along the way.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
No, Ron, listen, I'm honored that you want to come in.
And Lauren, who's my daughter, and Angie they act as
are client concierge. I'm glad they're taking good care of you.
You've been a long time listener and I've been able
to help you out. This is what brings me the
most joy doing the show for thirty years now. Almost
(29:03):
doing the show is helping people like you or that
gentleman who tapped me on the shoulder while I was
getting on a plane the other night, or sometimes I'm
walking the streets and sometimes it's just my voice. Somebody
will say, oh, I know that voice. You're You're, You're,
you're Stephen Bouchet. I said, I am, and I thought
I had a face for radio. But no, I'm honored
(29:25):
that Ron, you're you're coming in. You know, I hope
we can help you, but I know we help you
with your daughter, and that that that that's a beautiful thing.
It's like, you know less, our first caller of the
day being able to help him. So no, thank you
for calling in. You know who doesn't like compliments, Ron
(29:45):
I you know you make me smile, and that's the
best compliment you can give me is saying how impressed
you were with just banking a phone call to schedule
and appointment to come in. So I look forward to
meeting you, Ron, and I thank you for calling in
today and and letting them listening. Well, Dans know that
(30:06):
you know you're you're going to come in to see
what we can do for you. So thank you. One
eight hundred talk w g Y one eight hundred eight
two five five, nine four nine. Ron's been listening for
a long time, a long time, so he finally decided.
And this happens a lot. We had another new client
(30:28):
a couple of weeks ago. I don't know, they've been
listening for like over ten years. I said, well, what
took you so long to come in? I mean, we've
had one heck of a ten year run. You know
what took you so long? But you know, sometimes people
are you know, just take some people longer than others
to call and and schedule an initial consultation. And there's
(30:51):
no charge or an initial consultation. Folks. I'm so proud
of the team that I've built and created, you know,
the firm that I have. You know, we're twenty for
professionals that I'm surrounded by. And I have one rule
when I bring on any any new colleague to our firm,
I want them to be smarter than me. I want
them to feel comfortable to talk up. To help grow
(31:15):
the way we work with our clients, they have to
have that. They need to have that sense of value
and integrity. Taking care of our clients first and foremost.
That's all I care about is taking care of our clients,
making sure our clients are in a good place. So
we have a lot of people that come in. Some
(31:35):
some listen to the show once or twice and scheduling
and appointment. Some it takes longer, but I guess at
the end of the day at least they call them.
They come in. One eight hundred eight two five five
nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty
nine forty nine. So I talked about the stock markets.
(31:55):
You know, it was actually a pretty pretty good week.
It wasn't a good day for Navidia, but the rest
of the markets. You hear me talk about this often,
the small and mid cap markets. The equal weighted index
all up almost between four and five percent this week.
(32:16):
Now what that means is the equal weighted index. You
hear me talk about this so so so often when
when you look at the you know, just the the
S and P five hundred. When when you look at
the S and P five hundred. And you think about
the weighting of the top ten holdings, especially you know
(32:38):
you got you got na Video now is number one.
That represents over seven percent, Apple seven percent, Microsoft six percent,
Amazon almost four percent, Alphabet four percent, Meta, which is
Facebook two and a half percent. You know, it's it's
(32:59):
it's the top Those top ten holdings account for thirty
five percent of the S and P. And when when
when you look at the equal weight, and I say this,
if you want diversification in your portfolio, take a look
at the equal weight, the the Invesco equal Weight ETF
(33:20):
the SMP. So instead of instead of you know, having
a company like Navidia and the other nine companies make
up for thirty five percent, each holding is equally weighted,
so about let's say approximately point two five percent, you know,
so instead of Navidia being seven point two percent weighted
(33:44):
in the S and P and the equal weight, na
Vidia is point two five percent approximately along with Apple
and Microsoft and all those other companies, especially the magnificent
seven companies. So it's nice to see the market broadening out.
This is important. Listen, I'm a bull, although I'm always
(34:04):
a bull. You know, it's it's funny. I've said this
in my office more times than not, and I try
to mentor especially my investment guys, mentor them that listen,
do not invest for the rainy days. I could care
less that the market goes down for a day, a week,
(34:26):
a month. It happens. It comes with the territory. But
over time, being invested in a good portfolio will bring
you better returns. And yes, there will be days, weeks, months,
sometimes a year where you're down. It comes with the territory, folks,
And I just don't want to hear it that you
(34:48):
can't take those down days. If you can't take those
down days, then you shouldn't be invested in stocks at all.
You know, suffer with your money under the mattress. Sure
you can get by a US ten year treasury and
get you know, over four percent and for the next
for the next ten years. If you're happy with four
percent and you're able to sleep at night, that's all
(35:10):
that matters. But I would much rather in every one
of our clients. We don't have any client that doesn't
have stocks in their portfolio because we take the time
to educate them. You know, over the last ten years,
the average return in the SMP was thirteen fourteen percent
year in, year out. That's a whole lot better than
(35:32):
four percent. Yes, you're gonna have days and weeks, you know.
Over the last ten years there were two years where
the markets were down and two out of eleven years,
including this year, because we're almost in for the year
two out of eleven years. That's okay, folks. That comes
with the territory of investing. Don't get don't get all
(35:53):
freaked out about it. You know, rather than talking about
politics at the dinner table, talk about investing. Talk about
what I just shared with you, with with especially with
your brother in law who thinks he knows everything about investing.
Let your brother in law know, Hey, stocks are up
more than they're down over the last ten fifteen years,
(36:14):
fourteen percent a year, compared to bonds at two point
five percent. This is why having a well diversified portfolio
makes sense. There you have it, folks. One eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine. Boy, I'm creating
a lot of conversation for Thanksgiving dinner, aren't i? One
eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. We
(36:36):
have Bill and Kobelskill. Hello, Bill, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
I'm good.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Oh good? How are you know? I haven't been in
Cobelschool in a long time. How are things down there?
Speaker 6 (36:50):
Things are pretty good. Things are looking up, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Good, good, good. It's always a beautiful ride to go
down there. And it's been a while, you know. I
should put the convertible down and take a ride down someday.
Maybe maybe not for a few months till it warms up. Bill,
But yeah, you may be surprised. I may come down
to Cobel Skill. I'll be beeping my horn looking for bills.
So I'll give you a head sign. Anyone. What can
(37:16):
I help you with?
Speaker 6 (37:18):
Giving you a call? Just quick question. I've got about
fifty thousand dollars in savings and looking to pay off
my house. I'm thinking or should I start really heavily
putting money aside for paying for college for kids? I
got four kids to putting the couch?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
M So can I talk to you frankly? Blunt? Yeah, okay,
I don't know you know your whole financial picture. Do
you have other investments or retirement plans?
Speaker 5 (37:54):
I do.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
I work for the States. I've got a pension going
on good also a side about about one thousand dollars
a month for retirement good and pretty much we only
owe about about fifty thousand dollars between the car and
the house, all right, So that's that's our entire debt
(38:19):
level right now.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, So you're managing your debt good, which is means
you're living within your means and your discipline and saving.
So I'm just going to be I'll generalize this not
obviously not and it's not something that we can answer
on the showbies. There's so much that goes into it.
But I'll just plant some seeds with you, build some
things that think about. What I tell people all the
(38:42):
time is it's great that you want to help your children,
but don't do it at the expense of it hurting
your retirement. Your children can always go to college, they
can always listen. So many kids, there's so many opportunities
for them to start out with the two year associates
degree at a two year college where it costs next
(39:04):
to nothing, and then transfer those credits. You don't always
have to and nowadays, I would you know, if I
got to, if I got a resume from one of
these IVY schools, I would probably not even interview the applicant.
With everything that's been going on with these ivy schools
and these snotty nosed kids, but you don't need to
be spending eighty ninety thousand dollars a year for a
(39:25):
private education. We got some good, great state schools. When
I interview people, and I've been interviewing, you know, January
first will be thirty five years that I've been in business,
I always look at the person, and you know, I
always like to see that they've gone to college. I
do believe in having young people go to college, although
(39:46):
with that being said, there's a lot of young people
that really maybe not be cut out for college, but
could go to a trade school like Hudson Valley has
trade schools. I just specialize in jobs at global foundries
where you can really make a really darn good living,
or trade schools in other areas of the trade industry.
(40:07):
But bottom line, you don't So I don't know the
answer to this in your situation, but if if it
affects your ability to retire, then you have to prioritize
your retirement first. Now, if you're in a good situation
between your pension, you can do it all. I would
(40:27):
not pay off more than likely. I'm guessing Bill, with
you only having more than likely, you have a low
interest rate on your mortgage, I'm assuming that is that true. Yeah,
so you know, let's make believe you have one of
those mortgages that you got at three percent. Well, I
just gave the statistics. If you had that money invested
(40:50):
in the stock market, you're going to make thirteen fourteen
percent a year over the last ninety years. The average
return is ten to twelve percent. So that's a whole
lot more than three percent. So you really don't want
to pay off your mortgage. Whether you put that money
towards college savings or not, that's another question. But I
want to be paying off your mortgage if you have
a low mortgage rate, and if you do, decide, Bill
(41:12):
to put money away for your children's education. Look at
I think the plan that New York has is the
best in the country, the New York Saves ny saves
dot org. It's managed by Vanguard. You can open up
an account right online. You can put as little as
twenty five dollars a month into it. It's a great program,
(41:34):
and the beauty about it is not knowing how old
your children are, but you get a New York state
tax deduction up to five thousand dollars per individual ten
thousand dollars per married couple. So that saves you seven
eight hundred dollars of New York state taxes. And that's
a nice benefit. But it's the investments internally are managed
(41:56):
by Vanguard and Vanguards. You know, we use a lot
of van Guard in our portfolios, so you know, it's
one of the best best plans out there. And when
you cash that out when your children go to college,
you're not taxed on the gain if it's used for
qualified college expenses. Now let's make belief all four of
(42:18):
your kids get a free ride to college and you
don't need that money. Well, you can use that money
for something else. And the downside is you'll pay on
the growth of it. And that's okay if it's not
used for qualified college expenses, because you would have paid
money on the growth anyway. So that's that's something to
think about. Nysaves dot com. It's a great program. So
(42:42):
there you have it. You know, I gave you a
lot to think about, but at the end of the day,
I would not either way. I would not pay off
your mortgage at the end of the day. You know,
I heard you say you're doing one thousand dollars a
month if you don't have a raw ira. I'm just
going to plant the seed for you have a wroth ira,
(43:02):
open that up. The beauty is you don't get any
tax right off for the money going in, but that
money will grow tax to fer be tax free when
you take it out. That's a beautiful thing when you
don't have to pay taxes. So I'm not sure where
you're putting that thousand dollars a month, but you and
your wife can open up a wroth ira and have
that money going to a roth ira. There's some great, great,
(43:25):
you know, investments out there. So I gave you a
lot to think about, didn't I.
Speaker 6 (43:31):
Yes, you did.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Well. I hope it helps you.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
I'm only three years old, so would that.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Mean oh you got time? Man? Oh man, Yeah, you
got time. So I'm guessing your children are young unless
you had them at ten years old. So yeah, yeah,
So you have a young family and you're young, God
bless you. So you have time to save for retirement.
And if you're in a situation where you can save college,
(44:01):
you got a lot of years ahead of you. Bill.
It sounds as though like you have a good head
on your shoulders and that you can really, you know,
accomplish a lot for yourself and for your family. So
good for you. Hats off goes my hat goes off
to you.
Speaker 6 (44:18):
Well, thank you. You have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Bill, you have a good Thanksgiving as well, and stay healthy.
One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.
One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions, folks, give me a call, love love, love
to talk to you. Anything you want to talk about.
Believe me, I used to bartend in the late seventies
(44:43):
early eighties, so I've talked to people about everything, and
I can assure you some of the people on the
other side of the bar they had no clue what
I was saying, because by then they were out of it.
But anything you want to talk about. One one hundred
eighty two five nine four nine. So let me recap
(45:04):
you know, the the markets. You know, a good week
in the markets, the SMP up one point seven percent,
NASDAK one point nine percent, Russell two thousand and four
and a half percent. Year to date, the s and
p is up twenty five percent, twenty six and a
half percent with dividends, NASDAK up twenty seven percent, QQQ
(45:29):
up almost twenty four percent, Russell two thousand up nineteen
percent year today. That's a beautiful thing, folks. Not to
talk politics, but how many people were worried about how
the elections were going to go. And if you were
scared out of the markets, forget about it. Forget about
(45:49):
whoever's in that big white house down there in DC.
The stock markets really trade on the fundamentals, and sure
there's going to be voluntility here or there, but the
stock market's pretty you know, it's been doing this for
a long time. Democrat, Republican, doesn't matter who's sitting in
the Oval office. The stock market's pretty good. This coming week,
(46:12):
he got you know, it's a quiet week on earnings,
a couple couple of big names. On Tuesday, we're gonna
get the minutes released from the early November meeting for
the Fed Open Market Committee. We'll see really how those
board governors were thinking. And hey, how about the news.
We have a local boy that that was almost elected
(46:32):
Treasury secretary, and I'm guessing there's big things that happen
with Kevin Walsh. He's actually allowed the colony guy went
to Colony High and he's done well. Smart. I know Kevin.
I happen to know Kevin Smart, smart, smart guy, and
it was so nice to see him being on a
short list of you know, one of President Trump's you
(46:57):
know who he wanted to name for secretary. He ended
up going with another Scott Bestner, who's a hedge fund manager.
And you know, these are all smart people. Whether you
like him or not, folks, And I don't care if
you like him or not. He is surrounding himself by
some pretty smart people and it's okay that they're not
(47:18):
career long politicians. Actually it's refreshing. It's more than refreshing.
I mean, how many times have you heard me say
Elon Musk may be one of the most brilliant people
in the world. And I think that he and Vivek
are going to be cutting, cutting, cutting. I told you
we have this country spends way more money than it
(47:39):
brings in, and that is why we have thirty five
trillion dollars. Since twenty twenty, we've added twelve trillion dollars
onto our bottom line. It was in the low twenties.
We're up to thirty five trillion dollars of debt. If
we don't wrap our arms around that, we are going
(47:59):
to go bankrupt as a country. We can't allow that
to happen. So it's nice to see some business people
with the courage and strength to go in and make changes,
changes for the better, changes that we will all benefit from. Folks,
we will all benefit from from the changes that that's
(48:22):
going to be made. Whoever you voted for, I don't
care who you voted for. I'm just saying, and I'm
not here to be political, but it's refreshing to see
some of the changes that are going to happen. And
I'm very optimistic that the stock market will continue to
go up. And I can't believe that we're coming up
to the end of the show. I just can't believe that, Folks,
(48:46):
you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by
Bouchet Finns Group, where we help our clients prioritize their
health while we manage their wealth for life. I can't
thank you enough for tuning in. Go to our website
Bouchet dot com. That's Bis and boy O U c
H e Y dot com. Look at our webinars. We
did a great economy on the economy, on on the
(49:09):
economic state of the economy. This week we did a
nice tax one. Enjoy your day, come back tomorrow morning.
I'll be here eight am.
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