Hello, and welcome, folks.
It's Saturday, August third, August, already August third, twenty twenty four, and I'm live. I'm Stephen Bouchet, your host today, Zach. I haven't been on with you since April, so it's good too. It's good to be on with you, Zach.
You were very missed in the time now you were gone.
Even though you have some great colleagues, I always miss you. I have some amazing colleagues that have stepped right in did the show.
I can't begin I can't begin to say just.
How wonderful my colleagues are. So no, they do an amazing job for our clients and for the radio everything.
So I'm very lucky, Zach. I'm very blessed in a lot of ways.
So, folks, it was a crazy week, so much going on. If you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, give us a call one eight hundred Talk WGY one eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine, any.
Questions whatsoever, folks, I love to talk to you.
As I said, last week was one of those weeks where, especially Thursday and Friday, you just want to kind of forget about it. You had the Federal Reserve, you know, they held rate steady and we kind of expected that. Talked about a possible cut in September, which I think right now is a given. We'll get into that later
on in the show. You had a lot of tech companies reporting mixed earnings, some good earning, some bad earnings, selloffs in NA Video and Intel, especially Intel was down about twenty five percent on Friday alone, big hits that just spread globally for technology companies.
Japan raised rates.
US unemployment rose to four point three percent, which was yesterday's news. So for the week, the Dow down two point one percent, the SMP down two point six percent, the NASDAK down three point four percent. NASDAC right now officially is in correction territory, which means it fell ten percent from where it was. That's what we referred to as a correction. Year to date, NASDAK is up about twelve percent. QQQ is up almost ten percent. SMP year
to date is up about twelve percent. Russell two thousand, and I'm telling you we were we were hopeful for
the Russell two thousand. Russell two thousand is basically mid cap small cap index and for the week, the Russell two thousand was down almost seven percent, the S and P small cap six hundred indecks down about five and a half percent, and year to date, the Russell two thousand is up about four percent the SMP small cap six hundred two point four percent, So it really small caps gave ground because of the uncertainty over the economy.
And right now, I hate to use the R word, but you know, right now the R word is coming into play because maybe, just maybe, and I hate to say it, you know, not like they haven't been wrong before. We know the FED. You know, listen, these are some brilliant people. They went to school and in some ways they never left school. They got their nose in the textbook. And they've been wrong. They've admitted they've been wrong. They missed, they missed when they should have started hiking interest rates
a couple of years ago. They missed it completely. But they admitted to it. So you have to give them a free hall pass.
Right.
They admitted to it, and we moved on. They did a good job hiking rates like they should have. They brought inflation from nine point one percent all the way down to the three percent neighborhood.
Their target is two percent, although.
Inflation, you know, is even though it's dropped a lot, it needs to drop some more in their eyes, and maybe, just maybe they should have started raising interest rates a lot of people now in hindsight, I always say, everything's crystal clear in hindsight, maybe they should have had a little hike this week. But we'll see what they do
in September. Right now, after the news on the economy and the jobs report, it looks as though there's there's almost one hundred percent bet that interest rates will go up. Now the key in September is will it go up point two five percent or point five zero percent? That's really what we're we'll we'll have to see. And some feel that the Fed really should raise interest rates before then.
So let's hope that then, being late to the party again not raising or i'm sorry, not lowering rates, you know, being ahead of the curve, waiting till the last minute, doesn't push us into this soft landing hard landing scenario. Let's hope that they're able to maneuver rates, massage rates, and have the rates, you know, do their job. That's that's what we're hoping the Fed can do. So it was just a crazy week, just a crazy week. For
the first time. The US Treasury estimate of Americans, you know, basically our debt in this country is thirty five trillion dollars.
Folks.
Remember there's twelve zeros on the end of a trillion. Twelve zeros, So if you're going to put it down on a paper, make sure you have a good sized paper. Thirty five trillion dollars is what were in debt. The other news that we've experienced over the last week or so, five thousand flights from Delta along with thousands and thousands of other flights from other airlines, all because of crowd
strikes outage. Basically, they upgraded there there. You know, it wasn't anything, it wasn't anything you know, down on purpose. It was just an upgrade that went the wrong way. And you know, Delta they figured they lost about five hundred million dollars. Now, obviously they're going to sue crowd strike for that. Anybody who was flying Delta last week had a little logia and it just wasn't pleasant for them to to, you know, get to where they were going.
This coming week.
I'm Monday, we have the Institute for Supply Management. They release it's basically index for July. The consensus index. Our estimate is about fifty one. A reading of about fifty one, which is about two points higher than June's forty eight point eight, so we'll see what happens. June's forty eight point eight is only the second reading below fifty in the last eighteen months. The index right now is at its lowest level in four years, and a reading of
under fifty basically suggests contraction in the sector. Post damic or post pandemic. Tongue tied, the services sector has held up much better than the manufacturing sector. So that'll be a good report to keep our eyes on Monday.
And then we have earnings.
Obviously we're in the earning season, and we got some healthcare companies this week that are going to be reporting Eli, Lilly, Novo, desc Engine, you got CBS Health, McKesson, CBS Health.
You know.
I've been in and out of some some pharmacy stores recently, and it just it boggles my mind how empty some of these shelves are. I just don't know what to think of it. I mean, usually you think you're going to a drug store and you're going to be able to get what you're looking for. I'm telling you you you're lucky to find anything that you're looking for, and if you do, more than likely it's going to be
a generic brand it. And I bring up CVS because CBS was the latest drug store that I was in, and I was just surprised by just how how bare the shelves were. But I guess this is the world we're living in. With all the looting and and vandalism that's going on around the country and world. This is the new I guess for the moment. Anyway, this is the world that we're living in. I'm gonna take a quick fifteen second break, folks. The phone lines are open.
Give me a call. Let's talk about whatever's on your mind, financially speaking. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. I am back. Thank you Zach for letting me take that quick break, folks. I would love to talk to you. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Any questions whatsoever, give give me a call.
This morning's news, which kind of broke my heart because as you know, you know, Apple and Amazon are top holdings, and this was this was one of those weeks where Amazon and Apple, i mean, they came out with their earnings. Apple, you know, basically, you know, they reported decent, decent earnings. You know, the market is analyzing companies like Apple all the time, especially if they're getting into the AI world
artificial intelligence. Their earnings lifted the stock you know, for the for the week, Amazon or I'm sorry, Apple was up, you know, just just under one percent, which was better than the broad stock market index, which was down two point two percent. But what broke my heart this morning was reading that Warren Buffett is cutting his his allocation by fifty percent. He's he's he's dumping half of his Apple shares.
And you know, he was a big investor.
He forty percent of Berkshire halfaway stock portfolio was made up of Apple, and he's he's dumping half of that.
So he's still going to have a pretty good allocation.
Maybe he feels that it's you know, Apple has done so well and it's just moved that percentage to be more than he's comfortable owning. Maybe he thinks it's fully priced. But that was the headline this morning. And as I said, Apple is one of our top holdings in addition to Amazon, they're the only individual stocks that we own. This was not a good week from Amazon, but I'll get into that later on one eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine.
Any questions give me a call. Let's go to the phone lines where we have time from Gilderland.
Hello, Tom, Hey, how are you doing? Steve back? I'm so happy to see you back on a radio. I'm deeply sorry for your loss.
Oh thank you, Tom? And can you can you do me a favor? Can you really see me?
I wish I could?
You know?
They say I have a face for radio Tom.
I've been a long term and best t ROW Price and these e t F I just re sale purchase tro price capital appreciation actual. The e t F take a similar t A c F. What do you think about t O price E t F.
Yeah, so you know t ROW Price always you know they got some good good I'm just gonna see if I can pull it up. The capital appreciation, which is really a knockoff of the mutual fund. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you some stats on the mutual fund because that'll give me more historical information. As I said, you know, t row Price has some some good stuff as far as morning Stars concerned. T row Price Capital appreciations a five star rated, you know holding, and obviously
it's a no low. But the expense ratio, the internal expense ratio, which you hear me talk about quite often on the show. Every mutual fund, every annuity, every ETF has internal management fees. Now, our core holding start out at point zero three percent. The average mutual fund is about one percent. Annuities are about two to three percent or more. So t row Price has an expense ratio of point seven one percent. And when you look at the at the performance so far year to date, you're
you're knocking it out of the park way. You know, the S and P year to date is up twelve percent. You're up about eight percent, so you know it's it's nothing to sneeze that not as good as the S and P. You know, last year you're up about eighteen percent. Twenty twenty two down about twelve percent. When you look at the fifteen year average, you're looking at about a
twelve percent return year in year out over fifteen years. Now, this is a stock mutual fund, so obviously I always say you want to compare to the S and P five hundred index. That's probably your your your your best benchmark. So over fifteen years, the S and P is up fourteen percent, so it's it's it's got a lot of pizzazz. The portfolio of the t row price. You know, it's made up of stocks, but so is the S and P. It's just not performing as well as the S and P.
So when you put that in your portfolio. I always like to teach investors to really look at what you're getting for the money that you're spending at that internal management fee of point seven to one percent, which you have to do almost point seven percent better than the S and P as a whole, just to keep up with the S and P. And that's hard. There's very few, very few stock managed mutual funds or ETFs can can do that. So if you're going to buy, buy the
need ETF form because the fee will be lower. But as they said, do your homework, make sure it fits in your portfolio time, make sure.
That that you like it.
It's you know, it's well managed, just it hasn't kept up with the S and P.
Now the TiO price ETF Capital appreciation equity ETF take of similar t c AF that expense specially is point three. Is that too much for e TF?
No?
No, well, you know, as I said, our our broad stock market portfolios point zero three, So you're paying point two seven percent more, which means that once again, in the ETF form, it's a whole lot less than the than the mutual fund, which is the good news. But in the ETF form you still have to outperform the broad stock market index by zero point two seven percent,
just just to keep up. You know that that you know, your top holdings in the capital appreciation mcrosoft alphabet which is Google, Amazon, NA Video, United Health, Danaher into It, waste collections. So you got some good you know, you got a good you know, spread of stocks, some good stocks in there. It just as I said, I always compare everything to the S and P. When we buy something, we want to make sure we're going to get some
alpha out of it. If we're willing to buy anything with an internal management fee higher than our core holdings, we need to get something in return for that. Our portfolios about perform their benchmarks. All in, our total portfolio is about point two percent. That's for a well diversified, professionally managed portfolio. Our client's portfolios all in internal management fees are about point two percent, So just make sure it fits. As I said, there's worse, worse funds out there. Tom.
You know, this isn't one of the worst ones. But as they said, you would have been better off having the SMP in your portfolio.
Over the capital appreciation.
And you know, you can kind of just sleep at night knowing that whatever the stock market does, you're going to follow it.
It's Steve. Before that you go, can ask you one more question, Can you come on a Maria Rebelly because his funds are so expensive it's enough to give you a nose leader expensive so high, I don't understand why anyone want to buy them.
Well, he has different funds, and Mario is a character, that's for sure. He's he's one of the more colorful money managers on the street. And when you buy his funds, you're going to be paying a lot in internal management fees. You know, he's he's buying and selling stocks all the time. He you know, depending on which one you're buying, and then you know, he.
Focuses a lot.
I know, for a long time he was in the media world. Know, I actually had I had Mario on back when I was into mutual funds back in the mid nineties. I actually had Mario on as a guest once. But we don't, you know, we don't really do mutual funds anymore. But you know, when when when when you look at at his his performance, which which is important, you know, if you look at the dividend and income, you know, you know, fifteen years, it's almost like the
capital appreciation just under twelve percent. Year to date it's up just about nine point six percent, not.
As much as the S and P.
So once again, depending on what you want, you know, Mario's not cheap. And as I said, you'd be better off with the S and P than having a belly mutual fund in your portfolio.
So there you have it. Never forget at twelve B one fees HR that most retailing versus aren't familiar with toe B one fees.
Yeah, those those are the trailing fees usually they they are. They're about point two five percent. And it's a good point that you're bringing up Tom there's a lot of fees built into mutual funds and annuities that a lot of investors aren't aware of. It sounds as though you've done your homework. You are, and this is why, you know, we we manage about one point three billion and for the most part, we have all of our clients assets
invested in exchange trade funds ETFs. We like them because they're they're inexpensive, the internal management fees are as low as you can go. You can have more, I think, let's say, you know, diversify more. They're more tax efficient if you have taxable portfolios. There's a lot of reasons why we like ETFs. You can trade them anytime during the day, whereas a mutual fund there's what we call an nav net asset value. You get share price a day, you buy in or sell at the end of the day.
So I just I'm a big fan of etf since so I've been introduce sharing since nineteen ninety three, and we've been using you know, ETFs for since the beginning, and it's just, you know, I believe in them. I think it's best for my clients. I always like to tell my clients, we want to make as much money as we can with this little risk is we need
to take and pay minimal fees. With regards to the internal fees, going back to what I said about the capital appreciation, if the S and P performs, you know, ten percent, your capital appreciation fund has to perform just about point seven percent more just to keep up with it because of that internal management fee. Tom Good questions, Thank you for your comments on my loss. I truly appreciate it, and I'm glad you got to see me today.
Tom.
Not many people in the radio get to see me, so I'm glad you got to see me. Thanks for listening. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. I got a sense that Tom's Tom's a pretty fun guide too. He had a good, good personality, nice nice of them to call, and he had some good questions. He was, you know, a better educated investor than a
lot of investors, and that's not a bad thing. Although I always say to clients when they engage a firm like ours, basically what they're doing is they're entrusting us to make all those financial decisions.
We're prudent. We're fiduciaries, so we're not selling anything.
We really listen. All we care about is what's right for our clients. It doesn't matter whether we have our clients one hundred percent at ICEE insured CDs or the stock market or something in between. When we sit down with a client, we're giving them professional advice, telling them exactly how we feel what we think is best for them.
We have absolutely no conflict of interest, none whatsoever. And we spend a lot of time talking about fees, something that Tom brought up a lot of time talking about fees because you know, a lot of people don't really understand the fees they sit down with an advisor, especially if that advisor is selling them an annity or a mutual fund with A shares, B shares, C shares, you get so confused. A shares basically is where you pay your fee up front. B shares is where the fee
is kind of hidden. It's a back end fee. If you get out using the first six six years, you're going to pay a fee. There's always twelvey one fees, the internal management fees of B shares or higher. What they don't spend enough time selling is C shares. C shares is really so much less expensive than A shares and V shares, but the broker doesn't make as much money. And then you know, I don't want to get into this. And noodies just just just aren't my thing. I don't like,
and nodies whatsoever. Folks, you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. We're going to take a quick break for the news. The phone lines are open one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
Give me a call.
I do have a lot of capable colleagues, that's for sure, but today you have me, folks, Stephen Bouchet. I'm sitting here live and it's good to be back. It's good to be doing the radio. You know, after doing the radio for just about thirty years, you know, being off for a few months was was shocking in a way. You know, you're so used to every weekend, every every weekend, weekend and weekend out doing the radio and not to
do it for so long three four months. I'm back doing the radio today with you, and it feels good. I can't begin to tell.
You all the.
Appreciation I have for the listening audience, and I thank you for, you know, being loyal to my colleagues who who fill in often for me when I'm not able to be here, but especially for the last three months. Folks, if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, I would love to talk to you. One eight hundred talk WGY. That's one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine, one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions whatsoever, give me a call. So yesterday was a big day in the market. An ugly day in the market, but a big day in the market from the economy standpoint. You you had the jobs report for the month of July, and I'm telling you, at one point that Dow was down nine hundred points, ended up down six hundred points. You know, job growth is slowing, slowing sharply. On the unemployment rate rose to its highest
level since twenty twenty one. But I don't get caught up too much in that figure, because the labor participation rate went up as well, which means more people were out there looking for jobs. That's why the unemployment rate went from four point one to four point three percent. If the labor anticipation rates stayed the same, the unemployment rate would have stayed the same as well. So that number doesn't bother me.
What does.
What's alarming is, you know, just the slow down in how many jobs were adding over the last few months. So we added one hundred and fourteen thousand jobs last month according to the Labor Department, missing expectations we were, you know, the expectation was like one hundred and eighty five thousand jobs. As I said, the unemployment rate bumped up to four point three percent, its highest level in
almost three years. The economy was on track to crawl along, but now it looks like it might be slowing down. And this is why it's ironic. We had the Federal Reserve meeting this week and Jay Powell said that they left interest rates alone on Wednesday, maybe in September. He doesn't see a point five percent hike. Well, that was just a few days ago. And I can assure you, as I sit here, the whole entire Open Market Committee that makes up these these interest rate decisions for the
Federal Reserve. They are scratching their head. And I can almost assure you J. Powell just a few days ago SEIDERO point five percent is off the table. It's on the table, folks. It may be on the table for as soon as September unless we get some reports that show otherwise that the economy is not slown down as quick as these numbers show. But you know, adding one hundred and fourteen thousand jobs, well below the average monthly edition for the last two months. The revision was twenty
nine thousand less jobs than reported. So you had stocks that were really affected by the stock Scott.
The voladoff.
The volatility index was up, stocks were up, Treasure yields, the ten year treasure yield came well below four percent. Right now as we sit here, the tenure treasure yield is three point eight percent, and.
That's pretty low. Now.
The only good news is the I Shares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF, which is really that's like the S and P five hundred indecks for bonds. That's the bond proxy. And you're to date we're up about three point two percent percent. So when those yields go down, the value of the bonds go up. So anybody who had bond funds this week, they they did. Okay, the NASDAC as they said, we're in correction. Territory now down at least ten percent from its recent high earlier in the summer.
Disappointing earnings from big technology companies are basically leading investment to question whether you know, artificial intelligence is here to stay. You know, helped fuel tech stocks all year, and we know that the Magnificent seven, which is mostly tech stocks, have really been responsible for the returns of the stock market last year this year. So when that comes into question, investors get scared. Investors going to safe havens like bonds
or gold places they feel safe. The only area of the market that really did well this week was utilities and the telecommunication area. Everything else was in the red. We only had out of the eleven sectors too that were in the green. Everything else was down. So right now you got investors questioning whether the Fed waited too long to start cutting interest rates. You know, it's listen,
more than likely maybe the they did. We'll find out over the next one two, three months, but right now there's a lot of people even before yesterday's jobs report, were questioning why the FED wasn't lowering rates. They just, you know, they're so tuned into history, as they said. And I'm not talking ill will of them. They're they're brilliant people. But they got their nose stuck in the textbook.
We knew that a couple of years ago, when they wouldn't raise interest rates when they should have because they just never read it in the history books. They never saw where this happened before. Well, sometimes things happen that don't happen before. You know, this is this is what we're I call it the new norm for the moment.
You know. The Fed.
They will probably do something at least in September, and if things, if any more reports come out, maybe maybe they'll have to do a cut before September.
But I don't think so. I think they'll wait till September.
But right now, it's almost guaranteed that we're going to get an interest rate cut in September. And interest rate cuts are good for the stock market. It's funny, isn't it. Here stock sell off because we may be going into a recession and then more than likely, almost guaranteed will be lower interest rates and the stock market sells off. But once they lower interest rates, the stock market goes up. It's a vicious cycle, which is why you really can't
trade your portfolio every day every week. If you have a well diversified portfolio, you're in holdings.
That you like.
Listen, don't don't, don't get don't get scared out of them. Even this week, a week like this week where Amazon is down about eight percent, came out with just lousy earnings and really got hit hard, one of our top holdings. But we're not selling out of it. You know, there's a lot of bad news built into Amazon right now, so that shock effect. You know, remember Wall Street doesn't like surprises, whether it's surprises on the upside or downside.
So Wall Street doesn't like the fact that, you know, Amazon came out and didn't do as well as they were hoping and the stock sold off. It was pretty ugly in the Amazon world, and it's one of our top holdings. But as I said, I'll talk to Ryan on Monday and we'll decide what we're doing with Amazon.
But I don't think we would sell now because there's.
Just a lot of bad news built into it, so you know, the future of Amazon comes out and the next quarter isn't as disappointing as they think it will be. That's one of the reasons why it's sold off. Amazon basically came out and they said that the outlook isn't as as rosy as they want it to be, and you know investors read into that. So it's it was one of those weeks where you know, the Nasdaq being down the last couple of weeks and as they said, down ten percent from its high not too long ago.
That's that's that's a correction. That's a stock market correction. When when stocks go down ten percent from their previous high, that's a correction. When they go down twenty percent, that's what we call a bear market. So right now NASTAC is in a correction. I'm going to take a quick fifteen second break. Give me a call if you have any questions pertaining to your portfolio or anything financially related.
One eight hundred talk w G y one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. Thank you, Zach for letting me take that quick break. Phone lines are open, folks, one eight, two, five, five, nine four nine. So Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, his exact quote was, he said, a larger half point cut wasn't something we're thinking about right now.
Now.
This was just on Wednesday afternoon. I can guarantee you, folks, it is something they're thinking about right now. So on Wednesday they weren't thinking about aero point five percent cut, But right now, absolutely they have to be thinking about a point five percent cut to basically stop the economy from spiraling downhill. I'm hopeful that we won't go into a recession. I'm hopeful that the Fed will will make changes to help us recover from this little, you know,
viol old time that we're going through. Listen, we've had a good run in the stock market, so you know, for us to give gives some back that comes with the territory. I say all the time that the average loss, you know, not loss, but average swing in the stock market from high to low, peak to trough is about fourteen percent a year, year in, year out, fourteen percent from high to low every year, no matter what the
year is. And when you look just you know, if you look just over the last five years, your average return in the S and P is about fourteen and a half almost fifteen percent, folks, that's fifteen percent. I mean, that's pretty good over the last five years. So correction isn't out of out of out of contacts here. If if the Fed does their job, will will We'll get control of the inflation picture. We won't go into a recession. And I'm hopeful that that that they will. But that's
that's where we're at. The other news about the jobs report, the Libor Department said hourly average earnings were up three point six percent in July. That's a little bit lower than where it was, so the amount of pay raises basically that people are getting is a little bit less.
And there you have it.
That's the jobs report. And that's what happened yesterday. If you're wondering why were the markets off yesterday, that's that's what happened yesterday. Uh, you know, it's it comes with the territory of investing. You're going to have some good days, bad days. Thursday and Friday were bad days. The market actually hung in there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were just bad days. And when when you get investors question and whether the FED has waited too long the
trim rates. You know, basically, you know, they're they're they're they're putting their money on the fact that the FED will have to cut, absolutely have to cut in September, and some get spooked out of the market, Some sell their stocks, get in the bonds or other safe assets. Utilities usually pays a pretty good dividend, which is why a lot of people kind of go towards utilities during
uncertain times. And you know, the the you know SMP being down two percent, NASDAK being down three percent, QQQ was down three point ho six percent, the NASDAK composite as a whole was down three point three five percent for the week. The biggest loser were small caps, the S and P Small Cap index down about five point
five Russell two thousand down almost seven percent. That's the one that I don't like, you know that that small mid cap Basically, you know, they were really really starting to come along, and we needed that because it showed that the stock market was broadening out. It wasn't just the Magnificent seven that were driving returns. And when when you see the small and midcaps take part in a rally.
That's great news. So this week that really took it on the chin because they're going to be very sensitive to any downward swings in the economy. One four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Dave and Waterbliat.
Hello, Dave, Hey, good morning Steve.
Good morning to you, Steve.
Yeah, I've got a basic question and I just got called away, so I'm going to ask it and then just listen. As a new newbie, a new investor, I listened to the radio and I love your show. I love the show before Years, and there's another one. I don't know if they're over on Vandenberg's station. I can't remember, but I get. It's like going to a doctor, three
different doctors and getting three different answer. I know, you say you're not into mutual funds or the annuities, but the guy that comes on before you is into annuities, and then another outfit is all about mutual funds. So it's very confusing for the new investor to decide what to do. You know, what expert do you listen to? And you all say something different.
Yeah, Now it's a good point, Dave, and I appreciate the phone call, so thank you for calling, and I know you have to jump off, so I'm hoping that you'll be able to listen to my explanation. I say often, if you line up like I'm a certified financial planner, if you line up ten certified financial planners, you may get ten different viewpoints. So it's not unusual that you have other people in the financial services world that are, you know, managing money for their clients that have different
viewpoints than I have. I'm just not a big believer in mutual funds or annuities because of the fees. I feel that ETFs exchange traded funds are more transparent. We know they're absolutely less expensive than annuities and mutual funds, and a lot of people sell mutual funds and annuities to make commissions, and we don't make any commissions. We're a fiduciary. I've been a fiduciary since nineteen ninety three.
That's when I gave up my licenses to sell any commissionable product, whether it be an insurance based product like an annuity or a mutual fund, where you know, these people selling these they're getting paid.
Folks.
When you sit down with an advisor, and if that advisor says, yeah, you know, you don't have to pay me, and they're selling you, especially if they're selling you a B share mutual fund or an annuity where the fees are all embedded in that annuity. There's a reason why when you buy an annuity you get a contract that you have to sign that is just you know, it'll
take you a year to read it all. There's just a lot of information embedded in those fine print and you really got to search them out or hope that the advisor that's selling you the mutual funder or annuity is being upfront and honest with you. Now, not all mutual funds have commissions attached to it, and not all annuities do. For instance, if a client wanted an annuity from US, we can actually get them an annuity through
Charles Schwab with no commission. We just don't believe in annuities because their internal management fees are just so great two to three percent or more.
Usual.
The annuities are sold because of guarantees. But you know the biggest guarantee, and believe me, there's guarantees as far as income flows and that sort of stuff. But the biggest guarantee that they like to sell is.
When you die.
When you die, they guarantee you that if you invested one hundred thousand dollars into an annuity and it's down twenty percent piece the stock market's down twenty percent now it's worth eighty thousand. If you die, your beneficiaries are guaranteed that hundred thousand. Well, there's some things you don't want to play out just to take advantage of the guarantee.
That's one of them. You don't want to die they're in a market correction just so you can prove that insurance agent and they are an insurance agent selling annuities, they have to be registered with the insurance department. You don't want them to, you know, be proven right that your beneficiaries will be guaranteed. You're at least your principle now. Obviously, if the hundred is worth one hundred and twenty, your beneficiaries get one hundred and twenty. But that's the biggest guarantee.
And then mutual funds, there's just they're just not as transparent as an ETF. I talked earlier with Tom from Gilderland about the t row price. You know that comes in two forms of mutual fund and an ETF. Well, I would rather have an investor by the ETF version rather than the mutual fund version.
The fees and that mutual.
Fund was point seventy one percent the fee, and the ETF was point three percent.
So there's a huge savings. That's a lot of money.
Folks, when when you're talking about investment returns over time. So every every advisor is is different. I know there's different shows on you know radio E ten, WGY and other other you know, news channels. But we just pride ourselves. You know, I've been helping clients for thirty seven years. I've been in business for thirty four years, and I've been in fiduciary since nineteen ninety three. And I've been with you on radio for thirty years. So you've been
listening to me all that time. You know how we feel, what we do, and you know, basically what are our beliefs in. And I'm blessed to say that all twenty my colleagues have the same value system that I have.
They all truly believe.
In the same you know, values that I believe in.
For our clients.
So I'm proud to be a fiduciary and I'm love what I do for our clients with no conflicts of interest, and you just have to be careful. So as I said, not all people that sell mutual funds and annuities are you know, some of them are are are like me. They just believe in mutual funds or annudies. I just don't believe in mutual funds. I don't believe in annuities. Two five, five, nine four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Barbera and Walta. Hello, Barbera.
Hello, Steve. I am one of your customers, and I just want to tell you I have missed not hearing you on the radio, and it's just so wonderful to hear you again and and thank you, thank you. And I just want to say one other thing about that gentleman who called a couple callers ago. You know, he doesn't know where to put his money. But I just want to tell everybody I've been trusting my money with Steve and all of his people for a long time.
I'm seventy four years old and Steve has managed my money. I just bought a brand new car beautiful car. I go on two cruises a year. I'm living in a brand new apartment and I can sleep at night because I know Steve is growing my money. He's been growing it for the last ten years. And I'm just I trust him so much. Anytime I have any kind of problems, I call him. If I am if I have questions, I call him. He's like my best friend. So that man, just I trust you, Steve, and thank you my life.
I'm living my best life now. It's seventy four years old. I have money to enjoy my life with. And I appreciate you so much. Thank you.
I know who you are, and I thank you. You are one of our Spring Chicken clients. And I can't thank enough for calling in for the comments.
You know. I miss doing the radio.
As you know, I haven't been in the office, and it's been a long four months. I'll say that it's been a long four months for me. I've gone through things that a lot of people can't even imagine going through, and I just pray every day that God gives me the strength to continue on to do the right things for people, to continue doing what I believe in. So I appreciate that you know. Today was a big test run for me to be on the radio and see if I can make it through the show. So I
truly truly appreciate your calling, Barbara. You mean a lot to me as a client. Thank you for those comments.
I know we have John and Saratoga.
John, We're coming up to the end of the show, so I'm going to ask you if you can call back tomorrow morning. We'll be on at eight am tomorrow morning and I'll be able to take your question. In the meantime, you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Folks, thank you for tuning in today, thank you for the questions, thank you for your loyalty of listening to the show.
And I'll talk to you tomorrow morning. Zach, thank you.