Good morning, and thank you for tuning in to Let's Talk Money on eight ten WGY. I'm John Malay and I'm going to be your host for the next hour. I'm a certified Public Accountant and chief Financial Officer, Chief operating Officer and wealth advisor at Bouchet Financial Group. I have the honor this morning of being joined by my colleague, Nicole Goebel. Nicole is also a CPA.
She's also a certified divorce Financial Analyst and the director of Financial Planning at the firm and a wealth advisor and also a key member of our tax team. Good morning, Nicole, and thank you for joining me. Good morning, John, thanks for having me on this lovely first snowy morning. And you are right. I gotta tell you, I woke up this morning and
walked outside and was excited to see this snow. And I'll tell you I'm a skier, so I have been waiting for this and actually have my vehicle packed up with my skis and all my gear, and uh gonna be after this show jumping in the car and heading over to Jimminy Peak to get some skiing in. So I'm uh this has been long awaited for it anticipated so
I'm I'm happy to come out and see this weather. And it has been a strange, you know, a strange winter so far, no snow at all, which you know, if you're skier enjoy the outdoors a snowmobileer, it's certainly makes this time a year tough. And uh, you know, I have a you know, it's kind of a tale of two worlds. I have a sister Jane, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, who Nicole knows well, and and uh, they have been hammered with snow this year
since uh, since November. She's been sending me pictures of there snowfall they've had. And between November and December they had record snowfall. And you know, they have so much snow they've the moose are coming out of the mountains forging for food. And so she's sending me pictures almost every week of these amazing animals all over her your heart, which is very strange looking. But here we are, you know, we're in the northeast. We know winter
was gonna eventually get here. So I'm happy to see it here. And although it does, you know, create a little travel adversity at times if you live here, and enjoy the cold. I'm certainly looking forward to get out there and enjoy it today. I'm sure the slopes will be will be very busy, as everybody has been, you know, holding off, waiting for some you know, some real snow to get out there. So,
you know, just talking in about the firm. You know, Steve always loves to use a radio show to really showcase the amazing team that he's built at the firm. And you know, so over the last few months, you've had a chance to listen to Nicole, host of Radio, Ryan Bouchet, Steve Son, Marty Shields, Paula La Pietra, Harmony Wagner, Samantha Macy, Vinnie Testa, and myself, and you know, we all enjoyed doing the show, and you know, just a testament to the team that
Steve's built here. And so yeah, I know, Steve's very proud and thinks it's a great honor to share our collective knowledge with the listening audience. So one I want to say, I appreciate you tuning in today. We hope you enjoy the next sixty minutes with us UH and I encourage any listeners to call in with questions you know, you can reach us at eight hundred
talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five ninety four nine. You know, Nicole and I will be covering a number of topics, you know, from the market update to some financial planning topics, texts, and obviously any any questions you have. We certainly again welcome and encourage any callers to
call in with questions. You know, so here we are, you know, the ending the first week of twenty twenty four, which you know, it usually takes me about a month to get used to writing or saying the proper year, but you know it's here we are, you know, the first Sunday of the new year. And you know new when we start a new year, it's a it's a time to reflect and set new expectations, new goals. You know. In some ways it's kind of funny with the
markets. You know, we set everything back to zero and almost like forget what just happened in the last two to three months. And but we can't forget that. But you know, we set it zero, and you know, we're starting our record keeping all over again with our talking about our gains and losses. But it's also a time you know, to set you know, new year's resolutions, and whether that's health related or financial related, you
know, certainly encourage everyone to do that. And I will say, you know, we we in our financial planning process, you know, many times have discussions with clients who maybe they put off investing longer than they wanted to, or they didn't have a disciplined approach, or maybe quite frankly, you know, they're spending too much money and they haven't had good budgeting. And so I would say New Year is a great year. It's never too late,
right, It's never too late to correct bad habits. And and there's such such a reward for disciplined investing right where you can just be very disciplined in putting money in the market. So we you know, we encourage it's a great time of year. And you know, I will say even during our financial planning process where we might be working with a client who you know, maybe has not you know, displayed the best spending or investing, you
know, we never make them feel bad about that. It's not about shaming anyone. It's also saying, hey, it's never too late, it's an opportunity to correct. So I would definitely encourage all listeners to kind of take stock of what they're what they're doing with their financial plans, are they on, are they investing they want to be? And if you're not, you know, that's okay. Just look yourself in the mirror. You know,
that's some of what we do in our role as advisors. We look our clients and we don't do it in a judging, shameful way, but we have tough conversation sometime, and you know it's okay to have those with yourself, looking at yourself in the mirror and say, you know, if I'm not feeling good about the way I'm spending or the way I'm investing, you know, this is a great time of year to address that, right And and I do think it's not anything anyone should feel bad about. It's just
about it happens. You know, we're all human, where we all we all have our faults, and so it's a good time of year to address that. And you know, one thing about investing and those of you who are listening who have been long time investing, you know, you know we preach it all the time. It's it's about time in the market, right, And so the more you can be a disciplined investor and getting to a strategy where you're putting money in routinely. This is a great time of year
to address that. And same thing with your spending. Right if your spending habits are a little bit out of control, okay, don't don't sit there and beat yourself up about it, but just be you know, take some accountability and work to get that out of control. So I like to say it's a good time of year to start fresh and set new goals. And you know, it's good to look back and what's happened, but not to wring your hands and worry. It's about moving forward. So as we talk,
you know, let's jump right into the markets. You know, twenty twenty four, you know, the first week, you know, we certainly you know, saw an end to the impressive nine week winning streak that really each of the index has had, you know, S and P, Nasdaq, Dow all had amazing nine week runs. I think on average, indexes were up about seventeen percent during that nine week period and you know, so certainly to the start of the year we gave back a little bit of that.
But I think think and we'll talk more about this. Uh, you know, there's certainly always headwinds, but nothing concerning about what we gave back this week. I think there's as a firm, we're still very bullish on the equity markets. You know, we'll talk about some headwinds we see, but you know, there's always headwinds, and that doesn't mean we run for the hills, right, It just means we, you know, make sure we've got a diversified portfolio, really meant to weather some of the things that
we see coming forth. But you know, so this week, you know, NASDAK was down three point two percent, so they gave back some of the huge gains you know that we saw out of the tech sector. Uh, certainly in the last two months of twenty twenty three, you know, and we'll talk a little bit about overall twenty twenty three, not to dwell on it, but it's certainly, you know, good to set some perspective.
But certainly NASDAK gave back a little bit this week, about three point two percent, SMP gave back about one and a half percent, and the Dow was down zero point six percent for the week. So you know, again markets gave back a little bit but we can't ignore the tremendous run up
that we experienced in November, in December in particular. You know, as we look at the end of twenty twenty three, you know, it was just you know, phenomenal year in the markets, no question, and certainly one you know, if you were to highlight you know, there certainly were mispredictions, exceptional market moves, and definitely some contradictory currents and you know, so S and P going back to twenty twenty three, you know, finished
up over twenty four percent for the year, and it came so close to setting a record high but just fell short of it. Right at the end of the year, Nasdaq up over forty three percent, you know, didn't hit its record high, but still delivered. It's just tremendous results and certainly driven you know by the Magnificent seven we talked a lot about for the first
half of twenty twenty three. Uh, but you know, just NASZAK delivered in spades last year for sure, and then the Dow did set you know, record highs last year and ended up over fourteen percent for the year. So certainly, you know, as we start twenty twenty four, you know, we're first week was you know, giving back a little bit of that, but again we can't ignore all the run up that we had at the
end of the year. And you know the other you know, we saw the ten year treasury bounce back this week, finishing up over four percent rated about four point zero five percent. And you know remember, you know, the the from from really late October to the end of the year, you know, the ten year yield went on a steady decline really as the equity markets went on a tear. You know. So remember we we peaked across the five percent mark yield in our ladockber and then finished out the year about
three point eight three percent. So you know that downturns shirt certainly helped fuel
the major rally that we saw in this dock market. And you know, the reason we concerned a lot about the ten year treasury right is, you know, unlike the shorter end of the curve, which is you know, really correlated to the Fed funds rate, you know, the long term treasuries like the ten year, really are influenced, you know, more by the market, and they really reflect expectations for growth and inflation, so not so much correlated to the Fed's moves on rates and the ten year rate, you
know, really is it's like one of the most influential numbers in finance, mainly because so much of borrowing rates are are tied to that ten year rate. So you know, we did see you know, the ten year bounce back this year, or this first week of the year from that decline that encountered over the last quarter of the year, you know, and some of
what was driving some of the market activity. You know, certainly on Friday, we had the December jobs report came out, and you know, it's interesting markets first reactly negative to it because certainly it was a hot job report. You know, the economy added over two hundred and fifteen thousand jobs and
they were expecting one hundred and sixty. But as they dug deeper, you know, they were although December was higher than expected, you know, the report did include lower revisions for October and November, and you know, it's interesting when you really look at these numbers and look at some of the significant
revisions that happened. You know, it's just this is you know, certainly not pure data, and sometimes you know, you've got to make sure, you know, the markets are not over reacting to these numbers because we are seeing major, major revisions and so so although strong stronger than expected for December, certainly saw you know, downward revisions to October and November numbers, and so you know, really the market took that and stride, you know,
and actually Friday was an upday for each of the indexes, so that was good. So although it did initially, you know, I think caused markets to go down, I think as the report was dug into a little bit more details were understood, certainly things kind of settled down, and you know, Nicole, I know I gave a long winded kind of update there just on what we're seeing right now. I don't know if you have any color
you wanted to add or any commentary. Sure, So I think, you know, Ryan talked about both the S and T and sech not necessarily hitting
those all time highs and that not being a bad thing. Right, So, I think people feel more comfortable when we're again not seeing these huge increases because although you may be more confident if you're fully invested in your portfolio, the people who were sitting on the sidelines with cash and kind of waiting for that opportunity invest right, they're not feeling comfortable, so, you know, and Ryan talked a lot about that yesterday of kind of our overall optimism for
the market and where it can go from here. So, John, you talked about the Magnificent seven, You talked about the you know, performance we saw out of the Nasdaq this past year, but remember the Nasdaq was hit so much harder in twenty twenty two as well, so we needed to come back quite a bit more. Whereas the S and P again is you know, saw certainly not that all time high, but from a percentage perspective,
made up what it lost in twenty twenty two. So you know, from our perspective, we are definitely feeling as a firm that we're seeing some more breast is as far as what is moving the market, which is a good thing for it not to be isolated any longer to to just these large you
know, tech, large growth companies. And like you said, it's it's interesting because that jobs report, I think, you know, had it happened mid year twenty twenty three, the market you know, would have and had at times during the summer right reacted negatively, saying good news is bad news, but coming off, as you said, the October November numbers now being revised down further, I think, you know, it certainly allowed kind of
this mixed market on Friday, where initially the markets declined and then really came back for a positive day. And I know you're going to talk about the seed and the potential for rate cats, but remember the market is forward looking, so really this fourth quarter performance was the expectation that the FED was going to cut rates in twenty twenty four, and the consensus had been marked. So I think with this jobs report, the question is is that still the
case. I know you're going to kind of start covering this topic, but remember the market is forward looking, so the fourth quarter performance we saw was not related to economic data, and the fourth quarter was related to what market participants expect for the beginning of twenty twenty four. Absolutely, and and we'll certainly dig into all this a little bit deeper. I just want to encourage any listeners to call in when questions. You can reach us at eight hundred
talk WGY. That's eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. And as we look at you know, twenty twenty four, again, the first week. We're not overreacting, right, We cannot overreact to one week because
you really you cannot ignore the context of twenty twenty three. But before we you know, talk about some of the you know, headwind that we do see for twenty twenty four, right, because as an investor, right, we have to have open minds, and we do see you know, I will say our firm is still very bullish on the equity markets, particularly tech.
You know, we believe with all the advances we're seeing in a AI, which are really you know, having some significant impacts on some of the high tech companies, and so, but there are some headwinds, right, and we'll talk about those, but I always like to put things in context. Right. So you know, as we wrapped up, you know a year ago, twenty twenty two, right, we twenty twenty two was a year we all want to forget, right, you know, equities were hit,
bonds, the bonds were hit. There was no place to hide, right, there was no asset class that was protected. And as we read the headlines as we were approaching twenty twenty three, you know, the headlines were, you know, we're going to have a major recession, right, and and you know, the only way we're going to get inflation under control was was major impact to the unemployment numbers that we're going to have to see major job loss and a lot of predictions, uh quite frankly that did not
come come to fruition. And we'll touch on that in a second. We've got Rick from half Moon on the line. Rick, we appreciate you listening, appreciate your reaching out with a question. Very good morning. It's just one thing you field that markets can be erradic, you know, like up and down feeling out this year or for the first six months of this year.
Yeah, great, great question, Rick. And you know, as I was just talking about, you know some of the headwinds we do see, right, you know, there can be so so one you know, our underlying thesis is is we're still believe their strength and the equity markets and particularly tech, but you know there are some headwinds, right and if we look at what some of those headwinds are, you know what is going to happen with interest rates right that still is going to be the potential for a
big impact on the markets. Right because right now, you know, the FED has indicated right that that we're going to should see some rate decreases this year, but when are we going to see those? Right? And and certainly the market is pricing in more increases than what the FED has set. Feds really you know, telegraph three rate decreases, markets got more like six
you know built in. And and so I think as the FED, I think we're still going to be in a year of each FED meeting, you know, dissecting their comments and and seeing when are they going to cut rates? Is it going to be as aggressive as the market hopes? So I think there can be some volatility associated with that, and so uh and same,
you know. The other things going on is certainly, you know, with with jobs, as we see how we rebounding and make sure we still have strong I think, you know, there's no question one of the strengths that we've had with twenty twenty three is the labor market's been so strong that helped us you know, really weather some just incredible things this year. So you know, also an election year. So certainly, and obviously we've we've
got some of the global issues right, we can't ignore that. So I would say, you know, our believers there can is in the short term be some volatility, no question, And I think that's true, you know always, and you know, as a long term investor, on average, we're you know, you're going to expect, should expect the fourteen to fifteen percent swing, you know, draw down in the markets in any average year.
And you know this year, you know, we do believe that there can be some volatility because of those those things that I mentioned, but you know, death we are still very bullish on equities and don't believe it's a time to exit the markets. It's really about diversifying your portfolio, right,
making sure you're invested in a way that can weather that storm. And if you have short term needs and you know, and Nicole can talk a little bit more about this, this is a big part of our financial planning process. Is if there's short term needs, like we know someone's going to buy a house and they need fifty thousand dollars out of their portfolio, or they're
paying for a wedding, then we'll put that money. We'll get that money out of the market, right and maybe put it into treasuries or something where we're getting a great yield. But it's not subject to that market fluctuation. Okay, good. How you don't feel, you know, factor in the presidential election and aalthy it's just too hard to figure all that out, you
know, that's a that's a great question, Rick. You know, I will say, you know, we've we've done some research and charts on this that show you know, really when you have either party in office, it really does not affect the stock market long term. Now, I will say an election year, it could cause some short term volatility just around that, but but again the outcome we believe won't have material impacts on the market on
a long term investment approach. Osay, thank you very much for that, all right, both, yeah, thank you, yep, appreciate you listening to Rick, and thank you for the call. That's a great call. Again, encourage anyone else to any listeners to call in with questions. You can reach the caller myself at eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. And we're going to be heading for a
break shortly. But you know, so we're just you know, read before Rick's question, we were talking about some of the you know, certainly some of the headwinds that you know we're seeing. We'll touch on that a little bit more over the break, but certainly, you know, one thing I would say is there's always reasons not to invest. There just are, and but as a discipline long term investor, again, you can't time the markets, and it's really just about diversifying, making sure if you have short term
needs, you've dealt with that and set that money aside. But we are halfway through today's show and we're going to be taking a commercial break. I want to thank you for tuning in with us today and hope you are enjoying the show and hope you'll rejoin us after the break. We encourage any listeners to call in with questions. You can reach us at eight hundred Talk WGY.
That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. You are 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. Thank you for staying with us through the break. This is John Mulay. I am hosting this morning's edition of Let's Talk Money on a ten WG why and I am joined by my colleague Nicole Goebel, who is joining me this morning,
and we're sitting in for Steven Bouchet. Steve's under the weather, but he will be returning to the MIC next Saturday, healthy and ready to deliver a great show. But this morning you've got I guess two of his capable colleagues, John and Nicole. So w'ere. We appreciate you tuning in this
morning. And you know, right before the break, we you know, we had a question from Rick asking about, you know, what we felt about twenty twenty four and you know, one of the things we'll say, and I started to discuss this right before the break, is you know, certainly there are things to be concerned about, right, and we'll talk through some of those, and but we can't forget as an investor, there's always things to be concerned And you know, I was presented with a chart a
couple of weeks ago that you know, really looked at the last five years. Right. There's a chart that laid out all the major things that happened, you know, from the pandemic to the twenty twenty two election, to the you know, some of the meme stock craze, the inflation, nine percent inflation, the Ukraine invasion, the banking crisis. So all these major reasons not to invest, and this was over a five year period. But yet during that five year period, if you stayed invested, you would have
doubled your money. And so again it's one of those things that you know, again, looking back at twenty twenty three, what an incredible year. It was right almost across the board. But at the end of twenty twenty two, it was a scary time. You know, we just got hammered in the equity side. It was. It was a third worst year for the balance sixty forty portfolio. So a lot of reasons to take money and
put it under your mattress, right. But but if you did that, you took money out of the markets, and you missed all of twenty twenty three. You're now looking and looking to come to the party, and you're going to be late to the party. I mean, you just missed. And that's the problem, you know, And you know, we talk about
time in the market versus timing the market. Timing the market is so difficult because you've got to get it right on both sides, right, You got to get it right on when to pull out and when to put the money back in and if you've got a crystal ball, well they're great, you can do that. But without a crystal ball, you know, it's just it's impossible. And so you know, as discipline long term investors, it's really about assessing your risk tolerance, staying in the markets right, and just
making sure you're in a diversified portfolio that really matches your risk tolerance. And you know, so Rick was asking about, was we look at twenty twenty four Again we are still you know, very very bullish on the equity markets and you know, particularly remain overweighted with tech and still believe that is the right approach. Also, you know, fixed income has provided us some great
opportunities right to to diversify and still get some very nice yields. Uh So you know we feel, uh you know, is it diversified, having a good balance between equities and fixed income is you know, certainly the great approach to be at. And you know, as we look at twenty twenty four, yes, there are risks, right, and and we understand that as investors, right, and you know one is the FED is still playing such
a critical role. There's no question that we're going to be watching every one of the meetings, look at reading the meeting minutes, waiting for every talking head to come out of that, and certainly Jerome Powell listening to everything he says. And because right now, right then, when is it when a rate cuts going to start to happen? And how many are going to happen? So some potential risk is maybe they don't happen as soon as we or
maybe they're not as frequent. You know, I think the idea of a rate increase, you know, certainly seems to be very very low probability, if not off the table. But really now it's about you know, how
long they remain high. And you know, earnings, You know that the earnings, and we're going to just about to enter into earning season, so you know this is going to be an important, important first round, you know, no question, and you know particularly you know right now the market is expecting earnings growth in twenty twenty three of about eleven percent higher than twenty twenty excuse me, earnings growth in twenty twenty four about eleven percent higher than
twenty twenty three. So earnings are going to be important, right So again, if we have major misses or earnings do not meet expectations. You know, that certainly is you know, going to drive some results. And obviously, you know, there's so much going on globally right now and we can't ignore that. And certainly you know, with the war in Ukraine, but also what's happening in the Middle East and so in Israel and and you know,
so that always has the potential right to impact markets. And you know, some things some fallout we're seeing is certainly you know, you're hearing news about shipping channels being changed and how that's impacting starting to impact not only some costs, but but also you know maybe supply. Now it's very early on there, so we haven't really felt the impact yet, but that certainly could be a concern. So certainly, you know, uh, we go.
We don't have rose colored glasses. We understand as investors, you know, we're gonna there's gonna be times where the market is gonna go up, markets are gonna go down. But as a discipline long term investor, you know, we still believe have a long term approach, do proper financial planning.
So you're setting money aside, and I'll say, you know, one of the things that we're facing a lot in our financial plan meetings is you know, particularly with new clients we're bringing on, who may have you know, cash sitting on the sideline right And so you know, a question that comes up, and I know Nicole deals with a lot, is Okay, I've got this cash and it could be you know, maybe I've rolled over a four when Kate and Ira, or I've just had cash sitting in the sideline
and I now want to put it to work, right, And so the question comes, you know, do I just lump some invest out in the market? Do I do some dollar cost averaging? And you know that I know there's a lot of people face with that because I will say there's a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines right now, and Nicole, I know that's something we face a lot. I just you know, curious, you
know what thoughts you can share with the audience on that. Certainly, and as I'm sure the listening audience has heard Steve say many times, you know, statistically speaking, lump sum investing is better. Right, So just because as you talked about earlier, John, the market goes up more than it goes down, So missing those opportunities and the days the market is up substantially
does affect your long term investing. However, again, when you're talking about investing cash, that's you know, maybe vincitting on the sidelines versus simply moving your portfolio right taking. You know, your four oh one k was invested. Now you've rolled it over, let's get it reinvested right away. Or again moving from another brokerage firm to us, and we're maybe just making some changes. But again that market has been in the market already there, we
would say, go ahead and get it reinvested right away. If if someone is hesitant because they have again a mass cash. I know Ryan had a call her yesterday who had been, you know, kind of saving his cash after a divorce a few years ago, so he had this question, we would say, you need to look at your own personal situation. Again, we're going to tell you that financially speaking or statistically speaking, lump some investing
is better, but that might not be right for you. If if you are very risk averse, or if you know, seeing your money go in and have a five or ten percent drop immediately is really going to invest your
psyche. And we know that, you know, really finance has moved so much towards behavioral finance, because money means different things to different people, right, It's not just about the numbers, and so we don't want someone to, you know, put all of their funds in, see a five percent drop and then come back out of the market having lost five percent of their money. We want them to feel comfortable. So when necessary, we will
certainly use the dollar cost averaging. Again, it's not necessarily what we recommend as a firm, but we want to make sure we're catering to that person's kind of risk level, which kind of goes over to another point of you know, that acid allocation you were talking about and what we find and Brian made this point on Friday in a meeting. We were talking about, you know, the risk or the asset allocation you're comfortable with in a market that's
up can often be very different from when the market is down. So when the stock market is doing well, say twenty twenty three, you know, for the most part, you say, oh, you know, why am I not invested more in stocks? And you know why am I not you know, putting more of my funds into this? Yet back in twenty twenty two, right, most people were questioning why do I have any money in the stock or bond market because both are down, So you really have to
kind of look at yourself and your picture. You talked about John earlier, that kind of cash reserve we set aside. So that's how we protect our clients to ensure that they can stick with the asset allocation we put in place
to their portfolio. Because if someone needs funds from their portfolio, right, we're not talking five years from now, but within the next two years, we will put that money aside in something as you said, treasury is or money markets, something that's earning money for our clients but doesn't have that same
risk profile. Do they know they can weather up to two years worth of poor market performance, and we use that number for a reason, right, That's where we do feel like within two years any market has recovered and still be able to have the rest of their funds allocated in the right manner for their long term growth. So again we will dollar cost average if certainly we feel it's necessary to get somebody comfortable with the market and with working with us.
Statistically, lump sum investing is better, but take a look again at what you're comfortable with. You know, and again a lot of times asking questions, you know, would you be more comfortable missing out on a ten percent market upside or losing ten percent on the downside, and using real dollar values for that I think helps people kind of put that into perspective when you're
coming up with that risk profile. Those are great points well, and Nicole could probably do a whole show on behavioral finance, but it is so true that that and there's all kinds of studies to show how, you know, money behaviors are impacted by a lot of things for an individual and so you know math, you know, and that's where as advisors, you know,
our role sometimes to take that emotion out. But we certainly understand, you know that sometimes if the you know, if the risk of losing money or that kind of regret risk is so strong with somebody that is just gonna you know, they're just not gonna be a live with it right then even though mathematically it makes more sense to do lump sum, you know, that doesn't mean we wouldn't employ uh, you know, DCA strategy, but certainly uh
that you know, that becomes working with advisor and you know, a big part of what our team does really, you know, is really take the emotion out of investing, right, and but it's not a cookie cutter approach, right and so we work with individuals at tailors into how they're you know, several behavioral finance ideas to make sure we're tailoring a strategy that works for them. So again, I want to encourage any listeners to call in with
questions. You can reach us at eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. We're gonna take a quick commercial break, so please stay tuned and we'll be raked back with Let's Talk Money on eight ten WGY. If you want to learn more about Bouchet Financial Group, visit their website Bouche dot com. That's b O U c h e y dot com. Sign up for their blog, which is updated every week stephenboucha
dot com. Follow them on Twitter at Bouchet Group, Like them on Facebook. The phone lines are open eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Here is Stephen Bouche. Thank you for tuning in for this this morning. I'm John Malay and I am hosted the show this morning, and I am joined by my colleague, Nicole Globele. Nicole and I were just talking about some behavioral finance and lump sum investing versus DCA. And I know, Nicole, you know, who is a CPA
and really an integral member of our tax team. I'd be remiss to have her on the call this morning and not have her talk about some tax subjects.
So I know, we just turned the calendar to twenty twenty four, So, Nicole, anything from a tax perspective or any other I know we're also talking some election news earlier or election discussion, so any anything you want to add on as subject, certainly, and I know the caller asked earlier, Rick, you know about you know, an election year and volatility, so certainly, you know, I just wanted to kind of share with the listening audience, and you know, we'll be talking about this, I'm sure
at our State of the Economy, which is a presentation we do and then post, you know, certainly for anyone to view on our website. It doesn't matter right who is actually elected, but what you typically see is volatility leading up to that election with lots of headline news and then in most cases you're seeing a positive performance for the year and for the fourth quarter. And there's so many great charts and again we can certainly share some of these on
our website that show it. Again, it doesn't matter who's elected. But when you think back to the year's presidential election years that had negative performance,
at least in the near term, there were other reasons. Right. So you know, when we think back to George W. Bush's first term in two thousand, right, we're talking tech bubble, right that you know, that was I'm not going to blame that on the president, right, that was really about and Rian talked about this yesterday, you know those you know, just the crazy valuations that we had on these companies that were not profitable
and again kind of moving into this Internet error. So you know, again that was not related to the presidential election itself or what party was going to be in the White House, but rather you know, actual market and company and earnings issues. And then the same with Obama in two thousand and eight, Right, it was the financial crisis. So we're in you know this again kind of perfect storm of you know, just a tremendous loss of employment.
People had taken on way too much risk and debts you know, with these crazy interest only loans and you know, we're flipping houses. And so I lived through that and I lost, you know, my job and got divorced kind of all in the same year. So personally, I experienced that and had to start you know, my life over in twenty ten kind of still at the tail end of that. But you know, again those two things, I would not say that in any way where they related to the
presidential election itself. So when we go back and see that, you know, the vast majority of election years, the market is actually positive. So I'd say we take you know, if we are looking at history, we take that as a positive sign kind of going into this year, but realize that there's going to be crazy headlines and to hold steady with you know, your investment portfolio and your financial plan, you know, and work with your
advisor to ensure you're doing what's right for you. And again, don't listen to those headlines that are trying to again connect something to the financial market that's
not necessarily you know, causation, you know. And one just one quick question, you know, on that Nicole, and you mentioned the state of economy, and I will say one of my favorite charts from last year is I think one that Ryan presented that was that basically showed the growth in the S and P five hundred from nineteen twenty something to now and with with a Ligne chart going up with the area filled in blue or red depending on who was in office Democrat or Republican. And you know, as you said,
you know, election years are one thing, but you know during that time, you know, the S and P kept growing and you would see growth and dip under blue and red, and really long term didn't make any impact. And so I know we we have spent a lot of emotion about politics, and certainly election years for the reasons you just went through, could impact things short term, but certainly, you know, history does show that the
market performs regardless of who's in the house exactly. And just like you said, our kind of biggest job that Steve talked about all the time is taking me emotion out of investing, right, That's what we want to do for our clients. So, I know you mentioned John about new tax topics, so you know, one of the things we've gotten a couple questions on, you know, the electric vehicle kind of tax credit has changed as of the first of this year, so that now it's kind of an instant rebate.
But what I would say if any of you out there are are thinking about this and looking at, you know, an electric or a plug in vehicle, make sure you're checking the specifics right, because there's a lot more restrictions now on what qualifies. For example, to qualify for that full seven five hundred dollars instant rebate, really there has to be specifics from the manufacture on
the battery and critical minerals sourcing. Again, they're trying to ensure that it's you know, coming from the US and our free trade partners, you know, versus other countries. So again that has certainly put some more restrictions on what cars. You know, some of them are a few of the Tesla's, a few of the Chevyes that qualify for that, so take a look
at that. And then also you know the MSRP, right, so the retail price, the manufacturers suggested retail price it has to be under eighty thousand dollars for van as to your pickup or fifty five thousand for other vehicles. So you know, again any higher end vehicles in some cases are going to be limited and then your income right, so under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of adjusted gross income as an individual or three hundred thousand as a couple.
But check out fuel Economy dot gov is where you can see those specifics. And it does now require that the dealer submit a time of sale report, So just make sure again if this applies to you and you're looking at this, that you're working with the dealer to ensure it's reported correctly so you can get that instant rebate. There are still some you know, credits on there as well, but this is new for twenty twenty four, and as John said, we've we've kind of turned the page to twenty twenty four,
so you know, things to think about. You have an opportunity still to make a twenty twenty three estimated tax payment if you think you're going to owe too much and maybe have penalties or interest in April when you file, so
I would say take a look at your investment statements. Twenty twenty three being a good year is also a signal that if you had mutual funds, and we've talked about this many times on the show, you could have received year ends capital gain distributions, and again you've taken no action in this case, but the fund managers need to really give out all of the earnings to the
mutual fund owners, so basically they've returned part of your principle. So it does increase your cost basis for the future, but essentially it's as if you had sold part of the fund and realized capital gains. So I would urge everyone to look at your December statements to see if there was any big amounts that came in that you should be, you know, maybe making a payment
if needed for January fifteenth to avoid any unnecessary interest or penalties. When you file, there is still time until April fifteenth to fund a twenty twenty three IRA or ROTH, So those amounts or six thousand, five hundred for under fifty or seven thousand, five hundred for over fifty, but make sure you're also looking at the income limits for either of those, you know, for an IRA to be deductible or for you to be eligible to do a direct
ROTH contribution. And for those of you getting ahead of the game, twenty twenty four, the new amounts for iras and roths are now seven thousand dollars for under age fifty and eight thousand dollars for over We work with a lot of clients on tax planning, and you know, we make sure to remind them look at your you know, contributions to your four oh one K. So this year, the increase just for the base four O one K maximum
went from twenty two thousand, five hundred to twenty three thousand. The catch up stayed at six thousand, five hundred, so again, you know, just an extra five hundred dollars if you you truly want to max that out for twenty twenty four. And also does your withholding need to be adjusted?
Right? Do you need to complete another W four withholding form? Because there may have been changes that were made last year, whether it was you know, hopefully you've got a nice raise or maybe again you adjusted your four to one K contributions later in the year. But make sure you're taking a look at that and working with your tax preparer tax planner to see if that needs
to be adjusted. And my last note on kind of that would be, you know, are you I know it's very early in the year, but if you end up changing jobs during twenty twenty four, we've seen you know, A number of clients have this issue, and I had this myself when when I moved to Bouchet several years ago. Was don't over contribute to your retirement plans. Right, your new employer does not know what you've put into your old plan and can't automatically cut that off. So even if you you
know, plan to the exact dollar amount, something may occur. So make sure you're looking at that and not over contributing, as it does cause you to have to report that and get that. So look at that, and you know certainly don't have tay to call us in the future. On our show, John, I think we're almost at the end. Yeah, there's some great tax advice there, and again I think Nicole could do a whole show on taxes as well. So I appreciate everybody tuning in with us this
morning. You know we're coming to the end of the show, and I hope you enjoyed it. I know that Nicole and I certainly did. Also. Please tune in next week to hear another Great Joe show and check out Steve who will be on the MIC on Saturday. Also check out our website www. Dot Bouche dot com for great content and information on a variety of
investment in finance topics. You are listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Financial Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health we manage their wealth for life. Thank you for joining us and have a great weekend.