Let's Talk Money

Well, this is nice music for a nice sunny Sunday morning, April fourteenth, the day before tax Day. Today we have a different Zach as my producer. We have Zach Boynton Juzzan. Thank you Zach for playing such a nice, easy tune to lead into Let's Talk money. I'm Stephen Bouchet. I'm sitting here live and I would love to talk to you today. If you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. The phone lines are open. Zach will talk to you, get you on the

air, and I'll take over from there. Our phone numbers today as they are every Saturday at ten Sunday mornings at eight eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. That's one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, folks, give me a call, you know, pertaining to your financial future. As I like to say often, you get one opportunity to retire one. You can't mess it

up. Otherwise you're just gonna continue to work, and you may not want to work. Life is short, folks. I can't begin to tell you life is short. When you have your health, you have everything. When you have your loved one, you're pretty fortunate. Don't mess around. And if financially you can retire and enjoy life, take advantage of that. One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Well, I think today we got to just, you know, begin to begin the morning on a

little downloae. The world's a crazy place, just a crazy place, and what's going on in Israel right now is just heart wrenching. I just can't begin to say. The people of Israel and what they've lived through since October seventh is just just not not not right. I don't care what you think. It's just not right. War is just a terrible thing, and it's just I wish I wish we could all just get along. And I say

that seriously. I took my brother Brian out yesterday. Brian has down syndrome, and I actually posted on social media, you know, I said, I wish everybody in the world could be like my brother. He loves unconditionally, He smiles at everybody. All he wants to do is just make your day. And it's a nice way to go through life. You know. It just we we had expected this, this you know, attack on Israel from Iran and it actually played out. We're in the middle of it.

I'm hoping that that tensions, you know, calm down, and it gets over sooner than later, so that more people don't need to be, you know, affected by this than are. But my heart goes out to the people of Israel. It just shouldn't be. War is a terrible thing. One of the reasons why the markets were on edge late in the week, and I think tomorrow the markets are going to be on edge again if something doesn't happen today. One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine one

eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. So you know, I don't even know where where to begin. Tomorrow's tax Day right April fifteenth, and you know something I was going to talk about was what if you lied to the Irs? This is the headline in the Wall Street Journal. Remember, folks, if you get one paper a week, pick up the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journey. I get mine. That's Stuart's most Stuart Stores has the Wall Street Journal and Barons, which is a weekly magazine.

Two great magazines and newspapers to read. But the headline is what if I lie to irs, how long should I worry? Hey, listen, sometimes you fib a little, right, you know, you try to get away with things. Well later on in the show, well we'll talk about just what if what if you did? What if you did fib a little and now you're feeling guilty the irs? Isn't it amazing in this great country of ours? How scared the death we are if we don't self regulate ourselves.

Really, it's up to us to make sure we report income, that we file our taxes, we pay our taxes, and boy do we ever pay our taxes? Well, most of us pay our taxes. Not everybody in this great country of ours pays taxes, and that number is increasing, they've day. But most people are paying taxes, and they're paying a lot of taxes. But we are self regulating and sometimes just sometimes not everybody is, you know, is as honest as is Maybe they they they they should be.

And you know, if you'd made a little fib, whether it's a year ago, three years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, well the IRS, believe it or not, they can still still come after you. The you know, big report of the week was the consumer price Index up three point five percent in March, a little higher than expected. What I call hot, as my grandson George would say, hot, granky,

he calls me granky. It's hot, it's hot. And this is three inflation reports in a row where it's it's hot, and you know, the inflation just you know, we we thought it was calming down, and it has. It's come a long way from nine percent, but this report that was released this week shows that inflation is just running a little hotter than we would like it to be. Basically, the CPI is a measure of goods and services, you know, right across the economy, and that was

up three point five percent in March from a year earlier. We were hoping it was going to be under three percent. Economists, you know, had forecasted a you know, a little pickup from February's three point two percent, but we were hoping it was going to be lower than that. And instead of being lower than last month's three point two percent, it came in a little bit higher. So it's a little bit hotter. And this really throws

a monkey wrench into the Fed's plans. Remember the Fed. I don't say this, and I say it a lot, but Inflation is a moving target. And this is why I say it so often, because just like that boom, a report comes out and it could change the whole game plan that the FED had. Remember at the beginning of the year, the FED thought

they may cut rates six seven times. And then soon after the January and February inflation reports showing inflation is still stubbornly high, they came out and said, you know, just last week, we'll cut rates two to three times in just about all of the nineteen FED governors were on board with that. Well after after March's report, who knows what they'll do. This is why it's a moving target and you gotta remember that. And this is why when

that report came out, the markets went down. The markets just did not want to believe that inflation was holding its ugly head as high as it is, and what will the FED do? Maybe they won't cut it all this year, and that could Hey, folks, that could be a scenario. But as I said, I flew home yesterday morning. I was down in Florida and I came home home and as I said, listen, I think

we're all done with hikes now. In my heart, I say that I can't guarantee it, folks, And depending on what the future inflation reports are. The PCE report comes out soon, and that's really the FED likes to see, or the PCE report better than the CPI report. The Consumer Price Index report that I'm talking about is a good report, kind of the headline

inflation report what the consumer's doom. But the PCE report just is a little broader, and the Fed actually pays a little bit more attention to that than they do anything else. So we'll see what that report shows. But you know, yields went up basically betting that, you know, the interest rate hikes aren't coming. I'm sorry, the interest rate cuts aren't coming as soon as we were hoping. It's you know, the report that came out on

Wednesday. You know, basically it's it's a third straight month of above expectations inflation data, and it really is going to make the FED scratch their heads. What will they be? You know, Fed officials have been optimistic about a soft landing, which inflation slows without any sharp downturn in economic activity. But with this report, you know, maybe that's not the case. And I say maybe because you know, I don't want to sit here and pound

my fist down saying, no, it's just another report. It's it's wrong. You know, this is three in a row, and three in a row is a pretty good trend. You know. One report showing a little hot, hotter than expected inflation starts a trend. Two confirms it's a trend. Three shows that the trend is there. So we had three reports where inflation picked up a little bit instead of coming down. We're still two years

ago this June we were nine percent. Listen, folks, we made great headway and hopefully, hopefully this will be this three month period that we're seeing inflation a little hotter than we want it to be. Hopefully that will will

will correct itself and we'll see inflation get under under control. The overall core index, you know, up four tens a percent from the previous month, and you know that that's you know, just you know, just we were we don't want that, you know, what we have going against us shelter, shelter, shelter, you know, basically housing shelter is still hot. And we'll we'll see what what what happens with that. Hopefully shelter, you know, gets under control and as they said it won't be the final word

on what prices did last month. The Fed. They really like the the PCE report which comes out and we'll see what that shows. So that kind of started the you know volatle week, and I say the volattle week, because the Dow had its worst week since March of twenty twenty three, over you know, a year ago. It's just not what we wanted. If

you look, NASDAC actually survived the best for the week. The Nansdak composite was down point four or five percent, QQQ down point five eight percent, the SMP down one point five five percent, and abroad mid cap small cap index to Russell two thousand down almost three percent. We not not a great week in the markets, but I'm not running for the hills, nor should you. This is why we guarantee our clients they will lose money, so

that weeks like this they don't. They don't have that knee jerk reaction and call us and say, hey, I just gotta sell. I can't, I can't risk losing any more money. Nope, they don't do that. These weeks. Really take the time to educate them, teach them, coach them, counsel them and keep their head above water. We take the emotion out of the decision making. That's why they give us full discretion to manage their investment assets, and we take it seriously. One eight hundred eight two

five five nine four nine. I'm gonna take it quick. Fifteen second break, don't go anywhere, come on back. 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 Stephnbouche 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 eighty two five five nine four nine. Here is Stephen

Bouche. Yeah, this is a little jazz here Zach. I like this music. Thank you, Zach. One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. You die all that number. You can talk to Zach. He's the DJ this morning for me, and he'll get you on the line. I'll take your questions from there. One eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, folks, Any questions whatsoever, give me a claw. I would love love to talk to you. You know.

Friday another another downside to the markets on Friday, I hate talking about I feel like Deybie Downer, Zach. I just hate talking about a down week in the markets. We've had so many great weeks, so many up weeks. It's just not fair that we're sitting here talking about some down weeks. But bank earnings, you know, all lives are focused on banks right now, first quarter earnings. We're getting into the season. This week, We're going to see a lot of earnings reports come out. We'll see what

Corporate America is doing. I sense that they'll not disappoint and continue to earn money. But some of the nation's biggest banks on Friday basically saying that the economy continues to look strong, but they are starting to feel the pinch of higher long term interest rates. You know interest rates. Listen, that ten year US Treasury note was hovering around five percent for a short period of time, went all the way down to three point five percent, came all the

way back to five percent, then it was near four percent. And today, as we sit here, with all the craziness in the world, the ten year treasure yield is about four point five percent, and that means it costs banks a whole lot more money having those higher rates. We had JP Morgan Chase, I'm sorry, that's JP Morgan Chase. Wells Fargo's City group all reported better than better than expected first quarter profits and revenues. But basically

consumers and businesses as healthy as they are. You know that they warned that their core lending incomes would be you know, quiet this year as higher interest rates force them to pay up for deposits. They're paying more to everybody who has money. Listen, Savers went from from the beginning of the Great Recession in October seven to just recently earning nothing. You know, they'd put their money, they'd loan their money to the banks, put it in the savings

account, or buy a CD. They weren't getting any interest whatsoever. And now all of a sudden, you know, you listen, our money market accounts our yield five percent. That's that's not bad, and that that digs into financial institutions. You know, when you go from paying near zero to five percent just on cash, this is when cash is came. You can get five percent on cash it's costing the banks a lot of money. JP Morgan said its first quarter profit rose six percent, six percent, thirteen point

four two billion dollars. Wells Fargo earned four point six two billion, City Group three point three seven billion. But you know, when, when when when when? When you look at it, their share prices went down. The reports dragged down bank stocks badly and weighed on the broader market JP Morgan even though you know, even though their their profits rose six percent, their bank shares on Friday alone fell almost seven percent one hundred and eighty three dollars

a share, almost its biggest percentage declined in almost four years. The KPW NANSDAC Bank index down one point five percent on Friday alone, off six point five percent for the month. I know it's only two weeks into the month, but down six point five percent. Financials have been taking it on the chin for quite some time. We thought they were recovering, but all of a sudden, with these higher interest rates, that that's not the that's not

the case. And you know, you know, basically the goldielocks economy, it was a boom for for for banks for a long time. Goldilocks economy is when it's not too hot, not too cold. You remember that story, right, And you know, listen, that's that's a beautiful thing. Means we're chugging along. Everybody's doing well. Stocks are doing well. Everybody's doing well. So you know, now, all of a sudden, going back to my own in comments on the CPI report, inflation's a little hotter

than we had thought. And employers, you know, they they're adding jobs and adding jobs at a pretty good robust clip. The consumers, you know, they continue to spend and borrow, even after the Fed raised interest rates at its fastest pace in decades, you know, eleven hikes we had during this latest campaign. JP Morgan, you know, I love Jamie Dimond. He says, it's quite clear the American economy is strong. And it is

strong, folks. That's why I'm optimistic on the stock market, even after a week like this, even with the even with the all all the you know, craziness in Israel. Listen, the stock market is looking at the fundamentals of the economy, the jobs, profit, corporate profits, and all that looks looks good. So we'll see what happens. A vibrant economy can lift bank earnings in a number of ways. Market rallies increase their fees from managing money trading desks. You know, they got a lot of activity.

Optimistic chief executives raise capital, looking for bold moves like mergers. They're confident that that they'll overcome this. You have consumers that are racking up credit card debt left and right. You know those those all help add to the bank's earnings. Right, the bank bank's money. When all of those things play out, you know, listen, we'll see what We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks. What what concerns me is credit card spending rows

eight percent at all three banks combined. Consumers are carrying higher credit card that than that I'd like to see them carry. You know, for me, I think it' it's important for the consumer to save money, not spend money and borrow money on credit cards. Just it's not a good thing. Something that I don't like to see, and you don't like to see it either.

We we need the consumer to be in good shape. The only good thing that came out of the Great Recession over fifteen years ago now was the fact that consumers were scared out of their shoes, and they started saving Rather than borrow money on their homes and every other way that they can borrow money, they started saving money. And that was a beautiful thing. That's what

we needed to happen. Folks. The phone lines are open. Give me a call so I can talk to you instead of talking to me one eight hundred eight two five nine four nine eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine, I'd love to talk to you. Give me a call. We'll, we'll, we'll get your pointed in the right direction. Listen, Yeah, there's a lot of the there's a lot of financial advisors out there that

don't know what to do during volattle times. And if you have one of them, or worse yet, you have one of them selling you annuities for the guarantees, the guarantees. The biggest guarantee of an annuity is when you die. And listen, there's some things I don't want to buy just to prove right, I don't want to take advantage of a guarantee on an annuity by dying, just so I can say, hey, I put one hundred thousand dollars in an annuity. You know the market's down ten percent it's worth

ninety. My boy, when I die, I'm going to make sure that my beneficiaries get at least one hundred thousand. Listen, folks, you don't want that to play out. That's a guarantee that I don't want you to play out. I want you to have that one hundred thousand invested plan on living and five ten years from now, hopefully that one hundred thousand dollars is a whole lot more than not and that guarantee. Listen. This is when those in their insurance agents. Folks, if you have an advisor selling you

an annuity, they're making six percent commission. They're better known as insurance agents life insurance agents. They have to carry a life insurance license to sell you that annuity because it's back buy an insurance company. The fees are atrocious and they're just not a good investment. Do not buy an annuity for the guarantees. Promise me what eight hundred eighty five five nine four nine. Let's go to the fone mines. We have Rick from Kinderhook. Good morning, Rick,

good morning, how are you today. Well, I'm doing wonderful, But listen, Rick, at my age, every day I get out of bed. I feel pretty darn good. And today with the sun shining, I came down the North Way. I stayed in my condo in Saratoga. You know, watch the sunrise. I left the house about six thirty and it was a it's still a beautiful morning. Going to church right after the show, going over to Saint Anthony's. I got a nice check. I'm going to leave for them. I'm taking advantage of this day, Rick,

What can I do? Life is good? Life is good. Well, are you there? Yep, I'm here. Go ahead. What's your question? Well, I appreciate the show, appreciate the information you share. I'm just in the early stages of retirement and hit age fifty seven and going to start consider. Hey, Rick, I'm gonna I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you to hold for one second. We're breaking for the news you're listening to.

Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchhap and Andrew, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life and folks, it's all about your health. Stay with me, Rick, You stay with me as well. I'm going to pick you up on the other side of the News one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Yeah, folks, let's wake up. It's Sunday morning. And I can't thank you enough for tuning in. First of all, I know you have things

that you can do other than listen to this show. But I love doing this show and I love it when you tune in, and I can't thank you enough. And I thank you for hanging in through the news. And if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. One eight hundred Talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. And we have now twenty twenty colleagues. Just hired another portfolio strategist. I'm really excited to have them. And I also have my daughter who's going

to be our full time client concierge, Lauren as of May first. So we have twenty amazing colleagues that I work along with. And you know, I may take a couple of weeks off and one of those very capable colleagues may be filling in like Harmony did yesterday, and Harmony did last week, and Nicole did last week as well. You know, when you listen to the likes of Harmony and Nicole. You know that I'm surrounded by amazing,

amazing, smart, intelligent, very qualified colleagues. So if I take a couple of weeks off, please know that the show is going to go on with very very good, good people. I am blessed beyond belief to have the eighteen that I have. One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. Let's go back to Rick from Kinderhook. Oops, we lost Rick, Rick. Sorry, all right, call back in Rick one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Let's go to Mark in Aubany.

Hello, Mark, Good morning, Steve. You're a great American. Oh Mark, all right, thank you, thank you very much. I tried, I try to do my best, and I appreciate you listening and tuning in. What can I help you with today? Yeah, we need more people like you in the world. I made a mistake. Well I don't know about a mistake, but my friend made me open a a nudy. Three years ago, Little Over twenty five started with twenty five thousand. I got twenty six and oh baby, no, no, stop there for a

second, Mark, Okay, jolly Molly. Three years ago you only got twenty six listen, I am so dead against the nudies. And is this person still your friend? Yeah? Yeah he is, but yes, this anuity ends January fifteenth of twenty five. What should I do with this money? Should I put it in my traditional ira? Or if I need the

money, I'm gonna have to put it in the money market. But if I don't need the money, I got an existing that I rolled over a couple four or one cas into my traditional ira, and I was thinking about taking this money and put it with the lumpsun in the traditional ira. Is that a good idea? Well, let me give it to you straight. Are you okay if I do that? Go ahead? Thank Listen. We all have friends. Some are what we call A list friends. They get

invited to everything. Others are B list friends, and some are cless friends. Take this friend, move him down to be r C if he's a he Listen, people, people people, They fall for the I want to use words that I'm not allowed to use on air. Zach my producer would would would would would put a freeze on that, slap me on the wrist, and you know, call me a bad boy, So I won't use those words. I'm not a fan of anudies whatsoever. I don't like them.

People buy them because they get scared. They look at the volatility, the headlines a week like last week where they're down, you know, the down. You know, the Dow had its worst week for eleven months. Listen, I this is why I guarantee every one of my clients that they will lose money. Because when they lose money and they call me and they say, hey, Steve, I'm looking at my portfolio. I lost money, I said, yep, I guaranteed it, and all of a sudden

they realize, yeah, I guess everything just doesn't go straight up. Even the rockets to the moon come down at some point. They don't hang out there forever. So listen. Annuities have a lot of fees. You know, average fees are about three percent. You're paying a mortality expense fee. You're paying the underlying mutual fund fees, which are high. You're paying if

you fall for the sucker guarantees. You know where they promise you if you innuitize, you get an increase or you know, there's so many goddarned bells and whistles with these annuities, and the fees are all part of it. You know, your fees could be three percent, give or take. The average mutual fund fee is one percent, and we use exchange trade of funds. I think we had to question a couple of weeks ago from a caller and I went over this. This is why we love ETF. Listen.

We manage one point three billion dollars with a B billion with the B that's a lot of money we manage for our clients. And we only have a couple of stocks which we may be changing looking at at that but for the most part we use only exclusively exchange traded funds ETFs. Our core holding start out at point zero three percent. Our total portfolio all in is less than point two percent. So why would anybody in the world want to buy an annuity? And listen, I can't wait to get out of this. I

know. Listen. So what that means is what that means is I'm gonna give it to you straight one. They guarantee you if you die yournuity, your your beneficiaries will get what you put in. Well, listen, don't die on me, Mark, just to prove out that point. But I got no kids, I ain't worry about people behind and got no kid. But here's the thing. But listen, listen, listen, Yeah, let me help you. Mark, What what's going on with that annuity? The

reason why you're locked in because they sucker punched you. You have to hang in there for seven years otherwise you get a big kick in the rear end. See how I'm using these nice words, not the words that I really could be using. If you and I were having a beer, I'd be able to use different words. But there's a deferred sales charge, and if you leave within the first seven years, damn you get hit with it. That's why they lock you in. Someday you'll be able to get out with

no fee. Sometimes we have clients get out before even though they take a baby step backwards paying that fee, we get them into a better investment. Mark, good luck to you. Sorry that your friend, Sorry that your friend, and assisted that you're buying a newdy one eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Give me a call, folks. I'm gonna go back to the phone lines. Rick, where'd you go? Oh? Sorry, I lost you,

Steve, and I'm back, Well, I lost you too. Man, you you broke my heart. I know, I know what can I What can I help you with? I was starting to ask, I'm actually looking to start to develop a strategy for withdrawing some of my moneys from IRA. Not there yet, only fifty seven, but trying to get everything in order to try to reduce some tax implications. Right now, the majority of the money tied up in these traditional iras have accounts with Vanguard and into the ETFs.

Yes, we're managing the money, but looking for you know, trying to get a strategy. Just wonder if you had any advice trying to limit the taxes. Yeah, well you know this is where listen. I have four CPAs too, irs and role agents, and we spend a lot of time talking taxes. There's nothing you can get by other than taxes and death. Death and taxes are guaranteed. So with the taxes, although I shouldn't say that, I started out the show saying that not everybody pays taxes in

this great country of ours. Almost half the population does not pay taxes, so that means the other half is paying and making up for that. But with all of that being said, you do need to come up with a strategy because at fifty seven, we're looking at you hanging out for three decades, and on average, the next thirty years, that's a long time. You want to make sure your strategy works. You want to make sure you take social security when it makes sense for you to take social security. Don't

take it at sixty two just because you can. If you're going to live into your mid to late seventies or later, it's better off to hold off taking social security if you can. Now, if you know you're going to die prematurely, then you know taking social security sooner because you know when die, it's gone, it's lost. So there's a lot of things for you to think about, Rick, And if you're not working with an advisor, you should work with an advisor and let them really do a good financial plan

for you. We really stress financial planning with our clients. That's my best advice to you. Listen, good luck with the retirement. Thank you for calling back, and I thank you for listening. One eight eight, two, five, five, nine four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Steve in Massachusetts. I love that name, Steve. How are you? I'm very well? Thank you say well? Two parts.

I listened to you all the time. And I have a young man who's probably going to be my son in law still, who has an extremely good blue collar job and has managed to save a lot of money and he keeps it in the bank. I'm going to end him your way, Oh man, he could grow that money very well. And he's got in the well and the six figures already saved me. He's only twenty three years old.

Are you serious, Steve? Really? Yeah, yeah, that's that's disciplined, you know what, Steve, I love hearing stories like this. I actually had a caller a few months ago called about his daughter almost same age, and how she just you know, long story short, probably six seven months ago, because he called back a few weeks ago to tell me that she made a lot of money because she took my advice. And I told him, I said, have your daughter listen to me. You know,

she can even call in on the phone. I won't use her real name. She can fake it. And you know, listen, I can't see her through the microphone, so she can hide. But really, in all serious and Steve, it sounds as though you got a son in law soon to be a son in law who's very dis but he's way too young to have that money in the bank, way too young. You know why, even though you can get five percent interest, you need to take risk in order to make money long term. Your average return in stocks is ten

percent twelve percent. Uh. Your average return in bonds has been four to five percent. You know, listen, would you rather have your money double every seven years or every twenty years. That's the difference between stocks and bonds and a nutshell. So you need to have your son in law. Just have him tune in next Saturday at ten or Sunday at eight. We're on every weekend. I've been doing the show now for twenty nine years. Have him tune in, have him call in, and I promise, I promise

I will be able to help him. Actually, if he calls my office, being that young, being that discipline, even though he doesn't our minimum, I will take him on as a client because I know this young man has potential. And if he's marrying your daughter, man, oh man, good for you. It sounds like your daughter found a really good young man. And you know what, blue collar workers are some of my favorite workers because they work hard. I just went over this last week. Why more

young men and women aren't going to trade schools. Not everybody is cut out to go to college for four years and sit at a desk or do whatever whatever whatever. Some people just, you know, they got so many skills they just don't realize they haven't tapped into and learning. I don't care if you're a carpenter and an electrician, a plumber. There's so many young blue collar workers that can make so much money. So Steve, I'm happy for you. It sounds like you're gonna have a good son in law. It

sounds like the holiday dinners are going to be pretty good for you. Yeah. I wanted to make another comment if you if you've got the moment, yeah, hurry up. Okay. So my daughter works in a retail store as a manager, and you mentioned the credit cards, and I see that actually raising the FED rate, in my opinion, actually makes things worse, not better, because these people that she sees in there are buying their groceries

on a credit card. And she can see the people and she says, yeah, they have no money and they're they're putting up credit card debt and of course, you know, because they can't make ends meet. Anymore, and at some point the banks are going to you know, they're going to default, and then the banks are in trouble with you know, all this credit card lending that they're going to have to eat. And I don't see where raising the FED the interest rates to the point where people can't pay their

more using bills anymore is a good thing. I don't get it. And maybe I'm stupid. I just don't see the connection there. No, Steve, you're not You're far from stupid. It's listen there, it's a catch twenty two situation. So you have savers like your son in law that's putting money in the bank or buying CDs or bonds and they're getting higher interest rate. But then you have the other side of the coin where you have people,

consumers that are spending money. And I went over in the first half of the show just how much credit card debt and your daughter's right on. So many people they're using their credit card for everything. And listen, when you have to use your credit card to buy groceries just to put food on the table, that's not good. And a lot of people are struggling, Steve. A lot of people that's their only means. These are the people

that I'd like to help out and look to help out. You know, I walk around with Stuart's gift cards and I hand them out to people that I that I feel can use it. If I'm at the gas pump and I see somebody pull up and they look like they're struggling and they're only putting five or ten dollars in a gas tank, I said, here, let me put my credit card in so you can fill that gas tank up. And they look at me. I said, listen, you need you're going

to be driving, you're not going to sell the car tomorrow. You need more than five dollars worth of gas. And I look for people that are just up against it. Steve. There's a lot of people that need to borrow on credit cards, and unfortunately that's the only only way around it. Listen, it's it's, it's it's it's a sad thing. But you know it sounds as though you know your your son in law being as discipline as he is. Folks, that's the key. Live within your means, save

money, put money away somehow some way. Hey Steve, thanks for the phone call. Well, stay healthy, have your son in law tune in next week if I actually I know, I'm not going to be here next weekend, but somebody on my team will be here and they will have as good of a show as hopefully you feel. Today's show is one eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. And he calls whatsoever, folks, give me a call.

One eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. So you know, Steve son in law, blue collar, probably didn't go to school. Folks. I know I may upset some of you with this next comment. I'm going to apologize right up front. I am sorry, but it needs to be said. I talked to Doug Goudie about this on Wednesday morning. I'm on his show every Wednesday morning for a market up day on Humpday.

Wednesday's hump Day, remember that. And we talked about this, and he asked me what I thought about President Biden, you know, canceling student loans for so many people, folks. I am dead against it, dead against it, dead against it, dead against it. All right, folks like Steve's son in law probably didn't go to college, learned the trade blue collar

working worker able to put away over one hundred thousand dollars in savings. What about the student who works their rear end off, works every summer two three jobs so they don't have student debt. What about the poor families who mortgage their house. There's still a lot of old fashioned moms and dads out there that don't want their children to have debt, and they've done everything, maybe even liquidated money out of their retirement accounts. What break do they get,

folks, They get none, none, whatsoever. I don't feel bad for the student who borrowed money to go to college to get a better paying job. They knew that when they borrowed the money, they could have gone to an associate college like Hudson Valley where everybody can afford that, and they could have went from there to Sunny. They didn't need to go to Syracuse University or worse yet, that obnoxious university called Harvard. They did not need to

do that. So if they borrowed money to do that, they knew that upfront, they knew they had to pay that money back. Over one hundred and fifty billion dollars. This administration forgiving. I think it's thirty million people that are going to have student that forgiven. Folks, that's nothing other than buying votes. There. I said it. I know some of you aren't going to like what I just said, but it's not a political statement.

I think it's downright wrong. This is why we had thirty four trillion dollars a debt in this great country of ours. This is why I am debt against spending money foolishly because there's a lot of people that did what they needed to do so they wouldn't have to borrow money, and they're the ones that are getting screwed. And Doug Goudie and I talked about this on Wednesday, and I'm just dead against it. And folks, this is not a political

statement. I don't care if you're a Democrat Republican, I don't care. Paying off student loan debt is not a good use of money because there's a lot of people out there that are working their rear ends off that are guess what, this doesn't This isn't money that falls you know. This isn't pennies falling from having folks. This is money that this great country of ours is printing. And that means that for those of US. I pay taxes,

we're paying off those student loans. This isn't a gift from Washington. This is nothing other than a way to get on the good side of millions and millions and millions people saying, oh wow, they're going to forgive my debt. Listen, if you went to college and you decided to go to a highly expensive university or college rather than maybe start out at a Hudson Valley or a Sunni school, then you know what you took on that debt. Pay it off yourself. Pay it off yourself. You knew that going into it.

Or better yet, go to a trade school. We need plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and so forth. And there's a lot of great paying jobs out there. Global foundaries alone would love to hire a lot of people. Hudson Valley even has a program for that. Not everybody's cut out to, you know, get a four year degree and not sure what they're going to do for it. But if you decided to borrow money because you think

you're gonna get a higher paying job, then that's okay. I just don't think the hard working people like Steve's son in law, who's a blue collar worker trying to save money, should be paying off all of those kids who went to college and got a four year degree there. I said it, all right, I'm gonna bite my tongue right now because I probably shouldn't have said that. Gold record high. Oh my god, how did that happen?

Gold is at a record high, folks. I did not see this coming, but I guess with all the fear around the world, there's no intrinsic value on gold, and gold is at a record high. You know, you know, twenty four forty eight, it's said it's up twelve percent over the last week, fourteen percent year to date gold. If you bought gold, it's the place to be, folks. We're coming up to the

end of the show. I can't thank you enough for tuning in. You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Go to our website Bouchet dot com, uz in boy ou ch e y dot com. We have our webinar. Pollo and Ryan did a webinar on the first quarter state of the economy. It's a beautiful thirty minutes. Folks, have a great Sunday. Thank you, come back next weekend.