Let's Talk Money

you enjoy each other. I can't thank you enough for tuning in today as thirty years folks, I was just telling this story. Thirty years I've been doing and radio with you. I've been sitting here weekend, week out, and I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed. It never gets tiring, it never gets old. I actually get energized by it. And if you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. I would love to talk to you. One eight hundred talk WGY one

eight hundred eight two five, five nine four nine. That's one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever this holiday season? Little snow, I guess that makes it really holidayish, like if if you like the snow, you know, I find myself when it gets a little colder out there. Sure it's nice to put a sweater on and your favorite jacket and wrap yourself in a scarf. But boy, sometimes sometimes it gets too cold. One eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.

So what a year we're having, you know, the markets this week we started off with South Korea six hours of martial law before the National Assembly overturned it, and you know, then you know the steps to impeach President Eun Sukiel. The French government, led by Michael Barnier fell in a no confidence vote. Bitcoin topped one hundred thousand dollars. As President Electronk tapped pro crypto Paul Aikins to run

the SEC. We had the jobs report on Friday yesterday, two hundred and twenty seven thousand jobs in November, plus we had a little bump and the revised number for the month of October. For the week you know, the s and p up one percent, NASTAC up three point three percent. Folks, that's a pretty good week. That's a pretty good darn week to have the markets, you know, just continue. You know, we're we're on a three week

winning streak right now. When you look ere to date, you have nanstack up thirty two percent QQQ, the Nanstack one hundred up twenty eight point five percent, and we're going to have some some revisions to the NASTAC one hundred. Remember, unlike the SMP, where you know the SMP, they make changes based on market value Profitability industry group, NASTACK one hundred basically tends to be market value Nanstack one hundred companies with the lowest market values are up for deletion.

And you know, right now, the low ten, the bottom ten of the NANSTAC one hundred companies like Maderna, super micro bile Gen Global Founderies, which is just one of our local baby near and dear to our heart if you're in upstate New York, Warner Brothers, and a few others. It looks as though the companies that may be coming into Nanstack one hundred the remake will be Planet Tard,

micro Strategy, equinex, CMEME Group, Interactive Brokers, Coinbase Global. You know, it's sometimes these stocks do well because there's a lot of indexes out there that have to buy these companies. So if you get ahead of the game, you know, maybe you can profit. I'm not saying it's a it's a guarantee, but some people do try to profit when they see these these companies being added to indexes like

the Nanstack one hundred. So those are you know, the new ones coming in and more than likely the old ones going out the bottom I shouldn't say old, but the ones near the bottom of the market. Cat that's how Nanstack one hundred works. So you know, all it was, it was a good week. And as I said, Nansdak up thirty two percent with dividends almost thirty three percent,

Hansdak one hundred, which is QQQ. When you buy QQQ, you're buying the Nansdak one hundred of twenty eight and a half percent with dividends just a little over twenty nine percent. F and P up twenty eight percent with dividends almost twenty nine percent. Russell two thousand up nineteen percent. Folks, it's it's a good week. Russell two thousand, didn't have or a good year. I should say year to date. Those are year to date numbers. The weekly number on

the Russell two thousand. It was the one major index that slipped down just over one percent, which was too bad. You hear me say it often we need those mid camps and small cams to partake in this rally. That means that this rally really has uh you know, I think room to grow, and I am optimistic that the stock market will continue to grow even during bad times. You hear me say it. I'm really forever the optimist.

Both the stock market goes up and down, up and down, up and down, and when it goes down, I always I went to Uncommon Grounds for coffee and I got a nice toasted bagel with cream cheese and the little locks this morning and ran into to a dear dear friend. Todd and I were catching up and he told the story how, you know, not too long ago he was with the group of friends and the market was down like four percent. You know, they thought they were losing

their shirt. And Tod says, guys, guys, how have the last twenty years been to you? You're looking at the market being down a few days four percent. Really get a hold of yourself and Todd. Todd's right, it's you know, when the market goes down a little bit, all of a sudden, people start questioning why should I own stocks? Listen, when the market goes down, those are opportunities to get

into the market. Make some changes in your portfolio, maybe get rid of some of the dogs, bring in some stocks or ETFs or funds that you feel will do well. Look at volatilties an opportunity. I can't stress that enough. And when the market goes down, the world's not coming to an end. Do not do not make any rash decisions. Do not have those knee jerk reactions.

a long time. That's why you have to keep everything in check, and especially especially for retirees, Inflation is real. You know, the price of milk and bread, the price of gasoline to put in the car, the price of heating and air conditioning your home. Those are real costs, and they go up every year. Maybe they go up a little bit, maybe they go up a lot more. We've seen inflation since twenty twenty two as high as

nine point two. Now we're, you know, depending on which indicator you want to look at, somewhere around two and a half percent. But that means that prices are going up on average two and a half percent. Now we know, we absolutely know prices are a lot higher than two and a half percent, especially in the grocery store. If you're shopping at any you know, I don't care if it's stores or market thirty two slash price chopper. You're

paying more for groceries now than you've ever paid. And those those costs are real costs, and they are affecting everybody. People that are working, especially low income earners. They you know, they're they're having a hard time putting food on the table. These these are the people that my heart goes out to and also retirees that are in fixed budgets, it's you know, they're even though they're getting a little bit

more interest. Now the ten year US Treasury notes about four point one five let's say four point two were round it up, So that's a whole lot more than near zero where it was for years. So retirees who who like to put their money, whether it's in you know, CDs or bonds, savings accounts, they're getting paid a little bit more. But inflation your real rate of return, and it's really your real rate of return. Your real rate of return is what you're earning less. Inflation equals your

real rate of return. So if you're getting let's say you're getting four percent in a ten year Treasury note, and let's say inflation is three percent, your real rate of return is one percent. That's your real rate of return. So what you want to do is make sure you have a good portfolio, especially retirees, do not be afraid of stocks. I don't care how high the stock market goes. It always goes higher, doesn't it. Sure we'll have a break here or there, market will slip a little, the

market will come back. That's it's expected you hear me say this often, The average pick the trough high to low swing in the stock market year in year out over forty four years is about fourteen percent. That means the market swings fourteen percent. That's that's that's a given. Stocks go up and down, up and down, up and down. That's a lot of up and downs. So if you're invested in you have a good portfolio, forget about it. Just you know, let time do what time does well

on that's bring good returns. Make sure you have a portfolio that you're comfortable with. Make sure you have a portfolio that you can live with. Make sure you have a portfolio that when, not if, when the stock market goes down next, it doesn't keep you up at night. That's so important for you to have that comfort level, that tolerance of risk. What's your tolerance of risk? How much can you afford to lose before you really truly want to jump off that that that first step on

your stoop or out the first floor window. Don't do it. You're just gonna get dirty, or maybe you land in a nice snow bank and just get cold. But don't do it. Don't don't don't jump off that first step on the stoop or out your first floor window. It's not worth it. The stock market goes up and it goes down. World, it's not coming to an end. And as they say, I'm not here to promote stocks over bonds, over commodities, or real estate or any other asset class.

They all bring a certain meaning to your portfolio. The key is having that diversification, that balance that you're comfortable with, and make sure that you can live with what you own, make sure you can live with and know and understand the risks that you're taking. There's risks and everything. There's risks. Putting your money under the mattress, for God's sakes, the biggest risk. You know. It's like people that were buying a lot of gold bars and storing it under their mattress.

Sure it felt could they felt like they had all this gold that you know, they could sleep that night, But boy, what allows the knight's sleep they were getting. The mattress was lumpy. You're tossing and turning, you're just you know, you're just not getting a good ninth's fleet. You got to put it all in perspective. I'm gonna take a quick fifteen second break. The phone lines are open one eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eighty

two five five nine four nine. Any questions, said, all folks, give me a call Zach Harris, my long term producer, and I would love, love, love to talk to you and get your pointed in the right direction. Thank you, folks for letting me take that short break. The phone lines are open one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. I got to thank my colleagues last week for filling in for me as they shared with you.

I went out to San Diego. I had a little horse race out there that I wanted to see at Delmar where the turf meets the surf. We weren't successful, but what a what a year Carsons Ron had my three year old. He's really one of the better three year old turf horses in the country, and he didn't have a good race last Saturday, but he had a great year. And now he's wintering in South Florida getting some vitamin D and catching up. So I was out there for the race, and I know on Saturday, I

think I had Pollo and Ed doing the show. On Sunday, I think we had John and then he doing the show. They did a great job. All my colleagues do a great job. When I'm not here doing the show for thirty years, it's nice. It's nice to have colleagues now that can fill in and let me take a day off here or there. And especially over the last seven

eight months, it's been a long seven eight months. I'll tell you that it's you know, our tagline has helped wealth for Life and I tell I tell every client that you know, when you have you're health, you have everything. And when you have your loved one, your spouse, your partner, you're really really fortunate. And if financially you can make things happen, don't mess around. You never know when your health or you love one, you know, the situation may change.

And for those of you that have listened, you know that I was off the air for months. I had you know, I went through some health stuff. Knock on wood, I'm you know, I'm free of my health issues, but I still have a broken heart. I lost my wife halfway through and back in May, and you know my heart will never heal. And you know it's so I had number one and number two changed completely. My world was upside down this year, and you know, I was off the air and my colleagues filled in and it

feels good to be back. You know. As I said, I look forward to doing the show. And I can't thank you enough for tuning in. And if you have any questions, give me a call. One eight hundred and eight two five five, nine four nine. I'm going to go back to the phone lines where we have Steve and Judica. Hello Steve.

your principal intact. And you know, it just means that you should really have one, you know, a lifestyle that you probably for all those decades that you were working, were thinking about and dreaming of. And it sounds as though you can make that happen. So if that's enough money for you to live on, that's great rule of thumb. Steve. We tell, we tell anybody who will listen to us. You know, if you have a million dollar portfolio, let's

just keep numbers simple. If you have a million dollar portfolio, your safety withdrawal rate is full to six percent, So that means you can take forty to sixty thousand dollars out a year. If that portfolio isn't invested properly, let's say it's in a you know, growth and income strategy. That's that's a very popular strategy for retirees, like a sixty forty mixed sixty percent stock, forty percent bonds, alternatives, cash.

And if you're in a sixty forty portfolio, over time, you should be able to get six seven eight percent on average on average return. And if you're taking four or five six percent out, that means your principle stays intact. That money can be used to leave to to your errors or charity or whatever. And if that's enough for you to live on, that's good. If you want to liquidate it and die with zero, and believe me, there's a popular book out there. I just had another client

this week I found out has read it. A lot of people read this book where you know, basically they you know, they want to die at zero, so we plan at age ninety twosh that that they'll you know, kind of liquidate everything down to next to zero and they're able to. You know, some people, and I'm a

big fan of the Steve. Some people when you know, listen, when when you die at ninety years old plus and your children are seventy years old, they don't need the money like they did when they were forty or fifty years old. So if you can help people out in your family or charitable inclinations while you're alive and well, and you can see the joy that it brings to the people or organizations around you, that's a beautiful thing

if it doesn't hurt you. So, I guess it's a long winded answer, but yeah, if you can live on just dividends and income, absolutely rather than reinvest that you can take that out. But rule of thumb, you should be able to take four to six percent withdrawal out of your portfolio. That you is you a good safety net number.

it's all about. It's funny, go back ninety years, your average return in stocks is seven eight percent, but when you add in dividends, you get up to that ten percent number, and it's all about it's it's it's really all about dividends. And that's you know that that that that's what you want to look at, is the dividends in your portfolios. So when you have a company or an ETF like this, what you have in there are you you have companies that have been paying dividends for

at least ten consecutive years. Those are solid companies, companies that believe in giving back to the shareholders. And this is why you know, this is why we use this in our portfolios. You're to date it's up about seventeen percent. It's it's what we would consider a value part of your equity holdings. If you look over the last you know, eleven years, your you know your your your your returns have been rock solid it's a good holding, just just a good good holding, right and.

but the SMP was actually down more than that. So this is that's why I say it's it's kind of a value fund. If you compare to the SMP. Instead of being down three percent in twenty twenty two, the SMP was down eighteen percent and in twenty eighteen just about the same, good good, good holding. Nothing to be ashamed of. As I said, we have it in our portfolios and it's it's really really a good, good, good holding. So good good choice. Steve, Steve, thank you for the

phone call. You stay healthy. I truly appreciate you. Tuning in, folks, you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Integrap, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. I can't thank you enough for tuning in, hanging in hell tongue tied, hang in there through the news. One eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine. I'll see you in a couple of quick minutes.

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 one eight hundred eighty five fifty nine forty nine. Man, I am getting tongue twisted. I haven't even had a drink yet. Although it's only ten thirty four. You know I won't be having a drink till six o'clock. I'm tonight, we celebrate the holidays and Christmas dinner with my colleagues. I take over. Basically,

I take over the hotel of Delphi. I put them all up for the weekend, and I'm proud to say one of the finest Italian restaurants in the area, Asteria Danny's, I close down for the night. So if you wanted to go there to dinner tonight, I'm sorry. It's closed for my team and I to really celebrate the holidays. And just you know, I can't thank my colleagues enough. They, especially this year with me not being able to work, they step right in and we didn't skip the beat.

My clients are well taken care of. I truly have my colleagues. They care about my clients the same way that I care about them, and they are special. They are second and I can't I can't begin to thank them enough. So tonight we'll have a little bit of celebration and I look forward to that if I can help you today though, with anything on your mind. One eight eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Robert in delmar Hello, Robert.

so sure I would. I would take out a mortgage. You know, you're you're going to be spending six seven percent on a mortgage. And as I said, you have more than enough assets to to you know, had the quality of life that that you you'll you know, you'll need let's say during retirement, So I would probably say pay cash for that property. The key is, you know, make sure you do your homework in Florida. Make sure

you do your due diligence. I say this often Sometimes people retire and they don't do their homework, and the first thing they say to me is, hey, Steve, I'm going to go down in Florida and buy something. I said, Oh, that's great. I said, where are you going to go? Oh, I don't know anywhere in Florida. I said. You know, there's a lot of parts of Florida. I said, the East coast is different than the west coast. South Florida is different than Central Florida and North Florida. You know,

you know, do your homework. If you haven't done your homework, if you've never really spent any time. My recommendation for the first year or two is, you know, start out. Rent a place for a month on the East coast, rent a place for a month on the West coast. Same thing, South Florida, Central Florida. A lot of people are going to the villages. But you're inland and it gets a little colder in Orlando, I'll believe it or not, and down in South Florida. So there's a lot of

things to think about. But regardless, if you know where you want to go, you know, look for a good value home. They are expensive. Obviously, a lot of people are moving to the Sunshine State for a lot of reasons. You know, it's funny. One of the big reasons is people say, I don't want to spend money in taxes.

And when I break down how much money they take out of their retirement plans or their pension, they forget that the first twenty thousand dollars is New York State tax free, and if they're married, that's forty thousand dollars between both spouses and a lot of people don't realize that. But Florida is a beautiful, beautiful place, so there's a lot of vitamin D down there to be had. And if you do decide to buy a place, I would say I would I would just liquid eate a million dollars.

I admire you for having that money invested in the growth oriented mode being and stocks. A lot of people are afraid to do that. We actually have a lot of clients like you because we've educated them through the years that they really shouldn't be afraid of stocks. And the key is any money that you need to live on for the next two years should not be invested in the stock market. This way, when that next correction bear market recession comes, you're not panicking because it's not

going to e thank your retirement years. So that's just food for thought. If you were my client, Robert, that's exactly what I would I would recommend for you.

We go back to the bone mines. We have Jim in Rotterdam junction.

of some of those and put it somewhere else. And my first thought was to put it back in the municipal bonds. And I've got one thing that I was looking at called s N s x X. But I'm open to any ideas you may have. But that's the are you working, No, I've been.

paying state tax on it. And as I said, more than likely a lot of people buy unis thinking that they don't want to pay taxes, and when they look at the difference, they're in such a low tax bracket, they really don't get the benefits as much as buying a good taxable bond, especially treasuries being state tax I said, yeah, yeah, so I you know I would I would probably look at some treasuries and and and maybe you know, yield

yield something. But you know, you're right the the the eye bonds right now, the rate changes every every six months, and you know, for for a while, right now they're three point one one percent. So you can buy a ten year treasury at four point two percent right now. Every six months, this I bond, you know, it changes yep. On May first, it'll it'll change again, or April thirtieth, however you want to call it. But right now you're getting three point one one. It was just god, it

wasn't that long ago. I was saying you were getting almost nine percent. Sure, so there's yeah, but those days are gone. Those days are they're gone. Are are behind us, thank god, because inflation was nine point two percent, So that's why you're getting almost nine percent in the inflation bonds. But look at treasuries, h Jenny.

sell it at a loss. Fees. Who wants to buy your stinky four point two bond when they can buy a new one at five point two. But we don't see interest rates growing up like that. Now. I don't have a crystal ball. I could be wrong, but you know, laddering, This is why I like laddering. You know, maybe do a six month and one year or two year or five year this way. Every so often the bonds come due, and if you need that roof on the house or whatever,

you have that money, come do Jim. Good question, great, Thanks very much, Thank you. All right, Jim, we appreciate it. Two five, five nine, four nine. We go back to the phone lines. We have another Jim. This gym is from true Jim.

problem with life insurance is life insurance agents. They don't make money selling term insurance where they make pennies on a dollar and commission. They like to sell those big expensive policies where they're making up to fifty percent commission selling them of the premium. So I always say, by term insurance and make sure you have enough now. As you grow older, then all of a sudden, the need

for life insurance is great. Maybe you've built up retirement program portfolios or assets like real estate or investment accounts. You may not need it enough. So whether you cash it in or borrow from it, you know I have. It's funny. As much a proponent as I am of term most of my insurance, especially when when our children were hunger was termed. But I did buy one variable life back in the early nineties, and it's funny. It's like that, you know, ten dollars gym membership that comes

out of your checking account. You haven't been to the gym in years. The same with this variable life. I had money come out of my checking account and you forget that it comes out. It just comes out for all those years. And now I got some considerable cash value built in it, so I can actually deplete some of it without hurting the value of the insurance. I could borrow from it. It comes down to when you die, Jim, there's going to be a day when you're going to die.

I don't make many guarantees, but that's one guarantee. There's a day when you will die. When you die, would that life insurance, you know, whether it's for your wife, your children, grandchildren. You know obviously you're leveraging the death benefit. And how much will will that be? And can you help somebody in different ways by borrowing from that rather

than cashing it in. That's your big question. But if you and your wife don't need that insurance like you did when when you were younger, whether you borrow from it or cash it in. You know, I have no problem with.

But if if if if you and your wife are set and you don't need that, you know, if you had the big one tonight in your sleep and didn't wake up tomorrow, if your wife is going to be fine with or without that insurance, then you know cashing it in. Cashing it in is no big thing. And I heard you say you have somebody, You got people. I got people. If our people are good with this, then we're good.

I love it when insurance sales people are out there selling life insurance. And I'll never forget this story. A few years ago on the golf course, and this this friend of mine who had a very dear friend who's an insurance agent. He said Steve, he says he's trying to sell me life insurance instead of putting money in my wroth Ira. He says that when I'm sixty five years old, I can take money out of this life insurance and all the tax benefits. And I looked at him.

I said, if you knew you were going to live to your sixty five, you will, you probably don't need life insurance, so there's no guarantee to that. And I said, you need life insurance today if you die and you have a spouse and young children or charitable you know inclinations that you want to take care of. But most young people with children, and believe me, folks, if you don't have a million to two million dollars, you don't have enough. It takes a lot when when you have

a young family, and term insurance is cheap. And I hate that word cheap. It's it's cheaper than cheap, it's

thirty cheap. And to take good money and put it into an expensive insurance policy so that when you're sixty five you have all these tax benefits, I'm dead against it because what you do is you need that million two million dollars worth of life insurance death benefit when you're young, when you have a young family and term insurance is the way to go, and you absolutely don't want to take money from funding a pension in order

to fulfill your you know, life insurance salesperson telling you that, you know, it's it's, it's, it's it's good when you're you're sixty five, you're going to have all this money. If we knew we were going to live to be sixty five, we wouldn't need all that life insurance. There's no guarantees, no guarantees whatsoever. One eighty two five five nine four nine. So you know inflation, I said it in the first half of the show. What what are retirees? Do?

you know, they really need that diversification. Our retirees, most of our retirees are invested in a sixty forty makes sixty percent stock, forty percent bonds, alternatives and cash and you know, bond's the best way to buy bonds right now is the I share US Aggregate bond. It's it's an ETF we buy for our clients. The symbol is a GG. It's like the S and P proxy for bonds. Year to data is up three point five percent, which which is not bad. You know, people found out in

the last couple of years that bonds don't always go up. Bonds, bonds can can can come down as well. The yield right now is about four point three percent of the SEC yield. That's that's that's pretty good. It's it's a good mix of bonds. If you're just going to own one bond, you know, ETF, that would be the bond ETF to to own. It's well diversified and people, you know, people for the for the most part, have bonds in

their portfolio to soften down on the volatility. Bonds are supposed to offset the volatility of stocks, and that's not always the case. We saw in the last couple of years where bonds were down in value as well. So folks, everything no matter what you own, real estate, gold, bond, stocks, whatever you own, it goes up and down, up and down, up and down. I can't believe we're coming up to

the end of the show. You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Answer Group, where we help our clients priority their help while we manage through wealth for life. I thank you for tuning in. Go to our website Bouchet dot com. Do o U c h e Y. There's a lot of good stuff there. I will be back tomorrow morning at eight am if you're up early. Have a good holiday folks, have a good weekend.