Let's Talk Money

devastated by Hurricane Heleen. And my heart goes out to everybody that's been affected. So many people have lost their lives, lost everything that they worked so hard for, and it's it's just amazing how mother nature can all of a sudden take takes so much away from us. And Helene

did just that I mean the devastation. When you see the pictures, the stories, you just have to count your blessings and really say, say some prayers for those people that have been affected, because this is this, This is a biggie. Helene was a biggie. We've had a few years now where it seems like Mother Nature just just creates havoc. And I'm going to go to church after the show today say a prayer for for for all

all those that were affected. So in the meantime, I hope you're able to do the same or give them some thought, somehow, some way, because we have it. We have a pretty good folks. Listen, when we're not affected by mother nature like so many parts of the country. Are you gotta just count your lucky blessings, I always say Upstate New York especially, very seldom do we get affected by all that goes on around the rest of

the country. So hearts go out to them. My prayers and thoughts are with all those that have been affected, and I hope somehow, some way that the storm precipitates and people are able to recover anyway. I can't thank you enough for this morning. Whether you're still in bed, whether you're up making a cup of coffee, whether you're up, out and about. I can't thank you enough for tuning in every week every Saturday at ten, every Sunday morning

at eight for Let's Talk Money. I'm Stephen Bouchet. I'm sitting here live in the studio with you, with Zach and I shouldn't say in the studio. We haven't been in the studio since since COVID technology has taken over our lives, and we don't need to go into the studio to do the show live. But we are doing the show live, and we can do the show live as long as we have an Internet connection. We can do the show live from anywhere anywhere in around the world, anywhere.

In the meantime, our phone lines are open. If you have any questions whatsoever, any questions I would love to talk to you. Give me a call one eight hundred Talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five nine, four nine, any questions whatsoever. I'm sorry for the little bit of delay. I got some friends texting me. They know I lost track of time. It doesn't happen often.

Thirty years doing the show, I can say I think this is the closest I've ever cut it, the closest, and I know I got Zach Harris just just saying, Steve, where are you? Where are you? I'm here one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four. Any questions give me a call pertaining to your financial future. I'd love to get you pointed in the right direction. I know. Yesterday we had a great show. Harmony and Ed filled in for me. Harmony is one of my rock stars.

Just celebrated her eighth anniversary. She's a pretty smart advisor, certified financial planner, a certified private wealth advisor, which there's very very few of in the country. And now Ed Wilhelm. We hired him right out of Santa College, captain of the rugby team, Ed Axe as our portfolio trader, and boy, I'm telling you, he's done an amazing job, so smart. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by the team that I'm surrounded by, and just all these great colleagues, these

professionals that make me look good. They truly make me look good, and they care about my clients the same way I care about them. That's something you can't teach people. Yeah, you either have those ethics, those values or you don't. Very seldom can you really teach people how to do

what's right. I shouldn't say that you can do it, but I'm fortunate to have twenty professionals that know what's important to them, and really what's important to them is making sure as fiduciaries, we do what's right for our clients first and foremost. It's been a long few months for me, folks. I can't begin to tell you what it means to me. I hear so much from so many of you. You know, we have a lot of

clients that tune in every every week. It's almost like a weekly newsletter, and a lot of people that I've never met that check in with me to see how I'm doing. I'm healing every day. I'm doing better and better. I got friends all across the country that really helped me out, and doing the show is therapy for me in so many ways because I just I just enjoy one eight hundred eighty two five five, nine, four nine. Any questions give me a call. Let's start off the

morning with Brian and Schenectady. Good morning, Brian, how you doing. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How are you doing?

this is taxable or not. And the same with with with Social Security. I mean, obviously, first and foremost, hopefully you're recovering. Hopefully you're healing. Hopefully you're getting in a good place. Sorry to hear that you're getting these settlements because of a disability, but hopefully you're doing okay, Brian.

I'm not going to lie. But I'm almost sure that these worker compayments are tax exempt under the IRS Code. I'm almost I'm ninety nine and a half percent sure, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. So more than likely Brian won't have to pay federal or state taxes on that worker's comp settlement. I'm the same with Social

Security disability offset disability insurance. You know, I don't think he's going to be paying taxes on that one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine any questions, give me a call. As he said, I can't thank you enough for waking up early being with me. Some of you have woken up real early, and you know,

it means a lot. To have such a loyal listening audience that's here here with me and my colleagues, doing the show for me, week in week out, means a lot to us. We we we we take great joy in helping the listening audience, getting them pointed in the right direction somehow, some way. One eighty two five five nine four nine. So what happened this week in the markets? You know, Beginning in the week, China rolled out stimulus measures, a rate cut, funding for stocks and buybacks, helping the

real estate market, talked up physical support. And you know, China had had had had a good week. They haven't had a good week in a long time. And you know, listen, folks, whatever you think, China is the second largest economy. They would love to be the largestonomy in the world. And

they're second behind us. Everybody else, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and everybody else is so far behind the United States and China that it's not even you know, funny altogether, they don't add up to the economies of this great country of ours, and also China. But China, China's forced to be reckoned with They're number two, and you can't discount them. They've been having a rough time. You know. Some people feel I've been doing a lot of readings.

Some people feel that if you have a play account, you want to play investing in China might now, right now, may not be a bad thing. As I said, this is for your play account. This is not something we're doing in our portfolios where we're managing our client's core investments. But if you have a play account, better known as a sandbox account. One of my clients coin that phrase and we have stolen it, and we use it and we act actually for our clients that'd open up these

play accounts. We actually call them sandbox accounts. I have a few sandbox accounts on my own that I let Ed Wilhelm trade for me, and they're doing quite nicely. So if you have a sandbox account and you want to take a flyer, you know, investing in China, you know there it may not be bad in this great country of ours. The S and P and Dow Jones industrial leverage hit new highs. I think the Dow has had thirty four new highs this year. Second quarter growth

came in at three point one percent. August inflation fell to two point two percent annualized. For the week, the Dial was up six tenths of a percent, the S and P six tenths of a percent, NaSTA composite one percent. Not bad. Another great week, you know, year to date, listen with all the head lines, with all the bad news, and especially with all the bad news bears on some

of these financial programs. You know, year to date, the SMP is up twenty percent, folks, twenty point three to be exact, with dividends twenty one almost twenty two percent, NASDAK up twenty one percent. The QQQ now it's back one hundred, up nineteen percent. The Russell two thousand is up almost ten percent. That's not bad year to date. We'll take that. As we enter the fourth quarter pretty soon this coming week, you know, the clocks turn, the

calendar turns from September to October. We have three more months to finish out this year. It looks like it's going to be a pretty dune good year. And man, oh man, you know I'll take this year. When you look at the returns of the SMP over the last ten years, we only had two years where stocks were downwenty and eighteen they were down about four and a half percent, twenty twenty two they were down about eighteen percent. Every other year, the stock market has been up and

up pretty good. You know. Twenty fifteen it was up only and I say only, it's always good when the stock market's up, but it was up only one point twenty five percent every other year. So the remaining seven years, the stock market's up double digits, folks. I keep saying, and I had this conversation with my investment committee. Often stocks are up more than they are down. The stock market rises more than it goes down, And if you're a long term investor, please, please, please, don't be afraid

to have stocks in your portfolio. And when you have a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, do not let it scare you. Believe me, I mean September. Right we started off, September was looking pretty down. September supposed to be one of those months where the stock market doesn't do so well. Guess what, September was a great month. We had a bad week or two, and then all of a sudden, the next two weeks made up for the first couple bad weeks. September has been

a great month. And that just goes to show short term do not get caught up in what we call the noise of the marketplace. I don't care where that noise comes from. I don't care how smart you think somebody is. Nobody knows where the stock market's going. But over time, the stock market is up more than the stock market is down. And I'm not here to push stocks over bonds or real estate or commodities or cash. I'm just here to say stocks. There's nothing wrong with

having stocks in your portfolio, nothing whatsoever. So over the last ten years, you know, two negative years, eight years where the market up and here we are, you know, as they said, here up almost twenty two percent with dividends reinvested. The SMP is looking pretty darn good and NANSNAC is right there with the S and P. They're kind of head to head and over the last three months the month, so you know, I share this often.

The sm P is is a weighted index. You know when when you look at the top ten holdings, they account for so much of of the S and P. And you have the big companies like Microsoft and Apple that that make up really the bulk of of of the S and P. So thirty five percent of the S and P. Now there's five hundred companies and the sm P thirty five percent are represented by just ten companies, Apple being number one, Microsoft and Navidia, Amazon, Metal, which

was Facebook, Alphabet which was Google, Berkshire Hathaway. What a what an investor Warren Buffett is and he's still going strong at ninety four years old, broad Com, Eli, Lilly, you get the picture. Those tap ten holdings account for thirty five percent of of NASDAK and you know that that that that sounds pretty good when you when you read of the S and D not Nansdack. When you look at Nansdak, the top ten holdings account for fifty

one percent. For the most part, their their their almost identical Apple, Microsoft, Navidio, broad Com, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, Costco, Google make up the top ten holdings of of QQQ, the the you know Nansdak one hundred composite. Those are the hundred largest companies in Nansdack. But what's really been coming on strong and year to date the equal weight is up about fifteen percent the last three months. The equal weight is actually outperforming the S and P, which

is pretty good. Now, when I say the equal weight, I'm looking at the investco S and P. Equal Weight are the symbols our SP So there you know, every holding is equal weighted, no pun intended. That's where the name comes from equal weight. So what you're doing is you're getting exposure to so many other companies other than and we know in the S and P and NASDAC the magnificent seven have been really making up most of the performance. But over the last few months the equal

weight is done well. Now in the equal weight you have five hundred companies and they're all amount to about point to five percent point two five percent, So that means that the smallest company and the SMP is worth as much as Apple being the largest company in the S and P. And when you look at at RSP, which is the symbol, and it's nice to see, I say often the stock market can't go anywhere unless the

entire market really really is part of it. That's when you know we're we're in the makings of a pretty good rally. And for that equal way to be catching up to the S and P as quickly as it is shows me that the broadening of this this you know, rally is really the bench is getting deeper and wider, and so many of these other companies are taking part, and that's a positive thing. You know, the Russell two thousand being up only almost ten percent year today, you know,

it was negative for a long time. Once again, the Russell two thousand makes up the mid cap small cap companies that trade on all the stock exchanges. So once again it's nice to see other companies other than those magnificent seven take part in this rally, and that shows me that I'm very optimistic on the stock market. I don't care who wins this presidential election. You heard it from me, I don't care. I actually can't wait till it's over. I'm sick and tired of it, that disrespect.

I'm sick and tired of everything that goes on in politics in this country. So whoever our president's going to be, it is what it is. As my wife Sue used to say, it is what it is, and whoever our president, whoever gets elected, we'll live with it. There may be volatility in the marketplace, and if there is, it'll be short lived. The stock market looks at the fundamentals of the economy. The stock market looks in this coming Friday, we have the September jobs report, which will be released.

You know, right now, there's a forecast. We're looking for about one hundred and forty five thousand jobs, you know, just about the same as in August. We're looking for unemployment too, to remain unchanged at four point two percent. Well, I can sit here and tell you no matter what we're looking for. On Friday, we'll find out what it is. And more importantly than what the September jobs report is will be the revisions from August in July. It's all

in the revisions. As my son Ryan once said, he said, Dad, it's all in the revisions, because they report these numbers and then all of a sudden they get more accurate data, and it's all in their revisions. We already know a few weeks ago we have almost a million less jobs over the last year because they've all been revised down. So we have almost almost a million less jobs than report it. And that's that's considerable. You can't listen, you know,

you can't take can't take that lightly. So the job market is softening and it's you know, that jobs report on Friday is going to be a biggie. I can assure you the Fed is going to be looking at it closely to see, you know what it is. I can't believe we're coming up to the bottom of the hour. We need to take a news break. Folks. You are listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Finance Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health.

We will manage their wealth for life. We pay attention to their future. If you have any questions, the phone lines are open one eight hundred eight two, five, five, nine, four ninety see you on the other side of the news.

oh six. I said, Man, Zach's going to be having a heart attack. And he's too young to be having a heart attack. Zach, how worried were you?

I got a good night's sleep. I didn't go anywhere last night, kind of just you know, lounging around, and I got a good night's sleep, you know, talked with some friends. It was a beautiful night. So I don't know. I don't know why I over shot the clock. But I'm here and you're here, and I can't thank you enough for tuning in every week, you know, folks. And I say this a lot beause I mean it from the bottom of my heart. One of the greatest things that I do is doing the show with you. It

never gets old. I love doing it. I get excited. I'm energized talking with you every day. And believe me, I have some people that say I saw you on the radio, and that's why I get my hair and nails. Donned to do the show so I look good for you. I have a face for radio, as they say. But I do love. I do love doing the show. I love being here with you. I love helping you. And if I can help you this morning, if you have any questions, I don't care what the question is, Give

me a call. Let me do my best to get your pointed in the right direction. The poll mines are open one eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two, five five nine four nine one, eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, give me a call, Let me talk to you, Let me get your pointed in the right direction. You know, we as I said, the Dow closed yesterday had a record high.

The sm P another record high this week. You know, inflation keeps slowing and the DOAL keeps breaking records along with the SMP. You know, third thirty second record high, I said, thirty fourth in the beginning of the show. So if you're fact checking me, no pun intended. There's a lot of fact checking out there right. If you're fact checking me, you got me, I said, thirty four record highs thirty second record high last night for the

DOAL Jones Industrial l Average. The Federal Reserves Preferred Inflation gauge showed that that that that prices are cooling off. Inflation is coming down next to their or close to their two percent target range, which you know, I know a year ago I said, I thought it was going to be difficult for them to get inflation down to two percent, because over the last almost one hundred years, inflation has averaged well over three percent. Over the last

fifty years, well over three percent. Inflation has been in the three percent range forever. So I thought the Fed was really too aggressive wanting two percent. But they're getting there. So we're somewhere between two and three percent, depending on which report you look at, and you know which month you look at it. You had the ten year treasure yield up a little bit closed that three point seven

five percent a whole lot less. Then you know, it seems like just yesterday, but it was months ago when the yield on the ten year Treasury note was over five percent, and you heard it here first. I said that that will be the all time buying opportunity. When you can get a yield over five percent for what I feel is the safest paper in the world, the US Treasury note, ten year bond yielding over five percent,

load up on them. I know my traders loaded up on as many as we could not for all of our clients, be as clients with smaller accounts, it's hard to buy individual bonds, but our clients that have more in their portfolios where we're able to buy individual bonds, we loaded up on as many as many of these bonds as we can possibly load up on. And I said, keep buying them, guys, just keep buying them. You'll never

regret loading up on those bonds. So, you know, it's dropped from over five percent to three point seventy five percent gold. And this is a surpriser for me. You know, I did not expect this. I did not see this. Gold keeps climbing the record highs twenty six hundred and forty four dollars an ounce. It's it's, you know, for the quarter, one of the best quarters ever ever ever for gold. Year to date, gold is up about twenty eight percent, out performing the stock markets. I missed it.

I did not see it coming. I'll admit to it. You know, I do my best. I don't have a crystal ball. I do my best to help our clients make sure they're well diversified, well invested. And gold has really really shined. In oil, you know, creaked up a little bit to sixty eight dollars of barrows. So there you have it. Good week for the markets. The markets are up. Good year for the markets. The markets are up. Like it when the markets are up five nine four nine.

Let's go to the phone lines. We have Glenn Instill Water. Hello, Glenn, how are you doing?

I don't know how long you've owned Tesla, but you know, Tesla has done pretty good over time, but as of late, it's lagging. You know, I always say, what is Tesla exactly? You know? Is it a car company? Is at a battery company? Is it just an Elon Musk being as brilliant as he is. And no matter what you think of the man, the man is brilliant. This guy has done things. I don't think he sleeps. I know there's

twenty four hours in a day. I think with Elon, I think his time clock there's more like thirty hours in a day. Because I just don't know how he does as much as he does. You know, you know, President Trump has a tap to play a role in as an administration, and I'm guessing if Donald Trump is elected our next president, you're probably going to see Elon Musk play role. And I'm all in favor. Folks, Listen,

this is not a political show. But let me tell you there's a reason why a lot of good business people do not throw their hat in the ring to get into the political arena. It's because it's just a bloodbath. And you know, Heaven help you if you had a beer before you were of the legal age, or you know, did anything wrong in your life, because it's just going

to be dragged out. But there's a lot of brilliant business people that can really do a lot of good in government, whereas most people in government are just career politicians who really have never had a real job. So I'm always in favor of I remember Senator Bruno, God love him. He was a great senator. There's a man who brought the state together. Democrats and Republicans used to

always say. And I had a lot of meetings with Senator no down at the Capitol, and I saw how he operated, and he was really brilliant in so many ways, a great negotiator. And behind closed doors they may roll up their sleeves and knock the living daylights out of each other. But man, you know, I don't care if it was Joe Bruno and Shelley Silver and whoever the governor was. You know, they come out, they were united, and they did they did more good than bad. Joe

Bruno used to be a businessman, you know. They You know that Joe Bruno would have loved for me to run for mayor of the City of Troy. And believe me, I'm all in favor of giving back. And I thought about it for a New York City minute. I said, you know, that would be a beautiful thing to you know, I grew up in Troy my entire life, to be able to act as the leader, to be able to make some decisions that maybe politicians couldn't make because you know, they just don't know how to make them or they

feel it may ruin their political career. And I said to Joe, I said, Joe, if I wherever mayor, you know, it would only be for a term, and I would do what I can possibly do and the best that I can do to to to lead. You know, our great city, and Troy is a great city. But you know, this is why you don't see a lot of a lot of people get into politics that are in the business world because they're just going to be dragged through

the mud. And you know, there's still a reputation and business you know there's gonna you know, the media will find a way to ruin it. So Tesla. Tesla is one of those companies you know, Glenn, that that is over time done well, but as of late hasn't done as well. Remember, Tesla has a lot of competition. There's a lot of EV cars and I am not in the camp there is nobody and I have an EV car I have an electric car, and it's a pain in the neck folks looking for a charging station. You

can't take a long trip. You have to plan your whole life around whether or not that battery is charged or not. At least with you know, those gas guzzlers you can pull into a goddarn gas station on every corner. With the electric charging stations, you know, if you do find them that work, that are working, you know, sometimes you got to just wait in line. You could be there half a day waiting for your turn to get up there to you know, charge charge that battery of yours.

And believe me, I love driving this car. It's fast, it's nimble, it's quick, it's fun. But it's a pain in the neck. And when I hear politicians talk about making this this country, you know, we have to go all green. We have to be all electric. Folks. If you do your home, and I said it to my leadership team this week, if you're not using AI somehow some way in your day, you need to and just go in and put into AI. What it takes to make these lithium batteries, and the energy and the resources.

You know, I'm not sure how green it is but you need to figure that out on your own. I guess what I'm saying is Tesla has a lot of competition. There's you know, just about everybody trying to get in the EV market, and a lot of big companies that are getting in them have actually trimmed it their their forecast because they're just not you know, selling as many as they thought, because it's a pain in the neck. So I don't know what the future is, Brian or

I'm sorry Glenn, for the future of Tesla. I do know over time it's been great. I do know that Elon Musk is brilliant, and I'm sure this may be a good buying opportunity if you believe in the company. One eighty two five five nine four nine. If you have questions, give me a call. One eighty five fifty nine. Let's go back to the pole lines. We have Peter on hold.

getting that bad. So it would if you want to call it deflation. Uh uh it it increased so much over a short period of time that that uh, it's it's really it's really not normal.

and they put a weighting on it. And you know, that's that's one measure. The other is the personal consumption expenditures that are known is the PCE and that was just released this week. This is actually the FEDS preferred rate. It's produced by the Bureau of Economic analysis, and it measures the prices paid by households for goods and services, including both out of pocket spending and indirect expenses like employer provided healthcare. So the PCE is kind of more

broad in contacts. And this week the FEDS Preferred gauge came out and it showed that that price is cooled a little bit two point two percent for the month of August from a.

paying more for So I agree with you, Peter. You know, we look at these you know, the way the government and you know, listen, I'm not saying that that there can't be some tweaks, and there should be some tweaks made. You know, I've criticized the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for a long time. I said basically there's really nothing other than a lot of college students. They graduated from college, they're still in the academia world. They've never really left that.

All they do is study textbooks. Most of the times. They have their heads stuck in the sand. The FED is reliant on data, this data that I'm reciting, whether it be the PCE data, whether it be the CPI data, whether it be the jobs report, which we're going to have on Friday. They're just stuck. Most like they had

their head stuck in the sand. A few years ago, they said inflation was nowhere to be found UI and everybody listening was paying more at the gas pumping, paying more at the grocery stores, paying more every time we opened up our monthly utility bills. But the FED said, oh, inflation, it's temporary, it's transient. Even the White House said the same thing. They were all in concert together, and it's like, are you guys friggin looney tunes? Do you have any

idea what's going on in the world world? But Peter, you're right, what we're paying is a whole lot more than what we were paying. So how can how can the FED be so dependent on data that shows that inflation is coming down when what we live on, what we need to survive on, the necessities of life were caught.

We're paying so much more. And going back to my rambling about somebody like Eli coming into the government helping out President Trump if he's elected our next president, I'm all in favor of that and kind of cleaning up the government in their dinosaur ways of how they they they they look at life because you know, inflation alone, I don't know how inflation is how they say, you know, so the PCE this week, they said, is two point two percent. How can that be when you take out

food and energy two point seven percent? We should always be looking at food and energy. How can you and I and everybody listen and get by without food and energy? These are necessities in our life. So when they talk about the core, the core is a whole lot higher. And there's a reason why, because you and I and every consumer in this great country of ours is paying more for core parts of our life, things that we need. So I don't have an answer for you, Peter. The

government is the government. They are the government. You know. I don't have an answer for how they think. I don't have an answer why they're not open to re calibrating how they measure things like inflation. But they should, and they should get their heads out of the sand. They should look around. They should talk to consumers like you and me and realize that you know, you tell us inflation is down, but we're not seeing it. The

average family is not seeing it. They go to the grocery store, they're paying a whole lot more money week in, week out than they've ever paid. They fill up their car with gas, They're paying a whole lot more money for a tank of gas than they paid just a few years ago. Peter, I can't agree with you more. I just don't have an answer for you.

to the phone lines. We have Don and Guilderland. Hello.

a legacy. But my question is, would it be a good idea to turn that, you know, to take some of that cash and put it toward a home in Florida, which I do desire, and then, you know, long term, let's say I passed away, then my beneficiaries have that property as asset.

generation and setting up trust for my grandchildren. I'm looking to, you know, rethink the way I was thinking. So if I were in your shoes, you spent all those decades working, and if you always desire a place in Florida or North Carolina or Hilton Head or Arizona or wherever, if you can afford that and it brings joy to you, go ahead and buy it. Whether you leave you your beneficiary is a foreman k plan with investments or hardt

real estate. They're going to be able to sell it and get as much money out so you're and you can enjoy it. Yes, don't don't not think that way. Hey, don thank you for the call, folks for coming up to the end of the show you're listening to. Let's talk money. Brought to you by Bouchet and andreww where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. I can't thank you enough for

tuning in today. Folks. You make my day and believe me, with the four months that I've had, I can use your energy. Thank you for tuning in. Have a great week, See you next Saturday.