Hello, and good morning. It's actually me here. Today's Stephen Bouchet. How are you folks on this beautiful, gorgeous day in upstate New York? Man oh man, I drove down the North Way, the sun shining bright. It's going to be a day to enjoy. You heard the weather report. The rain is coming. We got a lot to be happy for. I told you it was gonna happen. Guess what. The markets went on to make an all new all time high. I told you it would happen.
It happens all the time. That's why you can't really get freaked out when you hear all the bad news and when you see what's going on in and around the world the stock market trades on the fundamentals in the stock market right now is looking pretty darn good. We had the dial the NASDAC all time highs. I know, it was a long, long, long you know what was a fall of twenty twenty two, twenty twenty one, where we've been waiting for the markets to come back, and here they are.
They're back. And that's what happens in the investment world. The markets go up and down, up and down, up and down. That's never going to change, but they've always come back to going on to make new all time highs. Well, I missed you over the last couple of weeks.
Hopefully you had a good time. The markets agreed with you. Hopefully you know through the year I told you to be optimistic, stay invested, and hopefully you did because you're being rewarded now, folks, you're being rewarded in a big way, a big way, and that's really what it's all about with investing. There's a lot more reasons right now to be optimistic. The market is up seventy percent of the time over time, no pun intended. And listen, every once in a while you go through a bad spell.
Last year was one of those times. Twenty twenty two really stunk. As they said, the markets have have you know, from fall of twenty twenty one, they've come a long way. What a roller coaster ride. But that's what investing is all about. So here you are, you're sitting on all time highs. The markets are really they're there. So now if you need money over the next twelve to twenty four months, now is the time.
If all of your money is invested in the stock market and you've been listening to me for months now, well over a year, harping on this. If you have a lot of gains and you don't have a lot of liquid cash, and you need some money over the next twelve to twenty four months, don't get greedy. Now is the time to free that money up. Now's the time to take and put some of that money in some good short term bonds that mature over the next twelve to twenty four months, maybe
even a little bit longer out. Now is not the time to get greedy. If your child's a senior in college and you haven't looked at the five to twenty nine plan, now is the time to take that five to twenty nine plan if it was aggressive, and let's move it to be a little bit more conservative. Because can you imagine if the market goes through a twenty per same correction and you have one hundred thousand dollars saved up so you can send your son or daughter to college, and now all of a sudden you
wake up you have eighty thousand. That's why you can't get greedy. Now's the time to move some of that money out of the aggressive position in the five to twenty nine plans move it to be a little bit more conservative, because you're can need that money over the next one two, three four years. That's what it's all about. That's how you have to plan your future. Wow, I missed you. I missed you, Zach. I missed you too, Zach. How are you doing. I'm doing very well.
I missed you quite a few times over the last couple of months. Well, you know, I've had a lot going on in my life, and I thank god I'm surrounded by I'm telling you, I got a team second to none. I talk about my team all day long. I'll talk about them all night long, especially tonight. I'm taking my team to dinner, and we're going to celebrate the holidays. We had Hanukah, just finishing up Christmas, coming, Happy New Year, you know, before we know we're
going to be in twenty twenty four. Well, enough about me, folks. If you have any questions, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. I've missed you for a long time now. I would love to talk to you. One eight hundred talk w why one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions, Please give me a call, Let's talk, Let's catch up, let me give you my views, get your pointed in the right direction.
You know, I can't begin to say. The better informed you are, I think you can make smarter decisions. And that's what it comes down to with invest And we had a client come in and I love this client, and she has a significant other who is a nervous nelly. You know, you got to put all your money in gold and silver and utilities. Guess what I looked at her. I said, thank god, thank god you didn't listen to them all year long, because here we are. We're sitting
here. You know, man, oh man, you know that the NASTAC is up forty two percent, QQQ is up fifty two percent, five two SMP up twenty three percent, with dividends twenty four percent. Folks, you made money this year. So I said, I used to bar ten forty years ago. I said, I used to be a great marriage counselor. I said, Now, you know, I just kind of counseled people on
their investing. But I still I can dig deep down and remember the look on people's faces as they're you know, sucking down their second or third or fourth drink, telling me about the problems they're having with their loved one. And I was able to help them out because I was stone cold sober as
they were as they were dancing the night away at the bar. And I said to this, I said, to this client one, I begged her to bring them in so I can I can talk with them, because he really scares her to you know, tears, and she just needed a little bit reinforcement. I went over over all all the long term you know, the returns, and you know, I shoulder. We showed her her returns and as he said, thank God, thank god, she she put her full faith and trust in us. So, you know, to appease things
at home, we we we we bought a little gold. A little silver makes everybody happy at the end of the day. You want everybody to be happy. I want everybody to be happy. Hey, every day I get out of bed, I feel like a million dollars. And I'm you know, I'm I'm on a mission right now to do good things in life, and you know, help people that that are less fortunate. You know. I stocked up on Walmart cards. I stocked up on on Stuart's cards.
You know, I handed out dozens of Walmart cards already and Stuart's cards. I replenished them, and I'm gonna be handing those out and you know, just just trying to help people that that that really makes me feel good, especially this time of the year, doing doing the best I can. I'll be making contributions, donations to causes that I believe in CEO Commission of Economic Opportunity, which has a community of just people that really are are looking to,
you know, just make make something in themselves. It's a it's an unbelievable, unbelievable you know, not for profit that that I my heart goes out to Unity House and other and so many other not for profit causes that I believe in. The Ronald McDonald House. Marty who works with me, he's actually leads the board there and it's really just a beautiful thing to give back to the community. And Marty, Marty does that, leads the charge
there. He's a great board member. But the Ronald McDonald House, all these kids that you know are really sick and you know, they just need a place to stay. You know, the even even the regional Food Bank. You know, you think of how many families can't put can't put food on the table. My friend Tom Nardoci runs that now, and you know, they make they make a difference in people's lives. So it's just, you know, it's the right thing to do, folks. There was a
great story in the Times Union about you know, toys for Todd. You know, I forget her name, her name's slipping me. Basically, she's cashing out. She had I don't know, four or five six, you know, shopping carts, and some guy behind her, Kurt from Waterford, he's got some kind of a soda business. He's looking he says, what's going on here? She says, we shop for you know, toys for Todd. He says, I want to buy all those toys, and she just kind of looked at him, and they're in Walmart and it cost him
like twenty one undred dollars. He said, listen, I had a good year. He says, this will make me feel good. I want to buy all those toys. She was able to go back and buy another two thousand dollars worth of toys because you know, that's what she was planning on spending. So here she comes into Walmart, and you get somebody who wants to do good and feel good. She was able to double the investment in toys. And there's gonna be a lot of kids, a lot of families
that are going to get something nice this year. And that's what it's all about. So let's take some time over the next you know, a couple of weeks and just you know, an act of kindness goes a long way. It really it puts a smile on people's faces and it'll make you feel good as well. One eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Zach, let me take a fifteen second break. Don't go anywhere, folks. Hello, folks, thanks for letting me take
that short break. Thank you for hanging in there. If you have any questions, give me a call. One eight two five five nine four nine. So a lot to talk about. You know, it was, as I said, it was a great week, you know, basically, you know, the markets started off up to start the week. On Monday and Tuesday, the CPI Consumer Price Headline Index came in and it dropped down to
three point one percent. I know, the low point this year was three percent, but there's reasons for that, but three point one was was a good good number for the month of November. The Federal Reserve met on Tuesday and Wednesday. They left interest rates unchanged and set that cuts would come next year. Folks. This is why the markets really had a pretty good week. All three indexes climbed, the Dow topping thirty seven thousand for the first
time. The European Central Bank and Bank of England followed the Fed on Thursday. They left their interest rates steady. November, US retail sales basically, you know, people are out there spending money, folks. It's it's amazing the ten year treasury yield tick down below four percent. I still think when we look back that five percent number that will be the high water mark that we saw not too long ago. US mortgage rates fell below seven percent.
That's good news, folks. Be patient, be patient, be patient. There's some good deals out there. There's not much inventory. People listen. When rates were low and mortgage rates were two three percent, folks were selling their house, buying a new house, not thinking twice about investing in a larger home or a second home somewhere warm or in the mountains. People did not think twice because margat rates were so low. It was like free money, cheap, cheap, cheap, and I hate the word cheap, but
mortgage rates were low, they were cheap. So you know, mortgage rates really are keeping people out of the marketplace. And as they said, people just aren't flipping their houses. They're not, you know, now they're really giving it some thought pies. If they got a two three percent mortgage, why would they want to put that house on the market to go out and buy a new house unless they have to and get a mortgage at seventy eight
percent. It would be cost prohibitive to do that. So the inventory is low, but there are some deals there and you'll see mortgage rates come down. If you want to buy a home, maybe look at an adjustable or a balloon, you know, kind of roll the dice a little. Because we don't have a crystal ball. We don't know where rates will be over the next few years, but more than likely, hopefully morgat rates will will will slip further. And as I said, if you need that home,
listen. Even at seven percent, mortgage rates are a whole lot cheaper. My first house in nineteen eighty four I was in the teens. Now that's that's spending some money. So think of how you feel with mortgage rates at two three percent ticking up the seven eight percent and double that, and that's where they were in the early eighties. Double that my first home. You know, mortgage rates were astronomically just higher than high, higher than snoop dogg.
I mean, mortgage rates were sky high. So you you know, put everything in perspective. Seven percents higher. Bees, We've been used to mortgage rates at two three four percent, and they'll come down. But as I said, if you need that house, you want to buy a house, if you find the right deal, kind of you know, be optimistic. You know, two of my three how many homes have my own? One two three, So two of my three homes I actually never sold the
first home. You know, I'm always optimistic. Listen, folks, you can wrest them to the ground. I'm going to tell you the stock market's going to be up, and it will be up. Now. I can't promise you it'll be up next week, next month, but I can promise you it will be up. It will go up. I've been harping this forever and ever and ever trying to keep investors focus that the good and the bad and the ugly. Right, the markets go up, the markets go
down. When it goes down, the world's not coming to an end, folks. It hasn't come to an end yet. It's not going to come to an end. When the market goes down again, it won't come to an end. The stock market won't go to zero, it will not. So just remember if you have a well diversified portfolio and you don't need your money over the next twelve twenty four to thirty six months, the markets will bounce back, they will recover. You know, the the low point in
the market was a year ago October. You know, the high point was almost two years so, you know, we've had a crazy two two and a half years of watching the markets go up and down, up and down, up and down, and it's been emotional on investors. But the markets always come back. They always go on to make new all time high. So you had the Dow, the NASDAC, the sm P, you know, up three percent, two and a half percent for the S and P, almost three percent for the NASDAK and the Dow QQQ is up three point
three five percent the winner for the week, which is good news. The Russell two thousand, Russell two thousand is up five point five five percent. Oh my dear friend Tommy Pereller, that was his lucky number five five five lost them too young. But the Russell two thousand was up five point five five percent. That's good news because that means small caps mid caps are starting
to take, you know, part of this rally. You have the top ten companies in the SMP represent represent about thirty five percent of the SMP. It's crazy, crazy, crazy to think that. So having the broad stock market finally finally take part in this, you know, the market is a beautiful thing. So you know, you have the SMP. You're to date, the SMP is up almost twenty three percent, and you have the Equal Market Waited Index is IS is up in double digits and we haven't had that
in quite some time. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions you have, folks, give me a call. I'd love to talk to you. Zach my longtime producer, he's in the studio. He'd love to talk to you too, you know, any any any questions at all, you know, give us a call, let us, let us help get your pointed
in the right direction. Give you some information that you can use, go back to your advisor, or if you're doing uh, you know, your your own thing, maybe we'll give you a different way of thinking about it. You know, if if if if if if you're just not sure what to do. Listen, a lot of people just aren't sure what to do. And if you think about it, last year, last year, you know, some of the defensive areas in the market did really, really,
really really well. You know, it's it's it's it's it's crazy, what a what a difference a year makes. But you know last year, those those the healthcare and the utilities, you know, they did well. Theause people were running running for the for the hills, and you know, this year is a different thing. So when we put it in perspective last year, and I'm just pulling up the charts, you know you had, oh my god, last year, you had healthcare. We now remember the SMP
was down twenty percent, so you had health care. You know, they were down almost break even last year. And when we when we look at over the last year. You know, you have the S and P, as they said, up twenty three percent. Healthcare got over the last year. We're down almost two percent. But the one company that I want to talk about Isdvisor. You know, they they've been sucking win. They're down
fifty percent over the last year. So you know, they saved you in twenty twenty two, but in twenty twenty three, folks, you're you're you're really not doing too good. You know, to be down fifty percent if you're buying individual stocks to be down fifty percent, that doesn't make you feel good. The whole healthcare industry is down, you know, zero point four percent, so let's say break even, while the S and P is up twenty three percent twenty four with dividends. And this is why you got to
be careful when you're buying individual stocks. Listen, Pviiser is a great company, and they got that blue pill right that should keep everything up. You would think Piser would be up, well, you know, Fiser is down. So if you liked healthcare this year, I'm just making that analogy that healthcare, you know, is flat break even, but Advisor is down fifty
percent, and that's why you have to be really careful. Utilities is down almost eight percent year to date, so you got to be really careful how and why you buy the investments that you buy, and if you're buying individual stocks. We manage one point two billion dollars and most of our money. Actually we only have two individual stocks in our portfolio, Apple and Amazon. Thank god. You know, Apple and Amazon have saved the day. They're
part of the magnificent seven year to date. You know, you got Amazon up seventy six percent, you got Apple up fifty three percent. Not bad, you know, they took it on the chin last year, but boy, they are saving the day this year. And that's one reason why our portfolios are as good as they are, because they are really they're they're good. You know, Ryan my Son is leading the charge on the Investment Committee, and he's really you know, our returns are outperforming our benchmarch by two
three four hundred basis points and that's big our fixed income investments. I mean, we're nailing it. So our clients are are benefiting. Now, that doesn't mean last year wasn't a long year. Last year was a long year. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're managing the portfolio yourself, or if you have a stockbroker that is just buying and selling stocks for you on your behalf. There you go. You get a company like Visor. It may sound like a good company. You know, you got it.
You gotta you know, I'm gonna plant the sea. You gotta go and ask your your your broker Monday morning, say geez, maybe we shouldn't be buying individual stocks. If you like healthcare, let's buy the healthcare ETF that has a basket of healthcare stocks instead of trying to trying to guess which individual stock will will outperform. And I don't care if we're talking technology industrials, whatever it might be. Hey, we're coming up to the bottom of the
hour. You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Group, where we help our clients, you know, prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Folks, if you have any questions, the phone lines are open one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. On the other side of the break, let me talk to you
and a partrirecho on a pear tree. It sounds that every time I hear how many how many professionals I'm surrounded by, I, you know, eighteen of them, and I think of their designations and how serious they are about working in the field of financial services and all that we do for clients. I mean seven cfps, four CPAs, and on and on and on and a partridge in a pear tree. I am so proud of my team looking
forward to spending you know. I put them up in Saratoga for for the weekend and we have a nice Christmas dinner which we'll have tonight, and I just I can't do enough for my for my colleagues, I just I think the world of them, but it's me. You are stuck with steveb today. Steve Bouchet here live and if you have any questions one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine
forty nine, any questions whatsoever. So I'll just finish up my little chat on on healthcare. So you know, if you bought the you know all the healthcare companies that trade in the S and P. That's the healthcare select sector. And I'm just gonna plant the seed folks, if you're buying individual stocks on your own, or you have a stockbroker that's buying individual stocks for you, you can buy if you like healthcare, don't let don't listen.
A stockbroker is just a stockbroker is just a stockbroker. He or she doesn't know what's going to go up, what's going to go down. You know, you might have been an adviser. You lost fifty five zero negative five zero percent. That's just year to date. And if you want the healthcare sector, sure you would to you would not have lost money, but you would not you know, have gained money either, and you definitely wouldn't have
lost fifty percent. So what you're doing is you're spreading the wealth and that healthcare select sector. The symbol is x l VIAS in Victor. It's got sixty six healthcare companies. You know, the number one, United Health represents ten percent, ELI Lilly almost nine and a half percent, Johnson and Johnson seven and a half percent. Advisor is number nine at three percent. So you get the picture. You you you can really buy some really good healthcare
companies and really just just you know, spread your risk. I guess this is what i'm I'm, I'm saying you're just gonna spread your risk, especially a year like this year. You know, if you weren't in the Magnificent seven. You know, the S and P is up twenty three, twenty four percent with dividends, nan stac QQQ is up fifty two percent, five two up five two percent, and you know the Magnificent seven on averages up.
Hell, get ready for this one hundred percent year to day. You got in the video up two hundred and thirty percent, you got Meta up one hundred and seventy six percent, you got Tesla up one hundred and three percent. You get the picture. Holy moly, seven companies driving their returns. But finally the rustled two thousand and a broad stock market index, they're starting to catch up. That's good news for stock investors. One eight hundred and eight, two five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go
to the phone lines. We have Ann in Saratoga Springs on hold. Hello Ann, Yeah, Hi Steve. My question is I'm looking for a recommendation for a tax exempt investment in a taxable account. Yep. Now, when you'd say tax exempt, do you mean like a tax ammuni free interest, right, yeah, so, can I ask a personal question. Sure, I'm not going to ask your age, but are you in a high tax bracket? Uh, I'd say no, yeah so yeah, so most people
believe it or not. And if you're not in a high tax bracket, you're probably better off to buy a good US Treasury because you're not going to be tax and you live in Saratoga, say you won't have any New York state tax on this. You can buy them one year getting almost five percent, a five year almost four percent, a ten year just under four percent, and those are good yields, all tax free, and you're probably at
the end of the day going to have more money than buying IMMUNI. We see a lot of people that are in low tax brackets that come in and they want to buy tax free bonds, and really they should be buying taxable bonds because it just makes sense they can make more money. And you know,
I had this conversation often with investors. Everybody wants to go and buy a CD, and you know, that's all said and good, but if you're getting the same yield and the treasury as you are in a CD, well, remember you're getting a little bit of a tax break because you're not going to pay state taxes on the interest that the Treasury yields, whereas with
the CD you're gonna pay state and federal taxes. So and if you're in a low tax bracket, look at some good treasuries right now, or you know, if your local bank, you know, Pioneer has some great CD rates, and you know some other local banks. If you can get a good CD rate that pays more than a treasury, that's that's really probably where you should go. US Treasury. Believe me, it's the safest paper in
the world. And you can rest at night and you're not going to lose your money, and you're gonna feel pretty good and have a few dollars to spend. Okay, that sounds good. All right, anything else I can help you with? No, that was my questions. Thank you, and stay well well, stay healthy. Thank you for calling, and and folks, thank you for listening. It's it's a pleasure to have you tune in
every week. I can't begin to tell you how how how much I appreciate you tuning in and making making this show the most popular show on radio when it comes to money, and that means a lot to me. We take listen, whether it's me doing the radio, whether it's John Mlay or Ryan or Marty or you know, last week we had Vinnie. Vinnie did the show. And no matter which one of my colleagues are doing the show, we we we take this show seriously. We we we really want to give
good information. We want to point in the right direction. We want we want to make a difference in your day. The best compliment I get is when I'm out in public and somebody taps me on the shoulder, and it happens a lot, and it makes me feel really good. When somebody says, oh, I know that boys, you're you're the guy on radio. He said, yes, I said, I'm I'm Steve, and I do
have a face for radio. But make a long story short, the information that we give when people tap me on the shoulder and say I listen to your show, I can't thank you enough. I did this or I did that because I heard you say this or I heard you say that. That makes me feel so good. And that's why I get energized to come and do this show every Saturday at ten, every Sunday morning at eight, and when I miss you over the last couple of weeks not being able to do
the show. But listen, my colleagues do as good of a job I think, a lot of times a better job than I do. You know, it makes me feel good because I know you're getting good information. One eight, eight, two, five, five, nine, nine, one forty nine. If you have any questions, give me a call, let
me get your pointed in the right direction. Let me give you some things to think about and ponder over the weekend, and then Monday morning you can get right up and you know, get on the horn with your your your advisor and ask some questions, see why they have you in this or that, especially in nudies. As you know, I'm not a fan of anudies. I'm public about that. I'm not saying the nudies can't work or may
not be a good investment. I'm just not a fan of them. And we have a lot of prospective clients that come in and we see what their current advisors are doing for them, and you know, a lot of times we have to bite our tongue, you know, because I can. I can just you know, I froth at the mouth when I think of what
some some people are doing out there. You know, listen, there's a lot of people in this business that are just selling investments, selling mutual funds, selling, selling, and you know, anwities making a boatload of money and they don't have a clue of what they're doing. We are a fiduciary, and I take that seriously. I've been a fiduciary for over thirty years. I've been a fiduciary, and now it's a buzz where people are becoming
fiduciaries and bragging about it. I stopped earning all those commissions back in the early nineties. I was sick and tired of getting compensated that way. I wanted to work with my clients with absolutely no conflicts of interest, and I became a fiduciary. I never looked back. One eight, eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Todd and Clifton Park. Hello, Todd, Hey, how are you? I'm doing wonderful, how are you good? I'm
giving you a quick call. I have recently left a company. I have a a four oh one K with them that I need to withdraw from their plan, and I'm not really sure what to do with it. You're you're you're you're doing the right thing. First of all, Todd, a lot of people they lead the companies that they work for, and they they really just they they forget. Sometimes they forget that, Oh, I worked for a company thirty years ago, I had a small four oh one k there,
I forgot all about it. Or sometimes like I met with a client in Manhattan about a week and a half ago, and you know, forty of her retirement plan is in one company, one company, and I said, we need to get you out of that. She doesn't work there anymore, So we need to get you out of that four oh one K. Need to get you into an IRA, and we need to show you anuwah
that unappreciated appreciation. And this is where you can take those individual stocks, put it into a taxable account, use the cost basis, and from a tax standpoint, you got such a huge advantage. So let me start off by asking, do you have a lot of company stock in this four one k? I believe that no, there's no company stock now, it's it's a plan, yep. And how much is it value? That Todd about one hundred and sixty thousand? Okay, So what you want to do is
you definitely want to roll that over into an IRA. Do you have any IRA investments now? I currently do not, Okay, So you definitely want to roll it over to an IRA. You want to get some help with that. You want to have it. How old are you? I am forty eight? Okay, so you're in my eyes young when you get to be my age, you're you're you know, my wife said to me, you know, Steve, we're not any bring chickens anymore. I said, Well, speak for yourself, I said, I'm young at heart. Forty
eight is pretty pretty young. Say you want to really have that money working for you, probably in a growth strategy if you're comfortable with risk. You know the eighty twenty mix. Hey, I have all my money in the stock market. Of my retirement dollars are right in the stock market. I don't think twice about it, and when the market goes down, I just don't look. I don't peak because I'm human like everybody else, and I don't want to see a negative return for that period of time. So you
definitely want to roll it into an IRA. This way you have control over todd and you know, if you go to like we have, you know, so we're managing one point two billion dollars. All of our client's assets are a Charles Schwab. Now I can use anybody. I could use Fidelity, Vanguard, I could use any platform out there. Since I Benefitduci Area, I've used Swap. They're the biggest and the best. They were the
biggest and the best thirty years ago and they still are. I can get any type investment I want on behalf of my clients, and Charles Schwab is just a good place to be. So maybe you know, look at rolling that money into an IRA Charles Schwab and you know, you know, really get it out of that old employer. You may have left on good terms, but anybody who's retiring should roll over their mind. So that's the best advice I can give you. Thank you. No, that was definitely my
plan. I just didn't really know any way to go with it. Yep, easy pasy. You open up an IRA account, you let your company that you're working for, and know that you want to initiate a IRA transfer trustee to trustee. So it goes from your four O one K two. Let's say it's Charles Schwab trustee to trustee. There's no tax ramnifications because you're under that retirement umbrella, so you're not going to be taxed money. So that's absolutely what you want to do. All right, great, thank you
very for thanks for the information. Be well, stay healthy, Todd, thank you for calling one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions whatsoever, you know, give me a call. So you know, you know when I look at our top, so you heard me say we only have two
individual stocks. And for newer clients where we don't even buy these two individual stocks because they have appreciated so much, we're just rounding them out with most of the ETFs. But I remind my clients because they they'll come in and they they'll say, hey, you know, I know I was with a group of friends and you know they're buying this stock and buying that stock. Yeah, but daba do And I I say, well, what do you think you won't Well, you got me in all those ETFs. I don't
own any stocks, and I need to educate them more. And I say, you do own stocks, but you know going back to that Pfiser. If you wanted healthcare, if you bought the XLV, you're to date, you'd be flat. If you bought Pizer, you're down fifty percent. So I said, you do own stocks. The difference is we are buying stocks for you with less risk because we're diversified. So our top ten holdings and clients. You know, when I tell my clients this, they're they're really
amazed. Our top holding is Apple five percent, thank god, up fifty three percent year to date. Apple said one heck of a run, Microsoft almost a five percent position, Broadcom two percent, Amazon two percent, Navidio one point seven three percent, Pepsi one point seven three percent, met Up one point three, Amgen one point two, Costco you know almost one point two, and Eli Lilly one point two. Those are our top ten holdings.
A nice diversification. We got technology, we got consumer discretionary healthcare, you know, Staples, we got a nice spread. And they're just they don't realize that they own all these stocks because they don't see it. They'll see the S and P or the NASDAC or technology sector ETF or whatever it is that we're buying. But our clients actually own individual stocks just like their
friends. The difference is our clients are probably making more money. You hear me say this often sixty five percent of the time stockbrokers people buying and selling stocks can't outperform their benchmarks. Cannot and oh nada can't outperform their benchmark. And this is why we use ETFs like we do, and we're proud of it. You know, we're very proud of it. You know, our number one sector, and I'm not going to mince words, is is technology.
We're thirty, believe it or not, thirty two percent in technology, and I'm okay with that. Twenty six percent of our portfolio, or in defensive sectors like consumer defensive, healthcare a little bit, a smidgeon one point four to seven percent of our portfolios, and utilities we got twenty two percent, in cyclicals, basic materials, financial services, a smidgeon in real estate.
Most of our you know, fifty percent of our portfolios sensitive you know, communication services, energy, industrials, and mostly technology, and I'm okay with that. I'm very okay. Megacaps, the big boys, you know, the big the big you know, about a third of our portfolio or megacaps a third of our portfolio, or large caps mid cap represents about twenty three percent center of our portfolio, small cap six percent, and the little
itsy bitsy micro companies about two percent. And our clients are I think I surprised them when when I when I bring that up and go over that with them, because they think they're just in ETFs, and sometimes they forget what ETFs are. They forget that, you know, ETFs we can buy bonds. We can buy you know, you think of the different assi classes you've got stocks, We buy stocks in ETFs, bonds, real estate, commodities. You get the picture. One eight hundred eighty two, five five,
nine, four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Ron in Glens Falls. Hello, Ron, Hi, miss Bouschet, how are you. I'm doing wonderful, thanks for calling. Just a quick question, what would you suggest for a twenty three year old person with about seventeen thousand law byra that's actually in just a cash now with the stock market at the highest, is this the right time to go in there at twenty three PEPs? Absolutely? Ron, You know why we don't have a crystal ball.
We can't time it. I'm optimistic the stock market will continue to grow. And let's make believe at twenty three, you go in and the market goes through a ten fifteen to twenty percent correction, it will be back before you know it. And what you what you don't want to do is be in cash, be stuck in cash and not sure when to pull the trigger, beause you never know, only in hindsight when you look back and you say, oh, that was a good time at twenty three. It's always
a good time to get invested in the stock market. Get that money invested. Seventeen thousand dollars. Where is it, Ron, It's in Schwab to the Schwab just count Yeah, so I actually would use their intelligence investor account, the robo account called the eight hundred number. Tell them you want to put it into the growth robo strategy and forget about it. You know, remember that movie Forget About It. Just forget about it, Ron. You'll be good and try to add money to it every year, Ron, if
you can afford to add money to it. I'm telling you, anybody who listens to me, roth iras are the best best gift that IRS ever allowed us to invest in. Roth iras. You put you don't get a tax right off, but at twenty three you're probably not in a high tax bracket, so you don't need the tax right off, and that money grows tax deferred. And Ron, when you get to be my age and you're thinking about retiring, it's all tax free. Baby. There's nothing better than tax
free money. Yeah, I'm all flying this back that window. But so it's robo or obo account. Yeah, they call it their intelligent portfolio. Okay, great, Oh, I thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I having a great holiday. Ron, you have a great holiday as well. Thank you for calling me. Stay healthy. Yeah, that or a lifestyle fund. Ron Schwab has they're all equity, which is one hundred percent stocks. And at twenty three years old. Man oh man,
God, don't even think twice about it. You know, if you look over time, folks, stocks has always been the best performing asset class. Always. I keep giving this this statistic, and I don't mean the bore you. I really don't. But if you look over the last fifteen years, your average return in the SMP is fourteen percent. If you look over the last fifteen years, your average return in NASTAC twenty percent year in,
year out. I'm not talking twenty percent for the fifteen year period. I'm talking year in, year out, and in bonds two point six two percent. And then for those gold bugs. And I bring this up because of the conversation I had with my client this week where where her significant other wants are to buy all gold. Your average fifteen year return five point six zero
percent. You get the picture. You don't want to, you know, take your money and you know, get scared out of the markets overtime with all the ups and downs, with all the the the you know, the bear markets and corrections and recessions. You know, it's really the place to be. You know, fourteen percent year in, year out over the last fifteen years. That's pretty good, folks. That's really don't don't feel bad about owning stocks, and when stocks go down, don't feel bad that you
want stocks and you're losing money. It comes with the territory. So, you know, we've had three bear markets over the last fifteen years, the Great Recession, COVID in twenty twenty two, and with all of that included in fifteen years is a short time period. Your average return is fourteen percent year in year out fourteen percent compare to bonds two point six percent, and last year bonds were down. You know, this year, I thought bonds
were going to finish down, but actually bonds have turned the corner. We're up five percent in bonds year to date, so you know, maybe bond investors will win out. Folks, we're coming up to the end of the show. You're listening to Let's Talk Bunny, brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Group, where we help our clients prioritize their help while we manage their wealth for life. You're You're welcome to come back tomorrow morning. I'll be
here eight am. In the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous day. Go to our website for more information on our firm Bouchet dot com. That's B S and boy O U C H e Y dot com. Enjoy Saturday. Come back tomorrow if you have questions that you didn't answer today. Thank you for listening.