Let's Talk Money

Before I jump into the show and talk about the markets and so forth, I just want to bring something that's very personal to us. And when I tell you, you'll know what I mean. It's been a long, sobering week for my professional family, my colleagues, my teen you know. I share with you how my mom passed away at the age of thirty one. She had an aneurysm. She went to bed with a headache and passed away young age.

I was only ten. Well, this past week, our firms suffered a real loss and it's affected all of us, affected all of us, Like I just can't believe. It just shows how close we all are and what we mean to each other. Last Sunday, our esteemed colleague, Nicole Globel. And you've heard Nicole many times on radio. For those of you that are clients, you've seen and met Nicole. You've been on our website where you can just see what a beautiful, amazing, dynamic individual Nicole is. And last

Sunday she was doing all the right things. You hear me talk folks often about taking care of our health. You know, when we have our health, we have everything. When you're fortunate enough to have your loved ones, boy, you're you're pretty lucky. And if financially you can make things happen, then you're you're really lucky. Well, your health is what matters the most. So Nicole was exercising last Sunday the why, taking care of herself, you know, fulfilling

her New Year's resolution. Long story short, Nicole felt faint, was rushed to urgent care and her husband thanked God Pete was able to make it there in time as Nicole was in and out of consciousness. Nicole was then taken to Albany med and an amazing health care facility we have, and unfortunately, Nicole suffered an anerism and she was on life support and God took her on Wednesday afternoon. She passed away on Wednesday afternoon. We're still kind of numb,

my colleagues and I with it all. Nicole not only cared for her family, Nicole cared for her colleague, me and my team. Nicole cared for our clients. Nicole just had that way about her where she cared about everybody. She was only forty six. She has a son, eight, a daughter, four beautiful, beautiful children, and her husband, Pete. I actually happened to be in Florida and you know,

rushed home. I wanted to, you know, say my goodbyes to Nicole and visit her and be there for Pete, her husband, and give some warm hugs to her kids because this this really hit all of us and we're still in a state of shock. And I just wanted to let everybody know because Nicole was part of the listening audience. She did radio, and when she did radio, she was amazing hosting radio. She just she's so knowledgeable.

She just was just great to listen to. And to think that, to think that, you know, twenty twenty four, as you know, was a year from hell. Just you know, everybody in my firm, they lived twenty twenty four with me, and you know my son and daughter working in the firm, you know everybody. Just we were like one close knit family. And Nicole was one of those friends at work that just always made sure I was doing okay. And I thought twenty twenty five we were going to start out

fresh and have a good year. And I guess a lesson in life, folks, Life is unpredictable and we can't take life for granted. I think if if I can pass along any guidance about life, it's that I know it firsthand more times than not. So I wanted to just share with you because I know you tune in your loyal I know we have a lot of clients that are listening. Sent them all a letter explaining what happened.

So I just wanted to start to show, you know, not to bring the tone or move down, but just share with you our beautiful beloved colleague, Nicole is May her rest in peace and may her look down her family, Pete, her two children, Max and Riley, and on all of us, Zach, I want to take just a quick break if I may. The phone lines are open, folks on the other side of the break, I would love to talk to you

anything that you want to talk about. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine, four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Thank you, folks for letting me take that break to gather my thoughts. Well, let's you know, let's talk about money. I guess that's the name of the show. Let's talk money. One eight hundred eighty two, five five nine, four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine of the

phone numbers. And if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, give me a call. Let's talk. Let's try to get your pointed in the right direction. You have one opportunity to retire. You can't you can't blow that opportunity. You can't go back and make up for all those decades of working. When you know whatever your dream is and when it comes to retirement, I think most of us have a vision in our mind how we would like to see retirement play out, and that costs money. You

need to be prepared. You need all those decades that you're working be able to sock some money away because social Security, you know, on average fifteen sixteen thousand dollars a year on average, it's just not enough unless that's all you need to live. And if you're married, maybe on average thirty thousand dollars a year from social Security. And if that's all you need, that's great. If you need more than that, you need to draw from your savings.

If you don't have a pension plan, and very few people have a defined pension plan, you you want it to make sure that you're prepared, to make sure that that that that you can have that retirement. That means that you have to save. And you hear me say often, if you're not saving ten to fifteen percent of your salary, more than likely you're not saving enough. And you need to be invested properly. You can't be afraid to be

invested properly. Have a well diversified portfolio. Phone lines are open one eight hundred eight two, five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. Let's go to the phone lines where we have Elizabeth holding on. Hello, Elizabeth, good morning, how are you, good morning?

taxed on that one hundred dollars. So it was like saving maybe sixty five seventy seventy five dollars because Uncle Sam subsidized that. Now that you're looking to take money out, you're going to be taxed on it if you're in a low tax bracket. Sometimes in we need to do more planning, but sometimes it makes sense to take money out of that taxable account because the wroth will continue to grow. Tax deferb just like it does in the

four h three B for you, Elizabeth. The beauty about the WROTH is you don't have to take any R and D s and when you take that money out, it's tax free. So it's different for each and every individual depending on one their tax bracket, their life expectancy, and you know, their overall assets. So it's not just a cut and dry answer, but it's something for you to think about, and you're starting out the right way

by thinking about it and asking that question. But we need to do a little bit more planning for you. But I hopefully gave you a couple of things to think about in a couple of things to you know, maybe talk over with your advisor, if you have somebody that helps you with your taxes, that would be a good place to start. Thank you very much, Elizabeth, Thank you for calling. Be healthy, have a great day. One eight hundred eighty two, five five, nine, four nine. Let's

go back to the phone lines. We have Steve.

I know that one of my colleagues was supposed to do the show this morning but just wasn't able to. When I tell you that Nicole affected all of us, she truly did, and I needed to step in as a leader, you know, comfort all of my colleagues, comfort Nichole's family, and I wanted to be on the show this morning and just kind of, you know, let everybody know about Nicole. So anyway, Steve, thank you for your thank you for your comments. What can I help you with this morning?

they kind of look at me. He said, well, listen, when you get that statement and you're down in value and you call me, you say, hey, Steve, I lost money, and I'm going to look back at you or talk to you on the phone and say I know, I guarantee you that, and they kind of laugh. So it's it's tongue in cheap. But yes, there will be a correction, there will be a bear market, there will be another recession. I guarantee all of the above. I just don't know when. Now.

Let me tell you why. I'm a little giddy, and I'm you know, I'm always forever my investment committee laughs because I always tell them our number one job is to make money for our clients. I was actually in Ed Wilhelm and Casey Bird. They're my portfolio traders, and they really you know, when clients need to make a change or want to make a change, or we make a change in the portfolio. These guys make the magic happen.

They're the odds behind the curtain. And I tell them you have the most important job in the firm because clients engage our services to make them money. I said, you guys need to make sure we make them money. And they say, Steve, you're always optimistic. I said, of course, I am. I said if you think, you know, over the last forty four years, when you think about it, the market's been up like thirty four of those forty four years. The market over the last ten years has

been up eight out of ten years. The market, stock market. There's a bond market, there's a real estate market, there's a commodity market. But I'm talking the stock bunker piece. That's what that's what most investors are afraid of. They're afraid of stocks. When you think about it, stocks are up more than they're down. And if you don't panic and have knee jerk reactions. When that market goes down, Guess what happens? Guess what has been happening forever. The

stock market guaranteed will go down. It may go down five percent, ten percent, twenty percent, twenty five percent, heck two thousand and seven through March two thousand and nine, oh and down fifty percent five zero. Guess what It always comes back. It always goes on to make new all time highs. The key is not to get if you're invested properly. Anybody who needs money, I always say, over the next one two years, shouldn't have that money

invested in the stock market. And if you have time, the market will come back to the market, it will go back and make you all time highs. That's a secret. Now. I also have mentored my colleagues and my advisors especially. We always talk about dollar cost averaging and lump some investing on paper. I can show you why dollar cost averaging sounds good. Put your money in slowly in case there's a market drop, and then you feel good about it.

I can make anybody listening feel good about that. But I can also show them the statistics and if you google, Vanguard has some great stats on this. Putting your money in and even if there's a correction next week or next month, forget about it. There may be the market will come back and go back up. The key is, Steve, do you have the comfort level? Will it keep you

up at night? If you put that money in, you lump some in now and by chance the market goes down to not tomorrow, it's closed obviously, but if the market goes down next week or next month, will not bother you. If it won't, then there's a lot of statistics out there shown one sum, investing will make you more money rather than waiting for the market to go down. But if you're a nervous Nelly type, dollar cost averaging

probably makes sense. I hope that helps you. I love large cap, but right now MidCap is the sweet spot. There's when So what you might want to think about doing is maybe by the like our large cap core holding is the all the entire stock market. We do the S and P, the S and P six hundred, the S and P four hundred three, large cap, mid cap, small cap, and when you look in time, midcaps hardly ever are the number one performing You know, ask that class if you break the market down from large cap,

MidCap small cap, but they're always right there. It's like the maid of honor that's always makes it to the alter but never gets married herself. And midcaps right now are pretty good. You know, the S and P's trading at about twenty two times twenty twenty five earnings a twenty year high. Midcaps are about fourteen percent. So you may want to think about a total stock market. We

use the Schwab broad market. You may want to think about the Nastac beause we just love that as our like large cap growth focused on technology almost sixty percent of its technology. And you may want to think about the Russell two thousand, which is a MidCap small cap, and blend the three in if you're willing to invest and see how it goes. Steve, great question. I'm sure there was a lot of listeners that appreciate it. You asking that, folks, there's never a question that you shouldn't asked.

I can almost assure you there's somebody listening that will appreciate it. Eight hundred five five nine four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines where we have Tony.

and John. We all met with her and we were all impressed with her, and she said she was impressed with us and she put her trust in us. I literally I made it. I made the magic happen. I relocated her and her family from New Jersey to you know, upstate New York, a place that she never never could imagine herself being in. And she's been with us three short years, and in those three years, you know, everybody she touched, she just it's just it's a touch that

lingers on forever. She will give us that gift that goes on forever. And you know, we just did a Woman in Wealth seminar with a couple colleagues TiAl and Becker Chremonte CPA firm and Lemmerie and Greisler Claire McCrae, one of our professional colleagues there at that law firm and us, and we did a Woman in Wealth launch and not too long ago at the Wolfrids Bruce Country Club. And I'm telling you, she takes She just took everybody

by storm. Forty six years old. For me to be sitting here talking about losing Nicole, I can't begin to tell you just how devastating it is to us, my team, everybody, just how devastating it is. I just can't begin to tell you, folks. We're going to take a break for the news you're listening to. Let's talk money brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew Grew where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. I can't thank you enough for tuning in. One eight

hundred eight two five five nine four nine. That's one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions you have, give me a call on the other side of the news break. It'll be a short news break. Go to our website Bouchet dot com. You'll be able to take a look at our team and see just how beautiful and just majestic Nicole was. I'll see you in a couple quick minutes.

of talk it out. And so I said on the first half of the show, you get one one opportunity to retire. You do not want to blow that opportunity. So let me help you make that happen. Let's have that quality of life and retirement that you always were hoping for. And you need to be prepared. So I'm here to help you, give you my honest personal opinion. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine.

So the you know the week, listen, folks, Monday, the markets were closed Martin Luther King Day and happened to coincide with the presidential inauguration. And you heard me on the first half of the show that I'm always forever the optimist. And you know you've heard me say this before. So I'm not making this as a political statement. Don't take it this way. I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat. I truly I'm not reach in any party.

I'm not even an independent. My dear friend, Senator Joe Bruno told me as I was sitting in his office. He looks at me. He says, Steve, you know you're a blank. And I'm looking at him. I said, Senator, what do you mean I'm a blank? He says, you're not registered in any party. I said, no, Senator, I'm an independent. He says no, Steve. He says you're not even an independent. He says, you're a blank. So that's

how I found out. And God bless Joe Bruno. Talk about the king of negotiators, being able to bring both sides together and putting on a good face and your best foot forward. Joe Bruno had a way of doing that. So I'm a blank. So I'm forever optimistic that the market is up more than it's down. And I'm telling you, we had the inauguration of President Trump on Monday, and within minutes things started to happen, and folks, I'm giddy about where this great country of ours, the United States

of America, is headed. I'm just giddy about the people that President Trump is surrounding himself by. There's some fresh faces, young blood, smart people. Things will probably look different real soon. In Washington than they've ever looked before. That's not a bad thing. We have nothing to lose a lot of And it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, folks, you have to just feel good about a lot of what President Trump is doing right off the bat, not

wasting a day to get things started. I think one of the most beautiful days of the short five days that he's been president was yesterday going to North Carolina, where so many people are still still suffering four months after those devastating storms just made you know, western part of North Carolina just unlivable. And he makes it a priority to go there and give them the help they need, and then immediately fly to La to do the same with regards to the fire. And this this guy doesn't

hold backs. He calls it like he sees it. And he called them out in California. I watched some of the some of the snippets, and he called them out. I mean, you'll see people that may have been against President Trump all of a sudden before him because he

will be there. He will put this country first. You think of the hundreds of billions of dollars that we sent to Ukraine when we couldn't even help people right here in North Carolina or over the last couple of weeks, not to be able to do more for the people that have just been uprooted in LA with the fires and aside from all of the cities looking like they were just you know, hit by a bomb, and we're sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine? Are you

kidding me? He will put our country first. And I'm optimistic that the stock market has a way to go. And going back to one of the first callers, you know, the markets that an all time high, and it was I think the SA on Thursday closed that an all time high. Guess what, folks the market. That happens. Often the market will take a break, it'll go backwards, but the market always goes on to make new all time highs. It's a beautiful thing. I told you, I share with

my clients. I'm one hundred percent invested in the stock market, and I have absolutely no problem when the market goes down, I don't look. So we started off the week with the Trump inauguration and they moved it inside because it was a little bit cold in Washington, and you know, you gotta love Trump. He actually asked a question. You know, it's not a bad spot to have an inauguration. Why full around with mother nature and the elements of the

cold weather that could happen in January. Maybe we should have it inside every four years. So we'll see if they have it inside every four years. Folks, we had to ceasefire that began in Godsam with the first hostage in prisoner exchanges. Thank god. Once again, you have to take President Trump for his word. If those hostages didn't start to be released, who knows what might have taken place.

So it looks as though the and I can only imagine the terrible situation these hostages have been living in. But they started to be released, and they were more released, you know, this weekend. So let's hope they all get released. Let's hope that their families get some closure. The crypto, you know, bitcoins up to one hundred and five thousand dollars for those of you that were afraid to buy in at sixteen thousand not too long ago. Hotly moly,

you got TikTok. Looks like TikTok's going to live on AI. Artificial intelligence. I say it often folks, if you haven't, if you haven't been playing around with an AI app, you got to start playing around with it. It's here and it's amazing. So for the week, the dollar fell then rebounded, markets rose after the market's being closed Monday. For Martin Luther King, the S and P hit its first record high of twenty twenty five on Thursday. Shares

fell a little bit on on Friday, that's okay. For the week, the Dow was up two point two percent, the S and P five hundred and NASDAC gained about one point seven percent. Not bad, not bad, Well, we'll take that.

the magnificent seven. So it's nice to see the Russell two thousand and up three point five percent, almost in line with the S and P. Starting out. That's a beautiful thing. I hope, I hope we continue to see that because that means that that the entire stock market's taking taking hold, and that's that's that's what we want. Gold closed at twenty seven seventy seven. Announce you got crude oil at seventy almost seventy five dollars a barrel. So there you have it. The you know, we was

was a pretty good week companies. You know, Apple fourth quarter iPhone sales fell in China. You know, China is an important part of Apple. And you know, I'm an open book. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. You know that Apple is one of our top holdings, and we're starting out. It's down eleven eleven percent for the year. Amazon is up seven percent for the year. That's our second largest holding, while the S and P is up three point seven percent. You know, so you know, Apple

took it on the chin a little bit. Amazon over the last year was up almost fifty percent and you had Apple up only fifteen percent, while the S and P was up twenty five percent for the last year. And I'm not worried Apple's been a good holding over time, and Apple is used to having you know, it's it's it's periods of ups and downs. It's still a great company, a great loyal customer base, good price, and I'm not worried about Apple being one of our top holdings in

the portfolios. But it is important that the iPhone sales fell in China. You know, President Trump presided over the announcement of a five hundred billion that's billion with a b Ai infrastructure venture led by open Ai, Soft Bank Group and Oracle. Elon Musk, you know, you know, he's just he's He's by Trump's side, and whether you like Elin or not, the man's a brilliant man, folks. I've said this often. How he gets done when he gets

done blows my mind. But he's a brilliant man. And I'm not worried about Musk being close to to President Trump. You had Maderna this week received five hundred and ninety million dollars in federal funds to develop a bird flu vaccine. Flicks added nineteen million subscribers in the fourth quarter. I guess people are still watching TV. This coming week, we got a lot of earnings. We're in earning season, we

got eighteen TG and Lockheed Martin, Starbucks. You know Meta, which is Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, Caterpillar, MasterCard, Visa all announcing. The big day is going to be Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee announces its monetary policy. Probably, I won't be surprised. You know, we've had three interest rate cuts the last few months of twenty twenty four after eleven hikes for the last few years. I won't be surprised.

With the latest data on the economy, with the latest jobs report, it won't surprise me if the Fed leaves rates unchanged. The FED funds rate on change at four point twenty five and four zero point five percent range. You know, the economy is resilient. It's pretty good. And there's you know, people were worried about the tariffs that Trump was going to put in place, and the first day Trump kind of softened his and he's he's like that,

you know, listen, he's not afraid. Listen. This guy plays chess. He doesn't play tid lee wings, and he doesn't play checkers. President Trump plays chess. All around the world, he plays chess, and he's he's truly good at playing chess. So you know, some people take his threats as as being devastating, and I always say, you know the guy, the guy is going to get what's best for this great country of ours, and he'll play chess. And it looks as though the

tariffs won't be as bad as some people feared. And that's a beautiful thing. So I won't be surprised to see the FED leave in traits alone when they meet Tuesday Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon at at around two o'clock, they'll come out and inflation it's above the Fed's two percent target. Now I've said this one hundred times over the last few years. I think the FED is wrong for advertising that they have a two percent target. I gave these

statistics out last week or the week before. Over the last ninety years, inflation has averaged about three point four percent. Since nineteen fifty, it's averaged just a little over three percent. So why why is the Fed focused on a two percent rate? Because after the Great Recession ended, after we lived through two thousand and seven through two thousand, early March of two thousand and nine, the market was down fifty percent. People thought the world was coming to an end.

It did not come to an end. People thought stocks were going to zero. The stock market just thrived on to make new all time highs. But the FED got used to low inflation rates for the fifteen years after that. So I would rather have the FED focus on the last ninety years rather than the last fifteen years. So they they're fixated on a two percent target rate. I don't think they're going to get two percent anytime soon,

but inflation is somewhere between two and three percent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis, they'll release the Personal consumption Expenditure Price Index PCE for December. Economists forecasts the two point five percent year over year increase, one tenth of a percent more than in November. And this is one of the Feds, you know, they love to look at this,

so we'll see. And the core, when you take out food and energy is expected to be two point eight percent, So it's under three percent, it's above two percent, and that's okay. Now let me give you one more statistic. Four dollars and fifteen cents. Do you know what that is? Four dollars and fifteen cents is the average price of a dozen of large eggs in December up fourteen percent from November and up thirty seven percent for the year.

So there you go. Eggs is a big part of our diet, good source of protein and something that people take for granted. But eggs are obviously way above two to three percent range of inflation, and there's a lot of prices that are still high that need to come down, and hopefully, hopefully they'll come down. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eighty five fifty nine forty nine. Any questions you have, folks,

give me a call. I would love to talk to you anything you want to talk about, especially with regards to money. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine. Any questions, any questions whatsoever. You hear me talk recently because you know, losing my wife Sue last May was just devastating and going through some help things that I went through. Twenty twenty four was one of those years, and starting out twenty twenty five, losing Nicole Goebeler,

our esteam colleague, just hits home again. And even though we talk a lot about money on radio, sometimes it's important for me to talk about, you know, just life in general and life insurance and disability insurance, sometimes we overlook it. And and this week just hit home with Nicole, and I say this often. If you haven't you know, if you haven't done any serious financial planning and you're not saving ten to fifteen percent of your salary, you're

probably not saving a lot. And if you have a young family and you don't have at least two million, two million, not two hundred thousand, two million dollars of life insurance, you probably don't have enough. And if you're scratching your head saying weeah, but you know, my buddy who's selling me this life insurance wants me to buy a universal life or a whole life so that I can save up money and have this money when I'm

sixty five and have it help my retirement. Folks, get rid of that buddy, go out and have a beer with he or she, but do not buy your life insurance bump. Then you need to have at least two million dollars worth of life insurance. If you have a loved family, I can almost assure you you don't have enough. And you can buy term insurance. It's cheap. Life insurance agents make pennies on a dollar instead of dollars on

a dollar selling term. That's why they hate to sell term because they don't line their pockets with easy commissions. The commissions on permanent life insurance could be as high as fifty percent. On term insurance, it's peanuts. And that's why term insurance is cheap. And I hate the word cheap, but everybody can afford term life insurance. And if you're young and you have a family, especially if you have a stay at home spouse, you need to have a

lot of life insurance. And Nicole's case, her husband, Pete was a stay at home dad. He took care of the kids, and Nicoal was the bread winner and she was forty six and you know she's no longer the breadwinner. And it takes life insurance that benefit to replace the income and help out with college and you know, paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. So just

I want to plant the seed. If you're listening, or if you have children or grandchildren, you know, tell them they need to do some detailed financial planning and take a look at their life insurance and don't buy permanent insurance because you need life insurance in case you pass away now when you're young, not if you live to you're sixty five seventy seventy five years old. You don't need as much insurance than when your children are grown

and you're retired and you've saved enough money. You need life insurance when you're younger, not older. Eight hundred eight two five, five, nine four nine. Let's go the phone lines where we have Josh in Troy.

proceeds after the divorce. I'm wondering if this is something that you and your team, you know, routinely see, because the question is, is, uh, you know what to do with that cash? She does she is figuring out housing does it make sense to rent or buy or et cetera. But she's also looking to basically use that capital in a way to create a third reliable stream of income. And I was just wondering if you could share any thoughts around that.

to get divorce, and that's because it's worth it. But all kidding aside, when you're splitting up the assets, you want to look at assets that are in I raise and assets that aren't in iras because assets that are in iras are going to be taxable. That means that if you have one hundred thousand dollars after tax, it could only be sixty five thousand dollars, whereas if you have one hundred thousand dollars outside of retirement accounts, one

hundred thousand is one hundred thousand. So that's one thing for them to make sure they look at Sometimes one spouse will try to get clever and give the other spouse the retirement accounts because they've done their homework, or Ben advise. You know, if you have one hundred thousand dollars on average, you should be able to grab about four or five six thousand dollars a year of income

off of that. Obviously two hundred thousand dollars you know, ten twelve thousand dollars a year of income off that you're going to have a retirement which hopefully will be equitable and fair, and social security which they can find out. Then it comes down, Josh, to the quality of life that your mom, your mother in law will will want and what does she need. Doesn't make sense to buy a house or rent. A lot of times we tell people to rent. Hey, Josh, I got to let you go.

You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchef and Andrew, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Folks, thank you for listening today. Thank you for letting me share with you the news about Nicole. It's devastating. Go to our website bouchet dot com, where there's so much more information. Enjoy your weekend, and I appreciate you tuning in today. Bye bye