Let's Talk Money

To see I've gone what tomorrow may range, so I'll follow. Good morning everyone. My name is Martin Shields. I'm a chief Wealth advisor at Bruchet financi Group and not gonna be your host today for Let's Talk Money, Zach. I love that intro music. I like I like the idea switch it up a little bit. That's a good way to start the show. And

I hope everyone out there is doing well. As always, it's great to be here with you to answer any questions you may have regarding your financial planning or investment management concerns, and I encourage you to give me a call with those questions. You can reach me at eight hundred Talk WGY. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Once again, that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. So a lot to discuss today.

Talk about some of the economic data that came out, in particular with the labor numbers for the month of February, and what's going on with the mar kids, and then as always, we'll talk about some financial planning items that you can utilize in your own personal situation. So it's great to be here with you. I'm looking out the window. And unfortunately we got a great day and I know we've got some rain, maybe even some snow on the

way. I always say, you know, I embrace winter, but we get to the middle of March, this is where you can put winter away and let's let's embrace spring. Right. So night yesterday was a great day. I know in Saratoga the state park golf courses open, uh and ready to go. So hopefully we are we will move clearly into some nice, warmer sunnier weather. Uh. And it really was not much of a winter As as a winter lover, there was rather disappointing. I can't doesn't you

feel like we got any real measurable amounts of snow. With that said, you have been able to get some good skiing and hopefully maybe still get some spring skiing in. But I just don't know how long it's gonna last. I was up at Gore Mountain last Sunday and it was actually fantastic because it was probably in the mid forties and it had rained the day before, so everything was nice, nice and soft, right, And it's an as an older person, I like that nice and soft, not icy. But I'm

telling you it doesn't look, usually they can last until April. I'm not sure that's gonna happen this year, but we'll wait and see. But again, if you have any questions, gave me a call. You can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Once again, that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. And as I always say, there's no dumb er silly question except for the one you don't ask. And you may be doing your doing your fellow listener a favor by asking

a question that they have as well. So we're still looking great with the markets. This week was rather flat all things considered. We did hit some all time highs in the middle of the week, but we kind of came down as we wrapped the week up. But you know, if you said, hey, we're going to be in the middle of March and the sp is going to be up almost eight point five percent, uh, that's fantastic, right, And we kind of continue to be in this goldilocks environment,

right which is not too hot, not too cold. The labor numbers came out for the month of February and the actual jobs created was at d and two hundred ninety seven thousand, I'm sorry, two hundred and seventy five thousand versus one hundred and eighty nine thousand that was expected, So more jobs,

quite a bit more jobs created than was expected. Now, the interesting thing is how they go back over the last prior months and true up those numbers, right, so there are adjustments, and what's interesting is how much the true up is. So for the month of January, at first reported there was three hundred and fifty three thousand jobs, but the true up, the actual amount is two hundred twenty nine thousand, so a very big drop in

the actual amounts of jobs created. It is interesting that the numbers could be that far off. It does kind of make you wonder how accurate these numbers are. But the unemployment rate ticked up to three point nine percent, and wage growth came in lower than expected and lower than what it was last month. And in general, these are the type of numbers that are going to be good to have The Federal Reserve certainly not raise interest rates, but even

be looking to perhaps pause or cut them. I don't think it's going to happen for the month of March, but again there's still expectations that this year, if inflation can trend to that two percent target, and the labor markets remain relatively strong that you'll see the federal reserve cut again. The first estimates were six times for this year. I think if we get two or three times at maybe a quarter percentage point, that would be would be good.

But we again need to continue to move down this path of economic data is strong but not too strong, and certainly inflation. That and the inflation is the real crux, right Inflation that is moving real to the to the two

percent target. That's that's where the rubber hits the road. But again, if you look at the markets across the board, uh, you know, real all everything's positive now, there's still a real range, right, So the big cap companies are real driving, really driving the markets, with the SMP being up eight point four percent, and that really now the Nasdaq one hundred, which is one of our biggest holdings, it continues to be the

strongest performer performing index out there. It was up eight point nine percent year to date so far, and the other indices, both international and domestic, are positive but not up as much. You're starting to get some broadening of the strength of the market into small cap with them being up three percent, and the Dow Jones index, which is the biggest companies, are up also

three point four percent. Well, merging markets are just up just about a percent, and developed international the MSCIA EFA index is up over five percent. Well, we still have bonds negative for the year. So that's what you

have. Has happened with interust rates kind of moving higher, right, so there's that inverse relationship between interest rates and the value of bonds, and with them ticking up higher with the potential of just kind of a little more uncertainty as to what the Fed is going to do with interest rates, that caused

bonds to go down. And you know, we've talked about this over the last three years, but two years ago we were all out of bonds completely as indust rates rose so dramatically in twenty twenty two and you had the Barclays bond index down eighteen percent. And we've been moving back into bonds, and in particular where possible, buying some individual treasuries when last year when the tenure US Treasury was up close to five percent, So you know, that's been

a beneficial strategy. But we still have a decent allocation in our alternative strategy

and those there's two primary holdings categories that we have in there. One is what call hedge equity, where we have ETFs that have exposure to the S and P five hundred, but they're headed down the downside anywhere from ten to fifteen percent, so that our clients don't feel much of a downdraft as if the market were to go down until the market goes down more than ten to fifteen percent, but it is capped up on the upside again somewhere between ten

to fifteen percent, so they're going to be able to participate in the upside, but it's not at the same level at the SMP, so it's a nice Strands are up four point five percent, so again it's a nice strategy that's been very successful in our client's portfolios to the extent that if bonds are negative for the year and we have moved assets percent into the alternative strategies and they're up four point five percent, that's a nice bump up for them in

that asset class, and it continues to work well. It also has good downside protection. The other one that we utilize is what's called the JP Morgan Premium equity fund. The ticker is jep JEPI, and what that is that is a fund that holds equities there tend to be a little more defensive consumer

staples and whatnot, and they sell cover calls on those positions. And what that is is simply you're allowing another investor the option to buy those positions if the market moves higher, and by giving them that option, they're actually paying you income. So it has a yield of around eight or nine percent,

which is obviously very good yield. The only downside is in a year like last year, with a market really took off and the market's up twenty three percent, that the JP Morgan Equity Fund is going to be up around fourteen or fifteen percent because what happens two things. One is those positions in that fund tend to be more conservative, so they're not going to rally as strongly.

And then also in the positions that do rally strongly, again you've sold the cover call option, the option for that investor to buy that fund, and so they exercise that option, and so again it limits some of the upside. But the idea with this is to have positions that have somewhat of a similar risk in return characteristic as bonds, but they also are not completely obviously correlated with either stocks or bonds. And again we've added these probably the

last three or four years into our portfolio and that's been very beneficial. Let's move on. I want to talk a little bit about some planning topics before I do. Again, just a reminder, if you have any questions, you can give me a call. You can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Again that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. You know, as a firm, we have ten advisors

and we're all either cfps or CPAs. We have another a number of us that have additional designations, but primarily that's where each one of us has at

least those designations. And one of the things we try to do is a lot of continued education and we just think that's important, right, So in any field, you want your experts to always being keep keeping up to date as to what's going on any changes that that are occurring, whether it be in state planning or tax planning, it could be in education planning, it

could be in investments. And yesterday we have a Friday morning meeting with all of our advisors where we talk about different issues that we're seeing as we're working with our clients and kind of brainstorm as to how to handle them. And that's what you know, we talk about our firm being about team. You know, we really work with all of our clients as a team. And that's what I love about it is you've got a lot of smart people who

are hard working and able to find solutions for our clients. But yesterday we had an individual from the Socicurity Administration and to talk to us about social security and it was great. You know, we this is an important part of everybody's retirement plan. It probably accounts for about forty percent of an individual's or couples retirement income. It can vary a little bit depending on, you know what, how much cashful that they need in retirement. So you think about

that. So if you've got about forty or maybe fifty percent coming from SoC Security, the other half has to come from someplace else. And sometimes they could be a pension, but many, for many folks, it's not a pension, right. You know, more and more companies are not having pensions. They're actually even ending their engines and so it has to come from probably

retirement accounts or some sort of taxable account. And you know that's where again the planning prosport and SOB security it really is is important, the important and so security it really is is important. And you know, I've said this along and I feel pretty comfortable with this statement, which is, you know, over the years, we're going to need to make changes to how we

fund Social Security and perhaps even the benefits. But I do feel comfortable in saying that very very unlikely that as you're currently receiving benefits from Social Security that they would be changed or reduced. Right how they're probably going to really make sure that the SOI security system is solid and well funded is through increasing the amount of taxes that people who are working pay and changing the benefit structure for

those that are going to be receiving it down the road. And certainly the younger you are, the more likely that your benefit structure is going to change. So right now, you can receive SoC Security as early as age sixty two. Your full retirement age right now is around sixty six and eight months it's going to be moving to age sixty seven. For everyone that was born in nineteen sixty or later, and you don't get any additional benefits by delaying

until age seventy. So, regardless of your circumstances, you always want to file by age seventy because if you don't, you're just given up on free money. So there's no benefit by delaying. But you know, with this again, I do feel comfortable that the system's going to be in place. It's still going to be very important, but you really need to and this is where we work with our clients. Really are your priorities to receive it?

It's really more of a question of what are your priorities to receive it? It's really more of a question of what are your priorities? What are your personal situations as far as health and cash flow, and those factors will

come into play as to what the best plan is. But you know, for all the planning we do for our clients, and we're probably you know, boy, these days, we're probably having fifteen plus client meetings a week, and in most of those meetings we are doing retirement planning and cash flow planning for our retire for our clients. In most of those cases, you know, regardless of whether you take Social Security at age two or you delay, it never impacts the success of your plan. But again there can be

situations. For example, if you have a health issue, and especially if you're single, you probably want to take your SO security earlier because the break even point for delaying soci security to later years is around age seventy eight to eighty. So again, if you're in a situation where you have health concerns, boy, you might as well go ahead and take that or as early as you can, because you don't want to lose out in that benefit.

The other situation is if you are if you need the money for cash flow, they there's also some folks that just have this opinion that they put the money in there. They there's also some folks that just have this opinion that they put the money in there. They you know, they are concerned about the the viability of Social Security and they want to make sure they get their

their benefit. And I you know, that's fine. If that's your mindset, then go ahead and do it. But you know what I will tell you though, is in particular, if you're married and you want to protect against longevity, meaning that either you or your spouse living a long time and

covering expenses as you live. And also from an inflation perspective, then what of you delaying to close to age seventy can be very powerful because you know, if you're a high income earner, and you know you've been, you've got to have at least forty quarters of income in order to receive Social Security, right, So that basically ten years of full working, so forty quarters of working in order to receive it. Now, if you're married, you

don't need to have that to the extent. You can get a spouse of benefit, which is half the amount of your spouse's benefit at full retirement age, right, and that doesn't matter. Here's the thing that's interesting. They your spouse if you're gonna get a spouse of benefit, but you as spouse full retirement age, but you as spouse full retirement age, but you as spousal benefit, will always get half of their amount at age full retirement age.

So let's say sixty six and eight months, unless you also decide to take yours early, in which case they would be reduced. Right. So let's just go through that. Your spouse is sixty two, they're the main income earner, and you're gonna take a spouse of benefit. If you take yours as a spousal benefit a sixty two then going to be reduced because you're

taking it early. But if you wait to your full retirement age, then even though your spouse took theirs early, and you're going to have a spouse a benefit which is half their benefit, so that you're going to be basically that's the amount you get is half their benefit. It does not get impacted. You still get half of their benefit at full retirement age, which is

really nice. That's that's a really positive benefit. Now many of you may remember there used to be different strategies where you could was called filence, suspend and do all these different things. About four years ago they did away with that all that, which you know, the upside is the decision process is a lot simpler. The downside is that a number of these strategies were very

beneficial for individuals. But it is what it is. And the things to remember still, if you are a wadower and even if you have remarried, you can start receiving benefits at eight sixty and let your benefits grow, So that's very important if that is the case. The other thing too is even if you don't need Medicare because you're working, so you have health benefits.

You still need to apply for Medicare within three months, either before you can start applying for it before you turn sixty five or three months after, and there are some circumstances that if you don't, you can be penalized in a fairly significant amount. So that's extremely important for everyone, which is as you're approaching a sixty five or if you're just past the age of sixty five,

make sure you apply for that. That is very important. You don't want to get penalized for that, so you've got to make sure that you put that down in your calendar to take care of it. Now, tax rates, what you get tax on Social Security can vary. So the big element is New York State. If you're in New York State. Even York State has an income tax, it does not tax Social Security, right, so

that's important to know. And that the maximum amount of your sobiecurity benefit and it's taxed is eighty five percent, So it doesn't matter what you earn if it's over. If you're married filing jointly and you earn more than forty four thousand dollars eighty five percent of your soci Security benefit is going to get taxed, and what it gets taxed depends on what your overall combined income is.

If you're single, that amount is thirty four thousand dollars. Now, if you are married and filed jointly and you earn between thirty two to forty four thousand dollars, you're going to be taxed at fifty percent. So half of the value of your security benefit is going to be taxed, Whereas if you're single and earning between twenty five to thirty four thousand, then fifty percent of your Social Security benefit is being taxed. If you're under those amount, then

it is not taxed. Now, the thing to remember is if you are not full retirement age and you're earning more than eighteen thousand dollars a year and you take those security you're going to have to return part of that benefit. For every two dollars that you're earned, you got to return one dollar.

So it really is the case that you know, if you're not full retirement age and you're earning pretty much well over eighteen thousand dollars, you really are better off delaying taking it because it really it's not like you lose those benefits you actually they get returned to you later. But for every two dollars you earned, you got to return one dollar worth a benefit. Now the year that you return that you turn full retirement age, that number goes up to

fifty nine thousand dollars and it's three. For every three dollars you're earned, you got to return one dollars. So again there's the equation is a little bit different. But in many cases, for most folks, if you're earning any piece amount of income, you're really better off holding off taking Social Security until your pastor full retirement age, which again right now is sixty six in eight months. But again it was great gim' his name is Ben Stump.

I mean, these guys are really very knowledgeable, and that's where I think we're fortunate. It is affirmed. Uh, you know, we have these good relationships with a lot of organizations like the Socialcurity Administration that you know, we're our clients, uh you know, personal CFO. We're our clients a financial quarterback, and you know we're going to basically help guide them to the

right experts. Web it's attorneys, whether it's mortgage bankers, whether it's CPAs, whoever they need, We're going to quarterback back guidance and it includes Social Security Administration in a number of situations. We've had clients with very complex soci Security Administration's benefits and by working with people, not if the you know the office that you go to, you know your local office, but these are more people at a higher level and their knowledge that they've been with the Sobsciurity

Administration for years, so their knowledge of sobcurity is so much higher. And we've been able to really help our clients make some decisions that have been very beneficial for them that if they had just gone into the SOB security office themselves, they probably would not have got the right answers. And even Ben said that, you know, you never know when you go into an office.

You could be talking to somebody who's been there for ten years who really knows their stuff, or somebody who's been there for four months and maybe it is still in the learning curve, So it can be it can be very widely depending on who you're talking with. Let's move on to a new topic. But again, if you have any questions, you can give me a call. You can reach me at eight hundred eight two five, five, nine, four nine. One of the things I want to talk about is just

International Women's Day. It was last it was yesterday, and you know, I just think it's it's really important. We have We've talked about this. We've got so many amazing women colleagues, both in our client service team and also as advisors. And you know, I think I've got two daughters, and I think about how, you know, certainly women and from a career

perspective, how that's changed. Or I think about, you know, talking to my mom, who's in our eighties, about how you know, there's been an evolution and what women can be able to do and the rights they have and and everything. And I think about the Me Too movement and everything

and how valuable that is. But I do think it's it's important just to have a Women's International Day to the extent that, let's face it, every country does not have the same environment for women that the US does, and and certainly there's still you know, room for improvement in the US as well, but you know, there's there's many countries where women did not have the

rights they need to have in most in many areas of their life. So it's really important that you know you see that and you're able to do something different. Well, we're gonna go to commercial break, but come back and join us as we continue to take your questions. You'll listen to Let's Talk Money. That to your name, but welcome back everyone. For those of you just joining us, my name is Martin Shields and I'm going to be

your host today for Let's Talk Money. It's great to give my colleague a well deserved break, and it's great to be here with you on this Saturday morning to answer any questions you may have regarding your financial planning or investment management questions and concerns. You can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Again that's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine.

So I just want to circle back on with the International Women's Day which was yesterday and my colleague Harmony Wagner, who's a CFP n SCPWA, which is a designation that deals with concepts and ideas with high net worth individuals and families, and she wrote a great blog. If you go to bouchet dot com that's bouchet dot com and go under insights every week or so, we put out a new blog, and we have webinars that you can look at

as well. And she did just a great blog on you know, what it means to for her to be a woman advisor and also a mother of three, so she has three young daughters, and she talked about some of the ideas that would be important for her to convey to her daughters as they grow up, and also, you know, some financial concepts and a kind

of a mindset as well. And I thought in particular, she wraps up her blog and talks about, you know, just this idea that you know, having financial foundation, and this is true for both men and women. But you know, certainly, you know, you think about again, I talk about different generations. Uh, you know, thirty forty, fifty, sixty years ago, you know, women perhaps did not have that financial stability

that they can have now. And I think, you know, any parent of you know, whether be a son or daughter, you want to make sure that they're financially stable on their own right, that they're not relying on you and or a partner for that functional stability as they start their life. And you know, she also Harmony talks about you know this concept of not only being financially stable, but appreciating that real happiness in life is not driven

by money. And yes, you know it's there is a situation where you need to have a certain level of income and this is what Harmony kind of focused on that. There's been a number of studies that say, hey, up to a certain level and it kind of depends on what that where you're living and whatever, but certain income level, having more money, having more income can drive happiness. But when you get to a certain point after that, it really doesn't. And it just goes to the point which is,

you know, consumption of goods and services. Uh again, having the ability to you know, put a roof over your house yourself, you know, provide food for your family. You know, some of these basic elements and you know, maybe take a trip or two. Those do provide happiness. But at some point, if all you're doing is chasing the dollar and the income, you know, at some point you're not going to be it's not gonna bring you more happiness. It really is not. We're gonna go to

the phone lines. We have Jim, Jimmy there, Hello, Hey Jim, how you doing? I'm doing good? O? Yo? Good, good question. They have enjoy your enjoy your show. I tried to listen

every Saturday morning. That's a good show. I really enjoy it. Thank you great great Uh a question I have uh in regard to a roth ira, Ah, the is well over the five year aging process, and the owner is well over the fifteen nine and a half year year age and one of the account has one beneficiary okay, who is over eighteen you know, into as an adult. Does that beneficiary oh, any federal tax at all on that No, they do not. No, that money, that money's

grown tax free for both the owner of that count and the beneficiary. Now, the only combin I'll make is if the beneficiary is a non spouse then and it sounds like it may be the case that when that owner of that count dies and it goes to the beneficiary, that beneficiary will have ten years to distribute all that money. So there used to be so there is a requirement of distribution which does not exist for roth as an owner. Right.

So you know, if you have a traditional ira and you turn seventy three, you have an rm D you have to take it out at seventy three. But raw irays do not have that, but a beneficiary who's not a spouse will have to take that money without ten years. Now they can delay, Yep, they can delay until year ten, which makes sense, right because they rather have that money continue to grow tax free. But when they take it out to your question, they will pay nose federal or state tax.

Okay, of state tax. I'm in Massachusetts. You wouldn't know if there's any difference between That does not matter. It doesn't matter what state you're in. Wroth irays when you distribute them, do not pay any federal or state taxes. Okay, great, thank you very much. I answers my question that I've tried to get answers to and get varying variety of answers. Yeah, thank you so much, appreciated. Yeah, no problem is good question. Okay, we have great question from Jim. We're going to continue

with the phone lines. We have a Rose from Waterverally Rosie there, Hi, Hi Rose. If I have a question about Social Security that you were talking about earlier, Can you explain so in in New York State you are taxed on Social Security above a certain income level. Can you explain that again? Yes, So in New York State you are not taxed on Social Security. Doesn't matter what your income, you're in or anything, none of your SoC Security is taxed in New York State. What I was talking about is

how much is taxed from a federal perspective. Right, So, are you married or are you single? As far as filing taxes? Single? Single? Okay, So when you receive Social Security, if you earn more than thirty four thousand dollars, then eighty five percent of your Social Security benefit will be taxed at whatever ordinary income tax rate would apply. And if you earn between twenty five to thirty four thousand, then fifty percent of your benefit of

SO Security would be taxed again your ordinary income rate. But New York State no income so scurity benefit is taxed. Oh Connecticut, I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Connecticut. Uh can Yeah, I don't know. I don't know off the top of my head of Connecticut taxes SO Security benefits or not. So I don't want to give you an answer if it's not one

hundred percent correct, okay, But Nework State doesn't. And then just so you're saying that if you earn over thirty four thousand, then you're still working in collecting solid security, you will be taxed well, saying, yeah, any that thirty four thousand could be you know, income from a pension,

it could be income from your account. You're an IRA distribution. So but remember if you're working and you're not full retirement age, that there would be some amount of benefit you'd have to get back if you earn more than eighteen thousand dollars. And that year that you turn full retirement age is up to fifty nine thousand dollars. So just a reminder on that age, I could still work and make up to fifty nine thousand dollars a year and not be

sacked. No, you're going to be taxed, but you can. And the year that you have your full retirement for so security, you can earn up to fifty nine thousand dollars and not have to return any of it. Because what happens is, let's say you're sixty three and you're earned over eighteen thousand dollars, for every dollar or for every two dollars that you earn over eighteen thousand, you have to return one dollar worth of soci security benefit.

So again, if you're going to be earning, if you're you know let's say sixty three, sixty four, sixty five, and you're earning well over eighteen thousand dollars. If you know, the amount keeps going up with your income, you're gonna have to return a larger amount of your benefit and so you're really better off not taking your benefit at that point. Okay, Oh

it's very helpful. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a little complicated, and uh, you know that's why with our clients when we work with them on that, it can be you know a number of conversations that we need to kind of have so they get it their their strategy set up correctly. I don't understand why you pay those attorney and then you be taxed on it at the federal level, and correct, I agree that's the federal government. They want to get their money in multiple different ways, right, So we've already

paid into the taxes. Isn't this your like if I was to take this money on my own and put into some type of investment vehicle and not have the government involved, I guarantee that my money I'd be pulling out more than what the government's giving to me because they're also taxing this money. Yeah, it's a great question. But here's the thing I would say to you is,

let's say you were saving that money into our foreign K plan. When you take that money out of a foreign K plan, they're going to tax you, right, So in that regard, you know you can somewhat appreciate that it's similar that would happen if you just saved it in a brokerage account or to a foreign K But all the money that's in New York State spending on like the illegal immigrants, things that will impact the way New York State taxes Social Security. Do they need more money? I don't think so.

I mean, I'm not saying that they're not going to look for other ways to raise taxes, but I do think New York State realizes that, uh, you know that that is one area where you know, if they if they start taxing that, there's just gonna it's gonna drive more people from the state. So I'm gonna say no, But you know, it's like any in life, nothing's guaranteed. I think there are other areas they would be

more inclined to raise taxes if they need to. I know, I've heard so many companies don't want to do business in New York data as it is, so you don't want to lose the companies and businesses and the residents. That's right, that's right, that's right. Yep, yep. So well, thank your show is wonderful and you're so smart, So thank you. I really appreciate your question. It was very good. Thank you, and you're your show is amazing. Keep up the great work you got it,

Rose, enjoy your weekend. So some great questions there, and you know, certainly as we talk about soci security and when to take it in the tax situation, it is complex. I mean, it is one list things where hopefully our listeners are getting a little bit of an idea as to what they need to be aware of. But these are conversations we have with our clients that are pretty in depth and we're going through their own personal situation.

And that's the thing is, so many of these answers depend on what your personal situation is and personal preferences. You know, That's what I mentioned. A lot of this is driven by personal preference at what you want and what you're uh your personal situation is. Well, let's let's go on a couple of topics I want to discuss, but again, if you have any other questions, you can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four

nine. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. So I talked you know again, with our clients, we're their personal CFO, and all that means is, you know, any finance related question, we want to have a conversation with them. And you know where that really comes into play in particular is with small business owners. And you know, we're we're talking quite a bit with them about different things with their businesses, and then

sometimes it's even strategies with their business. You know, I have a background in corporate finance for about fourteen years, uh, in the telecom industry down to DC, and a number of our other colleagues have extensive either consulting or work as CFOs and in the finance area of different companies. So those discussions we have with small business can be pretty led and detailed as to even some

things of operating their small business. But certainly as we move forward from liquidation of their business, and as we've talked about in the show before, you know, for many business owners, uh, you know that's there there is a if you're successful, there is a transition plan, whether it's you know, passing it on to your kids or somebody in your family, uh, you know, selling it to an outside entity, selling it to uh some

of your employees. But at some point there is that transition and you need to make sure you have a plan in place, uh to handle it. And again, this is something we're frequently having conversations with our clients on who are small business owners, and that usually entails again working with a number of other advisors, whether it's attorneys, whether it's CPAs, could be business brokers, it could be investment bankers, and that's where we're going to kind of

be the QB behind all these discussions. But the other idea that I tried to share with clients or prospective clients as far as how we interact with them

is we're really our client's financial doctor. And all they mean by that is, you know, there are situations that you could get yourself into, and I try to really try to have very detail and focused conversations with clients that are going down this path that I would make the analogy it's like going into a doctor and the doctor telling you, hey, if you don't stop this whatever this is, it could be smoking, drinking, eating, not working

out, whatever that is, you're going to have a major health issue and it's not going to be good. And those are the type of conversations we have with our clients that had one or two this week, where you know, really being very direct, you know, like Keleig Steve Busche says, we're going to kick you in the heel or the leg if you're doing something that is not in your best interest. Now, at the end of the day, it's your money, right, it's your you want to make these

decisions. You know, we can't, you know, actually prevent you from doing that, whether it's selling your portfolio when the market's down, or not saving enough or spending too much. But you know, I will tell you

that very very really does that happen with our clients. But if we see you going down that path, we're going to have that conversation and we're going to stress to you in the in the manner that a doctor would that if you keep doing this, you know, just like you can harm your personal health, you're going to harm your financial health in a way that's going to be detrimental. And sometimes you know, people just they're living in the moment.

They don't realize, you know, whether it's just not saving enough money or whether it's spending too much, whatever the case may be, they don't realize that their behavior is that problematic. And our job, our responsibility as a fiduciary is to say to them, it is. It is that you're going down a path that if you keep going on that path, it's going to be that problematic, and you know, really try to stress to them that importance of changing their behavior. And it doesn't happen easy, you know,

it is. We talked about this. When people make decisions, there's the analytical element of looking at the numbers, but there's also the emotional and psychological element, and sometimes, I would say even many times, those psychological and emotional impacts of a decision can be even more powerful, really very powerful in limiting their behavior. And that's where you know, you have to appreciate

your view of investments, your view of finances. You know, it stems from what you grew up in your household, and you know what things occurred

throughout your life. And you know, we see this a lot with just people who are very good savers and they've saved a lot and they've maybe been good investors, they've been successful from an investment perspective, but then they get into retirement and you know it really it gets worse as you get older that they just really struggle at spending money, right because for all their life, while they had an income, they've been the prim says of saving money,

and now when they rehire, they have to flip that. Right. They have to you know, maybe have a pension, maybe have sobal security, but now they have to uh start spending money and not have a paycheck. And for many people that seems it can be very difficult. And that's where we do a lot of handholding with our clients to say, hey, listen, you know your financial plan is rock solid. Uh, you know you

have all the protections in place. You really needed to be go spending this money because, as I always tell clients, if you don't, somebody else will right right, whether you's your kids or nieces or nephews or charity or whoever. Uh, you know, don't doubt that they won't spend that money,

because they will. And that's why it's also so important that you know, you make sure that if you have kids or grandkids that they have the right mindset of what it means to be doing the right things from a financial perspective. Uh, you know, it's just it's it's so important that you know, if that money is going to go on to them and get passed down, that they're going to be able to handle it the right way. And that requires, uh, you know, education from very young ages,

right, and we talked about that. We have conversations with our kids, clients, our clients kids in their in their teens, early teens, just to make sure they understand about saving and you know a little bit about the markets and getting them in that habit of doing that. And then as they get older, you know, make sure they understand, you know, the concept of debt and you know, just just all these things that you've got to be aware of as you become an adult and you're responsible for your own

financial situation, so it becomes becomes that much more important. But I'm going to move on to a couple of other topics. We have a few minutes left in the show, but if you have any questions again, you can reach me at eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. I just want to put this out there, which is, you know, we do know that even right now, where the economy is very strong and you know there's a lot of

jobs out there, there are some companies that are downsizing. And we see this particularly on the technology space. I know that plug Power has laid off a number of individuals, and you know, when that happens to you, it's it's a very difficult situation. I had that occurred to me when I was working in telecom, where when the telecom industry was downsizing, you know, there was situations where the company was either bought or went out of business,

and you've got to make that transition. It's very difficult. And you know, if you're going through that process, or you know somebody is going through that process, and you know, this is something where we help a lot of our clients if they're dealing with it. And you know, when you have these life transition changes, whether you know it's a divorce or maybe it is a new job, or you're switching jobs, or you lose a job, that's quite often when we start working with people, right they realize

that hey, maybe they've been saving money into a foreign K plan. Now they've got to move those dollars, or now they've got a new job off they have to consider that that quite often those life changes is the impetus for them to say, you know, what I really should be getting guidance from

a financial professional as to what I should be doing. And you know, I would encourage anybody that is in that situation that, you know, if you want to reach out to us or to any financial fiduciary to get guidance as to how you handle that process, to do it. I really, I really would encourage you because you know, it is an emotional state that you're in when you when you lose a job or you're switching between jobs,

and you want to make sure you get the right guidance. And I always say, you know, even myself, when I worked in corporate finance, I used to be involved with mergers and acquisition and business planning and both domestically and internationally, so I knew finance really well, but what I knew was

corporate finance. I didn't know personal financial management as well as I thought I did, and I didn't know investment portfolio management as well as I thought I did, And I would have benefited in those days, by working with an investment fiduciary in a CFP, I really would have benefited because I didn't have

the knowledge that I have now. And you know, I always say that many of our there's a number of our clients, their CFOs, they work in the finance space, they work in the down on Wall Street, and you know they know that, hey, they've got their area of expertise, but there are some areas where they don't have that knowledge. And it's just also this idea of having somebody else give you a guidance because people could be

very emotional when it comes to their own money. And you know, they could be really smart people, but sometimes that emotion, as I discussed before, can over take their decision making and actually have them make bad decisions. Right, you know how that can happen that really smart person, but you

know they get emotional when we're talking about lots of money and investments. And you know, the thing to remember too is, especially if you're married, that dynamic that exists in a household with kids and a spouse can be even

more allenging. And I'll tell you that. You know, that's where our firm and our advisors play a big role is just as we help couples make decisions, you know, try to be that third party that doesn't have any skin in the game, and we're going to give our best guidance as to what we think they should be doing. And that really can help people make decisions where there can be conflict that exists with a spouse or certainly, let's

say differences of opinion of how things can happen. So that's it's really important. So again I'm just saying, if you're in that position, or you know somebody in that position that is switching jobs or just lost a job, you know, it is a good time to perhaps reach out to an investment a wealth management fiduciary to get guidance as to how to handle some of the changes that you're going through, and it can help from an emotional perspective.

One of the other things I want to talk about is just as we talk with our perspective clients, It's really interesting as I see this that how many of these folks don't understand how they're allocated from a portfolio perspective. They don't understand exactly the risk return equation that exists with their portfolio, and you know, I think it's it's very important. We always give this guidance that one you know, as you're moving through life, really try to consolidate your accounts.

I mean, there's really no value from a diversification to have multiple financial custodians, right that there's your people can't talk about that, and you're like, well, you know these days, you know, if you have Charles Schwab, if you have Fidelity, if you have Vanguard, or you know, you have these big financial custodians, I'd say the risk from a business perspective with those is pretty close to zero. So there's no value and you're

really complicated your situation by having all those accounts. And then the other thing, and this is very important, is you know not you're not going to know how you're allocated and what is the return you're getting for that risk? And so you know, I would say to you is if you can't say very clearly that your allocation is X and that you know equates a certain amount of risk, you know you should have a conversation with your advisor to understand

that. And you know, with our clients, they know they're in one of six different portfolios from an all equity down to a more conservative one, so it's very clear as to what their risk and returned equation is going to be. Well, folks, it's been a great hour here with you as always, Hopefully you benefited and you'll learn a little bit. I love being

here and talking about these topics. But have a great weekend and remember you listen to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchet Finance Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Folks, take care of yourself, take care of each other.