Let's Talk Money

The heart is a bloom shoots pop through the stony ground, but there's no room. Good morning, and welcome to Let's Talk Money. On March sixteenth, twenty twenty four. I'd like to say, let me start off the show by thanking everybody for tuning in first and foremost. I can't I can't thank you enough for tuning in as you do, and I hope I can help you out today with any questions that you have. The phone lines are open one eight hundred Talk WGY one eight hundred eight two, five, five,

nine, four nine. I am Stephen Bouchet and I am live here in the studio with my longtime producer Zach Harris. But today's special day, March sixteenth, my daughter Lauren turns another year older and I just want to wish her a happy birthday. She is the She just warms my heart. You know, she's my miracle baby. When she was born, she was four months premature, pound six ounces. She's come a long way in this world and I can't be more proud of her. So happy birthday, Lauren,

if you're listening, Happy birthday. I used to bring her to the show when she was just a a young, young little girl, but I don't bring her to the show anymore. So the least I can do is wish her a nice happy birthday. Folks. Here we are March, halfway through March. Spring is in the air, It's coming up within days, and it's just going to be you know, listen, I'm optimistic on this stock market. Even though we had a little Debbie downer week. This week

we gave back a little bit. That's okay. All in all, I am more optimistic on stocks than not, and long term, I guess I'm always the the you know, perpetual bull because stocks are up more than they're down. The stock market isn't risky when you put it in perspective. Sure it's volatile day to day, but everything is. And the problem is stocks get all the headlines. Very seldom do you look at other asset classes the same way as you do stocks. It's right there, right there in your

face every financial news show. You know, the doal Jones this, the doal Jones that, And you know, I'm not a fan of the Dial, but it's the most popular index, and this is what they like to promote. I'm a bigger fan of the S and P five hundred indecks. I think it's a better benchmark. If you're comparing your portfolio to any any thing, you should be comparing it probably to the either the S and P

five hundred indecks or the total stock market in deck. Both are you know, just a better barometer than the Dow, which is really just only thirty stocks in the Dow, and anyone's stock can move the Dow because it's price weighted, whereas the SMP is market cap weighted, So the SMP is really what you want to what you want to look at. But we gave a little bit back, and that's okay. You know, over time, stocks

I'm very comfortable. Remember I give this statistic often over the last forty four years, the average high to low peak the trough swing in the stock market is about fourteen percent. We haven't experienced that yet this year, and we'll probably experience it because on average that's what it comes out to, about fourteen percent. And when that happens, don't panic. The world's not coming doing that and the stock market's not going to zero. It's just part of the

you know, part of being invested in the stock market. And if you have stocks in your portfolio. Which Listen, we have a lot of clients. We manage about one point three billion dollars on behalf of our clients by discretion, which means we can make the investment decisions as we see fit. And every client we have has stock in their portfolio somehow, some way. We don't have one client who is just predominantly in bonds or CDs or fixed

income investments. So we take the time to educate our clients the pros and cons of having a diversified portfolio and why they shouldn't shy away from having stock

in their portfolio. Over time. The key is in. You know, I sound like a broken record, but if you have the next twelve to twenty four months worth of whatever cash distributions you need to take out of your portfolio set aside, then when the next correction comes, and it's not if, it's when, When the next correction, when the next bear market, when we experience another recession, When all those things happen, you're covered.

That's your insurance policy. Most corrections and bear markets recover within a couple of years, So having a couple of years worth of cash needs set aside in a more conservative allocation or safe allocation is really the way to go. This way, when that next bout of volatility comes, you're not panicking thinking that, oh my god, I'm not going to be able to enjoy retirement. I can't do this. I can't do that because you're protected. It will

come, it will happen. And anybody I come in contact with that says they don't want to invest in a stock market. It's just too too risky for them. I try to take the time and educate them on what is risk exactly one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. A couple of nice reports this week on the economy. Now when I say nice, I don't mean nice because they were favorable for the stock market. It was actually just the opposite.

On Tuesday, the CPI came out. We look for this month and month out. It's basically a measurement of inflation in this great country of ours, and it was stronger than than we were expecting. And that means when the Fed meets Tuesday and Wednesday this coming week, more than likely they aren't cutting rates. They just won't cut rates. I know at the beginning of the year, there was a good likelihood that they would, but after this report,

I'm pretty sure they won't. I can almost assure you when Jerome Powell, who's the Fed Reserve Chair, comes out at two point fifteen on Wednesday afternoon and kind of recaps what they talked about on Tuesday and Wednesday, what will happen is they will probably more than likely leave interest rates alone. The Fed funds rate will will stay where it is. Inflation continues to to you

know grow. Hey, there's a slight chance they may bump hike or you know, bump rates again, but I don't think that's going to be the case. I'm actually very comfortable with where inflation is. I've been saying for a long time on this show that the Fed needs to rethink their two percent target because I just don't know how on a headline number they're going to get

down to two percent. So consumer prices rose three point two percent in February from a year earlier, and that was up from we were this Wall Street was expecting about three point one percent, so it was up a little bit a little hotter then expected. The second straight month of you know, a little bit more inflation than was expected, and basically that's just going to you know, I think that's going to be the the proof that the Fed needs

to stay pat. They're going to keep this pause on interest rates, not do anything, not cut, not raised, just leave interest rates where they are. And remember inflation is a moving target, so month in, month out, they will look at these reports and decide what to do. So with last week's report on the CPI. And the consumer makes up two thirds of the economy, folks, That's why the consumer is so important. That's why the Fed looks really so so closely at what the consumer is doing.

The consumer is responsible for two thirds of what goes on in the US economy, so the consumers are forced to be wrecking with and the consumer, you know, they're making more money than they've made before, and they're spending money. But inflation is just a little bit hotter than expected. CPI up three point two percent. And even though and you know, listen, we know a couple of years ago inflation was nine percent, a year ago was six

percent. Here we are three point two percent. So I'll take that. It's the trend is going in the right direction. And if we're hovering around three percent. I'm okay. I keep saying, you won't see a lot of prices come down. You go to your favorite restaurant, guess what the price that they have on the menu that's not coming down Because the overall cost of food is coming down. I think you're going to see restaurants keep those prices right where they're at. I'm sorry, it's just my gut feeling.

And when you go in the grocery stores, what are they doing? What are the big producers of grocery is doing. You know, they may lead the price the same, but they're cutting down on the packaging, giving you less for the same price. So there's some parts of the economy. I just I'm not an economist. I have two economists that work for me, Pollo and Marty, and they do a good job at looking at all of this, and they and I debate often that we're in a in a different

predicament right now. And I know that the Federal Reserve they're all economists and they basically live with their nose and the textbook and they're always looking at history. But you know, listen, sometimes history rewrites itself. And I think I think the new norm going forward in the near future anyway is different. That Fed not have to drive us deep into a recession to bring inflation down from nine percent. It did it all on its own by just gradually nudging

up interest rates. We did not go into a deep recession. We did not have to have unemployment rate go from you know, three point seven to five six percent range like they said over the last few years. So the Fed, you know, they're willing to change with the times as well. And that's why inflation is a moving target and you can't get hung up on just one report or another report. The FED is looking at a lot of data and inflation is coming down, and that's what that That's why I'm optimistic

on the stock market. I think the next move, and it won't be till later this year. I think the next move from the Fed will be a cut in interest rates. And when the Fed cuts interest rates, it means they're trying trying to reinvigorate stimulate the economy by long interest rates, basically giving the economy a little shot in the arm. And when that happens,

I think the stock market's going to take off. I know that the Fed's preferred you know, measurement of inflation is the PCE index, and that basically waits certain items differently than the CPI and based on how prices for goods and services in the CPI translate into the PCI or I'm sorry, PCE too many and too many initials here. You'll you'll you'll see when that report comes out, and that report has been a little bit more favorable than the CPI.

So there you have it. We'll see what happens with the FED. But I think when the Fed, when the Fed comes out Wednesday afternoon and recaps their two day meeting, interest rates will stay right where they're at. One eight hundred talk WGY one eight hundred, eight two, five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go to the phone lines this morning and start with Rick and half Moon. Hello, Rick, christ see you, good

morning, Good morning. This one. I'm wondering to see what concerns you, you know, is the national deficit, is the Ukraine, is the rewards? Is the upcoming disruptive presidential election Saniels, It don't concern you, Yeah, they all concern me. Listen, we don't like to see conflict around the world, and there is conflict. You know, A couple of years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. It wasn't pretty, and that war just you know, supposedly it was going to be over within hours or days.

And here we are a couple of years later, Ukraine's hanging in top and you know what what concerns me is is just how much money we're sending to Ukraine. You know, I'm just trying to figure it all out with all that money. We have some conflicts in the Middle East, and listen, when there's political turmoil around the world's it always concerns me. Now, long term, will it have a lasting effect on the stock market. Not unless we go into a World War three. We'll have these regional wars and wars

that mean more to some than others. And the Russia Ukraine, you know, listen, Ukraine's just a small, it'sy bitsy piece of the worldwide economy. But you hate to see war anywhere. You hate to see what's going on. That concerns me. The deficit concerns me more than anything, to be honest, Rick, the deficit. This country has thirty three trillion dollars of debt. We just keep going in the hole further and further and further and it's sad when the good news is this year's deficit is less than last

year's. All that means is, you know, to put it in simplistic turns, you if you make one hundred thousand dollars a year as income, you and your spouse bringing it into the household, and you spend one hundred and fifty thousand, well you're going fifty thousand in the debt. You have to borrow money from credit cards, taken out of your home equity line of

credit. Somehow, someway, you spent more than you may. Now if next year you only spend one hundred and forty thousand, well the government paints that is good news because you didn't have fifty thousand dollars of a deficit. You only had forty thousand dollars of a deficit. To put it in simplistic

terms, it's crazy. What we need to do is somehow, some way, Washington, and I don't care who the heck is in Washington, but somebody's got to wrap their arms around this, this financial beast that is growing out of control. And remember is that as we go further debt, we have to serve sell more of our of our treasury bills and notes in order to pay for that debt, and the the line item to service the interest. You know now that you had the ten year hovering around four point three.

Listen when when the tenure was hovering, you know, less than one percent interest was one thing. Now that interest that that interest rate has gone up in quadrupled. It's it's a big part of our budget. And that just continues to grow and listen somehow, some way. And there was a good article I read yesterday. If you're a billionaire, should should should Uncle Sam be sending you a god darn Social Security check? Absolutely not. Actually,

most billions would probably like to see that stop. They don't need it. So there's things that Washington can do with our entitlement programs. And Social Security is a welfare program. It was you know, FDR put that in place to help people out. Life expectancy back then was sixty five and that's

why you know, full retirement age back then was sixty five. Well, now life expectancy is in the you know, mid eighties, so you know, we're living longer, and this Social Security program we have to rein it in a little bit. Is there anything wrong with raising the full retirement age too. You know, right now, I think it's sixty seven and a half. What's wrong with raising it the sixty eight or sixty eight and a half. Little tweaks like that, and it doesn't hurt anybody. It does

not hurt one person listening to this show. I go back to the old Simpson. You know, the Bipartisan Commission that that president and Obama put into effect, and one of the things they said was, yeah, you know, just raise it from sixty seven and a half to sixty eight. It will save this country so much money. Do you know how many people hop on the bandwagon that we were hating, hating, I'm sorry, not hating. We were hurting twenty eight year olds because they only had forty years to

plan for social security coming six months later for a full retirement. It's like, come on, it's common sense, it's logical. So there's things that this country has to look at, has to look at, unfortunately, if they want to get reelected, because you know, the media spends things in such a bad way that it's just not going to happen. So the financial beast growing as big as it is in this country concerns me more than anything,

but nobody, nobody, nobody seems to care. They just keep what They kick the can down the road, Which is why I'm all in favor of Instead of career politicians being in leadership roles in this country, let me bring in some business people. Let them serve from one or two terms. Let them do the right thing, shake this country right upside down, and then they get out. But they can't because you know, there's just no way a good business person will get elected. So there you go, record,

there you have it. Yes, see, we need nets, we need surpluses in order to bring the deaths it down. Yes, we do. The last time, when's the last time this country had a net surplus at a given year? Yeah, you tell me, I'd have to. You know, I used to say I'll google it, but now I you know, I'm going to put it into my artificial intelligence. You know, that's the new Google, did you know? Yeah, yeah, you're gonna put anyone's the last time? Was it the Clinton? Was it the Clinton

administration? You know? The late nineties early two thousand was the last time the federal budget had a surplus. The surplus occurred during the latter part of President Bill Clinton's second term in office. The federal government experienced budget surpluses from ninety eight through two thousand and one. However, it's important to note that there were some brief periods of surplus in individual months after two thousand and one,

but overall the country has been running deficits since then. That came from my chat GPT. Just like that, baby. This is why I'm all in favor of artificial intelligence. Rick, great questions. Listen, you stay healthy, be well. Thank you for calling in one eight hundred talk to w G y one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Give me a call. Any

questions you have. I would love love to talk to get. So I went over CPI and I think that's going to be the nail, the and the coughin that the FED will not cut rates and I don't think they're going to raise rates. I would bet wife's IRA on the fact that interest rates will stay the same. How's that? How confident am I to bet my

wife's IRA on that? You know? The other report that came out was the PPI, the Producer Price Index, which measures you know, costs for raw, intermediate and finish goods, and that jumped zero point six percent on the month. On a year over year, the headline index increased one point six the biggest move since September twenty twenty three. So there you have in another report that shows the economies a little hotter then we wanted to be.

Eight two five, five, nine four nine. Other phone number is the phone number. I'm going to go back to the phone lines where we have Bob in the car. Hello, Bob in the car. Yes, Hi, Steve, Thanks for kicking my ball. You know, I was listening. I was listening to as I'm driving in the car, and I and you were talking about how the economy is performing in the inflation rate coming down last year from that high I think at nine down to you know, we're

now around three. I think this is my thinking. The election of the Republicans in the House stopped these bills that the Democrats are putting through there. You know, they had probably three of them that they they put through to really put a lot of money out there in the economy. And we're still you know, they're still spending it. I mean, it's still going on. And I think that's why the economy is doing as well as it is.

But that also caused a lot of inflation. And the other thing I would agree with Janet Yellen and the others in the beginning, I think the supply chain, you know, from the pandemic, having that come back also added to the inflation, and that has subsided. So I think that's why we didn't have a recession is because all the money that the government spent.

You know, when you look at the economy, it represents three components, the individual, as you said, two thirds business and government, and quite frankly, government has been spending loads and loads of money. Bob, thank you, good comments. I got to let you go. We're coming up

to the bottom of the hour. We're breaking for the news. You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchef and Ands Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. The phone lines are open one eight hundred eight two five, five nine four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine. Call in during the news. I'll see you right after the news. The heart is a

bloom shoots pop through the stone in the ground. But there's no room those space two n in this town. Yeah, I like this singer, Zach Who is this you too? Well, folks, there you go, Thanks Zach Harris, my long term, long time producer. One eight hundred talk w g Y one eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine. Any questions, folks, any questions whatsoever, give me a call. I thank you for hanging in through the news and I would love to get you pointed

in the right direction if you have any questions at all. One eight hundred eighty two, five fifty nine forty nine. So you know, the round out the reports of why I think the Fed will leave interest rates alone. CPI little hotter than expected three point two compared to the expectations at three point one PPI, Producer price index year over year one point six a little hotter than expectant, and retail sales increased zero point six percent, a little less

than expected, so maybe the consumer's not out there. Filing for jobless claims were lower as well. So you put it all together, I think the FED is just basically staying right right right where they're at. There was something in this morning's Wall Street Journal that grabbed my attention, and I talk about if it sounds too good to be true, more than likely it is. And you have to be so careful with regards to you know, what you do with your money. I've given you the stories the scams out there,

just how crazy it is. You know. I know of one individual was you know, through a text on her phone. Long story short, you know, just give us some money, let us see what we can do for you. And you know, liquid eight one hundred thousand dollars and within a month sending her through text, sending her basically you know how much money she earned. Well you know she thought it was was was better than ever and liquidated her entire portfolio and sent it. Never even met the person,

never even had a zoom meeting with the persons. Just greed fell for that. Oh my god, look how much I made in a month. How much can I make? And it was a scam. Within hours of wiring the money in, it was gone, disappeared. My heart aches this morning

in the Wall Street Journal click here for stock tips from Bill Ackman. It just caught my eye and basically all these fake ads, whether it be Bill Ackman, Kathy Wood of Arc Investment, you know Peter Lynch of Fidelity, Ray Dalyo of Bridge Water, Steve Cohen, owner of the New York Mets. Basically, you know, they suck you into clicking getting their best you know, stock tip. Then they bring you over into a What's App chat room and then you go into a VIP room to get that hot stock.

And basically it's ways of running the share price up so that the scammers, the people behind these fictitious ads will will profit from it. And this is all you know what I'm talking about on Facebook, but it's all throughout social media, and you just you just have to be you just have to be careful. And you know, I lost a client this week and my heart aches for the client. I'll get into it later on in the in the show, but just just read one, eight, two, five, five,

nine, four nine. Let's go back to the phone lines. We have Ron in Glenn's Falls. Hello, Ron, Yeah, Steve, how are you? I'm doing wonderful, Okay, I'm just seeking your expert advice. My situation is I will be seventy four in July, and my wife is sixty eight, and we in my My retirement is in a TSP. And I know this is going to cringe. You're going to cringe when but all of my TSP is in the G fund. So I do get a pension, and we get Social Security, which is more than enough to cover

our expenses. And the I've had to take the r m D and the the amount that I get in growth, the core growth in the TSP is sufficient to cover the r m D. So basically I'm staying stagnant at my age and and I'm fearful of losing money. But would you suggest moving any

of the TSP from the G fund into like an S fund? Yeah, so you know, Ron, and you know believe me, if if you were my client, I would I would educate you and tell you why have and diversified portfolio is so so much better than having all of your money under the mattress. The G fund is really, you know, just the bond fund, and it's like putting your money under under the mattress. Bonds.

You know, I gave you know these statistics out often if you look over the last fifteen years, your average return year in year out overall with bonds, I'm looking at the bond proxy, which is the I shares, core US aggregate bond and year after year two point four eight percent. That's how much you would make year in year out. Now, if you look at the broad stock market index for the same fifteen year period, sixteen percent year

in, year out, and just around it out. Because it's one of our core positions, QQQ, which is the Nasdaq one hundred twenty one percent. This is why QQQ is in our portfolio. But let's go back to the S and P five hundred indecks. You know, sixteen percent year in, year out. Over the last ten years, there were two years where you lost money. When you look at the bonds, over the last ten years, there were three or I'm sorry two years where you lost money.

Y're to date, believe it or not, bonds are down one point six percent, but we'll see what happens at the end of the year. So over the last ten years, there were two years and stocks, two years, and bonds where you lost money. And you put it all in perspective, people feel comfortable having bonds because they don't want to lose money. But over time, you absolutely make more money with stocks than you do bonds. But if that's what your comfort level is, and you and your wife.

I heard you say you have a pension, and if you don't need to live off that portfolio, and that portfolio is just going to kind of hang out there and you're going to leave it to the kids or grand kids are your favorite charity, then you know, don't take on any more risk than you're comfortable with. That's what the bottom line ron, that's what makes sense.

How much risk are you comfortable with? I gave the statistic in the first half of the show that the average swing in the stock market peaked to trump high to low is fourteen percent a year. Now, if that happens, let's make believe that happens for the month of May. If the stock market goes down fourteen percent, how will that make you feel? If it keeps you up at night and it stresses you out, then it's probably not risk you're willing to take. For our clients, I always say, just

get over it. I guarantee you that was going to happen, and you know, before you know it, the stock market's going to be right back to where it was. And that's what happens with stock market corrections and bear markets. It doesn't feel good. Look at their balance on paper go down. But as I like to point out, they don't really lose money until they sell. Now, once they sell, then it's a realized loss and

there's nothing they can do about it. They've lost money. So at seventy four and your wife being sixty eight, a lot younger than you are, if you think you want a diversified portfolio, I would say, don't swing for the fences. I would say, you know, maybe a fifty to fifty allocation. You know, most of our retirees are in a sixty forty strategy, our growth and income strategy, sixty percent stock, forty percent bonds, alternative assets and cash. So that's what most of our retirees are in.

A lot of our retirees are in our growth strategy, which is an eighty twenty mix. But as I said, Ron, I spend a lot of time, and I've coached my team. I got twenty professionals right now that I'm surrounded by, and I coach and mentor all of them. That first and foremost, one of our most important jobs is to educate our clients so that they don't panic when there's volatility. And there's volatility, as I just pointed out in both stocks and bonds. So something for you and your

wife to talk about and what you might want to think about doing. Because, as I said, you're you believe it or not, you know you're going to be with us more than likely a good fifteen twenty years. Your wife's going to be with us a good twenty five years. That's a long

time. It may behoove yourn to give my office a call and think about rolling that money into an IRA and let professionals like my firm manage it where we take the emotion out of the decision making process, so you can sleep at night knowing that you you don't have to blame yourself for the decisions that you made. You've hired professionals that do this for a living, and we do it well. Our returns are stellar. But I'm just going to plant

that seed for you. I know it's a cheesy way for me to try to get a new client ron, but you know, rather than you do it yourself, it may behoove you to engage the services of a fiduciary like our firmt We don't have any conflicts of interest, we don't sell any investments. All we care about is what's right for our clients. So I'll plant that seed with you. Give my office a call if you think you're interested.

But just because stocks have done well in the past, if you have to look, you and your wife need to look at your tolerance for risk and how much are you willing to take on And if you're able to say to me, hey, Steve, you know what, I don't think it'll bother me. I know you know from listening to you that it comes with the territory of being well diversified and invested in all the asset classes. It

won't bother me. Then yeah, let's let's move some money from that she fond into the AS fund or as I said, engage the services of a fiduciary like ourselves. Does that help you out? Oh, you've been great. I really appreciate him. By the way, my daughter, I'm the one that called and we put it into the Intelligent account for the one.

She didn't want to come on here, so I couldn't get it. I remember that call, but we did move it and I said, don't look any anything and and and so far she hasn't complained, so we're okay. So so you got half half of the equation was taken care of. Now I have to just ponder the other half, and I will definitely be in touch with you, guys. I appreciate it so much. Ron. I'm

glad I was able to help point your daughter in the right direction. I remember that call vividly, and it was the right thing for her to do. And I can assure you she's made money. She's made more money than you've made. My mind, Hey, Ron, be well give it some thought. Thank you for calling, and thank you for being a loyal listener. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. So going back, folks, don't fall

for the There's so many scams out there. There's so many people trying to reach it through email, phone calls, text like the story I share you Know sucking you in on social media to click here for the hottest greatest you Know stock tip from some of the from the world's best investors. Don't fall for it. If it's too good to be true, folks, more than likely it is. It's it's absolutely too good to be true. So don't

don't fall for it. Be careful. That's you know, one of the one of the things that makes me happy is doing the show week in week out because hopefully I'm able to point out the good, the bad, and the ugly and have you rethink, you know, some of the things that you may be doing. And when it comes to your portfolio. You know, you know, I don't like annodies. I despise them, and I really look down on the insurance agents that sell them to make the six percent

commission. If you put one hundred thousand dollars in an annuity, they're making six thousand dollars of commission, and they're going to tell you that it's a no load investment. You're not paying for that, Well, you are paying for it. You know. The internal fees of annuities are so much higher than all other type investments, and you're locked in. And really the only people who make money selling them are the agents selling them. And they are

agents. They're insurance agents. They have to have an insurance license to sell them, and also the insurance company because they come from an insurance company. So, you know, just little things like that, little things like don't fall for click on this to get you know, Bill Ackman's or Kathy Wood or you know, Peter Lynch's hottest. You know tip don't don't fall for folks, it's too good to be true. So you know, crypto has been having quite quite the ride. And listen past week crypto crypto, you

know, went over seventy three thousand. As I sit here today, these crypto's twenty four to seven. You can get action in crypto all weekend long. It's down fifteen hundred dollars today. Down there just under sixty eight thousand dollars for for bitcoin, not crypto, but for bitcoin. There's several versions of crypto, but bitcoin top seventy three thousand. Bitcoin right now is at

sixty eight thousand, So you know, it had a good run. We know, just a couple of months ago, bitcoin was down in the sixteen thousand range. It's come up a whole lot one eight, two, five, five, nine, four nine. Let's go back to the fore lines. We have Steve in Auburny. Hello Steve, Hello Steve, how were you? Oh? Not that really quick question. Your name is Bouchet.

It spelled the same way as the It's the same way that the iron Butterfly drummer has spelt his last name, and he was right, ron Uh Bouchet. Yeah, I'm gonna put it into my little ai. I love this butterfly, Iron Butterfly in a Gotta Do da Vita. That's the song, right, in a Gotta Doda Vita. And his name was actually yeah, in a Gotta da Vita. And his name was actually Ron Bushy b U s h Y. My name is Bouchet, which, believe it or not, I grew up as Bushy. And as it turns out that you knows,

so many names get americanized. The actual real pronunciation of our name is bouche. B is in boy o u c h e y. In France it was e er, which signifies a butcher. And I've been to Paris a couple of times and I'm always interested. I'll I'll like, if I'm checking into a hotel, a restaurant, whatever, I write, write down my name and everybody, everybody pronounces it Bouchet. So the the iron Butterfly drummer in Agatta Davida, Ron Bushy is b U s h y. But

maybe he pronounces it bouchet. But I don't think so, not with that, not not with that spelling. Wow, listen, this guy's this guy's out of the sixties, in the seventies. You're dating yourself, Steve, I'm seventy years old. Yeah, well, thank god, I may have I may have business for you in the future. I'll keep you in mind. Right now, I'm flat broken. Now I want to I want to

warn a lot of people out there. I I've I cruised Facebook a lot, and I we see these beautiful Asian women and they would start to flirt with me. And they're all half of them are from New York City or somewhere around New York City. You handsome devils and and and they're gorgeous, okay, And they're sitting there, they're eating and if you take a look out the windows, they're they're in New York and the palm trees in New

York are just fabulous. And then eventually they start pitching me for bitcoin. Is that why you're broke? Or were you smarter than that? They're fall for for for that, for that, that that ancient old tactic of beautiful women enticing you know, vulnerable men. Yeah, there was one in the Caribbean that uh was pitching me for real estate and bitcoin and all this. I just I never sent them any money. You know, have you gotten

pitched from that beautiful lady in Nigeria? You know she she's got a check for you. She just wants you to cash and put it in your account. She can't cash it in Nigeria, and you know she'll share the proceeds with you. Have you done that one yet? Close? I had all these Nigerians and I would I had to weed through them a little bit by a little bit, until finally one clicked off. And by accident, that one beautiful lady uh morphed into a guy oh Man, and I couldn't block

them. And once I blocked him, I blocked all the other Nigerians and they were all gone. Now I'm getting about every hour to every half hour these calls that call ring three times and hang up, and I got a blocking on my phone. Listen, you got way happy with me, You got way too much time on your on your hands. Listen, you stay healthy, stay away from listen. If it's too good to be true,

Steve, it is. I mean, I'm sure you're a handsome devil, but you know, these beautiful women they're after more than just your good looks. Steve, You'll be wealth, stay healthy. He's got way too much time on his hands. I wonder if that's why he's broke, because he's fallen for some of these scams. The scams out there are are bad, bad, just bad, bad, bad bad bad, and they're clever.

They get more clever by the minute. So anyway, going back to crypto crypto, you know, oh god, pete at seventy three thousand this week and ended up right now we're at six under, just under sixty eight thousand, let's call it sixty eight thousand. Why split hairs here? And I had a client, a client has been with me for a long time, and it broke my heart. And I've had more heart to heart talks with this client more like you hear me say, before I let a client shoot

themselves in a foot, I'm going to be shaking that client. Well, I've shaken this client more times than I'd like to admit, but thank god, he always listens to me. And a couple of months ago, he was all set to take his money and put it into an annuity and I shook him right upside down and I said, stop, please stop, just you're being sold, you know, just something that's not as good as what

you have now. And I saved them and he thanked me then, and he's thanked me probably ten times over the eleven twelve years he's been with me. And he's made some moves I don't want to use the word stupid, because I hate the word stupid, but some silly moves where I just couldn't persuade him. He would get out of the market at the worst time, he would miss out on the rebounds during this correction or that correction. And long story short, I get that phone call that just it's like putting a

dagger in my heart when you can't save somebody from their own doings. And he said, Steve, and I'm so upset with the retail branch of Charles Schwab because he went down and he said, I want to know remove my accounts and this is why. And they never had the decency to call me. And I'm going to have that conversation with them this coming week. But basically, he unloaded the account and bought most of it with bitcoin when bitcoin

was seventy three thousand. Well you get the hint, right, Bitcoin now is a sixty eight thousand, So he's already lost, you know, a bunch of money. And he told me, he said, Steve, I just have to gamble. You know, if I listened to you from the beginning, i'd have a whole lot more money than I have now. I just need to gamble. And my heart just broke for this client. And I told them how much I care for him, but I couldn't save himself from his own demons. Folks, the moral of the story is, don't

get greedy. Hey, you're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchef and Androgroup, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life. Go to our website bouchet That's biz and boy ouch e y dot com. There's some great stuff there. Our state of

the Economy. Harmony wrote a nice blog Come back tomorrow. You're listening to Let's Talk Money, brought to you by Bouchef and Andre Group, where we help our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth for life.