Transcript

Fat Tuesday ! · Aired Out

0:32
Speaker 1: To make a.
0:43
Speaker 2: Fact of.
1:24
Speaker 1: All right, it's it's my Fat Tuesday music. This morning
1:31
Speaker 1: we got celebrations, including weeks of parades and mask balls
1:39
Speaker 1: and Kingcake filt gatherings. Never been to New Orleans. I
1:47
Speaker 1: would love to. I would love to just walk the streets,
1:55
Speaker 1: maybe grab some beads, enjoy some some jazz. It would
2:00
Speaker 1: be fun. I don't know, but this is Fat Tuesday
2:06
Speaker 1: and a very good morning, and welcome. We're gonna be
2:08
Speaker 1: talking about a lot of things today. First of all,
2:14
Speaker 1: be careful on the roads this morning. I'll show you
2:17
Speaker 1: a couple of live shots of what we have. For
2:23
Speaker 1: the most part, it looks like it's pretty smooth going,
2:28
Speaker 1: but we are getting some reports, especially right here in Brookfield,
2:32
Speaker 1: the high spot of some slick areas, and with the
2:37
Speaker 1: temperatures being what they are, which is generally kind of
2:40
Speaker 1: like in the twenties for most of us, right now,
2:45
Speaker 1: you could get a little squirrely. Just slow down, be careful,
2:49
Speaker 1: all right. This is again another shot of Brookfield, but
2:51
Speaker 1: the snow is falling. Just be careful, use some common sense.
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Speaker 1: And I know that I've been saying that a lot lately,
3:01
Speaker 1: and you definitely don't need the reminder, but I'm always
3:06
Speaker 1: gonna say please slow down, drive carefully. Today is National
3:11
Speaker 1: Random Acts of Kindness Day. Today, I'm wondering, what are
3:16
Speaker 1: you gonna do? Are you gonna do anything? Are you
3:20
Speaker 1: gonna buy somebody a cup of coffee? Maybe pay it forward?
3:25
Speaker 1: In the drive through line this morning, nineteen days away
3:30
Speaker 1: from daylight savings time. Yeah, I'm gonna be counting it down.
3:33
Speaker 1: You bet you've got the aired out podcast from Flying
3:36
Speaker 1: the Wall Productions, North Main Street, Berry, Vermont, AIREDOUTVT dot com.
3:42
Speaker 1: If you haven't been on the page she yet, very
3:45
Speaker 1: good morning to you. Yeah, it is Tuesday, looking forward
3:48
Speaker 1: to Rickyarsh tomorrow morning, Sweethearts and Heroes Day Today. If
3:53
Speaker 1: you've never caught Rick on the air, it is an
3:58
Speaker 1: absolute must not miss it. Do not miss it. Yes, Glenn,
4:05
Speaker 1: I am going to be bringing you a shamrock shake.
4:09
Speaker 1: And you know you hear that that Marti Gras music,
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Speaker 1: and that's there's hope that there could be some green
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Speaker 1: grass coming and some green shamrock shakes soon enough. I
4:22
Speaker 1: asked McDonald's in South Berry to give me a pretty
4:28
Speaker 1: good heads up when they think they were going to
4:32
Speaker 1: be launching the first Shamrock Shake and I'm hoping to
4:37
Speaker 1: get my hands on, if not the first, the second.
4:41
Speaker 1: We have a six year old girl in Pittsburgh by
4:45
Speaker 1: the name of Pim who is our daily doesn't feel
4:49
Speaker 1: good this morning, and I'm gonna I'm gonna share the
4:51
Speaker 1: link from Facebook upon Actually I'll put it in the
4:57
Speaker 1: comments right now. This little girl has made national headlines
5:05
Speaker 1: over the last I believe the last couple of weeks.
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Speaker 1: She is really doing something. She has sold over one
5:14
Speaker 1: hundred thousand boxes of Girl Scout cookies, the most ever
5:19
Speaker 1: sold in a single season. We've got the video. I
5:25
Speaker 1: just dropped it here. Pim has special needs, and some
5:30
Speaker 1: reports say that she has previously been turned away from
5:34
Speaker 1: a Girl Scout troupe whose leader said that her disabilities
5:39
Speaker 1: would hold the troop back. This little kid is so
5:44
Speaker 1: lovely and so inspiring. I encourage you highly to check
5:49
Speaker 1: out the video this morning if you need a little
5:54
Speaker 1: daily dose of feel good. I really do. It is wonderful.
5:59
Speaker 1: I love stuff like this. We have clouds in the
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Speaker 1: forecast today, some snow showers mainly this morning. About thirty
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Speaker 1: eight degrees later on today is what we're going to
6:08
Speaker 1: warm up to. I love it. It's nine oh seven.
6:11
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in this morning. If
6:13
Speaker 1: you're if you're just doing so appreciate it. Cloudy skies
6:19
Speaker 1: tonight down about twenty eight Tomorrow cloudy in thirty four.
6:23
Speaker 1: I said it yesterday. I'll say it. I think I
6:25
Speaker 1: said it yesterday. I did. I think I said it
6:28
Speaker 1: Friday too. That this is a boring forecast. I know,
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Speaker 1: Thursday partly cloudy, thirty six. Hey, at least we're into
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Speaker 1: the thirties here, that's not bad. Friday through Sunday we
6:41
Speaker 1: have some light snow showers here and there about. You know,
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Speaker 1: they're saying half an inch here, an inch there over
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Speaker 1: the course of Friday through Sunday through the weekend. We're
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Speaker 1: looking at probably most likely a few inches total. All right,
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Speaker 1: So maybe some slick travel. All you need is just
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Speaker 1: a little bit of snow to make it slick, all right,
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Speaker 1: So be careful this weekend traveling. Birthdays today Rebecca Ranga,
7:10
Speaker 1: Ann Cardinal. We have Anne Hawksby, Julie An Bellevue, Jalen Ray,
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Speaker 1: Sandy Rivers, Dean Utton, John Morrison, Karen Gilman, Sue Gilmet
7:29
Speaker 1: and looks like Ed Sheeran is thirty five years old today,
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Speaker 1: So happy birthday to all of those rock stars, if
7:41
Speaker 1: they're even tuned in and listening this morning, which they're
7:44
Speaker 1: probably not. And I'm doubting that Paris Hilton is tuned
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Speaker 1: in this morning too. She's forty five today, got a
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Speaker 1: net worth of four hundred million dollars. Jason Ritter forty six,
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Speaker 1: Lucy Davis fifth three. That's at a candy from Wonder Woman.
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Speaker 1: Billy Joe Armstrong fifty four, that's the Green Day singer,
8:09
Speaker 1: and I thought they were. I thought the uh, the
8:12
Speaker 1: super Bowl kickoff party that they did was fantastic outside
8:16
Speaker 1: of the you know, his fake British accent, but I
8:21
Speaker 1: thought it was great, high energy. I thought it was fantastic.
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Speaker 1: Denise Richard's fifty five. Michael Jordan's sixty three years old today,
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Speaker 1: has a net worth I would be sitting down of
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Speaker 1: three point six billion dollars billion, and I'm not even
8:43
Speaker 1: gonna say billion with a bee. I won't do it.
8:46
Speaker 1: Larry the Cable Guy is sixty three today, Lou Diamond
8:50
Speaker 1: Phillips sixty four, Rene Russo seventy two. We are sending
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Speaker 1: you to an incredible night of music with Heartless, the
9:00
Speaker 1: tribute to the music of Ann Wilson with our local
9:05
Speaker 1: tribute band Heartless, Who's got roots right here in Central Vermont.
9:09
Speaker 1: Friday night, they're going to be at the Chandlers Center
9:11
Speaker 1: for the Arts. We want to get you there. We
9:13
Speaker 1: want to get you some tickets. Of course, you can
9:16
Speaker 1: get right on the Channeler's website and buy some tickets
9:19
Speaker 1: and they're not pricey either, priced very well. I'm told
9:24
Speaker 1: by the Chandler that things are filling up rather quickly
9:26
Speaker 1: over there for this show Friday night. But if you
9:29
Speaker 1: would like to win a pair of tickets, all you
9:31
Speaker 1: have to do is like the post that's on the
9:35
Speaker 1: aired out page, drop a comment, throw some love at
9:38
Speaker 1: the band, and share the post as well. And then
9:41
Speaker 1: on Thursday morning, I'm going to choose one winner for
9:44
Speaker 1: a pair of tickets. Good luck Friday night. It's going
9:47
Speaker 1: to be fantastic Facebook Question of the day, where do
9:54
Speaker 1: you think the worst pothole is? And I know I
10:00
Speaker 1: put out that that big warning which scared a few
10:03
Speaker 1: people about turning left at the cornerstone onto Washington Street.
10:15
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to, you know, frighten you too much,
10:19
Speaker 1: but it is pretty scary if you've if you've done
10:22
Speaker 1: that left turn, it's it's pretty amazing. You're You're like,
10:27
Speaker 1: what are you kidding me? And I know that there's
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Speaker 1: so many other spots fourteen coming out of the city
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Speaker 1: heading east. I know, yes, Donna, it is everywhere, there's
10:42
Speaker 1: no question. But is there one or two or five
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Speaker 1: particular potholes that have made you say to yourself, are
10:56
Speaker 1: you kidding me? This is beyond pothole. This is literally crater.
11:04
Speaker 1: This is you're gonna bottom out the rocker panel type
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Speaker 1: of a pothole. This is a guaranteed rim breaker if
11:16
Speaker 1: you get caught in that one. There's a few, there's
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Speaker 1: a few. I'm not sure why these big boys rear
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Speaker 1: their ugly heads every winter and spring. By the edge
11:38
Speaker 1: of Fisher Road where you turn to go into the
11:44
Speaker 1: Berlin Mall. It's worse. If you're coming out of the
11:53
Speaker 1: Berlin Mall turning right onto Fisher Road. There's some monster
12:00
Speaker 1: that have been in there that I'm not sure. Do
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Speaker 1: we need to like dig down twenty feet and fill
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Speaker 1: these things in because they come back right there every year.
12:12
Speaker 1: I know, high traffic, high volume area, I get it,
12:17
Speaker 1: but man, those are in my opinion some of the worst.
12:23
Speaker 1: I think there's two big suckers right there. The other
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Speaker 1: ones are leaving the Berlin Mall going the other way
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Speaker 1: toward the new Starbucks and the new Chipotle heading out
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Speaker 1: that way Fox Run. They're huge. I mean I just
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Speaker 1: went through there yesterday and literally it's like cars were
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Speaker 1: stopping and having to wait their turn for the other
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Speaker 1: directional traffic to move before they could proceed by driving around.
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Speaker 1: They're that big? Am I complaining? I don't know, is
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Speaker 1: this is this typical? Is this something that none of
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Speaker 1: us should be surprised about living up here in the
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Speaker 1: North Country. Are we not yet used to potholes? Of course,
13:22
Speaker 1: of course we are. It's a way of living it.
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Speaker 1: It comes with the territory, comes with the latitude and longitude.
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Speaker 1: Or does it? What? What constitutes a pothole that is
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Speaker 1: so bad that it's you know that it's not even
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Speaker 1: a pothole anymore. It's like a serious it's more than
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Speaker 1: a bump. It's if you get stuck in it, it's
14:01
Speaker 1: if you hit it, you're gonna do some damage. Constructive
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Speaker 1: criticism is that what it is? I don't know. I'm
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Speaker 1: trying to be a little careful with what I'm saying,
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Speaker 1: because I know that the road crews are busting their
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Speaker 1: asses and they're frankly, they're tired of hearing about the
14:22
Speaker 1: complaints about the potholes. And they're good people, they're great people,
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Speaker 1: and they work so hard. I get it, Josh says.
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Speaker 1: The repairs aren't working as it's too far gone. The
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Speaker 1: patching sits proud of the surface, plows snagg it and
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Speaker 1: it takes out more and the hole gets deeper. Same
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Speaker 1: thing in the city. Yeah, I don't know, man, I'm
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Speaker 1: telling you right now, if you if you are, if
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Speaker 1: it's dark out and you're leave in the Berlin Mall,
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Speaker 1: either way, you better really be careful. Throw some snow
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Speaker 1: in there and maybe some rain. This spring, United States
15:18
Speaker 1: women's national hockey team headed to the gold medal game
15:25
Speaker 1: after a decisive semi final win over Sweden. I'm not
15:28
Speaker 1: sure how much of the Olympics you're paying attention to,
15:31
Speaker 1: but if not, I'll give you just I'll try to
15:35
Speaker 1: scratch the surface on it just a little bit. With
15:37
Speaker 1: this win, gold is now within reach for team USA,
15:44
Speaker 1: which is a big deal. I'm not sure if I'll
15:47
Speaker 1: be watching the game, but I'm trying to pay attention
15:50
Speaker 1: to what's happening with the Olympics A little bit. After
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Speaker 1: Day ten. Norway maintain their the twenty eight medals, twelve
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Speaker 1: of them are gold. Italy is next with twenty three medals,
16:07
Speaker 1: and Team USA is third with nineteen medals, six of
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Speaker 1: them gold. How about that Bob sledding? Saw that incredible?
16:19
Speaker 1: Did the Bob sled one time? I did up at
16:23
Speaker 1: Lake Placid. It was a long time ago. I'm serious,
16:27
Speaker 1: it was unbelievable. The twenty twenty six NFL Franchise Transition
16:35
Speaker 1: tag window officially opens today, February seventeenth. Teams can now
16:43
Speaker 1: designate one player with either a franchise tag or a
16:47
Speaker 1: transition tag through March third. If you're a football nut,
16:52
Speaker 1: you're probably aware of this college hoop. If you're a fan,
16:56
Speaker 1: you were probably watching number six Iowa last night pulling
17:00
Speaker 1: off a huge late comeback win at home topping number
17:05
Speaker 1: two Houston seventy to sixty seven. It was an amazing game.
17:11
Speaker 1: Even though I didn't see it, I read about it.
17:14
Speaker 1: I heard about it this morning. Hey, the World newspaper
17:19
Speaker 1: comes out on Wednesday tomorrow. Make sure you grab a
17:24
Speaker 1: fresh copy. There's a lot of stuff that's happening in
17:28
Speaker 1: our community. Wellness Wednesday is going to be tomorrow, which
17:34
Speaker 1: is going to be the final one this month, So
17:38
Speaker 1: make sure you get to that at twenty three Summer
17:41
Speaker 1: Street right here in Barry. We'll give you more information
17:45
Speaker 1: on that as we get closer, but it's absolutely free.
17:49
Speaker 1: Being that it is a Tuesday night, we have the
17:51
Speaker 1: Tuesday Night Meal at the American Legion. Dine in or
17:54
Speaker 1: take out, either way, it's twelve bucks. It's a great
17:57
Speaker 1: meal too. Five point thirty is when they start serving
18:00
Speaker 1: it up. Please call ahead though they ask you to
18:03
Speaker 1: do that four seven nine nine zero five eight, and
18:06
Speaker 1: make sure to keep an eye on the very post
18:10
Speaker 1: ten American Legion Facebook page for what's on the menu.
18:15
Speaker 1: What else we have going on Tomorrow? Wing Wednesday at
18:18
Speaker 1: the VFW Post seven ninety, Wing and Ding with Donna Thunder.
18:22
Speaker 1: She'll be rocking out and bringing the love and the
18:25
Speaker 1: great music and the good times over to the VFW again.
18:29
Speaker 1: Five o'clock is when that is served up Tomorrow, Wing
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Speaker 1: Wednesday at the VFW Post seven ninety. What else do
18:37
Speaker 1: we have going on? We talked about Heartless on Friday Night.
18:40
Speaker 1: Giving you tickets on Thursday. Meat Bingo is Saturday at
18:46
Speaker 1: the American Legion six thirty. That's so much, so much fun.
18:50
Speaker 1: If you've never been highly recommend it, It's a good time.
18:53
Speaker 1: It really is. You're gonna leave with meat. Let's see
18:59
Speaker 1: what else we have national headlines, some sad news. Three people,
19:03
Speaker 1: including the suspected gunmen killed yesterday with that shooting Monday
19:11
Speaker 1: afternoon at the Dennis Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
19:19
Speaker 1: I was in my truck when the when the news
19:21
Speaker 1: was breaking, and just horrible to hear this. The shooting
19:30
Speaker 1: happened at a high school co op hockey game and
19:36
Speaker 1: appears to have been domestic in nature, with the gunman
19:40
Speaker 1: targeting family members before fatally shooting himself and the injured
19:47
Speaker 1: victims were taken to Rhode Island Hospital. Student athletes not
19:52
Speaker 1: physically harmed, but the FBI is assisting with the investigation.
19:58
Speaker 1: Just a horrible, horrible store, really is. And that woman
20:04
Speaker 1: who is in the news saying I know who the
20:07
Speaker 1: shooter is. It's my father. Unbelievable. We have a partial
20:17
Speaker 1: government shut down continuing as Congress failed to pass a
20:22
Speaker 1: funding bill for the US Department Homeland Security lawmakers remain
20:25
Speaker 1: divided under the proposed immigration enforcement oversight measures. Are you
20:32
Speaker 1: surprised no agreement in sight? Essential DHS workers are still
20:38
Speaker 1: on the job, but the funding lapse is causing paid
20:42
Speaker 1: disruptions and operational concerns. Can you imagine working for the DHS.
20:53
Speaker 1: World News, we have a second round of US Iran
21:00
Speaker 1: nuclear talks beginning today in Geneva. We'll see how that
21:04
Speaker 1: goes after our I Ran launches a second round of
21:12
Speaker 1: navy drills. Meanwhile, we got the US deploying some more
21:18
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers to the region. Crazy. Yesterday I was talking
21:28
Speaker 1: a little bit about a recent Facebook question that I
21:33
Speaker 1: asked and took a little bit of a dive on
21:40
Speaker 1: it and wanted to bring this up this morning, as
21:46
Speaker 1: I said that I would, and I'm going to bring
21:52
Speaker 1: on a friend of ours who is a financial strategist, Steve,
22:01
Speaker 1: and get his take on this. I posted up that
22:11
Speaker 1: that the economy seems to be improving, and I get
22:21
Speaker 1: a little I get quite a bit of fire here
22:25
Speaker 1: that aired out. No matter what I say or post,
22:29
Speaker 1: it's gonna rub somebody the wrong way. And I said,
22:36
Speaker 1: the economy looks like it's basically doing well. And the
22:42
Speaker 1: fire that I took was JD. Do you you know,
22:46
Speaker 1: do you believe everything you hear? Do you believe everything
22:50
Speaker 1: you see, everything you read? What makes you say that
22:57
Speaker 1: you know? Is your head in the sand? Fair enough?
23:06
Speaker 1: Fair enough? And you know, I gotta say, I'm no
23:14
Speaker 1: financial guy, and I have to go by what I hear,
23:23
Speaker 1: and I try to toggle back and forth between the
23:28
Speaker 1: left and the right when it comes to news media.
23:32
Speaker 1: I try to hear what the other side is saying,
23:40
Speaker 1: and I try to try to be objective with my thinking,
23:48
Speaker 1: knowing that what I'm hearing from the media is not
23:52
Speaker 1: always the truth, and that there's a lot of underlying
23:57
Speaker 1: political intention behind some of the messages about our economy.
24:07
Speaker 1: There's a lot to be said about this. The president
24:10
Speaker 1: of Cottonwealth Management Associates, Steve Cotton, with us in the
24:16
Speaker 1: line Steve, good morning.
24:18
Speaker 3: Good morning, JD.
24:19
Speaker 1: It has been first of all, welcome back to aired out.
24:22
Speaker 1: I love having you on here. Man. It has been
24:26
Speaker 1: a wild year of navigating some pretty stormy geopolitical developments
24:35
Speaker 1: that have kept business and consumer minded people on edge.
24:42
Speaker 1: Would you would you agree with with that? To begin with?
24:47
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, I think I think, you know, you take
24:50
Speaker 3: the Ukraine War, you take the action in Venezuela, you
24:54
Speaker 3: take the immigration actions, and the all combination of things
25:00
Speaker 3: has made people a little bit uneasy. However, the interesting
25:06
Speaker 3: thing it's within a backdrop of about fourteen major favorable
25:11
Speaker 3: factors that I think are putting us on a trajectory
25:15
Speaker 3: to a much more positive economy.
25:17
Speaker 1: And what is that? I mean, these you know what
25:22
Speaker 1: I hear And I was just saying, you know, it's
25:25
Speaker 1: what I hear, it's what I see. I don't know
25:28
Speaker 1: this to be factual. It's just what I'm hearing in
25:31
Speaker 1: the media that the stock market keeps hitting some new highs.
25:35
Speaker 1: Inflation is going down, gas prices are down, there's low unemployment.
25:41
Speaker 1: And I asked on Facebook the other day, so if
25:46
Speaker 1: this is the case, then why are so many Americans hurting?
25:50
Speaker 3: Well? I think there are spotty places where sticky inflation
25:54
Speaker 3: is a problem. Housing. You know, mortgage interest rates are
25:58
Speaker 3: not coming down as fast as everybody would like them to.
26:02
Speaker 3: The real problem with housing is a shortage of supply.
26:05
Speaker 3: We've under invested in how in this country for the
26:10
Speaker 3: last twenty thirty years. But there are about fourteen major
26:15
Speaker 3: factors that are priming the pump for a major sustainable
26:21
Speaker 3: economic expansion. And this is what people. People are not
26:26
Speaker 3: feeling it yet, but they will starting with this year.
26:32
Speaker 1: Wow. And how much of this would you say, Steve,
26:39
Speaker 1: can be pointed at President Trump?
26:44
Speaker 3: Well, a great deal. Let me just give you a
26:46
Speaker 3: quick rundown. The Congress last year passed reauthorized the twenty
26:51
Speaker 3: seventeen Trump tax cuts, kept in place lower taxes, expanded
26:56
Speaker 3: it with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
27:00
Speaker 3: They gave people on Social Security income a six thousand
27:04
Speaker 3: dollars tax credit to offset their taxes below a certain
27:08
Speaker 3: income level. They've been cutting regulations. They are allowing business
27:17
Speaker 3: expensing of capital investments all in one year now instead
27:21
Speaker 3: of having to spread it out over thirty years. That's
27:24
Speaker 3: a huge boost of business spending. We just passed a
27:27
Speaker 3: one trillion dollar defense budget for the first time in history.
27:32
Speaker 3: I've seen that. I used to be in the defense industry.
27:34
Speaker 3: Those kind of ripple effects last for decades. We've got
27:39
Speaker 3: lower trade barriers non barf tariff barriers to our markets,
27:45
Speaker 3: to our products being sold overseas. Inflations down from nine
27:50
Speaker 3: percent to three and a half and trending lower. We
27:54
Speaker 3: got all kinds of things that are priming the pump
27:58
Speaker 3: for a long term, sustainable economic expansion that will be
28:04
Speaker 3: bigger than what we saw with Ronald Reagan that went
28:07
Speaker 3: all the way into the Clinton years.
28:08
Speaker 1: Wow, we're going to talk about saving and you know,
28:15
Speaker 1: creating a nest egg and some a future for yourself
28:20
Speaker 1: that is sustainable. Here in just a second. But you know,
28:23
Speaker 1: I heard the term in the news the other day,
28:28
Speaker 1: soft landing, and it kept coming up, and I'm like,
28:32
Speaker 1: what is that? So, I mean, basically, I've since learned
28:37
Speaker 1: that it's it's kind of a term that economists use
28:40
Speaker 1: for for the FEDS two percent annual target. Right.
28:46
Speaker 3: Yes, a hard landing is a business slowdown leading into
28:51
Speaker 3: a temporary recession. A soft landing is where you you
28:57
Speaker 3: start to see a lower inflation rate, but business spending
29:02
Speaker 3: is still fairly high. Consumer confidence is cautious but higher.
29:08
Speaker 3: And that's kind of a soft landing where you don't
29:10
Speaker 3: have a hard crash, you don't have a recession, and
29:15
Speaker 3: the trends are all generally in the right direction. I
29:18
Speaker 3: think we're headed for that. It's been a difficult path
29:23
Speaker 3: to get us down from nine percent inflation. But the
29:26
Speaker 3: Trump administration has done that. The thing they led with
29:30
Speaker 3: was low oil prices that has ripple effect all throughout
29:34
Speaker 3: the economy in terms of bringing down inflation. We haven't
29:38
Speaker 3: seen it as rapidly in the housing market for the
29:40
Speaker 3: reasons I stated, we have constricted and limited supply of
29:44
Speaker 3: housing stock in this country. We've under invested in it
29:49
Speaker 3: for thirty years, and we're not going to wind through that.
29:53
Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of building going on, but
29:55
Speaker 3: there's a lot more that needs to be happening.
30:00
Speaker 1: Let's say, it's interesting. It's interesting. So I want to
30:04
Speaker 1: ask you, Steve, about so many of us that just
30:12
Speaker 1: haven't put aside some savings. So many of us don't
30:20
Speaker 1: have a for a one k. And I know that
30:25
Speaker 1: they're doing well right now, at least from what I hear,
30:31
Speaker 1: But what say you to folks who don't have a
30:36
Speaker 1: for a one k or any kind of savings. Because
30:43
Speaker 1: there's this new study out that's saying that the average
30:48
Speaker 1: American worker has under a thousand bucks saved for their retirement,
30:56
Speaker 1: which is alarming.
31:00
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's referencing more, you know, cash reserve,
31:05
Speaker 3: emergency cash reserve, money in the bank, for rainy days
31:09
Speaker 3: or for emergencies. I think that is more true. Very
31:14
Speaker 3: few people I know have over one thousand dollars saved
31:17
Speaker 3: up is their cash reserve, which is where I start
31:20
Speaker 3: as a professional financial advisor counseling with people. More people
31:24
Speaker 3: have four to oh one ks and four or three
31:26
Speaker 3: p's than you realize, and yet those are not you know,
31:30
Speaker 3: you're not sitting on six hundred thousand dollars. You know,
31:35
Speaker 3: the average four to oh one K is probably in
31:37
Speaker 3: the two to three hundred thousand range if that. But
31:42
Speaker 3: about the time when people were starting to feel a
31:45
Speaker 3: little bit better and feel like maybe they could start
31:48
Speaker 3: putting some money away, they got hit with car insurance increases,
31:53
Speaker 3: health insurance increases, property insurance increases, medication and cost increases,
32:01
Speaker 3: and that just sucks out whatever savings you might have
32:05
Speaker 3: been able to accrue. And it's it's an ongoing battle
32:10
Speaker 3: for most people.
32:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just getting a comment here. CNBC stated on
32:17
Speaker 1: the news last night that the Trump administration is going
32:20
Speaker 1: to pass a two thousand dollars tariff dividend check.
32:27
Speaker 3: Were you aware of this, Yes, It's been talked about
32:30
Speaker 3: for a couple of months. I believe it may require
32:34
Speaker 3: congressional action to do that, because that's a that's basically
32:38
Speaker 3: a tax benefit, and you know, tax policy has to
32:42
Speaker 3: come through the House Raised Ways and Means Committee and
32:45
Speaker 3: then be voted on by the Senate Finance Committee before
32:48
Speaker 3: it can be done anywhere. But I think that's what
32:53
Speaker 3: the President wants to do, is to demonstrate that that
32:56
Speaker 3: Americans are going to get some benefit from the tariff
32:59
Speaker 3: rev news that we're collecting. But there are still some things.
33:04
Speaker 3: There are areas where tariffs I think will be inflationary.
33:07
Speaker 3: For example, Trump put a fifty percent tariff on copper.
33:12
Speaker 3: We only import about half the copper we need. I mean,
33:16
Speaker 3: we only generate half the copper we need domestically. We
33:19
Speaker 3: have to import the rest of it. So things like
33:21
Speaker 3: that going into home construction, wiring, stuff like that, that's
33:25
Speaker 3: going to that can't help but be inflationary. But there
33:28
Speaker 3: are other things where the tariffs are going to push
33:32
Speaker 3: down foreign tariffs on US, foreign non tariff barriers to
33:36
Speaker 3: our market entry on US, and that's going to be
33:39
Speaker 3: a good thing. We just haven't seen it all yet,
33:42
Speaker 3: but people are going to start to feel it in
33:44
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six. Matter of fact, I saw statistics yesterday
33:49
Speaker 3: that the people are starting to receive larger tax refunds
33:53
Speaker 3: in twenty six than they did last year, and that
33:56
Speaker 3: the average refund this year is going to be around
33:59
Speaker 3: twenty two hundred nine dollars, which is a ten point
34:02
Speaker 3: nine increase ten point nine percent increase from twenty twenty five.
34:08
Speaker 3: There have already been seven point four million dollar tax
34:11
Speaker 3: refunds issued so far, and that number is going to
34:14
Speaker 3: go up.
34:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're getting quite a few comments here this morning.
34:20
Speaker 1: What do you think about the and you kind of
34:22
Speaker 1: alluded to this a little bit more than six hundred
34:26
Speaker 1: billion dollars in tariff revenue.
34:30
Speaker 3: Yes, and it's trending toward eight hundred billion if and
34:34
Speaker 3: Trump thinks we'll hit a trillion dollars of new tariff revenue.
34:37
Speaker 3: And basically what's happened is that the exporter has absorbed
34:42
Speaker 3: part of it and the importer has absorbed part of it,
34:46
Speaker 3: and they have been reluctant to pass it on to
34:48
Speaker 3: the end customer. And that was not predicted, but that's
34:52
Speaker 3: what's happened, and that's one reason the tariffs haven't been
34:55
Speaker 3: terribly inflationary so far. Now, whether that will hold up.
35:00
Speaker 3: It depends. It depends on how easily you can shift
35:03
Speaker 3: to buying a different product than the one the higher
35:06
Speaker 3: cost is on. You know, I give people this example.
35:10
Speaker 3: If I go to the liquor store and I want
35:12
Speaker 3: to buy my favorite Scottish Scotch and it's ninety eight
35:18
Speaker 3: dollars a barre a bottle, maybe I'll buy a Kentucky
35:22
Speaker 3: bourbon instead at much lower prices. So customers can still
35:26
Speaker 3: shift in a lot of cases and avoid a tariff product.
35:31
Speaker 3: And they're doing that.
35:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, also have a comment here basically kind of echoing
35:39
Speaker 1: self discipline, that there's a difference between wants and needs,
35:45
Speaker 1: and that we need to start living more consciously about
35:51
Speaker 1: what it is that we're spending our money on. What
35:54
Speaker 1: it is that we're investing things on, short term, feel
35:58
Speaker 1: good things, long term, put it away, rainy day fund,
36:04
Speaker 1: call it what you want. It just seems Steve like
36:10
Speaker 1: since COVID, more of us, and I know this is
36:15
Speaker 1: kind of a blanket statement here, but that more of
36:18
Speaker 1: us are are living our lives in a way of
36:23
Speaker 1: essentially screw it. I've always wanted that camper, that boat,
36:31
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to travel the world, going on this vacation,
36:35
Speaker 1: go here, go there, and damn it, I'm gonna do it.
36:43
Speaker 1: Forget about retirement. I'm just gonna I'm gonna dip into
36:47
Speaker 1: whatever I have and even life insurance, and just cash
36:52
Speaker 1: out on things and start living life. I tend to
36:58
Speaker 1: lean a little bit more in that direction. I have
37:02
Speaker 1: family members that lean very much in the other direction.
37:07
Speaker 1: What say you about this mindset, this philosophy of what
37:12
Speaker 1: to do, because you know, my dad would always say
37:16
Speaker 1: to me, prior planning prevents poor performance. What say you
37:20
Speaker 1: on all.
37:21
Speaker 3: This, Well, it's part of it's a cultural thing. If
37:24
Speaker 3: you think back to the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties,
37:27
Speaker 3: those generations had seen the Great Depression, they understood scarcity,
37:32
Speaker 3: and they were savers and they were builders. Once you
37:36
Speaker 3: got into the nineteen sixties, you had the baby boomer population.
37:41
Speaker 3: You had had parents that were going to spend a
37:44
Speaker 3: little bit more freely on their kids. And the generations
37:48
Speaker 3: since then have been even more consumer motivated. You'll remember
37:53
Speaker 3: that credit cards came in big time in the nineteen sixties,
37:57
Speaker 3: and with the advent of the credit card, that led
38:01
Speaker 3: to a surge in people buying now, paying later, and
38:05
Speaker 3: that thing is escalated over the last decades to where
38:09
Speaker 3: the current generations are not necessarily they're not attuned to saving,
38:14
Speaker 3: they're not an attuned to paying themselves first. As a
38:17
Speaker 3: professional financial advisor, I always start with, let's set up
38:22
Speaker 3: an emergency cash reserve for three to six months of
38:25
Speaker 3: living expenses if something happens. And then let's look at
38:29
Speaker 3: your four oh one K or individual retirement account a
38:33
Speaker 3: roth IRA if you're younger, and let's begin to pay
38:36
Speaker 3: yourself first. Let's always pay yourself first, just like it
38:41
Speaker 3: was a light bill, just like it was a gasoline bill.
38:44
Speaker 3: That is part of your financial freedom fund down the road.
38:49
Speaker 3: But a lot of people don't work with financial advisors.
38:52
Speaker 3: They don't ever hear that, and all they hear is spin,
38:55
Speaker 3: spin spin. The thing that's going to make that hazardous
38:58
Speaker 3: for people is as insurance costs go up and if
39:04
Speaker 3: they have a major health crisis. You know, cost of
39:07
Speaker 3: medication is not trending down, it's trending up. Cost of
39:11
Speaker 3: health care been trending up for a long time. You
39:16
Speaker 3: ignore the future at your own risk because there are
39:19
Speaker 3: very real health problems that can come up that can
39:23
Speaker 3: destroy everything you have built. If you're not mindful.
39:27
Speaker 1: Of saving and very very quickly.
39:34
Speaker 3: Yes, it can be very fast. I know in Dallas
39:38
Speaker 3: County in Texas, you could spend, you could spend if
39:44
Speaker 3: you had a major long term crisis. Let's say to
39:46
Speaker 3: you had a stroke and you had to have assisted
39:49
Speaker 3: living or long term care. You could end up spending
39:52
Speaker 3: sixty five thousand dollars a year or more just on
39:57
Speaker 3: long term care. Can you imagine how fast that would
40:00
Speaker 3: go through a four oh and K or a retirement account.
40:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, devastating, that's so so scary. We have a comment
40:12
Speaker 1: here that you should tuck away a minimum of ten
40:14
Speaker 1: percent of your income every paycheck. Take ten percent and
40:18
Speaker 1: split it off, put it away. Is that what you recommend?
40:22
Speaker 1: And easier said than done?
40:24
Speaker 3: Well, it is easier said than done. But I think
40:28
Speaker 3: what I recommend is people put in place a discipline
40:32
Speaker 3: where they put they pay themselves something every month out
40:35
Speaker 3: of every paycheck. Because you're not denying yourself something, you're
40:42
Speaker 3: contributing to your financial freedom foundation down the road. It's
40:47
Speaker 3: not selfish to do that, it's wise to do that,
40:51
Speaker 3: and there will be you know, the time value of
40:53
Speaker 3: money and money that's invested in wise things grows a
40:59
Speaker 3: lot more quickly than you realize. And you know, I
41:03
Speaker 3: had I had a woman that cleans houses. Came to
41:07
Speaker 3: me and said would you help me? She didn't have anything,
41:11
Speaker 3: and I said, sure, I'll be happy to help you.
41:13
Speaker 3: I'll get coach you, I'll give you some guidelines, we'll
41:16
Speaker 3: set up an account an ira. She's gone from having
41:20
Speaker 3: nothing to have the two hundred thousand dollars in just
41:23
Speaker 3: about five or six years. That's huge, and she cleans
41:27
Speaker 3: houses for a living. It can be done, but you
41:32
Speaker 3: have to have discipline. You have to make yourself a priority,
41:36
Speaker 3: make your family a priority, and put some money away.
41:40
Speaker 3: We all spend things, spend on things that we don't
41:44
Speaker 3: have to have. And if you can, if you can
41:49
Speaker 3: remember that, financial freedom tastes a whole lot better than
41:53
Speaker 3: chicken fried steaks. Sometimes down the road you can make
41:56
Speaker 3: those kind of wise decisions to set aside in readin
42:00
Speaker 3: agency case, reserved to fund a four oh one take
42:03
Speaker 3: or an ira, because when you look up six months
42:08
Speaker 3: or six years from now, you're going to be so
42:10
Speaker 3: proud of what you've accomplished and the freedom it will
42:13
Speaker 3: give you.
42:15
Speaker 1: Folks living on a fixed income right now who may
42:21
Speaker 1: be listening are scratching their heads and saying, how do
42:25
Speaker 1: I do this? You know, we just got to come
42:29
Speaker 1: in here, electricity, meds, fuel, oil gas. There's nothing left
42:34
Speaker 1: to save afterwards. The price of food is outrageous. And
42:38
Speaker 1: not to mention property taxes. Hearing fromont.
42:43
Speaker 3: Well, that's a problem. That's a real problem. These are
42:46
Speaker 3: people that are living on the front lines and they
42:49
Speaker 3: are exactly correct when you put in the cost. And
42:54
Speaker 3: Trump administration is trying to force down the cost of drugs.
42:58
Speaker 3: He's trying to come to agreements with the drug major
43:02
Speaker 3: drug companies and he's had some success on that. But
43:05
Speaker 3: insurance costs have escalated due to the various kinds of
43:08
Speaker 3: storms in the country. Insurance cost property taxes have gone
43:14
Speaker 3: up over time. Some states like Texas are trying to
43:18
Speaker 3: push those back down and hem them in from the
43:22
Speaker 3: worst increases. There is some pushback on these things, but
43:27
Speaker 3: for a lot of people it's a real struggle. It's
43:30
Speaker 3: not imaginary. They are living it. And what you have
43:34
Speaker 3: to do is, like you said earlier, you have to
43:37
Speaker 3: get out your spending patterns and your checkbook and your
43:40
Speaker 3: habits and say, okay, what's the difference between must haves
43:45
Speaker 3: and would like to have, and you've got to earmark
43:49
Speaker 3: money for the must have, And it's okay to earmark
43:52
Speaker 3: some things for the light to have too, But if
43:55
Speaker 3: you're going along spending frivolously. A near guy one time,
43:58
Speaker 3: for example, that he went to the ATM machine literally
44:02
Speaker 3: every day and got in fifteen twenty five dollars of cash.
44:06
Speaker 3: By the end of the week. He had no idea
44:07
Speaker 3: where that money had gone. It wasn't traceable, he didn't
44:11
Speaker 3: keep proceipts, he didn't know where he'd spend it. And
44:13
Speaker 3: you know, over the course of a month, you can
44:16
Speaker 3: spend four or five six hundred dollars cash and not
44:19
Speaker 3: know where it went. That's just not that's just not smart,
44:23
Speaker 3: and it doesn't help you get a handle on what
44:26
Speaker 3: you can do and what you're spending so that you
44:28
Speaker 3: can begin to make smarter decisions.
44:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, self discipline is such a key factor here
44:37
Speaker 1: with what you're talking about. You know, I've had a
44:40
Speaker 1: friend that would that would always tell me always keep
44:45
Speaker 1: one hundred dollar bill talked underneath your your driver's seat
44:48
Speaker 1: of your vehicle in case whatever. But man, when you're
44:55
Speaker 1: you know, having a stressful day and you're super hungry,
45:00
Speaker 1: and you've left your wallet at home, you don't have
45:04
Speaker 1: your card on you, and you you want to get
45:07
Speaker 1: something to eat and hit the McDonald's drive through whatever
45:12
Speaker 1: you might be apt to pull that Benjamin.
45:14
Speaker 3: Out, Well, you might, and I would recommend number one.
45:20
Speaker 3: I would eat it much healthier, healthier places than McDonald's.
45:25
Speaker 3: And Robert Kennedy junr Is certainly brought that lesson home
45:32
Speaker 3: big time, and God bless him for doing it. We
45:35
Speaker 3: eat a lot of junk food in our society. There's
45:38
Speaker 3: a lot of packaged food that's expensive.
45:40
Speaker 2: Uh.
45:41
Speaker 3: If we would go back to more basic food that's
45:44
Speaker 3: healthier for us, we'd live longer, we'd have lower health costs,
45:48
Speaker 3: and we'd save money. But it's not easy for people
45:52
Speaker 3: that are leading busy lives, very full days, long days.
45:57
Speaker 3: You know a lot of people are up before dawn
45:59
Speaker 3: and they are not home back until dark. It's not
46:04
Speaker 3: easy to cook stuff. I understand that that's that's real life.
46:09
Speaker 3: But people are individually responsible for the choices they make,
46:14
Speaker 3: and we all need to work on making better choices
46:18
Speaker 3: and pausing and thinking more deliberately about what, you know,
46:23
Speaker 3: what we eat what we spend money on, what we
46:26
Speaker 3: have to have what's maybe more of a luxury. And
46:30
Speaker 3: people that are on thin incomes don't have a lot
46:34
Speaker 3: of freedom like that, but some people do. And it's
46:38
Speaker 3: just wise for us to be more mindful of that
46:41
Speaker 3: because you know, one of the purposes of money JD.
46:45
Speaker 3: Is if you have extra, it's to be able to
46:48
Speaker 3: bless other people. The purpose of money is not just survival,
46:53
Speaker 3: is also God's money. It's to use money for the
46:56
Speaker 3: benefit of other people when we can. And it's a
47:00
Speaker 3: lost art that's you know, let's not talk about enough
47:04
Speaker 3: as it should be. And I'm a big advocate of that.
47:08
Speaker 3: I think to whom much is given, much is expected,
47:12
Speaker 3: and people that have a little bit more you need
47:15
Speaker 3: to look for ways to help your fellow man, because
47:18
Speaker 3: for every person that's doing well, there's somebody in a
47:22
Speaker 3: desperate situation that needs help.
47:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. Question here, can business owners start in IRA or
47:29
Speaker 1: only employees?
47:32
Speaker 3: Well, individual retirement accounts are only four employees. Now, business
47:36
Speaker 3: owners can start a four to oh and K or
47:39
Speaker 3: if it's a nonprofit hospital or something like that, a
47:41
Speaker 3: four H three B. Most employers. Larger employers will have
47:46
Speaker 3: those smaller employers may not, however, and if your employer
47:51
Speaker 3: does not have a four to ROH and K plan,
47:53
Speaker 3: you can certainly start an individual retirement account that's either
47:57
Speaker 3: a traditional IRA or a roth IRA. If you're a
48:00
Speaker 3: young professional, you definitely need to start rawth IRA. You
48:04
Speaker 3: can have an individual retirement count and participate in a
48:09
Speaker 3: four to one K plan at work. You just can't
48:12
Speaker 3: take the tax deduction for what you put in your
48:15
Speaker 3: IRA if you're also participating in a four oh one K,
48:19
Speaker 3: but you still ought to do it. You ought to
48:21
Speaker 3: have as many tax advantage types of accounts as you
48:25
Speaker 3: can have to take advantage of the investment opportunities and
48:30
Speaker 3: the time value of money. But before that, I'd even
48:33
Speaker 3: start with what I call an emergency cash reserve three
48:37
Speaker 3: to six months of living expenses at the bank and
48:40
Speaker 3: accessible and liquid that you don't invest in anything and
48:43
Speaker 3: you don't spend it on anything. You keep it for emergencies,
48:47
Speaker 3: and that keeps you from rating your IRA or your
48:50
Speaker 3: four oh one K.
48:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't take much to have a sudden car repair.
48:58
Speaker 1: There's plenty of prices, and it's good to have that
49:03
Speaker 1: a little bit of a nest egg emergency stuff like
49:06
Speaker 1: you say, great advice. Final question this morning, Steve, what
49:10
Speaker 1: do you say about the Trump Administration's baby savings account
49:16
Speaker 1: the Trump accounts? What is it and what say you
49:22
Speaker 1: about it?
49:23
Speaker 3: Well? I think it's a great initiative, and you know,
49:27
Speaker 3: there are a lot of different people that can contribute
49:29
Speaker 3: into that. Years ago they formed a plan called a
49:34
Speaker 3: five twenty nine plan, which refers to a section of
49:37
Speaker 3: the tax code that sets up a tax free, education
49:43
Speaker 3: oriented savings account for college. Yeah.
49:46
Speaker 1: I've got one from my little girl.
49:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's so smart. And there's a very high
49:52
Speaker 3: ceiling to what you can contribute to. Any kind of
49:54
Speaker 3: relatives or friends can contribute to that. This is a
49:58
Speaker 3: different version of that money, but the money may not
50:01
Speaker 3: be touched I think until the child is much older.
50:07
Speaker 3: It gives them some seed corn to plant, and it's
50:12
Speaker 3: very very it's going to be very, very powerful. They're
50:15
Speaker 3: nonprofit and for profit corporations that have said they're going
50:19
Speaker 3: to contribute to that. I think it's a great idea.
50:22
Speaker 3: But you know what's really interesting, JD. I believe that
50:26
Speaker 3: it is a quiet plan to showcase the concept of
50:33
Speaker 3: an individual savings account as a model for how we
50:37
Speaker 3: can move Social Security and create better returns for people
50:42
Speaker 3: in Social Security. Nobody's talked about that yet, but I
50:47
Speaker 3: believe this is a precursor concept for eventually advocating a
50:53
Speaker 3: different approach to Social Security that gets people higher returns
50:59
Speaker 3: with more certain And we've got to fix social Security
51:02
Speaker 3: because Medicare is going bankrupt quickly, so as Social Security.
51:07
Speaker 3: We now have I think two recipients for every one
51:13
Speaker 3: person paying into Social Security, and that's unsustainable.
51:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. I understand that parents can begin the enrollment process now,
51:23
Speaker 1: but the accounts won't be open for contributions until this summer,
51:29
Speaker 1: I think July.
51:31
Speaker 3: I think that's right. It coincides with the two hundred
51:34
Speaker 3: and fiftieth anniversary of the country, which I think is
51:37
Speaker 3: a great timing event. But everybody should take advantage of this.
51:43
Speaker 3: Of any child born in twenty twenty six, definitely get
51:49
Speaker 3: on board that participate in that. Let the government see
51:53
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars into that account, and then you add
51:55
Speaker 3: to it if you're able to. Friends can add, relatives
51:59
Speaker 3: can add, all kinds of people can add. But the
52:02
Speaker 3: child can't touch it for quite a while. And I
52:04
Speaker 3: think that's good children that will wake up in this
52:07
Speaker 3: generation and say, my goodness, parents and friends were so wise.
52:12
Speaker 3: I am so grateful and it's going to give them
52:14
Speaker 3: a start on life and it's going to be very helpful.
52:17
Speaker 1: Why do you think it something like this hasn't been
52:21
Speaker 1: in existence in the past.
52:25
Speaker 3: What's a good question. We've had versions of this with
52:27
Speaker 3: the five twenty nine plan and things like that. We
52:31
Speaker 3: used to have an educational savings account that was limited
52:34
Speaker 3: to like two thousand dollars, not very much. But I
52:40
Speaker 3: just think the whole consumer economic focus has been for
52:46
Speaker 3: decades on spend, spend, spend, and it's not been on safe, safe, save,
52:51
Speaker 3: And we need to calibrate our thinking about how we're
52:55
Speaker 3: going to get through this world. And we've got to
52:58
Speaker 3: to start taking more responsibility for ourselves and each other,
53:03
Speaker 3: and we've got to be wiser spenders and wiser consumers.
53:07
Speaker 3: It's very doable. It's very possible for most people who
53:13
Speaker 3: are not, you know, living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck.
53:16
Speaker 3: A lot of people are. But the cost of living
53:20
Speaker 3: is the enemy, and insurance costs are the enemy. And
53:24
Speaker 3: it's hard to fight that when you're driving cars and
53:27
Speaker 3: you're owning homes and you know you've got those headwinds.
53:31
Speaker 3: But you've got to make a plan and get with
53:34
Speaker 3: a professional financial advisor who can coach you, who can
53:38
Speaker 3: encourage you, you can keep you focused on the mission,
53:42
Speaker 3: and that's half the battle.
53:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is difficult for senior citizens to survive in
53:51
Speaker 1: this world right now. I can't imagine and I'm approaching
53:58
Speaker 1: that demographic and I don't know how old you are, Steve,
54:04
Speaker 1: but man, it's like, it's not easy. It's just it's frankly,
54:11
Speaker 1: it's scary. And is it too late, I guess, is
54:15
Speaker 1: what I'm asking. If you don't have an IRA, or
54:19
Speaker 1: you don't have any kind of retirement savings planned and
54:23
Speaker 1: you're fifty sixty years old, is it too late.
54:27
Speaker 3: No, it's not too late, but you because the likelihood
54:30
Speaker 3: you're going to live well in your nineties and so
54:33
Speaker 3: your time horizon for growing money is longer than you think.
54:40
Speaker 3: You know, when people talk about difficulties in this country,
54:44
Speaker 3: you know, I always have to reflect. I'm a student
54:46
Speaker 3: of the world and I always have to reflect back
54:48
Speaker 3: on how is it in other countries? And there are
54:51
Speaker 3: a lot of other countries have no safety net at all.
54:54
Speaker 3: There are some countries, like some of the European Scandinavian
54:57
Speaker 3: countries that have a socialist, you know, cradle grave kind
55:01
Speaker 3: of safety net, and they've got high taxes as a
55:07
Speaker 3: result of that, and they've got low productivity as a
55:10
Speaker 3: result of that. And I think in this country you've
55:13
Speaker 3: got a little bit healthier mix. But still for some
55:17
Speaker 3: people it's very difficult. It is not easy, but it's
55:20
Speaker 3: never too late to start. You just have to have
55:23
Speaker 3: earned income to fund an IRA. And I would always
55:28
Speaker 3: do it, even if you're late, even if you're in
55:32
Speaker 3: your fifties, I would still do it because the odds
55:34
Speaker 3: are you're going to live another forty years. You're going
55:37
Speaker 3: to Yeah, go ahead, You're going to need that money,
55:43
Speaker 3: and you will be glad if you will do that.
55:46
Speaker 3: I think it's important for people to enjoy life, but
55:51
Speaker 3: they don't have to drink champagne doing it. You know
55:56
Speaker 3: you can, you can make compromises, but pay yourself first
56:00
Speaker 3: is a very important concept. Your dad was right about that.
56:04
Speaker 3: We need to we need to resurrect and remember some
56:09
Speaker 3: of that great generational wisdom because it's out there and
56:13
Speaker 3: it's still true.
56:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing stuff, Steve. I thoroughly enjoy hearing from you man.
56:20
Speaker 1: What a conversation this morning. Steve Cotton, the president of
56:23
Speaker 1: Cotton Wealth Management. You can learn more about Steve and
56:28
Speaker 1: everything he does and get in touch with him yourself
56:31
Speaker 1: COTTONWMA dot com. Thanks so much Steve coming on with
56:36
Speaker 1: us this morning.
56:37
Speaker 3: Thanks so much, JD. It's always honored to be on
56:39
Speaker 3: your show.
56:40
Speaker 1: Pleasure and I hope to we'd be lucky to have
56:42
Speaker 1: you back. I hope, I hope you will consider it.
56:45
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, Thank you very much. Wow, what a
56:50
Speaker 1: what a conversation this morning. And I don't know, I
56:55
Speaker 1: just I love learning new stuff like this and stuff
57:00
Speaker 1: that makes you get thinking. A lot to be said
57:10
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57:15
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59:00
Speaker 2: That the Brits, that.
59:10
Speaker 3: That that that that.
59:19
Speaker 2: That the
59:27
Speaker 3: P passssssssssss