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$130 Billion Tariff Refunds? Court Orders Massive Payback from Trump Administration · The Financial Exchange Show

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Speaker 1: a donation today. This is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstrong,
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Speaker 1: and Paul.
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Speaker 2: Lane as we open up the eleven o'clock hour here
1:13
Speaker 2: on the Financial Exchange. The more we've been talking, the
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Speaker 2: worst markets have gotten. So Paul, I think you and
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Speaker 2: I should probably just call it a day. Yeah, Tucker,
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Speaker 2: can you take over from here?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: I got it all right, sounds good. Finished two in
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Speaker 2: that apple first, and then we'll we'll talk about now
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Speaker 2: Dow Yeah, Dow Jones Industrial average, We sound yeah, Dow
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Speaker 2: Jones Industrial Average off seven hundred and seventeen points one
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Speaker 2: and a half percent in early trading. S and P
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Speaker 2: five hundred down forty six points or seven ten percent.
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Speaker 2: NASDAK off seventy four pence points or one third of
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Speaker 2: one percent. In the Rustle two thousand off one in
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Speaker 2: a third percent. Over in Europe, you've got European stocks
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Speaker 2: generally down in the one percent range. Asian stocks actually
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Speaker 2: finished up for the day after a pretty big dip yesterday.
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Speaker 2: And in the bond market, we've got yields moving again,
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Speaker 2: So treasury yields moving to four point one four percent
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Speaker 2: on the ten year rate. That's got mortgage mortgage rates
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Speaker 2: up again today. As of yesterday, the average rate on
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Speaker 2: the thirty year fixed rate mortgage according to Mortgage News Daily,
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Speaker 2: was sitting at six point zero seven percent. In oil markets,
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Speaker 2: we've got oil up five point three percent this morning,
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Speaker 2: nearly four bucks per barrel, up to seventy eight dollars
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Speaker 2: sixty three cents on the West Texas Crew benchmark that
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Speaker 2: brings the national average pardon me four. Gas prices according
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Speaker 2: to Triple A today up to three dollars twenty five
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Speaker 2: cents per gallon, and across New England we're pretty close
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Speaker 2: to that average, if not slightly below it, other than
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Speaker 2: the good folks of Vermont who are seeing actually still
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Speaker 2: below the national average but at three sixteen per gallon.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, again, I think investors are taking a logical
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Speaker 2: approach to markets right now. Clearly they are a little
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Speaker 2: bit nervous, and markets keep moving up and down, but
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Speaker 2: they haven't moved much of anywhere since Friday of last week,
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Speaker 2: prior to the strikes in Iran. Oil prices are the
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Speaker 2: main thing I can point to to say, Yeah, oil
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Speaker 2: prices are clearly a lot higher, about fifteen percent higher
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Speaker 2: than where they closed on Friday, and interest rates are
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Speaker 2: likewise a fair bit higher than where they closed out
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Speaker 2: on Friday, all of which implying that perhaps between government
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Speaker 2: spending on defense and striking Iran and the amount of
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Speaker 2: money that is going to be spent in the Middle East,
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Speaker 2: or the risk of a lot of money being spent
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Speaker 2: in the Middle East over the coming years, combined with
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Speaker 2: the risk to higher energy prices, those two forces combined
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Speaker 2: make it less likely that the FED will be able
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Speaker 2: to accomplish its dual mandate and specifically the mandate on
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Speaker 2: the inflation side. And so the one thing that investors
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Speaker 2: seem confident about right now at least is that energy
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Speaker 2: prices deserve to be priced a little bit higher and
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Speaker 2: interest rates deserve to be priced a little bit higher
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Speaker 2: given the conflict out there. Anything else catching your eye
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Speaker 2: in terms of market movements over the course of this week, Paul, as,
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Speaker 2: we are now what five five six days out from
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Speaker 2: the initial strikes in a run.
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Speaker 3: Now, what continues to surprise me has just been the
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Speaker 3: equal weight to S and P five hundred and dex
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Speaker 3: So basically that the non tech sector performers have continued
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Speaker 3: to significantly outpour perform their tech peers, and just sort
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Speaker 3: of the juxtaposition that we're in right now where tech
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Speaker 3: is such a big weighting in the S and P
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Speaker 3: five hundred, almost representing a third of its weight. It's
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Speaker 3: been lagging this year, and even though Broadcom came out
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Speaker 3: with some pretty good numbers today, it just seems like
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Speaker 3: all these big tech companies can do little to impress investors,
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Speaker 3: and so a lot of the focus has been on
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Speaker 3: these other sectors, and that continues to fascinate me. Where
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Speaker 3: we have a broader market that year to date is
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Speaker 3: roughly it would be negative territory based on today's action,
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Speaker 3: but yet you still have sectors like the energy sector
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Speaker 3: and others that make up a small waiting but still
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Speaker 3: have performed really well. That to me has been the
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Speaker 3: most interesting trend of this year and continues to echo
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Speaker 3: a little bit this week with energy ticking up pretty significantly.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I mean, if you had told me at the beginning
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Speaker 2: of the year that the tech sector would be down
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Speaker 2: more than two and a half percent, in the communications
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Speaker 2: services sector would be flat, and yet equity markets would
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Speaker 2: be holding on, I would tell you you're crazy. Yes,
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Speaker 2: But the trend this year has been Yeah, we're not
5:34
Speaker 2: so bullish on what's happening in the semispace and in
5:38
Speaker 2: the software space, but we're more than happy to keep
5:41
Speaker 2: that money invested in just other areas of the market,
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Speaker 2: which is interesting to me. We will see if it
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Speaker 2: continues along that trend, because, as we have talked about,
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Speaker 2: this is the most concentrated market for the S and
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Speaker 2: P five hundred that we've seen in forty plus years.
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Speaker 2: So time will tell. A Federal Aid Court judge has
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Speaker 2: ordered the Trump administration to refund over one hundred and
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Speaker 2: thirty billion dollars in global tariffs good luck. More than
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Speaker 2: two thousand lawsuits have been filed by companies seeking the refunds,
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Speaker 2: and the Trump administration and its lawyers have been fighting
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Speaker 2: back on this quite a bit and pushing judges to,
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Speaker 2: I guess hold off on this. But the same judge
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Speaker 2: is going to be looking for an update on the
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Speaker 2: status of this tomorrow. He said that the repayment process
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Speaker 2: should be straightforward. Justice Department lawyers said that the government
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Speaker 2: hadn't yet formalized its position on refunding the tariffs, to
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Speaker 2: which the judge replied, your position is clear. The Supreme
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Speaker 2: Court told you what your position is, which probably was
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Speaker 2: well received by those.
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Speaker 3: You know the scene in Dumb and Dummer where they
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Speaker 3: grabbed the briefcase and they open up the briefcase and
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Speaker 3: there was initially a ton of money in there, but
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Speaker 3: it's been spent away. So the bad guys find the
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Speaker 3: briefcase and a ton of paper just falls out of
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Speaker 3: it as good as money, And Jim Carrey's character says
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Speaker 3: that those aren't, that's not money. Those are IOUs, that's
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Speaker 3: good as money. I just feel like the process of
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Speaker 3: refunding all of these tariffs to these two thousand plus
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Speaker 3: companies just reminds me of that similar approach where there's
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Speaker 3: just gonna be lawsuits everywhere, paper everywhere, or maybe it's
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Speaker 3: digitized now, of trying to figure out how the heck
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Speaker 3: would you even go ahead and initiate this process. I mean,
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Speaker 3: it just seems like an absolute cluster. We've talked about before,
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Speaker 3: but hearing just how adamant the judge appears to be
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Speaker 3: with this refund, it just I shudder at what that
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Speaker 3: process would even look like.
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Speaker 2: So a few things to this one. I will acknowledge
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Speaker 2: that it is complicated. Right, Let's say you imported a
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Speaker 2: good from I don't know, China and you got hit
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Speaker 2: with a sixty percent tariff. It is likely, at least
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Speaker 2: from what I understand, it is likely that some portion
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Speaker 2: of that sixty percent was legal because there are multiple
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Speaker 2: tariffs on China right. There are reciprocal tariffs that were
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Speaker 2: overthrown by the by the Supreme Court. There are other
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Speaker 2: tariffs in place that may still be applicable to steal
8:12
Speaker 2: an aluminum teriffs for example, are still legal and can
8:15
Speaker 2: be implemented. And so the government has to go through
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Speaker 2: and say, okay, well, this portion of the tariff was legal,
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Speaker 2: this portion was not. We need to figure out what
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Speaker 2: percent of the sixty is going to be refunded. And
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Speaker 2: so I can acknowledge here for a moment that it's complicated,
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Speaker 2: and I'll also acknowledge that this is why, you know,
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Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of people work in this space to
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Speaker 2: go figure it out and get it refunded. The biggest
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Speaker 2: problem I see here is not for FedEx and Costco
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Speaker 2: and all these guys. What I am really pessimistic about
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Speaker 2: are all the tiny businesses that that's what's unfortunately, as
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Speaker 2: always right, the small guy gets screwed here because they
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Speaker 2: don't have lawyers. They don't have expensive lawyers on retainer
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Speaker 2: that have studied all of this you know, trade law,
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Speaker 2: which by the way, wasn't really a big area of
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Speaker 2: study for the last forty years because globalization has meant
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Speaker 2: more and more trade barriers removed, and so there are
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Speaker 2: very few of these lawyers that exist in the first place.
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Speaker 2: And so if you were that small business, what you
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Speaker 2: likely did as a result of all this was say, okay,
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Speaker 2: do I shut down my business or do I pay
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Speaker 2: the darn tariff? And you probably paid the tariff. And
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Speaker 2: if you didn't have the cash on the sideline to
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Speaker 2: do so, because guess what, many small businesses don't just
9:30
Speaker 2: sit on a million dollars in cash. You probably borrowed
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Speaker 2: the money. So you went to a bank, you went
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Speaker 2: to a private credit firm, you borrowed a million bucks
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Speaker 2: to pay your tariff. Now you're sitting here saying, okay,
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Speaker 2: I'm owed a refund on that tariff. In the meantime,
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Speaker 2: I'm continuing to pay interest on this loan. And at
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Speaker 2: the same time, my customers, who I passed the cost
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Speaker 2: through in many cases, are looking for a refund of
9:50
Speaker 2: the price they paid on the good that was you know,
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Speaker 2: exorbitantly high given these tariff refunds, and so Costco will
9:56
Speaker 2: be fine, you know, their lawyers will be first in
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Speaker 2: line to make sure they get the fund. But the
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Speaker 2: little toy shop that's nearby your home and you know
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Speaker 2: has two locations, those guys are screwed. Yeah, I mean,
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Speaker 2: I don't mean to be so blunt about it. But
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Speaker 2: if this is the government's attitude towards it, which is well,
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Speaker 2: it's going to take a while and we're not really sure,
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Speaker 2: then you can be certain that it will be months,
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Speaker 2: if not years before there is an easy way for
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Speaker 2: a small business to go about this without either selling
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Speaker 2: their interest in the tariff to a financial firm, which
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Speaker 2: we can talk about, or hiring a high power attorney.
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Speaker 2: We've got to take a quick break. When we come back.
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Speaker 2: Sarah Foster is joining us next from bankre talking to
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Speaker 2: us about the development of AI in the scam universe.
10:45
Speaker 2: That's next year.
10:46
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11:20
Speaker 2: Joining us now is Sarah Foster from Banque with a
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Speaker 2: new survey about Americans being entangled in financial scams, the
11:27
Speaker 2: story we're all intimately familiar with at this point. Sarah,
11:31
Speaker 2: thank you for joining us, appreciate it, Thanks for having me.
11:33
Speaker 2: Great to be so. I know, just yesterday, for example,
11:37
Speaker 2: Lexus and Nexus announced a data breach where hackers had
11:41
Speaker 2: access systems and released a whole bunch of information on
11:44
Speaker 2: their customers. But to put it bluntly, most people don't
11:49
Speaker 2: lose money to scams by hackers hacking into their bank
11:52
Speaker 2: account and stealing their money. Generally speaking, we fall for
11:56
Speaker 2: something that leads to us becoming convinced we're dealing with
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Speaker 2: a real authority of some sort, and then voluntarily giving
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Speaker 2: our money away. What did your survey find in terms
12:05
Speaker 2: of Americans experience with financial fraud.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, and that there's a wide variety of
12:12
Speaker 4: financial scams and ways that fraudsters are targeting Americans. You know,
12:16
Speaker 4: we found that about eleven percent of people have lost
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Speaker 4: money over the past year because of falling for a scam.
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Speaker 4: That's either because they sent money to a scammer or
12:25
Speaker 4: they paid for a fake service, or just because of
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Speaker 4: the scammer and a fraudster hacked their account access their
12:32
Speaker 4: personal information. So I think, you know, broadly speaking, we're
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Speaker 4: saying that scams are becoming more and more common. At
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Speaker 4: this point, seventy three percent of people tell us that
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Speaker 4: they've faced a scam before, and more than half of
12:46
Speaker 4: all adults think that at some point they'll be targeted.
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Speaker 4: So it seems like the question now is it's not
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Speaker 4: a matter of if you'll ever be targeted.
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Speaker 2: But when I got to tell you that eleven percent number,
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Speaker 2: by the way of people that have lost money to
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Speaker 2: a financial scam, I've got to imagine that's got to
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Speaker 2: be one of the most underreported crimes that's out there. Right.
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Speaker 2: People get so ashamed when they fall for one of
13:06
Speaker 2: these things that I'd imagine they're just unwilling to admit.
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Speaker 2: And I've experienced that firsthand with people who just feel
13:12
Speaker 2: that deep shame for feeling foolish, like they felt for
13:15
Speaker 2: something that they should have detected.
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Speaker 4: It's true, And you know, I think one thing I
13:19
Speaker 4: always like to tell Americans is that we see in
13:23
Speaker 4: our data that it's not just people who are making
13:27
Speaker 4: mistakes who are giving out their information. You know, I
13:30
Speaker 4: think there's this stereotypical image of a person who falls
13:34
Speaker 4: for a scam, and that's an older adult, you know,
13:37
Speaker 4: someone who might not have a lot of technological literacy.
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Speaker 4: Actually it's really not the case. You know, we see
13:43
Speaker 4: a wide variety across all age groups falling for scams.
13:46
Speaker 4: It's actually younger generations who are the most likely to
13:49
Speaker 4: lose money. And I think when that shame comes in,
13:52
Speaker 4: it's really important to remember that these are people who
13:55
Speaker 4: are doing everything right. I mean, ninety five percent of
13:57
Speaker 4: people told us that they're taking a step to tech
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Speaker 4: their finances from fraud. It really is just that one mistake,
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Speaker 4: and knowing that scammers are getting more advanced by the
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Speaker 4: second thanks to AI, you really have to always constantly
14:11
Speaker 4: have your guard up.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you alluded to it, Sarah. So you know, as
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Speaker 2: with any new technology, there will be bright spots and
14:18
Speaker 2: really dark shady alleys that come with the new technology.
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Speaker 2: How do fraudsters seem to be using AI today to
14:27
Speaker 2: make fraud attempts and scams more convincing to us? Yeah?
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Speaker 4: AI is really making fraud more ubiquitous for two reasons.
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Speaker 4: You think On the one hand, it's making it easier
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Speaker 4: for fraudsters to target people and in huge numbers. You know,
14:44
Speaker 4: they're using AI services to craft messages, to create fake profiles.
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Speaker 4: And I think something that a lot of us have
14:52
Speaker 4: always been told. You know, if you see a typo
14:55
Speaker 4: ridden email or text message, you know, think twice about it.
14:57
Speaker 4: It might be a scammer. Those days are over. And
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Speaker 4: we're also hearing, you know, on the other side of
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Speaker 4: AI really making it easier to create deep fakes, you know,
15:07
Speaker 4: impersonation scams. There's a wide variety. I spoke with someone
15:12
Speaker 4: a few weeks ago who mentioned that she got a
15:14
Speaker 4: call from someone who was claiming to be, you know,
15:17
Speaker 4: a family member who was in need of cash, a
15:19
Speaker 4: loved one. It's those ransom calls and scams those are
15:23
Speaker 4: popping up. It just is really something I think you
15:26
Speaker 4: have to always take a step back, really remain calm,
15:31
Speaker 4: not really given to that sense of urgency that scammers
15:34
Speaker 4: always try to impose on you, and verify everything that
15:38
Speaker 4: you see. You know, don't trust anything that you hear
15:41
Speaker 4: on the internet without confirming it from someone else.
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Speaker 2: I really hadn't thought yet about the the grammar and
15:49
Speaker 2: typo emails that I used to see in frauds, but
15:51
Speaker 2: you're absolutely right that in my experience, I see very
15:55
Speaker 2: few of these these days. It's much more difficult to
15:57
Speaker 2: identify just purely from the writing style of a scam
16:00
Speaker 2: or whether or not it is a scam that has
16:02
Speaker 2: everything to do with AI. Last question here, Sarah, I mean,
16:06
Speaker 2: is there anything that you saw and speaking to people
16:09
Speaker 2: or reviewing the survey that looked like important steps that
16:13
Speaker 2: people are already taking or that the public should know
16:15
Speaker 2: about that they can take to try and protect themselves. Yeah.
16:18
Speaker 4: I think, kind of going back to that shame piece,
16:21
Speaker 4: a lot of people might wait to, you know, report fraud.
16:25
Speaker 4: That's actually, you know, the worst thing you can do.
16:28
Speaker 4: The sooner you contact the bank, the sooner you alert
16:31
Speaker 4: the Federal Trade Commission, you create those reports, you know,
16:34
Speaker 4: maybe even come down to filing reports with local law enforcement.
16:38
Speaker 4: You know, the sooner, you know, you increase your chances
16:41
Speaker 4: of that getting rectified and potentially reversing the charges. You know,
16:45
Speaker 4: I've heard many heartbreaking stories from Americans who waited too
16:49
Speaker 4: long to report it and then that money was just
16:51
Speaker 4: lost in a wire transfer. You know. But if you
16:54
Speaker 4: call your bank immediately. That is something that they can
16:57
Speaker 4: hopefully help intercept on its way to a different account.
17:01
Speaker 4: And I also think a lot of the incentive and
17:03
Speaker 4: the onus is on you know, bank tellers and you
17:05
Speaker 4: know other people who work at these financial institutions. You know,
17:10
Speaker 4: I hear from people who noticed, you know, it was
17:13
Speaker 4: really fishy when some what a grandma came in and
17:16
Speaker 4: kept taking out large, you know, deposits from her account.
17:21
Speaker 4: You know, it was the teller who actually alerted that
17:23
Speaker 4: fraud and was the first to spot it. So I
17:26
Speaker 4: really think we all can play a role here in
17:28
Speaker 4: preventing us from following for these devastating financial scams.
17:32
Speaker 2: Sarah Foster from Bankreade joining us today talk about their
17:35
Speaker 2: latest survey on financial scams and frauds. Sarah, thanks so
17:39
Speaker 2: much for joining us. Appreciate it. We'll talk again soon.
17:41
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
17:42
Speaker 5: All right time for ture of you here on the
17:43
Speaker 5: Financial Exchange. And earlier this week, McDonald's released their newest burger,
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Speaker 6: I'm intrigued on that one. Who's the most influential burger?
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Speaker 6: We have to see?
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Speaker 2: If you'll have to wait another five minutes, I don't
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Speaker 2: think I can for the answer. I'll tell you I
18:59
Speaker 2: when we go to commercial. Can you just tell us now?
19:01
Speaker 6: No? No, it's not how works.
19:04
Speaker 2: Speaking of all these frauds, the other big ones that
19:08
Speaker 2: are very prevalent this time of year are tax scams. Specifically,
19:13
Speaker 2: We've got to take a quick break Wall Street Watches.
19:16
Speaker 2: Coming up next, We're finally going to get the long
19:18
Speaker 2: awaited answer to the trivia question, and then I want
19:21
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit more in detail about these
19:23
Speaker 2: five tax scams to watch out for this filing season.
19:26
Speaker 2: That's next on the Financial Exchange.
19:42
Speaker 1: Bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio. Every day.
19:47
Speaker 1: It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
19:52
Speaker 1: Tell you no full Wool Street Watch treking the stocks
19:56
Speaker 1: FDATO in the headlines driving markets so far today right
19:59
Speaker 1: here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
20:02
Speaker 5: The markets are selling off as the US and around
20:04
Speaker 5: conflict extends another day, sending oil prices higher over fears
20:08
Speaker 5: of disruption. Investors are also rating for the February JAWS report,
20:12
Speaker 5: due out tomorrow morning. Right now, the Dow is down
20:15
Speaker 5: one point seven percent, or eight hundred and forty two
20:18
Speaker 5: points lower, SMP five hundred down nearly eight tenths of
20:22
Speaker 5: one percent, NASDAC down nearly half a percent to one
20:26
Speaker 5: hundred and two points. RUSSED two thousand now down one
20:29
Speaker 5: point eight percent. Ten You're treasure reeled is up six
20:32
Speaker 5: basis points at four point one four to four percent,
20:35
Speaker 5: and crude oil up six and a half percent, now
20:39
Speaker 5: trading at seventy nine dollars and forty nine cents a barrel.
20:42
Speaker 5: Broadcom shares are up nearly five percent after the chip
20:46
Speaker 5: and software maker reported solid quarterly results where it's AI
20:49
Speaker 5: revenue more than doubled. Meanwhile, shares in digital marketing platform
20:53
Speaker 5: Trade Desk are rallying seventeen percent after the information report
20:57
Speaker 5: of that open AI had early discussions with the company
21:00
Speaker 5: to sell ads elsewhere. Wall Street journals reporting that Morgan
21:04
Speaker 5: Stanley will lay off about three percent of its staff
21:07
Speaker 5: are about twenty five hundred employees. Morgan Stanley shares it
21:10
Speaker 5: down by about two percent. Octa shares are jumping seven
21:14
Speaker 5: percent after the identity management and security company beat earnings expectations,
21:19
Speaker 5: but its outlook for the current quarter disappointed, and Bjay's
21:22
Speaker 5: wholesale club is dropping over two percent after its full
21:26
Speaker 5: year guidance fell short of street forecasts. However, its fourth
21:30
Speaker 5: quarter earnings and revenue beat estimates. I'm Tucker Silva and
21:35
Speaker 5: that is Wall Street Watch, and in the previous segment,
21:37
Speaker 5: we asked you the trivia question, which Mike listened to
21:40
Speaker 5: very intently. Which fast food burger chain received Time Magazine's
21:44
Speaker 5: Most Influential Burger of All Time honor. That would be Whitecastle.
21:49
Speaker 5: Mike from Barnstable, mass is our winner today, taking them
21:52
Speaker 5: a Financial Exchange Show t shirt. Congrats to Mike. We
21:55
Speaker 5: play trivia every day here on the Financial Exchange. See
21:58
Speaker 5: complete contest rules at five Financial Exchange Show dot com.
22:02
Speaker 3: The slider was uh what white classle and came out
22:06
Speaker 3: with nineteen twenty one for a little more color there,
22:08
Speaker 3: Sorry Talcker, what you say? I love the I love
22:11
Speaker 3: the music on I love the music Thereans. That's a
22:15
Speaker 3: recent add I made that. It reminds me of who
22:17
Speaker 3: wants to be a millionaire back.
22:18
Speaker 2: In the Yeah. Yeah, we need some of those lights
22:22
Speaker 2: that can pivot.
22:22
Speaker 6: Yeah, I did not make that.
22:24
Speaker 2: Can wait? Can we get that?
22:25
Speaker 3: I thought with Ai and your technical prowess that you
22:27
Speaker 3: did so I got together.
22:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, Paul, when we get to required minim distribution age.
22:35
Speaker 2: I was talking to a client about this just yesterday.
22:38
Speaker 2: There's a long list of things that you really can't do.
22:41
Speaker 2: When it comes to them. You cannot avoid them in
22:44
Speaker 2: any meaningful way without paying big old irs. Penalties. Even
22:47
Speaker 2: if you die, your kids face the required minimum distributions.
22:52
Speaker 2: You can't take the money and put it into a
22:54
Speaker 2: roth I r ray. Your options are truly limited. Barons
22:59
Speaker 2: has a piece out today about tax efficient strategies for
23:02
Speaker 2: your IRA withdrawals, and again to make the point, there
23:07
Speaker 2: are very few options for tax efficient strategies for your
23:10
Speaker 2: IRA withdrawals, especially once you are already of RMD age.
23:15
Speaker 2: What I explained to people is the only way for
23:17
Speaker 2: you to avoid the taxes on this is to give
23:20
Speaker 2: it directly to a charity, right, so there is no
23:22
Speaker 2: other way once you are URMD age, once it's already started,
23:26
Speaker 2: that's your only option. You can give up to one
23:28
Speaker 2: hundred eleven thousand dollars this year via a qualified charitable distribution.
23:33
Speaker 2: And frankly, if your RMD is bigger than one hundred
23:37
Speaker 2: eleven thousand dollars, then I.
23:38
Speaker 6: Could be one of the biggest diaries.
23:39
Speaker 2: I hope you're already getting help, so let's start call
23:43
Speaker 2: us there. But what can be done? You know, if
23:48
Speaker 2: most people are aware of this RMD issue, nobody knows
23:50
Speaker 2: what the actual age is. It started at seventy and
23:52
Speaker 2: a half, it's now seventy five for younger folks, but.
23:56
Speaker 6: Those people born past nineteen sixty in earlier.
24:00
Speaker 2: UK later later. If you are not there yet, if
24:03
Speaker 2: you're not a procrastinator and you're actually addressing this now,
24:06
Speaker 2: what type of stuff can you do if you have
24:09
Speaker 2: time to address the RMD issue.
24:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, so ROTH conversions are probably the biggest one that
24:14
Speaker 3: you could look at to potentially minimize the required minim
24:17
Speaker 3: distribution that you're going to have to take. Basically, what
24:19
Speaker 3: happens when you calculate the required minimum distribution is the
24:23
Speaker 3: IRS will take a look at your balance on December
24:26
Speaker 3: thirty first of twenty twenty five, for example, if you
24:29
Speaker 3: just became eligible for requirementum distributions this year, and then
24:33
Speaker 3: they will assess a divisor a numerical divisor to whatever
24:37
Speaker 3: the balance is in your IRA account. The only way
24:39
Speaker 3: that you could avoid not having to take requirementium distributions
24:43
Speaker 3: is if you can get your IRA balance to be
24:46
Speaker 3: zero as of twelve thirty one, twenty twenty five in
24:49
Speaker 3: this example, so that what that would entail is in
24:52
Speaker 3: your years prior, you need to take money out of
24:55
Speaker 3: your IRA, pay taxes though on that money, and put
24:58
Speaker 3: into a roth the US never being subject to taxes
25:02
Speaker 3: again if it's in the roth iray and meets all
25:04
Speaker 3: the qualifications. And roth irays do not have required minimum
25:09
Speaker 3: distributions that either that you would be subject to or
25:13
Speaker 3: your wife as she were or spouse if she were
25:16
Speaker 3: to inherit your wroth iray.
25:17
Speaker 2: Although the kids do.
25:19
Speaker 6: That's why I didn't say kids.
25:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, the kids don't. They don't have required minim distributions.
25:23
Speaker 2: But they have this out and ten year rule which
25:27
Speaker 2: is new. And I know people personally who you know,
25:30
Speaker 2: built a lot of their estate plan around the idea of, hey,
25:33
Speaker 2: I can build up these wroth irays and the kids
25:35
Speaker 2: can hold them for their entire lives. And that whole
25:37
Speaker 2: thing was thrown out with the with the number of
25:42
Speaker 2: different for one k reform reforms that have been put
25:46
Speaker 2: in place now the other one though, that I see
25:48
Speaker 2: underutilized and under misunderstood. So wroth iray conversions. I think
25:53
Speaker 2: most people that pay attention to their IRA have heard
25:56
Speaker 2: of the term and know about it. But what I
25:58
Speaker 2: see constantly is people putting the wrong types of assets
26:01
Speaker 2: into different types of accounts. And so they do make
26:04
Speaker 2: the point on this that hey, if you're really worried
26:06
Speaker 2: about your IRA. You probably own assets that you don't
26:10
Speaker 2: expect to grow a whole lot, and so why not
26:12
Speaker 2: place those in your IRA? And I'm not saying that's
26:14
Speaker 2: the right or wrong thing to do, but you know,
26:17
Speaker 2: very often, for example, I'll take a look at somebody's
26:20
Speaker 2: investments and their wroth IRA is really conservative and their
26:24
Speaker 2: IRA is really aggressive. And I pointed out, like, okay, well,
26:27
Speaker 2: if this works out the way it has throughout history,
26:29
Speaker 2: then your IRA where you have to take taxable distributions from,
26:33
Speaker 2: is going to grow a lot and your WROTH is not.
26:36
Speaker 2: That's not necessarily how they had planned it all out.
26:39
Speaker 2: And so there are steps you can take to mitigate
26:42
Speaker 2: these tax concerns that everyone is going to ultimately deal
26:45
Speaker 2: with that has a retirement plan of some sort or another.
26:49
Speaker 2: But you can't do it at seventy four years old.
26:52
Speaker 2: And that's my I mean, there's some things you can
26:54
Speaker 2: do at that stage, but the sooner you act on it,
26:57
Speaker 2: like anything else, the better off you will be. And
26:59
Speaker 2: if you have questions about how this is likely to
27:02
Speaker 2: play out in your scenario, and steps you can be
27:04
Speaker 2: taking now to mitigate these scenarios and just ensure that
27:09
Speaker 2: you're not dealing with this tax bomb when you get
27:12
Speaker 2: to your mid seventies, which a lot of people end
27:14
Speaker 2: up facing. Give the folks at Armstrong a call and
27:17
Speaker 2: let us talk you through the strategies that we employ
27:19
Speaker 2: with our clients. The numbers eight hundred three nine three
27:22
Speaker 2: for zero zero one for that free conversation and consultation
27:26
Speaker 2: with somebody at Armstrong. You can check us out and
27:28
Speaker 2: book time for us to call you back to at
27:30
Speaker 2: Armstrong Advisory dot com. But that number eight hundred three
27:34
Speaker 2: nine three for zero zero one.
27:36
Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
27:38
Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
27:41
Speaker 1: Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal or tax advice. Consult
27:44
Speaker 1: your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
27:47
Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
27:50
Speaker 1: advisory services.
27:51
Speaker 2: We were talking about frauds and scams earlier in the
27:54
Speaker 2: program with Sarah Foster, and there's a piece out today
27:57
Speaker 2: from the Journal about tax scams. This time year, as
28:00
Speaker 2: we're all getting ready to file, or some of us
28:02
Speaker 2: already have good for you for those that are you
28:05
Speaker 2: on top of your tax filings and doing them before April.
28:09
Speaker 2: Some of these are pretty well known and have people
28:12
Speaker 2: have experienced. Others are new even to me, but one
28:16
Speaker 2: that's been around for a while. IRS impersonations. Sure, the
28:18
Speaker 2: IRS is not going to call you. I'm just going
28:21
Speaker 2: to say that again. The IRS is not going to
28:24
Speaker 2: call you if there is a problem with your tax return.
28:27
Speaker 2: They're going to write you a letter and then you
28:30
Speaker 2: will deal with that letter. So be really clear. The
28:33
Speaker 2: IRS is not going to call you and demand gift cards.
28:35
Speaker 2: They're not going to call you and leave a message
28:37
Speaker 2: and say, hey, it's Johnny, call me back. You need
28:40
Speaker 2: to initiate conversation with the IRS before they're going to
28:46
Speaker 2: talk to you, So don't pay attention to an IRS
28:48
Speaker 2: impersonation or a phone call that you get from the IRS.
28:51
Speaker 2: They'll write you a letter and if you're not sure,
28:54
Speaker 2: then just tell them, hey, that sounds all very reasonable.
28:57
Speaker 2: Write me a letter. I'm sure you have my home address,
28:59
Speaker 2: and we'll address it that way. Phony refunds or credits.
29:04
Speaker 2: Don't pay attention to tax advice on social media. You know,
29:08
Speaker 2: pretty decent advice that's going to drag you down the
29:11
Speaker 2: path of probably filing your tax return through an IRS
29:14
Speaker 2: impersonation or a CPA impersonator. And the scam here that
29:19
Speaker 2: many have fallen for is, hey, you know this social
29:23
Speaker 2: media post is going to lead me to this ghost
29:25
Speaker 2: tax preparer where some unlicensed person is going to file
29:30
Speaker 2: my taxes. They're going to intentionally do it incorrectly, making
29:34
Speaker 2: it seem like I get eligible for all these credits
29:37
Speaker 2: that may or may not actually exist. And then guess
29:40
Speaker 2: what they get a portion of your tax refund and
29:43
Speaker 2: that's how they charge. They say, no, we don't charge
29:46
Speaker 2: an upfront fee. We're free, but we collect ten percent
29:48
Speaker 2: of your tax refund as our fee. And guess who's
29:52
Speaker 2: liable if they file a bogus tax return, you not them,
29:56
Speaker 2: And then by the way, they're going to disappear.
30:00
Speaker 6: I was not as previous that one.
30:02
Speaker 2: That one was a little bit new to me. Yeah,
30:04
Speaker 2: I mean I knew that there were people that were
30:05
Speaker 2: trying to file your tax return on your behalf and
30:08
Speaker 2: get access to your credit. But this is a new
30:11
Speaker 2: pivot on that where no, they're actually getting you to
30:14
Speaker 2: voluntarily have them file your return, and they're just illegitimate
30:18
Speaker 2: people that aren't actually doing you any favors. Let's take
30:22
Speaker 2: a quick break. When we come back, a little bit
30:24
Speaker 2: of stack Roulette is next here on the Financial Exchange.
30:28
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31:07
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31:46
Speaker 2: Time for a bid of stacker lette here on the
31:48
Speaker 2: Financial Exchange. What do you have for us, Paul, We.
31:51
Speaker 6: Got to talk about the burger. Yeah, the burger rivalry.
31:54
Speaker 3: That's bruin here on the heels of our trivia question
31:57
Speaker 3: earlier in the show. So to give a back talk
31:59
Speaker 3: to people who may not have seen this. And Mike
32:01
Speaker 3: was just watching the video during the break here. There
32:04
Speaker 3: was a thirteen second video that has supercharged the rivalry
32:07
Speaker 3: between McDonald's and Burking. The McDonald's CEO recently posted a
32:11
Speaker 3: video of him trying the new Big Arch burger. His
32:14
Speaker 3: name is Chris Kosemski and in this video, and I
32:17
Speaker 3: would encourage listeners to just go and watch it to
32:20
Speaker 3: get a taste of this pun intended. He tries to
32:25
Speaker 3: eat the new burger that McDonald's come out with, the
32:28
Speaker 3: Big Arch, and he talks about how big it is
32:31
Speaker 3: and how he can't he doesn't even know where to begin,
32:33
Speaker 3: and he takes the smallest bite I have seen out there.
32:37
Speaker 5: It's like my kid trying to get through a Dino
32:39
Speaker 5: nuggets because he's just.
32:41
Speaker 6: An absolutely minuscule bite of it.
32:44
Speaker 3: And then also on top of that, there's a twinge
32:47
Speaker 3: of a facial reaction that it just looks like my
32:50
Speaker 3: son trying broccoli or some you know, Brussels spouts. Look
32:55
Speaker 3: to it where he doesn't seem like he's all enthusiast.
32:58
Speaker 3: And Chris Kosemski, I'm sure he's a guy if you
33:00
Speaker 3: look him up online.
33:01
Speaker 2: A picture him.
33:02
Speaker 3: This guy is the embodiment of a keto like low
33:06
Speaker 3: carb diet guy. I looked up his Wikipedia page. I
33:08
Speaker 3: don't know if this source is accurate, but he's running
33:11
Speaker 3: as of twenty twenty, at least fifty miles a week.
33:13
Speaker 3: He looks all of that like. He does not look
33:15
Speaker 3: like a guy whoever has burgers. He looks like a
33:18
Speaker 3: guy who runs marathon.
33:19
Speaker 2: Well, if you're gonna run fifty miles a week, you
33:21
Speaker 2: need to eat burgers in order to keep the protein.
33:23
Speaker 6: Especially before running.
33:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:25
Speaker 3: So, in response to this, Burger King CEO jumped on
33:29
Speaker 3: Tom Curtis and did a similar video of him trying
33:33
Speaker 3: the new Whopper version that they have out there, and
33:36
Speaker 3: it's just led and Wendy's has jumped in the fray too,
33:39
Speaker 3: which it's US President eating nearly half burger and dipping
33:43
Speaker 3: a fry in a frosty. So all good fun here,
33:46
Speaker 3: but Chris is not looking like he is the most
33:51
Speaker 3: consistent commer of his McDonald.
33:53
Speaker 2: This is what happens for me. That's what happens when
33:55
Speaker 2: you surround yourself by yes men. Was that video good? Yeah,
33:58
Speaker 2: it's great. You took a total manly bite. Good job.
34:01
Speaker 3: What I don't understand is his follower acount has grown
34:03
Speaker 3: by thirty percent after this.
34:04
Speaker 6: Maybe people are hoping.
34:05
Speaker 2: For more in the video. Yeah, I mean, but you
34:08
Speaker 2: didn't nobody, Okay, so any news is good news, right,
34:12
Speaker 2: Nobody had the idea who you were prior to this event, and.
34:16
Speaker 3: The big arch has probably gotten more coverage than it
34:18
Speaker 3: would have normally because shows like US are talking about
34:21
Speaker 3: no doubt.
34:21
Speaker 2: It's like it's like when everybody went and tried the
34:24
Speaker 2: uh impossible whopper, Right, nobody actually wanted to eat a
34:27
Speaker 2: fake burger, but you had to know how much worse
34:31
Speaker 2: or better is this than around impossible? For it was
34:34
Speaker 2: terrible but you know it was it was Yeah, had
34:37
Speaker 2: to go have it. Apple is using low prices to
34:40
Speaker 2: attack rivals. I had to bring up this piece because
34:44
Speaker 2: Apple has never used low prices in the existence of
34:49
Speaker 2: the company history, has never used low prices to try
34:52
Speaker 2: and attract customers and attack rivals. I'm look, I'm not
35:00
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that it won't work. Here's the thing
35:03
Speaker 2: about smartphones, especially, but the Apple universe generally, once you're in,
35:09
Speaker 2: you never leave, And the same thing can be said
35:12
Speaker 2: for other universes. Like I've been an Android user for
35:16
Speaker 2: the entire time I've had a smartphone. All of my
35:18
Speaker 2: friends and family despise me because of it, but I
35:20
Speaker 2: can't leave. Like everything that I have ever done is
35:23
Speaker 2: in that Android universe, and I'm never going to leave.
35:26
Speaker 2: That's just that's the old man yelling at cloud mentality
35:30
Speaker 2: in me. And so I do kind of get why
35:34
Speaker 2: you would try and attract that user base and try
35:38
Speaker 2: and grow it, because again, once you are in the
35:40
Speaker 2: Apple universe, you do not ever leave. You might not
35:44
Speaker 2: upgrade the phone quite as quickly, you might not buy
35:46
Speaker 2: the next iPad, but you will never buy a non iPhone.
35:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they have a strategic advantage at this point.
35:51
Speaker 3: Part of the reason that they're doing this is that
35:53
Speaker 3: they have access better access to rising cost of memory
35:58
Speaker 3: and storage inside the device out there. So what's been
36:00
Speaker 3: well telegraphed, there's some big companies within the memory space
36:03
Speaker 3: that's seen their stocks rise dramatically because there's just a
36:07
Speaker 3: shortage of memory and storage out there for devices like this.
36:11
Speaker 3: Part of it on the backs of just all the
36:13
Speaker 3: investment and demand for it with it an artificial intelligence.
36:16
Speaker 3: Apple has got a really good chokehold on this type
36:19
Speaker 3: of access to this this these memory and storage capabilities
36:23
Speaker 3: in their devices. So as a result of that, when
36:26
Speaker 3: the competition is struggling, try and make inroads on that
36:29
Speaker 3: middle to lower end market.
36:31
Speaker 6: I guess that's their strategic play.
36:33
Speaker 3: But they have been built out just better devices, just
36:35
Speaker 3: better US premium device.
36:38
Speaker 2: And you know, again, what I go back to is
36:41
Speaker 2: many Apple devices, from the air pods to the watch
36:45
Speaker 2: to all of these devices. The ones that have been
36:49
Speaker 2: really successful have been successful in part because of social
36:53
Speaker 2: norms and pressure. Right Like it is kind of seen
36:56
Speaker 2: as a status symbol, right to have your stupid air
37:00
Speaker 2: pods in as you walk around to New York City
37:02
Speaker 2: or to look at your Apple Watch and track your
37:04
Speaker 2: sleep on the thing. Clearly, the social pressure on you know,
37:08
Speaker 2: being a what is it a blue bubble on the
37:12
Speaker 2: tech screen is immense, and so it has to experiencing PTSD.
37:19
Speaker 2: As you can tell, I was removed from the Armstrong
37:22
Speaker 2: family text message chained because I kept screwing up all
37:25
Speaker 2: the videos. But the thing that has made them sell
37:31
Speaker 2: again is that they are almost seen as a fashion product,
37:35
Speaker 2: and I just don't see how going after a lower
37:39
Speaker 2: price consumer is going to feed into that. But again,
37:43
Speaker 2: every time that I've criticized in a decision by Apple,
37:46
Speaker 2: other than their VR headsets, I've been wrong. So I'm
37:50
Speaker 2: just we will see how this plays out.
37:52
Speaker 3: They announced today that their entry level MacBook Neo laptop
37:55
Speaker 3: will be listed at six hundred bucks. That's lower than
38:01
Speaker 3: lower than analysts had expected.
38:04
Speaker 2: DAO, SMP, and NASDAC all pretty strongly in negative territory
38:07
Speaker 2: as we close out the show that Dow is leading
38:09
Speaker 2: the way down seven hundred and fifty five points or
38:11
Speaker 2: one and a half percent. We'll see if we get
38:13
Speaker 2: an afternoon rally here, and we'll be back at it
38:15
Speaker 2: tomorrow on a job's Friday. On the Financial Exchange