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Beek on being FINANCIALLY LITERATE · Beek on being

• 0:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: Hi, I hope you are well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives, talk openly and ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connection. Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world. We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being.
• 0:27
  I'm Melissa Beek, and this is Beek on Being! Today's episode is Beek on being FINANCIALLY LITERATE. A lot of people are overwhelmed when it comes to discussing finances. It can be confusing or hard to figure out where to begin or what works for you at different stages of your life. Today, we have Managing Director of Bermont Gold Wealth Advisory of Raymond James, Bill Bermont, to discuss practical financial advice for every age.
• 0:54
  I'm so thrilled you're here.
• 0:55
  Bill Bermont: I'm thrilled to be here. This is my maiden voyage on a podcast.
• 0:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love it.
• 0:59
  Bill Bermont: I'm really happy that you're my Sherpa for it.
• 1:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love it. I'm your Sherpa for the day. That's perfect. Well, I want I know and love you for a long time, but I want our listeners to know a little bit about you. So, will you tell our listeners a little about yourself and how you got into the field that you're in?
• 1:14
  Bill Bermont: Absolutely. So I grew up in Miami with your family. Yay. And then went to Duke University, where I got to see good basketball and met my lovely wife, Lynn, who is a French teacher. And then I went to Chicago, worked in banking, went to Northwestern for business school.
• 1:31
  And then for about twenty years, I was on a trading desk. First at Salmon Brothers, Citigroup, and then at Credit Suisse. And, about three years ago, I decided to spend more time in Miami working with my father, Raymond James. And my father, Peter, and I, along with Michael Gold, our third partner, we manage about 5,000,000,000 in assets, stocks, and bonds, and alternatives, and planning for wealthy families, and we do some work for endowments and institutions as well. And I am very passionate about financial literacy.
• 2:03
  If I didn't go into finance, I probably would have been a teacher. So this is a wonderful opportunity to to do that.
• 2:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: To combine everything. Absolutely. So how did you get into the financial field? How did
• 2:12
  Bill Bermont: I get into the financial field? I went to college thinking I was gonna be a teacher. So I was a history major. And then the summer between my junior and senior year, I had an internship experience with one of my father's close friends in New York City. And I really enjoyed it.
• 2:31
  It was a great experience with a mentor who wasn't my father. And then from there, I realized I wanted to try out banking and I wanted to go to business school. And I just got really fascinated by business in the market. And that seed had kinda always been there for a while, but I got on the I got on the finance track and have kind of kept going. And what I really like what I'm now is I was on a trading desk for twenty years as I said, and now I'm doing financial advisory work for for friends and families.
• 2:58
  And what I would say is I've gone from haggling to helping.
• 3:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: I like it.
• 3:01
  Bill Bermont: So it's been it's been a I like it. Thank you. It's been a much it's been a much more I enjoy the trading floor very much, but the last three years have been a little bit more wholesome.
• 3:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love that. Wholesome. Oh, that's good. Okay. So for our listeners, they can get basic concepts in layman's terms.
• 3:14
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 3:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Will you please define some of those terms like stocks, bonds, money market?
• 3:20
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 3:20
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 3:21
  Bill Bermont: Okay. So it's all about money.
• 3:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 3:22
  Bill Bermont: All about the Benjamins. So When people think about investing
• 3:26
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 3:27
  Bill Bermont: It is generally the stock market. Okay. So if you buy a stock or stocks, shares in a company, you are basically becoming an owner of that company. Right. And so big corporations, Microsoft, Apple, Coca Cola.
• 3:40
  And so as an owner of that company, you're hoping the company performs well and if you bought the stock for a dollar, you hope that becomes $23 in the future.
• 3:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 3:48
  Bill Bermont: So when you're thinking about stocks, you're thinking about kind of the upside Right. That that can come from that. With bonds, also known as fixed income, when you're investing in a bond, what you wanna get is a fair rate of return and then all your money back in the end. So there's all kinds of bonds. Right.
• 4:03
  There's government bonds also known as treasuries and that's backed by the security of for our country, the US government. There's also emerging markets bonds, you know, it's Latin America or other developing countries. And the reason why they call it fixed income is you get your coupon payment or interest payment couple times a year. Right. And then in the end, you get your money back.
• 4:24
  And so that's why it's called fixed income. And so the difference between stocks and bonds, and stocks, you're thinking about growth and upside. Right. In bonds, you're thinking about, just getting your money paid back again with a fair rate of return. Right.
• 4:36
  And so and there's all sorts of variations on that, but a lot of a lot of investing happens in those two areas.
• 4:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So can you can you define for our listeners also like money market funds and
• 4:49
  Bill Bermont: Sure. Okay.
• 4:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: So mutual funds.
• 4:52
  Bill Bermont: Absolutely. Okay. So in investing, there's this notion of risk and return. Mhmm. The more risk you're taking as an investor, the more return you should get.
• 5:01
  As a general matter, stocks are riskier than bonds Right. For all the reasons I just described. The safest asset that you can have is cash, physical cash in your hand or in some cases under your mattress.
• 5:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. But that doesn't grow.
• 5:14
  Bill Bermont: But that doesn't grow. And so there are ways to invest that cash and have ready access to it. You could put into a bank and a savings account, maybe get a little bit of, you know
• 5:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: Small interest.
• 5:25
  Bill Bermont: Small interest like less than 1%, a couple basis points, or you can put in a money market fund which was gonna yield a little bit more, but you just you can't go into the bank and withdraw that
• 5:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 5:35
  Bill Bermont: Today. You'd have to wait a day or two for that. Right. Because inherent in risk is this notion of liquidity. The more liquid an asset is, the safer it is.
• 5:43
  Right. And liquidity just means there's nothing more liquid than a dollar in your pocket or or gold. Accessibility to it immediately. Exactly. Mhmm.
• 5:50
  Exactly. And so money markets, bank saving accounts, those are the safest and most liquid, but because you're not earning a huge return on that, there's an opportunity cost to not investing in something that while still safe could be riskier like a bond or a stock.
• 6:07
  Melissa Shere Beek: A stock.
• 6:08
  Bill Bermont: Right.
• 6:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 6:09
  Bill Bermont: Right.
• 6:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it. So why so we talk about everybody should be investing Right. And why is it important to invest and why is it important to invest earlier?
• 6:20
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Backing up for one second, because there's probably some other Yes, terms you want me to go ahead. So you can buy an individual stock, you can buy an individual bond. There's also bundles of stocks and bonds that you can buy and those would come in the form of mutual funds where a money manager like a Fidelity or a PIMCO, Pacific Income Management, they will manage a portfolio of stocks around a certain Hundreds of Yes. And so you're getting a benefit of diversification, which we'll get back to.
• 6:48
  You can also do the same thing with bonds. There's also something that's out there called ETFs, exchange traded funds, which are like mutual funds, but they're not being actively managed by a real person in an office in New York or Boston or wherever. They're just constructed, again, could be the place like Fidelity or Vanguard or PIMCO. Right. And they're organized around a theme like the S and P 500 index fund or those 500 stocks in equal weighting.
• 7:13
  And these are these are diversified and liquid forms of investing that gets you access to a certain kind of market or a certain kind of theme you're investing in.
• 7:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 7:22
  Bill Bermont: So It could
• 7:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: just be with environmental, it could be
• 7:24
  Bill Bermont: Yes, absolutely. There could be all sorts of themes. You could have large cap stocks, you could have small cap, you could have biotech. There is no lack of categories that you can invest in across these different products.
• 7:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: And can you tell you said small cap and large cap. Okay. For our listeners.
• 7:41
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Got it. So so difference there's when you're investing in companies that are publicly listed Mhmm. Because there's a difference in public and private. We'll come back to private because we can talk a little bit later about alternatives too.
• 7:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it.
• 7:52
  Bill Bermont: Because that's where
• 7:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: I'm writing all these. I want you to come back to diversification and alternatives. I'm writing maybe. Right.
• 7:57
  Bill Bermont: So because alternatives are where you start to get into what's been very topical of late notions of private equity
• 8:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 8:03
  Bill Bermont: Or private credit, which are Right. Which are are timely, given that given the news cycle of late.
• 8:10
  Melissa Shere Beek: Small So cap, large cap.
• 8:11
  Bill Bermont: Yeah. So when a company is public, it has if you if a company has a 100 shares and is trading at $10 a share, that company's market cap is a thousand dollars. So that's your number of shares times your share price. The largest companies are considered large cap. Microsoft is a large cap company.
• 8:30
  Then there's mid cap companies which are somewhere between, you know, closer to like a $10,000,000,000 for enterprise value. Right. Because now you have trillion dollar
• 8:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 8:37
  Bill Bermont: It's gonna say.
• 8:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: Numbers you can't even imagine.
• 8:39
  Bill Bermont: Numbers you can't even imagine. Let's try to get your head around a trillion dollars. Okay. And and then you have smaller cap, which are just smaller companies Right. That are still public, and you can buy their shares, but they're not they're not as big and they're probably not gonna be they're not gonna trade as much.
• 8:55
  Right. And so there's risk inherent in the size as well too of these types Right. So a large a larger company, is is generally going to be a safer investment than a smaller, potentially more speculative kind of company. Right. Okay.
• 9:10
  And again, that goes back to risk and return.
• 9:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Why is it important to invest early?
• 9:15
  Bill Bermont: Why is it important to invest early?
• 9:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: So Like when you're younger.
• 9:19
  Bill Bermont: Like when you're younger. I think a lot of times, you don't think about investing until it's time to be an adult. Right. And so a lot of people will have their first job in college, after college, and they start to get their paycheck, they start paying taxes.
• 9:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 9:39
  Bill Bermont: They start paying rent.
• 9:40
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 9:41
  Bill Bermont: And, when you're young in your career, in your life, you are trying to establish yourself, and you're probably burning more cash
• 9:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 9:50
  Bill Bermont: Than you're having cash flow come in. Right. But it's really important that you create the discipline early in your life, early in your career to start putting money away, to start saving, to start having simple as
• 10:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: $20 a week or like
• 10:04
  Bill Bermont: Anything anything Anything can. Anything that you can spare
• 10:07
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 10:07
  Bill Bermont: Without having to, you know, eat tuna fish every night.
• 10:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Right. Right. You still have a life, but be able to, like, stash it away.
• 10:13
  Bill Bermont: That's right. And to try and then also you get into the discipline of making good decisions.
• 10:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 10:17
  Bill Bermont: And it's really important to have that discipline because we'll start we'll talk about about compounding.
• 10:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 10:24
  Bill Bermont: Compounding interest or just compounding of of your money over time. Right. If you start investing very early, that money will grow. It'll compound upon itself Right. Over time, until it becomes a very large sum, you know, when you start to need it more for getting married, having a family, sending kids to college, and then ultimately retiring and having a wonderful life with your partner.
• 10:45
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. I think a lot of 20 year olds are out there thinking, oh, I don't even know where to begin.
• 10:50
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 10:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: So do they have how do they create a portfolio? Like how do they start? Is this something that they need to can they do it online? Do they need to go into a brokerage firm?
• 11:00
  Bill Bermont: Okay. So let's back up.
• 11:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 11:03
  Bill Bermont: You've got stocks and bonds Mhmm. And cash. Are sort of the Got it. Those are sort of the forms of currency for investing. We can set aside cash for
• 11:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: now. Okay.
• 11:11
  Bill Bermont: Stocks, generally more risky Mhmm. More upside potential. Again, risk and return. And there's this notion out there that comes from the University of Chicago where I did not go to school Right. Called efficient markets, saying that if there's, an investment that's returning too much relative to its risk, enough people will buy it and it will become a fair risk return.
• 11:32
  If an investment is trading, at too little return for its risk, people will sell it and then it'll be repriced according to its risk. So again, risk and return are really important. And so when you think about stocks and bonds Mhmm. Early in your life, as a general rule, I would say, you should be mostly invested in stocks because you want to start to
• 11:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: get when back you're younger.
• 11:54
  Bill Bermont: Absolutely. Okay. And then over time, you get more into fixed income because that's just how your life is. Right. And so a rule of
• 12:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: thumb Or security with job and
• 12:02
  Bill Bermont: A rule of thumb for a lot of people is that early on, I probably wanna be 90% in stocks, 10% in bonds. Okay. Or maybe a 100% in stocks. As you get a little older, call it like late twenties or early thirties, maybe eighty twenty stocks and bonds.
• 12:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it.
• 12:17
  Bill Bermont: And sort of the the the the fat part of the age curve, if you will, generally the rule of thumb is seventythirty or sixtyforty stocks and bonds respectively. Okay. So
• 12:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: can someone do this online?
• 12:32
  Bill Bermont: You can there's a lot of information to be had online.
• 12:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 12:35
  Bill Bermont: There's a lot that you can teach yourself.
• 12:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 12:38
  Bill Bermont: I think it's important to, if you're gonna do it yourself, at least get some advice, and if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, hire someone to give you that advice.
• 12:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: At least give you the foundation.
• 12:50
  Bill Bermont: Yes, absolutely.
• 12:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it. Absolutely. So how do you start investing when you're young and and you don't have as much knowledge, you're not as experienced, you don't really have a lot of money yet, but you wanna build financial security? I know the Einstein of Wall Street. I I don't know if you watch him ever.
• 13:08
  Bill Bermont: No. Don't know him. No.
• 13:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, he's great on Instagram. He's probably no bigger than my mother is. He's like this kind of brilliant, brilliant investor.
• 13:16
  Bill Bermont: But your mother's small, but
• 13:16
  Melissa Shere Beek: my Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Oh, yeah.
• 13:18
  Yeah. I I said She's
• 13:19
  Bill Bermont: a formidable woman.
• 13:20
  Melissa Shere Beek: Big mouth. Yes. Yes. So that's how he is, but he's always telling people on the street, like, you can invest. Instead of buying a new pair of Nikes, buy stock in Nike company.
• 13:30
  Because the minute you buy the shoes and you walk out of the store, the value's down, but if you have stock in the company, that you're always going to earn from that. So how does someone think in their twenties, I'm I'm living, you know, paycheck to paycheck, is it as simple as not buying a couple of Starbucks coffees and putting that money away each weekend, and then how do I invest that? Where do where does someone begin in their twenties when they're just starting out and they really have no knowledge about any of this?
• 13:56
  Bill Bermont: And we're gonna and you are reminding me of my college economics. They talk about the utility of purchases. We can come we can come back to that because you shouldn't
• 14:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: just We have a lot we're coming back to.
• 14:04
  Bill Bermont: You shouldn't you shouldn't just invest and not enjoy life. You should
• 14:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, yeah. No. Not purchases. Detriment of you not having a life.
• 14:11
  Bill Bermont: Yeah. That bring you joy Right. To be good experiences. Yes.
• 14:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Of course. Yeah.
• 14:14
  Bill Bermont: Yeah. So
• 14:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: But maybe you don't need 30 pairs.
• 14:17
  Bill Bermont: It's also true. So I'd mentioned before Fidelity. Fidelity is one of the largest financial firms, you know, that that's out there, and they've been around for a long time.
• 14:26
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Beautiful.
• 14:26
  Bill Bermont: And they were one of the original money managers that kind of for the people, where they had mutual funds that you could just, you know, go into their offices and buy it, and then later on, you could buy them online. There was a famous money manager that worked for Fidelity called Peter Lynch. I don't know if you ever heard of Peter Lynch, but he he managed their biggest fund called the Magellan Fund. He had a tremendous track record. And one of his maxims was buy what you know.
• 14:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 14:49
  Bill Bermont: And so you talked about, you know, buying the shoes. Yeah. When I was a kid, know, around the time I was trying to get invited to your sister's bat mitzvah, I was really baseball was my first love and I loved collecting baseball cards.
• 15:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Sure.
• 15:03
  Bill Bermont: And so I talked to my father about that. He said, well, if you think baseball cards are a good product and interesting and you have a passion for them, maybe you should look into buying stock in a company called Tops, which is the largest trading card company. So I did that in seventh grade and then sold it about a year later. I actually I actually used some of my own bar mitzvah money, of which your sister was at the the head table to be clear. And
• 15:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: The cute blonde. How could you not?
• 15:29
  Bill Bermont: Yes. Absolutely. And she was a great dancer.
• 15:31
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yes.
• 15:31
  Bill Bermont: She is. Yes. She had a little bit of the Liker Prayer Madonna kind of moves to her. So
• 15:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. And the gloves and everything too.
• 15:38
  Bill Bermont: Yes. That was very yes. We are children of the eighties.
• 15:41
  Melissa Shere Beek: You guys are. Yeah.
• 15:43
  Bill Bermont: You're you're at the market. Yeah. Okay. But, anyway, I made I made a good return, and that was a great experience.
• 15:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. But And you didn't know you weren't to finances then?
• 15:53
  Bill Bermont: I did it was more it was more the affirmation of I did some work here. Right. I got a return on my investment of time and money.
• 16:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 16:03
  Bill Bermont: And that was a really good experience. And so what I would say to you is that as you start investing, there's certain guardrails you can put up in terms of asset allocation of stock versus bonds.
• 16:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 16:15
  Bill Bermont: But then there's also do your research, buy what you know. Or if you don't understand something because someone's working on your behalf, ask them about
• 16:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: it. Right.
• 16:23
  Bill Bermont: Like we we I mentioned before about mutual funds and ETFs. At our firm, I mean, this is gonna come as a shock to you, but none of us have PhDs in science. Okay. And so, you know, what is the next miracle drug that could be out there? We don't know.
• 16:37
  We have no way of assessing that. Like, what's the next Ozempic, for And so we've invested in a biotech ETF, a lot of emerging smaller science companies. And we have a small portion of the portfolio in that for our clients because that's gonna give us exposure through someone else's work to that kind of product. And so, that is the opposite of buying what you know, but it's working through someone who knows what they're doing in that space.
• 17:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So you're really saying, make sure you're diverse.
• 17:07
  Bill Bermont: Make sure you're diverse. Right. If you're gonna do something yourself, make sure you do your research. Right. If you're not certain about it, ask questions.
• 17:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Ask an expert.
• 17:14
  Bill Bermont: Ask an expert, ask questions.
• 17:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Call Bill.
• 17:16
  Bill Bermont: Or whoever. And you just wanna make sure that you understand everything that you own and you're getting paid commensurate to the risk you're taking.
• 17:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So this is what you would advise any 20 something out there to do?
• 17:28
  Bill Bermont: Yes. Okay. I would say I would say before you come talk to someone like me or or certainly before you do anything on your own
• 17:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 17:35
  Bill Bermont: Do some work.
• 17:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 17:36
  Bill Bermont: Do some real
• 17:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. And in doing that work, do you talk about budgeting? Do you talk about savings? Do you talk about, like, getting rid of debt? Like Okay.
• 17:45
  What do what do they need to know?
• 17:47
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Let's let's talk about debt. May be one of the most important takeaways Sure. That I could offer up. A lot of students or young people come into the workforce saddled with debt.
• 17:58
  Yeah. And there's different kinds of debt, and not all debt is created equal. The worst kind of debt you can have is credit card debt. It's extraordinarily expensive. The APR, annual percentage rate could run 18 to 20%.
• 18:10
  And none of that is tax deductible. And so that is a real that is really punitive debt. So the first thing I would say before you invest, because it's very hard to go out there and find 18 to 20% returns, pay down your credit card debt.
• 18:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 18:23
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Student debt, you have some leeway in that Different. But like past a certain point, that is also not tax deductible, and that is also very expensive. And student debt is a real good investment because that's maybe how you got through school, maybe you got a higher degree to enable you get the job that you had.
• 18:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Necessary. But
• 18:40
  Bill Bermont: that would be sort of in the in the hierarchy of bad debt to to pay. Yeah. It would be credit card debt easily, and then perhaps student debt after that.
• 18:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 18:49
  Bill Bermont: And then there's mortgage debt. And so as a general matter, and this is going back to public policy for decades, the government wants you to own your home. Yeah. And so when you have a mortgage on your your your primary residence is what they call it. Right.
• 19:04
  Up to a certain point, you can deduct the interest you're paying on your on your mortgage against your against your income. So it's it's lowering your income that you're getting taxed on by the And when you're and that goes to another point. Taxes are real. They're not going away. Right.
• 19:22
  They're probably only going higher. Right. You should always think about investments on an after tax return. What is the money that is actually going to my pocket after I do all this After
• 19:32
  Melissa Shere Beek: you pay all this off.
• 19:33
  Bill Bermont: That's right.
• 19:33
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it.
• 19:33
  Bill Bermont: That's right.
• 19:34
  Melissa Shere Beek: And even the mortgage may not even be applicable to a lot of 20 year olds who are renting, who can't afford a home yet,
• 19:39
  Bill Bermont: and That's right.
• 19:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: All that stuff. Okay.
• 19:40
  Bill Bermont: That's right. And there's there's and there's math you can do in terms of the rent versus buy Sure. Versus the rent
• 19:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: versus is the cost buy effective. Exactly. Got it. Okay. So is there a certain percentage of each paycheck that people should be putting away?
• 19:55
  Bill Bermont: It's sort of it's a similar question to how much money should I have in
• 19:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: the Right. Right. Right.
• 19:59
  Bill Bermont: It's really what you're comfortable with.
• 20:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Because you don't wanna miss out on life, go to a concert, do something that you enjoy.
• 20:05
  Bill Bermont: You That's
• 20:06
  Melissa Shere Beek: don't wanna be like stuck in your home all the time, not having a life and enjoying yourself. Right. But you also wanna put away for the future.
• 20:12
  Bill Bermont: Right. You don't wanna live to work, you wanna work to live. Right. I would say, to answer your question in a different way, the rule of thumb that a lot of people have for how much money I should have saved Mhmm. Is if I have to go three to six months without having any income, could I Okay.
• 20:26
  Could I pay my necessities? Got it. And so that's probably a good rule
• 20:30
  Melissa Shere Beek: of That's a good rule
• 20:31
  Bill Bermont: of thumb.
• 20:31
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Which I'm newly out of college, I'm sure a lot of young kids just can't.
• 20:38
  Bill Bermont: Right. Which could and that's and usually that first place that you're renting on your own, that's a real decision of what you can afford. Yeah. It's a real come down to go from, you know, a nice college apartment that mom and dad need Yeah. To the, you know, to the the, you know, the three bedroom, one Yeah.
• 20:53
  Bathroom Exactly. That they have to put the fake wallop in New York City.
• 20:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: Exactly. Right. Exactly. Okay. So then why why not just put money into a savings account?
• 21:04
  Bill Bermont: Okay. So I'm gonna give you some math.
• 21:06
  Melissa Shere Beek: As opposed to investing.
• 21:07
  Bill Bermont: I'm gonna give you some math here.
• 21:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Lay Okay. It on
• 21:09
  Bill Bermont: I mentioned before this notion of opportunity cost. Mhmm. And so if I invest in one thing Mhmm. I can invest in another thing. That applies in finance, but it also implies in sort of how you're living your life.
• 21:21
  If I do one thing, I can't do another thing.
• 21:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 21:23
  Bill Bermont: Okay? And so if I were just to put my money metaphorically
• 21:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 21:28
  Bill Bermont: Under my mattress
• 21:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 21:30
  Bill Bermont: That would just be cash. And the cash would get kind of the value of that would get eroded by something called inflation. Mhmm. And there's also this notion in finance that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. And the reason why is because if I have a dollar today, I can invest that and it can grow, we're still at the dollar tomorrow, that doesn't really do me much good So in the if you look back at some history
• 21:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 21:55
  Bill Bermont: Because these numbers are very compelling.
• 21:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: Here comes the history teacher.
• 21:57
  Bill Bermont: Here comes the history teacher. If If you invested a $100 in 1970 in the stock market Mhmm. Through 2023, through three years ago, that $100 would be $22,500. So basically, 220 times your money or a 12% annualized
• 22:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: return. Okay.
• 22:14
  Bill Bermont: That's amazing. That's the power of compounding. Okay? Corporate
• 22:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: So explain compounding. It's it's not it's not just on the money. It's on the principle. So break that down for everybody.
• 22:24
  Bill Bermont: So if I'm if I'm earning 12% a year, if I'm earning 12% a year, I invest a $100 year one. In year two, that becomes I'm sorry. In year in year zero Mhmm. At the end of year one, that's a 112 Mhmm. And so now I'm gonna get 12% on a $112.
• 22:38
  Right. And then I get 12% on whatever a 112 something like a $125.
• 22:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 22:43
  Bill Bermont: And so that so what compounding is is basically interest upon interest.
• 22:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. And that's that's the Interest and investment. Yes. Right.
• 22:50
  Bill Bermont: Your investment and then Plus
• 22:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: your interest.
• 22:52
  Bill Bermont: Plus your interest.
• 22:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: And then interest on top of all of that. Compounding each.
• 22:56
  Bill Bermont: Yes. And leaving it and leaving in the market in the example I just gave. Now, if you were to go to bonds, again, is on risk return. Mhmm. If you were to invest a $100 in bonds in 1970, that would have turned into about $8,000 by 2023.
• 23:09
  Not bad. Right. You know, that's that's that's pretty good. That's what? 80 times on your money?
• 23:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 23:14
  Bill Bermont: And it's about a little close like a 9% annual return. Okay?
• 23:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 23:18
  Bill Bermont: If I
• 23:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: A little just less than stock.
• 23:19
  Bill Bermont: If I just left it in cash in a money market fund and a saving account, that a $100 would be about a thousand dollars. So stocks, 220 times my money, bonds, 80 times my money, cash, 10 times my money over a period of forty odd years. Right. So that is the power of compounding.
• 23:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Start investing now, kids.
• 23:37
  Bill Bermont: Start investing now, kids. Exactly. Exactly. And even if you do like the $60.40 or $70.30 in that, you're gonna you're gonna start to build real wealth that way. Okay.
• 23:45
  Right. So another I
• 23:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: think people are just scared because they don't understand it. Okay. And they don't understand the terminology.
• 23:52
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 23:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: They don't know where to begin. Okay. So I hope that they listen to everything that you said and and and how you're breaking it down so they know that, oh, okay. I should manage this.
• 24:01
  Bill Bermont: I hope so too.
• 24:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 24:02
  Bill Bermont: Good. Because the the stress there's all kinds of stress in life, and there's, like, there's real scary stress, and then there's money stress.
• 24:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 24:12
  Bill Bermont: And that's not a fun way to live. So the sooner that you can start planning and have, like, a foundation of security
• 24:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 24:19
  Bill Bermont: Literally and figuratively for after the house, then that's gonna bring you a more fulfilling life.
• 24:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. And I think they don't realize that it can be just $25 a week, a $100 a month. Right. You know? Like, it it doesn't have to be don't have to be suffering
• 24:32
  Bill Bermont: Right.
• 24:32
  Melissa Shere Beek: But just just a little bit.
• 24:34
  Bill Bermont: Early early days, I think it's less the the amount is less important than the discipline of putting that money away Right. And constantly investing.
• 24:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: A 100%. I agree with that. The discipline of doing it. Right. Okay.
• 24:45
  Got it. Okay. So once they have a job
• 24:47
  Bill Bermont: Yep.
• 24:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: And they have a little bit more security
• 24:50
  Bill Bermont: Yep.
• 24:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Steady income Yep. What do you need to do for future financial growth
• 24:54
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 24:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: And savings.
• 24:56
  Bill Bermont: And savings. One thing that I'll add in here that's a little bit off topic, but I think worth mentioning, is that early in life and insurance has some bad connotations. Yeah. We do some insurance in our practice, but it's generally part of a larger estate planning exercise. When you're younger, you don't have a lot of savings.
• 25:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 25:15
  Bill Bermont: If you have the wherewithal to buy and you're younger, and you're generally healthy when you're younger. I mean, you know, you can still be crazy when you're younger, but you can be healthy. Right? Yeah. But you can be crazy in the charming way.
• 25:24
  Right. Which is which is what we're striving for.
• 25:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: It's okay.
• 25:27
  Bill Bermont: When when you're younger, you can get insurance that's very cheap.
• 25:32
  Melissa Shere Beek: You're talking life, health, kind of insurance, life insurance.
• 25:35
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Life insurance. You can get term insurance which lasts for, you know, usually about twenty years and then it goes away. And oftentimes, what happens is that you grow into a more secure position as you advance in your career
• 25:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 25:48
  Bill Bermont: And you accumulate more earnings, and you can let that insurance dissipate. But if God forbid something were to happen Yeah. And you have a young family, that insurance is there in lieu of the assets you might otherwise accumulate.
• 25:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So I think this is a brilliant point you're making.
• 26:02
  Bill Bermont: Thank you. I appreciate it. So don't be dismissive of insurance given all of its negative connotations. It's something to something to think about. So that was a little off topic, I just wanna make mention No.
• 26:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: I think brilliant. Because I didn't even have it in my questions or anything like that, and I thought it was brilliant. You know, you're right.
• 26:15
  Bill Bermont: It wasn't on the test?
• 26:16
  Melissa Shere Beek: No. It wasn't
• 26:16
  Bill Bermont: on the test.
• 26:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: But you're a great educator, I
• 26:19
  Bill Bermont: love it. I appreciate it. Love it. It's very kind. That's
• 26:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: very helpful. Okay. So then can you tell we already discussed sort of like compound interest
• 26:25
  Bill Bermont: Right.
• 26:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: And but you said you wanna go I wanted to go back to it as well, diversification.
• 26:29
  Bill Bermont: Got it. Okay. So diversification come in in many forms. It can come in the different kinds of stocks that you own. We're buying a mutual funds and getting a lot of different stock exposure that way.
• 26:40
  Right. There's diversification between asset classes, between stocks and bonds. Right. We can talk a little bit about alternatives.
• 26:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Have that here too.
• 26:47
  Bill Bermont: Yes.
• 26:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: I want to discuss that.
• 26:48
  Bill Bermont: And so, just to for some context, because alternatives gets a lot of
• 26:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Tell everyone what alternatives.
• 26:53
  Bill Bermont: Okay. So alternatives
• 26:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: are Wait, break it down even simpler. Tell everyone about diversification.
• 26:59
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 26:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: And then we'll get into alternatives. Okay. And then we'll see why they're all important.
• 27:02
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Diversification is different kinds of stocks. Right. Okay. And so that could come in the form of large cap, mid mid cap, small cap.
• 27:11
  That could come in terms of different industries. Right. Technology, healthcare.
• 27:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Different countries.
• 27:15
  Bill Bermont: Different countries. Absolutely. So that's that's diversification within stocks. Right. And then take that same analogy and apply it to bonds.
• 27:21
  Right. And so and then you mix that all together, and then all of sudden you have a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. Right. Okay. So I kinda mentioned before like seventy thirty stocks and bonds as on average where a lot of people's asset allocation ends up.
• 27:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 27:38
  Bill Bermont: Increasingly, a lot more planners are talking about sixty thirty ten. 60 in bond excuse me, 60 in stocks, 30 in bonds, and 10 in alternatives. So what are alternatives? Yeah. Alternatives is is basically a fancy way of saying anything that's not in the stock market, anything that's not really bonds
• 27:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: And not cash.
• 27:58
  Bill Bermont: And not cash. Mhmm. And so it's things like private equity. And private equity is basically another way of saying owning stock in a company that's private. Right.
• 28:07
  Or investing in a fund that buys private companies.
• 28:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: So how does someone get into that?
• 28:13
  Bill Bermont: So generally, because those investments like, if I buy a stock, I can sell it tomorrow and get my money back.
• 28:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 28:20
  Bill Bermont: If I invest in a private company, I don't know when I'm getting my money back. Right. If I invest in a fund that buys private companies, I don't know when I'm getting my money back. Right. And so that's why it's sort of 10%
• 28:31
  Melissa Shere Beek: Only 10%.
• 28:32
  Bill Bermont: Because that's the riskiest that should be the riskiest part of your portfolio.
• 28:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Could be tremendous game. Could be tremendous loss.
• 28:39
  Bill Bermont: Generally, in those types of investment, you're looking to make multiples on your money. Right. And you're looking to make that in a
• 28:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: period There's no guarantee.
• 28:46
  Bill Bermont: There's never a guarantee. Right. You're looking to make that sort of a three to seven year time frame, but you have very little control over that investment, and it's it's completely illiquid until something happens.
• 28:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So it isn't really at the end of seven years because you may not see your money after that as well.
• 29:02
  Bill Bermont: That that is also true. Okay. And so when you when you because invest
• 29:05
  Melissa Shere Beek: you don't know when you'll be able to take it out or get it back.
• 29:08
  Bill Bermont: That's right. Okay.
• 29:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: That's
• 29:09
  Bill Bermont: right. If you're investing in a private company Mhmm. Especially if you're not a manager or owner or like a or like an owner with control Right. Of it or investing in a fund that that does that. And like the big funds that invest in private equity, famous ones are like KKR
• 29:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 29:22
  Bill Bermont: Bain Capital, Toma Bravo Mhmm. Names like that. And they invest around all sorts of different themes. Generally, you have to be of a certain net worth to invest in private equity or alternatives. Yeah.
• 29:33
  And you also have to be you have to be prepared to hold that investment maybe for as long as ten to twelve years.
• 29:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Okay? That's And so Different kind of level of wealth to do that.
• 29:44
  Bill Bermont: That's right. And so alternatives gets a lot of airtime, but for most people, it doesn't make sense.
• 29:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Unrealistic. Yeah.
• 29:51
  Bill Bermont: And even for those people, does make sense. You can spend more than 10% of your time worrying and thinking about that, but the reality is the bulk of the wealth is made in in the bulk of your money should be
• 30:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: In stocks.
• 30:03
  Bill Bermont: In public in public liquid assets. Right. Especially when you're young. Right. And that's where you can that's where you can accumulate a lot of wealth in in a more transparent way.
• 30:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it. You're a little more controlled, so to speak. Absolutely. Okay. So you talked about the percentages of the portfolio changing as someone ages.
• 30:24
  Right. Can you talk about what a Roth IRA is?
• 30:29
  Bill Bermont: Sure.
• 30:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 30:30
  Bill Bermont: Okay. I wanna actually I'm gonna give you an example too before we get into Okay. About how the portfolio can change. Yes. So I have two daughters
• 30:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 30:40
  Bill Bermont: And Rachel. My older one is now in college. She's a first year in North Carolina.
• 30:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: Congratulations.
• 30:45
  Bill Bermont: Thank you. She's lovely. She's amazing. She's she's having a great time, and she's studying even more, and we're proud of her for that. Right.
• 30:53
  And she wants to be a teacher, which is also cool. Awesome. But when she was born, I established something called a five twenty nine plan.
• 30:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 30:59
  Bill Bermont: What a five twenty nine plan is is that you can start saving money as soon as your child is born, and that money is put into an account that then grows and can be used towards their education
• 31:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 31:12
  Bill Bermont: Whenever they Like get
• 31:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: the Florida Prepaid.
• 31:14
  Bill Bermont: Exactly. And the Florida Prepaid is a wonderful program for those who live here, especially if you have any sort of possibility of going to a Florida
• 31:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: There's reciprocity with other schools. You don't get the same return, but there you do get something for each of the credits. That's right. But it's investing in the future. And
• 31:29
  Bill Bermont: so when the reason why I bring this up in in in on the basis of the question you were asking me about IRAs is that when Rachel was born, it was a 100% stocks.
• 31:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 31:39
  Bill Bermont: And what they had, they had sort of they called it like a a time horizon fund. And so for the first call at five, six years of her life, it was all in stocks. As, you know, she's getting to be seven or eight, it starts to have, you know, stocks and bonds. As she's getting closer to college, 16, 17, about to go to college, it basically becomes very safe investments. Not quite cash, but maybe more like money market oriented.
• 32:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got
• 32:03
  Bill Bermont: it. And so that's a good example of a life cycle of how you're investing around the needs.
• 32:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: Because I
• 32:09
  Bill Bermont: wanted her
• 32:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: stocks compared to bonds.
• 32:10
  Bill Bermont: The money that she the money that that compounded on Rachel's behalf in the 05/29 from when she was born back in 2006 is now safe and can be used to pay for her tuition Amazing. In twenty twenty five, twenty six for her first year of school and thereafter. So 05/29 plans are a really good thing
• 32:26
  Melissa Shere Beek: to look into Okay.
• 32:27
  Bill Bermont: For a young family. Okay. Now, with an IRA. An IRA is a way to save it's an individual retirement account. It's a way to save for retirement separate and apart from whatever sort of company retirement plan you have access to.
• 32:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 32:44
  Bill Bermont: Some people have old school pensions or what you or four zero one k plan is what you've what you've often heard of. We I wanna come back to that too. Because four zero k plan is really important. Yes.
• 32:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: I'm making notes.
• 32:55
  Bill Bermont: If you don't if you don't have a company retirement plan, you wanna supplement your company retirement plan, you can invest in an IRA. Okay. And you put money in to the IRA over the course of your over the course of your career, at least like the early to medium part of your career. Right. There's there's income restrictions on what you can contribute.
• 33:13
  Okay.
• 33:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Was gonna ask you how much do you put away and how often?
• 33:16
  Bill Bermont: Got it. So you can put, I think that right now the IR what is deductible Mhmm. On an IR on a regular traditional IRA. We'll talk about
• 33:26
  Melissa Shere Beek: of your work. Outside Is is of
• 33:29
  Bill Bermont: I I wanna say it's $8,000.
• 33:31
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 33:31
  Bill Bermont: Okay? So you can put How that away
• 33:33
  Melissa Shere Beek: often?
• 33:34
  Bill Bermont: That's once a year.
• 33:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Once a year.
• 33:35
  Bill Bermont: Got it. So you can do that once a year. Mhmm. It is it is tax deductible.
• 33:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 33:39
  Bill Bermont: And and then you don't get to withdraw that money until you reach retirement age unless there's some sort of hardship
• 33:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 33:46
  Bill Bermont: Until 59.
• 33:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 33:48
  Bill Bermont: And then after you get into your seventies, they require you to to to spend
• 33:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: that Yeah.
• 33:53
  Bill Bermont: Because that was tax deductible dollars on the way in, on the way out, you know, when your retirement years 59 on, you pay your your your income tax at that at the at your age, and as you're using those those retire those IRA dollars in your retirement. Does that make sense?
• 34:10
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yes.
• 34:10
  Bill Bermont: Okay. Got it. Okay. A Roth IRA, the reason why it's very popular is that you can and there's there's income limits. I think you kind of top out like around a 100 if you make more than a 125,000, you're not eligible for a Roth IRA.
• 34:24
  You put the money in the Roth IRA, it's after tax dollars.
• 34:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 34:29
  Bill Bermont: And then you can also start to withdraw the 59 and a half in in your retirement. But when that's withdraw, because you've already paid taxes on those dollars, you're getting that money out tax free.
• 34:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. You don't have to pay.
• 34:40
  Bill Bermont: Right. And so there's a lot of people who have who are our age, who have traditional IRAs, they're not doing the calculations. Should I do a Roth conversion because based on the assumptions around my tax rate, this would And what be better the
• 34:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: tax rate will be then?
• 34:53
  Bill Bermont: Exactly.
• 34:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: I mean, I'm on that cusp right now, but I'm just saying
• 34:56
  Bill Bermont: Right. Right.
• 34:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: For someone who's 20 or 30 and thinking about what the taxes might be when they're
• 35:01
  Bill Bermont: That's exactly right.
• 35:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: At the door of 60.
• 35:02
  Bill Bermont: Right. Or like, say for example, you live in New York and you're paying very high tax rate
• 35:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Sure.
• 35:08
  Bill Bermont: But you may wanna move to Florida as some people have done. Come on. It makes sense to wait until you're actually a Florida resident
• 35:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 35:16
  Bill Bermont: To do that conversion because you're gonna
• 35:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: be taxed at a Exactly. Exactly.
• 35:20
  Bill Bermont: Exactly. So Roth IRA is if you could start with a Roth IRA right away Mhmm. It's probably a good idea. Mhmm. Because I think, again, over time, you're going to have more dollars in there that that you that your dollars will will compound, and you get all of that compounding.
• 35:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Taxing it on later. Exactly. Okay. So go back to a four zero one k plan.
• 35:41
  Bill Bermont: If your company has a four zero one k plan Mhmm. Generally
• 35:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: And tell our listeners what a four zero
• 35:45
  Bill Bermont: one k plan is.
• 35:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: Sorry. I just want context for anybody who's like, I don't
• 35:49
  Bill Bermont: know what they're talking Okay. So before when we were working in in coal mines Mhmm. Okay, there were pensions or working in in probably a little more recent or like working like like an auto plan. Right. There were pensions where a company, they're called defined benefit Mhmm.
• 36:04
  Defined benefit plans or DB plans. Okay? And basically, the company Ford, GM, Christ, whatever it may be, they were putting money away in pensions accounts and and investing that on behalf of their employees. And then when you retired from those companies, you got some sort of payout for that. Right.
• 36:21
  In some cases that worked out well, in other cases worked out terribly. Right. All three companies that I mentioned before had had real issues including bankruptcy during the financial crisis of two thousand eight. So that's not great because then those benefits are gone. Yeah.
• 36:35
  They may they are they certainly were diminished, if not evaporate altogether. Right. And so and pensions are very expensive, very complicated. Sure. So a few decades ago, there's this notion of defined contribution plans, and there's a part of the tax code four zero one k.
• 36:49
  That's where that comes from. And basically, what it is is that the employer will set up a plan for you, and you since you're contributing those dollars, a portion of those dollars, you can direct how they're invested. Right. So I can that's where I can make my asset allocation, where I can, you know, choose stocks or bonds or mutual funds or some or something like that. But the reason why four zero one k is really important, I wanna come back to especially for younger people or early in their careers is that generally four zero one k plans have company matches.
• 37:20
  Like if I put in, for every dollar I put in, up to a certain percentage, my company's gonna put in a dollar for me. That's almost like free money.
• 37:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: Doubling.
• 37:28
  Bill Bermont: Right. So if you have to choose between an IRA or four zero one ks, I would max Uh-huh. The four zero one k before I do the IRA. Right. That is probably the most we talked about saving before.
• 37:40
  That is probably the most accessible efficient way to start saving for your future with a four zero one k. Now, the downside is you don't get to use that until you retire.
• 37:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 37:48
  Bill Bermont: Until you're retired, but at the same time though, like, you're getting, you know, you're getting you're using other people's money to leverage Right. Your
• 37:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: To grow.
• 37:54
  Bill Bermont: Yes.
• 37:55
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it. Okay. So what should someone start planning? When should someone start planning for retirement?
• 38:03
  Bill Bermont: I think as soon as you start your first job and have your first Okay. Absolutely.
• 38:07
  Melissa Shere Beek: And the same rules apply. Make sure you have like three to six months of wealth stored in case anything comes up or anything like that.
• 38:13
  Bill Bermont: That's right.
• 38:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: And the best way to store to to prepare for retirement is, like you said, four zero one ks, Roth RA, all of the above.
• 38:23
  Bill Bermont: Right. And and you had listed some questions before about, you know, taking risks.
• 38:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 38:29
  Bill Bermont: And there if you have the wherewithal, there's parts of your portfolio that you can take more riskier Right. You can I don't wanna say bets because it's not a game, but like, you know, maybe more speculative investment? Like, you have a friend who's starting a company or like there's, you know, there's this amazing scientific innovation that's, you know, that you can get access to venture capital. Some portion of your portfolio could be
• 38:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: that risk. I guess it depends on the person.
• 38:55
  Bill Bermont: I think that the the if the if 10% is sort of illiquid risky assets, some fraction of that.
• 39:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: Some fraction of that. Okay. Yeah. I'm a I'm a slow and steady
• 39:05
  Bill Bermont: kinda girl. And that's okay. Yeah. And that's that's another How much money do you want in the bank? How much should you be saving?
• 39:11
  Those are very personal decisions.
• 39:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Okay, great. Is there a common mistake that most people should avoid that they don't realize?
• 39:18
  Bill Bermont: This is gonna sound trite, but you don't know what you don't know.
• 39:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 39:22
  Bill Bermont: And I think making any decisions without fully researching it fully researching it or consulting others. Again, like it goes back to the Peter LITERATES match them. You should you should know what you own.
• 39:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 39:37
  Bill Bermont: And you should and you should be able to and you should go in and retest that. So at our firm, we manage we manage a few billion dollars and we've got a wonderful practice and wonderful clients. And every week we have a meeting and we go through every stock that we own, and we ask why do we own this? Does that thesis still hold?
• 39:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 39:57
  Bill Bermont: If it's changed, should we still should we sell it?
• 40:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 40:01
  Bill Bermont: Or should we buy more? Right. And so you need to you don't necessarily need to do that every week as a lay person, but you that should be a regular exercise.
• 40:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 40:08
  Bill Bermont: I remember sitting on the trading desk and people would just forget to look at their four zero one k's. And and there are also some sad stories too. I knew people during the financial crisis working at Citigroup who had a lot of company stock. And so you're sort of doubling down, not only is this company paying my paycheck, but I also have an outsized position of my retirement wealth tied up in the prospects of this company. And in the case of Citi, that wasn't a good thing.
• 40:33
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Not a good thing at all.
• 40:35
  Bill Bermont: Because they were they were like other banks bailed out.
• 40:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Alright. So my takeaway is greater risk when you're younger.
• 40:44
  Bill Bermont: You have, yes, because one of the most important variables you have in investing is time. Okay. The more time you have, the more time you have to
• 40:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Recoup any losses, take Absolutely. Greater Okay. Yes. Yes. We talked about percentages of sixtyforty, or maybe sixtythirtyten, And we talked about having emergency saving for three to six months.
• 41:14
  But at certain ages, should they be putting away more or less and in different stages? I know you said, like, in your twenties, you can kind of live with a little bit less, but in your thirties, when you're maybe having children and buying a home, and then when you retire. There you have grandchildren to worry Yeah.
• 41:37
  Bill Bermont: Money is money is a finite source. Mhmm. And you have to prioritize what's important to you.
• 41:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. And So it's not really on ages, it's more
• 41:46
  Bill Bermont: It's a personal preference. So, you know, as I was thinking about, know, for example, we bought a home around the time we had our second child, Gabrielle, who's in tenth grade, killing it, and there was the calculation around maxing out her $5.29 versus the kind of place we could afford when we were living in New York City. Right. And so there is what is the right balance of how large of a mortgage do I feel Yeah. Comfortable having versus making sure that Gabrielle has her college savings.
• 42:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 42:19
  Bill Bermont: And so that's those are the trade offs that you have.
• 42:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 42:23
  Bill Bermont: And so it really it really depends on what your priorities are.
• 42:26
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 42:27
  Bill Bermont: And what and that's the other thing too is as you're nearing retirement, the money that you have once you stop working has to last for the rest of your life. And then maybe for other things like to leave an inheritance Children, grandchildren, grandchildren.
• 42:41
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Charitable philanthropy, all of it.
• 42:44
  Bill Bermont: All of that. And so but you don't have to do that in a vacuum. There's all sorts of tools and people that can help you with this with, you know, with the scenarios and with the different assumptions of how you're gonna live your life. Like, we have very granular conversations with our clients like, I wanna take two nice trips with the whole family
• 43:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 43:01
  Bill Bermont: Every year. This is what I'm gonna set aside for that. So if you're gonna set us if that's what you're gonna set aside for, then we have to figure out where that capital is coming from
• 43:09
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 43:09
  Bill Bermont: To enable you to do
• 43:10
  Melissa Shere Beek: that. Right.
• 43:11
  Bill Bermont: And in some cases, maybe you should only take one trip.
• 43:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Right. Sounds good. Alright. So what's the biggest takeaway that everybody should know about being financially savvy?
• 43:23
  Bill Bermont: It's not magic. It's it's it's easily demystified.
• 43:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: I think you helped demystify it.
• 43:30
  Bill Bermont: Thank you. That's very kind. I hope I lived up to the billing.
• 43:34
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, absolutely.
• 43:35
  Bill Bermont: Thank you. I think that there's a lot out there that there are a lot of resources out there that can help you. But I think it's very important to consider the source. I think it's very important to talk to some trusted friends and professionals
• 43:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 43:50
  Bill Bermont: Before you make any decisions you can't undo.
• 43:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 43:54
  Bill Bermont: And again, you really want to know what you don't know. Right. But I think like if you were asking what the biggest takeaway for, like you can't put your head in the sand.
• 44:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 44:02
  Bill Bermont: You can't just hope for the best.
• 44:04
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. And then twenty years from now, wake up and not have what you need.
• 44:07
  Bill Bermont: That's right. Okay. That's right. Because that is that is yes. Wanna have utility in your purchases, and you don't wanna have regret in your life decisions.
• 44:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Exactly. Perfect. Well said. Well said.
• 44:18
  Bill Bermont: Oh,
• 44:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: thank you so much. It's amazing.
• 44:20
  Bill Bermont: It was my pleasure.
• 44:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: I'm so honored to have you here.
• 44:22
  Bill Bermont: I'm honored to be here.
• 44:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Alrighty.
• 44:24
  Bill Bermont: Did you obtain my first podcast?
• 44:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: You were amazing. I told you, you are articulate and dynamic, and I was so proud to have you on. Well, thank you. I do a little thing at the end of my podcast, though, called Quickie Questions. Are you game?
• 44:36
  Sure. Okay, good.
• 44:37
  Bill Bermont: Okay.
• 44:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: How do you handle stress?
• 44:41
  Bill Bermont: Exercise.
• 44:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay, that's a good one. Alright. Anything you haven't done yet that you want to?
• 44:51
  Bill Bermont: What I'm most excited about is seeing my girls walk down the aisle.
• 44:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, I love that.
• 44:59
  Bill Bermont: What I'm most excited about.
• 45:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: No pressure on your daughters, but I think that's beautiful. I love that. Yeah. Oh, that's a good thing to look forward to. Yeah.
• 45:06
  Okay. Great. Yeah. Most important thing you've learned in life?
• 45:11
  Bill Bermont: There's family first.
• 45:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 45:13
  Bill Bermont: I have been blessed with wonderful parents, with amazing sisters, great friends, and and family. And now the time to work with my father is amazing and with Michael who's a brother from another mother. I wouldn't say I hop and skip every day to work, but it's pretty it's pretty jaunty.
• 45:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Love that. And your wife and daughters, I love that you're surrounded by women. Think it's terrific.
• 45:40
  Bill Bermont: Yes. They're they they are amazing, and I learn a lot from them. And I don't really love it when they challenge me, but I learn so much from my kids.
• 45:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. But it helps you grow.
• 45:48
  Bill Bermont: Absolutely. It's fine. Absolutely.
• 45:50
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Do you have a favorite movie or show?
• 45:54
  Bill Bermont: Okay. I would say probably Shawshank Redemption is a favorite
• 46:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: movie. Wow.
• 46:02
  Bill Bermont: That's a good one. That's a good one. Favorite show? Oh, it's gotta be so two different directions. The first one is The Americans.
• 46:09
  Mhmm. Because that was one that I watched with my my wife, and I joke around about being a child child of the cold war. I thought it was very well done and I loved all that history.
• 46:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. The last episode killed me.
• 46:19
  Bill Bermont: Oh my gosh. And then and then the attention to detail in terms of this the the staging and the setting and the music, amazing.
• 46:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: Brilliant.
• 46:26
  Bill Bermont: Amazing. Good choice. And then but then I would also have to say too Friday Night Lights. That was another one I watched with my with my with my wife and I I aspire to be coach Taylor.
• 46:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 46:36
  Bill Bermont: Good. That's the dad I wanna be. Oh, I love that. That's the man I wanna be.
• 46:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: I know you're an amazing dad. Thank I think that's fabulous. Well, thank you so much for being here.
• 46:43
  Bill Bermont: It was my pleasure.
• 46:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: I am so excited to get this episode out. I cannot tell you how many people I speak to who say, I don't know what to do, I'm embarrassed to ask questions, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know when to start or where to go, and so I'm so thrilled that you broke this down for everybody and really made it so informative and so educational and so easy to digest, and yeah, everybody I gets there and starts
• 47:05
  Bill Bermont: had a tall and pretty Sherpa for my
• 47:06
  Melissa Shere Beek: Thank first you. Thank you. It's a mutual love fest here today.
• 47:11
  Bill Bermont: I it.
• 47:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love it.
• 47:12
  Bill Bermont: Thank you so much.
• 47:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: To our listeners, thank you so much. Grateful that you're here. Keep listening, keep learning, keep laughing, keep up with Beek on being. Follow Beek on being on Instagram for the latest. To share thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or nominate a guest, DM us.
• 47:26
  Want exclusive content, behind the scenes stories, listener links? Subscribe. Listen to Beek on being wherever you get your podcast. All episodes are automatically transcribed. A big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen, woo, at Penthouse Studios.
• 47:40
  Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network. Follow Beek on being on Instagram for the latest. To share ideas, thoughts, suggestions, or nominate a guest, DM us. Want exclusive content, behind the scenes stories, and listener links? Subscribe.
• 48:00
  Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network.