Latest / Brian Thomas / Money Monday with Brian James -- 2/9/26

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Money Monday with Brian James -- 2/9/26 · Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: Or to make any event, the affordability crisis, lower interest
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Speaker 1: rate checky helloween, Narcot's Terrace Out of the Water, fifty
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Speaker 1: five KR and the talk station five the fifty five
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Speaker 1: case the talk station. It's Monday, and a very happy
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Speaker 1: one to you. Always been an extra happy because this
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Speaker 1: time eight o five every Monday we hear from Brian
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Speaker 1: James Malworth Financial what we call money Monday. Welcome back,
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Speaker 1: Brian James Mallworth Financial. It's a pleasure to have you
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Speaker 1: on as always.
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Speaker 2: Happy super Bowl Monday to you, sir. I spent yesterday
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Speaker 2: not really caring either.
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Speaker 1: Not caring. That was pretty much how I left it.
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Speaker 1: I did turn off the television right before halftime. No,
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Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily because of the halftime performances. It was
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Speaker 1: because I have to go to bed, yeah and plug.
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Speaker 1: It's not worth the sacrifice this time around one now.
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Speaker 1: And I really wasn't real happy about Seattle ultimately winning either. Anyhow,
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Speaker 1: I didn't have a stake in the game, and of
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Speaker 1: course I wasn't interested in the halftime show, even though
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Speaker 1: John Kasik loved it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah to eat their own you know, I can't remember
0:57
Speaker 2: the last halftime show that I've been interested in, and
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Speaker 2: that a political statement. They're just two artsy fartsy and
1:02
Speaker 2: weird for I'm with you all day long.
1:04
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a sign of age, you know, you just
1:06
Speaker 1: you kind of lose track of modern music the older
1:08
Speaker 1: you get.
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Speaker 2: So I'm way too many signs of age these days, Brian.
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Speaker 1: Amen, brother, I'm still living in the eighties and nineties
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Speaker 1: music wise. Anyway, let's get over to well, get yourself
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Speaker 1: a financial planner. It's so damn important. So let's are
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Speaker 1: we dealing with another tech bubble here, Brian James, with
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Speaker 1: this artificial intelligence fears battering stocks again? I saw the
1:24
Speaker 1: article you attached to the New York Times.
1:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it does appear that we've got a bit
1:30
Speaker 2: of a but this isn't up. You know, we have
1:31
Speaker 2: a bubble every time we get excited about something, and
1:33
Speaker 2: there's always some catalyst behind the market moving things, and
1:37
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of times it winds up being
1:39
Speaker 2: a bubble of varying sizes. Sometimes the bubble bursts all
1:42
Speaker 2: at once, and sometimes the air goes out slowly like
1:44
Speaker 2: a balloon. But so where we are now while we're
1:47
Speaker 2: talking about this, so global software tech stocks plunge sharply
1:50
Speaker 2: last week after AI firm Anthropic released major upgrades and plugins.
1:54
Speaker 2: If you were watching the Super Bowl, you saw a
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Speaker 2: couple of commercials for something called Claude. That's Anthropic, And
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Speaker 2: the reason for this is investors are interpreting this as
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Speaker 2: a threat to traditional software business models. The reason that
2:08
Speaker 2: Claude is such a threat is because they've shifted toward
2:11
Speaker 2: automation of actual real business workflows. And that sounds like
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Speaker 2: business mumbo jumbo, but we're talking about legal review, document drafting, analytics,
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Speaker 2: and coding tasks, actual real tasks that people do every
2:22
Speaker 2: day for money, not just simple chat or coding help.
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Speaker 2: And this is raising fears that AI could actually replace
2:28
Speaker 2: substantial parts of existing software functionality. So there's just as
2:32
Speaker 2: an example, there's a legal workflow AI plug in that
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Speaker 2: was singled out as a catalyst for accelerating the sell offs,
2:38
Speaker 2: especially in the legal software and data analytics analytics companies
2:41
Speaker 2: like r E l X and Walter's Clure. So these
2:44
Speaker 2: are fairly detailed examples. But the whole point of this
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Speaker 2: is the claud is currently perceived to be an actual
2:52
Speaker 2: threat to the human brains doing previously human jobs. Now
2:55
Speaker 2: we'll see we get wound up about this kind of
2:57
Speaker 2: thing there. You know, a year and a half, two
2:59
Speaker 2: years ago, there was a Chinese replacement deep something I
3:03
Speaker 2: can't even remember anymore, but it was supposedly better and
3:05
Speaker 2: cheaper than open AI's chatch Ept, and it came and
3:09
Speaker 2: went in a span of a few months. So we'll
3:11
Speaker 2: see if this is really just an actual problem for
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Speaker 2: the AI industry or you know, honestly, this is what
3:17
Speaker 2: AI is supposed to do, So this could be actually advancement.
3:20
Speaker 2: So I don't know whether we need to be worried
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Speaker 2: about it or just looking at it saying, hey, you know,
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Speaker 2: competition rears its ugly ahead again and somebody's gonna win,
3:27
Speaker 2: somebody's gonna lose.
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Speaker 1: Well, isn't this just the obvious next step in artificial intelligence?
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Speaker 1: I mean, whether it's here right now, this is ultimately
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Speaker 1: where we're going to be, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: You would think so. But the so, it's not the
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Speaker 2: tech stocks, it's not the competition necessarily that is the
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Speaker 2: focus here. If Claude is the real deal, then it's
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Speaker 2: it's companies like Microsoft. It's companies that have knitted together
3:52
Speaker 2: a lot of different things for humans to use. Well,
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Speaker 2: the perception is that Claude could replace a lot of
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Speaker 2: those things. So it's not just that Claude is a
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Speaker 2: threat to the chatchypts and the larger AI tools of
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Speaker 2: the world. It's the threat to the things that aren't
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Speaker 2: exactly themselves AI that are made for human beings to use.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm a little reluctant to ask this, but I'm
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Speaker 1: trying to ask if you can do like a real
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Speaker 1: vanilla example, like walk through an illustration of maybe some
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Speaker 1: software application or something that's going to go the way
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Speaker 1: the dodo if in fact, these these fears are are
4:23
Speaker 1: are true, you know, put like a.
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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I guess I would think of something
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Speaker 2: like like the Microsoft Office tools that are out there.
4:31
Speaker 2: I mean, it's get This is kind of a really
4:33
Speaker 2: over the simplified example, but that's what I'm looking for. Yeah, sure,
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Speaker 2: grave for me. Yeah, so so I would. I would.
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Speaker 2: I would think of this as in terms of, you know,
4:43
Speaker 2: for those tools out there to produce documents and spreadsheets
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Speaker 2: all that kind of thing that is a huge, huge
4:47
Speaker 2: part of Microsoft's uh, you know, annual revenue. Right although subscribe,
4:51
Speaker 2: by the way, that's a subscription model anymore. You're not
4:53
Speaker 2: buying a buying a pile of CDs because that's the
4:56
Speaker 2: way that software has gone over the past couple of decades. Well,
4:58
Speaker 2: that may no longer be needed. If if if AI
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Speaker 2: is able to produce these types of documents and things,
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Speaker 2: then you don't need a human being to interface between
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Speaker 2: between the chair and the computer to produce a document
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Speaker 2: or a spreadsheet. AI will take care of it for
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Speaker 2: you and send it to the people who matter on
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Speaker 2: the higher levels who need to review this data. Wow.
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Speaker 1: So it's like saying, hey, chat GVT, you know, create
5:19
Speaker 1: fill in the blank. We're saying, hey, this software, I
5:22
Speaker 1: need a spreadsheet with all this data, make it for me,
5:25
Speaker 1: and it does.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So that's what leaders of companies will be
5:29
Speaker 2: looking to do. And so it's not necessarily those leaders yet,
5:32
Speaker 2: it's the business analysts underneath them, and there's a lot
5:34
Speaker 2: of them out there who are pulling that data today,
5:37
Speaker 2: collating it from twelve different resources, and putting some kind
5:40
Speaker 2: of presentation together about it so that the leadership of
5:44
Speaker 2: the company can look at those things. Well, that level
5:45
Speaker 2: of management is kind of under threat right now, as
5:49
Speaker 2: are the tools that they use, which is why we're
5:51
Speaker 2: talking about the impact on the stock market.
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Speaker 1: This is a double hit then. Yeah, manufacturers of the
5:55
Speaker 1: software that really their business model is predicated on us
5:58
Speaker 1: keep paying subscriptions, so if the need for that software disappears,
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Speaker 1: their business model collapses. But the using of this artificial
6:04
Speaker 1: intelligence also will eliminate a whole lot of jobs out
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Speaker 1: in the world for people who are number crunchers or
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Speaker 1: like spreadsheet filler inner type people that we won't need
6:13
Speaker 1: them anymore either.
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Speaker 2: Correct, And that's just today's example of it. Now, again,
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Speaker 2: I want to stress that this is just the market's
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Speaker 2: opinion on one day. You know, Anthropic came out with
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Speaker 2: some good, good results and some good detail on what
6:24
Speaker 2: they're capable of doing. But again, we just saw this
6:27
Speaker 2: a year and a half ago with that Chinese company
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Speaker 2: that was going to replace Chat GPT and then it
6:31
Speaker 2: was revealed to not be the real thing. I don't
6:33
Speaker 2: think that's the case here at all, because Anthropic is
6:36
Speaker 2: a pretty well known company and those are some pretty
6:38
Speaker 2: powerful tools. But I think the market is kind of
6:41
Speaker 2: ignoring for the moment the impact it could have in
6:45
Speaker 2: driving competition across these different tools. I'm sure Microsoft is
6:48
Speaker 2: not going to fold and stand down and just say, well,
6:50
Speaker 2: I guess we've been beaten at our own game. Remember
6:52
Speaker 2: Microsoft has a massive investment in open Ai themselves, and
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Speaker 2: so I'm sure this is just just more sign of competition,
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Speaker 2: but just some chopping us.
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Speaker 1: In the waters for now, fair enough, And I guess
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Speaker 1: the NASDAK is what will be most implicated by this.
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Speaker 1: If it, whatever it happens to be, hits the fan,
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Speaker 1: that's where it's going to be reflected mostly, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, But there will also be the NASDAK is of
7:13
Speaker 2: course more focused on those technology tools, so there'll be
7:16
Speaker 2: other companies that benefit from this. U S and P.
7:20
Speaker 2: I'm looking at more because remember who's Remember we talked
7:22
Speaker 2: about this all the time, but remember the S and
7:24
Speaker 2: P is largely driven by seven companies, you know, the
7:26
Speaker 2: mag seven out there, and they're all technology companies. So
7:29
Speaker 2: nobody will escape the ups and downs of this because
7:31
Speaker 2: it is just so ingrained in all the technology of
7:34
Speaker 2: how we drive the economy forward every day.
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Speaker 1: Well, clearly you're going to be watching this as a
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Speaker 1: financial planner on behalf of your clients. What does this
7:40
Speaker 1: suggest to people who are invested in the markets? Four oh,
7:42
Speaker 1: one K and otherwise, I mean, can we get ahead
7:45
Speaker 1: of what seems to be the inevitable Brian.
7:47
Speaker 2: James, Well, hopefully you're the The inevitable to me is
7:50
Speaker 2: the ability for companies to be more efficient. So it
7:53
Speaker 2: doesn't really change anything you should be doing now. Now,
7:55
Speaker 2: if you're in one of these sectors, if that's your
7:58
Speaker 2: job that is threatened by this, well then yeah you
8:00
Speaker 2: might want to polish up some skills, maybe find a
8:02
Speaker 2: new path. But I'll bet I'll bet that's not news
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Speaker 2: to anybody out there who's been paying attention to AI.
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Speaker 2: Your graphic designers and those types of roles out there,
8:09
Speaker 2: those are the ones probably under threat. I mean, look
8:11
Speaker 2: look at how many those commercials were yesterday were designed
8:14
Speaker 2: by AI. You can still kind of tell, and I'm
8:17
Speaker 2: pretty sure those aren't graphic designers and video specialists putting
8:21
Speaker 2: those together anymore. But otherwise, it's a matter of efficiency,
8:25
Speaker 2: and these are the types of things that can draw
8:27
Speaker 2: the markets up because it's a way for companies to
8:29
Speaker 2: save money and make widen that profit margin. At the
8:32
Speaker 2: end of the day, that's all that matters. I don't
8:34
Speaker 2: always wave the flag with excitement that we have the
8:36
Speaker 2: ability to do this because it is going to have
8:38
Speaker 2: an impact on a lot of people. So the recommendation
8:42
Speaker 2: is no different than ever. Hopefully you've always had a
8:44
Speaker 2: backup plan. If you're in one of these careers that
8:46
Speaker 2: could be wiped out or at least reduced by AI,
8:50
Speaker 2: then I hope there is a plan B in terms of,
8:53
Speaker 2: you know, making sure you can get yourself and your
8:56
Speaker 2: family through a rough period employment wise. But otherwise this
8:59
Speaker 2: is just more things moving the market forward.
9:01
Speaker 1: Well, and you know sort of the next tier of that.
9:04
Speaker 1: If a lot of people can lose their jobs as
9:05
Speaker 1: a consequence of this, that's a lot of people who
9:07
Speaker 1: are no longer going to be investing in the market.
9:10
Speaker 1: Notwithstanding the fact that the market may be resilient and
9:12
Speaker 1: still be an opportunity to grow. You're gonna limit the
9:15
Speaker 1: number of people have disposable the come to put away, right,
9:17
Speaker 1: and that.
9:18
Speaker 2: Will surface politically, I would think all have some kind
9:21
Speaker 2: of mass layoffs over these types of things. Then there's
9:23
Speaker 2: going to be and then there already are some discussions
9:25
Speaker 2: about should there be rules over AI or should we
9:28
Speaker 2: just let it be the wild West. Right now, it
9:29
Speaker 2: seems like this administration leans toward the wild West in general.
9:32
Speaker 2: So I don't anticipate anything huge hitting the floor of
9:36
Speaker 2: Congress for them to vote on anymore anytime soon.
9:38
Speaker 1: No, And I think part of me wants to say
9:40
Speaker 1: that's a good thing, because I don't think our members
9:42
Speaker 1: of Congress have any understanding of what this even is,
9:45
Speaker 1: let alone I mean to be in a position to
9:47
Speaker 1: legislate over it anyhow. Coming up, we'll talk with Brian
9:51
Speaker 1: James about healthcare inflation, how it affects you and is
9:53
Speaker 1: it possible to even plan for the completely unknown in
9:57
Speaker 1: your retirement. That plus, looking forward to the last topic,
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Speaker 1: five car the talk station HYR Radio, Leady Talk Station,
11:02
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, doing Money Monday with Brian James. From all
11:04
Speaker 1: words financial, Brian James, like a peace of God. How
11:08
Speaker 1: is it possible to even anticipate what you're gonna need
11:11
Speaker 1: by way of medical expenses when you're in retirement? How
11:14
Speaker 1: can you possibly prepare for the great unknown? I mean,
11:18
Speaker 1: you know, are you going to be healthy or are
11:19
Speaker 1: you going to get a cancer diagnosis? And anyway, that's
11:23
Speaker 1: where we have you, Brian James.
11:24
Speaker 2: Well, the way to anticipate it for most people is
11:27
Speaker 2: to anticipate it at all. I think a lot of
11:29
Speaker 2: people simply look at well, here's what our spending is on,
11:32
Speaker 2: you know, grocery store utilities and vacations and whatever, and
11:34
Speaker 2: that must be all that we have to think about. Well,
11:36
Speaker 2: that's not really the case. Of course, your healthcare is
11:39
Speaker 2: probably as good as it's ever going to get. We
11:41
Speaker 2: are all. If you're listening to this show, you are
11:43
Speaker 2: probably not getting healthier. You're slowly, slowly getting less healthy. Yes,
11:48
Speaker 2: because that's just reality. Let me take it to me
11:50
Speaker 2: chiming in based on personal experience. You are right the
11:54
Speaker 2: warranty has expired. Yes, did not get that extended warranty?
11:58
Speaker 2: Maybe not should That's one of the junk mail things
12:00
Speaker 2: have paid attention to. Really, But anyway, so a reason
12:03
Speaker 2: we're talking about this today, Barons came out with a
12:04
Speaker 2: new article. Not a ton of this information. There's one
12:07
Speaker 2: big chunk in here where I'm like, oh, that kind
12:08
Speaker 2: of raising my eyebrows a little bit. But most of
12:10
Speaker 2: this is how we've been building financial plans for our
12:12
Speaker 2: clients for a long time. Hopefully not the only ones
12:14
Speaker 2: doing this out there. But the key points out of
12:16
Speaker 2: this article from Baron's healthcare inflation is rising faster than
12:20
Speaker 2: general inflation GO figure. Official data shows about three and
12:23
Speaker 2: a half percent annual inflation on healthcare versus two point
12:26
Speaker 2: eight percent for the overall CPI type numbers. But the
12:30
Speaker 2: analysts are saying that that the real retiree medical costs
12:33
Speaker 2: often rise closer to six percent annually when age related
12:36
Speaker 2: usage and insurance premiums are factored in there too. So
12:40
Speaker 2: what we've been doing to counteract this for a very
12:41
Speaker 2: long time is when we build financial plans for people,
12:44
Speaker 2: we will take the data they provide us and figure
12:46
Speaker 2: out what is your lifestyle like, and then we're going
12:48
Speaker 2: to carve out a separate goal that has nothing to
12:49
Speaker 2: do with that, because you already said the reason nobody
12:52
Speaker 2: gets to know what this is what their healthcare expenses
12:54
Speaker 2: are going to be. So all we can really do
12:56
Speaker 2: is rely on Medicare. Medicare the organization has provided I
13:00
Speaker 2: did year over year out of pocket costs for people
13:02
Speaker 2: for decades now, and that assumes the cost of the
13:06
Speaker 2: premiums themselves, which for Medicare is a couple hundred bucks
13:08
Speaker 2: now it's over two this year for everybody. And then
13:11
Speaker 2: if you have certain types of income, you have irma
13:13
Speaker 2: kick in and that might raise that premium a little bit.
13:16
Speaker 2: But we also assume alongside of that the cost of
13:19
Speaker 2: a supplemental policy. Medicare will cover approximately eighty percent of
13:23
Speaker 2: your expenses. A supplemental policy is a choice that you
13:26
Speaker 2: will make, but most people do and that'll get the
13:28
Speaker 2: extra twenty percent. And then the rest of it is
13:31
Speaker 2: out of pocket expenses for office visits and copes and
13:34
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. So what we normally do
13:37
Speaker 2: is we budget about six thousand dollars a month per person,
13:40
Speaker 2: so twelve I'm sorry month, six thousand, say boy, yeah,
13:44
Speaker 2: buckle your seatbelts. It's all downhill from here. Six thousand
13:47
Speaker 2: a year for an individual, so twelve thousand for a
13:51
Speaker 2: married couple, and then we inflate that by closer to
13:53
Speaker 2: five percent at least. Now this article, where I said
13:55
Speaker 2: I was raising my eyebrows a little bit, here's the
13:57
Speaker 2: big part that I saw. And this is the first
13:59
Speaker 2: reference I've seen to this. Premiums for Medicare Part B
14:02
Speaker 2: projected to grow about seven percent annually through twenty thirty four,
14:06
Speaker 2: and then the others are closer to five percent. So
14:08
Speaker 2: that is the number that is a little larger than
14:11
Speaker 2: I have seen recently. But again, if you're planning for it,
14:14
Speaker 2: just use different assumptions and make sure you've carved that
14:16
Speaker 2: out separately from your living expenses.
14:18
Speaker 1: Okay, And it seems to me that you would benefit
14:21
Speaker 1: by anticipating a higher percentage jump and bud budgeting for
14:25
Speaker 1: that and that way, if you don't have to spend it,
14:27
Speaker 1: you don't correct. Yeah.
14:29
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's true for every last expense. You're ever
14:31
Speaker 2: gonna have pack a lot of extra expense in there
14:35
Speaker 2: to make sure you've got some fudge factor built into,
14:37
Speaker 2: you know, to make sure you can absorb those shocks. Now,
14:40
Speaker 2: on the topic of healthcare inflation, one interesting thing that
14:43
Speaker 2: I noticed a few years ago when we had crazy
14:46
Speaker 2: inflation is that healthcare didn't really move. So when we
14:49
Speaker 2: had been nobody was talking about the cost of going
14:51
Speaker 2: to the doctor or anything like that. We were all
14:53
Speaker 2: talking about eggs in the grocery store and all those things.
14:55
Speaker 2: Healthcare really did not rise at all during our crazy
14:58
Speaker 2: inflation years not that long ago. So what that tells
15:00
Speaker 2: me is, first of all, okay, we can excel a
15:02
Speaker 2: little bit. But on the other hand, maybe it was
15:04
Speaker 2: overpriced to begin with. Do you think just a little bit,
15:08
Speaker 2: you know, it.
15:09
Speaker 1: Seems to me there's this mystery about why healthcare is
15:12
Speaker 1: so damn expensive. Someone should be able to solve that.
15:14
Speaker 2: I think because we have monetized everything that can be
15:17
Speaker 2: monetized in this country, and there must be a profit
15:19
Speaker 2: margin attached to everything.
15:20
Speaker 1: Well, and the legal system they've set up, regulatory and otherwise,
15:25
Speaker 1: is I designed to prop that whole mess up from ye?
15:27
Speaker 2: Anyhow are the United States a profit margin? Brian Thomas?
15:31
Speaker 1: I know, I hate to diss on capitalism, and I'm
15:34
Speaker 1: not in favor of socialized medicine because I've seen what
15:36
Speaker 1: happens in other countries. Basically you can just give up
15:38
Speaker 1: the idea of even getting served by a doctor. But
15:42
Speaker 1: this business model is a wreck. I mean, can we
15:43
Speaker 1: start just getting rid of PBM's pharmacy Betts benefit managers?
15:47
Speaker 1: Let's just start right there.
15:48
Speaker 2: Sure, just make sure that whatever Congress people that those
15:52
Speaker 2: the owners of those companies have been supporting are on
15:54
Speaker 2: board as well. You just hit the nail on the head.
15:58
Speaker 2: Brian James.
15:59
Speaker 1: Is there such a thing is financial infidelity? Yes, and
16:02
Speaker 1: many believe it's just as bad as actually like infidelity cheating.
16:07
Speaker 1: We'll talk with Brian James about that one to find
16:09
Speaker 1: out if what it's going on in your world that'll
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Speaker 1: be next. Don't go way fifty five KRC dot com.
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Speaker 2: This simply money Man.
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Speaker 1: It is hey twenty nine to think about. KRCY talksas
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Speaker 1: a Right Times with Brian James. Money Monday is what
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Speaker 1: we called the segment. I was particularly taken by this topic.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about now the idea of I
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Speaker 1: guess financial infidelity Brian James just as bad as like
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Speaker 1: having sex out of our having sex behind your spouse's
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Speaker 1: back is financial secrets.
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Speaker 2: Well, you titillating headline here, right, So I got our attention.
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Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about on the radio today. But this
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Speaker 2: is a survey from bank rate and it basically is
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Speaker 2: comparing physical infidelity with financial infidelity. And of course there's
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Speaker 2: a survey that goes with this. So there's numbers we
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Speaker 2: got to share. Almost one in two US adults and
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Speaker 2: committed relationships don't fully share financial deals with their partner.
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Speaker 2: You know, that's a big headline number, and that seems wrong.
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Speaker 2: But I have a feeling again you're just a person
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Speaker 2: reading the survey, and a lot of people would say, well,
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Speaker 2: you know, we're in a we're in a good financial situation.
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Speaker 2: I don't talk about every single penny I want to
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Speaker 2: spend with my spouse because we don't really have to
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Speaker 2: worry about that, we don't have to operate that way.
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Speaker 2: This is different than I am purposely keeping secrets from
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Speaker 2: my spouse because I because I don't want him or
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Speaker 2: her to know about these things. But anyway, more survey numbers,
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Speaker 2: about forty three percent believe that keeping financial secrets is
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Speaker 2: as bad as physical cheating, and about nine percent see
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Speaker 2: I think this is the real number, right, That one
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Speaker 2: out of two number is that's the eyepopper, But here's
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Speaker 2: the real one. About nine percent admit to holding major debts, expenses,
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Speaker 2: or income from their partner. That's the to me, that
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Speaker 2: is the big headline that isn't quite as big as
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Speaker 2: we might want to hope. For those of us looking
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Speaker 2: for more salacious details out of these.
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Speaker 1: Things, well, the statement in the article financial secrets undermine trust,
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Speaker 1: I would argue, no, they spring from a lack of trust.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, hits it six to one a
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Speaker 2: half the other You can label it whatever you want.
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Speaker 2: Something's broke. So I have one of my favorite war
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Speaker 2: stories from doing this job for close to thirty years.
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Speaker 2: I shouldn't say favorite because it was a little bit sad,
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Speaker 2: but the one that hits closest to home. I had
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Speaker 2: a woman about five or six years ago who came
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Speaker 2: in just knowing her husband had passed away unexpectedly, and
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Speaker 2: she was just sorting through and dealing with his affairs
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Speaker 2: and things. She found about eighty thousand dollars worth of
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Speaker 2: credit card debt that she had no knowledge. Okay, this
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Speaker 2: is what we're talking about here right in what he
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Speaker 2: had done. He was down at Turfway. He had run
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Speaker 2: up a bunch of bills betting on the horses and
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Speaker 2: some other things too, and she was desperate and panicked
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Speaker 2: and scared because of course the collection companies had caught wind.
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Speaker 2: And so here's an important important tip for anyone who
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Speaker 2: finds themselves in this situation. If your name was not
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Speaker 2: on that credit card, then it is not your debt.
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Speaker 2: Does not marry matter that you were married to this person.
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Speaker 2: So we had to react very very quickly when she
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Speaker 2: left the voicemail to make sure, because she said something
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Speaker 2: about I'm going to call them right now and just
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Speaker 2: pay him so they'll leave me alone. She was about
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Speaker 2: to spend eighty thousand dollars, so she did not have to. Fortunately,
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Speaker 2: we got her in front of a lawyer who explained
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Speaker 2: it all. She walked away from the debt, ignored those
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Speaker 2: phone calls. But this is what it leads to, right,
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Speaker 2: not only the heartbreak of losing a spouse, but uncovering
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Speaker 2: what that spouse was involved in, and the worst panicking
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Speaker 2: that somehow involves you even though you didn't know.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm old enough to know several friends
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Speaker 1: and acquaintances who've ended up getting divorced because of this
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Speaker 1: type of thing. One specifically, his wife had racked up
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Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars in a credit card he didn't even
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Speaker 1: know she had, and I always scratched my head over that.
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Speaker 1: Maybe you just answer the question if you're not buying
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Speaker 1: stuff and things with that debt, But for example, if
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Speaker 1: you're gambling with it, then I can see how you
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Speaker 1: could hide it from your spouse. But I don't recall
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Speaker 1: that gambling was involved here. So if your spouse is
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Speaker 1: bringing home a bunch of stuff, you might want to
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Speaker 1: be account You want might one to account for how
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Speaker 1: they acquired it, particularly if you're if you're on a budget.
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Speaker 1: I just don't understand how you can get away with
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Speaker 1: racking up this kind of debt behind the scenes, unless
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Speaker 1: it is it's something you're spending money on that you
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Speaker 1: don't have something physical to show for it.
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Speaker 2: Right, I mean, this could be trips, it could be
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Speaker 2: it could just be cash advances, you know, those kinds
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Speaker 2: of things. There are people out there that do this stuff.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't all show up in a cardboard box on
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Speaker 2: the porch, so you know. But the answer is the same,
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Speaker 2: and none of this is surprising. Hopefully the trust is there.
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Speaker 2: But at least once a year, sit down with your spouse,
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Speaker 2: even if you're in solid financial shape, sit down with
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Speaker 2: a spouse and just make sure we know, do an inventory.
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Speaker 2: Where is everything? And what is everything? Almost more important
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Speaker 2: than where is the what? Why do we have this?
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Speaker 2: What is this for? And make sure there's a plan
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Speaker 2: for it.
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Speaker 1: Isn't that necessarily one of the benefits of having a
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Speaker 1: financial planner because you go in there with your spouse
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Speaker 1: and you lay it all out for the financial planners
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Speaker 1: so you can plan for the future, right, Isn't that?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? And here's an example, and this happens more often
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Speaker 2: than not. There's no infidelity here, but it's just a
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Speaker 2: general we're in good shape, so we don't really pay attention.
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Speaker 2: And then sometimes I can uncover some holes in the bucket.
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Speaker 2: So for example, people will say, well, we save X
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Speaker 2: amount of dollars, so we spend about this much. We
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Speaker 2: have this much coming in, so we're saving x amount
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Speaker 2: of dollars. Okay, cool, that's great. How long has that
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Speaker 2: been the case? A couple three years? Now? Awesome? Where
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Speaker 2: are those dollars? Because I don't see it in your
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Speaker 2: savings accounts, I don't see it piling up in the bank.
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Speaker 2: I don't see credit card debt either necessarily, but I
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Speaker 2: think we might be spending more than we're estimating. Now.
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Speaker 2: That is not that has nothing to do with infidelity.
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Speaker 2: That just has to do with how easy it is
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Speaker 2: for even well meaning, well intentioned people to take their
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Speaker 2: eyes off the ball. Because if there isn't a financial
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Speaker 2: problem brewing, if I've got enough money in my checking account,
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Speaker 2: then whatever I'm doing might be working must be working fine.
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Speaker 2: Therefore I don't have to make any changes. But you
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Speaker 2: got to step way back from those trees to see
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Speaker 2: the whole forest.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, a couple of the points that were
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Speaker 1: made in the article, like credit card statements can reveal
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Speaker 1: maybe that your spouse is having an affair, because why
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Speaker 1: you have a hotel credit charge on your credit card?
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Speaker 1: You know, I had a business meeting that day. Remember
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Speaker 1: I was at a business meeting to find out, Oh no,
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Speaker 1: you're with some other person at a hotel room.
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Speaker 2: That's one thing.
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Speaker 1: But how does one take out a home equity line
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Speaker 1: of credit in secret?
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Speaker 2: You know these? But well, sometimes it can be just
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Speaker 2: by convincing a spouse, Hey, I do all the financial stuff.
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Speaker 2: Here's just a little thing we got to do, so
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Speaker 2: just sign here and I'll take it. And you know,
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Speaker 2: one while other spouse is dealing with the kids, there
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Speaker 2: are fifty other things. Fine, I'll just sign my name
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Speaker 2: and walk off, walk away with it. Be careful with
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Speaker 2: those kinds of things, of course, because they're you know,
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Speaker 2: that is how it comes up right, and it might
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Speaker 2: again it might even be well intentioned, or it could
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Speaker 2: have been. In that example, a home equity line that
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Speaker 2: was signed for seven or eight years to go to
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Speaker 2: buy a car or something legit and has just been
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Speaker 2: sitting undrawn and nobody thinks about it anymore. Well, that
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Speaker 2: can be a resource for that spouse who maybe doesn't
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Speaker 2: have the best of intentions. Fair enough, Brian James, appreciate
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Speaker 2: all the information you give us every Monday for Monday Monday.
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Speaker 2: I appreciate all worth loaning you out for this particular segment,
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Speaker 2: and I'll look forward to having another conversation with you
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Speaker 2: next Monday. My friend, sounds good today, warm. We'll talk
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Speaker 2: to you in a week, all right, look forward to it.
22:37
Speaker 2: Eight thirty five.
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Speaker 1: Right now, if you have KARS the talk station, krsit
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Speaker 1: cares Chris Kluk. Since Ava has got lots of things,
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Speaker 1: let you know about my veteran friends. Who's going to
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Speaker 1: be in the studio to talk about that stuff next?
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Speaker 1: I hope you can stick around.
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