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Money Monday with Brian James · Brian Thomas

0:00
Speaker 1: Happy Monday to you every Monday at this time, barring
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Speaker 1: somebody being away on vacation.
0:05
Speaker 2: Or otherwise not available.
0:06
Speaker 1: Money Monday's Brian James joins the program at eight o
0:09
Speaker 1: five talk about all things money related as a financial planner.
0:12
Speaker 1: Can I see you're still with all Worth or you
0:15
Speaker 1: now have a name change? Brian, Just get that little
0:17
Speaker 1: item out of the way up front.
0:19
Speaker 2: Now thing has changed, No name change. We just have
0:21
Speaker 2: a new investment partner. We apparently are doing some things right,
0:24
Speaker 2: and some other organizations want to get in on the action.
0:27
Speaker 2: I guess. But my job is still my job and
0:29
Speaker 2: the name is still the name. No big changes there,
0:31
Speaker 2: all right, and no shock here.
0:33
Speaker 1: The gas prices obviously have an inflationary effect, the ripple effect.
0:37
Speaker 1: It comes logically and reasonably, since everything in this country
0:40
Speaker 1: moves based on diesel or gasoline. We have inflation jumping
0:45
Speaker 1: and now it's it as fast as patients May twenty
0:48
Speaker 1: twenty three. And I think the information that CNN reported
0:51
Speaker 1: in the article we're talking about here suggest over and
0:54
Speaker 1: over again we have just we're just on a continuing
0:56
Speaker 1: trend of inflation which has been going on for a
0:58
Speaker 1: long time at a rapid pace, and this is one
1:00
Speaker 1: more exacerbating factor, this most recent spike because of the
1:04
Speaker 1: straight of horror moves.
1:05
Speaker 2: You remember, the campaign promised that inflation was going to
1:09
Speaker 2: go away on day one.
1:10
Speaker 1: Yeah I never believed that.
1:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really really will super wanted that to happen
1:15
Speaker 2: if we're going to go this route.
1:16
Speaker 1: But do you remember when politicians actually were on the
1:19
Speaker 1: campaign trail telling us things that we just couldn't believe,
1:22
Speaker 1: and yet they said it anyway, Bran that I do remember.
1:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's been that's been around for decades. Yeah. So
1:29
Speaker 2: now the reason we're whining about this still again today
1:31
Speaker 2: inflation is heating back up again PC inflation up three
1:35
Speaker 2: and a half percent year over year, and as we
1:37
Speaker 2: all hopefully know by now, that the Fed really wants
1:40
Speaker 2: us to be at two percent. We're all much happier
1:42
Speaker 2: when we're around two percent. But again, the pesky inflation
1:45
Speaker 2: is hanging around three and a half percent core PCE,
1:48
Speaker 2: which people both love and hate. This excludes food and.
1:51
Speaker 1: I get it, the stuff that we have to have. Yeah, period,
1:56
Speaker 1: Well do you take that out make it look better? Yep,
1:59
Speaker 1: it doesn't look that much better. It's a three point
2:01
Speaker 1: two percent and again the reason that is done. And
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Speaker 1: I understand I'm not an economist either, but Andy Stout
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Speaker 1: has beaten me over the head with why this is important.
2:07
Speaker 2: Food and energy are really, really, really volatile. So true,
2:10
Speaker 2: either of them can have a huge spike or a
2:12
Speaker 2: huge decline, and that will not tell the story of
2:15
Speaker 2: all the other stuff that we have to So we
2:17
Speaker 2: got to look at it two different ways. Anyway, core
2:19
Speaker 2: PCE without food and energy is up three point two percent.
2:22
Speaker 2: Whatever moral the story is, everything is up a good
2:24
Speaker 2: chunk over three. We did have a monthly spike in
2:27
Speaker 2: March of a point seven percent. That's the biggest jump, Brian,
2:30
Speaker 2: we've had since twenty twenty two. And where's this coming from?
2:33
Speaker 2: Will go figure? Gas and energy spending surge dramatically, and
2:37
Speaker 2: that drove much of the increase. I want, the spending
2:39
Speaker 2: as well as the actual price itself due to what's
2:41
Speaker 2: going on around the world. Of course, a lot of
2:44
Speaker 2: geopolitical tension, oil disruption coming out of the Iran conflict.
2:47
Speaker 2: Now this has not affected spending so much. Spending rows
2:51
Speaker 2: one point nine percent in March, almost one percent. A
2:54
Speaker 2: large chunk of that that is in people going hey,
2:56
Speaker 2: let's go treat ourselves to steak dinners tonight because we're
2:59
Speaker 2: feeling good. It's simply inflation. So when you look dollars
3:02
Speaker 2: to dollars, what were we spending versus what are we spending?
3:05
Speaker 2: We're up close to one percent. That's coming from inflation mostly.
3:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, And one of the economists in the article even says,
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Speaker 1: even if you take out the effects of the war
3:12
Speaker 1: and Iran, price growth is climbing, which is a cost
3:14
Speaker 1: for concern. And I guess since we're still spending. Although
3:18
Speaker 1: your point is well taken on, you know, if you
3:20
Speaker 1: adjust for inflation, maybe not, but is the next step
3:24
Speaker 1: people belt tightening, which sounds to me in an inflationary
3:27
Speaker 1: environment that'd be stagflation, wouldn't if we stop buying a
3:30
Speaker 1: lot of stuff?
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Speaker 2: That's literally the definition of stagflation. That's a that's a
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Speaker 2: term that brings back the the sevenes of bell bottoms
3:37
Speaker 2: and disco balls and all that. That's a seventies term
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Speaker 2: right when prices are going up but the economy is
3:42
Speaker 2: not growing. So maybe the FED kind of is stuck
3:45
Speaker 2: in a bind right now. Inflation is too high to
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Speaker 2: justify cutting rates. That wouldn't make any sense. I'll make
3:50
Speaker 2: everything worse. And the economy is not weak yet. I
3:53
Speaker 2: don't know that I would say that, but it's not
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Speaker 2: strong enough to aggressively hike. So that's where we have
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Speaker 2: this weight and see policy, which which there's kind of
4:00
Speaker 2: nothing we can do. Anyway. There is division growing internally
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Speaker 2: within the FED. So some of those governors want hikes,
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Speaker 2: others want cuts, some are undecided. And plus we have
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Speaker 2: a leadership change coming anyway very soon here with Powell exiting,
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Speaker 2: so who knows how that's going to change policy. But
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Speaker 2: I think in the short run, I don't really expect
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Speaker 2: much much verbiage at all out of the FED. The
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Speaker 2: economy underneath this is it's kind of okay. The GDP
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Speaker 2: is running around two percent. Yeah, that's below where it
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Speaker 2: potentially could be, and we are starting to see some
4:31
Speaker 2: consumer fatigue. It's just starting to pop up a little bit,
4:34
Speaker 2: not quite in the numbers, but just kind of in
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Speaker 2: the rhetoric. And I'm hearing that from my clients as well,
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Speaker 2: just about people starting to think just a bit differently
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Speaker 2: that hey, maybe this is going to hang around longer
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Speaker 2: than we were promised.
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Speaker 1: Well, I suppose, since it points out the economy grew
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Speaker 1: at a two percent annualized rate. If the economy was much hotter,
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Speaker 1: like let's say it was pick a random figure five percent.
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Speaker 1: Doesn't the FED intervene when the economy is running too
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Speaker 1: hot as well and raises interest rates to deal with that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's stepping on the brakes.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: When the economy is running too hot and it's it's
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Speaker 2: triggering inflation, then the FED will lower rates to slow
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Speaker 2: things down a bit. Because the problem there is when
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Speaker 2: you get when everybody gets this sounds wonderful, right until
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Speaker 2: you really kind of understand the relationships between all these things.
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Speaker 2: Don't we want a raging economy. Don't we want, you know,
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Speaker 2: things growing by you know, seven, eight, ten percent, fifteen
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Speaker 2: percent or whatever. Think about the country as a matter
5:20
Speaker 2: of fact, if you go google the term economy grew
5:23
Speaker 2: by fifteen percent, you're going to get some podunk country
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Speaker 2: in the middle of nowhere that's about to go through
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Speaker 2: a ridiculous inflation spiral. That's why we don't want growth
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Speaker 2: to be going that fast. We simply can't keep up
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Speaker 2: with it. A healthy developed economy cannot operate that way.
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Speaker 2: Because so think of it this way. If you if
5:39
Speaker 2: you are at a place where you've got a fifteen
5:40
Speaker 2: percent expansion, then you're going to see a fifteen percent
5:44
Speaker 2: recession at some point. That's not where we need to be,
5:47
Speaker 2: so we don't hope for it. But yeah, that is
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Speaker 2: that is what would happen if we did have the
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Speaker 2: economy running that fast. The FED would step in to
5:54
Speaker 2: slow things down before we had runaway inflation.
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Speaker 1: Well, going back to your earlier point about you know,
5:58
Speaker 1: things that might temper really impact the economy. And I
6:01
Speaker 1: view the straight of horror moves closure as a temporary phenomenon.
6:04
Speaker 1: How long it lasts is one thing, but certainly will
6:06
Speaker 1: open ultimately. I can't imagine the globe would allow it
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Speaker 1: to close permanently, so that too will pass.
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Speaker 2: But back to food.
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Speaker 1: You know we had the egg the price of eggs
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Speaker 1: going through the roof, and people were screaming and yelling
6:16
Speaker 1: about that. Well, you know when you got bird flu
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Speaker 1: rolling through killing off tens of millions of chickens, that
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Speaker 1: is a necessary consequence of that. And use I say
6:24
Speaker 1: that just because I'm wondering have we yet felt the impact?
6:28
Speaker 1: And I've seen some gloom and doom articles about it,
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Speaker 1: about the fertilizer shortage because straight of horror moves apparently
6:34
Speaker 1: deals with a whole lot of the globes fertilizer and
6:36
Speaker 1: its crop planning season. If the farmers can't afford the
6:40
Speaker 1: fertilizer or there's a limit un fertilizer. Are we seeing
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Speaker 1: the impact of that now because they have to pay
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Speaker 1: more for it? Or is this something we're going to
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Speaker 1: see inflationary reality because the supply of food in a
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Speaker 1: post in a non fertilized crop is going to be
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Speaker 1: a lot lower down the road.
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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we are seeing this appear in food prices,
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Speaker 2: not directly, right, of course, I'm tired hearing about eggs, right,
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Speaker 2: Eggs are what they are, right, right, But yeah, we
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Speaker 2: are seeing it a little bit, not quite as fast
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Speaker 2: as energy, of course, because energy is the thing that
7:08
Speaker 2: gets right, gets hit right now, right away. As soon
7:10
Speaker 2: as there's a headline at all affecting oil, we're going
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Speaker 2: to see a spike. It takes a little longer for
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Speaker 2: it to trickle through for people realize that that that
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Speaker 2: does affect things like fertilizer as well. So the reason
7:21
Speaker 2: this is is because nitrogen fertilizers are made using natural gas.
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Speaker 2: So when energy prices spike obviously that affects that trickles
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Speaker 2: through to fertilizer the current. Of course, we have upward
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Speaker 2: pressure on that because it's the same stuff going on
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Speaker 2: in the Middle East that's also affecting natural gas markets.
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Speaker 2: So and that is a pretty quick reaction. Russia and
7:38
Speaker 2: Belarus are major exporters of potash. We hear about that
7:41
Speaker 2: every now and then. That's related to fertilizers. China is
7:44
Speaker 2: involved in phosphates and they can play that game when
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Speaker 2: they need to. And we also saw fertilizer prices more
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Speaker 2: than double when the Ukraine War erupted because that that
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Speaker 2: whole region is there's a lot of fertilizer components that
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Speaker 2: come out of there. So but it usually takes about
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Speaker 2: a read a nine month period before we start seeing
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Speaker 2: this level, right they price at the pump that's tomorrow,
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Speaker 2: more like three to nine months before it trickles through
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Speaker 2: the cost of things like fertilizer showing up at the
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Speaker 2: grocery store.
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Speaker 1: I can't allow your comment, your very logical and factually
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Speaker 1: accurate comment. The fertilizer comes from natural gas, go without
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Speaker 1: pointing out like plastics and like nine gajillion other products
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Speaker 1: that we rely on and need you need that evil
8:26
Speaker 1: fossil fuel to make it so for all those global
8:30
Speaker 1: warming and climate change folks out there, Brian, these are
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Speaker 1: my comments, not yours. Then go ahead stop the flow
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Speaker 1: of all of this and have fewer crops among everything else.
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Speaker 2: You know, I wish everybody could come back to the
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Speaker 2: middle just a little bit, because you're exactly right. This
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Speaker 2: isn't just about what you're putting into your car, and
8:44
Speaker 2: you're not going to solve it by buying an EV immediately,
8:47
Speaker 2: because there's there is way more than just goes what
8:50
Speaker 2: goes into your gas tank. This is a much bigger
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Speaker 2: issue there. So it's not going to go away overnight.
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Speaker 2: Thank you.
8:55
Speaker 1: Brian James. Will continue with Brian so so security screwed up.
8:58
Speaker 1: He's going to elaborate on that apparently cost widows and
9:01
Speaker 1: widowers in this particular case. More with Money Monday's Brian
9:03
Speaker 1: James stick around fifty five here fifty five krc.
9:07
Speaker 2: DE Talk Station.
9:08
Speaker 1: Bron Thomas wishing everyone a very happy Monday and appreciating
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Speaker 1: Money Monday's Brian James for joining the show for a
9:14
Speaker 1: few segments talk about these important money matters and for
9:16
Speaker 1: folks out there who are widows and widowers getting Social Security. Hey, look,
9:20
Speaker 1: our government screwed up making calculations, Brian. I can't believe
9:24
Speaker 1: our government would make a mistake.
9:26
Speaker 2: Go figure believable. I know. You know, you wake up
9:29
Speaker 2: sometimes you just can't believe the headlines, and then sometimes
9:31
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, well it's Monday.
9:33
Speaker 1: They just put a little bug in here. As you
9:34
Speaker 1: start to talk about this, maybe this type of thing,
9:37
Speaker 1: which you'll elaborate here in a moment, is the reason
9:40
Speaker 1: why some people don't want the IRS to do their
9:42
Speaker 1: taxes for them.
9:44
Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna push back on I know you are.
9:47
Speaker 2: That's why I know. I know you already have it.
9:51
Speaker 2: I pay taxes to send this crap to you, and
9:53
Speaker 2: you're gonna do the math anyway. I know you're gonna
9:55
Speaker 2: nitche me after I return it. So you got me started.
9:58
Speaker 1: Go ahead, I know that's why I did it. I
10:00
Speaker 1: we know how to push your button, Brian Davis. That's okay,
10:02
Speaker 1: but no, we really do have kind of a but
10:03
Speaker 1: it's a pretty substantial screw up for the people that
10:05
Speaker 1: this would impact it. And fifty bucks basically per person.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the average. And what happened here Social security
10:12
Speaker 2: basically forgot to carry the one for a few decades.
10:15
Speaker 2: An underpaid widows and widowers by about fifty point four
10:19
Speaker 2: million dollars total at the very least, Brian, we're talking
10:21
Speaker 2: millions and not billions. So this is couch cushion change,
10:24
Speaker 2: fortunately for tax crews. Although everything apparently is that the
10:28
Speaker 2: root of this is very boring. It was failure to
10:31
Speaker 2: properly apply a complex formula called wind decks. And we
10:34
Speaker 2: are not going into that. I know.
10:35
Speaker 1: I read it and I'm like, there's no way Bride's
10:37
Speaker 1: got to explain this, and I'm.
10:38
Speaker 2: Just giving this article for my name deck wind Decks.
10:42
Speaker 2: That's the thing that reminds me of got to clean
10:43
Speaker 2: the windows tonight. So even more alarming, you know, fifty
10:46
Speaker 2: three hundred survivors may have missed another one hundred and
10:48
Speaker 2: thirteen million dollars due to bad or missing advice on
10:51
Speaker 2: win to claim. That's another issue too, But the average
10:54
Speaker 2: missed opportunity is about twenty one thousand per person. So
10:57
Speaker 2: of course these errors tend to hit lower income seniors,
11:00
Speaker 2: right if these are widows and widowers in a lot
11:02
Speaker 2: of cases, these are the people who really this is it.
11:04
Speaker 2: There's only they only have Social Security for that source
11:08
Speaker 2: of income. There's a lot of people who are only
11:10
Speaker 2: in that timeframe. And this affects claims that were processed
11:12
Speaker 2: between two thousand and one and twenty twenty three, and
11:16
Speaker 2: it came up the armies. We're even talking about is
11:18
Speaker 2: because there was an Inspector General audit that was released
11:21
Speaker 2: through twenty four and twenty five that looked at these
11:23
Speaker 2: past cases. So this went on for decades. In a
11:25
Speaker 2: lot of cases, this happened for the entire duration of
11:28
Speaker 2: some people's benefit payments.
11:30
Speaker 1: Wow, I know, R it's a substantial amount. Well, and yeah,
11:35
Speaker 1: I guess I'm reminded, you know, going back to the
11:38
Speaker 1: other article, one of the ripple effects of this inflationary
11:41
Speaker 1: reality we're dealing with is that people are not saving
11:44
Speaker 1: as much. And when I think about Social Security, I
11:47
Speaker 1: mean you emphasize as a financial plan of the importance
11:49
Speaker 1: of saving. Obviously, investments help you beat inflation. If you
11:53
Speaker 1: leave a dollar sitting on your counter, it's going to
11:55
Speaker 1: be worth whatever a dollar's worth down the road. If
11:57
Speaker 1: you invest it, Hopefully your investments returned something greater than
12:00
Speaker 1: two to three four percent inflation. We have to deal
12:02
Speaker 1: with that's a point of saving, but just the idea
12:04
Speaker 1: that people aren't doing that, which means more and more
12:06
Speaker 1: people are going to be completely reliant, like so many
12:09
Speaker 1: of these widows and widowers completely reliant on the sole
12:12
Speaker 1: Social Security payment that lands in their lap. So this
12:15
Speaker 1: security's got financial problems of its own, independent of these
12:18
Speaker 1: independent screw ups.
12:19
Speaker 2: Brian right, Oh, that yeah, And twenty two million people
12:21
Speaker 2: rely entirely on Social Security. It's our only source of income.
12:24
Speaker 2: So that's one in three retirees. Depending on the study
12:28
Speaker 2: you're looking at. In some census style estimates suggests that
12:32
Speaker 2: it's closer to fourteen to twenty eight percent, depending on
12:35
Speaker 2: how the income is measured there, So you know, lots
12:37
Speaker 2: of people are simply living paycheck to paycheck from the government.
12:40
Speaker 2: Though these aren't working employment paychecks. This is just here's
12:43
Speaker 2: my Social Security check, my budget better fit into it.
12:46
Speaker 2: And you're right, a lot of people out there, not
12:48
Speaker 2: only the ones run the receiving end, but there are
12:49
Speaker 2: a lot of people out there on the path to
12:51
Speaker 2: not having anything but Social Security. And that's that's one
12:54
Speaker 2: of the other topics we're going to talk about today.
12:55
Speaker 2: New opportunities to put those dollars away if they exist.
12:58
Speaker 2: So moral of the story is this isn't much of
13:01
Speaker 2: a moral. There's a lot of people out there who
13:03
Speaker 2: are already stretched pretty thin, and it can't help that
13:06
Speaker 2: social Security forgot to carry the one well.
13:08
Speaker 1: And it doesn't help that we've been let down by
13:10
Speaker 1: our political class year after year after year with this
13:13
Speaker 1: growing phenomenon of social Security running quote unquote running out
13:16
Speaker 1: of money. I just I feel so let down, and
13:20
Speaker 1: I guess I'm kind of wildly curious. And it's more and
13:22
Speaker 1: more people, I imagine, are going to be reliant completely
13:25
Speaker 1: on Social Security. And this alleged promise that people have
13:29
Speaker 1: that were made to people that they were going to
13:31
Speaker 1: get something, they can't stand behind that promise anymore. What's
13:35
Speaker 1: it going to take to fix the system? Brian James,
13:38
Speaker 1: if I could ask you to sort of look into
13:40
Speaker 1: the future people.
13:41
Speaker 2: On the street. Oh and yet other outcome is there? Right?
13:44
Speaker 2: So the reason we won't fix this is because we
13:48
Speaker 2: do not as a society, want to elect anyone who
13:50
Speaker 2: talks to us like we're adults. We want people to
13:52
Speaker 2: tell us they're going to give us free things. And
13:53
Speaker 2: this is not a This is a bipartisan comment because
13:56
Speaker 2: both sides do it, but we simply cannot afford ourselves
13:59
Speaker 2: in the benefits packages we have put together. However, right
14:02
Speaker 2: now as we're sitting here, there is no there is
14:05
Speaker 2: no social security deficit that we're heading that way. So
14:09
Speaker 2: the gap is widening between what we need and what
14:12
Speaker 2: we actually have every single year. The current calculations say
14:16
Speaker 2: that there will be a problem that will it will
14:18
Speaker 2: visibly impact benefits in around twenty thirty one twenty thirty two. So,
14:22
Speaker 2: as we've said a number of times, we are now
14:24
Speaker 2: starting to elect the people who will be in office
14:27
Speaker 2: who will vote on whatever that solution is. The next
14:29
Speaker 2: senator we elect will have a six year term. That
14:31
Speaker 2: puts us square in the middle of that range. So
14:33
Speaker 2: we are starting to look into the eyes and faces
14:35
Speaker 2: of the people who have to solve this problem and
14:37
Speaker 2: cannot kick that can.
14:38
Speaker 1: Well, maybe we just confiscate the assets of the twelve
14:42
Speaker 1: hundred billionaires.
14:43
Speaker 2: Okay, that sounds very very left wing for you, Brian Thomas.
14:47
Speaker 2: Did you wake up feeling okay today?
14:48
Speaker 1: No, I just saw the rants of some communists in
14:50
Speaker 1: front of a university the other day saying exactly that,
14:53
Speaker 1: and also a politician who's threatened the life of other politicians,
14:55
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump saying exactly that. I mean, the problem
14:59
Speaker 1: is math doesn't work out for that kind of phenomena,
15:01
Speaker 1: that kind of taxation strategy.
15:03
Speaker 2: You know, they say that would that wouldn't even fix
15:05
Speaker 2: the problem, that would that would rest, But we still
15:08
Speaker 2: have an issue going forward to these are these these
15:10
Speaker 2: items Social Security and Medicare are not to budget. We
15:13
Speaker 2: don't even budget for him. It's the largest thing hanging
15:14
Speaker 2: out there, but we just will not talk about him.
15:17
Speaker 1: Well, Brian James is going to elaborate on something that
15:19
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's has now. It's a new retirement plan executive order.
15:23
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure what's in it, but apparently Brian
15:25
Speaker 1: James knows about it. We're going to learn about that
15:27
Speaker 1: coming up next. So I hope you stick around fifty
15:29
Speaker 1: five KRC The Simply Money Minute is fun. The talk
15:33
Speaker 1: station a twenty eight fifty have KRCD talk station. Very
15:36
Speaker 1: Happy Monday to your money.
15:37
Speaker 2: Money.
15:38
Speaker 1: Brian James talked a little about so security in the
15:41
Speaker 1: last segment, obviously in anticipation of retirement, which is what
15:43
Speaker 1: Money Monday's Brian James does for people. Get them ready
15:46
Speaker 1: for retirement, offers them advice and solutions and suggestions like
15:50
Speaker 1: maybe saving some money. Now this sounds like perhaps a
15:54
Speaker 1: solution in search of a problem, because anyone in America
15:58
Speaker 1: can save and open an IRA on their own, right.
16:02
Speaker 2: Brian James, Yeah, this is another one of those that
16:05
Speaker 2: I don't think has a lot of meat to it. Unfortunately,
16:08
Speaker 2: it does have President Trump's name attached to it. And
16:10
Speaker 2: let's be honest, of course is the goal. So trumpra
16:13
Speaker 2: dot gov is where you can find information about this.
16:15
Speaker 2: But all it really is is a government's sort of
16:19
Speaker 2: kind of sponsored platform on ramp to put money into iras.
16:24
Speaker 2: And so I'm really sorry. There is a match, right,
16:27
Speaker 2: let's just start with what's different than what people can
16:29
Speaker 2: already do. Where's the real benefit? There is a match
16:32
Speaker 2: if you are a single filer, and you'll get a
16:35
Speaker 2: full match up to twenty thousand dollars. If your income
16:38
Speaker 2: is up to twenty thousand dollars five hundred, then you'll
16:41
Speaker 2: get the full match up to one thousand bucks, partial
16:43
Speaker 2: match that phases out up to thirty five thousand dollars
16:46
Speaker 2: and change. That's for single filers. For married people, it's
16:48
Speaker 2: forty one thousand and seventy one.
16:50
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold it. So
16:52
Speaker 1: let's say I'm in the financial category where I'm going
16:54
Speaker 1: to get the full match.
16:56
Speaker 2: I put it about your rent first.
16:57
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well of course, but ignoring that, you know,
17:00
Speaker 1: the day to day reality of just putting any money away,
17:03
Speaker 1: the United States taxpayer is going to fund the match.
17:06
Speaker 2: For people who do this.
17:07
Speaker 1: Yepkay, go to that's here I'm telling people from folks.
17:11
Speaker 2: All right, and let's let's bear in mind you can
17:12
Speaker 2: already do an IRA. This isn't something new. You're not
17:15
Speaker 2: you're not able to put away more money because just
17:18
Speaker 2: because of this that these people can already do an
17:20
Speaker 2: IRA right now. Again, the important thing here, and the
17:22
Speaker 2: elephant in the room is the is there leftover money
17:25
Speaker 2: to even do this stuff? In the past, Brian, we have,
17:28
Speaker 2: we've had things called the Savers credit. There has been
17:30
Speaker 2: free money out there if you put money, if you
17:32
Speaker 2: are below a certain income level and you put money
17:34
Speaker 2: into a retirement account, then you can claim a Savers
17:36
Speaker 2: credit and really just get dollars back on your taxes.
17:40
Speaker 2: But only about five percent of people use it, and
17:43
Speaker 2: even less than half of the eligible taxpayers are even
17:47
Speaker 2: aware that those types of programs exist, So we tend
17:49
Speaker 2: to throw these out there, make a big This happens
17:51
Speaker 2: on both sides of the aisle. We make a big
17:53
Speaker 2: celebration out of the signing ceremony in the Oval office,
17:56
Speaker 2: and we never talk about it again. So basically, we
17:58
Speaker 2: can our politicians can check a box that said, hey,
18:01
Speaker 2: we did something for low income people. But look at
18:03
Speaker 2: the Trump iras, look at the savers, could look all
18:05
Speaker 2: these wonderful things that we've done that you can't afford,
18:07
Speaker 2: but still we did them.
18:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I'm well, this is also isn't this
18:14
Speaker 1: a form of a mandate that would that that businesses
18:17
Speaker 1: have to provide or offer at least some sort of
18:20
Speaker 1: savings plan like an IRA program through the business.
18:25
Speaker 2: Not really, this is I would say it's the opposite.
18:27
Speaker 2: This is this is putting something in place for people
18:29
Speaker 2: who don't have that situation. There's a lot of companies
18:31
Speaker 2: out there that don't offer a four oh one K
18:33
Speaker 2: and are still able to employ people. Some employees are
18:37
Speaker 2: just fine with the idea that you know, I've got
18:39
Speaker 2: a job, that's all I'm worried about. No, it doesn't
18:40
Speaker 2: give me any benefits, but it's good honest work. Uh
18:43
Speaker 2: And so the end they'll they'll kind of stay in
18:45
Speaker 2: that position. So this this does give those folks sort
18:48
Speaker 2: of a new opportunity. They could do it anyway. I mean,
18:50
Speaker 2: it does give them one centralized federal platform. Trump I
18:54
Speaker 2: RA dot G o V will be up and running
18:55
Speaker 2: by twenty twenty seven. That's one place behind. It is
18:58
Speaker 2: still the big mutual fun companies Van Guard is involved,
19:01
Speaker 2: you know, So you're not really really nothing different here
19:03
Speaker 2: other than that little bit of a match if you
19:05
Speaker 2: can afford to put that money in the first place.
19:08
Speaker 2: But otherwise it's just supposedly an easier path. But Brian,
19:12
Speaker 2: I suspect we won't hear about this after it's launched,
19:15
Speaker 2: and we won't talk about it anymore because we're just
19:17
Speaker 2: checking boxes to say we've done things well.
19:19
Speaker 1: It's launching to the extent it launches, and it goes
19:22
Speaker 1: along with that that government incentive the match. Isn't that
19:28
Speaker 1: power of the perse stuff since tax dollars are going
19:30
Speaker 1: to be spent on it, isn't this something that we
19:32
Speaker 1: would require legislation and not go through through an executive order?
19:36
Speaker 2: But before it required yet yes, all that stuff. Yes,
19:39
Speaker 2: you're exactly right. But if we're not gonna market it,
19:41
Speaker 2: we're not gonna promote it. Right, how many people raise
19:43
Speaker 2: your hand out there? If you know what the savers
19:44
Speaker 2: credit is, that's been around absolutely forever, and five percent
19:47
Speaker 2: of the eligible taxpayers actually use it. So again, if when,
19:51
Speaker 2: where are the ads, where are the campaigns marketing that stuff,
19:55
Speaker 2: you know, around tax time or whatever, saying that, hey,
19:57
Speaker 2: these opportunities exist, please go take advantage them. I don't
20:00
Speaker 2: hear any of that stuff, and I don't buy it's
20:02
Speaker 2: gonna happen this time either.
20:04
Speaker 1: I would think that just the idea that federal that
20:06
Speaker 1: that American taxpayer dollars could be used for a program
20:09
Speaker 1: that was not established through an Act of Congress signed
20:11
Speaker 1: into law by the President, would on its face be
20:13
Speaker 1: void because.
20:14
Speaker 2: It hasn't been a thing this entire administration.
20:16
Speaker 1: Right, Well, I know that I'm just pointing it out.
20:19
Speaker 1: I got to give me an opportunity to make comments
20:21
Speaker 1: along those lines. Fran James. Now, but in terms of incentive,
20:24
Speaker 1: you and you talk about it all the time, and
20:26
Speaker 1: I think it's one of the most prudent things that
20:27
Speaker 1: anybody can do. If you work for a company that
20:29
Speaker 1: does offer a four to one k match. You got
20:32
Speaker 1: to at least put in the percentage of the match.
20:34
Speaker 1: I mean you're walking away from free money. I mean
20:36
Speaker 1: that that that that does work for some to get
20:39
Speaker 1: the at least start investing, doesn't it?
20:41
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, And that's one of the There are few financial
20:44
Speaker 2: planning decisions that are clearly black and white. This is
20:47
Speaker 2: the this is this is one of them, right, there's
20:49
Speaker 2: not saving when you have a match is on you.
20:51
Speaker 2: That is your fault, and you are making a stupid
20:53
Speaker 2: decision leaving money on the table. Some people do this
20:56
Speaker 2: because they'll say, well, I'm twenty in my twenties, I
20:58
Speaker 2: don't want to think about what happens when i'm sixty
21:01
Speaker 2: because I'm young and I want to live now and
21:02
Speaker 2: I've got expensive bills. Well, guess what, those bills are
21:04
Speaker 2: never going away. And this is the opportunity you have
21:07
Speaker 2: for someone to give you free money that you can
21:09
Speaker 2: put into a savings here. You will not have a
21:11
Speaker 2: free money opportunity when you are in your sixty So
21:13
Speaker 2: this is the time to do it. That's a black
21:15
Speaker 2: and white decision.
21:16
Speaker 1: Well, and you know lesson easily learned if you can,
21:19
Speaker 1: and I can't speak to people who are find it
21:21
Speaker 1: impossible to put anything away. But if it's gone out
21:24
Speaker 1: of your paycheck before it's in your pocket, it's almost
21:28
Speaker 1: like you never made the money. But there it is,
21:30
Speaker 1: earning interest and compounding over times. Let it sit there
21:33
Speaker 1: and it's just you know, do see if you can
21:36
Speaker 1: tighten the belt to do without, because it's going to
21:38
Speaker 1: benefit you immeasurably over the long run.
21:40
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And you're raising a fair point. Despite my
21:42
Speaker 2: grumpy snarkness this morning because I haven't had enough coffee.
21:45
Speaker 2: This is free money if you're in this situation, if
21:48
Speaker 2: you can hit those income limitations, if you're blowing and
21:51
Speaker 2: you can find those dollars on top of your other bills.
21:53
Speaker 2: And I know that's hard, and that's when most people, Yeah, frankly,
21:56
Speaker 2: Brian aren't going to be able to do this because
21:58
Speaker 2: they have to live paycheck to paycheck right now, so
22:00
Speaker 2: there just isn't money to match. But if you're in
22:02
Speaker 2: this situation and you can pull it off, please take
22:05
Speaker 2: advantage of it.
22:05
Speaker 1: Will at last, Yeah, got the Starbucks out. Although I'd
22:08
Speaker 1: love to think that people who are that close to
22:11
Speaker 1: life's margins would not be indulging in things like Starbucks coffee.
22:14
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think this is targeted the people
22:16
Speaker 2: who are, you know, indulging in Starbucks and have nothing left.
22:19
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of people that's not going to
22:20
Speaker 2: help because that's just that's not where.
22:22
Speaker 1: Where the lever is valid, valid point as always, Brian James,
22:25
Speaker 1: and I love your snarkiness. That's a okay with me,
22:27
Speaker 1: Brian Keith. Things lively here in the fifty five carssee
22:29
Speaker 1: morning show. We'll do this again next Monday. Thanks to
22:31
Speaker 1: all worth the loading you out as they do every week,
22:33
Speaker 1: and get back to work, my friend.
22:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sir's talk to you in a week. Take care.
22:37
Speaker 1: He thirty five right now, fifty five care see the
22:38
Speaker 1: talk station. Joe will open the phone lines.