12/10/25 Rate Cuts, Inflation… and Tiger King Christmas Calls? Only on Moneywise

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, December 10th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the second floor of the historic Woolworths building in downtown Bakersfield, here is Money Wise. Call or text into the show 661-396-1000.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise. Money, money, money.

• 0:44Speaker 03

  Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Money Wise Show. We're live from the second floor of the historic Woolworths building in downtown Bakersfield. Join us. Come along for the ride for the next hour. You're on KGO Money Talk. Sports talk is the rest of the day, you know. Sports talk the rest of the day. For just one hour, you get money. Get money for the rest of this time. 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at all of your podcast locations or at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day, 661-396-1000. In fact, we got a couple of great messages that came in over the

• 1:28Speaker 03

  past 23 hours since we were on the air last, and we're going to go ahead and get into those in a little bit. But we are your hosts today. I'm Justin Leland here with

• 1:37Speaker 00

  Sammy Abiyawie.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  Sammy. Sammy, Sammy. Hey, first off, I gotta ask Stephen, because this is the first time I've been able to talk to Stephen since the weekend. How does it feel to have the same record as the Chiefs?

• 1:54Speaker 00

  It's beautiful. It is beautiful. And I just feel bad for Steeler fans because the Dolphins are coming.

• 2:01Speaker 03

  Oh, man.

• 2:03Speaker 00

  We'll see you Monday. We've got hot dogs on the line. Woolworths hot dog this time, not Costco. We upgraded the bet.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  We upgraded.

• 2:11Speaker 00

  Let's do it.

• 2:13Speaker 03

  I'm telling you, I think, I think Tomlin's done.

• 2:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:16Speaker 04

  I, I, I, regardless of what happens Monday night, regardless of what happens this season and the postseason, I think his time at, at, in Pittsburgh is done or should be done.

• 2:29Speaker 03

  Should be done. It should have been done like two, three years ago.

• 2:31Speaker 04

  You know, it's exactly, exactly. And, and, and frankly, by him bringing the quarterback we have to today or this year.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:39Speaker 04

  Um, I, I should have.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  You know what it, you know what it's like?

• 2:43Speaker 04

  I should have thrown the towel, but I'm a Steelers fan. We never throw the towel.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  You should have thrown in the terrible towel.

• 2:47Speaker 00

  A terrible towel, yes, exactly.

• 2:49Speaker 03

  You know, it's one of those things. It's like, you, you go to a party and there's that one dude at the party that you know shouldn't be there and has overstayed their welcome.

• 3:01Speaker 03

  That's Mike Tomlin. He's the one that's like double dipping the chips.

• 3:05Speaker 04

  I was the one who double dips. He's the double dipper.

• 3:09Speaker 00

  The guy's got a, every year since he's been the coach, they've been 500 or above. I mean, I put it more on the blame of Aaron Rodgers, Johnny Smith, all the AARP players that they brought in and thinking that they were going to win a Super Bowl. But you guys could ball blame Mike Tomlin. I'll take him in Miami any day.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  Uh, I don't know, man.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  Who brought, who brought Aaron Rodgers? Who signed off on that?

• 3:34Speaker 00

  The GM.

• 3:36Speaker 04

  The GM?

• 3:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:37Speaker 04

  The coach got nothing to do with it?

• 3:39Speaker 00

  The GM is the one cutting the checks.

• 3:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:43Speaker 04

  That was the Rooney. Hey, look, I got respect for him. I'm not saying I don't have respect for Mike Tomlin.

• 3:47Speaker 00

  Throwing that terrible towel.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  I got respect for the man, but you, you've overstayed your welcome. It's time, it's time to.

• 3:55Speaker 04

  It's time for you to spread your wings.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Pack, pack it up.

• 3:57Speaker 04

  Go down south. Go down south. Now there's plenty of teams for you.

• 4:00Speaker 00

  Miami will take him, but I will say, I mean, Pittsburgh, I mean, out of all the teams that rotate coaches every other couple of years, the Steelers are one of those, you know, good old football teams that I think they've only had three, maybe four coaches since the beginning.

• 4:15Speaker 04

  Three in the last 45 years.

• 4:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, Chuck Knoll.

• 4:18Speaker 00

  Maybe it is a time. Yeah. And then Cower.

• 4:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, and then, and then Tomlin.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  So maybe, maybe it is a good time for him to, uh, flounder into a different team and, you know, but my, the real question is, who would you want as a coach? Because you know, he's going to be there for 20 plus years.

• 4:37Speaker 04

  Bill O'Chuck is available.

• 4:38Speaker 03

  That's a good question.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  No.

• 4:41Speaker 04

  I'm just kidding. I just wanted to see Steven's face.

• 4:45Speaker 03

  No.

• 4:47Speaker 04

  How about John Gruden?

• 4:49Speaker 03

  Uh, no, I'm thinking somebody like.

• 4:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take him.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  I'm thinking somebody like a McDaniel.

• 4:57Speaker 04

  Oh, God.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  Young.

• 4:58Speaker 04

  Just swap coaches?

• 4:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's young and can, you know, be there for a long, long time.

• 5:05Speaker 04

  See, see what happens when mediocrity becomes norm? Now you got Justin Lee and talking about the Steelers coaching staff.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  Let's get back.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  That's what happens, Steven.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  Let's get back to hot dogs and Woolworths.

• 5:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, right, right, right, right, right. Hey, markets were open today. Some things happened. It was a pretty interesting day on the market. If you didn't hear, the Federal Reserve did cut rates by another quarter point. I'm actually, I'm actually a bit, I don't want to say shocked, but I'm a bit, I'm a bit surprised. I thought that they were going to hold put in December. I was wrong. And so, you know, it's, we'll, we'll talk about why they did it. And it was actually a split vote. So if you look at it, I think it was like a nine to three vote of the 12 Fed chairs.

• 5:57Speaker 03

  And so it was, it was definitely a split vote. Uh, but they, they opted to cut the interest rates by 25 basis points. Um, and the markets did react. Um, as we would expect, the markets did react in a positive way. The Dow being up about 1%, NASDAQ up about a third of a percent, and the S and P up about two thirds of a percent. Um, S and P closing in on 6,900 there. And so, you know, and then the Dow Jones actually closing above 48,000 again. Um, we were kind of under that for a little bit. And now we've kind of climbed back up to the 48,000 number.

• 6:39Speaker 03

  So it's an interesting question as to why the Federal Reserve.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  You know, cut rates and we had some questions um that came in in regards to that. But before we get to that, you know, what is the messaging behind this? Sammy, you you did some research on kind of where the Fed was and what their messaging was behind um the rate cut. Again, the vote was nine to three, so there were some dissenters. Um. So what was the dissent?

• 7:09Speaker 04

  Well, uh, not not, I don't know about the dissent, but I will address just why, in my opinion, the feds did what they did. And and cutting the rate to to in the second consecutive time. Think inflation has something to do with it, and let's remember that their mandate is managing or inflation and keeping it under control as well as labor. So the Fed feels that inflation is moderating. Um, economic growth slowing down, but still stable. I think we had a comment last week on the show from one of the listeners about uh uh climbing a a wall of worry.

• 7:51Speaker 04

  And and I think that's a great description of what's going on right now. We have a lot of worries. We have wars. We have political drama. We have a bunch of other things happening, but the market is still performing. And and labor market showing early signs of of of cooling.

• 8:07Speaker 03

  And and we don't have the data. Early signs. Yeah, we don't have the.

• 8:10Speaker 04

  The data is not early signs. Yeah, I agree with you. I think absence of the data, especially in the the data coming that's not coming out of the the shutdown period is is making me worry.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, and so, you know, for for those listening, you know, the the the White House has basically said all of the numbers that we had from October. Yeah, we're not going to release those.

• 8:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:34Speaker 03

  We're just not going to release those numbers.

• 8:35Speaker 04

  They did release, they did release some other stuff, the Epstein files, but that's not.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, but they didn't release anything of consequence when it comes to um, the labor market, unemployment numbers.

• 8:50Speaker 04

  I was, I think the ADP, ADP report came out.

• 8:54Speaker 03

  But I always, I always take that with a grain of salt because the ADP number always winds up being off by sometimes an order of magnitude. I mean, it's, it's off and it, when it's off, it's off. Um, so it's, I always take that one with a bit of a grain of salt. Um, cause it'll show sometimes where we've lost jobs, but we actually gained or vice versa. Right?

• 9:17Speaker 04

  Well, let, let, let's, let's, let's just, abs- absent of numbers, absent of data. Let's, let's just look, it's just our community here in Bickersfield, Karen County. Do you feel that, I mean, people are spending money, but is, are they spending money at the same level there? We've seen in years past.

• 9:36Speaker 03

  If they are.

• 9:38Speaker 04

  With.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  Go ahead.

• 9:39Speaker 04

  In my opinion, we're not.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  I would say if they are spending at the same levels that they were before, more of it is going on to a credit card than it ever did before.

• 9:50Speaker 04

  I would definitely agree with that, especially in light of the credit card debt level that we have today.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  Right. And I think, you know, labor market is softening. We know that. And, and there's no, I mean, yes, the data, we're waiting on more data to come out, but even before the government shutdown, there was loads of data that was coming out saying that the, the labor market was softening um, and becoming um, a bit loose. Um, there's also data that the reported, um, the reported layoffs this year is at the highest level since the great recession.

• 10:27Speaker 04

  And, and I think, I think you and I talked about this on the show, uh, two, three weeks ago, about UPS and FedEx laying off.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  You don't lay people off going into.

• 10:37Speaker 04

  Your busy season.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  Busiest season of your, yeah.

• 10:40Speaker 04

  And don't blame AI because AI is not driving the truck to deliver your package.

• 10:45Speaker 03

  Well, Amazon, they have the drones, right?

• 10:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

• 10:53Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  That's, that's an interesting concept we can probably take some other time to talk about, but.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, you don't lay off your drivers.

• 11:01Speaker 04

  No.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  You don't lay off your, your frontline people when you're going into your busiest, heaviest season.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 11:08Speaker 03

  Right?

• 11:09Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  It's, you just don't do that. And so what does that say about, if you, if you take that one step further and you ask yourself the question, why is that? There's only really one answer.

• 11:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're talking about large companies.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  Right? I mean FedEx and UPS are not small companies. They got their own economists on, on, on staff.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:31Speaker 04

  To, to, to do their research. So definitely, I, I believe there is something. Now, I'll, I'll tell you, my indicator is going down to the Woolworths luncheonette and just talking to people.

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  Okay, so I sit on the counter sometimes and I just engage in conversations with somebody that's eating a burger right next to me. And then just last week, the three people I talked to, either a husband lost his job or a wife lost her job.

• 11:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's happened.

• 11:56Speaker 04

  And, and, and it's not, and it's not just oilfield, like we can bring, blame oilfield here in, in this town. Or ag.

• 12:03Speaker 03

  It's white, it's white collar job.

• 12:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, this, this was a medical job, in fact.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:08Speaker 04

  That this person lost.

• 12:09Speaker 03

  Oh, my goodness.

• 12:10Speaker 04

  So, so, I mean, three of the people I talked to had somebody in the family that lost a job, just here in Kern County in Bakersfield.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so it is happening and, you know, we don't have the accurate data coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at this point, but I think all of us that are either listening or, or, or talking to people in our own circles, we, we know what, what's happening. We don't need the data to back it up. We can feel it, right? And so to say the labor market is showing early signs of cooling, I think they're behind the ball. Right? So that, that makes it where the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates actually, maybe they're behind the curve? Possibly, um, you know, uh, I think other people are even saying things like, you know, inflation is moderating.

• 13:03Speaker 03

  Uh, there's people are saying, I, I don't feel that. There's a lot of people out there saying that, you know, hey, they're saying inflation is moderating. I don't feel it. I see what my grocery bill looks like.

• 13:14Speaker 04

  Here's a, here's a concept that I've, I've been thinking about for about the last six months. The, the, the tale of the two Americas.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  The America that where people are struggling and you know, inflation, high prices, loss of jobs. And the other America where the S and P 500 is on an all time high, that was an all time high.

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Right.

• 13:39Speaker 04

  Those are two tales, two different tales.

• 13:41Speaker 03

  You, what you're talking about there, it has a specific name. You know what it is?

• 13:44Speaker 04

  What is it?

• 13:45Speaker 03

  It's called the K shaped rally, the K rally. So those at the bottom end of the spectrum are on the bottom end of that K. And the people at the upper end of the spectrum, they're doing fine, right? It's, it's, they're, they're doing good. It's the people on the bottom that are being overlooked. And that's, and that's where the separation is happening. So you're talking about a K shaped rally. And so, you know, job losses and such are happening. And the people at the bottom end of that K shaped rally, those, the people are feeling it. Definitely feeling it.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  You know, the single mothers, the families that are trying to just make it, you know, and, and struggling to make ends meet. And inflation's hurting them bad.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  Right?

• 14:31Speaker 03

  You know, gas prices are down a little bit, but still even then.

• 14:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're gonna go, they're, they're probably gonna go a little bit lower.

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 14:41Speaker 04

  Now that we are, you know.

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Now we're in the business of taking over Venezuelan oil shit, oil tankers. We can actually lower the price of oil.

• 14:50Speaker 04

  I didn't want to go there, but that's exactly what I was thinking.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  We're in the business of taking over Venezuelan oil shit.

• 15:00Speaker 04

  That's interesting. I mean, to say just to me, for me, there's just a lot of interesting things happening. I think the rates, I, I don't know if you want to engage in this, but I think the rate reduction by the feds. In my opinion, it's a good thing. Hopefully, it stirs up a little bit of like real estate is suffering, right? Construction.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  Growth, yeah.

• 15:21Speaker 04

  There's certain industries that I think will benefit from this. A lot of the companies are holding off on their CapEx, whatever that is. Either an expansion, buying new equipment, hiring new people. So hopefully, this rate reduction signals something for.

• 15:38Speaker 03

  I want to take a break and I want to I want to dissect this with you a little bit more after the break. But I want to talk to you about, because the question I keep hearing is the Federal Reserve lowering the interest rates. Is that a good sign? Which you're you're on the side of, hey, it's a good sign where, you know, it it's it's good for the economy. There's other people that are saying, maybe it's a fear indicator that the Federal Reserve is looking at this and saying, uh-oh, we but we need to get ahead of this because it's going to start getting ugly quick. And so which side are we on? Uh, you know, so let's keep having that conversation. It's, you know, what are we? What are we looking at?

• 16:18Speaker 03

  So if we're looking at just overall, um, a question about whether or not the the Federal Reserve is is is flying blind a little bit because the data that they're receiving is either outdated or not coming at all. Yeah, they're having to project, right? And kind of guess.

• 16:42Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 16:42Speaker 03

  And so they're just kind of like throwing darts at a wall and it's like, okay, lower interest rates because we feel like this is going bad. So we need to we need to lower interest rates. You know, there is a positive to that. I do feel that, but I I think it's two sides of the same coin. What what do you? So I I feel like it's two sides of the same coin where it's you're they're trying to spur the economy. They're trying to like, you know, you know, light a fire under the butt of the the United States economy. But I also think on the other side, they're saying, hey, it's slowing down a bit too fast. And we're a little bit afraid and we need to get ahead of it. Right? Rather than waiting for the data to come to us, we're going to get ahead of the data.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, um, and I think that's the reason why I like what they are doing and supporting it. Because I've seen it happen as an ex banker, moving faster when you see data changing or things happening is key. And I've seen it with with with companies that I banked. In twenty fourteen, we had an oil crash.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, it went down to like thirty dollars a barrel, right?

• 17:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, the the companies that stayed ahead of that are still surviving today. The people that kept the people's like, no, this is just temporary. Oil prices are gonna go go come back and da da da da da. They kept spending on both equipment and payroll. Guess what? They're no longer here.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  They freak, yeah.

• 18:09Speaker 04

  Right? But the companies that were ahead of it, and I think what that's what you're describing, the Fed doing, are su- survived and are still here. And I think that's what the Fed in principle is what the Fed is doing today. And I'm and and that's the reason why I'm in support of it. Now, I'm also in support of it because because of, I think, the impacts it could have on the economy.

• 18:31Speaker 03

  So let's talk about that. So what kind of impact are we talking about from this, you know, from borrowing? You kind of alluded to the housing and mortgages and businesses. But, you know, what what impact does this have, like, flowing through the rest of the economy? Because it's one of those things that it, um,

• 18:49Speaker 03

  you know, the the worry that I it's it's it's one of those things where if if the economy is slowing down and we need to lower interest rates and we're trying to catch, we're trying to catch that falling knife, so to speak, right? I mean,

• 19:07Speaker 03

  how how do you like, how do you do that as as a leader at, you know, with the Fed? And and try to and try to, like I said, catch the catch the falling knife?

• 19:17Speaker 04

  So so so in in reality, the Fed is working on projections, right? Like, the reality hasn't happened yet. They're hoping through their action that certain realities will take place, or certain things will result. And and and those things are are what? So let's go down in my my borrowing is number one.

• 19:38Speaker 03

  Right.

• 19:38Speaker 04

  Okay? I hear it, at least again here in real estate brokers, here locally. A lot of the activity is not happening on the sell and purchase, but on the leasing side.

• 19:53Speaker 04

  There's a lot of people are not buying or not expanding because of the borrowing cost. So what they're doing is just getting into leases and seeing how the market is doing, the industry, where the economy is going to go. And then they might make that big decision of either buying that building or expanding the building they're in. That's one, right?

• 20:14Speaker 03

  Waiting for the three-year or four-year lease to run out and then purchase the building or do something or buy the car, whatever it is.

• 20:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, and a lot of it has to do with, like, SBA Lending built its name and reputation on that. Companies that are leasing and now they see that there's future in that industry and they decide as an owner to buy that building instead of just leasing. Now they're going to build equity, they have tax advantages and all that. None of that stuff has been happening, in my opinion, to the level that we needed to have in the economy in the last couple of years. With this rate reductions, we might see a spurt in that. That's on the commercial side.

• 20:57Speaker 03

  It starts to kind of move the needle.

• 20:58Speaker 04

  Correct. And on the consumer side, we'll see a lot of people are holding off on buying houses. And we're blaming the new generation, generation millennials.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  Z or X Y Z.

• 21:10Speaker 04

  Well, they're not buying houses, they're going back and living with their parents.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  They spent too much money on Starbucks, they can't afford it.

• 21:15Speaker 04

  At seven percent, I would think twice if I'm a new person in job to go and buy a house. While just a couple of years ago, rates were at three percent.

• 21:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  Right? So if I'm an investor just buying my own house and I'm 25 years old, having my own first job, I'm going to think twice before I purchase that house at seven percent. But if it's lower interest rate, maybe I'll spur me to go and buy that house now because my interest expense is not going to be as high as at seven percent.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  I can see that, but I also say that seven percent or six point five percent or whatever the I think the interest rates right now are six and a quarter percent or somewhere in there.

• 21:55Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 21:56Speaker 03

  Those are still historically low.

• 21:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, for you and I, we're in our forties.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, but if you look at all of the mortgage interest from all the, you know, my first mortgage was like eight and a half back in two thousand.

• 22:09Speaker 04

  Well, I have friends that are in mid thirty, they're mid thirty, their first mortgage was two point seven five percent.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  Right?

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:16Speaker 04

  So it's it's two different, two different schools, two different generations. The mindset too is different, of course. I mean, your your mindset and my mindset is, hey, owning your house is part of your American, the American dream, and you want to achieve that as quickly as your first job.

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Well, and my thought on it was I just hated paying somebody else.

• 22:34Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 22:35Speaker 03

  I wanted equity.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Right? And whether or not it cost me eight percent or seven percent or three percent didn't really matter as long as I was paying myself.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  Correct, correct. Now, those are are just a couple of things. For me, the the major thing is credit card. I mean, the average American family, I always say this, cares an average of ten thousand dollars of credit card.

• 22:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's like eight to ten thousand dollars worth of credit card debt.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  Right? But now we're and they're paying about twenty eight to thirty two percent of interest.

• 23:06Speaker 04

  Now, with with these interest reductions, we hopefully we see that translated into a lower uh interest rate on the credit cards. And if we even we go down by eight percent and we're still in in in the, you know, twenties. That's a huge impact for a family that has ten thousand dollar of credit card debt.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, because you're talking two to three thousand dollars of a year in interest.

• 23:29Speaker 04

  That's right. That can go towards the principal.

• 23:31Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:32Speaker 04

  You know, a lot of that now is going towards interest, but with the switch, hopefully that goes towards the principal, speeds up the repayment, um, gives them a little bit more flexibility. Those are all things that I why I'm happy that interest rates are going down. I I'm a true believer on that.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Well, and so then it goes the other direction, though, is like, so the market reaction was positive. And I think they're kind of leaning kind of the direction that you're leaning, which is it's it's a positive move for the overall economy. Because like you're saying, if there's capital expenditures, CapEx, and businesses are going to start spending money on, you know, internally growing their business, right? Then if you're an investor, you're going to buy that stock because that company is reinvesting money back into their business to grow their business, to increase their bottom line. And if they increase their bottom line, the stock prices, their their stock value becomes more valuable.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  And thereby the stock price goes up. So you have the stock market actually going today and actually, you know, jumping a bit, unless you were Oracle, Oracle went down like seven percent today. But everybody else was pretty much in positive territory. So, you know, you have this reaction where, but I I think it was a little bit muted. I think that because there was enough of it, in my mind, it was less than a fifty fifty chance that we would have a um a rate reduction today. Right? I I was thinking it was going to be maybe a one in three chance that we were going to have a rate reduction. So it was a bit of a surprise that we had a rate reduction.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  So I'm a little bit surprised that we don't have a bigger jump in the market because a lot of times the markets will price in that that formula and say, oh, there's there's a forty percent chance that the Fed's going to lower rates. So I'm going to hedge my bets and I'm not going to move into this thing right now. And I'm going to wait until the Fed, you know, does their thing. But others will get into the market ahead of time, anticipating that they're going to lower the interest rates. And so when the Fed lowers interest rates and it's a bit of a surprise to those on the market, I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit surprised with the reaction not being as um,

• 26:00Speaker 03

  let's just say, as as strong as I would have expected it to be.

• 26:05Speaker 04

  I I um I agree with you. But also, take yourself back to when the Fed did not

• 26:16Speaker 04

  reduce the rate. How did the market react?

• 26:19Speaker 03

  Went down a bit.

• 26:20Speaker 04

  A a little bit.

• 26:21Speaker 03

  A little bit, but it didn't not not much.

• 26:24Speaker 04

  So, wha- what I'm trying to say is, I think the market in general, the market forces are learning to stay, I don't know, independent of that, the Fed drama, the the Fed president drama in the last six months. The market had learned how to like, you know what, let let let me not worry about this noise. And let's look at actually what the market is doing. And let me react to that.

• 26:53Speaker 03

  Right.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Okay, and and and I think that's what you're seeing today. Is the market becoming a little bit more resilient towards this decision of either reducing or not reducing the rate.

• 27:09Speaker 03

  Well, I I I think resilient is a good word. I would even say more resistant.

• 27:17Speaker 04

  Probably.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Right, like, yep, like, in the past, if if Alan Greenspan said that we were lowering interest rates, the markets would jump by three percent, like, immediately, right? It was like, it was it was crazy. Now, all of a sudden, it's it's just kind of par for the course. And they're like, well, oh, oh, okay, well, what crisis is going to happen next week? That's going to cause this, it's going to cause us to change our tune.

• 27:47Speaker 03

  Right, so I think that's one of the things a lot of folks are kind of looking at this and say, as as far as investors are concerned and the markets are concerned, is Okay, you know, more of the same and you know, we're gonna just eh, okay.

• 28:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  We'll, we'll see what happens in March, you know, or whatever, you know?

• 28:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I, I connotate the market to a teenager that's be becoming rebellious in a sense. And, and the parents are President Trump and the Federal Chairman, Federal Reserve Chairman. And they're like.

• 28:22Speaker 03

  Mommy and daddy are always fighting.

• 28:23Speaker 04

  Mommy and daddy are always fighting. I don't really care. I'm gonna do my thing. That's, that's how I started thinking.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  Can I borrow the car?

• 28:33Speaker 04

  That's what I started thinking about, or just comparing the market to in the last six to eight months.

• 28:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I think that that's really kind of where it comes down to. And I mean, so who are the winners in, in all of this? I mean, we kind of talked about it. We kind of alluded to it, but the winners, I would say, first and foremost, I would say, uh, folks that are buying a house or refinancing their house.

• 28:54Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  Not immediately. You know, not, not immediately, but over, over the next, say, month or so as interest rates kind of start.

• 29:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, because let's not, let's not be naive.

• 29:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:05Speaker 04

  The banks, as interest rates get, get reduced by the Fed, does not mean that your, your, uh, your mortgage is gonna adjust right away, or your five-year treasury or 10-year treasury or prime is the one that's prime rate is gonna adjust.

• 29:20Speaker 03

  Well, as a matter of fact, so like today, the, the 10-year, the 10-year bond yield really didn't move that much. It's still at 4.16%.

• 29:30Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  But, and that's where your mortgage is based upon your, the 10-year bond yield, right? So if, if you're looking for a, a mortgage, you know, take whatever the 10-year is today and add 2% to it, you're probably gonna be right in line. Right now it's 4.16. If you're going out and getting a 30-year loan, you're probably about six and a quarter.

• 29:51Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  Right?

• 29:53Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 29:55Speaker 03

  You're not gonna see that drop very quickly.

• 29:56Speaker 04

  It's gonna take some time. It's gonna take some time for interest rates. The interest rates we're talking about, credit cards, mortgage, commercial real estate, those are gonna take some time. And then still, they're gonna see how the market reacts in the next thirty days to this interest rate cut. So we're gonna have to wait and see.

• 30:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. So we got a message that popped in here. I actually got a couple of them. It looks like Steven's got some issues with the old computer. So we may not be able to take a break. So we're just gonna keep on rolling with my big old bag of hot air here.

• 30:29Speaker 04

  Thank, thank, thank God I had some coffee before.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  I didn't say thank you, Reverb Coffee.

• 30:34Speaker 04

  No, I just made myself a shot here in the office.

• 30:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, there you go. Um, so I got one here says here, what is the best way to set up a personal or family budget? Do you guys have a certain app or a certain way to break down each person's budget? Since we all are a bit different. That's a very interesting question. You're absolutely right.

• 30:55Speaker 04

  Very good question for year end, too.

• 30:57Speaker 03

  Very, very good question.

• 30:58Speaker 04

  I love this question at year end. Yeah.

• 30:59Speaker 03

  These are perfect. When you're getting close to the year end, yeah. It's always a good time to kind of double back and look at your, look at your stuff.

• 31:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:07Speaker 03

  How do you budget, Sammy?

• 31:10Speaker 04

  I personally use Excel.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:12Speaker 04

  So Excel has a bunch of templates that you could, that you could go and look into and you find one that fits. And even if you find one, you can make adjustments to it. But here's the reality, you really need to be honest with yourself. And before you even find an app or a program to do your budgeting, sit down with yourself and be honest about your expenses.

• 31:34Speaker 03

  That's one of the most difficult things.

• 31:37Speaker 04

  Do what I call a brain dump.

• 31:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 04

  Okay, just sit with yourself and just do a brain dump and just write everything down. Whatever pennies you're spending, write them down.

• 31:45Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 31:46Speaker 04

  Then you're gonna categorize those.

• 31:48Speaker 03

  How many times did I go to Woolworths this week for a burger?

• 31:51Speaker 04

  How many times do I go to Reverb for a cup, cup of coffee?

• 31:54Speaker 03

  That, that.

• 31:56Speaker 04

  Right? And, and, and, and, and do other things, right? So first, in my opinion, I, what I would do, what I would suggest is sit with yourself and do a list of expenses. Second step is categorize those expenses. I have to versus I want to.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  The need to versus the want to, yeah.

• 32:15Speaker 04

  And then go to your, Excel is the cheapest, if you have it at home or one of these.

• 32:21Speaker 03

  Google Sheets, whatever, yeah.

• 32:22Speaker 04

  It's free. You go there and you pick a template that fits you and you start plugging those categories into that template.

• 32:30Speaker 03

  Now, I, you know, I am not one that, you know, leans into the simple, but I will say for most people setting up their first family budget or a personal budget. I do like the fifty, thirty, twenty.

• 32:45Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 32:45Speaker 03

  Budget. So if you, if you get a chance, you can Google that, the fifty, thirty, twenty budget. So fifty percent goes to your required spending, like my rent, uh, my food, uh, the necessities that keep me alive.

• 33:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, utilities, insurance.

• 33:04Speaker 03

  Exactly. Um, the thirty percent is the stuff that you kind of want to do, like, hey, I want to buy those tickets to that concert. Or, you know, uh, my phone bill, right? Let's remember, phone bill is not a necessity. It is, it is, you know, you could always get a cheaper phone bill if you wanted to go that route. You can always get the flip phone and not have the smartphone. Um, and all of that. So that is a want. Um, and so budgeting that way, and then the, the twenty percent is the amount that you're putting towards savings, whether it be your 401K at work.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  Uh, or you're splitting it between your 401K at work and your savings, uh, emergency savings at home and a regular savings account. Um, whatever is necessary for you, but to make sure that you're putting a good twenty percent away per paycheck. And if you can have the discipline to at least keep that together, keep that straight, um, you're going to be much better off long term. Much better off. Um, so hopefully that helped. Um, what was the next question there, Sammy?

• 34:14Speaker 04

  I was just gonna add, think of budgeting like going to the gym. You're not gonna see results unless you go to the gym.

• 34:20Speaker 03

  Right. You're building a muscle. It's not something that just all of a sudden you take a supplement and it happens.

• 34:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, don't just create the budget at year end and not do anything throughout the year. And then again, start a new budget December of 2026. That's just not how it works. I encourage people to stick to the budget and at least review it, at least monthly. If not even weekly, if you really need to try to get into certain habits.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  I, uh, you basically, uh, for me, it's, uh, you, you do it every paycheck.

• 34:51Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  As the paycheck comes in, this is the amount that goes to here, here, here, here, and here. And there's my budget. And this is the amount that goes to savings. Right?

• 35:00Speaker 04

  All right. I'll read you the second question because you're gonna be the one answering this one. For those who feel fell behind on retirement savings, is it too late in your early sixties to catch up meaningfully?

• 35:14Speaker 03

  That depends. Um, so yes and no. It depends on where you're starting from and ever like we did it before. Everybody's different.

• 35:26Speaker 03

  Now, I know for a fact, and I, I, in working with individuals, I work with a lot of individuals who feel like they're behind the curve. Yet when we actually run the numbers, they're a lot better off than they thought they were. Right? They're coming into it with a certain fear or, um, oh, I, I, I, I don't have enough or I'm, you know, I only have 300, whatever the number is, right? They, they just, they don't feel like it's enough. And so they come in kind of in a panic, thinking that they're gonna run out of money by the time they hit 72 or whatever.

• 36:05Speaker 03

  Um, and then when we run some numbers, they're actually not, not as far off as, as they thought, right? It's not, not as bad. Um, so everybody's different. Now, if you are truly behind the curve, if you're truly sitting there and saying, look, I have not put any money into my 401k. Um, and I'm basically starting from zero and I just turned 60.

• 36:33Speaker 03

  I'm gonna work maybe ten more years. What can I do? Well, to say that is it too late to catch up meaningfully? What does meaningfully mean, right?

• 36:47Speaker 03

  The fact is that you would need to be in a position where you could, one, cut your spending. There's, we just did the budgeting, right? The needs, the wants, the wishes and the savings, right? Now, if you were in a position where it's like you look at it and you're doing a fifty, thirty, twenty, and the thirty that's the wants is creeping into forty, fifty percent, and now you're no longer putting money into savings, well, that's kind of on you. Like, you need to, you need to figure out a way to cut back on those wants, right? And focus on the needs and increase the amount that you're putting. Now, it does not all have to go into your retirement account like a 401K. I hear this all the time from people like, oh, I've maxed out my 401K. There's no other place for me to save money.

• 37:33Speaker 03

  Nope, incorrect. You can still save money. It just doesn't have to be, you know, tax-deferred or anything like that. There's, there's other ways to save, right? The other thing that I would say, even at sixty, I know it's cliche and we've always heard this, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, kind of a thing, right? Sammy, you've heard that before? Yep. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You can always teach yourself new,

• 38:03Speaker 03

  new tasks, new jobs. You can make yourself more employable. You can learn new things. You can increase your income. Right? Just because you're in your sixties and you're, you're, you know, getting close to retirement does not mean that you can't also do a side gig and that that side gig is every month, every, every dollar that you make from driving for Uber goes into some kind of retirement plan for you. You see what I'm saying? Yep. So, there are ways. It just, it takes some discipline. It can be done. And then, you know, when you are in your sixties, you have the ability to not only max out your retirement plan at work, but there's catch-up provisions that you can take,

• 38:49Speaker 03

  take advantage of as well. So, hopefully that answered the question.

• 38:55Speaker 04

  Great, we have another message. I just wanted to say thanks for covering my messages. I'm hoping to hit the big powerball tonight. And we'll be the first person to call, or I call, so he'll be calling us. Yay, even before I call my wife to tell her we are rich.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  I'm wondering if we're the second call. We might be the second call. He probably calls his boss first and says, I quit.

• 39:21Speaker 03

  Take this job and shove it, I'm out.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  The wife is the third call.

• 39:27Speaker 04

  Definitely, definitely. We're a good place to call for that.

• 39:31Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:32Speaker 04

  Definitely, yeah.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, definitely. We'd love to, love to help with that. Not to say we haven't already.

• 39:42Speaker 03

  Have another question here. This is a really good one. My daughter wants to be a financial advisor and will be graduating high school in June. Wanted to see if you can share steps she could take to prepare herself to be an advisor. She says it's a male-driven profession, no kidding. And personally, I think she'll be a perfect fit for MoneyWise someday. We'd love it. She just began listening to your podcast when she goes to the gym every morning. Hey, can't share the name. Don't do it. Don't share the name on air. But yeah, absolutely. So Sammy, we.

• 40:18Speaker 04

  That's music, music, music to my ear. Yep, definitely, definitely. I mean, we, I think a couple of our guys last week, we had a same question from a

• 40:32Speaker 04

  young man in CSUB that reached out to Steven via email. And Steven connected them with our financial advisors and they took him for a cup of coffee downstairs. Spent about an hour with him, talking about MoneyWise, talking about financial advisors, the industry. He's definitely very interested, yeah. Yeah, and, but as far as next steps, in my opinion, since she's graduating high school, I think college is probably a good place to be, focused maybe on some finance and economics. That's probably the next step for her. While she's in college, can always look for internships in this industry in the summer. That could help just further her knowledge of, not just industry, but speed up.

• 41:18Speaker 04

  The the acquisition of knowledge.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  Correct.

• 41:21Speaker 04

  Uh, and and just gets her that professional field, professional office and and and what have you. Uh, if she is uh above eighteen. Uh, no, I think with our LPL now broker dealer, I think she has to be twenty one. In order for us to allow for an internship.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  Unless the parent works with us too.

• 41:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, no, LPL is pretty strict. Our broker dealer is pretty strict about the age now.

• 41:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think it was uh.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  Right?

• 41:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, they did. They did cut that back. It was twenty one unless unless the parent works for us.

• 41:54Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, definitely encouraged encouraged to study the the study of economics and finance as well as some internships. Uh, and of course, you're gonna have to get licensed.

• 42:05Speaker 03

  Yep, that's the that's the difficulty is going through the the licensing and the and all of that. Um, that's that's the interesting part is going through the coursework, getting the um, not only the state, but the federal licensing, uh, the education and the continuing education and and all the things that are necessary to get that licensing.

• 42:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, and and the licensing depends or or what she wants to focus on. There's multiple licenses that uh she can she can take and study for. So, um.

• 42:35Speaker 03

  I also highly recommend keeping your nose clean because the background check is a little bit more in invasive than your normal background check.

• 42:43Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 42:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, definitely. If you if the this industry, you you're gonna have to have a very good background.

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Very clean background check.

• 42:53Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 42:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's no, that's just just, uh, you know, being being honest about how the industry works. Um, you know, our regulators uh wanna be very, very careful um, with uh giving licenses to folks that have any kind of um, you know, blemish on their uh criminal record or anything like that. So there's.

• 43:18Speaker 04

  And it makes sense. It makes sense. So let's think about it. I mean, you're dealing.

• 43:22Speaker 03

  I wouldn't want you managing my money if if you had, you know, four DUIs.

• 43:27Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 43:27Speaker 03

  You're somebody that makes bad decisions.

• 43:29Speaker 04

  That's right. Yeah.

• 43:31Speaker 03

  Right.

• 43:31Speaker 04

  So, and, and, and you seem like the listener is familiar with MoneyWise, so we'll encourage her to maybe reach out to Stephen via email and we can set up another cup of coffee with you and her at the same time, talk about the industry, visit the office, we'll be more than, we're very proud of what we have and what we do, so we'd be more than happy to, to talk more about it.

• 43:53Speaker 03

  Sounds good, we would love to do that. Switching gears here, it is the holidays, it is getting to be Christmas, and Sammy, your favorite time of year, right?

• 44:00Speaker 04

  It is.

• 44:01Speaker 03

  It is your favorite time of year?

• 44:02Speaker 04

  It is. Christmas is the, my, December is my, one of my favorite months.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, so, uh, looking here, what are, what are some of the top trends for gifts for this year, would you say?

• 44:20Speaker 04

  Ooh.

• 44:22Speaker 03

  Um. And I'm not gonna say what you're gonna get Gabe for Christmas on the air, cause he's probably listening.

• 44:28Speaker 04

  A massage chair.

• 44:32Speaker 03

  No, that is.

• 44:33Speaker 04

  With all the stress it creates, I need to relax.

• 44:36Speaker 03

  You're not buying, it's not buying for you, not for him.

• 44:40Speaker 04

  Um, I, I don't know, I think I would say gaming stuff is probably on the list.

• 44:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think that you're right, the gaming consoles, the accessories for those, um,

• 44:55Speaker 03

  because AI is such a huge, uh, thing right now, I think, um, AI powered like gadgets and wearables, whether it be a, an AI watch, or the Meta glasses, or whatever, you know, the AI powered glasses, I, I hear those things are kind of flying off the shelves as well, uh, I don't know, those are kind of creepy, but, uh.

• 45:22Speaker 04

  The glasses are, the glasses are creepy, to tell you the truth, and now with the advances in technology, I mean, a, a regular glass that, that has a camera, it's kind of weird, man, you're going into the men's bathroom and somebody is wearing them, it's weird.

• 45:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, you might want to just go ahead and take those off and put them in the pocket.

• 45:41Speaker 04

  I'm telling you, that's just, just, AI is getting a little bit off. But now, I, I like, I like the fact, like, if I'm a traveler, I would love to have those, so you can, they can capture all my experience and then I can edit, whatever.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  Well, if I'm a traveler and I don't speak the language. Yeah, yeah.

• 45:58Speaker 04

  I mean, that's that's a cool gift.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  There's a real time, like, uh, you know, translator. That's just showing up on the glass like in front of your eyes that you can actually read and be like, oh, that's what they're saying. Oh, okay. And so I can't speak the language, but I can at least understand what they're saying to me.

• 46:16Speaker 04

  I've seen that one. I've seen that. That would be a cool gift.

• 46:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh, you know, I've also, you know, when when you're giving presentations and people that have, uh, maybe some stage fright, don't want to have a teleprompter. Well, guess what? Your glasses are now your teleprompter. You know, those types of things. So, uh, that's, that's, that's coming. So.

• 46:36Speaker 04

  Who's, who's the president that used the teleprompter the most?

• 46:40Speaker 03

  Ooh, all of them?

• 46:43Speaker 04

  Obama.

• 46:44Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, Obama lived on the, uh.

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Seriously, like that. I I read that like a couple of years ago.

• 46:50Speaker 03

  Like, all of his speeches were on, were on teleprompter. He did. He never went off the cuff.

• 46:54Speaker 04

  He, he, he is a good speaker. I would give him that. But, but, um, but he was the, the.

• 47:00Speaker 03

  He was, he was the king.

• 47:01Speaker 04

  Yes, of using the teleprompter.

• 47:03Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, here's another one. And I, I would say that I'm guilty of this. I would, I, I, I find myself looking at more and more of these items. Uh, smart home tech.

• 47:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, I like what you said earlier about this little thing you're gonna buy for the window covering.

• 47:22Speaker 03

  The, the, the blinds, right?

• 47:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:24Speaker 03

  So I can have, you know, I can set it on a little timer or whatever, and it like raises or lowers, lowers my blinds when, when it gets too sunny in my office.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  So Stephen, Justin has a standing desk, but he's buying a, a blind thing so he does not stand up to go and lift it himself.

• 47:48Speaker 04

  How's that? How's that new computer monitor?

• 47:50Speaker 03

  I have the little.

• 47:51Speaker 04

  A mine? Yeah, mine is amazing.

• 47:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. I have that little bird, you know, the little bird that like pecks and you like, you like,

• 47:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  Right? I have it like, so it like it pecks the little side of my standing desk so it'll like raise and lower it so I can.

• 48:05Speaker 04

  Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So you have it on timer?

• 48:08Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't even have to touch the, the side of it. It's just I would, I want it to stand. It'll just.

• 48:13Speaker 04

  Oh, that's awesome. Look at, look at the tech. See, that's the stuff that I like for the office.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  You know.

• 48:19Speaker 04

  But home, home tech is pretty cool too.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  The home tech is pretty cool. I love the fact that there's uh, the smart outlets now where, you know, you can have the lights on your house instead of like a mechanical timer. You can set it to whatever, or you can even not even be at home and say, you know, hey,

• 48:36Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  You know, your Amazon Alexa, turn on your, your lights or whatever. Um, you know, um, I have one here in my office where I have the, the air purifier in here and it's connected to the wifi. So I can turn that on and off when I need to, if I, if I needed to. So uh, the, the, the wifi gadgets and the smart tech, pretty cool stuff. I think that's gonna be, you know, the, the wave of the future with uh, some of the gift giving that's, that's happening.

• 49:07Speaker 04

  I, I would, I, I'll, any, anything that has to do with cooking a good steak, I'd love, I'd love for a gift. Like, I don't know if it's thermostat's connected to your phone, some new gadgets, those I'd love to have, I'd love to receive, and I'll also love to give.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, the little wifi.

• 49:23Speaker 04

  Anything that makes you, you know, grill master, I'm, I'm all for that.

• 49:28Speaker 03

  I'll get you the little brushes. You can brush on the barbecue sauce.

• 49:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, you, of course you go to the cheapest thing possible.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  Um, here's the one that, you know, uh, experience gifts, you know, so in my family, we don't tend to give a lot of like, physical gifts. Um, yes, there's usually a couple of things under the tree to open, but for the most part, it's um, experiences, right?

• 49:58Speaker 03

  Going on a trip to, you know, uh, Sedona, Arizona, or something like that. Like, hey, something to look forward to. Um, it's an experience. Hey, it's a, it's a Christmas gift. This is the, this is where we're gonna go this year for spring break. Right? And I'm gonna announce it at Christmas, and this is where we're gonna go for this year. Um, and so-

• 50:18Speaker 04

  You know, who, who does that? My, my buddy Matt Damian.

• 50:21Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah?

• 50:22Speaker 04

  His family, that's all they do for Christmas. That's all they give to each other.

• 50:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:25Speaker 04

  Every year, every, uh, uh, every other year. Every, one year they do gifts, the other year they do, uh, experiences or travels. Yeah. Sedona, I remember because Sedona was one of them a couple of years back for Matt. That's how I remembered.

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, Sedona's gorgeous. I, so just little things like that where, you know, um, our youngest is getting older. Um, he's able to travel a little bit more now. We'd like to be able to, you know, um, ha- have him have those memories because, you know, getting them all the toys, they just get broken, right? Or they get forgotten, or they're put in the, the bottom of the barrel or the box, or whatever. And, um, whereas, he's, he's nine, and so he now comes to us and is like, hey, you remember that hike we did in Death Valley? Three years ago? Like, that was really fun. Let's do that again. Oh, okay, let's go do that. Yeah. So it's the, the memories, the, those types of gifts I find are,

• 51:23Speaker 03

  those are the gifts that keep on giving because you can remember them for the rest of your life.

• 51:27Speaker 04

  I agree. I agree, and I love that.

• 51:29Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, so getting back and we'll kind of tie, tie a bow, get, get what I said. Yeah, tie a bow on this, uh, this episode of the Money Wise Guys. Um, the Federal Reserve cut rates three times consecutively here, um, dropping, uh, interest rates by almost a full percentage point, uh, from their high. And here we are now, and it really does signal, uh, an economic transition, um, not a crisis. I think we've agreed to that. It's not a crisis, but it, it does, uh, you know, uh, signal an economic transition. These lower rates help. Um, it doesn't eliminate

• 52:14Speaker 03

  stress, the financial stress of inflation, or, you know, the feelings. Again, going back to what we talked about before, the, the K-shaped recovery, the K-shaped curve.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  Um, the individual.

• 52:25Speaker 04

  There is any stress, by the way, Justin, Tiger King is offering phone calls from prison.

• 52:29Speaker 03

  Uh.

• 52:30Speaker 04

  I'm gonna say that again.

• 52:31Speaker 03

  No.

• 52:32Speaker 04

  He announced it last week, so he's available for a phone call to help you with your, your December stress.

• 52:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm wondering if he's still, uh, angling to get a pardon. Uh.

• 52:43Speaker 04

  Hey, some worse people got pardoned.

• 52:46Speaker 03

  True, true that. Uh, damn that Carol Baskin. Um.

• 52:54Speaker 03

  Oh, man. Um, but yeah, those lower rates, it's, it, they help. It's not going to be something that's going to happen immediately. Just like we said before, when the, when the Federal Reserve was raising interest rates, we said all along that those rates don't flow through the entire economy for a good 12 to 18 months. Here it's on the opposite side and rates are reducing. Same thing. Don't expect for all of this to flow through the economy tomorrow. It's gonna take six months, 12 months, 18 months for the full, for the full force of these drops to be felt throughout the economy. Okay?

• 53:33Speaker 03

  Um, now, remember, there's always going to be hidden fees, interest, uh, no matter what these headlines say. Always pay attention to what's out there. Um.

• 53:44Speaker 04

  And I, I, I want, one thing too on just lower interest rates. If you are carrying a credit card balance, and I'll leave you with this. If you are carrying a credit card balance and your interest on that credit card goes, goes down, take advantage of that. Okay? Spend more on that principal and get rid of the debt. Do not, do not see that as an opportunity to spend more.

• 54:08Speaker 03

  Right. Pay down that debt faster.

• 54:10Speaker 04

  As long as you have that leverage, as long as you have that debt on that credit card, you're not out of the doghouse. You've got to take care of that first before you do anything else. That's your priority number one.

• 54:21Speaker 03

  No, your, your first job is to get out of debt and, and the credit card debt is the worst debt you could possibly have.

• 54:28Speaker 04

  That's correct.

• 54:29Speaker 03

  Right? I mean, at least with car debt, you gotta get to work. You gotta do certain things. A house debt, you gotta put a roof over your head. You gotta live somewhere. Um, credit card debt, revolving debt, that's just, you're just paying other people for the, for the, the privilege of having things before you were able to afford them.

• 54:48Speaker 04

  And anytime you swipe that card, research has shown this, it's an emotional buy.

• 54:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a dopamine hit. It's a dopamine hit. Yeah, absolutely. You get, you get the serotonin and dopamine that gets shot straight into your brain every time that that credit card smokes as it goes through the reader, you know, so.

• 55:08Speaker 04

  Until your statement comes.

• 55:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, and then that serotonin wears off real quick, don't it?

• 55:14Speaker 04

  Very quick.

• 55:17Speaker 03

  All right. Hey, also Friday, if you get a chance, come on down to the Woolworths. We'll be doing some

• 55:24Speaker 03

  bell ringing for the Salvation Army with my Rotary Clubs. We'll be doing that down here. Come on down, drop a couple of bucks into the old kettle. Be smart, be safe, be money wise. We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.

• 55:37Speaker 02

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