Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 3/9/26 Rage Bait, Rate Hikes & Robots: What's Really Driving Business Today? About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, March 9th 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 The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield.
0:05 Speaker 01 Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:29 Speaker 02 Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
0:37 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.
0:41 Speaker 03 And welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on KGO Money Talk, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts, I'm Sharad Waite and...
1:03 Speaker 04 Sammy Abiyawi.
1:04 Speaker 03 Hey Sammy, great seeing you, good having you here.
1:07 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:08 Speaker 03 We have a war that is happening across the world.
1:11 Speaker 04 Unfortunately, it's getting bigger by the day. It seems like more countries being attacked, missiles reaching all the way to Cyprus, I heard. Shut down, fortunately, but expanding. Desalination plants going out of function. And me, I'm a pacifist, I want just love and peace in the world. I feel bad for the people that are just getting bombarded from both parts.
1:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, it's scary. We've lost service members already, US 7 so far that have been killed and...
1:49 Speaker 04 We got lucky with the three pilots that got shut down over Kuwait.
1:52 Speaker 03 It's just, it is scary and I think there's good reason for people to be nervous and a lot of people, especially investors, are nervous and they're looking at the markets. And this war, you know, put aside the the human aspect of it. There's an economic, there's an, it brings it with it, an economic uncertainty. And this is something that I think we'll spend a good chunk of this show talking about. We have some listener questions that are asking about the impact of the of the war. And on some of their financial decisions. So, you know, keep your comments and questions coming our way. Six, six, one, three, nine, six, one thousand.
2:35 Speaker 03 That's the number you can text and we're happy to to address your questions or comments at any time. And let's start there.
2:43 Speaker 04 Yeah, the first question, can you discuss gold and silver? And I think this is year to date.
2:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah. So year to date, gold is up about seventeen percent. It started the year at trading about four thousand, three hundred dollars an ounce. And today it's it's trading at about five thousand, one hundred and forty seven dollars an ounce. That's your about almost an eighteen percent gain year to date. The really, the big story is on a one year basis, gold is up seventy seven percent. On a five year basis, it's up two hundred and six percent. So these are astronomical gains when it comes to gold.
3:31 Speaker 03 If you look at gold historically, going back over a hundred years, the rate of return has been right around three percent. Three and a half percent, just above the average rate of inflation.
3:42 Speaker 04 Yeah.
3:43 Speaker 03 So that that is, that's why this is pretty phenomenal. It's it's pretty out of the norm to see gold go up at this rate as it has. Now silver is, or as Gero used to call it, hillbilly gold. That's silver.
4:00 Speaker 03 Is, is, a year to date, pretty close to the same. Year to date, silver's up about 22%. It was, uh, trading right now at about $87 an ounce. It started the year out at trading about $71 an ounce. But gold, uh, silver is off of its peak. Silver was trading for $115 an ounce by, around the end of January. And again, it's back down to about $87 an ounce. So still a gain there. Um, uh, and it comes to silver. On a one-year basis, silver's actually outperformed, uh, or, I don't know if it's outperformed, but close to gold. It's up 168% on a one-year basis.
4:42 Speaker 03 And on a five-year basis, silver is up 236%. So, um, we're seeing, you know, pretty substantial gains there. Uh, gold was up 206% on a five-year basis. So silver's actually outpaced gold on a five-year basis. So there's the numbers in terms of the precious metals. I think more importantly is, why, why are, why does, why has gold gone up?
5:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, that's, I was gonna follow up with that question, Jared. Why, why is gold, and now silver? I mean, I did not know that silver went up that much. Why? Is, is, is it safer for a lot of, do people see it as a safe, um, shelter?
5:26 Speaker 03 Yeah. So what you said is key is what do people, how do people perceive gold? Because I think investors perceive gold a certain way, and then gold is a certain way. Gold has historically been a place for people to put their money when there's fear or uncertainty or instability, certainly when there's geopolitical risk like wars or sanctions. Gold has been historically viewed as a safe haven asset. And that's in large part because it's recognized globally. It's not necessarily tied to a currency, so it doesn't have a default risk. There is an underlying value to gold.
6:09 Speaker 03 It can be used for jewelry, but even electronics.
6:12 Speaker 04 Electronics, yeah.
6:13 Speaker 03 Dentistry, there's all different, there's real practical uses for gold. So it does have some inherent function there, but it's, it is driven mostly by fear and uncertainty. And, you know, central banks across the world will often buy gold when there is geopolitical shifts. Russia, for example, increased their gold reserves recently when they took over Crimea. And China has been steadily buying gold. A lot of the emerging markets and central banks are, are trying to diversify
6:54 Speaker 03 diversify their own portfolios from US dollars. And so gold is one of those things that isn't necessarily correlated directly with the dollar.
7:04 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's, it's interesting because
7:09 Speaker 04 I don't know if you've watched the movie Blood Diamond?
7:12 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's been years.
7:13 Speaker 04 Yeah, so it's, it's, it's an oldie but a goodie.
7:16 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:16 Speaker 04 And it shed light about the conflict that diamond created, especially in Africa. Then after that movie, the sales of diamonds and the value of diamonds went substantially down, in my opinion. Right now, a lot of people will probably buy a lab grown diamond versus a, what they call a blood diamond. But, but one thing is, is happening still in Africa is conflicts around gold. A lot of the smaller countries, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, some, like at the edge of the desert. High producing gold countries, but a lot of these are financed through gold.
8:01 Speaker 04 The Chinese are going there, United Arab Emirates have, have been, said that they are, you know, collecting a lot of gold. Russia is in there. And a lot of these countries don't produce gold, like Russia, its gold production is very limited. Where are they coming with the gold from? So they, a lot of these conflicts that are around Africa are financed by these countries coming in and increasing the value of the gold because they want to improve or increase their reserves.
8:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:37 Speaker 04 Right?
8:38 Speaker 03 Right.
8:38 Speaker 04 And it's becoming more and more expensive to mine, more and more expensive from a human life too, to mine in these countries.
8:49 Speaker 03 Right.
8:50 Speaker 04 And that's the sad part about gold that a lot of the time we don't talk about.
8:57 Speaker 03 Yeah, the, yeah, just the, the, yeah, the costs that are involved in, in just buying and storing gold. There's, I feel like investors often get taken advantage of because it is an asset that has been, that gets hyped up during times of uncertainty. Anytime somebody is making a financial decision under, under emotional stress is generally not a good idea.
9:26 Speaker 04 That's correct.
9:26 Speaker 03 You want to be clear headed and thinking when you are deciding where to put your money. And there's this impression that gold, essentially gold is, is a hedge against a loss of trust. And when there's a loss of trust in the government, say, for example, or in, in a certain currency, if you live in another, in another country, maybe there's a loss of
9:51 Speaker 04 Yes.
9:51 Speaker 03 confidence in that currency or in the government of that, of that country and their ability to, to keep that certain currency stable, or even to keep the economy stable at all, then there's this idea that gold is a safe haven that you can go to because worst case scenario, you've got this gold that you can then go sell to the country next door or somewhere else and then you'd be, you'd be safe. I, I push back on that a little bit because in my view, the, the world that we live in where, where The the dollar, let's say, for example, is is worthless is it's gonna be, there's gonna be many stages before we get to the point, before we get to that point.
10:32 Speaker 03 In the meantime, maybe there's a slow erosion of confidence in the US government or in the US dollar.
10:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
10:38 Speaker 03 But it's not gonna happen overnight. And even if it did happen overnight, we we it's really difficult for for us to imagine that world where now we're trading in gold.
10:54 Speaker 04 Yes.
10:54 Speaker 03 Why would you be trading in gold? It seems more logical you be trading in things that are more valuable, like food or toilet paper or drinkable water.
11:03 Speaker 04 That's correct.
11:03 Speaker 03 You know, or or ammunition, you know?
11:06 Speaker 04 I think you're what you said, I hundred percent agree with it as far as even if there is loss of confidence is gonna take time because the system that's been built since the dollar became the currency of the world, what, nineteen fifty-two? I believe the Bretton Woods Accords nineteen fifty-two, my college education maybe is is in question here, but I think that's it, the systems, not just in America, but the systems around the world are all built around that, like the how we exchange things. So when you're buying your T-shirt at Target that was made in China or Bangladesh,
11:46 Speaker 04 the exchange that happens in between, there's a system there that's been going on for fifty-plus years, almost seventy years now. It's hard to undo that because everybody's comfortable with it. There's a high trust in that system. Now, there are countries that are trying to bring in a different system. BRICS is a term that's been talked about in the last couple of years.
12:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:09 Speaker 04 Right? South Africa, Russia.
12:12 Speaker 03 Brazil, India.
12:13 Speaker 04 India and and and, you know?
12:16 Speaker 03 Yeah, China.
12:17 Speaker 04 China. But it's not taking a lot of traction, maybe some, but not to the level of what the dollar is doing around the world.
12:27 Speaker 03 Right.
12:27 Speaker 04 I can travel to any country. I can, I can challenge anybody. I'll travel to any country around the world. I'll take my dollar with me. And guess what? They'll take it.
12:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:37 Speaker 04 They'll take the dollar over anything else.
12:40 Speaker 03 Yep.
12:40 Speaker 04 You know, sometimes I'll give a, I'll give a piece of gold. I'm not, I want a dollar.
12:46 Speaker 03 Give me that dollar. That can exchange it a little easier than that gold piece of gold.
12:50 Speaker 04 Correct.
12:51 Speaker 03 Uh, while you were talking and looked it up, the US effectively went off the gold standard in two different main stages. Domestically happened in 1933 with FDR where Franklin Roosevelt ended the right to redeem paper money for gold. But internationally, it didn't happen until 1971, when President Nixon ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. So he made it, that's where it really disconnected the dollar from gold, you know?
13:20 Speaker 04 It's, it's interesting what happened in 1933, as far as the American government making it illegal for US citizens to actually hold gold.
13:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, they had to turn in their gold. Yeah.
13:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, you had to turn in your gold because they needed to improve the, the reserves. That's what
13:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:37 Speaker 04 created the Fort Knox.
13:40 Speaker 03 Yes.
13:41 Speaker 04 All the reserves in Fort Knox came through the collection of gold from all the American citizens because it was made illegal to hold gold.
13:49 Speaker 03 To hold it. They needed to turn it in.
13:51 Speaker 04 Yes.
13:51 Speaker 03 And then the US at that time in 1933 stopped paying its debts in gold. So it's like, and we're going to pay this in dollars.
13:58 Speaker 04 Correct.
13:59 Speaker 03 It's also a fascinating story about how the dollar became the world's currency. Uh, we, we've talked about this. We did a Money Wise podcast on the history of the dollar. This was back during COVID, so it would have been, you know, four years, four or five years ago. And it's really a fascinating story about how the dollar essentially became the world currency. And, um, and then that's where we, where we are today. There's always talk like Like you said Sammy of that changing and the dollar, you know, certain countries coming together and and changing that up, but it's it's just gonna be a while just because we, the United States is still just a powerhouse when it comes to global trade and manufacturing.
14:44 Speaker 04 I was right on the name of the accord, the conference is the Bretton Woods Conference, but I was off on the date. It's 1944 and I said 1952. And you have to remember, the world was in shambles in 1944, the end of the war. Europe was devastated. Most of the big Asian countries, Japan, China, the Koreas, were devastated.
15:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:09 Speaker 04 So, America was coming in with the Marshall Plan in Europe and a similar plan in these countries in Asia, rebuilding everything. So, of course, what are we gonna use? Hey, we're gonna give you some dollars, right? We're gonna establish this payment process and I think that's how it took roots.
15:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, part of this message, I don't know if you reread this, but the listener's asking how interest rates and geopolitics are changing gold prices. So, the, you know, kind of what we, we've kind of covered this already, but sometimes gold prices go up, not because of the, of a war, for example, but because war changes monetary policy. So, for example, governments have to go into debt to finance a war. Central banks have to keep rates lower for a while, which sometimes you see inflation going up, as we're seeing in Russia, for example,
16:09 Speaker 03 with with inflation. So, that monetary backdrop can be much more important than the conflict itself. And the gold is just one of those aspects. It's just one of those pieces of of the puzzle. And I would, I would caution any individual investor to overweighting your savings and your long-term investments.
16:36 Speaker 03 I would caution you from putting too much of that in any, any one asset class, let alone precious metals. And precious metals can be lots of things. It could be silver and gold, platinum, whatever. But think of those assets as one asset class. And that asset class, we define in our world of, as investment advisors as alternatives. Alternatives is a term that is used to describe investments that are not correlated directly to the stock market or the bond market. Those are the two big markets that we deal with are the bond market and the stock market. So there are other investments out there like real estate and precious metals and other
17:19 Speaker 03 commodities that are really good to have inside your portfolio for a portion of your portfolio. You know, I'm talking about five, maybe 10% of your portfolio would be in this alternative sleeve of this alternative portion of your portfolio. Again, depending on what your risk is in your, in your life and what your objective is for that.
17:40 Speaker 04 Diversity is key.
17:41 Speaker 03 So key.
17:42 Speaker 04 Yeah, diversity is key. And, and, and in my banking world, as a banker, regulators, guess what do they want you to do? They want you to have a diversified portfolio. So when they come and examine you and they see that most of your loans are in real estate, for instance, guess what? They might have to put you through a certain process to diversify and go into what they call commercial and industrial CNI loans, or do more equipment, do more lines of credits, finance some accounts receivables, create a portfolio that that's diversified so it can withstand the shocks of either interest rate or slowdown in the economy, whatever the case is. So diversity from, in my mind is key.
18:27 Speaker 04 What you're describing is key.
18:29 Speaker 03 Yeah. And, you know, a diversified portfolio, a diversified investment portfolio can give you exposure to some.
18:40 Speaker 03 Some sectors that actually do really well during wartime. And I'm not promoting people to be like war hungry, but you do have diversification within a portfolio that does account for some of these geopolitical events. And there are also certain asset classes that are much more resilient during recessions. You have like consumer staples, for example, those things that people are gonna, they buy whether or not they're in a recession or not. Now, you might ask, well, then why don't I just put everything in that, in consumer staples, for example, and then I never have to worry about a recession coming? Well, that's because then you're giving up on some of the other sectors that maybe
19:23 Speaker 03 it's volatile, maybe it can go way down, but you're missing out on all those big gains. And so you want to have some exposure to tech, for example, or growth companies, because those also play a part. The idea of a good diversified portfolio isn't, it's to have some exposure to all of these different asset classes that correlate with each other, but at the end of the day, it's smoothing out your overall return. And so just be cautious. I know it's a hot topic right now because gold has gone up so much, silver's gone up. There's a lot of people that are tempted to maybe overweight, just as they did during the dot com boom.
20:06 Speaker 03 And we cautioned you back then, too, be careful, don't go overweight in these dot com companies. And just like last year, last couple of years, don't go too overweight in AI. Yes, you want to have some in AI companies, but you know, everything goes in cycles. So just take it easy, have it part of your portfolio, and this is an advantage of working with a financial advisor.
20:32 Speaker 04 Stephen and I would just let costs go because. You never go wrong with Costco, right, Stephen?
20:38 Speaker 00 Never. I got, I got some new jeans over the weekend.
20:42 Speaker 03 From Costco?
20:43 Speaker 00 From Costco.
20:43 Speaker 04 I, I read over the weekend that Costco is building a Costco shopping center, but with 800 apartments on the top of the, in, in the LA area.
20:54 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
20:54 Speaker 04 Yeah.
20:55 Speaker 03 Like, uh, housing above the Costco?
20:57 Speaker 04 Housing above the Costco.
20:58 Speaker 03 And Costco's building it?
21:00 Speaker 04 Costco's building it.
21:00 Speaker 03 Whoa.
21:01 Speaker 00 Kirkland?
21:02 Speaker 03 Kirkland Apartments.
21:03 Speaker 00 Why they calling him Kirkland?
21:05 Speaker 03 Wow.
21:06 Speaker 04 Yeah, I wanna, I wanna read more about that and bring it back to the, and talk about it, but it's, it's, it's an interesting concept. Eight hundred apartments, it's, that's a lot of, uh, apartments.
21:17 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:18 Speaker 04 But it's also could, could be a good synergy in, in, in, in a town like LA where traffic is bad and there's, you can't find a place to live and all that. So I don't know if they're doing it for their own employees are gonna be working there. I think eight hundred, that's too many.
21:33 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:33 Speaker 04 People working on a shopping center, but it was just an interesting concept that Costco now is getting into this, this, uh, this business, housing business.
21:41 Speaker 03 I wonder if the apartments are, are so big that you'd never, you'd, you wouldn't be able to like live in them, all the rooms?
21:47 Speaker 04 No, they don't need to because Costco's just downstairs. You can go and get your stuff.
21:51 Speaker 03 Just go shopping downstairs?
21:53 Speaker 04 I would never stock up on hot dogs, Stephen, at that point.
21:55 Speaker 00 You won't need to.
21:56 Speaker 04 Yeah. Just go downstairs, a dollar fifty.
21:59 Speaker 03 Oh, my gosh. Uh, should we knock out another question, Sammy?
22:02 Speaker 04 Yes, yes. Um, we, we answered their geopolitics one. How, how much does it cost to do a business lunch at your building?
22:12 Speaker 03 Yeah, Sammy, uh, you can help out with this.
22:14 Speaker 04 Definitely, yes.
22:15 Speaker 03 Your partner in the, in the building. Um, that, we get this question a lot. What does it cost to rent out? Now, I'm assuming we're talking about our basement, um, not the luncheonette, um, but it varies, right?
22:28 Speaker 04 Correct.
22:28 Speaker 03 It kinda just depends on what you're looking for.
22:30 Speaker 04 So, so there is, I mean, we have, we have a, a basement, a catering manager. His name is AJ David. Awesome guy. And AJ has a menu of options. There's a minimum hours for the rental. I think that's four hours. Then with with an hourly rate about hundred fifty dollars. Okay, which is lower than a lot of our competitors slash friends in the downtown within about actually five miles, five mile radius. So that's, that's the first thing. And if you are wanting to use the luncheonette from upstairs to, to, to cater your lunch, you either, you have the option of just going upstairs and eating there and coming back
23:14 Speaker 04 to your lunch downstairs, keeping your meeting room clean and, you know, food free and smell free from the burgers. Or there's a catering menu that you can, you can choose from.
23:27 Speaker 03 Right.
23:28 Speaker 04 And it ranges. It goes from burgers and fries to steak and lobster.
23:34 Speaker 03 Right.
23:35 Speaker 04 And everything in between, we can accommodate.
23:37 Speaker 03 Right. And then it'll just be a per head.
23:39 Speaker 04 Correct.
23:39 Speaker 03 You know, anywhere between, you know, a few dollars per head up to, you know, if you want steak and lobsters, a little bit more.
23:45 Speaker 04 Yeah. I mean, and, and the chef that you're going to be getting, you're getting a Michelin star chef in Richard Yoshimura catering for you when you're at the basement. Quality food, that's one thing he will never, ever compromise on. And that's quality. So yeah, give us a call at the Woolworths. We can put the info on this show, right? We can even share AJ's number and email.
24:11 Speaker 03 Yeah.
24:12 Speaker 04 On, on the show detail.
24:14 Speaker 03 Yeah. You can shoot, shoot a message if you're interested in anything at the Woolworths. You can shoot that message our way or go to our Woolworths Instagram page or be happy to help you with that. Good stuff. Good questions, good comments. We got a couple more that we want to address, but we're going to take a quick break. We come back, we got a couple more listener questions. We're Money Wise, don't go anywhere.
24:34 Speaker 00 If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact Money Wise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. Money Wise 401k plans are customized to you and your company's needs. Six six one eight four seven one thousand. That's six six one eight four seven one thousand.
25:05 Speaker 03 Welcome back. We're Money Wise.
25:09 Speaker 03 That's Sammy. I'm Sharid. We're your hosts today. 661-396-1000. That's the number that you can call or text. That's The Towers that you're listening to, right? This band is playing tonight.
25:22 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah?
25:23 Speaker 03 Here in the basement of Woolworths. I believe tickets are still available. You can go to the basement at Woolworths Instagram page, website. There you can find tickets there. Great indie folk band, duet, great harmonies, and I'm really excited to see them tonight.
25:42 Speaker 04 Nice.
25:43 Speaker 03 Yeah. So Sammy, we've got a couple more listener questions.
25:46 Speaker 04 Couple more questions. The first one, hello, Money Wise. My questions are, I'm a first time home buyer. Should I go to a credit union bank? Like Alta Credit Union or Valley Strong or a bank like Wells Fargo? Or should I look for a loan processor for a loan? Also, I need some advice. And guys, with the war going on, is it a good time to buy? Are rates going up?
26:11 Speaker 03 All right. Let's answer that first, the end of the question, which is, is this a good time to buy a house? Considering the war?
26:19 Speaker 04 Yeah.
26:20 Speaker 03 Sammy, how would you answer that?
26:22 Speaker 04 It depends on your budget.
26:24 Speaker 03 That's it?
26:25 Speaker 04 Which really your budget- Can you afford to buy a house regardless if there is a war?
26:29 Speaker 03 Right.
26:29 Speaker 04 I have totalized debt or not?
26:31 Speaker 03 Right.
26:31 Speaker 04 It's your budget.
26:32 Speaker 03 It's your budget.
26:33 Speaker 04 Does your budget allow you to buy a house? Do you have the security to sustain a payment? For a certain period of time?
26:42 Speaker 03 Yeah.
26:43 Speaker 04 And until things change, hopefully your salary goes up or whatever.
26:46 Speaker 03 Right.
26:47 Speaker 04 It's truly your budget.
26:50 Speaker 03 Right.
26:50 Speaker 04 And one of the things we fail at when we create a budget, especially as Americans, is we are not true with ourselves because we forget to add certain things that we feel that are not necessities. But our daily habits make them necessities. So for instance, if you're going to Starbucks every day, it's not a necessity. But if you're going every day, it becomes a necessity and you you need to add that to your budget. So you are very true with yourself. And you don't have surprises. Okay, now the good thing about these things that are not necessities. When you do have a mortgage, guess what? The mortgage has to be paid or you you get kicked out of the house.
27:34 Speaker 04 So all of a sudden, it creates a little bit more of a structure to your monthly expenses. Especially that mortgage has to be paid. You you have no choice.
27:46 Speaker 03 Right, right. And so I guess I'll play devil's advocate a little bit. Is the war going to drive up prices right now where somebody maybe shouldn't buy a house? Because they can now go out of their budget?
28:04 Speaker 03 I have a hard time like thinking of how that would work.
28:07 Speaker 04 Yeah.
28:07 Speaker 03 Because like you said, you you buy a house when you you should buy a house when you can afford it.
28:12 Speaker 04 That's right.
28:12 Speaker 03 And the mortgage lenders are all going to have basically the same rules. And that is it can't the mortgage payment can't exceed a third of your income.
28:22 Speaker 04 That's correct.
28:22 Speaker 03 So to your point, Sammy, you have to have a budget so that you know what a third of your income is. That's going to tell you how much of a monthly payment you can afford or how much you're going to get loaned. How much they're going to lend you for that house?
28:36 Speaker 04 Correct.
28:36 Speaker 03 And then if you can afford that, that's the that's the thing that I think a lot of people can't. They they underestimate. They go, well, a third of my income is going to that. But then they get into the house and they didn't like they're so they're so tight with their with their other parts of their their expenses. That now they could get themselves in trouble.
28:56 Speaker 04 Yeah, you you walk into the house. I I remember this. This is from my own experience. I bought the house shared, right? With everything we had, like we put down and everything. We walked in, we didn't have blinds, man.
29:07 Speaker 03 Right.
29:07 Speaker 04 We were like a fishbowl.
29:08 Speaker 03 So you go out and price blinds and you're like, whoa.
29:11 Speaker 04 We brought the blinds guy, blinds and more, Dennis Knitzel, I remember him. He came by and he gave me, I remember eight hundred sixteen dollars and twenty five years ago, I was just starting my wife and I was like, man, how am I gonna pay for this?
29:24 Speaker 03 Eight hundred bucks for all the house, the whole house?
29:26 Speaker 04 Yeah, we had just the two inch cheapest thing you can get, you know? And I'm like, how am I gonna pay for this?
29:33 Speaker 03 Right.
29:34 Speaker 04 Thank God my wife had some savings, man. She's, you know, we got those blinds up.
29:38 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, cuz you gotta, you gotta cover the windows.
29:40 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah. I mean, seriously, it was like a fishbowl.
29:44 Speaker 03 Yeah.
29:44 Speaker 04 Like, we had this brand new house, we're excited, and then there's no blinds.
29:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
29:48 Speaker 04 Like, the sun is coming from every corner.
29:52 Speaker 03 So budget and blinds if you're buying a new house.
29:54 Speaker 04 Yeah, no, you gotta budget things like that when you, I mean, the house has a gardener, the house has plumbing issues, Stephen, electrical issues that come up. So there's all sort of things that you need to amount for in your budget and be truthful.
30:09 Speaker 03 Yeah.
30:09 Speaker 04 You know, based on the age of the house that you're buying. If you're buying new, then you have a lot of things under warranty. If you're buying old, twenty year old, guess what? A lot of things are gonna break.
30:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, right.
30:19 Speaker 04 Do you need a roof? That's why the inspection comes in, so you know exactly what needs, what the house needs.
30:24 Speaker 03 You know, big trees fall, you know?
30:25 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah.
30:26 Speaker 03 You never know as a home buyer what you're gonna get yourself into.
30:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, no, definite, definitely, you, if you can afford it, regardless if the war is going on or not, go for it.
30:37 Speaker 03 That's the right time to buy.
30:38 Speaker 04 Be truthful with yourself, yes.
30:40 Speaker 03 And then don't try to time the interest rates. Again, the interest rates are what they are, so if you-
30:45 Speaker 04 You can always refinance, Sherri, is what you always say.
30:47 Speaker 03 Yeah, but if you can't afford a mortgage right now at today's interest rates, you can't afford it.
30:53 Speaker 04 That's correct.
30:53 Speaker 03 The only thing you can do is buy less of a house, so that you're paying, paying less for a, for the house itself. But, yeah, you, you don't wanna get hung up on the interest rates, cuz you can always refinance.
31:04 Speaker 04 That's right.
31:05 Speaker 03 It's what can you afford? And that's when it's the right time to buy a house.
31:09 Speaker 04 Yes.
31:09 Speaker 03 Then, the first part of the, of the question, Sammy, is how, what's the best way to get a mortgage loan?
31:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, either a credit union or a bank, right?
31:19 Speaker 03 Credit union or a bank or a broker?
31:21 Speaker 04 Yeah, I, I prefer a credit union. There's a lot of incentives with credit unions, in my opinion. First, they're local, you might have been already banking with one, so they know your credit history, they know your checking account or your savings, or, so they have some history with you. Big banks, in my opinion, tend to have people that are trained to push products for quantity purpose versus quality like a credit union would have.
31:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
31:47 Speaker 04 I, I, I believe in the credit union versus a big bank, especially when it comes to local things.
31:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, generally speaking, you can find more competitive rates on the credit union side than the major bank side.
32:00 Speaker 04 Yeah, that makes sense too, because, I mean, credit unions are nonprofit organizations, so they pass on that, that savings over to, to, to their consumers.
32:12 Speaker 03 Right, and the other aspect to this is, I would say, it, it wouldn't, it doesn't really matter if it's a credit union, or a bank, or a loan broker, what, where you get your loan, what you're looking for is the best loan.
32:30 Speaker 04 Correct.
32:31 Speaker 03 That means pricing.
32:33 Speaker 04 Yes.
32:34 Speaker 03 What, what is it gonna cost you, what is the ongoing cost, what's the interest rate, and certainly, I think a part of that should be servicing, you know, you don't wanna be, you know, do you wanna do it all online, or is it, you know, having face-to-face important to you, is having some local connection important to you, but after that, it's really, it's mostly just a numbers game, so you're, you really just are shopping around.
32:57 Speaker 04 Correct, and, and by the way, you can go and shop, too.
33:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:02 Speaker 04 Yeah, you can go to all three options and get, and, and hey, I wanna apply for this loan, this is the house I'm buying, give me a quote.
33:08 Speaker 03 Yep.
33:09 Speaker 04 Get a quote from the credit union, from Wells Fargo, or Bank of America, and from the broker, and see, sometimes the broker works out.
33:16 Speaker 03 Right.
33:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, sometimes you hit the broker where, at the end of the month, sometimes they met their quota and whatever, and then they, they can be a little bit more aggressive on the fees, you never, you really never know, so shopping, especially for a big decision, a life decision like this one, makes, makes sense.
33:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, definitely wanna shop around, ask around, get more than one quote, and, I mean, even if it saves you. You know, an eighth of a percent or a quarter of a percent, you know, that could be substantial on a monthly basis. It could be certainly on an annual basis. So.
33:51 Speaker 04 I would say one more advice from me, and that's the know what your credit look like or looks like before you go and apply.
34:00 Speaker 03 Yeah.
34:01 Speaker 04 Okay, so if you're buying a house, you have the ability to run all your credit reports for free once a year. Go and get those and see if you have any blemishes on that credit that will prohibit you from getting the credit, or maybe your risk is going to increase, you know, affecting your down payment potentially, or even your interest rate. So just do your homework before you start the process. And the credit is something you are in control of.
34:35 Speaker 03 Yes.
34:35 Speaker 04 Go ahead and print your credit reports and look at them.
34:37 Speaker 03 Yep.
34:38 Speaker 04 And address any blemishes that you might have. If you don't have any, then proceed to the next step.
34:42 Speaker 03 Yes, yeah, good, good thing. I mean, any good lender is going to ask about that first. I mean, they always comes up when you're buying a car too. How's your credit?
34:49 Speaker 04 Yes.
34:50 Speaker 03 You're like, what's going on here? So good, good advice. Good job. Good job, Sammy. More, more questions or comments here?
34:58 Speaker 04 Yeah, this one, I'm going to lean on you on this one. What does Substack mean? Or have you ever heard of it? I've never heard of it.
35:07 Speaker 03 I have, I have definitely heard of Substack. I've never used Substack. I haven't, you know, I'm not, I don't subscribe to it. But Substack is actually pretty, pretty interesting. It's a, it's a platform. It's an online platform where people can publish their email, their newsletters, or their paid written content, and it goes directly to the subscriber. So think of it like a workaround from the other major, it's like a publisher. It's an online publisher that individuals can come and they can pick and choose whether they want to, there's free material on there, but they can also pay for some of their, the content producers, you can, you can pay to, to be able to, you know.
35:51 Speaker 03 Get direct articles sent from experts or analysts, journalists. And there's different Substacks, all different areas, all different topics. And it, I like it because it is sent, I am used it, but I like the idea of it. Because it gives an alternative to the major media ecosystem. And.
36:16 Speaker 04 So these are like writers, like, let's say, the Wall Street Journal.
36:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:19 Speaker 04 Somebody left the Wall Street Journal, says, I'm tired of the politics, I'm just gonna go on my own. And I'm gonna, I can subscribe to their content through this.
36:28 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:28 Speaker 04 Substack?
36:29 Speaker 03 Substack, yeah. Essentially, you're subscribing to their content.
36:32 Speaker 04 Okay.
36:33 Speaker 03 It's a place where, where those authors can, can put their stuff on. And then somebody can go on Substack and decide whether or not they want to pay to read that or not.
36:42 Speaker 04 I see.
36:42 Speaker 03 And so Paul Krugman, for example, you mentioned New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Paul Krugman was, who's a economist and columnist, former columnist for the New York Times. He has a Substack, so you can go, you know, subscribe to that. And some of these people, by the way, that are publishing their material are paid hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars by their, just from the subscriptions. So it's like, so think of it like a YouTube.
37:12 Speaker 04 Like a YouTube channel.
37:14 Speaker 03 Like a YouTube channel, but it's just written content.
37:17 Speaker 04 I see.
37:17 Speaker 03 It's just content that's written by authors or writers or thinkers or philosophers that you like. Yeah, exactly.
37:24 Speaker 04 So I don't need to go to the Wall Street Journal and sift through, I don't know, hundreds of articles to find the one I like. I like this writer, I can go to his material directly.
37:34 Speaker 03 Yes.
37:34 Speaker 04 And subscribe to whatever.
37:35 Speaker 03 Yep. So there may be an economist, there may be an author, there may be an artist. There may be certain people that you just really like what they put out. And so you can go there and either, you know, subscribe to their Substack or you can, you know, pay, pay some of them charge and that's good too. And I like that, you know, I like that there is, there's multiple ways for us to gather our information. We can see, I think, for better, for worse, what happens to our. Our country, when anybody gets too insulated in their echo chamber of information that's being fed to them or that they're watching social media will do this to us, I think it can skew our perception of really what's going on.
38:18 Speaker 04 Yeah, you said, you, you said the word of 2025 was rage bait.
38:21 Speaker 03 Rage bait. Yeah. I mean, and you see that mainstream media. I mean, really, it's just trying to get you worked up so that you you know, you gotta go back and read it the next day so you can get mad again about whatever you're upset about. You know, they're just like feeding that, you know, fear and greed.
38:38 Speaker 04 It's, it's interesting you say that because my, my dad is 81 years old. So if he sees it on TV and then automatic, I don't know, some, most of the time, I would say 99% of the time, it becomes kind of like the, the world truth now.
38:51 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah.
38:52 Speaker 04 I get home and he'll say, hey, did you hear about this? I'm like, yeah, but I heard about other five different versions.
38:59 Speaker 03 Right.
38:59 Speaker 04 No, but this is, this is the one I read about and this is the truth.
39:02 Speaker 03 Right.
39:03 Speaker 04 Now, at first, when my younger years, I'll argue. Now, I'm almost 50, I'm like, yeah, dad, okay, all right, you got it. And I move on, man. I'm not gonna argue with you.
39:14 Speaker 03 Wise choice.
39:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, you gotta be careful, I guess, where you're, you know, how you're getting information and
39:21 Speaker 04 Yes.
39:22 Speaker 03 And it, it becomes much more difficult because if it's free,
39:27 Speaker 04 Yeah.
39:27 Speaker 03 You know, you know, you want to be careful about that.
39:31 Speaker 04 You know, you open Instagram, for instance, and now everybody has an opinion about magnesium.
39:36 Speaker 03 Oh, really? I haven't seen this.
39:38 Speaker 04 Take this magnesium, this, take magnesium, that, it's got benefits on this.
39:42 Speaker 03 Oh, I like a supplement.
39:43 Speaker 04 It's a supplement. And I'm like, there's gazillions of opinions about, this is just an example.
39:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
39:48 Speaker 04 But who are you to tell me about magnesium? Did you go to medical school? Or are you a physicist? What, where are you?
39:53 Speaker 03 Right.
39:54 Speaker 04 A lot of people sit there 24 hour, a lot of the time in front of social media, oh yeah, now I gotta go buy me a couple of bottles of magnesium.
40:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
40:02 Speaker 04 It helps with everything.
40:03 Speaker 03 That's the biggest, there's a lot of scams in the wellness, like wellness and supplement world, nutritional supplements and wellness world. It's just always.
40:18 Speaker 04 Our grandfather had a name for those.
40:21 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
40:21 Speaker 04 Snake oil.
40:22 Speaker 03 Snake oil. Oh, yeah. They're still, snake oil. People are still selling snake oil.
40:27 Speaker 04 Yep.
40:27 Speaker 03 And coming back to, you know, getting information that you're getting for free. If you're, if you're getting something for free, you're, guess what? You're the product. You're the product. And why is Instagram free? Because they're getting all that information from you and it's a perfect environment for them to feed you ads.
40:48 Speaker 04 Yes.
40:49 Speaker 03 And, and.
40:50 Speaker 04 Or rage bait you.
40:51 Speaker 03 Or rage bait you.
40:52 Speaker 04 Into a certain thing that you want, they want you to, yeah.
40:55 Speaker 03 Get reaction out of you. And so it's, yeah, just be aware, be aware of it.
41:01 Speaker 04 We have one more.
41:02 Speaker 03 Let's go.
41:03 Speaker 04 From an investing standpoint, is AI and robotics a long-term opportunity or does timing matter?
41:11 Speaker 03 Timing doesn't generally matter. Timing does not generally matter. I'm saying that very purposefully. If, if you think that you can time the market, whether it's, you know, a one-time shot, you got a million dollars and you're waiting for the right moment to go into the stock market, you're wrong. Chances are the, by far, that you're much better off going into the market as soon as you can. It's time in the market, not timing the market. It's how much time are you in the market? That is far more important than
41:51 Speaker 03 when do you go into the market? So take AI. I think the same thing applies here. Like, you're not going to, who knows if you've already missed the boat. It's, it's likely you could have already missed the boat in the run-up to Nvidia. You know, if you'd have bought Nvidia a few years ago, okay, well, congratulations, you got lucky. But there is.
42:17 Speaker 03 By far, I look at AI like I would look at any other emerging technology. It's very difficult to know who are the players that are going to end up winning at the end of the day. You want to have this as a part of your portfolio, a small section of your portfolio that is dedicated to growth tech companies. And not only that, but the way that we invest at MoneyWise is we say, no, you need to have exposure to AI and tech and growth companies, but you also need to have exposure to different managers that buy growth in tech and AI, because there's some managers that take a quantitative look at things and there's some managers that take a qualitative look.
43:01 Speaker 03 There's some managers that are specialized more in the international aspect of AI or tech. There's other managers that are specialized more in the debt or the bond issuing of tech. Like, you want all of those things. You want to be diversified across all of those different approaches to investing. And you want to do it as soon as you possibly can, because time is your best friend when it comes to investing. The longer that you're in the markets, the longer that you're in any single investment strategy, I'm talking about a diversified strategy, the far better your chances are of you achieving that goal that you have.
43:42 Speaker 03 Let's call it growth or doubling or tripling in value, whatever it is goal you have in it. Time is the thing that you need the most. So the earlier you do that, the better.
43:51 Speaker 04 From an AI standpoint, do you look at that, though, as a long-term play?
43:57 Speaker 03 It seems like, to me, AI is going to be around. Like, there's no putting that genie back in the bottle.
44:04 Speaker 04 Yeah, I like this concept that somebody talked about. And that's AI now is more of an infrastructure versus a novelty.
44:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
44:16 Speaker 04 And at first, I'm like, what do you mean by an infrastructure? It's like, well, if you're going to function in this world going forward, you need to use AI or you're going to be left behind. So it's more of how can you introduce AI to your daily operation if you're an individual? Or create some type of an infrastructure as a company to use it to actually win?
44:42 Speaker 03 Right. Yes, or to become more efficient.
44:46 Speaker 04 Yes.
44:46 Speaker 03 And that's what any good technology will do is it will make you more efficient. Like when, when we went to the steam engine, guess what? The stagecoach companies were really struggling. You have the opportunity to build a stagecoach, or you have the opportunity to build a steam engine. Which one's going to get you across the country sooner? And which, you know, there's an enormous amount of savings that is involved by the consumer by creating that steam engine.
45:17 Speaker 04 Yeah.
45:17 Speaker 03 And there's a lot of those, AI is just a different steam engine. And who are the companies that are, at the end of the day, that are going to be the big players? Who is going to be at the, at the leading edge? I think that still has a long ways to work out. You had, what, what was it? The company that, the Chinese company that came out with their AI model that was.
45:44 Speaker 04 To compete with chat.
45:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, to compete with chat GPT, remember? And there was, there's a big shock to the AI world when it happened.
45:49 Speaker 04 Cost them like, I don't know, five million bucks or something.
45:52 Speaker 03 For a fraction of the cost, you know? And, and I mean, there's still some like skepticism around that, around that. But you saw, at least for a day or two of the markets, people were freaking out. They're going, oh crap, there's a, there's a new AI model that.
46:06 Speaker 04 They realize it's the Timo version of AI.
46:08 Speaker 03 Yeah, that's right. Yeah, but exactly, but I mean, then it's like.
46:13 Speaker 04 But seriously, like I call it Timo version because it's not, I'm not going to trust a Chinese company to give my information to you. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do that.
46:21 Speaker 03 Yeah.
46:21 Speaker 04 If they are giving it to you for free from a foreign country, again, to your point, you're the product.
46:26 Speaker 03 Yeah.
46:27 Speaker 04 They're going to collect everything on you and stuff. And eventually they're going to sell you something or whatever, or you just sell your data even, right? So I, I, I, I agree with you. It's kind of like startled the market for just a little bit, a couple of days maybe. And then maybe some people tried it and it's not, it was not the same probably. I had never tried it.
46:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, but it is an example of how don't get over concentrated. Concentrated with one company.
46:54 Speaker 04 Yes.
46:55 Speaker 03 Have you can be exposed to AI without even owning a company that is only deals with AI. Because now you have all these big tech companies, the magnificent seven, every single one of them has some major play in AI or have invested heavily in, in, you know, OpenAI or Claude or, you know, a different AI model or different company. So there's ways to have some exposure to it without being overly exposed to AI. Seems hard for me to believe that it's not going to be around. Like, why would this, why would this go away? Like, why would, why would the internet have gone away? The internet never went away. It did evolve. Some of the companies went away that were trying to, you know, AOL's gone.
47:41 Speaker 03 And, and so there's, you know, there's, there's, I think, some longevity in that. But again, I think you just want to be very careful about over, over investing in any one sector, any one company or any one sector. We're gonna take our final break of the day. We come back, we got a little bit more to talk about. We'll be, we'll be right back.
48:05 Speaker 03 Thanks for tuning in, we're Money Wise.
48:08 Speaker 04 This is the same, same people that are gonna come tonight?
48:10 Speaker 03 Yeah, this is Towers. This band you're hearing right now is playing tonight.
48:13 Speaker 04 What time, what time is the show?
48:14 Speaker 03 Doors open at six and show starts at seven.
48:19 Speaker 04 Oh, wow.
48:20 Speaker 03 The opening act also very, very good.
48:24 Speaker 03 I always forget their name.
48:25 Speaker 00 Frail Talk. Frail Talk.
48:28 Speaker 03 Frail Talk, that's right.
48:29 Speaker 00 They're really good.
48:30 Speaker 03 Very, very good. I'm, I'm, I'm as excited about Frail Talk as I am about Towers. But yeah, it's a different kind of show. I mean, we had the Warp, the Warp Tour Band here, which is, you know, very hard. Babes Against the Machine, very, you know, hard. This will be much more chill, family friendly, and tickets are still available, I think.
48:53 Speaker 00 Yeah, get them while you can.
48:54 Speaker 03 Get them while you can. Yeah, that's Towers, they're, they're playing at the basement of the Woolworths here tonight, uh, March 9th. Okay, Sammy. We have, did we cover all of our listener questions? I think we.
49:07 Speaker 04 I think we did.
49:08 Speaker 03 I think we got to it all.
49:11 Speaker 03 I'm gonna leave you all with this quote, one of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes, which is, "Do not save what is left after spending, instead spend what is left after saving." That's a money wise tip. That is the, the money wise tip of the day. So often, we talk about, you know, but budget is, is, I hear budget, it's, it's almost, it's hard for me to, it's not a fun word. Nobody likes a budget.
49:40 Speaker 04 No.
49:41 Speaker 03 Nobody likes creating a budget. Nobody likes sticking to a budget. I like how Warren Buffett just kinda made it more simple, you know, don't, don't save what is left after spending, just spend what is left after saving, prioritizing saving as a, as a must spend. And it is that slow and steady habit of putting money away that is, is so incredibly powerful. And you don't even need a budget to do that.
50:10 Speaker 04 Correct.
50:11 Speaker 03 You just need to just do it.
50:12 Speaker 04 That's right. That's the discipline of just putting money away, okay? And, and, and hopefully invest in it one way or another and, and increase in it. But saving, it's, it's counter-cultural to what we, which we are though. And that's, that's the biggest problem for us as Americans is we love spending. Seventy percent of our GDP is spending.
50:35 Speaker 03 Right, right.
50:36 Speaker 04 Seventy percent.
50:37 Speaker 03 Right. It's not the government.
50:38 Speaker 04 No.
50:39 Speaker 03 It's you and I buying that Big Mac, or whatever it is.
50:43 Speaker 04 Or World Works Burger.
50:44 Speaker 03 And, and so many people, the default budget is what they have left in their checking account at the end of the month.
50:50 Speaker 04 Yes.
50:51 Speaker 03 Like, well, can I afford it? Let me see what I got left in the bank.
50:54 Speaker 04 Yes.
50:54 Speaker 03 You know, and if you haven't already saved, now you're spending your savings.
50:58 Speaker 04 That's right.
50:58 Speaker 03 And so you're never accumulating.
51:00 Speaker 04 That's correct.
51:00 Speaker 03 You may always have some debt, but that's okay if you always also have a bunch of savings. It's your savings compared to your debt that matters.
51:09 Speaker 04 Yes.
51:10 Speaker 03 That equity ratio that really matters. So there's the Money Wise tip of the day. Yes. Want to remind all of our listeners, if you'd like to listen to this show or any of our past programs, you can go ahead and subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast. It is commercial free. It's also on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple, and Spotify. We will be back tomorrow. Before we leave, though, we're going to remind you of these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be Money Wise.
51:44 Speaker 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.
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