4/17/25 Beyond the Panic: Understanding IULs, Spotting Scams, Apple Analysis, and Charity Golf

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Thursday, April 17th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Manageme instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guests: Danielle Cox, Miramar International Calloway & Elizabeth Cardenas, Fundraising Chair website: www.repfrf.org/ facebook: The Real Estate Professionals Family Relief Fund Presents "5th Annual Golf Tournament" Register Now by calling Danielle at 661-496-7318 or email Danielle at Danielle. [email protected]

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 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 SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc., SCF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  That's right, this is the Money Wise Show. I'm your host today, Chris Pelster, joined with?

• 0:48Speaker 04

  Dustin Weaver.

• 0:50Speaker 03

  Mr. Dustin Weaver. We haven't been on the show together in a while.

• 0:53Speaker 04

  It's been a little while, hasn't it?

• 0:54Speaker 03

  Glad to have you back.

• 0:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's good to be here.

• 0:56Speaker 03

  We've all been busy. It's been the week of spring break, but it doesn't seem to have changed too many schedules here around the office, but there are some well-deserved breaks being taken this week. So hopefully you're getting some rest and relaxation this week as well, coming into this Easter weekend, and however you celebrate that, and whatever you do with your family, I hope it's a wonderful, safe time. We are in the Garret Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN 1230, 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. Speaking of Mr. Ellis, I'm gonna throw it out there, make a little announcement. He's about a year past his recovery.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 1:34Speaker 03

  And he's on a cruise.

• 1:35Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 1:36Speaker 03

  What?

• 1:37Speaker 04

  Yep, went to the Bahamas.

• 1:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's got himself a little scooter moped that he's cruising around on. Got a little nervous hearing about him walking on a boat that's going through the ocean, but hey, you know what? They're celebrating a year's recovery, you know, so hope him and his wife are having a wonderful time and get back safely and... Definitely took me by surprise. I wasn't told about this phenomenon, not that they have to tell me.

• 2:00Speaker 00

  Right.

• 2:01Speaker 03

  But all of a sudden I get a text message of Gero loading up on a boat. I'm like, okay.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  Just a picture, wasn't it?

• 2:06Speaker 03

  It was just a picture and they, hopefully they're having a great time and enjoying themselves. So, so kudos, Gero and Cheryl. Hope you guys are having a great time. We're going to jump into this market activity. What's going on? Got some great questions that came in from listeners. You can also join into the conversation or throw in any questions or concerns, 661-396-1000. Actually 24 hours a day, you can leave a message. We will get to it on our next podcast, radio show, and we can answer your questions to the best of our abilities. So.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  And we will be out tomorrow. Just a heads up. It is a holiday. The markets are closed.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  You know what? Tomorrow seems like it's going to be a really good Friday.

• 2:46Speaker 00

  I hope so. A good one, I think.

• 2:48Speaker 04

  A good one.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  It's a, it's a good word.

• 2:50Speaker 03

  Let's take it off. Let's, let's take it off. And you know what? For those that celebrate the weekend with a view of Christianity, kudos. I am looking forward to celebrating that this weekend. So, so yeah, everybody enjoy their weekend. Enjoy your time. Market activity. What is going on Dustin? Do you see some things going on there? What's?

• 3:09Speaker 04

  There was a little mix. We have some red and some green. The Dow was down 1.33%. S and P 500 up 0.13, about seven points there on the current total, 5,282. And NASDAQ was down just 0.13 as well.

• 3:26Speaker 03

  You know, the, the thing is, that I always try to look at is sometimes it can, depending on which day you're watching the market, which by the way, it's almost, I think, I think the study has been shown that if you have a one day view of whether or not I'm going to make money in the stock market, it's almost 50% or 52% or something that you could make money. It's, it's, it's, it basically is like gambling, right? Some people will say that about the stock market. As you spread out the time that you leave your money in the market, it continually goes up and up and up and 10 year, 15 year window. Very, very unlikely that you would not have more money if you threw it in and let it in there for that long. So just kind of reminder of the stability of the markets.

• 4:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, even year to year, right? I mean, in a 10 year period, you might see seven years up and three years down on average, right?

• 4:15Speaker 03

  Yep, yep. And so it goes from 50% to, you know, kinda, kinda goes down. But one of the things I was gonna say is that some people don't realize it, you know, like the S and P 500, which is the 500 largest companies in the exchange, they're up for the last 12 months. At one point, they were down over a 12 year period, or excuse me, a 12 month period, but they've already bounced back above that. So definitely very, very volatile, very scary, the tariff talk. Everybody's trying to become a armchair economist and getting studied up on tariffs and what they are and what they aren't. And so we're trying to help people be money wise here on the show. Tariffs has been talked about a lot. There was tariff talk the last time Trump was in office. And

• 4:56Speaker 03

  lo and behold, a lot of the people politically that are against tariffs now also have spoke that they were needed when they were either running for office or in different, you know, seats of political power. And it's just an interesting, interesting time. I definitely agree with clients and some of the people that are concerned. When you have the markets moving at rates that they have been with some of the volatility, it's crazy. Like we've talked about it, we've been doing this a long time, 15, 20 years, I mean, 35 year, 40 years, almost together, but collectively, looking at the markets and stuff, never seen a 10% day.

• 5:30Speaker 04

  Right.

• 5:30Speaker 03

  NASDAQ nine and a half or 9.6% or something like that.

• 5:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Wild, wild move. One of those things too, that you look at though, and when we throw out the, the realities that if you miss like the top 10 days.

• 5:41Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Well, guess what? That nine and a half or 9.6% day, if you jumped out of all your investments.

• 5:46Speaker 04

  Right.

• 5:47Speaker 03

  To miss that one day, and now you're gonna try to go back in, that's gonna be one of those dizzies that's gonna add to those statistics that show just by missing like the top 10 or 15 days over a certain period of time can really eat in to your long-term performance.

• 6:01Speaker 04

  100%.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  So stay money wise, be money wise.

• 6:04Speaker 04

  Love the perspective of looking at the last year, right? We look year to date, and things look down. But as you mentioned, S and P year over year is still up 5.19%. So if you were in it last year at the same time, you're in it today.

• 6:17Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 6:17Speaker 04

  Five percent still.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, and from its high, I don't know where we're at from our high, we're at 6,111, we're at 52. So I'm not sure where that is, but year to date, the S and P 500, again, just, just kind of the index that's mostly used. Again, a lot of conservative investors, you know, unfortunately retirees and stuff are staring at the news. They're typically talking about the S and P 500 and you probably don't have a huge exposure to the S and P 500 directly.

• 6:43Speaker 04

  Right.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  You probably hold some large cap stocks. Maybe you don't hold certain ones that are in there because of how volatile they are, whatever it is. But it's down 10% year to date. Like I said, you go back a year, still positive, like you just mentioned, up over 5%. I mean, five year, the S and P 500 is still up about 83.7%. So I'm not discounting the concerns. I'm not discounting people trying to make sense of their investments and their financial plan. But, but trying to have long-term perspective, this money's going to last for a long time and you know, whether it be to retirement, whether it be transitioning into retirement, or even getting you to the finish line in retirement.

• 7:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 7:23Speaker 03

  You want to stay disciplined. You want to have a plan. You want to have an approach that makes you feel confident that even when the market's hiccuping, you can sleep at night, you can move forward and you can enjoy what I think are the most important things, relationships, families, memories, all these different things. And that doesn't necessarily even mean you have to spend money doing all those things, but obviously it's why you want to be money wise, so you can hopefully have your money.

• 7:45Speaker 04

  Options, right?

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Yeah. You know, have your money help you accomplish as many things that are important to you and, and take you through all those ups and downs of life.

• 7:53Speaker 04

  Very well said.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I did want to jump into some of these questions because I think they're, they're great questions and they lead into a conversation that I wanted to have anyways. Because of an article I read the other day. And it, it brought up kind of some talking with me and you, and it highlighted something that I want to talk about. So one of the messages that came in, it says, how do I determine if a Roth IRA is better for my situation than a traditional IRA or other retirement accounts?

• 8:20Speaker 03

  So it's a really easy answer, right?

• 8:22Speaker 04

  Certainly.

• 8:22Speaker 03

  Go ahead.

• 8:23Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  Just answer it, Dustin.

• 8:24Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:25Speaker 03

  What do you do?

• 8:26Speaker 04

  So you talk to your financial planner.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  You know.

• 8:29Speaker 04

  It's complicated. There's, uh, what tax rates are you in before you're contributing? What tax rates are you in at the time that you need the money?

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 8:36Speaker 04

  Are those two things similar? Are they different? We're deferring into some unknown tax brackets, so there's a lot of questions we don't have the answers to.

• 8:43Speaker 03

  Yes. So i- i- it's, the reason I brought it up and acted like it was such an easy answer is because, have you ever heard of the Dunning Kruger effect? We've talked about it before, where sometimes you're so ignorant, and I, I don't mean to use that na- that word badly, or like a downgrade, but sometimes you don't know what you don't know about something, right? Dunning Kruger effect says, "Well, I know Ro- I think Roth's way better." And that's actually why I brought it up, because the article that I read makes it seem like such a simple answer. Okay? And it actually is very complex, and so complex that there's not even really a way to give a complete 100% black and white answer. Why? Because tax rates might change.

• 9:26Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 9:27Speaker 03

  And so you're going into an unknown future. That's what you're talking about. So i- i- it's, it's super simple in one sense, and I would say at the end of the day, you do as much research, talk to your financial advisor, come up with a game plan, and then you do have to go back to the simplicity. Like, try to understand some of the complexities, and then fall back and go, "Okay, well, this is what I'm gonna do."

• 9:48Speaker 04

  And sometimes the answer is do a little of both.

• 9:51Speaker 03

  Perfect.

• 9:51Speaker 04

  Have the flexibility.

• 9:52Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 9:52Speaker 04

  Because there are some unknown variables.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Yep. And there's complications even with do a little bit of both, because if you don't have access, you know, depending on your income level, you may not have access to a Roth. If you're making, if you're a high earner, and you don't have access to a Roth 401K or a Roth option in your 401K, you might not be able to fund a Roth each year.

• 10:12Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  The IRS isn't gonna allow you to do it. So that's what I mean to say, where there are simple, there are simple realities with these accounts and some simple, um, things to think about, um, but they're also very complex about what makes sense for you and what you're gonna even be able to do. But obviously, anybody that wants to put In the time can research it and figure it out. If you're working with a financial advisor, that's a great place to start and have this conversation about whether or not to to do that. And like you said, sometimes it's as simple as, hey, you know what, instead of like trying to feel like I have to make the perfect answer, I'm gonna do 80% pre-tax and 20% Roth, you know, or whatever it is.

• 10:51Speaker 04

  You know, a lot of good CPAs are good at this conversation too around tax time. Once they can see where you're at for the year, because there's even sometimes that you're able to make a contribution for the prior year. You know, you're like looking backwards to make a contribution for the prior year.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so the article I read, it's a gentleman named Clark Howard, and he just blanket statements, he prefers Roth IRAs over after-tax or traditional 401ks. And so we see this a lot. Sometimes there's a lot of articles that will pop out there and they'll talk bad about 401ks. And why do I think they do this? I think they do this because a lot of people have 401ks. And I'm trying to get you to click on my article.

• 11:35Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  So I'm going to talk about it in a way that makes you click on this. And I'm going to make you think that 401ks are actually a bad idea. And I'm going to tell you Roths are better. And I want you to read my article. And I may even be trying to sell you something.

• 11:46Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  Possibly. But I just, I read it. And I'm like, man, this could be really horrible advice for somebody. If somebody's a super, super high earner, and down the road, when they retire, they're, they don't have a lot of debts, they don't have a lot of income need, they're only going to need to pull a little money out of their accounts, and still be able to kind of do everything they want to do. Traditional IRA is going to be the best, or traditional 401k.

• 12:10Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  Write the taxes off, let the money grow, pull it out later when you're going to be in a much lower tax bracket. Even if tax rates go up, you're going to be in a way lower tax bracket, possibly. Right?

• 12:21Speaker 04

  Case by case, right?

• 12:22Speaker 03

  Case by case. There's so many nuances that go into really making the best decision. And you could almost go crazy. I don't know if you ever heard of the term analysis paralysis?

• 12:32Speaker 04

  I wrote the book.

• 12:34Speaker 03

  Well, welcome to my world. So I think that's probably why we get along so well, Mr. Weaver.

• 12:38Speaker 04

  Well, I'll tell you that on that note, it's not just traditional verse Roth, right? You say having an axe to grind or something to sell. I feel like on social media especially, I keep seeing these, oh, 401ks bad, you need to buy an IUL, you know, which for those not that don't know what that is, indexed universal life policy. It's a type of insurance policy that a lot of people that sell them are trying to get you to do that instead of a 401k.

• 13:05Speaker 03

  Right.

• 13:06Speaker 04

  You know, I know that's another conversation.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  Yeah. And that that there, there can be situations where that would maybe make sense. But again, that's what we talk about clickbait. We talk about being an educated consumer of media because anymore it's fear, it's greed. I'm going to talk bad about a 401k because most people have a 401k. So I'm going to get more people to click on this. Right? And so it's just being a, being a diligent consumer, being money wise.

• 13:32Speaker 04

  Right.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  Um, not, not falling, you know, for all these things. And sometimes people, they, they have good intentions. They want to click on these articles. They want to educate themselves. But a lot of these people are trying to get you to sign up for a newsletter and pay monthly. I mean, Stansberry Research has been around forever and they have been the, the, the cause of more sleepless nights of my clients than, than I can mention. And I'm going to call them out by name, Stansberry Research, because they constantly is the sky is falling. It's been this way for 20 years. The sky is falling and you better sign up for our newsletter or else you're going to miss it. And this has been going on for 20 years. And are they right every once in a while? Yes. A, a, a dead clock is right twice a day, right? And that's what some of these fear mongers are doing. And I know you're saying, well,

• 14:17Speaker 03

  Chris, you're a financial advisor and you're just wanting people to stay in investments. Well, yes, but am I using what's considered more academically trusted?

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Improvable and historically accurate versus some of these other ways that people try to work around or make it seem like there's no risk if you do this, or there's no risk if you do that. Sign up for my newsletter or buy my product that I'm selling you. So.

• 14:40Speaker 04

  In my experience, it's rarely an all or nothing decision.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:43Speaker 04

  Right?

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Yep. So there can be situations. The basics of this decision all boils down to, are your taxes going to be lower when you retire, the same or higher? And then that's what's going to tell you whether you should pay the taxes now or later. And a lot of people do tend to think it'd be common sense that taxes might go up eventually. And so I would rather pay the taxes now, or at least have a portion of my funds going towards the future into a Roth portion, because then there's going to be a big bucket of it that I'm not going to have to pay taxes on when it comes out. And so consult your CPA or tax professional, talk to your financial advisor. At the end of the day, it's very complicated, but you

• 15:27Speaker 03

  kind of dig through that and then you go, well, this is what I'm going to do. And then you simplify it and say 70% traditional, 30%, you know, Roth and move forward.

• 15:36Speaker 04

  Yep. All you can do is the best you can do at that time and know that there's some unknown variables that we just can't control.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  There you go. Well, hopefully that covered the Roth topic well enough. If not, you're always welcome to send another message, 661-396-1000. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast and catch up on all past shows.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  Welcome back. This is the music Stephen used to rollerblade to with his walk man.

• 16:15Speaker 04

  I was right there with him.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  Rollerblade.

• 16:20Speaker 00

  We actually did that.

• 16:21Speaker 04

  We sure did.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  He had his Jankos on with big old huge pockets.

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Luckily, I didn't do that, but.

• 16:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I missed that one too.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  Those were the big pants, right?

• 16:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, they're like humongous. And there's that, who's that new rapper that came out and he's got like the weird bowl cut? And he wears those pants.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Oh, man.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  He like brought them back.

• 16:41Speaker 00

  So many to pick.

• 16:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He blew up virally, so that's why I know who he is. And so anyways, uh, welcome back. This is the Money Wise Show. Uh, myself, Chris Pelster, Mr. Dustin Weaver are taking you through the hour. We're really excited. The next question actually has a little bit to do with real estate. And speaking of real estate, we are going to be joined in just a little bit by, um, some real estate professionals. And they have a golf tournament coming up, family relief fund. So we're going to find out a little bit more about what the family relief fund is and talk a little bit about that. So.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've heard of that.

• 17:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, so we'll, we'll jump into that. But, um, the next question that came in was, I know you can't look into the future, but do you think mortgage rates will ever be 3% again? Question mark, question mark, weighing on everyone's mind. Totally feel your pain. And you're right, we can't look into the future, but what we can do is talk about, sometimes people think like, oh, the feds will just decide to do this. It's, it's economic realities that would push the market and the feds to end up doing things that would push the, the rates back to almost near zero.

• 17:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's normally when they're trying to stimulate the economy.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  Right, so, so the Fed has a mandate where they're trying to help the economy along when tough times come. So think 2008 and the financial crisis. Think about COVID in 2020. They lower the rates down to zero. The bank charges a spread on their mortgages of two and a half to three, three, you know, whatever it is. So wherever the Fed's rate is, the mortgage rate is lower. So right now, our 30 year mortgages are roughly, where are they? Six and a half?

• 18:20Speaker 04

  Five nine nine to six and three quarters.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Okay, so that, that helps you understand, oh, then Fed rates are probably around three and a half for whatever it is. So that's how that all works. So I wish I, you know, like a crystal ball is what you're saying is, is the economy ever going to be struggling bad enough that the feds would need to lower rates down to almost zero to basically be there. And the thing I'll say is right now with the, with the rates where they're at, and if jobs doesn't look too tough and, you know, inflation's not going out of control, the feds aren't having to do anything to try to tamper inflation, then there's not going to be a reason that they're going to lower it unless economic realities warrant it, right?

• 19:06Speaker 04

  Like a big drop in the stock market or something.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:08Speaker 04

  I mean, bigger than what we saw.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I mean, because, well, technically, it wouldn't be just because of the stock market activity unless it was really doing that because we're seeing horrible jobs data. Now, there's a lot of fog in the, in the market at a very quick tune because tariffs went out. But now if tariffs get put in place and all of a sudden we see unemployment skyrocket.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  Earnings down.

• 19:31Speaker 03

  Earnings down for companies. Those are the, the, the economic realities that would then also be a reason why this, which is funny because the market already went down a little bit. And so I tell people, you don't try to time the market based on economic realities because sometimes it's already, it's already happened.

• 19:47Speaker 04

  Right.

• 19:48Speaker 03

  It already, the market already pulled back. So we might actually have bad jobs at it and the stock market might actually go up because that means the feds are going to do what? Lower interest rates. So, you know, you don't fight the Fed was, was the, the wise words of Mr. Gero Ellis. You don't try to time the market and all that stuff. There are these realities that are going on. That's what would make the interest rate on mortgages come back down to three. So could that happen? Yes, it happens during recessions and especially depressions, which the feds are trying to keep us out of. They're trying to stop that downward trend of economic, you know, trends and, and push things back in a positive way. If interest rates drop significantly right now, you would see a little bit of a jump in our economy. People would sell their house.

• 20:31Speaker 03

  People would move. That would start stirring things up and that would help our economy along, create some jobs. It's a very complicated system, but also pretty simple.

• 20:41Speaker 04

  So if you're a renter and you're thinking about buying and you're, you're waiting, would you say, don't wait for that 3%, would you say? Wait until it reaches a point where it's affordable for you. Right? If you're thinking about buying a house and you're sitting back waiting for that low rate to come back around. Would you say it's more about? You know, just buy when you can afford to?

• 21:04Speaker 03

  Buy when you can afford to. I mean, I would, I would say, you know, buy a house that you can afford currently.

• 21:10Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  And then you can adjust if things change.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  Now, what Gary would say is, when's the best time to buy a home?

• 21:18Speaker 03

  When you can afford it?

• 21:19Speaker 00

  When you can afford it.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, it really is. And I will say, I don't know about you, and you might have an opinion on this. Typically, it's if you're going to stay in a house five to seven years. You know, it probably is not a bad idea to buy, even with some fluctuations and.

• 21:34Speaker 04

  I think they say that because as you mentioned, yeah, there's some fluctuation, but in most five, seven, or even 10 year periods, things have gone up. They've kind of sorted out any downswings.

• 21:45Speaker 03

  Right.

• 21:45Speaker 04

  Usually have some equity.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  Yep. So there you go. That, that question is answered by simply saying if economic realities warrant it, the Fed's mandate to try to help along the economy would be lowering rates. They would try to ease things along.

• 22:02Speaker 03

  You know, and we're, we're not there yet. Inflation is still sticky, which means they almost want to raise interest rates if we see inflation, right? Rates might actually almost go up. The Fed is also cautious about cutting rates too fast because you don't, you don't want it to fall out of the sky. You want to slowly incrementally go down. The economy is still growing right now. It's not shrinking, so they're not necessarily looking to cut rates. Government debt is high. Long-term bond yields, which drive mortgage rates, are elevated to attractive investors. So those are some of the things to consider. You said we had another.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, we got another comment or question here. It says, what is the place called that he mentioned as potential scammers? I want to make sure I know what they're called because I get a lot of spam calls and email.

• 22:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I don't, I don't, they might email you, but more so it's, it's they're a heavy advertiser on all things financials. So if you go to any financial website, Stansberry Research is, is all over the place and they are. You know, like I always see their advertisements because their headlines are always like fear or maybe even greed, like don't miss out on the gold rush. You know, or don't miss out on this opera. It's, it's, it's always fear and greed headlines and it's clickbait. And you click on them and I'm not saying you still can't learn and some of the things that they talk about, there's truth mixed in there, but ultimately their goal is probably either to sell gold or to sell a subscription.

• 23:30Speaker 04

  Or both.

• 23:31Speaker 03

  Or both, like, oh, don't miss out on, you know, if you, the, the stock market's going to crash. And if you don't sign up for this newsletter, you're going to miss out.

• 23:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  And I'm not saying even signing up for a newsletter is a bad thing. But if it's a newsletter that is going to thrive on you being fearful and panicked and scared, it's not going to help you be a better investor.

• 23:51Speaker 04

  And claiming to have it all figured out.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:54Speaker 04

  Nobody's got it all figured out.

• 23:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, just like the question that came in earlier. Yeah. The question that came in earlier said, I know you don't have a crystal ball.

• 24:01Speaker 04

  But do you have a crystal ball?

• 24:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, but some people want to sign up for a newsletter that supposedly people have the crystal ball.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  And so it's just one of those things. Just be careful. And I know at the end of the day, we're in business here at Money Wise, like I'm sitting here telling you to stay invested in this and that. But we truly do help, uh, hope that we're using fundamentally accurate, you know, strategies and processes that are proven uh, through multiple markets, multiple economic realities, you know, going back a long time and diligent.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 24:29Speaker 03

  Financial behavior and investment strategies. Is that enough of a mouthful there?

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 24:35Speaker 04

  Say that a couple more times.

• 24:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, say that 10 times fast.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  Music to my ears.

• 24:39Speaker 03

  Yeah. So there you go. Hopefully that helps everybody take a deep breath and, uh, and stick with their strategy. But like I said, I mean, it is funny, like, I don't want to say I told you so, because we don't claim to time the market or know what's going to exactly happen. But I remember when the markets were hitting highs just a few months ago, we're on the show telling people, now's a great time to make sure you don't have too much stock. Make sure you're comfortable where your level's at. Now the market going into the, the first couple of weeks of the fourth quarter or second quarter, excuse me, has been a little bit of rough pullback and it's not that we're saying pull out everything. And jump out, but it is a time to rebalance. It is a time to think about your allocation. Make sure you're going to be comfortable if the market does hiccup a little bit. And so it's kind of one of those things and people might say, well, he, you know, my advisor doesn't even act like this is a big deal.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  And it's like, well, I've watched this for 20 years now. And so my, my behavior is like been learned and I still have the same feelings and emotions that everybody else does.

• 25:34Speaker 04

  Certainly.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  But it's like, the more you go through it, the more you've done it.

• 25:38Speaker 04

  Well, and it's not just the 20 years, right? You're looking back at all of the history and seeing what the last hundred years have done.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. Right. Well, let's jump into a break. And like I said, when we come back, we are going to talk about a really, really interesting, uh, golf tournament coming up and the family relief fund. Stick around.

• 25:54Speaker 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. 661-847-1000.

• 26:17Speaker 03

  Welcome back. This is the Money Wise Show. You got it?

• 26:25Speaker 03

  Steven's bringing out the nineties. I don't, I don't know if our guests were alive yet, so. It's Throwback Thursday and that used to be Danielle's ringtone. Oh.

• 26:36Speaker 04

  Wait, when she called you?

• 26:39Speaker 03

  That's what she had on your phone when she called? So before I lost weight, yeah. Geez. Welcome back. This is the Money Wise Show. I'm Chris Pelster, joined by Mr. Dustin Weaver, leading the charge. And like I mentioned, we have some wonderful guests today. We are going to be talking about a golf tournament they have coming up for the family relief fund. So we have Danielle and I'm sorry again.

• 27:01Speaker 05

  Elizabeth.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  Elizabeth. And so why don't you talk a little bit about, uh, what you do and then how you got involved with family relief fund and kind of what it is.

• 27:10Speaker 05

  Perfect. So I am a local insurance agent in town and Danny, what do you do? Real estate. So we are both on the board of Family Relief Fund. Uh, Family Relief Fund, uh, was originally started to help people in the real estate community. So that can be real estate agents, lenders, insurance, pest control. Um, it was founded in 2014 and it was originally started because of a real estate agent that was diagnosed with cancer and her chemo medication was going to be thousands of dollars a month. And being in a type of industry that it's, you know, kind of feast or famine type situation, she couldn't afford her cancer medication. And so several real estate agents came together and said, you know, this isn't right.

• 27:52Speaker 05

  Why don't we start something that if a person in the real estate community, um, has any type of financial emergency, it can be health related. We've paid, helped out with some deaths, like paying for the funeral. Um, they can apply to the Family Relief Fund organization and we can give them a monetary, um, payout to help them pay for that unexpected, either medical loss or like a, some type of financial devastation. So that's where Family Relief Fund started back in 2014. Since 2014, we have, um, helped, I believe, over 75 people and we've given out, uh, over a hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars.

• 28:32Speaker 03

  Awesome.

• 28:32Speaker 05

  2014.

• 28:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:34Speaker 05

  So our big fundraiser every year is this golf tournament.

• 28:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. Which one's that? Where's it at?

• 28:40Speaker 05

  It's at Suttondale on May 1st.

• 28:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  Awesome. So, uh, real quick, is, is it totally a local organization? Or is there other ones like it in other markets where they kind of do similar things? Um, for the real estate professionals and those types of things, or is it just Bakersfield?

• 28:57Speaker 05

  It's just Bakersfield. It was founded by Bakersfield Real Estate Agents and the money stays local and we're the only Family Relief Fund around.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  Awesome. So you guys have done this golf tournament for five years now?

• 29:09Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. Before that, what was fundraising? Was it just everybody throwing money in the hat? Or?

• 29:14Speaker 05

  We've done several things. I'm the fundraising chair. So we do a Super Bowl poll. We do a, it's called 12 Days of Christmas with raffle baskets people can win. We have a party every couple of years. Like we've had a white party and this past October, we did a silver party to raise money that way. And then we have generous ongoing donations. So Caldwell Banker, for example, a lot of their agents on a piece of every commission, they give back to Family Relief Fund.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  Awesome.

• 29:44Speaker 05

  So that like $10 per transaction and they're donating it back to Family Relief Fund, which is really great. They've been an ongoing sponsor for years of us.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  Awesome. So, uh, so yes, this golf tournament's coming up. It's going to be at Sundale, which if you haven't seen Sundale lately, I hadn't, I haven't played Sundale in like years. And then I played it twice in one weekend. And so I actually saw your sister at one of the golf tournaments. And so, yeah, yeah. And she remembered me because we have history at a church that we both attended when we were a little bit younger, but a little bit younger, a while ago, we'll just say that. But, um, but yeah, so it's, it's, uh, they've been doing a lot of upgrades at Sundale. It's a really, really nice course. And so it is on the first of May. Right? Teams are available. If you want to find out more information, you can call 496-7318 or [email protected].

• 30:36Speaker 00

  And we'll have all that in the podcast notes if you're driving.

• 30:39Speaker 03

  There you go. Yeah. Don't, don't try to drive and write all that stuff down. And so definitely, you have some teams available?

• 30:45Speaker 05

  We have some teams available. We have maybe one or two spots left as a whole sponsor. If you don't play, but you have a business you'd like to get out there. And of course, we always accept raffle baskets and prizes that can be won the day of.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  You know, one of the things I want to throw out there and give real estate agents kudos on is that there seems to be a little more sense of community amongst competing professionals. Right? And so I'm sure there's always a little bit of, uh, you know, everybody's fighting to try to grow their business and to get clients and all that stuff. But I've always been kind of amazed at how real estate agents have stepped up for each other. In this situation, it was literally some real estate agent stepping up to help another agent. And I'm like trying to think of myself of... Now granted, I, I rub elbows with a lot of financial advisors, but they're usually like at national things where they're not technically my, my competition.

• 31:41Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:41Speaker 03

  I could not picture.

• 31:43Speaker 04

  Not a lot at a local level, right?

• 31:44Speaker 03

  I couldn't, I couldn't picture 50 financial advisors all getting together, all in Bakersfield and playing in a golf tournament just together. Uh, there just seems like there'd be too much ego, or I don't even know what to say, but like, I love the fact that you guys, uh, seem to be doing more mixers and those kinds of things. So, so really cool to see you guys supporting one another. Um, and, uh, so if, uh, if somebody in the community does end up having an issue, what is the process like to like apply? Is it like a, you know, have to turn something in or?

• 32:15Speaker 05

  Yeah. So, uh, we can also perhaps put the actual family relief funds website in the link as well. So all people need to do is it's basically a sponsorship. So for example, I'm an insurance agent. I'm in that industry. I'm let's say an employee of mine, you know, has a major dental issue and it's going to be $2,000 for that dental work. I then go on the family relief fund website and I complete an application for her, um, that basically states like what happened, how much is needed. And then the board comes back and discusses, is this within our guidelines? Is this person in the real estate community? Um, and then if that is all go, then we vote on the dollar amount. And if it's agreed upon, then we get them a check, you know, typically within 24 hours. The other thing I really like about

• 32:59Speaker 05

  family relief fund is they provide resources. So depending on the situation, we have resource packets available. So let's say it's a cancer diagnosis. We're giving them not only a check, but resources of where to go to find additional money or additional, uh, partnerships or, you know, things for cancer versus, you know, a different type of death. We give them resources for funeral homes and that type of a thing. So.

• 33:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:22Speaker 05

  It's not just the money. It's also the resources that we're providing them.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. We, um, pretty involved with Tiger Fight and like, so one of the biggest thing, I mean, they help people financially, but sometimes it's just when you get a diagnosis that's so overwhelming and so scary, sometimes just having a team of people that are like, hey, we're here for you. Here's some resources that you can look into for yourself as you navigate, uh, uh, this unfortunate, you know, medical circumstance moving forward and stuff. So really, really cool what you guys are doing. Yeah.

• 33:49Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 33:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. Anything else you'd like to share with the listeners then?

• 33:52Speaker 06

  It's a, it's a lot of fun. We've done it for five years. Every year it seems to get better and we try to bring in something new or different each time. Uh, this year we're doing like poker run style, 50/50 raffle to kind of mix things up and we'll have a golf pro out on a hole. Um, but yeah, no, it's just a great time to be out in the community, enjoy the weather, enjoy some food and each other's company.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  And so the, the first, is it a Friday?

• 34:16Speaker 06

  Thursday.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  Thursday, Thursday. And it's actually, uh, you know, sometimes people like this better. It's a, it's a mid, uh, midday start.

• 34:23Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 34:24Speaker 03

  So you kind of get lunch, get registered and shotgun start at noon. Uh, happy hour and awards later in the day. So I actually haven't done a lot of tournaments like that. Um, but it's actually pretty cool to, to have a later start. Get into the office, get a few things done and then get out there. So again, we'll have all the, uh, information and the link on, on our website, uh, that you can, uh, look into it more. So hopefully if you're looking for something to do, or just want to throw a little money at a great cause, get involved. So, uh, thank you guys very much for being on.

• 34:51Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 34:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, we'll be, uh, right back. Stick around.

• 34:53Speaker 00

  Have you been putting off your finances? Seize the day. Call the Money Wise office at 661-847-1000 or email [email protected] for more information.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  Okay. Steven's just taking us on a multi-decade adventure with the tunes.

• 35:17Speaker 04

  All over the place today.

• 35:18Speaker 03

  All over the place. I love it. Thank you, Mr. Steven. You are amazing at your job. That was awesome to learn a little bit more about the family relief fund and how the real estate tax professional.

• 35:31Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 35:31Speaker 03

  Even pest control is in there, I believe. Cause they do a lot of services on houses and obviously, and part of the whole process of, of real estate world, a way to, uh, to love on one another. That's cool.

• 35:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, they've given over a hundred thousand dollars, she said.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, do you participate in the advisor family fund?

• 35:48Speaker 04

  Don't know of that one.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  Me either.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  You trying to create one?

• 35:54Speaker 03

  No, I mean, it is funny though, like, you know, you know, different industries have different realities and stuff like that. I do think that we live in a wonderful community where thankfully because of my involvement in Rotary and a couple of different things, I do have a much better relationship with a lot of great advisors here in town.

• 36:11Speaker 04

  Certainly.

• 36:11Speaker 03

  Um, but yeah, when you're trying to build your business in this and that, sometimes certain industries, you know, there's really a lot of competition and um, you're trying to get ahead, you're trying to feed your family and it's really, really tough. But I have always noticed that in the real estate world, they all get together, they do mixers, they do different things and and you know, at the end of the day, uh, you know, hopefully, uh, there's enough pie, you don't have to think that every time somebody else's is getting a piece of the pie, that they're taking your piece of the pie.

• 36:39Speaker 04

  Right, there's enough to go around.

• 36:40Speaker 03

  There's enough to go around and, uh, and you know, so, so obviously that's one of the things about even Rotary, you know, one of the reasons I like being involved there is hey, you know, if everybody's doing good stuff, uh, for their clients and you're doing the right things. Um, you know, then, then we should all want everybody to do better because then everybody in our community can do better. So anyways, we did have a, a comment come in and we'll talk about that a little bit. What, what, what was the, uh, the comment?

• 37:03Speaker 04

  He said, we've been hearing a lot about Apple lately. Can you give us a current picture on its stock performance and a little about what's behind it?

• 37:12Speaker 03

  So we can. So every time we talk about like an individual stock or somebody calls in, you know, this is never, you know, some sort of, uh, description of whether you should buy or sell or anything like that.

• 37:22Speaker 04

  Recommendation, right?

• 37:23Speaker 03

  Yep. So, but it is a great time to kind of go, okay, Apple's this company that

• 37:28Speaker 03

  what is it? 80% of people have the phone, the evil phone?

• 37:30Speaker 04

  It's a lot.

• 37:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 03

  You know why? You know why I say that? Cause I'm an Android guy. I'm the annoying guy in the group chat and I will stand by my decision and I will not be bullied by you, Apple users. I'm looking at you two. Anyways, so Apple, it has experienced crazy stock volatility in the last couple of weeks. Obviously, we've been talking about all this stuff with the tariff talk. And so when you think about tariff talk, there's trade tensions, right? And that's going to really fluctuate the value of what a company can do. If they're able to bring in parts or chips or whatever from other places and put them all together, or make them over there and bring them here. And now all of a sudden to bring them here, it's going to cost 25% more because of a tariff.

• 38:16Speaker 03

  Well, that's going to eat into what? Their profits.

• 38:19Speaker 04

  Right.

• 38:20Speaker 03

  And so there's just major volatility. We don't even have, uh, we don't even have an idea of where it's going to settle with all this trade talk and the tariff talk.

• 38:28Speaker 04

  Right.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  So just fog.

• 38:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, but the one at the forefront is China, right? And Apple has a very strong connection to China.

• 38:36Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 38:37Speaker 04

  With the creation of and a lot of the imports of the different parts that they use too.

• 38:42Speaker 03

  That's right. So just to give you a little heads up on it, you know, so as of April 17th, Apple was trading around $194.27 and that does reflect a decline of about 20% year to date. So, uh, we kind of talked about the S and P 500 as a whole. Um, and kind of what the markets have done year to date and those kinds of things. And it's down, but obviously Apple is down much more. Again, big picture, step back again. Apple has still outperformed the S and P 500, I'd imagine over the last five years, even though it's down 20% right now, when the stock market's only down eight or whatever we said it was, was down earlier. So, um, just kind of to give you an idea of where it's at. It's market cap, the company's market cap dipped below three trillion.

• 39:27Speaker 04

  With a T.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  With a T, I said trillion.

• 39:31Speaker 04

  3,000 billion.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  It's mind boggling to go from three trillion to 2.9 trillion. You're still talking about a huge number, but just that. So what is that, eight, is that an 80 billion dollar pullback?

• 39:45Speaker 04

  It went for, yeah.

• 39:46Speaker 03

  Right?

• 39:46Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:48Speaker 04

  A lot.

• 39:48Speaker 03

  80 billion. So.

• 39:50Speaker 04

  It's a big number.

• 39:52Speaker 03

  So that's a big pullback. Analysts, you know, analysts are all over the place to an extent, but they still maintain that it's a moderate buy because it's down 20%. So analysts, you can only, you know, trust them as far as you can throw them. I don't know what you say, but you know, for every analyst that says buy, there's another one that says sell, it really boils down to your specific situation and what you're wanting to do. Again, this is not, you know, a suggestion to buy or sell or do whatever, but it's just kind of selling you, hey, analysts are saying it's a moderate buy even still, because there is some folks thinking that the 12-month price range could be around 240. Most people are not trading individual stocks.

• 40:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  Right? And so you will participate with all this stuff I'm talking about if you have the S and P 500 or exposure to the S and P 500 in your 401k.

• 40:42Speaker 04

  Especially because it's weighted, right? So the size of the company has an impact on how much you own. So if 40% of the S and P 500 is tech, if you buy just the S and P 500, guess what? 40% of your money is in big tech.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:55Speaker 04

  Those top 10 names, the, you know,

• 40:57Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:58Speaker 04

  big tech companies, you've got a lot of exposure to, including Apple.

• 41:01Speaker 03

  Yeah. So just to boil it down, you already mentioned the US-China trade tensions and kind of how much they depend and their relationship with China, obviously impacts it. And that's why you've kind of seen that bigger pullback than kind of most all the other parts of the stock exchange. But tech companies have, by and large, all been impacted, you know, more because of this trade tariff talk. There's another one that's kind of adding into this is their internal challenges for AI development. AI is the big buzzword now, and it's the big thing that all companies are trying to, the race to see who can use it the best, monetize it the best, and push forward their own business, and also then have maybe something that's sold

• 41:45Speaker 03

  to the public. So they do face some challenges with AI development. They're maybe not necessarily moving as fast as some of their competitors. And then there are technical market indicators. So if you're, you know, a chart guy that looks at different things, There is a 200 week moving average that it breached that support level. And sometimes it's if it breaches through that level, it continues on a downward trend to a new low. And then kind of starts that whole charting thing again. So there's lots of things that push markets around. The trade talk is actual like the data of it and then technical trading things that also affected the stock price. So there's so much that goes into it. Why most of the time we're talking about a diversified portfolio,

• 42:30Speaker 03

  having large cap exposure in either an ETF or a mutual fund in a good diversified portfolio.

• 42:35Speaker 04

  Professionally managed, diversified.

• 42:37Speaker 03

  Be, be, be comfortable with the risk level you're taking and, and don't sweat the small stuff, even though right now it's a challenge to all of us investors to stay money wise. And that's what we hope you do. So hopefully they'll launch some products or maybe come out with some good earnings reports, which we will see on May 1st of 2025. So if you are watching Apple, those are some things to look for. So hey, thanks for making the money wise show what it is. Thanks, Dustin. Great show today. Appreciate you. Love you, Stephen. Gero, enjoy the rest of your cruise, brother. Be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 43:07Speaker 02

  Securities offered through SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc. SCF Securities, Inc. and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.