Ep. 1978: Garbage In, Money Out

SPEAKER_05 0:02

I bought at the top with a whoop and a hollow. I told at the bottom in two. I chased that fast bird for a fistful of dollars. He's beaten me 30-odd years. Then the anvil comes down and the dynamite blows. Flat as a nickel in the last winter snows. It's talking real money. Making money makes sense. Own the whole crazy barnyard. Goes to graffiti. Quit taking stark weight. Stick tight on that fence. Cause we're talking real money. And boy, does it make sense? Talking real money.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Uh that little tune, that that's uh that I made that tune up in honor of the recently released, finally released, uh very funny movie. It was really cute, Coyote vs.

Cartoon Movie Buzz

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Acme.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

You went and saw that in the theater.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

In the theater, I did it. Wow. Saw it finally in the theater. It was so cute. It was, I mean, it's so if if you you know complain about the quality of movies, the violence, the, you know, the gore, the scary. There's nothing. You want a family-friendly movie? This is a family-friendly movie. But it's it's funny. So would my grandsons like that? They would love that one because it's filled with slapstick. It's like, you know, a lot of anvils. There are a lot of anvils in Coyote versus.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

My I one of my grandsons reminds me of the Roadrunner. He is literally that fast.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah. No, he literally is just.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

Do his feet like blurred when he's you watch him, you think, how is he moving those little legs like that? Wham, wham, wham. Yeah. He's and it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

It is a very cute movie. And the s the backstory is incredible. Warner. Don't don't tell us anymore. No, no, no. Warner Discovery made the entire movie, paid like $70 million to make the movie. They were going to release it, and then they went, now we'll just put it on HBO Max. And then they went, nah, we're just going to put it away and take a tax write-off. Because we could use the write-off. Sure. From just make a movie and then throw it away. And then somebody else bought it. A company called Ketchup. Not Heinz, but Ketchup. Ketchup Entertainment bought the movie for $50 million. As in catching up or as in the Ketchup as in K-E-T-C-H-U-P. Yeah, got it. Like the red stuff you pour over the coyote's head or something. Acme brand. You're already getting violent, yeah. Okay. That was why I did I did a cartoon theme.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Okay, that's great. So I look forward to that. I will I will uh take them and watch, you know, but off to bring Frosted Flakes because it'll remind me of Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

So yeah, I I used to love I I gotta tell you, of all the cartoons. Oh, it's a great show. Looney tunes were the best cartoons. The 1940s, 1950s Looney Tunes were just brilliant. That's when Chuck Jones was making them, and Mel Blanc was all the voices. All

Investing Advice Mess

SPEAKER_02 2:58

the voices. He was a brilliant brilliant man. Anyway, welcome to the program. Today we're talking about money.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Let's not talk about the brilliance of this video. Yeah, well, we have no video. See, that works out. Talking about people issuing them.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Oh, well, that's coming up. That's coming up. He's teasing a future segment. But first, before we get to that, every day we are, both of us are out seeking topics because we have to come up with a topic for the show five days a week, and we want it so we want it to be valuable, timely, educational, helpful. Courteous, brave, cool, and reverent, whatever it might be. We don't care. We just want you to listen. And so often I have a little section in my Apple news feed that I entitled Investment, and I told, you know, it's they look for investment stories. Yes. I get the same stuff. And I look through this list and I'm going, I'm going, wait. Okay, here are some of the stories. From Morningstar, the top high dividend stocks to buy to hold and hold for passive income. No. Citigroup outpaces stock market gains. What you should know. No. Should you buy Texas instrument stock? Never. Let's see, what else? Oh, here's one. Analyst forecasts forecast returns recommendations for yields for all smoke stocks in the S P small cap index. What? Should you should Invesco S P small cap value and momentum ETF be in your in on your investing radar? Et cetera.

SPEAKER_04 4:32

It'd be better to have them in your portfolio, actually.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So Huh?

SPEAKER_04 4:36

It'd be better to have them in your portfolio than on your radar. Instead of on your radar. It doesn't really help that much on the radar, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I I get it. Anyway, I went through this whole list and I couldn't find a single thing I wanted to talk about because it wasn't really about investing. It's all about picking stocks or being in the right place at the right time. Everything is about that. Everything. How to find strong computer stocks. Morgan Stanley says these stocks are built for a volatile market. It's all garbage.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

I was glad to see, by the way, that David Booth's book release did get a write-up in the Wall Street Journal. So by the way, I used your name for a couple of replies to people.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

I did see that. I'm going, people were sending me notes saying somebody replied to your comments on the Wall Street Journal, and I went, No, I didn't comment on the Wall Street Journal. He gets here's how it works. It's actually a really good system. Tom gets the paper version because I don't want to read the paper version, and I get the online version because he doesn't want to read the online version.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

No, I do read, I read them both, actually, because you see different things. But booths, there was somebody in there saying, uh, yeah, he says diversification, but it makes more sense to just be in U.S. stocks. So I pointed out, well, not really over the long haul, and especially there are long periods of time when it makes sense to be globally diversified because it saves your bacon. 2000, 2009, et cetera, where the U.S. market gets hammered.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

So if you read those comments in the Wall Street Journal and you see it, it says Donald, it's not.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

Put a line through that. Sorry. Anyway, you were saying, sir.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: No, I was saying that the the our sources of investing information are

Social Media Money Tips

SPEAKER_02 6:14

subpar.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

Well, let's go back first and talk about general. If you just ask people where they get their financial advice from, this is fascinating. 43% say friends and family, which I'm not sure is the best source either.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

That's possibly the worst source of financial advice.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

41% say financial advisor. Now the problem there is everybody's a financial advisor, and most of them don't have to act in your best interest, so that isn't the best. Um 36%, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Hold on, hold on. 43 and 41.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

I know. No, this is it's more than 100, so don't get going.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Oh, I was gonna say, wait a minute. That we're almost to 100. Who's left?

SPEAKER_04 6:54

Yeah. Uh 36% say they use websites and social media, which is because if you don't know which website to go to and you just type in, you know, how to invest or something like that, oh, you're really gonna go to some bad places. And 32% say they they rely on banks and credit unions, which are among no offense, I use both, but not for investing, because they both use brokers in the lobby to sell products. Um, by the way, the top, this will not surprise you. Young people, the number one place they get their advice for money, social media. Yeah, that's right. Uh, including TikTok, which I still I really I mean, for figuring out how to manage your money into the future, um, because this is where this all started. This was a Wall Street Journal article uh talking about the number of people that go to TikTok, watch videos there, and from those finfluencers and say, yeah, okay, I'll do that. By the way, the finfluencers are crediting themselves with, in part, uh the skyrocketing number of young people that are opening Roth IRAs. A 73% rise in contributions uh year over year in the second quarter of 2026. So more Gen Zers are popping money into Roth, which is great. Which is bad, is the kind of information they're getting about what to do in those Roth IRAs. That's when I worry. So, and in the article, it points out something, Don, that I think is very important. It is rare among money influencers in having a finance background. In other words, most of these people just wake up one day and go, hey, wouldn't it be cool to talk about stocks and bitcoins and gold and all that stuff, and I'll have a channel and people will watch, and I'll be I'll get paid, etc. Um, here's a guy with three million followers and 50 million likes across his video who has no uh experience uh whatsoever. Here's another guy in the UK. Uh the numbers, the numbers are astounding. The number of people that go and watch this. Can I say it? No. I'll watch this. You're gonna be nice. I just can't help myself. Um, you know, and and think this is the way you should invest. The advice is horrible. The numbers are astounding. Now, there are a few people that tell you to invest in index funds and get out of debt. There's a few. There's the but most of the information comes from a uh people like a 21-year-old from UK who's there in a hoodie and a cap, and telling you why it makes sense to use alternative investments to get ahead. Um, that's where I think the trouble really starts, is figuring out why people are giving you specific advice. What is their purpose in doing this? They're either getting paid, they're getting paid by somebody else. What is their motivation? Why are they doing that? Um, and and I hope you know this already, but anybody who's pushing a product, anyone who's telling you what tomorrow is going to look like after what happened today, that should be an immediate reason to uh delete their channel from your channel. Uh we know that advice is absolutely horrible, Don. I mean, you just you can't you can't trust any of it.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Well, the fact of the matter is that the the vast majority of the advice that I have seen in uh in social media, the little bit I go there, and I hate social media, uh it's either designed to excite you or scare you. It really sits at one spectrum. Yeah, it's a cheesecake factory. It's investment pornography. Oh, I thought we weren't supposed to see that. Well, we can't now see we can now because we're a podcast. Remember, we were in the we were on the radio before and people got mad. Expectations are different.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Lower? Just like the TikTok.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Apparently they were something.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

Yeah, okay. All right. So yeah, it's meant I think that's exactly right. It's meant to get you worked up, but it's not long-term, it's not going to satisfy you in a long-term way. Um that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Aaron Ross Powell And another thing about it is that the most of the stuff that's geared toward younger folks, and this is not bad. I shouldn't say most of it, but a lot of it, is not really geared toward investing as much as it is toward budgeting and gaining control over your money. The paying yourself first thing. Um so uh you know, like like the song at the end of yesterday's show, you know, the fifty for fifty at five. Yeah. Pay yourself first, which is good advice. It's not it's not that it's bad. The problem is most of the when we start to talk about investing, which is our primary focus, the advice does get a little bad because it's either designed to excite you, scare you, or um or make them a lot of money.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

Yeah. And by the way, the 50 at 50 at five, is that a c a Doors cover or a Beatles cover? I couldn't remember when I was listening to it.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

It's not in any cover. It's my band. Oh, that's Don McDonald's. No, the financial physicist. That's the name of the band. Uh hey, hey, the band is on on all the major music services except Pandora, because Pandora will not accept AI-generated music. Darn that.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Whereas we like to say, tune in, turn on, and tune out, whatever it should be. Something like that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Wow, you are such a 60s baby.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Don't listen to any of this stuff. Because it's just uh it's I don't spend much time there, but the time I do spend, I am continually astounded by the things that people say, the products they recommend, and the advice that they act like you should be following. It's it's just I hate to say it's silly. It just it's non-functional, I'll put it that way.

Annuity Claims Debunked

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Next up, the question and answer period. Today's is a little bit different. A little? A little bit different. Today we've got three kind of variations on the theme. Uh, all uh based on questions you sent in.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

The the first one is a little bit involved. The second one is AI reading the questions, which had question which had to be edited down because it was way too long. And then the third one is just the normal old Tom Reading thing, which is a it's gonna be a big letdown after the first two.

SPEAKER_04 13:08

Well, can I say thank you to Randy for sending in this first one?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Oh, yeah. Randy, thank you for sending in this first one. Would you like to read this first one before I dive into that I did?

SPEAKER_04 13:18

Yes, you did a lot of work on this. Mass, I don't know if I'm gonna say this right. Massillion, Ohio. I'm not familiar, but I apologize.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Massillion? Massillion. Okay. Or Massillion. I made my first million in Massillion. Um, it's two L, so uh Massillin.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

The subject. I love this. This is from Rand. Randy, thank you. Thank you for taking all the time to do this. The subject line is how to talk to clients about anudies without triggering objections. Well, there's always objections because people have gotten smart enough. Anyway, the message is I saw this video listed as a suggestion on YouTube since I was watching other finance-related YouTube videos. We didn't pick on YouTube, you noticed, but we should. I thought Tom, Don, and other Appella associates might be interested in watching this video to learn what sales agents are shown to be the ways to present annuities to potential customers? I would be interested in knowing your reactions to such a video. Well, I the minute I read this, I knew the reaction. The video has several charts, statements, and selling points comparing annuities to traditional IRA accounts. And by the way, you can have an annuity in a traditional IRA account, but I think he's referring to the stocks and bonds as the alternative. Should listeners to the Talking Real Money podcast consider and accept in a positive way the information presented as a reason to buy annuities? And the answer is Don McDonald.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Oh gosh, I watched the whole darn thing. This is by an insurance wholesaler out of California. His name is Trent Zimmerman. I'll give him full credit or full blame, whichever he prefers. Trent does this whole video on annuities and the objections that people have to annuities, and he well, shall we say he stretches the truth? Fudges things a bit. Yeah, one of the first things he talked about was he talked about being at a social gathering and talking to people about what he does for a living. Oh, I sell annuities, and they all turn away and never want to speak with him. Uh he said, so annuities have gotten a bad rap. And and one of the reasons we have this uh this notion is explained right here.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

And so people are gonna have these preconceived notions fed also by Fisher Investment that says, I hate annuities, I hate annuities, even though the owner of Fisher Investments uh is invested in annuity companies and owns annuities himself. I'll say that again. He's invested in annuity companies and owns annuities himself.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Basically, he's saying the reason we have such a bad opinion of annuities is because of Ken Fisher's advertising. Now, there is a lot of Ken Fisher anti-annuity advertising.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

He does a ton of it in many places newspaper, um online, radio, etc. Yeah, a lot.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

So basically, what Trent's saying is that he's a he's a hypocrite because he invests in annuity companies, which okay, if you buy insurance companies in a portfolio, you own companies that create annuities. But the statement he owns annuities, and then he repeated it. Let me repeat this. He owns annuities. There is zero evidence, none whatsoever, anywhere. I searched everywhere, there is no evidence that Ken Fisher owns annuities in any way, shape, manner, or form. As a matter of fact, the only thing I could find was uh a statement on a podcast where somebody said something like, Well, Ken Fisher probably owns annuities. It was just a flippant throwaway line that this guy decided to make gospel and say, Look, even Ken Fisher owns annuities. Well, okay. That's fib number one.

SPEAKER_04 17:05

Yeah, okay, and just to close that out, I think Ken's worth a billion plus now at this point. I mean, he manages 75 billion. It's some huge number. So my guess is he has an awful lot of money. I don't see any reason that he would have an annuity. Number two, he might get in trouble if he did because he's running around telling everybody else not to own them and then owning it. It could be a regulatory issue there, possibly.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

So there's just no evidence to support what he's saying. He's just making this stuff up. Then he goes on to talk about the insurance industry's favorite liar product, which is the fixed indexed or equity indexed annuity.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

We can look at FIAs as a competitor to the the bond market with no risky downside. You're gonna always have your principal, and it's gonna have an average higher uh historical performance than bonds. Historical performance is six point eight eight percent.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Historical performance is six point eight ecent. I I I I I've never seen that figure.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

No, in fact, when you ran the number, it was somewhere between three and four, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

From the industry's own number.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah. Um, I looked again everywhere I could look. I did some pretty intensive research on this, and nowhere could I find a study that supports that claim or uh research or data that supports the 6.88% claim. It makes no sense.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

And that's good and bad annuities together. If we can do one that's not private equity owned, if it's not in volatility controlled indexes, if they publish their renewal rates and they have good financials uh through forensic accounting scores, not by SP moody's, if they can prove those four things, if the market does well, I think they're going to do better than 6.88%.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

So there he's basically saying that, hey, 6.88, that's just the bottom. If we actually, you know, focus just on the good annuities, we can do a lot better. And then he goes on very quickly to explain how these products make you that kind of money with no downside.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

And all this is built on their their their hedging. I'm not going to go deep into this slide, but uh if you have clients that are are interested in how you're gonna make this work, it it's all in buying fixed income uh and using that income to buy your hedging.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Okay, he didn't go uh he didn't go deep into it because he doesn't understand it. That's exactly because I don't understand it, and there's nothing to understand. He says they own a portfolio of fixed income investments and then they hedge. Hmm Tom, what what is hedging?

SPEAKER_04 19:44

That would reduce the downside. That wouldn't increase the upside. So that doesn't hedging doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

So how do they take fixed income that's yielding four or five percent, maybe best case scenarios, and maybe six, and tweak that up to six, eight, eight or better, because of course six eight eight is just the bottom of what you should expect. How do they manage to do that through hedging?

SPEAKER_04 20:10

It's magic, hypnosis, or downright, I think I got this right, misleading people. Could be any of the three.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

I'm just confused where he gets these numbers, and he's putting them out there on the internet to insurance people to tell their clients. And this is not not good. No, and the best numbers still yet to come, right? And then he talks about the the competitor, those evil bonds.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

If you sell them, there's still massive opportunity for loss. There's three periods in the last uh 25 years where bonds have dropped by 50%. I'm I'm feeling I'm feeling uh a little groggy here.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

Was my sleep for the past 25 years? I looked it up. Yes, Enron bonds did lose 50%. I think you could probably find a bond issued by somebody that yes lost that. But if you bought short and intermediate term government bonds, no. I don't even think the aggregate bond index lost anything near that in that period. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

The aggregate bond index, I think what the was the worst was 22, and I think it was actually I think it was like maybe around 15. Yeah, okay, 12. Yeah, 15 right around that.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

So but that's the worst number.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

So um that's a strange number. Here's what this points out again, very, very clearly. Uh, Trent, it's no wonder people don't want to talk to you at events because apparently you lie about stuff. Apparently. I mean, I I and if you can prove this to me, we would love to put that proof on the show. If you can prove that all those numbers you just gave were true, I will eat my words. Because it's just a figurative statement. I'm not actually going to eat them. Um, and I will apologize to You profusely and call you a an annuity god on the radio. On the show. On the podcast. On the podcast we will. Because there's just no way, dude. There's no way. You just made up a bunch of stuff and and call it fact. This is why we say anything anybody tells you about an investment, it's just words. You don't believe them until you read the prospectus carefully before investing and sending money. And that brings us to our next question. This was one that was sent into Tom, but it was incredibly long. Yeah. So I edited it down.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

Let me just say right there, just real quick, please. I love y'all. I do. And if you want to have a session where you talk to myself or one of the other advisors, this is the kind of thing to talk about.

Retirement Glide Path Debate

SPEAKER_04 22:47

But if you send us 2,000 words on all the funds, etc., it's very difficult to answer those questions on the side.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Well, it's very difficult to read it beyond that, too.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

In a recent podcast, you discussed whether retirees could reduce sequence of returns risk by starting retirement with more low-risk assets, then increasing their stock allocation after the first several years. Your response surprised me because I'd recently heard about this strategy on Tyler Gardner's Your Money Guide on the Side. According to my Gemini research, quote, the strategy you are describing is a cornerstone of modern retirement research known as the rising equity glide path. Gemini pointed to a 2014 paper by Wade Fowl and Michael Kitsis, which found that starting retirement with a conservative allocation such as 30% stocks and 70% bonds, and gradually increasing stocks to sixty percent could reduce both the probability and severity of portfolio failure. Kitsis later described a related bond attent strategy, increase bonds approaching retirement, then spin them down during the first five to ten years, allowing the equity allocation to rise. Gemini also cited subsequent research by Javier Estrated supporting rising equity glide path. Given this research, why did you dismiss increasing equity exposure as retirees get older?

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Okay, so what he's talking about is a theory study that was done by Wade Fow and Michael Kitzes in 2014 about what is called the rising equity glide path. And then he quotes Gemini AI as saying it's the cornerstone of modern retirement research.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Okay, but let's be clear about what we're talking about here. What the suggestion is, is that you have less risk in your portfolio right as you retire. So you might maybe you're 60, 40, and then you're retiring next week, you're gonna go to a 40% stock, 60% bond, because those first few years could be very important. Let's assume you retired in 2008. That comes along in 2009, your portfolio goes down a lot. That could be problematic for a 20 to 25 year or 30-year retirement, right? So the suggestion is let's just be very safe. We'll take down the risk early on, and then we'll add stocks back in as the years go by, right? So there we'll risk up instead of down. Now, this I don't know about cornerstone, because most of the time, if you went to any advisor and you read anybody, they're gonna say you should go on a glide path to less risk as you get older. You're using more of the money because you're in later in retirement, so you want a more stable base of assets to do it. Um so it's unusual, I'll put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Well, there's an adage in computing computer sciences, uh G-I-G-O, garbage in, garbage out. And here's one of the problems this study, the the Fow and Kitzes study, found benefits under certain assumptions that they made. They made they made the rules, and then they found these benefits. So is it good research? Well, David Blanchett of Morningstar did another research report on the same system, and he found the opposite. He found declining equity exposure is generally more efficient. Wow, we got two results from the same concept. Then Phoe and Kitsis looked at their data again, and they found that a rising glide path, their idea, often failed to beat a 60-40 portfolio.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

The old 60-40, hang it in there, man. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

So, sir, this is not settled science. It is not, absolutely not. It's one strategy that might work, but it certainly is not a cornerstone. We're in the modern retirement research business. And the reason we didn't I had forgotten about it. Yeah, me too. Because I didn't consider it settled science. Uh I had literally forgotten about it because I'm getting old. And uh then when I went back and looked, I went, oh, 2014, I remember this. We talked about it way back then. And really, it's it's all dependent on you, on the the assumptions you make before you do the research.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Thank you for that. And by the way, every retirement is idiosyncratic, so you should consider doing a plan yourself. Number two, if you retire and inflation is a problem, as some might consider it today, at four or five percent, and you're not very much in stocks, that could be problematic. But I think the biggest part, frankly, is I hope this comes out right. Most of us, as we get older, get more conservative. We like to take less risk about that. I notice it when I drive, Don doesn't believe me. I do. I mean, I drive more conservative now than I did 20 years ago because I see stuff, I think, oh, you're gonna run out of it.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

I'm sorry, the only help for you is a self-driving car with blindfolds on you.

SPEAKER_04 28:04

That's a good idea. But behaviorally, it's a difficult strategy to find. Follow, pardon me. And I think that's a bigger part of retirement than most people want to give it credit for. I'll put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Yeah. And again, is there a one-size-fits-all solution? No. That's why it's all personal. It all really depends on you. And the right portfolio is the one that fits your situation. The right equity bond exposure is the one that works for you based on not just your risk tolerance, but risk need. I mean, as a matter of fact, uh there was a slide in the insurance guy's presentation, a quote from Warren Buffett saying, Don't take more risk than you need to take. And he was using that to sell annuities. Uh I'm just saying build a portfolio that's specific to you and don't give it to an insurance company or somebody who's just going on a uh they're they're not personalizing it.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

Don't take more risk than you have to. Is that a huh or a duh?

SPEAKER_02 29:00

I don't know. I gotta think that one through. That's that's a duh.

I-Bond or 529?

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Don't take more risk than you have to. Why do it? Anyway, we have one more question that came in at talkingrealmoney.com that was typed in on paper, well printed to paper by Tom. Send some more because he's he's he's missing. Here's the thing. You know how some people have a security blanket or a or a stuffy? I think the kids call them stuff. Little kids call them stuffies now. I used to call them stuffed animals, but they're not they they do that. So Tom doesn't have a stuffy or a blanket. Tom has a papery. He loves the bigger his pile of questions, the happier Tom is.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

Yeah, and the more nervous the trees are, and they're feeling very confident right now, which I don't like seeing.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

So more Yeah, there's more of them than there are of us.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

All right, Sharon from Riverside, California writes, Hi, Tom and Don, thank you for all the great information. I heard about you through the Clark Howard Show. I'm considering cashing out an I bond that I purchased in 2022 to have all the money go towards my daughter's college loan. How should I proceed to reduce taxes? Are there any specific steps I need to take? Is this even a good idea to use this particular funding source? Part two of the question. The other option is to use the money to put into my six-year-old grandchild's $529, which, in your opinion, would be the better way to go. Pay down the students. There's no tax break. You're gonna pay.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

No, there is no tax break. We keep we are obsessed over not paying taxes.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

It really is.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

It really is an obsession. We would we would really I mean we we would cut off our our return no's despite our tax phase.

unknown 30:45

Pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 30:46

Okay, so just to set that part aside. So there really is no matter one way or the other in terms because you're gonna have to sell that I bond to either fund the $529 or pay down the college loan. You know, here's the thing. Uh there's no right or wrong to the either the loan the loan or the uh $529, right? I mean, that's not one better than the other.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Here's the thing the money's already out, you've paid the taxes, so put it to where it is gonna do the most benefit today, probably.

SPEAKER_04 31:15

Which in your mind would be the loan then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Probably. I think today that would be the better one.

SPEAKER_04 31:21

But I love the fact that you're helping your grandchild. I think that's great. And you know we like 529, so that's it. That's all the questions, that's all the trees I got for today. So sorry.

Financial Physicist Outro

SPEAKER_02 31:32

That was an interesting show. Oh, by the way, by the way, uh, because of the insurance question there, uh particularly because of the fact that it has fixed indexed annuities, I decided this this episode is a good time to share with you one of the financial physicists, the Bandai made up, one of their songs that uh is is really charting well. Um I think like three people have listened to it. With a bullet? Uh with a with a well that's what we used to say in the record business, yes. Yeah, but uh is it really a bullet? It's more like a cotton ball or something softer. Okay. A little piece of bullets. With a stuffy? With a stuffy. Um the so listen after we we wrap up the show, if you'd like, you don't have to, right before the disclaimer, uh, to uh another hit from the the album that's available on all the major music services. Uh Let the Boring Money In by the Financial Physicist, spelled with an F, and here uh just coming up after the the end of the program, you'll be able to listen to a really, really popular song, That Stakes Not Free.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

That one's charting big right now. You got all kinds of play across the great country and the major radio stations. The rock jocks all over the place putting this one.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

So in the meantime, go, go, go to talkingrealmoney.com and ask your questions either using the ask a question form where you type or the microphone in the corner where you speak. And if you want to meet with an advisor for one of those longer questions that Tom discussed earlier, well, that's there too. Go to talkingrealmoney.com, click the button that says meet an advisor, and you can spend some time with Tom or another Appella advisor who will not try to sell you anything and isn't going to charge you anything and isn't gonna make you feel guilty because you didn't become a client, I promise. Or just do that. Yeah, we've got none of those. I'm sorry. However, we are here pretty much five days a week, except for a holiday.

SPEAKER_06 33:27

Talking real money.

SPEAKER_07 33:55

Two seats reserved in your honor, complimentary, no obligation, just come and listen. The private room at the steakhouse, the low light, the good bread, the water poured for you. Bring your spouse. Oh, please bring your spouse. He has a slide, he has a smile, he has a story about his own mother. And what happened to her stays? It says the word guaranteed the way you would say the name of someone. It says, It says there's no words to you to you know, to you there's no without that without danger. Whatever they want you, somebody pays for somebody that takes not free. That's take one never three four hundred pages, take a point, type binder that never comes to the table. Page two hundred six surrender charge. Page 311 The truth is in death The truth is always in there It's just that it doesn't know you'll never live dead with a date Whatever day on Somebody pays both And somebody is new That stake's not free That's stake was never free He drives home to a better house than yours On a number you were never once told Seven percent or nine or twelve Taken off the top before the ink is dry Until you do it all again on Thursday Another town, another room, another prime rip Another couple holding hands Nobody lied to you Exactly Nobody ever has to That is the whole craft somebody somebody to pick up the four and single page Ask him what it costs Ask him what it costs That stake's not the free That steak was never the free That steak was never free It was never free The opinions and views expressed on this podcast were current on the date recorded.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Opinions, estimates, forecasts, and statements of financial market trends that are based on current market conditions constitute our judgment and our subjects change without notice, including any forward-looking estimates or statements which are based on certain expectations and assumptions. Although information and opinions given have been obtained from or based on sources believed to be reliable, no warranty or representation is made as to their correctness, completeness, or accuracy. Information presented on the podcast is not personalized investment advice from Oppello Wells. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for everyone. This podcast does not identify all the risks, direct or indirect, or other considerations which might be material to you when entering any financial transaction. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and profitable results cannot be guaranteed. We hope you realize that the information provided on Talking Real Money is for informational, educational, and hopefully enjoyable purposes only. The podcast is not trying to get you to buy or sell any financial products or security. Instead, the program is provided as a public service by Apello Wealth, a fee-only registered investment advisor. Please see Appello Wealth's ADB Part 2A on our website for information regarding Appello's fees and services. Apollo Capital, LLC DBA Apello Wealth, is an investment advisory firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm only transacts business in the states where it is properly registered or excluded or exempt from registration requirements. Registration with the SEC or any State Securities Authority does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Apello does not provide tax or legal advice, and nothing either stated or implied here should be inferred as providing such advice. Thanks for listening, and please visit talkingrealmoney.com for more information and important disclosure related to performance of any specific index or fund quoted in this podcast. And the lawyers get richer.