Ep. 2020: When the Meme Stock Took Off

SPEAKER_02 0:37

It was time to use the gospel song. I've had that in the quiver

Welcome to Talking Real Money

SPEAKER_02 0:41

for a while, and you know, this kind of made sense because we're going to talk a little bit about the days when everybody was chasing every hot tip in town. Oh, yes, they were. Uh-huh. I can't get up the enthusiasm like the gospel singers can. They were AI gospel singers, but they still were enthusiastic. What am I talking about? Well, we'll find out in a minute. This is Talking Real Money, the podcast. Don McDonald here on this microphone, Tom Cock there on the uh cheaper microphone. Because he doesn't care. He doesn't care.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

He doesn't care. That's not true. I care. You don't care about the city. No, I don't care about the quality of the voice. No. No. It's never going to be as good as yours, so I'd I'd give up. I just love it. I love a good microphone. Yes, you do. You're touching it in a weird way.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Well, look at you with your paper. I don't want to hear

GameStop and the Meme-Stock Frenzy

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it.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

All right. Several years ago, we had the meme stock frenzy. Remember that?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

2020? 2021? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

2021. Yeah. When uh stocks like GameStop and AMC rose from nothing. The dead. To incredibly valuable all of a sudden. Because people got all hyped up about them. It was just online hype. It was they were sitting around home with cash and looking for something to do. It was FOMO and YOLO and oh no. And all of those things. Yeah. Um, and uh GameStop, for example, I just looked back at a chart. In uh December of 2000. Well, actually, let's go to August of 2019. GameStop was GameStop was 99 cents a share. 99 cents. Almost delisted at that price. January of 2021, just a few months later, $81.25. It actually intraday went as high as $121 a share. That's crazy. Now, if you had owned it in all those years, you know, at the $7, 6, $5, $4, $3, $2, $1, when it was a little small cap company, like in a small cap index, well, you would have ridden it down, then you would have ridden it up, and then you would have ridden it down again, and today it's in the 20s, still way above where it was. Way above. So that would have been your experience. It would have been a minor part of your portfolio. But right there in uh 21, suddenly GameStop stopped being a small cap stock and a value stock.

unknown 3:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

The small cap portfolios, though, because of their rules, had to hang on for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

But there was one company. You had small cap indexes. Small cap indexes, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Right. Okay. Yeah. But there was one company out there at the time that had mutual funds with rules. They were rules-based funds, companies called dimensional funds. And they had a rule that if it no longer fit the small value category, that they would sell it. It would just sell automatically. It was an automatic sale. Well, they it turned out really well for them, Tom.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Really well. And in the article in the Wall Street Journal, they call Dimensional the futtiest, duttiest, most unlikely seller of a huge slug of GameStop shares. Well, they're keeping me.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

They're keeping white buttoned-down Oxford dress shirt manufacturers in business. That's all they wear at Dimensional. If you go into Dimensional, it's like dark suit. Yep. Men, the men and their Oxford shirts.

unknown 4:18

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

And as long as David is there, they'll continue to be that way. He's kind of strict about all that kind of stuff. David Booth, of which we speak. So dimensional is a and I again, I hate these qualifiers. A mostly passive manager that says it goes beyond indexing.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

I like beyond indexing, though. I think that's one of the best descriptions of what dimensional and Avantis do. They go beyond indexing. Indexing is based on really broad but strict rules. Beyond indexing has other rules that require that a company meet certain criteria. They not be a new offering. They not be uh outside of their factor. Pardon me? They can't be bankrupt either? They can't be bankrupt. That's bad. That's bad for companies generally. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

It's bad for companies. Um they claim in the article its scientific approach, referring again to dimensional, attracts advisors and individuals who believe in academic ideas about factors such as value that drive long-term investing success. So what happened here? This is fascinating, absolutely, because yeah, they're following the rules, as you just pointed out, Don. And that led to a big score. They dumped a billion dollars in GameStop because, as you said, it didn't no longer fit.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

A billion dollars in stock. And it was a tiny part of the portfolio, but it grew to a substantial portion of the portfolio because of this meme stock frenzy. And they, their rules, forced them. They didn't have to go, oh, I think this is too high. Because when you try to do that, you know what you do most of the time? You hold on. Because, well, yeah, but if it's too high now, it could be too higher later.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, it's fascinating. Meanwhile, here's the thing that's that's interesting to you as an investor. Dimensional did this as part of the rules, cut and run, get out of the stock. The indexes, the funds that manage based on the index, no, they had to hold, continue to hold that stock. Now go through those prices again because it's fascinating, right? It had been a dollar. It had gone, I think you said, to intraday $100 or something. Some wacky number. 127 or $20.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

When people decided to be. No, $120, $75, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Let's really look at some of the actual numbers behind this company to see if it's going to sustain this, which it was just pure air. It was just going on hot air from a number of people that were playing around on Wall Street. Um, it went back down, I think you said, to 20 something at one point. Or no, it's back in anyway, you had the numbers.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

It's it, it's uh today it's about 20 something per share. You know, depending on what day of the week we're we're we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

The thing is that's important to note here was Dimensional didn't do this because they looked at all the money they were going to make. They have a series of rules, as you said, that say when a stock does this, we're going to sell it. And by the way, I'd be fascinated to know the way they sold it. Because they're very particular about that kind of thing, too. They do block sales, they do they don't just take it out to the market and say, hey, here's we're gonna dump a billion dollars of GameStop now. They I guarantee you they didn't.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

No, they go to trading partners, they go to other funds, probably, you know, because these other funds need to own it to meet their index qualifications.

Beyond Indexing: Factors and Fund Returns

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Yeah, fun, fun. So uh what's the takeaway from all this? Well, I think it's a pretty interesting one that you need to pay attention to, not Don, because he already does, has. Um, and that is something we talk about on a regular basis because it's worth paying attention to. And that's the difference between just being an index investor, which is fine, we've said that many times, or being someone that uses factors. And I'll give you the just the differences. First of all, an index fund just wants to get market returns, right? Right. That's what that's their goal. Whatever the market provides, that's what we're going to get. The what do they call it? More than indexing or uh beyond indexing. What are we getting here? Well, the idea here is frankly to make more than the index. You're not going to do it all the time, but that's the goal, right? It's not to just take what what the index provides, it's to make a little bit more. Number two, uh, around traditional indexes, you're buying usually in an index market cap-weighted groups of stocks. That's what an index is. Again, so the SP right now, SP 500, pardon me, right now, about a third of the money is in, I think, seven or eight stocks. So you're really concentrated in one part of the market. With the beyond indexing approach, uh, favored by dimensional funds and Avantis, you're using factors, you're using value, you're using uh momentum, you're using profitability. Other things that the academics can say, these have added a bit of return over time.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Right? Well, and I looked at the return over time, and we picked a period on purpose. We picked 2020 through 2025. And we looked at the dem the DFA small cap fund, not small cap value.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

STX, DFSTX, yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Compared with the Russell 2000, which is the small cap index of record, generally. Generally speaking. Over that we took six years, 2020 through 2025. Yep. So we counted the bad market of GameStop, the great market of GameStop, and the mediocre market of GameStop. Yep. Over this six-year period, the DFA fund beat the Russell 2000. Now, this is why we say maybe it's worth paying 25 basis points instead of three basis points or ten basis points over that period. And this is not indicative of future results. We don't this is not no. But it beat the index by 1.8. Yeah. And this is why. 1.8%. And wait, there's more. Wait, there's more. In one year, the that year, 2021, when they were unloading that billion dollars worth of GameStop. Well, I'm not saying this is why. But in that one year, DFA small cap returned 31% versus the Russell 2000's 15%. Doubled it up.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

That's shocking. So again, and back to the differences between these types of funds. And index, again, is going to be completely passive, other than it's is it once a year when it reconstitutes? I always forget what the major index is. It depends. Okay. Uh but other than that, that just holds the stocks of which it's supposed to hold. The other, the beyond indexing is going to be what David Booth now calls transparently active. Here are rules, here's why we do it, here's how it works. Um in terms of turnover, the index is going to have exceedingly low turnover, right? Only, as I said, moving things around when they have to reconstitute. There are going to be a little more turnover in a fund like DFSTX for reasons just stated. Just stated. Because it's just you're going to look at this and go, we've got to take some of our money off the table. Finally. Oh, yeah, Russell II, I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Russell 2000 reconstitutes twice a year, June. Twice a year, okay. And December.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Okay. But then the part that you all pay a lot of attention to, because you write us about this regularly and you comment about it. The fees. Obviously, index funds, the right ones, have very low fees, right? I mean, you can own the entire globe with VT, and I think I always forget. Is it five basis? I mean, it's exceedingly low fees. It's very, very low.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

I think it's three. Is it three? Six, six, six, double. That's right. It was double BND. BND is three. Yeah. VT is six. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

But if you own, you know, beyond index funds, you still pay pretty low fees, but you pay a little bit more, right? I mean, you're got you mentioned in the twenties, you know, point two oh. So Well, what was the symbol on the dimensional fund again? D F S T X. That's, of course, a mutual fund.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: That's a mutual fund that you can't you can only get through an advisor. That's 27 basis percent.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Okay. So that's going to be more expensive. So, and and this is and you all spend a lot of time on this, and and it's good to pay attention to fees. I don't think that's the only thing to consider, but it's good to pay attention. But those are some pretty clear differences. I think this is a fascinating case study in the operation of funds and the differences that can result. You said the operative thing a couple minutes ago. We have no idea into the future what'll be better. We don't. Nope. Dang it.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Never will.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Nope. And so, but this is this has been this was a good study in doing things right, doing it by the rules, and doing it now. We're learning uh pretty transparently

Diversification, Risk, and Investor Emotions

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as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, and it it's you can certainly blindly following an index is fine, but there it does make here's the thing about the approach that dimensional and Avantis use. They pass the duh test. The duh, they just make sense. Think about it for a minute. The reason small cap stocks have outperformed large cap stocks over the past century almost is because they're riskier. Yep. The reason value stocks have outperformed growth stocks over the past hundred years or so, they're riskier. And then the funny thing is, is that we have found, and this was what the academics found too, they don't move together. So even though value and small may be riskier, because they don't move up and down at the same pace, they could they can, but they don't always, they reduce the thing that really matters when it comes to risk. And that's not the risk of total loss. If you bought GameStop, you have the risk of total loss. If you bought that DFA small cap fund, there are thousands of stocks in there. So your risk of total loss vanishes completely in any scenario short of the world exploding, and your new risk becomes volatility. Well, if you have a portfolio that's large and growth and small and value, with some international thrown in, maybe, they don't all move at the same time. That means the ride, even though you would expect higher returns because of the higher risk, the perception of risk changes. That's what's important. It's how we perceive risk. All the difference in the world.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Yeah, it is all the difference in the world. And the other part is uh it's the hardest thing to deal with for most people.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yep. Yep, it's the psychological part of it. It's hard. And come on, if you've been on the planet for more than a couple of years, you're you can even be a little small person and you're you're you know that your emo come on. Come on, two-year-olds out there listening. You know your emotions can get out of control at times. Not raising my hands. We're not gonna mention the tantrum that you just had. No. But you know, you know what you did. Yeah, you know who you are.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

You know, you know if you have questions too, and you know that if you're feeling a little emotional and you need somebody to Sandra, yeah. You know where to go. Well, maybe you don't know where to go to ask those questions. If you don't know where to go, I'm gonna tell you. You can just go to talkingrealmoney.com. Just go to talkingrealmoney.com.

Asset Location Across Retirement Accounts

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All of you, go there and ask a question on the ask a question button so Tom can print papers off or or speak them with the microphone so I can do it on the Friday QA podcast where we have spoken questions.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

So send them into Tom, and then every once in a while, let's go to Rhode Island where we chat with Dan. Welcome to Talking Real Money. Dan, how can we help you?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Hi, I appreciate you taking the question. I have heard a number of podcasters talk about asset location where for funds that you do not expect to use for a long time, like in your Roth, you want them invested more aggressively. Um, not necessarily 100% in stocks, but more aggressive than your overall portfolio allocation. So if I have a 70-30 portfolio, my Roth might be 90-10, and my conventional IRA might be 6040, for example. When I brought this up to my advisor, initially he said, uh, yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. And then he came back and he said, Well, two things. One, it's gonna get out of balance, and pretty soon, you know, you'll you'll if it's growing faster, you'll end up without an overall portfolio of uh you know your original target, maybe 75, 25, or 7030. And he also said that you know the software that they use to balance the the portfolios and everything doesn't really accommodate that. And so I was wondering if hey he's he's correct about it's gonna get out of whack. Um and and how if this is a valid approach or how people handle it.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Yeah, it's a great question. By the way, going back to where you started, if it was mine, and my Roth, for example, is 100% in stocks. I have a somewhat more balanced portfolio because I'm getting older, and my advisor tells me I should have some bonds. So, but if I was building, you know, as you said, a 70-30, for example, the first thing I would do is fill that Roth with the riskiest, not just stocks, the riskiest stocks, emerging markets, emerging market value companies, small US small cap value, et cetera. Then I would build the uh probably your taxable account if you had that, right? Again, all in stocks because you prefer to have the Roth grow the fastest, right? Because that's tax-free growth. Prefer to have no fixed income or bonds in the taxable because you're going to pay tax on the interest there. We're on the same page. And then in the IRA, that's where you have your fixed income. So just to correct you a little bit there, I wouldn't have any bonds in my Roth if I could avoid it. But you raise the great point. Then as things change, and if if the future looks like the past, stocks are going to go up faster than bonds. What do you do? Because now you're in this weird situation where instead of being in a 70-30, you're in an 80-20, correct? That makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

So the first place to correct that obviously would be in the IRA, right? Because if you have bonds and stocks there, then you could be selling one and buying another one. But you're right. Other than that, because you don't want to do a whole lot of buying and selling in the taxable account, because that could create a tax event. There's not a whole lot you can do. So some of this comes down to how much you have in each one. But I will go back to what your advisor said. Really, any advisor in today's world should be building a portfolio that looks at it in total. In other words, if you if you want a 6040, as I said, the first bucket to fill would be the Roth, then it would be the taxable, then the IRA or the 401k, the whatever, the pre-tax account. But any advisor should be able to do that in today's world because of the all the wonderful tools that are available. I'm not going to argue with your advisor about that, but frankly, that's a little short-sighted in a way. So, but yeah, here's the thing. You're going to probably at some point, you're going to be a little bit out of balance, right? Because as I said, stocks grow faster than bonds if the the future looks like the past, stocks grow at 10% a year, roughly, bonds, you know, four to five percent. So they're going to outgrow it. So then you'd have to especially I'm in decumulation, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

I'm retired. And so I'm spending on my IRA uh first.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

First, yep. Yeah. And what's the balance of just overall how much money in in you don't have to give me the dollars, but on a percentage basis, how much of your money is in the pre-tax kind of accounts and how much is in the either taxable uh like a brokerage or a Roth, if I can ask.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah, I'm probably 15 to 20%. Actually, no, 20% in uh my brokerage, 60%, 50% in my IRA and the rest of my Roth.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

So you should be able to make it work then, because if half of your money is in an IRA, you start with the right amount of fixed income there to balance it all out. And then along the way, you're selling stocks probably because they've gone up and buying more bonds or replenishing the account you need to pay yourself. It would probably work for a period of time. Again, though, you're right, there is no long-term solution to that issue. You end up with that Roth money continue to grow. And maybe at some point, then in that Roth, you do end up buying some bonds if you want to hold to that original asset allocation. Um, so there's no there's no absolutes on this. There is a little bit of art to it all, but a good advisor should be able to do it. The rebalancing will need to be done, as I say, prime primarily in that IRA, and you may end up a little out of sync, but it sounds like with the percentages you have, it should be able to work.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Okay, well, um, we'll see what they say. I mean, it's funny because when he first said, well, you know, it would be difficult to do, um, I was thinking, well, you just picked the wrong software package to manage the account.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

In today's world, it should be pretty simple. There's some really sophisticated stuff compared to what I started in this business in the 90s that uh that really makes it pretty easy to have asset location and rebalance properly. Um, so that I would gently ask them again about that, because again, this is these are this whole world is changing. As quickly, right? Things that we didn't even have, I think three or four years ago, we now have that allows us to do this better. But that would be a gentle conversation I have with my advisor. Your thinking is right, though. At some point you may end up having to sort of infiltrate that Roth with bonds if you want to keep the right balance. But that's a good problem to have, right? Indeed it is. I mean, it's this is all a good problem. You've been a great saver, obviously. I it sounds like your retirement's going pretty doggone well. And um, you know, you may end up having to, you know, you you may want to change your overall asset allocation. As I said, my guy came to me a few months ago and said, wow, you're really stock heavy for a guy who's as old as you are, and you know, you're not retiring. But if something bad happened, you'd want to have more in bonds, especially if the market takes a hit. So I ended up, you know, selling a few stocks and buying a few bonds. So, but it sounds like you're making a lot of good decisions the same way, Dan. Well, I'll tell you in 30 years. That's ha ha ha. Don't call me because I won't be available, but we'll see if we can get somebody else on the line. So great.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Appreciate your time today. Thanks for being part of the program. You're welcome. Take care.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

However, we don't want to put too much pressure on him, so we only make him do one call every once in a while. The rest of the time, we give him the rare pleasure of crinkling paper between his scrubby cigar smell. I know. What was Russian?

SPEAKER_03 23:24

That is so funny. The cigar thing. So, because you got me watching Boston Legal again, which I've really been enjoying. It does it just it if I ever just need a 30-minute laugh that you just throw it on, it's perfect. I love that so dumb. It's it's just silly. Very silly. But the cigar thing is reminding me that in that era I did smoke cigars. I enjoyed it. I like sitting out and having a cigar. I haven't had one in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

I smoked cigarettes back then, but man, did I hate cigars. Oh, love a nice cigar.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

So, yes, my hands, I'm sure, are stained still with the tobacco.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

I have not had a cigarette since I was in my late 30s. It's been that long.

Comparing 403(b) and 457 Plans

SPEAKER_03 24:02

All right, so we got questions from Rayford, North Carolina. Casey writes, Hi, Don and Tom. I started a new job after separating from the Army. And thank you, Casey, for your service. My retirement options with the hospital system near me are a 403B with a six percent match. That's good. Okay, and or a four fifty-seven B. I enrolled in the 403B and made my selection. This is through Lincoln Financial, unfortunately. I was not impressed with their funds and I was given to uh with that I was given to choose from. What's the difference he he or she, we don't know that. Um between the 403B and a 457 B. I didn't know if 457 had the B attached to that.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

I don't think it has a B on it. I think it's just a 45C.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

To B or not to B, I think on that one.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Although there there may very well be a B. We really have to be. Now that I think about it, I think there might be a B. Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

This is gonna go. This is not gonna be. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

I'm I'm I'm I'm an I'm no I don't know B. No. Uh I think it no, hold on, I'm gonna look. Yes, there is a B there.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Can you be a little smarter about this, really?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

I have been. 403B is and a 457 are kind of similar. But 403Bs are for nonprofits like schools and hospitals and those kinds of things. A 457 is a similar plan offered to state and local governments and some nonprofits. And the difference is really there's not much. Um with a 457, if you leave your employer, you can withdraw money at any age without the penalty.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

In the 457. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Yeah, regular income tax still applies.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

But no penalty. The 10 percent. But no penalties.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Okay. If you roll it from the 457 to an IRA, ooh, then the IRA rules apply again. So mm-mm. 403Bs, just like IRAs, 10 percent tax, unless you have one of the, you know, substantially equal payment options that you take.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

So sometimes there's different in options in terms of the funds between those two.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Maybe, but I'm betting they have Lincoln Financial for all of them. It sounds like Lincoln Financial got their foot in the door. And they are a they are what kind of company isn't? I think it's insurance, but call me. They're an insurance company. Um let's see if there's anything different. I can't think of anything else. Um no, they're pretty much the same. I mean, if you have better choices in your 457, then you can't.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

That's the place. And I think here I in the 457 plans I've seen in the great state of Washington, they're generally better. The funds are generally better than the 403B. Don't know that to be the case universally, but that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Now, by the way, I don't know who who he did he say who he worked for? Huh?

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Well, the U.S. Army, and now it's a hospital.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Hospital. Okay. I was just wondering if there was any No, never mind. There's no resource that I'm aware of. 403B Wise does it for school districts, but not hospitals. And I was looking to see if there No, there's not. Okay.

What Happens to an Inherited 401(k)?

SPEAKER_02 27:00

All right. Not that I know.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Stephen writes us from Walker, Louisiana. I have most of my retirement savings in my 401k, and my wife is the beneficiary. If I pass before her, does she get all the money at once, or is there a period of time for her to receive the money, or can she roll it into her IRA?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Well, yeah, she would get all of it, the ownership of it immediately. She can roll it into her own IRA. Yeah. Um but yeah, it doesn't slowly come out.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

No, you just continue to move it. There's no tax.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Every IRA has to have an owner. Yep. That's the individual part of the IRA. The it cannot be owned by an estate, it has to be owned by people. You can split it up and have it IRA among other people, but you gotta have people.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

So and in this case, probably the right thing would be to roll that into her IRA. Then it's just one account easy to keep track of, figure out the RMDs, et cetera. So I hope everything's okay. Because when you ask me questions like that, I think, are you not feeling well? Are you nervous about something?

SPEAKER_02 28:01

So I didn't think of that. Okay. But uh I'm not as nice as you, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 28:06

I would have I would have agreed with that. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

No, I I everybody agrees until they get to know you. See, once you once you get in here, then it's the first I mean first impressions, it comes Tom is like, oh my god, he's the nicest person I've ever known. And then after 40 years, then you spend like you spend like a you know week with him and you go, Can I go now?

SPEAKER_03 28:27

I thought you were gonna say 40 years like our relationship, and then I'd like to look at 40 years, and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

I you know when I watch James Spader and William Shatner, it reminds us of us without the cigars or the bourbon or the Scotch.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Well, the Scotch or the sexual harassment, either by the

Year-End Financial Checkup

SPEAKER_03 28:42

way.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Or the sexual harassment or the sleeping.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

Yeah, well, there's that too. So Platonic! Other than that, it's all good. So anyway. Platonic. Great questions. Oh, by the way, uh, here we are, and hard to believe that we're heading towards the end of 2026. Is that right? It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

So, but for you We're in the middle of November. I mean, it's almost Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

For you, uh, opportunity because for many of you, this is an ideal time to kind of look at your finances, look at your plan, make sure you're doing everything right. The good news is we do a bunch of that for free. Now, we don't write you a plan for free, and we don't set everything up for free, but we That's worth thousands of dollars. But we do we're not stupid. Examine your portfolio, you get a great report that looks at you know, kind of the risk you're taking, how diversified you are, how much you're paying others, and then you get an hour with one of the advisors, could be me, if you wanted to, where we chatted up about do this, don't do this, et cetera, et cetera. It's a pretty good deal. And as I said, we're heading in to a new year. It's oftentimes a good time to do that. So it's pretty simple. You just go to talkingrealmoney.com, click on I Wanna Meet Tom. No, you don't click on meet an advisor.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

I was kidding you. So And you know, that's the commercial. That's about all the commercial you get on Talking Real Money. And even then, it's really not a very good commercial because we don't we we don't try to make you become clients like the uh annuity sales people do.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

Just had a meeting the other day. The guy goes, Hey, we're all done, but there was no sales. But just like you said, I said, No, now you're stuck on the computer, it will flash at you for two and a half hours until you sign. He started laughing.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Cash.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

Easy cash now.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Easy cash now. He was yesterday. I'm sorry, I can't I confuse my shows.

Listener Thanks and Podcast Recommendations

SPEAKER_03 30:26

That was a good one, too.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Thanks for listening. We appreciate you being there. And uh if you want to ask us questions, go to talkingrealmoney.com, click ask a question to send typed ones to Tom. Or come on, let's increase the quantity of those spoken questions. All you need to do to do to do those is to just to go to that little to-do button, that one that looks like a microphone in the corner there, click on that and then record your question. I think the recording time's about two minutes, but if you run out of time, just record the next question. I'll edit them together, or the rest of it, or whatever. I also improve the quality of them because they can sound pretty bad.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

They all sound good now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Well, it's because I make them magically appear better. Thanks for listening. Take great care of yourselves. Please tell a friend or ten. Uh oh, yeah. Follow us. Follow us on uh on your favorite podcast service. Yeah, go listen to my short story podcast too. I haven't plugged it for a while. Go to talking, not talking real money. Go to lit reading. Lit reading, Tom.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

I'm not gonna say L-I-T-R-E-A-D-I-R. I refuse to say lip reading on this show ever again. Never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

There are just like there's a hundred and fifty odd stories there, short stories there. I read and I also write some of them. So love a free audiobook. Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, it kind of is, right? You don't listen to them.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

I listen to a couple of them. I love the crow one. Wasn't there the one about the killer crows or whatever it was?

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Murder of crows. Thank you. That was clear. Which is what a a flock of crows is called, a murderer of crows.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

I enjoyed that one.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

But it was about it was kind of scary for me.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

I don't really like to be frightened that way. You know that, so I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Well, there are funny stories too. Listen to Pigs as Pigs. Okay. You would like pigs as pigs. Pigs as pigs is really funny. It's cute. It's written in the 19th century. It's really funny. I mean, it's not funny like ha ha ha. It's funny like humorous.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Well we d we don't do ha ha ha ha ha. We do more like the subtle ah, that was funny. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Yeah. That's the kind Yeah, it's more like a a long dad joke.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Thanks for listening. I did say all that, right? Okay, then we can go now because I think we're done.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

The opinions that we've expressed in this podcast were current on the date recorded. Opinions, estimates, forecasts, and statements of financial market trends that are based on current market conditions constitute our judgment and our subject to 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 Apello Well. 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. The podcast is not trying to get you to buy or sell any financial products or securities. Instead, the program is provided as a public service by Apello Wealth, a fee-only registered investment advisor. Please see Appello Wealth ADB Part 2A on our website for information regarding Appellos fees and services. Apello 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 FCC 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.