[00:00:00] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: This is another money show. Get set for another hour of the latest financial information and economic news affecting your bottom line. J.R. and Anthony are committed to helping more Americans like you optimize their inc. Reduce their tax risk and reach financial freedom. So let's start the show. Here are your hosts, Anthony Correio and JR Rochford.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Here we are, your hosts, Anthony Crayo and JR Rochford. He's back this week. We're taking a break from our day to day as financial advisors with Rochford and Associates. Fully independent fourth generation veteran owned family office right here in Sun City to bring you information you may not find on those other financial radio shows. We're where the last thing you need is another money show. But we appreciate you being here and we are very happy to have JR back because I think we had a lot of great information last week, but I am just incredibly boring if Junior is not around.
[00:01:17] Speaker D: Well, thanks for saying what I was going to start out with.
Definitely a one hour long infomercial. Exactly what we had to avoid.
Yeah, Mike, Mike is good. Mike has a lot of good information. But I told people to expect talk about punk rock and beer and there was none of that. It was, it was. Yeah, I know it was great information but to me a little bit dry. I, and I'm just, I'm being honest. Mike is incredible. He's an incredible mind. He's like you, like super smart, high iq, boring is all I get out. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: No, a lot of fun outside of the office. We'll just have that.
[00:01:56] Speaker D: You didn't cover any of that. You guys travel together, together. You've been to different states to go to a concert and none of that came out. It was like, do you need a will? Yeah, I need a will. No kidding. Of course, we all need a will or a trust or one of that. So I wanted the information that you conveyed, but I also wanted some of your immature, ridiculous stories and I didn't get any of those. So you, you. If you're listening to us this week, I'm back. So welcome to this show. If you want normal financial advisors, blue suit, white shirt, red tie, highly polished shoes, there's a ton of them out there. If you want guys that are real People that are going to help you and put your best interest first. Give us a call. If you want attorneys, they're going to wear a blue suit, white shirt, red tie, highly polished shoes, and they're going to do your legal work and they're going to be really boring. And then they're going to charge you. Every time you turn around, they're out there. If you want a real person, call Mike McGreevey. He's incredible. My father worked with his father for two decades. We've been working with Mike. I've been working with him for 10 years. You've been there for seven. So. Yeah, but Mike is a lot like us. He's a real person, but he's really, really good at what he does.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: I don't think I've ever seen him wear dress slacks. I think it's always like, just like shorts and a T shirt. I've never shirt, but it's like always shorts. Always just like regular shoes.
[00:03:10] Speaker D: And he's a lawyer. He's an estate planning attorney. He's. He passed the bar. Well, I mean, the two of you don't pass a lot of bars, but he passed a bar. He went to law school. He's a brilliant mind. But if you met him, you would think he was one of the. The Junior, the Journeyman for ZZ Top, the remake. I mean, he's. He's got a long beard. Make sure you check out our YouTube channel. There's several clips now of him up there. And you'll get to see what Mike looks like. And Anthony, if you grow your beard out, you and he are going to look a little bit alike. I want to point that out.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: All short, bald white guys look the same.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: Not racism. It's true. They're all the same.
[00:03:48] Speaker D: It's kind of racism, too, though. It's kind of. So let me think.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: Mike gave great information. So we got all that away. So we'll have him back when you're in town and we'll just have him on again and it'll be more exciting. We'll tell more stories.
[00:04:01] Speaker D: Oh, it's going to be way more exciting because I'm going to stop him from his boringness and I'm going to get him out of his shell. Like what I see. So, you know, I always start with the shout outs. I do want to shout out to Mike. I mean, he took an hour with you and that was really, really good. I mean, I know you're busy. He's busy. We block this off every week, so that was nice. Him to block it off. And Mike, if you're listening, it really was good. I mean, you know, was it dry? Yeah. I mean, I don't lie, but it was really, really good information. There were a couple things that I've been looking into because I think the information I had was very old, like on the state taking some of our assets. And so it actually made me think a couple times that I need to know a little bit more. And, you know, we don't give tax advice, we don't give legal advice. I mean, we stay in our lane. So that's why we have you. So I just, for my own personal edification, have been looking up some of what I heard last week. So that's great. Matt McClure, thank you so much for giving these young men adult supervision. Sam was out of town, too. The one and only. Sam Davis bailed on you. So, I mean, I don't know if Sam and I were together out of the office, but we're. It's kind of suspicious. We were both gone on the same week. So, Sam, where did you go?
[00:05:13] Speaker E: I was visiting my sister who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. And that was just for a family visit. My mom lives in upstate New York, so she made the short trip out there, brought my wife. She hadn't been to Boston before, so we got to see all the highlights, show her around, kind of all the cool old American and colonial history there. And then I flew down to Miami for a work related conference. So I did a whole trip up and down the Eastern seaboard of. Of these United States. So happy to be back in Georgia and back in my own bed. Don't think I'll be traveling again for about six weeks. So that's good.
[00:05:53] Speaker D: Wow. I guess I wish I was with Sam, not Sam with me, because I drove three hours away and went to Laughlin, Nevada. So mine wasn't quite as exciting. But I did get to relax. I hung out with a couple guys. If you're listening, Bart, if you listen to last week's show, I sat there telling Bart how exciting our show is. It's about current events. And then I started thinking, you know, the first show he probably heard was last week. And although great information, he was probably like, this is what you call exciting. So, Bart, hopefully you're listening this week. And Tony. Tony, I sat and hung out and we had a great dinner at the prime rib room at the Riverside. And I learned how to play keno. So your conservative financial advisor in Sun City now has a new game of chance that I want to my money. I want to put my money into. So, no, it was, it was a great time. So last week was good. Thank you, Anthony, for covering Another shout out real quick here. We went to New Mexico earlier this week. So everybody's been on the road a lot. And we, we have new clients in New Mexico. We're actually now licensed. We added New Mexico to our states that we can do business. So if you're in New Mexico and you're listening or if you know anybody in New Mexico that you think needs a second opinion, we are ready to go. So we met with a wonderful couple, ate with them and got to know them. They're. They're newer clients and if they're listening. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking time with us. I mean, we, we. When somebody becomes a client, I think it's really important because we always say, next to your health, your money is the second most important thing on this plane. It. It's nice to get to know each other and meet each other and we were honored to drive to. We went to Hatch. We didn't mean to go to Hatch. We were going on the i10 to Las Cruces. But there was a big dust storm and. Yeah, I mean, we're from Phoenix. We understand haboobs. This was different. They closed down the i10 in both directions. So we had to go almost an hour out of our way. We ended up in Hatch, New Mexico, where the Hatch chilies are hatched. And it was really good. Went to a little brewery Hatch is. It's like old Mexico. A lot of clay and just. It reminds me of Holbrook, Arizona, if you've been there. But it was. It was super cool. We had a green Hatch chili pizza. So that was good. So it was fun. It was a great week. And now we are back to normal hours and normal business and get into work. Thank you, Macy, for covering the office. Why don't we get right to some current events? I'm gonna hit the bad stuff first. Usually I try to like, you know, save something juicy for the end, but I'm gonna hit some of the bad stuff first.
It's been quite a while since we told you financial planning shouldn't just be about stocks and bonds and annuities and CDs and debt management and risk tolerance and yada yad, yad, yad. You know what it should also be about?
[00:08:51] Speaker C: It's drugs and rock and roll.
[00:08:53] Speaker D: Absolutely. And none of that was discussed last week with you and Mike.
Two young guys in their 30s, not one mention of sex, drugs or rock and roll, and I was disappointed. So I brought up rock and roll more than you did last week when I brought up ZZ Top.
So planning. If you are a news junkie like I am, did you know that this past week there was a little power outage in Europe?
So one of the things, the first thing I saw on X said, Europe just went dark. This is not a drill. Prepping isn't crazy, it's survival. And I thought, boy, doesn't that sound like I did that X? It's weird not to say tweet, isn't it? Like I did an X. What do you mean? Like an adult?
No, no, I. So anyway, so Spain, we've got friends right now that were in Portugal and they sent a couple things, they sent a couple of pictures through Facebook that they were sitting where a hotel, you know, had a generator. So all of a sudden you couldn't move there. The lobby was packed, Everybody's packing in this place. So pretty weird. Let me read to you something I read on Facebook because that's where I like to get my geopolitical and my international news. So Spain announced success earlier this month that it reached 100% on renewable energy on their national grid. This week, Spain and Portugal having mass blackouts, stopping transportation, banking, shopping, etc. Blaming it on atmospheric anomalies affecting the grid. Is that what it is, atmospheric anomalies? Kevin, if you're listening, we need the A generator on that one. So it says here, Spain hits first weekday of 100% renewable power on the national grid. Spain's grid ran entirely on renewable energy for the first time on April 16, with wind, solar and hydro meeting all peninsular electricity demand during a weekday. Five days later, solar set a new record, generating 20,120 MW. I don't know what the heck that is. Of instantaneous power covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix. And then it all went south. If you think our bad roads are a problem, just wait until you go a week without power.
So I guess what, I brought all that excitement up, even though it didn't affect me as I was in Laughlin or New Mexico or back in Arizona.
We haven't talked about it in a long time. If you have it and you don't need it, so what?
If you need it and you don't have it, you could have a problem. That's the Boy Scout thinking. You know what we learned during COVID if people panic and they want Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer and toilet paper. It's going to be weird. What if, just for example, what if we had a solar flare in this country? What if we had an emp? What if we had a cyber attack on our power grid? What if we were like Spain and Portugal was last week? I think that this country, no offense to myself and my fellow country peoples, we are so fat lazy. Instant gratification. We will not be able to handle this. Other countries have different trials and tribulations that we really haven't had. So. And I know there's exceptions to that. I know if you were in the fires in Maui, you know, the floods, I know people have had problems in this country. We've never been without a power grid for any length of time. It's going to freak people the heck out here, our whole thing. If in this country we go dark for any length of time, you think Covid was bad, people are going to panic. And let me add something to you. As I think about the power grid in Europe and I think about how great they are that they're on solar. You know, the tariff thing, here's how I'm going to tie it into finances. So there's still great uncertainty, I think you'll give it that there's great uncertainty around the tariffs. Are they on? Are they off at 10%? Are they 150%? Nobody knows right now what's going on. China and we're going to get to a couple financial pieces about China in a little bit. They're, they're working around us, you know, so a lot of the cargo ships that we expect will flow like normal are not flowing right now. You know that, right? The last two to three weeks, these cargo ships are not getting to Long beach, they're not coming this way with goods in them. So there is about a four to a six week lag time from what I understand, between what's on our shelves at Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. And what's coming. It's not like it was in the 70s, even in the 80s where we had massive warehouses. You know, people knew they could sell stuff if given enough time. We have a demand, we have an on demand bit of, of backup. Now you talk to a truck driver, especially one that's interstate, one that go, or is it intrastate, whatever it is, where they go to different states and they will tell you we only have two to three days of goods on the shelves. Two to three days later they'll be gone. We did see that. With toilet paper and hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. So if the next four to six weeks, if we don't replace stuff that's on the shelves in our stores right now, you're gonna start seeing some panic buying. That's how people are gonna react. Instead of being good humans and playing nice together and saying, I better ration myself so we all have a shot at this, whatever it is on the shelves. That's not how we work. The people that don't prepare at all out of, you know, fear are going to go grab as much as they can quickly. The people like me that keep a little bit of backup, I do have some extra soap, toothpaste, whatever. The people like me, it can never be enough if we think it's going to be gone. It's kind of like money, Anthony. You know, we talked a lot with our newest clients. We talked a lot about people with money. No matter how much they have, they worry about running out. Like the biggest fear, the biggest fear isn't dying. It's running out of money before you die. So we talked a great deal about income and income planning, how to handle that. I also think we have to remind people again that we're in a fragile time in our country, in our world. You can call us if you don't need any help with your finances. You can call us and ask, how much food and water should I have? You know, should I buy a tower garden? We haven't given a shout out to Marcy in a long time. Should I keep some extra food under the bed in the guest bedroom? We are well versed in this. If we ever had a situation where you had to barter, we know how to talk to you about bartering with alcohol and tobacco, even if you don't smoke or drink. We are more than just, you know, let's talk about the CD maturing. So we, we kind of want to bring that up because to me, I am always watching out for Black Swan events. I am always watching out for history to repeat itself or not repeat itself. And that thing in Europe, you know, I mean, Anthony, you didn't seem concerned at all when I brought up to you.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: You're like, well, I did not remind you. And I think this is when you froze and we cut out. But I was saying, does that not remind you of California when they announced they were going to get rid of gas powered cars and then immediately had a rolling blackout?
[00:16:34] Speaker D: That's right. I kind of forgot about that.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: But that's what I Think about that, too, when they're celebrating. Because don't get me wrong, I like. I like what they're doing, but keep the backups. Have backups for things like this. You know, be prepared, not scared. Have emergency situations. Should we have renewable energy 100%? Of course we should. But we don't just kill the old infrastructure that we know works immediately, like, have some overlap.
[00:16:59] Speaker D: Common sense. I love that. I love common sense. And it's so rare. It's not as common as I would like to see it. So. And I just wanted to get this out of the way because I know that we're busy. We have kids and grandkids and work and, you know, the new season of Black Mirrors on Netflix or something. And Tom Segura's got a special. I mean, all this stuff that people talk about, it's important to live for today and tomorrow. It's important to be prepared. Not scared, proactive, not reactive. And once you have things to the best of your abilities, in the best shape you can be, then you watch Black Mirror and you do your thing. I just. We meet so many people that they live in this. Oh, Anthony, when's the last time I read the definition of normalcy bias? If. Excuse me. So normalcy bias. I guess I won't read it because Anthony's eyes rolled behind his head like a bad Beetlejuice episode. But look up normalcy bias. We're like the ostrich effect. We don't think it can happen. And if it happens, it won't be so bad. I don't know. I mean, I only have a few articles today because I want to go a little deeper into them. And all of it's more long range on what's coming, and none of it is really favorable. You know, I don't know. I don't know. We always tell people, go on The National. The US debt clock.org site and look up the debt. It's really not moving. It's at like 36.7 trillion. It's not moving. Well, that doesn't make sense. So I question, why is it not moving? Because we're in some sort of a temporary. You know, the debt ceiling, the this, the that. We, we kind of suspended this and that. And they're basically not counting what we're spending right now on the dead clock. So everything is kind of weird. Sam just pulled it up. 36 trillion, 795 billion. By the way.
The debt per citizen is $107,000. Every single citizen in this country owes 107 grand right now towards the debt, the debt per taxpayer. This is shocking. 323,000. So if you're a citizen, you owe 100 grand, but if you pay taxes, you owe 300 grand. And then you go down to the Doge clock. The Doge clock is at $381 billion in savings. 381 billion. Well, let me kind of remind you, when you look at numbers like this, that's only a third of a trillion. So as much as. That's incredible. You know, Doge. Most of what's going on with Doge, and I'm still a big fan, believe me. Uncovering where some of our money is going is really important. But the biggest thing that Doge has done, they're just firing a ton of people. So Doge so far is not having the savings effect that I'd like. It will more long term. And by the way, Sam, you. You had the Doge per person. What. What is Doge saved us per person. I already told you, if. If you're alive, you owe 100 grand. If you pay taxes, you are 300 grand savings per taxpayer right now is 3,000, 395. Well, and this says per taxpayer. So let's boil down for a second. If you're a taxpayer, you owe $323,000, but Joe's just saved you 3,000. That's what, 1%? I'm not good with math or numbers, Anthony. 300,000. So 30,000 would be 10%. So, you know, it's not making that big of a dent right now on things. It will. We need the tariffs to work out the right way. We need to bring back manufacturing. You know, my pet peeves since COVID especially medicines. If. If my medicines are made in China and China's butt hurt with my tariffs, then. Then they could cut us off. If there are cargo ships not coming full of things to Long beach right now, in about four to six weeks, we could see an issue. So make sure you reach out to us, and we will talk a little bit about it. Moving on to a little bit of financial stuff. I noticed the old stock market, it's still volatile. It's still, you know, no harm, no foul. You know, Anthony, your. Your whole thing, you've been in the office. You know what? I'm very jealous of you. Let me. Let me air something out right here in front of you and Sam. Very jealous. I've been in the office almost three decades. You've been there, what, three quarters of one decade? How fancy of a way. I'm putting this. So you've been there for seven years. You know why I'm jealous of you? You have not seen a tech bubble happen like I did. You didn't get to see a plane hit a building on 911 like I did. You did not get to live through the Great recession which was 2008 like I did. So you have not seen any financial hard times. And I don't want to hear about COVID because the one month that we had a real steep V And then on April 1, which is also April Fool's Day, everybody was 401k came raging back to where it was nothing. You haven't seen anything. You know what else I got to see? Half of my career, my career in the financial services industry, half of it, we had pretty much zero interest rate environment. You are very lucky, so are your clients right now. Reach out to us at 623-523-0444 while we still have amazing interest rates on safe products. So please call Anthony Macy. Call me, Call Sandy. Sandy's about to get out for the summer and she's going to help us in the office. So if you missed our little Sandy, she'll be back soon. So Anthony, you haven't seen anything wrong with the world per se in seven years.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: He's jealous of that though. If anything, I want to see it and get it over with so we can get back on back on track with things.
[00:22:35] Speaker D: Wow. See, you want pain and suffering to be followed. Don't get out of here, Anthony. I wouldn't call Anthony. I'd call Junior. At least you know I'm half full and not such a downer Debbie Downer over there. So yeah, no, the financial markets. Let me refresh. Let me remind you, the Dow Jones Industrial Average that we use as a major benchmark, it's only 30 companies and when one underperforms, they yank it out. Last year they took out Walgreens and they put in Amazon. If you want to look up a recent example, The S&P 500, the last few years floated by a handful of companies. The Magnificent Seven, you know, Nvidia, which is downward like a third the last year. You know Nvidia. Tell me what Nvidia does. Tell me what you know. Why did you buy it just because Nancy Pelosi did or because you researched their K1s? Did you look into their products? Did you look into the long term sustainability or did you just buy it because you know everybody else is buying it. So 500 companies in the S&P, 500 and they were floated by roughly seven companies.
So it's not. It's not good. And, you know, what is my point to this? If you worked hard enough or if you were lucky enough to, to gather some money, let's not lose it all. You know, we do believe in diversification and moderation. So we are not about to, you know, to get you too heavy in anyone asset class or any of that thing. But. But let me tell you, I don't buy for a second that the last three weeks of volatility are over. I think they're. Me personally, I think there's a little bit of manipulation. I think there's a little bit of people that are like, oh, buy the dips, by the way. The same people that say, buy the dips. How come I have never yet in three decades heard somebody say, why don't we sell the peaks? Why does it only go one way? I mean, why do financial advisors, you know, when things are down, they're like, oh, it's only a paper loss. As long as you don't sell, you haven't lost any money. Why don't they go for 15 years, say, hey, it's only a paper gain. Why don't you sell some of this? You know, I mean, Sam, is it because they get paid to manage more money? Is it nefarious purposes? Is it. Is it selfish? Is it because they have pressure and quotas and they, they won't have a job if they don't? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I just know that when you look at the world and in this country, we are not out of the woods, even if the Dow Jones wants us to think it is temporarily.
I think maybe you should make sure you have a big, broad picture on your finances, including having some food and water. I think that should be part of a good financial plan, is being prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. So. And you know what? It happens that we at Rochford and Associates in Sun City, Arizona, we have solutions. We know how to help you ladder out your money. We know how to help you have lifetime income. Let me explain what lifetime income is. It doesn't matter. When you die, you keep your income going. That's a hard concept for people. They're like, I put in $100,000, and then at 82, it was gone. So like a CD or a stock or a bond or anything else, it's gone. I'm out of money. Yes, but we have solutions. Where if you run out of that a hundred thousand dollars and you live to 92, you keep getting your money. We have money that is leveraged, hedged, guaranteed. We have solutions that you might want to hear about. And this starts with how much cash to keep at home, how much food and water all the way up to income you can never outlive. And with that said, we need to take a break because this went so fast. This is, you know, I mean, last week might have drug onto you a little bit, Anthony, but this week went fast, huh? Just kidding. I'll leave you alone for last week. It was actually very good. So we'll be back. We're going to get to the articles. We have a couple of good ones to hit up today. And when we come back, we'll, we'll talk more. If you want to reach out to us, 623-523-0444. You can always email us teamothermoneyshow.com check out our YouTube channel. We will be right back. Thanks for being with us.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: If those other money advisors promise you a boatload of money, check the size of the boat and be sure it's your boat, not theirs.
At Rochford and Associates, we know the road to financial freedom is not a straight path. And the journey is different for every family. And in times like these, we want you to feel confident that you're safely on track to meet your retirement goals.
[00:27:16] Speaker D: We want to ask you to prepare for economic chaos. We want you to prepare for bank volatility. We want you to ensure and protect your assets with a smart plan.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Our team can help you make the most of your hard earned savings using strategies that are right for you.
[00:27:30] Speaker D: I want more people to sit down with us when we talk about a financial plan. It's different for every person we meet. We tailor make our plans.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Schedule your no obligation consultation today by calling 623-523-0444. That's 623-5230-0444. Rochford and Associates, veteran, owned and proud to serve Americans like you.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Remember, all of J R and Anthony's listeners receive a free financial consultation just for listening to the show. Visit anothermoneyshow.com to learn more and schedule an appointment. Thanks for listening to Another Money show and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:28:14] Speaker D: Welcome back to Another Money Show. Thank you so much for taking time out of your weekend to be with us. Today is the 1st of May as we're recording this so you're hearing it on the 2nd or the 3rd of May. So welcome to May. This month is going fast. It's this, this month. No, I meant the year. The month is going really slow. It's only May 1st for me, so. But this year is flying right by. So make sure that you are watching your money. Make sure that you reach out to Anthony at 623-523-0444. And let us be a second opinion for you before the year's over. So let's talk just real quickly and briefly about my very favorite subject, the banks. So I've got an article here from the Daily Hodl From 26 April, Wells Fargo to pay $185 million to customers in massive new settlement. This is a new one. Yeah, they got a couple ongoing right now, they're pretty juicy. This is a brand new one. Here's who it will benefit. So Wells Fargo customers may be eligible to be beneficiaries of a $185 million payout from the bank following the court's approval of a massive class action lawsuit settlement. A lawsuit initiated last year claims that during the COVID era. Why is this five years later, I'm reading this? Wells Fargo issued mortgage forbearances to its customers when they didn't want them, causing unnecessary hardship while negatively affecting credit scores due to halted payments. So Wells Fargo, if I had a mortgage with you, which I did not, I will not keep a penny at Wells Fargo. Back to this article.
While Wells Fargo did not admit to any wrongdoing, the bank has agreed to pay 185 million to affected customers. Let's break that down for here. Wells Fargo's like, we didn't do anything wrong. I mean, you're just doing business. You didn't do anything wrong. You're going to go ahead and shell out $185 million because you didn't do anything wrong. I think you're full of something, I think you're full of something over there. According to top class actions, Wells Fargo customers who had a mortgage placed into Covid mortgage forbearance without informed consent between March 1st of 2020 and December 31st of 2021 are eligible for compensation. So my, my understanding when I did a little cross reference on this article is that if you, if you expressed that you may run into difficulties with your mortgage, they just automatically suspended your mortgage. What the heck is going on over at Wells Fargo? Who's, who's going to come up with the money to pay $185 million to all of us kids so take it.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: Out of all the interest that they don't actually pay in their savings accounts.
[00:31:06] Speaker D: Correct. I don't want to spend a lot of time in the bank, so I'll make this quick. We are on a fractional reserve system. We basically the government has told the banks, you have to keep some money in reserves in case there's a modern day run on the banks. So on March 16th of 2020, you know, right around the time that Wells Fargo was, you know, jockeying around your mortgage, the government said you don't have to keep any money in reserves. Let that sink in for one second. If you're new to the show, listen to me for a second. In March, five years ago, the government told the banks they don't need to keep any reserves. They've never put the reserves back on. Even when they told the bank they had to keep reserves, it was 10%. So it was a joke, but now it's zero percent. So every bit of our money can go into mortgages and reverse mortgages and credit card loans and derivatives and mortgage backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and whatever the heck they want that we don't understand. So there's no money. I want you to know that there's no money. And if you think that you're, you know, feel warm and fuzzy because, well, I don't care. I keep under $250,000 per account. So I've got the FDIC backing, I've got insurance. You know how much the FDIC insurance covers of our money? 1.2%. If you go onto their own website, fdic.gov and look up statistics at a glance and you go into the deposit insurance fund, it's 1.2%. So I just want to let you know, the banks are, they're sketchy to say the most, the least, there's something about them. One more article from DailyMail.com on 30th April, I found this on MSN. Major US bank hit by nationwide outage as users report issues with accessing savings. So Down Detector, a site that monitors online outages, showed issues hit around 10:00am Eastern Time with credit cards and mobile banking cited is not working. An outage map showed New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and other major cities across the US are experiencing problems. Citibank did not acknowledge the issues on its social media pages. Don't you think that's important to the starfish that it affected? If I have my money at Wells Fargo, I already know there's going to be shenanigans and outages and theft and all that. Allegedly. Don't sue me, Wells Fargo. I, you know, I mean, but if you're at Citibank, you feel safe and yet you could have a problem. So Down Detector only received, only received a few hundred reports from frustrated customers only. So approximately 46% of them were having issues with their credit cards and 36% could not access mobile banking. The bank's website showed an error message. We've encountered an issue and are working to fix the issue. No other details have been provided except for customers to return the website in 10 to 15 minutes later. Well, it actually went from 10 until 2. The issues were fixed around 2pm Eastern time. A Citibank spokesperson told DailyMail.com a limited subset of credit card users were briefly affected by a technology issue that has since been resolved. No harm, no foul over there at City. Just like Wells Fargo, we're going to give you back some of your money. If you were affected negatively for the rest of your life, you're going to be okay.
So that's, that's all I got for the banks. I just want to let you know we have solutions. We even have solutions if you've got a one year cd. Anthony, remember when I said I was jealous of you? I remember when a one year CD just about five years ago and before a one year CD paid about a tenth of 1% when you could find them a five year CD. If you got really lucky, you could find ones that were like three quarters of a point to 1%. Think about that. That was just five years ago. That was around Covid time and before COVID changed everything. But anyway, so yeah, interest rates right now are pretty good. Let's switch gears and get the heck out of the banks. And what I was saying about the one year, we have a one year alternative to a CD. One year works kind of similar. You get a 30 day window at the end of one year, you can take your money out, you can let it go forward with the company, you can take part out. We'll explain the details too if you want to know. But our current rate, and I'm careful with this, as of today on May 1st, our current rate is 4.15%. That's pretty juicy on a one year alternative to the bank where you're covered by 1.2%. Because what we're going to show you has 100% coverage on your money. It's 100% guaranteed. So we'll explain it to you, we'll give you the details. If you want, but I just want you to know everything that we make fun of, everything that we poke holes in, everything we talk about, there's always pros and cons and there's always another side of that coin. So we can explain that to you in detail if you wish. Switching gears, something I found on 29 April on msn.com, anger as US state passes bill to criminalize political memes Offenders risk jail term. I'm only bringing this up as a little gateway to my next article because, correct me if I'm wrong, if you're in France, if you're in Germany, if you're in the European Union, you know, you could go to jail. You, you, if you, you know, China, North Korea, there's some places that you can go to jail just if you look, you know, with one eye open. But, you know, in Europe, it's like they're cracking down on freedom. Right? But we're, we're the United States. We have amendments, we have a constitution, we have a Bill of Rights, we have the First Amendment. If you don't like the speech that you're hearing, the reason for the First Amendment, it's protected.
So this should scare you a little bit, I think. The Texas, Texas of all states.
The Texas House of Representatives have passed a bill aimed at criminalizing political memes. Bill HB, House Bill 366 would imprison offenders for a minimum of one year. If the meme does not have a government approved disclaimer.
[00:37:29] Speaker C: That is super misleading because that article is meant, the title is meant to get people all riled up. But that's not what it was about. It was saying deep fakes for, for political advertisements. So it's. This ad is.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Did you read the book?
You're a researcher. Did you read the bill? Yeah, it's very, very gray. And, and did the article get me riled up 100%? It did because it, and it showed, I understand what you're saying. It showed who they're looking for. It's just too sweeping. If I put on a meme and I don't, and it's AI, for example, they're looking for AI. That's part of it. If I don't put a disclaimer on there saying that it's, it's, you know.
[00:38:12] Speaker C: Me, that doesn't apply. It says this section applies only to a person who is a office holder, candidate or political committee.
Like, because, don't get me wrong, I read that and I wanted to be upset too, but that's why I always like digging deeper into those.
Because it has nothing to do with political memes as to do with official candidate advertising.
[00:38:35] Speaker D: And I read three different articles on it, and all three pointed out that you could get caught up in that. If you just put a meme on Facebook that's political in nature and it's not the way they want to see it.
I mean. Well, you and I will have to dig into this deeper, apparently, because, I mean, it does upset me. And I do think that the nature of the bill is. What you're saying. The nature of the bill is to actually make things more appropriate politically. I. It also, in this world that we're in right now, if you're on the wrong side of what they deem to be correct history, you're going to be in trouble. And you know what? I don't. What if I am, Anthony? What if I am a political candidate or a political operative or anything, and I want to put out a meme? Did I lose my First Amendment rights because I'm running for office?
I mean, what you just said was it's meant to catch people that are in official capacity.
[00:39:28] Speaker C: Putting out a meme isn't an official, official advertising.
[00:39:31] Speaker D: It's something that I can do if I want to do it because I'm a citizen of this country. It's protected by my First Amendment right. So why are you saying if you. If you're a certain, you know, subset of the populace, you can't put out a meme?
[00:39:44] Speaker C: No. Where is their mention of memes? Anywhere in that.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: Well, the. The one I just read.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Yeah. No, the article, of course. But anybody can write an article. Anybody can take two sentences of real fact and then just create whatever they want and whatever story around that.
[00:40:01] Speaker D: Hence, I looked for more articles, and they matched up that there is this bill and that it is potentially too gray to. To be peaceful. I mean, I understand what you're saying. Everything we ever read on here is somebody's opinion. It. Looking back, you can have facts. Looking forward, you have to have opinions. I. I understand that. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but I found three different sources that are saying that this bill is scary. So to me, I want to know more. And if you think that it only covers certain people, I want to know why those certain people aren't covered by the First Amendment.
So. And let me just read a couple of these X tweets. Whatever you want to say. Says here. Development has been generating anger on social media with several people condemning the move. An ex user MQ Sullivan wrote. Wow, 100 members of the Texas House want to censor your political memes. Memes unpopular with politicians will now be subject to scrutiny by the speech police at the Texas Ethics Commission. Another user if you live in Texas, did you know that the GOP legislator in Texas under Rhino Repa Ba Ba Ba just passed House Bill 366 which would jail Texans for one year unless their political memes or AI posts online have a government approved disclaimer. Lastly, as Texas becomes more and this is maybe the slant, if this is going, I don't know, this is from one of the articles. As Texas becomes more Islamified, they are turning into the UK where people are being sent to prison for memes and jokes. That's how I see it. I see it like baby steps towards less freedom. So. And I know you don't. I know you think I overreact and I puff up everything, but we will see a lot of what is is brought up to me. A lot of what's brought up on this show by me is stuff that's like it's 20 years out. I mean Europe wasn't 20 years ago. They didn't have the problems they have now. You know, we didn't have people in this country, you know, 20 years before COVID saying you can't go to church, you can still go to Walmart as long as you follow the arrows. You can still go to the casino as long as you mask up. So things are changing and I'm, I'm worried about you and Sam. I'm not worried about me. I mean they're not going to put me in jail for a meme. It's not going to happen that quickly. But I just, I find it disturbing and if people want to look into it and see what they find. House Bill 366 out of Texas. Look it up, see what you think. Moving on back to finances, here's something from headline USA. This was on the 14th of April US government runs second largest half year deficit on record. So you know that I have my own political opinions and beliefs and I know what I think should happen in this country. But I can tell you what, I don't give a crap who's in office. If we're broke and we're getting broker and we're not going to fix it, we have problems coming. Let me give you a couple numbers here. The March budget shortfall of $160.53 billion pushed the total deficit through the first half of fiscal year to 1.31 trillion. Well, wait a second. Why hasn't the debt clock been going up faster? Because they're not counting it yet. There's a whole bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes right now that aren't even being counted. So the only larger six month deficit was 1.7 trillion in the first half of fiscal 2021 when the economy was shut down and the government was spending hand over fist to cope with the pandemic. Let me move on and read a couple more things in this article. The real problem is on the spending side of the ledger. You think the Trump administration blew through another 528.17 billion last month. That pushed fiscal year to date spending to 3.57 trillion. Sam, you pulled up the US debt clock. So if people get to see it on YouTube, you show them the numbers. This just said year. This said year to date spending, 3.57 trillion. That's a 9.8% increase in spending from the same period in 2024. These numbers mean nothing. I understand that. Let me go a little further on the article.
[00:44:19] Speaker C: We're going to have tariffs to pay for all of that. So it's fine.
[00:44:22] Speaker D: You know what? We better stop spending to other countries for their, you know, transgender play performance. We better stop doing stupid stuff with our money. We better get our medicines back from China. We better have tariffs that are fair around the country. Not punitive, just fair. And you know what else we better do? We better figure out what we're gonna do with Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the social programs. Because I have news for you. If we, and I know it's popular not to deal with them politically, but if we don't deal with them things, they're going to deal with themselves. We are going to run out of money. And I need to get through this quicker because I'm going to tell you why. I'm sure that that's going to happen. So let's see here. We are racking up debt at an alarming pace. It's unlikely to end anytime soon. In fact, lawmakers seem hell bent on adding to that sum with trillions of unpaid for tax cuts and spending increases. We need to correct the unsustainable course we are on and, and start focusing on fixing our nation's finances before it's too late. The truth is that the federal government always manages to find new reasons to spend money, whether for natural disasters at home or wars overseas. The Biden administration blew through a staggering 6.75 trillion in fiscal 2024, a 10% increase over 2023 outlays interest on the national debt cost 104 billion in March. That brought the total interest expense fiscal year to 582 billion, up 11.6% since the same period in 2024. So this is now under Trump's watch. So it's not good under Trump yet. So far, so far, fiscal 2025, the federal government has spent more on interest on the debt than it has on national defense or Medicare. The only higher spending category is Social Security.
Some people claim that borrowing, spending and big national debts don't matter. That's probably more your camp, Anthony, because I don't think you can see what's coming in the future like I can. I think I shouldn't say that we don't have a crystal ball either one of us. I think you see it differently. It's just going to work its way out. We've had a civil war. We've had a, you know, we've had a Great Depression. So as the Bipartisan Policy center points out, the growing national debt and mounting fiscal irresponsibility undermine the dollar. Confidence in the U.S. credit worthiness may be undermined by a rapidly deteriorating fiscal situation and increasing concern with federal debt set to grow substantially in the coming years. So it sounds like there's no slowing down. This could lead to lower economic growth, higher unemployment and less investment wealth. Biden ran the debt higher at a dizzying pace. But to be fair, this isn't just a Biden problem. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has left the US With a bigger national debt than when he took office. He took office. We need a woman. So last thing I'll read here. And the sad fact is that most people in positions of power are content to kick the debt can down the road. They reason nothing. This sounds like Anthony wrote this. They reason nothing has happened yet, so why worry? But the problem with playing kick the can down the road is that eventually you run out of road. I think we are running out of road very rapidly. I'll buzz through the last few articles that tell you why I think that. Here's one from news.bitcoin.com de Dollarization accelerates Russian officials Details BRICS currency shift BRICS is surging ahead with with unstoppable momentum, rapidly abandoning the US Dollar, building resilient payment systems and forging a historic new economic frontier beyond Western control. Russian Foreign Prime Minister Sergei Lavrov has highlighted the growing use of national currencies among BRICS members in place of the US Dollar and other Western currencies and discussed the possibility of a single BRICS currency in an April 28 interview with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. I like the name O Globo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized the importance of developing the resilient settlement systems, according to a report. He said, we have been working within brics to ensure that there are no disruptions while carrying out payments and have been quite effective in our efforts. He cited a significant shift in Russia's transactions with the bloc, stating, to give you an example, the ruble and currencies of our friendly countries accounted for 90% of Russia's settlements with BRIC countries in 2024. Last thing I read from this article, Kremlin spokesperson they put spokesman but that ain't right. Dmitry Peskov, speaking in January, emphasized that a BRICS at present is concentrating on establishing investment platforms in third countries rather than pursuing monetary union. His comments responded to the US President Donald Trump's warnings of tariffs on brics nations if they were to abandon the US dollars. So here's my heartburn. If the tariffs are successful and we make the US strong again, the rest of the world is going to bail. Let me get to another article that's extremely important because that was on Russia. Let me get to China for a second. Boy. We're traveling the world. We go to Laughlin, Boston Hatch, New Mexico, Russia, China. We go anywhere on the globe that you need us to to bring you this juicy information. So here's one from coin tribune. On 26 April bricks, China officially launches a plan to promote its own payment system. This has been launched, Anthony, the magnitude of this. This is what's saying we can't keep kicking the can. Do we have months, years or decades left? How would I know if I had a crystal ball? Would I be in the office or would I be at the lottery office? Again, I'd have my own parking space. I know. Another million. You know, why don't you ever play the Powerball? You win every Wednesday. So this is what we've been warning people about is happening now. How much time we have left, I don't know.
Let's see here. As international monetary tensions intensify, China is accelerating its offensive against the dominance of the dollar. Beijing officially launches a strategic plan to impose its own international payment system. This initiative marks a major turning point in redefining global financial flows, reinforcing China's ambition for a multipolar economic order by directly targeting the traditional networks dominated by the West. This maneuver now captures the attention of markets governments and major financial institutions. I'll just read the summary because I got to talk for a second. In brief, China formalizes an ambitious plan to promote its own international payment system. It excludes the SWIFT system and our country Shanghai becomes the nerve center for developing the CIPS network, a direct alternative to swift. Beijing aims to strengthen the use of the yuan in cross border trade and support its companies abroad. The project intends to reduce brics dependence on the US dollar and consolidate their financial autonomy. I'm out of time to read any more for this, but you might want to look up Belt and Road Initiative. There's a lot of good in this article and reach out to us. We'll send it to you. There's a lot of good. It'll lead you to other articles that are important. So the reason I said I got to buzz through this because what. How does this end? I still think we go to a central bank digital currency.
So that's how I think it ends. I think right now I would be saving some food and water, paying down some debt, safeguarding your money. Because obviously before any transition we are going to have a massive, massive stock market collapse. Or we should anyway. And then the government can come in and sweep the saving. You know, they'll save us once again. So you need to take steps to protect yourselves. If you're concerned, we can help you because we are studying what may come our way. And I bring you proof pretty much every week that it's happening right under your feet. You just don't see it if you're watching Netflix Prime. Last night was the Masked Singer. Good lord. So our country's in so much trouble. You know what else is, Anthony? You and I might have to. We might have to put our tail between our legs. Here's our own state of Arizona. This is from crypto news. On 28 April, Arizona becomes the first US state to pass strategic Bitcoin reserve bill. Arizona has made history as the first US state to pass legislation establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Following a voting session by State legislator on April 28, Senate Bill 1025 was approved by the House. They can invest up to 10% of public funds in Bitcoin, says here. While SB 1025 stipulates that that Bitcoin must be kept in a segregated Federal Reserve account. SB 1373 allows the Treasurer to lend assets from the fund as long as the risk is kept to a minimum. Who gets to decide that? So it says here. However, both bills face an uncertain future at the desk of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. On April 17, Hobbs posted on X that she would veto every bill the Republican controlled House legislator passes.
Okay, I know we're out of town, Anthony. We can continue this next week, but bitcoin is growing legs everywhere we look and it makes me sick and we'll have to dig into it later.
[00:54:22] Speaker C: Yeah man, I was not thrilled to see that. Especially Arizona to lead the initiative. And I love that they said as long as it minimizes the risk, we can put 10% of our state's money in something that nobody fully understands. Anyways, that's it for today's show. If you like what you heard, you have any questions about the topics today or you want to sit down with us to review your personal financial situation, reach out to us
[email protected] find us on the web anothermoney show.com you can book appointments with us right from there there's a contact page. You can listen to old episodes of the show. Listen to the really boring one with all the good information with me and our buddy Mike McGreevey.
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[00:55:22] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to another money show. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard earned assets. To schedule your free no obligation consultation, visit anothermoneyshow.com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM. A registered investment advisor, BCM and Rochford Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.
[00:55:56] Speaker D: Foreign Regarding safe and secure products and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products. They do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: The issuing company and are not offered by Brookstone.
