[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 Correjo and JR Rochford.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Here we are, your hosts, Anthony Corrello and JR Rochford taking a break from our day to day as financial advisors with Rochford and Associates, a fully independent fourth generation family office right here in Sun City to bring information you may not find on those other financial radio shows. We're aware the last thing you need is another money show, but we appreciate you being here. And if you are listening to us on Sundays, our repeat show, it looks like that time is changing. Was it? We were at 1pm and now I think it's gonna be 5am for those.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Early risers, we're not only changing days, this is going to be different. We're chain or times, we're changing days. Our show is going to air at 5 in the morning on Saturday so.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Oh, it's on Saturday.
[00:01:31] Speaker D: That's my understanding.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: No, I must have read that email wrong. Oh, so double dose of us on a Saturday.
[00:01:37] Speaker D: Yes. So if you're an early riser, apparently there was a show for many years at the 5 until 6 time slot that we are taking over. So if it was a serious and I've never heard it because obviously I get up that early but I use the restroom and I go back to bed because I'm not crazy. Wait, did I just call our listeners crazy? No, I, I. If you're an early riser, I can't wait to hear what you think of us because we are not another money show. So here we are. Should we jump right into it? So and I guess that was a long way to say that instead of Sundays at one to have our RE air, we're going to be on twice on Saturday. Five until six in the morning and then noon until one. So please join us for both. So I guess it's it's the RE air since we're going to be our RE air will come before our regular air. You don't see what I'm saying? We're going to time travel with you. All right, let's change the subject here. So if you have been listening to us, you know, our goal on this show is to make sure you're prepared and not scared. We want you proactive and not reactive. So we, we bring you current events because we know that current events are likely to affect your future, your finances, your kids, your grandkids, all that stuff. So that's why we're here to make sure you are awake.
Something I heard this morning, actually, I heard it before I went to bed last night. Apparently Gene Hackman, the actor, passed away. So by the time you hear this on Saturday, you'll, you'll know why. But apparently he and his wife and his dog passed away. And I heard that there was, it was natural causes. So there is something's up. There must have been a gas leak there. There was something. I mean, he was 95. So, I mean, every day is a good day once you're 95, I'm sure. But anyway, so that was sad news. So couple things for current events. Hooters. I want to get to the very most important thing we have today right up front. Hooters. And the article I read was from 21st February on Zero Hedge. You need to look it up because I can't use the word they used. But Hooters, they said it's going to go, I'll put it politely, boobs up. So they're, they're filing bankruptcy. The reason this is so important to Sam, the one and only Sam Davis. They are an Atlanta based company. So, Sam, I'm not sure if you would go to the headquarters a lot or how that worked, but Hooters is leaving.
[00:04:04] Speaker E: You know, it's interesting. I've only been to Cooters twice in my life and the last time I went was in Phoenix, Arizona circa 2017 when I was traveling during my broadcasting career with a baseball team. I guess I'm still in my broadcasting career. I don't want to sell myself too short. But we had a little post game Hooters and the chicken is very good.
[00:04:29] Speaker D: They have chicken.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: I don't feel like the, the scenery has been the same there for a long time.
[00:04:36] Speaker D: I don't know what that means. Tell me more, Anthony. What I mean, it's a restaurant. What kind of scenery we're talking about here now?
[00:04:44] Speaker C: That's.
[00:04:45] Speaker D: Yeah. Moving on. Moving on. If you're joining us at five in the morning, I don't know what that was either, but let's move on. So this week what I want to do after that important news about Hooters, we have to do a little follow up from last week. Anthony brought up the Titanic and the conspiracy theory around it. So I did some poking around this week to see what I could find. And apparently there are multiple different conspiracy theories around the sinking of the Titanic. A simple Wikipedia search was the easiest to get through. There's something called pack ice theory. So if you look up Wikipedia, you can read about pack ice because that's not what Anthony was talking about. There's closed watertight doors, expansion joints hypothesis. So there's all these different conspiracies about the Titanic. I want to read you a little excerpt from what Anthony was talking about that the ship was deliberately sunk. So let's. This is according to Wikipedia, Another claim that started gaining traction in late 2017 says that JP Morgan deliberately sank the ship in order to kill off several millionaires who were in opposition to the Federal Reserve. Some of the wealthiest men in the world were aboard the Titanic for her maiden voyage, several of whom including John Jacob Astor iv. Ooh, that sounds like a rich dude, doesn't it? Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss were allegedly opposed to the creation of a US central bank. No evidence of their opposition to Morgan's centralized banking ideas have ever been found. Astor and Guggenheim never spoke publicly on the subject, while Strauss spoke in favor of the concept. All three men died during the sinking. Conspiracy theorists suggest that JP Morgan, the 74 year old financier who set up the big banking firm. I can't read this word. Arranged to have the men on board the ship and then sunk it to eliminate them. Morgan canceled his ticket for Titanic's mage maiden voyage due to reported illness. Guggenheim's ticket wasn't even purchased before Morgan's cancellation. Morgan, nicknamed the Napoleon of Wall street, had helped create General Electric, U.S. steel and international Harvester and was credited with almost single handedly saving the US banking system during the panic of 1907. Morgan did have a hand in the creation of of the Federal Reserve and owned the International Mercantile Marine which owned the White Star Line and thus the Titanic.
[00:07:33] Speaker C: So now all of a sudden JP Morgan Chase giving out bad loans and stealing from clients isn't nearly as bad comparing to being drowned in a sinking ship. So murdering people. Yeah, so they're making progress I guess through the years.
[00:07:50] Speaker D: So just a couple more things from this. His allegedly last minute cancellation has fueled speculation among conspiracy theorists that he knew of the ship's fate. Conspiracy theorist Stu Peters Anthony, have you ever listened to Stu Peters. He makes me seem really calm. When you're resting, look up Stu. Peters has advanced an alternative version of the theory, alleging that the Rothschilds were behind both the Federal Reserve and the Titanic sinking. Peters also claimed that the Titanic submersible implosion was orchestrated via sabotage in order to prevent its passengers from discovering that the Titanic was sunk by a controlled demolition instead of an iceberg. So the Twin Towers, was that another, Is that another conspiracy theory? Wow.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Okay, so yeah, this is the Titan conspiracy. There was just as wild as I remembered. Now that I'm rehearing the specifics.
[00:08:49] Speaker D: Well, and I mean, what's the old thing? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. I mean, weirder things in the world have happened. So who knows? I don't know at this point what good it will do to look into it because some time's past.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: I mean, imagine you're a fan of the old radio show the financial show at five in the morning on Saturdays and this is the first episode. You're getting brought into rough to a.
[00:09:12] Speaker D: Great start, we promise. It does get weirder. So welcome to us.
No, we do, we bring you a little bit of financial stuff, but we bring you most entertaining and informative stuff from all over the world. Speaking of which, I'm going to jump right into. You know what? No, let's do it. Let's do something financial first before everybody changes the station. So we had an email this morning, Anthony, I know you addressed already with a man asking if they should have an umbrella policy. So we had people in the office earlier this week, same question was brought up. I want to air that out just for a second. And we, we are a full service financial office. If you're new with us here today, we're a fourth generation fully independent family practice. So different animal in a world of big wirehouses. And you know, we don't have the same pressures and quotas. We, when we have clients, we don't tend to lose them, we keep them forever. We actually have clients, kids and so forth. So anyway, so a lot of times with financial planning, it's based on certain things. It's based on your date of birth, your income, your assets, your taxes, you know, the gray area, your risk tolerance. And I say gray because I know how it works. I've been in the job almost 30 years. When things are going up, you're all an 8 to a 10 on a 1 to 10 scale when things are going down, which apparently for 15 years is impossible. But when things are going down, we become a two to a three. So that's how risk works. So, by the way, it's real quiet around the cryptocurrency world right now. Bitcoin's, what, from a high of like 107 now it's yesterday.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: 485. Right now, where we record in the 27th. Wild, wild swing. That is. Yeah.
[00:10:53] Speaker D: I mean, it's. And is it the time to jump in? I'm not sure quite yet.
[00:10:57] Speaker C: I mean, it's still dumb regardless. I mean, fed that conversation a thousand times on this show.
[00:11:02] Speaker D: Well, it's air. I mean, you can't really ask for your bitcoins, so you can put them in your safe next to your gold and silver. So. And let me remind you, next week on the, you know, as you hear this episode, it will be, I don't know, the end of February. Next week, I think It'll be on the 8th of March. You're going to get to hear Joe Jaquent. We're having him back. We're actually recording a double episode today, so I'm super exciting. Yeah. So Sam, just put bitcoin up on the screen. 84795. So which is. That's. That's kind of crazy. The. The bitcoin was up almost 22% over the last six months. But from the high, the recent high, that's. That's down 20%, you know, just here recently. So very, very volatile. And our take on it is, it's air. You're buying air, you know, Beanie babies, tulips, you name the reference. The biggest thing, though, in our opinion, moderation and diversification. If you have a lot of money and you like the idea of diversification, have at it. But pay down debt, you know, buy hard assets, make sure you're diversified, and make sure you have income that you can never outlive. That's our number one passion. Back to the umbrella. I get myself off track. That's. If you're. You're new with us, you need to know that, too. So back to the umbrella. We. When we put together a financial plan for somebody, which is different for everybody we meet, we want to make sure, first and foremost, we have a good foundation, a good base. We want to make sure there's never a hole in the plan. You know, if we do the perfect plan for you and there's a hole in it, we really didn't do our job. We look at it like we became salespeople and not advisors, and that is not us. So the thing with the umbrella, it's something we do not sell, but we bring it up, we explain it to people. It's a insurance policy that piggybacks under your car insurance. So it comes from your property and casualty agent. And what it is, it's like wherever you go, you're carrying an umbrella. If somebody sues you for slander or defamation of character or whatever, this program protracts you. And kind of how it works. I mean, if you get sued and you don't have this, you have to find an attorney. You have to plop down a retainer if they'll take you. So it can be very costly. Let's say you have State Farm Insurance. Obviously, you're not from California. Let's say you have State Farm Insurance. You're going to be calling that company if you get sued and using their attorneys. So you're going to get a lot more powerful attorneys than you can probably afford on your own. The biggest reason that we think you should have one, to protect your life, your family, your finances. Car accidents. You know, I'll try to make this story quick, but we had a client who, he was in Sun City. His wife was driving across town and she. She ran over the line. She fell asleep driving, ran over the line and had a car accident where she killed a young woman. She also died. So as tragic as this is to begin with, she died, she killed somebody. Then to add insult to that injury, she was sued for a large amount of money.
And how it wound up playing out, the man had a $1 million umbrella policy. So when they sued him, they took an amount with that in consideration, and it basically did not wipe him all the way out, which, you know, he would have been wiped out all the way without this policy. You know, I mean, I've had one. I can't remember not having one. So at least, I don't know, 20, 25 years I've had an umbrella policy. And it's a waste of money, you know, I mean, it's. It's every year I pay for it, I never use it. I've wasted my money. But the peace of mind for me is enormous. I just, I. I love insurance. So with that said, Anthony, anything to add on umbrella policies or.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: No. Smart to have. Hopefully you never need it.
[00:15:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I hope you waste your money like I have and never need it.
Switching gears, let's go to Anthony's articles. Anthony gave me a couple articles. I'd like to talk about them. One, the first article, it's Politico, the Name of it here, and this was on the 25th of February, IRS contractor leaked more than 400,000 returns. You want me to read a little bit of an Anthony, or should we just dig into it?
[00:15:29] Speaker C: I didn't read it.
[00:15:31] Speaker D: You sent it to me and then you didn't read it?
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:15:33] Speaker D: Okay. Well, basically, a whole bunch of people had all their information leaked. It says here the IRS told House Republicans this month that a former contractor leaked the private data of more than 400,000 taxpayers, nearly six times higher than originally thought. Doug O'Donnell, the acting IRS commissioner, told the House Judiciary Chair, Jim Jordan, that the agency had informed 405,427 taxpayers that the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, had leaked information from their tax returns or other agency forms. Little John was sentenced to five years in prison last year for the disclosures, which included returns for both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who's currently leading a government downsizing effort. Elon Musk, that name rings a bell. So one more thing from this. Republicans already thought that the government could have more aggressively prosecuted Little John, who was charged with one count of disclosing tax return information without authorization. So, I mean, if you are in charge of this information, if you have access to this information and whether on purpose or by accident, you leak it out, is that is, I mean, five years in jail, is that fair? Is that an eye for an eye?
[00:17:02] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:17:04] Speaker D: It's your article. I expected you to have this heavy insight onto whether or not it's fair. Sam, what do you think?
[00:17:10] Speaker E: What about a 100% tax refund if they accidentally leak your info?
[00:17:15] Speaker D: Well, aren't we all going to get that soon?
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say, isn't Trump just getting rid of the IRS altogether? And now all of a sudden this doesn't have, doesn't become a problem going to the External Revenue Service?
[00:17:27] Speaker D: Yeah, and we're going to get to that in a few minutes, too. There's some, some changes coming as soon as next week on that front.
So why don't we do this? Let's switch to another article. This one you might have a little more to say and I guess already segued into it talking about Bitcoin. So this is from cryptopolitan.com from 22nd February. Crypto Trader Kills himself on X Live to create a meme coin. Holy cow. So there's language in this article, too, that I can't read out. Right. But I'll change it up a little bit. A crypto trader named Mr. Fu shot himself live on X after losing his last $500 in a meme coin rug poll telling, telling viewers, if I die, make me a meme coin. Within minutes of his death, traders launched meme coins using his name, leading to backlash over whether it's ethical to profit on suicide. Do you want me to chime in on that? It's probably not. I, I think it's not really, I mean, this is mind boggling to me.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: I mean, none of it matters. The fact that you can just make a coin that simple and that quickly.
Right. Doesn't that mean that none of this is really worthwhile at all? So why not?
[00:18:54] Speaker D: It's never made sense.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: People are going to be dumb enough to buy it, you know, coin hawk to a coin.
[00:19:01] Speaker D: I know, I'm still bitter about that. I lost my entire retirement account over that one.
[00:19:07] Speaker C: The meme coins are getting to be so ridiculous. It's getting really, really hard to justify any of them.
[00:19:14] Speaker D: Well, and this is any of them.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: But this is, this part's wild.
[00:19:19] Speaker D: Yeah. This is a new level of, of bad. One of the people that commented on X said the meme coin industry is pure evil. Another person wrote, this guy literally went live to play Russian roulette to pump up a coin and then end up killing himself. So I, I don't, I mean anything connected with this to sell one coin isn't right. You know, we.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: And profits from it, he's dead.
[00:19:45] Speaker D: But yeah, but if people buy it and they can sell it for more, I mean there's, there should be no profiting for anybody around this, this, this. Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't understand it. I guess I'm so old school. I don't understand any of this. I know when bitcoin, when bitcoin came out, it confused me a little bit. Is it a coin? Is it security? The reason to buy bitcoin was the fact that the government's fingers weren't in it. They said basically, you know, our dollar's failing, we're losing the world reserve currency. We're going to have an alternative currency for you. But it's not a currency, it's not a coin. You can't take it to a restaurant and use it to buy your dinner. And then when Dogecoin came out to mock bitcoin and I mean, Anthony, you've talked about it, the creator said it's a joke, it's meant to make fun of it. So that made less sense. And then Shiba Inu came out. I mean it's absolutely incredible. And the fact that there's so many of these coins, it doesn't make sense. You know, people are still dumb enough.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: To buy them, though, so.
Right. Believe it. They've got the freedom to waste their money on this crap.
[00:20:59] Speaker D: Well, I mean, I. To me, it's just, you know, as much as I say moderation and diversification, there's certain things I just can't understand. And one of them is all these coins. You know, I look at this very.
[00:21:10] Speaker E: Similarly to people who spend exorbitant amounts of money and time on trading cards and collectibles. I'm like, I guess it's worth something if someone will pay you for it. But it seems like a pretty lame thing to do and a waste of time.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: Oh, people like that. It's a tangible asset too. I mean, what was that? That Paul.
Paul sykes, one of one card that got 30 years of behind home plate Pirates tickets to whoever pulled that card. Like, that's pretty cool. Makes a lot more sense than a meme coin.
[00:21:43] Speaker D: Yeah, that's.
[00:21:44] Speaker E: It is way cooler.
[00:21:45] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:21:45] Speaker E: If somebody's, if somebody's talking all about crypto or whatnot at the bar or.
[00:21:51] Speaker D: Man, if you're going on a date.
[00:21:52] Speaker E: With somebody and they're talking about their crypto investments, that is, that is just a huge.
[00:21:56] Speaker C: There's no second date after that.
[00:21:58] Speaker E: I'm leaving.
[00:21:59] Speaker C: And I do think it's funny, though, because I have. I have a lot of people that have very strong opinions, pro and con, and tell me how genius it is, but I was like, well, where's all the money you made from it? If you've been supporting this for, you know, 10 plus years, and don't get me wrong, people had suggested to me, I didn't understand it then, but I. In hindsight, I wish I would have bought some. But these people that became Bitcoin, you know, billionaires, I never would have been that guy because I never would have held that long. You know, a dollar to ten dollars to, you know, sixty thousand and a hundred thousand if I own those coins. And I think it's a joke, and I've got it at pennies and goes to dollars, they're gone. If it goes to, you know, from one dollar to ten dollars, it's gone. I'm not holding to ten, a hundred thousand, because why in the world would have ever gone that high ever?
[00:22:49] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, I wish I would have bet Philadelphia to win the super bowl, but that's exactly what it's. It's gamb. It's gambling and speculation.
[00:22:59] Speaker C: But I mean, certain gambling and speculation, I, I get though this one, I don't. I guess there's way less entertaining, but.
[00:23:06] Speaker E: Yeah, it's way less.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: I mean, if you're winning money on it.
[00:23:10] Speaker D: Well, and part of the problem with this whole thing is, you know, we as a people in general, we don't buy low, sell high. We buy high and sell low. You know, when my grandfather, you know, started this practice many, many years ago, it was a simpler time. I mean, you bought J.C. penney and Sears and Montgomery Ward. You bought good blue chip stocks, you got your dividends along the way, you helped the country stay stronger. Then you got your money back. One day there wasn't the frenzy of meme coins and marijuana stocks. It was different. It was before.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: To your point, right. We've got bitcoin just dropped 20% overnight. Huge savings. Nobody's reaching out to us, nobody's asking to buy it. They only hit us up after it hit 100,000, after it skyrocketed, after it was at all time highs. That's when people want. So if those people didn't buy it, but they believed in enough to buy it, then why would you not buy it at 20 off now? Now is your time to go buy it. Granted, I couldn't justify it then, I can't justify it now, but if you're going to do it, you do it now.
[00:24:20] Speaker D: And everybody that. It seems like our experience with people that want cryptocurrency, it's the FOMO of it. It's the fear missing out. I mean, I don't know how to.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: Work a computer or have any idea how they would ever buy it, but their grandson said that they should have it. So that part's funny to me too.
[00:24:38] Speaker D: Yes. And again, as long as it's extra money and you don't go too heavy, have at it. I just. When it started, bitcoin was a great idea. They said the government's little fingers wouldn't be involved, but that's not true because right away, once it started rising, the government was seizing bitcoin wallets, said, we think you're funding terrorism or laundering money or drug running or whatever. And they would take their money, so of course they're in it. I have another question for you. Do you have to report it on taxes? If the government's not involved, how can they tax you on it? So the whole thing is not as it appears. And I still. We started this show almost three years ago talking about executive order 14-067 we've talked a lot over the years about Fed. Now we've talked about a central bank digital currency.
That's the only way I think a central digital currency is going to fly is if the government takes it over. So. And do I worry about that in the next four years under the Trump administration? Of course. Of course. What if all this stuff with Elon Musk, the end game is to make sure we go to get rid of the fiat currency and we go to a central bank digital currency. I mean, would that surprise me? Not at all.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Most come in from the government. It's a legitimate currency right now. Bitcoin, like you said, I can't use it to buy anything. So it's not a currency. Drives me insane calling it a currency. It's not a currency.
[00:25:57] Speaker D: And I also know that we only have one story of a person we know that bought into bitcoin very low. It rose up quite a bit when it was around $60,000. The person sold one of their coins, paid extra money in taxes, bought his wife a Lexus SUV and then kept his original investment. So that's genius. But I've got one story. Where are the rest of the people that have over the last, what, since 2009 or whatever? We were first looking into it in 2016. Where are the rest of the people that, that have these stories? You certainly would tell them if you had these stories.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: You would think so.
[00:26:37] Speaker D: You would think so. Well, and I didn't mean to spend much time on this. I just. That article you sent me made me kind of sick to my stomach and I thought, at least I want to bring it up. I think it's pretty sad when people are committing suicide over this frenzy. So with that said, why don't we ease into break time and then come back and get some stuff done. We are so glad you're here. We appreciate your support. Please make sure you reach out to us and give us show ideas. Set an appointment. We one person, one couple, one family at a time. We want to help you. We want to be a second opinion and we want to see if we can help. We're at 623-523-0444 or you can email us
[email protected] and one last favor to ask of you. Please go on our YouTube channel. Just look up YouTube and then another money show and check out our little shorts. Check out Anthony's shorts. Check out our videos and you know, you know the drill. We need you to like and subscribe and help us grow. We're little fish in a big pond and we need your help with that. We'll be back in just a moment.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: This is Another Money show, except this one's different. This one's actually fun.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Remember, all of JR 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 being with us. As always, we greatly appreciate it. Let's oh, how to reach us 623-523-0444 or
[email protected] and let us know what you want to hear. Let us know when you're ready to come in and sit down with us and we'll be a second opinion for you.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: And we had to talk about how bad that first half was.
[00:28:38] Speaker D: It was weird. Yeah, this is a weird week. I mean, usually we get a little bit of a rhythm going on. You know, I'm not sure who we're talking to this week, our regular noon audience. You know, it's, it's weird knowing, talking.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: To Kevin and to Arlene. That's who we're talking to.
[00:28:54] Speaker D: Arlene and Peoria. You haven't given her a shout out in a while. Kevin every week texts me and gives me ideas on the show. I love that Kevin is so loyal. So. And it's always very insightful. I don't know if he texts you too, Anthony, but it's always really good stuff. So thank you for listening, Kevin. And if you're listening to us at five in the morning, you know, you'll get used to us, I promise. So moving on a little bit, we had a, we had a loyal listener reach out to us, a guy named Jason, and said that we need to look up Arizona House Bill 2683. So apparently it's past one side of the legislative process and what it is, it's going to mandate that Arizona businesses accept cash up to $100. So I just read a little bit about it last night. I'm not sure if I understand.
I mean, I mean, how are you going to get to every different business? It's brick and mortar, obviously not online businesses, but I mean, how are you going to enforce this? Are there people that are going to complain and turn you in? But it's basically saying if you have any sort of a storefront, you have to accept cash up to 100 bucks. I understand the timing. I mean, if you go to a sporting event, I mean, depending on where you go, a lot of places they're calling it cashless. Covid made that a big deal where, you know, you couldn't touch the cash. Of course, you could touch the little keypad.
And then some of the places put a plastic sheet over the keypad. So you could touch the plastic sheet over the keypad. I love that one. I'm like, are you going to hand sanitize this in between customers? Well, no, of course not. Anyway, so HB2683 is basically saying if you're a business in Arizona, you're going to have to accept cash. I love the idea. You know, they talked about people that are debanked, people that are, you know, have less access to a bank account. So I. I don't know if the. If this meant it was going to be more for rural areas. It's interesting, but we'll. We'll try to follow it and see how it plays out, see if it passes.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I kind of like it. I mean, especially because, you know, talk about people that don't have banks. You're like, well, how can you do anything now without a bank? But it is wild how they're ripping you off and paying you no interest, yet charging you a monthly fee to give them money when they don't have to have reserves. So.
[00:31:28] Speaker D: Yeah. And if you're. If you are new with us, one of the things that, I mean, we're huge on, please make sure you go to fdic.gov and then look up.
You want to look at the DIF, the Deposit Insurance Fund. It's got 1.2% coverage in it. That means if you have money in a bank up to $250,000 and you feel the peace of mind of that insurance coverage. That insurance coverage is a little over 1%. So that's absolutely crazy. So, Sam, put. Using cash at a bar or restaurant is way better. Leave the money on the table and go, yeah, these servers definitely like cash. They don't have to wait to get their money. So some of it is. And I'm not trying to cheat the irs, that's been so good to me. But maybe they don't have to report all of it. I don't know how it works. I know that apparently there's a piece of legislation that's going to talk about not taxing tips. So we'll see how that goes.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: Yeah. When is that one supposed to go to vote?
[00:32:35] Speaker D: It passed the first hurdle. Apparently it was like pretty much 100% Republican support, 0% Democrat support.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: That's not the that meme one that just went out, is it? Because a lot of people are sending out something that was relative to that bill, but it wasn't.
[00:32:54] Speaker D: Well, the bill has a couple different components to it. So if people are saying how Democrats hate you and they want you to pay tax on tips, it's part of a bigger bill. But you know, I mean the fact is that it was along party lines like everything else seems to be. And I think it would be good for the growth of the economy. I think it would be a good bill to pass. So I'm hoping it does.
[00:33:15] Speaker E: They attached other pieces of legislation to a bigger piece of legislation. They would never do that.
[00:33:21] Speaker D: Right? They would Never make a 2,000 page bill to save the white spotted owls in conjunction with something else. Yeah, no, and I'll tell you what, I mean, we are in such unchartered territory and so many fronts. Speaking of our government, you know, I mean, Anthony, you sent me another article. Do you read any of the articles you send me or do you send them just for me to read?
[00:33:44] Speaker C: Sometimes I do.
[00:33:45] Speaker D: Okay, well, did you read the one you sent me on? It was on 25th February from Watcher Guru and it basically it's saying that there's some big changes in the BRICS plus nations. Apparently Russia is making a deal with Trump and they're going to send to us 2 million tons of rare earth resources and aluminum. 2 million, 2 million tons just in aluminum. And then they're going to strike a deal with rare earth. And I don't know what rare earth resources are. You know, it looks like metals to make cell phones and EVs and that sort of thing. So looks like the Brics might not be as big of a threat as it was just a few months ago. Now India is backing out of the BRICS currency deal. So they're basically saying they need the dollar for their commerce. So.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: Well, definitely slowly starting to crumble.
We've been talking about that for the last year, since the last major meeting when in last October when nothing really came of it. But yeah, I thought this one was interesting.
You know, if that's true, if the US is going to start striking deals directly with Russia, that'll be huge. And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing yet. It's interesting though, it's worth watching and.
[00:35:06] Speaker D: I think anything that slows down the erosion of Our dollars, the world reserve currency. It's good. I mean, I, you know, we've got tariffs coming up. I mean, you know what, next week on the 4th of March, we're going to start the, the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and then April 2, we start tariffs on the EU. So I, I want to know how all this plays out. Are these tariffs going to make it where we can, you know, reduce our, our debt and deficit? Is it going to make it where we can balance the budget? You know, is, is the brics nations, is that going to change enough so we stay in charge? I mean, this is all crazy. You hear the people.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: None of this happened if Trump didn't get elected.
[00:35:52] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: Imagine Russia trying to play fair with us.
[00:35:57] Speaker D: No, not at all. And obviously you're going to have people saying that, oh, you know, he's a dictator and why would you give him the time of day? I mean, if we get world peace, if we get this country to stop being so ridiculous, I guess that's why you would want to deal with people. I mean, I, I don't know, like.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: Going to North Korea, right? Like, why would you, why would you do that? And like, well, it's not like we're over there bombing them and trying to rescue any of those people. Right? So it's, yeah, do something. Making friends doesn't seem like the worst idea.
[00:36:31] Speaker D: It does. Not all. And this is a very, very small world. I mean, you know, the Internet, Al Gore's Internet made it. So to me, anything, everything going on right now, to me is really good. I mean, the stuff with the tariffs, is it going to lead to temporary spikes in inflation? Yeah, probably. You know, I mean, the egg prices, all the stuff that people like to point to, could that get worse? Yeah, I suppose so. But I mean, if this really does lead to a external revenue service, if that. And one thing about Trump, love him or hate him, you have to give him credit for one thing. Politicians, when they're running for office, say, I'm going to do this, this and this, and then they don't do any of that. This is one person that said, I'm going to do this, this and this. And he did this, this and this. No doubt in my mind that the stuff he says he is going to try his darnedest to accomplish. So if they could get rid of the irs, I can't imagine this country will be around for another 300 years without any problem.
Oh, man. When you look at the tax code, when you look at the confusion, it's so simple in my eyes. And we aired this out a few weeks ago. I mean, have a flat tax, probably 10, 15% across the board. Everybody, no matter what you make, you have to give 10 to 15%. And then the consumption tax, which we already have, if you buy a pack of gum, you're going to pay less taxes than somebody buying a yacht. So it seems so simple to me. But the power brokers in this country, I mean, it's, it's, you know, the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. And it's a long time coming that we're shedding light on this stuff. I mean, you know, the stuff with Elon Musk is just incredible. And my only barometer of how things are going is Facebook. You know, I mean, I watch YouTube videos, I look on Facebook, I watch social media closely. Do I think it's a train wreck? I do a lot of the case. I also think it shows you what people are thinking. And I had said, I mean, over the last few elections, the division, the polarization in this country is amazing. I mean, we literally could go into civil war. No doubt in my mind that we're fragile. The stuff right now, the polarization, it shifted a little bit.
Now Trump and Musk have to share the hatred. It's not just Trump anymore. It's not just Orange man bad.
It's crazy. And when I read this stuff on Facebook with people saying Musk has no right to any of this, the implication you're making is that we are going the right way. I mean, to uncover the evil that's going on and the foolishness. To me, this is the best thing that's ever happened in my time in this country. So we'll see. I mean, let me get to one of my articles. Here's an example for you. This is from 20 February from Climate Change Dispatch.
DOGE uncovers 2 billion dollar taxpayer windfall for Stacey Abrams Linked nonprofit Stacey Abrams. Isn't she also. Atlanta, Georgia. Sam, this is a big day for you with Hooters and now Abrams.
[00:39:40] Speaker E: So, yeah, she's run for governor twice to no avail.
[00:39:46] Speaker D: Yes. But she was pretty sure that there was some cheating afoot. She was very vocal about how she should have been the governor.
[00:39:53] Speaker E: It's like the, it's the usual, it's turning into the usual line. Like if they did post game press conferences after elections, like that's, that's the party line. It's like, oh, well, it was clearly the refs rigged it.
[00:40:04] Speaker D: Yes. And that's another part of this polarization that we're experiencing. So Doge discovered $2 billion in taxpayer. This is what bothers me. Taxpayer funds set aside for a fledgling nonprofit linked to perennial Georgia Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.
Let's see here. So Power Forward Communities received the Green Energy grant even though it was founded months earlier in late 2023 and never managed anywhere near the grand dollar figure. It reported just $100. Not 100,000, not 100,000,000 100 in total revenue during its first three months in operation, according to its latest tax filing. You got a company that has $100 and all of a sudden they're going to get 2 billion. Oh, nothing fishy here. So Power Forward Communities grant was one of just eight Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants that the EPA doled out in April of 2024, totaling 20 billion. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on February 13 that his staff at the Department of Government Efficiency officials discovered that the Biden administration parked that same 20 billion at an outside financial institution before leaving office, limiting the federal government's oversight of the program. I heard through several other articles, the bank in question was Citi. So if you have money at Citi, good job. The revelation that the Power Forward Communities is among the beneficiaries of the funds Zeldin's teams located raises ethics questions. You think about how the Biden administration selected recipients of such massive grants and whether it played favorites when doling out those grants. Well, I mean, really, Is anybody asking that? Oh, Sam, just if you're, if you're new with us, something that we make sure we point out all the time, make your way to us. Debt clock.org it's pretty interesting. We have 36 and a half trillion of debt on our books. The Doge Clock. They're starting to track what kind of savings the Musk team has provided. 143 billion.
Looks like 143. 690. So. Oh, hell, that's. That's pretty good. If we can keep paring down the deficit, that'll be a good thing.
[00:42:39] Speaker E: Imagine finding 143 billion between your couch cushions. Just incredible.
[00:42:44] Speaker D: When I find a quarter, I'm super happy. So 143 billion. That'd be fun. But I'm very immature. I wouldn't go to work the next day. Not that I really go to work anyway. According to Anthony.
[00:42:54] Speaker E: What if we started having some, like, liquidation sales? You know how there's, like, army surplus stores? What if we started selling some other, like, government property, you know, just to free up some extra cash, like a yard sale. We could do it at the national.
[00:43:08] Speaker D: Mall in D.C. we can just leave.
[00:43:10] Speaker C: It all in Afghanistan.
[00:43:11] Speaker D: And you know, we do that. Oh wow. Yeah, Afghanistan. That's the. Let's not forget about that. You know, we do that, right, Sam. Like city buildings. We have leased out and sold city government buildings probably pretty much. You can look at China. China's bought a bunch of land by military installations and so forth, but they've also bought government buildings. Think about how insane that is. We're so broke we have to sell our state capitals to another country. So a couple more things from this article. It's extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive 2 billion power forward Communities and Abrams did not respond to requests for comment. I wonder why. So Power Forward Communities was established in October of 2023 as a coalition of groups led by Rewiring America, a left wing group that advocates for electrification policies and a transition away from fossil fuel. But wait, Phil Swift, there's more. Abrams, who serves as the Rewiring America's senior counsel, said at the time that she was thrilled to be a part of the Power Ford Communities Coalition. So Abrams is very she's pretty intertwined and interconnected in those things and that's great. She's thrilled to have a handout of $2 billion. I think Lee Zeldin is clawing it back, so probably not going to happen. Poor girl.
And you do know the rest of the middle class world, the let's say middle to lower middle class, they are really struggling. I read One article on 22 February from the Daily Hodl. US household debt shatters 18 1, 234567 and 9 10, 1112 I have to count zeros to see if it's billion or more. 18 trillion. Think about that for a second. U.S. household debt, that's personal debt shatters $18 trillion as delinquency rates surge, according to the Federal Reserve bank of New York. The New York Fed's data also shows that Americans are struggling to pay off their credit card and other types of debt. Delinquency rates are on the rise, with 11.4% of credit card balances having been left unpaid for at least 90 days as of the fourth quarter 2024, up 9.4% over the same quarter in 2023. For other types of loans, 9.2% are delinquent for 90 days or more.
See here. Amid the surging delinquency rates, the Fed says that around 123,000Americans had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports in the last quarter.
So, I mean, around that 125,000 people in one quarter, that's 500,000 people. If it repeats itself for three more quarters, that's a pretty noticeable number. I mean, when people are firing, filing bankruptcy, that's pretty serious.
So I don't know. I mean, you know, I've said it forever. The rich are getting richer, the poor hover, and the middle class shrinks. And I just. I don't see any way that people could think it's bad, you know. Oh, but Elon Musk has access to my Social Security number. Have you ever heard of the Dark Web? Have you ever gotten a letter from the Veterans Administration or Marriott Properties or from the IRS? Or from the IRS. If you're one of the 405,000 people, have you ever gotten a letter that they're going to give you one free year of monitoring of your credit report, your Social Security number? If you're listening to me, only if you're listening. People that aren't listening don't have to worry about this. Your Social Security number is out there. It is all over the place. So maybe you should watch your credit score, make sure you should see us. You know, I'm hearing a commercial lately, more and more for home title lock. Are you hearing about this? People are like taking over the title of your home. I mean, I don't know. Instead of giving. It's really wild. And they're saying that people that have to worry the most are the people that don't have a mortgage. So if you worked your butt off to pay off your home, you still have to watch to make sure you own your home. Kind of crap. We give so much money to Ukraine when there's so many things we could do here to help this country. If there's food insecure, if there's homeless problem in this country, if. If there's some way to beef up our systems, let's do that before we give everybody else on the planet money.
Take a breath for a second. And by the way, speaking of Elon, are you hearing about the email? Last weekend he sent out an email to federal workers, you know, trying to. Trying to first of all, make sure they respond to the email. And he said, like, name five things you did last week. Most people that have a job could figure out five things they did. Even it was, I washed my hands when I left the restroom. You probably could reply to the email. So, and this is really bothering people.
I mean, I hate to tell you federal workers, you're public servants. You serve the public. Do you know what that means? We have every right. We, meaning me and Elon, have every right to at least verify that you're at your email. Ever since COVID when we said you can work from home, it really, I mean, if you were a 40 hour workweek dude before COVID and you work from home the last, what, five years? We're about to hit five years. Are you telling me you're really working the same from your home, at your office? Some people, yes. I'm not trying to make such a sweeping generalization. I bet there's a whole bunch of people that would be more normal and maybe not put in 40 hours, but you should at least have to verify that you're still working. And the uproar is huge. If you like Trump and Musk, you're going to love that they did that. If you dislike Trump and Musk, you're going to be up in arms about that. I know how this works. More, more polarization.
[00:49:14] Speaker E: So Elon did that when he bought Twitter too. He did something very similar to essentially audit the performance of the workforce, and.
[00:49:22] Speaker D: It worked out pretty swimmingly. My understanding is he did a big purge and now it's running better than ever, more profitable. So he's doing that on a grander scale with the government.
So I am all in favor, I'm all in favor of uncovering the shenanigans. You know, new stuff going on about Obama. You know, how he's worth like $135 million. Before he went into office, he was worth 1.5 million. Showed his salary. I know, Anthony, you, you think all these government officials are just good savers and then they become multimillionaires through their saving efforts. I think they're all taking just ridiculous advantage of this country. And I still, I mean, I, I know things have changed. Is, are they going to get divorced? Sam, put. Is Michelle going to get half that in the divorce? You need to say allegedly, because I don't even know that those two are getting a divorce.
So lot of controversy surrounding them. A lot of controversy when there always has been a lot of controversy surrounding their kids. Now apparently, maybe their kids got a little money. Like Chelsea Clinton getting, what, $84 million out of USAID? I don't know. This is kind of, kind of crazy. Stacey Abrams, you only got 2 billion. What are, what a slacker you are. So I don't know. And then I heard that now there's more concrete proof Remember when Sheriff Joe Arpaio was saying that Obama's birth certificate was forged, it was a forgery? Apparently, that's coming around again, and they have some more proof that they basically took another person's birth certificate and just kind of jimmied it around to make this one so very interesting.
Let's see. We don't have a lot of time left. Why don't we do this just so we don't totally scare away our new audience. Let's talk a little bit about finances. Let's talk about financial stuff for just a couple minutes. One of the things that we want to do for you, one of the things that I love doing in the office, I love it when I sit with people and they bring their statements. We can help you if you don't understand your statement. We can help you understand it. We can help you figure out what kind of charges and fees you have. You know, I used to sell variable annuities. I say sell instead of offer because you really have to sell them. I did that for years when I was new in this industry. And then all of a sudden I started realizing I can use mutual funds and fixed annuities. I can use the combination to bring down your risk, bring down your fees, and usually better your performance. So I stopped selling them. Oh, geez. Probably 22, 23 years ago. And, Anthony, you and I looked into it years ago. We don't know of one that exists that either you and I would own. So we're not a fan of variable annuities. One of the things we do, bring your statement in. We're going to sit at the conference room table on speakerphone with you. They're going to make you say who you are, your address, whatever, and probably the last four of your social. So in case Elon doesn't have it. And they're going to. You're going to say, it's okay to talk to us. We know what questions to ask. We take a yellow pad and a pen and we ask about annual fees. We ask about mortality and expense charges. We ask about reallocation fees and windows. We're going to find out all of the stuff you need to know about what you own, if you don't already. And we do, we run into a lot of people that need a second opinion because they're just not sure they have our big thing. We believe in planning over products. And a lot of times we've noticed people have products and they mistake that for a plan. So we can help you with that.
Let's see what Else do we talk about? One more thing. Financial. I heard a commercial this morning. I love the commercials by the way. It's for Big Lou. Look at that. You're getting free plug on another money show. So this, this insurance company there, I'm sure it doesn't exist a Big Lou, but their spokesperson, Big Lou is like you. He's on meds too. Something interesting, they, they set a rate this morning. Like if you're a 40 year male overweight on meds, you can get a million dollars for like so much a month. And I thought about that. We also do insurance. We like Big Lou, sell term insurance too. But there's a lot to it. You know, when we help somebody with insurance, we do a pre screen with underwriting. We make sure you know that, you know, be honest. On the application, they're checking your doctor's records. They're going further. Most people don't know this. They're checking your MVD record. If you've had three or more moving violations in the last five years, you're more of a risk to that company than somebody who hasn't. They check your mib, which is your medical information bureau. So it's even applying for some simple 10 year term. It's more advanced. And if I give somebody a rate of whatever, 50 bucks a month and they go through the application process, somebody comes out to weigh them and take urine or blood and then all of a sudden it comes back that they're not going to get that super preferred rate. But you've already put so much skin in the game, you're probably going to pay the extra 20 bucks a month and just go with it. We don't like those surprises, so we make sure we hit all that up front.
Okay, well, we are getting close on time. I was going to bring up the developing measles outbreak in Texas, but I guess. Why, I don't know how that ties with finances, but it's interesting.
Anything else you have for us today, Anthony?
[00:54:39] Speaker C: Nope.
That is it for today's show. If you like what you heard, have questions on any of the topics today, or want to sit down with us to review your personal situation, you can reach us at
[email protected] Find us on the web. Schedule appointments right from the website anothermoneyshow.com find us on YouTube. Remember, there's no minimums, there's no cost for appointments. There's nothing to lose by getting a second opinion on your financial situation. We'll see you again next Saturday at noon. And at 5am right here on 9 60, the patriot.
[00:55:12] Speaker D: And don't forget, Joe Jaquent will be with us next week, so make sure you tune into that. He's. He's. He's a good one. He's one of the good ones. Thanks for being with us.
[00:55:21] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to another money show. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically, strictly work to protect your hard earned assets. To schedule your free no obligation consultation, visit anothermoneyshow.com Investment advisory services offer 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.
