Episode Transcript
[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 J.R. rochford.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Here we are, your hosts, Anthony Correjo and JR Rochford taking a break from our day to day as financial advisors with Rochford and Associates. Fully independent fourth generation family office right here in the greater Phoenix area. To bring information you may not find on those other financial radio shows.
The last thing we're aware, the last thing you need is another money show. But we appreciate you being here. And on this episode, J.R. hawks Bitcoin. Now, he's a big fan of cryptocurrencies. So we'll chat about that and then. Well, I'm going to tell you that boom. Bust. Boom. That documentary I talk about all the time is now on YouTube for free. And then what else are we going to talk about today?
[00:01:20] Speaker D: Sir, you seem mellow today. You seem not your usual chip herself. So I hope everything's okay with you. I know you're wearing old man shoes now. It's so funny to watch you when you used to make fun of me. My world revolves around Skechers. And now what did you buy? What's the kind?
[00:01:37] Speaker C: You just are Pumas. And I'm really.
[00:01:39] Speaker D: That's a gateway drug.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Mine are old man shoes. Nobody knows that they're old man shoes.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: Oh, come on. I've seen them. You've got a couple pairs now of old man shoes. And Puma is a gateway drug to Skechers. I'm just saying it's not going to.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: End with the I'll never be a Skechers lady.
[00:01:52] Speaker D: Yeah, you say that now, but just watch the evolution of Anthony. So. And you've always been an old soul. You, you've always been a 77 year old trapped in a younger person's body. Actually, your body's not that much. Well, let's move on. Let's get into what we're here for.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Upset.
[00:02:07] Speaker D: So welcome to another money show. We are, we are glad you're here. We, you know, we always say we need your help. We're little tiny fish in a big pond and we would appreciate you telling people about us. Last week I came to the realization that we don't do a great job on letting people know. We want to see you, we want to meet you, we want your questions. We want to be a second opinion. This is not an hour long info infomercial. So we try to make sure we're not a slimy salesperson. But we also were in business so we have to do a balancing act. We, you know, one thing you might want to know, we take appointments in the office. You can sit down with me or Anthony or both. We, we do zoom appointments, we do phone appointments. So whatever's easy and convenient, we will be there for you. We, we like to shout out with. We like to shout out. We like to start out with shout outs. And I really, I really don't have much this week. I've been kind of hectic and busy and. But we did have our West Valley men's networking on Tuesday. So thank you to Throne. They, they're. We've been there for years now and they do a great job. Kyle, the person that generally takes care of us, he's, he's a little bit condescending. He's like real, he's himself such a cool guy. I mean, I, I will tell you what, Kyle is an amazing guy.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: I love that that's how you start off to describe how great he is. Well, he's super condescending.
[00:03:22] Speaker D: I didn't know he's mildly condescending. He's like a smart aleck. But he's so good. And, and you know, we, this, it was kind of quiet this week. We had 14, but he gets the orders right, he gets the bills right. You know, he doesn't mix very.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Thank you him and Throne for putting up with us.
[00:03:38] Speaker D: Yep, it's been great. So we look forward to meeting you there too. If you want a casual way to meet us where it's the second Tuesday of each month at Throne at 4, so we'd like to meet you there. Joe Janquin joined us again this week. That was very nice to see him. Hopefully he's become a regular. And we told you last week we're going to be on his show. We're still waiting for the dates, but it's, it's, I, I think it's only a couple weeks out that we're. And I thought it was one time we're going to be on the show. Apparently it's going to be multiple times so we will keep you posted on dates and times moving into what we do. We always tell people we're here to help you be proactive, not reactive, to help you be prepared, not scared. And that's, you know, why we do current events every week, why we bring you stuff that you don't hear elsewhere. It's to wake you up, to make sure you, you aren't blindsided by what's coming.
Last week, we ended the show with a little more traditional financial information.
We've talked about a potential change in the FERS system, the federal employee. What is it? Federal fers, Federal Employee Retiree System.
So we, we didn't do it justice. So we kind of, we went through it too quickly and I kind of thought, if it's okay, we are going to start today a little bit more financial and go into the pensions a little bit more. We want to talk a little bit about how that can affect these people. If you're listening and you're not a federal employee retiree or whatnot, you're probably like, how does that affect me? Because this is what's coming. My wife is a state retiree. She's in on the, she's got a pension with the Arizona State Retirement System. I've been telling her since I met her it's kind of a Ponzi scheme. I don't mean to slam it. It's running properly. It's a great system. But you know what? When you're a teacher, like my wife is, she retired at 55 years of age, grabs her pension. If she's going to live from 55 to you, tell me what, 95, 105. And she's going to get that money every month. She's relying on newer teachers coming in, paying into the system. It's the definition of a Ponzi scheme. Your Social Security system, when you first get a job and they start taking money out and you don't have a choice, it goes into this big Ponzi scheme known as Social Security. And then hopefully you get that when you start drawing at 62 or 67 or 70 or whatever, you get that for the rest of your life. That's the objective. There's a lot of talk about them. You know, they're going to cut your benefits. There's talk of them cutting. We've been saying for a few years now, they're looking at 23 to 25% of a cut across the board. Can Trump save the system? Can tariffs make it where we don't have to do that? I Don't know, yet to be seen. You know, they also talk about raising the age. Instead of being 62, you might have to be 70. Instead of being 66 in 11 months or whatever, you might have to be 70. I don't know if they're going to do that, you know, younger workers. Sam Anthony, are they going to make you pay more into the system over the years? Probably. I mean, it's still a three prong approach to try to save the beast. Unless the next, you know, three years and nine months are just miraculous, but yet to be seen. So my wife's take was always, it's a guaranteed pension. Teachers aren't paid the most money on the planet. You know, a lot of industries aren't. Teachers, you know, they get summers off. There's, there's some perks, some pluses to being a teacher. I'm not saying they don't work there. You know what off. I'm not saying they're not valuable, but, you know, they get summers off. That's kind of sweet. And actually, you know what, when I used to look at teachers, it seemed like they got three months off. They now they only get two months off. So I don't know, it shifted over the years, but they get less of a summer anyway. What I had said to her was, people are living longer. The pension system that you're in, they take money out of your check without your permission. You cannot opt out of that. If you're going to get a certain job with the city of Peoria or Glenda or whatever, you can't say, I don't want to be in that system. I'll do my own Roth ira, I'll do my own investing. You have no choice. What? Here's part of the problem I have. If you're a new teacher and you should be in the target date, 2070 or whatever, you should be aggressive on your positions. And then as you're a teacher, you know, like 53, 55, you're about to retire, you should be mostly in cash and bonds. You know, when you look at risk tolerances, well, that's not how it works. They do the investing for all the teachers. It's all the same pot of investing. And we've just had a 15 year run up in the markets. So the investing's been good on everybody. I can tell you what if we have rough times, if we have another 2008 and their portfolio shrinks, can that accelerate problems with the system? Of course it can. So when I bring up the federal retirees, I'M also talking to you. If you're a state retiree, let me tell you the bad part. If you're a private company retiree, I'm talking to you too. A lot of systems are broke. They're antiquated. Life has changed. When I was new in this job in the 90s, there were still pensions. There was talk of them slowing down, but it was still a thing. You work 20 or 30 years, you get a nice dinner at a cheap steakhouse and a gold watch, and then you get your two or three or whatever grand a month for the rest of your life. Those are going away. Now it's the 401k. The guy that started the 401k is saying it was a flawed system. The guy that started it is saying it's not working anymore. We'll give you a movie. Just reach out to us. We'll give you the code to watch a movie in the comfort of your own home called the Baby Boomer Dilemma. And man, is it good.
It talks. And the guy who made the 401k is in it. The people that said you can take out 4% of your portfolio and never run out of money, he's in it. Tom Hegna, he's in it. There's some good people. The acting is kind of iffy. Don't sue me producers. But geez, I mean, could you have done a worse job with acting? But the movie, the premise, the movie, the information is wonderful. So back to retirees. I have a feeling over the next five, 10, 20 years, private companies, public pensions, they're all going to be stressed how bad it gets. How the heck would I know? I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm not optimistic. I can tell you that when Anthony came in the office, the pension guarantee fund, the big safety net for pensions, was underwater. So luckily, that's since changed and there was a big influx of government money. Oh, wait, is that the government? 36 trillion in debt.
That big Ponzi scheme. Yeah, that's the same one. So anyway, we. I want to talk a little further about pensions and about how they work, how this ends. We want to educate you on how you can supplement your Social Security.
You can supplement your FERs or your ASRs or your private pension with your own pension. That's how. That's all we're trying to get done here. We're not saying opt out of your Social Security.
It's a Ponzi scheme. JR Store, what should I do? Just not take it? I'm not saying that I'm saying you better have multiple sources of income in the future if you really want to feel like you're more bulletproof. You know, we said a couple weeks ago the number one fear of retirees isn't death, it's running out of money before death. That is shocking. You know, taxes, public speaking, there's things that bother people. Running out of money is a biggie. And we work in Sun City, so I promise you, we are well aware of that fact. Anyway, we can help with what to do about it. Usually time is the most valuable asset you have, maybe even more than money, on how to do this. So get to us as young as you can, but even if you're older, we can help you. You know, sometimes you have stuff that maybe you don't understand it, maybe you've never sat with Anthony and you don't have a plan, you just have products.
Maybe we can reposition your assets for a more favorable result. Maybe we can leave your stuff alone because it's perfect. We don't know until we meet with you. So back to. It was my friend Ron from Sun City that forwarded to me an email he received from his company and it basically it was saying that it's on the table to cut benefits. And I read a little bit of it last week. I want to read a little bit more, especially of what applies to our basic audience. This is not a done deal like should you panic? No, but it says here it starts out with, we thought we would share this information that was forwarded to us by Kevin Platts. I'm not sure that is, I guess, a federal guy. You may want to contact your representative regarding this.
Yeah, so what, what we're looking at here is the proposed federal benefits cuts, understanding Congress's 2025 proposals. United benefits, that's the name of this. They are talking about making changes to the FERS retirement system and the fehb, which is the federal Employee Health benefits. And by the way, hang in there with me because again, keep in mind, this could apply to your private company. Explain to me, mci, let's talk about Enron. There's a juicy one. If you're too young to remember Enron, look it up. I think there's even a movie on it.
So United Airlines, MCI, there's, there's companies that ask employees that spent 30 or 40 years there if it's possible they can change your pension. I'll give you a hint. Yes. Yeah, it's possible. It. It happens. It's happened and it happens. So let's do this.
I'm going to. I circled some of this that I want to get to. One of the things that applies strongly in our world is, is number three on this list changing annuity calculations.
Says here the proposal, the base FERS annuity calculations on the average of the highest 5 years of salary instead of the current highest 3. So that Waters you down a hair. If your salary doesn't stay constant every year, you just watered it down a hair. Okay, no big deal.
Impact.
This would reduce annuity payments. Well, that's going to affect your future. It includes lower earning years in the calculation. The reduction could be significant in some cases, especially when you factor in a long retirement. When I talk about time, if you retire when you're 55 and you check out when you're 57, you'll probably be fine. But what if you check out when you're 97?
That's what we have to worry about is longevity. So let's see here.
Reforming or eliminating cost of living adjustments or COLAs. The proposal either eliminate or reduce annual COLAs for both FERS and CSRS retirees. Current COLAs help maintain the purchasing power by adjusting payments based on inflation. We have a client, a dear friend client named Kevin and Kevin and I were talking about this email and he said that that one, you know that that's going to affect people all around. You know the cost of goods and services have clearly risen. I know the cost of eggs are back down and food, you know and by the way, good news this week the inflation numbers came in as I'm sure you heard and they're better than they were where our inflation they're saying now is only 2 point something percent.
I do have to tell you something about inflation. I don't want to inflation to slow. I want deflation personally, you know, not to the problematic level but you know, where everybody's unemployed but you know inflation has been going up for year after year. That means nothing's getting cheaper, it's just getting more expensive, slower. So it's not the greatest news, but it's still good comparatively over the last few years.
Back to cola.
Your retirement income would gradually lose value to inflation. For example, with a 3% annual inflation and no COLA, your $50,000 pension would have the purchasing power of just 37,000 after only 10 years. That is noticeable. That is shrinkage. George Costanza that is shrinkage. Let's see here. The health insurance side of the house. Shifting FEHB to a voucher system.
Not good. Look up voucher system.
So they're saying that they may replace the current FEHB system where the government pays 72% of your premiums with a fixed dollar voucher. So that means you're going to get so much money per month or per year instead of a percentage. Let's see here. The impact employees and retirees would bear a higher share of health insurance costs, reducing affordability.
Here's one that kind of stinks.
Eliminating FEHB for new hires or retirees. So they're talking about going to a voucher system or worse, eliminating your health benefits. I mean, that's shocking when you are retired. Anthony, the number one thing we see for retirees, where does their money go? Well, yeah, when they're first retired, they see the grandkids, they play golf, they go to the mall, what, whatever. They might drink a little more wine than they used to, you know, because Every day at 4 is happy hour incentivity. You know what happens eventually? Doctors, health care. So if they take away your health care, you're going on the Medicare system. Well, that's great. Medicare is great. It's greatest insurance on the planet. Get a good Medicare A and B and a supplement or advantage plan and you're home free. But at the same time, the Ponzi scheme, that is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, that's all changing. I'm telling you, over the upcoming years, you're going to get less benefits and pay more for them. So the timing here is what I don't like.
[00:17:09] Speaker C: Well, yeah, later in life when they're spending all the money on doctors, that matters a lot less because they will have access to Medicare. But the problem is a lot of these federal employees are not 65 and they're retiring well before then. And you're going to have a mortgage payment. If you retire at 55 and you have to get to 65, you know, a mortgage payment and cost for health insurance, it's insanely expensive.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And just watching when your mom retired for the year and a half that she stayed retired, we had to pay for our own health insurance. And we're relatively young. I mean, I'm in my early 60s, she's in her late 50s, and we have one young man still on our insurance and it was almost two grand a month. So, yeah, I mean, tell me about it. How things are wrong now and then they could get more wrong. So that's not good.
I'm gonna get to do. I need to do it. Let me do one more thing of this impact on the federal employees and workforce. Competitiveness These proposals aim to align federal benefits with private sector standards where defined benefit pensions and retiree health insurance are less common, I would say almost non existent at this point. However, federal employees already earn an estimated 25% less than than private sector counterparts for similar roles and benefits are a key recruitment and retention tool.
So if they change that tool, they're going to get less people interested in federal work. So and maybe that's the whole goal of this, you know, Doge, I mean maybe that's the whole goal. I'm just, you know, if you are a federal benefit person, retiree, you're an air traffic controller, you know, whatever you did for a living, you keep your ears open. And I just broaden that today too. If you're part of a state program or even a private company and you're still lucky enough to have a benefit, you know, a pension and health benefits that is subject to change and what to do about it? Very last thing I'll say From this email 1. Contact your representatives.
2. Call or write your congressional representatives. 3.
Share specific examples of how these changes would affect you. 4. Join letter writing campaigns organized by employee groups. 5. Get involved with employee organizations. 6. Join or increase participation in federal employee unions including NAGE and nteu and lastly, support NARFES advocacy efforts. I have no idea what those organizations are and I didn't look it up, but join them and make sure you make some noise. You know how hard that's going to be though. You know why? I know it's hard.
I know a lot of people. I've met a lot of people over my life. I don't know a lot of people that write to their congressperson, that write to their senators, that write to their representatives. I don't know many. I used to be on a big kick to do that and part of why I got frustrated. You always get form letters back.
You really, it's like yeah, whatever, we're going to get rid of you as quickly as possible. Here's a letter how much I value you. Go to my website, make a donation for my.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Did you just get one of those recently?
[00:20:27] Speaker D: I got one yesterday. I did. I don't want to talk about specifics because the matter is ongoing but I reached out to a representative of my that I am a constituent for and and I asked real specific questions in my email.
It was very, very specific what I wanted to know and I got a letter back saying, you know, they value my thoughts and insights and go to their website and hang in there. You know, we love you Also said.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: That if you do have questions, please reach out again. So what, you can get the same form letter?
[00:20:58] Speaker D: Correct? And guess what? A lot of people would be like, oh, for Pete's sake, it's form letter. You don't give a crap about me. Not about to reach out again for what I am doing. Definitely going to reach out again until I get to speak with somebody that can help me and answer my questions. I don't stop. I've been through this before. I've done it when the Humane Society needed people to step up. I've done it with second Amendment issues. I've done it before and I haven't stopped until I've gotten answers and it's worked out well.
So I did email one of our representatives, Senator Mark Kelly. This was, I don't know, a couple of years ago. And I never was able to get to him or to anybody that would answer my questions. So I did run into a wall. I did hear from Kirsten Cinema at one point. I, I emailed both of them on the same topic. And one I actually did get a response from, one I did not. So who knows?
Moving on. Let's, let's. Because I, I know we need to get to articles and our exciting stuff. I know this is a little more financial and dry, but it's really, really important. We've talked about it for years. That the future is uncertain and it's changing.
Yes. Sam. Senator Mark Kelly is a spaceman.
You would think that if you're a spaceman, if you're an astronaut, you would have the time for your little people and you would help us. So. And maybe he just hasn't responded yet. He's still in office, so we'll wait and see. I need to start my campaign again. It's been a couple of years since I reached out to him.
Let's see here. Oh, I almost said I hate it when I hear the word on the radio. I don't know why. I think because I took a public speaking course and they said, do not fill your time with the word, so move on a little bit.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: Much better versus they're different.
[00:22:34] Speaker D: So let's do this. Let's talk for a second about what to do about this. We bring you problems which do you no good unless we bring you solutions. Here's something for you. I had a couple, they're from Tonopah, Arizona. So if they're listening, they'll know who they are. Most people will not. So this couple in Tonopah, he was going to retire kind of Young, from a private company, I won't say the name of it because that will identify him further. But he was going to retire in his 50s, very good career. He's an engineer. I mean, great, great guy.
So he had a choice, sat down with me with he and his wife and they had a choice of taking his pension for life or taking half of his pension. But then she continues it for the rest of her life.
So most pensions, if there's, if you still have one, they give you those kind of options. You can take a reduced pension if you want to help your spouse. So anyway, so what I suggested, because he was, he was healthy enough to do this, I said take your, your life only just on you pension because you're going to get whatever it was, like let's just say four grand a month for life. And if you die, you know, 10 years after, you know, the mortality table says you're going to win. But, but let's say you die early. Let's say you die, you know, five years into your retirement. We have to make sure we take care of your spouse. So what we did in his case, we did guaranteed life insurance. We didn't do term because that defeats the whole purpose here. We didn't do whole life because whole life. We didn't do whole life because the cost was a little more prohibitive. We went in the middle where there's things like indexed universal life insurance, there's variable universal life insurance, there is guaranteed universal life insurance. And what we did was we bought an amount enough to replicate his pension after I think we used five years, as long as he lived for five years. And then this insurance kicked in for her. It would go to her lifespan and it would be as good, if not better as his pension, especially because tax free life insurance, death benefit comes out tax free. So it was huge. So there's one solution for you, another one.
If you have underperforming assets, if you have risky assets and you're a little bit concerned with the recent volatility, let's brainstorm with you. Obviously we can't give any specific recommendations on a radio show, but we can sit with you or zoom with you or talk to you and give you an idea if you have any solutions to combat what's coming. And that's what we want to do.
So other than that, did you see that a watch this segue. Did you see that the President was gifted a, I don't know, like a $400 million plane from Qatar? I've always said Qatar. I mean, look at the word Q, A, T, A, R. How the heck do you get cutter out of that? You know, I bought a new guitar. Do I have to call it a getter, man? A gutter. What? What? Anyway, so a lot of people are up in arms about this thing with the plane. I've seen memes on Facebook already that it's Trojan horse. There's gonna be, like, listening devices. Okay? I mean, sweep it for bugs, Prez. I don't. I don't know. I just. You know, the entire world, in my 60 years on this planet, we've been the world's police. We're the world's piggy bank. I mean, and if you don't think that's true, explain Ukraine to me the last few years. So somebody's actually going to support this country and you're going to complain about that? I mean, what. What on earth. No matter what happens, half this country is going to be upset.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: And I mean, imagine if this was Biden that you would be so positive about this.
[00:26:04] Speaker D: You want to bring up Biden?
Do you want to bring up, like, China and how he was beholden to the entire world? That's apples and refrigerators. I mean, that's. You know, there's a meme going around this morning that Chuck Schumer, you know, he's. He's all up in arms about this plane. He's saying how wrong it is. And then there's this thing on Facebook that says, but you accepted a Rolls Royce from England. They gave you a Rolls Royce. So the first thing I did when I saw the meme was I went on duck, duck, go, which is my equivalent of Google. And I found out that it looks like it's probably not true.
He's got a car collection. He's got a Camaro he's very proud of. So I dug into it because, Anthony, you're always like, well, somebody's opinion, and it sounded fishy to me, so I looked it up, and it seems like it might not be true, but at least I researched it. No, I think politicians are crooked.
I still don't put Trump into the category of a politician, though. I mean, he's not taking his salary.
When you. When you put every stumbling lock possible in front of me and then try to shoot at me a couple times, and I still come back for more. There's something else going on here. But with that, why don't we take a break? We'll drop the plane thing, you know, and by the way, it's not a Boeing, so at least Maybe it'll stay up in the air. Sorry, boy. Allegedly. So let's do this. Let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll get into some more fun stuff today, as always. So you can reach out to us at 623-523-0444 or you can email team anothermoney show.com make sure you make your way to our YouTube channel. We've got over a quarter a million views on our shorts. People love looking at Anthony's shorts on YouTube. So join us there. And we will be right back. Thank you so much for being with us.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: This is another another Money show. Except this one's different. This one's actually fun.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Remember, all of Junior 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. We greatly appreciate you taking time. Whether you're listening to us at 5 o' clock in the morning, and if you are, I want to know why. I mean, we like you. If you listen at noon, better because we understand you. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Don, if you're listening, I'm just kidding. Don, who gets up early, he said that he hears my voice when he first wakes up. I'm like, I'm sorry. I don't know what you did in a previous life, but my apologies anyway. So we do appreciate being there. We were remiss last week in proactively wishing you a happy Mother's Day. So looking back, I hope last Sunday you all had a happy Mother's Day. If you are a mother.
Moving on.
Speaking of new planes and foreign countries and Qatar versus Qatar, the president this week was in Saudi Arabia. That's who gave him a plane. And he was in Syria. I think today he's in Qatar or maybe that was yesterday. So this dude's around the world. He's getting stuff done. So when you get back, though, there's something that's been heavy on my mind. When you get back, Donald, if you're listening on 960 the Patriot where what happened to Fort Knox? I saw a video this week that I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. A bunch of representatives were up on board and. And who? Elon Musk and Trump. They were saying that, you know, we got a big problem if this country doesn't have the gold there. And then it kind of went away. So I want to.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: I want to probably found out this country doesn't have the gold there.
[00:29:38] Speaker D: Well, unless they go and they start doing the audit, they won't know that. But I think that might be their suspicion. I hope that we are being cynical by saying that, but I do think that that is hypercritical, especially when you look at GD Gold Miner. When you. When you look at these companies and these, you know, different. Everything that's. That's abuzz lately. Precious metals, I mean, it's. This is huge. So if our country doesn't have what it says it has, that, that's a big problem. And if it does have what they say we have, that could be a really good thing. Because, you know, our buddy Joe is always talking about revaluing gold that that's coming up, using gold as a. As a tier one asset. So there's a lot of reasons that this Fort Knox thing is very, very hyper, critically important right now. So another thing, I haven't brought time, but oil did. Did we ever fill the strategic oil reserve? You know, I haven't looked at it in a while. I probably should have done that this morning, but I just thought about it this morning. I don't know if we ever filled that back up. You know, oil is hovering around like 62, $63 a barrel right now. So I hope we audit Fort Knox and I hope we have or we soon will fill the strategic oil reserve. Switching gears right here. Locally, I know these are horrible segues. I just. I have so much to get to all the time. And I try to squeeze it all in to one hour. I know Sam's been working for three years at getting me six hour shows every day. I think I need six hour shows twice a day. I think I need 12 hours a day. I think I need to just be on another money show around the clock. Is that a thing? We'll bring in Jerry Lewis. Is he still with us? We need more. Another money show. Anyway, here, locally, something. Last weekend on Mother's Day, you know, Anthony and Jay shout out to Sandy's boys. Anthony and Jay, they cooked a beautiful meal for Sandy on Mother's Day. So thank you very much, Anthony. As much as we like to bicker and, you know, he either can take my side or keep being wrong all the time. He's a really good cook. Anthony makes really good red sauce. You know, people from Italy are like, if you call it gravy, I'm gonna smack you. Where'd you get that? The Godfather movie or the, you know, casino. Anyway, so Anthony and Jay made fettuccine Alfredo and broccolini for Mother's Day dinner, and it was outstanding.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: So I already made the rest of it last night. How'd it go?
[00:31:51] Speaker D: I didn't try it. Your mom tried it off to ask her. There's some in the fridge there, so maybe I'll try it for lunch today. But I did not try it. I was full by the time he made it. But, yeah, I mean, you're. This is great that you're teaching him how to do that, because that. That is a skill. I mean, I've. Yeah. I mean, I can cook stuff. I can make a frozen pizza or Pop Tart, but I'm not a great cook, so I'm glad you are.
So that morning. Is he still alive? Sam's looking up. Oh, he passed away 2017.
Oh, my gosh. And he was 91.
So, Jerry Lewis, you are not going to be part of my another money show telethon. Apparently, other than in spirit, you can be with us in spirit.
So that morning, the morning of Mother's Day, your mom and I and Jay and a few other people went to church. And then, because, you know, it's Sunday and that's the right thing to do, and then we went to Burger King. We thought we're, you know, we're going to have a big dinner, so we just grab something on the way home. So we went to a Burger King. First time I went to a Burger King in many years.
And it was. I mean, it was Mother's Day, so I expected to be crowded and you couldn't get a seat. Not the case. It was pretty easy to get in and get a table at the Burger King. Who goes to Burger King on Mother's Day? We do. So anyway, Burger King, the pictures. They had pictures by the front counter and the Whopper with Cheese, which is something that growing up, I mean, you know, 40, 50 years ago, that was a thing. And we used to get a Whopper with cheese, and it was really big and you couldn't finish it, and it was really delicious. And I want to be careful as to not be sued by Burger King, but so I get a Whopper with cheese and French fries and a drink, and the Whopper has shrunk huge. I mean, this thing was not what I remember. And I'm pretty sure I remember because, I mean, over the years, I've still had a Whopper with Cheese once in a while, but, yeah, it wasn't like, the picture. And I. And I pointed to the picture and then I pointed to my Whopper with cheese to Sandy, and she just rolls her eyes. She's so much like Anthony like this.
Right away, she's like, what are you worried about? You know, they're never going to be like the picture. They're never going to look like the picture. I'm like, yeah, but Shrinkflation. I'm like, my problem isn't. I know the pictures are always like, you know, I mean, I remember as a kid Learning about Marketing 101. Do you know what they used to use in advertising campaign for cereal? Like for Raisin Bran or whatnot? They didn't use milk. That beautiful white bowl with stuff splashed out. It's Elmer's glue. Or at least it was when I was a kid. They used to use Elmer's glue to make the look of this beautiful, pristine white bowl of milk with these flakes coming out that never get soggy. By the way, if you have cereal and let's say you're having Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes or whatever, Fruity Pebbles, name your poison. If you put. Can we get still Fruity Pebbles or is Kennedy gonna ban that? So if you put the cereal in first and then the milk, doesn't it get soggy right away? Like, I feel like you're an animal. I always put the milk in first. Then I add small amounts of cereal. Then I eat them while they're still crisp. Then I add more cereal because I'm not an animal, but I fight with you all the time. Your mom puts the cereal in first, and then she with her hand moves it over a little bit and then pours milk on the side. I'm like, what am I watching here? All right, so back to Burger King. I was a little bit disappointed because the burger was actually kind of small.
It didn't look like the picture, but it was really small. And you know what your mom said to me after she's done rolling her eyes and saying that, you know, why would you expect it to look like a picture? She said, you know what? You know what? You have a hard time adjusting to things change.
And it was like, it was a little bit of a light bulb moment because I'm like, I know things change. I've been on the planet 61 years. I've talked on this show how things change. I talked a couple years ago. I'll have to find the episode. If anybody wants to hear it, reach out to us at 623-52304, 4, 4. We talked about planned obsolescence when I was a kid.
Milk was Elmer's glue when I was a kid, air conditioners lasted 20, 30 plus years. Roofs lasted 40 to 60 years.
If things were not disposable. Now air conditioners only last a few five years.
And when I was a kid, air conditioners, if you got the top of the line, let's not say when I was a kid, let's say in the early 2000s, living in desert harbor, when I looked at air conditionings, if they were really good ones, they were like two to three grand. I'm talking good ones. Now you're looking at 10, 12 grand and it's only going to last five years. Come on. I know things change. Sandy, if you're listening, I know you are, and I know you're rolling your eyes directly at me, things change. But you know what? I think it's kind of sucky how they're changing. I think for food to get so much smaller, I think for things to go up in price. By the way, Burger King was really expensive. We both had like a value meal or whatever you say, and it was. It was 20 something bucks.
So I don't know, I just. I guess I'm getting like Archie Bunker, I want you off my lawn. Burger King. Get off my lawn. So. But yes, Sandy, I realize things change. I'm just tired of it because nothing seems to change in my best interest.
Why don't we talk for a second about current events and how they may affect your finances, your future, your kids, your grandkids, whatnot. Is that okay? I feel like, Anthony, I haven't let you talk today. Is that just my imagination?
[00:37:17] Speaker C: No, it's fine.
[00:37:19] Speaker D: Is that all you have to say? Do you have anything else to say? No. No, I don't. No. No, I don't. All right, so let's move on here. Current events. Last week, the big story last Thursday, by far the entire day, was the new Pope. We told you his name, Robert. We were going to call him Pope Bob. Apparently later in the day, already he had a new name. He's Pope Leo xiv.
So Pope was all I heard last Thursday. Luckily, people are really, really, really smart. And the memes that came out about the Pope right away were insane. So good on you Facebook meme people, because you are smart.
Got an article, actually, Sandy sent this to me as we were sitting at Burger King eating our overpriced, undersized food. That does not look like the picture. Allegedly Burger King. It was really good. So she Sent me this article. It's from Fortune.
On 9 May, Pope Leo XIV just took the top job in the Catholic Church. And the role comes with a $33,000 a month paycheck. Okay. And I don't care what he makes. If he can get me into heaven, he's worth 333 million a month. If you ask me, if he can get Anthony in heaven, he's worth trillions a month. So anyway, Pope Leo XIV has been elected as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. And the job comes with a $33,000 monthly paycheck. That pay stacks up to the salaries of US Presidents and university chancellors. But the Pontiff also gets unique perks like free meals all day. Wait a minute, all day? I mean, I mean I can see breakfast, lunch and dinner, but all day like a cruise ship? Do we have a Pope cruise ship?
What else? A Popemobile and his own private pharmacy and more. I never knew that. When I was a kid growing up in the Catholic Church, my parents talked a lot about a vow of celibacy and a vow of poverty. Like you get enough to live, but you don't get much more. So this, this was a little bit shocking me. Let me read a little bit further here. The other perks that come with being Pope. A private pharmacy and $3,300. $3,300 a month retirement fund. Also, the Pope is revered as the highest and most holiest leader of the Catholic Church, which has over a billion members. And the Vatican makes sure the Pontiff can lead in style. That's great.
For one, the Pope usually lives in the gilded Apostolic Palace. Lavish living arrangements with all the expenses covered by the Vatican. All of his meals are day to day. Necessities are also free of charge for the Pope, with an unfettered access to custom hand tailored regalia made by top religious outfitters.
See what else here. Pope Leo XIV will also have access to the Popemobile, private cars and a fleet of vehicles at the drop of a hat. I wonder if he'll get a Rolls Royce from England. The Pontiff also doesn't have to worry about security, health care or retirement anymore. He has free access to Vatican medical services and a private pharmacy to ensure a healthy long range.
And even after the Pope chooses to retire, don't they usually die in the office? After the Pope chooses to retire, he would receive a monthly pension of $3,300. But there's more beyond stacked savings account. The Vatican will cover the living expenses, provide a home inside the Vatican, pay for all Daily necessities, including food and housekeeping. All right, so I guess there's not much here. The good news about the new Pope, for me personally, I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and now that I share that with the Pope, I think the Bears are going to have a winning season.
So I wonder if the Vatican can secure Bears season tickets for the Pope.
At least tickets for the super bowl and the World Series in which the Sox, the White Sox boo on you, Pope. You should be a Cubs fan. But I hope that he gets tickets for those events.
Moving on for the Pope. Anthony, anything to add about the Pope or you want me to move on?
[00:41:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know why you wasted anybody's time with that.
[00:41:46] Speaker D: I don't know. Because it's interesting. I thought they should be celibate and poor. I thought they should be like, I don't know, Mother Teresa poor.
All right, let's move on. Why don't we go to the banks? You want to get into the banks for a few minutes? I mean, the only thing I really had today that I had to do was finish up with a pension thing because I wanted people to know that if you feel secure, make sure you're keeping your eyes open and coming to see us.
[00:42:08] Speaker C: Make sure you don't. No, that part was very important. We'll have to watch that one close.
[00:42:13] Speaker D: Yes. Yeah. If you're feeling okay about yourself, please don't. Please make sure you catch another money show every Saturday at noon. So let's do a couple Fast and Furious bank articles here. The Daily hodl. You can feel free to look any of these up as you wish. And I do save them all. So if you want an article we reference, we'll email it over to you.
So here's one for the Daily Hodl on 11 May. Man allegedly. Why do they put allegedly? They either know this or they don't. Man allegedly drains $3 million from bank using fraudulent identities, friends and family, and an insider. So I have to add this to the file of why I can't stand the banks.
Let's see here. The US government says a 56 year old Georgia man. Oh, wait a minute. The guy's from where? Georgia. Sam, how old are. How old is your dad?
So US government says a 56 year old Georgia man used friends, family and an insider to steal over 3 million from a local bank.
Oh, they name names. Good for this. Ronnie Atkinson of Macon, Georgia, who owns his own logging company. Ronnie, good work. Being a hard worker, owns his own logging company, is accused of conspiring with a high ranking executive at a community bank through materially false and fraudulently pretenses, representations and promises, according to local CBS affiliate 13 WMAZ reports.
Let's see here. Prosecutors say Atkinson had friends and relatives act as straw borrowers or people with good credit history who apply for loans in order to transfer funds to those that don't. Those applications were meant to benefit Atkinson and the high ranking bank employee was well aware of the scheme but approved the loans anyway, according to the charges.
Atkinson is also accused of giving the bank fake bills for logging equipment he supposedly needed loans for. Some bills were real with inflated prices and others were completely fabricated for things that were never even purchased.
And I'm getting a text in the lobby of a bank to cash $1,000 check. I'm on the wrong side of the law. So let's see here. One of the documents provided was a real bill for $56,000, but Atkinson managed to get a loan for $149,000 for it. Prosecutors, I got a question. Have you ever tried to get a loan? Anthony? Sam, either of you, have you ever tried to get a loan? It's like pulling teeth. It's hard. And this guy's getting a loan for 150 grand. Seems like it's pretty easy.
[00:44:51] Speaker C: Well, yeah, that's why it's nice to have insiders in the bank that will just accept stuff.
[00:44:55] Speaker D: Yes. And we have some, we network with some. And they've never helped me with anything shady or sketchy or nefarious. I also feel like it's super easy to get a loan. Like everywhere I look, somebody wants to give me a credit card or like a $50,000 auto loan.
Really? Well, start applying, Sam. Get yourself leveraged.
It's the American way. You know, we live in a debt based society. You know that, right? Do the be a good American, Sam. Every time you get one yes. The answer is yeah. Are you interested in a pre approved yes. Doesn't matter what it is. Yes.
You know what, Anthony? This is good. There's a happy ending here. A grand jury determined that there is enough evidence to charge Atkinson with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft. He is facing up to 30 years in prison and with a $1 million fine, the government is also looking to seize any of his assets that were the result of the fraud. So good. At least that has a good outcome. Usually the banks said they did no wrong. The people said they did no wrong. Nobody goes to jail, nobody gets hurt. Let's switch gears. Also from the Daily Hodl. This one. On the 7th of May, trillion dollar bank paying 510 million fine after conspiring to hide $4 billion from the IRS.
All right, let's see here. Banking giant Credit Suisse. Is it Swiss? It looks like it should be Swiss.
Just pleaded guilty to conspiring to hide more than 4 billion from the U.S. internal Revenue Service in at least 475 offshore accounts. The U.S. department of justice says the bank breached a previous 2014 plea agreement and helped U.S. customers open and maintain undeclared offshore bank accounts.
Among other fraudulent acts, bankers at Credit Suisse falsified records, processed fictitious donation paperwork and serviced more than $1 billion in accounts without documentation of tax compliance.
Credit Suisse, let's see here. Credit Suisse AG, Singapore, held undeclared accounts for US customers with assets totally more than 2 billion between 2014 and 2023. Let's see here. Credit Suisse agreed to pay more than 510.6 million in penalties, restitution for the forfeiture, and fines as a part of that plea. I guess my main thing when I bring all these stories week after week about the banks, where does Credit Suisse, where does td, where does Wells Fargo, where does the Community bank in Macon, Georgia, where Sam's relative was doing stuff, where, when they get fined, where does that money come from? Oh, yeah, probably me, probably you. Probably the people that have our money in the bank because they don't print money. The government does that. The government doesn't like competition. They print the money.
Let's do another one. We're already in the banks. Here's one from Rory.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: Credit Suisse was. Went bankrupt and was done like a couple years ago. I didn't realize they were still around.
[00:48:05] Speaker D: Well, apparently as of May 7th, they're still around because they just got fined $500 million for 400 billion worth of shenanigans. So, I don't know. I mean, Credit Suisse, I know you're looking it up right now. I know you.
So while you're looking up Credit suisse, Reuters, on 8 May, Citigroup must face $1 billion lawsuit. $1 billion, that's 1000 millions. Citigroup must face 1 billion with a B lawsuit claiming it aided a Mexican oil company in fraud. So see here. Citigroup must face a revived lawsuit claiming it caused more than $1 billion of losses by orchestrating and concealing a vast fraud at the now bankrupt Mexican oil and gas services company Oceano Graffia. A US Appeals court ruled on Thursday says here Citigroup's Banamex unit had provided cash advances to Oceanographia, which provided drilling services to Mexico's state owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos or paymex, and collected interest payments on the advances. None of this sounds nefarious so far. The plaintiffs, including shipping and leasing companies, investment funds and Netherlands based Rabobank said Citigroup advanced 3.3 billion to Oceanographia between 2008 and 2020 in 2014 despite knowing the company had too much debt and had been forging Paymex signatures on authorization forms. Well, okay, the debt thing, all right, maybe a helper come in this debt. You don't forge things if you know about that. Probably not. Proceed. Citigroup later found nearly 430 million of fraudulent cash advances and was fined 4.75 million by U.S. securities Exchange Commission in 2018 over Banamex's internal controls.
Former Citigroup Chief Executive Mike Corbat said The bank fired 12 employees. And Mexican regulators said 10 bank employees were criminally liable under Mexican law. In an 82 page decision, Circuit Judge Britt Grant found sufficient allegations that Citigroup withheld key information about Oceanagraphia from the plaintiffs which with the interest payments providing financial incentive. Okay, it sounds like it's clearly fraud and it sounds to me like only a handful of people are in trouble for it. So we will see. Let's jump right to another one. Oh, did you find out? Is Credit Suisse still good?
[00:50:52] Speaker C: There was a UBS merger when it was failing a few years ago, but I guess not all of it is ubs.
[00:51:01] Speaker D: I remember ubs. I do remember that. That makes sense.
Tom. Let's see here. I'm gonna skip that one. Let me do one more from the banks and then if we have time, I got something else to bring up to you to look into. Here's from the daily HODL on the 8th of May. This is a little cluster of bank issues, right? In a two day span, bank of America says investors pulled $8.9 billion out of US markets in one week, fleeing to foreign markets. So this is from the 8th of May. This is just what last week.
See here. Data from bank of America reportedly shows that investors appear to be fleeing US markets in the wake of the tariff induced volatility. The financial giant notes in a new analysis that U.S. equities witnessed an $8.9 billion outflow in the week leading up to April 30th.
See here. European equities by contrast witnessed a $3.4 billion inflow in the week leading up to Apr 30th and Japanese stocks saw a $4.4 billion inflow. By the way, Jeffrey Gundlach has been out saying that it looks like we the US Is going to turn into the next Japan with a 30 to 40 year recession.
So let's see. The bank notes its clients are now more worried about deflation than inflation and having been adjusting their portfolios accordingly, blah blah blah, acquiring shares of utilities and low volatility, high dividend exchange traded funds.
You want to talk about this stuff, like what to do if you're worried? Sit down with Anthony. He can talk to you. He's licensed. He can talk to you about ETFs and these things. So let's see here. Last month bank of America's team of market strategists warned that the US Stock market's recovery could be short lived, advising clients to sell into rallies in US Stocks and the dollar. I still don't trust this big jump back since our two weeks of volatility was over.
I'm getting out of time, so I'm just gonna the last article I was kind of hoping to bring up, if you can pull up Zero Hedge on your off time and on the 7th of May there's an article that says Real ID is not about keeping you safe.
I'm debating if I should go to the quick stop by the office Anthony and get that Real ID or if I just lug my passport around with me wherever I go. But yeah, so I started digging into Real ID this week and there's a lot of people that are concerned with it. So maybe I'll put that on top of my stack and we'll lead off next week with a little bit of information for you on Real id.
Is that good? Talk about next week. So hopefully we're not all dead by next week.
[00:53:39] Speaker C: Yeah, well if we're not all dead, then reach out to us. If you like what you heard today, you have questions on any of the topics, want to sit down with us to review your personal situation?
You can reach out to us at teamnothermoneyshow.com find us on the web and anothermoneyshow.com listen to old episodes of another money show from the website, from wherever you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Google, all those fun places. If you do want to sit with us, remember, no minimums, no cost for appointments, nothing to lose by getting a second opinion on your financial situation. We'll see again next Saturday at noon and 5am right here on 960 the Patriot.
[00:54:22] 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.
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[00:55:16] 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.
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