Pop Quiz! Can You Score an A+?

Our 2 Cents – Episode #105

Pop Quiz! Can You Score an A+?

It’s time to sharpen your pencils and get ready for our retirement planning pop quiz! We’ll give you the questions below, but be sure to listen in to this week’s episode to hear the multiple choice options and to see if you can answer them correctly!

Plus, keep listening until the end for another “Getting to Know Steve and Gabriel” question!

1. Retirement Planning Pop Quiz:
   • At what age should people start saving for retirement?
   • Which of these is the best estimate of how much income you’ll need in retirement?
   • Which of these do you find that retirees fear the most?
   • Which of these examples best represents a diversified retirement plan?
   • To make sure you don’t run out of money in retirement, only withdraw _____ percent from your portfolio each year.
2. Getting to Know Steve & Gabriel:
   • What is your favorite cereal, now and when you were a kid?

Tune in now to join us for this discussion!

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Podcast Transcript

Announcer: You’re listening to Our 2 Cents with the team from SGL Financial, building wealth for life. Steve Lewit is the president of SGL Financial and Gabriel Lewit is the CEO. They’re here to discuss all the latest in financial news, trends, strategies, and more.

Gabriel Lewit: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Our 2 Cents. We’ve got a special July 4th weekend episode here for you. In fact, when you’re getting this is probably July 3rd I think, if I’m looking at my calendar correct. Steve and I here, we’re wishing you a very happy long holiday weekend. Hopefully, you get a chance to get out there, enjoy some fireworks. Bing, bang, boom. Lights and fun in the sky.

Steve Lewit: So, when I was 16 years old, Gabriel, living in the Bronx… No, I was in Queens at 16. Anyhow. We wanted to get fireworks and you couldn’t buy fireworks anywhere. So, I decided with a buddy of mine to go down to Chinatown, which is the worst dangerous place in the world to be at that time and to buy fireworks. So, we’re going from store to store to store. You sell fireworks. You sell fireworks. And then two guys come over to us and say, yeah, we sell fireworks.

Gabriel Lewit: Just two guys.

Steve Lewit: Just two guys around the corner. So, we go around the corner. Of course, there’s a gang of guys waiting for us.

Gabriel Lewit: This sounds safe.

Steve Lewit: It’s scared the daylights out of me. We got into a little tussle there and I ran away, and my friend ran away, and I was really scared.

Gabriel Lewit: But were they trying to steal your fireworks?

Steve Lewit: No, they were trying to steal my money. Yeah. So folks, if you’re going out there to buy fireworks, I don’t know where you go, but don’t go to Chinatown.

Gabriel Lewit: If there’s one phrase I never had in my youth growing up it was, when we went to Chinatown…

Steve Lewit: When we went to Chinatown…

Gabriel Lewit: In Chester, Vermont, there was no Chinatown part of town. Well, I’ve got my own fireworks story when I was a kid. I lived in Vermont, and they didn’t sell fireworks in Vermont. I forget which state it was. I think it was it’s either Massachusetts or Connecticut. There was somewhere within a four-hour drive. You could drive across the state border, and you could buy all the fireworks you wanted to. I remember as a kid, I had saved up and I think at the time I think it was $100, which was a lot for me. Went down there with a friend and we bought just a giant bag full of fireworks. I’m talking Black Cats, if you know what those are, folks. Little ones.

Gabriel Lewit: They’re M-80s. They’re bigger versions of the Black Cats. These Roman candles, these bottle rockets, and we came back, and I lived on a pretty rural road. We actually were shooting off fireworks in the road. Nice and safe. I have a story though. It’s a warning for anyone out there with fireworks. So, I had thrown a Black Cat. Black Cat. Yeah. I think that’s what it was, and it didn’t go off.

Steve Lewit: Is that like a bomb?

Gabriel Lewit: No. It looks like a little candle.

Steve Lewit: Black Cat.

Gabriel Lewit: Birthday candle.

Steve Lewit: What were the bomb, the ones…

Gabriel Lewit: The M-80s.

Steve Lewit: M-80s. Right.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Those look more like a shotgun shell.

Steve Lewit: Shotgun shell.

Gabriel Lewit: Big. Right. So, I had thrown the little one and it didn’t go off. They’re all going off. I was practicing safe fireworks. I had thrown it and it hadn’t gone off. I waited. I swear I waited like 30 seconds. A long time, and then I went over there, and I bent down to pick it up to see what happened. Literally, as I was bending down, it went off right by my left ear.

Steve Lewit: Ouch.

Gabriel Lewit: I had diminished hearing for six months out of that left ear.

Steve Lewit: You’re lucky it wasn’t worse than that.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you hear every year you have firework accidents and stuff like that. You really do have to be careful. But folks, fun time of the year, and you always hear the kids in the neighborhoods having fun and you got your own private fireworks show and hopefully you get out there and enjoy some of the… Well, there’s no Arlington Racetrack anymore, which is sad. Those were some of the best ones.

Steve Lewit: The best they had the best fireworks. I used to go.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s a little bit sad.

Steve Lewit: Every year. Yep.

Gabriel Lewit: Yep. But hopefully you have a wonderful, wonderful time and spend some time with family. I think we’ve got good weather coming up. Actually, let me check. What do we got coming up? Hold on one sec, folks.

Steve Lewit: I don’t know.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, by the time you get this, you’ll know, but I just am curious for myself here now. Let’s see. We’ve got…

Steve Lewit: He’s looking up the weather folks.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. You got little rain tomorrow on Friday.

Steve Lewit: It’s a financial broadcasting. He’s looking up the weather.

Gabriel Lewit: Look at this. Saturday and Sunday. Sunny and partly cloudy. High of 85 and 89. That sounds nice.

Steve Lewit: Folks, that’s your local weather report, and now we’ll move to the financial experts.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes. Well, Steve Lewit. We’ve got Steve Lewit joining us with finance.

Steve Lewit: We’ve got Steve Lewit here.

Gabriel Lewit: You want to take us away, Steve?

Steve Lewit: I’ll take us away to somewhere.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, okay. Let’s talk about money and retirement planning. We came up with a new… I don’t think we’ve done this one yet. A fun little twist on how to talk about finances in a different way, which is always one of our goals here for the show. So, we’re going to ask you to get your pen and pencils out folks, or a pad of paper, whatever your preference. We’re going to give you a pop quiz.

Steve Lewit: Okay.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay.

Steve Lewit: You cannot fail by the way.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you could do worse than better.

Steve Lewit: You could do worse than better.

Gabriel Lewit: But there’s no grades.

Steve Lewit: But there’s no grades. That’s why you can’t fail.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, no formal grades, I suppose. Can you go ahead and ace this retirement planning quiz? We’re going to find out. Let’s see how you do. What we’re going to do, I’m going to say the question. I’m going to give you the answers. I’m going to give you a second or two to ponder through them while you’re listening, and then we’re going to discuss some answers.

Steve Lewit: What if you and I have different answers?

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I have what I’ve identified as the correct answer. We’ll see if you…

Steve Lewit: Which mean mine are wrong.

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know which ones you’re going to answer yet. I didn’t consult you on this.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, I know.

Gabriel Lewit: Guys, we got a dual quiz going on here.

Steve Lewit: I got that.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Question number one. At what age should people start saving for retirement? Okay. Three options here. A, when you very first begin working, B, after you buy your first home, or C, whenever you finally pay off any and all current debts that you currently have.

Steve Lewit: All right.

Gabriel Lewit: All right. Ding, ding, dong, ding. We need the jeopardy music here for 10 seconds. Okay, folks. You ready? I’ll read them one more time so you’ve got enough time here. A, when you begin working, B, after you buy your first home, and C, when you paid off all your debts. Okay. Got your answer locked in.

Steve Lewit: Got my answer locked in.

Gabriel Lewit: Steve, what is your answer?

Steve Lewit: When you begin working.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s what I would say.

Steve Lewit: Really? Yeah. Yes.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, C is an interesting one. Okay. C is an interesting one, because if you have a lot of debt, for some reason, when you first begin working, that’s something you wouldn’t want to consider, but I chose A, because if you first start working, hopefully you’re going to have a 401k. By default, I think everybody, the moment they start working, whatever amount it is, should be starting to deposit funds into their 401k through their work pretax.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. I thought C was interesting also. I spent a few moments on that. I said, well, when you do retirement, when you think about retirement even as a youngster, that means you can’t have any debts, so that would be included in planning for retirement.

Gabriel Lewit: Folks, if you chose C, that’s not a bad one. B is an interesting one. If you wanted to save up all your money for a house first, that’s not a terrible thing because a house is you’re more transferring your wealth versus spending it, but really, it’s the compound magic interest that is the eighth wonder of the world, as they say, that starts by contributing right when you first get out of your job at, say, 21 years old.

Steve Lewit: So, I think there are nine wonders of the world. Are there eight or nine?

Gabriel Lewit: Isn’t there seven?

Steve Lewit: Seven.

Gabriel Lewit: Hold on, Katie.

Steve Lewit: Katie’s here. While Katie’s looking that up…

Gabriel Lewit: I think there’re seven, and then…

Steve Lewit: There should be D in here though. All of the above.

Gabriel Lewit: Well…

Steve Lewit: You could say because you can save for your house and save for retirement at the same time.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, there’s never a bad time to save. That’s the truth. There’s seven wonders of the world.

Steve Lewit: Okay.

Gabriel Lewit: We’ve got the Taj Mahaj.

Steve Lewit: What are they?

Gabriel Lewit: The Colosseum, the Chichen Itza. Did I say that right? Chichen Itza.

Steve Lewit: Chichen Itza. Yep.

Gabriel Lewit: Machu Picchu. I like saying Machu Picchu. Christ the Redeemer. I didn’t know that. Petra. What is that? I don’t know what Petra is, and the Great Wall of China.

Steve Lewit: Petra. Is that a…

Gabriel Lewit: Petra? What’s Petra?

Steve Lewit: Is that a Greek God? We’re learning a lot of stuff here today, folks.

Gabriel Lewit: Let’s see here. Okay. The ancient city of Petra and Jordan became one of the seven new wonders of the world when it was chosen in 2007 by a vote of a hundred million people. I didn’t get a vote.

Steve Lewit: I didn’t even know it was a city.

Gabriel Lewit: Who voted?

Steve Lewit: I didn’t vote either.

Gabriel Lewit: Interesting.

Steve Lewit: Interesting.

Gabriel Lewit: Well.

Steve Lewit: Okay.

Gabriel Lewit: You learn something new.

Steve Lewit: Number two.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s from Indiana Jones. Cool. I remember that I think.

Steve Lewit: Number two.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Question number two.

Steve Lewit: Number two.

Gabriel Lewit: We digress. Which of these is the best estimate of how much income you’ll need in retirement based on your current income? Okay. Option A is 50% of your current income before you retire, B is 85% of your current income before you retire, C is 100% of your current income before you retire, or D is none of the above.

Steve Lewit: Could you read them again?

Gabriel Lewit: I will. So, you get a second time to hear them and, or make your choice. A is 50% of your current income before you retire, 85% of your current income before you retire, or a 100%, C, 100% of your current income before you retire.

Steve Lewit: Okay. You want me to go?

Gabriel Lewit: You’re going to answer each one.

Steve Lewit: All right. So, I go first on each one. How do I know you’re not faking it and just agreeing with me?

Gabriel Lewit: You don’t.

Steve Lewit: I should make you write it down. All right. So, here’s the deal. The rule of thumb is that you’re going to need less income. The old rule, let me put it this way, is that you’re going to need less income in retirement than you do while you’re working, because you just have less expenses, the kids are out of the house. You don’t have to travel back and forth to work. You have less gas and so on and so on. I absolutely disagree with that based on our history of planning, and I would say at minimum, 100% of your current income. So, I’m going to say C.

Gabriel Lewit: That is correct.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, God. Two. Two for two.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, and I even like how you positioned it, actually, because I would’ve said the same thing. We see typically people that are going to fall in two categories. One is going to be C. They don’t want to spend more than they’ve been spending, but they don’t want to spend less, so 100% of their current preretirement income, but probably a good half or so of our people would be D, which would be none of the above. Why? Because they want to spend more.

Steve Lewit: That’s exactly right.

Gabriel Lewit: Than they are currently spending before retirement.

Steve Lewit: Especially the first 10 years of their retirement when they feel they’re going to be the healthiest, they want to front load their retirement.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. You’ve been saving up for a long time. You’ve been working your butt off or behind off for a long time. Go have some fun. Spend some of that money.

Steve Lewit: Two for two.

Gabriel Lewit: Two for two. Steve, you’re acing it. A+ so far.

Steve Lewit: I must be an advisor or planner or something.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s like you know this stuff.

Steve Lewit: Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Question three, folks. Ready? Which of these do you find that retirees fear the most? A, not leaving enough money to their kids. Don’t read into my laughing there. B, running out of money.

Steve Lewit: Don’t you worry about it?

Gabriel Lewit: C, needing nursing home care. Okay. I actually didn’t write it down before. I’m going to throw another one on here. D, paying too much in taxes. Okay. Folks, remember, here are our four options for what do retirees fear the most. A, not leaving enough to their kids, B, running out of money, C, needing nursing home care, D, paying too much in taxes.

Steve Lewit: Okay. This is a hard question because I’m going to say that people fear, and fear means I’m afraid of this. I think about it. I’m afraid of it. I think the fear is going into the nursing home. I think that’s the greatest fear. It might be the less probability, but the greatest fear, even more than running out of money. Now, running out of money is worrisome, but not fearful. I think going to the nursing home is fearful.

Gabriel Lewit: Interesting. Well, I will say if you were nitpicking the word fear, I would give your answer a kudos, but I have the…

Steve Lewit: That would mean correct. No, not kudos.

Gabriel Lewit: I have the…

Steve Lewit: Wait a second. Wait a second. You can’t hedge on this. Either I’m right or wrong.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, technically I had B. Running out of money. So, there’s actually data and research that says that retirees’ number one fear by and large is not having enough money to last them in the retirement, AKA running out of money.

Steve Lewit: And I would agree with that.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, and you did say that, but then you said C. So I got to say, Steve, you’ve got that one wrong.

Steve Lewit: No. Folks, I want you to write in based on my analysis of fear.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s why I said, I give you kudos to your nitpicking of the word fear.

Steve Lewit: I don’t know. I want to be three for three. I want to be a winner.

Gabriel Lewit: You’re two and a half out of three. So, maybe you guys write in if you think we should give Steve that answer.

Steve Lewit: Write in, folks. My ego depends on it.

Gabriel Lewit: sglfinancial.com, contact us or email info@sglfinancial.com.

Steve Lewit: Or come in and just tell Gabriel.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So, people worry about running out of money. Did they save enough? Are they on track to have enough? I will say, some people really do fear being a burden to their family, having to go into long term care, the costs associated with that, but a lot of other people are of the mindset there hopefully it won’t happen to me. If it does, we’ll figure something out, sell the house. Who knows? But surprisingly, very few people these days do care about leaving money to their kids.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. It’s amazing.

Gabriel Lewit: Pretty interesting.

Steve Lewit: It is amazing.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. All right, folks. If you’re out there, hopefully you’re tracking three for three.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, like I am. Yep. Three for three.

Gabriel Lewit: Two and a half for three. Okay. Question four. Which of these examples best represents a diversified retirement investment plan? Okay. Again, which of these examples will best represent a diversified retirement plan, investment plan? A, mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, B, variety of rental homes in different neighborhoods, along with a significant amount of cash in the bank, C, 10 to 12 different mutual funds, or D, none of the above.

Steve Lewit: None of the above. D for sure.

Gabriel Lewit: Say why first.

Steve Lewit: I have to say. I have to…

Gabriel Lewit: You do have to. Yes, you do.

Steve Lewit: That wasn’t part of the deal.

Gabriel Lewit: I’m curious your answer.

Steve Lewit: Well, 60/40 is an investment. You might need something different. The rental homes are nice to have, 10 to 12 mutual funds might be diversified, but a diversified retirement plan just doesn’t mean… There’s nothing you mention here for insurance products or life insurance or annuities or tech tax savings, things that you do for tax savings.

Gabriel Lewit: The answer I had was D. Steve did get this correct.

Steve Lewit: But for the wrong reason, right?

Gabriel Lewit: No, actually half of the correct reason that I was going to say.

Steve Lewit: Okay.

Gabriel Lewit: Which is because it’s a semi-trick question. Okay, folks. We tricked you. Here’s why. Well, a mixture of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, it could be diversified, but we don’t know.

Steve Lewit: We don’t know.

Gabriel Lewit: What if it’s a single stock fund and a single bond fund? That would be what we call lightly, very lightly diversified. We’re talking about what best represents a very diversified retirement plan. Okay. Three rental homes in different neighborhoods, along with cash in the bank. Well, if housing prices crash, neighborhoods generally across the board are going to see a big decline. You’ve got a lot of your eggs in the real estate basket. Not super well diversified.

Steve Lewit: Plus a lot of cash in the bank, which is making you no money.

Gabriel Lewit: Correct. 10 to 12 different mutual funds. You might have guessed this one, but it’s a trick question as well, because we have seen many portfolios with a lot of mutual funds that contain very similar holdings.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Like all U.S stocks.

Gabriel Lewit: None of the above is a trick question to say that you want to have… It’s close to see. You want to have different mutual funds. We actually would have even more than that, as well as have a mixture possibly of annuities and income and tax-free options.

Steve Lewit: And you could still have rental homes.

Gabriel Lewit: And rental.

Steve Lewit: It doesn’t say you shouldn’t have that.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Really, it’s a combination of all sorts of things, and most importantly, I would say different asset classes, which none of these answers contain.

Steve Lewit: That is correct.

Gabriel Lewit: So, you want to have different asset classes, sub-asset classes beyond just stocks and bonds like alternatives, like REITs, like real estate, like insurance products, obviously stocks and bonds, small caps, large caps, international, U.S, developed markets, emerging markets, value, growth, momentum, managed future. The list goes on and on and on.

Steve Lewit: 20 of them.

Gabriel Lewit: And that’s what we call here at SGL Financial a heavily, heavily diversified portfolio, which would best be representative there.

Steve Lewit: Four for four.

Gabriel Lewit: Got it. Three and a half for four. Three and a half for four, Steve.

Steve Lewit: Support me folks. Counting on you.

Gabriel Lewit: Sorry to trick you on that one, folks. Maybe you answered D though. Maybe you were thinking the same thing we were thinking. Okay. Last question here. Five question quiz. To make sure that you don’t run out of money in retirement, only withdraw blank percent from your portfolio each year. Okay. The answers would be, A, 1%, B, 4%, C, 6%, or D find a different strategy altogether.

Steve Lewit: Well…

Gabriel Lewit: Let me repeat those.

Steve Lewit: Repeat those. Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: Make sure you don’t run out of money in retirement, only withdraw X percent from your portfolio each year. The options are 1%, 4%, 6%, or find a different strategy altogether.

Steve Lewit: Traditional income planning in retirement says, is this…

Gabriel Lewit: No. What’s your answer?

Steve Lewit: No, I’m explaining my answer.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you got to…

Steve Lewit: Last time I gave you my answer and you said, will you explain it? Now I’m explaining it, now you want the…

Gabriel Lewit: I’m having fun here. What’s your answer? Pick the answer first.

Steve Lewit: The answer is find a different strategy for sure.

Gabriel Lewit: Can I tell you something?

Steve Lewit: You agree with me.

Gabriel Lewit: I would’ve accepted two answers from you.

Steve Lewit: No.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s another semi-trick question.

Steve Lewit: No, you can’t.

Gabriel Lewit: I can.

Steve Lewit: No, you can’t.

Gabriel Lewit: I’m the rule master here of this game.

Steve Lewit: No, you can’t. 4% is wrong.

Gabriel Lewit: There’s two answers to the question that I would’ve accepted you. One was D, so you got it right.

Steve Lewit: Well, D is the right answer.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, it’s one of the right answers.

Steve Lewit: No, it’s not. You can’t have two right answers.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes, you can.

Steve Lewit: No, you can’t.

Gabriel Lewit: A…

Steve Lewit: That’s like two truths that are different.

Gabriel Lewit: Option E of our question five is options A or D. A and D.

Steve Lewit: Because the question is, so you don’t run out of money.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes. The question is…

Steve Lewit: You take 1%, you won’t run out of money.

Gabriel Lewit: To make sure you don’t run out of money in retirement, only withdraw 1%.

Steve Lewit: Folks, he got me there.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you got it right.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. I know, but there are two answers here.

Gabriel Lewit: There are two answers. Correct. I would’ve accepted either.

Steve Lewit: Okay.

Gabriel Lewit: All right. Folks, let’s unpack that a little bit. Well, there’s a safe withdrawal rate out there that used to be 4%. So, if you guessed 4%, you are close, but it’s now closer to about three and a half or 3% as known as the safe withdrawal rate, because bond rates have come down and equity projections aren’t what they used to be. That’s a whole other topic.

Steve Lewit: But this says to make sure you don’t run out of money.

Gabriel Lewit: You make sure you don’t run out of money. Now, you could withdraw 1%, you won’t run out of money. Will it be enough income for you? That’s a different story, or D, you find another strategy altogether. Steve, what were you thinking on that one?

Steve Lewit: Well, the old-fashioned way is you take your money to somebody and they say, great, we’re going to build you a big portfolio, and we’re going to take out the safe money withdrawal rate, whether it’s 3.2% or 4%, and you’re going to get all the income you need, and that might work. There’s tremendous amount of risk in that, especially with something called sequence of return risk, getting losses early in retirement, like between the years 2020 and 2013 when the market made no money. You’re pulling money out of your portfolio in bad shape. That is an old rule. Like all old things, there are new things.

Steve Lewit: The new thing is to do time horizon investing, where you invest based on the amount of years that you have before you need that money liquid. So, if you have an income shortfall next year, you don’t want to put that money in the stock market because the market could be down another 20% next year, so that you would invest in something very liquid, because you need it next year. On the other hand, if you don’t need money for 20 years, well, you can take a lot of risk with that money. That’s really the modern way of doing it.

Gabriel Lewit: There’s also a third way, which we talk a lot about. We always give you three or four options when you become a client, is a guaranteed income rider from a annuity. Now, folks, you don’t lose your access to your cash balance or your value or anything like that, and you still have a death benefit and all sorts of cool things, but it does guarantee the income for a lifetime.

Steve Lewit: I would add onto that, Gabriel, rising income rider.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Can you run out of money if your income is guaranteed for lifetime? No, you cannot, because it’s guaranteed.

Steve Lewit: Exactly.

Gabriel Lewit: So folks, if you thought that was a good quiz, I’m hoping you got four or five out of five.

Steve Lewit: Like me.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Just like Steve, four and a half out of five.

Steve Lewit: Just can’t win here.

Gabriel Lewit: If you got one or two, I’d say don’t worry about it. There’s a lot to know here. Give us a call. We could always help you fine tune this in your plan.

Steve Lewit: What if I got five wrong?

Gabriel Lewit: If you got all five wrong…

Steve Lewit: Hurry in.

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know. If we can help you at all, I know there’s a lot to retirement plan.

Steve Lewit: Call for an appointment quickly.

Gabriel Lewit: I like this quiz idea because we talk a lot on the show and maybe we’ll periodically check back in with you folks with more of these quizzes and see how you’re doing. Give you a chance to self-assess, and this was actually fun. Actually, so fun that we went through our entire time a lot before our second topic.

Steve Lewit: We just did one thing.

Gabriel Lewit: For our show here today, but I was going to talk a little bit about getting to know Steve and Gabriel Lewit. One of our favorite topics of the show where I surprised Steve with a personal topic of my choosing.

Steve Lewit: All right. Well, we got a few minutes. I’ll jump in.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. So, was there a time where you ever almost got mugged as a child?

Steve Lewit: Let me tell you this story about me in Chinatown when I was 16 years old.

Gabriel Lewit: I’m kidding. That wasn’t the question though. Okay. Hold on. Let me find my question list. Hold on, folks. Flipping pages.

Steve Lewit: He’s searching. He’s unprepared.

Gabriel Lewit: No, I’ve got it here. Okay. What is your favorite… Drum roll. Cereal.

Steve Lewit: Okay. My favorite cereal is the breakfast of champions. Cheerios.

Gabriel Lewit: Wheaties.

Steve Lewit: That was Wheaties, right?

Gabriel Lewit: Wasn’t that Wheaties?

Steve Lewit: It used to be Wheaties, and now it’s Cheerios.

Gabriel Lewit: Can you Google that, Katie?

Steve Lewit: No, breakfast of… It’s Wheaties.

Gabriel Lewit: It was Wheaties.

Steve Lewit: It was Wheaties. Right.

Gabriel Lewit: I used to eat Wheaties as a kid.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. So did I. That’s why I was thinking about it, but my favorite is Cheerios.

Gabriel Lewit: Do they still make Wheaties?

Steve Lewit: I don’t know.

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t think I’ve seen them anymore.

Steve Lewit: What does it take?

Gabriel Lewit: Hold on one second.

Steve Lewit: They don’t make Wheaties, but there are Wheaties in different names.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Let’s see.

Steve Lewit: But that was the breakfast of champions.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, because they had all the sports athletes on it. I guess they don’t make that. They don’t make Wheaties anymore. I don’t think I’ve seen them.

Steve Lewit: Well, they don’t make them at Whole Foods. They might have it someplace else.

Gabriel Lewit: Interesting. So, Wheaties was your favorite.

Steve Lewit: As a youngster, yeah, because Mickey Mantle always said, “I eat my Wheaties.”

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So, Katie found here the Wheaties Fuel Cereal has been discontinued and is no longer available.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. No more champions, folks.

Gabriel Lewit: The champions did not succeed.

Steve Lewit: Champions do not eat anymore.

Gabriel Lewit: But today it is now what?

Steve Lewit: Cheerios.

Gabriel Lewit: It is.

Steve Lewit: So, I take Cheerios and I mix it with a granola. I put a sprinkle of a granola and then I put in something that has a flavor like vanilla or blueberry or something.

Gabriel Lewit: So, you’re really cooking up a cereal mix.

Steve Lewit: There’s a whole method to it, and the ratio has to be right, and the amount of milk.

Gabriel Lewit: What kind of milk do you use?

Steve Lewit: Almond milk. Vanilla.

Gabriel Lewit: You just lost me. You lost me.

Steve Lewit: Vanilla.

Gabriel Lewit: You lost me.

Steve Lewit: Vanilla.

Gabriel Lewit: We were getting somewhere, and then we just went downhill.

Steve Lewit: Vanilla almond milk, very healthy, and that’s my morning breakfast.

Gabriel Lewit: You don’t put shredded coconut on there, do you?

Steve Lewit: No. Every other day I have that, and then the other days I have an egg sandwich for breakfast.

Gabriel Lewit: Very nice.

Steve Lewit: Very nice. What’s your favorite?

Gabriel Lewit: Well, hold on. To clarify, part B of that question, as a kid, what was your favorite cereal?

Steve Lewit: Wheaties.

Gabriel Lewit: Was Wheaties, anything else? What’d they have available?

Steve Lewit: Cornflakes and Rice Krispies.

Gabriel Lewit: Were there only five brands of cereal, because there’s a hundred nowadays.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Then they had some sugar stuff. They always had sugar stuff, but in our house we had Cornflakes, Rice Krispies and Wheaties.

Gabriel Lewit: Those were the go-tos. You got the corn, the rice and the wheat.

Steve Lewit: And I think Frosted Flakes was the big thing.

Gabriel Lewit: They’re great.

Steve Lewit: They’re great.

Gabriel Lewit: Funny how stuff sticks with you, right?

Steve Lewit: Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s good marketing. Okay.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, yours?

Gabriel Lewit: For me, today or as a kid?

Steve Lewit: As a kid.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I will say as a kid, for a long time, I always wanted some of the slightly less healthy cereals. My mom, who was very health conscious, would say N-O, Gabriel. You cannot have those. She’d always look at the label and say, nope, this is more than X grams of sugar. Nope. Can’t have that. This has artificial colors and flavor. Nope. Can’t have that.

Steve Lewit: Deprived child.

Gabriel Lewit: My goodness. Right. She let us have Cheerios and Kix for kids, but those weren’t my favorites. My favorite was eventually she did let me have Honeycomb, because it was the least bad of the sugary cereals that she would allow me to eat, and I did thoroughly enjoy Honeycomb. Now, I also enjoyed Corn Pops, which have even more sugar. Those are very good, and I also really, really enjoyed Golden Grahams.

Steve Lewit: I never heard of Golden Grahams.

Gabriel Lewit: They also have a lot of sugar, but they’re delicious, all three of those. To this day, I walk past them in the aisle, I’m like, I should really buy these. I don’t buy them.

Steve Lewit: Do you let your kids have sugared cereals?

Gabriel Lewit: Absolutely not. Of course not. Actually, every now and then we let them have some chocolate crispies. Coco Krispies. The healthy kind.

Steve Lewit: Kix were the little balls, right?

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. They’re not that good.

Steve Lewit: I really like Kix.

Gabriel Lewit: They’re okay. But these days, my go to is… Well, I should say I’ll give you my go-to and then I’ll give you my favorite, because I’m a cereal guy. I love cereal. I eat it every day. Sometimes also for dinner, sometimes for breakfast, lunch and dinner on a Saturday, if you’re really getting crazy here. You just mix and match whatever cereal you’re like. Infinite options. Okay. But for breakfast, I…

Steve Lewit: Folks, he’s a much better planner than a dietician. I can tell you that.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I should say I eat Cheerios and Crispix for most mornings. One of my favorites these days, which you can’t find very many places, but does still exist, folks, if you haven’t had them, you got to try them are Grape Nut Flakes.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. I was eating those for a while.

Gabriel Lewit: Grape Nut Flakes, not the Grape Nuts. Those are hard and…

Steve Lewit: I was eating the little crunchy ones.

Gabriel Lewit: Not those.

Steve Lewit: You didn’t like those.

Gabriel Lewit: Those turns into a soggy concrete when you’re eating it. They’re light and crispy and delicious Grape Nut Flakes. I’ve only seen them in two places, folks. You can buy them at Menards.

Steve Lewit: Kid house.

Gabriel Lewit: Of all places, and you can buy them at Sunset Foods, which is right by my house, and there’s not very many of those, and you can’t find them anywhere else.

Steve Lewit: Is this a paid advertisement?

Gabriel Lewit: It is not. I love promoting them, because no one’s ever heard of them or ever had them.

Steve Lewit: I’m going to run out and buy it.

Gabriel Lewit: I think they’re delicious.

Steve Lewit: All right. I’ll let you know.

Gabriel Lewit: They’re healthy and nutritious too.

Steve Lewit: Okay. Well, they have grape nuts.

Gabriel Lewit: They do.

Steve Lewit: All right.

Gabriel Lewit: Well folks, that is our show for today.

Steve Lewit: Did we end on a high note?

Gabriel Lewit: I think so.

Steve Lewit: I think so. Talking about breakfast food.

Gabriel Lewit: I already had cereal. I could eat another bowl right now, but yeah, folks again, have a wonderful, wonderful 4th of July. If we can help you with your…

Steve Lewit: You ever do oatmeal?

Gabriel Lewit: No. I can’t do it. From time to time.

Steve Lewit: In the winter, I oatmeal all the time.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. It’s okay. I can’t do it every day.

Steve Lewit: No taste.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s the same thing.

Steve Lewit: No taste, my son.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. If we can help you at all, give us call (847) 499-3330. Email us info@sglfinancial.com if we can help or go to sglfinancial.com/contactus and or slash contact. I always forget which one it is, or just click contact on sglfinancial.com, but have a wonderful weekend. We will see you on the next show. By the way. Never mind.

Steve Lewit: June 6th. June 6th.

Gabriel Lewit: What’s that?

Steve Lewit: July 6th, July 6th.

Gabriel Lewit: If you’re a client of ours, we have a special client only webinar next week. Mid-year market outlook event. We’re talking about all sorts of things related to the market. If you’re not yet a client, I’m sorry. This one is actually a client only event, but we do lots of other updates and stuff throughout.

Steve Lewit: So, look for your email and click on the link, folks. Don’t miss this one. Really important.

Gabriel Lewit: Indeed, indeed. All right. Have a wonderful weekend. Talk to you soon.

Steve Lewit: Bye now.

Announcer: Bye. Thanks for listening to Our 2 Cents with Steve and Gabriel Lewit. For any questions about your finances, give SGL a call at (847) 499-3330 or visit us on the web sglfinancial.com and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.

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