What the Election Means for Your Finances
by SGL Financial
Our 2 Cents – Episode #190
What the Election Means for Your Finances
Welcome to another fantastic episode of Our 2 Cents! On today’s episode, Steve and Gabriel explore changes to some familiar financial opportunities and provide a broad overview of how presidential elections do or don’t impact financial markets. Then, they break down more financial wisdom from celebrities. Listen in now using a link below!
- Gabriel’s ‘Quick Hits’:
- Learn how much the price of a Mega Millions lottery ticket is going up and what the 2025 Social Security COLA adjustment will be.
- The Financial Impact of a Presidential Election:
- In light of the upcoming election, uncover essential financial insights on U.S. presidential elections and market trends.
- More Celebrity Financial Advice:
- Explore more interesting celebrity quotes that we transform into thoughtful financial takeaways.
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Podcast Transcript
Announcer: You are 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 and financial news, trends, strategies, and more.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, welcome back to Our 2 Cents, everybody. You’ve got Gabriel Lewit here, live in the microphone, with Steve Lewit.
Steve Lewit: How can you be live in the microphone?
Gabriel Lewit: With the microphone?
Steve Lewit: Oh, with the microphone.
Gabriel Lewit: In the microphone.
Steve Lewit: I thought you said in the microphone.
Gabriel Lewit: I did probably, but that’s okay.
Steve Lewit: Well, good morning, folks.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s like, honey, I shrunk the kids.
Steve Lewit: Well, actually, it’s good afternoon here. Good afternoon, everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: You missed my…
Steve Lewit: I missed it. What did you say?
Gabriel Lewit: I said it was like, honey, I shrunk the kids. I’m in the microphone.
Steve Lewit: I’m in the microphone, right? Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So we’re of course coming to you live from our studio. You might get this post-live recording, and in fact, by the time you get this, it will be less than two weeks until the upcoming election.
Steve Lewit: Wow. Right around the corner.
Gabriel Lewit: Legitimately right around the corner. And as a result of that…
Steve Lewit: Politics is heating up.
Gabriel Lewit: We haven’t talked a ton about it on the show, mostly because we have a company policy not to get too deep into anything political, but of course there is some impact and some concern about the investment market, the financial markets, the tax environment when it comes to an upcoming election. So we thought we would touch upon that a little bit here today.
Steve Lewit: But not from a political point of view, from a statistical point of view about what happens emotionally to us and what happens statistically to us and the stock market financially when there’s an election.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. From a show perspective, we aim to be politically agnostic and bring you just the data that might be helpful for you in your investing endeavors.
Steve Lewit: Exactly.
Gabriel Lewit: Yep.
Steve Lewit: Well said. That’s a good disclaimer.
Gabriel Lewit: Thank you. Thank you. Now in addition to that, we are going to talk about a couple of additional quotes that we were touched upon, touching upon last time.
Steve Lewit: Celebrity quotes.
Gabriel Lewit: Celebrity quotes, and how they might impact your financial planning mindset.
Steve Lewit: I didn’t see your name on the list.
Gabriel Lewit: That because I’m not a celebrity yet.
Steve Lewit: In my eyes, you’re a celebrity.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, that’s so sweet.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Thank you.
Steve Lewit: You’re my son, man.
Gabriel Lewit: You got me all blushing over here.
Steve Lewit: Oh, that’s so sweet.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, so sweet.
Steve Lewit: Love it.
Gabriel Lewit: Just like candy.
Steve Lewit: I don’t know what you were going to say.
Gabriel Lewit: Sweet like candy.
Steve Lewit: Good.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. All right. But more importantly, we have a very big announcement.
Steve Lewit: Very big.
Gabriel Lewit: About the Mega Millions.
Steve Lewit: This is just a disaster. I’m really upset about this.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, it sounds apparently, starting in April 2025, the price of a Mega Millions ticket will increase from $2 per ticket to, wait for it, $5 per ticket, an increase of over a hundred percent.
Steve Lewit: Well, that’s an increase of over, yeah, hundred percent.
Gabriel Lewit: 150%.
Steve Lewit: 150%.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. We got math down.
Steve Lewit: Now I have no… I didn’t read this. I heard about it. Do you have any idea why they’re doing? I’m really upset. I used to buy 10.
Gabriel Lewit: This is ruining your day?
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I never win, but I always buy a ticket because-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, let me inform you-
Steve Lewit: Or 10 of them.
Gabriel Lewit: … Of the rationale.
Steve Lewit: What is the rationale here?
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, well, there is no such thing as a break-even prize anymore. Meaning, when a player wins, they’ll always win more than the cost of the ticket.
Steve Lewit: Okay.
Gabriel Lewit: So maybe that has something to do with it.
Steve Lewit: That doesn’t mean a lot.
Gabriel Lewit: And supposedly they overhauled the game that will result in jackpots that start larger, grow faster and are bigger more frequently as well as better odds of winning the jackpot. So they’ve probably actuarially figured all this out, but I think from a normal person’s perspective, it’s still a pretty big price increase there.
Steve Lewit: Well, look, this is gambling, right? And most people can’t afford to gamble, but everybody kind of likes to buy a Mega Millions ticket. But now you go from $2 to five bucks and it’s still five bucks out of your pocket. But let’s say the probability went from one in 200 million or whatever it is to three in 200 million, your chances of winning aren’t that great.
Gabriel Lewit: These tripled.
Steve Lewit: Sort of. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Not exactly.
Steve Lewit: So, I just see with tight budgets and inflation, this is bad timing for this particular endeavor of the human race.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, and just so you wanted, in case you wanted to know, the current odds of winning the jackpot are one in 302.6 million.
Steve Lewit: 300 million.
Gabriel Lewit: 300 million.
Steve Lewit: So, the odds afterwards might be two in 300 million.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, they increase the odds. Instead of one in 302 million, the odds are now one in 300 million.
Steve Lewit: I might boycott.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, we’ll see what happens. I mean, I guess like anything it’s a pricing base model. They’ll see if people buy it or people won’t.
Steve Lewit: I think a lot of people won’t. To some people, $2 is $2, $5 is a lot of money.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. It does seem like a sizable increase.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: We’ll see if it backfires. Stay tuned. This was only the second price adjustment since the game launched in 2002.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: All right. I’m not excited. This is not exciting news. I think we should move on. I’m depressed.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, you seem very depressed now. Okay.
Steve Lewit: I always buy a ticket thinking I’m going to win.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I’ve got good news for you then.
Steve Lewit: I’m going to win?
Gabriel Lewit: No, the Social Security office has come out with their Social Security COLA adjustment, meaning you’re going to make more money next year.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, but I’m disappointed in this. This is my disappointment. This is our disappointment episode for me.
Gabriel Lewit: You are going to get yourself a sizable, Mr. Lewit…
Steve Lewit: Not sizable.
Gabriel Lewit: … 2.5% COLA increase.
Steve Lewit: What’s with that 2.5%? Inflation is over three. So I don’t get that either.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, there’s different measures of inflation.
Steve Lewit: You see, I’m a-
Gabriel Lewit: -You’re pretending like you don’t get it, right?
Steve Lewit: I do. I am for sure, I’m pretending. There are different measures of inflation and we should give a… Hey Gabby, make a note of that. We should give a podcast on what’s really in the inflation numbers because it’s pretty interesting what is in it and what is not in it. It’s pretty amazing.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, there’s definitely, you hear the word inflation, but there are many different measurements of that.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, anywho. The Social Security office has pronounced you’ll get a 2.5% inflation COLA or cost-of-living adjustment.
Steve Lewit: Well-
Gabriel Lewit: -That will start on January of 2025.
Steve Lewit: And I’m thankful for that.
Gabriel Lewit: So, if you had a check for $2,000, you would receive, I believe here, an additional $50 per month.
Steve Lewit: Another cup of coffee at Starbucks, whose business is hurting, by the way.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So hey, 50 bucks a month, better than nothing. Better than as they say, a kick in the rear.
Steve Lewit: It is. It is an increase. It’s not as much as any of us would like, but life is life.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, in our plans as well, I always like to track this because in our plans we do in fact put a COLA adjustment on your future Social Security.
Steve Lewit: We do.
Gabriel Lewit: Usually, we put 2.25% or just a little less than what inflation would otherwise be to plan conservatively. And this is still above that. So I think that’s good from our planning model perspective.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, on some plans, I have been using 3% because that’s the historical average is around that. But either one, this is coming in pretty close to that.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, exactly. It depends if you want to plan more conservatively, then not.
Steve Lewit: Yep.
Gabriel Lewit: Yep. All right, so that is the news of the day for you. Higher lotto tickets and higher Social Security payments to pay for your higher lotto tickets.
Steve Lewit: And now the fun starts. We’re going to talk about the impact of the presidential election.
Gabriel Lewit: All right, so let’s jump into that. Lots of different takes we could start with on this. Yeah, where to begin. Okay. Well, I’m going to begin with this. A lot of people measure the stock market by returns, okay, and in particular the S&P 500 returns on a given year or over a given presidency series of years. So I’m just going to read these for you and I think you’ll see some trends that we’ll then unpack here a little bit.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Can I interrupt you for a second?
Gabriel Lewit: You most certainly can.
Steve Lewit: So how many clients, I don’t know about you, I’m curious what your answer is. How many clients have asked you, “so what do you think the market’s going to do after the election”?
Gabriel Lewit: I cannot wait for the election to be over because I am tired of answering that question.
Steve Lewit: I know. I’m talking likewise. Everybody’s asking that question.
Gabriel Lewit: I just have one of those sound boards where you could just push a button and it’ll like speak. I need one of those for my answer for this question.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Because yeah, it’s going to be obviously a much shorter version of what we’re going to talk about here. So yeah, let me give you some numbers here. From 1960 through July 2024, based on four-year annualized increments to, of course, match with the four-year presidencies of the people we are going to mention here. So Kennedy-Johnson, way back, S&P, 9.7% over that administration. Okay. Johnson administration, 4.1 positive. Nixon administration, 3.9%. Nixon-Ford administration, a negative 3.5%.
Steve Lewit: And one of few.
Gabriel Lewit: One of few.
Steve Lewit: Few negative years.
Gabriel Lewit: Carter administration, positive 6.1. Reagan term one, 6.3 positive. Reagan term two, 13.7% positive. Bush HW, 14.5% positive. Clinton term one, 18.6% positive. Clinton term two, 16.3% positive.
Steve Lewit: So, right there you can see Democrat or Republican didn’t matter.
Gabriel Lewit: A lot of positives.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Bush W term one, minus 1.7. Bush W term two, minus 7.3.
Steve Lewit: That was a rough go.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: That was really a rough go and it wasn’t all, but I mean it wasn’t Bush’s fault.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. We’re not talking about why. We’re just giving you the numbers here. Okay. Obama term one, 17.5. Obama term two, 13.6. Again, both of those positive. Trump term one, 15.4%.
Steve Lewit: No. If you remember-
Gabriel Lewit: -Plus 15.4%,
Steve Lewit: If you remember, everybody, almost everybody said Trump gets elected, the market’s going to go down.
Gabriel Lewit: A lot of people did. A lot of people didn’t. We’re going to talk about that. There’s some biases that we as humans have. One of those is called confirmation bias. We’re going to talk about that, but let’s finish here. So yeah, Trump’s first term, 15.4%. Biden currently through July 2024, 13.7% annualized returns. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that really, as you mentioned earlier, regardless of who is in the White House, the market has generally gone up.
Steve Lewit: That’s correct.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, over most of these administrations. Some more, some less, some a lot, some a little, few negatives. But right away what we can see, there are… Here’s what’s interesting. I underlined this. This is right on a Nationwide study called Beyond the ballot box: Do elections impact market performance? So this is data folks, not just Steve and I just throwing stuff out here onto the wall. Okay? The latest survey-
Steve Lewit: -Which wall would we ever-
Gabriel Lewit: -There’s some movie where people throw pickles against the wall. It was an Adam Sandler movie, I think. Yeah. Pickles, and then the pickles slide down the wall and the sees. So we’re not just throwing stuff on the wall.
Steve Lewit: I’ve never seen that.
Gabriel Lewit: I think it’s…
Steve Lewit: I’m going to have to look that up.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, producer Katie is. I have a lot of movie references because I like movies. Billy Madison, I think, right? Is it Billy Madison? Yeah, I think that’s what it was with Adam Sandler. Great movie.
Steve Lewit: Okay.
Gabriel Lewit: Old school.
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: You got to watch it. Producer Gabby, you’re shaking your head yeah. Okay. Anywhos. Nationwide survey found that three in five investors, 61%, believe that the outcomes of presidential elections have a direct, immediate, and lasting impact on stock market performance.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. That’s more than half of the people you talk to believe that the presidential election will go one way, have the market go one way or another. Again, I’m not speaking politics here, but if you talk to somebody that’s for Trump, they say, well-
Gabriel Lewit: -There’s data on this.
Steve Lewit: Kamala gets elected, the market’s going to go down and vice versa. If you talk to someone that’s for Kamala says Trump is going to ruin the market or vice versa. So we have these emotional reactions that are not based on data, they’re based on emotions and who I like and who I don’t like, and who I feel good with, and so on and so on.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I think that’s why this same research study also posted this listing of all these, and by the way, if you want a copy of this, you just email us info@sglfinancial.com. We’re happy to send you a copy as well. But yeah, it didn’t matter who, Republican, Democrat, was elected. For the most of these administrations, the market went up.
Steve Lewit: That’s correct.
Gabriel Lewit: And that’s really the message we’ve said in a few of our prior market outlook events that markets, what really influences the stock market, company earnings, profit margins, business cycle innovations, new things like AI, these are all the things that… Yeah, I mean the presidential administration might have some impact on some of those items, but historically it’s gone up regardless of who’s in office.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, the president surprisingly doesn’t influence the market that much. And in fact, most presidents do not want to hang their success on the market because you could gain a market, for example, if you happen to be president when the dot-com bubble burst or the financial crisis happened, or in just before Covid and the market collapsed, if you’re hanging your hat on the growth of the market, then you have to take responsibility for losses in the market. And as a president, that’s very dangerous position to put yourself in.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I think Bush, W Bush was 2008, I think. Was that when he was in office? I don’t know if I have the exact years.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I think it was Bush. That’s why he is got these negative numbers.
Gabriel Lewit: Right. I think so. Let me just verify this here for our listeners. Some of you be, you might know all the years and names by heart. Some people remember every single president by order. I can’t do that, but. Oh, yeah. 2001 through 2009. Now look. Yeah, you had dot-com crash and a… I mean, yeah. I mean, maybe he was somehow related to those, but I don’t know. I wouldn’t blame him for them. Maybe some people do.
Steve Lewit: I don’t think he had anything to do with it. You could argue that but the point is this is that you could be a president like Bush, who gets two financial crises that are almost impossible, they’re black swan events. They come out of nowhere. And to say that it’s his fault that the market declined those years, it makes no sense.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, the same survey said that 55% of investors believe election results will impact their retirement plans even more than the market performance. Now, it’s kind of interesting. I wonder what people thought when they say that because, I mean, market performance is a primary driver of one’s retirement because that’s how you make money.
Steve Lewit: Well, they might be thinking about interest rates or rises in taxes and things like that, which are supplementary to the market performance.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, so here’s one last piece from this thing here, from this survey, right. They asked respondents about the likelihood of future economic events if the political party they least align with gains more power in the election. And half of them said, the cost of living will rise, taxes will increase, and the economy will enter a recession. In other words, didn’t matter which side you were on.
Steve Lewit: Which side you’re on, you had-
Gabriel Lewit: You assume that if the other side wins, everything is going to go bad. Which again, our data, at least on the stock market, that’s all we’re focusing on here, that doesn’t seem to hold true with our data.
Steve Lewit: I read another piece, I can’t find it, Gabriel, maybe you can. It said some people invest, if their party wins, then they invest heavily in the market, and if they lose, they get out of the market. And there’s this data of saying, if you did that over the past 60 years or something like that, how seriously behind you would be in growth by not investing when both-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, obviously as we went through those administrations, I mean the vast majority of them went up. So if you took half of those off the table…
Steve Lewit: Exactly. You’ve got it right there.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, basically a bipartisan investor that stayed invested regardless of the administration would have, I mean, vastly more money than one that invests just on their party.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. It looks like 10 times or 20 times more.
Gabriel Lewit: Exactly. So.
Steve Lewit: Yes. So that’s where the emotional component comes into this. I think you’re going to talk about that.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, just for a minute, and because we don’t want to really kick this thing too far into the ground. But yeah, we have, as humans, biases. So this other survey here by Janice Henderson has a good recap of this, right? So in general, confirmation bias, that’s called the tendency for individuals to seek out information that supports their pre-existing beliefs and avoids information that could contradict their already held beliefs. And so if you believe that the market’s going to go down because the party you least align with gets into office, you’re going to be looking for information that validates that based on what’s called confirmation bias, okay? So these are research-based biases that we as humans with emotions have, and they can, of course, be good to assess and say, okay, is this going to impact me? Because at the end of the day, when you were saying, how many times are people asking what’s the market going to do? I always feel like they don’t like my answer when I say, well, it doesn’t really-
Steve Lewit: Well, they’re looking for what… If they’re thinking the market’s going to go down, they’re looking for confirmation.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: They want you to say, you know what? I’m thinking the market’s going to go down.
Gabriel Lewit: What I have been saying is, based on the research, it’s generally gone up in all administrations. And I always feel like they look at me like, “really? That’s your answer?”
Steve Lewit: Really? That’s it.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s the data.
Steve Lewit: That’s so unrewarding.
Gabriel Lewit: So, us as advisors, our job is to help you, our clients, make more money, doesn’t matter the political environment that we’re in. We’re not going to choose who’s president, me and you, Steve. The country’s going to do that. Our job is to help you make money in whatever environment we have.
Steve Lewit: That’s correct.
Gabriel Lewit: Republican, Democrat….
Steve Lewit: That’s really important.
Gabriel Lewit: Whatever tax law, I’m not going to make up the tax law. You’re not going to make the tax law. But whatever tax law we have, we’re going to try to save you money in taxes.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it’s finding the unique ways and plans and strategies to respond to what happens in the economy, whether that is caused politically or internationally or otherwise. That’s the advantage of having a well-rounded advisor.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Now, that’s about really what we wanted to say on this topic here today. Mostly just because I don’t want to see our clients or people that listen to our show go out there and panic because there’s an election coming up. I mean, again, I would be more worried about an AI bubble, personally. I just read a whole article the other day talking about the comparisons between the amount of revenue that AI makes today compared to the amount of revenue the internet made back in 2000. I mean, the Internet’s revenue dwarfed how much revenue is being made by AI.
Steve Lewit: That’s correct.
Gabriel Lewit: The expenses on AI are dwarfing the amount of expenses that was going into the internet. All that is just prime bubble territory, right? It’s things like that that are going to impact, I think, the market.
Steve Lewit: You have a very-
Gabriel Lewit: Much more than-
Steve Lewit: Of course, you have a very strange housing market.
Gabriel Lewit: We do?
Steve Lewit: You have international problems in Germany, in Japan, in China. These are much more-
Gabriel Lewit: We have serious wars.
Steve Lewit: Wars.
Gabriel Lewit: … On the doorstep.
Steve Lewit: Much more influential. So I think the last piece that I’d like to add onto this, Gabriel, folks, is that you got to keep a long-term view. You can’t get swallowed up in short-term effects when it comes to investing, because especially with the stock market, the stock market is a long-term investment. If you try and make it a short-term investment, that becomes more like buying a lottery ticket and seeing if you win or lose.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Market timing. And if you are worried about a pullback, but you also don’t want to lose your money if the market goes up, buffer strategies, buffered funds, things of that nature are a very good option there. We can talk to you about those. Many of you, our clients, already have some of those. So yeah, let us know if we can help guide you through this unpredictable world of elections and markets. Give us a call, 847-499-3330. Or go to sglfinancial.com, click contact us or email us info@sglfinancial.com. Or if you would like a copy of these research reports, email us that as well. And we are happy to send those off to you.
Steve Lewit: We will. Absolutely. Surely.
Gabriel Lewit: All right.
Steve Lewit: I haven’t used surely in a long time.
Gabriel Lewit: You haven’t. You haven’t.
Steve Lewit: I have to bring that back.
Gabriel Lewit: Indeed.
Steve Lewit: Surely.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Well, with our time here, we ran out last time of some of the top quotes from celebrities and their impact on your financial planning mindset. Let’s bubble those back to the surface here, shall we, Mr. Lew?
Steve Lewit: I love it. Who are-
Gabriel Lewit: And I know you wanted to start with your best friend, Snooki from Jersey Shore.
Steve Lewit: Anything from New Jersey.
Gabriel Lewit: New Jersey.
Steve Lewit: New Jersey, my friend.
Gabriel Lewit: Did you go to the Jersey Shore when you grew up in New York?
Steve Lewit: I sure did.
Gabriel Lewit: You sure did?
Steve Lewit: I sure did.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So we talked about who Snooki was last… If you haven’t seen Jersey Shore, I mean, if you want to have a hoot, if you like that kind of stuff, go watch a whole episode or two. Their biggest claim on that show was GTL, gym, tan, laundry. Okay. I watched one episode back in the day.
Steve Lewit: …I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Gabriel Lewit: Gym, tan. That’s all they did. They did gym, tan, laundry, and then they went to the bars. That’s the show. There, you don’t have to watch it.
Steve Lewit: Very enlightening. Very, very enlightening.
Gabriel Lewit: And they made millions of dollars.
Steve Lewit: What did they say here? What does Snooki say?
Gabriel Lewit: Snooki says, “I don’t need validation from anyone. I know my worth.”
Steve Lewit: Whoa. So then how does that tie to finances for Mr. Snooki? I’m not getting that one. What is it?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I think…
Steve Lewit: Validation. Okay, I have to read the answer here.
Gabriel Lewit: I was just thinking about net worth. In other words, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, right? I don’t need validation of how much money, I know my worth, right? Yeah, you might know your net worth, but your life is not just about money despite how much our focus is on making you more of it. That was my thought is that some of these could be a stretch. We’re just trying to find celebrity quotes that are funny and we can talk about.
Steve Lewit: So you’re at a party and you say, well, I own a lot of bonds.
Gabriel Lewit: You go to a party and Bill Gates is there and he is worth $6 billion and…
Steve Lewit: You’re not going to get validated.
Gabriel Lewit: And you’re not worth $6 billion. Don’t feel bad.
Steve Lewit: Right. You won’t be validated. So don’t feel bad.
Gabriel Lewit: No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, you should feel confident enough in who you are and how much you have. You’ve done-
Steve Lewit: Self in self-validation.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, exactly.
Steve Lewit: We’re saying the same thing.
Gabriel Lewit: Maybe.
Steve Lewit: No, we are.
Gabriel Lewit: I’d have to rewind the show and re-Listen.
Steve Lewit: We are.
Gabriel Lewit: But…
Steve Lewit: Katie gave me the thumbs up. She said, definitely we’re saying same thing.
Gabriel Lewit: But that’s the idea. Everybody, we talk about this, we don’t have minimums here at SGL. We help anybody. I mean, many of our clients have millions and millions of dollars. Some of our clients have a couple hundred thousand dollars. A handful of our clients are fresh out of school, saving in their first Roth IRAs.
Steve Lewit: They have 20 grand.
Gabriel Lewit: All of that, you’ve worked hard for your money. We want to help you make it grow and have more of it.
Steve Lewit: And we will validate you.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. So we think you’re doing great out there, folks.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Exactly.
Steve Lewit: Yep.
Gabriel Lewit: Thanks, Snooks, appreciate your wisdom.
Steve Lewit: Let’s move on.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Everybody knows the famous Kim K.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: I think Katie picked some of these because I would go with sports quotes and she, I think, threw some of some Kim K, Kardashian on.
Steve Lewit: Are you a Kim K fan?
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. She’s shy. She’s not saying, she’s saying maybe. Yeah, so Kim Kardashian, a very sweet quote here, says, “I will always believe in love.” I can’t say that with street face.
Steve Lewit: How do you say that? I was going to say-
Gabriel Lewit: “But my idea has changed from what I’ve always thought.” Thanks, Kim.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I’m not going to comment on thinking and Kim.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. Yeah. But her idea has changed from… So maybe your financial thinking on what you view as success or important, your financial views might change over time, just as one’s view of love might change over time, and that’s normal.
Steve Lewit: In fact, it’s healthy because the world changes, you grow and mature in different ways and get different experiences, and if you still… If you 40 years old and you’re thinking like a 20-year-old, well, that’s not going to work well for you financially.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. And if you’re 80 and you sometimes act like you’re a 12-year-old, I mean-
Steve Lewit: That doesn’t work.
Gabriel Lewit: You don’t want that sometimes.
Steve Lewit: No, nobody would want that. That would be just a miserable existence.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. Yeah, so point is you’re not going to invest maybe the same way in your forties as you would in your sixties or seventies. Your mindset may have shifted, and that is encouraged to reassess and rethink and talk about what’s important to you just as it might be when you’re young and falling in love.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Those days.
Steve Lewit: Thank you, Kim.
Gabriel Lewit: Good old days.
Steve Lewit: I’m still not a fan.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, she makes a lot of money.
Steve Lewit: Oh, she does. Oh, she does.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. How about, now we’re talking Shaq.
Steve Lewit: Hold on. I got to ask Katie a question. Are you a swiftie?
Steve Lewit: Of course.
Gabriel Lewit: Katie says yes to being you a swiftie.
Steve Lewit: Gabby, are you a swiftie?
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. They can’t hear your answers, so we’ll repeat for you.
Steve Lewit: Oh my God.
Gabriel Lewit: She’s a shoulder shrug.
Steve Lewit: Oh, man.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Well, I have a new quote from a sports athlete, Shaq.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Shaq attack.
Steve Lewit: Very cool guy.
Gabriel Lewit: Shaquille O’Neal.
Steve Lewit: Yep.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. I like this one. This is not just for money, this is for life, folks. “I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.”
Steve Lewit: Man, I love that. Yeah. So…
Gabriel Lewit: That is Katie’s point at me. That’s, yeah, that’s a good one.
Steve Lewit: So basically, what did she say?
Gabriel Lewit: She’s saying, that’s me. That’s my mindset. Yeah, I’m very solution-focused.
Steve Lewit: Yes, you are.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes.
Steve Lewit: Yes. But you create a lot of your own problems that you have to solve. By the way, I just wanted to mention that.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m not so sure that that’s true.
Steve Lewit: It’s not true. So the deal here is that if you get sucked into the problem, like, oh, poor me, look. Oh, why can’t anything good happen? Or…
Gabriel Lewit: So, I didn’t win the lottery.
Steve Lewit: I didn’t win. Oh, something bad. Or the market’s going down just at the wrong time. That’s like an energy suck in my mind. It just sucks the energy and life energy out of you.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, you’re sitting there pontificating and worrying about the problem.
Steve Lewit: Right. And it’s like, okay, you got a problem, it’s here, it’s not going away. And like you do, and Deborah really does this, he’ll say, okay, we got a problem. All right. What are the solutions?
Gabriel Lewit: My wife doesn’t like this.
Steve Lewit: No, she doesn’t. Probably because everybody wants to get comfort in the problem.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. I kind of just jumped to the solution. Yeah. I listen a little bit, do my best.
Steve Lewit: Well, people want to know that you are with them emotionally in the problem.
Gabriel Lewit: Exactly.
Steve Lewit: I have clients that come in and they fear the… they’re really, really afraid the market’s going to go down. Well, I can’t say to them, “Hey, forget that. Let’s just talk about what to do about it.”
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, no, you don’t want to do that. We definitely don’t do that.
Steve Lewit: And I wouldn’t because that fear is really real, and I think you need to honor the fear, but not get sucked into it where it becomes everything.
Gabriel Lewit: Right. Exactly. Because eventually, once you get a good understanding of what your mindset is and why you’re concerned and worried and the impacts that that could have on you, we’ve got to turn that page, if you will, to creating a plan. And at the end of the day, yes, a focus on the solutions. In our world, as we’ve always emphasized, that starts with a really well-rounded, comprehensive retirement plan and retirement income plan.
Steve Lewit: That becomes the focus of the conversation.
Gabriel Lewit: That is our guiding north star.
Steve Lewit: It is. And then that plan adjusts for all the things that come up so you don’t go crazy worrying about everything. Hey, you think this is a good time, Gabriel, for us to announce my new series of classes on Sunday, therapy classes for financial people?
Gabriel Lewit: Sure.
Steve Lewit: Okay.
Gabriel Lewit: Enjoy that. I’ll be home.
Steve Lewit: I think everybody else will be home too.
Gabriel Lewit: All right, well let’s pick one last one, then we’ll wrap things up. I like this one here. Okay, Warren Buffett, you got to love the Warren B, okay?
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, his quote says, “someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Steve Lewit: That’s so sweet.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s good, right?
Steve Lewit: That is sweet. Yeah. That doesn’t impress me much. I like Warren.
Gabriel Lewit: How can you not appreciate? It’s so sad.
Steve Lewit: Well, no, it’s not. It’s kind of like… I don’t know.
Gabriel Lewit: You’re just mad because these don’t say Steve Lewit by in these quotes.
Steve Lewit: Oh, I have no ego. You know that.
Gabriel Lewit: No, I love this because we talk a lot about investing. There’s keys to success, the right… In this metaphor, the right seed and enough time for the tree to grow will result in a tree that’s large enough to provide you with shade.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. In an investment, you’ve got to have the right mix. You say this all the time, Mr. Lew. You’ve got to have the right mix of dollars, the right asset allocation, the right plan, and then you’ve got to also have time.
Steve Lewit: Time, time, very important.
Gabriel Lewit: And you’ve got to align those things together.
Steve Lewit: Time for the tree to grow so you can sit in the shade.
Gabriel Lewit: If you want a plant, to pick fruits from in the next six months, you don’t plant a oak tree.
Steve Lewit: Right. But you plant a seed and eventually it will grow.
Gabriel Lewit: If you want an oak tree for shade in 20 years, that’s your long-term tree, you plant that. There’s different buckets of money for short-term, medium-term, long-term and the right plant or the right seed will be essential for success with that model.
Steve Lewit: I guess I expect more from Warren than… You’re upset that I am kind of not really excited about this quote.
Gabriel Lewit: You can’t burst my bubble here, man.
Steve Lewit: No, it’s a good quote. But I expect from Warren something a little more maybe financially oriented or…
Gabriel Lewit: That is… That’s the whole point of it. It’s financially oriented.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I guess. Save money and plant your seed.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, he’s not a market timer. He’s an index fund, which is the right investments in the right amount of time. That’s his philosophy.
Steve Lewit: It is true.
Gabriel Lewit: One of them. One of many of them.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I can see that point of view. Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, now that I’ve swayed you.
Steve Lewit: Yes, you have.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m going to consider that a win.
Steve Lewit: Consider me swayed.
Gabriel Lewit: All right.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s what we got for you today, our friends. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you’ve got questions for us, big or small, give us a call, (847) 499-3330.
Steve Lewit: I was a bit argumentative today.
Gabriel Lewit: You were.
Steve Lewit: A little bit, yeah, I apologize, folks. I’m usually more positive.
Gabriel Lewit: Or go to sglfinancial.com, click contact us or email us info@sglfinancial.com.
Steve Lewit: I don’t think I was salty though.
Gabriel Lewit: And we look forward to speaking with you soon.
Steve Lewit: Yes, we do.
Gabriel Lewit: You interrupted my close three times, man.
Steve Lewit: Yes, man.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. All right. Talk to you later. Have a good one.
Steve Lewit: Stay well, everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Bye
Steve Lewit: Bye.
Announcer: 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 at sglfinancial.com and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.
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