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Financial Survival Network now more than ever.

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Welcome you are watching listening to the
Financial Survival Network. I'm your host,

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Carrie Lutts. Well, Banks and
jobs that's all anybody's talking about now.

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And the question is, hey,
what does it mean to you? What

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does it mean to the economy,
to your investment portfolio and to your retirement.

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And on that note, we got
Ed Sidel with us again. Ed.

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It's always great to have you on. So, Hey, jobs numbers,

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they look maybe better than they really
are. You know, well,

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first of all, thanks for having
me back. And you know, I

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do I think they're misleading. I
think a lot of the jobs that we're

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seeing right now, um are not
career jobs. They may be second and

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third jobs, which is um you
know, telling us that people love you

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know, they're they're not needing ends
meet and so they're they're having to get

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the second and third jobs. You
know, I don't think these are the

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ones that that have the healthcare,
in the four one K in the retirement

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all the other benefits that come along
with it. UM. But you know,

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the big thing that it's telling me
more than anything else, is that

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what what the Feds are doing is
it's it's not working, um. And

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they're they're trying to slow down the
economy. They're trying to punish small businesses

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UM for something that they have no
control over. When I'm talking about is

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you know, the government overspending.
I mean, that's that's the issue,

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that's where the problem lies. And
we're still having that issue UM today,

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you know, even as it relates
to these bank failures. M. So

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there's too much debt that's been increasing
geometrically, the economy is going backwards,

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if anything. I mean, and
where is that going to leave us here?

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You know, that's a great question. Hy. You know, I

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think we're in a situation right now. First of all, let's let's talk

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about the banks. UM. You
know, they said that there's no bailout,

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so it's been a no bailout bailout
UM, you know, which is

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really when you're bailing out the banks
the only way to do that. Um.

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It's it's you know, you can't
create money out of thin air without

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printing it. And that's really what
they're doing. And that's in essence,

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another round of of quantitative easing.
So you know that that adds to inflation,

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because if you actually look at the
Fed's balance sheet at least what they

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reported, what they removed from it, um and then what they added back

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on. UM. You know,
we wiped away um any any assets or

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any any liabilities that that we took
off. So really, in essence,

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that's a that's another round of quantitative
easing, which just continues to add to

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the inflationary pressure. And when you
think about small businesses, you know,

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that is the lifebread of our country, Okay, And as they continue to

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raise rates, the credit continues to
tighten, and small businesses they need that

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credit to continue to grow and expand. And you know, if they continue

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to slow down the economy, which
is obviously what their goal is, it's

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really going to to crush. And
I think a storm is brewn. I

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really do a week. I think
I said it the last time we talked.

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You know, I think we're in
for a recession. That's deep and

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the fact that the FEDS even said
that we're in for a mild recession.

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I can't remember the last time they
ever admitted to whether it inflation and recession

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or anything. You know, that
just kind of leads me to believe that,

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you know, a storm is brought, all right, so the storm's

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brewing, So what do you do
about it? How do you protect yourself

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from the storm? You don't want
to be out in the middle of the

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Atlantic when humongous hurricane hits. I
mean I was just in Florida and a

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couple of weeks ago, the well, it was a week ago actually a

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hurricane tornado EF two tornado hit five
hundred feet away, and I was oblivious

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to it until I went outside and
saw all the damage. Wow. But

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then it occurred to me, you
know, it could have been me in

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there. I could have been hit
by that tornado and I didn't even take

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it seriously. Yeah, And you
know what pedis, what a great analogy.

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I think that's where we're seeing right
now because we're getting so many mixed

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messages, you know, from you
know those on TV. Hey don't worry,

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We're in the middle of a bullmarket. He know, to the Treasury

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to the Feds. Hey, you
know, everything is fine, don't worry

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about it. The banking a system
is fine, don't worry about it.

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The US dollar is strong, don't
worry about it. And you know what's

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the the old Singo ignorance is bliss
right. Um. You know, for

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us, it's all about the hedge. Um. You know that there's a

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slowdown because last time we talked,
you know, we were we were betting

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on oil. Um. You know, with China opening up, you know,

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we thought that the demand was going
to be high. But the fact

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that it has dropped significantly. I'm
just just in the last forty five sixty

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days. You know, that's telling
us that it's not just the US,

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it's a it's a global slowdown.
Um. So so what do you do?

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Um? You know, for for
us, you know, it's being

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liquid. You know, you've got
to have a little bit in the market.

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But you know, I really like
gold, um. You know,

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not just you know, the the
gold and silver stocks, um, but

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you know as as well as the
mining stocks. But you know, the

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physical You've got to really hedge against
the US dollar right now because if they

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continue to print the way that they
are then you need to figure out,

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okay, well what's a good storage
of of value um And you know,

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when it comes to the stock market, you know, again, I still

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believe there's a couple really good companies
out there that have very strong balance sheets.

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And you know, even if they
have hipcups, you know, I

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think, you know, as far
as a long term play, you know,

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those value companies, whether they're dividend
or not, that just have really

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strong balance sheets, that's that's really
the place to go right down and have

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a large portion of your portfolio in
money markets, short term treasury, so

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that it's liquid enough that if and
when things turn around, you know,

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you can take advantage of some really
good buys. All right, So I'm

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buying what you're saying. But you
know, so you want to load up

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on liquidity obviously wherever possible. What
about this concept of paying down debt.

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I mean a lot of financial advisors
say you should do it. But when

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you got inflation, if double digits, your debt's getting effectively paid down by

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the Fed? Isn't it that?
That's exactly I agree completely, yes,

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yes, and that's exactly it.
Didn't you know, I'm paying down debt

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right now, I know cash is
king, but you know, especially if

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you have a low interest rate,
it doesn't make sense. Now obviously if

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you have credit cards and you're paying
you know, twenty twenty five percent,

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you know, I mean whatever you
ball, you're you're buying again every four

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or five years if you're just making
the minimum payment. So those are probably

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that's the type of debt that you
want to get rid of. Um.

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But you know, as far as
the long term low interest rates debt site,

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I just you know, hang on
to him. I would not pay

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them off at least that's what we're
recommending to our language trist rate debt.

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We're talking yeah, five percent or
less, that's absolutely well, you know,

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we're we're looking at it. Depending
on the math, you know,

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for your pretical as we're saying about
five in a quarter. So it everyone's

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situations a little bit different, but
usually the average that we've been when we're

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running through our debt calculator, it's
usually about five in a quarter, right,

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Okay, So, um, hey, I got a h one of

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our our FSN community members set the
question that I don't feel qualified to answer,

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but perhaps you can. She said, she's considering putting in solar,

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all right, or two reasons A
to bring down her monthly payment. Three

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reasons B because there's a thirty percent
to tax credit. And see in case

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there's disruption of the grid. The
rate on that is about six or eight

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percent. But she immediately effectively it's
like it's on sale or seventy cents,

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right, because you get that thirty
cents on the dollar picker, and then

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you believe she can save somewhere about
two to three thousand dollars per year at

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current rates. Is that a good
thing to do, assuming they've got the

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money in their liquid and high handle
it. You know what, I agree

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with you. I'm not sure I'm
qualified to give it an opinion, an

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expert opinion on that. But ironically, I had a conversation with a gentleman

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today who's a contractor and he installs
the solar panels on the roofs, and

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I asked him today, I said, you know, what is the break

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even? Because we're here in Ohio, And he said, you know,

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if you're here in Ohio, even
with the the thirty percent discount, you

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know your break even on that is, you know a little over ten years

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now. Obviously, if you're in
Florida or you know, Arizona, it's

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a much shorter time tour. But
I think those are the things that you

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really need to look at Holm before
he delve into it. Yeah. I

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think she was in um maybe New
Mexico. So that's one of those places

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that gets sun even better than Florida
because they don't really get rain in the

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Southwest. Right, Yeah, and
I would venture just hey, just as

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you know, a shot in the
dark, they their break even is probably

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going to be you know, around
three years, maybe even last, just

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because they have sun so often.
But you know, again it's that's I'm

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not qualified really to to answer that
on its marriag. It looks like it

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might be a good deal, but
you know, I don't know for sure,

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Okay, all right, well it
sounds like it's certainly worth looking at,

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especially if you're large tax bill and
if you're in high bracket, you

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know, well, it doesn't even
matter or you will, it doesn't matter

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what your bracket is. You're getting
a tax credit. So if even if

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you can't use it all this year, you can carry it forward to subsequent

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years. And that's right, you
know, at seventy percent at thirty.

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It's effectively a thirty percent off sale
sponsored by Uncle Sam. Now we could

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mart these remind all of us.
Yeah, whether it's a smart move or

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not, probably not. But on
the other hand, oil supply issues are

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definitely going to come into play.
So you see substantial increases in energy and

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utility rates, right, you know, I still see rates going up.

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I mean you can't help but to
think that they're going to just because we're

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not producing any energy here, we're
still importing it. So you know,

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when demand turns around, Um,
yeah, it's it's going to shoot up.

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I mean it's you know, they
have the monopoly on it, and

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and we're kind of in um in
handcuffs. We're we're we're playing catchup as

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far as that goes. Yeah,
alright, so high paying debt, we

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want to be get rid of low
coupon debt and actually play it to a

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better financial strategy. Then yes,
absolutely so Jobs, jobs, jobs,

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you know, we get these lowery
lowing job and reports. Do you believe

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them? You know? I mean
it's just like the unemployment numbers. I

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mean they're they're all stewed. Um. You know, once you've been unemployed

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for over a year, you're off
the roles, um, and there's no

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way to know what those numbers are
and what actually what kind of jobs they're

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actually counting. Um. You know, in best case scenario, like I

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said before, I think that these
are second and third jobs and with no

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benefits, and that really doesn't help
you know, the working class by by

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any stretch of the imagination. And
they're the ones that are struggling right now,

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you know, accumulating all the credit
card debt just to be able to

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you know, keep up with inflation. Yeah, just to buy groceries at

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Walmart, right, yeah? Yeah, Well you know what's bad when Whole

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Foods, um, you know,
the the the average shopper there is no

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longer shopping at Whole Foods, in
shopping at the Walmart supercenters. I mean,

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that's that's kind of the telltale sign
right there. Hey, you know

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they used to call it a whole
paycheck once upon a time. Now they've

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renamed it its whole life savings.
Yeah, very true, very true.

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All right, So inflation beaters,
like besides eating spam instead of steak,

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doing less, how do you get
more out of your money? Well,

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that's the million dollar question, isn't
it um. You know, just those

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assets, um, whatever it is, whether it's gold, silver, land,

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real estate, you know, those
things that are not going to continue

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to devalue. As far as buying
food, you know, shopping at those

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stores where you can get good deals, whether it's an Ald, Walmart,

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whatever it is, Costco um,
where you're getting better discounts, and you

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know, the the average price is
already the sale price. UM. I

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think in Walmart's report that came out
in November, UH actually said that you

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know, those customers that that were
shopping already at Walmart, they're now buying

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the the generic brands. And you
know those that were at Whole Foods UM

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are now shopping at Walmart. So
instead of buying those name brands, you

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know, everyone's kind of stretching those
dollars, you know a little bit further.

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But you know, here in Ohio, what we're seeing is you know,

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a whole another economy as it relates
to these local farmers and how these

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these farming stands and you know they're
selling you know, meats, chickens and

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in cows and in pigs and neighbors
kind of going back and forth, and

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you know, the grass fed beef
and it's actually cheaper than what you're getting

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in the store. So you know, maybe getting together with a couple families

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and everyone, you know, maybe
buying a quarter of a cow, you

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know, and and stretch that dollar, you know, and have a go

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a lot further. And plus it's
healthier for you, hey and h Plus

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stop buying processed foods. Maybe that's
absolutely you've got a junk. At least

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make the junk from scratch. You
know, going out fast food is more

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expensive than making the stuff at home. Oh it is. I just heard

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that McDonald's is raising their value meals. I think now it's up to nine

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dollars. I mean, my goodness, it's it's fast food, but it's

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definitely not cheap. And you know, I'm not sure how healthy it is

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either. No, we know about
the health aspects. It's garbage and it's

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gonna be deaf impact not just your
lifespan, but quality of life while you

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are alive. So oh, yes, let's not bother with that. But

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hey, there's we could go over
a lot here. But I kind of

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like the idea of bulk shop shopping. Let's stick to your list, don't

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go buying like on a shopping binge
at Costco. Buy this really need because

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you will save money if you buy
a case of paper towels rather than buying

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onesie two zie at the supermarket.
If you buy a case of toilet paper,

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all that stuff, Plus it's a
lot less aggravating because you never run

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out of stuff when you buy it
in bulk. Hey, Eddie, appreciate

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your coming on giving us insights into
these important matters. If we want to

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00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:48,279
reach you, where do you inhabit
these days? And you can reach us

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00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,559
at EGSI financial dot com. That
is going to be the best place to

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00:15:52,559 --> 00:15:56,720
find us, eg SI financial dot
com. That is in the show notes

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00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:03,399
on this interview on Financial Survival Network
dot com. When you're there, make

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00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:07,120
sure you go sign up for your
free newsletter. If you got a question

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00:16:07,159 --> 00:16:11,559
for Eddie or myself, k l
at Carrie Lutz. That's the magic email

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00:16:11,559 --> 00:16:15,039
address and we'll get you an answer
quick. Eddie, always a pleasure,

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Thanks so much for stopping by.
Hey, thanks for having me, Thanks

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00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:23,879
for listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival
Network, your solution to today's trying times.

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00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:30,159
For the latest, go to Financial
Survival Network dot com. Financial Survival

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00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,639
Network now more than ever,