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Welcome you are watching listening to the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host,
Carrie Lutts. Well, Banks and jobs that's all anybody's talking about now.
And the question is, hey, what does it mean to you? What
does it mean to the economy, to your investment portfolio and to your retirement.
And on that note, we got Ed Sidel with us again. Ed.
It's always great to have you on. So, Hey, jobs numbers,
they look maybe better than they really are. You know, well,
first of all, thanks for having me back. And you know, I
do I think they're misleading. I think a lot of the jobs that we're
seeing right now, um are not career jobs. They may be second and
third jobs, which is um you know, telling us that people love you
know, they're they're not needing ends meet and so they're they're having to get
the second and third jobs. You know, I don't think these are the
ones that that have the healthcare, in the four one K in the retirement
all the other benefits that come along with it. UM. But you know,
the big thing that it's telling me more than anything else, is that
what what the Feds are doing is it's it's not working, um. And
they're they're trying to slow down the economy. They're trying to punish small businesses
UM for something that they have no control over. When I'm talking about is
you know, the government overspending. I mean, that's that's the issue,
that's where the problem lies. And we're still having that issue UM today,
you know, even as it relates to these bank failures. M. So
there's too much debt that's been increasing geometrically, the economy is going backwards,
if anything. I mean, and where is that going to leave us here?
You know, that's a great question. Hy. You know, I
think we're in a situation right now. First of all, let's let's talk
about the banks. UM. You know, they said that there's no bailout,
so it's been a no bailout bailout UM, you know, which is
really when you're bailing out the banks the only way to do that. Um.
It's it's you know, you can't create money out of thin air without
printing it. And that's really what they're doing. And that's in essence,
another round of of quantitative easing. So you know that that adds to inflation,
because if you actually look at the Fed's balance sheet at least what they
reported, what they removed from it, um and then what they added back
on. UM. You know, we wiped away um any any assets or
any any liabilities that that we took off. So really, in essence,
that's a that's another round of quantitative easing, which just continues to add to
the inflationary pressure. And when you think about small businesses, you know,
that is the lifebread of our country, Okay, And as they continue to
raise rates, the credit continues to tighten, and small businesses they need that
credit to continue to grow and expand. And you know, if they continue
to slow down the economy, which is obviously what their goal is, it's
really going to to crush. And I think a storm is brewn. I
really do a week. I think I said it the last time we talked.
You know, I think we're in for a recession. That's deep and
the fact that the FEDS even said that we're in for a mild recession.
I can't remember the last time they ever admitted to whether it inflation and recession
or anything. You know, that just kind of leads me to believe that,
you know, a storm is brought, all right, so the storm's
brewing, So what do you do about it? How do you protect yourself
from the storm? You don't want to be out in the middle of the
Atlantic when humongous hurricane hits. I mean I was just in Florida and a
couple of weeks ago, the well, it was a week ago actually a
hurricane tornado EF two tornado hit five hundred feet away, and I was oblivious
to it until I went outside and saw all the damage. Wow. But
then it occurred to me, you know, it could have been me in
there. I could have been hit by that tornado and I didn't even take
it seriously. Yeah, And you know what pedis, what a great analogy.
I think that's where we're seeing right now because we're getting so many mixed
messages, you know, from you know those on TV. Hey don't worry,
We're in the middle of a bullmarket. He know, to the Treasury
to the Feds. Hey, you know, everything is fine, don't worry
about it. The banking a system is fine, don't worry about it.
The US dollar is strong, don't worry about it. And you know what's
the the old Singo ignorance is bliss right. Um. You know, for
us, it's all about the hedge. Um. You know that there's a
slowdown because last time we talked, you know, we were we were betting
on oil. Um. You know, with China opening up, you know,
we thought that the demand was going to be high. But the fact
that it has dropped significantly. I'm just just in the last forty five sixty
days. You know, that's telling us that it's not just the US,
it's a it's a global slowdown. Um. So so what do you do?
Um? You know, for for us, you know, it's being
liquid. You know, you've got to have a little bit in the market.
But you know, I really like gold, um. You know,
not just you know, the the gold and silver stocks, um, but
you know as as well as the mining stocks. But you know, the
physical You've got to really hedge against the US dollar right now because if they
continue to print the way that they are then you need to figure out,
okay, well what's a good storage of of value um And you know,
when it comes to the stock market, you know, again, I still
believe there's a couple really good companies out there that have very strong balance sheets.
And you know, even if they have hipcups, you know, I
think, you know, as far as a long term play, you know,
those value companies, whether they're dividend or not, that just have really
strong balance sheets, that's that's really the place to go right down and have
a large portion of your portfolio in money markets, short term treasury, so
that it's liquid enough that if and when things turn around, you know,
you can take advantage of some really good buys. All right, So I'm
buying what you're saying. But you know, so you want to load up
on liquidity obviously wherever possible. What about this concept of paying down debt.
I mean a lot of financial advisors say you should do it. But when
you got inflation, if double digits, your debt's getting effectively paid down by
the Fed? Isn't it that? That's exactly I agree completely, yes,
yes, and that's exactly it. Didn't you know, I'm paying down debt
right now, I know cash is king, but you know, especially if
you have a low interest rate, it doesn't make sense. Now obviously if
you have credit cards and you're paying you know, twenty twenty five percent,
you know, I mean whatever you ball, you're you're buying again every four
or five years if you're just making the minimum payment. So those are probably
that's the type of debt that you want to get rid of. Um.
But you know, as far as the long term low interest rates debt site,
I just you know, hang on to him. I would not pay
them off at least that's what we're recommending to our language trist rate debt.
We're talking yeah, five percent or less, that's absolutely well, you know,
we're we're looking at it. Depending on the math, you know,
for your pretical as we're saying about five in a quarter. So it everyone's
situations a little bit different, but usually the average that we've been when we're
running through our debt calculator, it's usually about five in a quarter, right,
Okay, So, um, hey, I got a h one of
our our FSN community members set the question that I don't feel qualified to answer,
but perhaps you can. She said, she's considering putting in solar,
all right, or two reasons A to bring down her monthly payment. Three
reasons B because there's a thirty percent to tax credit. And see in case
there's disruption of the grid. The rate on that is about six or eight
percent. But she immediately effectively it's like it's on sale or seventy cents,
right, because you get that thirty cents on the dollar picker, and then
you believe she can save somewhere about two to three thousand dollars per year at
current rates. Is that a good thing to do, assuming they've got the
money in their liquid and high handle it. You know what, I agree
with you. I'm not sure I'm qualified to give it an opinion, an
expert opinion on that. But ironically, I had a conversation with a gentleman
today who's a contractor and he installs the solar panels on the roofs, and
I asked him today, I said, you know, what is the break
even? Because we're here in Ohio, And he said, you know,
if you're here in Ohio, even with the the thirty percent discount, you
know your break even on that is, you know a little over ten years
now. Obviously, if you're in Florida or you know, Arizona, it's
a much shorter time tour. But I think those are the things that you
really need to look at Holm before he delve into it. Yeah. I
think she was in um maybe New Mexico. So that's one of those places
that gets sun even better than Florida because they don't really get rain in the
Southwest. Right, Yeah, and I would venture just hey, just as
you know, a shot in the dark, they their break even is probably
going to be you know, around three years, maybe even last, just
because they have sun so often. But you know, again it's that's I'm
not qualified really to to answer that on its marriag. It looks like it
might be a good deal, but you know, I don't know for sure,
Okay, all right, well it sounds like it's certainly worth looking at,
especially if you're large tax bill and if you're in high bracket, you
know, well, it doesn't even matter or you will, it doesn't matter
what your bracket is. You're getting a tax credit. So if even if
you can't use it all this year, you can carry it forward to subsequent
years. And that's right, you know, at seventy percent at thirty.
It's effectively a thirty percent off sale sponsored by Uncle Sam. Now we could
mart these remind all of us. Yeah, whether it's a smart move or
not, probably not. But on the other hand, oil supply issues are
definitely going to come into play. So you see substantial increases in energy and
utility rates, right, you know, I still see rates going up.
I mean you can't help but to think that they're going to just because we're
not producing any energy here, we're still importing it. So you know,
when demand turns around, Um, yeah, it's it's going to shoot up.
I mean it's you know, they have the monopoly on it, and
and we're kind of in um in handcuffs. We're we're we're playing catchup as
far as that goes. Yeah, alright, so high paying debt, we
want to be get rid of low coupon debt and actually play it to a
better financial strategy. Then yes, absolutely so Jobs, jobs, jobs,
you know, we get these lowery lowing job and reports. Do you believe
them? You know? I mean it's just like the unemployment numbers. I
mean they're they're all stewed. Um. You know, once you've been unemployed
for over a year, you're off the roles, um, and there's no
way to know what those numbers are and what actually what kind of jobs they're
actually counting. Um. You know, in best case scenario, like I
said before, I think that these are second and third jobs and with no
benefits, and that really doesn't help you know, the working class by by
any stretch of the imagination. And they're the ones that are struggling right now,
you know, accumulating all the credit card debt just to be able to
you know, keep up with inflation. Yeah, just to buy groceries at
Walmart, right, yeah? Yeah, Well you know what's bad when Whole
Foods, um, you know, the the the average shopper there is no
longer shopping at Whole Foods, in shopping at the Walmart supercenters. I mean,
that's that's kind of the telltale sign right there. Hey, you know
they used to call it a whole paycheck once upon a time. Now they've
renamed it its whole life savings. Yeah, very true, very true.
All right, So inflation beaters, like besides eating spam instead of steak,
doing less, how do you get more out of your money? Well,
that's the million dollar question, isn't it um. You know, just those
assets, um, whatever it is, whether it's gold, silver, land,
real estate, you know, those things that are not going to continue
to devalue. As far as buying food, you know, shopping at those
stores where you can get good deals, whether it's an Ald, Walmart,
whatever it is, Costco um, where you're getting better discounts, and you
know, the the average price is already the sale price. UM. I
think in Walmart's report that came out in November, UH actually said that you
know, those customers that that were shopping already at Walmart, they're now buying
the the generic brands. And you know those that were at Whole Foods UM
are now shopping at Walmart. So instead of buying those name brands, you
know, everyone's kind of stretching those dollars, you know a little bit further.
But you know, here in Ohio, what we're seeing is you know,
a whole another economy as it relates to these local farmers and how these
these farming stands and you know they're selling you know, meats, chickens and
in cows and in pigs and neighbors kind of going back and forth, and
you know, the grass fed beef and it's actually cheaper than what you're getting
in the store. So you know, maybe getting together with a couple families
and everyone, you know, maybe buying a quarter of a cow, you
know, and and stretch that dollar, you know, and have a go
a lot further. And plus it's healthier for you, hey and h Plus
stop buying processed foods. Maybe that's absolutely you've got a junk. At least
make the junk from scratch. You know, going out fast food is more
expensive than making the stuff at home. Oh it is. I just heard
that McDonald's is raising their value meals. I think now it's up to nine
dollars. I mean, my goodness, it's it's fast food, but it's
definitely not cheap. And you know, I'm not sure how healthy it is
either. No, we know about the health aspects. It's garbage and it's
gonna be deaf impact not just your lifespan, but quality of life while you
are alive. So oh, yes, let's not bother with that. But
hey, there's we could go over a lot here. But I kind of
like the idea of bulk shop shopping. Let's stick to your list, don't
go buying like on a shopping binge at Costco. Buy this really need because
you will save money if you buy a case of paper towels rather than buying
onesie two zie at the supermarket. If you buy a case of toilet paper,
all that stuff, Plus it's a lot less aggravating because you never run
out of stuff when you buy it in bulk. Hey, Eddie, appreciate
your coming on giving us insights into these important matters. If we want to
reach you, where do you inhabit these days? And you can reach us
at EGSI financial dot com. That is going to be the best place to
find us, eg SI financial dot com. That is in the show notes
on this interview on Financial Survival Network dot com. When you're there, make
sure you go sign up for your free newsletter. If you got a question
for Eddie or myself, k l at Carrie Lutz. That's the magic email
address and we'll get you an answer quick. Eddie, always a pleasure,
Thanks so much for stopping by. Hey, thanks for having me, Thanks
for listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times.
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