In this week’s edition of Wealthion’s Weekly Market Recap, Andrew Brill highlights key insights from our expert guests:
Could hyperinflation be on the horizon? We analyze the warning signs and reveal why gold stocks could be your ultimate hedge. Renowned tax expert Mark J. Kohler unveils the top financial freedom and smart tax strategies for wealth preservation. Geopolitical expert David Woo explains why an Israel-Iran conflict and a Trump victory could actually be bearish for oil. We break down the economic plans of the presidential candidates, analyzing the potential impact of a red vs. blue economy on your investments. Don’t miss this crucial market update packed with actionable insights to protect and grow your wealth!
Investment Concerns? Get a free portfolio review with Wealthion’s endorsed financial advisors at https://bit.ly/4dX0tw1
Hard Assets Alliance – The Best Way to Invest in Gold and Silver: https://www.hardassetsalliance.com/?aff=WTH
Andrew Brill 00:00
Economic data and earnings move the market this week. If you need help navigating all of this, you can head to wealthion.com/free for a free no obligation financial review. I’m your host. Andrew brill, we have a programming note for you this Tuesday, election day, we will be live with Anthony Scaramucci to look at early polling results and what he’s hearing and once again, look at each candidate’s economic policies and how they’ll affect you, and then we’ll be live again Wednesday at noon to see who will occupy the White House for the next four years. Now let’s get to the recap and see what our experts had to say this week, after the response to Iran by Israel, David Wu joined us again, doing an about face with his ideas about the market and oil. He also discussed Turkey’s role in the Middle East conflict. David touched on foreign policy under either presidential candidate and the impact Trump would have on the commodities market.
James Connor 01:02
So I want to ask you about Turkey now, Turkey’s been very much against Israel and what they’ve done in the Middle East, and they said this past weekend that they have brought our region to the brink of a greater war following the strikes on Iran. And Turkey’s been a very harsh critic of Israel’s and their military operations in Gaza and also Lebanon. What are your thoughts on, on what Turkey
David Woo 01:24
is irrelevant? I mean, Turkey is right now. You’re looking at an economy that is struggling, that are the ones approval rating is low, and then, you know, and is that Turkey is the non player. Turkey talks big, but I didn’t even they what is it going to do? What is it going to do? And so from that point of view, I think, again, I think the issue here is also what Turkey says is not very often. It’s not necessarily consistent of what it does. In fact, you know, we have seen very little action. Turkey has been talking very big against Israel, but it’s pulled very few real punches. Okay, so I think, from that point of view, like, I don’t think Turkey, in overall scheme of things, matters, sure. I think what’s interesting is that Turkey now is, I think the big news last week is the fact that Turkey is one of the applicants to, uh, to the bricks, actually. So Turkey is going to be the first NATO member applying to joy bricks. So I think this is going to get very interesting, because, as you know, Trump and Erdogan did not get along. Wow. And I don’t know to what extent Erdogan is already trying to hedge himself, but this is going to get very interesting. Okay, that Turkey is now playing up to Russia. But then again, Turkey has always been Turkey. Turkey is opportunistic. Okay, they’re gonna basically, you know, they’re gonna go wherever the wind is blowing them. And I think, you know, from that point of view, they sit in between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. That’s probably the only way they can go so far, you know, like, the Turkish economy is doing very poorly against this whole backdrop of polarizing, you know, polarization we’ve seen in the in the world economy. Turkey cannot compete with China on manufacturing, okay? And then, so, from that point of view, like, you know, Turkey is also feeling, I mean, I mean, I would say that Turkey’s economic destiny, okay, is now looking more questionable than any time in the last 20 years.
James Connor 03:28
So let’s talk about the oil price. You mentioned earlier that you’re advising your clients to sell, and even last week, when we spoke, you said, if oil does catch a bit, or if it pops, use it as an opportunity to sell into it, because you thought the oil price would go lower. It’s currently down 5% today, and it looks like it wants to head down to 60 bucks a barrel. What are your thoughts on oil here in the coming weeks?
David Woo 03:50
I think, again, as you know, like, I think I’m very bullish on Trump. I think, you know, I think Trump is going to win. I think it’s going to be a landslide. I don’t even think it’s going to be that close. And I think Trump, because Trump is going to be facing a massive US budget deficit. Okay, I don’t think, I think the market’s wrong in thinking that Trump is going to go in and blow up the deficit even more like, you know, I think, you know, people tend to think the worst of Donald J Trump. I think Trump, I think, is going to try to basically go for the low lying fruit, okay, which is, get the economy growing, okay, 3% a year. If the economy can grow 3% a year for the next four years, the deficit will come down to 3% GDP by the end of his second term. And how are you going to do that? He’s going to do that through a combination of basically very aggressive, massive deregulations, and he’s going to do that by increasing oil production, you know, again, under Trump 1.0 us, oil production went up by 4 million barrels per day, okay, before, you know, COVID came along. Okay. Now we’ve only like and then went down and all. Under Biden has made a, slowly recovery. We’re now back to where we were at the end of basically 2019 so it’s possible that, you know, under Trump 2.0 we can see another 3 million barrel increase per day of oil production, and that’s going to drive oil prices to the roof, I mean, to the floor, actually. And then on top of that, we, you know, Chinese oil demand is very weak, especially as China is trying to, you know, transition out of petrol cars into EVs, which I think is only going to celebrate last month, you know, last three months, with the first time ever that more than 50% of Chinese car sales were EVs, okay. And I think from that point of view, the combination of rising oil product, rising US oil production, and basically weak Chinese oil demand, not to mention the fact that the Russians, the Saudis, everybody, want to basically produce more next year, and the non OPEC productions going through the roof, like I think oil price is probably going to be hitting much low.
James Connor 05:58
So this is a good segue to my next question. You talked about the election and if, and I want to ask you about the election, just in terms of foreign policy, and if Harris wins, I’m assuming it’s business as usual as it pertains to foreign policy. What happens if Trump wins? And I guess I want to first start with the Middle East. I
David Woo 06:16
think Trump win is, I think, you know, I think Biden has brought the world to the edge of world war three. Okay, I think Trump is going to basically get in and pull the world back from world war three. The fact is that Trump was the first US president since Jimmy Carter, who did not send us troops into new US foreign conflicts. I mean, I don’t even recall. Most of your viewers probably don’t in September 2022, months before the US election in 2020, Trump came out publicly attacking his own generals, saying that they were unnecessarily prolonging the foreign conflicts the US was involved in so that their buddies at defense contractors can sell more planes, more tanks and get more people killed. So I think from that point of view, Trump has nothing. I mean, listen, put it this way, many US politicians have been basically under the thumb of the defense industry, which is now a trillion dollar industry. Trump does not play to that industry. Trump thinks that, you know, like, you know, the deficit is already big enough. We need to basically spend money that can help the average person to improve, is basically the quality of life, as opposed to trying to basically feed the, you know, industrial, you know, defense machine to get more people killed around the world. So I think, from that point of view, I think Trump is going to end the Ukraine war very quickly by essentially the pulling back us support for Zelensky, that’s going to force Zelensky to basically do a deal with Putin. Now that I’m not saying that Trump is going to make it easy for Putin. It’s going to be tough negotiation ahead, but Trump is going to be knocking their heads together until they basically do a deal. And then I think, as far as China’s concerned, I think Trump is going to be a re Trump is going to be a tough negotiator, no doubt about that. But Trump is a negotiator. That’s a difference, because Biden didn’t even negotiate. The way that Biden deal with China is like every three months, Biden will send another senior guy to Beijing and said, You know what you guys better do, exactly what we tell you. Otherwise we’re going to screw you up, which is what the Americans did, okay? So as a result, there has been no negotiation between US and China for the last four years. I mean, the relationship between US and China is now at the worst, ever worse, ever okay. So from that point of view, like I think, let’s put it this way, the bar for Trump is very low and and I have good reasons, especially given what Trump did in the first term, I have very good reason to believe that he’s going to be great. Okay, I don’t think he’ll be that great for Canada, where you are, because I think Trudeau is a total loser. But other than that, I think basically, like, I think Trump is going to do very well. I think for countries that want to basically, really seriously do something good for their own people, to find win win situation. Trump doesn’t care about ideology. He has no he’s not a he’s he’s not a super capitalist, he’s not a super socialist, he’s nothing. He’s a pragmatist. And that’s what we need in America.
Andrew Brill 09:19
Hi everyone. I’m one of your hosts here at wealthion. Andrew brill, in these weird economic times where the market is up, then it could go down. A lot of people calling for a correction. Some people think it’s just going to keep going up. But if you need help being financially resilient, head over to wealthion.com/free. And we’ll give you a free no obligation. We don’t expect anything from you. We’ll just help you evaluate your portfolio and let you know what we can do to help. Again, head over to wealthion.com/free for a free, no obligation, portfolio review, and let us do the heavy lifting for you. Chris Mancini of a Gabelli funds joined wealthion. Week and talked gold as being a way to hedge against asset price inflation. He also pondered whether or not gold could reach 3000 next year. Chris talked about central banks aggressively acquiring gold, and why not when cash yields less and buys even less?
James Connor 10:20
So I don’t know if you heard this, but the average price for a ticket to a Yankee game for the World Series is 2000 bucks. And even the cheapest ticket in the four hundreds is 500 bucks minimum. And if even in if you go down to the three hundreds, you’re looking at 1500 bucks.
Chris Mancini 10:37
Yeah. I mean, yeah, I don’t know what to say, like, like, again. I mean, I think it’s amazing. Well, you have, you know, I think part of it really is this big asset price inflation. So, you know, as we know, a lot of New Yorkers are in the markets, you know, work on Wall Street or what have you, and they own assets. They own stocks and houses and things like that, and and, and with the with the rates being, you know, they’ve gone up, but, but historically low and just on their way down now the asset prices, and also, frankly, the huge amount of fiscal stimulus that we’ve seen has has also found its way into the system. So with asset prices going up in a place like New York, where people own stocks and are involved in selling stocks as brokers and things like that, and bankers and whatever, you know, there’s just, it’s it’s amazing. It really is an indication of just how much money has been really pushed into the system.
James Connor 11:39
So let’s talk about that in a little more detail, gold is a great investment to own during these inflationary times. It’s up over 30% on the year, in addition to inflation. What else is driving the gold price?
Chris Mancini 11:52
Well, I think that right now, what’s a big deal is I do think that its rates are coming down. And I think that there was a general sense that as rates went up, the opportunity cost to holding gold, which yields nothing, also went up. And so there were outflows out of gold backed ETFs. And so the gold price did hang in there, Notwithstanding these really huge outflows out of colpax ETFs. And what we’re seeing now is that, with rates starting to decline with the first Fed rate cut, and the view that there will be some more, we’ve actually seen inflows into gold back ETFs. And I think that that’s really the key now, of what’s driving like the day to day move in the gold price. Is this increase in or this purchasing of shares of gold backed ETFs, which then go out and buy the physical gold, and that increases demand. And so I think to the extent that rates continue to decline, we’ll see flows into ETFs and gold will go up. So
James Connor 13:00
Gold is trading around 2700 $2,800 an ounce. Do you have a target price for gold? Where do you see it going a year, two years out?
Chris Mancini 13:10
I mean, I just think that that there’s no specific target price, but we’re in an uptrend now, and these inflows into gold back ETS, I think are very significant. So I think that we will continue to see these flows continue, and as long as they continue, the price will go up. And there’s no reason why it couldn’t go to $3,000 or more from here. That’s a that’s a relatively small move in the context of what’s happened historically in terms of just, you know, from a percentage move perspective, to go to 3000 isn’t such a big deal. And I do think that that’s in the cards next year,
James Connor 13:53
$3,000 is a chip shot. I was hoping you were going to say four or $5,000
Chris Mancini 13:58
I mean, it’s, it’s, yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things where I’ve been involved in this for so long, right, where I’ve been studying and analyzing and looking at the gold price every day of my life for the past 1516, years, whatever it’s business, I’ve been doing this. And the concept of 3000 again, for someone like me is like, never would have thought, because that’s, that’s really an all time high, you know, you know, you know, 2015 years ago would have been something that, that, I, that we would have, you know, said, Oh yeah, that that’s, that’s a ways off. So 3000 Yeah, it’s one of those things. It’s a mindset. But for sure, I mean, when you look at in the content, you know, could 4000 be in the card? Sure, you know, why not? I mean, but you know, when you look at again in the context of what bitcoin does on a monthly basis, it goes from 660 1000 to 70,000 so a similar percentage move for gold, you know, from here would be, I guess, something like 3500 or, you know, something like that. So you. So why not? I guess, is a response to that.
James Connor 15:03
And so you don’t have a target price, per se, but what about what price do you use to value a gold producer?
Chris Mancini 15:10
We do is, you know, we put in the model the spot price. So we assume that the market is valuing the stocks based on the spot price of gold. And so, you know, and then in terms of how we position the portfolio, we try to figure whether or not we are in a bowl, you know, for an uptrend, which stocks would do better if the price of gold were to go up, and which stocks would do worse if the price of gold would go down. And so, you know, to the degree that we think that we’re in a bull will price the stocks at the spot price, but will, but will, you know, we can stress it. We can just plug into our models higher gold prices and see which ones would do better in that scenario. And so, like one example of that, say, is Anglo gold, which is a big producer. It’s relatively high cost, but it had, and it also has debt. So we’re valuing it right now based on the 2750, but I’ll stress it in my models at 3000 and see what it does look like and and you know what it would trade at, at, at those levels. So, so, you know, we use spa, but we we play around to see where they would go in certain circumstances.
James Connor 16:28
So one of the things that really stands out to me is inflation, right? And it’s in spite of what the government says, you know, they say, oh, it’s approaching our 2% target rate. I disagree totally. I think inflation is not going away. I see it pick it up in two picking up again in 2025 the Longshoremen on the West Coast just negotiated a 32% pay increase over six years. The east coast longshoremen negotiated 60% wage increase. We have the Boeing mechanics currently on strike, and this is all going to trickle down to me and you in the coming year, right? And that’s only going to result in higher prices for everything. So what do you think this does, you know, six or 12 months from now to the gold price?
Chris Mancini 17:13
Yeah. I mean, I think that if we’re an environment, I think that, like, almost a best case scenario for gold is like the stagflation area type of environment, because, I think, or an environment like you’re mentioning, in which you know, the economies, well, yeah, weakening somewhat. Rates are coming down, and inflation is really sticky. So in that type of scenario, I do think that people start to say, Well, wait a second, you know, like, like, my cash is yielding less and it’s also purchasing less because of inflation. So, like, you know, that’s when they start to realize, wait a second, I need another asset class. I need something that will hold its value over time. And I think that that’s the really good scenario for gold. So I think that in in that type of environment that you’re talking about, where, because we are seeing the economy start to slow and and in fits and starts, we are seeing the jobs numbers, you know, weekend now, they go up, and they go down there, and they’re kind of seasonally adjusted, and that kind of thing, but, but we have been seeing a weakening in the job market, and we have been seeing unemployment go up partly because we haven’t been seeing as many jobs, and partially because people are coming back into the labor force. So I think that if we are in that environment that you talk about where, where inflation goes up because of of of labor pressure and and jobs in the broad economy start to weaken a little bit like then people will start to freak out a little bit and say, just, you know, let me have some gold.
James Connor 18:53
So we also have to talk about the fact central banks have been very aggressive buyers here in the last few years. I believe they’re acquiring around 25% of all production. Why have central banks been so aggressive in acquiring gold?
Chris Mancini 19:07
Yeah, I think that what’s happening is it was just a huge, this monumental shift. I spoke about this before, but it was, it was really, really a huge shift in the whole paradigm. When the United States and Europe confiscated Russia’s reserves, Russia’s US Dollar and Euro denominated reserves after it invaded Ukraine. And so, you know, Russia thought that they were, you know, these were assets that they had, that they could use in a pinch, and that’s what the their reserves were for and then all of a sudden, boom, you know, with a with a push of a button, essentially, they’re gone and and so I think that other countries are starting to see like they saw that, and especially China, but not just China, and they’re saying, Okay, well. Like, how can my reserve, all of my reserve wealth, our entire nation’s savings, be be placed in an asset which can be taken away just with the push of a button? And so, like, like, conceptually, I think they’re talking about this and going, okay, like this doesn’t make sense. So what can we have that can’t be fit, you know, actually taken away from us, and gold is the answer. I mean, that’s, that’s the one. It’s in a vault. You know, it’s why it’s been money for as long as people have had money. So, so that’s, that’s a huge deal. And I think that that will continue to be like, like a base load source of demand for gold.
Andrew Brill 20:41
Michael Benger, president of gradient investments, manages six and a half billion dollars, and joined speak up with Anthony Scaramucci this week. He talked about economic fundamentals pointing toward a soft landing. Michael talked about gradients, digital discovery portfolio, and compared the economic plans of each presidential candidate
Anthony Scaramucci 21:04
obviously there’s there’s something about you. There’s an X factor, all of that stuff you said, all makes sense, but there’s a niceness about you. I don’t know what the hell it is. I mean, tell me what it is about you that you get these people so motivated. I’ve been to some of your events. You’ve got a great staff. You’ve got people that are very attentive. You’ve got people on your staff that are extremely client centric. So what is it about you? What? What did your grandmother or your mother tell you that you needed to do in terms of treating people that you’ve been deploying a gradient.
Michael Binger 21:42
Yeah, a couple of things there. You know, a long time ago, when I first started out in this business, you know, my father talked to me and he said, Look, one thing you never want to forget is that, you know you’re going to be dealing with big numbers and big trades and a lot of dollars. And don’t ever lose sight that all of those dollars came from someone who worked very hard, probably for their whole life, to save that up and trust you with it. So don’t ever forget that the other thing is, is with gradient investments, I believe in two things. I believe if we provide good, competent product and excellent service, that’s what advisors need, and that will keep people locked in with us and want to partner with us, and I almost lean more. I mean, I hate to say this because we’re Portfolio Manager and investment people, but product is becoming a bit commoditized over time. I think service and access and a people culture and helping advisors, you know, and just being for them is more important these days, and actual the product you’re delivering. I’m
Anthony Scaramucci 22:42
looking at the world right now, and I’m saying, is it possible that the Fed is sticking a soft landing? Is that possible? Okay, we know that. They said it was transitory inflation. They got that wrong. They missed the supply chain. Issues, of snags there. It became more secularized. They racketed rates. Two years ago, you and I were in the House of Pain while they were doing it. They cut 50. Are they going to cut another 50? Do they need to cut another 50? Where’s the economy right now? And if you were the Fed chair, what would you be doing in terms of the interest rate cycle.
Michael Binger 23:21
All right, that’s a lot there. All right, so let’s start out with the soft landing. I mean, I’ve heard the no landing scenario, but I mean, the playbook says, right, if you have extremely high inflation and you have to control it by raising interest rates to bring it down, you run the risk of choking off the economy and going into a recession that clearly didn’t happen. So the Fed is already through its interest rate rising cycle, correct? I mean, now we’re actually cutting rates. So in my opinion, I think we’ve been in a soft landing, or a no landing, or whatever you want to call it. I think we’re already there, and now we, you know, we’re going to have another tailwind to what’s already a strong, strong economy by the Fed, cutting rates at this point in time. So my opinion is, we’ve been in a soft landing. We’ll continue to stay in a pretty strong environment here. You know, there’s a couple of things that you know, I worry about, but if you look at the fundamentals, and that’s, what’s the health of the economy, you know, what’s the profit and losses of the companies that thrive and work in that economy? And then valuation, all three are pretty much in the green, and you can check as a positive right now. So, so, yeah, I think the economy is strong will continue to stay so.
Anthony Scaramucci 24:41
So, I mean, you’re a traditional finance person, you’re offering, you know, super solid advice to people. Is Bitcoin part of that at all? Or is that too avant garde for you guys?
Michael Binger 24:58
It? It is. Not to avant garde, we actually have a digital discovery portfolio. That’s part of our suite of investment strategies in that digital discovery, I mean, that includes things like aI Bitcoin, you know, the metaverse, you know a blockchain, you know, really the the next and upcoming digital economy. We feel bitcoins a part of that. Look, I, I’ve been around in this business, you know, and due to my age and tenure and all that, I may be a little more skeptical than the average person, but, you know, Bitcoin has been here for quite some time. It’s had some success in the marketplace. It’s, you know, there’s ETFs based there, so there’s definitely something here. It’s starting to get a little bit more and more adoption. You know, I can’t really yet go into a store or places like that and buy things with Bitcoin, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you know, 510, years down the road, that’s the case where you can not only use Bitcoin in a US based store, department store. You could use it globally at a department store. Once that starts to really happen, that’s when I think, you know, Bitcoin will really see an inflection point, but the ETFs are a big start. So yes, I’m starting to become more and more of a believer in it, that it’s a valid asset class moving forward. You know,
Anthony Scaramucci 26:17
I’m not going to ask you who you want to win. I’m not going to ask you who you think is going to win, but I do want you to compare the economic plans. Which economic plan in your mind, having looked at both, is better for the US economy. Well,
Michael Binger 26:33
I I honestly think that you know, lower tax rates corporately, are going to help the economy. So that would fall in the on the red side of the equation. I think tariffs. I think anyone who knows economics and all that you know is going to tell you that tariffs are going to, you know, tend to slow the economy and make prices more inflation. So I’m a little torn here. I think our economy will probably do a little bit better if the you know, if the red side gets in office next year, you know, and that’s strictly from a financial economic perspective, you know, I just think that. But I do think some of those policies tend to be a little more short term in nature. But I think all politics tends to be more short term in nature. October
Andrew Brill 27:29
being financial planning month, wealthy and welcomed Mark Kohler back. He’s a lawyer and an accountant, and explained how the economy influences personal finance. Mark is a big proponent of turning your passion into a side hustle which enables you to take advantage of strategic tax write offs while building your wealth. So I think we need to get you a hotline to the federal government to talk about debt and figure that all out. But my question about that is the economy. How much does that play into your planning?
Mark Kohler 28:05
I know this is going to sound a little flippant or crazy, but not at all. I have so many conversations with clients where I’m like, quit worrying about what candidate for president saying about this, or what tax strategy might come or, Oh, inflation. Worry about your own economy. Are you in debt? What’s your side hustle? What’s your side gig? Do you have a rental property? Have you maxed out your Roth or your 401 k if you’re not doing these things on a regular basis, just a little things, then who cares? What’s going on in the country? Let’s worry about our own economy. This is your Switzerland. What are you doing about it? And again, it’s so easy for people to get just stressed out and consumed with everything going on around them, just bring it down a notch. And I know that may sound again a little flippant, or I don’t know the right adjective to use, but I think it really rescues a lot of people that are overwhelmed, and then they go into analysis paralysis, they do nothing, and that’s the worst thing to do, so just freaking take action.
Andrew Brill 29:01
So is there, I agree, and it’s the action that we have to worry about. But when you’re talking about saving, and obviously people have expenses, your kids are grown. Some of mine are grown out of the house. They have to worry about rent. They have to worry about maybe a car payment or gas or whatnot. Budgeting, how important is budgeting and figuring? You know, drop whatever drops. The bottom line is savings, if there is anything there. Yeah.
Mark Kohler 29:26
And that’s where I’ve referenced the side gig or side hustle. A little bit, 50 million Americans now have a 1099, a side hustle or side gig, and so many of them see it as a burden, or I have to work this other job, or I have to do this side hustle or side gig, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, what a blessing. This is the gateway drug to the American dream, because taking that, and this was where it goes, is if I can take that side hustle or side gig, and let’s say, make 1000 a month, just 250 bucks a week, doing something, driving, Uber, DoorDash, whatever, a little side consulting, a little. 1099, on on Upwork. I don’t care. Whatever it is, that’s the money we don’t use to increase our lifestyle. That’s the money we use to save to get out of debt. So that 510, 15 years from now, we’re living like other people want to live, and so I can make that $1,000 tax free, easy. Schmeyz, with a small business making 1000 a month, I’m going to be writing off home, office, auto dining, travel computers, electronic cell phones. All of a sudden, that 1000 is tax free, and that increases your bottom line. And then just with the Roth IRA, we’re talking about seven grand. That’s 500 600 bucks a month. I if I can take my side hustle and realize it’s for a bigger goal, short term pain, for long term gain. Let’s just, let’s get stay focused on that, that side hustle. And
Andrew Brill 30:49
you, when you said side hustle, I kind of heard every one of our viewers go, Oh, God, this guy wants us to get a second job. But it’s not, it’s not a second job. It’s something that, it can be something you really enjoy doing. You know, just for example, my son has a side gig. He actually set himself up as an LLC. Love it. Love it. He’s an essay consultant. He helps kids write college essays. So he gets paid for that, and that goes into his LLC. Now he can write off a piece of his apartment that he pays for in Chicago, where he’s living. He can write off office supplies and he has to buy to help these kids. He can write off part of his internet because he do does zoom meetings. So it can be a passion of yours, something you’re good at, something you really enjoy. It doesn’t have to be a second job. Your Side Hustle. Can be something that you love, yeah,
Mark Kohler 31:36
and I’ll just give two quick examples too. It could be something that you already have a skill set for, that you don’t realize is that valuable, remarkable. You may have the day job in corporate America, but you’ve got a skill set. And if you go out on Upwork and find out how many this you know the side gig website of all time, and go out there and start to offer some consulting services on your specialty, you could be making two, $300 an hour or something around the world, providing some sort of skill set that you didn’t realize is extremely marketable, and you have no glass ceiling now you can just work when you want and work remotely and dial it up, dial it down. Another one that was fun. I had a friend. We were at a campfire once. He was a scout master with me, and he was like, Yeah, I got a side hustle. I’m like, what? But because my account says it’s a pain, we don’t even report the income. I’m like, wow, what are you talking about? And so he had wrote an essay on how to catch a fish. Everywhere he went, he knew how to catch a fish. He’s like, I wrote this essay. I sell it on, on online for about $30 people take pictures, send them in. And I’m like, how much you make in a month? I make four or 500 bucks a month. And I go, that’s awesome. And I go, now you can write off your fishing gear, your fishing trips, your fishing boat and all that. He was like, like, hold it. That’s it. Yeah, that’s a side hustle. Saying, gonna start doing a product. Let’s start doing this. Let’s start selling How To videos. And he’s like, boom, because he just had was passionate about something that he could make extra revenue with. And then we’re gonna part two, drive that revenue into the saving, into the financial investing, so that we can now see a future. So
Andrew Brill 33:07
the strategies for retirement planning and tax savings, a Roth 401, k or a Roth IRA is for retirement purposes. But you don’t always look at it that way, because you’re looking at as a vehicle to grow your money until you get to that point. Are you?
Mark Kohler 33:26
Oh, yeah. I mean, I want to snowball that Roth of five to seven to eight grand, or using the Roth 401, K, 20, 3040, grand a year, and just snowball it into that half a million, into the million. We have to be really active in investing what we know best. If you know stocks, bonds and mutual funds, if you know options, great. Do it. You know cryptocurrency and the metaverse and nfts. Do it. You know real estate. Do it. You know notes. Just invest your retirement money the way you understand and know best to make the best ROI. Don’t leave it to someone else. Don’t just give it to someone else. And absentee management, you’ve got to be engaged in this process, and you can get incredible rates of return, so that when that time comes, you’ve got an exponential retirement. It just, it just grows so quickly.
Andrew Brill 34:15
Again, I I’ll ask the question about the economy. Does the economy play a role in any of this, because right now, the economy depends on who you ask. You ask an economist, the world is ending. You ask an investment person, they’re gonna say, Oh, the economy’s great. Look at how the market’s doing. So are there times to worry a little bit about what you invest in, or times when you say, okay, you know what? The economy is not so great. That’s not a great investment. Let me put some something here. Not that I need. I’m asking you specific places, but are there times when you’re careful about certain things?
Mark Kohler 34:50
Yeah, it’s really interesting. Your question, I would say, when we invest, when my clients and I’ve helped so many, I’ve done my 10,000 consultations. Over the years, I, myself, am an investor in every asset class because I want to show, you, know, forge the way for my clients. If I’m going to talk about it, I better be doing it too, at least to some degree. To me, investing is very localized. You’re when you invest, you’re looking at a specific asset class in a specific area of the economy, or area of the country, geographically. And you may say there’s a certain industry that I want to invest in, because you know it well, the overall economy. Who the hell cares? And what can you do about it? You can’t do anything about it anyway. So find what you know. Know how to get the best rate of return. It’s going to be very personal to you, and specific and localized. And in some ways, that’s your economy, that’s your Switzerland. Do what you know and take control. Be the captain your ship. You’re going to have first mates, you’re going to have a financial advisor, you’re going to have a tax advisor, a legal advisor, but you’re going to be the one in control and talking about it. And you’re all on the same side of the table, this back and forth, where you’re just giving away the control, or not understanding what’s going on. That’s kind of stock that that’s when you really start investing, is when you get at the table with your advisors.
Andrew Brill 36:11
So what do you do with the person who’s not comfortable that’s like, oh, I don’t know stocks, I don’t know real estate. I do my own job, whatever that is, but I’m not comfortable doing these other things. Well, I
Mark Kohler 36:23
think I as an unlicensed investment advisor. Let me just tell you, as a CPA and attorney, open clients around the country. I mean, when you don’t know what to invest in, I’ve always taken Wall Street, and I know this may piss some of you off, but I’ve always said Wall Street is where you park your money until you find something better. And the S, p5, 100 an index fund, no load, drop your money in there, free. That’s what Warren Buffett says, And he outperforms half of the fund managers. So go there first, and then start going to some conferences, going to some classes, studying online. I’ve got a great podcast. Your podcast is great. I mean, there’s so much out there to learn that find what really does excite you. And it may be a small business taking your money and investing in yourself that can be one of the first best investments. And before you just put it into some asset class you don’t understand, and maybe it’s not real estate. Both of you and I are handy. We love to get our hands dirty in real estate. But not everybody likes that. They might be more drawn to the crypto NFT world, which is really exciting for some, and there’s a lot money maybe there too.
Andrew Brill 37:30
So ETFs, you can park your money there, and probably do pretty well. I mean, the S, P is, is done well, I think it’s up considerably this year. So there’s, there’s ways to take care of that. And it’s interesting. You said, go to conferences Now, if you’ve got your side hustle, that conference is now a write off. Yes, absolutely. See how this works. It’s you now have a little bit of a write off because you’ve gone to educate yourself and become clear about some of the things you want to invest in. Yeah, it’s amazing how that works.
Mark Kohler 38:01
It is, and this is where I alluded to this at the beginning. For all of you business owners out there with a with an LLC, your LLC should have an operating agreement, Articles of Organization, a corporate book and board meetings. We call it a board of advisors. Every LLC we set up has that you may have not gotten that at your Legal Zoom setup where you went, click, click, click, online. So let’s get your LLC dialed in and specific to your business, so that LLC can have a board meeting in the holidays. That board meeting might take place with some holiday travel or a conference, or a continuing education course, an investment class, or some sort of workshop that you want to learn more about a certain investment strategy. Well, now you’re combining your small business with investing with your family. It’s all connected, and it’s all a write off. So we’re going to write that whole damn thing off, and now you’re any money you do make in your side hustle or investing tax free. We can put fairy dust on it and just make it tax free,
Andrew Brill 39:02
find your passion, turn it into a side hustle. Doesn’t have to be every day. Can be once a month. You can just get paid a little bit, but the tax implications of that are immense. Yeah, the tax
Mark Kohler 39:14
opportunity, tax planning opportunities, the wealth, building the finance. Because I really think that’s the secret sauce. It is kind of the gas in the engine that makes this whole machine work and and running towards it with the excitement, rather than being befuddled and frustrated and sad and no, this is, this is, this is a wonderful thing that the pandemic was such a terrible time for us in our country, but it was almost also unlocked a lot of new vision and opportunity too, and this ability to work from home, the power of zoom, the power of side hustles, the power of personal planning, and people getting more engaged in their own planning, that was exciting. And side benefit, or, you know, silver lining of that situation. And so I think we can embrace that, and it’s going to unlock so much opportunity.
Andrew Brill 40:10
And I’ll bet, talking to people, talking to clients, prospective clients, you have found that people have things that they’re good at, that they didn’t even and could make a little bit of money, yeah, that they had no idea they could
Mark Kohler 40:21
no illegal and legal
40:25
talk about the illegal stuff,
40:27
no. And
Mark Kohler 40:28
I think when people realize we just we’re human nature, right? We keep our head down, we stay in the weeds. We just take care. But when we can sit back and look and go, Oh, I’ve got some ideas. I’ve got some passion. I’ve got some ideal, you know, some skills. And for a corporate employee that you might have been for years and years, it can seem very scary, kind of going out and starting a small business or starting to create that side income. Well, knowledge takes away fear. And my Main Street business podcast is a great one, where we talk about all the little things of building a business. And there’s so much out there. Again, the education you provide people. Don’t be afraid. Just take a little baby step. Just take action.
Andrew Brill 41:14
Thank you for watching this week’s recap. If you need help planning your financial future, head over to wealthion.com/free for our free, no obligation, financial review and please follow us on social media. All the links are below in the description, if you haven’t done so already, please make sure to like and subscribe to our channel, and don’t forget to turn on notifications so you never miss a video. Thanks again for watching if you like this content and are looking for more ways to keep growing your investments. Watch this video next. Don’t forget to join us this Tuesday at one for a live interview on election day, then again and Wednesday at noon for what we think will be a results show until next time. Stay informed. Be empowered and may your investments flourish. You
