Ep 57: Cash Management For Inflation
The X's & O's
We have been feeling the effects of inflation over the past year and this topic of conversation is quickly becoming a top concern. Brent, Matthew, and Joshua talk about some of the factors that have contributed to the rise of inflation and some of their favorite cash management strategies to protect against this risk.
The Hosts:
Brent Pasqua, Matthew Theal and Joshua Winterswyk
Transcript:
Brent Pasqua: Here we go. Welcome to Retirement Plan Playbook. On today’s show, we’re going to talk about cash management strategies for inflation. Inflation is here, and it’s hitting all of us, so we’re going to get into the weeds of it. I’m Brent Pasqua, founder of RPA Wealth Management. I’m here with Matthew Theal, certified financial planner, and Joshua Winterswyk, certified financial planner. But as we get started, Halloween’s around the corner. Do you guys enjoy this holiday, and what’s your plan for it?
Matthew Theal: I’m not a big Halloween guy, but it is fun to get together, and I kind of signals the kickoff of the holiday season. Right after Halloween, it feels like Thanksgiving’s right around the corner. Then we get into the Christmas season. So, that’s fun. I have a daughter now, so I dress her up, and I’m sure it’ll be more enjoyable for me as she gets a little older and starts doing trick-or-treating.
Joshua Winterswyk: Nice, man. I actually don’t have any plans yet, so yeah. It’s on a Sunday, so it’ll be cool. Football will be on that day, but I’m sure we’ll watch Hocus Pocus, my wife’s favorite holiday or Halloween movie, so I’m sure that’s on the agenda for that day. What about you, Brent?
Brent Pasqua: When you’re younger as a kid, Halloween is great, and then when you get a little bit older, before you have kids, Halloween’s not as exciting. But Halloween for kids is… They are so excited every year for that, and that just makes me excited. I love watching them just have so much fun. So, I’m excited for it because I know how much they look forward to it, and I enjoy how much they get out of trick-or-treating. So, I’m excited to watch them, and they already bought their costumes, and it’ll be fun for them.
Joshua Winterswyk: Nice.
Brent Pasqua: All right. So, let’s get into the headlines. Social Security benefits increased 5.9%. So, essentially, next year’s cost of living adjustment from Social Security, as they announced this last week, is 5.9. The increase will translate to an additional approximation of $92 on average to retirees next year, the largest increase in approximately 40 years. This is substantial. I think it’s important to a lot of people. They’ve wanted to know for a while. Why did Social Security do this, and why such the large increase?
Matthew Theal: Yeah. So, they did this because inflation’s running at 5%, and so that’s how cost of living adjustments work, is your Social Security will be adjusting with the inflation rate, and when the inflation rates come in, it’s already in at 5%, that’s a cue for the government that it’s time to adjust Social Security. So, one thing that’s interesting here is the rate that Social Security was increasing by was actually slightly higher than the inflation rate right now. So then, most people who are just living on Social Security should be made whole, which is pretty cool.
Brent Pasqua: So, is that because they think inflation’s going to be higher throughout next year also? Is that why they’re giving it some gap?
Matthew Theal: Potentially, yeah. That could be one reason why, but if inflation’s higher, is pretty high next year as well, we could probably expect another 5% raise at this time in 2022.
Brent Pasqua: This, I think, is meaningful, not to everybody, but for people who are dependent on Social Security, or there are people who aren’t, necessarily, but this is helpful. I mean, I think any increase is helpful, but a substantial increase like this that provides a little luxury for people to be able to have a little bit more income while things are getting more expensive.
Joshua Winterswyk: No, I definitely agree. It’s a raise, and it’s a raise that was definitely needed after we saw the inflation numbers, and it’s going to be good for everyone that’s receiving this. We know that Social Security is such a big part of retirees’ income in America, so there’s just going to be a lot of people that this is going to affect positively.
Matthew Theal: One thing I’ll say, my last point on this, is if you are an employee, or even if you’re a 1099 and you do contract work, raise your prices by over 5%, and you better hope that your job is giving you that 5% cost of living adjustment next year on your salary, or you’re going to be falling behind. So, I would most likely expect that from your corporation that you work for, or it might be time to explore your options in the job market.
Joshua Winterswyk: That’s a good point because even Medicare’s going up a little bit. Prescription cost is going up a little bit, so it’s going to offset some of that increase. So, if they’re doing it, you might as well be too.
Matthew Theal: Yep.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. I just hope Medicare doesn’t go up so much that it offsets a lot of the increase that people are getting from Social Security. We’ve seen that happen in the past, but I think this increase is large enough where people are going to see some positive gain here.
Joshua Winterswyk: It’s actually only, I think, about 11% of an increase, so it isn’t that big of a percentage that Medicare’s going up relative to the cost of living increase. Again, a positive there for retirees.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. That’s really good to know. All right. Let’s get into the second one. Foreclosures are starting to surge as government private sector programs designed to help homeowners to deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic have begun to expire. Mortgage lenders began the foreclosure process of 25,000 plus properties in the third quarter, a 32% increase from the second quarter. This is somewhat concerning, and I’m curious on how this could also impact housing prices right now.
Matthew Theal: You know, Brent, I’m going to tell you, this is one of those ones where when you read the headline it seems scary, but then when you read the actual article, it’s not scary at all. So, if you’re thinking, you’re waiting at home, you’re thinking there’s going to be a housing crisis, there’s not. Housing prices aren’t going to fall because of this. The average is over 40,000 a quarter. So, we’re below average right now. We’re coming up from such a low base because of the pandemic. So, that’s what’s driving the percent increase. This is kind of neat. It’s really a non-story. If you read the headline it seems scary, but if you read the actual story, you would know that things are actually still really strong.
Joshua Winterswyk: That’s exactly what I thought. When you first read the headline it says, “Surging,” but I don’t think that that’s the right word to describe what’s actually going on. Like you said, it’s below average, and also, right now, housing values have been going up. There’s tons of equity in these homes. So, homeowners do have options. A lot of the mortgage companies have a lot of programs too to even help out with this situation. There’s a lot of jobs out there still too for people to go back to work and get caught up. Again, I don’t think that this is as big of a headline as this article makes it seem.
Brent Pasqua: I think this is probably one of the critical areas of when you look at stories that get released, you just have to probably sift through the data to know whether or not you can make accurate decisions based on what the media is saying, because here’s my problem with this. If somebody’s sitting out there, waiting for house prices to drop, and they get a headline article like this that says something that is making them think that housing prices are to drop, but that’s not actually what’s taking place. This stuff impacts people’s lives.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, absolutely, and they’re not even projecting it to be back to normal levels until middle of next year.
Brent Pasqua: All right. So, let’s get into the Retirement Planning Corner. Let’s get into inflation. Consumer Price Index ratings have come in at 5% or higher on a year-over-year basis for five straight months, undermining the transitory theme put forward by central bankers. Americans should start better managing their cash to earn higher rates on return than banks are currently offering. Today we’re going to get into discussing what are some of our favorite cash management stories to offset inflation and how to deal with inflation. So, first let’s talk about what is inflation.
Matthew Theal: So, inflation is when prices rise in general. So, we’ve been talking about it now for most of the year. A gallon of milk costs $5. Now it costs $5.50. That is inflation. It’s when prices start to rise. On the opposite side there’s deflation, and that’s when prices decrease. You actually don’t want deflation. You want some inflation because we want thing getting better over time.
Brent Pasqua: So, why is inflation a concern for people that will maintain or keep a lot of money in cash?
Matthew Theal: Well, it’s a loss of purchasing power, and if you’re not making at least 5% on your money right now, then you’re losing purchasing power on the cash you’re holding in the back. So, a lot of people are like, “Hey, why is the stock market rallying so much right now? Why are stocks going up?” It’s like, well, one, because corporations are making a ton of money, but two, because we have inflation and stocks are a tremendous hedge against inflation. So, if you’re holding stocks, you’re doing great. Stocks are returning, pull up to 15% on average the last few years, and inflation’s at 5%, so you’re up 10. You’re winning. But on the flip side, if you’re keeping your money in a bank right now, banks are paying zero, and so you’re losing 5% of your money every year. That’s a loss of purchasing power.
Brent Pasqua: So, the stuff that you could’ve bought today is a lot less than what you could be buying in the future if you’re holding your money in cash?
Matthew Theal: Exactly. Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: Why don’t the banks pay a higher interest rate for savers?
Joshua Winterswyk: Well, the bank’s rate that they actually offer for savers are benchmarked to the federal rate, or the fed rate. So, you see mortgage rates are low. That’s also tied to that same rate indirectly, and then also, you have on the opposite side, saving accounts are low. So, when the Federal Reserve comes out and says, “Well, we want to stimulate the economy because we were in this recession,” they’re going to keep interest rates low, so that means it’s good for borrowers. We want spending. We want loans being taken out. But the adverse side to that is for savers it’s a bad thing because, again, that rate is going to be low on the savings accounts for those people.
Matthew Theal: They want investment assets going up too, right? I mean, that’s the whole thing with why the stock market’s going up. They wanted to boost stock prices after the crash during COVID, and so that’s why they cut interest rates, because you have nowhere to put your money, and our clients, a lot of people benefited from this because we knew that. But other people didn’t, and now they’re hurting.
Joshua Winterswyk: They don’t want people saving money. They want people spending money, and it also then helps the economy, when in turn can potentially help the stock market. So, stimulating this economy was the goal. It’s working, but indirectly, it’s also causing some inflation.
Matthew Theal: Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: So, it’s not really the banks or the savings institutions that are determining what their rates are going to be on their CDs or savings accounts or any of these other types of accounts. Is that correct?
Matthew Theal: It is, and it isn’t. So, theoretically, it is the Federal Reserve that sets the rate at which banks borrow at, and so banks do have the capacity to earn a little bit more, to give a little bit more interest, but why would they? I mean, people are sitting on cash at 0%. The banks are making a ton of money. Why would they change it?
Joshua Winterswyk: That’s where they make money. I mean, you think about it, your deposit accounts like savings accounts at the bank are yielding zero, but they’re lending you, let’s say, a personal loan, a mortgage at 3% or 4%. So, that’s their spread. That spread can’t also be too big because you’ll go look for a different bank or different competition. So, they have to stay competitive as well, also being tied to that fed rate, so it all kind of… Multiple variables there, but again, that’s how the banks make money.
Brent Pasqua: All right. So, what are some of our, and your guys’ individually, favorite cash management strategies?
Matthew Theal: I’ll go first. I like a high-yield savings account. I know we recommend Marcus a lot, though, Josh, I hear that you’ve been looking at Ally a little bit.
Joshua Winterswyk: I don’t know if I’d call them high-yield savings accounts. Just online savings accounts.
Matthew Theal: Okay, online savings accounts that typically pay a slightly higher interest rate than traditional Bank of America does.
Joshua Winterswyk: They do, yeah. Bank of America’s probably at 10 basis points right now. If you’re looking at Marcus or Ally, they’re at 50 basis points or half a percent. So, they are better, definitely.
Brent Pasqua: So, they’re high-yield because they’re higher than the bank?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, and they can do that because they’re smaller. They have less overhead. Also, a lot of them are just starting out. They’re relatively new, so they want more deposits so then they can eventually lend that money out. So, they are trying to attract deposits and gain customers, so they’re offering those higher rates.
Matthew Theal: That’s actually a really good point that I don’t think a lot of people realize, and I didn’t even think of, is that the banks are offering, these ones are offering a nice rate because they want you to deposit your money there.
Joshua Winterswyk: They do, yeah.
Matthew Theal: So, then they can lend it out.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, and you can even see that with certain banks. I mean, banks, when you’re seeing a teaser rate or a higher rate than another bank, you can kind of assume that they want those deposits. Why? Potentially, for more lending or whatever their strategy is at that time, but yes.
Brent Pasqua: Insurance companies actually do the same thing.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yes, they do.
Brent Pasqua: So, they’ll offer fixed annuity rates or annuity rates at certain caps, and then they’ll shut that rate down as soon as they get enough deposits.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yep, absolutely.
Matthew Theal: Another one of my favorite ones or one you could do that some people do is using money market accounts or CDs. It’s kind of like the high-yield savings these days. They just don’t pay very good interest. Right?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, and there’s not really too much reason. I mean, money market accounts and savings accounts, yes, money market accounts have a couple more features than a savings account, but not too enticing. I mean, the rates are just so low, and to go back to what you were saying, though, yeah, I’m kind of leaning towards Ally Bank a little bit more recently than Marcus by Goldman Sachs. They just have a couple nicer features, and they’re just a little bit more advanced, I feel like, than Marcus. Marcus does have some limitations.
Brent Pasqua: I feel like Marcus was on a really good track there for a while, but they need to make some adjustments, and I don’t feel like they’ve done that yet.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, not evolving as fast. They have some limitations on wires and titling, and it’s kind of pushed me away from recommending them recently.
Brent Pasqua: I wonder why, too, CDs are still, people are still utilizing them. The rates are low. Why lock up your money? You’re locking in a rate when rates can’t really go much lower, so what’s the benefit there?
Joshua Winterswyk: Not too much benefit besides the benefit to the bank, but I think a lot of times what happens is you go and open up a money market account at Marcus, it’s paying 50 basis points, but then they send you an email saying a CD’s paying you 75. So, although it is higher, even for, let’s say, six months, that spread isn’t big enough to make it worth it for you locking it up. So, I think they get a lot of customers that way as well still buying CDs.
Brent Pasqua: What would be the next tier of option then? If you didn’t like high-yield savings, you didn’t like money market, you didn’t like CDs, where are you going next?
Matthew Theal: You could look at bonds. If you select the right government bond, you could get a decent interest rate. There are some… Oh, gosh. I’m drawing a blank on what they’re called, the education savings bonds. Do you remember-
Joshua Winterswyk: Savings bonds?
Matthew Theal: Yeah, yeah. You could use something like that, or you could actually go to the actual bond market where they’re traded, get maybe a decent rate there, 2%, 1%, a little bit better than the bank, but again, you are introducing some risk.
Brent Pasqua: I think if you’re trying to spend a little bit more time on this to get a little bit more interest, it’s not that much more difficult to try to get maybe a municipal bond where you can get federally and state tax-free. Why would you not just take the extra step to try to get some bonds if you want to keep it conservative? Yeah, you might introduce a slight little element of risk, but why not do maybe a bond fund at this point?
Joshua Winterswyk: I think because it’s… One of the biggest things is it might be foreign. It’s new. You are introducing a little bit of risk, and again, you have to make sure that you don’t necessarily really need that money in the short-term because of that risk, because you are, like you said, going to that next tier. So, we went from safe, no-risk, FDIC-insured accounts, and now you’re using a bond, which does have potentially some fluctuation, although still relatively safe, a little bit higher yield, but again, now you’re moving into a little bit of a different sector.
Brent Pasqua: So, you’re introducing a new tier, essentially, but there could be more benefit to this new tier?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, absolutely, because we’re looking to battle that I word, inflation, so you’re looking to get a little bit more return than those low interest rates we were just talking about for money markets and CDs and savings accounts.
Matthew Theal: Still, where bonds are yielding today, you’re still slightly losing if you’re going this route. You’re just not losing as bad.
Brent Pasqua: Correct.
Joshua Winterswyk: You good make a good point. Yeah. It’s not solving your issue completely.
Matthew Theal: No.
Brent Pasqua: The issue is-
Joshua Winterswyk: That you’re losing purchasing power.
Brent Pasqua: Because of inflation.
Joshua Winterswyk: Exactly.
Brent Pasqua: So, what would be the next favorite cash management strategy if you want to attempt to not be going negative with inflation?
Matthew Theal: You could set up a portfolio of stocks and bonds. You could have your stocks as your inflation hedge, and then if you get your bonds as your stability, you could get a good two-and-a-half percent there. Then stocks, if you’re looking to make 5% to 8%, and that could actually be enough to boost you into that green category that we’re talking about where you’re keeping up with inflation, something like a 20% stock portfolio or a 30% stock portfolio could do here, actually.
Joshua Winterswyk: That’s what I was thinking too, and I feel like a lot of people still think by adding stock it’s getting really aggressive, but adding that 20% stock isn’t getting it too aggressive, but you’re now starting to reach that number, which we’re trying to achieve, which is beating inflation. So, it is going to add that risk element to the portfolio, but again, it’s still on that conservative side of the investment spectrum, which could be good for a lot of people who are sitting on a ton of cash.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. So, here’s a way to think about it. Historically, if you’re in a 20% stock portfolio, your max downside’s probably been around 10% to 15%. Well, that’s fine and dandy. Your max downside in inflation, if we get another five years of 5%, is now you’ve lost 10% of your money already.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, that’s a great point.
Matthew Theal: So, you might as well take the risk.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: Any additional strategies that we can use to try to offset some of this inflation?
Matthew Theal: One that I see a lot of people do, and it’s super popular on some corners of the internet, is dividend stocks. I’m not a fan of this one, actually, because, one, you’re introducing a lot of risk to your cash. Let’s take AT&T for an example. This is one that was a favorite of all the dividend stock people, and it got a pretty significant not only haircut to the dividend, but a haircut to the stock price, and so-on.
Brent Pasqua: Why was it important, and why did people like AT&T?
Matthew Theal: They paid a high dividend. I think it was 6%, 7% for a couple years, and they cut the dividend, and then the stock price tumbled by 50% or more. So, not only is your dividend checks less now, but also, your portfolio size is less, so you lost a ton of money. So, it’s just introducing a lot more risk, where you could do something a little bit where your upside’s not going to quite be there, but it’s actually safer, which is like a balance portfolio, like we were just talking about.
Joshua Winterswyk: Just to go back on dividends, that’s the profits you receive from the business for being a shareholder.
Matthew Theal: That’s correct.
Joshua Winterswyk: I don’t like them either. If we’re buying stocks and we’re investing in stocks, I feel like we’re doing that for the growth, not necessarily for them to pay me out some profits. I’d rather them reinvest that profit. Why are they paying me out such a big profit? It kind of raises questions on the company, and then when they cut, like you said, like with AT&T, then the stock price tumbles, and now I’m losing on both ends.
Brent Pasqua: So, the strategy you don’t like is having your dividends paid out to you as income and not reinvesting it as an income-type strategy to offset inflation? You’d rather see the dividends from your stocks get reinvested and buy more shares?
Joshua Winterswyk: Buy more shares, but also just not… I mean, I’m not buying a stock because of the dividend. I don’t even really invest in stocks because of that dividend. I want that dividend to be building a better company. I want those profits being used and building a better culture and providing growth with that stock, because that’s ultimately what we’re investing in the stocks for, is that growth for the long term.
Matthew Theal: Google doesn’t a pay a dividend, or even Amazon, because they take the cash the business generates and invests in other business lines that makes its shareholders more money, thus the stock price goes higher.
Brent Pasqua: Correct. So, why do some people really think that this is a good strategy? Because I think it is a popular strategy among some subsets of people where they think, “I can get passive income from these dividend stocks, and I could create myself this passive income to live off of,” but that strategy does not really actually grow your net worth sometimes.
Matthew Theal: I think it’s kind of like the CD way of thinking. It’s a little bit older of a strategy than might’ve worked 20, 30, 40 years ago. It doesn’t work that well today, in today’s environment, unfortunately.
Brent Pasqua: That’s a good summary of it. Are there any other favorite cash management strategies?
Matthew Theal: Yeah. Before we move on, real quick, I’ll just point out cryptocurrency. I think this is a really unique area, and in the next five to 10 years, I could see this becoming really consumer-facing, where maybe you purchase a cryptocurrency and you stake it, which is way above today’s podcast, but you could earn interest rates around 5% to 10%. We mentioned BlockFi on a previous podcast that offers pretty decent rates of return on the US dollar coin. It’s not consumer-facing yet, though, so this just isn’t ready for everybody. You have to be pretty technically-savvy to get in there and do this.
Joshua Winterswyk: It’s just new.
Brent Pasqua: Are there any other management strategies that you can think of? I mean, I think we’ve hit a lot of really important ones.
Joshua Winterswyk: This one isn’t my favorite at all, but I think it’s probably worth mentioning because it is marketed very well, but insurance products and annuities. So, cash can go into these types of products or in an annuity. I’m sure you’ve seen commercials on annuities or received a flyer on them, but-
Brent Pasqua: Or a dinner seminar invitation.
Joshua Winterswyk: Dinner seminar invitation, yes. No, that’s popular as well. That can be a strategy that is not for everybody. That’s probably for a very small sector of people. I think, Brent, you could probably touch on that too.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. I mean, you got to be careful of the rates that they’re introducing and the amount of time they’re locking your money up for. I think a lot of what’s introduced or shown or advertised is commission-based products that are just going to lock your money up, and your effective rate of return’s going to be very low. If we see interest rates go up to 2%, 3%, 4%, you’re already locked into a contract for a long period of time, so you’re not going to be getting those new rates. I’d be very, very careful in doing something like that to offset inflation.
Joshua Winterswyk: Absolutely.
Brent Pasqua: Then we also recommend really keeping three to six months of your money in an emergency fund for expenses that could come up. How should people view that bucket of cash?
Matthew Theal: In my opinion, they should put it in a high-yield savings account and not touch it, but anything in excess of that, we could go to some of those strategies that we were discussing earlier, maybe the more conservative portfolio, or even the dividend stocks if that’s really your fancy. But I would keep that cash actually in that high-yield savings account. Even though you know you’re losing on it, at least it’s there for the emergency.
Brent Pasqua: I think if there’s one great thing that you can take away from the show, it’s that once you get beyond your six months of savings, you should really look beyond at what your options are investing, and you can go into these different tiers of investing.
Joshua Winterswyk: Then it allows you to be more comfortable with investing, because you’re not having to dip into those investments. You know you have that emergency cash there, and when you ask this question, how should you view this emergency savings bucket, I agree with you, Matt, like it isn’t there. Set it aside. Don’t look at it, because it’s there for that emergency or those excess expenses, not for everyday need or investment.
Brent Pasqua: What are some of your least favorite strategies that you see clients doing with inflation?
Matthew Theal: One of mine is, just like Josh was saying, those teaser promotions, “Deposit 10,000, we’ll give you $100 or a $500 Visa Card.” Man, I don’t like those.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, and then just too much cash in a big bank savings, or even checking account. I mean, we see that a lot. You’re seeing finally that inflation’s catching up on you. Having too much cash can be just so bad for your financial plan, and we’ve seen that. So, just having too much, it should raise a red flag of implementing a new strategy or looking and researching into something else, especially with the inflation of where it’s at now.
Brent Pasqua: My least favorite strategy I think is not having a plan, not really specifically laying out… If you’re going into your cash management strategy and your investment strategy without specifically layout out a plan, I think that’s my least favorite because there’s really no thought and detail to why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s more of an emotional decision. You’re going to off of your opinions. You probably need to detail out a plan six months, here’s where it goes, here’s the next tier, the next tier. Once you have a plan, then that’s the strategy.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, and I think you’re right. Having that plan, again, makes you feel more comfortable, because I think that’s a lot… Sometimes you don’t want to change, or you get used to seeing that much cash in your account, but laying out the plan, like you said, definitely can just help you feel more comfortable and battle inflation.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, I agree. I think these are important. Inflation is definitely here. A lot of people are feeling it, and the best thing to do is to create a plan around it to offset as much of it as possible. All right. Let’s get into the last part of the show. Let’s get into RPA Recommends. Josh, you want to start us off?
Joshua Winterswyk: Sure. Yeah, I’ll start us off. So, I’m going to recommend a home product today. I bought a myQ… It’s like a myQ Garage Door Opener. So, what it does is it sends a signal from your garage door to your phone that lets you know if your garage door’s open or shut, and then it also allows you to open it or shut it through your app or your cellphone. Actually, pretty cheap. I think it was only like 30 bucks, and really cool to see, again, if you’re not home or if you want to open your garage door from an app, just a really cool, cheap device that works pretty well. So, I think it’s myQ, is the company that makes them, and they’re compatible with a bunch of different garage door openers, but got the recommendation, tried it out. I like it.
Brent Pasqua: I think that’s a great recommendation. I mean, how many times have you left your house and then got down the street and you’re like, “I don’t know if I closed the garage door”?
Joshua Winterswyk: Did I close my garage? Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. Got to go back.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, or you’re just gone and you want to make sure it’s done, or a family member drops by and is dropping something off, and you want them to open your garage door and leave it in the garage so it’s not sitting on the front porch. I love it.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, great recommend.
Matthew Theal: So, this is actually… I’m going to go with an app today that’s on everyone’s iPhone, if you have an iPhone. I am going with the Apple News app, specifically Apple News+. I really enjoy reading different news stories and headlines and clicking around on articles and kind of digesting news for about 15, 20 minutes a day. I had never used Apple News or Apple News+ before, but I’m on a family plan with my wife, and she added it for her work, and I got to say I really like it. I read it now about for 20 minutes before bed. Also, if you have the plus version, you get access to almost every magazine, from GQ to Golf Digest, to all the popular home ones and cooking ones, vacation ones, travel, leisure, and it’s really cool. You basically just click that you want that magazine sent to your phone, and then it comes to your phone or your iPad, and you could read it on that device. Really enjoy it.
Brent Pasqua: That’s interesting. I didn’t even know they had that.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, me either. I had heard about it during an Apple release a couple years ago, and I don’t think a lot of people are using it, but basically, where Apple’s going with all the pricing of their services is towards the bundle pricing, and the Apple News+, my wife added it to our bundle. It wasn’t that much more expensive, and it’s really nice. I like it a lot.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think it was kind of the same time as when they came out with their workout subscription too, right?
Matthew Theal: Yeah, it was.
Brent Pasqua: Okay.
Matthew Theal: Then from our angle, as advisors, it has The Wall Street Journal on there, Business Insider, CNBC, and it just curates all the articles. So, I have a business section. I could scan it and I just see what’s going on in the world. So, I would recommend it.
Brent Pasqua: Does that mean I could stop paying for a Wall Street subscription?
Matthew Theal: I’m not sure, because I’ve just been experimenting for a couple weeks, but we might be able to ditch it.
Joshua Winterswyk: No, not yet. I don’t have the news app yet.
Matthew Theal: Well, yeah. If you want to start paying for an extra news app for Josh…
Brent Pasqua: Holiday season’s around the corner, and if you need some new shoes, I have a recommendation for you. Allen Edmonds makes really nice dress shoes. They are ones that hold up, which are nice, but on there you can Google search Allen Edmonds Factory Seconds, and they are discounted because of a blemish or something that may be on the shoe. I’ve ordered Factory Seconds from them multiple times. I’ve never figured out what’s wrong with the shoe, where the blemish is, and I’d rather save 30% or 40% on my shoes. So, I would recommend if you are needing a good shoe, that’s a good way to get a discounted shoe price too, also.
Joshua Winterswyk: I’ll cosign that recommends. I use the Allen Edmonds Factory Seconds too.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. I wouldn’t buy them full price because if you can just get them with a little blemish, why not?
Joshua Winterswyk: I’ve never even found a blemish on any of the ones I’ve ordered either.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah.
Joshua Winterswyk: Good recommends.
Brent Pasqua: Maybe there’s just no blemish and they’re just on sale. Who knows?
Joshua Winterswyk: I don’t know. They’re enticing me to buy them.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. All right. So, as advisors we love helping people. That’s why we do it. If you’d like to schedule an appointment with any of us, please go to rpawealth.com and schedule a complimentary consultation. You can also download our eBook on our website. If you’d like the show notes, please go to retirementplanplaybook.com. As always, thanks for listening.
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