Ep: 93: Rebranding, Market Updates and 2024 Predictions
THE X'S & O'S
In this episode of the Retirement Plan Playbook podcast, Brent Pasqua, Matthew Theal and Joshua Winterswyk, of Evermont Wealth, discusses the company's rebranding in order to build stronger brand recognition and better align with their vision for the future.
The podcast also recaps market trends from 2023. An optimistic year that defied bearish predictions, major indexes like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq saw returns of over 24 and 43% respectively.
Despite challenges like increased layoffs in a variety of sectors and potential inflation, the overarching strategy remains passive investing. In terms of what could stall the ongoing rally, factors such as increased inflation, economic slowdown, and escalation of global conflicts were identified.
The episode also highlights the approval of Bitcoin ETFs as a revolutionary step which could steer retirement planning in 2024. Brent shares his personal plan to continue building on AI-focused stocks, reflecting a widespread optimism towards AI's future. The episode concludes with some personal anecdotes and well wishes for a great year ahead.
00:01 Introduction and Welcome Back
00:28 Discussing the Rebranding from RPA to Evermont
02:46 The Importance of a Good Company Name
04:00 The Journey to the New Brand Name: Evermont
06:28 The Significance of the New Logo
06:49 Reflecting on the Rebranding Process
08:28 The Impact of the Rebranding on the Company's Future
10:45 Recapping the Market Performance in 2023
12:54 Investing Lessons from 2023
16:23 Investing Trends for 2024
21:02 Favorite Purchases of 2023
23:03 Discussing a Recent Concert Experience
23:38 Sharing Favorite NFL Team Experiences
24:46 Office Remodeling and Family Trip to Disney World
25:47 Reflecting on the Value of Experiences Over Materialistic Purchases
26:50 Predicting Market Trends for 2024
29:58 Changes in Retirement Planning in 2024
34:14 Personal Investment Strategies for 2024
38:50 Anticipated Big Purchases for 2024
42:01 Closing Thoughts and Wishes for a Prosperous Year
Connect With Evermont Wealth:
Transcript
Brent Pasqua: [00:00:00] Welcome into the retirement plan playbook. We're finally back and welcome to 2024. It feels like it's been a really long time since we've been here.
Joshua Winterswyk: Welcome back. It feels good. 2024. I'm excited to jump back into the podcast room and record today.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: And I'm Brent Pasqua, founder of the new Evermont wealth. And it feels good to be here chatting with you guys on a mic
Matthew Theal: again. Yeah. So I guess let's kind of just get right into it. Let's talk to the listeners about , why did we change our name from RPA to Evermont?
Brent Pasqua: So when we purchased the building in downtown Claremont, you know, our thought started to run about what we wanted to put as far as a sign was on the building, and we started to think about potentially changing the logo a little bit, changing some color schema of the logo and making sure it was the way that we wanted before it actually went up because.
Brent Pasqua: When you're in a new city, in a new area, the last thing we want to do is put a logo up and then all of a sudden, you know, be taking it down [00:01:00] in a year or two from then, because, you know, that doesn't give some, you know, real hard brand recognition. So we started, we began on this journey to change the logo, but the one thing that we had always sort of asked ourselves was.
Brent Pasqua: If given the opportunity, would we actually change the name? Because one of the things that we were challenged with was clients would always mix up the acronyms in the letter, the R, the P, the A, it always get confusing so much so that even our marketing company who had worked with the brand for five years would get the letters mixed up.
Brent Pasqua: So at that point, I knew that there probably was a problem with the way that I named it 10 years ago. And there was probably something that if we were going to do to fix it now was probably the right time to do it before the sign went up. So what began as, you know, just a logo and color change began a process of, you know a full company rebrand.
Brent Pasqua: It's funny too.
Matthew Theal: Cause a lot of clients I felt like never even knew what the R and the [00:02:00] P and the A stand for.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. And it was in the description of the logo, but they would still always ask. So it, it didn't really stick and hold, you know, and that was a mistake. I think I made in the beginning thinking.
Brent Pasqua: You know, a name would be fine and it would stick, but once we began working with a branding company in early March, you, you can see clearly and early on that there really was a challenge with the name that we created or I created in the beginning and that there was probably going to be a lot of opportunity by making a change to it.
Brent Pasqua: It's
Joshua Winterswyk: hard to, well, what I learned is it's hard to really redesign or design logos around acronyms. Without, you know, the bulkiness of it from just a design angle. Right. So I think that's also what kind of led down this path
Brent Pasqua: as well. It's weird to me too, though, that like the PGA MLB NBA, like the NFL, like those acronyms all stick, like everybody knows what those are.
Brent Pasqua: But like outside of that, they don't really do well,
Joshua Winterswyk: but it's also something that's [00:03:00] been established. Like they don't need a descriptor word. You don't need, you know, NFL football association, right? They don't need to explain it. You see the logo and you know what it is without even reading the acronym.
Matthew Theal: And all the companies today are just one word. Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla. There's not, they're not acronym names. Yeah. It, it,
Brent Pasqua: it feels like. There's so much more knowledge to about naming companies that if you do have a second chance at it though, like we did, we knew we had to get it right this time.
Brent Pasqua: Because you know, going back to putting a sign up now, when we put Evermont on top of the building, we know that that's going to stick on there for a very long time, the rest of our careers. You know, hopefully for many years after ours, as next generations are here. So we, we knew we had to get this one right.
Brent Pasqua: And I think, you know, going down this process led us to now come up with something that we felt like we felt [00:04:00] good about.
Matthew Theal: And Evermont has a specific meaning.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. So the ever, so when we were working with the branding company, they never came up in any of the, the names and the rounds that we were going with, with names, with Everman, they came up with ever.
Brent Pasqua: And names with ever in it. And we'd like to, yeah, and we'd liked ever the ever part of different names. And the reason why is because I think it felt like forever Mount Everest. It, it gave a sense of longevity. There was a lot of sense of of, of, of foreverness to the
Joshua Winterswyk: everlasting relationships, a
Brent Pasqua: hundred percent.
Brent Pasqua: And we felt the relationships with our clients reflected some of the meaning behind ever. And so, we kind of kept that in the back of our mind, but then we also found names that they, they sent out to us that we were reviewing with them with the word Montanum and what we liked about Mont was like Mont Blanc is luxury to me.
Brent Pasqua: Like I've had Mont Blanc pins in the [00:05:00] past. Like I think it's a very luxury brand Montecito. It's a very luxurious area. It's like one of the highest, you know, per capita zip codes in all of California. You know, that's a high end area. Claremont Claremont. Like we're now in Claremont, we're resetting ourself here.
Brent Pasqua: And so that has a lot of meaning to it. And so when we were able to bring that together and we, and they came up with Evermont, one of the other benefits to it was we were able to get the domain. Somebody actually had already owned it, but they weren't using it and we were able to purchase it. And the
Matthew Theal: domain is the website address.
Matthew Theal: Like, so we have evermont. com. That's our website address. Correct.
Brent Pasqua: And how, and there's not a lot of companies that are able nowadays to get the, the name of their company without a descriptor word to follow, or they would use like. Let's say evermont. org or evermontwealth. com. Like we didn't have to use any of that.
Brent Pasqua: We just were able to get Evermont. And that was a huge, huge grab right there.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. We're [00:06:00] Evermont. That's who
Brent Pasqua: we are.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yep. And just to, you know, go through this process collaboratively. And have a real meaning behind the name. I think that's what I'm also really proud of is like, this is really representing who we are today, who we envision, you know, we are going forward and, you know, working with our clients.
Joshua Winterswyk: And, and that's really nice to, to have that specific meaning to what we do now behind our name. You know what my
Matthew Theal: favorite change is the logo. Yeah, we got the tree right and like that works so many ways in finance You know, there's like the money tree Warren Buffett's old saying, you know, you you plant a seed today And by the time you're ready for retirement, it grows into a tree
Joshua Winterswyk: and Claremont's the
Matthew Theal: city of trees and Claremont's the city of trees
Brent Pasqua: There you go.
Brent Pasqua: What I like about it too is You know, when, when I originally named back in 2013 RPA, like that was something that I came up with and I did that, you know, [00:07:00] in, in, at that period of time, knowing what I knew at that time, but we've grown together like the three of us in terms of the, the practice the relationship that we have, and we've built this firm up tremendously.
Brent Pasqua: And that name was Evermont has become something that the three of us worked together on when we have done this rebranding. It's not something that I was just in only in the meetings on. This is something that the three of us did together and now it's a reflection of all of us.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. I don't want to take too much away from you.
Matthew Theal: Our pay was pretty clever. That was good for no help.
Brent Pasqua: You know what, one of the things that you had said also though is like the logo, another part of that though was also the color. Because with RPA we use this sort of royal blue and the orange, which I was never a fan of orange. Remember back, we
Matthew Theal: had baby blue, we had baby blue back in the day.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, we had orange chairs. Yeah, we had orange chairs. The step one of rebranding was getting rid of the orange.
Matthew Theal: Look man, [00:08:00] things go in style and they
Brent Pasqua: come out of style. But now our, our color is a dark Navy grayish blue with, with gold or brass. And like that has always been the luxury brand and kind of feel that I've wanted for a very long time.
Brent Pasqua: I love it. I
Joshua Winterswyk: agree though, with Matt, you know, when we, when we share this with clients at first, you know, people were like, Hey, I liked RPA. But I think it was also that they like us. So that's
Brent Pasqua: good. Yeah. I think that was, you know, a good name for where we were then. And this is a much better name for where we're going in the future.
Brent Pasqua: Perfect.
Matthew Theal: Anything else on the name?
Brent Pasqua: No, I think the only other, you know, important point to that is, it is all just a material change. I mean, we're not, we weren't sold. We weren't bought. We weren't, we haven't changed anything else except for this as a material change to our company. It's just a. And we're excited about like what we could do with this rebrand in the future, we definitely want to get some cool hats going, some golf hats, some golf gear, some swag bags, [00:09:00] like we're, we're really excited about what we can now do with like some of the material stuff with it.
Brent Pasqua: So the
Matthew Theal: problem with you saying that those, most our clients listen to this and so when they hear this, they're going to, and they come in for their reviews, they're going to be asking for their swag. We don't have swag to give them.
Brent Pasqua: What are we going to say? Well, we have to work on it. I say,
Joshua Winterswyk: where's my swag
Matthew Theal: bag?
Matthew Theal: Exactly. So now like you're pressuring yourself, we're going to have to order swag
Brent Pasqua: after this. We're definitely going to have to have some swag. Got to get to work guys, which is something you guys have wanted to do for multiple years, but I didn't love our PNF to put swag on it. Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to my swag.
Brent Pasqua: Now we have
Joshua Winterswyk: this great name, this great logo. Now we're going to have some great swag. You have to have swag.
Matthew Theal: All right. Well, let's get into today's show. We're going to have fun today. It's been so long since we've done a podcast. We took a really long break last year. But so for today's show, let's just kind of recap some of our favorites from 2023.
Matthew Theal: You want to tell
Brent Pasqua: them why we took a break?
Brent Pasqua: So, so the reason we took a break last year is, is when we were remodeling the [00:10:00] office, we had a ton of construction going on and that extended out for many, many months. And it was both inside the office, outside the office. And so there wasn't really a quiet place for us to be able to continuously record.
Brent Pasqua: Like every time we'd want to go record, then there would be pounding and drilling and so much so that we had the neighbors not happy about the pounding and drilling. So we had to kind of pause it. We had also a little bit of a challenging years, I think for personally, the family and health and some issues that happened last year.
Brent Pasqua: But this year, I mean, you know how important it is to me that we record, you know, every week. So I think your your, your job is to make sure we do it. Yeah. We're going to be recording
Matthew Theal: all the time now. We should just go to a weekly show.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. There you go.
Joshua Winterswyk: Hey, let's just get through this episode. We're back.
Joshua Winterswyk: Okay. Right. All right. 2023 recap. Okay. Go for it.
Brent Pasqua: This is a great year. Very good.
Joshua Winterswyk: Josh, what are the markets do? Yeah. Okay, so I can recap. They did really well. Everything was up. Okay. So just to, to make it very simple, but some of the, the data behind [00:11:00] it, we had US stocks over 25%, 2023 international stocks up over 17%.
Joshua Winterswyk: Emerging markets stocks up over 11%. And US bonds up over 5% as well. If you're looking at the three major indexes in the U S all great rates of return last year, S and P 500 up over 24 percent Nasdaq up over 43%.
Matthew Theal: Amazing. It's like one of those, it's those years where you stay invested for.
Matthew Theal: Absolutely. Have you pulled your money out in 2022? Because you know, the market was going down and you thought the economy was about the crater. You know, now you're fighting just to get back to break, even if you missed it.
Joshua Winterswyk: Absolutely. And after 2022, there wasn't really any analysts out there projecting for 2023 to be a good year.
Joshua Winterswyk: No, not at all. And look at the rates of return that so
Matthew Theal: 20 this last year reminded me of 2013. Which was another just absolute year [00:12:00] that ripped where people came in overly bearish, thought the economy is going to crash. 2009 was the same way it started rocky, but then just took off like a rocket ship.
Matthew Theal: It's a bottom year, the bottoms and it's, it's over. And these good years, they tend to cluster and we're most likely going to get a string of a few good years in a row now.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, I mean staying invested was the that key point last year. I think we have the data right you missed the five best days last year What was the difference of return?
Joshua Winterswyk: I
Matthew Theal: think if you miss the five best days, your return was about 7%. So we pulled that slide up before we did the show. Yeah. A
Brent Pasqua: lot less than what the year
Matthew Theal: ended. And then basically I think if you miss the seven days or more, then you ended up with negative rate of return. So there's basically like five to six days that make the full year and that's it.
Brent Pasqua: So what was your biggest lesson then of 2023? So
Matthew Theal: my biggest lesson is, and this is more of an investing lesson too, it's just don't trust the crowd. When you go [00:13:00] into the year, everybody was bearish, like, you know, our clients were overly negative. The forecasters were overly negative. The TV shows were overly negative.
Matthew Theal: Everybody was negative. And you go into the year, we get this product called chat GPT. And it's like, it was like an iPhone moment, artificial intelligence. Yeah. And people caught on investors caught on and the market started rallying. They took the. Seven biggest tech stocks at first, and then everything else followed.
Brent Pasqua: Cause the census coming out of 2022 is that the tech market might not make any growth for the next 10 years, right? Cause it had done so well over the previous 10. Yeah, there's
Matthew Theal: no, they had, they didn't have a product. They didn't have anything. And they were the hardest
Joshua Winterswyk: hit in 2022. Right.
Matthew Theal: And then AI came and really what AI was, was they put out a chat GPT, which is, it was a consumer facing application and the people who played with it immediately got it.[00:14:00]
Matthew Theal: And then from there, you know, it was NVIDIA, it was Microsoft all those companies just started going
Joshua Winterswyk: up. The Magnificent Seven, they're calling them.
Matthew Theal: The Magnificent
Brent Pasqua: Seven. Is that the same lesson you had from last year or what was your lesson, Josh?
Joshua Winterswyk: I think my lesson was no matter how doom and gloom or bad things look, there's always opportunities and you have to be in position to really.
Joshua Winterswyk: Take advantage of those opportunities. Even like, you know, we talked about bond ladders last year and interest rates going up and it took a lot of time for people to really make a decision or implement those strategies. But even just from fixed income, right, last year up over 5%, you can go lock in interest at over 5 percent last year.
Joshua Winterswyk: So even if you weren't high on the market, there was still an opportunity to go make money. And really that's what, you know, we always have to be looking for. So no matter, you know, the situation geopolitically, economically as investors, [00:15:00] you know, if we want to maximize our growth, we have to always be looking for them.
Joshua Winterswyk: Cause like you see last year, there was tons of opportunity when you were probably pretty down on the markets in 2022.
Brent Pasqua: I think for me, like the best and greatest lessons for last year is probably one that, you know, we always talk about and already know, but it's just another reassurance of it. And that's that you can't time the market.
Brent Pasqua: I mean, if you look what the SMP did from the beginning of the year to July. It hit that peak for the year and at the end of July, and then all of a sudden we got some bad inflation data, interest rates were holding. And we then started having some more of this war going on. And by the end of October the S and P I'd hit almost its bottom for the year.
Brent Pasqua: I mean, it was back to being up very, very little for the year. And then by the end of October. To the end of December, it just went on a ripper of a rally, like it just absolutely took off. Nobody was predicting that to happen at the end of October. And [00:16:00] all of a sudden you're sitting there with almost very little returns for the year.
Brent Pasqua: And then you finish out the last two months of the year with double digit returns. I mean, incredible. You cannot time that though. The active
Matthew Theal: management is so difficult. There's, it's impossible to time markets. The only strategy that works is passive. If you want to be successful as an investor you have to adopt that passive philosophy like we've done for our clients.
Brent Pasqua: What was some of the, I guess the investing trends of 2023 that will work for 2024? I'll go
Matthew Theal: first. So we started in 2022, about mid 2022, once rates got above like three and a half percent, we started talking a lot about bond ladders. And I think that's still a viable strategy today. Rates are still high.
Matthew Theal: They worked really well last year at five and a half percent. Rates have come in a little bit. You know, they're about five to 5. 3, depending on which bond you're specifically looking at. But I, I think this is still a very viable strategy and it's even now a viable strategies. You go even look longer term at some longer term bonds that are paying, you know, [00:17:00] four and a half percent specifically maybe like a 30 year bond if that's so what you like or, you know, a 10, a 10 year bond, five year bond, they're all paying really attractive interest rates right now.
Matthew Theal: So I, I still think that bond strategy and focusing you know, on individual bonds to pay you income is still very viable today. That's
Joshua Winterswyk: my thought. You could basically go, you know, put your income that you need for the next 10 years safe at four and a half percent. That's pretty good. I got to take that any day of the week.
Joshua Winterswyk: You could just say, I'm not even going to mess around with any other fixed income. I can go set up my income for the next 10 years and get four and a half percent. You're set. Yeah, it's pretty good. Absolutely.
Matthew Theal: It's like, how long do you want your income guaranteed for? 10 years, five years. Yeah, let's
pick
Joshua Winterswyk: the bar.
Joshua Winterswyk: Exactly. Yep. Mine, mine's going to be just cash management. We saw that this year and I, I feel like even clients people I talk to just friends and family still haven't even opened an online savings account and cash management [00:18:00] was a hot topic last year, whether if it was CDs. Money market funds, online savings accounts.
Joshua Winterswyk: There's free money to be had now with these interest rates higher. That's still the case. And I think that if you're not managing your cash, take a look at that, bring some awareness to that cash management strategy because rates are still good. Like Matt had, had mentioned. And you know, there's really no reason to hesitate.
Joshua Winterswyk: Especially now and it's still attractive. So I think that that's the trend that people need to, and even going forward as rates change, I think it's always a topic that we have with our clients, but for everybody out there a topic that you should always be looking to manage also your cash appropriately,
Brent Pasqua: you know what I've seen a lot more to with clients is that because rates have been high in, in these savings accounts for such a long period of time.
Brent Pasqua: That their wealth is building up in these accounts where they're probably taking a, there's so much of their net worth in there now that they're probably taking away from their long term growth. It's almost like, Hey, we're getting such a good rate at [00:19:00] four plus percent in online savings though that, and we've been building this up for the last few years that, you know, you look at the SMP and what the returns were last year.
Brent Pasqua: You can make five times that. So it's hard to sense, like, at what point do you say, okay, well, my liquid money should be here, but let's not put so much in here that you're taking away from your long term growth.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. And I think that that's why working with, I know we, we say this a lot, but working with an advisor is key because if you're actually, you know, looking at your balance sheet.
Joshua Winterswyk: Right. And rules of thumb of like how much cash you should be holding as a percentage. Then there's like, okay, well now I'm over allocated to cash. I need to do something else. Cause then look, you missed the opportunity. Like you just said of getting triple that in the market. So, you know, I think always just thinking about that is, is key, making sure that cash is at an appropriate amount, but then also it's being managed correctly.
Brent Pasqua: I think for me, like one of the trends that will continue on for this year is dollar cost averaging. I think if you're like a. An investor who wants to get [00:20:00] things at good prices like last year was a pretty good time to be dollar cost averaging. You know, I think emotionally it's hard for some people to be putting money into the market while the market has been going down like it was in 2022.
Brent Pasqua: But if you were putting money into 20, all throughout 2023, I think you're going to obviously want to continue that this year, because like we saw on charts, the market returns are clustered together. Just because last year was up doesn't mean this year is going to be going down and you need to be continuing to double down and be putting money in on a regular basis, which is that's your 401k plan, your retirement plans, your individual accounts.
Brent Pasqua: Continue to buy, just keep
Matthew Theal: buying. Yeah, that's why 401ks are successful, right? Because it's, you know, every two weeks you're usually getting some money put in. If you select the right fund, maybe it's a Vanguard, Fidelity fund, stock based fund, high allocation of stock, you're going to be pretty happy with a 401k.
Matthew Theal: You know, if you get a little too aggressive though, and you start, start your contribution and stop your contributions and don't get that dollar cost averaging [00:21:00] effect, like you said, you're not going to be happy.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. What was your favorite purchase of 2023? Like, did you buy any NFTs or did you buy some more crypto or what, what, what did you buy that you liked
Matthew Theal: last year?
Matthew Theal: So I actually thought. Looking back on this when we came up with this question I had a few, I had a few different answers. But then when I looked back and I thought of all the stuff I bought, like, man, I bought a lot of things in 2023, we're going to be here for a while. How much time do you
Joshua Winterswyk: have?
Matthew Theal: But I think probably like the coolest purchase I had, so I got a new car picked up some new golf clubs. Like, you know, that's here or there that's. Things I do by myself but my wife and I really, really wanted to go to the Taylor Swift concert and like Taylor Swift mania really swept through the United States in 2023.
Matthew Theal: I think she's probably AI and then Taylor Swift or the top two stories of 2023. Yeah. Are
Joshua Winterswyk: you saying you're a Swifty? Yeah, I love Taylor
Matthew Theal: Swift music. Yeah,
Brent Pasqua: absolutely. You've liked Taylor Swift music for a
Matthew Theal: long time, right Matt? Yeah, for a very long time. [00:22:00] And so we w we were able to get, the tickets were really hard to get.
Matthew Theal: They're very expensive. But she ended up right before she played in LA adding a second show or a fifth show, actually, I think she played here five or six times and she added a new show and we were able to get tickets. And I know someone else in this office was also able to get tickets. I don't want to mention any names, but.
Matthew Theal: Went to the show with him and his wife and and my wife. Right. You went .
Joshua Winterswyk: No, I did not go. I went with that. I was unable to go. I did. You you
Matthew Theal: went to the show with me, Josh. Oh yeah, I did. Yeah. And so we, we had a great time. It was really cool to see. It was probably like the live event of the year. So that was fun.
Matthew Theal: That was my favorite purchase. I
Joshua Winterswyk: had fun. My wife was, I surprised my wife with tickets and she's a big swifty and it was actually an awesome concert. Crazy experience. Yeah,
Brent Pasqua: it is. So does she continue touring or is she like done for a year or two? Or like, well, I don't, I don't know what the
Matthew Theal: future holds for her.
Matthew Theal: I think she's going on an international tour, like doing Europe next, like this summer when the weather gets a little better,
Brent Pasqua: [00:23:00] incredible, like brand and incredible
Matthew Theal: performer. Yeah. I'd see it again. The show is so good.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think she sold out what? Eight ninths in LA.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. We actually on Netflix watched the, was it Netflix or Apple TV?
Brent Pasqua: We rented the concert that's on, that was in the movie theater. And over Christmas break, my daughter and wife and son, we had it, we watched that concert. Oh, you guys rented it? Yeah, we rented it. It was like three hours long. That was the show
Matthew Theal: we were at. Yeah. I think, because they, I think they did the recording at the show that Josh and I went to.
Matthew Theal: Got it. Yeah, it was
Brent Pasqua: at SoFi. Absolutely incredible. It was great to watch and she's an incredible performer. Yeah. She's awesome. What was yours, Josh?
Joshua Winterswyk: Mine's also my list isn't as long but as maths, but mine is also an experience this year, my favorite NFL football team, the Miami dolphins played at SoFi and it was week one.
Joshua Winterswyk: And every time they come to the West coast, I, I at least try to get to the game, but it was a lot of fun. Cause I was able to, where I went with, you know, my wife our son, and [00:24:00] then also my parents who my mom is a Miami dolphins fan too. Excellent game. It was so fun to take my, my little guy to his first Miami dolphins game.
Joshua Winterswyk: Just the capture pictures and enjoy it with him. We were all dressed up. And so the game was awesome. The experience was awesome. I like it. I like so far, obviously I went and saw Taylor with either too. But it was great. Had a great time. And then the Miami dolphins beat the charters. So. And the
Matthew Theal: dolphins are your favorite team that had a good season.
Matthew Theal: They're fun to watch.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, fun to watch. Yeah, they've had a good season. I wish them luck in the playoffs. We're a little banged up But
Matthew Theal: probably by the time this comes out You guys are gonna be knocked out
Joshua Winterswyk: You guys sound like haters. I wish you guys had favorite football teams. What about you Brent?
Brent Pasqua: Tell us what? Well, a lot of things I spent money on in last year was on the office like we Did massive rebuild in here. We remodeled the inside. We completely ripped apart the exterior outside a [00:25:00] landscape. We redid the hardscape. We did, we did the parking lot. It was nonstop construction all year long.
Brent Pasqua: And we saw that as a really good opportunity for us to build our foundation stronger here in this community and in this area. So that's where. I did a lot of the purchasing last year. I felt like I was writing checks nonstop. But my favorite purchase was the experience my family had at Disney world.
Brent Pasqua: I mean, we went for a week to Disney world. We went to four different parks. We did that whole tour of that area. And that was absolutely incredible. It's, it was an experience. My kids will probably never forget. And I absolutely loved it. It was a memory I will never obviously forget
Matthew Theal: either. After hearing about your trip, I'm so excited when my kids are old enough and we get to do that trip.
Matthew Theal: It sounds like so
Brent Pasqua: much fun. Yeah, it's amazing. And when they're at that age, I mean, their eyes light up. I mean, that's, that's the perfect trip for them. I think
Matthew Theal: there's a lesson here though. I mean, you did a lot of remodeling. I bought, you know, things for golf. I bought a new car called simulator simulator.
Matthew Theal: I know you've bought a few things, a few things last year that didn't get mentioned but we all pick [00:26:00] experiences and that's what, at the day, that's what makes you happy. I think as a person, it's not the material stuff.
Brent Pasqua: And I think that's what we do a lot of with our clients is we talk about not the materialistic purchases because when we meet with clients in there, they say, Oh, I need a new car.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, sure. They're happy when they get their new car, but it's not the same as their experiences. Like when they're taking all of these different trips and going different places with family and doing all of these lifestyle type things and they're getting that type of experience. Like that's the joy that really, you know, brings them happiness in retirement.
Brent Pasqua: I think it's
Joshua Winterswyk: a good exercise. Even like when me and Matt were talking about like our favorite purchases before the podcast, it was nice to kind of reflect and those were the things that like stuck out, right? Taylor Swift concert, your Disney world trip, football games. So I agree with you. Yeah. Those experiences are so
Brent Pasqua: memorable.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. Now, as we start to, you know, look towards the rest of 2024, as we're like, you know, we can so into this year what stories could stall [00:27:00] really this market rally and like where this market is starting out and, you know, we are in a presidential election year. And we did come off of a big year, but what could stall this rally?
Matthew Theal: I think the number one thing is still inflation. There's always going to be geopolitical events popping up here and there. But what caused that market rally that you were talking about about 10 minutes ago from October to the end of the year was that the federal reserve said they're probably done raising interest rates and, you know, might even consider some cuts in 2024.
Matthew Theal: Well, if inflation picks back up and gets back above four or 5 percent and some of those key indicators, the fed watches come in higher than expected. They're not going to cut rates and they might even signal, they might even pivot and start saying, okay, we're actually going to maybe raise rates one more time or two more times in the summer and the fall.
Matthew Theal: Right. And if that's the case, the market's going to get crushed. Yeah. Marco will freak out. Yeah, absolutely. So that would be [00:28:00] mine is just inflation and interest rates. Even just
Joshua Winterswyk: higher for longer or pauses for longer, right? People are expecting cuts.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, and they might not come. Right.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think also just economic slowdown.
Joshua Winterswyk: We were talking also about just number of layoffs kind of like a, not a huge headline, but so far this year, just global economic slowdown. So just not as much growth globally that people are expecting if we don't hit those targets. And let's just say even unemployment starts to pick up, maybe not necessarily like a huge recession but just not the expected growth or the economic you know, trend going upward as well as projected.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think that also could play a big role this
Matthew Theal: year. Yeah. Big companies announcing layoffs, right? BlackRock, Amazon, Google, all with that at the beginning of the year. Citigroup. Yeah. So, and it's broad too. It's technology, it's banking. Yeah. It's everywhere. That's not good.
Joshua Winterswyk: Story to monitor.
Brent Pasqua: For me, I think it's one that you already mentioned, Matt.
Brent Pasqua: And I know you said global events and wars are going to happen. You know, that's just kind of what [00:29:00] we've become accustomed to over history. But I think if. There isn't some de escalation and things continue to kind of spiral and get worse. And if it does get worse, I think that can impact the market because the longer it lasts, the worse it potentially gets.
Brent Pasqua: Now, when I say that, though, the market hasn't negatively responded to the way things have been up to this point. The market has kind of held on. There is a little bit of reaction maybe in October, but beyond that, I mean, the market has been pretty strong. But if things do spiral and not thinking doom or gloom, but things do spiral and get worse.
Brent Pasqua: That could have more impact, I think, than anything else.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, absolutely. There's quite a lot of I'd call it small conflicts going on right now. And some, the U S is involved in and some they're not. So I probably don't
Joshua Winterswyk: want to turn into big conflicts.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, exactly. And then the other thing I was thinking about and wondering is, you know, like, how is retirement planning changing in 2024 and what has changed in 2024?
Matthew Theal: I think the big thing for [00:30:00] retirees is like what I'm starting to notice with some of my own clients. And like, when we talked to prospective clients on the phone who are looking to hire a retirement planner it's kind of like a house versus house right now. And the people that have, you know, they saved a lot and they probably either didn't spend it or they're very high earners.
Matthew Theal: And they almost have too much and they're getting to a point where they don't know what to do with it. You know, let's take like something simple like an RMD, right? They get an RMD and it's large because they have large 401ks or IRAs, maybe it's 40, 50 grand a year. And they're like, what am I supposed to do with this money?
Matthew Theal: I have nothing to spend it on. And so I think and also this is a little rules based too, because we do have some law changes coming into effect in 2025. I think from a planning standpoint as advisors, we're going to be talking a lot more with our clients about gifting over the next year, year and a half as laws change.
Matthew Theal: And then. Also, as you know, the haves could have more money and are realizing
Brent Pasqua: they're not going to spend it and those, [00:31:00] those law changes are happening in 2026, it take effect 2026, they end in 2025.
Matthew Theal: Correct. And I think we're going to see a lot of planning probably towards the back half of this year and into next year.
Matthew Theal: If the laws aren't changed. Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: Cause a lot of that like extensive gifting takes time to put into place. So you can't just. You know, come into the last quarter of 2025 and say, okay, I'm going to put these gifting strategies in place. Like you got to start that middle of the, to the beginning of the year or the year before.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah,
Matthew Theal: absolutely.
Joshua Winterswyk: Mine's going to be just adjusting for inflation. Like we've just been in this inflation period for so long. And we've seen wage growth somewhat keep up with inflation. But really planning and running a new projection with these new inflation numbers, with all of this new data and making sure that your savings rates and your 401k contribution rates are appropriate.
Joshua Winterswyk: You know, one rule of thumb that we also say is you get a raise, you should be increasing your 401k contributions. Like, are you doing [00:32:00] that? That's also like a strategy to help adjust for inflation. So I think a lot of, you know, my theme this year will be to account for not only the past inflation, but prices aren't going backwards either.
Joshua Winterswyk: So just accounting for the higher prices going forward, and then also making sure your savings is lining up with those increases as well. I think for me,
Brent Pasqua: one of the things that I've seen. Starting to change and like the trend change started maybe a couple of years back and I see it more. So already starting again this year is I feel like people are wanting to really retire earlier people, you know, generally when you would ask them, Oh, when's you're going to retire?
Brent Pasqua: They'd say 65 cause of Medicare. And then it obviously social security pushed out to know 67 for a lot of people for in terms of full retirement age. But now you're seeing people at 61, 62, people aren't wanting to work to their middle 60. I feel like so many people I've seen so many people die of cancer or diseases or, you know, unexpected illnesses that a lot of people want to go find joy in [00:33:00] their life outside of work.
Brent Pasqua: And it's feel like it's happening a lot earlier in life that they're wanting these things.
Matthew Theal: If you talk to someone in their late thirties, mid to late thirties, early forties, a lot of times what they say is I'm planning on retiring early. Like before 60, right. I was like, well, we better get planning then.
Matthew Theal: Right. Cause we got a lot of work to do. Yes. You know, to make sure your assets are ready for that, but yeah, that's definitely a trend retiring early for sure. Yeah, I'm ready to retire.
Brent Pasqua: It's cause you're tired. You have two young kids, but if you do want to retire early, you have to plan. And make sacrifices.
Brent Pasqua: You have to plan earlier. You have to plan harder. You have to make sacrifices. Now in life, you can't buy a golf simulator, you know, you got to put your money away,
Joshua Winterswyk: but it comes back. It always comes back to the same things. It's like make more money, save more money or spend less money. Right. And one of those things has to happen for you to be able to do that.
Joshua Winterswyk: But I see that as well with my clients is that, yes, it's more common. I feel like now over the last few years to piggyback on what you just said is that more people are wanting to, [00:34:00] you know,
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, and I was, I'm curious to see how that trend continues, you know, does it even get earlier now or does it start to, to stabilize, but we see it a lot more people get tired of working. My favorite question on here is next. And it's, you know, one that I always like hearing from you, Matt is, you know, what are you doing in your portfolio in 2024?
Brent Pasqua: Cause I want to know if it is crypto, is it, you know, NFT, is it, The monkey, the yellow monkey NFT, the people buying, buying LeBron James's slam dunk, virtually top shop.
Joshua Winterswyk: And if you, some of this stuff I purchased
Matthew Theal: some of the stuff I obviously didn't purchase. But no, it's not 2021. There's not a raging bull market and the fed's not pumping money into the system left and right.
Matthew Theal: But one thing I'm excited about, I'm going to be putting it in my account and I, I think it's actually probably. A really big deal and probably the biggest story we've had so far in 2024 is the bitcoin etf was approved a few days ago I think there's 11 different companies in total [00:35:00] that are offering a bitcoin exchange traded fund And what this means is you can now buy a fund in your account that gets you direct exposure to bitcoin So you could buy it in your brokerage account or for the first time ever and this is where I think it's probably the biggest story So you could buy it in your IRA for the first time.
Matthew Theal: And I think that's a pretty big deal. I think it's probably longterm and it'd be good for the price of Bitcoin. But for those clients who want exposure and are asking us, Hey, like we kind of like the story of Bitcoin how can we buy it? And we're always like, Hey, we can't, we can't buy it for you.
Matthew Theal: Well, now there, there, there is an option to buy it. Blackrock has a product. Fidelity has a product. A couple of the other large ETF issuers have their own Bitcoin ETF now. So that's really cool and put it in retirement accounts. That's great. Cause you're going to get tax deferred growth on it. If it does go up,
Brent Pasqua: are you going to buy it?
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, absolutely. When?
Matthew Theal: Probably within
Brent Pasqua: the next day or two. Oh,
Joshua Winterswyk: the bull market's back. Forget what I said about economics, slowdown, or buying Bitcoin ETFs. [00:36:00]
Matthew Theal: And then outside of that, just keep my passive strategy. Go ahead and look. I've learned. I've, I've done the whole, I'm going to try and individually trade stocks things.
Matthew Theal: I'm absolutely awful at it.
Brent Pasqua: No, you're not. You're actually really, really good. I mean, I've. I've done very, very well in stocks that you've recommended and told me to buy. Problem is, is that you just don't always buy
Matthew Theal: them. No, that's what I mean. I'm absolutely awful at it. So passive investing is great for me.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, you've done it. You've done great for me. I'm good at telling people what to buy. So, Hey, clients is like, you know, if you're looking for an advisor who knows what to buy, I'm your guy, those who can't do
Brent Pasqua: teach, I will a hundred percent vouch for that there. I don't know how many times that you and I can count.
Brent Pasqua: That you've told me to go buy something. I've bought it. You didn't buy it. And then I've made a ton of money on it
Matthew Theal: means I'm a good
Brent Pasqua: advisor. You're a great advisor. You should tip them. I do every day.
Joshua Winterswyk: What am I doing to my portfolio? Nothing. My portfolio is good. Keep dollar cost averaging. Passive investing bitcoins [00:37:00] lame.
Joshua Winterswyk: No, I'm just kidding. That was a shot at you to be honest, though I'm probably gonna be looking at buying a Bitcoin ETF, too But I think that's pretty cool that it's now in a form that you can buy it in your tax deferred accounts And then also just as a tracker, so that's pretty cool. And then also always looking to rebalance, right?
Joshua Winterswyk: You want to make sure that your portfolio is rebalanced. And so to summarize though, not much. I mean, I built my portfolio and lined it up with, you know, a time horizon that's right for me. So there's not much to
Brent Pasqua: do. I think for me for this year, it's, I want to continue to build and add more stocks that are.
Brent Pasqua: Built on the future of AI and in technology. I mean, I think, you know, if we think about where AI is going, I would like to continue to build on those positions in those holdings. I, you know, like you, I'm not sitting here day trading or buying individual stocks on a daily basis. But when, you know, I think that there's an opportunity, I definitely like to add in dollar cost average into those stocks and I'll continue to probably do that [00:38:00] this year.
Brent Pasqua: I mean, I think AI has a huge amount of advancements in the future and I want to be a part of that. I want to keep doubling down on that. But of course, like the other things that are all remain true. I mean, 401k contributions, the, the normal dollar cost averaging that I do, all that will continue. So you're still passive investing a hundred percent.
Brent Pasqua: Majority is passive investing, but I think, you know, there is some fun in doing a little bit of a sock. So I'll be waiting for you to tell me what to buy. I
Matthew Theal: did. I don't even think you bought it. And I bought it and I'm up, I'm up like 35 percent since I bought it.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. What is it? Rista networks.
Brent Pasqua: Oh yeah.
Brent Pasqua: And you're telling us to buy Bitcoin, so maybe, you know,
Matthew Theal: we'll see. Well, here's the thing too. Let's go with a little disclaimer. This is not financial advice. You guys should consult with a financial professional like us before you purchase anything that we've mentioned on this show. All right, let's move on to the next question.
Matthew Theal: What is your big purchase
Brent Pasqua: for this year then?
Matthew Theal: So right now, I can't think of anything. You know, we might do a little home remodeling at some point this year. We bought our home in [00:39:00] 2020. It's needed some work. But we put it, we put it off to the side. Might do a project or two. But outside of that the big thing we're doing that's a little bit different is we're doing a, a meal prep program where a company makes us a, a dinner meal for a few nights a week and they deliver it to our house on Sundays and And we heat it up throughout the week to eat dinner.
Matthew Theal: It's actually not as pricey as you would think. And it's been saving me a lot of time so far this year. So that's really nice.
Joshua Winterswyk: How'd you find out about that company?
Matthew Theal: So a guy in my networking group mentioned it to me and I started looking into it and then I'd also heard some whispers about it around the office.
Matthew Theal: So I decided to try it. It's called, My little penguin, I think my Healthy Penguin. Oh, is it my Healthy Penguin? I think so. Okay. My Healthy Penguin, and it's based in Rancho Cucamonga.
Brent Pasqua: I mean, it's, it's smart, right? Because you, you don't, you take decision fatigue outta your life. You have two young kids.
Brent Pasqua: That's obviously time consuming and stressful, and there's a lot of steps in the day to take care of your kids. So. It's smart though, to take a big project like cooking off the table. It [00:40:00] makes your life more convenient. So yeah,
Matthew Theal: a good place to put money. It's easy. And it's not for, you know, every meal.
Matthew Theal: It's just dinner for, you know, four nights a week. And that's perfect.
Brent Pasqua: What about you, Josh? I have
Joshua Winterswyk: another baby on the way and my wife is pregnant. And so that's That's going to be a big new added expense. Is this like your
Brent Pasqua: formal announcements to your clients and to people that listen?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, I think most of my clients have probably have mentioned to a little bit already, but yeah, we're expecting, and we're having a, a little girl she's due in June and we're very excited.
Joshua Winterswyk: But yeah, we know how much babies cost, so that's going to be an added increase, but if I can squeeze in a new five void that's also what I got an eye on. For my golf game, which I'm probably not going to be playing much golf after the second baby's born. You should
Matthew Theal: just wait till they go on sale on the holidays next year because I don't think you're gonna be playing golf much this year.
Brent Pasqua: It doesn't feel like that long ago I was the only one around the office that had kids and now it's just grown. Like now you have two, Josh, you're on your second, I [00:41:00] have my two. This, this, this family has grown.
Matthew Theal: I, I feel like your kids are going to be coming in here for internships
Brent Pasqua: for, I guess you'd be babysitting your guys as kids here soon.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. Our group has definitely just exploded the last three years.
Brent Pasqua: I think for me, the big purchase for this year is continuing to get the office completed. I think there's pieced together and finished and. Some little projects around here that we want to get done to put the final touches on it. And that will take several months to continue to get that done.
Brent Pasqua: But that's definitely been a, a big thought for this year is just continue to get this place done. What
Joshua Winterswyk: about something for yourself?
Brent Pasqua: I don't know. I haven't really sat down and thought about anything that I really need. I'm pretty focused on this place right now. What
Matthew Theal: about a batting cage for your son?
Brent Pasqua: You know, I mean, I might have to move into a new house if I want something like that, but I'm not really trying to move.
Joshua Winterswyk: If you can't golf, maybe you need a golf simulator.
Brent Pasqua: I'll just go to Matt's house
Joshua Winterswyk: and use
Matthew Theal: his. [00:42:00] Alright,
Brent Pasqua: anything else to add? No, I think hopefully we just have a great year, you know, as in the market has a great year.
Brent Pasqua: And, and hopefully people have healthy, happy, prosperous
Matthew Theal: years. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there's probably gonna be a lot of negative news this year just with the election and, you know, just try, try your best to drown that out. Yeah. Stay away from
Brent Pasqua: that stuff. It's too negative. It's a good tip.