Ep. 120: Tax Time, Gold, and AI IPOs—What’s Hot in Spring 2025
The X's and O's
In this episode of the Retirement Plan Playbook, Matthew Theal and Joshua Winterswyk cover the spring 2025 financial landscape—from filing taxes to hot market trends like gold, Chinese stocks, and AI IPOs. Whether you’re wrapping up your return or wondering where to invest next, this episode offers clarity in a time of questions.
Here’s what we cover:
Tax season tips – What you can still do before the deadline
High interest savings & unexpected tax bills – Why you might owe this year
Proactive tax planning for 2025 – Reduce next year’s bill by starting now
Gold & Chinese stocks – Flash in the pan or a long-term play?
The return of international markets – Is diversification finally paying off?
AI IPO excitement – CoreWeave is going public... is the window opening?
Plus, we debate investing psychology, Disney vs. California Adventure, and which streaming shows are dominating right now.
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Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated. Please excuse any typos or transcription errors.
Welcome to the Retirement Plan Playbook hosted by Brent Pasqua, Matthew Theal, and Joshua Winterswyk of Evermont Wealth. This podcast dives deep into investment strategies, retirement planning, and current events, equipping you with the insights needed to craft a robust retirement playbook adaptable to any political or economic climate.
Join Brent, Matthew, and Joshua as they guide you through the complexities of retirement planning. Offering expert advice. to tackle challenges and the later stages of your journey. It's time to build your optimal retirement playbook. Now let's dive into today's episode.
Matthew: Hey, Matt, Joshua, how you doing?
Joshua: I'm doing well. How are you doing today, Matt? I.
Matthew: I'm doing good. It's spring is here. It's a warm 80 degree day. I'm soaking in the sun. Loving life.
Joshua: Nice. Yeah, it's nice outside. Weather's great. You you just had a nice trip over the last weekend, how was it?
Matthew: Yeah, I went to Disneyland, so I hit Disney and California Adventure.
We use the, what was that pass called? I used
Joshua: like the Southern California three day pass.
Matthew: Southern California three day pass. Yeah, so I have one day left on that. I don't think you could buy 'em anymore, but it was a pretty good deal. You get three days at Disney?
Joshua: Mm-hmm. Did you buy the park hop?
Matthew: We did park hop.
Well, we did Disneyland on Saturday in California. Adventure on Sunday.
Joshua: Got it.
Matthew: So it was me and my family with the kiddos and then my wife's parents, and then her sister and her kids and her husband. So had a big crew.
Joshua: Oh, nice.
Matthew: Yeah.
Joshua: Did you guys have fun?
Matthew: I had a good time. I mean, for me, I'm not like a the hugest Disney guy, so there's only a certain amount of time I could take in the park before I get overwhelmed with the amount of people
Joshua: And you went on the weekends. It's busy.
Matthew: Yeah. I think I'm done with Saturday Disneyland.
Joshua: Did you guys stay the night?
Matthew: We did. We stayed at the JW Marriott down there.
Joshua: Mm. Is that nice?
Matthew: It's nice, yeah. It's a lot cheaper than the Disneyland hotel. The Disneyland hotel is like a thousand dollars a night.
The JW Marriott was two 50.
Joshua: Oh, that's good. That's better. It's affordable.
Matthew: Yeah. Way, way more affordable.
Joshua: A thousand dollars a night. Geeze.
Matthew: Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Joshua: That's like the common. Like theme about Disneyland? Is that like, when you go to Disneyland, there's no budget? Yeah. Like you, you're just in Disney World, so like money's not an option.
Matthew: Well, I, I definitely would say that's correct. And, and as a parent with the young kids, you gotta just keep feeding them stuff.
Joshua: Did you take snacks?
Matthew: We took snacks, but like, you know, did you buy them food? Yeah. Like if they were hungry and you saw cotton candy. Yeah. Yeah. Have some cotton candy. Oh, you want a slushie?
Sure. Go get a slushie if it's gonna keep you happy.
Joshua: Disney. And I feel like they've definitely put more emphasis on providing like better food, especially at California Adventure.
Matthew: I like California Adventure a lot better than Disney. I hadn't really been there prior to this trip and like spent a lot of time there.
Maybe only spent like four hours there when we did Park Harper. But it, it was a really nice experience. The food is so much better. If you want like a glass of wine or beer, you could, you could do that. The park is easier to navigate. It's easier to walk through. It doesn't feel as tight as Disneyland.
I'm a California adventure guy.
Joshua: Yeah. Cal, well, California Adventure's kind of, well, it's newer, right? And I feel like California Adventure is more catering to like the adults, whereas like Disneyland, in my opinion, like De definitely has more allure to like the smaller kids and like California Adventure like has a little bit more and cater towards like adults in the.
Bigger kids.
Matthew: See, that's what I would think. The same thing. But at Disneyland there's a bunch of adults running around. Yeah. Without kids. And then you go to California Adventure, it's all the people with kids who just, you know, their kids wanna look at things going a few rides, maybe they get some good food and have a have a couple drinks and they play at the big play.
I'm
Joshua: not disagreeing with you. The experience at California Adventure is a lot better for me. I just feel like there's a little bit more little kid rides, so my kids are both under four, so yeah. But we definitely like California adventure food. You can get some drinks. It's clean. Nice. It's I definitely enjoy it.
Matthew: Like if Disneyland didn't put Star Wars land in. Yeah. There'd be no reason to buy a ticket to Disneyland in the Southern California one
Joshua: to see No, but to see like all of the legacy rides, right. It's a small world. Small world's closed right now. Yeah. That's one of the big complaints right now about Disneyland is they have a lot of rides shut down.
Yeah. And it's like their 78th year anniversary, they're, they're booming. And usually when they have these anniversary like periods, they, they do very well. Yeah.
Matthew: But as for Disneyland being expensive, just one quick comment on that. I think because of where we live in Southern California, and you and I do a lot of activities, especially going to sporting events, it's cheaper than, than like buying food or drinks at a sporting event.
It is. And parking. But I think if you're coming in and you don't go to a lot of sporting events you don't spend a lot of time in the city. Or if you are coming in from another state, Disneyland probably seems very expensive.
Joshua: Yeah. The all-in cost is expensive, but like, I mean, you stayed, but like we did the three day pass too.
But like it isn't that bad when you buy those deal passes and you just drive back and forth. 'cause like you're saying, parking isn't as much as like, you know, we go to LAFC soccer games that parking's almost $70 now. Yeah. And so if you're, even a beer is 20 bucks
Matthew: there
Joshua: if you're even taking your own food, it isn't.
I agree with you. It isn't as expensive as maybe some other alternatives in the LA area.
Matthew: Yeah. Spring break season. Yeah. Do you got a trip coming up?
Joshua: I do. Yeah. We're going to Cabo San Lucas. Nice. It's kind of me and my family do that every couple years and looking forward to, it's gonna be a first time traveling with two little ones.
Matthew: Ah, it'll go smooth. It'll be easy.
Joshua: I hope so. Just a lot of stuff to take.
Matthew: Yeah, he is just gotta limit the stuff.
Joshua: There's just gonna be a lot of. Hauling around a bunch of stuff.
Matthew: Well, I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip. I got my little spring break, Disney outta the Way, and then Brent.
Joshua: Brent, yeah.
Brent's on vacation.
Matthew: Yeah. The Bahamas, right. Hope.
Joshua: Hopefully he's having a good time. Yeah. I think he's spring break for him and his family.
Matthew: So he was at the Atlantis or something doing water slides. Yeah. Is the last update. Yeah. Sounds like he's having a good time.
Joshua: I'd love to see a video of Brent going down the waterside.
Could you imagine that?
Matthew: Oh, all right. Well let's start talking about finance. Sounds good. It is almost April, so that means tax seasons here. And we've been getting a ton of questions on taxes from our clients. How do you handle tax season with your clients? Like how do you help them? Do you have any tips, suggestions? I mean, I think we're probably about 15 days.
From the actual deadline. So what are your strategies?
Joshua: My strategy, proactive tax planning is my strategy. I don't know if there's not, there's much to do right now besides getting all of your documents to your CPA, how do you feel about this?
Matthew: Well, I think people don't understand that, which is why I wanna talk about it, is like the year's over, like there's maybe two or three strategies you could do.
The main one is retirement account contributions.
Joshua: Mm-hmm.
Matthew: But outside of that, there's not much you could do other than, you know, print your W twos, your, your 10 99 R, your 10 90 nines, your, your you know, your Schedule C income, all that, and hand it to your tax person and say, all right, buddy. Good luck.
Joshua: Yeah. And I feel like none. I guess my tip is to, if you're unhappy with your tax situation. Now is the time to plan, not be upset about last year. Right, right. You know, Hey, what can I do throughout this whole year to better my tax situation? We're also getting a lot of questions about. Withholdings. Mm-hmm.
And, you know, this is that time to get with your tax preparer or your tax expert, or your financial advisor to, to really look at and understand why your tax situation is the way it is, and to adjust any withholdings to, you know, plan for this year.
Matthew: Yeah. One thing I've been hearing from a lot of clients is that they've ended up owing this season.
Mm-hmm. And they seem disappointed. And then I, I look at their return. And I see that they made a lot of money in like interest maybe from a savings account or from a bond or a cd. And then I have to explain to them that they have made this interest. You know, it's probably, it's usually north of 5,000 'cause interest rates have been so good in 2024.
And it's like, well yeah, that's why you're owing, you know, a couple hundred dollars more than you're used to 'cause you earned this interest
Joshua: and there's no withholding on that interest. Correct. So you're paying the taxes when you go to file on that interest. And yeah, I think that it, it makes sense. 'cause if you look back at it, you saw all of the massive inflows into money market accounts, high yield savings, treasury bonds, and so people made a lot of interest from those types of vehicles last year.
Matthew: Right. So what you're seeing then is you just take your interest earn. So say it's like 5,000 and you owe 500, well then pay the, pay the 500 out of the interest you earned outta your savings account and you still walked away with $4,500 at the end of the day.
Joshua: Yeah. I feel like people are still disappointed though, right?
You're like, Hey, I made five grand. And they're not accounting for the taxes on that five grand.
Matthew: Yeah.
Joshua: So it's a little disappointing to say, oh, I actually really. You know, made 4,500. But a common theme that I see too is people upset that they have to pay taxes on that interest, but the tax isn't as much as the interest.
Right. So you still are gaining by utilizing these vehicles to earn more. So yes, you have to pay a small amount of taxes on the interest earn, or depending on your tax rate, that could be, you know, up to, you know, 40%, but still, you're still netting more than you had the previous year if you did. Implement some interest bearing accounts.
Matthew: Yeah, it's funny 'cause people were upset when interest savings accounts and CDs are at one 0% and now that they're at four or 5% and they're actually gaining interest, they're upset 'cause they're paying tax. Yeah. It comes full circle. Yeah. So I, I think my takeaway for tax season is there's not much you could change right now.
However, in the future for 20 25, 20 26 and onward, if you sit down with a financial advisor and you do some actual tax planning. There are strategies we could take advantage during the year to help lower your tax bill.
Joshua: Yes. Yep. Absolutely. And I think that, you know, this is those times and we're doing 'em with our clients and we have some, you know, some really good tools to start that tax planning process.
'cause you wanna start that at the beginning of the year. So you have as much time, you have more months to implement some of these tax saving strategies throughout the year. Tax planning shouldn't be done in October. You know, it really should be January, February, March. And that's what we're helping our clients with.
Matthew: Yeah. So with my clients, what I've been doing, as soon as they get their return filed, I have them send me electronic copy. Mm-hmm. And then I review it put it through our planning software. Come up with everything that's relevant to their situation. And then in their next quarterly review meeting, I sit down with them and go over their tax return.
Joshua: Yeah. And one of the big value gains from doing that, in my opinion, is basically understanding what this year's gonna look like from a tax perspective. 'cause every year with our clients, and I know I do this. You know, I'm looking at, in every review meeting what that projected tax percentage and dollar amount is, so it's not a surprise that next April.
Mm-hmm. And then also, you know, strategy is about implementing to reduce taxes. So I think it's really important that you're doing that. Whether you have an advisor, you're doing it yourself, now's that time to review.
Matthew: Right, right. And so you're saying like, you'll look at the portfolio and you'll see how much income it's generating, so, so that they know.
Hey, you're generating like, you know, $25,000 of portfolio income this year.
Joshua: Yeah. And then having the conversation that you have to account for the taxes to be paid.
Matthew: Right.
Joshua: So it, it's not a surprise, which I think a lot of people are surprised this year.
Matthew: Yeah. And they should be surprised, you know, coming into 25 as well.
'cause the rates are still high. It's gonna be a, a, a, a good problem as long as rates are high.
Joshua: Yep. I agree.
Matthew: All right. Have you had a lot of clients asking about gold?
Joshua: That's always, usually a conversation, whether it's up or down, but I think probably more that it's been up.
Matthew: Well, you, do you like it here?
Are you buying gold?
Joshua: No, I'm not buying at the top.
Matthew: It's a top. Is it? I don't know. I, I've noticed a lot of clients have been asking me about two different investible assets this year. One gold, one China stocks.
Joshua: Yeah.
30% rate of return in gold. 2024. 14.76 gain this year, I mean. I'd have to look it back at the chart historically, but I mean, I don't know if I'm bullish here.
Matthew: Well, what I've been telling, telling clients, and it's kind of like a a, it's not a great answer, but they're like, oh, do you like gold Chinese stocks? And I'm like, well, they're going higher.
Joshua: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, is that the time to buy?
Matthew: I mean, they're going higher when I buy stuff. I wanna buy things that are going higher.
Yeah. But after the type of run that
Joshua: they've had. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I think your strategy is more like, Hey, this stock bottom, it's now going higher consistently. Let's buy it. Not necessarily buying at the top.
Matthew: Yeah. So I'm not really interested in gold jokes aside. I, I think that it makes sense for some clients who want to own it in a portfolio.
Like we have no problem adding, adding it to their portfolio if they want to own it. An allocation, five, 10%. But it's an asset that trends and it, it usually trends over five to 10 year periods. So for gold going higher by 30% last year and 14% this year. Like you said, well, it did nothing for 12 years.
Joshua: Yeah.
But that's historically what it's done is nothing. It grows with inflation.
Matthew: Exactly. So now it's going up this year, if you wanna own it, you have to be okay with owning gold for 12 years. While it does nothing.
Joshua: Not for me, but you know, I, I will say, not for me, but when the portfolio, in my opinion, grows to a certain level, I think it is important to look at alternative investments at a, at a small percentage, like you said, 5%.
Should you be looking at gold if you need that type of diversification or exposure, sure. Because it's done well. Why is it done well? Well, gold does well through uncertain times. I think you would agree with me that we have a lot of uncertainty going on in our economy and market right now, so am I surprised?
No, but I also think that, like, we've seen this before, some of this uncertainty goes away, or cash, you know, tightens up and what are you gonna sell? Probably your gold.
Matthew: Yeah. Most like, well, as soon as it starts going down, people will get bored and they'll wanna sell it.
Joshua: Yeah. Well, and you know, you have a little bit of 10, 20% correction in gold.
You know what people are gonna say?
Matthew: Get rid of it. Yeah. Get me out.
Joshua: Get me
Matthew: out. Why am I one 800?
Joshua: Get
Matthew: me out. Why am I in this gold? Just put me in the s and p. Yeah, exactly. Alright, well then what? You like Chinese stocks here? They're going up. I keep getting asked about Chinese stocks.
Joshua: You know what? I'm not gonna go that specific.
I like international stocks and I've. Liked them. We're seeing a great increase. So far this year. We'll talk about diversification in a minute. But I mean, specifically Chinese stocks not in love. But I think international exposure is very, very important.
Matthew: Up 26% this year. I know Alibaba Deep seek Baidu.
Joshua: Yeah. What did it do though over the last 10? Nothing. So we're in the same bucket as gold. Finally, getting some exposure here to the upside from these assets. So you don't like Chinese stocks? Mm. Not, not, not as bullish anymore. I mean, I, I mean, I would've liked it more, you know, 12 months ago knowing what's happening today.
But, you know, hindsight's always 2020.
Matthew: Yeah. So my rule of thumb, with all this stuff, gold, Chinese stocks, anything going higher is when we start getting not just one client, but multiple clients usually asking about these things. To me, it usually signals a pullbacks coming.
Joshua: Mm-hmm. Agreed. Yeah. So yeah, that's a good, good, good indicator.
I like those simple indicators. Too many people asking about it. It's probably, yeah. Done with its run potentially.
Matthew: Yeah. But I, I agree with you. I, I like international diversification here. It's working this year, right?
Joshua: Yeah. I think that's one of the really bright spots to the beginning of the year, is looking at diversified portfolios.
And seeing the diversification work.
Matthew: And so what, what would go into that? Like bonds?
Joshua: Yeah. So if you're looking at it from a top level, you know, you have US stocks, international stocks, emerging stocks, emerging market stocks, and then you have bonds as well. If you're looking at, you know, asset allocation in a portfolio that's diversified and US stocks have not been good so far, year to date.
Right. So what has been good? You're having yields from bonds and you're also seeing international stocks do very well, and also emerging market stocks do well too. So although your US stocks are. The lagger in the portfolio. You do have some winners if your, your portfolio is diversified.
Matthew: Yeah. It's about time.
Joshua: It is. 'cause international stocks have not been,
Matthew: no, they've been
Joshua: doing well. So again, you know, I think I. I like the saying, being diversified is, from a financial advisor's point of view is always apologizing 'cause something's not going up. Right. Right. But then in this year I think it's really good to, to show why you stay diversified is because although your US stock positions are down, you at least have some assets in that portfolio that have increased this year.
Matthew: Right. And I, I remember late last year, I had clients asking as well, like, Hey, why do we got these international stocks? They're not, they're up 4% while the my US market SP 500 is up 25. Like, what are we doing here, Matthew, right?
Joshua: Yeah. And it's easy, right? It's easy to be reactionary and be like, I want more US stocks.
Bang the bang the table. But international stocks close to 10% right now.
Matthew: Yeah, year to date. And, and so what this means from a returns perspective is we get ready to end this quarter. I can't believe the quarter's already over, by the way.
Joshua: Me either. This year's already flying
Matthew: by. Yeah, it won't by way too fast.
But what it means is your portfolio there's a really good chance with the US stock market down that if you're globally diversified, your portfolio is actually not down this year.
Joshua: Yeah. Or just flat. Yeah. And that's a lot different than what you know, your financial media is telling you if you're just watching CNBC.
Right. You know? Or you're watching the news and saying, oh, the US market's down. Well, you know, what we're seeing, like you're saying with a lot of these diversified portfolios is you might not be down. You might even just be flat, which is a win. So far, year to date?
Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. With all the volatility we've had.
Yep. And
Joshua: uncertainty. So,
Matthew: and the bonds are gonna continue to perform well 'cause they, they're gonna start paying their interest. They haven't, most bond funds haven't paid interest yet.
Joshua: Mm-hmm. Yep. So you're gonna see that better returns from those diversified portfolios. Yeah.
Matthew: So are you going all in international stocks?
Joshua: No, I stayed disciplined, Matt.
Matthew: So boring. I know it's, you know why it works though? 'cause it's boring.
Joshua: It does. That is why it works. I mean, to be honest though, what's not boring is, you know, learning from these types of periods, right? And finding testaments to the strategy, that's not boring. And then also, if you're looking to be opportunistic, I mean, now's the time to make.
Those Reba, you know, potentially make some rebalances to the portfolio now is potentially a good time to get more cash working. So not changing the philosophy, but there is opportunity in the market. And I think that that's more exciting.
Matthew: So it might shock people to learn that Brent's a little bit older than us,
Joshua: really.
Matthew: Yeah.
Joshua: Okay.
Matthew: So when he got into the investment advice industry, you and I were still in college. So he had a, I think he had a five year head start on us.
Joshua: Yeah.
Matthew: And during Brent's early career, you know what the hot investment was?
Joshua: What was it?
Matthew: International stocks. So all throughout Brent's early career.
'cause he started in the early two thousands, the hot investment was international and emerging stocks. The US stock market wasn't any good for like 10 years. Mm-hmm. So it's just funny, you know, 25 years later that we might be at the start of another cycle where international is the place to be.
Joshua: Here's your tip.
Make sure you're diversified.
Matthew: Yeah, there you go. That way you capture that upside.
Joshua: Wow. That made me feel old. Why you said 25 years ago,
Matthew: Josh, we're getting old. We're mid-career. I know. That's okay. It's a good feeling. Yeah, I agree. You're gonna feel really old when we're still doing this podcast. When we're talking about our when we're gonna collect our social security.
Joshua: I don't know if I'm gonna be doing this podcast then I'll just feel really old. Like, you know, when we start talking about kids' graduations. Oh, from like high school or college? The oath. Oh, because you were talking about college. It made me think of like, oh, my kids and going to college like.
Matthew: You know what we should do?
That's still a long
Joshua: time away though. Oh, this is also another tip. Go contribute to your 5 29 plans. Well, I was just gonna
Matthew: say we need to do, we need to do a show on 5 29 plans and college planning. 'cause I have some spicy takes on it.
Joshua: You do.
Matthew: Yeah. So we need to put that on the, on our show docket list for Let's
Joshua: do
Matthew: it next time.
I think it's good. Another show.
Joshua: That's another, we get a lot of those questions though. Yeah. I mean, if it's something that we, that I feel like a high percentage of clients that are coming to us have questions about it is college planning and, you know, kids accounts, whether if it's for kids or grandchildren.
Yep. So good topic.
Matthew: I'm probably gonna upset people with my takes, but That's okay. That's what makes a good show.
Joshua: You like doing that?
Matthew: I do. All right. Let's talk about something that's getting me really excited.
Joshua: Okay. Hit me
Matthew: all. So coming up it's actually expected to be within the next few days, have you heard of a company called Core Weave
Joshua: AI Company?
Matthew: It's an AI company. So they do, they bought a bunch of Nvidia chips before AI was like really taken off. And so they lease out, they're, they're chip farm essentially for companies to run AI workloads on.
Joshua: Okay.
Matthew: So it's kinda like a data center company. They have two. Oh, it's like renter truck kind of.
Yeah. They have 250,000 Nvidia GPUs. And they have filed to come public. They're looking to raise about two and a half billion dollars at an expected share price of 47 to $55 a share. You know why this gets me excited.
Joshua: Because it's potential for growth and we haven't had any of this in a while.
Matthew: Yeah, we haven't had an IPO in a long time.
Joshua: Any of this type of business movement in a while.
Matthew: Yeah. So the last big kind of IPO boom was during 2021 when people were doing SPACs, and since then, the IPO window's been kind of closed. Now this deal isn't super big. It's not a big deal. It's not like open AI or SpaceX or Stripe is coming public.
It's a smaller company.
Joshua: I smell opportunity Matthew.
Matthew: Yeah, so I, I think this, if this is well received by the market and the stock goes up a lot, I think we could have the window IPO window start to open.
Joshua: And I think that we, you know, we've talked about this, that this whole AI boom, although it's definitely generated a lot of.
Growth in the markets, it's still in its infant stages. And now this is, you know, maybe if I'm using an analogy, it's entering potentially its toddler stage. If this goes well.
Matthew: Yeah, if this goes well, it could be really big and, you know, maybe we'll see some other AI companies come public. I think one a lot of people are waiting for is open ai.
Joshua: And if you're seeing the news. Now you're seeing financial news again, start to talk a lot more. And there's obviously more IPOs that are kind of scheduled for this year already. That traction starting to pick up and you're gonna hear a lot more of that going forward.
Matthew: I agree. And so what has me excited though too, is a lot of people are saying, oh, it's a bear market.
Depression, recession, blah, blah, blah. Companies like this don't come public in massive bear markets.
Joshua: Agreed.
Matthew: They go public in bull markets. That's when you take companies public.
Joshua: Yeah. You, you want. People to buy your stock. Exactly.
Matthew: So, so good sign. We'll, we'll see how it trades. I'll, we'll probably forget about it, but you know,
Joshua: no, I think this should be probably a theme for our podcast going forward this year is looking at that IPO market, the mergers acquisition market.
'cause it's kind of been dead. It's been way
Matthew: dead.
Joshua: So what that would also mean, just like simply is, you know, these type of transactions could signal good things. And potentially some good markets going forward.
Matthew: Yeah, that'd be well received. Speaking of markets, did you do a college basketball bracket? I did.
I think I'm in last place. Oh, I'm right next to you in last place. Yeah.
Joshua: Do you wanna know what my strategy was? Was It is usually the same. Okay. What'd you do? I used ai. Okay, well no, hold on. Take I take that back. There's a expert Bracketologist, I think they're called, that I usually follow. I think you use him too.
But then I also ran it through ai Uhhuh. To be honest, AI didn't do a good job. Not, not with its picks, but like under understanding the brackets and like formulating some predictions for me, I feel like now looking at all of these tools to build a bracket and me being in last place, I just need to pick it myself.
Matthew: Oh, see, I was really happy with my AI analysis. You're in last place too. Yeah, but the team I have winning and the teams I have in the Final four are still alive. I'm just in last place 'cause I picked all the other games. Well, but everyone picked Duke. Yeah, but like I didn't know anything about Duke and I asked my AI, who's gonna win?
And it gave me this long explanation about Duke. And then I saw Duke play and I looked at the guys they go, I'm like, dang, my AI is smart. Because those are some really good looking basketball players, the favorite.
Joshua: Okay. Well, we'll see how we end up. We'll give an update on the next podcast, but I usually like the tournament.
I think you had said it. It's cool that a lot of the good teams are still in it. There wasn't a lot of Cinderella upsets so far, so,
Matthew: so I haven't looked into this yet. But you know, the company, Robinhood, that's popular with trading,
Joshua: Investment trading platform.
Matthew: Yeah, investment trading platform.
They let you do I guess, kind of trade your bracket in a way. Where you get futures contracts on the various college basketball teams. I don't, I don't know how they're allowed to do this, but they're, they're doing it.
Joshua: I didn't really see that. I. Like in the news much. And I'm like, where did you pick that up?
'cause I like, you know, usually we're kind of reading the same things. But then I read Howard Lindsay's newsletter.
Matthew: Yeah.
Joshua: Is is that where you heard about it? Yeah, it is. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So then I saw that, I saw that he does it really bad or whatever, but he did in through the Robinhood app. It's pretty
Matthew: cool.
I think it's really cool. But I don't know if, like, do you have to be in a state where Ga sports, gambling's legal or I don't know, do it anywhere.
Joshua: I'd have to look that up. I don't know if I love it though. Sorry if I go back to like boring financial advisor if you're implementing also gambling into like these younger generations trading apps, like I don't know if I'm in love with that long term.
Matthew: Well, your retirement strategy isn't a hesitant team parlay with a thousand dollars. I
Joshua: mean, I want them, I, I I want them separate. Oh, you know, you don wanna log in and then, you know, buy some stocks. I. And then transition over to betting who's gonna win the March Madness tournament all within the same app.
Matthew: Oh. So I don't know
Joshua: if that's fiduciary.
Matthew: No, I think the, the play is gonna be you take your profits on your Nvidia, your Tesla stock from Fridays from the week, and then you roll it into a, a tent team parlay on Saturdays and Sundays.
Joshua: Okay. It sounds fun. It's a future. I don't, I don't know if it's beneficial for your, your future planning, but it sounds fun.
Matthew: I mean, who needs Vanguard retirement accounts? We do this,
Joshua: forget passive investing. Let's just trade GameStop and then take our winnings and go bet a 10 team parlay, like you said.
Matthew: Yeah. There you go. Anything else actionable?
Joshua: No, I, I think we're good. I thought that was good. Covering what's, what's hot right now?
Are you, no one else is real. Like just all over my internet is talking about recommends. Are you watching White Lotus?
Matthew: Yeah. I like that show on Max.
Joshua: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good show. I don't think it's as good as the first two seasons, but that's what my wife and I are watching right now and I feel like it's getting to that level of like those good HBO shows where you like have to watch it on the day it comes out because then like you're gonna get so many spoilers like on Monday morning.
Right. But I like that show. Yeah. It's, it's getting spicy though.
Matthew: It's the only must watch TV show out there right now. Yeah. For current event news a great show. I think season one, they outdid themselves. And they've been trying to, they've been trying to do as good since
Joshua: to get back to that. It's it's good though.
White Lotus, if you haven't watched it, let's just, let's just, I'd even start, if you haven't watched it, start with season one. 'cause that one's the best.
Matthew: Yeah. So what it is, is it's usually I think about like four to five families who are on a family vacation in like a luxury area if you haven't watched it.
Joshua: Yeah. They hold 'em at like four Seasons. Right. The first one was Hawaii, second one was Italy. This one's in Thailand.
Matthew: Yeah. And the, the hotel is called the White Lotus, and it's a playoff of like a four Seasons.
Joshua: And, you know, I think what's also what I like about it is like, it's just visually like really well done.
So it captures like the area and you kind of feel immersed in like, you know, this luxury, beautiful place, but all of these crazy things are happening. Yeah.
Matthew: And the, the characters are amazing too.
Joshua: Yeah, it's really good. I also started full swing, I don't know if you've watched that.
Matthew: I haven't
Joshua: watched that one.
Yeah, I started a first couple episodes. It's, it's pretty good. I like full swing 'cause it's, you know, like on last year's golf season. Mm-hmm. This is on Netflix. It's a documentary about the PGA tour. And like I kind of forgot some of like the big storylines of last year. And so like right away in the first two seasons, they were talking about like Rory McElroy's divorce.
Oh, and like that like kind of drama and it was interesting to see like the inside of all of that. Yeah. But if you like golf or you like documentaries, full swing started that too. That's good.
Matthew: Yeah, that's a good one. Have you seen the Pit on HBO? I don't know. I don't know if you'll like this one.
It's a medical show.
Joshua: I started it.
Matthew: Oh, you did?
Joshua: I did.
Matthew: Did your, did Brooke like it?
Joshua: Yeah, we're watching a little bit more tv. Last year I was at the low, low, low, low low of tv. Now that our, both of our kids are sleeping pretty well through the night, like we're getting to watch a little bit more shows. So my wife's a ER nurse.
Yep. And everyone at her work's talking about the pit. And so we started it and watched the first two seasons. 'cause it's, I guess in the hospital they're like, this is the most kind of realistic er show that they've kind of seen. Obviously I, I don't know much about it. But yeah, we've liked it so far.
It's intense. Did she say it's fast?
Matthew: Did she say it's realistic?
Joshua: Yeah, pretty, I think it's like extreme of like how like busy and how. I was, I was also talking to my mom about this. Like, they've covered like all of the extreme like ER cases in like two episodes. Right. Like, you know, so like, I don't know if I, and I think it's actually only two hours in their time, in the show's time of how much stuff's already happened.
Matthew: Yeah. The whole, the whole season is just like a 10 hour shift or something like that. Yeah,
Joshua: yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think that that might be a little bit. Exaggerated, but obviously it's a TV show. But it's pretty good so far.
Matthew: So it was interesting. My wife really enjoyed it. There's a lot of scenes where I had to close my eyes.
Joshua: Really?
Matthew: Yeah.
Joshua: You get squirmish.
Matthew: I get squirmish. Yeah. Really? Or squeamish? Is it squirmish or squeamish? I don't know. Alright. Yeah. Fact, check me, I, I there's some, some gross stuff. I don't wanna see that. That doesn't bother me. All right. Well give it a few more episodes and then,
Joshua: yeah, yeah. I guess here's your disclaimer on the pit, because like they like pull some lady's leg off.
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty it's pretty graphic too. Yeah. I was, I was a little surprised about how graphic but it's interesting 'cause then I get to ask my wife questions like, oh, does, does this happen to you in the er? Or is it like this? And like a lot of the things, like, it's true. And then it's funny 'cause like I asked her too about, there's like the guys that go in there like consistently and they like know their names and they're going in there to like get free sandwiches.
Yeah. And like that, that part of the ER is, is portrayed in that show too. So it's pretty interesting.
Matthew: Yeah. Good show. So it, max has two hits right now.
Joshua: Yeah, I think they're one and two. They always have the list of like, what's hot, right? Yeah.
Matthew: All right. Anything left?
Joshua: No, I think we're good.
Matthew: All right.
So you're gonna Cabo? I am. I went to Disney, Brents in The Bahamas. Hopefully you could come on our, on our next show, but if not, we'll miss you.
Joshua: You're gonna leave me out.
Matthew: Well, I don't know. You said you're gonna be in Cabo. Are you gonna phone in to do the show from Cabo? I'm sure your wife and family are gonna love that.
Joshua: No. We'll, we'll record in two weeks and I'm back.
Matthew: All right.
Joshua: I'm not mentioning show. There's too much going on. Too much to talk about.
Matthew: You're right. Chinese stocks could be in a recession, but by the time you're back. Exactly. Gotta have
Joshua: update. Update the listeners.
Matthew: All right. Well, as advisors we love helping people.
If you are going through a life change like retirement inheritance, or just have some general financial questions. Reach out to us. We're here in downtown Claremont. We, we love to help people. You can find all the information on ever vermont.com. Book an intro call with your, your favorite podcast personality.
And yeah, we'd love to help you out. Thank you. Thank you.
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