Ep 63: Protect Your Retirement From Inflation
The X's & O's
Inflation has been a hot topic since last year and rates are still rising. It's important that you find a way to hedge against this risk, so your retirement does not suffer. Brent, Matthew, and Joshua discuss some different ways you can protect your portfolio from inflation.
The Hosts:
Brent Pasqua, Matthew Theal and Joshua Winterswyk
Transcript:
Brent Pasqua: Welcome to the Retirement Plan Playbook. So, we’ve been talking a lot about inflation in the economy since last year. And today’s show is about how retirees can protect themselves from inflation. But before we get into it, I’m your host, Brent Pasqua, founder of RPA wealth management. I’m here with Matthew Theal, certified financial planner, Joshua Winterswyk, certified financial planner. What are you guys’ thoughts on this matchup for the Super Bowl?
Matthew Theal: I’m really excited, Brent. So, I’m a massive Rams fan and the Rams are in the Super Bowl this year. I have been a Rams fan since I was a little kid. And just to see them play at our home stadium. So, if our stadium is going to be just really cool, I was looking to buy tickets and it cost a pretty penny. The cheapest seat was about six grand. So, I am officially going to be watching for my couch.
Brent Pasqua: Is there proof that you’ve been a Rams fan since a kid, because I’ve known you a long time, and I didn’t know that you were a Rams fan until they actually moved back to LA.
Joshua Winterswyk: I actually just found out you were a Rams fan.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. In 1992, I dressed up as Eric Dickerson for Halloween. I had a Rams up.
Joshua Winterswyk: I just football uniform. I can’t hold my tongue. This is just fabricated completely.
Brent Pasqua: You think so?
Joshua Winterswyk: I think so. Yeah. I just found out he was a Rams fan.
Brent Pasqua: I’m excited for the game. I’m excited for the Rams. I love all LA teams. So, if the Rams are in there, the chargers in there, I’m excited. I support our local teams, but I’m very excited. I think it’s awesome that it’s in LA, the weather’s going to be great. I’m excited for the game and it’s cool they get to play the Bengals who haven’t been there in for ever. So, I’m excited.
Matthew Theal: Man. Cool, that the Bengals are in it. No one really expected that. It seemed like no one wanted the Chiefs in the Super Bowl again. And I will just go out and say, I am not a Rams fan. So, go Bengals on Super Bowl Sunday. Really cool that it’s in LA, though. That stadium is awesome. So, really cool that the LA’s going to be showcased and that stadium’s going to be showcased, but just to let the audience know one more time. I am not a Rams fan. Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: Those are some expensive tickets. Being that it’s close to home, would you ever spend that much money or you just enjoy the Super Bowl festivities at the Super Bowl parties too much?
Matthew Theal: I think the only way I do that is unless my team that I’ve been supporting since I was a child, which this is actually true, Miami Dolphins, that’s my team. If they went to the Super Bowl and it was in LA, I think that I would have to muster up the price to go. It’s my team, Josh, so I know you and you’re not dropping six grand to say the top deck of the Super Bowl.
Joshua Winterswyk: You know what, if I have to sell a kidney to go see my team finally, who knows when it will happen again? I’ve never even seen him in… I barely even seen him in a playoff game.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. If you’re a Dolphins fan, you probably have never even seen them in the playoffs in your lifetime.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. Just start collecting cans to pay for this stuff. But no, it is so expensive. It’s just crazy.
Brent Pasqua: But Super Bowl parties are so fun. That’s the highlight of the holiday and the tradition of it all.
Matthew Theal: No, absolutely. Super Bowl parties are great. Just the food, just the environment. Everyone gets excited for that day, football pools, all that stuff. I love Super Bowl.
Brent Pasqua: Me too. All right. So, let’s get into that hot take headlines. Some of the most followed stocks in the market reported earnings over the last couple of weeks. After the earnings reports came out, we saw some really big swings in some of these stocks. So, tech stocks really started reporting over the last couple of weeks. Amazon reported earnings and are up 15%, Apple’s up 11%, Google’s up 9%, Netflix down 20%, and Meta, old school Facebook is down 26%. Maybe the Metaverse already blew up, but what’s going on here with these big stocks?
Matthew Theal: Yeah. It’s unique. I don’t remember seeing big swings like this in these tech socks when they report earnings. Because like you said, when we mean they’re big, what we mean is their market caps are really large. So, most of the news should be priced into the stock. So, to have Amazon jumping by 15%, Apple jumping by 11%, and then on the flip side, Netflix and Facebook falling by over 20%, those are some wild moves and it just speaks to the theme we started hitting on towards the end of last year. And we talked about it on the last show. There’s just a lot of uncertainty in the stock market right now. And we’re seeing it in these big tech earnings and we expect this to be a super volatile year.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think there’s just so many variables too right now that are volatile. You talk about interest rates, even earnings, all of the stuff that’s going on. And this is the other side of being an investor with these companies and stocks is that we saw really great rates of return from these tech companies for a while.
Matthew Theal: For 10 years.
Joshua Winterswyk: No one had a problem with them going up and this is that other side of it. Eventually it’s going to have to reset a little bit. And I also think that investors are a little emotional right now. We’ve had such a crazy couple of years and great returns and trying to figure all of this out in this new environment that the emotions playing a role in this as well. And it’s creating even more fluctuation with these returns.
Brent Pasqua: Do you think if these earnings were reported a year ago or two years ago that the movement swings that we just saw wouldn’t have been as drastic or would it have they been more drastic?
Matthew Theal: That’s a good question. I don’t think they would’ve been as drastic. It’s not like Facebook and Netflix had awful earnings and it’s not like Amazon and Apple had the greatest earnings. It just seems like the market is really uncertain right now. And it’s overreacting on the upside and the downside to news.
Brent Pasqua: Everyone’s looking to either get spooked or to almost jump onto something positive.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. Very reactive.
Brent Pasqua: All right. Let’s get into the other headline. Google recently announced a 20-for-1 stock split. Why are they doing this? And what does it actually mean to investors when a company does split like this into this magnitude? I don’t recall exactly when the last company did a 20-for-1.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. 20-for-1 is a big one. I don’t know if I remember seeing a 20-for-1 in my career, but I think, is Google a—what— $2,000 or $3,000 stock?
Brent Pasqua: Yeah, it was just below three, I believe.
Matthew Theal: Just below 3,000 a share. So essentially, what that means is if you had 3,000 invested in Google, you own one share. Pretty simple. Now, if you have 3,000 invested in Google, you’re going to own 20 shares, but the price per share is going to be lower. So, stock splits really don’t do that much when you boil it down, you still have the same amount invested in the stock that you did the day prior. It’s like breaking a pencil in half a bunch of times.
Joshua Winterswyk: Or cutting a pizza in multiple slices. It’s the same size pizza.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, that’s true. That’s a good point too. Eight slice pizza still the same diameters as a 16.
Joshua Winterswyk: You can cut a pizza in 16 slices or eight slices, is still the same size of pizza.
Brent Pasqua: But in using that same analogy, is the concept the same. When you cut more slices up, essentially, you’re just able to feed more people. You’re not feeding people more, but you’re able to feed more people because you have more slices.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. It’s a good point. It’s more affordable now for more people. So more people can jump in and buy Google stock. Tesla did this, Matt, I’m sure on the top of your head can think of another more that recently just did stock splits. And you see good reaction from it because, again, it is giving an opportunity for more investors who potentially couldn’t afford a full share. Didn’t buy it because of that reason now to afford it and buy shares of Google.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. Individual investors love stock splits. They always have… It’s attractive. If you look at something that was priced for 3,000 one day and now it’s priced at a couple of hundred dollars. It’s a big psychological difference.
Brent Pasqua: Should people go out there and start buying the stock now that it’s more affordable for them?
Matthew Theal: Like I said, if you invest 3,000 in Google the day before it splits, you’re going to have 3,000 in Google the day after it splits. So, it shouldn’t make the stock go up or down. All things being equal. Always consult with your financial advisor to see what investments makes sense for you.
Joshua Winterswyk: I think if you liked Google before, and you still like Google and that’s when you should buy it, the stock split shouldn’t probably be dictating your purchase.
Brent Pasqua: Do you think Amazon does the same thing? Because Amazon stock prices right in that same ballpark range and a lot of people would like to own Amazon, but it’s just unaffordable for a lot of people.
Matthew Theal: They probably should, same thing, right? It’s worth $2,000 a share. So, they do a 20-for-1, they’d get a price around where Google’s at. So yeah, potentially it could help them out. Their stock hasn’t gone up in two or three years. So maybe it’ll help actually get investors enthusiastic to buy the stock.
Brent Pasqua: All right. Well, let’s get in the retirement planning corner. Many people, and we’ve talked about this many times over the show. Many people are concerned about the rising rate of inflation. People are now finding themselves spending more money on groceries, on gas, on any common household goods. And this can be increasingly more difficult if you are on a fixed income or you do have somewhat of a tight budget or you want to spend within a certain amount of money, monthly in a certain range. Today’s show is about how retirees can protect themselves from inflation. And now some great tips on how anybody can really protect themselves from inflation. But I really enjoy always discussing strategies that people can begin to implement and that can help them long term in their financial planning and even short term. Let’s get into some of these strategies that can help you able to offset this. What is one of your key strategies?
Matthew Theal: It’s all getting started, and the first strategy is to make sure you have the right percentage of stocks in your portfolio. So many people are scared of the volatility of the stock market, but stocks actually offer really great inflation and protected returns. It’s actually the best asset for inflation area times. So, it’s important to understand what’s happening as inflation gets going. If you have a ton of money in cash, you’re getting negative return on that cash that’s at the bank. So, if inflation’s 7% and your bank account’s paying you 0.01%, you’re losing 7% of your money over the course of the year by not being invested. The stock market has historically returned 10% per year on average, that’s a great rate of return. Most advisors don’t even cite that stat, because it’s actually almost too good.
Matthew Theal: You can’t tell people they’re going to get 10%, but that’s what the numbers say. So, inflation would have to be above 10% for historically stocks to return negative after inflation. And we’ve just never seen that.
Joshua Winterswyk: And we haven’t really been in a time where we’ve discussed this. Especially even on the pod where inflation is now this big concern and we have to battle it and being in a situation where you do have cash and now that is risky, but we haven’t talked about that too much. We know we want our money working for us, but now that your cash is really truly at risk with the new inflation numbers that we’re seeing. So, you have to keep those equities. And I know it is uncertain. I know the times are different. And I also feel like when we talk about inflation, a lot of people correlate it to bad stock market performance. I don’t know if you guys feel that, but even with clients and just questions I get from family and friends like, economy is uncertain and that means stock market’s going to crash.
Joshua Winterswyk: So, really just great points, Matt, on the stock market returns because losing your equities in stock positions right now through these inflationary period is probably not a good thing.
Brent Pasqua: Is it concerning that the market and the stock market has been going down to start the year and you have high inflation, people are seeing lowering prices of their portfolios, their cost of goods are going up, very different of a financial position maybe they were in a December of 2021?
Matthew Theal: It shouldn’t be because if you had stocks in your portfolio in 2019, 2020, in 2021, you delivered returns far above inflation. So, you should be ahead of the game right now and not worrying at all.
Joshua Winterswyk: And when an inflation wasn’t as high, so your real return has been.
Matthew Theal: Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: And I think the mindset that people have to take too right now is as stock prices go down, you always should talk to your advisor about this, but stocks become more attractive as prices drop. And so, maybe it’s a good time also to be looking at not being nervous, but being a little bit more aggressive.
Matthew Theal: Great point, yeah. And you should be consulting with your financial advisor and if you don’t have one, reach out to one and they’ll help you figure out how much percent of stocks you need in your portfolio to keep up with and beat inflation.
Brent Pasqua: Is there any other important points on keeping equities or stocks inside your retirement?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. I think that with the diversified portfolio, you probably have some bonds or fixed income investments that are in there. And right now it’s just good to point out that those aren’t keeping up with inflation. So, just another reason why leaning too heavily on those more conservative investments could be actually hurting you in the long run. And I think that that’s important.
Brent Pasqua: So, step one or strategy one is considering keeping or adding stocks to your retirement portfolio. Obviously, the recommendation comes from us insight from the podcast, but always consult with your financial advisor. What’s our second strategy.
Matthew Theal: So, the second strategy is to research out and find maybe a high yield savings account. This isn’t fully going to help you beat inflation, but it could help chip away a little bit. So, we all know the big banks, Chase, Citi, Wells, Bank of America.
Brent Pasqua: US Bank.
Matthew Theal: US bank. If you’re keeping your money in those banks, you’re not getting any interest at all. You should probably just be using those banks for maybe your debit card and put a little bit of cash just in case you overdraw your checking account. But for the most part, you should probably be keeping your money in an online savings account, because you are going to get a higher interest rate than you would from a physical bank.
Joshua Winterswyk: And one thing to point out with the online savings accounts. I know it is a newer concept, we’ve talked about it a lot on the podcast because it can close that gap, especially in these inflationary periods of return or at least help a little bit. But all of these online banks have now been around for a while. So, they are reputable now, they have great service teams, they also are FDIC insured just like your big bank. So, not a lot of risk involved. It is just a little bit of a different process.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. And that’s another thing. I think anybody who’s thinking about putting their savings account somewhere else, that’s not in a traditional bank, it’s a foreign thought sometimes and to make it easier, mostly all of these that we’re talking about are FDIC insured. And what happens is, is you can open up any one of these online savings account, let’s say Capital One, which has Capital 360, Marcus, Ally, Synchrony. There’s just a lot of them. You can Google them out there on the top rated savings accounts and you can link your traditional bank account, your traditional savings account to that online savings account and then transfer money back and forth electronically. But while your money’s sitting at this separate online savings account, you’re getting that higher interest rate and that’s free money.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. And as you’re seeing interest rates potentially going up too, you’re already in position to seek that advantage of being in an all online savings account, because those rates are variable. So, a lot of these bigger online banks too are staying competitive. Those rates will rise when interest rates rise. So, you’re going to get an even better rates. So something to even at the beginning of the year to prep for, if you’re concerned about raising interest rates, as a say variable that could potentially even help you if you’re not on the other side of borrowing.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. The first interest rate hike is scheduled for March. So, I’d imagine those online savings banks shortly after the rates do rise from the fed that they increase the rates they’re offering customers as well.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. And this is an easy strategy in my opinion to implement. This isn’t something complicated. You could find your favorite bank by just doing a quick Google search, open account online, and start making a little bit more money on your savings account. And as interest rates go up, you’re going to be making even more. So, I think fairly something very simple to implement and help yourself offset some inflation.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yep, absolutely.
Brent Pasqua: Okay. So, let’s get into our next strategy. What else do we have that could be helpful?
Matthew Theal: So there’s these type of bonds that adjust for inflation, and they could be really beneficial to a client’s portfolio in inflationary times. And those are called TIPs or treasury and protected securities. And they basically work like a normal bond that pays the interest rate that inflation pays out. So, if inflation’s high, you’re going to do pretty well in the bonds because you’re going to get a higher adjusted inflation payout. On the flip side though, there’s a negative when inflation’s not doing that well, the bonds aren’t going to pay out great.
Joshua Winterswyk: And related to, a lot of people are familiar with mortgages. You have an adjustable and a fixed rate, not the best comparison, but mortgages with the variable rate as those rates change, they adjust. The same concept from the bonds as well.
Brent Pasqua: Now we’ve had a lot of people reach out and ask about I Bonds. Does that help in this situation? Should people consider purchasing an I Bond, and what is an I Bond?
Matthew Theal: So an I Bond is a savings bond offered by the US treasury directly to consumers, so that would be all of us. And you can go to the treasury direct to buy these. And you’re only allowed to invest 10,000 in the bond and it pays what the current inflation rate is right now. So, the inflation rate is 7%. So that’s what the bond’s paying. So, if you were to invest your 10,000 in that, you’d get about $700 a year in interest. It sounds like a lot compared to what you currently get at the bank, but is it worth the headache of going to the treasury direct and buying this bond online, sending them your money? I don’t know.
Joshua Winterswyk: Maybe as a gift. And that’s a lot of times what these were used for. Like the savings bonds in general. I think that they’ve just really decreased in popularity, especially when they moved online. Because you used to be able to go to the bank and redeem them and buy them. And it was a lot easier of a process. But you’re right. For a maximum of only being able to put 10,000 into this I Bond, is it really worth it?
Matthew Theal: So, every year in the ’90s for Christmas and my birthday, so every six months my grandma would give me one of these I Bonds or E Bonds and I got access to them when I was in college. And it was a very nice gift. I had a nice little chunk of change for being in my mid 20s.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah.
Matthew Theal: But if she just would’ve invested in a Vanguard or an S&P 500 mutual fund, all that money all through the ’90s and the 2000s, and then till today, it would be worth a lot of money.
Joshua Winterswyk: Sure. But she still had the thought of actually putting in something that had some an interest rate. That’s still okay.
Matthew Theal: It is okay, but-
Joshua Winterswyk: I get what you’re saying, though. I’m not arguing with you.
Matthew Theal: Consult with your advisor.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. One other thing about the I Bonds, if you cash them out before five years, there’s penalties, there’s other factors to it. I think the interest I could be wrong it resets right, Matt, based on, I think it’s maybe semi-annual it resets. There’s a lot of variables to having and they’re not just easy to operate on. It’s another account you have to track and file for your tax return.
Joshua Winterswyk: And if you have them in paper form, I feel like I just meet so many clients and then back, even early career, when I worked at on the retail bank side. So many people forget about them and they 20 years later even forgot they had them. They’re like these are worth anything. And I cash them. So, that’s a risk of it too, if you have a roll paper one of just stashing it, putting it away and now it’s not being reviewed.
Brent Pasqua: Matt, did you ever cash shares from your grandmother or you still have them in an envelope?
Matthew Theal: I have a few left. I haven’t cashed them, actually, for tax purposes. I should have cashed them when I was much younger, but I kept them as a mini emergency fund, but I should cash them this year and I’ll tell you what I’ll buy right now. I’m going to buy Ethereum with them, stake my Ethereum and get 5%. It’s pretty good.
Brent Pasqua: I have an envelope full of bonds from when I was a kid and I still haven’t cashed them, so I didn’t really know how to do that.
Joshua Winterswyk: You know what, Matt? I actually like the strategy. You’re taking like an old school investment instrument, like I Bond and then turning it into cryptocurrency.
Brent Pasqua: That’s a pretty cool story. Your grandma would be proud.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah.
Brent Pasqua: What is the next strategy?
Matthew Theal: All right. So, the next thing you could do is invest in a hedge. And what you should do is when you think about these hedges, just think of something that’s physical that you could touch. Physical properties do really, really well in inflationary times. What’s also gone up a lot and kept up with and slightly beat inflation, real estate prices. You see your neighbor, they post a for sale sign on their home, and you go, wow, I can’t believe my neighbor just sold his home for that. That’s because we’re in inflationary time and prices are rising. So, investing in real estate is a really, really great inflation hedge.
Joshua Winterswyk: And Americans do really well at this. Real estate a lot of times is a big or the majority portion of your net worth. So, I guess it can provide a little bit of peace of mind that you do have a hedge if you do own home because real estate is a great way to do that.
Matthew Theal: Yep.
Brent Pasqua: Now, is it a great hedge right now with where prices are? Or is it like a recommendation to hold off right now on real estate? What’s your thought just based on the environment we’re in?
Matthew Theal: I would, again consult an advisor, but for the most part you need to understand why prices are going up. One, because that we’re in inflationary time and two, because there’s no supply. There’s very few new homes coming on the market. This is by design. They make it very difficult to build homes. Therefore, the price rises.
Joshua Winterswyk: You have to know all of your variables. What is that time horizon? What is the goal? What is your strategy with housing? Do you need a house? There’s just so many questions to be able to answer that question generally and provide a really good answer.
Brent Pasqua: So, so far we have buyer purchase or keep your existing stocks, invest in a high yield savings account, or put money into high yield savings account, buy some inflation protection bonds, hedge your portfolio. What’s next?
Matthew Theal: Yeah. So next, why don’t we talk about something that doesn’t work, that everybody seems to jump to when there is inflation and that’s Bitcoin and gold, and I know I’m about to smash on cryptocurrency. What’s wrong.
Joshua Winterswyk: Times have changed the new year.
Matthew Theal: So, all the younger people. If you’re under 30, they say, “Hey, Bitcoin’s the new gold, it’s the best inflation hedge there is.” The data just doesn’t support that at all. Bitcoin was actually down last year in an inflationary time. That just doesn’t sound like to me a good inflation hedge and gold actually doesn’t do that well in inflationary times. And why most people think gold does well in inflationary times is because it did well in the 1970s. But there are other factors at work that led to gold’s big rise in the ’70s and it was not actually related to the inflation we saw.
Joshua Winterswyk: I feel like there’s just a lot of sells of gold. That’s where it comes from now, you see the commercials, there’s infomercials. It’s hard sell of purchasing gold through these times. And like you said, the data just doesn’t prove that that’s going to be a successful strategy. So, make sure you do your research before you go out and you buy that gold. Yeah.
Matthew Theal: The gold salesman got to keep Ponzi going on. They have the inflation and then they also use the end of the world and the dollar crumbling-
Joshua Winterswyk: The end of the world ones get to me.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. So, what are you going to do? Carve off a little, your gold block to buy food.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. I just don’t get that. If the zombie apocalypse came, how valuable is gold at that point.
Matthew Theal: Not that valuable.
Brent Pasqua: The gold commercials to me seem just like the furniture salesman commercials or like the used car sales commercials. They’re just attacking you to buy what they’re selling.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. No, and I try to change those.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. They might be even use the same actors for those.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah, probably.
Brent Pasqua: Okay. So, just some other general suggestions that come to mind, maybe go through your monthly budget as cost of goods, go up. Maybe you can decide on some things that you may be able to cut out. I know, and I don’t know if this goes for you guys, reoccurring subscriptions start to add up. And there’s so many of them now that you can have reoccurring. Some of them, you’ve been using maybe last year, you’re not using this year, but look for any reoccurring subscriptions that you can cut out. And then always look to use discount codes. Whenever you’re buying things online, look for a discount code before you purchase. There’s a lot of discount codes out there. It saves you money. And then the last one is pay off your credit card monthly, because if you go back and look at your year and you didn’t pay your credit card off monthly, and you got hit with interest that’s just wasting money.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. And looking at that budget, it can even help with that. If you do have like, let’s say even credit card debt. Good way to help that balance sheet is allocate some more cash flow through these times. If you’re adjusting that budget and you have a little bit more free of cash flow, pay down those credit cards, you don’t want to be battling inflation and be battling the credit card companies paying interest. That can really help. And going back to the discounts and coupon codes, because I feel like you were looking at Matt when you said that.
Brent Pasqua: He still hasn’t bought into that theory, but I don’t purchase anything online unless I look for a discount code first.
Joshua Winterswyk: I know. That’s how I am too.
Brent Pasqua: All right. So, let’s get into the RPA recommends. No, we’re in a new year. Some new recommends. What do you have for us, Matt?
Matthew Theal: Josh, have you ever been to Coachella?
Joshua Winterswyk: No. Never.
Matthew Theal: Brent, what about you?
Brent Pasqua: No, I’m a little old for that.
Matthew Theal: All right.
Joshua Winterswyk: Only Stagecoach.
Matthew Theal: Yeah. So, Coachella is a big music festival that I think they’re actually going to bring it back this year and the only reason why I’m talking about it …
Joshua Winterswyk: But you’re going?
Matthew Theal: No, absolutely not. No, I’m not going to recommend going. I’m too old to go Coachella, most likely. I’m not cool enough.
Joshua Winterswyk: I don’t think there’s an age limit for Coachella.
Matthew Theal: There’s not, but I think there’s a cool factor.
Joshua Winterswyk: Okay.
Matthew Theal: People listening, if you have grandkids who are in college, they’ve probably gone or are going at some point in their life, it’s a big music festival. They’re selling NFTs. So, really cool. They partnered with FTX. You probably have seen their commercials on TV and they’re selling NFTs this week. And 10 of them actually are lifetime Coachella passes, which is super cool. I’m curious to see how much they go for, but essentially the NFT, whoever owns it gets a free ticket to Coachella that year. And it lasts for a lifetime, which is really cool.
Matthew Theal: Then they have some other prints of some famous, I guess, Coachella scenes. So, really cool to see NFTs going mainstream. This is going to continue to be a trend this year. I know there’s a couple NFT Super Bowl commercials around some of the hot projects. So my recommendation is to learn about it.
Joshua Winterswyk: It’s cool that we’ve talked about it, you and I about NFTs and incorporating memberships or exclusive member benefits and stuff like that to, so to see that actually happening is really cool in that space for sure.
Matthew Theal: Country clubs need to adopt this. How cool would that be?
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. NFT for your golf membership.
Matthew Theal: Yep.
Joshua Winterswyk: Yeah. Really, really cool. My recommends. So, I needed a new cutting board. Something I use a lot. I like to come in the kitchen a lot and I didn’t know, but my mom shout out to her. She came over and she looked at my cutting board and was like, “You need a new one.” So I did a little research. So shout out to her. Thanks for recognizing that I needed a new one. And I bought a teak house. So pretty nice. They make them out of like real wood and they got, I think like a lifetime warranty on them if, as long as you take care of them, but really nice, really like it, didn’t know I needed a new one, got a little oversized one too.
Joshua Winterswyk: So I can do everything on there while I’m prepping and cooking for dinner. But you don’t have, or need a new cutting board check out tea casts are really nice.
Brent Pasqua: That’s a good idea. Do you have a good knife to go with it?
Joshua Winterswyk: I do. Yeah. I actually got a couple good knives a while ago and yeah. So that combination has made my cooking even more enjoyable.
Brent Pasqua: Yeah. It’s much better we’re using good knife and good cutting board.
Joshua Winterswyk: For sure.
Brent Pasqua: My recommend is pulling it back to one of the earlier shows, but something in my life that I don’t see enough people using. I don’t know why. It’s something that I cannot literally live without every day. And that’s my AirPods. I left my AirPods at another location that I wasn’t going to be able to get back to for two or three weeks.
Brent Pasqua: I had to go get another pair because I couldn’t go that long without them. They’ve brought down the prices on them. Because there’s so many different options on different generations now. I think anybody who has a phone should have, have AirPods.
Joshua Winterswyk: I really like mine. I will say though, anyone who’s listening that potentially works for Apple. I got a problem with mine. I got to take them in, but when they’re working great they’re great. I totally agree with you. I feel like I can’t talk on the phone without them in.
Brent Pasqua: Correct. I don’t even know how anyone holds the phone to their ear nowadays. If you’re listening to this podcast one of the odd options should be just with AirPods in your ear.
Joshua Winterswyk: Sure. Yeah. They’re great. Matt, you got AirPods.
Matthew Theal: Yes, I have AirPods.
Brent Pasqua: All right. So as advisors, we love helping people. That’s why we do it. You can also download our e-book on our website. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s the Retirement Plan Playbook. It gives you financial steps that you should take. Whether you’re 10 years out, it goes through five, five years in one year from retirement. You also get information on how to manage your first year of retirement. Plus it also gives helpful case studies and it shows you how we can actually work together. So if you’d like to get that Retirement Plan Playbook, go to our website, you can download the e-book. And if you’d like to schedule an appointment with any of us, please go to rpawealth.com and schedule a complimentary consultation, but as always love having listeners. And thank you for listening.
Joshua Winterswyk: Thank you.
Matthew Theal: Yeah, get that e-book it’s great.
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