Transcript:

Announcer:

This is More Knowledge, More Wealth, with your host, Gabriel Shahin. Gabriel is a certified financial planner and a registered investment advisor at Falcon Wealth Planning. This show is not intended to provide personalized investment advice through this broadcast and does not represent that the services or securities discussed, are suitable for any investor. Investors are advised not to rely on any information contained in the broadcast, in the process of making a full informed investment decision. More Knowledge, More Wealth, on AM 590 The Answer. Now here's your host, Gabriel Shahin.

Gabriel Shahin:

Good afternoon, this is Gabriel Shahin, Certified Financial Planner, your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. Our goal is to give you the knowledge you need to increase your wealth. Now, we are, to the listener, always available to you. Feel free to reach out to either myself or anyone of our colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning. Our phone number is 855-963-2526.

That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird, or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com. That's falconwp.com for short. Now, I'm a Principal at Falcon Wealth Planning. We are a registered investment advisory firm, folks. We are a fee-only financial planning firm that also manages money as well, but we have offices all across Southern California, including the Inland Empire where our headquarters is, all across California, might I add, but give us a call if you have any questions that you want to help relate this show to your specific situation.

We are offering a free financial assessment. That's typically one to two meetings, one to two hours at no cost to you. As a thank you for listening to this show, give us a call. We'd love to help you out. Our phone number is 855-963-2526.

That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird. We'll be able to help you with your specific situation, yet again, to help relate this show to your specific situation. Here is what I would like to talk to you about. There is so much going on in the world today. Now, whether it's Russia, which is the big thing with Ukraine, whether it's looking at other situations historically, whether it was Iraq, whether it was Iran, whether it was Cuba, whether Russia again, whether it's China, there is always things that come up.

Now, we're not trying to dismiss the importance or the relevance of the items that come up, but these do have financial impact. Now, there is direct and indirect. For example, the sanctions that we impose on Russia. This is very important because it will cause financial duress, so if you have an emerging market's fund, if you have an international fund, this will directly effect your investments. Now, also know there are indirect issues that may come across, such as consumers like us, maybe worry. We don't spend as much. These are other indirect things that can cause effect.

Deployment of troops of America, these are people coming out of the workforce, whether they're in the reserves or whatnot, that go and leave to help protect our country, and God bless them for doing so. With this, if effects workers, so there are things that come up that do effect our economy indirectly, so we don't want to dismiss the importance of this, and then, of course, the casualties. God forbid, these are more than just financial and economic. These are emotional and distraught decisions that have lingering ramifications on that. I bring that up, folks, because these are all important items to take into account of why it's important to acknowledge what's going on across the world, but for those now who think that this is a time to sell all your investment and go to all cash to try to time the market, the cat's out of the bag.

What do I mean? You should have done this a month ago, before the market dropped 10%. This, doing so now, is a reaction versus being proactive. What you should have done last year when you made almost 30%, hopefully you made over 30% on your investments, I mean, that's what the index almost did, was make 30%, so if you didn't, that's something you should relook at, but really taking a look and diving deep of how your investments are positioned. Hopefully, you have a globally diversified portfolio, keyword diversified, and knowing how it's invested where there is no market timing aspect, where you have a professional trying to make decisions.

Now, I'm a professional, trying to tell you don't try to work with a professional that thinks they're smarter than everybody else, because guess what? They are not, and data proves it. The information of how active managers perform against the underlying index, in this case, the S&P 500, Warren Buffett talks about it all the time, that invest in the index directly. You can't outsmart the index. Nobody can outsmart the index, so if you can't beat the index, if over 95% of advisors over a 10-year period and over 98% of advisors over a 30-year period fail to beat the index, well, if you can't beat them, then join them.

Now, if you're still concerned about the economy, if you're still concerned about America, if you're still concerned about the world and you have right to do that, but you have to think economically, "Are you going to stop buying things on Amazon? Are you going to stop eating? Are you going to stop going on the internet?" Most likely, the answer to those three questions are no. Yeah, I saw you nodding your head, so if you're not going to stop that, these are all economic triggers that are needed to have financial gains and markets, because you are investing in private companies.

These are private companies that sole job is to make money. Are you still going to go to work tomorrow? Are you working for a paycheck? Is your employer working to make money? Are they operating, trying to be profitable?

This is the benefit of capitalism and America, and why the market ... As long as you say yes to all of those that you're truly working, if they stop paying you ... Number one, you may love your job, but can you survive without a paycheck? These are the questions you must ask yourself. By the way, folks, if you are just joining us here, listening to Gabriel Shahin, Certified Financial Planner, your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. Today, we are talking about the big elephant in the room and potential conflicts with Russia and Ukraine, and how that affects the rest of the world, and how that matters to your bottom line and your financial portfolio.

It is extremely important to evaluate that, how you're positioned, what are you doing, and please don't be reactive. The problem is, is you're probably a smart person. If you're listening to a show about personal finance, finance and money is of interest to you. You like to maintain it, you like to protect it, and you like to preserve it, so you're probably doing better than the average person. That's what that means, but the important part of that is what?

That you are having assets that are invested, and you do not want to react to news that are out there, such as this war, and especially when you see the markets are dropping. I think the markets dropping are great. I think it's a sale. I've done an episode a few weeks back, talking about opportunities where you could do some tax-loss harvesting, Roth conversions, Roth contributions, or just full on investing while markets are down. If you like the market two months ago, you should like it today, if it's 10% lower.

If you've gone to the grocery store and Costco says, "Anything you get today is 10% off," wouldn't you buy? Well, what if it drops more? Well, then you go back to Costco and buy it at 20% off. Well, what if it drops more? We're now talking about the stock market, of course.

I'm just trying to relate that to Costco. Okay, fine. It drops 30%. Go stock up even more. Probably don't stock up on milk. That goes sour, but you know what I mean.

You stock up on more items. What if it drops 50%? "Gabriel, that's why I want to sell my investments." Okay. Well, if Costco has a 50% sale, you buy a whole bunch of stuff.

Go get your patio furniture, go buy not just your favorite shirt, but different colors in the same shirt, maybe different sizes. You can grow in or grow out of them. Maybe you get some new fitness equipment. You find a way to buy one to Costco, which they don't do this by the way, but it's the point I'm making, is 50% sale. They do have sales, the $4 off, whatever, $10 off, and they'll have their super-duper sales, maybe you get 20% off, the $200 off, the $700 laptop, whatever it is.

The question I have for you, "Will Costco ever have a sale that's for free?" Think about that for a second. Will they ever just say, "Anything you want in the store is at no cost"? You know the answer. Where am I going with this?

Will the stock market go to zero? Can the stock market go to zero? Think about that. That means ... By the way, Costco's out of business.

Well, if you want all your money in cash because the stock market's going to go to zero, guess what? Companies are in the Fortune 500. The banks are there, which means your cash is zero. The banks have no money if they're out of business, and you think the FDIC has enough money to bail at every bank? No.

They can't even bail out Chase if they wanted to, the largest bank in the world. We saw this issue in 2008. Okay. Well, now you want to have ... Okay, world's going down.

I want canned goods and ammunition. That's my new retirement. Let's go fill up gas and head to the hills. Well, you have bullet manufacturers and gun manufacturers that are Fortune 500 companies, let alone the gas companies that are Fortune 500. Okay.

Well, now, I need the canned goods then. We've got to head for the hills. Well, now, think about the companies that run these grocery stores. Those are also Fortune 500 companies. Folks, if you're worried about the stock market going to zero, you have bigger problems than your money, and I know some of you are thinking, "Well, that's why I want to get gold."

You have people on the radio, infomercials, internet talking about gold being the best, and it's not an investment. It underperforms. It's not investment. It underperforms inflation. It doesn't even keep up with the Dollar.

It's embarrassing when people look for gold. It's sold to you because the commissions are unregulated, so you have to understand, whose interest is really doing what? They're not looking out for you, they're looking out for your pocketbook, trying to sell you gold. If you really want gold, buy GLD or IAU, which are into season gold. I'm not telling you to buy it.

I'm just saying it's ridiculous to think that's an exposure. Some people say it's a hedge against the market dropping, or the Dollar dropping. Well, look how it did last year. You tell me if it was a hedge, or in 2020 with the COVID crash. You have to understand what you're doing.

You have to talk to a professional that's seen this before, that's seen this movie, that's seen these scarce. All of this is repeatable. It has happened before. Sure, past performance has no guarantee on future results. Anything that argues with that is a felony, but the point is as long as we believe companies are in business to make money. That's why the stock market ...

I'm not saying it can't drop. Of course, it could drop. Look what's happening now, but if you are still working, if your company's still in business and if you are still buying and on the internet, whether it's food, whether it's water, whether it's pumping gas, whatever it is, then these companies are still making money. Folks, when you come back, we're going to continue this conversation to calm you down, to think about being reactive to what's going on it. We're going to teach you how to be proactive and what you should have done last year, what you should be doing this year, and what you should be doing in future years, and more importantly, you're going to be getting a lot of invitations in the mail during volatility for two reasons, COVID is down, so a lot of people want to do these free dinner seminars to invite you to an annuity to try to scare you of the market, to put you in a commission-based product, but we want to help you with that, folks.

Give us a call. Our phone number ... Not with an annuity, of course, with a second opinion and guide you on the right way. Our phone number is 855-963-2526. That's 855-963-2526.

That's 96-FALCON like the bird. Folks, we'll be right back after a few words. Look forward to serving you. This is Gabriel Shahin, Certified Financial Planner, your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth. That's on every weekend, covering all important topics of personal finance.

We're going over retirement planning, making sure you're prepared for retirement, social security and strategies, real estate, taxes, avoiding them now and in the future, investments, reducing fees, commissions and so on, insurance and estate planning. Folks, we are offering a free financial assessment that you could take advantage of. We have offices all across Southern California, including the Inland Empire. Give us a call to take advantage. It's a $500 offer.

Our phone number is 855-963-2526. That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird, or visit our website, falconwealthplanning.com. That's falconwp.com for short. Enjoy the show. We look forward to serving you.

AM 590, The Answer.

Welcome back, folks. This is Gabriel Shahin, Certified Financial Planner, your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. Today, I want to talk to you about the volatility that you're seeing in the market today. We talked about the war potentially that's happening between Russia and Ukraine and how there's always a story going on, folks. This isn't anything new.

We've seen this movie before. I don't want to discount the severity of potential war and death, so on and so forth. This, of course, is extremely important, extremely sensitive, and extremely relevant to the world, but with that being said, for those of you thinking about going cash right now, we do not agree with that, and there is a lot of data supported by Morningstar, BlackRock, Dimensional and a few other companies that show you it just is not a good idea. When you look at some of the worst days in the market, starting from Black Monday from October 19th of 1987, when the market dropped to over 20% in one day, when you look at the return a year later, it was over 23%, and there are multiple times in 2008 where you see the worst days of 9% losses on two separate occasions, and then a year later, they were up 35%. When you look at these periods, you have to understand that emotional investing is costly.

It is, and Warren Buffett says it perfectly, when those are fearful, like now people are scared, the market's dropping, guess what? Be greedy. That's when you buy, and when those are greedy, when everything's going up, when Bitcoin is through the roof, when the stock market's going up, he says, "That's when you be fearful," so you have to understand that the markets historically average a 10% rate of return. Well, last year was almost 30. Year before, it was almost 20. Year before, it was almost 20.

The year before in 2018, lost money, but you have to understand that company's goal is to grow and to make money, and no matter what happens in a war, no matter what happens in a pandemic, money doesn't disappear. It doesn't evaporate, it shifts. Okay, we didn't travel a lot, but guess what? RV sales went up. Also, we didn't go out to restaurants, but heck, we sure spend a lot more in Costco. Hey, we didn't go to the movies much, but we sure spent money on Disney+ and Netflix and Hulu and all that other fun stuff.

Money doesn't disappear at shifts, and that's where we see the increases, in other stocks while others go down. You have to be proactive in this, folks. This is the biggest mistake we see from people, is they are reactive, and they are persuaded by what's going on on the news. Do you understand that's entertainment? The news is entertainment.

They only get paid when you turn on the channel. They get paid from advertisers. You have to be aware of that. You can't listen to everything that's on there, so pay attention to what's best for you. Don't get your advice from a radio show, a podcast, television, internet, infomercials and so on.

You have to do your education, and what I share with you is facts. What I said is not earth-shattering, you just need to hear it, the psychology behind it. You have to say it out loud, right? The first problem is admit you have a problem, and the problem is you're too smart. You know too much.

You're too logical. The stock market is not logical. Stay invested. You'll thank me later. Even if you lose today, you'll make long-term, assuming that companies are always in business to make money, assuming you go to work to make money. This is why you should work with a financial professional.

Some people say it's expensive, "I'm spending unnecessary money." I have clients that says it's the best money they've ever saved, not spent, because we talk them off the cliff. Right now, people are going to cash. Well, guess what? They wanted to do that in 2020.

We had a few clients call and say, "Hey, I need to go and cash. I'm sorry. My portfolio cannot fall under X amount of dollars." We said, "That's not the right way to think of it. You're being reactive."

"You have to stay invested, and if you don't like it, fire us." Those same clients right now will be clients for life. They can't afford not to have it. You think it's expensive to hire a professional? Try doing it yourself as an amateur. That's expensive.

All I'm saying is take the advice. Take the opinion. Have someone review your situation, especially at no cost, guys, especially time of volatility. There are strategies available that you should be doing, and a lot of people don't do it. Folks, you have nothing to lose.

I would heavily recommend taking advantage and giving us a call. We got offices all across California and we do serve outside of the State. We can help. Give us a call. Our phone number is 855-963-2526.

That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird, or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com. That's falconwp.com for short. We'll offer one to two hours, one to two meetings of our time at no cost. We're one of the good guys in this industry, folks. Even if it's not a good fit for you to work with us, we'd want you to spread the good word of what we do.

We feel we selfishlessly help you will selfishly benefit us long-term. Just be one of the good guys. It'll all come back around, but right now, you have people trying to sell you crap, and you have to be careful of it. The time of volatility is when people prey the most, because they'll say, "Hey, how would you like to stay invested and lose another 10%?" They're going to try to scare you.

By the way, folks, if you're just joining us here, listening to Gabriel Shahin, Certified Financial Planner, your host of More Knowledge, More Wealth, here on every weekend, talk about all important topics of personal finance, and today, we're talking about the volatility and the war that's coming out here. Not here. That's in Russia. God forbid, and Ukraine. That's potentially going to happen, still.

Right now, there's invasions, but the important part of that, folks, is understanding how to stay disciplined with your investment strategy. Hopefully you're not doing individual stock picking. That can be really good, but it could be really risky, so understanding that right now, people are prey to free dinner seminars and selling annuities because they're going to use your fear and your emotions against you, and people make mistakes when they're emotional, when they see they had $1 million, and now it's $870,000, and they're freaking out. If you look at the mistakes you made in your personal life, it's probably due to emotional decisions. This is why it's important to have a partnership with somebody that you trust, and most people don't.

They have an advisor that's never looked at their financial situation. They probably never even looked at your tax returns. Their job is selling you product, meet with them once or twice a year. There is no relationship. They don't give advice on real estate.

They don't give advice on anything outside of your investments, because guess what? That's the only way they get paid, and they even tell you, "Hey, we can give you tax advice. You have to talk to a tax professional, tax planner." Well, that's who we are. We're a tax advisor.

We're a tax planner, because we are comprehensive wealth managers. We care about your overall net worth going up, and we are fee-only firm, true fiduciaries, non-commissioned advisors, not trying to sell you an annuity that pays you fat commissions and scaring the bejesus out of you, knowing you're going to underperform the market going forward. "Oh, no, we have this historical data that ..." Oh, read the fine print. They cap how much you make on the monthly basis and unlimited loss.

Yeah, sure, they have these guaranteed riders, but you have to annuitize it, which means you forfeit your money to the insurance company for life. Oh, but what do they do then? They roll it into another better product. Why? It's not a better product.

It's to get another commission, folks. This is a sleazy industry, a tricky industry, and why you should always get a second opinion, always. Why not? Get a second opinion if somebody told you something bad at the doctor's office. Get a second opinion for other aspects of your life.

You want to buy a house, you have somebody else come and look at the house, get their opinion on it. Same with the car. You ask people about cars. Heck, you ask people about laptops, but one of the most important things of your financial situation, and you go put your life savings into an insurance product, just because they're at your local bank or credit union. Folks, those guys are commission-based, and gals.

Commission-based. They only get paid. They only get paid if you buy. You're getting advice from somebody like that is insanity, and you're going to be targeted for that now. Why?

Because of all the conflict going on and you seeing your portfolios are dropping. This is where you need guidance the most, and this is why we're offering a free financial assessment, to help relate the show to your specific situation and make sure you don't get taken advantage of, folks. We heavily recommend you take advantage of this and give us a call. We serve all the U.S.. We have offices all across California.

Our phone number is 855-963-2526. That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird, or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com. That's falconwp.com for short. Would love to help you avoid making a mistake, a financial mistake. We've seen it time and time again, and if you have an annuity, it's not a big deal.

Don't be ashamed by it. There could be strategies to get out of that today. It's now's the time to take a look, especially during times of volatility. There could be strategies available to you as well. These are the times where you have to assess your situation.

You don't want to react. Be proactive. You don't want to wait for another potential drop in the market or another increase in the market where you missed out an opportunity. Most people react. Do not react.

For those who think they're fine because their investments are invested, well, you're probably just buying and holding. You have to be proactive. You have to look at rebalancing opportunities, and tax, location opportunities. These are important options for you, especially when you add in some tax planning. That could save you tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands of Dollars.

We heavily recommend taking advantage of that, and our free assessment that we are offering that we can give you at no cost the recommendations. Our phone number is 855-963-2526. That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird. Folks, this was a fast, fast show today. We want to thank you for tuning in with us this weekend.

You can always reach out to myself or any one of our colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning. Our phone number is 855-963-2526. That's 855-96-FALCON like the bird, or visit our website at falconwealthplanning.com, or falconwp.com for short. Call us. We'll have a personal confidential conversation to help relate this show to your specific situation.

Now, tune in, whether it's on podcasts or Spotify, or live every Saturday from 12:30 to 1:00 at AM 590, The Answer as we go over all important topics of personal finance. Our goal is to give you the knowledge you need to increase your wealth. I want to thank you guys for listening. I want you to enjoy your weekend. I want you to have a great week, and God bless.