00:11
Peter Dunn
Fire. Good day. Good day. Good day, everyone. It is Peter Pete, the planner host of the Pete the Planner show. Good to be here with you. Damian Dunn joins me. As always. Dame, nothing like a video tech problem. Start the show.
00:26
Damian Dunn
It bodes well for us.
00:28
Peter Dunn
You knew this was going to happen.
00:30
Damian Dunn
I was not surprised at all when I saw that happen in the upper corner of that screen, I thought, well, here we go.
00:36
Peter Dunn
Dame, I've got some bad news. This episode of the show was meant to be an episode in which I was going to partake in the mystical beverage cold brew flavored whiskey. And what that was going to allow me to do was to not only feel the relaxing warmth of whiskey, but to also enjoy the benefits of caffeine. And we thought that on the show on Friday. This is the only time I can do it as an older gentleman. If I take caffeine past two, I'm up all night. And you can't drink hardcore in the morning other than on a radio show. So the bad news is this, Dame. This morning I spent an hour recording videos for various things that we do here and went to start the editing process and realize that I had messed up a sound setting which doesn't sound consistent with my quality of work.
01:30
Peter Dunn
So now I have to rerecord all those after the radio show here today. So I cannot partake in the drinking show. And I didn't know whether or not you wanted to honor me by also not having a beverage during today's show. You're still going to drink?
01:49
Damian Dunn
I'll pass.
01:52
Peter Dunn
What's in the cup today, Dame?
01:57
Damian Dunn
It's monkey turn. It the right way. Monkey shoulder blended scotch. It's a delightful little afternoon treat for me today.
02:06
Peter Dunn
Well, good for you. Enjoy it. I'll be tolerable today because you're going to be drinking. All right, Dame, so this week's show, let's do a little pre production meeting here. It's good to talk to you.
02:18
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
02:19
Peter Dunn
Okay. What do you want to do here on the show? We've actually got some pretty good emails that came in again this week. So let's take a look at the email inbox. I like that. Pre tax versus equivalent after tax retirement savings questions a lot.
02:33
Damian Dunn
Okay.
02:34
Peter Dunn
You want to do that one?
02:35
Damian Dunn
Sure.
02:36
Peter Dunn
Please say yes. And then if the crypto one, do you want to do that or not?
02:43
Damian Dunn
I'd kind of like to save that one to see if maybe we could lasso in somebody that would talk about that with us.
02:50
Peter Dunn
Okay.
02:53
Damian Dunn
Is that fair?
02:53
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Some more expertise there.
02:55
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
02:56
Peter Dunn
Is the Roth versus traditional question that came in, is that very similar to the first one or not?
03:01
Damian Dunn
I think so, kind of.
03:07
Peter Dunn
Okay, so then what I want to do okay. So we won't do any of those other than the first one. And then segment two, I want to talk about what products or what things in your life you should spend money on to get quality versus the things where maybe you can cut the corner because there's not as much differential between items to start thinking about that. It's sort of quality versus quantity. It's that new minimalism where true minimalism is not spending exorbitantly on things that don't matter, but spending a lot on things that do matter. Sure. Is my connection weird still, or is that okay?
03:42
Damian Dunn
I think you're okay.
03:43
Peter Dunn
It's not my day. It's not my day.
03:46
Damian Dunn
Do you need a drink?
03:47
Peter Dunn
I do, but I can't. Here we go. Let's start the show. Not my day. Okay, here we go. In three, two, one. This week on The Pete the Planner show, we answer your money questions. Here's how the show works. You email us. Askpeed@peteeplanner.com that's. Ask Pete. Peteeplanner.com, we will do our best to answer your question, your financial question at that. When I say we, I mean my buddy, the vice President of advice at your Moneyline in. Hey, money one. Damien Andrew Dunn. Hello, Dame.
04:21
Damian Dunn
Hello, Pete.
04:22
Peter Dunn
Dame. This was going to be the episode of the show in which we enjoyed an adult beverage midday. Unfortunately, since I messed up an assignment this morning, I have to redo it this afternoon, and that involves me being on video, so I'm not going to be partaking in a beverage. But I do understand that you are still going to partake in an adult beverage. As we record our show here today.
04:42
Damian Dunn
I think it's only right that I do as we planned.
04:46
Peter Dunn
Dear Pete, I'm trying to estimate how much I'd be able to spend each year in retirement. Based on my current savings, I have about $1.5 million saved mostly in pretax accounts such as traditional 401 and IRAs. Since my savings are in pretax accounts, and assuming I'd owe about a third income taxes, that suggest I really only have equivalent after tax savings of about $1 million. A 4% safe withdrawal rate would suggest I could support $60,000 a year in retirement income from my 1.5 million. But since I'll owe a third of my savings to Uncle Sam, should I really only consider that $40,000? When folks are calculating how much we've saved for retirement, should we haircut any amounts in our pretax accounts to more accurately account for how much is ours versus Uncle Sam's? In the personal finance space, it seems we often hear big retirement numbers thrown around without understanding if people are talking about pre tax or post tax equivalents.
05:50
Peter Dunn
From David Dame. Man, this guy decided to send a question to my wheelhouse this week. I appreciate that.
05:58
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I can't wait to see what you come back with.
06:00
Peter Dunn
It well, you get to start. I will just say this. Earlier in the week, when I had a discombobulated day on a different day, it was based on the fact that I spun myself up in spreadsheet nirvana. I love building crazy spreadsheets but then it was so complicated, I confused myself. But Dame, this is very easily solved with a pretty simple retirement calculator.
06:25
Damian Dunn
Sure, you can figure this out with a retirement calculator. To figure out what your tax liability is going to be from year to year, there are a couple of things that I think are worth mentioning. In this specific scenario, he estimates a third of that's going to go towards taxes. That might be true long term. However, depending on how much you're taking out to support yourself in those first years, your tax bracket may actually be lower, and you may not come anywhere close to that 33% or 30 or 36% or whatever the brackets are going to be at that point. In fact, I would suggest you probably won't. What's going to pinch you is the required minimum distribution as you get older. And those will start to get painful as the amount of money that you have to take out on a yearly basis is going to get very large as you get closer to post retirement.
07:19
Peter Dunn
Yeah. And so that's where it's not equally spread out tax obligations. It really gets backloaded. Dame, I put this through a calculator I have here, and let's say this guy's two years away from retirement and he has one and a half million dollars. Now he's going to take a 4% distribution rate. And you also have to account for inflation. Like, that's the thing we didn't even talk about or he didn't mention. If he's two years out from retirement, inflation is not going to crush him early. But if he's our age and then you have to factor inflation, it's completely different. So, Dame, if he wanted an inflation adjusted after tax net monthly income, he would receive $4,227.54 a month. So 4200 a month based on a 2% inflation, 4% withdrawal rate. And I have a 25% tax rate. If I bumped that to 30, he's got $3,300.
08:14
Peter Dunn
And I think 25 netting it out. It's probably more appropriate. Yeah. Personal finance space does struggle to talk in very realistic terms. We get obsessed with got two mil, got one mil, got 500,000, and it'll generate 40,000. And you do all these math calculations, but you always ignore social pardon me, you always ignore taxes and you always ignore inflation. And you shouldn't because it does yourself a disservice.
08:43
Damian Dunn
Unless you've done an excellent job at saving in Roth vehicles, then taxes become of virtually no consequence to you at that point. So most people, because Roths haven't been around nearly as long as traditional 401 KS and IRAs are going to have probably the bulk of their savings in a traditional taxable account, and they still do have to be concerned with taxes. And so, looking forward, there are a few variables. What are tax rates going to do?
09:16
Peter Dunn
Pete?
09:17
Damian Dunn
You got any idea? You got your crystal ball close at hand what tax rates are going to do for us.
09:21
Peter Dunn
Oh, gosh. I feel like I know less about tax rates every single day. I don't know what's going to happen. I know President Biden is going to have sort of some thoughts on taxes relatively soon. Have you looked at it much recently, by any chance? Because I don't want to go down a path that we're both unarmed. Because, of course I'm unarmed with information, but I assume you know some things.
09:42
Damian Dunn
Not super recently, just that he's talking about increasing income taxes on incomes over $400,000. So that gets into a pretty high tier of income earners. But according to what the plan looks like it's going to be, if you make below $400,000 individually or married filing jointly, then your taxes should not change according to the proposal.
10:08
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I saw a criticism of that. I think it was Senator Mike Braun from Indiana said, even at $400,000, it's unreasonable because a lot of couples make $200,000 each, so it's easy to achieve that $400,000 mark. And here's what's wild about that sort of thing. Man, we are off in a weird direction right now. So I'll say this. I don't want a tax hike for people over $400,000. Okay? But it's not because a lot of people make $200,000 each as a couple. That's a ridiculous argument. Makes no sense, right?
10:44
Damian Dunn
Yeah. A lot must mean something different to Senator Braun than it does me, because I don't think a lot of people have a combined income of $400,000 or individual income of $400,000 or more.
10:59
Peter Dunn
It's weird. I agree with him, but not for the reason he wants me to agree with him. Maybe because he's, like a lot of people in Southern Indiana, make $200,000 each per year, and it's like I went to school in Southern Indiana. That's not true.
11:11
Damian Dunn
Yeah. Anyway, I don't get it.
11:15
Peter Dunn
All right, so, dame. Yes. The financial business needs to do a better job. The financial industry needs to do a better job of letting someone think in today's dollars what their net income is going to be. And frankly, that's why you and I waste a lot of time trying to build these calculators that simplify these ideas to the right level without oversimplifying them and then recomplicating them.
11:43
Damian Dunn
Projections are very reassuring to most people, and if you can put accurate numbers and accurate estimations into the calculator, you might be really comforted with what you see, or you might be a little terrified with what you see, but it is a reality that you have to face at some point. I'd much rather know what I've got coming down the road now versus being surprised by it later.
12:06
Peter Dunn
I will nitpick his email just a hair, please. That he set a safe distribution rate of 4% I'll tell you what I use when I run my own calculations for myself is somewhere between three to three and a half percent. Dane, do you have a standard number you use, or do you ask people or what do you use?
12:26
Damian Dunn
It's typically the 4%, just because that's been the number that's been used for so often or so long, I should say. The industry is looking at what distribution rates really look like in practice, and that's an interesting study that maybe we can talk about sometime.
12:42
Peter Dunn
I did see a study this week that in 1970, the average retirement length of retirement was 14 years and that the average retirement in 2020 will be 19 years before someone dies. And so while we use 4% because we want to make sure if someone has a three decade retirement, they still have money, statistics still support the fact that they're only going to have a 19 year retirement, and so that 4% theoretically should work. Coming up after the break, more of the Pete the Planner show. What things should you buy of the highest quality, and what things can you scrimp and save on all that's? Next, I'm pizza planner. Oh, boy. Yeah. I have to admit something.
13:28
Damian Dunn
Please.
13:30
Peter Dunn
I almost said the phrase off the reservation. You know, I don't feel good about that. I almost said it, and I stopped myself midway and sort of recorrected.
13:43
Damian Dunn
That's why you're a professional.
13:45
Peter Dunn
Well, I just want to acknowledge that I said that, and I shouldn't have said that. You try to get away from those idioms, those figures of speech that have been around for a long time that never were right. But you said them anyway, and I feel bad about that.
13:57
Damian Dunn
You didn't want to say it on the radio, but it was okay to say it. Acknowledge that you said it.
14:04
Peter Dunn
Well, I can acknowledge that I said it because I think it brings attention to the fact that you shouldn't say it.
14:08
Damian Dunn
You're acknowledging that you thought it. Now we're in the thought police section of the show.
14:15
Peter Dunn
Yeah. So anyway, sorry about that, everybody. I'll do better. All right. Dame, do you have ideas, things of quality that you should buy versus areas in your life? The purchases that we all have to make where you don't have to buy the best? I have some ideas. I have a lot of ideas.
14:37
Damian Dunn
I have maybe a couple.
14:40
Peter Dunn
Okay.
14:41
Damian Dunn
I didn't know if we wanted to go through them now or if you want to wait for the live reveal.
14:44
Peter Dunn
No, I like the risk of failure. I like the risk of saying something mildly racist on the radio and then correcting yourself. At least I caught it.
14:57
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
14:59
Peter Dunn
Anyway. Okay, so let's start the segment, and we'll go ping pong style. We will go table tennis style back and forth, and I don't know what's happening.
15:13
Damian Dunn
Good times.
15:15
Peter Dunn
Did I tell you one of my neighbors is a professional table tennis player, and his license plate says ping pong.
15:22
Damian Dunn
Well, good for them.
15:24
Peter Dunn
Yeah, he's always, like, at my yard. He's like, do you play? And I'm like, no. You ever looking for a game? Like no, I'm not looking to play table tennis with you in your basement.
15:37
Damian Dunn
You're a nice guy trying to hustle you.
15:39
Peter Dunn
I don't know. You would only ask someone that if you knew they played and if you knew they were good enough to play with you. He's like, you ever looking for a game? It's like, no, I'm not.
15:52
Damian Dunn
I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to play Ping pong as a professional.
15:59
Peter Dunn
Let's start the segment. I think at some point, you just got to rip the Band Aid off of the show. You know what I mean?
16:04
Damian Dunn
Can you imagine how much better this would be if you had drank?
16:09
Peter Dunn
Just everyone knows you don't have to drink to feel good. All right, three, two, one. Back on the Pizza Planner show. All right, Dame, so there are certain things in your life that you are better off spending a lot of money on in order to get something that will last a long time. And there are other areas of your life where you're told you should spend a bunch of money on something, but when it really comes down to it, I don't know if it really matters. And so what we're going to do now is we're to sort of explore some of those areas. Dame, I have two opposite examples that jump out at me immediately, and I would like to go through those with you right now. And by the way, people on Facebook Live are weighing in already. Amanda Grace name of the Year in 2020.
16:55
Peter Dunn
High quality mattress. I think I have to agree with that, right? I do, actually, on Facebook Live. If you've got ideas on this, go ahead and put it and we'll put it on the air. Dame, do you want to start or would you like me to start?
17:05
Damian Dunn
Go ahead.
17:07
Peter Dunn
All right. I'm going to start with something that you shouldn't spend a lot of money on. The best pair of bluetooth headphones that I own were $19 on Amazon.
17:23
Damian Dunn
See, I find this interesting.
17:25
Peter Dunn
Okay. I'm an audio.
17:27
Damian Dunn
Yeah, you love your sound. But then I also remember that you bought us headphones for Christmas one year.
17:34
Peter Dunn
I did. I bought all you guys. I think they were about 50 or $60. I bought everyone at the office those for Christmas, and then I didn't buy myself any, and I regretted it. And so then I bought myself a pair off of Amazon. I only spent 1999, and they were amazing. Now I've got these noise canceling Bose headphones that I use for, like, travel and stuff. My $19 headphones are better.
17:59
Damian Dunn
Really?
18:00
Peter Dunn
Yes. I work out in them. I sweat in them. I've run in the rain in them. They're durable. They have a great battery life, and they're amazing, and they're $19. And that's what I'm talking about.
18:13
Damian Dunn
Pete, how long has it been since you've worn those headphones? The Bose headphones?
18:17
Peter Dunn
These? Yeah. I listen to them when I cook, because no one wants to listen to Anthony Hamilton while I'm making everybody dinner. So I have to listen to Anthony Hamilton on here.
18:28
Damian Dunn
So they're just listening to you sing Anthony Hamilton.
18:31
Peter Dunn
That's true. Anthony Hamilton has the best lyrics of all time. One of his lyrics is something you would think that Jesus and I was cool. And I don't know. I just think it's like this. He's trying to get this point across, and he's like, you know, so much so that you would think Jesus and I was cool, and I just like the verb. And anyway, do you have one?
18:55
Damian Dunn
I will go the other way. And it's already popped up in the stream. I think you need to spend money on shoes.
19:02
Peter Dunn
Oh, my gosh. You know who disagrees with you is Mrs. Planner. She never spends money on shoes, which is kind of wild. I'll spend some money on some shoes because I agree with you.
19:10
Damian Dunn
So I will give a pass to women who enjoy shoes because they try and sometimes I feel like keep up with trends, and they want to change the look every so often. And so if they aren't going to wear them for a long time, like you or I may be inclined to do that, they can get away with spending a little less on shoes. But man, a good shoe, Pete. That's something to enjoy.
19:36
Peter Dunn
All right, Dame, I'm going to match your shoe here. I'm going to go with a very nice grill. Outdoor grill. All right. So we bought a grill when we moved into this home in the fall of 2007. And while I've had to replace some of its guts, the chassis itself still works pretty well. It was a good investment as opposed to just buying the cheapest thing that you can. I feel like it's been a good use of money. I guess the other side of all of this, though, is properly maintaining the things you do spend money on.
20:07
Damian Dunn
Yeah. You've got that deep clean for the grill at least once a year to start off the year, make sure everything is nice and fresh. Of course, mine can't be wheeled inside. Is yours portable, Pete?
20:20
Peter Dunn
No, it is a hard lined into the gas of our house.
20:26
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
20:26
Peter Dunn
Do you have another one, Dame? You want to volley one back at me? Yeah.
20:30
Damian Dunn
And actually, my other one is in here already as well. The mattress. When my wife and I were first married, it seems like we could not find a middle ground on what was comfortable to each of us. And if you can find that and make sure you're getting good sleep. Priceless, Pete.
20:49
Peter Dunn
Priceless. All right. So this one because you are having a beverage during the show today, and I am not because I well messed up my work this morning, so I have to redo it this afternoon. I'm going to go booze. I think if you're going to enjoy a beverage, especially if you're going to have a bottle of wine, don't drink a lot of wine. Spend your money on good wine. So that's my theory, is not to drink a ton of wine, but instead of drinking a ton of wine, I would rather spend my money on really good wine. But see, that only happens once you break the seal of having good wine and then you just can't go back. And I don't encourage anyone to do that.
21:27
Damian Dunn
I totally agree because up until a couple of years ago, I had no idea what a good wine tasted like. And now it is the wine that everything else is judged by in that genre for me. And I wouldn't say I'm a wine snob per se, but I can definitely taste differences now that I was unaware of before.
21:51
Peter Dunn
Joanna brings up a good point on Facebook Live right now, and this is something Mrs. Planner ascribes to, is this idea that fitness is something that we're willing to spend money on because you're taking care of yourself. It's a wellness activity, it's a proactive decision. So in other words, eat healthy, spend more money to eat healthier food. In some cases it's organic or whatever. In other cases, spend money on fitness equipment that you're going to use or running shoes that you are going to run. And that's another good example. But again, here's an opposite example. Whereas I will buy a nice car, I will have access to a nice car. Maybe you're going to correct me or give me a weird look here. I also don't feel like I go all the way on a car because oftentimes I'll acquire that car used. So I find that the depreciation of car has me not wanting to spend top dollar on that type of thing.
22:50
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I was actually kicking around how a car fits into this conversation, actually. I think everybody understands that new cars are typically poor purchase decisions for most people just because of how long we typically keep cars and how quickly they depreciate, you don't end up on the positive side of the ledger on those very often, if ever. A good used car, though, may cost more than a similar used car, but may have fewer repairs, fences and might last longer. So depending on how you're looking at it and what you're aiming to purchase, spending a little bit more on a car might be a really great use of money.
23:32
Peter Dunn
You know where this gets really confusing, frankly, is where brand comes into it. Right? Like a Burberry jacket. It's a jacket. Is it made? Well, I don't know, but it's burberry and it's really expensive. Or you take like a Herman Miller chair, like an office chair or something like that. Is it brand name? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it well made? Yes. Right, and so that's where you get into this idea of like, brand name Louis Vuitton. It's a bag. Is it well made? I don't know. It holds stuff. I don't know. So I think Brand really taints this whole conversation as well.
24:13
Damian Dunn
It doesn't matter if the Louis Vuitton is made well, because it'll be in the back of the closet in a couple of years anyway.
24:18
Peter Dunn
Maybe. I don't know. I don't have any of that. I mean, it'd be probably pretty inappropriate for you and I to say that spending money on handbags, something that you and I don't have direct exposure to, is a waste of money, but, I mean, I kind of feel that way, but I don't feel like my opinion really matters there.
24:36
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I try and stay out of that argument.
24:39
Peter Dunn
How about televisions? Where do you line up on televisions?
24:42
Damian Dunn
It's been a while since I've bought a television of any consequence. And I mean, like a big main living room type of TV to be used consistently. But technology changes so fast. I'm almost to the point now where I don't want the latest and greatest. I'm going to look at stuff that's been out for a year or so and pick it up at rock bottom prices, knowing that the stuff that's out now is going to be yesterday's news in a couple of weeks anyway, so I love tech as much as the next guy, but it's really hard for me to spend money on a TV.
25:17
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I'm with you. I will go a nice brand, but near the bottom of the tier, generally. Last year's model and close out. I mean, I'm getting that like, 94. I don't care about any of that stuff. All right, so there it is. Quality versus buying cheap. Right here on the Pizza Planner show. Come up after the break. More of the Pizza Planner show on Pizza Planner. Said Pizza Planner like 35 times in a row there.
25:39
Damian Dunn
You got to get your branding in, man.
25:42
Peter Dunn
It's all right? Interesting conversation. I mean, I don't think we really changed anyone's life on that one.
25:47
Damian Dunn
No. But maybe it got the wheels turning a little bit.
25:50
Peter Dunn
I kind of want to take that crypto question, except we're just so uninformed. I guess we can give just general thoughts, and then if we feel like we have to explore it, we can bring in the big guns.
26:05
Damian Dunn
That's fine.
26:06
Peter Dunn
Let's do that. All right. I'm going to get going here. All right. Because I have to record all those.
26:11
Damian Dunn
Videos again, people in the Facebook chat. Would you be interested in learning more, having us do a segment with somebody who actually knows what they're talking about on crypto? Yes or no?
26:22
Peter Dunn
And then NFTs, is that the other one, too?
26:24
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I did see that somebody at the New York Times sold a column that was NFT for like half a million dollars, which is ridiculous.
26:34
Peter Dunn
All right, so we're going to do some crypto right now. Here we go. In three two, one. Back on the Pete the planner show. Dame, we received an email about cryptocurrency. Let's hit it. Dear Pete, I recently learned that my husband invested roughly $60,000 from his business account into cryptocurrency. I'm going to hit a quick timeout. Businesses can have investment accounts, right? I mean, businesses can make investments. It's just an asset. Cash is an asset, and you can have a different type of asset that a business holds. I mean, Tesla, the car company, recently purchased a bunch of bitcoin and cryptocurrency to hold as an asset, so it's not unheard of to do that. A lot of times amateur investors shy away from that if they know what's good for them, because then you're potentially risking payroll or whatever else. But it just all depends on how much cash is on hand.
27:40
Peter Dunn
Let's continue. After working through the fact that this was a decision we should have made together, the next sentence, I'm trying to wrap my head around whether or not this is a good move. I don't know what questions I should be asking. My general feel from you is that you're not a fan of cryptocurrency, but I'm not sure why. That's a really fair point, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to expand upon that a whole lot. But we'll get there. My concern is that even though his investment is doing quite well now, we don't have an end game. That's actually my issue. My husband is really quite reserved, and I trust them him. He also used to be a stockbroker in his younger years. That generally means less to me than you think, but this type of investing is new to both of us, and I'm nervous about it.
28:29
Peter Dunn
Do you have any suggestions as to how to navigate this conversation and wisely protect this money? Thanks, Jennifer. So, Dame, here's how I think about this. It's all about the end game. When do you know that? It was like, what's the plan? When are you getting out of it? What are you hoping to get from this experience? And I think it's that lack of boundaries and the lack of a definition of what makes for a good experience is where people miss the boat on meme stocks and crypto altogether.
29:00
Damian Dunn
I think the fact that currency is part of the name frosts me a little bit because how old are you? I channeled my grandma there for a minute. Just give me a break, all right?
29:11
Peter Dunn
She seems like a nice lady drinking.
29:13
Damian Dunn
Her drink, and I'm talking like her now, too. What's the point of cryptocurrency? Is it an investment? Is it speculative investment? Is it a store of value to be used to exchange for other things of value? You would believe if you read certain twitter personalities, that the cryptocurrency and blockchain is going to solve every problem known to man at this point.
29:43
Peter Dunn
I don't get that argument, by the way, because I feel like. It's really undefined, which is why I.
29:49
Damian Dunn
Think we could have somebody on here to walk us through the argument, which would help us. But if you're using it as a currency, a store of value, personally, I don't want my money fluctuating quite that much. That's not its main purpose. If it's an investment, then so be it. But then it doesn't become necessarily a currency to me. Again, what's the purpose of it? How are you viewing it? Is it currency? Is it investment? Is it speculative? Any of those things could potentially be legit reasons for owning it, but you got to know why you're owning it.
30:26
Peter Dunn
If someone says it's an investment, then I still think they need an investment objective. Unless their investment objective is it's speculation, which then that would inform it would be capital appreciation speculation. But dame that would inform what percentage of your portfolio went toward it. What we see people do is like, hey, I liquidated my brokerage account and I went to crypto, but it's an investment, so it's okay. But it's like, no, I mean that's a speculative investment, so it should be maybe 10% of your portfolio or something like that as opposed to 100.
31:04
Damian Dunn
Yeah. What this conversation is actually leading towards, and I had zero plan on going this direction, but it's a personal investment policy statement, is trying to figure out exactly what you are trying to accomplish with your invested assets. Now, this is probably a topic that's too big for this segment, to be honest, but essentially you're going to lay out ground rules for yourself and you're going to say, I want to have roughly this much in this asset class and this much in another asset class. I'm going to free up this much to play with or to use in speculative investments. And my goal is to return a certain percentage or a bracketed percentage per year. And any risk that I take outside of that is unneeded, and I don't need to do it. Likewise, if things change, you adjust your investment policy statement and you change your portfolio accordingly and you shoot for new goals.
32:03
Damian Dunn
You don't take unnecessary risk to accomplish those goals. So how does crypto fall into that? Well, that's for everybody to decide. But to wipe out somebody's portfolio, which Jennifer doesn't indicate that actually happened here would be foolish in my estimation, just like it would be to sell everything and put it in one individual stock. So there's a lot of caution that has to go along with crypto.
32:26
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I look at it. It's not a repeatable part of a plan, right? You can't say our goal is retired, age 62, and by making this investment in cryptocurrency, I can have my money there because it's never part of that. Let's go make as much money as we can right now and take great risk to do it. And as lame as what I've just said sounds, that's how I feel. Like if I can't repeat it on a regular basis or point to it as a small portion of my money, I mean, I would rather hold significant amounts of gold knowing I'm not going to get near the return in Cryptocurrency because of the chance that I lose everything because of the unknown. But, I mean, maybe I just sound like an uninformed investor. I don't know.
33:18
Damian Dunn
Then you could just shave off little pieces of gold and hand it out to neighbors for rolls of toilet paper.
33:23
Peter Dunn
Well, I mean, look, I bought cryptocurrency on this show a couple of years ago, two, three years ago. Held it for a year, made some money. The whole time it did not feel good. And I have thought a lot about, well, what if I still held it? I didn't even have a full bitcoin or anything, but I think when I bought Bitcoin, was it 10,000? I may have put $1,000 in or something like that. It's 60,000 or something like that now. And so I would have $6,000 now.
33:53
Damian Dunn
It's roughly how the math works.
33:54
Peter Dunn
Yeah. And I'm looking at that, I'm like, just now worth the headache. Now I'm that guy that's like, I didn't want a six X on my money. But I guess that's my point. As a little bit of a joke or a bit for the show, I was willing to put $1,000 into it, but I would not put personally anything more than that into it.
34:17
Damian Dunn
This also comes back to understanding what you're investing in, which is something that you hear people say frequently, oftentimes just giving lip service to it. But how many people actually understand how cryptocurrency works? A fraction of the people that invest in it. Right.
34:36
Peter Dunn
Has to be well, with that very good argument. Actually, not many people understand what an ETF is, and most people can't even define what a mutual fund is when it gets down to it. I just feel like there's this ever increasing sized category of brand new types of investment that very few people understand that more people are getting into, like NBA, top shots, all these just sort of different things. And virtual trading car. It's like why? I knew the moment we cracked this subject on the show, whenever it was going to be I was going to be old guy, and I feel like I'm okay with that. People are like, you just don't get it.
35:21
Damian Dunn
Cool.
35:21
Peter Dunn
All right, check back with me in, like, 30 years, okay? If I'm still alive, let's compare. I mean, it's not even a contest. My name is Peter Planner. I want a reliable strategy. I want a reliable plan. I want to work a plan. I don't want to have to depend on magic to happen for me to accomplish a goal. I want to be able to put the work in and see the result. I don't want this get lucky. I have no interest in that. That's why I don't gamble. That's why I don't gamble on sports. I just not interested.
35:54
Damian Dunn
Here's what we know. It's probably not going anywhere. I mean, the Federal Reserve is working on their own cryptocurrency right now, so I don't know. I think we're stuck with it.
36:04
Peter Dunn
This is one of the things I both want to be right about but also don't want to be right about, because it's just going to get crazy anyway. Coming up after the break, biggest waste of money of the week in current events right here on the Pete the Planner show. I'm Pete the planner. By the way. I just noticed that Mrs. Planer took off running on her midday run. She got her first shot today.
36:27
Damian Dunn
Oh, ahead of you.
36:30
Peter Dunn
I know. I'm next Wednesday going to be blessed and highly vaccinated. Mildly vaccinated. All right. Dame this whole entire time were doing that segment, I was looking for a biggest waste of money of the week, and it's not going well.
36:49
Damian Dunn
Do you have a best use of money of the week?
36:51
Peter Dunn
Maybe that's the best route to go. Oh, you know what? I got one. I got to find it real quick. I like that. I tout myself as Pizza Planner, but I don't think I could have been any less prepared for the show today if we really shook it out.
37:11
Damian Dunn
This was a throwback. Let's just paste it together with Elmer's glue as we're going.
37:21
Peter Dunn
Do you think Dominion wins the $1.6 billion suit against Fox News?
37:30
Damian Dunn
No.
37:34
Peter Dunn
You think they set a lot of court? Yeah, it's likely. Yeah. Let's do this. I woke up at 438 this morning. I couldn't sleep. Probably explains most of my day. And I spent an hour reading about the Suez Canal from about six to seven. I learned a bunch of stuff. So, yeah, who knows?
38:06
Damian Dunn
There's a guy I follow on Twitter who pilots boats like that, and so he made some very interesting comments on how you actually get through the sewage canal and whose job it is to do what and blah, blah. So it was a little interesting read. I felt like I actually walked away from Twitter smartner. Once.
38:27
Peter Dunn
Once. I mean, seriously, once. There we go. This week's biggest waste of money of the week right here on the Pizza Planner show is actually we're doing the best use of money of the week. Dame I'm going to say 1859, when people are like, you know what? We need a better shipping route. Let's split the land in half and build the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is this week's best use of money, and here's why. Dame there's currently a ship finagled deep into the shores of the Suez Canal, blocking it up. The canal handles around 12% of global seaborne trade, with each day of blockage, disrupting more than $9 billion worth of goods. Each hour of delay is holding an estimated $400 million in trade hostage. One of the more interesting things I learned today is that it costs up to $700,000 in fees to pass through the Suez Canal.
39:39
Peter Dunn
I can't call that a waste of money, but it's just a big chunk of money.
39:42
Damian Dunn
That is a lot of money.
39:43
Peter Dunn
It's 120 miles long, and it usually takes between eleven to 13 hours to navigate because you have to go so slow so that your waves don't create erosion on the side. And you could add about 15 to 20 hours to your journey by going around the bottom of Africa with the Cape of Horn. I almost said Cape Fear.
40:08
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
40:11
Peter Dunn
By the way, my daughter is texting me from her school right now asking if for some reason, if I were to have purchased chickfila for her today, to just save it and get her extra chickfila sauce. Yet I'm at home and she's at school. Did you no, I've been here flubbing videos that I have to redo later.
40:28
Damian Dunn
You never know.
40:30
Peter Dunn
Dame, what's in the news?
40:34
Damian Dunn
Well, in case you needed another reason to get your COVID-19 vaccination. Pete, I think this is probably pretty well known by now, but I want to make sure everybody knows it, because, Pete, you know, my relationship with donuts Krispy Kreme is sweetening the deal, and it's giving free donuts to anyone with proof of vaccination all year long.
40:52
Peter Dunn
Wait a second. So if I take my vaccination card, which everyone always holds up that was my Tweet today. I was holding up the stance. You hold up a card, you go and you show them your card, and they'll give you a donut every day for the rest of the year.
41:06
Damian Dunn
Every day.
41:06
Peter Dunn
Pete, I have some thoughts. Number one, there actually is not a Krispy Kreme anywhere close to us these days. There used to be, but there's not. They're coming back to the marketplace, apparently coming to refranchise in this area. Do you have one up by you?
41:20
Damian Dunn
No, we used to on the south side of Fort Wayne, but there is no longer a Krispy Kreme in my general vicinity.
41:28
Peter Dunn
I mean, that's a really generous offer. Are they hoping that you go get one and then you just take some for the office? It's a little loss leader action, I would assume.
41:38
Damian Dunn
I can't imagine how they're planning on making anything outside of that. But if it was me, I would just get that free donut every day for the rest of the year.
41:47
Peter Dunn
Speaking of gaining weight, next week I'm going to have some suits altered so that when we get back to society, my clothes fit.
41:56
Damian Dunn
That's not gaining weight.
42:00
Peter Dunn
No, I know, but I had gained weight and then I've lost the weight, and now I need to shrink my clothes. And so when I go back to the workplace, I don't look like so.
42:09
Damian Dunn
This is a humble brag.
42:10
Peter Dunn
I don't know. Yeah. What else is in the news?
42:16
Damian Dunn
The red hot housing market has achieved a number of milestones this past year. Perhaps the most telling is this there are more real estate agents than homes for sale in the United States. This phenomenon reflects both extremely tight supply of homes on the market and how surging prices are persuading tens of thousands more of Americans to try their hands at selling real estate. I'd like to point out that selling real estate, by the way, Pete, is the easy part right now.
42:42
Peter Dunn
Yeah.
42:42
Damian Dunn
Buying is the tough side. You want to jump into the profession with limited opportunities to make lots of money, potentially while obsequiously serving your clients. Become a real estate agent for buyers. That's going to be a tough challenge anyway. The National Association of Realtors membership count has exceeded the number of homes on the market only once before, which was December of 2019. And at the end of January, there were 1.4 million homes for sale, which is down 26% from a year earlier and the lowest record on record excuse me, since 1982, while the Realtors were up to 1.45 million.
43:23
Peter Dunn
That's crazy.
43:25
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
43:25
Peter Dunn
So, I mean, at that point you're saying, okay, well, then there's a bunch of Realtors representing buyers that are all going to get the home that the sellers are selling. Here's what's crazy about that. You've got all these inexperienced Realtors that are trying to navigate that increasingly difficult process, which is terrifying. We talked about spending good money and things to save money on. Here's where I am on realtors. I think it's worth spending the money on them, especially a really experienced one. I feel like it saves you all the headaches in the world and to listen to them. That's the thing about you. Hire those people to do a job for you and you pay them so much money, theoretically, if they sell your house, hire the best one because they all cost the same and listen to them. That's my theory on realtors.
44:21
Damian Dunn
I agree. It's a huge purchase in your life. And if you can get hooked up with an experienced good Realtor, you will walk away from the process probably better off than you would have otherwise.
44:35
Peter Dunn
I know I just threw everyone who just started in real estate under the bus, but I kind of feel the same way about the financial world. I mean, like, financial planners. And that's tough to say because I do realize that Dame and I were both once very young and handsome advisors that had very little experience, and were trying to convince people that we knew what were doing to some degree. But now I'm saying, like, I would much rather have someone that has a lot more mileage on them.
45:01
Damian Dunn
Yeah, you're struggling with your own stuff when you're a young planner or new in any profession. For most people, a little bit of impostor syndrome creeping in there. But professionals that have been in the game for a while are usually there for a reason still. So seek somebody out.
45:20
Peter Dunn
I had this thought the other day about imposter syndrome. It's really interesting you bring that up. This was a day or two ago. I was thinking to myself, and this is probably a little too cute, I don't know if I trust anyone who doesn't have imposter syndrome to some degree. Now, there's one thing. You want people to be competent and you want them to be confident. You want them to believe in themselves and their value, but on some level, being too self assure of your ability to deliver. I mean, it can be a little much like, I appreciate imposter syndrome that I occasionally suffer from, and I appreciate others struggle with it, too. I mean, it's a thing.
46:00
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I totally agree. I don't think it's something that most people ever get fully comfortable with, and those that do, I'm never quite sure how to take them.
46:11
Peter Dunn
Do you ever? So you suffer from the impostor syndrome.
46:13
Damian Dunn
Or how do you do it all the time?
46:15
Peter Dunn
You do?
46:15
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
46:16
Peter Dunn
You shouldn't. You shouldn't you know more about this stuff, about helping people to financialize than just about anybody I know, so you shouldn't suffer from it. I mean, maybe imposter syndrome in terms of aesthetics, but certainly not with the work that you do.
46:30
Damian Dunn
Yeah, well, I appreciate that, but we will agree to disagree.
46:34
Peter Dunn
All right, well, there you go.
46:35
Damian Dunn
All right, Peter's choice on the next one. Do you want to talk Robin Hood, which we've gone a while without mentioning, maybe a week or so? Or do you want me to follow up on that Federal Reserve cryptocurrency story?
46:48
Peter Dunn
Let's do Robin Hood.
46:51
Damian Dunn
I can't believe you said that. Hold on. I got to scroll to find it. Robin Hood had filed paperwork earlier this week with his SEC to be what is one of the year's most eagerly awaited initial public offerings. However, I'm going to tie in another story here on Robin Hood, Pete, and I'm going to do something quasi professional. They're also building a platform to democratize initial public offerings, including its own, that would allow users of its trading app to snap up shares alongside Wall Street funds.
47:23
Peter Dunn
Okay, so that is interesting, but to me, that's like selling the toys from Toy Story. So everyone goes and watches the movie and they're like, oh, I love this story, and you can buy the toys. It's that level of genius of to have an IPO platform and put your own IPO on it that is, like, much respect to them. I don't even find it unethical. It's genius, and it's going to be wildly successful. That doesn't mean invest in it. I just think it's going to be wildly successful.
47:53
Damian Dunn
Yeah, order is going to count, but if they pull this off, it's going to be pretty fantastic.
47:58
Peter Dunn
Dame, thanks for being on the show this week. I'm glad you got to enjoy an adult beverage, and I did not because I messed up my work this morning, and I now have to redo it for the next several hours. So that's all that's in the show this week, sending good vibes, because good vibes are all that's in the budget and reshoots. I'm Pete the planner. This is the show. Man, I can't tell you how disappointing that was. Sorry.
48:18
Damian Dunn
I'll do better next week.
48:20
Peter Dunn
No, I meant me. All right, everybody. Sorry for my inadequacy this week. I'll do that.
48:31
Damian Dunn
It just wasn't.
48:36
Peter Dunn
I've been doing a radio show every week for 1213 years, and I'm sure my bad shows now are still better than my early shows that I thought were good. And I'm sure my bad columns I write may better than the old good ones I wrote, but I don't know. Sometimes the bad columns you write are because you're too self assure. You're just like, oh, yeah, I nailed this. And you don't step back from it before you submit it, and then you read it a week later and you're like, oh, what a tool.
49:15
Damian Dunn
Here's an interesting question. Did you deal with impostor syndrome more when you were younger or now?
49:21
Peter Dunn
Oh, that is a really interesting question. Well, okay, so there's the natural fake it till you make it, I think is part of that. And it's sort of an accepted trade off. That's a fascinating question that I wish I had a drink to sit and talk about together for 30 minutes. I would say it's more about magnitude. I feel like the stakes are higher now, and so it's that it's more intense. Like, it's a it feels like if I'm right about not being good enough to do this, it feels like it's a much larger failure than when I was younger, and I was probably more justified in thinking I didn't have a resume to stand on. Does that make sense?
50:17
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I think so. I mean, the stakes are greater for you at this point. It would have been easy to pivot to something else when you were younger. You don't have a lot writing on it at that point, but I'm not sure where I fall on this. For a long time, being the young financial advisor, I was acutely aware of the disadvantages. I had age, moderately bad hair at that point. Still too. Just all sorts of issues that could go on, and lack of relationships with people that had money to let me help them with, which is a huge issue. But now you're right. As you get older and your perspective changes a bit, you may be more confident in some ways professionally, but the stakes are higher, and you want to make sure that you're not, especially in today. I mean, 20 years ago, cancel culture wasn't a thing.
51:20
Peter Dunn
Yeah, that's interesting for me. I feel like I've been trying to prove this certain hypothesis my entire career, and early on, I hadn't made a lot of progress toward it, and I really believed in it. So the impostor syndrome was, maybe I'm not right. But then as I've sort of gathered momentum towards this ultimate hypothesis, which you arguably know, right? It's just this idea that you can make personal finance simple and empathetic and relatable. The impostor syndrome now is I'm not that I'm looking for a payoff. That's not the thing. It's just like, what actually proves that now? That's where I'm at. Now, I was doubting theory for a long time, but now the imposter syndrome is, well, how will I know if I was right or wrong in the first place? And that's weird. And I've also changed what I used to measure myself on.
52:23
Peter Dunn
I used to be like, well, I'll be like Dave Ramsay or Susie orman like, I'll be the third person people talk about. And that was a focus of mine. I worked towards it. Then I was just like, well, that's dumb. I mean, that's just really self involved. If I'm trying to do these things because I think it helps people, then why is it I need to be a giant star to a it stopped making sense, so I pivoted. I don't know. This may not be interesting to anyone, by the way, you and it's just you and I talking.
52:52
Damian Dunn
I like to think it's what the people stick around for you.
52:56
Peter Dunn
Yeah, maybe it's the midlife cry. I mean, I'm 43. I mean, is this what the beginning of a midlife crisis is like? I'm I'm in by the way, I'm not in crisis. I'm very self assured. I'm yes, I'm having a bad day because I didn't sleep well, and then I jacked up a project. But yeah, you wonder. That self reflection. One of my favorite things I hold on to is this saying. I don't even know who said it. It's when you're 20, you think everyone cares what you're doing. And when you're 40, you don't care what anyone thinks. You don't care what anyone thinks about what you're doing. And then when you're 60, you realize that no one was thinking about you anyway. Right. And so I have tried to accelerate my mindset to 60, but I love that. Right? Because you just want to do well when you're young, and as you get older, you're just like, you start to see your place in the world, and it's a mind trip.
53:51
Damian Dunn
I agree. Good answer.
53:52
Peter Dunn
Pete, how is it that I'm not having a beverage right now and we're having this conversation?
53:56
Damian Dunn
Your choice.
53:59
Peter Dunn
I was going to tell you something this week. I had to go to the Er this week, I tell you that.
54:03
Damian Dunn
I saw something about it, but we didn't share details.
54:07
Peter Dunn
Now, my daughter just heard her wrist playing soccer. She's fine now, but that's always a weird experience, right? It's just a weird week. Weird week, yeah. You've dealt with that recently, too, though.
54:17
Damian Dunn
Never a good time I had to go get some X rays for one of our kids as well.
54:21
Peter Dunn
If I may. Riverview Health. Now these Urgent Care Er combination centers that aren't attached physically to the hospital, it's like, just its own. We went to Riverville. Genius business model. Absolutely. I don't want to go to an Er. I want to go to urgent care. Wonderful, pleasant, clean, friendly. They sent me a survey. This is how you know I'm an old guy. They sent me a survey, and I'm talking about it out loud with my wife, and she's given me the honey, I really don't care sort of vibe lovingly. But I'm reading through these questions, Dame, and literally every question they're asked, I'm thinking about it. I'm like, oh, my God. They went out of their way to make sure that I answered this question the way I'm going to quit. It was that well executed. It was unbelievable.
55:09
Damian Dunn
Technical writers are amazing to make sure that they craft things in just the right way to get you thinking in a certain direction.
55:16
Peter Dunn
Yeah. I mean, it's great. Anyway, okay, I got to go. I mean, literally, you and I got to talk, though, so everyone else has got to go. Hey, you all kicked off the stream. When you guys talk to me next week, I'm going to be partially vaccinated, so look out. It'll be me, Dame, and the other two heads I grew out of my shoulders. See you next week. Bye.
