Capitalist Investor

Social Security, Meta Community Notes, Building Wealth in 2025, Ep. 304

• Strategic Wealth Partners

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1. The Social Security Fairness Act

The Social Security Fairness Act, effective as of January 5, sparked considerable discussion in this episode. This act impacts approximately 2.8 million people, reversing prior restrictions that prevented those with government pensions from receiving full Social Security benefits. While this legislative change has drawn bipartisan support (76 out of 100 senators voted for it), it also raises questions about its implications on the Social Security trust fund, which is anticipated to see a reduced lifespan of 6 to 12 months as a result. Luke, Diamond Hands D, and Tony delved into personal anecdotes and the broader economic impacts, including how this reform affects specific people, such as educators who may not meet the qualifying work requirements.

2. Economic Concerns and Government Debt

Key economic issues, including government fiscal management, were focal points. The hosts critiqued the handling of the national debt and the lack of a balanced budget. They discussed a narrative pushed by some economists that compares national debt to total national assets, with significant skepticism about its validity. The discussion highlighted misunderstandings surrounding national debt in relation to individual wealth and debated the extreme scenario of the government liquidating personal assets during economic crises.

3. Mark Zuckerberg and Social Media Transformation

Mark Zuckerberg’s policy changes for Meta (formerly Facebook) were dissected, particularly the shift towards a community-based fact-checking system similar to Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X). This move is seen as an effort to reduce bias and promote freer speech on the platform. The speculation ran deep into potential governmental influence on social media censorship and whether Zuckerberg's shift was economically motivated, influenced by Musk’s success. Additionally, Zuckerberg's personal style evolution, including his expensive watch, was humorously noted as a sign of his changing image.

4. Bitcoin and Alternative Currencies

Bitcoin remains a frequently debated topic, with discussions focusing on its role as an alternative to traditional currency. Luke argued that Bitcoin's true potential will be realized when it is valued in its own unit, Satoshis, rather than compared against the dollar. The hosts emphasized Bitcoin's decentralized nature, designed to empower individual investors, but raised concerns about its current treatment as a commodity, which could limit its original purpose. This conversation highlighted the blend of traditional long-term investment strategies alongside modern alternatives like cryptocurrencies for a diversified asset portfolio.

5. Barriers to Building Wealth

A paradigm shift towards consumerism and distrust in financial systems was cited as a significant barrier to building wealth. The conversation touched on generational differences in attitudes towards saving and investment. Early savings and investing were advocated as crucial for wealth accumulation, but societal trends and the allure of immediate consumption pose challenges. Modern investment options' complexity, exacerbated by the influence and distraction of social media, was contrasted with simpler, longer-term approaches like 401(k) plans. Apps like Robinhood were criticized for gamifying investing, potentially leading users towards gambling behavior rather than sound financial strategies.

These hot topics not only provide a snapshot of current economic, political, and social dynamics but also illustrate the broad range of discussions hosted on "Capitalist Investor." 

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Capitalist Investor. As always, you have me, diamond hands D. And we got the whole crew back together. New year, New me, new me, new mentality. Let's go. I'm keeping the same mentality, I think. All right. That's okay though. There's nothing wrong with that. So what's going on guys? You have a good, good holiday and all that good stuff? Yeah, I just, I'm excited for January to slowed me down a little bit because, you know, I had the wedding in November and then I had the honeymoon and then I had Christmas, then we had New Year's up at the walleye drop and up in Port Clinton. So it's just, it's just been explained. Now while I drop where they drop. Like a glass fish walleye from a crane. It's like a the ball drop in New York. Yeah. Like hillbilly New Year celebration, which is awesome. So I get it. I get it. Actually we supposed to have some clients come up, but a couple, if you're listening, last minute cancellations. Sadly though, because they got sick. You know, the flu is going around so I get it. But it would have been nice to kind of hang out with some of our clients up there and everyone. Dude, everyone's over the holidays. Just cross contamination. Yeah. Have to visit all the different families. And there's different, like different things going on. Oh yeah. You know, so whatever. I also gained like 20 pounds the past month and a half, so. Nice. I'm looking a little chunky chunk. So I got like 20 pounds to lose next month, so. So I'm going to start eating a little cleaner. It reminds me of that new Kelsey, that Kelsey brother Chunky Soup commercial. Is it hot in here or is it just chunky? I'm chunky. Put the extra weight. Definitely adds some heat. Nice to see the Kelsey brothers still getting some advertisement time out there. Yeah. All right. All right. We're going to talk about the Social Security Fairness act that was implemented on what, January 5th. We are going to talk about meta in Zuckerberg and his 180 degree bow face on policies for meta Facebook. So strange. Weird, huh? And then the barrier to building wealth, you know, what holds people back. So it's probably a good thing to talk about heading into the new year because procrastination and time are everyone's biggest enemies. So first and foremost, Social Security Fairness Act. This was pointed out by Tony several weeks ago. He was all over this one. Yeah, well, they, they're rolling it out so what this is is that it's going to essentially, anyone that. So if you're, you know, Social Security and then you have maybe a government pension. Well, if you have the government pension, they. They either don't give you Social Security or they give you some highly reduced payment from Social Security so that you don't, quote, unquote, double dip. And they reversed that just recently. It's funny how, like, all of this stuff is being implemented right at the end. Right at the end. Like, four years have felt like nothing, and now everything is being just ran through. But. But anyway, this is going to affect about 2.8 million people. And these are the things that I kind of see with this. So first and foremost, this is going to be retroactive from Jan.1st of 2024 when they're going to release these funds. I have no idea. Like, they're. That's the one thing, because it's so new. They're trying to get their hands around this Social Security Department is. Is shorthanded to begin with. And they're just telling everyone, like, hey, make sure that your address and your bank account information's up to date so you get paid. But the thing that immediately comes to me is that the trust fund, so I've said it before, roughly 75% of your Social Security benefits are paid through payroll tax. Everyone working, and the other 25 come from this trust fund that the government has. Well, the trust Fund has about $2.8 trillion in it as of June of 24. So about six months ago, it is estimated to run out of money in 2033. This act shortens that time frame by six to 12 months. Now, right now, because of Social Security funding and stuff, essentially taxes paid into the program of $1.6 trillion for Social Security benefits, while roughly 1.6 trillion is paid out. So it's. It's equal right now. Well, how the hell is this thing going to run out of money in seven or, you know, eight, nine years? Right? Well, there are 61. 61 million people that are 65 and older that are collecting Social Security benefits today. It is estimated that in 2035, there is going to be 77 million. That's a big jump. That is roughly a 20% increase. Okay. And then we're not even talking about the cola, the cost of living adjustment that goes in every year on these Social Security benefits. So what? Like, this is. This is interesting. I mean, they say it's going to cost almost $200 billion over the next 10 years, but I don't Know, man, this seems like, I don't know, it's going to affect 2.8 million people. So there's 2.8 excited people out there. I want to clarify that you have to have paid into the Social Security system to receive both benefits. Correct. And the way that works is to receive Social Security, you have to work at least 10 years or pay into it for 10 years. Have like 40 credits, it's called. But it equals out to about 10 years of working. So I, like, I texted my mom, she's a school teacher. I'm like, hey, like these. This just changed. Like, did you before you worked at, you know, Martins Ferry School District is where she, you know, has worked for 30 years. Before that, you know, what did you do? Did you pay into Social Security? She's like, dang it, I only paid into it for seven years. So like, she missed out for three years. She won't be receiving both, sadly for her situation. So I wanted to just clarify, you know, if it applies to your situation. Think about if whether or not you did pay into. Yeah. You had to work in the private sector, not the public sector. Well, to qualify. Or you work in the private sector for 10 years and then maybe you ended the public. I wonder, I wonder if your mom went back to work for three years. I. That's what I'm kind of. She's, she's at a point, she's like, I have two more years left. I'm retiring after that. I'm done forever. We'll see what happens. But I talked to her like, maybe she should go get part time job. It could be like 500 bucks a month. Exactly. You know, like after she retires, you know, like, I don't know, I don't know how. There's not a whole lot of clarity on exactly how it's going to work right this minute. Right. Other than they're just going to do it sounds, sounds like as the norm. Thoughts on this? D. You know, so it's not, it's not as bad as I thought it would be because of what Luke just said. But I believe like 76 of the senators voted for this to push it through. So it's not like it's not like. It was just, you know, it wasn't a left agenda. It was a bipartisan type of thing. Well, yeah. You make every retiree or these 2.8 million people happy. You just bought some more votes. Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, more free money you give to anything. It makes people happy. Yeah. Puts them on your side, it's hard. It's like, it's like American politics have turned into like running for student council president in high school. The. Whoever just promises the most stuff, the most free stuff and no homework is going to win. Yeah, you know, it's, I was just, you know, scrolling the other day and saw something where you know, we collected 30% of everyone's money and are still $36 trillion in debt or something like that. Is, it's, it's, it's very, it's very disheartening to see that the, the government can't run itself essentially. And that's hopefully will change in this coming year. But we're, we're, we should not be giving away any money when we can't have a balanced budget. It seems pretty elementary and it seems, you know, it also seems that the, the, the, the running of the government debt is the key cause to inflation. And you know, you just, some people just won't be convinced of that because of other things that they've heard you have. Before we get to the next topic, I've been hearing more and more about this narrative from either economists, mainly being left wing economists, that our debts still so small relative to everything. I've been hearing that narrative more and what they're kind of referencing there is like all dollars in America. You add up all the real estate in America, all the businesses, you add up the outputs from GDP and stuff like that. It's like we have hundreds of trillions of hundred trillion dollars of assets like here in America. So our debt's still like only 36% of our whole entire asset base in America and what it's worth. But that's narratives wrong because it's like the government debt is not necessary. It is our debt, but it's not, you know, you can't add up individual assets. Yeah, they're not going to liquidate my house. Yeah, exactly, our assets or Elon Musk $300 billion. They will, maybe they will liquidate, like. Apply our individual net worth statements to theirs. So it's, I hate that narrative. It's not a good narrative and it's basically allowing them to say that what we're doing is okay. And I don't like that. I gotta look this up because I remember somebody telling me that like you're, if the government really wanted to, they could like confiscate your Iraq. Yes. And pay and pay. If we're in some type of economic, you know, huge economic war, things like that, they will just take your money. Everything's fake. And I don't want to get too deep into the thing there, but everything is fake. The world and society that we live in, everything can be changed. The I want to think that that. Spirit can't change so early in the. You know, just look at things 100 years ago compared to now. Like, people think things can't change. They can change on a dime. Yeah. Well, again, the Social Security fairness Act. A good point. I mean, it's not going to affect every single person that's on some type of like opers or pers or how pension, you know, like things like that up here in Ohio. But any pension, if you didn't pay into the program, you're not getting anything. Right. So you've had to have paid in. I won't be getting anything even after. Yeah, that's what all of us here are looking at each other like that's the last thing I'm really planning on, so. All right. Meta bow face, I'm sure. Luke, you sure you got some fun stuff to say about this? Well, it's interesting. The one of the big takeaways I saw through the Zuckerberg interview announcing that Facebook's making a lot of changes is the fact that they're going to a community note fact checking system instead of their like, own fact checkers now. Fact checking. So basically you fact checking other people. So it could be a big argument. Well, he called out, it's like gonna be like X. He said, exactly. We're kind of moving towards what X and Elon Musk did because X has community notes. This is factual. This is not factual. But you actually have me and you again, kind of writing into a Wikipedia thing whether things are accurate or not. I think that's a much more efficient system rather than the bias of Facebook and their employees. But it's interesting that Elon Musk has created this world of the new social media and it feels like almost these other social medias now are kind of following behind what Axel on Musk are doing. Because I think what these social media platforms feel and what Zuckerberg feels is the world's changing. You know, the world's changing to become more of a, you know, free, free speech environment because people are concerned that their rights are being infringed upon for so long. So I think this election woke up these social media companies that they're going to have to adapt or die. Yeah. Well, all right, so while we're in conspiracy theories early in the year. All right, so I want to say that, like, somewhere in that interview, you know, Zuckerberg kind of alluded to or made a comment saying, you know, I was forced to censor people. Yep. All right, so do you think, do you, do you honestly believe that the Biden administration or whoever's behind the curtain, the real curtain, came in and said, dude, like, you better do this or like, kiss your company goodbye in so many words. I don't know, like, not that direct, but. Yeah, yeah, well, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm going way hyper. Hyperactive on what? There's no doubt about something. Yeah, but like, hey, like, right, so, okay, Zuckerberg, listen. So you think, you think his hand was forced to do what he did? I think Zuckerberg cares about money more than politics. I agree. Okay, now I'm glad you said that because my next thing is, is, is Zuckerberg doing this because he's like, oh, man, Trump won. Look what happened to Elon's net worth. It probably like went up 20 or 30% since Tesla took off. And, you know, I'm sure SpaceX is going to be the new NASA or whatever. Right? Did he do this because he saw the economic windfall that Elon did? Because he, Because Elon put his neck on the line and are you smart enough to look through that? I am. Yeah, that's exactly. I mean, this is called, this is the world we live in and we talk about it. We don't live in a free market system. We live in a government controlled system. So you become friends with the politicians and government you do. Well, from business sense. I mean, this is where crony capitalism comes in. This is where, you know, dollars and cents in elections come in. This is why you elect certain people to do certain things and you become friends with them because, you know, they can vote in your favor and deregulate whatever it be and, and allow your platform to flourish or succeed or decrease. Right. So that's 100% what's happening. It's so funny. Like you're already hearing it like, Trump's not even in the seat yet and they're already talking about how like the House and the Senate could flip to blue. And then all of a sudden there's going to be two years of like, you know, complete gridlock and impeachments and, and all this, all this. Why would it flip blue? I don't know. They just. Two years, midterms. Yeah, the next, the next wave of, you know, elections. I was like dying. You're missing. I thought there was a red wave. No, no, no, no. Like the, the House and the Senate flipping in about two years. When the, the midterms come through, I don't know, I'm like, I started rolling my eyes. I'm like, dude, the guy can't even get in the seat and there's like a thousand things on his platter. Well, like. Well, there's so many things that are happening from just the perception. Again, perception means more than reality. I say that quite a lot, but the perception is Trump is going to do certain things or he's going to get in there and unleash hell. He said on the Middle east is kind of what he said. He's like, if they don't return the hostages by the time I get in office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East. Like, him just like saying this stuff or the perception of what he's going to do, it's already cheating. Prime Minister of Canada Trudeau stepping down. I mean, that. I think that definitely is an effect of Trump coming into. Oh, dude, we have so many things going on. It's so interesting. We have to do one, man. We have to do, like something here soon. On the fallout, not the fallout, but like, what happens, the repercussions of, you know, Canada and Greenland becoming the 51st states of the United States. Like, but I mean, I read something on Greenland, they're just rich with like, mineral, you know, rare earth minerals and things like that. Specifically like uranium, which is good for nuclear power, blah, blah, blah, power grids, AI sucks up a bunch of juice. You know, this whole windfall, like, it makes sense on a strategic battle. But look, that he's trying to go after Panama Canal is like, it's not. Is. Listen, no, I'm not saying it's not, but it's like, where was all this stuff, like four years ago? And it's not out of the realm of possibilities. You look at. Every empire throughout history was one of the number one kind of synonymous things that happened throughout the empires. It's land expansion. I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibility. The United States we know today is not going to be bigger or might, might be bigger, you know, 50 years down the road, whether it's Greenland, whether it's Canada, whether it's other territories we expand. Every empire expands throughout history. Well, the biggest empire prior to the United States was the Roman Empire expansion. Right, Great. But their downfall was their debt when they exceeded. Because there was this huge study that I read years and years and years ago. I wish I knew the exact details, but essentially, once your debt exceeds GDP by 120% or something along them lines, which we're very close to. We used to be below 100. Now we're creeping up. That is the pinnacle of the height of that regime. And if you go back through history, through the Roman Empire, that's what happened. Well, then it creates loss of reserve currency and then that blows up everything up. You have a great depressions thing, and then you also have societal control issues where people are, you know, getting mad at each other, turning on each other, then you revolt, and then there's all kinds of big revolutions that happen. Other thing with expansion is you get a lot of different cultures and different kinds of people that don't fit into your society as much because you have different beliefs and values. Not necessarily. That's not necessarily a bad thing all the time, but there's definitely. I can cause some social issues. Certainly that's kind of what we're seeing, I think kind of now almost a little bit is a lot of different social issues just because of, you know, of how diverse we are. And again, diversity is a good thing. But I think it's also important to understand that it can definitely sway politics and sway things like that, depending on, you know, what the beliefs are within the society. Yeah. And I mean, kind of going back to what you said earlier is like, hey, all this stuff's like a house of cards. It's not. It's all kind of fake and this. Isn'T really our money and blah, blah, 1971. Yeah. So. So think about, like the thing. We'll move on after this. But like, as soon as you say I start hearing stuff, I don't know why my mind goes here, but like, man, like bitcoin, like you said, reserve currency. And the first thing I think about is, is gold. Right. It's a tangible. I could put it in my hand if I wanted to. Right now, Trump's talking about bitcoin as another type of reserve type of asset. What if the power goes off, man? Like, seriously, like, you're talking about social unrest. Like, that's going to be the ultimate social unrest. It's like, you better have more bullets than gold and bitcoin, because if the lights don't turn on, you can't get your bitcoin. Well, bitcoin. Bitcoin's treated wrongly. I've talked about this before. I know this isn't a bitcoin show. Maybe we can make one whole show about it. Bitcoin right now is treated more like gold, like a commodity, is A currency. It was never meant to be gold or commodity. And the fact that the government's pushing it towards a commodity should give you red flags. Like, this is never meant to be. That it was meant to replace essentially the US Dollar, give power back to the people, be decentralized, and be a way to transact and hold store value for us personally, not the government. So I just. I don't know. It's. It's a. It's an interesting thing. I think we should make a whole show about down the road. But you're exactly right is, you know, if it is treated like gold and is treated like commodity, you can't hold it. It should not be a commodity. It should be something different. With environment world, we're headed into the digital world to transact money through the blockchain network. Right. It's. It's preventing people that are more powerful than you that you elect actually to prevent them from, you know, devaluing your currency, like your dollars in your pocket. Right? Everything. It's like there's only so many bitcoin and they can't make more bitcoin. Well, you'll know bitcoin is what it's supposed to be when you stop valuing it in dollars. The fact we say it's worth$100,000 means that Bitcoin is not even close to where it should be. If you start saying, I'm going to give you one Satoshi, or it's valued at 10, whatever it be, satoshis, that's when, you know bitcoin's made. It is when people understand what satoshis are. And the fact that I'm buying something from you and giving you bitcoin, that's how, you know, bitcoin made it. Okay. All right, moving on. We got a bitcoin to Zuck's. Zuck's watch game has improved drastically recently, too. So just had to point that out. That watch he was wearing in that video he put out the other day was worth $900,000. His whole game is improved. His chains, T shirts. He's now like a Brazilian bjj. Like. Like growing out his hair. Yep. Yeah, I'd be friends with them now. Yeah, someone. Someone gave him a pretty good makeover. He looks pretty. He looks much less like a robot like he was portrayed and was a South Park. Well, what's that game? What's that movie they made about him? The social. Social media. Social network. Social network. Like he's starting to look like that guy. Yeah. Oh, no. But anyway. Yeah, well, Good luck guys. Oh, speaking of watch game, just really quick. Mr. Wonderful. He was, I saw him, I don't know, I glanced up at the TV and he's on TV and he's holding up both wrists and he's got two like Rolexes on. I'm like really man? Like just like that's what, that's what you're doing now. You're just wearing two watches he carries. I think he has a, things a, like his box of watches he takes with him when he travels. I think he's got 15 or 20 takes with him at all times. With what bodyguard? Yeah, seriously. Right. Mark Tepper here from SWP Investment Management. It's time to elevate your portfolio with the SWP Growth and Income etf. A diversified basket of high quality growth companies that pay dividends. SWP stands out from the pack because total returns matter. Don't just Invest. Thrive with SWP. Visit investswp.com for more information. Disclosures apply. All right, last topic. Barrier to building wealth is not buying a case full of watches hold its value. I might appreciate it. Some can, some cannot. Right? You know Rolex has a, has a history of holding their value if not in definitely holding and if not increasing their value. But. All right, so barriers to building wealth. So as we enter 2025 I saw a good article talking about what is holding people back because you know, essentially a psychiatrist came out instead of psychologists. I don't know what you know. So they came out and said people are avoiding investing money because a. It's too complex. Right. So there's a statistic. Only about 48, 48% of US adults are not saving money. 52% are coin flip chance that you're saving money or not. Retirement time is your friend and procrastination is your enemy. And we need to understand that because the, the more you save and the earlier you do it, the better. But is investing too complex? I'm glad you asked that Tony, because I have a hot take. I think these psychologists, I think these psycho. I don't even know who they are but I think they're idiots. I think they're wrong. I don't think it has anything to do with complexity. I think every average Joe now especially when they're younger in the 20s and 30s know that you can go on Robin Hood and you can. They're. Everyone knows how to invest now. The Gamestop things changed things a couple years ago. Like all these people not invest. They wanted to. So I don't think it's at all Complexity. I think it's the fact that the societal world has changed or maybe is the same in a lot of ways, just changed with what people are focused on. We have a consumerism problem here in America where everyone is materialistic. They can make more money, they spend more money. They don't care about the future because they just want to live in the now and present. They want to get the dopamine rush of whatever it is they're buying or going out to eat. The lifestyles have changed. So prioritizing. They're not prioritizing investing, they're prioritizing the consumerism. So that's the one big thing there is. They just don't have the capacity to invest because they spend every dollar that comes in or more, more than what they have. The second thing is, I think a distrust in the system is a big thing, A reason why they don't know that their dollar is going to be there 40 years down the road. They don't know if they're going to be there 40 years down the road. I think the distrust in the system, which has been there for, I think a long time, is a big reason as well. When I think about my future, I don't think the next 40 years of my life are going to be like the past 40 years that my parents lived. When you have, even through 2008, 2009, the bailouts, Covid situation, stock market returns so high, I think things are going to be a lot different the next 40 years. So when I think from my future, my future retirement, I'm like, how can I do something different than everybody else, what everybody else is doing? And as a financial advisor kind of makes me go crazy sometimes because it's like every advisor out there says, do this, do this, do this, put money in the market for 40 years and you'll retire comfortably. When I have these conversations with younger people, from an investment standpoint, I'm like, maybe we shouldn't do what everyone else is doing. Just throw money in the stock market for 40 years or whatever. Being growing at 7%, maybe we should start thinking a little bit differently because the world is different now. So how do you, how are you. Going to think that? How do you think? Spend it now and worry about it later? No, I'm not saying that. I think that you have to incorporate those different asset classes. Like you said, bitcoin in there, you have to incorporate. That's where it comes too complex, that buying bitcoin is complex. I, I mean, for me, I can buy an ETF People are like, what's an etf? Like, it could be that disconnected. Yeah, but like, an ETF is a. That's the. That's the elementary way to buy Bitcoin. I actually should go on. If I was going to do it right, and I was dealing with serious money, I'd go on Coinbase, I'd buy a Bitcoin, I'd put on a ledger or basically a thumb drive. Right. And protect the asset. But also that's where I was going to go. Like, they have made it so complex. There's so much stuff out there. And then social media is. Is probably the biggest headwind because a, yes, you got the, hey, man, like, I'd rather have these Gucci glasses than put$300 into my 401k. But you also have these raging maniacs, like, Roaring Kitty, like, doing these obscene, like, investment strategy moves, like call options. Like, you start. There's a million layers to invest, so there are easy ways to invest. Yeah, but where did it really come from? Is it the way, like, lead by example? What did your family do? You know, did your family patch you on the ass and give you everything you want? So, like, like, exactly. So, like. But like, some people have and they're like, why do I need to save when, you know, I just get what I want? Right. I mean, that could be a mentality that's. That's definitely this. There's a part of society that thinks that way. What's the saying? One generation makes it, second generation grows, the third generation spends it. Yeah, I think there's a lot of that happening. The Rockefellers, man, like, they. It was like they all had a family reunion back in 100 years ago and everyone's multi millionaires and they come back 100 years later and there's like three that's gone. Right. Well, that also happens without the cycles. Like, every cycle is different. That's why I'm saying, like, you know, when you think about the future and you read books, like, you know, I know we talked about Ray Dalio before, but principles of changing what we're talking about the cycles throughout history and how they end going forward, I think it's important to not necessarily base your whole entire life and resources on just investing in assets. As a young person, I think it's about investing in your knowledge of how the system works and growing your income. In a lot of ways, the younger generations don't understand business. I was talking to my. Not to go off on a tangent, but I was talking to one of my mentors per se. We had breakfast or this past weekend, he went to my college. He's on one of the board of directors or board of trustees at my college. And we were talking about the education system and how it applies and what these kids are learning. They're learning this diverse education. They're learning religion classes, philosophy classes. They're getting all this different knowledge and diversity of knowledge, which is good in a lot of ways. But they aren't understanding how the actual world works and how to add dollars to their pocket. You know, they think they get a degree, they come out of college and make a certain amount of money and then they retire or they make 100 grand a year coming out of college. That's not true. They don't understand how to actually add value and money to their pocketbooks. I think it's important as we go forward, this technological world, programming the metaverse, like whatever this world, the technology is heading down, AI, you have to figure out, because you'll be. A lot of these jobs are going to be displaced. So if you don't have a job, how can you pack away money to grow? I said that, man. Like when, when are we all going to not do anything because computers are taking care of it. That's my point is 40 years down the road, when you start thinking about what that future entails, how do you start thinking about investing? Because the world of investing changes then, you know, how do you take advantage of the future? What we're heading into with technological. I'll tell you what, man, we're gonna need. We're gonna need technology to take care of us, right? Us. Like meet my age group. Like, you know, that mid-40s age group. Because when that 65, 70 year old people pass on, the. The 30 and 40 year old people are not having kids, right? And there's barely enough of us to take care of aging adults right now, right? Who's going to take care of us? Who's going to wipe my butt when. When I'm. When I can't move your butt? The robots. Robot. Yeah, robots. They're going to be nice and kind, right? Yep. All right. See the one? I'm not going to say. I'm not going to say this ended on the butt. You see the. Well, no, the new Netflix mov. Megan Fox and Robot. Have you seen that one? No. No. Is it worth it? I mean, if I had a Megan Fox robot, I think I'd be okay. Here we go. All right, now you gotta watch the Netflix movie. It's a good movie. It's actually pretty bad. But I haven't seen a good movie in a long time. Yeah, everything stinks. But it's talking about the future of robots and how they help us out on a day to day basis. Watch a movie. So. All right, so get this back on the tracks here, all right? Barrier to building wealth. If it's too complex, man, there's. There are things out there. Target funds inside of your 401k. They will help you allocate bonds and stocks for you index funds. You don't need to go and find the next hot stock. Right. You can have a collection of stocks inside of an index fund fund, mutual funds. If you do your research and see how they've performed and what they hold, maybe you want to be in mutual funds. Find somebody like us who hires a bunch of smart stock people and you know, build a stock allocation stock portfolio with thoughts about where things are headed so that we can hopefully be ahead of the curve. Like there's ways to do it. It doesn't need to be as complex as social media portrays it. It was complex 20 years ago when you had to find a broker, call your broker. You couldn't log into your apps on your smartphone. You didn't have smartphones like 20 years ago. It was pretty complex 20 plus years ago. Didn't know how you did. So you got your statement in the mail. Yeah, I mean that was before my time, but I can just only imagine how like crazy it was before Internet. Couldn'T go beep beep. I just bought whatever I had to like call some now. But now it's not complex because it's gamified too because they made it a fun game now. Which is bad too because it's now gambling. But yeah, I mean, what is what it. Didn't Robin Hood app like shoot off fireworks when you. Yeah. Like deposited my teachers or made money or the stock. My teachers in college almost killed me multiple times. Like they actually reported me I think a couple times to like the dean or whatever because I was not paying attention in class a couple, like many times just trading stocks cuz it was fun. But there was days I was like, hey, I made $1,000 today. And I'm like, I think it was worth not paying attention to class. And then there was days I lost a thousand. I'm like, well maybe I should have paid attention. All right, Derek, take us home. All right, well, welcome back everyone. Thanks for listening. If you guys have any questions, comments, show ideas, hit us up@infowpconnect.com and we'll talk to you next week. Foreign. The opinions expressed in the podcast are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any investment, legal, financial or tax strategy. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. Please consult a qualified professional about your individual needs.