Retirement For Life
The only retirement show that won’t put you to sleep as we guide you to a comfortable and confident retirement. Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP® the passionate retirement specialist helps you navigate the complex world of retirement with a dash of fun, a heap of wisdom and plenty of real-life application. Whether you're already retired or planning for the future, the Retirement for Life Show is your passport to a secure and enjoyable retirement.
With over two decades of experience, Chris has been assisting individuals in achieving their retirement dreams, whether it's investing wisely, building wealth, or increasing retirement confidence. His expertise has earned him recognition in esteemed national media outlets such as Yahoo Finance, U.S. News and World Report, and CBS News.
Join Chris and his fellow professionals, Andrea Brannon and Emma Bean, CFA®, as they take you on a journey through essential retirement topics. We cover it all, from Retirement Planning and Investment Tips to Financial Planning, Social Security, Estate Planning, Tax Strategies, and much more. Tune in for practical insights and wisdom that will help transform your retirement goals into reality.
Retirement For Life
America Is Changing Faster Than You Think - Ep 52
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To get the full RFL experience, watch the episode here at: https://youtu.be/XO_0efhIgn4
The market is hitting all-time highs, but the economy still feels tense for many families. In this episode, we explore the disconnect between strong portfolios and real-world financial pressure — from inflation and housing costs to the growing divide between corporate profits and everyday households.
We also discuss key insights from the retirement planning world, including why advanced tax planning has become a top concern for seven-figure retirees. If your plan is built only around investment returns, taxes, withdrawal timing, inflation, and income strategy can quietly reduce the retirement “win” you think you have.
We’ll also cover practical steps retirees can consider, including estate planning, gifting strategies, and building guaranteed cash flow beyond Social Security to help create more stability when markets eventually pull back.
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Welcome And Conference Highlights
Retirement from life. Good passport to a comfortable and confident retirement. That equal parts of interest and entertainment. And a keyboard from your host, Christian Spears CPA. And President of Steer Financial Wealth Advisor. The Independent, Registered Investment Advisor, specializing in a retirement system. Alright, welcome to the Retirement for Life podcast. Hi guys, how's it going? Good, good, good. Today I'm so excited about this episode. I have all these notes. Look at these notes. I mean, and we're gonna we're gonna be talking about something that is just top of mind for me and our retirees today. Um, before I do, do you guys know about the American College of Financial Services? American College of Financial Services put on the Retirement Planning Conference of the Year in Orlando this month. And guess who was there? Take a look at those two pictures. I met two of my absolute heroes. Ed Slott, the America's IRA expert. I mean, I was giddy, you know, like a schoolboy. And you know, that guy on the right, Dr. Wade Fow, his first research from 2014 changed the way we invest here for the better. Changed the way we think about retirement planning. Um but what I learned at this conference, guess what else I did at the conference? I took my selfie stick, I took, I brought my lights, I interviewed 25 financial advisors who are supposedly retirement planners. I have over an hour and a half of footage just of me interviewing financial advisors. You know what's funny? I was so worried. How are people gonna want to talk to me? Do you know what financial advisors love to do? Talk. It was like I I didn't have to beg anybody. But um I have to say I came away extremely proud after that conference, and I'll tell you why. The very first workshop we had was attended by the entire group of financial advisors. There was probably 400 and some financial advisors in workshop number one, and it was how you can bring tax planning, advanced tax planning into your retirement process. And I want to tell you it was the most attended, most well attended event, and all I can tell you is that I should have been on the panel. I should have been on the stage as an expert panelist because here's here's what some of the things they said. To bring tax planning into your firm is not easy, it takes work. You have to have knowledge, you have to have understanding of the tax laws. You have to really uh it takes you to another another level. But guess what? The number one thing that seven-figure retirees want. They want taxes. Yeah. And the whole conference was great. And when you interview 25 financial advisors, you can tell some of them. I mean, there's some videos I took of guys that are on point, like we are, but there's a lot of guys who just don't know what the heck they're doing. This is supposedly the cream of the crop. This is the retirement planning conference, right? These are people who want to be holistic. These are people who anyway, uh, so good for us. So so yesterday was a microcosm for what we're gonna be talking about today.
Iran, Inflation, And Gas Shock
The ceasefire in Iran is basically all but dead. It's on life support. Okay, and I think did anyone hear how Trump explained what's gonna happen to Iran? If something about making them glow, was it like you could see them, you'll be able to see them glow from a satellite or something. Yeah, there's been a lot, right? That that came up and it seems like more and more. He's in China today, he's headed to China, but I betcha the first thing on his agenda when he comes back from China is to make Iran glow. All right, that came out 3.8% inflation. We'll talk about that, the highest it's been in three years. Yeah, right. Uh, I went to the gas pump last night. I paid four dollars, and this is rural America, right? It's not a metropolitan city. Rural America, how much it was in your town? Well, how much do you think I paid for gas last night in your town? I don't know. I use diesel. When I drove by, I was my eyes got wide. Six bucks. I was shocked. It's diesel. The cheap stuff last night was four dollars and ninety-six cents. Yeah, what a great time. I just bought an e-bike. Yeah, I was speechless. When I drove by that, I was like, there is no way. Gas is, I think it's the highest it's ever been in America. It's five dollars. I remember when I was young, it got really high for a short period and then it went right back down. But okay. So all this is happening in one day. And the stock market went down 0.16%. Yes. Uh the stock market is on a holy tear. The last three and a half years, it has doubled. Yep. The last 18 years, if we include this year, 2026, has been up 16 of the last 18 years. You're talking like you're you're getting to unprecedented territory here. And 2018 was down four percent. So basically, you've had one bad year in the last 18 years. All right. So, Andrea, we're gonna be talking about a lot
Why Clients Ignore Market Risk
of things today. We're gonna be talking about inflation, we're gonna be talking about jobs, interest rates, and how technology is changing everything right in front of us. But let's start with the stock market. Are your clients that you've been dealing with now for 15 years, are they getting a little complacent about the stock market? Is uh how many calls do you have people saying, Oh, I'm worried about uh your investments? No, I'm really no one's concerned about the market exactly. It's more uh world events, I guess they're paying more attention to, but I wouldn't say that they're necessarily concerned about their returns right now. It's interesting. Uh, do people complain to you about how? Are they getting too complaints that I think so? Yeah. This is usually how it goes when you're in this type of period. They're pretty quiet. Yeah, our clients are I mean, they're experiencing major wealth effects. They're in that group of people that probably maybe they flinch when they see that gas is five dollars, but they're not going to change their habits really in any way. They're seeing their portfolios hit all-time highs, and so that probably is a part of why they're not, you know, too worried about what's going on with the war and what's happening with the stock market because their portfolios are at all-time highs. Yeah, it's starting to feel like euphoria stage, just like a little bit of chaos. You know, it doesn't it didn't feel right, but now it's very odd. Um, by the way, back to the gas thing. I have a gas-friendly hybrid. I think $75 to fill up the tank. Yeah, I wish. You know? Yeah. How much does it cost to fill up your pickup? Like $200, just under $200. That is crazy. Yeah, and we bought e-bikes recently, having no, this was before the whole Iran deal went. So yesterday I drove my e-bike or rode my e-bike to the office. Jenna's gonna make you ride your e-bike on the next vacation. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. So yesterday we're talking to a prospect, uh, like a $8 million prospect. And he's a former financial advisor who's coming to us because he's saying, Look, even though I was a financial advisor for my entire career, I never really thought about taxes and whatnot. And he asked you a question, Emma. He said, because Emma has the initial CFA, she's the investment expert. Do you remember he asked you, Emma, when's the stock market gonna stop going up? And what do you say to that? Yeah, I literally said if I knew that, you know, I would be a millionaire. There's just it's hard to say. It's obviously it's impossible to predict, but it's funny when some clients will ask, Well, you're this, you're the expert, you should know like when it's gonna drop. And that's kind of what the market's all about. Nobody knows. We can all bet, but yeah, nobody knows. It's funny, you hear a lot of traders say, like, oh, this is a good area or that's a bad area. But for for a long-term retirement plan, I mean, to say, okay, when you retire at in 2030, to know what's going on, you don't know what's going on then. You have to plan. Right. So this is all good news, and we're gonna get to some bad news and what really is happening underneath okay, the surface. But before we do, you know, I always like to say I was right. So a month ago, we were sitting here, the scariness factor was up a little bit. Right. Right. And this chart, you remember, uh, basically we said that hey, the experts are saying not to be concerned, and it was right. And so I just want to say you watch this podcast, you're gonna get good information because we told you so, right? Um, so but I want to start talking, Ian, a little bit about some of the bad
New Fed Chair And A Market Test
things now. So we had uh a new Fed chairman announced. What's how you pronounce his last name? Warsh, right? Like I'm gonna wash the dishes. I think so. So okay. Yeah, just yesterday the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new Fed chairman. Kevin Warsh, okay. Uh and what was inflation yesterday? 3.8%. Yes. Headline inflation. Highest it's been in three years. Yep. I went back pre-COVID, essentially, that CPI number, which we're gonna talk about, is that the good number to use? I I don't think it is, but this is what is coming across the headlines that our retirees are seeing. So let's talk about this number first. 3.8% over the last 12 months. So on average, the the theory is that everything is about four percent more than it was a year ago, right? Pre-COVID, it's now approaching like 29, 30 percent if you just do the math on it. Yeah. So that's a lot, right? Right. That's a lot in a relatively short period of time. Have wages gone up that much? No, exactly no. Um, but you brought up this this uh chart, and I thought it was interesting. As usual, Ian's a very technical guy, he knows a lot of stuff. Sometimes you're talking here and you have to bring it down and dumb it down to my level. So I tried to do that with this chart, but essentially, tell me what is this saying? We just got a new Fed chairman, and what's gonna happen to the stock market? Yeah, that's definitely one of my weaknesses. I like to just get into the details. Um, so essentially, this is saying every time new Fed chair comes in, uh Which just happened, Emma. You said yesterday. The market tests them. The market goes down. Yeah. Yeah. It's it wants to know how fast they're gonna change their mind. So should we be scared, Emma? Or not or not. Should we be scared that we got Kevin Warsh in and now the market's gonna tank? I mean, I think the thing with this chart is typically Fed chairs are on the board for a very long time. So this literally, I mean, you're looking at Alan Greenspan, I think he was he is like only the fourth one down, and he was I think it was in the late 70s. So this is a very long time horizon. But even if you look at just the last four, which would be more of a modern era. Well, you can tell by the names. Okay, that's a good point. Eugene. You're saying in the last in the modern era, uh this effect hasn't been so bad. Right. I think like the most, you know, recent one, Jerome Powell, obviously everybody knows, but yeah, Alan Greenspan would probably be the one that I think is the earliest in the modern era, you could say. Did everyone despise Alan Greenspan? He had a tough, tough go at it, I think. Okay. So maybe we should discount this because as I point out, I just try and make this simple for people. Basically, what this says is that look, when we get a new Fed chairman, sometime in the first six months, the market is going to go down 16%. Yeah. Now we're gonna start getting phone calls. Will that happen again? I don't know, but the it's completely opposite. If you take a look at that previous slide, the experts are saying basically in the next six months, stock market's gonna go up four or five percent. So um things and things happen have been happening faster too, with uh essentially since 2020. So maybe maybe not reacting the same. Maybe the the little dip from Iran deal is already the test of what's going on that they're gonna use as the downturn. So inflation is up. We're gonna talk about how much. I'm gonna give you some numbers here, okay?
The Data Behind The Wealth Divide
40. Anyone know what the number 40 is? It is the average age of a first-time home buyer. Okay. That's crazy. 33%. Does anyone know what 33% is? One third. Yes, almost. It is the percentage of Americans 18 to 34 that are requiring financial assistance from mom and dad. Eight is the amount of corporate earnings are up compared to the amount of new jobs last year. Corporate earnings were up eight times more than new jobs created. All right. Here's a good one. 64%. 64% of Gen Z, those are 14 to 29 year olds. That's you, dude. I caught it. I caught it. Uh 64% of your uh colleagues cannot live, they say, without a second job. They can't make ends meet without a second job. But this is how lazy you people are. Uh 64% say they can't live without a second job, but only 43% of them have a second job. Okay. I believe it. And then last one is I got a couple more. 45%. Now we're going to 30 to 45 year olds. Okay. This is the millennials, right? And what did you say you were like she's a xennial? She's trying to be younger. Okay, I love it. But anyway, we're still talking about young people here, and the point of this is the struggle they're having. 30 45% of millennials uh are requiring a side hustle gig to get by. Okay. And then one more thing, and this goes to what I'm talking about is this disparity. Okay. 49% of total consumer spending, people buying stuff right now, almost half of it is being bought by the top 10% of wage earners. Okay. All right. So with that, what is that telling us? What what was this? I just told you the stock market's at all-time highs, but yet uh a 30-year-old can barely buy a house. So what's that telling us? Clearly, prices are higher than what you know the government thinks people are paying. You know, like to to have a young person not be able to buy a home until they're 40 years old and potentially have to have two or three jobs to do so. That's just crazy. Yeah. And the other thing, too, aside from inflation is the labor market. People that are like our clients, for example, invested in the market, they're not affected by the labor market. You know, the all of these people coming out of college, Gen Z, it's really tough to get a good job. And a lot of the jobs that they studied for in college are no longer or AI is kind of taking over, right? They have to not only be worried about getting a job, but is their job going to be taken over by an AI type of situation versus Yeah. And the wealthy and the middle class even is getting more and more separated. Yeah. I mean, that last data point you shared. Wealth gap. There's a huge, huge wealth gap. Just getting faster and faster and faster. So I wrote down this morning the things that you could say divide historically America. I wrote down politics. I wrote down race. I wrote down religion. I wrote down age. I wrote down geography. Uh and then money is a big thing. Okay. Uh this chart I've been pointing out to anyone who will listen. This is one of the companies we invest in. You know this is one of my favorite companies, right, Emma? Yeah. I make Emma is in charge of the portfolios at Sear Financial Wealth Advisors, but dad still gets in the mix here, and I don't have much control over Emma's portfolios anymore. Thankfully, Andrea can attest to. But we have a couple, I would call them legacy stocks, and this is one of our legacy stocks. Yeah. Uh operating income. So I'm taking out all the fuddy duddy, like you see earnings spike because some of these companies have millions and millions of dollars of cash on their balance sheet. Market goes up, their earnings go up, and they didn't do a damn thing, right? This is just operating income. Last four years, Google, their earnings have doubled in four years. Their payroll has modestly gone up four percent. So what is that, what is that telling us? This is not this is just one company. They're all doing the same thing. Yeah, I mean, it's clearly bad for the labor market. However, I tend to be the optimist, and so I I kind of see this chart. There are some positive things. Clearly, Google is more efficient than it used to be. More efficiency, I mean, any economist, you know, one of the upsides to AI is more efficiency, lower cost for Google, higher demand for things. Google, maybe, you know, it depending on the product, obviously, AI affects differently, but lower costs equal higher demand, and overall some job growth. So I think it's just that the jobs are changing, but in general, I think over the long run there will be some job growth from AI. Okay.
Sentiment, CPI, And Trueflation
So one more number. 48.2. The University of Michigan sentiment survey. This is what Americans fill out and say, I feel great about the future prospects of the economy and my finances. I feel terrible. How do you feel? 48.2, the lowest rating, and I wrote it down in 74 years. Yeah. So if you were just looking at that, you would say, right now, Americans feel the worst that they've felt about their financial economic prospects in 74 years. Is that yet the market hit all-time highs? Are they pouting? But are they pouting? Because this this uh Ian brought up true inflation is supposedly a better indicator of real inflation. And what they do is so smart, our government can't do anything right. They take the inputs to what real inflation is, and they say, what's an average family? What are they actually spending? They're weighting it differently. Okay. They're saying CPI or inflation in the last year has not been 3.8%, it's been 1.9%. Are are people just pouting, or is I mean, the people are saying I don't feel good, I don't like what's happening. So I don't know how much of a problem this is. What's your sense? Well, it it definitely the true flation number popped quicker than CPI early on, too. So it's definitely a leading indicator. And in my sense is that inflation may look bad on paper, but it's it's definitely calmed down from what we got the last few years. Jessica, how are we struggling? I mean, what do you see on the street? You're man of the street, yeah. Is it like on a scale of one to ten, what's it like out there? Ten being it's great, ones being it's awesome. You're our sentiment indicator. Go. Give me a number. Six. All right. Oh, that's that's pretty much. So I'm saying I think I think it's there. Well, I think part of, and we talked about this a little bit. Um the CPI is an annual number, but when you factor in things like 2020, 2022, you know, like all of those years, price levels are high. So although we're kind of back to maybe a more normal number on that true flation scale, we've still had multiple years of very high inflation where the price levels are so much higher than they were. Yeah. So, Andrea, I was thinking about this.
Gifting And Estate Planning For Family
I think there is some something real going on here. I think that when we talk to our 60-something year old retirees, I've been saying on our client messaging, you can do things to help your loved ones. Um, you can help them. Why not think about gifting? Yeah. It brings estate planning into things more. Um we bring that up a lot with people. Do are they receptive to it? Yeah, a lot of them like the idea of gifting now and watching them enjoy it when they need it now versus 20 or so years from now when they're no longer here and they don't get. To see them use it to either buy a home or a car or whatever it is to help their loved ones now. I think you can help people. I think you can help your children, your grandkids. I think the winners are the people that can talk to people. I think the winners are the ones who are able to get some help from mom and dad. Maybe it's not bad that Gen Z is getting help from mom and dad. Maybe there should be more of that. Uh there's definitely a separation happening here. AI is leading the charge. AI is the reason these companies are going up. AI is the reason I hope that the gross domestic product of this country goes from 3% to 6%. That would solve everything. Yeah. Okay. And maybe the jobs, because you said maybe we're not going to lose jobs. Maybe what's happening here is the capital investment is booming right now. And maybe we're seeing these companies go up, and maybe the jobs will follow. Because isn't that what the data is saying? That this is going to create more jobs than we're going to lose. There's a lot of jobs that are no longer and a lot of jobs that are created. But ultimately, I think a lot of economists think that positive job growth over the long term is what's going to happen. Okay. So for our retirees, we should be thinking about estate planning, gifting, children, grandchildren. You know, it's funny. I come from uh a modest background. I didn't have a trust fund to go to uh college. I didn't have a 529. I don't think we had 529s. I'm not that I don't think so either. Yeah. Same. We didn't talk about your gen what? Let's not talk about that. I'm not a Xenil either, I don't think. I'm just on the other side of Zennial, right? Anyway. Um because at first I always felt like don't tell me about there's this great divide financially. You know, I didn't have any money. Um, I worked hard, but then you think about it, I was white, I was a male, I am six foot four. I had two loving parents that raised me. You know, those four things right there, I looked it up, puts me in the top two percent of Americans right there. Forget about money, right? So there is this money thing, I think, and it really, I think it really is a thing. I think it's becoming more and more a thing, but it's not just financial. We're acting different.
Tech, AI, And Social Disconnection
I can't stand the way these kids are acting. What are some of the things that are changing in our culture that we talked about? We don't we don't talk to other people. Yeah. Our generation is it with you people not wanting to talk? Yeah. We speak uh 340 words less per day than we did just 15 years ago. Screen don't text me. Call me and talk to me. I don't know about you guys, but when like when's the last time you saw like even a one or a two-year-old? They know how to operate an iPhone. It's crazy. I have a niece who cannot even, she's not even close to talking, and she knows what's going on. She knows the passcode to get in everyone's phone. Crazy. Like they are swiping already. Like it's before they can talk. It's cool because it's scary. You see the brain as such a sponge at that age, but it's also like, wait a minute. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not getting better, is my point. No, no. And I just there should be a rule. There's we should take away Teams, the messaging system that we use. I don't like it. Efficiency. You are 25 feet away from me. Do not send me a message. Come and talk to me. Look me in the face. We're embracing efficiency. Uh okay. AirPods. I can't stand these. I walked into the elevator the other day. The damn 24-year-old kids wearing airpods. I said, I didn't know it. I I go, Great hair. Staring into the elevator door. I think it's people do it to avoid talking to others. You put the headphones in, you have the phone in front of you, and everyone's yes, exactly. You're unapproachable and they don't have to talk to you. Oh, that's crap. I mean, now okay, here's another one. Asking chat GPT for advice instead of talking to a friend. That's a real thing. Yeah. Right? Um, okay, we just hired a person that works 1400 miles from the corporate office, remote working, isolated in a bedroom all day. Yeah. That's gotta suck. Yeah. Right? All these things are changing not just financial, but social changes. Is this is this good or bad? And who wins in this race? Like who wins, you think? I think also our retirees need to help these loved ones talk. Yeah. Just help help your grandson talk. Exactly. Take the phone out of his hand. It's not uh you should not be proud that your three-year-old granddaughter can swipe a phone. You should be proud that she knows her ABCs and one, two, threes. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. Yeah. I think the asset owners and investors win most though in in the long term. So that's what we're saying. If you own assets like our clients do, it's great. I mean, the market's been up 19% per year for the last four years. Right. To be a young person trying to buy into this market, though, is a whole other thing. They're supposed to buy low and sell high. They are literally buying at high prices. Yeah. But okay, there's some good about society. I don't mean to me the old bald guy, you know, complaining. You guys are the optimists. Yeah. Here's what's getting better. Uh look at this chart right here. This is incredible. Did you guys know this? Yeah. What is this, Emma? The U.S. homicide rate since the since 1900, we're at 125-year-low homicide rate. But but the negative people say, well, it's because no one's going anywhere. You're sitting in your house. That's my point. I mean, but maybe it's a good thing from one perspective. We're so busy being hermit crabs that we don't have time to get out and shoot people anymore. That's really what it is. But so I guess you could say that's good. Um, but uh this is why they say here's a number for you fifty-four percent. 54%. All right, now you gotta guess. It has to do with we're gonna we're not gonna make you guys I'll give you a hint. It has to, it's one of the reasons indirectly why we're not shooting people as much anymore. Okay. Does it have to do with technology? No, it has to do with uh consumption what we intake. So they're not drinking as much? 54%, an 80s 87-year low. 54% of Americans are drinking alcohol right now. One of the things I think of is I don't carry a lick of cash on me ever. And that's you know, one less thing for somebody that uh So why go out with the gun to rob somebody if all you're gonna get is like their Bitcoin password or something? You know, it's like there's no cash, right? Yeah. Um maybe the credit card guys are are smart. They were helping us out. We're paying them that 1% every swipe, but they're yeah, safe. Yeah. Yeah. So all right. I think that um I think it's a real deal. I I don't feel good about it. And maybe it's just, you know, I said that a million times. I know that my great great grandparents were complaining about how society has changed. I don't I can't see how this is healthy. I can't see how uh a family of four who used to be able to have a good job, a pension, the benefits, now mom and dad have to have two or three side gigs just to make life doable. I don't see how that's good. Right. I d and I hate to say it, but I I just I'm I'm concerned about what's going on, and then now you throw in the debt of this country. Is this just should we get over the should I get over this already and just shut up? Get over the debt? No, no. I mean, what's going on, you guys? Yeah. All right. So that that's what I wanted to talk about today. I think that we should all be thinking about what we can do to help others in our lives. I think we should be thankful. I think we should be not remiss to the fact that this is not gonna go forever. Um, the conference I went to, remember I told you how proud I was of the conference?
Guaranteed Income And Staying Grounded
They said you should, Dr. Wade Fow, chapter five of the retirement planning guidebook, he carries around like a Bible, like Jesus with the Bible. I swear to God, he carried it around. If you I got a picture of him, he carries his own Bible, and I've called it the Bible, but he says that you should have a stream of guaranteed cash flows. That is what helps retirement best, and that's what we're doing. Yep. And people are writing, it's like you should see the advisors. Hey, Dr. Wade Fowl says you should get some sort of guaranteed annuity to layer it on top of Social Security, and it tremendously helps when the stock market does take a crash, it helps. And you should see advisors like, that's a good idea. I'm like, I want to get up on the stage with Dr. Wade Fowell and say, Wade, I've been doing this for years, you know. Yep. It's still you don't want to get complacent. Uh, the market's not gonna go on like this forever. But as the guy we talked to yesterday said, Emma, how much longer is it gonna go for? Okay, what do you think? Who knows? How long is it gonna go for? It's been four years. I mean, you know, we were saying three years ago it wasn't gonna continue on, and it's still going, so who knows? Ian, what do you think? How long is this gonna go for? I don't know. Well, well, I mean, we've got to have some ups and downs throughout it, but I'm I like to be optimistic as well. I agree. I think the leaders are gonna lead well in in AI and bring back a lot of manufacturing stuff. Yeah. I uh the only the only way we avoid a Great Depression, number two, in the next 50 years. The only way it happens, and I'll go down saying this, I've done the work on it. I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time, but the only way the debt thing works out is by somehow miraculously just supercharging the economy. Yeah. And there are people out there that say it's gonna happen. Right. There are people that say this AI is gonna be generationally changing and that GDP will go up to these great numbers. But help the people in your lives, teach them how to talk. Yes, help them be the who's who and not the have nots. Don't be an old pessimistic man. Do something positive. This is what's happening in our country. Be thankful that we're asset owners. Our retirees should be thankful that we're asset owners. Could I have said it any better? I don't think so. No. Nope. Sounds good to me. All right, so you want me to end this podcast, don't you? I guarantee you there's still a million people still listening right now. There's so a million people. All right. Emma, have a great day. Andrea, have a great day. Ian, you too. Have a great day. You too. And we'll see you in the next one. Jessica. Oh, since there are still a million people listening, let's let's give a hand to Jessica, who's sitting in for Brooke, who had a new baby the other day. Jessica? Yes. You did a great job. See you guys on the next one. Take care. Investment advisory services provided by Sierra Financial Inc., SBC Registered Investment Advisor. All content on this podcast is for information purposes only and should not be considered investment, legal, or tax advice. Material presented is believed to be from reliable sources, and no representations are made by our firm as to another party's informational accuracy or completeness.