Caffeine And Cash Flow with Michael Schulte

When the market feels unpredictable, your plan shouldn't be. If you're worried about the volatility and how you're invested, now might be the time to step back and reassess your strategies to ensure we are adequately prepared for whatever the market throws our way.

In this episode, Michael shares a structured, three-bucket approach to help investors navigate volatility and prepare for retirement with confidence. Drawing on lessons from the 2008 financial crisis and current market headwinds, we'll explain how to allocate your assets across growth, guaranteed income, and liquidity to create a foundation that balances opportunity and protection.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

📉 Lessons from 2008 and today's volatile markets

🧠 Why emotional decisions can wreck your retirement

📊 How real diversification works — and what it's not

🎯 Why financial success starts with a personalized plan

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

Tariffs are back in the headlines—and so is market volatility. But is this a reason to panic or just another chapter in a long financial story?

In this episode of Caffeine & Cash Flow, Michael Schulte walks through five historical periods of U.S. tariffs—from the Smoot-Hawley Act of the 1930s to recent measures under Presidents Trump and Biden—and reveals how markets performed during each era.

The good news: it's not all doom and gloom.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

📉 What happened during the 1930s Smoot-Hawley tariffs

📈 How the market reacted under Nixon, Reagan, Trump, and Biden

📊 Real performance data across five tariff periods

🔍 Why diversification and time horizon matter more than headlines

🧠 The case for ignoring market panic and sticking to your plan

The data pulled in this episode is sourced from InteractFA.

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

You've heard the term "diversification" countless times—but are you actually doing it right? As the financial landscape continues to evolve, understanding how to properly diversify your investment portfolio is more crucial than ever. In this episode, we're going to get into the investing fundamentals we consistently stick to in order to help achieve the highest probability of success.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

📊 Diversification ≠ Just owning a few different stocks

📉 Most portfolios are too heavily tilted toward large-cap tech

🏦 Own the full asset class—don't try to pick winners

🔄 Rebalance regularly to reduce risk & stay disciplined

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

March Madness is here, and just like filling out a bracket, picking individual stocks can feel like a thrilling gamble. But the odds of winning big are slim. In fact, history shows that most stock picks, like most brackets, end up busted.

Many investors can't resist chasing big wins, even though diversification is a smarter play. One economist, Hendrik Bessembinder, analyzed the returns of nearly a century of stock performance. Let's compare what he found to March Madness history and uncover what March Madness can teach us about investing!

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• What Hendrik Bessembinder found from his study of 29,078 stocks
• The perfect March Madness bracket has never happened
• The odds of sustainable success are slim
• Very few teams repeatedly win
• The most familiar choice doesn't often lead to victory

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

Today we're going to piggyback of our conversation in the last episode by focusing in on recency bias and show you how the concept plays itself out among investors. As Michael will explain, recency bias is the tendency to give more weight to the most recent information when making decisions, which can often lead to skewed perceptions and poor financial choices.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• A look at the numbers from stock returns since 1928.
• Treasury bill rates are indicative of what you could be receiving inside money market accounts.
• We're almost right at historical averages for mortgage rates going back to 1964.
• How we build investment strategies with these biases in mind.

See the graphs referenced in this show:

Mortgage Rates: https://caffeinecashflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Mortgage-Rates-since-1964-LBS.pdf

Treasury Bills: https://caffeinecashflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Treasury-Bills-historical-rates-LBS.pdf

Large Company Stocks: https://caffeinecashflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Large-Company-Stocks-LBS.pdf

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

As we begin a new year, it's helpful to reflect on our financial habits and the biases that may influence them. By understanding and mitigating these biases, we can make more informed decisions and set ourselves up for greater financial success. In this episode, Michael will highlight the most common cognitive biases that he sees in people, which is a topic that could reshape how you approach your financial decisions.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• Why biases play a huge role in what we do with finances and there are actually 175 cognitive biases.
• The fear of missing out bias is amplified by social media.
• Herding bias is the phenomenon where you blindly follow what others are doing.
• Confirmation bias involves only being able to see information that supports our current position and beliefs.
• Being open to uncertainty can improve our life.

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

In this festive episode of Caffeine and Cash Flow, Michael guides you through the 12 Days of Financial Wellness. Discover essential tips on managing assets, liabilities, protection, and cash flow as you prepare your balance sheet for the new year. Whether you're planning for personal property, savings, investments, or understanding liabilities, this episode provides practical advice to enhance your financial health.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• Protecting your balance sheet.
• The different categories of assets.
• How to view different types of debt and other liabilities.
• Understanding your cash flow and how to use that for retirement planning.

Check out the sample balance sheet here: https://caffeinecashflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LBS-sample-client-dashboard-2024.pdf

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

As we approach the new year, it's essential to stay informed about the financial changes that could impact your retirement planning. The latest episode of the Caffeine and Cash Flow podcast will provide you with updates for 2025, focusing on pension and retirement plan contribution limits.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• The maximum amounts you can put into different types of IRAs.
• Should you be maxing out the catch-up contributions?
• Something that's brand new for 2025.
• Social Security COLA increase and other changes to benefits.
• The gift tax exclusion is going up as well.

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

We'll continue with part two of our conversation on how the economy has grown under previous presidential administrations. In the previous episode, we discussed some of the more recent administrations, but this time we'll go back deeper into history and take a good look at older data.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• How inflation factors into growth for certain asset classes.
• How WWII tied into the economic recovery out of the Great Depression.
• Stock markets generally stayed strong during the Depression and through the war.
• Building a portfolio that's resistant to politics.

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897

With the election behind us, we now know that former President Trump will have another four years in the White House. While that could mean policy shifts in all sorts of areas, we want to focus on how it may impact the economy so Michael will take a deep dive into the data on different economic growth factors, and what the numbers have looked like under both Republican and Democratic administrations over the years.

In part one of this two-part conversation, we'll break down how the stock market and the economy are not necessarily the same thing, and how they don't always go hand in hand. We'll also discuss how the stock market has grown substantially over the last 97 years across many administrations of both parties. Then, we'll get into specific growth numbers and what exactly they mean.

Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

• The stock market and the economy are not the same thing, and they're not always hand in hand.
• The shocking growth of the stock market over the last 97 years.
• The role of risk and how it can impact expected returns.
• How different growth metrics have done across different Presidential administrations.
• Even when the market is a whole is doing well or poorly, there will still be differences in different sectors.

Learn more: https://caffeinecashflow.com/

Get in touch with Michael-

Web: https://www.westpacwealth.com/team/michael-schulte

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 702-767-4897