Critical Thinking Required

This is our "Get To Know LBW" mini-series where we interview each of our team members so that you will know us better. Our second interviewee is the Director of Client Relations, Dan Weiss. We talked about his childhood, his education, and his minor (well, not so minor) obsession with geography and maps. He explained why he co-founded LBW Wealth, and what pushes and encourages him in life. Dan shared with us why community involvement and giving back to charity are so important to him personally. And of course, the interview isn't complete without an embarrassing life story!  We hope you enjoy this episode.

The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual, on any specific security, on any specific Broker-Dealer or custodian. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments, Broker-Dealer or custodian may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC. 

 Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC unless a client service agreement is in place.

This is our "Get To Know LBW" mini-series where we interview each of our team members so that you will know us better.  The first interviewee is our master of planning, the Director of Financial Planning: Tim Bickmore.  We talked about his childhood, his studies at Lawrence University, and his feelings and thoughts about our industry.  We also explored his personal life, what his biggest joy is, inspirations, and hobbies are.  In addition, Tim gave his two cents regarding how his degree relates to his work (spoiler alert: "not really!"  Finance in real life is a different monster altogether.)  He offered his suggestion to people who are studying his major or want to enter our industry, where to start, and what to do.  We hope you enjoy this episode.

The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual, on any specific security, on any specific Broker-Dealer or custodian. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments, Broker-Dealer or custodian may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC. 

 Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Leach, Bickmore & Weiss Wealth Management, LLC unless a client service agreement is in place.

In this episode, we invited one of our friends Zach Galin to talk about education, especially college applications.  Zach has spent almost two decades working independently with students and families in the college admissions process. From test preparation to college matching, applications, and financial aid, Zach has helped students gain acceptance to their top-choice schools.  We started the conversation with the obvious: when should you start preparing for the college application?  Averagely speaking, start high school freshman year.  Other than doing well in school academically, you also need to explore outside school activities and/or AP classes.  Zach revealed one secret element colleges are now tracking to decide whether they want to accept you and/or give you a scholarship.  We talked about what to expect for the process from 9th-grade year-by-year, and how the test-optional trend has changed and affected students.  Zach later talked about incentives and costs.  Overall, it's critical for you to have a plan, and start planning early.  It will give you and your children more options, and flexibility.

In this episode, we talked about going virtual for events with our friend Rachel Werner.  Rachel is faculty for Hugo House and The Loft Literary Center.  She has contributed print, photography, and video content to Fabulous Wisconsin, BLK+GRN, BRAVA, Madison Magazine, and Entrepreneurial Chef.   As we all know, not everything goes well virtually.  Rachel explained three factors to consider before you do so: understand who's your audience, what's your purpose, and what results you are expecting from the event.  Some industries are better-suited and equipped to go virtual than others.  As for how to keep your audience engaged, Rachel's suggestion is: you have to be entertaining to capture people's attention.  Tim asked about the time, marketing, and cost difference for a virtual event compared with an in-person one.  To sum it up, you have to give it a try and adapt to the current situation.  After all, we can't become what we want by remaining what we are.

In this episode, we invited our friend Max Zimon and his attorney Peter Salerno to talk about Max's journey of applying for residency status in Canada.  Max started his application in late 2016, and Dan started the conversation by asking "why Canada?" Max feels that he's more comfortable with Canada's overall policies on taxes, healthcare, and its social atmosphere.  As for others who are interested in looking into this process as well, Peter recommended they start with taking the language exam and getting the education report to properly calculate your eligibility.  Once you score above the minimum, your profile will be placed into a pool for selection which will then start the process.  Max then talked about the cost, tax impact, some (very minor) mistakes he made, and people's reaction to him actually going through with it other than just joking "oh I should move to Canada" like most people.  Overall, Peter told our audience that this is a fairly easy process that is designed to be done not necessarily with a lawyer.  If you follow the checklist and instructions closely and rigidly, you should be just fine.

This is our quarterly commentary episode.  We discussed student loan forbearance, the Federal Reserve and interest rates, the second Stimulus package, and the Trade War with China.  Tim talked about the student loan forbearance ending this coming December.  This policy is very advantageous for people that have lost their job or got a pay cut due to COVID-19 by freeing up a couple hundred or even a couple thousand dollars of cash flow monthly.  If you are still able to pay for your student loan, then all the payments will go directly to the principal instead of the interest.  We then moved on to the Federal Reserve and interest rates.  The Fed has announced in the past quarter that they will let the inflation rate go above 2% in the short term so that it will level out to an average of 2% in the longer term.  As for the second stimulus package, Dan and Tim briefly talked about the difference between the two parties' proposals.  Nathaniel added that most of the money small businesses got from the PPP loan is now just sitting in the bank because small business owners are scared to use it since the forgiveness policy is constantly changing and still not clear.  It has not been invested in the market to stimulate the economy as it was designed to.  Finally, we mentioned briefly that the Trade War is basically at a standstill due to the pandemic.  What are your top stories for the past quarter?

In this episode, we discussed the concept of an index.  Regardless if it's the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”), S&P 500, or the Nasdaq, they all serve the same function: to track a portion of the stock market.  Dan and Tim briefly introduced the history of indices: who created them, who is operating them, and why we have them.  Nathaniel added, like anything else, it's important to understand the companies’ incentives that manage these indices for you: they are not doing a public service to offer some performance comparison; they are businesses.  The companies that own their respective indices are making money off of them.  Tim explained the eight criteria for a company to be included in or excluded from the S&P 500 index - some of them turned out to be very subjective.  Nathaniel gave some examples for some recent changes in the DJIA: Salesforce got selected mainly because its stock price at the time fit a specific gap that was created by Apple's stock split.  As for Telsa's recent failed attempt to make it into the S&P 500, it was because their cash flow includes tax credits that they got from the government and then sold to other auto companies.  It doesn't truly reflect their earning ability.  The trio talked about how inclusion or extraction in an index impacts a company.  And as always, understand what you buy, and be rational. 

In this episode, we talked about the stock split.  Dan and Nathaniel started the conversation by battling over who gives a better metaphor for the concept of a stock split (BTW, the editing team voted for Nathaniel).  Basically, you have one one-dollar bill, and after the stock split, you now have four quarters.  The price per unit has changed, but the value has not.  Then why do companies do stock splits?  Nathaniel explained that on one hand, it's a marketing tool to stimulate the market and give the illusion that the price is more buyable; and second, it gives small investors a chance to own a small piece of the company at a cheaper-per-unit price tag.  Dan talked about people's misconception in thinking that they get more value and more ownership due to the stock split.  The trio discussed a similar concept: some big custodians now offer the ability to purchase fractional shares of highly-liquid large companies.  You can buy, for instance, 1/10 of Berkshire Hathway Class A shares if you can't afford to buy a whole share.  Nathaniel likes the idea because he wanted to buy Berkshire's A-shares when he was 15 but didn't have the money, and the fractional shares' option would have given him a chance.  Dan and Tim, however, worry that this allows more non-professional retail traders to enter the market and create much more unnecessary price volatility.  Overall, in the short term, a stock split may create some buzz and the price may go up, but in the long term, the company value will not change because of a stock split.

P.S.: who's metaphor gets your vote?

In this episode, we invited Tim's father Tony Bickmore to talk about his adventure of moving to Nicaragua for retirement.  After he retired from the fire department as a fireman, Tony had a successful tiling business up until 2008 hit.  After some extended research and a trip down south, Tony fell in love with Nicaragua: it had the same vibe as Cosco Rica, but at half the living expense.  He filed for bankruptcy and sold one of his condos in Utah, sold most of his personal belongings, got a rental in Nicaragua, and moved after the bankruptcy was finalized.  Tony talked about one of the most important elements in retirement: the healthcare system, the cost comparison, and his first-hand experience there.  Dan asked about what difficulties he faced when he first moved down there - Tony said his issues were primarily with the language barrier, government instability, and the lack of job opportunities.  It's critical for you to have a steady income like a pension or a remote online business before you make the jump.  Tim discussed with Tony about his experience with downsizing: from multi-properties to two suitcases.  Tony said that it's important to overcome the feeling of "giving part of your life away", and recognize that it's just "stuff."  What do you think of the idea of retiring abroad?

Recently a lot of our clients have asked us what the November election will do to the market and what they should do to prepare for it.  The short answer is: for the long term, nothing; for the short term, buckle up, and be ready for some market volatility regardless of the election result.  Even in the short term, if you observe past presidential elections, out of seven times that the market decreased post-election, the U.S. was either in the Great Depression, a recession, WWII, the tech bubble, or the 2008 financial crisis.  The election itself wasn't necessarily the direct cause of the market volatility.   Nathaniel added that market volatility doesn't equal risk.  Furthermore, Dan and Tim showed us some interesting data.  Regardless of having a Democratic or Republican-controlled government, the market return is pretty close.  However, when we have a divided government fighting for power, which is most of the time, the market return was only a third compared to a united party government.  Nathaniel explained that even though certain policies like trade, taxation, and the Federal Reserve may change due to an election, some sectors like energy and healthcare may be more affected than others.  The president is only a small part of the puzzle to the grand picture of our entire economy and markets.  To sum it up, long-term speaking, one presidential election won't fundamentally impact the stock market.