The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out

Today, I’m talking about my favorite sure-fire bet that fizzled out: Bitcoin. Now to be clear, I’m not celebrating that anyone has lost money on Bitcoin or FTX or any other crypto collapse. But crypto is so speculative and more akin to gambling than actual investing. I’ve dissuaded clients from investing in crypto since the beginning, despite wider access and increasing popularity of this investment in recent years. I secretly roll my eyes when people brag to me about how much money they’ve made in crypto. 

Even prior to the collapse of the value of crypto in 2022 and the curious unraveling of FTX that’s still playing out as a ponzi scheme at the moment, I was not a fan of crypto for several reasons - and reasons I’ve talked about previously on the podcast. 

1st - and probably most importantly, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are difficult to understand. Cryptocurrency is defined as: “a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.” Even the definition is confusing! Then more research leads you down the rabbit hole of terms like blockchain, digital wallets, mining coins, and…time to move on. 

Warren Buffet’s famous investing advice is to only invest in what you can understand. This is very good advice, yet, I think only about 1% of crypto investors truly understand what they’re investing in. The rest were just jumping on the bandwagon, and now running for the exits. 

NYU Professor of Economics Nouriel Roubini cautioned investors at an industry conference (prior to the collapse). He said: “In the case of bitcoin or any other essentially cryptocoin asset, the basis for the fundamental value is not there, it’s vaporware; it’s not backed by anything…They’re not currencies, they’re not even assets, they’re highly volatile, they’re speculative and they’re subject to manipulation of one sort or another.”

Then I came across an article in the NY Post from November says that the flashy luxury cars bought by newly minted crypto millionaires have been flooding the used car market:

“An uptick in like-new models of sought-after luxury cars have hit resale sites such as AutoTrader in recent weeks, but they’re not fetching the premium prices they once did. The Mercedes Benz G-Wagon — the unofficial “new money” badge of the crypto rich — was once valued around $300,000 in the resale market but is now closer to $200,000, car experts say. Other luxury vehicles such as Lamborghini Urus and McLaren Spiders have also taken a hit.”

““It’s clear that in the last couple of months the decline in prices for exotic vehicles has accelerated and that correlates very, very well with the meltdown in the crypto markets where we know that some of the biggest customers of exotic vehicles were crypto millionaires,” CarDealershipGuy said.”

Ok, so the woes of former crypto millionaires having to unload their G Wagons they can no longer afford aside, what’s the lesson here: 

Well, I think it goes back to what Warren Buffet said: Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand. The vast majority of crypto investors were playing in a market that they didn’t understand and got burned badly because they didn’t want to miss out. Many will likely never recover, and certainly not in the case of FTX.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.     

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out

Today, I’m talking about what happened to Netflix, the game-changing company that single handedly destroyed the video rental business. 

When I was a finance major in college, I took a valuation course that taught us how to value publicly traded companies using a discounted cash flow model. This methodology is what the professional analysts use when projecting target prices on stocks, and if you have the know-how and resources to value a company yourself, it can be a fun and rewarding exercise as an investor. 

The final project in this class which made up about 60% of the final grade, was to complete a comprehensive valuation for a company of your choosing. 

Netflix was the company of my choosing when I took this class and completed this valuation project back in 2006. Netflix was gaining steam in the DVD rental business and had some significant advantages over Blockbuster in that it had no expensive retail locations to operate, and it wasn’t charging customers late fees.

I chose Netflix for my project, because it was a very simple business to analyze and value. They weren’t streaming content for subscribers and they weren’t creating their own content - you just ordered DVDs by mail and that was pretty much all there was to the Netflix business model. Call me lazy or smart, it was a good choice for my valuation project because it was a straightforward business. 

And of course, we all know what happened to Blockbuster and every other video rental retail location. Over the course of the next few years, they were all gone. Interestingly enough, in Bend Oregon - about 3 hours from where I live, is the last standing Blockbuster store. If you visit Bend, you can still rent a new release and pay late fees if you don’t bring it back on time. 

When I completed the valuation for Netflix, it was clear based on my valuation and research that Netflix was way undervalued at that time. Basically, the stock was much cheaper than it should have been, and I would have been smart to scrape together as much cash as I could find to buy some shares. However, being a 21-year-old college student who’s priority was having enough money for drinks and wings at the Cheerful Tortoise bar on Thirsty Thursdays, I never seemed to be able to buy any of the stock. 

To this day, I regret not buying the stock after my amateur assessment pointed to its status as a clear winner. Had I bought around the time I completed my report and held on until today, I would have made a return of over 8,000%. 

But the industry has changed dramatically since Netflix destroyed Blockbuster. They now compete in the streaming space against a lot of other companies, like Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. In the summer of 2022, Netflix had lost 1 million subscribers in the 3 months ending in June of this year. And they’re struggling to continue to grow amid so much competition. In short, they’re losing market share in an industry where competition is increasing, and they’re having to fight hard to stay on top. 

So what’s the lesson here? Companies don’t maintain their top spot forever. Netflix has been top dog of the content streaming space for years, but it faces a lot of competition and is unlikely to maintain its dominant market position in the number 1 spot. The stars of companies rise and fall, and just as Blockbuster was a dominant player before Netflix came along, and while I don’t think Netflix is going anywhere anytime soon, it could very likely meet the same demise someday as it loses market share to an ever-crowded market. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out

Today, I’m talking about the sure fire bet marajuana stocks, that have been anything but since many states and the entire country of Canada have moved to legalize the drug over the last several years. 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, my home state of Oregon legalized marajuana in 2016. The first 2 states to legalize the recreational use of marajuana were Colorado and my neighbor to the north, Washington, in 2012. And many other states have followed since. 

This newly legal industry seemed ripe for profits as the expected growth was set to explode now that people in many states across the country didn’t have to go to a back alley to buy their hash anymore. 

With public opinion shifting on the legalization of marajuana, the industry seemed ripe for explosive growth, and handsome profits for investors who got in early. 

Investing in marijuana stocks seemed like the right move for many investors. A sure fire bet and an opportunity to get in early while new companies were emerging constantly. 

The problem with investing in pot companies is that the fate of the companies that operate in this space is totally dependent on federal legalization and there’s no telling when or if that will happen. 

Marajuana stocks did get a boost recently when on On Oct. 6 of this year, President Biden announced his administration would pardon all prior federal offenses for simple mari

So it seems likely that eventually marajuana will become legal in the US, but that doesn’t mean that investing in these companies is a good idea.

Canada is a good example of this. The country legalized marajuana in 2018, and by the Spring of 2019, Ontario-based Canopy Growth, was the world’s largest marajuana company. 

Yet, the stock has sputtered since that time, when it was trading around $50 a share. Today the stock trades for $3 a share. Its revenue and profits are in a state of decline, despite being a massive player in a country where marajuana is legal. 

And the problems aren’t just confined to Canopy Growth, according to a WSJ article published in October, “Since enthusiasm about the cannabis industry peaked in 2019, around $35 billion has been wiped from the market value of seven major Canadian cannabis companies listed on New York’s stock exchanges, an 85% drop. Individual investors who used to prop up share prices are mostly gone.” 

And the rules create problems for big and small players alike. The article goes on to say:  “As more entrepreneurs pile in, big listed Canadian stocks are losing market share. Advertising restrictions and plain packaging rules make it hard to build brands that customers are loyal to, as most products look the same.”

So what’s the lesson here?: The fear of missing out on something new and hot is a strong temptation that lures many investors into industries and companies that seem like sure fire winners. You could have easily made the case, like many investors did in 2018, that Canopy Growth and other Canadian pot stocks were only heading higher after Canada legalized marajuana, but the opposite has happened. And the stock and many others like it have crashed hard since pot became legal in Canada. 

Canopy Growth stock is dead at the moment, the future is very uncertain for the company, it can’t make money or grow, and in September of this year, the company decided to close all of its retail locations in Canada.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision.

On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, you’re in the right place. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out

After marajuana became legal in my home state of Oregon in 2016, I started to get calls from clients about investing in Marajuana stocks. With public opinion shifting on the legalization of marajuana, the industry seemed ripe for explosive growth as more and more states have legalized pot over the last several years. 

But that’s not what happened. Yes, legalization has spread to other states and I think it’s very likely that it will become legal at the federal level at some point, but investing in marajuana stocks has largely been a losing game for investors over the last several years. 

So what happened to this sure fire bet and why have most marajuana stocks fared poorly while legalization has spread? 

I’ll talk about that and more in this week’s theme, sharing with you lessons to be learned from marajuana companies and several other sure fire bets that fizzled out, and how you can avoid the temptation to be seduced by a sure winner that’s a sure loser in disguise. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about 

My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

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----------Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast

This week the theme was: Holiday tipping etiquette

In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week…

• Why tip during the holidays - showing appreciation
• Who to tip
• How & how much to tip
• Tips optional - who you may want to tip, but may not need to
• Some final thoughts on tipping

The most important takeaway from this week is…

Tomorrow I’m starting a brand new weekly theme: Sure Fire Bets That Fizzled Out.  From real estate in the mid 2000s to bitcoin in 2022 to marijuana stocks, there are plenty of guaranteed winners that turned out to be losers. 

So next week, I’ll talk about several examples of sure fire winners that turned out to be losers instead, and what you can learn from these investment bets that fizzled out. 

Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement. 

Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette

Today, I’m sharing with you some final thoughts on tipping for the holidays. 

As I’ve mentioned several times this week, tipping is a nice gesture of gratitude, but if you can’t afford it, don’t sweat it. You shouldn’t feel guilty if you don’t tip. And a handwritten and thoughtful thank you card showing your appreciation will mean much more than them to cash anyways. 

These days, I think many of us tip because we feel guilty and we see tip jars everywhere. I used to feel guilty anytime I bypassed a tip jar, but my philosophy when it comes to tipping is that it should be a reward for exceptional service or when someone is attending to you, like a waiter at a restaurant. Unless the service is terrible, they deserve a tip, and even if the service is sub-par, I stil think it’s necessary to tip them for bringing your drinks and food and the ketchup when you asked for it. But I also think iit’s not necessary to tip the barista for a cup of black coffee or the kid at the fast food joint handing you a bag of food. 

So I encourage you to not feel guilty if you don’t tip. And when it comes to your hair stylist or the dog groomer, I think it’s best to use the opportunity to show your appreciation during the holidays to those service providers who make your life easier throughout the year. But it doesn’t always have to be with cash or a gift. 

This year for our nanny’s birthday, I gave her a small gift, some cash and a handwritten card. In the card, I was very specific about how I appreciate how reliable she is, how good she is with the kids, and how it’s obvious how much she cares about them. She told me later that she really enjoyed the gift and the cash, but it was the thoughtful card that meant the most to her. 

So whether you can afford to give generously in cash, or can just give a thoughtful card this year, I encourage you to do something to help those regular service providers in your life to feel appreciated. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette

Today, I’m talking about when tipping is optional and when cash tips are definitely not appropriate. 

As I mentioned yesterday, a good default if you’re confused about how much to tip your dog walker or your landscaper is to tip the equivalent dollar amount of one service. 

The purpose of tipping is to make the people who make your life easier feel special and appreciated this time of year. But there are plenty of situations where tipping is optional or where certain service providers can’t or shouldn’t accept tips. 

After some digging online, I found that it’s not a good idea or even practical to tip cash to your mail carrier, the garbageman or the FedEx or UPS driver. In many cases, certain service providers in these situations aren’t able to legally accept tips. A lot of other service providers can’t accept tips either for ethical reasons - like your doctor or accountant. If you have someone like a home health care worker, you might check the rules before tipping them. 

In these situations, if you really love this person and want to tip, then you might consider a small gift, a simple thank you card, or something homemade like cookies instead. For your accountant or doctor - they usually appreciate referrals if they’re trying to grow their practice or business. 

Same rules for no cash goes for your kids' teachers as well. You don’t want to give the impression that you’re paying them for giving your child good grades. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette

Today, I’m talking about how and how much to tip for the holidays. 

If you missed yesterday’s episode on who to tip, go back to that episode so you can first make a list of everyone on your nice list this year who you want to express your gratitude to. 

Once you have that list, a good next step is to make an overall budget and write it out so you can plan your tip spending and make sure it isn’t going to cause you to go into debt come January or otherwise cause a financial hardship for you. As I mentioned earlier this week, you should only tip for the holidays to show your generosity - not because you feel guilty or obligated to. 

With that said, I did some research online to figure out how much to tip for each service provider, and it can vary quite a bit. So just keep in mind that a good option to default to if you’re confused about how much to tip in a given situation is to default to the tip amount equaling one service session or if you’re on a tighter budget, a fixed dollar amount, like $10, $20 or $25 works too. 

So if you pay your landscaper every week for services, a good and generous guideline would be to pay them a tip of whatever you would normally pay them in a given week. Same goes for your hair stylist, your dog walker, or house cleaner. 

If you have a caregiver for your mom or a nanny for your kids like I do, then the tip amount usually increases in line with how involved they are with you and your family. Our nanny comes to our home twice a week and has the huge responsibility of caring for my kids, so her tip will be substantially more than what I would tip the pet groomer. 

Generally for these caregivers, a tip of a week’s worth of services is suggested. 

So make your list, set your budget, then decide an appropriate amount to tip each of those people in your life who makes life easier or makes your hair look it’s best or fits you into their schedule in a pinch. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.    

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette

Today, I’m talking about who to tip. I’m going to separate this into 2 categories - essential and optional.

Essential…According to the Wall Street Journal article that was the inspiration for this week’s theme, you want to “Focus on the people who make your life more pleasant all year long, according to experts.” 

And they can be separated into 3 general categories: 

• Those who help care for your home
• Those who help care for your kids and/or pets
• Those who help care for you

Starting with those who help you care for your home. This would include: 

• Housecleaner
• Landscaper
• Snow removal
• Handyman
• Pool cleaner
• If you live in an apartment building or work in an office building, this could also include a doorman, elevator operator, or a garage attendant

Then there’s the people who help care for your kids or pets. This would include:

• Babysitter or nanny
• Teachers and coaches
• Tutors
• Pet groomer
• Dog walker

Lastly, there’s the people who care for you:

• Hair stylist
• Personal trainer or a golf pro
• Massage therapist, acupuncturist, etc
• Your person at the nail salon or a delivery person if you have a regular
• The mail carrier, newspaper delivery kid (if you still get one of those old fashioned fish wrappers), your FedEx guy or gal, and the garbage man
• I would also include anyone here who helps you with caring for your loved ones. If you have a parent in a nursing home or if they have a caregiver who comes to their home, make sure they receive a tip as well. 

Depending on the size of your budget, you could also expand this list to people like your pastor or your favorite podcast hosts (kidding! Please don’t send me any money!) 

Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about how much to give and who on this list may not be able to legally receive cash tips at all, but the purpose of today is to get you thinking and to make a list of those people in your life that you want to show gratitude to this time of year with a tip or a small gift. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Holiday tipping etiquette

The inspiration for this week’s theme came from a wall street journal article I read on holiday tipping a couple weeks ago, which talks about how to handle the long-standing tradition with grace and without stress. 

If you want to read the full article, I’ll link to it in today’s show notes, which is episode 1521:

https://www.wsj.com/buyside/personal-finance/holiday-tipping-guide-01666898498 

Today, I’m talking about why it’s important to tip during the holidays in the first place. 

The problem with tipping during the holidays is that for many of us, it adds to the already bloated spending that hits our wallets and bank accounts this time of year. From additional travel, to parties to gift giving, adding one more expense with your holiday tips - especially this year with inflation running so hot - can seem daunting. 

But the purpose of tipping is to show appreciation, especially those who provide services to you, who you have some type of relationship with, and who make your life easier. So it’s important to carve out some of your gift giving budget for those people in your life who deserve something extra and your appreciation. 

Beyond showing your appreciation, another good reason to tip during the holidays is to give those service providers an extra financial boost so they can enjoy the holidays and minimize their own stress or financial hangover in January. It’s quite possible that your tip could mean the difference between them being able to afford a nice Christmas dinner or the gift their child really wants this Christmas, or not. 

So I hope you’ll take the opportunity to tip those in your life who work hard and deserve your appreciation…but if you truly can’t afford it this year, I also want to give you permission to not do it…it’s ok! If it’s going to cause you financial stress to tip this year because you’re already stretched too thin, then don’t dig yourself deeper in the hole with tipping people or tipping in amounts that you can’t afford. So don’t let this be about tipping because you feel guilty or obligated to. You should tip for the right reasons and only when you can afford it, so I just want to put that out there in case the thought of shelling out additional cash or gifts in too much this year. 

Tomorrow, I’ll talk more in depth about who those people are and who you should consider tipping during the holidays.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance