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Here is a transcript of the full episode:
Meghan Tait: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome to our newest episode of Untucked Today. Um, during Coach’s Corner, we’re gonna talk about kind of some of the, the sentiment generally of our, of our year end client meetings, uh, kind of given where the market. , um, has been this year we thought it would be a good idea to reflect on some of the conversations we’re having.
Um, we are going to discuss the ftx uh, situation. Um, we recorded this before S B F was. Um, was arrested, but, um, we do have some, some time spent on that. Um, and then finally, we are going to discuss remakes in Hollywood and, um, our, our thoughts on them. Thank you for rocking with us this year. We’re looking forward to recording more episodes in 2023.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and we’ll, uh, we’ll talk to you next year. [00:01:00] The opinions expressed on this podcast are our own, and they do not reflect the opinions or views of FC Advisory, the Financial Coach group, or the New Wealth project. Nothing discussed on this podcast should be interpreted as investment advice.
Welcome to episode 76 of Untucked. This is Megan and
Jeff Mastronardo: Mike. This is Jeff. So contrary, it’s a popular belief your heart does not stop when you s. because you’ve ever heard that like No. No. You’ve never heard that. Wives tale like your heart skips it or stops when you like. That’s why you say God bless you cuz your heart stopped.
Meghan Tait: Oh, didn’t know that.
Jeff Mastronardo: Your heart doesn’t stop. Did not know that. It doesn’t stop. It kind of like skips a beat or flutters maybe like, but doesn’t stop. But we say, God bless you. Part of that was also like myth. , um, back when the bubba bubonic plague was [00:02:00] happening mm-hmm. , one of the symptoms was like coughing and sneezing.
Okay. So when someone sneezed, they would say, or Yeah. Sneeze, they’d say, God bless you to hope that you won’t get the plague and die. Okay.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. A little less serious these days than when the plague was around. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Much less serious. . I tried looking for maybe a more holiday fe . Fun fact. Like I was Googling, like, why don’t we put Christmas trees in our house and then decorate them?
Why don’t we, why dot we hang Christmas lights? Yeah. There was nothing like really good out there. Okay. Yeah. Okay. They used to like put like, obviously before electricity, they put like candles on the tree and then they’d light it for a little bit, look at it, and then they’d have to blow all the candles out.
To burn the tree down , but nothing, nothing really exciting to talk about. All right,
Meghan Tait: Christmasy. Well then I guess we’ll just dive [00:03:00] into Philly sports. It’s been a couple of weeks since our last pod, so, so much to talk about. Um, I guess we’ll just talk about the birds. Trey
Jeff Mastronardo: Turner. Oh, Philly .
Meghan Tait: We’re still talking.
It’s too early. Dude. They just signed Trey Turner.
Jeff Mastronardo: You gotta talk about it. We at least have to like mention it. It’s huge. Okay. Zach Lin gone. Sagura gone. Look at his lineup from top to bottom. . I’m excited. All right. All that’s all we got on the films.
Meghan Tait: Yep. So the birds are 12 and. That’s
Jeff Mastronardo: correct. Yeah. Pretty dominant, secure, secured a playoff spot.
Meghan Tait: C clenched. Yep. It’s exciting. Who’s gonna beat ’em?
Mike Traynor: The commanders?
Jeff Mastronardo: No.
Mike Traynor: Didn’t they beat the birds? Yeah,
Meghan Tait: they’re their one loss.
Mike Traynor: You mean who’s gonna beat ’em in the playoffs? Who’s gonna beat him in the playoffs?
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, I think they beat [00:04:00] Kansas City. Wow. Yeah. I’m not afraid of
Mike Traynor: Kansas City. Right. Well, let’s get there first.
Meghan Tait: right? Yeah. Cuz that would be the Super Bowl, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don’t see anybody in the AFC or nfc? No.
Jeff Mastronardo: No. Who? No, the nfc. It’s
Meghan Tait: terrible. Are the John are the Niners? N ffc? Yeah. Okay.
Jeff Mastronardo: Vikings. I don’t know. They don’t really scare me. Yeah. I think we handle them. We’ll see Bills Kansas City, I think. I think they can be.
Both of them. I’m not scared of. There’s no one in the league that I’m afraid of. .
Meghan Tait: I’m pretty sure the last time you were this confident was the pod before they lost to the commanders. Okay. ,
Jeff Mastronardo: you can’t be
Meghan Tait: right all the time. .
Jeff Mastronardo: Um, sorry to remind you how spot on I was with the Phillies.
Meghan Tait: Barring no major injuries or changes we like.
What about you, [00:05:00] Mike? You like them?
Mike Traynor: I mean, they’re, they. They, I mean, you just watch them play and they can basically do whatever they want. Yeah. Offensively, um, their offensive line is so good. It’s crazy and yeah, I mean they look unstoppable for sure right now, but Yeah. You know, injury here, there, or just bad luck or Yeah.
A bad. outing or something. Um, you know, dude, dude, the nfl, it’s one and done in the playoffs. That’s the thing.
Jeff Mastronardo: ESPN has, um, favored to win the Super Bowl of Dallas Cowboys. Really? Yeah.
Meghan Tait: Really? Yeah. Huh. And that’s the Bird’s next game. Oh no. They play the Bears then The Cowboys. Right?
Jeff Mastronardo: Bears. Bears Boys. Bears Girls.
Yeah. . Well, I think that I’m looking forward to the Christmas, like I’m looking past the bears. Yeah. Obviously watching ’em lose that game. Yeah. Um, although I don’t see how that’s even possible. And then I would love to see them just whoop up on the cowgirls on Christmas Eve.
Mike Traynor: So if they go [00:06:00] into the final, is that the final game?
Regular season?
Meghan Tait: No. Yes. Oh no, I’m sorry. They cut New Year’s Day. They
Mike Traynor: play the Saints. Okay. So let’s say that that game is meaningless. Are you in favor of sitting everybody?
Jeff Mastronardo: Um, at this point, if that game is meaningless? Mm-hmm. ? Yeah, I’d rest people. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I don’t, I mean, at that point I don’t, I don’t care if we beat the cowboy.
If it’s a meaningless game and we’re not gonna have our starters or we’re gonna rest, like some of our key components, like AJ Brown. Yeah. Jaylen, yeah. Let the line go out there for like a few, play a few, uh, series and then, and then call, shut it down. Yeah, absolutely. Agreed. I mean, the only is if they can get homefield advantage, like if they, if they haven’t secured Homefield Advantagement, I want that.
Right. Where are we with the Sixers? I mean, did I heard, I, I haven’t, I’ve kind of tuned out with the Sixers. Yeah. Recently. , but Joel dropped like
Meghan Tait: 53. Yeah. Last night. Wow. Mm-hmm. , was that against the Lakers? No, they played the Lakers on Friday night and won [00:07:00] in overtime. Didn’t watch that game, but they had like a 16 point lead that evaporated and then they won overtime.
Yeah, so everybody was calling for Doc’s head, which has been pretty much the most consistent critique of this team this year. and then they played Charlotte yesterday and Joe dropped 53. Wow. Yeah. He’s just, I mean, dominating.
Jeff Mastronardo: So let’s back it up a little bit. I mean, it’s pretty, been been pretty consistent, I’d say the last two or three years that people have been like, okay, we’re kind of over doc
Meghan Tait: you.
Yeah. But it, it feels like, at least for me, It’s the most consistent critique this year. Like you’re not hearing the grumblings of other things, and most of that’s been injuries have plagued them. So you, we’ve kind of, most people have chalked up like some losses to the fact that Max, he’s out, hardens out.
[00:08:00] Joe was sick and came up, you know, didn’t have a great start to the year because of whatever plantar fasciitis. So, Instead of like there always being a Ben problem or a Joe problem, this one is like it’s doc’s problem.
Jeff Mastronardo: Right? There’s nothing else to point the finger at at this point.
Meghan Tait: I mean, aside from like the makeup of the team and the personnel, but like you can’t do anything about that day in and day out, right?
Like yeah, he’s been the most consistent problem. And like there was a, a spurt there where. Maxi, harden and Joe all weren’t playing, and the bench was awesome. And it was, you know, well, some people, docs were like, look what he’s getting out of these guys. Like what is, look what he’s, their bench is actually winning games, yada, yada, yada.
But it’s just. He historically has, he shortens his bench. He plays people really, really like too many minutes. I mean, harden came [00:09:00] back after a foot injury and played like 42 minutes and his first came back, like, so the, the criticism hasn’t strayed despite what he has gotten outta the bench, which is a shame because sheik’s playing well, you know, they, they’ve gotten guys to really step up, but I just don’t think it, it’s not enough to like, absolve doc for minutes decision making.
Um, and I just feel like that’s gonna be kind of the story of this season. Like you’re gonna have a 53 point night from Joe and people are still gonna be like, doc can’t coach a winning like a, a team that’s gonna get outta the playoffs. Do you
Jeff Mastronardo: think Doc makes it through the season?
Meghan Tait: unfortunately. Y Yeah, I think he does. Cuz I think they do enough for them to place blame elsewhere. Right? Like Joe’s too good for it. The [00:10:00] situation to be so bad that they’re like, they’re gonna fire doc. Does that make sense? Yeah. But then doc’s not good enough to actually win when they need to win,
Jeff Mastronardo: do you?
I mean, there’s no way docs here next year if they don’t make through pass the second round. .
Meghan Tait: I don’t know. People love him, dude. I mean, not, not fans. , right? Like he’s just so, he’s so highly regarded in the b a community. Um, so, so I don’t know. Uh, I would love to see Sam Cassell. You know, who’s already on the bench, just be promoted to that lead role.
So they wouldn’t have to necessarily do this like full hunt, you know, for the next guy. Um, but Doc is, he’s a figurehead and, and I just, they’re, they’re, it just seems like too much, I don’t know, like, like there’s too much that would have to happen for him to get fired. So it’s a little bit [00:11:00] like frustrating cuz you, like we’ve seen it before, right?
Like even though there’s 82 games to play in the season, you kind of know where they’re gonna be this early on and it’s frustrating. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: So hopefully the dynamic of the CH team changes before the playoffs. Yeah. They’d need another piece. Yeah. Hopefully everybody gets healthy. Yeah. Otherwise, You’re gonna get the same
Meghan Tait: result.
Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yep. Fly guys have been fairly disappointing.
Mike Traynor: They’re, they’re what we thought they would be, which is one of the worst teams in the league. They’re hard to watch. They just don’t, they’re just so under-skilled compared to the, the rest of the league. It’s painful. Um, so
Jeff Mastronardo: where do they go from here? Like they’ve, aren’t they unloaded a lot of talent, right?
So are they trying to just build a team up? , they’re prospects.
Mike Traynor: They have to, I mean, couturier [00:12:00] being out is, is huge and they’re just gonna have to get lucky with draft picks and developing guys that are in the system that maybe are better than than they thought. It’s, it’s a long way, man. They’re a long way from being good.
Yeah. I mean, no one’s gonna come here, right. Right. No one’s gonna ask to me traded to Philly. Yeah, exactly.
Jeff Mastronardo: Well, they better hurry it up, man. I mean, how long do goalie stay in the league? A while.
Mike Traynor: Right. But yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing that’ll happen is they’ll, they’ll fire Fletcher, the GM and find somebody else and try to rebuild this team in a different way.
I, I, I don’t know. It’s, it’s hard to watch.
Jeff Mastronardo: It’s like right in time for you to get your, your season ticket package right, ?
Mike Traynor: Yeah. I went to two games.
Meghan Tait: Ooh, yeah. Star Wars night. Star Wars night. Yeah. Go.
Mike Traynor: I still don’t, I don’t wanna think about that. That’s, you’re reeling from Star Wars, right? Yeah. . So, yeah. Not much to say.
It’s just that, [00:13:00] you know, they’re, they’re bad.
Meghan Tait: Wanna get in Coach’s Corner? Let’s do it. So this likely being our last part of the year, we wanted to take the opportunity to kind of summarize and, and maybe talk through. client meetings we’ve recently been having, um, with the year that the market has had. Um, how are our clients feelings a feeling?
What are some of the commons que common questions or concerns that we’ve, we’ve gotten? Um, do we notice a difference between of the clients in different life stages in the way that the, the, the market has treated them or how they’re reacting to it? And then is there anything that we should. We should be, our clients should be thinking about doing kind of proactively.
So how about maybe general sentiment? We’ll start with that.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. I think, uh, as far as financial coach, group clients, I think the sentiment’s been pretty [00:14:00] good. I think all year long, majority of our clients have kind of held up fairly well from the standpoint of not getting too rattled about the market.
I mean, there’s always the outliers Sure. Who kind of get a little freaked out. . Um, I think most of our older clients who have established wealth, um, have been riding through this fairly well from an emotional standpoint. I attribute that to, they had a plan. They maybe not, maybe they didn’t remember what the plan was, but one once reminded, um, were, are, are able to get through it.
The sentiment with our younger clients that I’ve noticed has been the effects of like, everything costs. And how expensive it is to kind of just get through life and how much everything costs. That’s the vibe I’ve been getting. I don’t know if you’ve guys have gotten something different.
Meghan Tait: I would agree on both of those points.
Additionally, with younger clients, um, there’s been a lot [00:15:00] more like concern, um, market concern. Yeah. and you know, a lot more questions of what are we gonna do, what should we be doing? And I think that’s probably a reflection of the fact that many of those clients as investors just haven’t been here before.
Right? Like if we’re talking about a 35 to 40 year old, this is the first time. where they’ve really, cuz they’re, they were really kind of coming out of oh eight, getting started professionally. Um, so this is the first time that they’ve seen such, I would say, significant volatility for the length of time that we’ve experienced it being like a full, you know, 12 months basically.
Um, and right, it’s the most money they’ve ever made. The most money they’ve ever sta ever earned, saved. the sentiment with our younger clients, which is interesting considering they’re still [00:16:00] working, they’re still contributing, right? Um, they’re not living off of this stuff like our retired clients are, but because they haven’t experienced market conditions like this before, um, or maybe without as much capital of, of consequence, um, I’ve had a lot more kind of like I’ve had to do a lot more reassuring, I would say, with that group of.
Jeff Mastronardo: do you think a part of that is they’re paying for advice for one of the first times in their lives and like we should be doing something, is kind of the feeling, Hey, what are we doing? We should be doing something. Um, they’re paying you, what do we do?
Meghan Tait: I don’t, I haven’t interpreted it that way. Okay. Uh, I, I, I’ve certainly, like, they’re looking for guidance.
Uh, but it, it’s, I personally, I’m, I’m kind of interpreting as like, even if you say we don’t do anything, that’s okay. I just need to hear you say it. Right, right. Our retired clients have heard it from it so much that they kind of beat us to the punch. Right? [00:17:00] Like they’ll, they’re gonna ask the question, should we be doing anything but.
they add the caveat, Meg, I already know what you’re gonna say. Right? Our non-retired clients, the new wealth clients who haven’t heard that as much, it hasn’t been coached into them as much. You know, they, they haven’t experienced their 401k dropping by 25%. Um, it, it, they need to hear it. So it’s not as much like, oh, I thought your value prop was you were gonna.
Do something to prevent this or to minimize that. It was just remind us why we’re invested the way we are. Remind us why we have the contingencies that we do. I think it’s just hearing the plan kind of repeated to them. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: I think, um, like when you look at the context of recent market downturns, go back to like oh 8, 0 9, that was pretty confined to the financial crisis and the housing market.
Um, it wasn’t like a wide. . It really [00:18:00] wasn’t a widespread issue. Yeah, outside of that sector, but yet it still caused a lot of really short term pain, I would say. and then the Covid period was short-lived, very dramatic. Mm-hmm. . But most people weren’t worried about their portfolio. Right. They’re worried about are am I gonna be alive?
You know? Yeah. Um, I think, I think right now we’re in, I, I sense and feel there’s a little bit of, um, there’s a lot more concern around what’s going on in the. . Mm-hmm. politically, culturally, um, you know, you name it cuz there’s a lot going on and I think a lot of people have more are, are, are kind of more concerned about all of that stuff and not just, you know, we’re down, you know, 15% this year.
Yeah. I don’t, I don’t know. I get, I get that feeling a little bit and, and obviously some, some clients are way more sure, you know, chirping about all that stuff than others, but, . You know, we talk all the time about, [00:19:00] like, we show people, you know, this is what the headline dujour was back in. Mm-hmm. , you know, going back, you know, forever and it’s always something different.
But this, this one’s, this, this, there’s a lot going on. Mm-hmm. like right
Jeff Mastronardo: now. Mm-hmm. . It’s interesting how all of that global stuff that’s happening gets mixed and related to markets. Mm-hmm. , right. People come in and they’re like, well, look at everything that’s happening in the world and how that affecting the.
When the two aren’t really correlated?
Mike Traynor: Well, I mean, inflation certainly is like the inflation
Jeff Mastronardo: problem, which is probably Ukraine and Russia and elections. I mean, that’s a, that doesn’t drive the market. I know. It, it’s a, it’s
Mike Traynor: certainly a factor. Sure. Yeah.
Meghan Tait: Um, but I think that’s the human condition, right?
We’re, we’re naturally inclined to make that connection, even if there really isn’t one, because it’s easier for us to un to us to like attach bad thing with [00:20:00] bad thing. Most people don’t understand the underlying mechanics of the market or of how economies impacted by stimulus and then inflation, and then, Putting those together is above most people’s pay grade, so it’s far easier to see red and then it’s like Russian, Ukraine, right?
Like I, I think that’s just how we, how we like try to solve things even if it doesn’t make sense. Right. I think it’s a natural, like response of by people is to try to find a connection even if there isn’t one. And the market
Jeff Mastronardo: is a constant. It’s always there. It’s always going to. All these other things that are happening.
That’s all they are. They’re things, they happen and sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re bad. Most times the market’s up, sometimes it’s down. Like there is no, I understand there’s a lot of variables that make the market do what they do and these other global events that are happening do influence it, but none of them.
it’s, it’s a completely separate [00:21:00] issue. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Mm-hmm. , and that’s exactly why it’s unpredictable cuz you cannot mash together 500 factors mm-hmm. that are going on and come out of that with like a, a definitive, this is what’s gonna happen to asset prices. You just can’t do
Jeff Mastronardo: it. Yeah. So, I, I understand and I’m, I’m, I’m, I, I don’t wanna use the term shock to hear you say what you just said, Meg, but, um, it’s totally cool to come in here and be upset and.
feel anxious about what’s happening in the world and, and how that makes you feel if I’m a younger client. Okay. That, that’s one thing, but, and man, how about this market? I’m buying stuff at 25%. Like that’s a good thing. Like you’re accumulating these are great years to be an accumulator. Like what, why does that even, I’m, I’m, I’m amazed to hear that they need coaching on that because I think it’s one of the basics of investing, which is buy low.
And now’s an opportunity, opportunity to do that. Why wouldn’t they be more pumped up about that?
Meghan Tait: Uh, again, [00:22:00] I think it’s because it’s the first time they’ve, they’ve experienced it. Um, one of, one of our clients said, I’ve lost more than I’ve even contributed, right? So it’s somebody who’s maxing their 401k and let’s say they’ve put in the $20,000 or whatever the number is this year.
It’s like I’ve put in. and I have 80 less. Like it’s just, it’s numbers they’ve never seen.
Jeff Mastronardo: But isn’t that awesome? That means you had lots of profits, right? If you’ve lost more than you’ve put in
Meghan Tait: and all you can say all of those things, right? It doesn’t change the nature of what they’re experiencing. Um, and again, I think it, none of it has been.
I didn’t know this is how it wor it works or it’s not what I expected. Because like we do with everybody, we prepare for this, we don’t predict it. It’s just the first time I think most of them are seeing it or paying attention to it. And maybe that’s part of it too, [00:23:00] you know, in oh 8, 0 9, like you didn’t have all of this screaming at you, all of the media and the blaring of Of, yeah.
Of all of this. So even if you were in, in it, then, , uh, you, you probably just didn’t notice it as much. Right? And we are just in this world where you’re inundated with it, right? Yeah. Like people, somebody, one of our clients, he’s 35, he like quoted what the Dow was trading on in 2008. I was like, he’s like, oh, I saw it on the screen.
Like they were making comparisons, I guess to oh eight or something. And I’m like, you were in college, right? Like, it, it didn’t matter. , right? Um, so I think that’s, I think that’s the biggest, and this, this is good. because the next time it happens, they feel a little less concerned. The time after that, they feel a little less concerned and they understand, you know, recovery and what the opportunity, the buying opportunity that they have, how that’ll actually translate.
But I just think that feels one far off. Um, and two, i I [00:24:00] just, it, it doesn’t make you feel as good, even if you understand. .
Jeff Mastronardo: If you can get through these times with clients and they stay clients, they’re great teaching moments. Mm-hmm. and they’re great experiences cuz when it happens in 2030, , they go, oh, I remember.
But yeah. Yeah. I do remember 2022 when you told us to stay, stay in it and to keep adding and you know, look how far we’ve come since then. Yeah. It’s just, you have to have, as we always say, that kind of long-term vision and long-term plan because the short stuff is meaningless.
Meghan Tait: Has there been, like any common or regular questions that you guys have gotten?
I mean, I, I’ve gotten. . Yeah. When’s it gonna end? Or, uh, that’s, that’s the one. What, what do you think, like, what do you think’s going to next year is gonna be like? And again, mostly clarified with the, I know you can’t answer this question, or mm-hmm. , you know, when I say, I don’t know, they’re like, okay, that’s what I thought you were going to say.
But that [00:25:00] seems to be the most common. Question I’ve gotten is some, some way of phrasing around like, please predict for me when this will get better. I’ve heard a
Jeff Mastronardo: lot of, I think this is, is all year long. I think we’re kind of at the bottom now, . I think it’s
Meghan Tait: turning and
Jeff Mastronardo: it’s been all year since the summer till now.
Yeah. Continued I think. I think we’re at, I think we’re at the bottom. I think it’s starting to turn the other way now. Yeah. And it just drops.
Mike Traynor: Yeah, and I think one of the, I mean, I know Maggie’s been in some meetings with me on this. Like one of the things to remind people is that when you ha when you.
markets that take out a lot of companies, specifically that ones that were shitty to begin with and never deserve to have the values that they had. That’s a good thing because they end up getting replaced by stronger, healthier companies in whatever fund or index that you’re holding it in. And that, and over time, that’s, that works to the benefit.
Like you don’t want a whole bunch of unhealthy. You know, snap or, [00:26:00] um, I’m just looking at a couple here, zoom, which was wildly overvalued. Yeah. You know, coming out of the, uh, COVID thing. So I think that that’s like, and that’s happening across all, you know, industries and it happens more. more, um, frequently in these kinds of markets.
And, and that’s all, that’s over time. It’s a good thing. The calling, calling the herd, or whatever you wanna call it, it’s, it’s positive.
Meghan Tait: Well, so I guess in that vein, thinking about like all of the negative headlines, events that have caused lots of volatility for a number of reasons this year, then we have this.
Event in the crypto markets where, and I’m, I’m gonna use phrases that I’m not confident actually describe it, so please correct me, but like an exchange goes out of business and. , people’s capital is gone. So,
Jeff Mastronardo: Mike, help me on this. If you wanted to buy Bitcoin or any kind of [00:27:00] cryptocurrency, I thought you went to like
Mike Traynor: Coinbase.
Yeah, Coinbase is an exchange or a platform. You, you, you, whatever you wanna
Jeff Mastronardo: call it. I thought of Coinbase as an exchange. Cause when you use the term exchange, I think of like,
Mike Traynor: Like a stock exchange. Yeah. But similar, it’s where you go to buy and sell the whatever’s being traded on that platform. And just like
Jeff Mastronardo: we have multiple stock exchanges.
Mm-hmm. , there are also multiple exchanges where you can buy and sell cryptocurrency. Correct. All
Mike Traynor: the different kinds of cryptocurrency. Yep. Okay. And very lightly, or maybe not at all regulated yet. And the s SEC’s trying to figure that out. Um. So FTX kind of came out of nowhere, um, and was heavily promoted as a better version of an exchange than Coinbase.
Faster, cheaper to trade, whatever it was. And this loser, uh, sbf, whatever. How’s Sam? , Bankman blank, Frid Freed or whatever. Yeah. Um, was the guy behind it. And he’s just a [00:28:00] complete, utter piece of trash. Um, but he, he got, he got a lot of, like, you know, Tom Brady had, uh, Steph Curry, um, as paid spokespeople promoting this thing.
And then he also got a ton of investment from major like Sequoia Capital, like very well known. huge, uh, pension funds too, like huge investors that piled into this, this ftx uh, crypto exchange. It was, you know, it was a rocket ship. Um, mostly because it was one of those, . And, and what’s interesting now, you find that, um, the due diligence that was done was, was nothing.
It was basically like huge investment. Uh, uh, funds are looking at their, like, they’re saying, oh, well, they must know something. I don’t, so I’m, I’m in. Because as it turns out, there was literally nothing behind. Even calling it a company is, is a stretch. It was, there was no. There was no accounting, there was no system for keeping track of [00:29:00] anything as it turns out.
And then the fraud part of it is where he attached a trading firm, Alameda Research or whatever he called it, um, to it. Um, the, the idea would be that any customer who put you know, dollars in and used it to buy Bitcoin or whatever, crypto just assumed that their, their stuff was there and he just, He and others stole it.
Um, they’re still trying to figure out like what exactly happened. Um, but safe to say that like anyone who was a customer there or an investor in it, there’s this wiped out, there’s probably nothing left. And probably it was, it wasn’t like he went and bought like 60 yachts and stuff, you know, he did a lot of that stuff.
He, he, he most likely just traded it to zero and lost most of it. , um, it’s like trading crypto. Yeah. Um, through the trading firm that he, that was part of this company and, um, you know, [00:30:00] crypto crashed this year and he was probably betting on the other side of that trade. And, um, it’s really despicable because then when you start to peel back the onion, you, you see that there was like the, um, politicians and Hollywood people and fond over this kid.
Because he’s a woke DB and he was promising to give away all of his possessions and be Mr. Altruistic. So they love that shit, and that’s partially why they, they had a lot of success. Um, he gave millions and millions of dollars to political campaigns. and there’s a lot of, a lot of eyebrow raising now because it definitely seems to be a lot, a lot of feet dragging when it comes to like prosecuting this dude, Bernie Madoff was in handcuffs and in jail the next day and this guy’s walking around, he’s going on talk show panels and it, it’s crazy to see.
Um, so
Jeff Mastronardo: no charges have been brought against ?
Mike Traynor: They’re, [00:31:00] no, they’re, they’re. I think in fact there’s a, uh, there might be a, um, congressional hearing taking place this week, but we’ll see what comes out of it. But it’s really, really, um, disturbing to see how this situation is being treated compared to other frauds.
Mm-hmm. , because it’s clearly just a fraud. The guy should be in jail and who knows what’s gonna happen there. Um, as I read
Jeff Mastronardo: the article, . All these frauds are all the same.
Mike Traynor: Well, well, it is. It’s like, like, it’s like if you’re a gambling addict and you, and you gamble away your kid’s college fund, what do you most of ’em do?
They double down and then they borrow from the bookie, and then they lose that too. It’s just the same thing. They’re all
Jeff Mastronardo: the same. They have like a hotel on The Bahamas where 30 people work out of like they’re spending money like crazy. They’re raising money like crazy. No one is auditing books, like it’s the same recipe every.
It
Mike Traynor: is, it’s the, the, the Ponzi. It’s crazy to me. And, uh, so I guess they hired the [00:32:00] guy who is like a bankruptcy specialist who goes in and like fixes bankrupt situations and tries to figure out like how to untangle a mess. , the, the guy that went into Enron. Yeah. And he goes, this is so much worse than anything I’ve ever seen.
Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Like it’s, it is crazy. It’s just, you know, and I’m reading the article and he’s, S B F is talking about, you know, give us your cash and we’ll give you like a 12% rate. Like e every time you hear that, it means there’s something wrong. If that doesn’t. You just can’t buck the trend of what, what the historical averages have been since history.
It just doesn’t work that way. Yeah. I mean it doesn’t work that
Meghan Tait: way. Right. But we’re in a, we’re in a little bit of uncharted territories Right. Too, when you think about crypto, cuz what you’re referring to is, is different. It’s supposed to be different cash [00:33:00] crypto to stocks. Right. Um, and. You know, there are people who are really good storytellers, um, liars.
Right? Like, I’m not, I’m not suggesting that he’s telling the truth, but sometime that’s all, that’s all it takes is like a, a compelling story and a convincing storyteller. And
Mike Traynor: I guess for the regular people that had money deposited there Yeah. Cuz they were just gonna buy some Bitcoin and hold it or whatever.
I feel bad for them. Yeah. But I love the fact that like, Mr. Wonderful lost his investment on this. Cuz that guy’s an absolute Yeah. You know what? And and I love the fact that he’s, you know, he, he looks really stupid here. It’s great. And he’s, and he, by the way, he’s sitting there to this day defending this kid.
Yeah. Really? It’s crazy.
Meghan Tait: But it’s the, it’s the normal investors. Yeah. Who this now. Create so much more like a barrier to entry [00:34:00] for them to do anything else, right? Yeah. Whether it’s crypto, whether it’s stocks and bonds, like you’ve completely eliminated their willingness to put any capital at any risk, which we know how.
How bad that is for their future selves, their ability to accumulate wealth. So this just sets any financial professional trying to do anything good by anybody. It just creates another layer of skepticism, another layer of like, I don’t trust you. I’m not gonna do the things that are better for that.
They’d be better for.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. I mean, pretty bad idea to call it cryptocurrency basically means like crypto, right? Like yeah. Opaque. And it sounds like it’s like it is, and a lot of people are very happy to see this happen because the people that are like anti crypto, crypto, anti, yeah. Um, and I don’t, I don’t actually disagree
Jeff Mastronardo: with them.
I, I just, you know, I, I don’t know if I’m disagreeing with you or not, Meg, like, I don’t feel. For those investors, cuz a [00:35:00] lot of them are driven by fear of missing out. And you don’t have to be that well educated to understand you’re going into an environment that’s speculative. You can lose every dollar you put into it.
And they just re, they refuse to believe that. No, it’s just different. It’s crypto man, this is going somewhere. Yeah, it might be, but it’s gonna be really, really choppy. Yeah, for a long time. . So maybe you should just put a little bit in it and be comfortable with that and stop reading about all these Bitcoin billionaires, cuz they don’t, a lot of them have lost a lot of money now, right?
Like, I just
Meghan Tait: don’t feel that bad for them. Right. But w they’re, we’re talking about two completely different situations, like losing everything because. Bitcoin goes to zero in an example, is different than being frauded out of your capital. Okay? So, and I, and I’m I’m with you about like the investment itself, right?
We have to be all eyes open. You can’t play stupid when [00:36:00] you’ve made the conscious decision. But when someone takes your money for, from you, that’s different, right?
Jeff Mastronardo: You’re playing in a space that’s un. It like the cryptocurrency space is, unre is not as regulated as,
Mike Traynor: as it needs to be. True. Well, I mean block five, which is bankrupt now, that was the one of the platforms where you could deposit your dollars and they’ll pay you 8% interest.
This was back before rates even moved up. Yeah. And people were like, I’m moving my cash there. And it’s like, you, you’re gonna lose it because that’s not, that is too good to be true. And it’s turned out to be the.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. I mean, what you just said, Mike, like that when we were talking about that a year ago, it’s too good to be true.
You can’t, you can’t get 8% on cash. Right? Right. You can And God, I hope you lose all your money. Yeah. I hope you lose it cuz you’re just, they, they want to believe that it’s different now and then things are cha, it’s not gonna change like that. Yeah. Because if you can get 8% [00:37:00] on crypto cash and it’s secure money, markets won’t exist anymore.
Stocks won’t exist. Or at least like blue chip stocks. Cause nobody’s gonna like invest in a asset that can lose 50%, just eight if to get eight or nine when you can get eight on cash. Right. That’s not gonna happen. Drives me crazy. Obviously picking
Meghan Tait: up from last week . I, I don’t, I don’t even, it sucks like the, the whole obviously the situation, what people experience themselves personally, but then I just keep coming back to what this means for like, Anybody trying to dispense good advice, like we’ve just created another layer of skepticism.
Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Um, well you mentioned fear of missing out a minute ago and it reminded me, cuz I’ve said this before, like people talk about greed driving investment decisions. And I, and I agree for once with Warren Buffett as guys who say, Like, in all my experience, it’s not about, it’s not never about greed, it’s fear [00:38:00] and envy.
Yeah. Um, the example was, was really right on, which is that like if you’re, if you’re, let’s say you work on Wall Street and you get a $2 million bonus, and then you find out the next day that the guy’s sitting next to you got $2,000,010, you’re, he’s, he’s pissed. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , you know, and that, and that’s really true.
It’s very, it’s definitely like envy of what others have maybe. The crypto billionaire story. Um, that’s Dr. Driving a lot of people to, to do this stuff. Um, and it’s a shame. It’s the fear is one of the most, um, powerful emotions there is, and not just in investing. Did
Jeff Mastronardo: I experience it? I mean, I know when this was all happening and you’re, you’re hearing about people that are making all of this money in crypto.
Like, man, I mean, I’m in this business. I’m like, I didn’t get on board with it. For the basic reason. If, if it’s difficult to understand, if it’s difficult to explain, if it’s brand new, I tend to, [00:39:00] you know, I’m a conserv I’ll a conservative person. I stay away from it until it’s more established and it does suck me.
I mean, and, and I, again, I keep saying this when all these topics we talk about, our industry is so unique this way where all this fraud can happen and then it just scar. Normal people who should be engaging with good planners and good advisors and making good waves and making good plans. And like you said, it, it, it cripples ’em.
And I, I can’t think of any other industries that have these kind of hurdles for the professionals to overcome.
Mike Traynor: Be interesting, interesting though to see if anything happens to Tom Brady. Um, for example as a paid spokesperson for this fraud machine. Um, cuz clearly that. I mean, the fact that Tom’s in it mm-hmm.
means I, I, I gotta get in it too. I’m, I’m
Jeff Mastronardo: in, they probably won’t let him mention it on Fox when he after he inks his $330 million.
Meghan Tait: somebody, somebody said he is gonna have to work, he’s gonna have to pull. That’s why he came out of retirement [00:40:00] was cause he doesn’t have any money anymore between divorce
Jeff Mastronardo: and crypto,
Meghan Tait: man.
Yeah. I actually think, uh, Gisele has to pay him alimony. Okay. .
Mike Traynor: So anyway, developing story still would be really interesting to see what ends up happening to the people involved. But what a massive fraud end.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. That’s a shame. Yeah. The article that we referenced a couple of times, didn’t mention at the beginning it’s called they live together, worked together and lost billions together inside Sam Bankman, Fried’s Doomed FTX Empire.
And it was in the Wall Street Journal
Mike Traynor: movie. You’ll be out in 2024. Definitely guaranteed.
Meghan Tait: Yep. . Um, alright, so while we were prepping for this, Mike brought up that planes, trains and automobiles is being remade. So we’re gonna spend some time today. Talking about lots of remakes and whether or not Hollywood is just less creative.
Mm-hmm. , [00:41:00]
Mike Traynor: I mean that’s for sure.
Meghan Tait: Or there’s a
Mike Traynor: need for it. Yeah. It’s either like a Marvel,
Meghan Tait: you know, or some iteration. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Um, which are fantastic by the way. Or just like Fast and Furious number nine, a sequel and now we just flat out remakes of, of movies that were one-offs that stood by themselves.
They’re deciding they just have to redo
Jeff Mastronardo: again. But now do we throw like the streaming platforms into this conversation? Because there’s a lot of original content that comes out that’s not remakes the series that they come out with. And those are all
Meghan Tait: fantastic. I mean, they’re not all fantastic. That’s an insane statement.
There’s a lot like to say
Jeff Mastronardo: that Hollywood is not creative in. Anymore if we’re throwing those platforms in it. I mean, there’s a lot of creativity out there.
Meghan Tait: We are. They have to be part of it because it’s Hollywood. But I think it’s, we probably see this more with movies than television shows. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Okay.
Yeah, I guess on, on, [00:42:00] on the movie, I mean, I can’t think, there are not many movies that come out. I’m like, oh yeah, that. That’s new and original and it’s not Top Gun
Meghan Tait: five. Right. You know? Right. Like the last, I think three movies I’ve seen, four movies I’ve seen in the movie theater have been two sequels, which were superhero movies.
The remake of Top Gun and the remake of A Star is Born Like I haven’t seen anything. Original in the movie theater in the last three years. Now I’m not like a big movie theater girl, but that’s my
Mike Traynor: experience. Yeah. I, I, yeah, so I think the sequel thing is interesting cause like Rocky was basically like meant to have a Rocky two and a Rocky three and whatever, what, you know, all the way up to five.
Cuz it’s just, that was the story. Like you weren’t gonna end it after one. Right. Um, godfather was, you know, same, I would say same thing probably right. , but the [00:43:00] remakes, like, really, I need to see Will Smith and, and Kevin Hart as, um, Neil and, uh, . What’s his name from, uh, then John Candy character from Plains Trains Automobile.
Yeah. I forget, like I will not be watching that. No .
Jeff Mastronardo: No. I mean, the most recent Halloween was really. . I’m joking. . It’s like the ninth Halloween. Yeah. I feel like every Halloween they come out with a new, another one. Halloween. Yeah. No, not, not much. That’s original on the movie side of things. Um, I’m cool with it when it comes to the comic book stuff because there’s always a new character that they can give.
him or her, their own movie. And I love the special effect stuff and all that.
Meghan Tait: I find them wildly entertaining, but like the story of them is nonsense. Mm-hmm. . Right, right. Like it’s, it, it, that’s not what I’m invested in. Of course, like the, the battle scene, like all of it’s super cool to watch, but like [00:44:00] I, I saw the black in the New Black Panther and like they just created a new enemy to fight.
Which, I mean, I, again, I enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining, but like the storyline itself is a throwaway,
Mike Traynor: so like the Star Wars trilogy, like the original three, like that was written as a trilogy. So it’s okay to make three of them. Yeah.
Meghan Tait: Right. Cuz you don’t have, you can’t do everything in one.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. But like, you lost me after the third one.
Like I didn’t, I couldn’t stand any of the more recent stuff. Is
Jeff Mastronardo: it more like, Director driven, like I think about Clint Eastwood, right? He put out a lot of original content and they were all very good. Right? You have a qu Quentin Tarantino, right? He puts out good original content. Are we just, are those types of people just not around
Meghan Tait: anymore?
No. I just think people wanna watch the big spectacular superhero movies and [00:45:00] they. We’re people who create things are catering to the audience that pays to go see it. Like, is that it? Or is there, there
Jeff Mastronardo: like the, the drive to want to make a good movie, a Scorsese to put out a good movie, does that not exist in Hollywood anymore?
And it’s just, look, it’s just too easy. Let’s just make, I don’t know, daddy’s Home three. And just cause it’s too easy. We’ll get Kevin Hart, we’ll get Will Smith and make a, have them tell a few jokes to each. And then, you know, we’ll make 50 million
Meghan Tait: probably. I mean, Scorsese made the Irishman and that was a snooze.
So like that’s pretty bad. You know, I don’t know that like the, I don’t know that like the tier upper tier of like really good directors is different. I just think it’s more the latter of what you were saying. It’s easy to make money with like a stupid storyline, a one big star, and. Everyone gets paid. I haven’t
Jeff Mastronardo: gone to a movie on my, like, on my own terms, like my, [00:46:00] if my son’s got a hockey tournament out of town and we got right time to kill him, six hours to kill, yeah, I’ll go take him to see Top Gun, which, yeah.
But other than that I, by
Meghan Tait: the way, what’s that? I
Jeff Mastronardo: loved it, by the way. Yeah. I was watching a commercial and for it, and it popped up. The greatest movie of all time, . So can we talk about the marketing of movies? Like how it’s hysterical, how does that statement made? Yeah, yeah. I think Hollywood needs to step, step their game up.
I mean, we don’t have to cause they’re gonna, they’re, they’re, they’re killing it. It as an industry, but for my personal preference,
Meghan Tait: I think they should step to. Well, do you think it’s a little bit of what you were saying, like TV has gotten really creative, really unique? Like, is that where people are going?
The the, the medium is now, hey, we’re gonna give them eight hours over eight weeks in, you know, one hour chunks as opposed to Probably, yeah, probably, yeah. ,
Jeff Mastronardo: you know, the, the audience that likes to, just the older [00:47:00] audience that like, just like pulls up on their couch and, Hey babe, let’s, or, you know, let’s watch a series.
Is that and, and that’s where the good content is. Yeah. My 14 year old son Right. Loves Top Gun and he’s gonna want to go to the theater. Where I, I I, I, I couldn’t care less about going to the movie theater. Yeah. I don’t care about the bucket of popcorn and the loud music. Like, I just don’t Yeah. I’m, I’m old, so maybe that’s it.
It’s like all the goofy stuff goes to the theater. and this stuff that has better content and comes who’s home. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Imagine all the bad scripts that are out there that we never see, that never see the light of day. If this is all that’s being made in some movies. Yeah.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. There must be some trash . Okay.
All
Jeff Mastronardo: right. . So from, from, from trash to trash. Some of the greatest of all
Meghan Tait: times. You’re like big on the segues today. Oh, we never segues. I’m trying to, I know. And. 76 episodes in, you’re gonna start adding transition. It’s my new year’s resolution.
Jeff Mastronardo: Segue a little bit
Meghan Tait: better on the pod. Okay. Top [00:48:00] five sports records That will never be broken.
Jeff Mastronardo: I don’t think any of mine are debatable. Okay. I don’t think any of them are debatable.
Mike Traynor: You all start.
Jeff Mastronardo: Sure. I mean, we’ll scored a hundred points in one game, right? Yeah, I have that one. It’s never gonna, I have that one too. Yeah. It’s never gonna, I don’t think Jack, Nick. , his streak of majors will ever
Mike Traynor: be broken either, but, but I think you’re right.
I agree with you on
Jeff Mastronardo: that. 18, no
Meghan Tait: one’s gonna win. 18. He has 18 majors. 18 majors. What does Tiger have? I forget Like 15?
Mike Traynor: Yeah, maybe 14. He close.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. Okay. But, but, but Tiger’s like the next closest,
Jeff Mastronardo: right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tiger’s the next closest, um, Cy Young pitched 749 Complete
Meghan Tait: date, dude. So researching for this, which I had to do that is insane.
Insane. Will never get broken. No. Ever. No . Um, now I, I didn’t even know why it was called the Cy Young Award, but now it
Jeff Mastronardo: don’t make sense. Yeah. The Dolphin’s perfect season and win the Super Bowl. I don’t think that’ll ever get Oh, I do. Oh, that’s interesting. There’s more games. They play more games now.
Three more [00:49:00] games though.
Mike Traynor: Right. That’s it. Regular season. Yeah. Then you get the buy and then you have to win.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. That’s a lot of the way that these teams break down physically. I, I don’t think it’s ever gonna get, . I don’t think anyone’s gonna have an undefeated season win throughout the playoffs and win the Super Bowl.
Okay. I disagree, but, okay. And then Cal Ripkin consecutive baseball games, 2,632.
Meghan Tait: I had him too. That’s also
Jeff Mastronardo: insane. Now I was alive obviously when that happened, and I was kind of a, I was a young kid. I mean, were you in tune with it when he was,
Meghan Tait: how so? It would’ve been, the end of it is when I was like, aware.
Okay. I guess. But, so no, it does, it didn’t have, it didn’t register for me at that time, but now, yeah. That’s crazy. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. It’s not that impressive.
Jeff Mastronardo: It’s
Meghan Tait: never because it’s because it’s baseball.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. It’s never gonna get broken.
Mike Traynor: You’re probably right. That, and mostly because guys go on the DL for like, you know, a little bump or something.
Well, [00:50:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: and, and I think today’s athletes just break down more than, than the old school athlete. . They train harder. They They move faster. They play harder. They just, they get
Meghan Tait: hurt. How many seasons is that? Like, I don’t know, 15 maybe. That’s crazy. How many games do
Jeff Mastronardo: they play on seasons?
Meghan Tait: 235. 1
Jeff Mastronardo: 62. 1 62. So 26 32 divided by 1 62.
- Okay. I did the math wrong there. 26 32 , 1 62. 16
Meghan Tait: seasons. I mean, he had two of mine, so I’ll just give my other three. Okay. What two did I have? Wilt and Cal Ripkin. Yeah, the Warrior’s like season record of 73 and nine. Now the bulls were 72 and 10. So like , it’s like the Warriors just broke it by one.
Yeah. But to only lose nine games over the course of a season, I kind of feel like, is he going? That’s wild. Yeah. Can
Jeff Mastronardo: you imagine [00:51:00] playing an entire season only losing nine games? No. You think they sit back and they’re like, man, we, and think about those nine losses and like we could have won those games.
Meghan Tait: I think what they think about more is the fact that they lost the championship that year to LeBron.
Yeah. Nine losses. That’s crazy. Um, Yukon women’s basketball team, they won 111 straight games over three seasons. Yeah. That’s, that’s now that speaks more to like the lack of parody in women’s basketball Right. Than most things. But it’s still crazy. That is pretty crazy. And then Rafa doll, he’s won 14 French open titles.
Wow. Like he just won one, I think LA like this year at like 36. Like he just dominates the clay Quartz
and I don’t think that’s gonna get broken. If anything, he’s gonna break his own record and it’ll be 15. Wow. Yeah. That’s a lot. . Just one [00:52:00] particular major. That’s crazy.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. All right. I’m gonna go to a backup here, but, um, I got two hockey ones. Shocking, shocking Tiger Williams, 3,966 penalty minutes in his career.
Wow. No one will get clapped about . I mean, unless they, they go back to like turning it into a goon league again, which they won’t. I mean, that’s insane. Yeah. The sport has changed.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. Yeah. What’s like an average. player minutes in the
Mike Traynor: box. I think if you, if you’re over like a hundred, that’s pretty excessive.
Okay. Oh, wow. These days In a season. In a season, okay. Yeah. Um, Gordy, how started an N H L game at 52 years old? No way anybody’s gonna be playing in a, in an N H L game at that? Anywhere near that age? No. When was that? Uh, in the, in the eighties, I think. Okay. Um, . I’ve got a couple baseball ones. I also have Cy Young, but 511 wins.
[00:53:00] 511 career wins.
Meghan Tait: How long was he playing baseball? I don’t know. I mean, 500 wins. That’s
Mike Traynor: insane. Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. I’ve got, um, chief Wilson 36 triples in a. Feel hot. Yeah. Triples are pretty
Jeff Mastronardo: rare. Yeah. It’s like one every third game, right? Yeah.
Mike Traynor: maybe one every four games. And then I don’t think anybody is gonna touch Nolan’s Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 strikeouts,
Jeff Mastronardo: You don’t think so? No.
Mike Traynor: You know pitchers don’t. You gotta pitch a
Jeff Mastronardo: lot of They don’t. They don’t. They don’t pitch as long as they used to. Yeah. ,
Meghan Tait: that’s what I got. Is Nolan Ryan your favorite baseball? Yeah, he might be. Yeah. Yeah. .
Jeff Mastronardo: Is he
Mike Traynor: expo? Uh, no, I think he was Texas Rangers. Uh, I think he started out as a met.
Okay. And then he played for, uh, Houston Astros
Jeff Mastronardo: too. For someone who [00:54:00] hates baseball. I can’t believe you had a few baseball ones.
Mike Traynor: There’s a million baseball records that’ll never be broken out. Yeah, like the old time stuff. All
Jeff Mastronardo: right.
Meghan Tait: All right. Thanks for listening. Till next time.
