Good evening.

You've got more than money.

Gene Dickison your host, your personal financial advisor.

I say that every single week.

I've thought about it often.

The term personal financial advisor.

It it really is important.

There are, in our industry and our profession are many different flavors of financial advisors.

They're all called financial advisors.

To be blunt, that it isn't really true for so very many of them.

Many of them are investment advisors.

There are some major companies, probably companies that you've seen often advertised on financial shows.

Very, very big companies.

They call themselves financial advisors.

All they do is invest your money.

And if you had a question about Social Security.

No, thanks.

Taxes really can't help you.

Not allowed to.

Not legally permitted to, Hey, I've got a question about this annuity.

How does it work?

That's not what we do.

So there are investment advisors.

There are corporate financial advisors.

And some of them.

Goodness.

There's a designation called a CFA chartered financial analyst.

These guys are wicked smart, and they really do crunch numbers.

So if you were running an investment, fund, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund, a platform.

Ooh, that's the guy that you would want.

Kind of a corporate financial advisor.

And then personal financial advisors.

Personal financial advisors are as they sound.

Working for individuals, working for people, working to assist them in their, the entirety of their financial lives.

So it might be a question about investments.

You've heard questions on this show about investments.

Not very many, but you've heard them.

Could be taxes.

You've heard questions about Roth IRAs and four one K's and tax deductions and credits and standard deductions, all that kind of good stuff.

You've heard questions like that.

It might be questions about life insurance.

How much should I have?

Should I get rid of it?

Could be estate planning questions.

Social security, Medicare, the list goes on and on.

And personal financial advisors answer all those.

It doesn't mean quite specifically does not mean that a personal financial advisor is claiming to be an expert in all of those disciplines.

But what it does mean or should me?

I'll be a little a little more precise.

What it should mean is that that your personal financial advisor has access to all of that.

So whether, like our more than money team under one roof, access to everything, whether it's that way, through, through employees, through through partners, through, coordination and integration, whether it's that way or whether they're willing, willing, to refer you away.

Hey, that's not what we do.

Here's a CPA.

Perhaps it can help you here as a enrolled agent.

Perhaps it can help you.

Here's an insurance person that perhaps can help you.

And and, in essence, say goodbye.

So, Your host.

That part's easy.

Personal financial advisor.

Now, you've got a little bit of a sense of how that might be different than some of the other.

Oh, we're talking heads that you may see, on stations, across the country.

None of which none of which can make the claim that we make boldly and, accurately.

We are the most relevant financial show on television today for you, because we answer all the questions that you want to have answered.

You set the agenda.

We provide the content.

Hopefully it works out very, very well.

Now that was a little peek behind the scenes of how I work, how more than money works.

If you want to peek behind the scenes of how more than money is produced.

How much fun would that be?

It would be great fun, particularly for me.

After all, it's always all about Gene.

Bottom line is, March 6th, we'll be hosting right here in our PBS 39 studios on Sesame Street.

Pretty cool here in Bethlehem.

Live studio audience as we tape two of our more than money shows back to back.

How does he do it?

That man is a bundle of energy.

Goodness gracious.

Wine, some cheese.

Meet and greet.

Lots of opportunities to have your questions asked and answered.

And a chance to meet Jeff and Hobie and Charlie, all the great folks who, help us, produce our shows week after week after week.

There's two pieces to this.

Number one, it'll be a hoot.

Some folks have suggested the term is raucous.

Wouldn't that be fun?

Oh, party hats, everything.

But it's also.

It's also an opportunity for us to help out PBS.

PBS 39 does so much great things.

So many great things in our community.

And it's a bit of a fundraiser.

So as you go on, PBS 39.org/events, get some of the details.

They'll offer you the opportunity to join us, make a little contribution, defray the cost a little bit, help us raise some funds so we can help particularly particularly particularly the kids, particularly the kids.

And, you know, you know how much impact, PBS has had over decades for the children of America.

That's the kind of stuff you gotta get behind.

I hope you'll join us.

And if you do join us, we're still going to be the most relevant financial show because we'll be answering your questions.

I don't know, Harvey hasn't told me yet.

Maybe live on air?

Maybe, I don't know.

Is there going to be a podium, a microphone?

This can be very exciting or terrifying, but at the very least, fist full of emails that we can turn to to make sure we're talking about things that are important to you.

So let's get started.

The red flags are flying.

I write the headlines.

I hope you like them.

Just to get you, get you kind of thinking, gentlemen writes.

I just read your show.

I'm looking for advice about investing through electronic services.

The gentleman that I know, he says, gentlemen, I haven't met these guys, so I don't know, it's rare.

Probably not the gentleman that I lunch with every day at work.

Both do it.

I have wanted to do it since Ameritrade first came about.

I was going to look this up.

If anybody in the control room has any idea of when Ameritrade first came online and started offering, electronic stock trades.

Just pipe it in my ear.

I'm thinking it's 20 years.

Even if it's only ten years.

I don't think so.

Let's say it's ten years.

He's been thinking about it for ten years.

Thank you.

Sir.

So 30 years ago, Ameritrade became an option.

He's been thinking about it for 30 years.

One deals with his bank's program, the other deals with Charles Schwab.

I told one gentleman I do not like Schwab.

And you're like Schwab, I am.

No, I do not like Schwab because they gouge everyone with fees.

Just because their name is Schwab, they think they can charge people three times what everybody else does in their business.

I told them there are so many different places to go with, but I do not know what to do.

Gosh, this does sound like it was written by two actresses.

For the most part, I've been afraid to invest with an online service because I am afraid of vulnerability to losing money or information to hackers.

Is a website like Robinhood or Ameritrade okay safe to deal with?

I'm sorry if I sound stupid.

You don't, asking is I like your show.

You seem like a genuinely nice person.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Thanks for your advice.

Should you read this on air?

I am reading it on air.

You're quite welcome.

Sir, in, I will answer the quest but my recommendation to you.

Please, please, please do not do this.

You have neither the the temperament, the training.

The talent, the time to do this.

The gentleman that you reference at work.

My guess is that they are incorrect.

They have screwed up.

They messed up their portfolio six times out of ten.

They are further behind than if they had simply gone to a financial advisor, a professional, and gotten good, good advice.

That's not the point.

I they're not asking me anything.

And and perhaps.

Excuse me.

Many people do this, by the way, whether it's Robinhood Ameritrade, it doesn't matter.

Many people, many of my clients, particularly, we have all of their money kind of all of their money.

Not really.

We may have the biggest blocks.

Let's say we have 98%.

Let's say it's $1 million.

We have 980,000.

Where is the other 20?

He or she or both have a Schwab account that they trade stocks and they trade in Nvidia.

And they trade Apple and they trade and they trade and have fun.

It is fun for them.

They took a small amount of money that if it goes to zero, really won't affect them financially.

And they turned it into something they enjoy.

They they can research stocks together, talk about stocks together.

She comes home from a shopping trip and says, hey, I was in the store.

It was really fantastic.

I think they got great products.

Let's look them up, see if we want to invest.

Maybe they make money.

Maybe they don't.

Maybe they break even and who cares?

They're not in it for the profit.

They make profit.

That's fantastic.

But that's not why they're doing it.

They're doing it because it's fun.

And it can be fun.

Not always.

I will tell you.

Flat out.

Not always.

There is a company called In vedere.

Nvidia has been the darling of the AI set for a very long period of time of year.

At least 18 months.

Stock price has been zooming, and then a Chinese company, came out with a product that was basically the Nvidia product for pennies on the dollar.

The development cost was pennies under in video and lost nearly.

Are you sitting down?

Who you might want to think if you own Nvidia, you might very much want to be sitting down.

They lost $1 trillion of value in days.

So for folks who are let's invest in stocks.

That sounds like fun.

It's easy and we'll make a lot of money.

You might you absolutely might.

Time, talent training etc.. Temperament.

You might.

Or you might grab Nvidia because you heard it was really good and and where's your shirt?

Who knows.

Now I mentioned I would circle back.

There all of the online trading platforms are to the degree that it is humanly possible, safe.

Are there still security breaches?

Absolutely.

The federal government has security breaches.

The biggest companies on the planet have security breaches.

So of course they are.

Can you protect yourself more completely with various other tools?

Sure.

Whether it's a Norton and, an anti, hack, whether it's a, an identity theft protection, insurance program that you have, subscription that you have.

There's lots of ways to protect yourself.

Are they all roughly the same in terms of, protection?

Yes, absolutely.

So there are tens of millions who are doing online trading through these platforms with no hesitation whatsoever.

Now, I do have to make one comment about Charles Schwab.

And in the interest of full transparency at the world headquarters in the holy lands between Bethlehem and Nazareth here in Pennsylvania, we use Charles Schwab as our custodian for probably 95% of the clients, that we serve.

Now, that has nothing to do with this piece of the puzzle, because Charles Schwab has a number of divisions.

They have our division serving financial advisors.

They have another division where they have their own financial advisors competing against us.

And then they have another division which is an online trading platform.

And this gentleman says, I don't like Schwab.

They charge three times the fees.

No they don't.

And and it does not surprise me that you think they do because that would have been true 15 years ago.

20 years ago you were thinking about Ameritrade 30 years ago.

Your inability to make a decision means you should not be doing this.

The red flags are flying.

There's a hundred reasons why you should not be doing this.

Work with a financial advisor.

Take a deep breath.

You're going to be just fine.

That's fine.

God bless him.

And guys at work.

Your idiot friends.

Please.

Please.

Seriously.

I was talking to my financial advisor, but my idiot friends, it.

You know, that doesn't sound right.

Let's go.

Next.

Let's go.

Let's.

What exactly should you expect from a second opinion?

I think this is a great question.

We often, are referencing in our practice the invitation that we make to our audience, whether it be our PBS audience or radio audience or whatever our audience is, our social media audience, that they are invited to join us, in person, preferably zoom, perhaps by phone.

For a free, no cost, no obligation, no pressure.

Second opinion meeting.

And I've said it so many times over 780 years, that goodness.

I think maybe I've gotten a little complacent in thinking that everybody understands exactly what I'm talking about.

And then this email says, I'd like to have a second opinion of our financial situation.

We are currently under the care of another financial advisor, but I'm starting to wonder if we are, with someone who can truly satisfy all of our financial needs for the long term.

Thank you for your consideration.

We are 57.

I am 57.

My wife is 52.

I look forward to hearing from you.

What should they expect from a second opinion meeting?

First of all, they should expect a tremendous amount of respect.

Respect for where they are, respect for their courage to reach out.

They should be treated with great respect.

Number two, they should have all of their questions answered.

This is not a, Hey, come on in.

And, I'll give you a picture on buying a timeshare one.

That'd be great.

No, it's got nothing to do with that.

The most common, initial, question that, our financial advisors pose to folks coming in for a second opinion meeting are how may we help?

Or what brought you here today, or how may we serve you?

That's the most common initial right out of the gate.

How can we help?

So this couple, you perhaps, would start with, outlining their priorities, their most urgent concerns at their ages.

We can guess that they are looking to, looking forward to retirement.

They may be on that that glide path into retirement.

They want to make sure they're doing the right things.

Maybe we're there for one K plans.

Maybe they want to get a sense of how Social Security planning goes.

Maybe they want to understand if they go, retire early, say 60.

How do they bridge from, medical coverage at age 60?

It's very expensive to meet a Medicare.

Bottom line is, we don't know.

So the second opinion is it begins with the first opinion.

Where are you now?

And these folks mentioned they're currently with a financial advisor.

Apparently nice, but they're starting to have some questions about, is there is there more?

And gosh, if their advisor is is more, more, appropriately called an investment advisor, then questions about social security, estate planning, insurances, Medicare, etc., etc.

is this just going to baffle their advisor?

They're going to get, general term.

Hey, why?

In general, Social Security's pretty good.

Next.

That's not very helpful.

That's not very helpful.

Now, I'm describing a pretty typical encounter.

Hey, let's look at your investments, see how how appropriate they are.

Let's look at your estate planning documents.

Let's see how appropriate they are.

Let's see if they fit what you're trying to do.

How about your insurances?

How about your tax returns?

You get the idea.

A second opinion financial picture.

On occasion.

On occasion.

It's a pretty cool, experience to have as a financial advisor, to have someone come in, husband or wife.

They sit down, they plan everything they say, I we're where the guy now.

Seems all right.

I'm not really sure.

And by the end of the hour, our advisor, perhaps me, perhaps someone else is explaining to them.

Your advisor is doing a really good job.

Your advisor has done an excellent job on the investment side.

He or she has given you good information.

About about retirement, about what you should do, how you should do it.

And bottom line is, because your investment advisor has done a good job, we are uninterested in becoming your new investment or your new financial advisor because loyalty counts.

And if you have an advisor, send an excellent job.

Stay with them.

Stay with them.

Folks, there are literally millions of you who need us.

We cannot possibly serve all of you.

So we are reliant on excellent financial advisors around the country who do outstanding jobs.

And when we find one, it is a pleasure to let you know that you got one so rare, I got to admit, because in many, many cases, financial advisors, particularly ones who have been doing it for a while, have gotten perhaps a bit complacent, and they're not as attentive, perhaps, as they should be.

But bottom line is, isn't that wonderful?

What what if that were your result?

What if you came in for a second opinion meeting and, And the end result was.

You're doing great.

Your financial advisors are great when you feel fantastic.

Sure.

You it.

Fantastic.

Thank you for asking.

The question is, so many people I know in the back of their mind, they were asking as well.

Should.

We should we push forward?

Harvey says yes.

Good tax advice or cheap tax advice?

Very good.

And there is a difference.

You'll, you'll see here in a moment.

Whenever I'm able I watch your program on PBS and, I do it with great joy.

Thank you.

Love your advice and your style of talking.

Nice.

Wondering how to work with my tax prep, I thought.

I recently moved from new Jersey.

From, to new Jersey, from Massachusetts.

And now I have at least two challenges with my taxes.

My wife and I both work in Pennsylvania.

We live in new Jersey.

We moved from Massachusetts.

Yeah.

Your head hurts already.

I'm also invested in two private real estate syndications.

So I have k ones.

For those of you who do not know which ones are good for you.

Queens are a tax nightmare, and they cause many tax preparers to pull hair out or paste hair back on, I don't know.

But bottom line is that queens can be very, very challenging from a tax reporting standpoint.

Number one, I love to do my own taxes, but I'm afraid of screwing it up.

Okay.

Or, assuming you have a fair amount of knowledge.

In this area, could you recommend a tax advisor to prepare our taxes?

Who is good with cons and, depreciation, multiple states, etc.

in the past, when things were simple, I paid a tax advisor around $250 for tax prep.

I'm being told the tax advisers in our circumstance would cost between 1000 and $1500.

I am hoping I could do it for something less than that, but not sure if this is realistic.

Well, one of my real questions, one of my first question would be are you realistic?

Because there are folks who are not and hey, I used to pay 250, so I know it's more complicated.

I'll give you a 265.

Not realistic.

Not realistic.

The reality is, preparing income tax returns, multiple states, multiple states residency, multiple states employment.

Real estate, K-1, preparing, challenging, income tax returns.

It takes a significant amount not only of time, but of training of of of of exposure, of experience.

If you have an advisor is charging you $250 for a complicated return because they're 24 years old, they just got out of college and they don't know anything, or it's because you've been with the same person for 35 years.

And they were very, very kind.

And they rarely raise their rates because they're very nice.

And now they're 80 years old and they're doing it for fun.

If you're looking for good tax advice, not just on the preparation side, not just in the sense of what page do I put these numbers on, but in the sense that, you can do planning, you can get advice, you can say, this is what it is this year, next year, you can improve your tax posture by doing X, I'll circle back to X.

Now having said all that, is it possible that this gentleman could take advantage of online software and complete his own tax return for little or no fee?

Yes.

Yes.

Tax software?

TurboTax, for example, when it first came out a thousand years ago, it's 1994, right?

When it came out a thousand years ago was actually probably 1980.

TurboTax first came out, it was very good.

It it did a reasonable job, particularly on simple returns.

Oh, my gosh, it was it was a dream that it has come a long way.

And the interview process that you go through in using a software package is very thorough.

It's quite comprehensive.

It will if you are, real thoughtful about answering the questions, it will literally lead you not just to how to prepare your tax return, where to put all the numbers, what documents you need to attach and calculate your tax.

But they will do it in short order for little or no fee.

So as much as this sounds complicated, one of the questions undoubtedly would be have you lived in multiple states this year?

Yup.

Which two states?

Massachusetts?

New Jersey?

Have you worked in multiple states this year?

Hey up new Jersey.

I'm sorry, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

So leading you through all of that.

The complicated pieces, the interpretation pieces, the, pieces are largely eliminated.

So, is it going to require you to pay six times what you're used to?

From 250 to $1500?

Answer is not necessary.

There is no downside in you attempting to do your own return.

Worst case scenario, you spend an hour or two, and it doesn't work very well.

And.

And you're really kind of in a pickle.

Excellent.

Bundle it all up.

Find a professional tax preparer.

And if it happens to be a thousand bucks, it's money well spent.

If, on the other hand, you're successful, you saved 250 bucks.

You didn't have to pay anybody.

And maybe even more.

So good for you.

Challenging?

Sure.

The software, it's not AI, but it's AI.

Pretty intelligent.

Will bring you to, in almost every case, the appropriate conclusions.

The red flag that I would say to you is that if you have finished, answering all the questions and you still have a piece of paper in your hand that they did not ask about, you kind of has to start over because there's something that you've missed.

You'll get it.

And by the way, if you don't we've got referrals.

Folks, thanks so very much.

We've covered a tremendous amount of ground and tax season being what it is.

We've covered a lot of our taxes.

If you have questions for us, we would enjoy the opportunity to answer those for you.

There's no cost.

There's no obligation.

Send us those your questions by email, Gene at ask mtm dot com.

We have an entire team of financial advisors and the entire team of supports that that allow us to answer every question back to you.

And some of those will appear on future shows.

In addition, March 6th, one exciting night that's going to be starting at four in the afternoon.

Two live taped shows of More Than money you'll get to see behind the scenes all the production values, etc., etc.. Go to PBS 39.org/events for all the details.

Again, thank you so much.

Hopefully you were entertained enough.

Educated enough.

You're going to want to return for another edition of More Than Money when we return next week, right here on more than Money.