1 00:00:00,561 --> 00:00:02,004 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Stacey Hyden. 2 00:00:02,004 --> 00:00:05,751 I'm here with another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 3 00:00:05,751 --> 00:00:10,467 Minutes or Less, and today I would like to kind of talk about 4 00:00:10,467 --> 00:00:14,564 some stuff that's been in the headlines, particularly around 5 00:00:14,644 --> 00:00:19,013 tariffs and the Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE 6 00:00:19,013 --> 00:00:19,013 . 7 00:00:19,013 --> 00:00:24,588 I think those two things have been the drivers behind a lot of 8 00:00:24,588 --> 00:00:42,154 the market turmoil over the last couple of weeks, because no 9 00:00:42,154 --> 00:00:46,057 one really knows what tariffs are, prices to consumers, which 10 00:00:46,218 --> 00:00:50,444 is a little concerning because prices are already high. 11 00:00:50,444 --> 00:00:56,433 The good news is today, that's March 12th, the inflation 12 00:00:56,473 --> 00:00:59,884 numbers came out slightly lower than expected. 13 00:00:59,884 --> 00:01:05,593 Now, by slight I mean slight 2.8% versus 2.9% on an 14 00:01:05,694 --> 00:01:09,188 annualized basis, but at least they are going in the right 15 00:01:09,227 --> 00:01:09,790 direction. 16 00:01:09,790 --> 00:01:15,149 But you can be forgiven for not knowing whether there's going 17 00:01:15,188 --> 00:01:22,084 to be 10% tariffs, 25% tariffs, 50% tariffs, because it does 18 00:01:22,183 --> 00:01:25,171 seem to be changing on a day-to-day basis, which can make 19 00:01:25,171 --> 00:01:27,602 it really hard to plan. 20 00:01:27,602 --> 00:01:33,432 But I think the key thing I would say is, if you have a need 21 00:01:33,432 --> 00:01:39,587 for a new car, might be not be a bad idea to go ahead and start 22 00:01:39,587 --> 00:01:42,290 shopping the ones that are already on the lots, because 23 00:01:43,031 --> 00:01:48,623 while there was a deferral of those tariffs on automobiles, 24 00:01:49,286 --> 00:01:54,186 one thing is certain the supply chain between, particularly, 25 00:01:54,266 --> 00:01:56,049 mexico, the US and Canada. 26 00:01:56,049 --> 00:01:58,493 It is very tightly wound. 27 00:01:58,493 --> 00:02:03,769 So even items that are quote unquote made in the USA have 28 00:02:03,890 --> 00:02:07,962 parts in them that are sourced from Mexico, other parts in 29 00:02:08,021 --> 00:02:11,629 South America, Canada or even across the world. 30 00:02:11,629 --> 00:02:15,544 And that's what really makes trying to figure out exactly 31 00:02:15,604 --> 00:02:19,652 what the impact these tariffs are going to have come to be. 32 00:02:19,652 --> 00:02:25,907 Also, some companies have their supply chain and they're 33 00:02:26,588 --> 00:02:32,116 arranging for their supply of inputs to their manufacturing 34 00:02:32,175 --> 00:02:32,616 process. 35 00:02:32,616 --> 00:02:38,479 They arranged to buy those a year ago, two years ago, and 36 00:02:38,580 --> 00:02:42,647 even if they wanted to bring that back on shore, which many 37 00:02:42,687 --> 00:02:46,354 companies did after COVID, they moved a lot more stuff here 38 00:02:46,454 --> 00:02:52,009 because we had all the trouble with stuff getting to the US and 39 00:02:52,009 --> 00:02:55,320 through customs and through the ports, through COVID. 40 00:02:55,320 --> 00:03:01,367 It still takes time to train people, build out those 41 00:03:01,388 --> 00:03:04,911 production lines, build out those production lines and get 42 00:03:04,971 --> 00:03:05,872 everything transferred. 43 00:03:05,872 --> 00:03:09,656 Even if they're going to just transfer from one plant to 44 00:03:09,735 --> 00:03:17,437 another, that still takes a lot of time, energy and coordination 45 00:03:17,437 --> 00:03:17,437 . 46 00:03:17,437 --> 00:03:17,878 So we just don't know. 47 00:03:17,878 --> 00:03:25,030 I think it is somewhat positive that a lot of the harsher 48 00:03:25,770 --> 00:03:27,875 tariffs have been kind of walked back. 49 00:03:27,875 --> 00:03:31,193 I think that they've been used as more of a negotiating tactic, 50 00:03:31,193 --> 00:03:33,723 but we're just going to have to stay tuned. 51 00:03:34,699 --> 00:03:39,568 That being said, I don't think you should be making any major 52 00:03:40,408 --> 00:03:42,685 changes to your portfolio based on this. 53 00:03:42,685 --> 00:03:48,425 You very well could go one way and it turns out to be 54 00:03:48,465 --> 00:03:49,627 completely something else. 55 00:03:49,627 --> 00:03:53,685 So I think, as long as your portfolio is globally 56 00:03:53,724 --> 00:03:58,242 diversified meaning it has US stocks, both small and large, it 57 00:03:58,242 --> 00:04:03,260 has international stocks, it has some safer things, whether 58 00:04:03,300 --> 00:04:07,239 that be money market or fixed income I think you should just 59 00:04:07,318 --> 00:04:12,397 let it be because, for example, this year, international stocks 60 00:04:12,457 --> 00:04:13,580 developed international. 61 00:04:13,580 --> 00:04:17,488 They're up significantly more than US stocks. 62 00:04:17,488 --> 00:04:21,709 That has not been the case for quite some time and that's 63 00:04:21,769 --> 00:04:24,617 probably not what people would have expected if we were going 64 00:04:24,637 --> 00:04:29,425 to be charging these other countries and their domiciled 65 00:04:29,966 --> 00:04:34,021 companies higher tariffs, but in fact, that has been the case, 66 00:04:34,615 --> 00:04:37,322 and part of that, I think, is just because international 67 00:04:37,382 --> 00:04:40,281 markets have not done as well over the past several years as 68 00:04:40,401 --> 00:04:41,184 US markets. 69 00:04:41,184 --> 00:04:45,519 But it's something to keep an eye on and it's the reason for 70 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:47,204 spreading out your investments. 71 00:04:48,014 --> 00:04:51,595 The other is the Department of Governmental Efficiency, and 72 00:04:51,675 --> 00:04:56,386 while the idea of a more efficient government is hugely 73 00:04:56,446 --> 00:05:02,646 appealing to me, I'm a little concerned, like a lot of people 74 00:05:02,846 --> 00:05:06,805 are, that it's being done with a machete instead of a scalpel. 75 00:05:06,805 --> 00:05:13,576 My hope is that as they get further into this, they slow 76 00:05:13,617 --> 00:05:17,709 down and look at the impacts, because there are some things 77 00:05:17,949 --> 00:05:20,637 that have unintended consequences. 78 00:05:20,637 --> 00:05:25,065 That's always been my personal take with a lot of the things 79 00:05:25,146 --> 00:05:30,545 that government does is it sounds great on the surface, but 80 00:05:30,545 --> 00:05:34,300 when you start peeling back the layers and see that oh yes, 81 00:05:34,461 --> 00:05:39,456 this part of the Department of Education also impacts this with 82 00:05:39,456 --> 00:05:43,904 food and nutrition for underserved kids. 83 00:05:43,904 --> 00:05:47,375 Well, we have to be careful with that and make sure that, if 84 00:05:47,375 --> 00:05:51,541 we're cutting here, that those hungry kids are still going to 85 00:05:51,562 --> 00:05:56,369 get the food that they need to eat, because they are not the 86 00:05:56,408 --> 00:05:57,149 bad guys here. 87 00:05:57,149 --> 00:06:00,706 They are our future and we need to make sure they're there. 88 00:06:00,706 --> 00:06:04,685 So I don't know how all this is going to play out. 89 00:06:04,685 --> 00:06:09,480 I'm watching it, I'm reading the news, just like everybody 90 00:06:09,620 --> 00:06:09,841 else. 91 00:06:10,442 --> 00:06:14,639 I think if you are inclined to reach out to your congressmen 92 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:21,418 and senators, that's always a good thing, because I do think 93 00:06:21,458 --> 00:06:27,125 that they listen, because, rightly or wrongly, many of them 94 00:06:27,125 --> 00:06:30,689 are career politicians, and so what they want to do is get 95 00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:36,343 reelected, and so if you let your voice be known, oftentimes 96 00:06:36,483 --> 00:06:40,158 the squeaky wheel does get the grease, and I think that we can 97 00:06:40,278 --> 00:06:42,064 accomplish a lot through that. 98 00:06:42,064 --> 00:06:48,887 But remember, in your personal relationships, try to resist the 99 00:06:48,887 --> 00:06:52,475 urge to paint someone whose views are different than yours 100 00:06:53,016 --> 00:06:56,024 is all bad or say that you can't have a relationship with them, 101 00:06:56,084 --> 00:06:59,478 because that's how we continue to get divided. 102 00:06:59,478 --> 00:07:01,685 We need to have these conversations. 103 00:07:01,685 --> 00:07:07,019 We need to listen to our friends, our co-workers, hear 104 00:07:07,081 --> 00:07:11,915 their opinions, maybe learn something and then go from there 105 00:07:11,915 --> 00:07:20,687 , because my strongest belief is that 80 plus percent of 106 00:07:20,767 --> 00:07:22,490 Americans are somewhere in the middle. 107 00:07:22,490 --> 00:07:25,822 You may tilt a little right, you may tilt a little left, but 108 00:07:25,903 --> 00:07:30,803 at the end of the day, you're really more worried about taking 109 00:07:30,803 --> 00:07:33,581 care of your immediate needs and your family and your close 110 00:07:33,661 --> 00:07:34,903 friends and your community. 111 00:07:34,903 --> 00:07:39,779 And so I think we need to remember, as we go into the 112 00:07:39,839 --> 00:07:46,355 Lenten season, that really to remember how we treat others and 113 00:07:46,355 --> 00:07:49,404 to be kind because we don't know where people are coming 114 00:07:49,464 --> 00:07:51,877 from or how they arrived at their views and have those 115 00:07:51,937 --> 00:07:58,629 conversations with and go into them with an expectation that 116 00:07:58,735 --> 00:08:02,663 they're doing the best they can with what they have and 117 00:08:03,084 --> 00:08:06,257 hopefully they'll extend you the same grace and we'll all get 118 00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:08,002 through this craziness together. 119 00:08:08,725 --> 00:08:09,726 Thanks for tuning in. 120 00:08:09,726 --> 00:08:13,387 This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 121 00:08:13,387 --> 00:08:14,091 Minutes or Less.