Ready to ring in the new year with a twist? On this episode of Stacking Benjamins, we consult the one and only Magic 8-Ball to make our bold predictions for 2025. Will the stock market be riding high, or is it headed for a tumble? What’s next for Bitcoin, and can Taylor Swift’s love life predict the future? Join Joe, OG, Len Penzo, and Mindy Jensen as they tap into the 8-Ball’s mystical power (or maybe just have a laugh trying) to forecast the year ahead.
But before we get too caught up in the crystal ball, we take a look back at last year’s predictions. The 8-Ball hit some big marks, like predicting Nvidia’s rise, but it also missed a few. Along the way, Mindy shares her early (and hilarious) experience with Berkshire Hathaway, sparking a fun conversation about investing wisdom. And of course, Len brings his signature humor, diving into everything from crypto to drones to the wild world of Taylor Swift fandom.
If you’re in the mood for financial insights, pop culture predictions, and a whole lot of fun, this episode is for you. Whether the Magic 8-Ball is on the money or way off the mark, you won’t want to miss our 2025 forecast. Grab your popcorn, sit back, and join us for an episode packed with surprises!
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Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Topic: Reviewing Len’s Magic 8-Ball 2024 predictions and looking ahead to 2025
During our conversation, you’ll hear us mention:
- Will 2025 be the year the Magic 8-Ball finally gets its stock market predictions right?
- Can Bitcoin keep its mojo in 2025, or will it fizzle out like last season’s hot trend?
- Taylor Swift’s love life: the gift that keeps on giving… in more ways than one?
- Nvidia’s rise—are we looking at the next big tech titan, or is it a flash in the pan?
- Tech companies: still the big dogs, or will 2025 see new players stealing the spotlight?
- AI: Will it be our economic savior, or the ultimate disruptor?
- Inflation’s staying power: can it keep messing with our money in 2025?
- Housing market rollercoaster: should you buckle up or sit this one out?
- Crypto in 2025: Which coins might hit the moon, and which will crash back to Earth?
- Taylor Swift’s tour: economic stimulus, or just a fun distraction?
- Drones: the future of deliveries… or a fad that’ll be grounded?
- Real estate investing trends: is it time to make your move or hold off for now?
- Rising interest rates: friend or foe? Here’s what we’re watching.
- Could 2025 be the year the market finally corrects itself?
- Demographic shifts: are millennials finally taking over the financial world?
- Electric vehicles: is the hype real, or just another shiny object in the market?
- What’s up with emerging markets? Are they the wild card for 2025’s economy?
- ESG investing: making a difference, or just jumping on a trendy bandwagon?
- Government policies: what’s Washington got up its sleeve for your finances this year?
- E-commerce: still the king of the online jungle, or will the competition catch up?
- Travel stocks: are we really ready to get back to vacation mode in 2025?
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Mindy Jensen

Another thanks to Mindy Jensen for joining our contributors this week! Hear more from Mindy on her show, BiggerPockets at BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast Podcast – Apple Podcasts.
Check out her book First-Time Home Buyer: The Complete Playbook to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes .
Len Penzo

Visit Len Penzo dot Com for the off-beat personal finance blog for responsible people.
Follow Len on Twitter: @LenPenzo
OG

For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Join Us on Monday!
Tune in on Monday when we’re joined by debt relief advocate Natalia Brown who helps us tackle the question where do you turn when your debt is stacked to the ceiling and there’s no room to breathe.
Miss our last show? Check it out here: Live for Today? Lessons From Oversavers (SB1631).
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] bit: Stacking Benjamins is not for everyone. Side effects may include euphoria, increased ability to meet your goals, and aggression from people wondering what the hell your secret is. Stacking Benjamins may be habit forming, especially if you stick around for the entire episode. Wink, wink. Please check with your doctor to see if Stacking Benjamins is right for you. [00:00:21] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:35] I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Doug. And what can a Walmart Magic eight Ball teach us about money? Apparently a ton On today’s show, we welcome the woman who hosts the BiggerPockets Money podcast, Mindy Jensen. And the guy who’s co-host of this show, financial Planner, og, and of course the guy with the eight Ball himself from len penso.com. [00:00:57] It’s Robert F. Kennedy. Wow. Now I’m just kidding. He’s getting his flu shot. So we only got Len Penso. How right was the Eight Ball last year? We’ll review and then ask the eight Ball what to expect in 2025. If you’ve never heard this episode, buckle up and expect the unexpected. And now a guy who asked the Magic eight Ball if 2025 would be his year, and it replied, don’t count on it, buddy Joe. [00:01:26] Saw. See? Hi. [00:01:31] Joe: What a great self-affirming way to begin the year when you ask Lindsay. But the good news is lately Lenza eight Ball hasn’t been that, right? But will it be right in 2025? I will have a good year no matter what it told me, Len. But I’m super happy that we’re here. We’re gonna review the events of 2024 through the Eight Ball Talk about 2025. [00:01:50] Let’s meet our participants today and the woman joining us from BiggerPockets, Mindy Jensen is here. Happy New Year to you, Mindy. [00:01:58] Mindy: Joe, happy New Year to you. And to you, og, and to you, Len. I’m so excited to be here. You [00:02:04] Joe: had a New York City New Year’s this year. [00:02:06] Mindy: I did. So on New Year’s Eve, I flew from Las Vegas to New York City, which I don’t recommend ’cause it’s a really long flight. [00:02:13] We flew over Times Square, let me tell you, that is not on my bucket list. That looks like a nightmare and a half. There’s more than 10 people standing in Times Square and they, it was cold and they were all kind of crammed together and you could watch that on tv. Wait a minute, did you really see [00:02:31] Joe: them from your plane window? [00:02:32] Yeah. Really? Yeah. What time did you fly in on New Year’s Eve? We landed at 6:30 PM Yeah, and I’ve heard they’re already packed in there by then. Oh, yeah. [00:02:39] OG: No, no. It’s all gated off and then they all, they open the gates to get to the front of the, the line or whatever. [00:02:45] Joe: Yeah. You just imagine if, if you’ve gotta use a restroom. [00:02:48] Mindy: I was just gonna say, am I the only person who has to pee more than once in 24 hours? Right? Oh, sorry. Can I say that on your [00:02:54] Joe: show? That’s exactly, oh, have you heard our show? Yes. And the man with the eight ball himself is here. Mr. Zo, is it stretched out? Is it ready to go? Because, you know, there’s the College National Championships and we’re starting the playoffs for the NFL. [00:03:09] Well, we’re partway through as this airs, but you know, this is like the Super Bowl for the eight ball, Len, [00:03:14] Len: you know what, and you were disparaging and rightly so. The, the eight ball, I mean, it has been off the past few years, really hasn’t done very well, but you know what, it’s still doing better than me because if you ask my wife, I’m never right. [00:03:25] I, I don’t think I’ve, I’ve ever answered a question correctly. [00:03:29] Joe: What’s that? Uh, I saw that meme that says if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to hear it. Am I still wrong? Yes. In this household, the answer’s absolutely. That’s totally the answer. I don’t know if it’s the same for Carl Mindy. [00:03:46] Mindy: It is. [00:03:47] Joe: Yes, of course. But that’s good to hear. Lead that. The eight ball’s ready to go. So hopefully it has a good year for people that don’t remember last year. It made some wacky, made some wacky predictions. [00:03:58] Len: I can’t remember anything. I can’t remember the question, so I’m really looking forward to this. Is that getting old the come on? [00:04:03] Of course, [00:04:06] Joe: slightly. Uh, speaking of Wacky OG is here. How are you my friend? [00:04:12] OG: I’m here so I don’t get fined. I’m having a very tough time with the lighting in here. I’m very angry right now that the sun is out. It should not be out. It is like there’s one little piercing amount of light that goes through this stupid little thing in the blinds. [00:04:28] I’ve been trying to solve it with, [00:04:30] Joe: oh, I can see it on your neck. Sticky [00:04:32] OG: notes. Well, no, that’s the one I’m okay with. If any of those four sticky notes come down, which is held by the power of 3M, then I get the thing like right over my face. Ugh. So annoying. This [00:04:44] Joe: is the way the pros do it, by the way. I’m sure All the other, uh, Cumulus slash Westwood one podcast. [00:04:49] I’m sure Rich Eisen is working on that. Mindy, [00:04:52] Mindy: I’m raising my hand because I have the best tip. You don’t have to raise [00:04:56] OG: your hand. You can just toss [00:04:57] Mindy: it. Yeah, I over to interrupt. [00:04:59] OG: It’s a podcast. I just [00:05:00] Mindy: want, I just want you to call on me because I have the best tip ever. I don’t know where I saw it on the internet somewhere. [00:05:06] They said, Hey, if you’re at a hotel and the curtains won’t close, which they never close, go into the closet and get one of those clippy hangers and clip the curtains together and they will stop letting light in. So that I have done that. Whoever invented that tip is my favorite person on the planet. [00:05:23] Besides you, Joe. [00:05:24] Joe: Thank you, Mindy. She, but I’m still wrong. Og, [00:05:28] Mindy: do you have, do you have those clippy hangers anywhere that could save your life? [00:05:32] OG: Yeah. I, I appreciate the thought that would not solve this problem. They’re wood blinds and then the, the straps go through the wood blinds and it’s like literally the sun you need curtains is going through the, over [00:05:42] Joe: the basement windows here. [00:05:43] I’m glad it’s not on me. It’s on. You see, [00:05:44] OG: you can see it. It’s right there on my forehead. [00:05:46] Joe: But og he’s not gonna let that get in the way. I thought he was trying to close the window so he could find his good side. And I didn’t wanna break it to him that, uh, that might be a losing proposition. But we’ve got the Magic eight ball today. [00:05:59] What happened last year? What are we going to ask it that? What’s the Magic Eight Ball gonna predict for 2025? That’s all coming up, but we’ve got a couple of sponsors that make this show free so that you don’t have to pay for all this magic eight ball. Goodness, Glenn, let’s start off on this note. Glenn, will the sponsor, sponsor be free this year? [00:06:21] 8-ball: It is best not to say no. [00:06:24] Joe: That’s good. So either they’re free or we’re about to bait and switch people. We’ll tell you in just a couple minutes. [00:06:38] Well, let’s get down to it. So we started off last year on our Magic eight Ball episode with the Paula Pant, who immediately did something that, uh, she’s done every time she’s appeared on this episode, which is ask about the royal family. Let’s listen in. [00:06:56] Paula from the past: And so to capture the royal family mood of right around the new year as we flow from 2023 into 2024. [00:07:05] The big question right now is, will Harry and Meghan reconnect with the royal family or, or, or will the split be. Continue to worsen. And so I think the way to quantify that is Will Harry and Meghan both spend at least two months in the UK between January 1st through December 1st, 2024? [00:07:33] Joe: And so we asked that of the Magic eight ball. [00:07:35] And you know what guys? It took me a while to look this up. And when I, and I finally found more answer than I wanted to, Meghan Markle ended her 20 month absence from the uk. She had been in the UK in 20 months by going to the uk. However, she was there for less than two days and she didn’t connect with anybody from the Royal family. [00:07:58] So the answer is no. That did not happen. I know OG by the look on your face, you’re really concerned with what happens to the royal family. [00:08:08] OG: Is this gonna affect your portfolio? I was mostly frowning because I could see of outta the, out of the corner of my eye, one of my. Very precariously posted post-it notes doing this. [00:08:21] And so I know whenever I do, wherever I lean, I’m gonna have a ball of fire in my eyeballs. But to the point here, I also do not care one iota about whoever either of those two people are that, uh, Paula mentioned. [00:08:37] Len: I, I’m still having trouble figuring out what the heck zeitgeist is. That that’s, uh, that kind of threw me there. [00:08:45] Joe: Mindy, do [00:08:46] Mindy: you follow the role of family at all? I. Not on purpose. No. They show up in my newsfeed, but yeah, not on purpose. However, I will say that I don’t blame Meghan for not going back to the UK for more than two days because they don’t treat her very nicely. So why be someplace where people aren’t nice to you? [00:09:01] Joe: Absolutely. Which is why Mindy comes back here over and over and over and over, over and over again because we treat her so nicely. Yes. Do as I say, not as I do. Let’s find out if the Magic eight ball started off on a good note. So the answer was no. They did not spend more than she ended up qualifying, quantifying that differently. [00:09:17] By the way. She said, uh, two months in the piece we heard, but later on she said, ah, let’s back that down and make it a month. Did that happen? [00:09:27] 8-ball: You can rely on that. [00:09:28] Joe: Oh, well, there we go. Can we rely on the fact that it doesn’t want to answer? Are we relying on It took us, we had to answer it. Lynn, I don’t know if you remember that. We had to answer it. Yes. We asked it like four times. Yeah. Before it would answer. Yeah. We were up a great start. So it really wasn’t feeling good about that one, but it did say yes, and the answer was no. [00:09:43] So Oh, for one? Yeah. Oh, for one. [00:09:46] Len: Let’s move on to, it’s a long season. It’s a long season. [00:09:50] Joe: So Len, let’s turn to you and see what you asked it. [00:09:55] Len: I’m gonna start with my traditional precious metals question. Of course, this time we’re gonna look at gold and I would like to know, right now it’s sitting at just above 2000. [00:10:05] I wanna know if it’s gonna get to 2,500 by what? What’s our usual date? December 1st? [00:10:11] Joe: Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:11] Len: December 1st of of 2024. Will Gold Mr. Preo. Will gold hit $2,500 by December 1st, [00:10:21] Joe: just to give people an idea before you hit the eight ball to 25% return. Yeah. On the day we’re recording, I think I was about to say that. [00:10:27] Og, I think that’s about a 25% return. It’s a big number. Lynn, [00:10:31] Len: that’s a big number. Hey, hey, we’re putting, we’re so okay. You could look at this as a soft, another softball for Mr. Preo. So, [00:10:37] Joe: so you were predicting Len that it was a softball for Mr. Preo because there was no way in hell this thing was going to return, right? [00:10:46] That big of a return. And for people that don’t follow gold land, what happened in 2024? Well, [00:10:52] Len: I think, uh, gold outperformed everything. This year it finished, I dunno what it finished the year at, I think it finished the year up 27% and I’m sure it was over $2,500 by December 1st. I don’t know what the number was, but I’m sure it was above that number. [00:11:05] Joe: We’re sitting at 26 65. To your point today, as we record this, over the past 12 months, it’s been a 30% return. So again. Right there. If we look specifically at December 1st, and it didn’t trade on December 1st, on December 2nd, it was trading at 26 58. So way, way, way above what we thought Lenzo, if, if gold is kind of a predictor of gloom and doom, what do you think happened last year? [00:11:31] Len: You know, I don’t know. I think everything was up last year. I think that reflects the money supply just going up and all that money has to go places and it went everywhere. It went into stocks, it went into gold, it went into Bitcoin, it went into everything. I think that’s what’s happened, but, and I just wanna stress, you know, gold is not an investment. [00:11:51] Gold is wealth insurance. So I don’t think anybody should be out there putting 30, 40, 50% of their investible assets into gold, gold up. I should buy some. You buy it for insurance and that’s it. Just to maintain your purchasing power and, uh, you guard against really bad outcomes. So that’s what it’s for. [00:12:09] Mindy, do you own any gold? [00:12:11] Mindy: I have a couple of old necklaces that I need to sell. It looks like now’s a good time. [00:12:16] Joe: It’s gonna melt ’em down, right? Oh gee. This is actually, uh, you know, when we talk about diversification and correlation, I mean, I think last year proves a point that trying to predict what’s gonna go up and what’s gonna go down pretty damn near impossible. [00:12:31] ’cause if we got the stock market up and gold up at the same time, to Lens point, who knows? And Bitcoin. And Bitcoin. Yeah. [00:12:38] OG: And Bitcoin. Yeah. I mean, ultimately if you asked a hundred economists, you know the outcome is gonna be, you’re gonna have a hundred wildly disparate answers and none of them are gonna be right. [00:12:48] But oddly, collectively they will be. Right. If you average it like the jelly bean answer, you know how many, how many jelly beans are in the jar? Nobody gets it and there’s wide answers, but the average ends up being pretty close. But [00:13:00] Joe: this is actually interesting too. Did you see the stock market did almost double, almost double what the top major brokerage analyst predicted last year? [00:13:10] Yeah. Almost double what they predicted. I mean, there were so many people that predicted down last year, so many of the major wirehouses predicted down that it’s probably not a good, yeah, I think [00:13:19] Len: it was the s and p, um, it did better than 20% two years in a row. And I think that hadn’t happened in a while either. [00:13:25] Yeah. [00:13:25] Joe: If you were betting on that man, [00:13:27] OG: that didn’t [00:13:27] Joe: turn out well. Or if [00:13:28] OG: you’re betting the other way on that. If you’re betting on it, that would be a good thing. [00:13:31] Joe: So the answer was yes. Gold did do really well, really well. Even though at the time we made, we were like, what, what, Len? What are you talking about? [00:13:41] Let’s see what the, uh, magic eight Ball said it was going to do. [00:13:47] 8-ball: It has been determined. So, [00:13:49] Joe: uh oh, there it is. Gold’s gonna do, 25% could be good if you’re a gold bug if the Royals get back together in gold. Gold. Well, if the royals got back together and gold went up 25%, it was gonna be kind of a wacky year. But hey, we’re one and one looking good. Might have turned around quick, my friend. [00:14:08] Well, let’s, let’s, the night is still young. Let’s see where we’re going from here. Yes. Speaking of that, so OG went next. Let’s hear what he was ready to ask it. [00:14:17] OG: Will there be a change in the executive branch in terms of party? You know, there’s some question as to whether or not President Biden may, may run, may not run. [00:14:31] You know, so I, I, I don’t know how that’s gonna all shake out, but will there be a change in the party, in the executive branch? [00:14:37] Len: Wow. We should be rubbing OGs head. I mean, he even got the change of the, uh, nominee. Good job, og. [00:14:43] Joe: I know some question around whether Biden will actually make it through. That did not happen. [00:14:48] And then will the, will the other party take over as this is coming out? We are just days away from an administration change. I know. Oh gee, we’ve talked about this a little bit previously. Next week we’re gonna have the swearing in and the new administration, the swearing in and all the swearing about the swearing in some swearing at some high fiving. [00:15:11] Who knows? Yeah, it’s gonna be all over the place. But, uh, how much did just this affect your strategy? [00:15:16] OG: Well, we talked about it in the fall quite a bit around outcomes and what’s happened in the last 50 years of presidential cycles and. Obviously the best outcome was to always be an investor. If you said, well, I’m only gonna invest when Republicans are in office, or I’m only gonna invest when Democrats are in office. [00:15:34] There were some pretty clear winners between that in terms of which would be better over the last 50 years, but it was an order of magnitude better to have been an investor for the whole time. The numbers were to refresh everybody’s memory. If you put 10,000 invested in January 1st, 1960 and only invested when Republicans were president until 2023, you had a hundred thousand dollars. [00:15:57] I’m rounding. If you invested and, and the rest of the time you had in cash, if you only invested your $10,000 and kept it invested when Democrats were in office, you had $500,000. However, if you invested your $10,000 on January 1st, 1960 and kept it invested the whole time, you have five and a half million dollars. [00:16:17] So we can argue about like, well, Blue’s better than red, or Red’s better than Blue. Look at the history. That’s all great. But the reality is, is that if you just went into a coma with your $10,000 in the s and p on January 1st, 1960 and came to, you know, to now you’d have 10 x the best outcome if you were like literally 50 years ago picking the correct horse, you know what I mean? [00:16:40] Like it was impossible to predict that. So the only solution is to stay invested all the time, and there’s gonna be ebbs and flows, and there’s gonna be policy decisions, and that’s gonna affect this industry and that industry. And all of that’s good, great, and wonderful, but you have to recognize that every single person who is in charge of organizations in America are out for themselves. [00:17:03] I don’t care how many 10 Ks you read or any of these things, they’re like word blah. No, the only people they care about is themselves because. All of their money. All the executives at Coca-Cola or Frito-Lay or JCPenney or freaking Apple, all of their money is in their company stock. Like the vast majority. [00:17:22] I was reading the 10 K from Apple, he gets a $3 million salary. That’s a lot of cash. That’s a lot. But he got a hundred million dollars of freaking Apple stock. That is a lot of money. And so what does Tim Cook care about Most Selling Apple stuff, right? That’s what he wants to have happen. Now he believes in it and I believe that they believe in it. [00:17:41] I believe the Coca-Cola people believe in the Coke. I get it. But they also only care about selling Coke. And if all of a sudden the administration comes down and goes like, well, there’s no more sugar and we’re not allowing Sugar Coke’s not just gonna be like, well guys been a good run 150 years wrapped up. [00:17:58] They go, all right, guess what? We start selling diet crap. We start selling water coke or, or freaking chips or something. You know, they’re gonna make some stuff up because they want their freaking stock price to go up. So if you are aligned with that, by virtue of being a micro owner of all of those big 500 companies who’s all all are incentivized to do whatever they can to make their own stock go up, ipso facto, you win. [00:18:23] Like don’t make this harder than it has to be. First of all, [00:18:25] Joe: you know that you’re a runner when he says 10 K. And I think what, what does 10 K have to do with anything? And 10 q, I [00:18:34] OG: don’t know. Maybe it’s, I remember it’s investing, it’s something. Yeah. I [00:18:37] Mindy: also thought 10 K. [00:18:38] OG: It sounds a little disassociative probably to say that everybody’s only in it from themselves, but you get the idea, right? [00:18:43] I mean it’s like I do get [00:18:44] Mindy: it. [00:18:44] Joe: Yeah. The [00:18:45] OG: people in those industries don’t just go, well, I guess we can’t drill oil anymore. It’s been a good run, guys. Like they think of new stuff to do, they’re always working on new stuff. They have whole teams of people doing that [00:18:57] Joe: Well, and even on the other side, og you and I were looking at a company just last week together. [00:19:01] We’ll just leave it nameless for today ’cause it doesn’t matter. And, and we don’t wanna get off on that tangent, but. The CEO of the company gets paid a multimillion dollar amount of money if the company doesn’t go bankrupt and the company looks to us like it’s pretty darn close to going bankrupt, but, but, but just imagine how hard this woman’s gonna work to make sure this company does some good stuff. [00:19:23] Like, to your point, she wants to save the shareholder, but she gets paid a ton of money if she makes it work. And all these people are incentive based and it, it doesn’t matter. But yet, Mindy, I think about the fact that we’re talking about 2016. 2016 people made this mistake. You saw people run for the exits, right? [00:19:39] The second that the, that the election results came down 2020, we saw it again. People running for the exits. I’m sure this year we have. Why do we keep making this mistake over and over, Mindy, why do we keep touching the stove? [00:19:51] Mindy: Don’t say we, I’m not making the mis this mistake. I am pouring more money. What do you money? [00:19:56] Personally, I’m putting more money into the stock market because ultimately I believe in the strength of the American economy. Is it gonna go up a hundred percent of the time? No, but it’s going to go up into the right more often than down into the right. So that’s why I keep putting money in. I don’t know why people keep making this mistake. [00:20:14] They’re afraid, and I don’t know if they have access to this little thing called the internet, but if you look at historic stock prices, you can see up into the right, yeah, there’s like this big dip around the 1920s, but it, it goes back up again. I mean, it, it was 1920s to like 1960s. It’s a pretty big dip, but it continues to go back up. [00:20:33] So I don’t know why they’re doing it. You’re wrong if you’re running for the exits. Stay in. [00:20:37] Len: The problem is all you guys are using the wrong predictor. It has nothing to do with who’s the president? It, it’s the Super Bowl predictor. It’s whether the A FC or NFC wins the Super Bowl. [00:20:45] Mindy: That’s [00:20:46] Joe: what it really is. [00:20:47] That [00:20:47] Len: is the predictor. [00:20:48] Mindy: Look, the Kansas cities are gonna win again. [00:20:50] Joe: Oh, back away. Like those are fighting words. [00:20:53] Mindy: I didn’t say I wanted them to win. I said they were going to win. I would like to let you know that I’m a Chicago Bears fan, so Oh man. Yeah. Oh, we were gonna do so good this year. I feel [00:21:08] Joe: like the Dr. [00:21:09] Phil guy, uh, how’s that working out for you, Mindy Jensen? [00:21:12] Mindy: Well, I really liked how they won their game this weekend. Thanks. [00:21:16] Joe: So the answer is, and everybody’s like, they didn’t play this weekend. Do they win if they don’t play? Is that the deal? OG asked if there was going to be a change in the party that won. [00:21:29] The answer, of course, is yes. Uh, next Tuesday our new president will be Donald Trump, and so let’s see if the Magic eight Ball agreed. [00:21:40] 8-ball: The answer you seek is yes. [00:21:43] Joe: Yes. The next president won after a slow start. Len, we’re off and running now. Baby two, two to one. This is, this [00:21:51] Len: could be a good year. I’m, I’m dare I say it. I’m feeling optimistic. Don’t get [00:21:54] Joe: excited yet, man. There’s, there’s plenty of time for it to f this all up. We then turn to me and I always take people from our, our Facebook group, the basement, and me and our friends at the Facebook group. [00:22:08] We asked this question, the question, you know, we had the Bitcoin tear this year. Bitcoin being left for dead by some people a year ago. Now Bitcoin with a big resurgence. Matt, in our Facebook group wants to know, will Bitcoin reach $50,000 by December 1st? How about that one? I like it very specific. [00:22:30] Bitcoin 50. What are you thinking, Paula? And uh, we’re like, whoa, that’s gonna be a monster amount of money. [00:22:38] OG: Yeah, [00:22:40] Joe: I love it. [00:22:41] OG: This is basically a reflection on all the things you should have done a year ago and didn’t. It’s like, yeah, how much gold did you buy? None. Like you idiot. How much stocks did you buy? [00:22:53] None. You idiot. How much Bitcoin did you buy? None. You idiot. [00:22:57] Joe: Well, it goes back to og the thing that frequent guest, Nick Majuli, who was on the show again last week, says, just keep buying. Like buy, buy, buy, buy. Especially if you’re young. Buy and buy and buy some more. [00:23:08] Mindy: Uh, fun fact. On December 14th, Bitcoin closed at its highest ever, $101,680 and 90 cents. [00:23:16] Joe: And as we record today, it’s at 96,918, but yesterday was at 1 0 3 or 1 0 2, which is probably where I bought it. Come back tomorrow. And just like they always talked about Michigan weather when I lived there. Now I moved to Texas and they’re like, oh, it’s just like Texas weather. Well, yeah, I guess it’s like weather anywhere. [00:23:38] Yeah. So, uh, Bitcoin clearly beat 50,000. Nearly a hundred thousand. Uh, as we record this and to Mindy and Lens Point has been over that, uh, the answer is yes. Then what did the eight ball say? [00:23:57] 8-ball: The answer [00:23:58] Joe: is no, it will not. No, no, man. We are doing so well. Darn it. [00:24:03] Len: Darn it. That sucks. [00:24:06] Joe: Now it’s two, right? Two wrong. So two to two we’re, yeah, we’re a third of the way Done. Let’s go, uh, directly into Paula’s question in round two [00:24:17] Paula from the past: every year, I always ask a question about a Latin American ETF. And so keeping with that theme, the iShares Latin America, 40 ETF, ticker symbol ILF, will it by December 1st have year to date gains above 25%. [00:24:35] Joe: Looking at the iShares Latin America, 40 this year, it began the year back, uh, just below $23 a share. Today it’s trading. It made it almost up to 30. It’s trading closer to 28. Yeah. This would’ve been the loser bet right here. You talk about everything going up. Everything did not go up when it came to, uh, Latin America. [00:24:58] ILF as we recorded that, as you heard it was, it got up around 30. It’s now trading at 2148. So you would’ve only lost about a 30 year money, maybe a little less. Um, so by low everybody, I don’t know any of you guys. Mindy, you own any, uh, own [00:25:14] Mindy: any Latin America? I do not own any of that. EF or any of any Latin American ETFs. [00:25:20] Joe: Do you own any sector funds in general? Like you bet on, you know, I always have a problem staying away from, I love Southeast Asia. It’s like my favorite place and I always have to back away from that, you know what I mean? Like, I have to convince myself not to invest in one little piece of the economy. [00:25:38] Mindy: You said sector funds, I thought you meant like a section of the, the, uh. Map the world market? No, no, I don’t, I don’t. [00:25:47] Joe: Oh, like technology or biotech or healthcare. Yeah. I’m almost, [00:25:50] Mindy: I’m so heavy into [00:25:51] Joe: tech. I kind of consider these regional funds, sector funds too. ’cause I’m still betting on an area versus betting on a, a bigger slice of the pie. [00:26:00] I don’t know. [00:26:01] Mindy: I don’t wanna look uninformed, but I’m really only in American stocks. [00:26:06] Joe: I think it’s pronounced America. America, America. That’s right. Len, how about you? Do you have any sector stuff or regional things that you invest in? I invest in, uh, the [00:26:15] Len: mining sector. Sure. Gold and silver miners of course, there. [00:26:17] That, that, if you’re gonna invest, if you wanna invest in precious metals, that’s where you do it. I just be aware. It’s a very painful, it’s been very painful for that sector for the past three or four years. It’s, and actually longer term it’s, I Yeah, I know it’s, but what it is, it has to, uh, we won’t get too technical here, but it goes into the, the cost of mining, the mining cost itself, extraction and the extraction cost. [00:26:37] So you have to be very careful. There’s thousands of upstart miners out there. Uh, if you were going for the juniors and. It all comes down to what the cost of their mining, you know, how much they can make off of that. So, so there are some that do well, but most don’t. It’s very risky. It’s a really risky sector to be in, which is why I, I do pick a few flyers on my own, just for fun with my gambling money, I call it. [00:27:00] But for the bulk of it, I send that over to the professionals. I let professional money manager, who’s an expert in the mi in minors, uh, handle my money for that. [00:27:08] Joe: And he, and he is done very well. And minors and the majors or just the minors? I’m sorry. That’s bad. [00:27:17] Len: Wait, wait for a second there. I was gonna answer that question. [00:27:20] Joe: Could not help. It was right there, led with a little bit of my play money. I also own just one, uh, one mining company. A little bit of sunco energy. [00:27:29] Len: Oh, very good, very good. I, I actually have a copper miner who’s did very well this year too. [00:27:33] Southern Mining Corporation minor with a key [00:27:36] Joe: Latin America. Definitely the answer is no. Let’s see what the Magic eight ball said. [00:27:46] 8-ball: Everything points to No, [00:27:49] Joe: I’m headed to Latin America, so, uh, it’s staying in the game, man. [00:27:53] Len: Hey, staying in the game. We are above the, uh, at least the last three years, uh, average. So we’re doing good. [00:27:59] Joe: I know We are rolling right now with a three, two lead. What’s interesting is then I started talking about my trip to Peru. [00:28:05] Og you wanna hear about my trip to South America? [00:28:11] Thank you. I just, I guess I asked for that. Len, you asked a question that at the time seemed like it was just outta left field. What’s funny is what ended up happening here, which, uh, some people know and other people don’t know, ended up being, uh, fairly well, much more controversial than we thought it was gonna be. [00:28:29] Let’s listen to Lens question. [00:28:32] Len: This year, it was very interesting. We had Times, person of the year was Taylor Swift. I was. Looking into that a little bit. Did you know that prior to 2014, I think the first person of the year or man of the year, at the time it was called the time zone started in like 1929 or something like that? [00:28:50] It started a long time ago and up until 2014 there were only three individual females that had ever been awarded. Wow. They covered there on the Times Person of the year in all those years. Three in all. And then from 2015 to this year, 2023 or the previous 2023. And were Taylor one, three. Since then, three more individual women have won now in the final, in the last 10 years. [00:29:13] So that got me thinking, is it possible for the first time that the Times person of the year could be a back to back female individual winner? So [00:29:25] Joe: Mr. Uh, Preo will, okay. Before we ask, uh, Mr. Preo that question, Len, do you know what ended up happening this year? No. I, I actually, I don’t. Yes, the time person of the year, very controversial pick. [00:29:39] I, I saw more about person of the year this year than the long, than in a long, long time because Time said Donald Trump Oh. Was the person of the year. Okay. And so, uh, uh, Donald messed it up for women everywhere. So that’s, uh, that’s what happened with time. And so the answer is no on did we have back to back women as person of the year? [00:30:05] Let’s see what Mr. Predict said. [00:30:12] 8-ball: Without hesitation. Yes. [00:30:15] Joe: Wow. It was, it was so sure until Donald Trump came along. [00:30:20] 8-ball: Darn it. [00:30:21] Mindy: So I wanna know if Lens three people before 2014 included the year 2006 when you were at the time person of the year. You meaning everybody. Everybody in the world. All of us. I forgot that. All of us, yes. I was Times person of the year 2006. [00:30:38] Len: I’m gonna have to put that on my resume. That’s, [00:30:42] Joe: that’s what people do. We should lead that off OG with like the podcast description hosted by Times person of the year 2006. [00:30:52] Well, we’re not wrong. You’re not wrong. OG is up next and he’s got a question about the Federal Reserve. Let’s listen in. [00:31:02] OG: Uh, my second one’s gonna be a money question today. So, uh, we were talking a little bit about, uh, interest rates and inflation and, uh, recession from 2023. Right now the fed funds rate is, uh, somewhere between five and a quarter and five and a half. [00:31:15] My question is, is will the Fed funds rate be lower than 4.25? So four 25% reductions, or four quarter point reductions, or, or one big giant 1% reduction. I don’t know how they’re gonna do it, but is it gonna be 1% lower than it is right now? So [00:31:36] Joe: we were hoping at the time, OG that maybe we’d see interest rates go lower and we certainly got down a bit, but as we recorded this, it’s uh, 4.48 that we’re at right now. [00:31:51] So didn’t quite make it soft landing. [00:31:54] OG: That was the, the word of the year [00:31:56] Joe: it, so far it seems to have been the case, but we have seen the Fed finally starting to move this year. Do you think that changes our strategy now that the Fed seems to be moving interest rate wise, does that change any of your strategies, your debt strategy? [00:32:10] Does it change your emergency fund strategy, any of that? [00:32:14] OG: Uh, I don’t really think so. If you have some debt and it’s higher interest and you have the opportunity to re refinance it to a lower rate, we bought a condo in, uh, 2021. I, no, it wasn’t 21 must have been 22 6 point a half percent. You know, we’re actively trying to figure out a way to, to lower that. [00:32:36] But, you know, is the juice worth the squeeze to get it from six point half to five and seven eighths or something? I’m not sure, but. As interest rates go down, even though it’s lagging in the consumer world, it will help consumers to make a little bit better progress. I think the important thing to do is if you’re, you know, if you have consumer debt and you notice that your minimum payment went down, you should pay them the same flat payment all the time. [00:32:59] You know, like if your payment on January 1st was a thousand dollars and then next month your payment is 980 bucks, the reason that they lowered it isn’t to be nice. It’s because they want to have you pay as little as possible so that you pay as much interest as possible. So just keep paying the thousand. [00:33:14] You’ll have the opportunity to eat into it. If interest rates are lower and your credit card interest goes down by two or 3%, or you can surf at to a 0%, or you can call them up and ask for a lower rate for a period of time, that’s great. Still pay the thousand. Make an impact by the fact that you are getting a better rate. [00:33:33] You know, more money’s gonna principle then don’t, don’t let off the gas because you’re. Now your minimum’s only 500. [00:33:39] Joe: Yeah. Get that paid off. Mindy is a real estate investor and somebody in the real estate business. Lower interest rates change things for you strategically. [00:33:49] Mindy: Lower interest rates will change things. [00:33:54] So I have a house that I am currently renting out, but next year, I guess this year I am going to tear it down and rebuild ’cause it’s a really stupid layout and I am going to borrow against my stock portfolio to fund the build. But if interest rates come down even further, then I will get a traditional mortgage on the property. [00:34:15] So they will in the future, if they come down in the future, they will affect my, my strategy. But the current, what tidy little amount that they came down last year did not affect my strategy at all. Did that answer your question or did I just go off on a tangent? [00:34:29] Joe: Uh, well you told us how it affects your strategy, but if I’m just generally real, I’ll tell you the thing that I saw Barbara Corker say recently. [00:34:35] And she even told us this, I think when she was on the show last time, Mindy, which is that everybody thinks that when interest rates go down. That is when if you’re thinking about investing in real estate, it’s a great time to do it. And she said the problem there is you’re gonna get so many new investors that enter the market as interest rates come down, that you’re gonna see people go back to overpaying for property then. [00:34:54] And so you’re more likely to strike a deal if you enter the market when, when interest rates are higher. Do you agree with Barbara? [00:35:02] Mindy: First of all, nice name drop and second of all, absolutely. Barbara is 100% correct. I was gonna say if for just like random people, people ask me all the time, well, I’m gonna, or people tell me all the time, I’m gonna wait until interest rates go down. [00:35:17] Okay, when are interest rates gonna go down? Your magic eight ball doesn’t actually have that answer because nobody knows when the rates are gonna go down. So let’s say that rates start going down in August, that’s when you’re gonna get a ton of people jumping back in because there are people who simply cannot afford the mortgage payment right now. [00:35:34] So they’re sitting on the sidelines. They’re either staying in their house that doesn’t really fit them anymore, or they’re still renting because they can’t afford the new mortgage payments. I truly believe that if interest rates, mortgage interest rates start with a five, even 5.9, you are gonna see people pouring back into the market. [00:35:50] So what I have been telling people, uh, side note, I’m a real estate agent. I’m licensed in Colorado, but I’m not your agent. So don’t take this as gospel. Listen to your own agent, but. If you are waiting for interest rates to come down, but you can afford prices right now, like Barbara said, get in now because then you’re only competing with yourself when it comes time to reduce your interest rate. [00:36:13] But absolutely there’s gonna be people pouring back in. They’ve been waiting since, when did they start raising rates? June of 2022. [00:36:19] Joe: Yeah. [00:36:19] Mindy: It’s been forever that we’ve had these super high rates, even though historically we’re like right on average. [00:36:25] Joe: Right. Not really. Quote super high. Even though people complain about how super high they’re [00:36:30] Len: I I wanna point out one thing though is we were talking about the Fed funds rate and mortgage interest rates aren’t influenced by the Fed funds rate. [00:36:37] They’re influenced by the 10 year treasury. Good. So, [00:36:40] Joe: and we saw Len, to your point. Mm-hmm. We saw a big divergence between the two this year. One of the few times we saw a huge divergence. So it’s a great point to make, especially this fall. [00:36:48] Len: Yeah, because since. The fed’s been lowering, but the 10 year’s been going up. [00:36:51] Yeah, so mortgage rates, I just saw the 30 year average was still, it just creeped over 7%. Again, I think I just saw that at some [00:36:58] Joe: point we have to see those two begin to converge again, I would think. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I don’t need to name drop any other name than I know Mindy Jensen, just so you know. [00:37:09] So the answer here, OG was close. You said four and a quarter, but it was 4.48 and uh, what did the Magic eight Ball say? [00:37:23] Oddly doubtful. Hmm. I was thinking how about that [00:37:28] Len: magic eight ball? What is going on Len? I think it’s worried about the coin taking its place. You know the, the, the, the magic quarter. [00:37:37] Joe: It is now back four three. Actually, somebody asked last year in our basement Facebook group. We didn’t ask it, but I dunno if you remember this guys. [00:37:46] Somebody asked, will Che GPT take the magic eight Pauls place? Will we ask chat GPT instead? Which would also be fun. Maybe we, maybe we compare and see compare better. Yeah. We move on. Then. Speaking of people in the basement Facebook group, I asked the Facebook group for another question, and this is what they said. [00:38:08] Will there be a change in leadership at OpenAI? And it can happen one of two ways. Either a OpenAI no longer controls their own destiny, they’re controlled by some other entity. Or number two, we have a different CEO. That’s my question, Len. [00:38:25] Len: Oh, that’s your question. [00:38:26] Joe: So what’s interesting is remember this, at the time, this controversy and the more stuff came out from the board about how Sam Altman, the CEO at the time wasn’t telling them anything. [00:38:35] He literally was just coming out with stuff and then we found he had the problem with Scarlett Johansson wanting to use her voice and her saying no. And then the very next day he’s using her voice anyway, and then open AI really going big on the for-profit side. Right? So lots and lots of changes in AI and, and, and by the way, chat GPTA year ago being such a big part of AI and now Len, I mean there’s so many different choices when it comes to using ai. [00:39:05] Uh, we don’t even know if Lezo is really here today. [00:39:07] Len: Yeah, I. I don’t use AI for anything. I know people use it for all kinds of stuff, you know, but I, I don’t use it for anything. [00:39:13] Joe: So will there be a leadership, a change in leadership? No. The board ended up going bye-bye. CEO stayed in place when we’re talking about another entity. [00:39:21] Microsoft owns a lot of their stock, but Microsoft did not come in and laid down the hammer. So the answer was no. There was not a change of open ai. Lot’s change with ai, but, uh, not something with chat. GPT. Let’s see what the magic eight ball said. [00:39:40] No, it’s getting what’s passed is, how about this Len? The magic eight ball up five, three, now eight ball’s got its mojo back. Dare I say, back to the old day five. Correct. Who the hell is this magic? Have you secretly replaced it with one [00:39:54] Len: that doesn’t suck? I don’t know. Maybe the ai Oh, ai. I’m sorry. The ai, AI is got it scared. [00:40:01] I don’t know. [00:40:03] Joe: Yeah. All of a sudden it’s like, no, I’m not gonna be replaced. You can’t replace me with a robot. Paula was back up with her final question and this one a year later also really, really interesting to see what’s, what’s changed because so much change in ai, and this was on everybody’s mind this time last year. [00:40:22] Paula from the past: Apple’s Vision Pro is coming out in 2024, so the spring 2024. It looks so cool, right? Doesn’t it? You know, spring 2024 is looking like it’s going to be a big time for tech. We’ve got the Bitcoin having event. We’ve got Apple’s Vision Pro coming out. So when Apple Vision Pro comes out, there may or may not be renewed interest in the Metaverse and we’ll see how, how that unfolds over the span of the year. [00:40:47] And so I am curious in terms of general popular adoption of Apple’s Vision Pro, right? And, and the way that culture changes through the adoption of new technology. I would like to know. By December 1st, will Apple sell more than 1 million units of its vision? Pro [00:41:13] Joe: one, they were geared up to sell 600,000 of these things. [00:41:18] We were so excited about it. Like you heard me say a year ago, how awesome this look when you watch the Mindy, did you see the commercials for these before they came out? [00:41:25] Mindy: No, that’s not my jam. [00:41:27] Joe: The headgear? No. Uh, Lynn, did you see the commercials for these before they came out? The Vision Pro? Uh, [00:41:34] Len: no. [00:41:35] Joe: Just amazing how it was gonna blend reality. [00:41:39] I. With all this other stuff around it, like I thought it looked great. The thing comes out, it’s very heavy. I kept seeing pictures of dorks people that look completely like dorks in a restaurant sitting across from each other. Both see wearing these headsets. Oh, I did see. Yes, yes, I saw that. Yes, yes. When it came out, it was the dumbest looking thing ever. [00:41:56] Yeah. And then it didn’t perform at all the way people hoped to perform. In fact, Tim Cook from Apple had to come out and say, well, this is for people that want the New Tech. And just a few weeks ago Apple announced that they are going to, or they haven’t already quit selling the Vision Pro and now they’re going to come out with the Vision Pro two. [00:42:14] They’re quote reworking it right now. They geared up to sell 600,000. Obviously they don’t tell exactly what their number is, but most people say even though Fast company back in July reported that this was a huge bomb, like the monster bomb, they actually did sell close to 600,000, but a far, far cry from the million do the million units that, uh, Paula was suggesting. [00:42:38] So the answer here is no. Did any of you guys buy one? [00:42:42] Len: No, but now I remember those videos you’re talking about. I they were showing people walking down the street with those things. They so dumb. They looked so stupid. Yes. And now I know exactly, I remember exactly what you’re talking about. [00:42:51] Joe: Yes. Yeah. But when you watch the commercials ahead of time, man, it looks sweet. [00:42:55] I was like, oh, I wanna get one of these. I can totally see why some of these early adopters went and bought one. And at the time we did this a year ago, I was like, oh, this is gonna be great, man. If this goes, I’m totally gonna own one. And then I’m like, why would I sit in a crowded restaurant across from somebody and not talk to them and instead, you know, and, and you’re making, you’re gesticulating in the air, like as you’re changing. [00:43:16] I don’t know. This is so weird. So the answer was no. Again, let’s see what the eight ball said. [00:43:24] Len: Yes. It’s certain. No. Only took him all day to answer that one. Now it’s certain. Now it’s certain. [00:43:30] Joe: Yeah. We, we asked it about 15 times and it finally became certain that yes, it was gonna sell a million. So. Len, it was going well. We’ve got three left and it’s only winning five four, I think. Well, you’re harsh. [00:43:42] Len: Only winning five. It’s winning. Joe, let’s take, let’s think positively here. Are you sweating or is the eight ball sweating? I’m sweating. I, this is, you know, this is like my little baby here. It’s like, don’t call my baby ugly. I’m always rooting for it. [00:43:57] Joe: Nobody puts the eight ball in a corner, right? Uh, Len, you were next. [00:44:02] Let’s see what you asked. It is your last question. [00:44:05] Len: Okay. So we’re talking to AI and I think Nvidia and I think they had a huge year this year. Huge. Uh, or the PA in 2020. Huge, huge year. My goodness. I think they were up more than 200% on the year, and now it’s. I think it’s over $400 is maybe pushing 500. [00:44:24] So will this continue? Because, and, and NVIDIA’s, because of the ai, the whole AI thing that they were just capitalizing on this now. So, um, will that continue? Will the stock double again from the close of 2023? Will it double? Ooh, by December 1st, by December we’re, we’re [00:44:42] Paula from the past: leaving that 25%, uh, thing that we’ve been doing. [00:44:45] Yeah. [00:44:45] Joe: Okay. So instead of asking at 25% will Nvidia double sounded ridiculous. Nvidia stock nearly tripled over the last year. Sounds like there’s no way it’s gonna double. Oh yes it can. June 7th of this year, they did a 10 to one stock split the stock trading, uh, much, much higher. The answer was yes. Yes it can. [00:45:09] Nvidia had the year of Yes it can. And did the eight ball think Nvidia could go up that much? [00:45:19] 8-ball: The answer [00:45:20] Joe: is yes. [00:45:21] OG: I’m going all in. [00:45:22] Joe: Wow. He was trying to, how about that man? Nvidia, I love [00:45:27] Mindy: it. [00:45:27] Joe: It is now six four for two questions. This could be impressive if it finishes strong here. Worst case scenario is it’s 500, which is what we’re all hoping for. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m hoping it gets, [00:45:41] Len: we’re not all [00:45:42] Joe: hoping, [00:45:42] Len: not [00:45:42] Joe: all of us. [00:45:43] Back at the beginning I was like, if it could just get 500 please and now we know that is assured as we go to OGs. Louis, [00:45:50] Len: let’s just set the table. Let’s set the table here. If it finishes two more yet correct answers, that’s a 75% prediction rate. That is impressive. Are you supposed to say it out loud, Lynn? [00:46:02] Are we supposed to say, actually said I say it out loud. Let me revel in my, in the glory now. Just J it. [00:46:09] Joe: Let’s see what OG said. Og. Yo, wait a minute. This is a penultimate question. Sorry. [00:46:16] OG: Penultimate question, correct? Ooh, uh, this one I got from the upstairs, AKA my boys. I said, was there anything that you’re curious about that we should ask the eight Ball for? [00:46:27] And, uh, they’re big cowboy fans. They’re loving the cowboy stuff right now. Uh, so my son was very specific in his cowboy question, will it be the Cowboys versus the bills in the Super Bowl? I I, I was like, do you want the Cowboys to win the bills part? I’m not so sure about, you know, he said, no [00:46:51] Joe: Wells versus Bill, the Billy Gold. [00:46:54] Len: They visitors don’t, don’t, don’t count on me. For people [00:46:57] Joe: that don’t follow sports will be the cowboys in the bills. I’m proud to announce, happy to announce that the Kansas City Chiefs beat the, uh, San Francisco 49 ERs. So neither team made it. Uh, sadly, OG the boys, uh, didn’t get either one of their picks, right. [00:47:13] OG: Dallas was bounced on the first, in the first round [00:47:16] Len: last year. Oh, I I thought you were talking about this year. That’s right. That was talking about the previous year. That’s right. That was talking about [00:47:21] OG: last year. Yeah. Yeah. We’re 14 months behind this. Yeah. No kidding. We’re we’re behind schedule. Wait. [00:47:26] Yeah, so it was wrong twice basically, or they were wrong twice. [00:47:30] Joe: The answer is no. The eight ball right now is six up, four down. Can it go to seven? Four? We’re hoping for a no. Well, we’re hoping for Yes it can. And the answer is no. Let’s qualify that. All right, here we go. [00:47:44] Len: Mr. Preo, what’d you say? He is getting tired. [00:47:49] Boy. He is not respond. Here we go. [00:47:55] Definitely not. [00:47:57] Joe: How about that [00:47:58] OG: Guaranteed winner for Mr. Predictive. We are [00:48:00] Joe: rolling baby. Seven up. Four down. Not a bad year either way here, but can we go to eight and four? Eight and four Len again? Len, to your point, what a great sweet year that would be Oh, what A [00:48:12] Len: year. I mean. Yeah. Let’s, let’s, oh my gosh, this is great. [00:48:15] Yeah. [00:48:16] Mindy: Mindy, your family into football. Yes, we are. And Joe, I have a fun little story. I successfully predicted who would be in the January, no, February, 2007 Super Bowl at the beginning of the year in 2006. [00:48:31] Len: Wow. Did you put money on it? [00:48:34] Mindy: No, I didn’t put money on it. Why would I do that? So I found myself pregnant and due on Super Bowl Sunday, and I said, oh great. [00:48:43] My Chicago Bears are gonna go in against the cults. In the Super Bowl, and I’m gonna be in labor and I’m not gonna be able to watch the Super Bowl. And it turns out that I wasn’t in labor. She was born three days later, but the Chicago Bears went up against the Colts. Wait, did you say I found myself pregnant. [00:48:59] Like you [00:49:00] Joe: had [00:49:00] Mindy: nothing to do with it. I, I did have a little bit to do with it. [00:49:02] OG: So I was sitting there one day and then I found myself pregnant [00:49:06] Mindy: once upon a time. I got knocked up and was due on Super Bowl Sunday. [00:49:12] Joe: She had no idea how that all worked. [00:49:14] Mindy: So I thought that my two favorite teams were gonna go in there and play each other. [00:49:17] And they did. And the Bears lost because they’re the Bears. [00:49:21] Joe: The Bears. Last year, Mindy, I bought tickets, but OG you know this. How about tickets before the season began? Because I thought that the, uh, Detroit Lions were gonna be pretty good last year and I bought tickets for the end of the season for my son and I to go watch them play in Dallas. [00:49:35] And had I wanted to sell them, I could have sold them for about double what I bought them for, which was really cool. We decided to go to the game and watch them get screwed. But that’s, that’s a whole, whole different thing. ’cause all’s well that ends well so far. Right. Lion’s having another good season. [00:49:50] I. Let’s find out the last question here. Can we go eight and four with the magic eight ball? Here was the question from our Facebook group. You know, we’ve seen a lot of talk about inflation this year. Of course, inflation finally maybe settling down, but if we have, you know, an economy that struggles next year, maybe inflation heats up again. [00:50:12] So I think that Vincent asked this question in a great way. He says on December 1st of next year. Let’s change this to the day we record Vincent. So it’s ’cause it’s gotta be a variable day. ’cause we gotta go to the store and see will a can of Arizona, Arizona tea still carry a price tag of 99 cents. [00:50:33] That’s almost like [00:50:33] Len: lens sandwich survey every year. Right? Wow. Or it’s like the Costco hotdog special of a dollar 50. Right. It’s been that way forever. Hot dog in the company. [00:50:41] Joe: Well, and I didn’t, I didn’t know that at the timeline until you said it there because I thought we were just asking about the random inflation, like your wonderful survey every year. [00:50:49] But it turns out that the creator, the founder of Arizona Tea Dom, full Tago, I think is how you pronounce his name. Don has promised that the tea would stay 99 cents. It’s been 99 cents forever and it would stay 99 cents just like the Costco hotdog. [00:51:06] Len: So That’s right. What does that tell you? That tells you about his margins are, are, are huge. [00:51:10] Right? So it probably cost him 4 cents to make a can of Arizona tea. But man, [00:51:14] Joe: it must have gone down a ton the past few years. You know what I mean? Those margins must be a lot, lot less. So I did some digging today and albertsons.com, one of the biggest supermarkets in the nation. Uh, you guys know what a can of Arizona Tea costs now? [00:51:31] 99 cents. 99 cents. It did stay the same again this year. So the eight ball answered, yes. Can the eight ball go from a pretty damn good year to a phenomenal year? Let’s find out. We need a yes. Eight ball. [00:51:55] Definitely not. Oh, oh, well. Still a great year. Magic eight ball seven. Seven, correct? Yeah. Five. Incorrect. That’s almost 60%. I think that’s, that’s better than a coin flip. That is the first part of today’s show. Now we gotta figure out what’s gonna occur in 2025. We’re gonna ask the eight ball. Well, I’ve got some good ones and I know talking to you guys ahead of time. [00:52:21] You do too. Let’s find out. Alright. Mindy Jensen, you’re gonna kick it off this year. What’s uh, the first thing you wanna ask Our magic eight ball? About 2025. [00:52:33] Mindy: Whew. I have so many questions that I wanna ask. I am going to, in keeping up with Paula’s, asking about the royals, I am going to go with American royalty. [00:52:43] Will Keeping Up With the Kardashians finally be canceled? [00:52:48] Joe: This is so important to our financial futures. So the Kardashians, uh, did you watch the [00:52:53] Mindy: Kardashians then the American royalty? I have spent 0% of my life watching the Kardashian show. [00:53:00] Joe: So, [00:53:01] Mindy: but they are self-made billionaires. They really are. They’re just amazing in every single possible way. [00:53:06] Joe: Oh, gee’s. A big fan. Big, big fan. I can tell. Yeah. Probably as big as me. So Will the Kardashians be canceled by December 1st of next year? Find out. [00:53:20] 8-ball: The answer is yes. Yeah. Oh, you’re happy about [00:53:25] Joe: that. [00:53:26] Mindy: I am not a [00:53:26] Joe: fan. It’ll just be replaced by something else. That’s true. Alright, so moving on. Uh, Len, what do you got man? [00:53:33] Len: Uh, let’s see, since I don’t, I don’t wanna get you riled up, Joe, so I’ll give you some sort of question. It relates to finances here, but I’m gonna go way out on a limb. [00:53:42] Let’s just make this fun. You know, there’s been a lot of companies declaring bankruptcy this year. A lot. Even some of the ones you would think the Dollar General stores and the Big Lots and Party City went out of Party Business, party City. Can you believe that? So, let’s see if this trend continues. I’m gonna go out with a really way out there and I’m gonna ask, uh, the eight Ball Magic eight Ball. [00:54:03] Will Macy’s declare bankruptcy? Will Macy’s declare bankruptcy in 2025 Macy’s? Yes. Wow. [00:54:16] Joe: Yes. The answer is absolutely yes. I don’t think that surprises you, Len, that the eight ball said [00:54:23] Len: yes. Well, I’m, I’m disappointed because I know we’re already, that’s going way out there. The eight ball’s. Really? Uh, he’s he’s pushing it. [00:54:30] Joe: You, you do think so. See, I I, I look at every mall in America. Are you [00:54:34] Len: serious? [00:54:34] You really think Macy’s is gonna go? I just [00:54:36] Joe: look at every mall in America. In any store. In any mall. Like we were driving by our one mall in Texarkana and I was telling my nephews who were here visiting over the holidays that, you know what? I didn’t even set foot in the mall once last year. Yeah. Me. I didn’t go. [00:54:53] Neither did I once, [00:54:54] Len: nor did I, [00:54:55] Joe: and maybe I went in once, maybe twice the year before that. Because you’re not a 12-year-old girl. No. Well, and and, and that is part of the problem of Mals, right? Like, I remember we were talking about this on a Stacky Benjamin show late last year that. Man, back in the day I had this, you know, you go to the record store, you go to the bookstore. [00:55:12] Yeah. You go to, you go to all these types, those stores are gone. [00:55:15] Len: Yeah, that’s true. All, all [00:55:17] Joe: gone. It is sad, but I [00:55:20] Len: don’t not see that. Like, I think, [00:55:22] Joe: okay. [00:55:23] Len: Yeah. I mean, you actually think that there’s a possibility it’s not way out there that it’s possible. That’s what you think. You think? I don’t, I think that’s absolutely impossible, but who knows? [00:55:33] I think it’s [00:55:33] Joe: horrible. But yeah, I do think it’s okay. Well, we’ll see. Without diving into their balance sheet, I haven’t, you know, I haven’t, yeah, I didn’t know you were gonna ask that. So I didn’t specifically dive into Macy’s balance sheet to see, but og, what do you got as your first question for the eight ball? [00:55:47] OG: Well, we were talking about, uh, mortgage rates before and I’m just gonna steal this one from Mindy so she doesn’t get it. So, uh, 30 year mortgage rates right now, about seven and a quarter as we record it today, depending on who you ask, but it’s right or out that, uh, my question is, will we find 30 year rates? [00:56:05] So the normal 30 year mortgage rate, will it be below six and a half at the end of this year? [00:56:12] Joe: 30 year mortgage rate below 30 year [00:56:13] OG: mortgage rate’s down 75 bips as the cool kids say. [00:56:18] Joe: But I would think based on current trends and kind of where we’re at right now, I don’t see that out of the realm of possibility. [00:56:23] I mean, Mindy, you’re in real estate. Do you see that out of that, that doesn’t sound like a wacky number that a year from now we might be 75 bips the way the cool kids say it. [00:56:32] Mindy: I was going to ask, will it drop below 6% this year? [00:56:37] OG: Oh, so his is gonna be a little, you wanna meet in the middle and share this one and say six and a quarter? [00:56:41] Mindy: Six and a quarter. [00:56:42] OG: Oh, okay. A two for one deal. Ask the full question og. Will 30 year mortgage rates be below six and one quarter percent? [00:56:51] Len: And it’s not by the end of the year, right? It’s by December 1st. It’s gotta be December 1st. Whatever day you wanna pick, buddy. Alright, one [00:56:56] OG: more time. Hog. Well, 30 year rates be below six and a quarter on whatever day Joe or Len decides to check this December 1st in 2025. [00:57:07] December 1st. [00:57:12] 8-ball: The [00:57:12] Joe: answer [00:57:13] 8-ball: is no. [00:57:14] Joe: Mm. It won’t be, well, eight ball’s predicting something that maybe we don’t know. But if we, if we talk about Macy’s bankruptcy, if it says Macy’s bankruptcy Yes. And interest rate’s high, that’s not a good thing. Like if the eight ball’s right on those two, it might be him for some bad stuff. [00:57:32] Bad juju. [00:57:33] Len: Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’ll see. [00:57:34] Joe: Let’s go to the Facebook group for our next one. We got some great questions as always, such as a couple that I won’t ask, like will OG write the book? He keeps threatening to Melvin asked that one. Um, he didn’t say threatening to, he said the book that he’s talked about. [00:57:49] We’ll see. Aaron asked, well, the 30 year mortgage rate dropped below 5%. Ryan wants to know if the US is gonna actually buy Greenland, but let’s go with this one. We saw this last year, you know, some disturbing devastation from hurricanes. And Vincent asked a question. It’s unlike one that we’ve asked here before. [00:58:11] He said the official hurricane season is considered over on December 1st. So in 2025, Len, will the Atlantic Basin produce 15 or more named storms and or strike the continental US with three or more named storms? That’s what he wants to know. Obviously, we hope that answers no, but, um, man, this year we had a tough year. [00:58:33] So [00:58:33] Len: that’s a toughie. That’s like a double, double question. That’s a double question. [00:58:37] Joe: I think we just gotta ask if three. Let’s just ask the three. Yeah. Does the mainland get hit by three? Yeah. Hurricanes. There you go. [00:58:43] Len: All right. Ready? Here we go. Let’s see. [00:58:51] 8-ball: Definitely. Yes. [00:58:53] Joe: Oh, that’s not good. Interest. Interest rates up. Macy’s bankrupt and we hit by hurricanes. It’s the apocalypse. Happy New Year. Everyone. Min, you’re up next on your second question. You wanna ask about zombies next? Yeah. Holy cow. What else could go wrong? [00:59:11] Mindy: Well, if we’re throwing all those things in there, let’s say, is the US gonna get involved in a war this year? [00:59:17] Joe: We have to define what get involved in a war actually means. And by, yeah, I [00:59:23] OG: guess, I mean, we’re, we’re involved in lots of, [00:59:28] Mindy: will the United States be the aggressor against another country in a war or war-like scenario in 2025? [00:59:39] OG: Have we ever been the aggressor? [00:59:41] Mindy: I think that’s debatable. [00:59:43] Joe: I don’t know how we define that. [00:59:45] Len: Mindy, I I’m sorry. You obviously, you didn’t take the training did you? Before the Magic eight ball training before you came on the podcast? [00:59:52] Joe: She skipped the mandatory HR [00:59:53] Len: session. Yes. [00:59:56] OG: Do over, [00:59:57] Mindy: I have other questions. I was just, we’re talking about all this. Well, doom and glue, homeless pestilence. We could also talk about war. [01:00:04] Uh, do you want it to be happier? [01:00:06] Joe: What about, [01:00:07] Mindy: I could do a different [01:00:07] Joe: one. You know, I was thinking at first like fire missiles, but then we fire missiles against terrorists, uh, you know, in Syria. They were doing it in 2024. Right. So what do you. How do you, how do we define that? [01:00:23] OG: We got good guys everywhere. [01:00:24] There’s bad guys. [01:00:26] Len: Yeah. I assure you. Yeah. Only way you could really do is you’d have to say, would Congress declare war or something like that? That’s the, that’s the problem [01:00:34] Joe: is we never declare, declare Vietnam war. Of course, I, [01:00:37] Len: yes, I know, but I’m saying that’s something that, that’s one definitive way you could say. [01:00:40] Sure. [01:00:42] Mindy: Well, were we in, like, was Iraq a war? Was Afghanistan a war [01:00:48] OG: like Congress? No. [01:00:51] Mindy: Okay. I don’t wanna do any more doom and gloom because that’s not very fun. So let’s talk about the stock market. Will the Dao close above 50,000 by December 1st? 2025. [01:01:04] Joe: Wow. That’s there. Just, that’s good. Dow Jones. I would like it to Jones. [01:01:08] Well, before you ask it, Len, let’s talk about where the Dow Jones Industrial average is today. ’cause a of our fans do not, uh, follow or we at today, Mindy? [01:01:18] Mindy: I believe we are at the, uh, 42,000 today. 42528.36 at this very moment. [01:01:26] Joe: Not, not at all specific. [01:01:27] Mindy: Oh, well, I guess it’s closed. Yeah, so there you go. [01:01:29] Joe: Yeah. F 40 [01:01:30] Len: 2005, 2030. [01:01:32] That’s healthy. 2020 5% rise to get there. Oh, that’d be three years in a row. Len. How great would that be, guys? I don’t, has that ever happened to the Dow going up 20% or so and Macy’s is bankrupt and Macy’s bankrupt. [01:01:45] Mindy: Well, I’m hoping that you’re wrong on that. Macy’s being bankrupt and I So too, three hurricanes thing. [01:01:50] Alright, Len, what’s it gonna be? [01:01:57] 8-ball: It is best not to say no. [01:01:59] Joe: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We. Yes. It’s certain, it’s certain, it’s certain. I dunno how all this magic happens, but it happened this year. I mean, we got lots of bankruptcies, Len, we had lots of bankruptcies, we had wild hurricanes and we had, [01:02:20] Len: so it could, the eight ball works in mysterious ways. [01:02:24] So let’s, you know, it’s diving deep into the future and who knows? Only the eight ball knows. [01:02:30] Joe: Is that what it’s doing? I always thought, I’ve often wondered what the eight ball’s doing. [01:02:34] Mindy: Can I get an early copy of this show so that I can take it to my lender? [01:02:38] Joe: Got to, yeah. This is, uh, proof right here. Len, what’s your second question? [01:02:44] Len: Okay, let’s see. It is, as I’m looking here, oh yeah, here’s a good one. Of course, I’ve gotta do a precious metals question, right? Let’s shift over from gold. Let’s go to silver this year. I wanna know if silver, let’s see. Right now it’s sitting about 30. Will it get to $40 by December 1st? $40. [01:03:06] Joe: Oh, that’d be a nice thing. [01:03:07] I, I remember we had, we had our silver expert, uh, David Moron, and David had this great, quite a love land that said that silver will frustrate you just a little longer than you’ll have money. [01:03:19] Len: Silver is a weird creature because it’s, it’s supposed to be a store of value, and it is, but it’s in a frustrating way. [01:03:25] It, it goes up and it goes down for long periods and, um, it’s only over the very long term that it remains a true store of value. And the reason for that is it’s not just money, it is also used in industrially. So when the economy tanks, uh, silver tends to tank too, which is kind of counterintuitive, but that’s just the way it is. [01:03:45] So if you’re gonna play around with silver, you gotta hold it for a long, long time. So the question again is, yes. Will silver by December 1st be $40? $40? Let me get the thing going. Here we go. [01:04:03] 8-ball: Without hesitation. Yes. [01:04:05] Len: Wow. Did you hear the enthusiasm in in eight ball’s? Voice? Did you hear that? I mean, it was enthusiastic. We, we’ll see. Well it was very [01:04:13] Joe: enthusiastic this year about gold. That was the first one to cut right? This [01:04:16] Len: year. Yeah, [01:04:17] Joe: it was. Yeah. Hey, it’s [01:04:17] Len: gold. [01:04:18] Joe: We’ll see. So, I don’t know, last couple questions. [01:04:20] It’s looking up. Yeah, I thought it was gonna be the apocalypse. Now I’m like, well, maybe it’s a split kind of year like we had this year. Okay. Og, your second question. [01:04:30] OG: I have a high school senior this year who has four months left in his high school career. And uh, a lot of questions about where he is gonna go to college. [01:04:39] Has a lot of different options, but I’m curious if he’ll get into his number one. School. So will my son. What? What’s so funny? [01:04:51] Joe: Nothing, I’m, I’m just thinking a good financial question. It is a good financial question for you. [01:04:56] OG: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. [01:04:57] Joe: Because you wanna know how much you owe. How [01:04:59] OG: much do I owe [01:05:01] Joe: magic? [01:05:02] April, how screwed am I? [01:05:04] OG: All right. Will my son next year on December 1st be enrolled at the University of Michigan? Wow. Let’s see. [01:05:19] 8-ball: It’s a certainty. Oh, [01:05:20] OG: oh crap. Will I be bankrupt December 1st? [01:05:28] Len: Ouch. What is tuition there? Just outta curiosity, [01:05:32] OG: outta state, all in room and board, et cetera. Cost of attendance is what they will quote you is in the, uh, high seventies, low eighties for out of state, you know, now grants and aid and scholarship and whatnot. [01:05:47] Notwithstanding, oh my gosh, [01:05:49] Joe: I just don’t understand. It’s a Michigan State guy. Why somebody wanna be that gross anyway. Like, seriously, why do you wanna go to that disgusting place [01:05:56] OG: and pay that much? Woo. Honestly, just so everybody doesn’t send me a bunch of hate mail, a lot of it will come down to the monetary stuff of it. [01:06:04] He’s accepted to, what was his number one school? You know, prior to the whole Michigan thing. And so that’s an in-state public quote unquote normal college and was his number one school. And then he’s also accepted into another private school with the potential to get a full ride scholarship. So we’ll know more about that in the next couple of months as they finish out the [01:06:24] Joe: process. [01:06:25] Yeah, but it sounds like none of that matters. You’re going to be broke this time next year, [01:06:29] OG: the OG family. Well, I mean, not exactly. I mean, honestly, if he gets accepted then there’s obvious discussions that we have to have around how this is gonna affect plant. Have you [01:06:39] Len: told him that plumbing and electricians, they’re good careers too. [01:06:42] Did you tell him that? Uh, yes. [01:06:44] OG: If you met my, my oldest, you would understand that there’s, uh, he wouldn’t know what a wrench is if it dunked him in the head [01:06:50] Joe: and knowing, oh gee, it’s dunked him in the head a couple times already. [01:06:54] OG: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. Lord willing, if Mr. [01:07:00] Predict O is correct, uh, we will also get lots of scholarship. [01:07:04] Joe: As we record, uh, OGs gonna have to leave early today. So, uh, OG let’s take your final question and then, uh, we’ll wrap it up for the rest of us. [01:07:14] OG: Uh, can I have a very meta question? Is it about Facebook? You mean meta? Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, it’s about Mr. [01:07:20] Predict O or is that how allowed [01:07:22] Joe: Oh, [01:07:23] OG: sure. Can you have a self-fulfilling, yeah, yeah. Spirally question. Let’s, let’s, my, my question about Mr. Predictor is, will it be over 50%? [01:07:30] Len: Oh, this is almost like the universe turns in on itself if you know the answer. That’s [01:07:35] OG: what I mean. It’s like a, [01:07:36] Len: it’s [01:07:36] OG: like a [01:07:36] Len: black [01:07:37] OG: hole. [01:07:38] Len: Yeah. Collapsing. Let’s find out. I’ve got [01:07:40] OG: a better one. If we don’t wanna do the circular logic of, you know, if we get an Excel error of circle function, I’m like, how do [01:07:46] Joe: we, how do we turn that? I feel like it’s when you do the camera thing into a mirror and it just shows. Yes, exactly. That’s exactly [01:07:52] OG: what I was thinking too. [01:07:53] It’s like five and four and it doesn’t know how to answer the question. Yes, exactly. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. It’s if I’m right, then I’m right, but I’m wrong, but I’m right. We’ve reached the event horizon. Exactly, yes. Here’s a better one. Will we have identified what all the drones are flying over all these random cities by this time? [01:08:12] December 1st, [01:08:18] 8-ball: everything [01:08:19] OG: points to Yes. Ah, okay. Good. So they’re just airplanes. [01:08:23] Len: I don’t know, man. The eight ball. I should take it to the back room ’cause I really think it, it, this eight ball is, uh, he’s really going out on a limb this year for most of these questions. [01:08:32] Joe: Come on. [01:08:32] OG: Len used [01:08:33] Joe: to work in that [01:08:33] Len: industry. [01:08:34] OG: I was gonna say, can I just ask a different question? [01:08:36] Will Len tell us what all those things are flying around here? You know what I’ll, [01:08:39] Len: honestly, I think I did. I did, I told you this before. One of the last things I did right before I retired, I was working just, just for fun. I was on a little project for a major company, drones. We were working on giant drones. [01:08:51] I was testing engines. The, the propellers, huge propellers for huge drones. So. They’re still not out. I haven’t seen ’em out yet, but you should see the size of these drone drones. They’re all in New York. No, these are huge drones. Huge. I [01:09:05] Joe: was on a road trip and finishing the evening in, uh, Memphis. It’s about four hours from home, and I got a hotel so I could start early the next day. [01:09:12] And as I went by the Memphis Airport, I saw two huge drones over the airstrip there, which ostensibly, because that’s home of a lot of FedEx stuff, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, FedEx using some big, big, big drones that were just hovering over the. Over the airport. [01:09:28] Len: Okay. Well, so it could be that, it could be another company, but something similar to Yes. [01:09:32] And if they’re huge drones. Yes. That’s what, um, they, they’ve been working on those for years. These are humongous payloads that these things are capable of carrying. So, yeah. [01:09:43] Joe: So you’re saying they’re not Chinese drones that are coming to get us? [01:09:46] Len: No, [01:09:46] OG: it’s just, it’s just FedEx delivering all their, all your crap for Christmas. [01:09:50] Everybody’s panicking. And FedEx is like, dude, do you want this stuff next day delivered? Or don’t you take your pick, take your pick here. What do you wanna have happen? Come on. Do you want it on your front porch or do you want it to take a month? Dealer’s choice. All right, so the answer there was. Yes, we will know. [01:10:07] Yes. It said we’ll know. Yes, it did say good. So then I feel good about that. [01:10:10] Joe: Let’s do then, uh, the next one from our friends in mom’s basement. And I really like this one because heck, this year we had gold up so much as we talked about, and we also had Bitcoin up a lot. This is a fantastic question from Aaron. [01:10:25] On that very point, will Bitcoin outperform gold before December? First of next year, will Bitcoin outperform gold? [01:10:36] Len: And that’s for the year right? Starts. So from January 1st to December 1st, right? [01:10:39] Joe: January 1st to December 1st. Let’s find out. [01:10:46] 8-ball: Now is not the right time to tell you. Well, it’s gotta be Mr. Predictive’s. Like I’m tired. Isn’t a [01:10:53] Joe: winning record enough thought you ask me more. More. Ask him again, Joe. All right, will Bitcoin, or did, did I say, will gold out outperform Bitcoin? We’ll, gold outperform Bitcoin. In 2025, between January 1st and December 1st, [01:11:14] 8-ball: everything points to yes. [01:11:15] Joe: How about gold over Bitcoin this coming year? Well, I would say something about the volatility of Bitcoin, right? Because who know? I mean, roll the dice. Where are we gonna be in the next 12 months? [01:11:25] Len: And talk about silver. It’s like silver. It’s big swings in both directions, so, yep. [01:11:29] Joe: That is one thing though, with the new administration. I mean, all the talk about crypto and the new administration and more favorable policies toward crypto, who knows where that’s gonna go, but [01:11:38] Len: you know, know what you know, which crypto coin’s really been outperforming lately is fart coin. You you heard of that, right? [01:11:43] Fart? Yes. Oh God, no. Yes, yes. Fart coin. That thing’s ripping. [01:11:55] OG: Sorry. And on that note, [01:11:59] Joe: OGs like, gotta go. [01:12:00] OG: Exit stage 11. Busy, busy, busy. And I will see you guys later. [01:12:05] Joe: See you later. Og. [01:12:07] OG: Wrap it up, [01:12:10] Joe: Mindy. Let’s get your last one. [01:12:13] Mindy: Okay, so way back when, a hundred years ago, in 1990, I was in college and I was taking a business class. This was back when you had to get the stock prices on the newspaper because the internet either didn’t exist or I didn’t have it. [01:12:28] Yeah, [01:12:29] Joe: I do those before my client meetings. By the way. I go in and find out the closing price of the day before and take out my calculator and figure it out for clients. It’s funny. Yeah, I remember those days. Yeah, you look [01:12:38] Len: at the newspaper and have all the stock prices. Yeah. [01:12:41] Joe: Yeah. I kind of miss my HP 12 C by the way. [01:12:44] I, I love that calculator. Anyway, back to you. Enough reminiscing. [01:12:49] Mindy: So in the business class, we were supposed to pick one stock at the beginning of the year and just follow it. And people were, you know, they had their favorite or whatever. And I just went like this and stuck my finger out and I landed on Berkshire Hathaway and I was like, this is really expensive. [01:13:05] Is that for one share of stock? And I wanna say it was like $20,000, but maybe I’m way wrong. ’cause I don’t remember what the price was. I just remember that it was this, it [01:13:14] Joe: was still a lot. Yeah. [01:13:14] Mindy: Yeah. Everything else was like $12 and this is 20,000. Like, it, it had this giant space in the, the tiny was [01:13:21] Len: 20,007 eighths, if you [01:13:24] Mindy: remember. [01:13:24] Yeah. Okay. So 20,000, I did remember that. Right. So if I would’ve bought a share back then, uh, it would’ve taken all my money. I wanna know if Berkshire Hathaway A shares, because they have since split into a and b shares, will a shares hit $950,000 a share by December [01:13:44] Joe: 1st, a share and for, for, just again, for people that don’t follow it, where’s it trading at as we record this? [01:13:49] Mindy, [01:13:50] Mindy: it is not up in my thing, so thank you so much for asking. After I closed it out. Berkshire Hathaway class a price quotes. It is right now at $678,680, but for the last year in 2024, it went from a low of $549,000 in January. To a high of $724,000 in November. So it’s not outside the realm of possibility, even though it is currently trading at 679,000 or what. [01:14:33] But [01:14:33] Joe: we saw it this year from the stock market, from gold, from Bitcoin. Like we talked about the last hour. Like none of this is out of the Yeah, Nvidia. Yeah, it’s all over the place. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. So, okay, there you go. Is it gonna hit nine or 50,000 this year, Lynn? [01:14:52] 8-ball: Yes. It’s certain [01:14:53] Mindy: cha ching. I get all excited like this is actually gonna be, yes, it’s totally gonna happen. [01:14:58] Len: So how many shares do you have of there, Mindy? 5, 6, 7. Well, she does own shares. [01:15:03] Mindy: I do own shares, but I don’t own A shares. Oh, okay. I own B shares, which are trading a little bit less than the A shares. [01:15:09] A shares are 678,000 B shares are like $480. So you can buy a fraction of a share. I don’t know how the A’s and the B’s work, I didn’t really pay attention to that. But if you own one share of Berkshire Hathaway B stock, you could get into the annual meeting, which they hold every year. [01:15:27] Joe: Very cool. Which Mindy, I know. [01:15:28] Not only have you done, but you’ve said before, you’ve actually asked a question at the meeting. I [01:15:32] Mindy: asked a question at the meeting. I was, oh my God, I was so nervous. I swear everybody could hear my heart pounding outta my chest. But it was wonderful. That gave me an idea, Joe, why don’t you [01:15:41] Len: start issuing shares and then people can, you know, if they buy enough shares, they can have dinner with you or something. [01:15:47] Or, or something fun. Will Stacking Benjamins go bankrupt. That’s the next, [01:15:53] Mindy: you can have your own coin. You could have JSS coin. I could, [01:15:57] Joe: yes. Like the fart coin. Gimme a break. Yeah. [01:15:59] Mindy: Yeah. Well, JSS is very similar to a different letter. J sounds a whole lot like a. JSS coin. [01:16:07] Joe: My cousin’s name. My cousin’s name, which they figured out when they tried to do the, for a while there, they were doing that monogram on the sweater of people’s initials. [01:16:16] Mm-hmm. Her name is Amy Saul-Sehy and, uh, yeah. Yeah. So that wasn’t working out that well. It’s a little awkward. Wouldn’t you do that math ahead of time? Oh, look at that. HP 12 C people that watch in our video. That’s a, [01:16:32] Len: that’s a 15 C. That’s the engineering version. That’s the 15 C 12 C’s, the finance version. [01:16:37] Joe: Oh, thank God. I’m wearing pants. Yes. [01:16:41] Mindy: Just let out Nerd Joe. He did [01:16:46] Len: was the 12 C reverse polish notation. Everything was reverse. Yeah. Polish. Everything was, it was reverse. You had to put it all in reverse. Yes. Right. Yes. I didn’t know. I never [01:16:53] Joe: called it reverse polish, but yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. All right. [01:16:56] That’s Mindy’s last question. All right, Len, you are up to bat my friend. I. [01:17:01] Len: I am gonna go with a kind of a, a fun one. Uh, if you don’t mind, Joe, don’t, don’t bite my head off here, but this, this, you know, Taylor Swift’s still big news and all that still, even though here turn of 2025, I wanna know if, uh, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are gonna get engaged by December 1st. [01:17:19] Joe: Well, and the other question is then if they do get engaged, do we, do we stop getting every four minutes of my football game? Taylor Swift cycle. Yes, [01:17:25] Len: exactly. [01:17:26] Joe: I feel like I, I see as much Taylor Swift when you watch the Kansas City Chiefs as you see Travis Kelsey. It’s [01:17:32] Len: true. It looks like she’s drinking a Coca-Cola now. [01:17:35] Maybe I should apologize for that question, but you know what, just go with it. America wants to know Len. Okay, well that’s fantastic. She’s [01:17:40] Mindy: permeated every other aspect of the world. She can permeate the Stacking Benjamin Show tour. [01:17:46] Joe: Well, and you think about this year, I mean, let’s talk about making money guys for just a second, because, you know, in a year when Beyonce had a huge tour and Pink had a huge tour, I mean, you didn’t hear about ’em. [01:17:55] All you heard about was. The Taylor Swift Aris tour. Yeah. Yeah. That’s all you heard? [01:18:00] Mindy: Yeah. Well, if you have teenage girls in your house. Yes. Did you go to one? I didn’t, but Carl and Claire ended up going to one. They did go. Did Carl like it? Yeah, Carl said it was, she puts on a really great show. [01:18:12] Joe: That’s what I’ve heard is good. [01:18:14] Yes. Well, let’s see if she and Travis are gonna put on a great show. All right. So Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. Uh, will they be engaged by December 1st of next year? [01:18:30] 8-ball: Ask later when the time is right. [01:18:33] Joe: Well, and it’s interesting, Lynn, because I said next year anyway, so I gotta ask that again. Will Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift be engaged by December 1st of this year? [01:18:44] 8-ball: The answer you seek is yes. [01:18:48] Joe: Oh, that doesn’t seem farfetched though. Not at all. Not really, man. There’s a bunch of questions by stackers that were so good. Will the IRS finally audit the government? Johnny asks, will neighbor Doug wear pants while weed whacking his yard? Will Canada become the 51st state? [01:19:06] Uh uh Will Bitcoin become the official US currency? Will Doug become the new Fed chair? Lots and lots of fun ones. I think we are going to end this one with one that Glen asked that I think the world wants to know, and we’ll know this by December 1st of next year, and I hope the answer here is yes, everybody. [01:19:29] But Glenn asked the question, will the Detroit Lions. Win the Super Bowl in 2025. And I know all of America wants that to be Yes, because it’s America’s team and I know either we lost people or they’re all all glued in, who knows? But uh, what’s the answer to that one? Will Detroit Lines be the Super Bowl Champs 2025? [01:19:58] 8-ball: Yes, [01:19:59] Joe: there it is. Oh, it’s gonna be a great year. Hey, that’s pretty good. Who cares about hurricanes and devastation? It’s the cherry on top. Very good. Oh, that’s so good. So there you have it everybody. Those are the predictions for next year. You have to tune in again 12 months from now to hear Mindy OG and Len and I go and, uh, see what happens. [01:20:21] But it looks like we’re gonna have another year, like we had this year. A lot of surprises this year and I. Kind of surprisingly, the eight ball figured out more than, than it got wrong. [01:20:33] Len: Yeah, it did Better than a coin. So we gotta give a little credit. I wish I would’ve got that last question, but hey, we will take, uh, we’ll take seven out of 12. [01:20:39] Joe: I consider that to be a pretty good year. Yeah. And the quality of the stuff, I mean, Nvidia going up it, it said yes. Dallas Cowboys, uh, no, [01:20:48] Len: the gold at 2,500, which was a huge, that was laughable. And it, it said yes and it did it, it was right there too. So the [01:20:54] Joe: change in political parties. Yeah, taking over the White House, it got right. [01:20:59] So some of the major events of 2024, well, 2025. We’ll see what happens. But you know what? You don’t have to wait a full year to find out what’s happening where Mindy and Len live. So let’s ask, uh, we’ll go ladies first. Mindy Jensen, what’s happening at the BiggerPockets Money Podcast? [01:21:16] Mindy: Podcast? We are continuing to talk to people with interesting money stories. [01:21:20] We recently released an interview with Ramit Satie and we have never heard of [01:21:25] Joe: him. [01:21:25] Mindy: Just some random guy. And, uh, Lauren from CFI Sim. We walk through the CFI SIM calculator, which is the fire simulator. Is your financial plan gonna work? Yeah. It’s a really fascinating walkthrough. Her calculators. I [01:21:41] Joe: love Lauren. [01:21:42] I hung out. I got to hang out with Lauren at economy. I. I found out with Lauren at a couple economies. [01:21:47] Mindy: Yes, I have too. And I’m gonna hang out with Lauren again at Economy this year. [01:21:50] Joe: Me too. Which means I’m hanging out with you, the economy. Yay. Which is always fantastic. Glen, you gonna join us CI Cincinnati for economy this March. [01:21:59] Come on. [01:22:00] Mindy: Come on Cincinnati in March. Glen, come on. [01:22:03] Len: I know it’s beautiful, huh? Yeah. No, I don’t think so. [01:22:06] Joe: Do we ask the magic eight Paul about that? Will the weather suck? We’re economy. No, we’re not gonna [01:22:09] Len: just, I don’t want ’em to get it wrong. I don’t wanna end up being in Cincinnati in in March. No. [01:22:14] Mindy: Will the weather suck? [01:22:15] Yes. But will you have a good time at economy anyway also? Yes, [01:22:18] Joe: absolutely. Yes, because the weather’s been cold every year and we still find a way to have a great time at economy. Len Penso, thanks for bringing along the eight ball again, my friend. What’s, uh, going on@lenpenso.com? Well, [01:22:29] Len: I, um, I got a lucky interview with Maria Bar Romo. [01:22:32] You guys know Maria Bar Romo of, of Fox? Yes. Apparently she’s a big fan of mine and, uh, I arranged an interview with her, so we’ll be talking with Maria. It’s absolutely Fanta and, and you’re not kidding. Yeah, I’m kidding. It’s like, [01:22:48] Joe: but the Ramone, I’ve, the Ramone wrote a song about Maria Omo, and I’m not kidding, you know that Len, don’t you? [01:22:55] What? The Ramones wrote a song about Maria Barga Romo. Oh, I didn’t know that. But the money, honey. I, [01:23:00] Len: I love Maria. I think she’s awesome. I, she’s, I’m a big fan of, of Maria’s. Yeah. So if you listen to Maria, give me a DM on Twitter and we’ll, uh, we’ll work something out. Okay. [01:23:09] Joe: I’m sure she’s a big fan of len penso.com and anytime. [01:23:11] You can [01:23:11] Len: always come by lenzo.com. On Saturdays we have, uh, our weekly financial roundups. It’s just a funny thing, wrap up of the best, uh, tweets and memes of the week, uh, related to finance. And I add the squirrel cam every week. Now squirrel cam is in there, so. If only [01:23:27] Joe: you had fun, come on. I just wish you were having fun. [01:23:29] If you were having fun, it’d be so much better, right? That’s at le penso.com where finer blogs are, and you’ll hear BiggerPockets of money where if you listen to podcasts, we’ll have links to both of your amazing works at uh Stacking Benjamins dot com in our show notes. Alright, Doug, you’ve got it from here, man. [01:23:47] Thank you everybody for hanging out with us today. Doug, what should we have learned from today’s eight ball episode? [01:23:53] Doug: So what’s stacked up on our to-do list for today? First, take some advice from our Magic eight ball and don’t try to predict the future. Just like our eight ball. You might be right some of the time, but why bet on it when you can instead invest in your future. [01:24:09] Second. Do we have a second one? Yeah, we’re good. I think we’ll just go with that. But what’s the big lesson? Asking the magic eight ball if you’ll be rich someday, might be fun. But asking Joe’s mom if you can borrow money. That’s a prediction you don’t want to test. Thanks to Mindy Jensen for joining us today. [01:24:32] You’ll find Mindy’s show BiggerPockets money wherever you are listening to us now. We’ll also include links in our show notes at Stacking Benjamins dot com. Thanks to Len Penso for hanging out with us. You’ll find his fabulous blog, len penso.com on your favorite browser. Go there. Check out the squirrel cam, click the add. [01:24:54] It’s a blast. Thanks also to OG for joining us today. Looking for good financial planning. Help head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash OG for his calendar. This show is the Property of SP podcasts llc, copy 2025, and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy. Joe gets some help from a few of our neighborhood friends. [01:25:18] You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com, along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. Oh yeah, and before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. [01:25:37] This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Mom’s neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show. [01:25:54] I.
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