[0:01]Hello, and welcome back to Financially Speaking. My name's Logan Waller from Buska Retirement Solutions and Buska Wealth Management. Today, we're going to be talking about precious metals and whether they belong in your retirement strategy, especially in today's market environment. With ongoing market volatility, inflation concerns, geopolitical tension, and just questions about interest rates, many investors are asking this question, should I own golden silver or other precious metals, and if so, how much? So, as we go through today, uh, and and this this topic here, if you would like more information about what we're talking about, give us a call at 715-355-4445. Or you can visit us on our website retirewithbuska.com, and don't forget, you can subscribe to our podcast here through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or even YouTube. But before we dive in, with no further ado, let me introduce my co-host here, Tony Shore. Tony, how are you today? Well, you know, yes, you know what yesterday was. So, how do you think I'm doing today? Uh, I don't feel any older, but yesterday was my birthday. Birthday? And Logan, what do you think? Are you going to guess an age? Well, I was going to say, you only turned 70 once, so, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. How can I remove you from the show? Let's see. I'm contracted to be here now. Yeah. But what was it? Uh was it was it a big uh monumental age? It was 60. 60. I was going to guess 50. So, I know, in all seriousness, though, looking good for your age. Yeah, yeah, thanks. I I appreciate that. Uh, you got a ways to go to catch up with me, but uh, I honestly don't I I don't believe I'm actually aging. I mean, every year that that number goes up, but I don't feel any older, so. That's the way it should be. It's just a number. It's just a number. It's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. So, yeah, I'm I'm kind of the old guy around here. Uh, I got a lot of young young folk running around here. So, and and there I'd probably be the oldest there at the office too. Oh, yeah, yeah, most likely. Yeah. We have a lot of youngsters there. Well, comparatively, not sick. Yeah. And you know where my mind goes as an advisor. I'm like, oh, he's over 59 and a half. Let's start working some strategies. Well, I got I got news for you. Uh, you know Jeff Foley, uh, and uh I got a call from him on my 59 and a half, the day. Like, I'm I don't keep track of half birthdays. I think that's ridiculous and why the government made that rule 59 and a half when you could access your retirement accounts or move them around.
[3:04]Hey, we have to be on top of things as advisors, so I don't blame him at all. No, that was funny. I I I gave him a hard time about it, though. Well, hey, you know, how about you though? Okay, enough about me. What's Logan been up to? You just got back, you took a vacation, a well deserved vacation.
[3:25]Yes, I went south down to Cancun, and I was very proud of myself because I am notorious for not reapplying sunscreen and always come back looking like a a lobster, but this time, sunburn free. Very proud of myself. Yeah. You look great, in fact. Looks like you got a little color, but you're not sunburned. Uh, I have three stages. Here's the problem. Doesn't matter what I do, white, burn, and peel. Those are my three. There is no tan. I mean, I'm half English, half Irish, it's white, burn, and peel. Well, no, that's great. I bet you enjoyed that time away. Yes, the job never stops, of course. So, I'm still, you know, checking things behind the scenes, but it was nice to have a I I like a good reset once in a while, just like Yes, yeah. Moving furniture around in your house. It's just a nice refresh, reset, and then come back and get get to it. So, Yeah. Well, I know I know that you love your clients and the people in our community and love working with them. So, in that way, you're glad to be back. I encourage our listeners out there to pick up the phone, give you a call or go to the website. Uh, you love hearing feedback, and if they have questions, the number is 715-355-4445. Okay, let's jump into our topic. Uh, I hate to even bring up the markets right now because Oh. Buckle up, buttercup. Yeah. That's a perfect way to put it right now. Yeah. We have some some movement, um, some volatility. Sure. And and that's why I I think uh precious metals is a a great discussion right now. Right. Because typically, we we start to have more and more questions about precious metals when we're in an environment like we are right now. So, you have that market volatility within the stocks, bonds, and in those specific business sectors that could be impacted by uh, actions taken by um, our administration, whether it's policy driven or more uh, uh, international related things. Um, but it all goes back to the market volatility, um, thinking about sticky inflation concerns. I mean, we we all uh uh aren't uh uh, naive to see that our government isn't the greatest at balancing a budget, so just our our rising national debt. No, we've never had a Every single administration, every political party. Yeah, rising national debt's a big one. Um, so with all the the uncertainty of all those things listing, that's typically or historically where precious metals like uh, specifically golden silver really uh, come up the most because they are viewed as a hedge against inflation, Um, more of a a store of value. So, they're not fluctuating as rapidly as uh, uh, equities, stocks, uh, things like that. And uh, a lot of people like to use the term a safe haven during these uncertain times, or when the market is uh, really, really up and down the peaks and valleys and all that. Sure. And with all the geopolitical tensions globally, obviously, Iran, um, all of these things lead to people looking at precious metals, and I know we've seen we saw a huge upswing, you know, gold, uh, went through the roof, silver did for a while, then it dropped back down, then it was back up. But then people think, well, should I move everything to gold? But you want to remind them, gold for like ten years went down for a ten year stretch. If you're going to retire and need that money to live on, you definitely, gold is actually pretty risky, isn't it? Yeah, and that's what we'll discuss throughout today, because and we really refer to this is right now with a lot of the questions around golden silver, precious metals, is it more of fear driven investing, or is it actually part of your strategic diversification? Good question. And I would, and and I would side more on the fear driven right now. So, depending what channels you're watching and all that, we all know at the end of the day, marketing is uh how businesses grow and function, and that even goes with precious metals. So, depending on what you're watching, you are going to see a ton of commercials right now about buying gold and silver because the prices are high. Yeah. But we know the old saying, buy low, sell high, not buy high, and then sell low. So, being that we're at a lot of these all-time highs and like you just mentioned, silver went down, went back up, it's it's uh with precious metals, it's not going to be your normal movement.
[8:00]There are times where it goes up, but then it typically plateaus and doesn't move at all for a number of of years, or it's it's different every time, but it's it's not it's more stagnant. Yes, yeah, exactly. Uh, and so metals don't necessarily produce income, but they can play a role in risk management. Obviously, it's a hedge against if the dollar's doing bad, people move to gold. things like that. Uh, so you there are a lot of uh things in the environment lately that you've talked about, and you mentioned market volatility, inflation concerns, national debt, Iran, um, the Fed policy, too, probably plays a part. Yeah. Because that affects the strength of the dollar in a lot of cases. So, um, you know, uh, let's talk about um, what, uh, precious metals actually, um, you know, where they do well and where they fall short. Yeah, so with precious metals, uh, some of the, I guess you could rephrase it as potential benefits, is the biggest thing is uh, inflation hedge, hedge against that inflation moving. Because gold has historically maintained purchasing power over a longer period of time. Um, it it also has helped out with those high inflation cycles like what we witnessed back in 2021, 22, where inflation was getting up to 6, 7%. Um, because they uh uh function differently than those stocks and bonds in your most retirement holdings. And uh, they can help reduce that overall portfolio portfolio volatility because it's more stable, stagnant, like I'd mentioned before. Yeah. So, a lot of good pros there. Um, it's also uh, a lot of people like it because it's more of a tangible asset. It's just not numbers on a piece of paper. It it's actually something that you can tangibly hold, touch in most cases depending on how you're buying that precious metal. But that has something to do more with more of the psychology part of your holdings, just like having actual dollar bills versus having it in the bank, you know, the old saying, put it under the mattress, not recommended. No, no. Um, but so the pros there that people really, really enjoy. Yeah. And there's there's pros and cons to that too, owning physical people are like, are you talking about physically owning gold and silver? Um, not necessarily. I mean, there's a precious metals portfolio that I know you offer to your uh people you work with. Um, and it's not only you don't personally own physical gold, you own a portfolio that has that and there's ownership of that, but you're not holding on to physical gold. But you also probably have clients that physically want to buy physical gold, and that can happen.
[10:47]Um, my personal experience with that, I always kind of shake my head because I know some, um, I forget what's the term, but um, uh, preppers, you know, where you know, they've built a bunker, they stack up on water and canned goods. And they they have a lot of gold because they say if the dollar ever collapses and our economy collapses, that you're going to take a bar of gold and shave off a piece and be able to buy a loaf of bread with it, or I don't understand how that's going to work. Like how much to get a a soda off that and do you have do you have something that can cut it into small pieces, or is it in coins? So, you know, and this guy had gold bars and I was kind of giving him a hard time and he goes, you'll see. And you know what? He could be right. I could be wrong, but you also have to be realistic about things as well, right? I mean, you can't you a gold bar isn't going to work to necessarily fund your retirement, and it depends on what the value of gold is when you need it for income or when you need it, right? Exactly. I I use a similar uh analogy or metaphor when I'm talking with clients and potential prospects is, uh, I use the mechanic. If you need to fix your vehicle and all you have is gold bars, like you said, are you going to shave off a few ounces or, you know, grams here to pay for that service? Because they're not going to know how to deal with that. So, even though there are some pros with precious metals, there's also some of those cons or risks associated with it, especially in your retirement plan. Because precious metals do not provide income. You have to sell the assets, and we'll get to that in a little bit. So, it's not like stocks where there's growth you can, one day, it could shoot up 20% and then you could sell and lock in gains. Correct. You can take advantage of compounding interest that way. Exactly. And and some cases, depending how you're investing, you don't have to sell any of the holdings or options you have because those holdings, options, stocks, are providing that income for you. And instead of reinvesting those dividends. Yeah. You can take that out and use it. So, um, precious metals don't have that. So, that that is one risk or concern that we think about when talking about this with clients and and seeing if it's should be part of their portfolio. Sure. And and we've mentioned this a little bit already, but the the price volatility with it because metals swing dramatically in short periods. Yeah. And then they they stay steady for ten years, as an example. Yeah. I mean, gold was pretty stagnant. Uh, steady or stagnant or even down for a long, at least a decade, and then and then now we've seen a big upswing. Yeah. And and the last big thing I I typically like to talk with with clients that have these questions is the the cost it comes to actually store and hold those precious metals. Yes. Because if you're using, let's say, money out of the bank account and you get some precious metals, whether it's uh some gold coins or we've seen all the advertisements for the bars, the coins, the collectibles, all that, well, if you're using it with a non-qualified account, which means it's not a retirement account, well, then you can hold those. You can put it in a safety deposit box at your local bank or credit union. You can store it at home in a safe.
[14:41]Yeah. Physical gold requires secure storage and especially if it's within a retirement account, like you said, but I mean, just you have to be how secure is your storage? I mean, how secure is your home? How secure is a safe you can just go down to the store and buy to keep your gold in? I mean, uh, you have to consider storage, right? And probably insurance. Insurance also. You have physical gold that you own. You have to ensure that, right? It it makes sense to, and and I'll give you a a real life example of course, for confidentiality, I'm not going to use any names or anything like that. But I do work with someone that uh, before we started working together, um, they were watching a commercial, and because of the fear driven, um, buying atmosphere at that time, purchase some precious metals from a company in a different state. Um, come to find out and and and they used their IRA funds to do it. So, they never got the tangible assets and the precious metals, but come to find out, it was a scam. It was a fraud.
[16:04]Yep. A lot of people got taken by similar scams or that very one you're talking about. I was just talking about somebody else who had a couple clients that did that. And my dad has said, should I buy this gold? You know, he's sitting in his assisted living and long-term care and these ads are all over TV. And he sees them in these little papers, you know, local, you know, sell well, we'll we'll store it for you. Sure, they will. They'll take your money and then you'll never see the gold or the money again. And and so those TV ads and newspaper or magazine ads, you think, well, they're on TV. It's got to be legitimate. Nope, doesn't. Nope, it's all marketing, all marketing. They only care about their bottom line. Yeah, Like most for-profit businesses, right? Right. So, but they a lot of them run off with your money and you never see them again, or they make you if they make you purchase it through Bitcoin or something else, then you know it's a scam. Yes. Definitely stay away from that. A lot of a lot of rules around it, and not just the owning of it. The there are a lot of rules and and things that can get complicated.
[17:40]Sounds like each of these methods you mentioned carry a different risk, a different cost, a different complexity. Uh, that's important, isn't it?
[21:49]Yeah, huge. And and that's why we recommend sitting down with someone and actually discussing, going through it with a financial services representative, fiduciary like myself to let you know what the different risks, costs, complexity is based on what you're looking for, because we're not the type of advisory firm where we're going to tell you what to do with your money. We always like to make that very clear, because you work hard for it.
[24:13]Yeah, that's just a a general uh starting point to think about, but not for that's not individual advice in a percentage because everybody's portfolio will need a different balance, won't it?
[24:26]Exactly. Yeah. Which leads into liquidity consideration. Ah, yes. So, which we've talked a little bit about already, but if we need to use those assets, especially when we're talking about retirement planning, to use those assets to live your life and and continue throughout retirement, well, we need to think about how long it's going to take to get that precious metal into a tangible currency that we can actually spend and use. So, we want to think about that when we're buying and selling. And a question I get all the time is, uh, should metals be more of a tactical or long-term holding? Again, it's situational, but typically we're going to, uh, look at it as a long-term holding because it's not having those peaks and valleys like the stock market does. Um, but typically, we're going to, we're going to hold that for a longer period of time. But again, things that could come up, situations, variables could change that, um, outlook on what we do with those precious metals.
[25:24]Yeah. And so and so metals they need to fit properly within that written retirement income strategy, the overall financial uh, and investment strategy, and that's where you come in. Don't make these decisions about how much you should own or buying precious metals without working with a trusted financial services professional like yourself. So, um, let's let's go to some practical takeaways and a call to action for our listeners out there before we go. Yeah, so some action steps. So, review your asset allocation, stress test your retirement plan to make sure that it's working and will can continue to work. So, have those review meetings with your advisor. And uh, evaluate really and talk with that advisor about the exposure of having precious metals and see if they align with your goals.
[27:02]And uh, avoid that reactive investment decisions, doing it after the fact because we didn't think about it and be proactive. So, sounds good. So, precious metals can be uh part of a very thoughtful retirement strategy, but only when they fix into fit, excuse me, fit into the bigger picture of your well structured plan. If you have any questions about how precious metals work, the allocations, any of that risk associated with it, income strategies, any of this, feel free to give us a call at 715-355-4445, or visit us on our website retirewithbuska.com, and Buska is B U S K A.com. All right. Well, thanks for tuning in today. Uh, great show, Logan. Listeners and viewers, I appreciate it. Uh, you can stream financially speaking on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. So, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen. Actually, that's Apple Podcast. Uh, join us again for another great episode of Financially Speaking, and today, our host, Logan Waller. Thanks, Tony.
