[00:00:30] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to Money and Change right here on the TRIM Radio Network, also known as trimradio.com.
boy, I'll tell you, it's great to be back. I'll tell you what, the concert season is over and I can relax until May, about the last part of May, and we start up all over again.
And that's the problem of being a musician once in a while. I have fun doing it. I've done it for years. So anyhow, guys, welcome to Money and Change and it's great to be back. Before we do anything, we have to do a disclaimer and the information contained in this presented material is from the posting of news agencies on the Internet and are not necessarily the views or opinions of the owners of this program. Nothing in that show should be considered legal, medical, financial or investment advice. You should always do your own research and consult with professionals. We are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all liability for damages of any kind arising out of, use, reference to or reliance on any information contained in this broadcast.
So now that the legal stuff is over with, we can get on with the show.
Well, anyhow, guys, thanks for watching and you know, you can find us on gee whiz, Facebook, YouTube, and rumble, among others. We're getting out there and we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. A lot. Well, hey, one thing that I need to do is to bring up the screen. I haven't done that in a couple weeks. Do the. The music part.
Anyhow, guys, we have to talk about the TRIM radio network. And it's important because, hey, that's us.
If you take a look at what we have here and you can watch us live or you can watch us on replays, but you can watch the adventure Waits around the bend and you can subscribe to that.
You can ranch it up with Tigger and Beck.
Subscribe to that life walk with Christ, God, Money and change every Sunday at 7pm offsides my world Live. Laughing, whatever. Boy, I'll be glad to get back to that this coming Wednesday. And you can subscribe and the pos. The positube podcast and you can get Roscala's Red pill reality show and dagger. I keep asking Roscala to give me the green pill. He always says you can take the red pill or the blue pill.
I want the green pill. Come on, Roscala, you can do better. Anyhow, he has a good show. By the way. I've been on on it a couple of times. Really good show.
Also, we've got Victoria Smith's Natural Marketer podcast. You can subscribe to that if you get a chance. Check it out.
SA to support us is you can donate, you can buy airtime for advertisement. It's good deal. Or you could go to our page where we have merchandise. So just click on that now. Hey, if you want to join and do your own show, it's very easy to do. All you have to do, there's a box and all you have to do is click that box and a box will come up. All you have to do is just fill out the information, put your name down, your phone number, your email address and tell us what you want. It's all on the contact us part. It's very easy to do. Hit that button and it goes right to us. You'll get an instant response and somebody will get back to you the next business day. Okay, it's a good deal.
But buy the merchandise or buy the merch is what Michael Bayos says. Buy the merch.
Well, anyhow, we have other stuff to talk about too. And one of the things that we do is we talk about our Facebook page. And our Facebook page has a lot of information on there. I like to update that several times a week.
And here you go, there's the page. Money and change, financially prepped. Okay. All you have to do is just go to that site and you can see our members and it's growing. It's free to join and just send me an email or just go to that Facebook page and we'll get with you on that. Also, we have some things that I put up there. I don't have time to cover it tonight, but little known reasons why working after claiming Social Security could increase your benefits.
Something to consider. Read that article.
Another one, this just came up the other day and I had to post it. I watched part of it. It's very interesting and it's USAWatchDog.com and I'll tell you what Sugar Juice propped up failing Biden economy and that's with Ed Dowd and he talks about a lot of things about the economy and he also talks about what's going to happen in 2025.
Now a lot of places that I've been listening to, whether it's patara at Appalachia's homestead or any other place, they keep saying 2025 is going to be a tough year. Now I don't know what's going to happen. I can't predict the future. But everybody that I have been listening to says that once DJT and you know Who I'm talking about takes office, he is going to run into a lot of different problems because a lot of people in the deep state don't like them.
Why? Because their fun and games are over. And now we have to have a responsible government, okay? They've been spending way too much money and that's why we are in debt. I mean I looked at the numbers today and it was like 36 trillion and rising and the last time I looked at it it was 34 trillion. So what's going on here? Okay, we've overspent, we have inflation, it's going to get worse.
Who knows, I mean we could have problems with the housing industry, we could have problems with rates, Insurance rates are going to go up.
We've got all kinds of stuff that can happen. I don't know if it does or will.
It could, I'll put it that way. So you better be prepared. Be financially prepped, okay? And like I always tell people, pay down your debt, put some money aside, buy some long term food, make sure you have your medications, make sure you can preserve water, purify it and preserve it.
Also make sure that you might have extra blue tarps for your house in case you have a roof problem or you need emergency shelter, things like that. Make sure you know you have your medications, you have to have that. Make sure you have very good first aid kits.
Always keep your gasoline topped off in your car. When it gets down to a quarter empty, fill it up because you never know what can happen. And if you're going to store gasoline for generators or whatever, make sure that you store it safely.
Now one thing that I have, I, I'm going to probably talk about it. Wednesday is elide and sounds like something the politicians would do. Oh, he lied. No elide E L I D E this ball is a fire extinguisher and it's really great.
You have a fire, you throw that ball into the fire and the flames will set it off and it will extinguish the fire or at least slow it down. Okay?
And I'll talk about that Wednesday.
I bought several and hopefully I never have to use them, but I have them. But make sure you have, you know, your fire extinguishers and anything. Emergency extra food, canned food, freeze dried food, MREs. Boy, the MREs are expensive.
They're expensive can food will last a long time as long as it's not bulging or it's dented. Okay, so you want to do that but on the money and change, slash financially prepped and you can see it here. We've got Ed Doubt, of course, we've got our money and calculator and all this kind of stuff. We show up for every show and then we go on down and we have, ah, Patriot nurse. Okay, and 2025 will change it all. Follow what she's saying. She's a very conservative person. Okay, so you want to check that one out. Okay, These will work today. Brilliant ways people save money in the Great Depression. Who knows? We could have a recession or we could have a depression, which is even worse.
Okay, so there are a lot of things to take a look at. You know, different things have started according to Mac, and that's Colby, and he has a very good channel, and I recommend it. Okay, we have a lot of different things here that you can see on the page. And if I refresh this. Let's see if I have.
Oh, there's, there's. There's the latest one with the cat reaching out and grabbing money.
I haven't had that happen to the cats that I know. They like to claim my coat and climb on my coat. For some reason, they like to do that.
Well, anyhow, so much for cats and grabbing money.
Since we're talking about money, though, we do have shout outs. And here they are on the page. You can see them. The TRIM Radio Network. A big, big shout out to them for carrying the show. Okay. We've been doing the show for quite a while, and I really appreciate Michael Bayhas and Rosal Stefan and Victoria Smith carrying the show. And we have a lot of fun within our TRIM Radio network. Also, you want to check out the University of
[email protected] I n d l a y dot edu. We've got Rusty ducks, custom pens, the Big Family Homestead with Brett and Krista. Pecan Grove with Danny and Wanda King. The LDS prepper, David Gilmore. And I keep telling you guys about something right here. Yeah.
What I have in my hand is a GMRS radio with a Nagoya 771G antenna. And I can talk at least 30 to 35 miles to a repeater. And I can get out 90 miles from there. Good thing to do when the phones go down, you have a radio to talk with. Okay? No license. $35 a year or not? Not a year. Oh, gee, $35 for 10 years. And anybody in your immediate family can use it. You just gotta behave with the rules. Okay? Anyhow, and going on down, we have Southern Prepper 1 with Dave Kobler, we have the Patriot nurse, Rachel, and we have the Prepper Princess Amber Stork. Great person. And the Max, it's Colby Mack. Okay. He never gives out his last name, but he's something that you. You need to check.
Well, let's see here. What else do we have? Oh, the University of Finley.
Ah, we talked about the University of Finley, and I got to bring that screen up because they. They did a really good screen. If I can get the thing to do it, I gotta get used to hitting these buttons. Oh, here we are.
That's the University of Finley. And it's a good school. You have to check it out. Www.f I n d l a y and dot edu and I'll tell you what, it's a good school. You can get a bachelor's degree, master's degree degree, or a doctoral degree. And they have a lot of different classes, occupational therapy, whatever.
They have a great, great setup. They really, really, really do. So you want to check them out. And it's a good school. It really is. And I believe it was listed in the top 10 in Ohio, and I believe it was in the top 100 in the United States.
It's a good school. That's the equestrian team, and they were number one in the nation a few years back. Of course, wrestling team is always good. Basketball, football, it's a good campus in Findlay, Ohio. You have to check it out. Okay. Your journey begins in Finley. Okay. Trust me, It's a Division 2 athletic school. But, boy, the education there is finished. Fantastic.
And speaking of education, I think Wednesday I'm going to be talking about education just a little bit. Okay. Well, anyhow, check out the University of Finley. All right.
Wow. Going on with everything. What else do we. Oh, rusty ducks, custom pens. Ah. I said I was going to have pictures of rusty ducks, custom pens, and by golly, I'm starting one right now. And this. These are the blanks. Everybody says, well, water blanks. Well, he makes the center part of the pens, and here are the pictures of the blanks, and they're cast in an acrylic. And you can get those custom made and you can finish them yourselves. Make your own pens, or he will make them for you.
And he has all different types of blanks, and he also makes all kinds of pens. Now, eventually, I will be showing some of his pens here. Okay. And he does an excellent job. They're all based on the cross pen platform. And both Michael Baus and I have those pens. These are just a sample of what he's done. He's really done quite a bit. So check them out. Rusty Ducks custom pens and blanks on Facebook.
I'll tell you what. Rusty Duck, better known as Phil, does an excellent job, trust me. If he didn't, I wouldn't recommend. A matter of fact, I wouldn't recommend anybody on my list that I truly didn't like and believe in. Okay? So when we go back and we say, okay, what shows do you want us to watch? Okay. And I'll tell you what, we just go and share them, and right here they are. Okay, Right here. I put them right here on our Facebook page. Okay. And there you go. I recommend these people, and I recommend you listen to them because they're really, really, really, really good. Okay?
And for some reason, Appalachia Homestead is not on there, but you have to. Batara is fantastic, okay? So you have to listen to her. Wow. We've covered that. We've covered the University of Finley. It's time to get into the show.
And you're probably saying, well, it's about time. Well, you know. Yeah, you have to promote your buddies. I don't get paid for doing this. I don't get paid from them.
I don't buy them. They don't buy me. Okay? And what I like to do is recommend good YouTube shows that really tell you what it is. They're very truthful. They're not going to beat around the bush. Okay.
Wow, we've got a lot of stuff to take a look at here. One thing we've got is retail sales. You know, Christmas.
I don't know. How much did you spend for Christmas? Okay, I. I don't know.
I think I talked to the people I was having Christmas with, and they said, don't spend a lot of money.
And then they give you this long list and you go, oh, okay. I thought you said not to spend a lot of money. And they said, well, this is just what I would like.
Well, I had to take the Maserati off the list, and I think it was a lot of gift cards. I don't know about you, but, you know, when you don't know what to get people, it's always a gift card. I mean, that's.
That's what I do. It's either straight cash or else it's going to be a gift card so they can get what they want. Okay. And if they don't like it, they can return it.
But how much did you spend? Did you have a budget for Christmas?
A lot of people have a budget and they stick to it. And then there's some of them that pull out the piece of plastic and they wave it in the air and they charge everything. And then finally at the end of the month, they get a bill for thousands.
Oh, I'll just pay off a little bit at a time and by next year I'll have it all paid down and they will have paid a lot of interest.
And you want to keep from paying interest.
So pay down your debt, don't use your credit card unless you absolutely have to, and then pay it off right away.
Because when that interest hits you and you just keep paying on the interest and not paying the whole thing off, you're in trouble. Okay, A lot of people get in trouble at Christmas time. They overspend and they spend on a lot of nonsense that they don't need.
Well, you know, the sales of everything, the way it's gone. If you take a look at, at some of the stuff that we've talked about on retail sales, they surged over the holiday season as retailers ramp up promotions, says mastercard. I wonder what Visa would say or American Express. Well, this occurred in Zero Hedge and it was authored by Cantabella Roberts in the Epoch Times.
And it says retail sales rose by nearly 4% year over year across the United States this holiday season as more Americans sought bargains during the November and Black Friday shopping period, according to new data from MasterCard. Okay, now the data has not been adjusted for inflation and excluded automobile sales. According to Mastercard, overall retail sales were up 3.8% this holiday season from 2023, and they increased by 3.1% from the previous year in the last five days of the holiday season. This year accounted for 10% of all holiday spending.
And the growth was partly driven by consumers responding to promotions during the November and Black Friday shopping period. Now what's going to happen when tomorrow rolls around?
People are still going to be out shopping. They're looking for the deal. Have you been to Walmart lately?
The day before Christmas, the, the lot was packed. Everybody was going totally insane.
Long lines, not enough cashiers. They expected everybody to use the self serve. It was a mess.
And I drove by their parking lot and I thought, I'm not going to go in there. It's a total chaotic place. I knew people that did and they said, oh, it was awful.
And I went back today because I had to go get something. And you know, I drove across town to go there and I go in and hey, it's not crowded.
There's still people roaming around. They still have sales and you can get 50% off on Christmas ornaments and things. Like that, but it wasn't all that bad.
So I imagine people are saying, okay, we've spent enough money and we're going to have to tighten the reins here for a little bit.
But according to MasterCard, they said shoppers also appear to prefer making purchases online this year, according to the preliminary insights.
Do you purchase online? Do you go to Walmart.com or do you go to Kohl's.com or gee whiz, Amazon.
You know, I know somebody down the street from me, they're always getting an Amazon delivery.
And it's like every other day or every third day.
I'm lucky if I get one once a month.
And then for a while I don't buy anything.
The one bad thing is I use up a lot of oil for my trumpet when I play gigs, and especially Christmas time. And I ran out. I guess I'm really low, I'll put it that way. About to run out. And I had to order some more Hetman number one, which is probably the best oil out there for brass instruments. And so anyhow, I went to get some more and they didn't have any on Amazon. And the next thing I had to do is look for an alternate supplier because music stores didn't carry it.
Well, the price went up.
It was $19 a bottle, and it used to be years ago something around eight or nine dollars a bottle. Now it's 19 because it's scarce. Once Covid hit, everything became scarce.
So I had to order a new bottle and cringe at paying the price. But hopefully it lasts me for quite a while.
How many people buy on Amazon?
You know, they're building all these big fulfillment centers. And so with Prime, I can get it in two days.
In some cases I could get it in one day. And in extraordinary cases, I could get it the same day on some things. Okay, but did you put it on a credit card?
You know, I didn't. I paid cash for everything. I wanted everything paid in cash. So I don't have any big surprises.
I mean, I like my credit card company, but I don't like the surprises you get at the end of the month, if you know what I mean. Okay, so hopefully you budgeted and if you did put things on your credit card, pay them off as quickly as possible. Because what's going to happen, guys? You're going to find out that. Well, let's put this way, if in January or in February we have a problem with the markets and the housing market crashes, interest rates go sky high, supply chains don't Work and you're not prepped, you don't have enough food to get you by for a month to two months or three months.
That creates a problem. And it's a big problem.
If you don't have enough food in your house for at least a month to two months, you better start.
I mean, I'm serious.
I listened to Patara Appalachia Homestead and Prepper Nurse and a lot of different people and they're saying, you know, things could get really tough by the end of January or into February. Hopefully it doesn't. But if it does get tough, you better have at least a month to two months food on hand. And oh, by the way, don't forget the toilet paper.
You got to have the toilet paper. Okay.
It gets kind of difficult.
Well, anyhow, we've got another one to do.
Bankrate.com had one and I want to bring that one up because we need to talk about that.
I get different things from different places. The average cost of Christmas gifts, you know, since we were talking about Christmas, the average cost of Christmas gifts, food and decorations and more. Okay. Whether it was Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, shoppers expect to spend an average of $902 per person.
And that's according to the National Retail Federation and that's the NRF.
Okay. $989 or not? No, it wasn't $92 per person, but they said the US season would be about 980 billion to $989 billion in November, December in sales.
Okay.
Now the key cost here, the NRF forecast this year's holiday spending to be the highest since 2004. Well, part of that's going to be inflation. You know that it's $641 in gifts for family, friends and co workers and $261 for seasonal items such as food, decoration and cards.
And what happens if somebody graduates from college or university? That's going to be additional money. That's what hit me this past month because I had a graduation in December from somebody who graduated in the school of engineering at Wright State University. Did very well. He had one major in mechanical engineering and two minors. One was in business. He took my advice and the other was in mathematics. Very smart person and he has a very good job starting out. Well. The average cost of Christmas according to the survey conducted in early October reported the $641 average that consumers plan to spend on gifts this year. But here's how they plan to allocate it. On average, $488 on gifts for family members, $83 on gifts for friends, $33 on gifts for co workers. Luckily, I don't have any co workers, so I didn't have to do that. $138 on other gifts.
You know, you go out to a restaurant, you have a very good waitress, and you, you know that person over a period of years, you want to give them a good gift.
You know, there's one that I go to probably three days a week for lunch. And I always, you know, try to be a decent tipper, but on Christmas, I gave them extra money because they're good people and I, I like to tip good people. If it was lousy service, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go there to begin with. But you take a look here. The average cost of gifts, Closing and accessories, $279. Electronics and accessories, $265. Gift cards, $263. Food and beverage, $238. Home and kitchen, $194. Toys and hobbies, $102.
But I'll put a caveat to that. Unless it's electronics and you're a hobbyist and you like computers, it can get expensive health and wellness. $203. And for the pet, because little Fluffy has to have toys that they play with for one day, and then they forget about it, and that's done.
$115. Okay.
Wow.
What else is in the books here?
Oh, hey, did you hear about big Lots?
Did you ever hear about Big. Do you have big lots where you're at?
Well, I'll tell you what, we have them here in Ohio, and I know that they're across the country. I think they've got four or 600 stores, you know, 400 to 600 stores. And there was an article that came out a few days ago, and they were talking about big rock, big lots going bankrupt.
Well, I thought about that and I, I remembered back to when I was managing a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and there was a. An occasion on a Sunday. We weren't very busy at all. It was during the dead time of the day.
A guy pulled into my lot and his license plate was shot. 1s, c h o t t 1.
And he came in, he ordered his food and so forth. I went out and I said, hey, is that Mercedes yours out there? And he said, yeah. I said, I really like that license plate. He said, yeah, it's a nice custom plate. I said, you wouldn't happen to be Mr. Schottenstein, would you. And he said, yeah, that's me.
And I said, you have the department stores in Columbus? He said, yep, that's me. And I've got a lot of other stores. And I said, well, that's great. I. I always wondered who owned those stores. I never met anybody. So we had a chat for about maybe 10 or 15 minutes. And very good chat. Very nice guy. And he also had, at that time, odd lots, shot and steam department stores. And he had a furniture store. And I forget what that was. Maybe it was Value City. Yeah, that's it. And so we. We talked a while. And Big Lots has a lot of different things in it that might be reduced in price and you might be able to get a very good price.
For example, I like Arm and Hammer laundry detergent. If I go to Kroger's, it's like 13.99.
And if I go and get it at Big Lots, it was only 9.99.
Or if I go to Aldi's, it might be 9.99 or it could be 10.99.
You know, you save a buck here and you save a buck there, and you go into Big Lots and you find different things. I mean, you can find housewares, curtains. You can find furniture and everything else.
And I get all kinds of stuff. And I gotta get the phone turned off. I wish I could turn that off. People. People call constantly.
Anyhow, they want my information.
That's a good thing. But anyhow, Big Lots had a thing that they were going to go bankrupt. They 400 stores that were going to close.
And people started getting nervous because they go there all the time. They have to go to Big Lots because they get the best deals. They really do. And they have some. They have some good merchandise, friendly staff, clean stores. I can't say enough about them.
But anyhow, they said they were going to go bankrupt. I think the family wants to get out of that business. They've been in it for too long. And I don't know if Mr. Schottenstein is still with us or he's up in his 90s or whatever, but anyhow, they want to get out from under the business.
Well, anyhow, there was an article in Zero Hedge by Naveen Athropoli. That's a long name in epic times. And they. She said Big Lots finalized a deal that preserved the brand name and prevented the discount retail chain from entirely going under.
Well, they had a deal and they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in the year, saying that's economic pressures. You got inflation and people aren't buying things. And the company tried to sell its business to the Nexus Capital Management, but failed to strike a deal on December 27th. And Big Lots announced the sales transaction just recently with Gordon Brother Retail Partners. And as part of the agreement, North Carolina based variety wholesaler Gordon Brothers will acquire around 200 to 400 Big Lots stores, which it plans to operate under the Big Lots brand.
So they're going to keep the brand, and that's good because a lot of people will be employed, especially when they have 400 stores. Variety, which owns more than 400 retail stores in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic states, may also employ Big Lots associates at the acquired stores and distribution centers, as well as certain corporate associates.
And Bruce Thorne, chief executive officer of Big Lot, said the sale to Gordon Brothers and transfer to Variety is a favorable and significant achievement. Then he said this sale agreement and transfer present the strongest opportunity to preserve jobs, maximum value for the estate and ensure continuity. Continuity. Continuity. Continent. That's the word. Continuity.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Continuous.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Of the Big Lots brand. Okay, Maximize value for the estate. So I think maybe Mr. Schottenstein passed.
But the article also said, and you see it here, bankruptcies on the rise. Multiple American retail chains have entered bankruptcy over the past year. And in June, apparel retailers Bob's Stores went bankrupt and decided to sell all its stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey and Rhode Island.
And Cons announced that they were filing for bankruptcy. A lot of stores are. According to an S and P report, there have been 634 U.S. corporate bankruptcy filings in 2024.
Look what happened to Fris restaurants here in Ohio. They closed a whole bunch of Frish's restaurants, the big boys.
And they're getting rid of the ones that weren't making a lot of money. But the thing of it is, the franchisee failed to pay the rent.
And I don't know how many millions they were back in rent. So they had to close the stores.
And that's bad for people, especially around Christmas time.
But a lot of stores around here are closing.
You have other places. You know, Wendy's was looking at restructuring, getting rid of the. The stores that didn't have a lot of business.
There are other businesses out there that are doing the same thing. Times are tough and money's scarce and you have to pay higher wages.
And I don't know. I think in Ohio we're supposed to go up to $10 and 49 cents minimum wage.
And the cost of everything is up. I mean, how do you make money on that. Okay, so at least Big Lots is going to be in business and it may take him a while to get everything together, but that's, that's a good thing. Okay. It really is.
What else is going out there? Well, in Yahoo. Finance, I found something and hopefully I can bring it up and you can listen to it. Not if I can get this thing to go. Right. Let's see if I can bring that up because I have to press another button again. And you know me, it buttons Tom. Boy, I'll tell you what, let's see if I can get this one up and you can listen to this one.
Okay, you ready? Here we go.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: Homes rebounded in November. Rising mortgage rates continue to be a pain point in the housing sector as buyers and sellers adjust to the reality of today's higher rates. We're looking at the setup for the US housing market in 2025. Walton Global executive vice president of Capital Markets Katie Hubbard joins us now to discuss here. Katie, good to see you and thanks so much for taking the time here this morning. So what type of rebound or what type of momentum are you anticipating in the housing market for 2025?
[00:41:40] Speaker D: Yeah, Brad, thanks so much for having me. I mean, our clients are public home builders and national association of Homebuilders has reported that homebuilder sentiment is at an all time high since April 2022. So we're feeling bullish on the new home housing market. Home sales are up 5.9% month over month, 8.7% year over year. And all of our clients are anticipating building and selling more homes in 2025 than they did in 2024.
[00:42:05] Speaker E: And Katie, where are there certain states, regions where, where you're going to see that building more than others?
[00:42:12] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely regional. So the south continues to have a lot of new home sales and is doing well. However, there are expenses markets like California that's just it's more difficult to build their home. Builders are having to offer less incentives, but there's less inventory in places on the west like California. You're seeing some increased communities in mountain states like Montana and Idaho as well.
[00:42:37] Speaker C: You know, it's interesting because as you kind of look across the new home side of the equation versus the existing homes. Some data out from Redfin this morning and a comment from their senior economist noting that elevated mortgage rates are likely going to cause many homeowners to hang onto their homes and the low rates they have locked in, meaning there will be enough buyers competing over a relatively low number of homes to keep Prices ticking up consistently. As you think about that playing out in the existing homes market, what does that spell out for the propensity for buyers to actually come into the market at higher prices on the new home side?
[00:43:15] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, existing home inventory still remains low at about 3.8 months, while new home inventory actually ticked up 2% a month over month. So we're at about 490,000 homes on the new home side and that is just under three homes per community of unsold available homes. But that's really the high end of where our clients like to, you know, they like to cap it. No more than three unsold homes, but we're still seeing price declines in new home sales versus existing homes where the prices have continued to increase because of that low inventory. So our clients are still, you know, offering incentives like mortgage rate buy downs because of the elevated mortgages. We don't think mortgages are going to get to 6%, not even until 2026 where that magic mortgage rate number is really 5.5%. So it's going to cause, you know, there's still the elevated mortgage is coming, causing affordability issues on both sides.
[00:44:09] Speaker E: So Katie, your clients are, and I understand that they're, you know, committed to these mortgage rate buy downs. What does that mean for their margins?
[00:44:17] Speaker D: Yeah, so their, their margins are still relatively high right now. I mean they're operating extremely well. Especially we, we provide land to public home builders for land banking, which helps with their margin. So the public home builders, the large ones are continuing to get bigger and improve their margins where maybe small ones are struggling who don't have the same ability.
[00:44:36] Speaker C: All these things considered, as you're thinking about the type of home buyer that we're anticipating will drive much of the demand in 2025, what generational scale does that come in at?
[00:44:48] Speaker D: Yeah, so the first time home buyers are making up about 30% of the market right now. We're in a robust market. First time home buyers are 40%. But what's interesting is that the age of the first time home buyer has increased. So they're now 38 years old buying their first home. So you're seeing, you know, older, older people buying their first time home. They're willing to accept smaller homes, higher density as long as there's that community space and then groups that don't have a mortgage. So maybe they're buying their second home or they're going into 55 plus communities home. The public home builders are really building the, the product to, to meet the demand of those groups, not only the, the older first time homebuyer, but then the move up are retirees.
[00:45:31] Speaker E: I'm curious Katie, in your opinion, any way Washington can step in and help this sector, the housing sector specifically. On the campaign trail, of course, this was a hot button topic. Trump and Harris both talking about it, both talking about different ways, for example, boost supply. Your thoughts on that?
[00:45:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean our clients are really on the wait and see as far as the new administration coming in because of one, labor and immigration costs could go up causing home prices to increase. Also tariffs could go up causing prices to increase. So those are really where we're at, the wait and see. But many people think when they hear the Fed lowering rates that's going to automatically lower the 30 year fixed mortgage. They don't realize it's more tied to the 10 year treasury where the spread over the 10 year treasury to the 30 year fixed is much higher than the average. It's typically 190 basis points above and we're sitting at about 130 to 250 basis points above the 10 year Treasury. And so what, what Washington can do is, I mean just be, be cautiously, you know, moving towards, you know, the tariffs and you know, the immigration policies that won't really dramatically affect the new home builders.
[00:46:43] Speaker E: Katie, great to see you and have you on the show today. Happy holidays.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:46:47] Speaker D: Josh and Brad.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: At the housing costs. Now we have some new homes that want to be built in my area, matter of fact, just about two miles from me, maybe a mile and a half. And we're talking 200 homes and another hundred apartments.
And I'll tell you what, the cost is going to be up on those homes and can people afford them? You know, when you start having 6, 7% interest rates, that makes it difficult.
On the good news here, there was a thing that, you know, Donald J. Trump, the president elect, was coming up with different words and phrases and there was one that he said that I'm, I'm going to try to find it. I had it.
There were eight words that he was looking at and back on it, it just disappeared.
Well, anyhow, seniors shouldn't have to pay tax on Social Security.
There's an article in Motley fool, the eight words from President Elect Donald Trump that can change Social Security forever. And that's true. We've already paid tax on things, so seniors shouldn't have to pay taxes. Okay. And if you want, let me bring this up, you can take a look at the article and hit the magic button.
And there we are. Okay. It was in the Motley fool, so you can check that one out.
All right. We're going to stop that one. And we've got more to do before we have to call it Bye bye time. Okay. And here's the next one I want to do for you.
If I can find the these buttons, I'll tell you what. It, it gets difficult to do this.
I know. Press the button. Okay. The average retirement how retirement savings will change in 2025.
Something to listen about, or listen to, rather. And here we go.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: Environment related changes are coming in 2025. Here to discuss a few of them, we've got Yahoo Finance senior columnist Carrie Hannon. Carrie, great to see you. Let's start with folks saving for retirement. How are contributions changing?
[00:49:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Hey, Brad, thanks. Yes, we're going to see some modest changes in 2025 for folks who have 401 plans or 403, your employer provided plan. You can put up to $23,500 away in that 401 plan for 2025. And the great news is if you're 50 and older, you can throw in $7,500 on top of that. And the super saving icing coming in in 2025, if you're 60, 61, 62, 63, you can sock away an additional $11,250. So that's pretty sweet. For your IRAs, it's going to stay roughly the same or exactly the same, I should say. So you're going to have $7,000 you can put into an IRA in 2025 and a $1,000 catch up if you're 50 or older. And so for all of us who love Roth IRAs, is that the income limit is shifting upwards so that you're eligible now at it's going to $150,000 to 160,000. So that bumps up. That will allow more people to participate in these Roth IRAs. Again, that's a really promising thing. And the other savings account that a lot of people overlook when they consider their retirement accounts is the health Savings account. And Brad, this is so wonderful because it has this triple tax advantage. You're not taxed on the money you put into it, the money that grows inside of it. Your investment does not get taxed and it's not taxed when it comes out for qualified medical expenses. So this is a wonderful thing. And that is bumped up again modestly. But it'll be $4,300 in 2025 for an individual and $8,550 for family coverage. So I'm a big fan of those and anyone who can use those for retirement savings. It's a really a wonderful vehicle.
[00:51:37] Speaker C: And so, Kerry, for those who are already retired, what changes are coming to Social Security and Medicare?
[00:51:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, this is, this is a kind of a good and bad situation. We've got the cost of living increase which will the cola, which will come in to hit retirees, Social Security checks in January, that's bumping up 2.5% for 2025 from this year to meet inflation. Right. So that's really great. I mean, it'll be an additional. Again, it's modest, but maybe for the average Social Security check of $1,900, this will be about a $50 increase in the monthly check. Ah, but here comes Medicare. The Medicare Part B premiums have also ticked up. And so that's going to eat away a little bit of that uptick we saw in the cost of living adjustment. Right. So they're going to go up the Medicare Premium around $10.30 a month and the deductibles are also going to go up so that the deductible is going to go up by about $17. So you lose a little. The uptick of the cost of living adjustment. You still have a bump up. But again, there are two, two things that are happening there for Social Security and Medicare in 2025.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: All right.
[00:52:52] Speaker C: Really timely breakdown of some of those changes coming once we flip to the new year. Carrie, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, at least we're going to get some money. At least a COLA increase.
But the coal is never enough. And they also take out money for Medicare, so you really get ahead. Very little. Okay.
Oh, how do we adjust for that? Get another job in retirement?
Who knows?
Wow.
There's an article that I posted on the website the Little Known reason why working after claiming Social Security could increase your benefits by Keith Speights S P E I G H T S from the Motley fool.
And it starts out true or false. Once you begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits, they'll never be higher.
Something to take a look at. Okay.
Wow. You know, I talked about the national debt and it was being a lot higher than it originally was last week and the week before and the week before that. Well, let's see what we've got.
Surprise.
This is the US debt clock.org and the national debt right now is 36,282,131,200,000, it just flew. Well, anyhow, the debt per citizen is 100, $166.
That's for per citizen. And the debt per taxpayer is $271,791. I don't know about you, but I don't have that on hand.
You know, Congress needs to learn how to live on a budget because, you know, if we spent like the Congress did, we'd probably be in jail.
And Congress has just spent, spent, spent, spent. They say, well, okay, well, here's the deal. Our grandkids can pay for it.
That's not right.
We ought to have a balanced budget all the way around. You have to live with a budget. I have to live with a budget, and the government should live with a budget.
You know, cities have to have balanced budgets. Counties have to have balanced budgets. The state has to have a balanced budget.
Okay?
But national, with the feds, they can spend as much as they want to spend, which is crazy.
It's insane.
Hopefully that will change by no later than February 1st. Okay. Hopefully I'll give them a couple of weeks. Okay. To get things together. And it better will change by April of 2025. It has to. We're getting too high in debt. This is a real time debt clock, by the way, the US Debt clock dot org.
You have to check it out. Okay. You know, I was looking at the prices
[email protected] and I was talking about it with somebody today, and they were saying, well, you know, silver is a decent price. And I said, yeah, they were wanting something like 27 for it, but guess what? The real price for it, because it's scarce, is up around $35 an ounce.
Yeah. So if you want to have a hedge on inflation and calamity, guess what?
Buy silver and get it from a reputable source. I don't care where you get it, whether it's apmex.com, silver.com, whatever. Do your research. Make sure it's a good company. And they are very discreet in how they mail things to you. Okay? Wow, guys, that's about all I've got for Money and Change this week. And I'll tell you what, we'll be back live next week. Okay? So you want to tune in to Money and Change, check out our Facebook page at Money and Change, slash financially prepped. It's easy to join. Okay, all you have to do is just notify us and check out our merchandise on the TRIM Radio network. And with that, guys, whoa. We have to say farewell until next week, but check out my World Wednesdays at 8pm live.
And with that, have a good week. Be safe. Watch your money. We'll talk with you next week. Okay. See you.
Sa.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: Sa.
