Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus, brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representatives, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research inc., a broker, dealer. Member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisor representative Cambridge Investment Research advisors. Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. Now here’s today’s financial focus program.
Paul Dymkowski:
Welcome to Financial Focus, Paul Demkowski sitting in for Gary Determan today. But what it is with great pleasure we do have David Nelson in studio with us today and we were just talking off-air to start the show that you got a busy day coming up today.
David Nelson:
Got busy today. It’s kind of a wild one, yes.
Paul Dymkowski:
Wow.
David Nelson:
Yes.
Paul Dymkowski:
So it’s great that we got a chance to talk with you today because you’re going to be running all over the place.
David Nelson:
Yeah, I appreciate. It’s normally, obviously this would’ve been a week prior, but I was out town and so it didn’t work out, so I appreciate you guys modifying your schedules as far as to accommodate. And yeah, it’s a crazy day today. I had meetings this morning, get up here, I’ve got to go down to the Quad Cities. I’ve got one meeting down there, come back for two meetings, and then we got a ball game tonight, head down to the baseball field down by the river NelsonCorp Field and we’ve got 400 and I think 40 some clients that are going to be joining us as far as having a beer and a brat and whatever that the folks want to have. And it’s supposed to be a warm one too, so we’re hoping that everybody dresses accordingly and it’s going to be a toasty one, but we’re looking forward to getting back in the stadium.
I drive past there pretty much every day as far as on my bike up in the dike and leave my house out by Valley Oaks and head up to the dike area, head up to Eagle Point Park and head home. 18 miles, get a good workout and I’m always looking over at the field and it’s a beautiful site as far as over there. The field looks great just from up on the dike, but looking forward to getting in the facility as far as tonight and hopefully a whole lot of other people other than just our clients show up and we have a good turnout and hopefully get a W tonight.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah. Last year I think was just in that random night that my wife and I said, “Hey, let’s go to the game. And it happened to be the Nelson four nights last year.
David Nelson:
Yeah, sure.
Paul Dymkowski:
Maybe we should go this year then.
David Nelson:
Exactly.
Paul Dymkowski:
Make it two in year in a row.
David Nelson:
It’s a lot fun.
Paul Dymkowski:
Looks like the weather’s going to be perfect for it.
David Nelson:
Yeah, I’m excited about it. And again, at the end of the day, we’re just lucky to have the facility as far as in town. And again, it didn’t look for a while there as far as that we’re losing our affiliation with Major League Baseball. But some real hard work went into it as far as with a board with Ted Spec.jk But when he was back here and we’ve got a nice club and as I said, the bulk of the people that are going there can’t really tell the difference the quality of those players versus what we had several years ago with a 1A or whatever they call it as far as division one and the Major League. So it’s great entertainment, it’s so competitive as far as the cost going here versus going to some of the other facilities. Wrigley Field, you got to refinance your house as far as to go there, so sadly. But anyway, so hopefully it’s a good turnout tonight again and hopefully we get a W.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah, you mentioned that. It’s like the last time I went to a game at Wrigley Field, I think it was $15 for a beer.
David Nelson:
Oh, wow.
Paul Dymkowski:
I mean it’s just crazy.
David Nelson:
Isn’t that crazy? I mean, again, I had five kids and what have you and you bring the whole clan in there and I’m not joking, you got to refinance the darn house it seems. And so this is just great entertainment at a good price. And again, we’re pretty lucky to have a facility as far as in our community. And I certainly hope that people this season, just like the last couple seasons, will continue to support the program here in town.
Paul Dymkowski:
And you mentioned the talent. These college kids are really good. And I’m always amazed when I go and I see a pitcher come up and he’s hitting 92 on the gun.
David Nelson:
Yes, exactly.
Paul Dymkowski:
And I’m like, “This kid’s in college. Wow.”
David Nelson:
Exactly.
Paul Dymkowski:
It used to be you didn’t see 90 on a radar gun unless you were in the major leagues.
David Nelson:
Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Paul Dymkowski:
And it’s college kids doing it.
David Nelson:
It’s amazing. And again, I was chat with some folks here recently about it and some they referenced a particular player as far as that blew out the arm. And I said, it just comes back to they’re just, the curve balls and the sliders and everything that they’re throwing the heaters and it takes its toll as far as on the arm. But the amazing thing is oftentimes they come back stronger as far as after the surgery and was all our discussion was all built around how the doctors have basically perfected as far as the particular procedures that are being done today. And these folks are coming back from surgery stronger than ever.
And it’s a great sport. I hear people periodically, it’s kind of like golf. Golf is a boring sport to watch. Baseball is a boring sport to watch. I totally disagree. I think if you understand the games, you realize it’s really, really exciting. And before this, now I got to get down to the stadium here, but the last month or so, give or take has been watching our Cubbies as far as having a pretty good season to say the least.
So yeah, baseball to me great. I loved it. It’s one of my better sports as far as that I played in. Never really great at anything with my size, but at the end of the day I certainly love playing the game of baseball.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah. That was always my favorite. And I was lucky enough to play semi-pro baseball when they had a team here in town.
David Nelson:
Very nice, Paul. I didn’t know that.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah.
David Nelson:
Wow, that’s awesome.
Paul Dymkowski:
And we got to play at NelsonCorp Field. At that time, it was Riverview Stadium, but we got to play there and this was before all the changes. I think they did the right field, they put that in when I was still playing, so people would sit out there and harass me because I played right field.
David Nelson:
Right field. That’s what I was going to ask, “What position?” Yeah, I used to shag. That was part of my discussion with Ted when he was in town here and we’re kind of contemplating as far as doing something, as far as naming rights, as far as to the field. And what’s your attraction, what’s your, I played in Jones Field just outside of the facility there. And as far as the games were concerned, we would watch the game oftentimes through the little holes in the metal fence and then shag balls.
And we got, I think it was a dime as far as most of the time to bring the ball back. Unlike today that they just don’t really give a hoot as far as the number balls they pretty much go through. Back then it’s we want those balls back and we would get the broken bats. It sounds like I’m going back a hundred years when I say stuff like this, but I’m not that old. But anyway, at the end of the day it was the broken bats. You take them home and you drive a nail through to try to hold it together a little bit and we use those bats, so it was good stuff. Got a lot of great memories of it and hopefully my kids will have good memories as far as of it as well. And so good stuff to say the least.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah. At some point in the nineties maybe or 2000s, then baseball all throughout minor league, Major League didn’t care if he lost the ball in the crowd, but when I was doing the semi-pro league, we were responsible for the balls. We had to buy them and bring them to the game. And so when we’re doing a home game, ball gets fouled in the parking lot. We always had a kid out running out there to get the ball.
David Nelson:
Yes, exactly.
Paul Dymkowski:
We need that back.
David Nelson:
Wow, that’s really interesting. I didn’t know that. So what was the circuit as far as where, what were some of the locations that we played?
Paul Dymkowski:
We played teams in Quad Cities and Muscatine and then to the north of us too. We did play some teams like in Dubuque.
David Nelson:
Dubuque. Okay. Yeah.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah, so it was just kind of eastern Iowa and we would play in the stadium. So John O’Donnell Stadium we played there and…
David Nelson:
Good stuff. I love it.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yeah, it was a great opportunity to live my dream knowing that I was never going to be a Major League player, so at least I got the little taste of it.
David Nelson:
Got that level. Yeah, sure. John O’Donnell, speaking of that, what a good-looking stadium it is down there. Now, obviously Modern Woodmen Park.
But yeah, really nice. We’ve got a lot of clients as far as the Quad City, so we did an event as far as at the ballpark, I don’t know, probably two weeks ago, something like that. It had a really nice turnout there. So we’ll be doing this one tonight and then we’ve got another one at the end of the season, as people probably know, it’s a abbreviated season in comparison to what it used to be.
But nevertheless, good competition, good players, good attitudes, coaching staff seems to be just absolutely terrific. Yeah, some of these kids, I was told by one of the folks in my office that one of the people that played at our facility as far as in town here this year is playing, he’s on the Houston Astros big, the pro team, the top team. I mean, just think about that from this level. So I guess the point I’m trying to make is that some of these guys are going to go big time and so it’s just kind of cool. You get an opportunity to go out watch them. And again, some of the bulk of them are not going to make it to the big time, but the bottom line, a few of them will. So yeah, get out, take it in. It’s a great bargain to say the very least.
Paul Dymkowski:
Well, that was the case too, even when we were a minor league affiliate, that you’re lucky if one or two at the most would ever make it to the big leagues from that level.
David Nelson:
It’s a pretty small funnel, a lot of people going in and very few coming out the bottom. And just like anything in life, I mean to be in one of the elite type positions, whatever it happens to be, it’s a small funnel. So you got to be competitive and these guys are working their tails off. So I’m looking forward to it tonight, getting a chance to see them.
Paul Dymkowski:
Well, let’s get into the financial stuff. We’ll do that in just a minute. We’ll do our weather forecast and come right back.
David Nelson:
Sounds great.
Andrew Stutzke:
The heat will be on for your Wednesday and even a touch of humidity coming into play too. Hazy sunshine, we’ll see temperatures aiming for the low nineties this afternoon. For tonight, a few clouds mild, mid-60s for lows and even a stray shower thunderstorm well north later tonight. We’re your Storm Track 8 weather impact forecast. I’m meteorologist Andrew Stutzke
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Paul Dymkowski:
Well of course this is a financial program and we want to now get into that kind of stuff. And David, I always think about you guys, you’re right down the hill.
David Nelson:
Sure.
Paul Dymkowski:
And every day we have the news on here in the station and you hear about another chaotic thing going on, whether tariffs on tariffs off stock, market up, stock market crashing, that’s got to make your job really challenging to try to navigate through all of these rough waters, I guess you say.
David Nelson:
Yeah, we have a saying as far as around the office as far as that we share with clients and that is that we’re the, and the filter implying that there’s a lot of data out there and we try to filter through the stuff that really matters. And there’s a whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter that doesn’t directly impact as far as the markets per se, but there there’s other stuff that like the tariffs is a perfect example as far as when we started getting serious about this that we’re maybe going to do this. I mean, when Trump ran to become president, he said, “I’m going to do this,” but the markets pretty much ignored it for an extended period of time. Then when it was game day and we’re really going to start implementing this stuff, the markets didn’t react very favorably. It wasn’t priced into the market as they say. And we saw the market come unglued for a period of time.
We got lucky as far as this past year as far as our clients were concerned. And again, some of it’s skill obviously, but some of it was luck as well. But we made a determination at the end of last year that there’s probably going to be some pretty bad volatility as far as that’s going to take place as far as this coming year, meaning in ’25 here. And so we sold pretty much the bulk of our client assets as far as in what’s defined as risk assets. In other words, pretty much stocks, that type of stuff, December 29th last year. And for about a three-week period of time, it looked like a really dumb move.
Things weren’t going the direction that we thought and the tools were basically telling us, but then reality set in and all of a sudden we looked really, really smart. We went from looking stupid overnight to looking really, really smart overnight.
And it all centered around just as far as what can go wrong. The folks that we work with as a general thumb, and I know there’s a variety of people that we work with, but if there’s one common theme, it would really center around that they worked hard for their money and they don’t want to see it disappear. And again, that sounds like maybe a silly statement, but there’s people out there that are willing to take more risk as far as with their money. But the bulk of the people that we work with, I’d say almost everybody is probably 50 and up, and the bulk of them are probably 60 to 80 years old and 60 to 80, these are not people that are wanting to stick their neck out at that point in their life. They’ve worked really hard to accumulate a few assets and whatever it is that they have, they want to hold onto it.
And so when we bring somebody aboard as far as that becomes a client of ours, that’s a really important discussion point, is to try to get into their noggin to figure out how much volatility they’re willing to accept. Obviously everybody, the volatility on the upside they love, but it’s the volatility on the downside. So we spend enormous amount of time talking not about what can go right, but what can go wrong. And what can go wrong is markets do correct. And again, you call it correction, you can call it a huge drop, you can call it a whatever, a major crisis. But on average the stock market will have a 35% give or take correction every six to seven years. Well, if I have all my money in stocks, that’s pretty tough to absorb.
And people say, “Yeah, but it always comes back.” And I say, well, “But it doesn’t always come back.” There’s all kinds of examples of situations where the market as a whole may have come back, but some of the stuff that you own didn’t necessarily come back. And I use examples of real life type situations. One company, we can’t talk specific companies on here, so I apologize, but I’ll just point to Morris in Illinois that they had a big plant as far as over there. And that big plant over there, that company, that stock was trading in the mid-sixties at one point and give or take, 10 years later it was under six bucks. And today, on a risk adjusted basis in a split adjustment, it’s a give or take in the twenties. And so things don’t always come back. The Japanese stock market, the Nikkei index was almost 40,000 in 1989, and today it’s under 40,000. So 1989 to today is a long time. And the bottom line is the market is still below where it was.
So does this stuff happen on a regular basis? I’m not saying it does, but yet people need to be aware what can go wrong and your a hundred grand that you have today could look like 50,000 if you’re not careful. And that 50,000 may take decades as far as to get back to the hundred thousand. So that’s really, really important that people understand that.
Our job is to try to basically take care of many of these types of situations as far as to try to educate people in advance that if this type of stuff takes place, what do you want us to do? And one of the questions is always, do you want us to err because we will make mistakes. Nobody knows when the market’s going to correct to the day or to the week or to the month. We’re trying to get the quarter right. But if we make a mistake, do you want us being too aggressive or being too passive as far as protecting your money? And without a doubt, every single person says, “Protect my capital.”
So we made a sale last December 29th and again, turned into be a really good move. And we deployed the money a month ago, give or take. So in other words, fancy way of saying we sold the bulk of it then, we sat in cash for this period of time and we deployed the money, so we’re back in. Now, it’s not to say that we know exactly where things are going to go. It’s not to say that we picked the perfect day, but it’s been a good move. And so, our clients where the market is pretty much flat, we’re actually up and up a decent amount as far as year to date, so we hope to be able to duplicate that going forward.
But again, as all the disclaimer, the ten-minute disclaimer at the beginning of this program basically says that its past performance basically means nothing. Tomorrow is what we’re looking at. And so our job is to help people navigate that stuff. And we get asked a lot as far as, “You guys have all these offices, not only in this area but around the country. How do you do that and why do you do that and why are you able to do that and others aren’t?” And I said, “I think it comes back to why,” one of our biggest accounts down the Quad Cities, it’s a big institution down there, education facility. And at the end of the day, I think the reason that we got that in asking the individuals, he said, “We love your directness. In other words, you don’t beat around the bush. One. And number two, we need somebody that will tell us what we need to hear and don’t sugar coat it.”
And so we don’t sugar coat stuff with clients, don’t believe in doing that. We’re going to tell them what we think is going to take place. Yes, we’ve got a lot of education. Yes, we’ve had good results, but at the end of the day, tomorrow could be different. And so we work really, really hard. We get the question, “What keeps you up at night,” and what doesn’t keep us up at night? I mean, there’s a lot of happenings out there. And so our job, again is to be that filter to help try to take this complex arena and make it a little simpler as far as for clients to understand. And again, always, always, always talk about what can go wrong as well as what can go right, and not just dwell on. what can go right.
Paul Dymkowski:
That’s the thing about it, David, that I really love about you guys, is that you’re honest and upfront and there’s none of this, “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll take care of it and you’ll be fine.” No, you explain to them, and it’s such a complicated thing when people, most people are lay people, they don’t know the intricacies of the market and how to invest and where to invest and all of that. You guys are the experts and you can explain it in a way that at least the lay person can hopefully understand.
David Nelson:
Yeah, exactly. Johnny Carson has a terrific quote. It was Dr. Joyce Brothers came on the program. Johnny is kind of spunky that night, threw this profound question at her, and she briefly, concisely responded. He looked at her and said, “With a Ph.D. is that the best you could do as far as the answer?” She said, “Mr. Carson, that’s what education is all about, taking very complex things and making them simple.”
So that’s the challenge that we have. And as you say, this is a really, really complicated area. And again, nobody has all the answers. The person that steps forward and says, “Oh yeah, I know exactly,” they’re a liar. They are a liar. Our job is to try to make informed, educated decisions and history says that this works. But again, that’s looking backwards. You’re only interested in going forward what’s going to take place. And our job is to do the best we can, but it’s to again, prepare people for when somebody takes a plane and puts it into a big building in New York City again, and this time it doesn’t kill as many as it did the last go round, but maybe there’s a bomb or something on board as well, that type of stuff we can do nothing about. But pretty much the rest of the stuff, we can have some input and a little bit of control over what takes place there. And again, that allows, I think, people to be able to sleep at night. And again, our job is to let people sleep at night.
My last coursework that I did at the John Kenny School of Government at Harvard, the professor as I’m leaving said, “Remember, an extra quarter percent rate of return means nothing if people can’t sleep at night.” And so I used to tell people as far as my job’s to make your money, you’re going to have to live with the volatility. And essentially what this guy said to me is, “You’re a complete idiot as far as telling people that.” What you need to do is you need to factor in as far as their emotions into these decisions that you’re making and an extra quarter percent interest doesn’t mean anything if they’re laying awake at night, tossing and turning about how much money am I potentially losing today, etc, etc.
So our job is, again, to try to take that burden away from them and we do the worrying for them and then communicating with them on an ongoing, regular basis as far as, here’s what we did, here’s why we did what we did, here’s what we’re doing now because here’s what we see tomorrow being. Don’t know for sure, but we think it’s going to be this and making those adjustments accordingly.
Paul Dymkowski:
Well, we’ve got just a couple minutes left, and this may be even more complicated, so we’ll just try to touch it briefly, but of course in Congress right now you have in the Senate, they’ve got this Big Beautiful Bill they call it, which is going to affect the tax rates and everything for, have you looked at that and how that might affect things?
David Nelson:
Yes.
Paul Dymkowski:
Or is it just basically, “Well, if they pass it, we’ll worry about it?”
David Nelson:
Well-
Paul Dymkowski:
I’m sure you’re probably looking at it in case it does pass.
David Nelson:
And it looks like there’s a good possibility something has going to come through and a good percentage of that is probably going to be put in place. And yes, tax wise, it’s going to be some positives for some people out there. Other individuals are going to be negatively impacted. To me, the average listener probably out there today as far as that we’re talking to that are listening now, is probably going to be very minimally impacted as far as by the basic bill pertaining to taxes because it looks like kind of status quo, pretty close to status quo in that space. Some of the other things are whole different ball game. They’re having discussions about Medicaid, they’re having discussions about Medicare, they’re having discussions as far as about social security. And again, we keep saying, “Oh no, don’t worry. We don’t worry.” Yeah, something’s probably going to give in some of those areas.
And so that I think people should be aware of as far as that there’s potential. Again, there’s probably nothing anybody out there can really do today to try to really improve that situation other than just staying informed. And again, we’ll do our best as far as here, which we typically try to do on a weekly basis as far as keep people looped as best possible. And again, it’s generic type information folks, obviously that we’re giving. But many of you out there, just like myself, we kind of all fit into a similar category. We don’t like to lose money. We like to make money. We don’t want to stick our neck out. We don’t want to pay any more taxes than we have to. We mush all that together. And then again, we come on here and try to generically give you the best information, the best advice that we possibly can.
Paul Dymkowski:
Well, that could definitely be a topic for another show.
David Nelson:
No doubt, no doubt.
Paul Dymkowski:
So as we get ready to wrap things up. So again, David, we appreciate you coming in and being on the show today and giving us some great advice and information and look forward to tonight’s baseball game.
David Nelson:
Sounds great. Sounds great, Paul. Thank you very much.
Paul Dymkowski:
Yep, you bet.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in the show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representatives securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. A broker-dealer member, FINRA SIPC. Investment advisor representative Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. For more information, visit our website at www.nelsoncorp.com.