How to Not Lose Money in the Stock Market: Understanding Mainstream Investing with Joseph Hogue

[00:00:00] Eric Brotman: Welcome to don’t retire, graduate the podcast that asks you what you want to be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with purpose and passion. I’m your host and valedictorian Eric Brotman. And today our guest is Joseph hogue. Joseph is the chief awesome officer. Yes. You heard that right?

The chief awesome officer at let’s talk money with Joseph Hogue. He was one of, um, one of the folks that we met at FinCon who has just turned the, the financial media on its ear. Um, I, I, I am so excited to introduce you. Um, you run a YouTube channel that I have spent some time on Joseph that is, has terrific content for consumers, for investors.

Uh, and I want to go into, to how you got started, but tell us a little bit about yourself first and let’s go. Sure. Well,

[00:00:52] Joseph Hogue: Eric, thanks for having me, uh, great to be here. It’s a little overwhelmed talking to the, the valedictorian here because I was [00:01:00] definitely not, uh, the valedictorian of my class when I graduated, but, uh, but yeah, yeah.

You know, just, uh, just, uh, an honor to be here. I appreciate it. Uh, yeah. Started started an equity analyst, uh, analysis after the Marine Corps, uh, loved, immediately fell in love with the idea of making your money work for you. Right? The idea of, you know, Having your money build on itself. So I went into a venture capital, uh, equity analysis, private wealth management.

And there was a point though that, that I realized I wasn’t really talking to who I was. I wasn’t really talking to, to where I came from. I was talking to, you know, that 1% that, that is, uh, able to access the venture capital, the private wealth management, things like that. So, uh, realized that, you know, I wanted to get back to, to, to main street, to main street.

Investors started some blogs in 2014. Positioned or transitioned that to two in 2017 to the YouTube channel. And, uh, it’s just been amazing since, uh, just exponential growth, 565,000, uh, [00:02:00] members in the community there. And, and I love that face to face feel you get with, uh, with YouTube and, and being able to reach people on a, you know, kind of a personal level.

[00:02:09] Eric Brotman: Well, I’m, I’m a couple of years behind you, Joseph, in terms of, uh, transitioning to video. So I, I, there’s a lot I can learn from you today, which is great. Uh, what I’m hoping our audience will come away with today is some, some actionable items. Some, some tips, you talk a lot about equity investing. You talk a lot about stocks.

Um, you remind me of a, a very mellow and thoughtful Jim Kramer, uh, and I mean, Compliment, uh, not to compare you to someone screaming at the television. I’m,

[00:02:35] Joseph Hogue: I’m looking for the buttons on my desk that, that scream

[00:02:37] Eric Brotman: out stuff at you. I, I, you know, I, I, I, I’m glad you’re not frenetic. Um, but, but you, you are very passionate about what you’re doing and, um, and specifically about equity.

So talk a little bit about equities and sort of how they, uh, should be positioned typically in a portfolio. And are they for. Sure. Sure. Well,

[00:02:56] Joseph Hogue: uh, equities or, or stocks, right. Are, are just it’s, [00:03:00] it’s almost an underrated, uh, investment, I think. And as much as we hear about stocks, I, I think people, uh, have this kind of arbitrary, uh, confused notion of what they are.

Stocks are actually an ownership of a company. You can actually own part of Disney, part of apple, uh, part of Coca-Cola and, and really you benefit from the earnings and, and the cash flow that those, those stocks, those companies spin off. Right. So when you’re investing, you are, uh, buying an ownership. You don’t have to run your own company.

You don’t have to, uh, be an entrepreneur. You can be an entrepreneur in an already established company. Uh, and so that’s the great thing about it is you can, uh, everybody can benefit from that, that American dream of starting your own company, but you don’t actually have to start your own company. You just invest in, uh, one, that’s already established you.

You have a right, because you are an owner of that company. You have a right to the earnings, uh, into perpetuity, into forever.

[00:03:54] Eric Brotman: There’s there’s a lot of, um, trepidation around stock investing, stock market [00:04:00] investing. Um, some people will tell you, oh my gosh, it’s so risky. Why would I, why would I do that? Um, and, and human behavior.

And I’ve actually seen, you did a show about behavioral investing, which I, which I loved human behavior will lead us to do exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. Natural. where, you know, the markets have dropped a little bit and your first inclination is, oh my God. Run for the Hills and leave.

And in fact, as counter intuitive as it is, that’s almost the exact opposite advice that you’d want to give. Wasn’t it. Isn’t it.

[00:04:32] Joseph Hogue: A absolutely. And I’m, I’m so glad you brought that up because it is, it is really that perspective that, that hurts people, investors so often, uh, we love to buy stocks as they’re going up.

Everybody’s talking about getting rich and even your, even your Uber driver has the next hot stock pick. Right. Uh, but then yeah, we, we, and then when stocks are coming down, uh, we panic and we sell and, and we, you know, we leave many people leave the markets, uh, you know, leave their investments for, for years and years.

[00:05:00] Uh, and, and that’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing, right? If you’re investing, as stocks are growing up, you never know when that’s gonna be the top for the next few years. Right. You never know when that next stock market crash or that bear market is coming around. As stocks are coming down, though, as we are in a, uh, you know, a bear market right now, then, you know, you’re getting a discount.

You know, you’re getting prices better than what we got at the beginning of the year. So this is the time you should be buying your, your best money. Your. Highest returns are made in this kind of environment in a bear market right now, as stocks are coming down.

[00:05:32] Eric Brotman: It’s amazing to me that, uh, I, I used to joke that when there’s a sale on towels at Macy’s, there’s a line around the building at four o’clock in the morning on black Friday.

But when there’s a sale on high quality companies on wall street, people think they’re somehow defect. Like it’s, it’s a great, it’s the rack. We don’t want this. I don’t understand that. Um, and, and, you know, houses real, estate’s often the same way, except that people, I think understand that [00:06:00] when real estate prices are depressed a little bit, it’s a great time to buy.

So why is it different with a house than it is with shares of X, Y, Z company?

[00:06:08] Joseph Hogue: It is, uh, I think it’s a lot of the terminology we use, right. A stock market crash, a bearer market. Uh, you don’t wanna get molded with the next bear market. Right. So I think a lot of the terminology scares people, I think, um, just that, uh, just that idea of.

Losing money, you know, as stock prices come down and watching a lot of people obsessively watch their portfolios every single day and, and see that, that number, uh, you know, those digital dollars coming down and, and it scares ’em it panics ’em and they lose sight of that longer term picture where. If there, if there is one guarantee in the stock market, one guarantee in investing it’s that stocks do eventually go higher.

Um, if you look at any stock chart over the last hundred years, uh, you will see those rises and falls those little dips, but, uh, they, they always go higher, uh, within a few years.

[00:06:57] Eric Brotman: Sometimes sometimes. And I use [00:07:00] real estate as a great example here because stock markets crash real estate has a crisis real estate doesn’t crash.

It has crisis. Uh, and, and that kind of nomenclature does create, um, it, it does create something you don’t see. Housing prices dipped 5% today as the lead story on the news. But what the Dow did, which by the way, is all of 30 stocks that you probably own as part of a much more broad, diverse allocation.

But what the Dow did is somehow on everybody’s it’s on everybody’s lips. People can tell you what the Dow number is, but they actually don’t know what the index means, uh, in a lot of different ways. Um, now Zillow’s changing that Joseph. I, I have, I have found, and I’m gonna confess to my audience that one of the things that, that I do, I, I certainly track my own personal balance sheet and my personal portfolio like I do for, for clients and so forth.

But I also put in the value of my home and I use the value from Zillow and Zillow is now sending [00:08:00] emails regularly to tell you about the price of your home, if you wanted to. Which is a brand new thing, because it used to be, you got your equity statement every month, but you didn’t have to look at your home home price unless you wanted to buy or sell.

Well, now that’s different now you’re getting market updates on the house, which by the way, are based on Compson, aren’t actually accurate in any way, but nonetheless, they come. And my confession is my confession is I, I gotta get this off my chest. I’m feeling, I’m feeling it’s very important, but my confession is that when the, when the price of the house is higher than it was last time I entered into my system.

And when it’s lower, I don’t. Yeah. Swear. Yeah, that’s true. Cause I can’t, I can’t grapple with the idea that my home got less valuable this week. That bothers me so much that I wait until it recover. And, and,

[00:08:45] Joseph Hogue: and besides your confession. So I don’t know if I should be, you know, giving you some Rosemary, you know, have you have you do some hail Mary’s or something?

Uh, which hail Marys that’s exactly the kind of Catholic I actually am. Uh, the, um, [00:09:00] but it kind of scares me a little bit. Because if we are moving the housing market more towards what we see in the stock market, those daily updates of, oh my God, AEL 5%. Amazon’s down 10, 10%. Uh, today mm-hmm we are turning housing into, unfortunately, what investing has become over the last decade and entertainment industry.

Okay. That’s, that’s absolutely really one of the worst things, uh, we could have done to investing and, um, something I, I think a lot of investors need to understand is that. A lot of what you see on TV, on the YouTube, on online about investing is pure entertainment. Uh, they are there to shock you to, uh, to get you, to come back, to feel, to get you to need, feel like you need their advice and their opinion every single day.

Um, and to keep you coming back for those ad dollars. You know, and, and so it’s not, not so much, not so much anymore about helping you make money, but about, uh, about getting you to come back and, and sharing you and shocking you into those big numbers. Every single. [00:10:00]

[00:10:00] Eric Brotman: Uh, I was just recently asked as recently as yesterday to appear on a television show in Australia and the topic they want me to talk about is why we shouldn’t listen to the media, which is it’s gonna be fun because that’s exact, you, you hit it right on the head, on the media.

Yeah. It’s gonna be fun. I have a love, hate relationship with the media. I, I tell folks I don’t watch the news unless I’m on it. Um, the, the reality is. It is entertainment and it’s worse than that because some of it, especially when you go to the, the checkout at your local supermarket and somewhere between the Skittles and the M and Ms is a magazine.

That’s the 10 stocks you wish you had bought three weeks ago when we printed this. To me. That’s not just entertainment. It’s pornography. It’s a form of financial pornography. It’s financial porn, right? That’s the term, right? It is. It is. And they call it that because it’s, it’s literally garbage and, and unfortunately, people don’t know how to distill good objective sound, reasonable advice.

From bravado and, and especially in equity [00:11:00] markets, uh, you know, you talk private equity, you talk to hedge funds and they all think they’re the smartest, you know, person on the block. How do you tell the difference between good logical advice and someone who’s just sort of a bit of a blow heart pardon in the expression?

Sure.

[00:11:15] Joseph Hogue: And, and it, it’s only getting worse and we don’t realize it’s getting worse. Right? I was on, uh, yeah, I was on my phone the other day and, and looking through Google cause I, I, I like trying to keep up with the news, but mm-hmm, I found that, you know, one, a couple of the last times I was on there, I had clicked on, you know, some of those investing, uh, articles or whatever, and now Google thinks that’s all I wanna.

So that is all I see in that feed. You know, you go to Facebook, you go to some, the social media and all their algorithms are based on what you’ve been watching, what they think you might be interested in. So they’re gonna serve you up that, that same, uh, that same trough of, you know, I, I don’t want to get, don’t wanna get vulgar on the show, but they’re gonna serve you up that same trough.

Uh, every single time you, you reach and, and I think one of the best things, any investor can. [00:12:00] Whenever they’re reading an article on investments. Whenever they’re watching something on investments is try to think about how much time is dedicat. In this article, in this video to trying to teach you how to invest rather than what to invest in.

Okay. If, if someone is teaching you how to invest, it’s, it’s the old, uh, you know, lead a horse to water, uh mm-hmm or kind of thing, or, or teach ’em I’m. Getting my analogies mixed up, uh, teach man to fish. Right. Um, you know, so many of these YouTubers, so many of these articles want to, uh, give you a fish.

They want tell you, Hey, invest in X, Y, Z, and these seven stocks. And you’ll be rich. That does nothing for you, except keeping you dependent on some Yahoo and a bow tie on yet YouTube, right. To, to pick your stocks for you. Right. So what I tried to do in, in each of my videos yeah. You know, I, I have to. Serve the needs.

I, I have to, you know, help people pick stocks or, or show them which stocks I’m watching. But I also wanna show people how to pick stocks and, and how to make their own decisions, you know, how to become a better investor. Uh, so that’s really what you need to be wa [00:13:00] on the watch for, uh, for online, anytime you’re online is okay, what are the parts of this video or what are the parts of this article?

Teaching me how to invest and that’s what I wanna pay attention to.

[00:13:10] Eric Brotman: Okay. I, I wanna put you on the spot a little. Because, um, the, how to, I think is great and, and I think it makes sense for, for people to understand how to invest. There, there are some people who absolutely should own individual common stocks and there’s others for various reasons who maybe shouldn’t sure.

How, how do you first discern whether this is right for you in the first place and how do you advise those folks who maybe aren’t ready for that or who don’t have the appetite for that, uh, level of risk or maybe who don’t have the, uh, either the sophistication or just the. To do this. How do you encourage those folks to move forward?

What’s the, what’s the tipping point.

[00:13:50] Joseph Hogue: I’m gonna say something. That’s gonna sound extremely hypocritical for a guy on his YouTube channel that, that talks about certain individual stocks, a lot, and which stocks I’m watching and [00:14:00] which stocks I like. Um, 99.9% of the people don’t need individual stocks. They do not need you.

You do not need individual stocks. You need, uh, index funds, which. Which are ETFs exchange, trade funds, funds that, that hold groups of stocks around the indexes. Right? So I was thinking NASDA S and P 500, the entire stock market gives you that, um, you know, bonds real estate gives you that, uh, market return, right?

Mm-hmm you need ETFs, right? These are, these are other exchange trade funds that maybe invest along a theme, but still hold hundreds. If not thousands of, of stocks in those and give you a really, a really smoothed out, uh, market return. What happens though is, is of course the sexy part, the entertainment part of, of investing is those picking those individual stocks.

And, you know, we feel this need this, uh, this drive to, to beat the market and to get rich. And, uh, it becomes an addiction and yes, my name is Joseph and I am an addict. Uh, I love that, that idea. Uh, I love to [00:15:00] follow stocks. I love to follow individual companies and pick individual stocks. So couple different things here.

Uh, one is. You know, very, you don’t, you don’t need individual stocks. You need to, to invest your money and let it grow, uh, in, in stocks and, and in funds in the, uh, in the investment, uh, you know, space, right? Uh, you need to do what you do best to make money, which for most, for 99.9% of the people out there is not picking stocks.

Uh, for 99% people out there doing what they do best for to make money is something entirely different. So they need to just put their money in an index fund in an ETF. Don’t even worry about it, set it on an automatic deposit each month from their check into their account, invest in account and, and wear it.

Invest in those. now the problem is though, again, we get back to that, that need that desire, that drive to, uh, you know, maybe a little bit of that gambler’s addiction to watch individual stocks, to pick stocks. And what happens is when, if somebody with that, you know, like myself and like a [00:16:00] lot of people out there, if they are, uh, if they do have that, and then they have this very, this very long term fund driven, uh, uh, fund driven portfolio where it’s just the funds and they’re gonna mess.

They’re gonna want to go in there. They’re gonna want to trade in and out of those things. And those are very long term investments that you should not be trading in and out. You should be holding those 10, 15, 20 years. Uh, so what I suggest is having maybe 10%, 15% or 20% at the most of your money, a very small sliver of your money.

In individual stocks, if you feel that need that desire to, to follow individual stocks, to pick, to pick stocks on your own, right? And then the rest of it, that 80% you have in those funds, those market return funds that are gonna give you the returns from stocks, bonds, and, and real estate. Those really broad based, uh, returns.

that way, if you completely mess up your 15% of your portfolio, that you’re, that you’re, uh, picking individual stocks with, you still know the vast majority of it is gonna get that market return and, and you’re gonna reach those financial goals, right? [00:17:00] Uh, for those that don’t have that itch, don’t have that desire to pick individual stocks.

You have all of it in the index funds and the ETFs. Don’t worry about it, just do what you do best to make money, uh, and then put some of that money in the stock market. Let those companies and the management at those companies do what they do best and grow those companies and make you money through those funds.

So fresh. I know there’s a lot, there was a lot in there, but, uh, probably the best advice you can get, uh, you know, as, as far as investing.

[00:17:27] Eric Brotman: It’s it’s refreshing to hear you say that because there are, um, for lack of a more graceful term, certainly still some Cowboys out there, some stocks slingers who would, would disagree with you and think that the only way is to time in and out.

And, and I, I just simply don’t, I don’t believe that market timing’s possible or someone somewhere would’ve mastered it and no one has, uh, Peter Lynch pretty good at.

[00:17:50] Joseph Hogue: You don’t think game stop and, and AMC are gonna all make us all rich,

[00:17:53] Eric Brotman: come on. Oh man. Well, so, so here’s the, and I think the, the, the regulatory and, and the, [00:18:00] um, the, the litigation that’s gonna come out of that yet is still, it remains to be seen.

I think that the Hammer’s gonna fall on folks. Who’ve been manipulating that. Or crypto or some of this other stuff where it’s very easy for a high powered, um, wealthy individual or fund or company to say, oh, we’re gonna start accepting crypto as currency and watch the thing go wildly up and then sell their shares and say, no, nevermind.

We’re not gonna accept it. It’s market manipulation. And I’m not pointing fingers at any individual. I’m just saying it’s very easy to do because there is that greed and that fear that, that swings like a pendulum for, for individual investors. You have, uh, a couple of rules of thumb. And I, I, I believe you referred to them as the three investing rules, the three things, uh, the three ways to not lose money in stocks.

And as much as people like to talk about making money, it’s actually much more painful to lose a hundred dollars than it is pleasurable to make a hundred dollars. That’s, uh, a behavioral, psychological certainty. So [00:19:00] what are your three rules to not lose money in stocks? Can you share those.

[00:19:05] Joseph Hogue: Sure. Well, uh, one, I, I think I would just go back to what I said before is.

At least, you know, 65, 70 5% of your money in those ETFs, in those funds, uh, those index funds you’re getting the market returns. So no matter what the rest of your portfolio does, you are getting the market returns and, and it is gonna smooth out your, uh, your portfolio. So you’re not gonna see the numbers jump up and down so much quite mm-hmm , uh, every single day, and you’re not gonna freak out, right.

You’re not gonna panic and you’re not gonna run to, to sell those. Another benefit of those funds is since they do own hundreds and thousands of stocks, then, um, you’re, you’re not really tempted to, to sell those in a panic because, uh, any individual company within that say, say if, uh, say if Amazon crashes 10% in a day within a fund, you really don’t notice it within the fund.

And, and it’s really not a reason to sell that fund because one stock went up or down, right. So is there’s very [00:20:00] much less, uh, very much less the. The impetus to, to sell out to panic, sell out of those funds. Uh, another thing I think I would say is, um, understand that you don’t sell stocks just because the price went down, right?

That is not the reason why you sell stocks. If you’re buying a stock it’s because you believe in the company, you think it’s got a, a great competitive advantage over its peers. Uh, over whether it’s through innovation or whether it’s through how their market or brand their products. And, uh, it is a very long term relationship.

You want, you want to own this company because you, you, you, you, you think highly of the company and their products. So that doesn’t change just because the stock price goes down. Right. What changes, uh, when you should sell a stock, are things like, you know, corporate malfeasance, if, uh, you know, if, if management is caught in some kind of a scam or fraud, uh, and then there’s no accountability for that.

You know, if, if management isn’t brought to task and change the culture within the company, because of that, you know, that’s some, [00:21:00] that’s a reason why you sell a stock. Um, you sell a stock if they’ve changed their business model, if those competitive advantages that you saw in that stock, when you bought it, if that is changed, you know, if they, something like Intel is a perfect example, used to be the bellwether.

Technology stock, the semiconductor stock. And yet then they stopped spending so much on their research and development. They lost that edge, uh, that they had over other, other semiconductor companies. And the stock has, has gone nowhere, but down over the last, you know, 10 years, really, you know, so if a company changes it, business model changes what they had in that competitive advantage.

That’s, uh, that’s a reason to sell, not just because the price goes up or down, you know, on any given day or even at any given year on.

[00:21:42] Eric Brotman: I’ve heard you talk about, I’ve heard you talk about concentrated stock positions. And, uh, if I recall your rule of thumb was never owned more than 5%, uh, of your portfolio in one stock.

If I heard you properly and, and everyone’s got different rules of thumb, it’s five, it’s 10, it’s some number. I [00:22:00] certainly understand why you want the diversification and why you don’t wanna overweight. It does create a lot of risk. And I think that’s true in almost anything. I tell the same thing to people who wanna, uh, start buying and renting real.

Don’t do it with one property because one bad tenant will sync your, your portfolio there in the same way. If you own only one stock you’re at you’re at its mercy. How do you, how do you, uh, discuss company stock when you’re an employee of the company? Uh, you know, we watched what happened with Enron years ago.

All those folks who suddenly were, um, you know, minted millionaires in their 401ks and it went to literally nothing overnight. There’s a lot of risk in holding, uh, excess company stock, like any other stock, but there’s also a lot of patriotism to, uh, and, and belonging and sense of, uh, of, of ownership in a different way.

So how do you, how do you counsel that? Does that follow the, the same rule?

[00:22:55] Joseph Hogue: Uh, uh, absolutely. In fact, I would say even less, uh, a lot of times, and I [00:23:00] realize people get stock options. Uh, so maybe they have those concentrated positions. Maybe it’s just a matter of, like you said, it’s, it’s pride in where they work and that, that, uh, you know, loyalty to, to where they work, uh, that they wanna build up and, and buy as much shares as possible to, to support the company.

Um, one thing I would say is by buying the stock, you’re really. Not necessarily supporting the company cuz the company doesn’t get that money when you buy and sell stock that that money is going to another investor. Right? So you’re not necessarily supporting the company. You’re, you can show your support by owning some of the shares, but, uh, something you really, a lot of investors need to understand.

And I think Enron is a great example of that, uh, is the, is the income risk and financial risk, right? And you do not want those two aligned, okay. By income risk, we’re talking about where you work, you know, how you make your money, how you make an income, uh, by financial risk. We’re talking. The value of your stocks and your, your assets, your other financial assets and your investments.

Okay. So now what you wanna do, uh, optimally, when you’re looking at your portfolio and, and what [00:24:00] to, you know, what to invest in is, is that tide, are, are you putting those two risks together and, and amplifying them? Right. So if I work at Intel and, uh, you know, I get lots of stock from, from in. If the semiconductor industry or, or, you know, if the economy, if the economy falls, the semiconductor industry falls, I could lose my job at the same time that stock is going down.

So I lose both my, I, I lose both my income as well as my financial, the value of my financial assets. Right. So that’s the real danger when you combine, uh, you know, lots of stock at where you work at, you know, if you, if you lose your job at the same time, you lose, lose the value of your stocks and are forced maybe to sell those stocks because you’ve lost your income.

So now you need money and you have to sell those stocks at the worst possible moment when they’ve gone down. It can be, you know, it can be also, uh, not necessarily even where you’re working at, but if you, so if I work at Intel, but I’m investing almost exclusively in all these other semiconductor companies.

Right. Which I don’t know what that would say about Intel if I was investing in [00:25:00] the other semiconductor companies. But, uh, but again, you know, if the semiconductor co uh, industry falls, then I could potentially lose my job, lose my income, as well as, uh, see my financial. Fall as well. So you always need to be thinking about that aspect of investing as well.

You know, what is separating my income risk from my financial risk, uh, and invest maybe in, in some companies that, that aren’t. One more thing about that, uh, is thinking about that. If you’re, if the job you work in, in which you work or the industry in which you work is extremely cyclical, you know, those are things like technology, things like construction, things like manufacturing, where the layoffs tend to be higher in a recession.

Uh, uh, when the economy falls, then maybe you wanna position your stocks. And your investments in something a little safer, right? So you’re balancing that higher income risk with, uh, you know, something that’s, that’s a little bit more stable. So you’re investing in maybe a little bit more stable, uh, sectors or industries like utilities, like consumer staples, things like that.

Um, so it’s, it’s a great way to think about your investments to really balance out the [00:26:00] different risks in your life.

[00:26:02] Eric Brotman: I like that a lot, because what you’re doing is you’re, you’re essentially equating human capital, which is your own ability to work and earn in an industry to an investment. And I I’ve, I’ve seen PhDs, uh, you know, hammer that out and decide whether that’s a legitimate thing.

And I think particularly for younger people who have longer careers in front of them, that’s, that’s definitely true because you’re, you’re putting your, uh, your eggs in that basket somewhat. Um, let’s talk about one other thing before we, we get to some of our key questions here at the end of the show.

How important is diversification across borders? How important in a world where. Every company is global or they don’t exist. Does it matter where a company is domiciled anymore? Do you still need to hold international or emerging market stocks? Does that really help you diversify or not? And I, I, I’m not, uh, teeing you up for a, a, a surprise answer or anything.

I, I’m literally curious what you think because I, in a world where multi-billion dollar companies do business all over the [00:27:00] globe, where they don’t exist, does it matter where they’re domiciled anymore? And if so,

[00:27:04] Joseph Hogue: Sure. Sure. And, and, you know, I used to, I actually started, uh, you know, when I started my career in investment analysis, I did a lot of work in, in emerging markets.

Uh, first conference I ever went to the, uh, you know, asked to speak on a, on a panel at a Bloomberg conference, uh, about emerging markets stocks. And, and I was drinking the bunch, right. You know, emerging markets, they’re, they’re gonna make us all rich, they’re growing so much faster than, than others. And, uh, you know, after, after more than 20 years invested more than 10.

As, as an equity analyst, uh it’s, it is really doesn’t make nearly as much difference. Right. I think, uh, at most, I think people need maybe an international fund. So one of those ETFs, or one of those funds that do hold some international exposure, some international stocks specifically, um, But like you said, it, you know, the, especially the S and P 500 companies, the 500 largest companies in the United States, uh, they have so much international exposure, uh, upwards of 35, 40% of their revenue is generated [00:28:00] overseas.

So you’re getting that international exposure. Uh, but you’re also getting, you know, the kind of, uh, the, the kind of system of laws and the legal protections and, uh, just, just the. I, I mean, I, I don’t wanna be too, too nationalist here, but, uh, just, just the, the, the great way that a lot of American firms are run, uh, you know, I’ve lived overseas for, for a, a large part of my life and, and have seen how a lot of companies, the legal system isn’t quite as well established, uh, companies are not run with that shareholder focus in mind.

And, and, and it’s just too bad because it’s, it’s actually holding those economies back. Uh, but, but there is no better, no better country in the world to invest in than, than the United States and the companies within it.

[00:28:43] Eric Brotman: Fantastic. So I have to ask you, Joseph, what do you wanna be when you grow up? I can’t let you leave the show without, without deciding, and, and it doesn’t have to be what you want to be.

It might be who you want to be, but what’s, what’s next for you where you want to. Sure. Sure. Well,

[00:28:59] Joseph Hogue: you know, I, I [00:29:00] mean, uh, I, I guess anyone from our generation, uh, we started, we started out, we would’ve been, wanted to be veterinarians or, or, uh, astronauts or, or whatever. Right. The old standby, uh, yes. Any kid today.

And what do they say? The top, the top five there’s YouTuber there’s talker. There’s influencer, right? Mm-hmm uh, and, um, I guess I, you know what I, I think I’ve, I’ve, uh, I. You know, in touch with my, my, my younger self and I wanna be a YouTuber. I mean, I love what I do. Uh, I, I, I, I love, I, I love the investment aspect of it and, and being able to, to, to look at those stocks and, and really follow the markets.

But I think the biggest, the, the biggest joy that I get is yeah. Being able to, to have that face to face connection with so many people and, and really build building that community, uh, around it. Uh, there’s just, there’s just nothing like it, it is, it is a great feeling.

[00:29:52] Eric Brotman: Well, and you are a YouTuber, my friend, and I’ve enjoyed some of your materials.

So I, I will definitely be following you, uh, last question for our audience, because we [00:30:00] don’t believe in homework here, but we do like extra credit assignments, um, for our listeners, for our viewers. What is the one thing, the one takeaway or the one thing, um, that you think actionably someone ought to do?

Having spent some time with us?

[00:30:13] Joseph Hogue: sure. Well, you know what, I, I, I actually gotta, I gotta look over into my notes. I’ve got a tab, I’ve got a calendar in Excel that I use, uh, for daily TASA. And one of the tabs is 1% better. Right. And, and it’s all the things within, uh, my family, you know, uh, uh, my life, uh, health and business, uh, Little things that can make me 1% better in that.

And so I wanted to look back on that because I’ve got, uh, you know, for the family part, I, I, I’ve got 15 minutes each day just talking to talking to my kids. Right. And it doesn’t have to be deep. Uh, father, son, father, daughter, advice. That’s gonna change their lives just 15 minutes talking to that one, uh, child, you know, not, not.

To everybody, just that one child 50 minutes. Um, and, and I want another thing, you [00:31:00] know, engage in one thing they’re interested in per week. And you know, my son is completely all in on Fortnite right now. I could care less, you know? Right. Uh, I, I don’t understand it. I don’t know it, but it is his world right now.

So, you know, spend, spend 15 minutes a week just talking to him about Fortnite and, and, uh, you know, engaging him with that. And, and what I think you’ll find is that, um, yeah, you’re, you’re not trying, you’re not trying too hard on this. You’re not trying to create those, those, uh, those moments, uh, that, that you’ll remember forever, but you will, you know, 15 minutes talking to each, each of your kids each week, uh, just engaging with them in one thing, they, they really enjoy their world each week.

Or 15 minutes each day. Right? Uh, you’ll you’ll create those moments, you know, those, those, those memorable moments that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Uh, it’ll just come naturally out of that. Uh, so I think it’s, it’s a really, it’s a really low bar to set that that creates those [00:32:00] really, uh, those great memorable moments

[00:32:01] Eric Brotman: for ’em.

Well, it’s Sage advice. And I think that means I’m gonna learn a lot more about animal crossing and Henry danger, uh, which is what’s going on at our house most of the time. So, great advice, Joseph, where can people learn more about you? Where can they check out your, your, your content, your channel join bow tie nation.

I’m very disappointed by the way that you’re not in a bow tie today. I was fully expecting that. Uh, and, and I feel like maybe I haven’t qualified to be part of Bowie nation yet, so I I’ll just keep working.

[00:32:28] Joseph Hogue: Well, you know, I, I didn’t wanna go full nerd. Uh, I, I wanted to ease in ease people into, uh, the idea, but, but yeah, you know, check it out.

Uh, uh, the nerd and proud, uh, bow tie nation over there on the let’s talk money channel on YouTube. Uh, I’d love to, you know, everybody had come over and, and check it out and join the community. Uh, like I said, that’s, that’s really, what I get from it is, is that sense of, of face to face interactions and engagement and community with, with everyone there on the, uh, on the.

[00:32:55] Eric Brotman: Joseph. Thanks for being on don’t retire, graduate. You’ve been a great guest and, and we’ll be putting your, your [00:33:00] content, uh, in our show notes so people can check you out. Thank

[00:33:03] Joseph Hogue: you. I appreciate Eric. Thank.

[00:33:06] Eric Brotman: And thanks to all of you for listening and now watching don’t retire, graduate. We’d love to hear from you.

So please send us a message on social media or email us, or post at Braman planning on Twitter. We’d love to know if you have questions for office hours. If you have guests, you’d like to see us interview, uh, we’re just how you’re doing in the don’t retire graduate movement. We’ll be back next week with another episode of office hours and in two weeks with another engaging.

For now, this is your host and yes, Joseph valedictorian. Eric brought me reminding you don’t retire graduate. We’ll see you next week.

[00:33:49] Joseph Hogue: Securities offered through Ketra investment services, LLC Ketra is member FINRA S I C investment advisory services offered through Ketra advisory services, LLC Ketra as and [00:34:00] affiliated of Ketra is Ketra is or Ketra as are not affiliated with Braman financial or any other entity discussed.