Readers are leaders! Josh and Austin are back with the third episode in their “What We’re Reading” series, highlighting current events through recent articles! This week the guys discuss everything from Roth Conversions to the booming Pet Care Industry. Listen in now!

Main Talking Points

[0:49] – Josh’s First Read: Roth Conversions Take Centerstage After Market Downturn, Advisors Say

[1:29] – When is the Best Time to do a Roth Conversion?

[4:16] – Austin’s First Read: Apple’s iOS 15.4 Release

[6:37] – Pro Tip: Yoink

[7:04] – Josh’s Second Read: Crypto Taxes in 2022 – Tax Rules for Bitcoin and Others

[9:27] – Dad Joke of the Week

[10:01] – Austin’s Second Read: Netflix Stock Has Now Lost All its Gains from the Pandemic

[13:34] – Josh’s Third Read: The Long Tail of Pet Care Spending

[18:59] – Austin’s Third Read: China’s Nationwide Surge of COVID-19 Cases

Links & Resources

107: iPhone Versus Android Battle Royale – The Invested Dads

Roth Conversions Take Centerstage After Market Downturn, Advisors Say – Financial Advisor Magazine

Apple’s iOS 15.4 Release – CNBC

Crypto Taxes in 2022: Tax Rules for Bitcoin and Others – NerdWallet

Netflix Stock Has Now Lost All its Gains from the Pandemic – CNBC

The Long Tail of Pet Care Spending – ProShares

China Battles Nationwide Surge in COVID-19 Cases – The Wall Street Journal

Invest With Us – The Invested Dads

Free Guide: 8 Timeless Principles of Investing

Social Media

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YouTube

Full Transcript

Intro:

Welcome to The Invested Dads podcast, simplifying financial topics so that you can take action and make your financial situation better. Helping you to understand the current world of financial planning and investments. Here are your hosts, Josh Robb and Austin Wilson.

Austin Wilson:
All right. Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to The Invested Dads podcast. The podcast where we take you on a journey to better your financial future today. We are going to be talking about some interesting articles that we’re reading right now, because we read.

Josh Robb:
We like to read.

Austin Wilson:
Leaders are readers. Readers are leaders. Wait, which way does it go?

Josh Robb:
Both ways.

 

[0:49] – Josh’s First Read: Roth Conversions Take Centerstage After Market Downturn, Advisors Say

Austin Wilson:
It goes both ways? So, we will link all articles that we’re talking about in the show notes, but we each have three different articles that we found interesting that we’re just going to talk about. What we found interesting about them and kind of just discuss it amongst ourselves. Josh, I know this was a challenge for you because you forgot how to read. You had to relearn, but now what is the first thing you’re reading?

Josh Robb:
Hooked on Phonic. No, I was just kidding.

Austin Wilson:
Hooked on Phonics. LeapFrog.

Josh Robb:
Yeah. So, first one is a, I think, pretty pertinent conversation to have, and there’s been a couple different articles. This one was from the Financial Advisor magazine, which Austin said, we’re going to link everything in the show notes, but it’s about Roth conversions, which we’ve talked about in the past. That’s where you take money from a pre-tax account and convert it over to a Roth IRA.

Austin Wilson:
Oh, not rock conversions?

Josh Robb:
No, you’re not moving it from a coal to diamond or something. So, this is moving money from pre-tax to after tax, so you’re going to pay tax on that conversion. But the question on this article was asking is, when the markets are down, is that actually a better opportunity to do a Roth conversion?

 

[1:29] – When is the Best Time to do a Roth Conversion?

Austin Wilson:
Hey, the markets are down, Josh, is it?

Josh Robb:
That’s a good question. So, the idea for this is that if you’re moving from, and we’re going to talk a little bit about this concept after I explain it, but that is that I’m just moving my growth or my recovery at this point from pre-tax money to after tax money. In other words, I’m going to still be taxed, but once it recovers, all that growth will be after tax, and I’ll never pay tax on that again. An example, buy a $100,000 portfolio, and it goes down 30%, $70,000.

Austin Wilson:
So, you were in arc?

Josh Robb:
Yes, apparently.

Austin Wilson:
All right.

Josh Robb:
And this was an example they used in the article. They said, after assuming higher tax bracket, things like that, you could save about $7,000 on that conversion when it’s down than if you would’ve converted it while it’s up, and that growth piece then is all tax free.

Austin Wilson:
Interesting.

Josh Robb:
So if it goes back up to 100,000, 30,000 of that would’ve been taxed in your old IRA at some point on a withdrawal, but it moved or recovered in the Roth piece.

Austin Wilson:
So, my question about that is, if you’re converting when things are down, you are going to have to liquidate to pay-

Josh Robb:
Good question.

Austin Wilson:
Taxes?

Josh Robb:
Where the value comes from is if you have cash outside of the –

Austin Wilson:
Pay the tax outside.

Josh Robb:
To pay the tax outside. Now, you still can because you were going to pay tax one way or another. And so, take this example again, you had $100,000 and you would’ve had $100,000 of income. And so, whatever tax bracket you’d have, you’d only have to pay $70,000 of income. You’re still saving tax, and you could pay it out of the portfolio. If you’re going to do it both ways, you’re still saving net.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah, you’re saving less if you pay it out of the portfolio.

Josh Robb:
Yes. And you can also do conversions in kind. So, let’s say your assets are down and you say, “I don’t really want to sell these.”

Austin Wilson:
You just transfer the assets.

Josh Robb:
You just transfer them in kind. So, the article was walking through the ideas, and they came to the same conclusion that I always do, is it really depends on your situation. You talk to your tax advisor, and your CPA, and your accountant, and your attorney, and your financial advisor about the situation.

Austin Wilson:
Probably your wife.

Josh Robb:
And everybody. Ask anybody. But the idea there is that, just because the values are down, there may be an opportunity. But the other argument is, well, if it goes down farther, then you should have waited. Or if it ends the year down, so let’s say I convert and it ends the year down, well then, I should have waited for another year because I’d lost the tax opportunity that I could have had in future years. So, it’s not like a guaranteed, this is an absolute everybody must do money saver thing. But it’s an opportunity if you’re thinking about it to say, “Well, if I was going to do it this year anyways, maybe while the market’s down, it’s a good time to.”

 

[4:16] – Austin’s First Read: Apple’s iOS 15.4 Release

Austin Wilson:
Well, my first article, the CNBC article about Apple’s new iOS update, iOS 15.4, which is irrelevant to you, because you still live in the dark ages and don’t have an iPhone.

Josh Robb:
They had to update because there’s something wrong with it?

Austin Wilson:
If you haven’t listened, we actually did have a iPhone versus Android Battle Royale episode. We’ll also link that in the show notes.

Josh Robb:
That ended in a draw?

Austin Wilson:
It ended in a draw, which you could actually do on your…

Josh Robb:
We both decided the old Windows phone was the best.

Austin Wilson:
Exactly. Or the Amazon phone that doesn’t exist, or Blackberry.

Josh Robb:
Yeah, there it is.

Austin Wilson:
Yup, exactly. Anyway, it came out on March 14th, the new update. And one of the key features is that you can now-

Josh Robb:
Wait, wait.

Austin Wilson:
Yep.

Josh Robb:
It’s Pi Day.

Austin Wilson:
It’s Pi Day. Yeah, so this has nothing to do with pi at all. But one of the key feature is that you can unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask with your face ID, which is funny because just as US COVID cases plummet and mask requirements are dropped around the country, this becomes an option.

Josh Robb:
But I reminded you. Scarf weather.

Austin Wilson:
Scarf weather.

Josh Robb:
Then, it opened that phone.

Austin Wilson:
What does that look at your eyes or eye structure instead? So, that is really a-

Josh Robb:
It’s like you wink a code to it. Morse wink code.

Austin Wilson:
It’s really interesting that that’s coming out now when… That probably could have come out pretty quickly in 2020. Anyway, that is one of the major updates. The other one is that includes new emojis.

Josh Robb:
Oh yay.

Austin Wilson:
One of them is a pregnant man, and that is interesting to me, because I don’t really understand why.

Josh Robb:
Gender inclusivity.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. I would think that the feminist would be all over that like, “Man, the guys can’t take pregnancy away from us too.” So, I think it’s got to be a food baby.

Josh Robb:
That, yeah.

Austin Wilson:
I get that. I get a food baby. I mean, I look like that after about every weekend splurge meal.

Josh Robb:
The Thanksgiving emoji?

Austin Wilson:
So, that is one of the new emojis that I found humorous. Another new feature is tap to pay with iPhone, which you could have already done at a store. But now, merchants can accept credit cards through a phone. Instead of having to use the square hardware, you can just use your phone, and then, accept payments that way. Which is kind of cool. So, it’s a similar feature to the square hardware there. Other small updates, and another one is called universal control, which allows you to drag and drop files between your iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Josh Robb:
Well, that’s nice.

Austin Wilson:
So, it’s all on the same page. Something that your life could never do.

Josh Robb:
Actually, that’s been a while.

Austin Wilson:
Nope.

Josh Robb:
Literally, when I sit down, it’s like, “Would you like to sync all these things together?”

Austin Wilson:
Nope, doesn’t happen.

Josh Robb:
But that’s okay.

 

[6:37] – Pro Tip: Yoink

Austin Wilson:
Except for… Okay. So, pro tip-

Josh Robb:
All my Windows stuff does that.

Austin Wilson:
If you’re a Mac, iPhone, iPad guy, girl, either one, you need to use the… You don’t need to. I use the app Yoink, Y-O-I-N-K, and it creates a little shelf on your Mac where you can drag and drop anything to it, and it holds it like a copy-paste for as long as you need, and it can sync between all your devices.

Josh Robb:
Interesting.

 

[7:04] – Josh’s Second Read: Crypto Taxes in 2022 – Tax Rules for Bitcoin and Others

Austin Wilson:
So, if you copy something on your Mac, it’s available to paste from your phone. Really cool. That is article number one. Josh, what is your second article?

Josh Robb:
Oh, yes. This one came from NerdWallet.

Austin Wilson:
NerdWallet.

Josh Robb:
Yep. And this is, again, a little more timely episode in that we’re talking taxes and cryptocurrency. So, taxes are always there. In anything you do, you got to owe taxes on. Crypto is new. And so, the question becomes, well, what kind of taxes are owed? And just a note, the IRS is really cracking down on cryptocurrency in paying your taxes owed on that asset.

Austin Wilson:
Don’t buy and sell a bunch of crypto and not pay your taxes.

Josh Robb:
We’re going to talk about a couple pieces in this article. One is it’s actually the IRS classifies it as property, not currency, so that matters and how it is. But here’s the thing, and I saw this, I think it was a New York mayor. Somebody was getting paid in cryptocurrency his first couple paychecks.

Austin Wilson:
So were some NFL players.

Josh Robb:
So, if you’re getting paid in crypto, you pay taxes on the current value of it at the payment time, I believe. And so, you got to track all this fun stuff, because it’s income. So, you pay income tax on this. It doesn’t mean you have to sell it, but you’re going to have cash somewhere to pay this thing.

Austin Wilson:
Did you hear the example with Odell Beckham?

Josh Robb:
No.

Austin Wilson:
So, he’s Rams receiver. He got paid in crypto, in Bitcoin specifically. Apparently, he started getting paid in Bitcoin when Bitcoin was 60 some thousand dollars of Bitcoin.

Josh Robb:
Now, it’s down to 40.

Austin Wilson:
Now, it’s down to nothing. He actually, and by the time he paid, because now he lives and works in California. By the time he paid all of his taxes on his Bitcoin salary, he actually made $40,000 or something like that.

Josh Robb:
That’s crazy.

Austin Wilson:
It’s crazy. It’s crazy.

 

Josh Robb:

So, if you’re paid by it, that counts as current income and you’ll owe income taxes on it. If you sell it, you create either capital gains or capital losses, and then that’s taxed the same way any other capital gains or capital losses are. The problem is, most wallets do not track your transactions nor do they send you a 10-90-

Austin Wilson:
Because they don’t have to, they’re not SCC.

Josh Robb:
They don’t, they don’t have to, so they’re not going to.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah.

Josh Robb:
So you got to have your own transaction history to prove, this is my taxes and the IRS is going to really be paying attention to that. So that was an interesting article. But if you do or have traded in cryptocurrency, make sure you’re tracking that. Make sure you report it. Cause that would be a bad thing.

 

[9:27] – Dad Joke of the Week

Austin Wilson:
That would not be good. Next I’m going to have a dad joke of the week for you.

Josh Robb:
Oh right.

Austin Wilson:
This is from r/dadjokes. Surprise, right?

Josh Robb:
Reddit.

Austin Wilson:
I closed was the tab. I got to get it back. Got to get it back. It was funny.

Josh Robb:
It’s a good one.

Austin Wilson:
It was funny, Josh. Here we go.

Josh Robb:
All right. I’m ready.

Austin Wilson:
It’s more of a phrase. It’s a thinker. I was abducted by aliens. They made me wash my hands, clean my room and eat my vegetables. Turns out I was on the mothership.

Josh Robb:
The mothership. I like it.

Austin Wilson:
That’s so funny.

Josh Robb:
Like it.

 

[10:01] – Austin’s Second Read: Netflix Stock Has Now Lost All its Gains from the Pandemic

Austin Wilson:
So that’s the dad joke of the week. Second article for me. Another CNBC article that Netflix stock now trades at a similar price that it did in March 2020. This is around the $330 per share range there and shares are down more than 50% since full time highs last November and all time highs were around $700 share.

Josh Robb:
That was a rough turn.

Austin Wilson:
It’s been pretty rough. The company saw huge share price growth in 2020 and 2021. As people were locked down, they were home.

Josh Robb:
Everybody want to watch a movie.

Austin Wilson:
But then-

Josh Robb:
Tiger King.

Austin Wilson:
The Tiger King, which peacock is having a Tiger King, a show. Carol and Joe. Spinoff kind of.

Josh Robb:
The one lady’s from Saturday Night Live, I think she’s pretty funny.

Austin Wilson:
Exactly. Right. So that sounds interesting, I won’t watch it, but sounds interesting. But anyway, as the US specifically and the rest of the globe have eased their COVID restrictions and people have been able to go do things again, growth has slowed and the share price has definitely shown that for example, in 2020, which was kind of the boomer year for Netflix, Netflix added nearly 37 million subscribers, which is much faster growth than prior years. In 2021, that growth slowed to only 18 million. And they actually are projecting, they aren’t, but analysts are projecting that over the next couple years as well. So growth has slowed if all that growth slows stock price is going to follow as well. Because a lot of higher growth was built into the stock price. Essentially what was being sold there. So another way that Netflix is going to potentially try and make some more money and grow a little bit differently is that they could try and capture some cinema money because as Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was a fantastic movie.

Josh Robb:
Yeah. It was good.

Austin Wilson:
Amazing movie. As that proved cinema movie money is exceptional again. If you would make a good movie, people will go see it and spend a lot of money to do it. But generally Netflix has preferred to get the content to the subscriber as fast as possible and go bypass the theaters there. But the caveat being that to be nominated for academy awards, you must go through the theaters.

Josh Robb:
So they win all those… What’s the other award they get? One of those other shows,, they do win a lot of awards, but not the big academy award. Okay.

Austin Wilson:
Exactly. So another reason for growth slowing potentially is from competition. So Disney, HBO max, Amazon Prime, Peacock. These have all given consumers a lot more choices for their content.

Josh Robb:
Oh, they have the Hallmark Channel.

Austin Wilson:
Hallmark plus.

Josh Robb:
Yes.

Austin Wilson:
The copy paste scripts for every single movie.

Josh Robb:
It’s amazing.

Austin Wilson:
It’s a formula, you can just literally get a form. It’s like, “Girl moves into a town meets…”

Josh Robb:
Small business struggles.

Austin Wilson:
Small business struggles…

Josh Robb:
Her big competitor who she doesn’t like, she falls in love with, they work things out and they kiss in a mistletoe.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. That’s pretty much it. That’s really their biggest competition. And also last month, the last of Netflix’s Marvel license shows removed. So Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Punisher and Defenders, those are now moved to Disney+. So that’s another content niche kind of taken from them. So that is kind of the downside of Netflix. However, one of the upsides is that for the stock, not the consumer, is that they just pushed through a pricing increase for all of its plans, which I just got back on Netflix. That’s what I’m paying the higher price now.

Josh Robb:
Oh man. Bummer. I do remember back when he used to get them in the mail.

Austin Wilson:
Oh I do too.

Josh Robb:
Way back in the day and how things have changed.

Austin Wilson:
It was an interesting business model.

Josh Robb:
You would pick one and you wait excitedly for it to show up and you watch it and put it back in the mail and wait for your next one.

 

[13:34] – Josh’s Third Read: The Long Tail of Pet Care Spending

Austin Wilson:
It was interesting. It worked, they made a lot of money on it did. So Josh, that is my second article. What is your third article?

Josh Robb:
Yes. So this one came from ProShares, which is a ETF fund company, but they had an article on pet spending.

Austin Wilson:
Pet spending.

Josh Robb:
Yep.

Austin Wilson:
The pets are expensive.

Josh Robb:
So they had some stats. Well just you wait. So one stat that I found in here was, one in five households acquired a pet during COVID.

Austin Wilson:
Didn’t you?

Josh Robb:
I mean it was right before COVID. Had nothing to do. This was during COVID. So the concept being that while they were home, they’re like, “I’m lonely. We get a pet.”

Austin Wilson:
Terrible idea.

Josh Robb:
It depends on your outlook. But yes, they said that the challenge now though, is people are going back to work. So now pets they have these at home that are used to not being a home and so our dog has those problems. But hundred billion dollar a year industry, pet care. That’s a lot of spending.

Austin Wilson:
That’s a lot of… Hundred billion.

Josh Robb:
Yeah. With the B.

Austin Wilson:
With the B.

Josh Robb:
With the B. So a lot of spending, Gen Zs spend almost $2,000 per year on pets. They surveyed and found out they’re the, of all the generations, they spend the most.

Austin Wilson:
That is so dumb.

Josh Robb:
And I don’t know if that includes like vet bills or if it’s just they’re spending on.

Austin Wilson:
Okay. So think about the-

Josh Robb:
My dog eats about that much.

Austin Wilson:
Think about the opportunity. So I have two dogs. This is my caveat. I have two dogs.

Josh Robb:
I have a dog.

Austin Wilson:
I’m not-

Josh Robb:
I have a dog, the size of two dogs.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. I’m not necessarily a dog person. Even my wife. Now we have two dogs. She’s not necessarily a dog person. She got it out of her system though. And now we can’t do anything while we have dogs. But we’re not really dog people, but I’m just doing the math in my head like, the opportunity cost.

Josh Robb:
Yes.

Austin Wilson:
$2,000 in 30 years becomes? $20,000 at an 8% rate. Right. Is that dog really worth $20,000? No, it is not, get rid of it.

 

Josh Robb:

These people paying $20,000 for dogs. It’s crazy.

Austin Wilson:
Stop.

Josh Robb:
Maybe not that much.

Austin Wilson:
We can’t do that.

Josh Robb:
Dogs are like-

Austin Wilson:
Friends don’t let friends get dogs.

Josh Robb:
That’s right.

Austin Wilson:
And young people. When you get your first job, don’t get a dog. Okay, I’m going to step off my soapbox.

Josh Robb:
Unless your first job is, you’re a canine officer. You probably need one.

Austin Wilson:
They’re probably issuing you one.

Josh Robb:
Or maybe you get one. Yeah. It’s part of job.

Austin Wilson:
So I’m going to get off my soapbox because I am really passionate about young people not getting dogs because I got a dog as a young person.

Josh Robb:
We did too, but ours a good dog.

Austin Wilson:
They can be good dogs, it’s still a pet.

Josh Robb:
Yes.

Austin Wilson:
Pets are not cool.

Josh Robb:
So the other thing it mentioned, this article is pet insurance.

Austin Wilson:
So health insurance for pets.

Josh Robb:
Yes. It’s out there. There’s a whole industry for it. In 2019, 18% of pets had insurance. 2020, a year later, 27% of pets had insurance.

Austin Wilson:
Does Baxter have insurance?

Josh Robb:
I didn’t know this existed. I’m going to honest with you. No.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. My dogs don’t either.

Josh Robb:
So you know, maybe you do the math and if you have a breed, maybe that’s susceptible to certain things-

Austin Wilson:
You probably shouldn’t have gotten to begin with.

Josh Robb:
Yeah. So, I don’t know, but that surprised me that over a quarter of pets have insurance to help cover their…

Austin Wilson:
See, we take our dogs to the vet periodically. When they have a mandated vaccine due. Which is really just rabies. That’s the only one that’s officially mandated. So when that comes up, we get them done. And we always ask the vet, “Is this necessary for everything else?” And they’re like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So pretty much we keep it as affordable.

Josh Robb:
Yep. So I mentioned Gen Zers again. So they are spending the most per-

Austin Wilson:
$2,000 a year.

Josh Robb:
Not only that, but same people, Gen Zers, the number of households with children under 18 are steadily decreasing.

Austin Wilson:
They’re replacing kids with pets.

Josh Robb:
Yep. Yep. And with that insurance that they have, that insurance means they’re also opting for more or higher end services at vet clinics.

Austin Wilson:
Like manicures for your dogs?

Josh Robb:
Or just simple things as the treatments of things where you may just say, “Well, we’ll just let the dog live out their life.” They’re paying for medication for arthritis or something like that.

Austin Wilson:
Tumor removal.

Josh Robb:
That stretches out their, maybe life expectancy or their comfort, which is great. You don’t want to see an animal suffering. But they’re opting for maybe this higher end pieces. And on the other side is, when we lived over in Indiana, my wife and I, there was a boarding pet place. Right. And so, picture that you have cages, you put your dogs in it, but they had upgraded suites where they had-

Austin Wilson:
Puppy mansions.

Josh Robb:
I kid you not. Because they, I took a tour of it when we were dropping our dogs off who stayed in just the cage. Metal cage. But they had rooms and they had animal planted on the TV for them to watch. They had a bed, they had a couch to go with. It was a room, it was a hotel room for the dog.

 

Austin Wilson:

How much money was that?

 

Josh Robb:

Yeah, I don’t remember. But then they would get walks throughout the day and pool time in the summer and-

Austin Wilson:
Can I go there?

Josh Robb:
Someone would come in and play with them, and so it was just crazy. So.

Austin Wilson:
I’m going to put you there.

Josh Robb:
There is an end or an industry where people are catering to their pets like kids, they treat them like children almost. And so there is an end where, they’re dressing them up, bringing them out and having fun. So I think it’s an interesting article.

Austin Wilson:
Everyone knows now where I stand on the pet situation. And I will say I have two dogs. And I do not dislike them, but dogs, they tie you down. They really tie you down. It’s something to consider when you have to leave. And that’s something that has stressed me out more and more by the year I think. All right.

Josh Robb:
So that was my third one.

 

[18:59] – Austin’s Third Read: China’s Nationwide Surge of COVID-19 Cases

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. My third article is a wall street journal article about China’s nationwide surgeon COVID 19 cases. Which is funny because they’ve had this COVID zero policy forever and ever. And clearly doesn’t work.

Josh Robb:
It’s a rounding down.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. COVID zero. So the Omicron variant, which has made its way through the US, in Europe and now it’s making its way through Asia. It is definitely working through China. It’s prompting another round of citywide lockdowns. Here is some statistics that are mind blowing. There’s a city called Changchun, nine million residents in the city, big city.

Josh Robb:
Good size city, 9 million.

Austin Wilson:
Really big city compared to what we have around here. So two symptomatic cases, 21 asymptomatic cases. That sent the entire 9 million people city into what’s called “closed management” which allows one family member to leave home every two days for food and necessities. For a nine million resident city having two symptomatic cases and 21 asymptomatic cases.

Josh Robb:
That’s crazy.

Austin Wilson:
9 million people are home doing nothing. Their economy is essentially shut down for that.

Josh Robb:
That except for those two days or the one day, every two days you can go out.

Austin Wilson:
So when do you want to open back up? When every citizen has been tested three times. 9 million people.

Josh Robb:
Can you do three in a row? Like 1, 2, 3.

Austin Wilson:
So this is some of the craziness of how China’s handling.

Josh Robb:
That’s crazy.

Austin Wilson:
So this all comes at the same to time when the US is back to normal. Mask restrictions are down anywhere except for airplanes. And it looks like it could be happening in the fall. The last thing I’ve heard.

Josh Robb:
I was hoping sooner, but that’s fine.

Austin Wilson:
Yeah. So that, I mean, we’re pretty much back to normal here. COVID response in countries like the US, who allowed relatively high levels of freedom. Some people would argue otherwise, but relatively compared to China.

Josh Robb:
Compared to that yes.

Austin Wilson:
During the pandemic, compared to those with zero COVID policies like China, that comparison of who handled it better is going to be debated for years and years. But I, for one thankful, that we lived in the United States during this because, it’s been, well, everyone had to do something they didn’t want to do. But we’re now pretty much back to normal and it’s a lot better than some of the other alternatives.

Josh Robb:
I think just the idea of letting one person from your family out every two days for food and necessities. What if the day I go is the day they hadn’t yet raised stock the shelves and now I can’t get the food I need.

Austin Wilson:
You’re stuck, no toilet paper.

Josh Robb:
I’m not going back to my house, still my one day out, run around for a while.

Austin Wilson:
No toilet paper and no food.

Josh Robb:
That would be crazy. Because then you’re really stuck. And you think most people, at least here, the United States don’t have a good, I would say food storage system where they have emergency stuff in place that they do get stuck and they can’t get out.

Austin Wilson:
Well, except for the hoarders and the doomsday preppers.

Josh Robb:
But in general, I mean, especially if you live in a big city that you don’t have a lot of storage room, or space to have that. Here we’re more out in the country. Where you can have a half of a cow in your freezer and just in case. But yeah-

Austin Wilson:
My entire lazy Susan’s filled with can goods. I like beans.

Josh Robb:
All my storage bins.

Austin Wilson:
Exactly. Just full of canned goods. All right. Well, that is what Josh and I are reading. So hopefully you guys are finding something interesting from that. If you guys are reading something else, feel free to send it to us because we would love to hear what you guys are interested in. As always check free gift to you. A brief list of eight principles of timeless investing. These are overarching investment themes. When to keep you on track, to meet your long-term goals. We don’t talk about COVID. We don’t talk about pets. We don’t talk about Netflix. We don’t talk about dad jokes. We don’t talk about…

Josh Robb:
What do we talk about?

Austin Wilson:
Crypto.

Josh Robb:
Eight principles of timeless investing.

Austin Wilson:
We don’t talk about iOS updates and we don’t talk about Roth conversions, but all those are good things to know and they could impact your financial future. So Josh, what can people do to help us to continue this podcast?

Josh Robb:
Yes. Subscribe that way every Thursday you get the most recent episode. Leave us a review on Apple podcast or Spotify, wherever you listen. And if you have a question, have an article you’d love us to check out, shoot us an email at hello@theinvesteddad.com and share this episode with anybody who love hearing about what we’re reading.

Austin Wilson:
Right, well until next Thursday, have a great week.

Josh Robb:
Right, talk you later. Bye.

Outro:
Thank you for listening to The Invested Dads podcast. This episode has ended, but your journey towards a better financial future, doesn’t have to. Head over to theinvesteddads.com to access all the links and resources mentioned in today’s show. If you enjoyed this episode and we had a positive impact on your life, leave us a review, click subscribe, and don’t miss the next episode. Josh Robb and Austin Wilson work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by Josh, Austin or any podcast guest are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecast provided here in, will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses, which would reduce returns. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principle. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.