MM #259: Coinbase Goes Mainstream, Millionaire Playbook, College Grad Advice & The Next Great American Stock

Summary

Market Mondays #259: Detailed Episode Summary

Release Date: May 20, 2025
Title: Coinbase Goes Mainstream, Millionaire Playbook, College Grad Advice & The Next Great American Stock
Hosts: EYL Network (Ian, Denzel, Math Hoffa)

In Episode #259 of Market Mondays, hosted by the EYL Network, Ian Dunlap and co-hosts Denzel and Math Hoffa delve into a range of critical financial topics, offering listeners insightful analyses and actionable advice. The episode navigates through significant developments in cryptocurrency, the U.S. credit rating landscape, the evolving job market influenced by AI, investment strategies, and tailored advice for recent college graduates. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of the key discussions, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps.

---

1. Health News: President Biden's Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Timestamp: [07:05] - [08:43]

The episode opens with a somber discussion about President Joe Biden's recent announcement of his advanced prostate cancer diagnosis. Hosts emphasize the critical importance of regular health screenings, particularly for men over the age of 45.

Math Hoffa [07:17]: "This is something that could be life-changing at this point."

Denzel underscores the severity and encourages proactive health measures:

Denzel [07:28]: "I think it's something that everyone, especially black men, should definitely get their prostate checkups."

Ian adds a personal touch, sharing a family anecdote to highlight the real-life implications of such diagnoses.

---

2. Coinbase and Cryptocurrency Developments

Timestamp: [08:43] - [21:15]

A significant portion of the episode is devoted to the latest developments regarding Coinbase. The cryptocurrency exchange's inclusion in the S&P 500 is heralded as a milestone for the crypto industry, yet overshadowed by a recent security breach that has rattled investor confidence.

Ian [09:21]: "I do like that. As far as them being included, a lot of people are asking, does this give crypto a lot more credibility?"

The hosts dissect the implications of Coinbase's dual role as both a facilitator and a custodian of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Denzel highlights Coinbase's substantial hold over the crypto market:

Denzel [11:52]: "Coinbase is the largest custodian of Ethereum as well."

The conversation pivots to investment strategies within the crypto space. They discuss the merits of investing directly in cryptocurrencies versus ETFs like IBIT, which offers exposure to Bitcoin without the complexities of direct ownership.

Math Hoffa [12:33]: "Owning Coinbase is not like owning bitcoin ... it's related because it's like what you just said, it's the brokerage."

Security remains a pressing concern, with mentions of substantial crypto thefts and the lack of insurance coverage for losses on platforms like Coinbase.

Math Hoffa [20:56]: "That's why I said if you want a safer route is IBIT. Because there's no insurance on crypto."

---

3. U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade by Moody’s

Timestamp: [23:30] - [27:44]

The hosts shift focus to macroeconomic news, discussing Moody's recent decision to downgrade the United States' credit rating from AA1 to AAA. This move reflects growing concerns over the federal budget deficit and high borrowing costs.

Math Hoffa [24:28]: "The United States government has always had the highest level when it comes to credit rating."

Ian reassures listeners by placing the downgrade in historical context and emphasizing the opportunity it presents to invest in top-tier companies.

Ian [25:18]: "In the long history of the stock market, it's actually been a great time to buy the best companies in the world."

They also discuss the potential long-term impacts, with Denzel questioning the reliability of credit rating agencies as sole barometers of economic health.

---

4. Invest Festival and Advice to College Graduates

Timestamp: [28:43] - [48:39]

Announcing the upcoming Invest Festival in Atlanta, GA, the hosts encourage listeners to attend for deeper insights into investment strategies and financial wellness.

Math Hoffa [28:45]: "Invest Fest, the world's largest business festival held in Atlanta, Georgia, August 22nd to August 24th."

The conversation then transitions to providing tailored advice for recent college graduates entering the workforce. Emphasis is placed on early investment, diversification, and entrepreneurial initiatives.

Ian [44:11]: "Find three companies to marry right now... Microsoft, Visa, and Bitcoin."

Math Hoffa highlights the necessity of building multiple income streams and the importance of networking within professional communities.

Math Hoffa [47:43]: "You have to have a set game plan because you need your game plan now."

---

5. AI and the Job Market: Layoffs and Future Outlook

Timestamp: [29:49] - [35:09]

A critical analysis of the current job market reveals a trend of significant layoffs in the tech industry, driven largely by the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, CrowdStrike, and Google are downsizing their workforce to streamline operations and increase efficiency through AI.

Denzel [29:49]: "Microsoft, they made it okay to usher in these layoffs."

The hosts discuss the broader implications of AI on employment, highlighting that even high-skilled professions such as teaching and medicine may face disruptions.

Math Hoffa [35:09]: "Sometimes you can't incorporate it. It's just the AI is just the better solution."

They also explore strategies for professionals to adapt, emphasizing the acquisition of AI-related skills to remain competitive in an evolving job landscape.

---

6. Investment Strategies: Dividend Stocks and Tech Investments

Timestamp: [84:03] - [87:29]

Drawing parallels to Warren Buffett’s investment in Coca-Cola, the hosts identify the next potential stalwarts for dividend investing. Ian advocates for a mix of technology and cryptocurrency-focused investments:

Ian [84:03]: "Microsoft, Visa, Bitcoin, and put 20% of the money in no matter what happens."

Denzel and Math Hoffa further elaborate on the merits of companies like Lowe’s and Costco, citing their strong profit margins, cash flow, and competitive advantages over peers like Home Depot.

Denzel [86:00]: "Lowe's has the price leadership. They can cut costs in a different way than Home Depot."

The discussion underscores the importance of investing in companies with sustainable growth trajectories and robust dividend histories.

---

7. UnitedHealthcare Stock Drop and Implications

Timestamp: [73:27] - [81:57]

The episode addresses the sharp decline in UnitedHealthcare's stock, attributed to allegations of Medicare fraud and leadership instability. The sudden drop raises questions about corporate governance and investor confidence.

Ian [75:12]: "You should be careful now."

Denzel explains the immediate market reactions and cautions against considering UnitedHealthcare a viable investment in the short term.

Denzel [75:12]: "It's something that you really have to have a skill at."

The hosts advise investors to remain vigilant and prioritize stability when assessing potential investments, especially in volatile sectors like healthcare.

---

8. Financial Advice for College Athletes with NIL Deals

Timestamp: [56:43] - [72:25]

Addressing the unique financial challenges faced by college athletes entering the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) space, the hosts provide strategic advice to manage and grow significant earnings effectively.

Ian recommends a disciplined investment approach:

Ian [60:14]: "Put half of the money away... Microsoft, Visa, Bitcoin."

Math Hoffa suggests leveraging Deferred Income Annuities (DIA) to ensure long-term financial stability and mitigate the risks of rapid spending and financial mismanagement.

Math Hoffa [65:19]: "If you win the lottery... you can have a lifetime income."

They also caution against the pitfalls of engaging with middlemen who may drain earnings through high commissions, advocating for direct management of finances.

Math Hoffa [69:26]: "Put people on salary because then also when you put them on salary, it's tax deductible for you."

---

Conclusion

Episode #259 of Market Mondays offers a rich tapestry of financial insights, from macroeconomic shifts and cryptocurrency developments to personalized investment strategies and vital advice for young professionals. The hosts blend expert analysis with practical tips, empowering listeners to navigate the complex financial landscape with confidence and foresight.

Notable Takeaways:

• Proactive Health Management: Regular health screenings can be life-saving, especially in light of high-profile diagnoses.
• Cryptocurrency Caution: While Coinbase's inclusion in the S&P 500 signifies growth, security breaches highlight ongoing risks.
• Economic Vigilance: Credit rating downgrades serve as both warnings and opportunities for astute investors.
• Adaptability in the Job Market: Embracing AI and continuous learning are essential for career resilience.
• Strategic Investing: Diversification into stable dividends and growth-focused tech stocks can safeguard and grow wealth.
• Financial Discipline for Athletes: Early and strategic investment can secure long-term financial well-being beyond sports careers.

Listeners are encouraged to engage with the upcoming Invest Festival for deeper dives into these topics and to implement the strategies discussed for sustained financial growth.

---

Stay Tuned: For more insights and detailed discussions, subscribe to Market Mondays and join the conversation every Monday with Ian Dunlap and the EYL Network team.

Transcript

[Ian]

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[Rashad]

By Smart Travel, a new podcast from NerdWallet. Smart travel doesn't just cover points and milesthey break down all the financial aspects of your trip. Whether that's the best days to book, how to avoid hidden fees or which fancy travel credit cards pay off and which ones are just an expensive flex. If you want your travel budget to work harder, then dive into the best deals, products, services and more with Smart Travel from NerdWallet. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Yes, sir. Yeah.

[Ian]

Happy Monday.

[Denzel]

It is Monday. It's the 19th of May.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Denzel]

How y' all feeling out there, party people? How y' all feeling out there?

[Ian]

Time is flying. This year is going by quick.

[Denzel]

It'll be December in no time. Blessed to be here. Happy to be here with y' all. First of all, how y' all feeling? Y' all good?

[Ian]

Amazing. How y' all feeling? Y' all looking glorious. Y' all gonna go see Brock. What y' all doing? You know, you know, Ian, Denzel, Othello was just there. Got you.

[Math Hoffa]

Sugar. Hell with mellow.

[Denzel]

We are embarking on something special.

[Ian]

I love it.

[Denzel]

I'm embarking on something special as always.

[Math Hoffa]

Gotta head out. Gotta head out for a little bit.

[Denzel]

We back.

[Math Hoffa]

But before we head out, you know, we gotta do marketing. Perhaps Market Mondays.

[Denzel]

Yeah, we out.

[Math Hoffa]

So big, big week for Eyl. We got my boy Math Hoffa and Ob o' Millie. Oh, the Cut app. So they all three of them. We got an inter. We did an interview with all three of them.

[Denzel]

Fire.

[Math Hoffa]

Very interesting conversation. They got the freestyle challenge if you haven't been tapping into what they got going on. But yeah, of course we, we asked Math Hoffa about his situation as far as to really get an understanding of what exactly happened, what is happening. And it was a very insightful conversation for all entrepreneurs, for sure. Content creators, you know, mistakes to avoid, how to navigate, gets tricky. So that was a powerful conversation with Math. And then of course, Ray always got his insight as far as his transition from the music business to content. And we had some spirited debates about music, variety of other things. And then Obi's a dope entrepreneur, you know, he's One of these guys that raised money. Tech founder, you know, really killing it as far as his app actually is. Revolutionized the world of barbering. So it's really three different people from three different worlds all coming together for one great collaboration.

[Denzel]

Yeah, it was dope. I think one of the best parts is that everybody got to tell their own story, but then they got to show how they working together, which we don't talk about enough, and they doing something dope, man. Obi, it was instant. I've been using his app for the past five years. I didn't even realize it, that this is the, the creator of it. So it's dope. And like you said, math. I mean, we always run into math. He is, he's a. He's a. He's a good brother, man. He's a good brother at the heart.

[Ian]

Math and funny.

[Denzel]

Yeah, funny as hell. And then him and Ray together is just a dynamic combination. But it's, it's one of those episodes we just have fun recording it. So hopefully everybody enjoys it.

[Math Hoffa]

Salute. Salute. So you check that out. Thursday, 6:00, shout out to Brooklyn. And then Wednesday at 10:00, blackout. Yeah, I know everybody enjoyed last week's Blackout, so what a time. We gonna bring that same energy, same vibes. Blackout is very educational too. A lot of educational. A lot of those clips.

[Denzel]

I think the, the South African breakdown was one of my highlights. So I seen the Saudi Arabia clip. Switch. Swiss had some, some comments.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah, he had a emoji.

[Ian]

Swift.

[Math Hoffa]

He had an emoji.

[Denzel]

It was like, how did you. How do you read that emoji? I was like, what does that mean?

[Math Hoffa]

Not sure.

[Ian]

Yeah, sure. I know if there's a temperature check.

[Denzel]

Yeah, we gotta tap in with the guys.

[Math Hoffa]

Not sure. Yeah, not sure.

[Denzel]

Bobby was good. Mac was good.

[Math Hoffa]

10 o' clock on Wednesday, tune in to Blackout. Ian, any announcements?

[Ian]

Yes. Tune into the episode with Ray Daniels, Obi and Matt Hoffa. Love Math. Love Ray. Ob, I'm familiar with. Appreciate you, brother. I know this gonna be a great. Ray actually hit me. He's like, man, the guys, great conversation. We got to do more together. Ray was geek. So shout out to my brothers. If you want to get rich from the market, go to ian invest.com. where to get in, where to get out. Over 120 different places. Where to buy. If you want to get rich from the market, go to ianvest.com Stock Club call will be Wednesday at 7pm Central. Then tune in to Blackout right after at 9pm Central. If I Made you money. Please put yes in chat. I told y' all what was gonna happen with UnitedHealCare. And if he was on a stock club call, I told you the price to get in only a dollar and 15 above. Above that low. So, yeah, yeah, man. If you want to make some money and get rich from the market, go to ian.invest.com. i love y' all.

[Denzel]

50 dips. We'll get into that. We got the disclaimer. We got a couple birthdays. Shout out to Panama. Shout out to Panama. I know he just celebrated his birthday. He was going on my brother listener. Just part of the family. So shout out to him. Dave, what's going on? Dave is his birthday is this week. And I think today is the one year happy anniversary to Mike and Jess. I think this is day one.

[Ian]

Oh, okay.

[Denzel]

Congrats on one year.

[Ian]

Congrats on that.

[Denzel]

A thousand more.

[Ian]

For real.

[Denzel]

Yeah, yeah. Mercy, you know I love y' all. Well wishes and praying mercies over you and your beautiful families. So you know how this works, man. Do your own research. And when you can't do your own research, go listen to Ian. Our content is intended. Must be used for informational purposes only. It's very important you do your own analysis before and making any investment based on your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a professional connection with or independently research and verify any information that you find on our show and wish to rely upon whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise. You know how this works, man. Do the research. Share the research. When you realize that the research has paved a way for you to build wealth, give credit to that person, all those people love is love. Let's build community. Let's build our accounts. Let's keep going.

[Ian]

Yeah. Oh, and send my merch to Rashad's Dropbox.

[Denzel]

Dropbox.

[Math Hoffa]

Digital upload NFT M line to the thin line shots in New Orleans 5 0.

[Ian]

They may have the hottest new line period.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah. New Orleans.

[Ian]

Cool.

[Math Hoffa]

That's that M line.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Ian]

I haven't seen a bad thing yet.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah. All right, so let's get into this. It's a lot to talk about. First and foremost, for sure. President Joe Biden.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

They announced that he has advanced level prostate cancer. So, you know, thoughts and prayers to the Biden family.

[Denzel]

Absolutely.

[Math Hoffa]

And we'll definitely monitor the situation.

[Denzel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this is one of those things that all. All people, all men definitely should. Should be, you know, checking in on their prostate. I think they said 45. It used to be 40. But I know that there. There's this superstition around, you know, getting the check, which is why when we were talking to Robert Smith and his initiative to make the testing easier. But it's something that could be life changing at this point. They said it's pretty progressive, could be stage four, which is unfortunate. This is a, you know, a terminally ill disease. And so I'm encouraging everybody to, To. To get their. Their checkups, their regular checkups, and definitely for. For my black men, for sure. Definitely get your prostate checkups is vitally important. I am scheduled, so I will let y' all know how that goes. But, yeah, it's important.

[Ian]

And for the all of you who are worried, there's alternative ways to test if you're under 40. So if you had 37, 38. But prior to the Biden family, I had a family member who dealt with that. So just send prayers out, regardless of your political leanings. Yeah. And take care of your health, most importantly.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Okay, so let's get into the crypto conversation. Last week, a Coinbase was named into the S P 500, and, you know, that skyrocketed their stock. And it's also been encouraging news for the crypto community as a whole. So going forward. But they also had an issue as far as, for sure, security breach. So let's talk about the security issue, and let's also talk about Coinbase future as far as its stock price and, you know, stability as a company.

[Ian]

I think the security issue is just a penalty of leadership. I think Brian handled it pretty well. I think he was very direct in addressing it. He didn't skirt around the. The leak of the news or the break of the news. So I do like that. As far as them being included, a lot of people are asking, does this give crypto a lot more credibility? And I'm gonna be honest, with Bitcoin, if it's the highest return of asset of all time, how much more credibility does it need?

[Math Hoffa]

It's outperforming Bitcoin or no Bitcoin crypto or. All right, cryptocurrencies outside of bitcoin. Because I think. I think at this point, people have already solidified Bitcoin.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Math Hoffa]

When they say gave credibility to crypto, I think they're talking about every other cryptocurrency outside of bitcoin.

[Ian]

Most, I think, are not institutional assets to hold long term, even on the retail side. I know I don't want to cause a war between other crypto factions. But there's only one to invest in currently if you want an incredible return. I think the cryptocurrency market at large needs some reform and just needs better projects, for sure. But as far as Coinbase's inclusion, I think it goes to the testament of people want higher returns and they want something that isn't necessarily tied to the dollar in the current regime. Do I like Moon Coin or Solano the most? I mean, I think we. We've had the conversation enough. XRP is still fighting a good fight and hopefully they'll make a turnaround. But if you want some exposure that is not tied directly to Michael Sailor, Coin is a good alternative, even though I think microstrategy is better. But I think we can be very honest. The overall crypto market, there is nothing to invest in but Bitcoin.

[Denzel]

Yeah. I think that's what makes it interesting is that when you. Bitcoin and Coinbase are synonymous with each other at this point, because Coinbase is the largest custodian of bitcoin in the world. They own 12% of all the bitcoin at this point. Right now, I think they said that they manage over 400 billion in cryptocurrency, which is a great uptick from last year, where I think they closed at 325 billion. But they also are the largest custodian of Ethereum as well. And so if it. We. Will it impact the entire space? No. Will it impact certain coins?

[Ian]

Yes, for sure.

[Denzel]

Ethereum is one of them. They also are the largest custodian of Solana as well. And so those are three coins. If Coinbase is the custodian of. And you're trying to invest in a space without directly investing in it. Yeah, Coin makes a lot of sense. And it's obviously the first digital asset to be on the S&P 500. So it's a major monumental moment. Like you said, Bitcoin's already been solidified once it crossed certain thresholds. 50,000, 75,000, a hundred thousand. Now it's been there. But Coin, I mean, it's a good investment if you're looking to be in the space without directly owning those coins.

[Math Hoffa]

Well, yeah, for sure.

[Ian]

Pushback. Thank you.

[Math Hoffa]

I was going to say, because for people that's listening, the close the. All right. The. The next best thing to not own a bitcoin is. Is owning the bitcoin etf. Ibit. So it's related. Coinbase is related, but it's not direct because some people. It's still an educational process that, for sure. Keep in mind. So I don't, I want people just to fully understand because we can't take it for granted. Owning Coinbase is not like owning bitcoin. It's, it's related because it's like what you just said. It's, it's the brokerage. But yeah, if, if you do want to have, if you want to mimic Bitcoin's performance on the stock market and not actually own Bitcoin and not have to, you can, you can buy Ibit and there's other Bitcoin ETFs which track Bitcoin. Now why would you do that? Because if you feel like you're not 100% confident with crypto as far as the security, there's no recourse. If, if money gets, if your crypto gets stolen, ibit is on the stock exchange, so it's regulated. You get it through the brokerage. There's some level of security. There's. It's also, that's important for people to understand because a lot of people still don't understand crypto. They understand Bitcoin. They want to buy it, but they don't understand it. They don't understand the nuances of how to keep the coin safe. And the difference between a cold wallet and a hot water. It's kind of like mumbo jumbo. So. And then for the people that's like, all right, well, if you don't invest in Bitcoin, then ibit is not Bitcoin. Yes, true. But the thing about Bitcoin is that it's liquid. You can always buy Bitcoin. So you can buy IBIT and at any point in time cash that in and buy Bitcoin. But at least you're actually still participating in upward mobility of Bitcoin. If you feel that Bitcoin is a good investment without having to go through all of the hurdles and obstacles that could potentially happen because of owning the outright cryptocurrency.

[Ian]

I gotta ask a million dollar question. Why I bid over MicroStrategy?

[Math Hoffa]

Well, because, well, so IBIT tracks Bitcoin dollar for dollar. As far as, like whatever it does, I bid does that. MicroStrategy is once again, that's like a Coinbase type thing, but it's more centered around Bitcoin where that is a Bitcoin linked investment, but it's not direct. So Bitcoin can go up and MicroStrategy can go down. Hypothetically. Right. But it's also designed to, it has higher volatility than bitcoin. So the microstrategy is something that if bitcoin returns 10%, microstrategy might do 20%.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Right. So it's like you get higher leverage. So that's why a lot of people have done options on Microstrategy. On Microstrategy and then just purchased Bitcoin. Purchase Bitcoin for the long haul.

[Ian]

That's a good strategy.

[Math Hoffa]

Options on Microstrategy so you get that accelerated growth in a short period of time. But for Bitcoin to ride. So I would say if you really just want to just do Bitcoin and want an alternative, IBIT is the way to go. Microstrategy is. I'm trying to just fast track this thing and get as much money as I possibly can while Bitcoin is going up.

[Ian]

Yeah. And it's cheaper if you get in that 43 bucks. $43.20 on IBIT currently at the high. Well, not a high 59. Almost at the high of 61. It's way cheaper than MicroStrategy as well. For those of you who are looking for a more cost effective alternative, what.

[Denzel]

Do we think about the appreciation potential for Coinbase now that it's being added to the S P500? How many funds will it be in? Will the price increase over the next six to 12 months?

[Ian]

I think so. On institutional side and just from a validity standpoint, it does take some of that concern or worry away from. Is this too volatile to. Well, if it's in the S P500, it has to be legit. And you have to give Brian credit. He's fought through a lot of wars, business wise to be able to survive this. So I think their inclusion is needed and it's very good. And credit to S P for including them because there's a lot of legacy companies that they probably could have kept in. But I'm glad that they were included and I think they should get to 378.

[Denzel]

They were included. Discover Financial was removed, but they, they were acquired. I believe Discover Financial was acquired. But it's interesting, like you said, like they IPO'd in 2012. Here we are in 2025. Yeah, when they IPO'd, it was an I. It was kind of around this idea, like will this space even exist?

[Ian]

Exist? Yep.

[Denzel]

Right. So he, he wasn't coming in with the same type of favor that a lot of companies come in with. So to be here 13 years later and being part of the the S P500, it is a monumental moment. But I mean the Rent. So the, the security part is part of it. It used to feel like the safest way to do it. If I didn't know anything was to be coinbase. We know that not to be true from some stories that we've obviously heard and experienced. But, I mean, he put out a ransom the other day. He was like, look, they try to extort me for 20 million, I'm getting 20 million to the people who can find them.

[Ian]

Yes, Smart move.

[Denzel]

Yeah, that was okay.

[Ian]

Brian, Brian, you can't pay any terrorists, man, because if they pay that 20, somebody else is gonna hack an extra 200. It's a good business lesson. You cannot pay that exclusion fee.

[Denzel]

Yeah. And as the, the price of Bitcoin is going up, you've seen the amount of crypto theft go up.

[Ian]

Absolutely.

[Denzel]

I mean, this is. That's part of it. So security around that space is going to be paramount, especially as that price continues to climb and climb and climb. Because we don't see it stopping here at 100 right there. 150. It looks like that's a problem around the corner. Right. So, yeah, security around the space is going to be a wave.

[Ian]

Oh, the last note. Crypto founders and crypto mega whales up your security. I know a lot of people may have seen a video where the husband and wife was almost kidnapped. If you go look at the amount of crypto whales that have had unfortunate circumstances the last three or four years, please be mindful. I will say that.

[Math Hoffa]

And it's $2.2 billion was stolen in crypto in 2024. And so far this year, first four months, 1.7 billion has already been stolen. And that doesn't even account for the tool, the full crypto hacking and everything that's been going on. So when you look at it from a standpoint of crypto is the security aspect has not been solved. It's not, it's not an issue that has been solved. It's an issue that's actually, it's only getting bigger. And we posted this on Instagram, but you know, there's a Michael Turpin. So it's interesting this, this made news. 2018 hacker stole 24 million worth of crypto from his phone. And how they did it was through a SIM swap scam. So they convinced AT&T to transfer his phone number and. Or they had somebody on the inside do it. And they, they stole $24 million from his phone and he actually sued them for $224 million. So the reason why the SIM swap thing is interesting. Is that it actually happened to me. I can't prove this, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Because when my Coinbase got hacked, I had to take my phone in to get serviced and then we went to LA and then I actually had covet. It was a whole long story, but my phone stopped working for like two days. And then when it came back on, that's when my coinbase was hacked. So I think that somebody inside the store switch saw your Google Instagram and said, oh, SIM card swap. So that's. This is a real thing. So Coinbase security issue has not been solved.

[Denzel]

No.

[Ian]

More exports.

[Denzel]

What is the max that's insured? Do we know? Is it. Is it 200? Is it. Is it FDIC?

[Math Hoffa]

No, it's no insurance.

[Denzel]

Right.

[Math Hoffa]

That's why I said if you want to, if you want a safer route is ibit. Because there's no insurance on crypto.

[Denzel]

Right.

[Math Hoffa]

So there's nothing you can do about it. Even if, even if it's on Coinbase. It's not. There's no. There's no insurance for that.

[Ian]

So we saying short coinbase is always. That's Brian. But you do need. You do need to fix that issue for sure. So triple factor authentication or something.

[Denzel]

Triple. The next leg.

[Math Hoffa]

The vast majority of people's not going to do a cold wallet, right? The cold wallet is the. It looks like a USB drive, disk drive thing. And that's when you actually have. You know your code and you actually own your own crypto, meaning you're the sole custodian of it. But for most people, especially if you got a lot of money, we're conditioned and trained to have institutions hold our money. Like, you know what I mean? Like, most people are not going to have $5 million and just put it in. In a safe. They would rather put $5 million in the bank. Feel comfortable with that.

[Ian]

Right.

[Math Hoffa]

They feel comfortable with $5 million in Charles Schwab. They don't feel comfortable actually having $5 million in their. In their possession. So I don't know. I think crypto experts are going to have that, but the average everyday person I don't think is gonna.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Be comfortable with that.

[Denzel]

It'd be interesting to see what the encryption is.

[Ian]

Right.

[Denzel]

If you're holding 12 of the world's Bitcoin and you're managing over $400 billion of assets, how is that, how is.

[Ian]

That protected while being a target? Yep.

[Denzel]

I would love somebody to break that down for us. That. That's interesting.

[Ian]

Does CrowdStrike have a crypto division where they solely focus on crypto or no, I'm not sure.

[Denzel]

I'll give you that information momentarily.

[Ian]

Yeah, because whoever finds a way to provide extra layer of security, that's where the real money is going to be.

[Denzel]

Right. That's why I said that's going to be. That's the way. Right. And, and we're speaking about crypto, but even in artificial intelligence as well, for sure, you can see how this technology, especially when we talk about cyber companies, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Z scaler, all these companies, how important they will be not now, but I mean, definitely now, but even more so in the future as that becomes more of the commonplace, these companies are going to be needed.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah. All right, well, we'll monitor the situation. But on another note, okay, so Moody's on Friday after the close of the bell, downgraded America's credit rating AA1 to AAA. So it lowered it a notch. And that's pretty in line with the rest of the credit agency reporter. So for people to understand, the government has credit rating just like you would have a credit score. Right. Like so you have different credit score agencies. Like you have TransUnion, you have Equifax, you have. These are people that actually give you 700, 650, 800. And then based off of your credit, that's going to determine if somebody feels confident lending you money or not, right?

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Essentially the same thing for the, for governments across the world. But the United States government has always had the highest level when it comes to credit rating. Now their credit actually this isn't the first time that it actually got lower. But they said that the reason why they did lower it was challenges tied to the federal government's growing budget deficit and other debts rolled over a high, a period of high borrowing cost. I'm sure that there's some level of government instability in there and different things of that nature. So that's, that affects the stock market. Obviously, you know, that's not good for the market. That means that people have less confidence in the United States of America. And that's, that's not good for a variety of different things. So will this matter long term?

[Ian]

No. The thing that I do want to stress, though, is if you've been listening to Market Mondays the last three years, you've been hearing me screaming debt to GDP and the bond market issue that no one really wants our bonds. I said it this weekend. The, the top companies that are doing incredibly well. You don't have to worry about them. I'm really getting concerned about the Russell 2000 or any mid tier companies that are not performing incredibly well. And truth be told, if we continue on this path, our credit rating should be lower than what we were given by Moody's. On the investment side, Moody's is actually a great company to invest in. Ticker mco. It's one of those hidden gems like FICO that people don't talk about enough. But Moody's is a good company to invest in long term. But I think we have something like, I don't know, $4 trillion that we need to refinance. It's a lot of capital and I don't know what the terms of the refinancing is going to be given what the rates are. So I'm not surprised at this downgrade. Like Rashad said, it's not the first time it's been downgraded, but in the long history of the stock market, it's actually been a great time to buy the best companies in the world. So I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[Denzel]

There's some rhetoric going around from political officials about the importance or significance of Moody's going forward. You got any thoughts on that? Like, should we even be using Moody's as a scale to measure the barometer of where the economy is, whether it.

[Ian]

Be at a best fest or. Because that would Moody's. If you are. They have had a tumultuous past, I'll say, in how they've rated things in 2007, 2008, I will say that. So. But all the agencies are saying the same thing. Our credit isn't where, like we're not loved how we used to be. I don't know how much more we need to be labeled this point. So. And with that debt being so high, I don't see a plan in sight on how to correct it. There's a lot of entitlements that are old death. GDP continues to climb. I mean, in four years we should be at 130. That, that's too high. But yeah, Moody has had some issues before in terms of how they rated things, but I think there may be some leadership issues at a few of these agencies that will determine what we rank. I think we should technically be lower.

[Denzel]

Yeah, we went one notch down from AAA, which was the highest rating. So we went one. There's 21 notches and we just came down one. Like you said, overlasting debt, high interest rates. Where's Doja, man? We need them.

[Ian]

No, they did Project 2025 right there.

[Denzel]

It's crazy.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

That is a fact. Okay.

[Ian]

And events barely moved off the news. It wasn't like the Vic shot up to 35 as a result, so. And it's one of them still news day kind of moves.

[Math Hoffa]

Speaking of crypto, if you, if you are interested in bitcoin cryptocurrency as a whole, learning about the difference between hot wallet, cold wallet, really, you know, learning how to secure all of this stuff and, and detailed breakdown as far as. Because it is kind of complicated. What you should do is actually get your tickets to Invest Festival because we will be going over crypto in depth. We got a few surprises.

[Ian]

For the.

[Math Hoffa]

Crypto community, but cryptocurrency will be part of Invest Fest for sure. Invest Fest, the world's largest business festival held in Atlanta, Georgia, August 22nd to August 24th. Get your tickets now. Go to invest fest.com if you are inside Red Panda, check Telegram or your discount code.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Math Hoffa]

We'Re weeks away. We're weeks away from announcing the first phase of the lineup because, you know, the lineup comes in phases for sure. So despite what the Internet may think. Yeah, yeah, we're weeks away for announcing the first wave of Invest Fest speakers.

[Denzel]

A lot of calls.

[Math Hoffa]

Check your emails to see if you have gotten the invite to speak.

[Ian]

Send me a bio, your picture.

[Denzel]

Respectfully, I didn't get my email yet.

[Math Hoffa]

Respectfully. Okay. AI layoffs as an economic bellwether. So talked about Microsoft.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

They're laying off a lot of people. So mass layoffs at Microsoft. Is this a, a push that the whole AI industry is getting restructured?

[Ian]

Yeah. I felt sorry for the lady who made her announcement that she was being laid off as the, the lead of AI at Microsoft. Shout out to everybody at headquarters, but yes, I'm kind of. You are the lead of AI. At some point you have to figure out what, what can you do to make sure you don't get caught in that buzz off. Because the premise of AI is to have the intelligence be so effective that I won't need a certain amount of employees. So I think especially with them being a leader in the space, they kind of made it okay to usher in these layoffs. So I wouldn't be surprised if other companies, something we may have affiliation to, will do the same the next quarter, allegedly. So if, if you're in one of these organizations, I would definitely figure out ways with the AI to be almost like a maestro of AI to make sure that you don't get laid off or that you can land somewhere else. But I do Think in order to keep profit margins lean, a lot of companies, for sure, over the next two, two or three quarters are going to begin to land off people as well.

[Denzel]

I'm with you. I think this is one of those situations when you look at layoffs, it goes into a couple of categories. One being performance based, other one being efficiency based. And when we saw the layoffs happen in 2023, it was like, okay, what, what's happening here? Library was performance based because of the lack of efficiency, for sure. And I don't want to take anybody, like every person that lost, it's unfortunate, right? They lost, I think Microsoft cut 6,000 jobs. Amazon announced that they were cutting back jobs. CrowdStrike said they're releasing, laying off 5% of their workforce. Google said they're releasing one of their AI teams. So it's happening. And what you're seeing over and over is that companies are trying to incorporate AI. Like that's the focus. But we know AI does two things, right? It makes scalability more a higher opportunity and it talks about efficiency. And so if efficiency and scalability at the forefront and we're creating a technology to make us do that, they're going to be casualties of that. And that's what we're seeing at this point. And I like that you said that there are a few other companies that we may be friends with for sure. We can say it over and over again. AI is not going to replace jobs. It's going to replace the people who don't use it effectively. Right. So even in the Microsoft quote, when you, when you read the report, it was like, look, we're trying to get fewer and fewer managers for fewer and fewer departments. Right. How far can we go with less?

[Math Hoffa]

Well, it's gonna, it's gonna replace jobs.

[Ian]

Yeah, that's, that's the only pushback.

[Denzel]

Not all jobs. It will replace the people who don't incorporate it and try to run from it.

[Ian]

I mean, but the lady who was the lead of AI, you can argue she was hella effective.

[Math Hoffa]

Sometimes you can't incorporate it. It doesn't. Well, some jobs are just unincorporated. It's just the AI is just the better solution.

[Denzel]

It's going to be more efficient. Yeah, so, so that's the thing. Now the goal is how do we figure out how do we incorporate? Right. Some, some of them are not going to be incorporated. How do we find a skill set that we have that can be incorporated in that space?

[Math Hoffa]

Well, there's gonna be better go right.

[Ian]

To Google or Cisco.

[Math Hoffa]

There's gonna be millions of casualties of.

[Denzel]

AI they're going to be. But opportunities are going to be presented as well.

[Math Hoffa]

For sure.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

But we can't act like this isn't going to be a global tsunami of layoffs.

[Denzel]

They're definitely going to be more layoffs.

[Math Hoffa]

Economic crisis for low skilled workers.

[Denzel]

Yes.

[Math Hoffa]

Even high skilled workers.

[Ian]

I was gonna say even middle managers.

[Math Hoffa]

High skilled workers.

[Ian]

What.

[Math Hoffa]

What did. With what you call it? Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that two of the biggest industries that will be affected in jobs that will be taken away in the next 10 years are teachers and doctors.

[Denzel]

Healthcare and education. Yep.

[Math Hoffa]

That would be high skill. High skill workers.

[Ian]

High skill. And on top of that.

[Denzel]

Yes. Doctor.

[Math Hoffa]

Oh, a teacher. I mean teachers are high skilled on a certain level. I mean you got to get a master's degree in New York to be a teacher's. Right. Right.

[Denzel]

Subjective.

[Math Hoffa]

I'm just asking a question. Do you have.

[Denzel]

You can work with a bachelor's but how long? It depends. Private school. You don't have to. You can stay there. If you're in public school they make you get a master's after three years or four years.

[Math Hoffa]

So for so in New York City.

[Denzel]

But even that is in New York. Subjective.

[Math Hoffa]

For most public school after five, three years you got to get a master's degree.

[Denzel]

Yes. Does that mean high skill though?

[Math Hoffa]

I'm just saying.

[Ian]

You're splitting hairs. Yes.

[Denzel]

No, no. I'm saying in the profession.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah. Of course. The vast majority of people in America don't have a master's degree though.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Denzel]

Okay.

[Math Hoffa]

So you would think that you go to school for that long of a period you've. You've created certain level of mastery in. In your field.

[Ian]

Maybe the issue is S scale and we just got to say it. The country's collapsing so we can't afford to hire people have pensions or 401ks how we used to. You don't have to pay AI a 401k. There's no entitlements, no Social Security, no retirement plan that has to be attached to it. I would rather front load investment into AI for then in 10 years if the debt continues to go up and the economy is not doing as well, I can still sustain my business without having to have human capital in here. I can use artificial intelligence as a replacement.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Ian]

This is like it's a parent trade.

[Denzel]

Here's how it's trending. In 2023 there were 264000 tech employees laid off. Right. This is from layoffs.com. this is crazy. They have Actual site that tracks this. In 2024 the number dropped to 153000 layoffs. Like again I'm being sensitive. These are actual people, right? This year 61 000. Just over 61,000 tech layoffs. So the trend is going down probably because of AI being incorporated. Right? And maybe that trend goes down or, or that like from what you're saying that this, this trend goes up, we'll see. But over the past three years the trend has gone down for layoffs and technology.

[Math Hoffa]

Even Zuckerberg said 40 of coding at Facebook it's going to be done by AI. That means 40 of the code is going to be not there anymore. And those are, those are high skilled workers.

[Denzel]

Those are high school for sure.

[Ian]

So a lot of rob coding.

[Denzel]

How can you exist? Like why are you. The real question is why are you needed? I think that's that. That will be the question that all these. You got to learn huge tech and adjacent companies. Why are you needed?

[Math Hoffa]

And even if you don't work in tech, you got to learn artificial intelligence once again. But get your tickets to Invest Fest. Artificial intelligence major, major part of this year's curriculum that we're going to be teaching. Because if you don't know, if you don't know how to actually implement AI for yet for your every day to day use, how. How are you going to compete in a world where artificial intelligence is doing everything? Having a job is one thing, but you need AI just to be able to function as a human being. At this point.

[Ian]

A record $8.9 trillion of government debt will mature over the next year. It needs to be refinanced. Currently at 36 trillion. The country is bankrupt. No one wants to say it. This is the reason why. Why did he have to go to Saudi to get investment from the Saudis into our technology? He did one of the best. You gotta give him credit. He did one of the best capital raises in the history of entrepreneurship.

[Denzel]

600 billion.

[Ian]

But why did you have to go there to get it? If our tech is so great.

[Denzel]

Why did you go there? Expansion.

[Ian]

You're broke. The country's broke.

[Denzel]

We need a new liquidity event for sure.

[Ian]

Because all the capital here is dry and no one discussed how much ownership do I get as a result? The cap table definitely was not talked about. I' ma send you a plane and let me get my load. But what do I know. Get your tickets to Invest Fest. Get your tickets to investors.

[Math Hoffa]

Smiling smiley face emoji over now. Okay. And to the brother that Watches Market Mondays. Somebody from Google had DM me appreciate you and they said that the avid listeners of Market Mondays they appreciate everything that we're doing for the culture. But they said that we.

[Ian]

Oh, he messaged me to shout out.

[Math Hoffa]

To you have not spoken fairly about Google as far as chat bots. You know you said that obviously they have Gemini and Gemini has 350.

[Denzel]

I'm offended. I'm offended. I am offended because I've been saying that. Shout out to you, my man. I've been trying, man.

[Math Hoffa]

So Gemini has 350 monthly users.

[Denzel]

That's number. Is that number two?

[Ian]

350 million.

[Math Hoffa]

50 million on a monthly chat. GBT has 600 million.

[Denzel]

I thought they were at a billion so far.

[Math Hoffa]

Cry from chat gbt. But yes, yes, they're not like completely out of this race already and obviously they've lost some, some, some steam when it comes to Google search engines. But they have put a lot of money into Gemini artificial intelligence and different things of that nature. So no, I mean they're not out of the conversation.

[Denzel]

They're not out of the conversation. I've been saying it from the beginning that they have been the most accurate.

[Ian]

Did you mention my name in there?

[Denzel]

You didn't match my name and what in the dm? I've been fighting for them, man. Yeah, acting like that, man.

[Ian]

Shout out to the brother. I will say this. If you had Ray Kurzweil in office and talks for leadership going back to 2011, how did y' all let open AI still? Now I know y' all got the AI power God mode coming for search, but the issue is the cannibalization and you guys are going to have to decide are you going to be an AI led company? Are you going to continue to lead on search? I don't want to be misleading, but as an investor that has been investing independently since 2000, late 8, early 2009 and I've used Google for the majority of my life. I get the sentiment because you're there. My sentiment as an investor is none of these companies should have had this lead over you guys when the idea was in incubation in 2012. That's like if we have the idea for Market Mondays and we just sit on it and do nothing and then somebody else does it, how can I be mad at them? You guys dropped the ball, so now you're number two. I'm sorry, like I, I have to be fair and I get the relation.

[Denzel]

I'll say this, I'll say this in terms of a gentix AI from the deep mind perspective.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Denzel]

They've been the most advanced actually having robotics that you can see and you can understand the functionality of why it makes sense. The problem is what is the product? When I had a conversation with some of the team at Google, it was the product. What is the product? Right. We can understand the technology but even Gemini is not a standalone. It's inside a search. It's not its own app. And we spoke about this a few weeks ago and then we saw Meta create that meta AI app. What is the standalone product?

[Ian]

And I said it last week for the first time in 20 years. Data, not my opinion. Google search went down ever. First time in 20 years.

[Denzel]

Why not even ever, ever.

[Ian]

So yeah, you shouldn't come on and you definitely should come to invest fest.

[Denzel]

1000% brought to you by.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact.

[Ian]

But my thing as an entrepreneur and investor, I know some of you be like, well you're fear mongering. No, no, as an entrepreneur really big on holding on to elite. I'm seeing it with Apple. They Keep adjusting from 1 to 3 in market cap and one moment, if let's say Sam and Elon get along and, and Sam and Satya get along again, they go public, could push Apple to number four. Apple has the same issue as Google. Why did you lose that lead? Blame me only in not Rashad Detroit or Mike.

[Math Hoffa]

It is, it is what it is. It is what it is. But.

[Ian]

Yeah, but I gotta keep it a spade but shout out to you. I appreciate you brother.

[Math Hoffa]

Appreciate it. Thank you for watching the show.

[Denzel]

We appreciate that.

[Math Hoffa]

Thank you and thank you to everybody that always, you know, asks questions and chimes in different things in nature. I got another question from the audience but before we go to the other question from the audience. So congratulations to my nephew Issa. He graduated from St. John's University.

[Denzel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no bachelor's.

[Math Hoffa]

So I was, I was. Yeah. A few people recognize me. So shout out to those people that watch Market Mondays blackout. Earn your leisure. You know it's always good when you out. But this brings me to this little off the script topic. There's a. There's a lot of hundreds of thousands of children that's probably or young adults that's graduating from college. What would be the advice for somebody that just graduated from college and is now entering the world, the real world.

[Ian]

This is a great question. If I can go back to college. You mean from an investment?

[Math Hoffa]

I mean we could do either one. Well, definitely from the A financial. Some financial tips and then just some some life tips.

[Ian]

Number one, find three companies to marry right now for me, for your nephew, it would be probably Microsoft, visa and bitcoin on the drop. I'm almost done with Apple. I'm not gonna lie. Doesn't mean you should sell it if you're already in it. But as a new investment, I'm tired of y' all. I'm gonna start a chant about what leadership should be at Apple if y' all don't make some changes about August. Just letting you know. Microsoft, visa, bitcoin, no matter what anybody tells you, parents, friends, family, girlfriend, side piece, whomever, just me and you talking about g. Put at least 20 of your money into it. Should be the first bill you pay. I beg of you. I know people gonna be like, yo, pay off debt first. Paying off debt first if you're black does not work. Because guess what, another bill gonna pop up always. I went back and calculated like from college through now. If I had did that, oh, it's a big number. Oh my God. So put 20 of that money in and then you have to find a business car. Rashad, ask him every week, what should I do to scale? Because, and this is the thing, if you have somebody that's a world leader and you don't use it like my family, like, I don't want to bother you. I'm not a bother. Bother me. Trust me, like I. You have to build a business. Because as the u. S. Economy is falling apart, entrepreneurship is more needed, especially internationally. I will find a way to get over to Ghana too, with my uncle and say, hey, help me build a business here. Because now, like we have two tech two index. I think just to be in one country doing business is the biggest risk you're going to have on your plate over the next 20 years. So business in two, two countries, Microsoft Visa, Bitcoin, and put 20% of the money in no matter what happens. Then you can go have fun and travel around, go to Brooklyn, chop house, have a blast after. But put the capital to work and build your business.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah, for sure. That's great advice for me. I would definitely say what you said, just piggybacking, invest early. And it's hard to invest when you don't have money. I get that.

[Ian]

Call Rashad and get it.

[Math Hoffa]

As soon as soon as you start to have some level of income, you got to start investing. And you want to invest in assets that have 50 year trajectories. So of course you're talking about bitcoin. You talking about like you said you're talking about Microsoft, you're talking about Nvidia.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Math Hoffa]

Estimates the chip stocks. You know, these are, these are tech leaning company. I would definitely qqq like you want to invest in companies that are going to change the world in the next 50 years and that's technology companies for sure.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

And I think improving skill sets that are not even part of a school curriculum is important. Artificial intelligence, really diving in, learning it, figuring out every aspect, watching every YouTube video, watch the video that we did with x, watch every YouTube video, watch every, you know, just get your hands on it. Just kind of, you know, figure it out on your own trial and error. I do it all the time. I'm figuring out. I'm, you know, cap cut, I'm in cap cut. Figuring it out. I'm in Canva, figuring it out. From a content creation standpoint, you have to. The best life lesson is to actually.

[Ian]

Just actually do something, do something every day.

[Math Hoffa]

And I would, I would definitely. You know, the tricky part a lot for a lot of college graduates now is that it's hard to get jobs. And that's the, that's the tricky part. Right. So I think entrepreneur skill set is vitally important, but then also figuring out how to invest, how to invest in stocks, how to trade, how to invest in real estate, you got to find ways to have multiple streams of income. And like I said, I know that's difficult if you don't have any money, but at least learning, having an idea, having a set game plan because you need your game plan now. You can't wait the days of like, all right, I'm just gonna play around for my 20s and then when I turn 30, that's when I'm get serious with life. That's.

[Ian]

It doesn't work that way.

[Math Hoffa]

That's an outdated mindset. So you got to figure out what you want to do early so you can already be planning and putting it in place even if you're not actually going to be able to fulfill that dream. So you're 30 at least by the time you get to 30. Because like Big said, being broke at.

[Ian]

30, given chills, he never lied. Especially at 40. Oh boy. That's what autumn little hate come from. You should have listened.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact. And the last thing I'll say about this too is for parents and for people that's not even in college yet. You gotta make sure you're figuring out the right degrees to get. You got to make sure that your student loan is, is low as possible Go to state schools. Go to schools. That's like these are all things that you got to take into consideration beforehand. Yeah, because it's getting serious out here. So it was hard to get a job 10 years ago. It's harder to get a job now. But inflation is going up, so the cost of college is going up. So you don't want to have $400,000 of student loans and then still can't get a job. If you're not gonna get a job, at least have no student loans or low student loans. Don't have one, don't have, don't have both. That's a double whammy.

[Ian]

Tough man. At one point, before triggers.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Ian]

To the parents, the lead developer of AI and Microsoft get laid off. Please be patient with your children. A lot of parents go out and get a job. They're laying off people who are putting together neural networks. They got a little AI bot that they've put together with a human brain that some of that team got laid off. Be patient, be encouraging. I'm not saying them, let them be lackluster and let them play 2K all day, but encourage them. While this job market is tight, while the leadership is a little bit off putting to some nations and while the, the hiring freeze is continuing slowly but surely.

[Denzel]

Yeah, I think all those things, I mean that, that is a blueprint, right? Create the plan. I think one of the things that we have to recognize is what's your value add kids will leave college with the degrees and I can speak for myself and it's like, well, what do I do with this? Like what does this mean? Right? I have this degree, but in health science. What do I, what does that even mean? Right? Like when I walk into a space, does that speak anything to me? So understand what value you bring outside of what that paper says is going to be important because you're walking into the space the paper isn't. The other thing, like you were saying, is that plan and you have to create it, whether from an investment standpoint, from a paying off debt standpoint, because real world starts right? You graduate in six months after they're like, where's that money at? Right? And you can go on deferment for 12 months after that, but then you're just pushing the, the barrel down, down the hill. It is not running away. Student loan is one of those things that you cannot file bankruptcy from and it will be with you and it will affect you long term. So creating a plan around how you're going to repay that, whether it's creating multiple streams or, you know, having multiple sources of income from, from jobs is important. And I think what's as important, especially for this generation, is networking across, right? Like, we gotta start surrounding ourselves with people who are like minded. And I think that's the beautiful thing about the community if we've created. The community you've created is just like minded people. You've graduated college, you've now separated yourself from certain parents, right? You can look around the kids you went to high school with and they didn't get to this point. And it's for a reason, right? There's a reason why you made it here. But the people you've graduated with have now done the same thing that you've done. I said just the other day we was talking to, to some young adults in our community was, they were like, what's the best thing about, you know, being where you're at? And I was, I get to learn every day. They were like, well, what are you learning here? I'm like, I can learn something new from you today. Like, I'm never too, too old to learn something new, especially from an age group. I said, what, what we got to realize is that when you're in elementary school, you're one of 20 kids, right? And it feels like, all right, that's what you're competing against. Then you get to like middle school and like you're one of 120 in your class or maybe a bigger, maybe 200. Then you leave and you go to college. And now you're one of maybe 20,000, right, that you're competing against. And then what happens? Like yesterday when, you know, he graduates from College, now you're one of 4 billion. You compete against the world. And so it goes back to number one, what is your value add when that is your competition? And so microcosmo all those things together, I think that is the blueprint. What you said, Raja, what Ian said, and those three things, like, put those things down, write the plan, create the strategy, and it's time to figure out you're part of the world now.

[Math Hoffa]

And then also I'll say the last thing about this is tap into your social networks as far as not Instagram or Facebook, but I mean, like, if you go to a school, they have an alumni association. Yep, you should be a part of the alumni association. If you were in school and you joined any maternity or sorority, of course that's good that you know, stay in touch with dad and be active because a lot of people are in fraternities and they're not active members pay you. You got to pay your dues. You got to actually go to meetings. Because most of these people, like any, any type of organization, 80 of the people are not active how they should be.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Math Hoffa]

And they don't benefit the 20. Like, you got to go to the meetings. You gotta, you gotta volunteer. Like, you gotta actually do things. Right. So stay engaged. Because your network is, is vitally important. And especially like if you go to a school that has a strong alumni association, you want to stay connected to that because you might get some benefits and breaks just based off of that, because you have some level of commonality that somebody else might not have.

[Denzel]

That's why I said, when that paper comes across and it says St. John's grad and you know the CFO or the CMO is from that, that school, you have a good chance. Right. Just that commonality that we. Wait, we've shared something in common. There's a network here. Right? That's what happens. A lot of times people say, oh, it's about what you know. Nah, man, it's who you know.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

And, and, and we. You got to educate yourself. You got to watch Market Mondays. We wrote the book. It's called how you deserve. You deserve to be rich. Read the book. Like these kind of things that change your life, especially at a young age, that's vitally important. Speaking of St. John's switching gears.

[Ian]

Well, really, one. Can I add one more thing for your nephew?

[Math Hoffa]

Yes.

[Ian]

All nephews, everybody in the family. Put your ideas out into the world. And, and I will call my uncle because he's got a big social platform. Let's say hypothetical. If you want to work at Google, I will map out my 50 ideas that I will want to do at the company. Because it also makes the process, like I've seen people get jobs who have created speculative or concept projects for a company. And maybe it doesn't land, but at least they can see how you think. Or maybe a competitor will grab you. This is why I put out the content for free. Before we did the show, I was putting out stuff on Facebook for. For a decade. There's a point of reference, like a lot of you are going into an interview blind with no brand leverage. But if you're walking into the interview with your 50 ideas or you did like a post of the day about what you can do to help a company be better, it's going to help you a lot more. Get a job. Because at least that hiring person or CEO or CFO will Be able to see what you could bring to the table. Post. I just want a job. So that's the last thing I would want to say.

[Math Hoffa]

And save your money because one day your money is going to save you. So keep your expenses low. Sure, everybody's situation is different, but if you. There's no shame in living at home for at least the first couple of years while you get yourself together like, you know, live at home, save your money, invest your money. Don't just spend your money on dates and a variety of other things that in the grand scheme of things is not. There's no return on that investment assets over liabilities. But you know what's interesting, we haven't spoke about this too much on market Mondays, but it is a financial conversation. And I was at St. John's yesterday. So Ian Jack, Captain Jack back home.

[Denzel]

So the X, what's up?

[Math Hoffa]

You know, he, he was somebody that actually was a five star recruit basketball and went to North Carolina and he's from the Bronx and he did one year in North Carolina and he's transferring to St. John's the reason why I brought him up is that I'm at St. John's yesterday. I'm just looking at St. John's a beautiful campus in Queens. And I'm just thinking to myself like, man, Captain Jack's coming to St. John's for two million dollars. They put two million dollars, gave him a two million dollar nil deal. I'm like, man, he's making more money than anybody on the campus outside of Rick Patino. That's crazy. Yeah, that's a good point. You got a 19 year old sophomore that's coming on and I'm just looking at all of the prestigious buildings, all of the clergy, everything. And like I said, I mean Rick Patino's making the most money. But after that you got a 19 year old if he's not the second highest paid individual on campus, he said he's at least top 10. So the next question that I have for that is for these kids that's getting nil money, the fight, what financial steps should they be doing, them and their parents to make sure that they're not blowing this bag.

[Denzel]

Once.

[Ian]

It's always percentages for me. So it's not the percentage of money like for him specifically, you got to put half of the money away because he's already lit like a lot of times index funds. I would do half index funds and then probably have Microsoft and then Visa for sure. Of course Bitcoin if you can. Great But I think it's an easy win because especially just on Microsoft alone, just on an open AI, whether they choose to be bought out or they become public, I don't know if they'll allow that. But that probably. I said at the top of the decade, it's gonna be, I think, stock of the decade. And that's panning out to be true. So off, let's say if he put 500, 000 into them, he's probably gonna make $8 million off of that probably by year nine. Easy, easy win. Regardless of what happens, whether he goes to the league, what his contract situation is without player. Like, think of it as you get your same salary in the NBA or NFL without having to play more years. So you'll spend 5, 600, 000 on a woman down the line trying to get out of a situation. Or you can put some of that capital in now and have it grow for you. And you never have to worry about what's going on off the field. So yeah, I will put half away. So I will put a million away into. I was split up between Microsoft, VO third, Visa, fourth Bitcoin. Let her run. In nine years, you should have eight or nine million dollars easily. And that's not even including the dividends.

[Math Hoffa]

And that's.

[Ian]

And don't give all your money away to women.

[Math Hoffa]

And that's the thing. And that's the thing too, because it's like this is an important conversation because, you know, I'm in the space. So what's happening now is that you have an agents that, that take their cut. But then there's like street agents. There was always street agents, but now there's street agents that's brokering nil deals. And they, they're taking anywhere from 5 to 20% of nil easily. So parents is vitally important. Few things is. No, a middleman is never really needed. But if you do have a middleman, you got to negotiate that contract to as low as possible. And to the kids, because you've seen a lot of kids that's driving Lamborghinis and all of these cars on campus. Like you said, invest your money. You get in $3 million, you're buying a Lamborghini that's $500,000. Right. You're saying work and you still got to pay taxes on the money. Then like so I get it, you're 18. But like you said, if you put that money into an investment in a relatively short period of time.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

By the time you 28, not even 30 by the time you're 28, you're going to have multiple millions of dollars where even if you don't make it into the league, you're still going to be a multi millionaire and you should be set for the rest of your life. If done correctly like this. Nil Money is. Is to the point now, like, if done correctly, but you don't even got to go to the league, you can be real for the rest of your life just based off of decisions that you make from nil money when you're 18, 19 years old.

[Ian]

Yeah, I'll just say we got to.

[Denzel]

Take into account that he's not coming from, like, any school. Like, he was at North Carolina where he had nil money as well. But there's a big difference in state tax when you leave from North Carolina to New York, especially when you're playing in New York City. And so having somebody on your team, like a CPA that can explain that to you because, yeah, it's a lot of money. And this is a hometown kid. This is like, you know what I mean? Like, I think the best advice, on top of everything that you said, is that you got to realize everybody can't come with you on this journey.

[Ian]

And on top of that, there are a lot of conversations. Shout out to Red Panda Sports, turning players and owners one game at a time. Y Y the politics of the business that you're in, the NBA, NFL. That's why the investment part is so important. There's no reason, because it's not talked about. There is a system for you to get those big contracts and for people to steal that money away from you. Tim Duncan comes to mind. I'm glad, glad KG recovered. Sebastian Tailare comes to mind. Like, there's a lot of people I've met that have made 30 and 40 and they have 2 million left. And everyone wants to blame it on Entourage. No one ever talks about the financial syndicate. That is an entourage that takes all the money away.

[Denzel]

That's a fact.

[Ian]

Everyone like, yo, if y' all quit hanging with 20 people, what about the 20 financial people that's on the team that is feeing you to death 2 to 3% of the time? 2 to 3% with 20 people adds up.

[Math Hoffa]

That is a fact.

[Denzel]

That's a fact.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact. And the thing about I'm give you guys some game outside of the usual conversation that we speak about on Market Mondays, DIA A DIA is a deferred income annuity. So if you're getting money, if you're getting a Lump sum of money, especially when you're young, put a portion of that into a deal. Because what that does is that grows over the course of time. Then you take income from it. So like Allen Iverson, right. Everybody always talks about, like his legendary deal that he did with Reebok and how he's going to be getting like, I think next, maybe he started this year when he turns, when he turns 50. 50, yeah, he'll probably be 50 soon, but whenever he turns 50, he gets like a million dollars a year for the rest of his life. That's because when he structured that first deal, he had a good advisor, somebody on it on the team that actually said, okay, we're gonna put a portion of this away into the detail. You can't spend it. Obviously, you know, people, you know, he had spending habits. So they, it's forced savings that grew over the course of time. And now let's say you put a million dollars in and you wait till you're 40 years old, that million dollars is going to be $10 million right now. You draw income off of that 10 million for the rest of your life. Bobby Bonilla. A lot of these sports contracts, that lump sum was put into an annuity that grew over the course of time. Tax deferred, by the way. And then now that provides a lifetime income. And depending on what type of annuity it is, you can actually have some guarantees on it. So it's like an insurance based product. So it's, it's not as risky as just having it in the stock market. So that's something that it, like I said, if you win, if you hit the lottery, if you have a lawsuit, if you again, nil. Money, sports, any lump sum, any, any type of thing where you get a lump sum at a relatively young age. I would definitely, at the very least, look into it. Educate yourself on a diagram D I, a deferred income annuity that you can put money into and you can draw income down the line.

[Denzel]

Yeah. So Iverson is going to receive from his Reebok deal $800,000 a year annually, and he will have access to 32 million at 55. So he's 49 now. So when he's 55, he'll have access to that 32 million.

[Math Hoffa]

And then some people be like, well, I don't. Well, I want my money right now. It's a ports, like you gotta have portions. You gotta layer it, layer it, layer it out. Look, nobody's gonna be mad at saying, okay, I got 30 million waiting for me in 15 years.

[Denzel]

Yeah, look, I mean a good case study would. If you watch sports and study sports, look at what the Los Angeles Dodgers have done.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Denzel]

Deferring contracts. Shohei Otani deferred 700, 600 million, 650 million deferred.

[Math Hoffa]

You gotta say sometimes in life you guys save people from themselves. Like I said for sure, disrespect to Alan Iverson. He's one of the greatest that ever did it. But of course he has financial problems, right? Like you go through a divorce and then you have issues that come and it's just like you get money at a young age. And sometimes as an advisor or as a parent, you have to save people from themselves that's important.

[Ian]

Or the team that is put around them to take all the money away. Like I would love to see from the time he was drafted in 96 to when they went to the finals, what if the value of the 76s increased and then how much he made in jersey sales? Because if I don't put a plan.

[Rashad]

In Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a new podcast from NerdWallet. Smart travel doesn't just cover points and miles. They break down all the financial aspects of your trip, whether that's the best days to book, how to avoid hidden fees, or which fancy travel credit cards pay off and which ones are just an expensive flex. If you want your travel budget to work harder, then dive into the best deals, products, services and more with Smart Travel from NerdWallet. Wherever you get your podcasts, the best.

[Obi]

Piece of financial advice I've ever received is to pay yourself first. That's why now with every paycheck I receive, I start by putting a little bit away for those rainy days. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future. Acorns lets you get started with the spare money you've got right now. Even if all you've got is spare change, you don't need to be an expert. Acorns recommends a diversified portfolio that can help you weather all of the market's ups and downs using Acorns. Before I knew it, I had a couple thousand dollars in a little nest egg account. Sign up now and join the over 14 million all time customers who have already saved and invested over $25 billion with Acorns. Head to acorns.com heartbreak or download the Acorns app to get started. Paid non client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns tier one compensation provided investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. View important [e-mail] heartbreak breaking news.

[Ian]

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[Math Hoffa]

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[Ian]

Right where you are on America's largest 5G network switch. Now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off at the $800 per line via prepaid card.

[Obi]

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[Ian]

Learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4.

[Obi]

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[Denzel]

15 days qualified unlock device credit service.

[Ian]

Port in 90 plus days device and.

[Obi]

Eligible carrier and timely redemption required card.

[Denzel]

Is no cash access and expires in six months.

[Ian]

Place that and I allow you to go. Everyone doesn't operate as a fiduciary, but there's a lot of teams that profit from the destruction of athlete. Of course not talked about.

[Denzel]

Yeah. And they're gonna leech off of them until it's the next athlete.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Denzel]

And then rinse and repeat year after year, decade after decade and then some more.

[Math Hoffa]

Game for you is that if you have a business manager. So there's a few different things here. There's the agent who works out contracts, stuff like that. Then there's a business manager who is actually more on the financial side. Right, the business manager. It would be better to have them on salary as opposed to them getting percentages of the percentage.

[Ian]

Hello, hold on, say it again. That's the gym of the day. It's gonna save you millions.

[Math Hoffa]

Facts. You gotta put them on salary.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

And that's something that even Steve Harvey spoke about on his conversation with us because you got, especially in Hollywood. Now going to Hollywood, you got an agent, you got a business manager, you got the talent manager, you got the financial advisor, lawyer, cpa, you got. And all these people are taking percentages. And it might, it might seem small. 4%, 5%. It adds up. Especially millions of dollars like you. Before you know it, 35 is out the door. That's before taxes. Now you gotta take taxes. So now you, you've given away 60, 70 of your money. Now you understand why people can actually go broke. 30 of your money is going to tax. 35 of your money is going to taxes. Then you got 30 going to all of these other people that I just named. Then we're not even talking about all the lifestyle as far as, you know, your cars, your house. Then you got, you know, child support, you got all of these things. Now before you know it, you've, you're in the red.

[Ian]

So you may not have your ip. Exactly.

[Math Hoffa]

So it's better if you can put people on salary because then also when you put them on salary, it's tax, it's tax deductible for you because you're paying them. Make sure that they, they fill out their, their W9 forms. Right now you're paying them as a employee, independent contractor, however you set it up. But now that's, that's tax deductible to you as a business entity. Set up your. Set up your business entity, your llc, your S corp, your C corp. You know, you got to do it. You just can't go into this just thinking that you just, you just. Talent. That's how you're gonna get taken advantage of everything.

[Ian]

Yeah. And money. Master the game. One of the things that had a great impact on me was the fee structure that if you have other people invest for you. Right. But no one talks about it on the talent or entertainment side of business side like I am. Great point Rashad made to put everybody on salary. Because even if you're starting out as a beginner entrepreneur and you're saying, hey, do this business with me, you get 50, I get 50%. It's a recipe for disaster. You have to count up all the fees and percentages that you're paying in the. If you're an artist, tour manager. And then also too like even, let's say for us, you may have to enter a deal with somebody, then they don't even want to give you your data. Like it's theft across the board. And then they'll say, well, you're tough to work with. No, I don't want to be robbed. No, you're gonna take 20 and I don't get my data and no, then you're gonna cross collateralize what I built with something. Be mindful because you'll look up in 10 to 15 years and you'll be paying 20 or 30 different people a bunch of percentages. And if you're averaging 12 or 15 return, you're in a negative. So. But that's all I gotta say about that.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a, that's a million dollars worth.

[Ian]

Of game for you for sure. And breaking news last night, the Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba says Japan's financial situation is worse than the Greece situation.

[Denzel]

The Greek situation from two. Oh, wow.

[Ian]

Yes. No one's saying a word wow. Like there's things on a chessboard financially, worldwide. I forgot who said it, but There was like for all parties involved, India, United States, China. It is best for us to all get along because the real world war is going to be like the collapse that happens in all of the markets if we don't find a way to get along. We need each other and I like each other.

[Math Hoffa]

Can we all just get along for real? Reginald Denny said that. No. Was that right? Rest in peace.

[Denzel]

Rest in peace. To Ronnie King.

[Math Hoffa]

Okay, another question from the audience. UnitedHealthcare.

[Denzel]

Oh boy.

[Math Hoffa]

Is now the moment. Is now the moment.

[Ian]

If you in stock club. Yes. I get a price 250 43. I would not touch anywhere on that price. Being a member has his benefits 50 drop. It's not a company I am in love with. But the thing that's important about this company, for Those you remember, UnitedHealthcare was a company that fell first in the 2007, 2008 crash. That was the canary in the coal mine to signal what was coming. Now there's a lot about the trial that I won't talk about that's above my pay grade. But there are changes and if you have a stable business, amazing profit margin, proprietary processes. A CEO stepping down should not cause a 50 drop unless it's Tim Cook CEO.

[Denzel]

Plus the potential. Allegedly there's been some Medicare fraud. Those two things happen.

[Ian]

Allegedly.

[Denzel]

I said alleged. I said alleged.

[Ian]

Just want to be clear for deposition.

[Denzel]

Happening in the same day is. Yeah.

[Ian]

That's when they choose to let the news out. And then you know, this will be one of the biggest cases with Luigi and.

[Denzel]

Right. The Luigi obviously with the, the alleged. Because he's on trial now. Did they start the trial? Not yet. Charged with murder. Yeah. I mean it, it. Stability is always a, a priority, especially when it comes to investing. We talk about what uncertainty he can do for a market. This is uncertainty. And now you're facing some like real substantial charges.

[Ian]

When we talk about the level of order so high. Right. That this person steps down and now an investor class can begin to short the market or liquidate at a rapid rate. And now because everybody knew what was happening in corporate but they brought back.

[Denzel]

The former CEO from 2021, Stephen Hemsley. So he, he's now replacing the CEO who stepped down last week. Just a lot of uncertainty around it. It's interesting we, we watched it pull back down to the 260s and then obviously today it creeped, crept back over the 300 mark, still down over 42%. But it's interesting when in, especially when people are new to investing and trading and they're doing puts and they're doing calls. Right. Like a put on Friday was great. You wake up today, Monday, you might have lost all the game destroyed.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Denzel]

So you. It's. That's why we always say it's for live men, not for freshmen.

[Ian]

Right.

[Denzel]

It's something that you really have to have a skill at. Yeah, I. I don't. I'm not going anywhere near UnitedHealth.

[Ian]

It's not time. And I need another CEO. I mean, he's a great person to be the interim, but they need broad, sweeping changes in culture. I'm not indicting anyone who works there, but cultural leadership needs to change. Like, for as big as the market cap, UnitedHealthcare has. We never talk about them, and there's a reason why.

[Denzel]

Is it. Is it just United Health, or is it in pharma in general? Right. And then the leader.

[Ian]

They're the worst of the bad bunch. Like, I've talked about the decay of Pfizer, but the level of alleged fraud here make Madoff look like a saint. Allegedly.

[Math Hoffa]

Alleged. Bad job.

[Denzel]

Alleged.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a bad job.

[Ian]

600 to 250 over. Like, sometimes all you need is the candle to tell you how bad things are.

[Denzel]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Most people never even heard of UnitedHealthcare. I'm talking about public consensus, not investors. As big as the market cap is, it should be talked about more. Most people don't know what UnitedHealthcare does. It's not a beloved company. Even rest in peace to CEO who passed. A lot of this is above my pay grade, but you don't have a stock fall from 600 to 250 because of a potential 150. Cases like, this is a wise. Wise.

[Math Hoffa]

Yes.

[Ian]

Yeah. Boss Mandela. Be careful now.

[Math Hoffa]

Boss man. Dlos. That's a bad job.

[Ian]

Oh, my boy. It was a good run. It was a good one.

[Math Hoffa]

Got caught up.

[Ian]

Hey, set him up. Hey.

[Math Hoffa]

They set him up.

[Denzel]

Hey.

[Math Hoffa]

He ain't know.

[Ian]

Everybody don't get set up. What?

[Denzel]

Hey, yo.

[Math Hoffa]

You don't know. Sometimes you don't know who you're talking to.

[Ian]

That one was apparent.

[Math Hoffa]

Catfish got catfished.

[Ian]

The boosie box Fade Told you everything you need to know.

[Denzel]

The Grace Jones of it all.

[Math Hoffa]

The voice of reason.

[Ian]

When Blackout off the dark side.

[Math Hoffa]

Oh, man.

[Ian]

Oh, my God. And shout out to old boy who said, I like blackout Ian over market Mondays. And I used to give y' all that energy. H, you got a mature. You're making us look bad in front of the white people we care about so much. Why Would you act like that as a black man? Okay.

[Denzel]

I'm so mature.

[Math Hoffa]

Right?

[Ian]

That's all y' all in corporate who can't speak your mind.

[Math Hoffa]

Oh, man.

[Ian]

That's why.

[Denzel]

That's real. That's a real statement. Because a lot of times we're outside and we see people from corporate and they just say thank you. Things that we can't say.

[Ian]

Can't say. It's a different fight on this program.

[Denzel]

On the other program.

[Ian]

Yeah, I won't get that too much.

[Denzel]

Maybe, like, Yo, I appreciate y' all saying that. I really be thinking that.

[Math Hoffa]

Are we gonna talk about. They point out on Blackout, too, His ex wife having access to his bank account.

[Denzel]

I just saw that.

[Ian]

Wait, what? Still?

[Denzel]

Yeah, yeah. He said there's certain. There's certain people in life that you can just grow at ultimate trust for, and his ex wife is one of them. She has. Even if she gets remarried, she still has access to his account.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a bad job.

[Denzel]

I've never heard of that.

[Ian]

Are they like child? Did you save them from a burning fire?

[Denzel]

I don't know, bro. I. I just never heard of that.

[Math Hoffa]

We're gonna talk about it. They was together, you know, on the come up and all that.

[Denzel]

Yeah, from like, okay, day one shooting in the gym type.

[Math Hoffa]

We call that. We call that a severance package. Well, yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about that.

[Ian]

On Blackout, though, it may not be the main account.

[Denzel]

Nah, he said it's the one we call that.

[Math Hoffa]

We call out the severance package. Pretty cool. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your services.

[Ian]

Even if she helps you build Barstool no.

[Math Hoffa]

7. That's what I'm saying. You've been paid handsomely.

[Denzel]

You.

[Math Hoffa]

You got paid handsomely for. For your time. I thank you and I appreciate you forever. And if you ever need me, I'm here for you. But lifetime access. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Ian]

Yeah. Why are doing your NDAs? Y' all need to do them financial waivers. No, right off top.

[Denzel]

Yeah, I don't even know how that works.

[Math Hoffa]

I don't have access.

[Denzel]

Like, he gets remarried, right? If he gets remarried. Let's say he does. Like, how does that work?

[Ian]

You tell her, yo, this the one I really want. So she still got access to the accounts? Hey, baby, she can log in whenever. Never will I ever. I'm with you.

[Denzel]

Never have.

[Ian]

Not even my kid. Yo, I love you. I love that. Oh, boy.

[Denzel]

Never have I ever.

[Ian]

That's another thing. Y' all have to stop letting people log into your stuff. Because when you go to court, then you can't deny that that's what you have. Hey, don't let nobody know how much you make. Oh, boy.

[Denzel]

That's a key.

[Ian]

That is a key. Nothing. Net Negative.

[Denzel]

I ain't got it.

[Ian]

Thought you were the best investor. Don't have no money. No. Didn't.

[Math Hoffa]

Zero.

[Ian]

Didn't. It's all advice for real loans.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah.

[Ian]

The business funding, play all everything.

[Denzel]

The advice.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Math Hoffa]

What pun say? Trust no one. Got beef Bus yoga. They don't need no one. At your own. I'm gonna go for Dolo face without Manolo.

[Ian]

Yo, you think it's a lot of gyms in them bars, man?

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact.

[Ian]

You know who's done that best, too? The playing broke move. Adam Sandler.

[Math Hoffa]

Oh, yeah. He's on the fast.

[Ian]

Oh, he does. I'm going to Queens and play ball. And some old Converse.

[Denzel]

Yeah. Netflix deal is crazy.

[Math Hoffa]

Hey, yo, he said super kicked out.

[Denzel]

That's Paul. Super kicked up.

[Math Hoffa]

Wow.

[Denzel]

Is it? Wow. I'll pause it if it is.

[Math Hoffa]

That's the term in open vernacular. Kicked up. Like, they, like, kicked up Sunday, kicked up Sundays. Spiritual word.

[Denzel]

What's that? What is. I don't know.

[Math Hoffa]

It's like they'll show a girl, like, oh, she's double.

[Denzel]

Oh, yeah. I'm from a different era. Caked up means you had a lot of bread.

[Ian]

Got you. Okay. It's switching.

[Denzel]

I even know that they did.

[Ian]

I'm just protecting you.

[Denzel]

I appreciate that. I. I had no idea. Thank you for educating. I just told y' all.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Denzel]

I'm always trying to learn.

[Math Hoffa]

It's one of these things.

[Denzel]

So they just show like that.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah, that'd be like Ruby Rose double caked up on this.

[Denzel]

You know, that's like the money bag.

[Math Hoffa]

Beautiful Sunday.

[Denzel]

It's like the money.

[Ian]

Yeah. It's like a mall's money bag.

[Math Hoffa]

Shout out to more.

[Ian]

Yeah. Shout out to more.

[Math Hoffa]

Salute. Salute them all.

[Ian]

Purveyor of.

[Denzel]

In that sense. Yes. That's Paul's.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Oh, United. If y' all there's any whistleblowers at UnitedHealthcare. Before you get kicked up, you better go get protection. Allegedly.

[Math Hoffa]

Allegedly.

[Ian]

Please, please.

[Math Hoffa]

Allegedly. Okay, let's talk about this. So Warren Buffett, you know, Notorious investing in Coca Cola dividend. Play strong. American company standard. One of these things, you know, that was his whole thing. Buy things that people always going to use. And, you know, Coca Cola has been a standard in America forever. What's the next Coca Cola when it comes to dividend when it comes to, you know, that company that you could just believe in. What's the next one?

[Denzel]

I wrote two, bro. So let me see what you said. I wrote two.

[Ian]

What Kanye say. That's what I told you. Told you what I am. My God, Microsoft, everyone keep asking, what's the new thing? All right, Chat, GPT exposure. Satya saw it before Google and Apple did when Apple could have bought it for little or nothing. For me, everyone put in chat. What is the year over year return for Microsoft? There's a few things you got to consider when you're looking at this kind of investment. Number one, what is the drawdown per decade? Super gym and drawdown over a five year period? Two, what is the return? Three, what is the moat that no one else has? If I told you, I'm going to give you the software that almost runs the world. And as they're starting to lose steam in the enterprise space, they go acquire the greatest startup and technology in this decade. That will be Microsoft. And then buying into open AI just like when Dre went to go get 50 with him times a thousand. It's the tech version of that. So yeah, for the dividend play, high return play, just set it and forget it. It's going to be Microsoft as long as Sati is there. And when War made this investment, Coke didn't have the best CEO. They had a great process, they had a great distribution arm, they had great market share. For me, yes. And Microsoft over Apple until Tim Cook leaves.

[Denzel]

Okay, yeah, no, so in the notes it said the dividend aristocrat.

[Ian]

And so like they pay a small dividend.

[Denzel]

So I mean by definition it has to have a dividend increase for 25 years. And so I'm not, I'm not knocking Microsoft.

[Ian]

Okay.

[Denzel]

But just based on that definition, that dividend increase for 25 years straight, I had Lowe's as that company.

[Ian]

Lowe's is fire.

[Denzel]

Yes, loads of that company. A couple of reasons. Good profit margin, good cash flow. And I know people will say, well, what's their moat? Right, Because Home Depot is in the space. Home Depot, different teeth. But it's a different tier because Lowe's has the, the price leadership. Right? They can cut costs at a different way than, than Home Depot can. It's almost like when I look at, if I look at Walmart and I look at Target. Yeah, right. Like Target is always going to have the cost point where people are going to bring in more customers because of that. That exact reason. Plus the scaling model is a little bit different and more People are doing, you know, the DIY is a real thing and people are more emotional going to Lowe's as opposed to Home Depot. Home Depot is a good company just from the dividend standpoint. I put Lowe's and then by definition it doesn't fit the. The dividend aristocrat. Costco.

[Ian]

Costco, it's a killer that nobody.

[Denzel]

They only started doing dividends in in 2004. So it hasn't hit 25 years. But same reasons, if you look at profit margin, cash flow, what's their moat? What's their cost? Leadership. And what's the advantage? Cost advantage. They have it in that space. And so based on the definition for a dividend play. Yeah, I'm taking those two.

[Ian]

And to give you a historical reference, at the time when dividends were a big thing, there was more separation and not as much globalization of companies. So I get it. We definitely have to factor that in. But the tech aristocrats are wiping down, to use YN language, the dividend aristocrats. So that's why I said, even though it may not fit the traditional model of a dividend more, it's a lower paying dividend. The tech era, post quantitative easing is the reason why, just like you had the oil sector, which was amazing. Natural gas was fledgling, but there were some good investments there. This is too much hyper concentration to split a market like that anymore how he would have did in 1980 when Dynasty was coming on at 7pm on CBS. It's a different world. So it's a different landscape.

[Denzel]

Crazy. Dallas.

[Ian]

Dallas for sure.

[Denzel]

So, all right, different time.

[Ian]

Y' all going to meet with the queen else. Where y' all going? Yeah. Oh, y' all got at the Bill Gates meeting because they gave y' all the money to invest in Ghana. Gotcha, babe.

[Denzel]

We got to meet them.

[Math Hoffa]

Yeah.

[Ian]

It always be us who put that on day. Yeah.

[Math Hoffa]

Well, well, ladies and gentlemen, you know, there's a lot going on in the world right now, man.

[Ian]

You know, Y' all see how happy Rashad is. I don't know who they meet with, so don't. Don't know where they going out. I'll be asking. Unless they tell.

[Denzel]

Follow the social. Follow all socials.

[Math Hoffa]

Oh, man. But no, I think this was. I think this is a very insightful conversation. Anything else that we need to cover?

[Denzel]

Yeah, I mean, a few earnings. I spoke about it. Costco's gonna be reporting, so make sure you tune into that. And then we got next week, man. Circle your calendars. The 28th. The 28th. The big bully. Nvidia will be reporting their earnings. So make sure y' all tap into that. Yeah, they're not done. Talk about that after they're not done. Nil. There's another big fish out there that they might try to land. Another homegrown kid.

[Ian]

Speaking of big fish, with Nvidia, they released that chip where the companies that don't have their chips can merge with.

[Denzel]

So, yeah, Qualcomm just announced a partnership with Nvidia for CPUs, not GPUs. Very interesting.

[Ian]

Very interesting.

[Denzel]

AMD leading that space and taking over from Intel. Here comes Qualcomm.

[Ian]

Nvidia is a Saudi Aramico of the United States. You got to go to Nvidia to get clearance to do okay for this next decade. Nvidia needs you to invest faster. Gotta have a talk.

[Math Hoffa]

Please.

[Denzel]

Yeah. It's important.

[Math Hoffa]

And.

[Denzel]

And it goes. It goes back to that. That college. More and more. We. We have people that are at Invest Fest that are just in attendance. And we've spoken to plenty of people in corporate, and they're like, we're looking for the next talent from our community. And, like, what better place? So they're showing up. That's why I said pay attention to who's around you. Pay attention who's sitting next to you. Who's in that marketplace early.

[Ian]

Yo, be kind.

[Denzel]

There are execs in there looking for talent to bring into their companies. So you can't miss that opportunity. You have to show up at everything.

[Math Hoffa]

That's a fact, man. But, yeah, you know. Gotta catch this midnight flight.

[Denzel]

Yep. We'll be speaking to you from a different time zone.

[Math Hoffa]

I try to figure some things out. You know, Skin. Just skin. Too crazy in America.

[Ian]

Gotta shake hands, kiss babies. Yeah.

[Denzel]

They're trying to get out. Trying to get our fears and allies.

[Ian]

Gotta go. I gotta go talk shine bomb this summer.

[Math Hoffa]

Hey.

[Ian]

Let's go. Somebody. Spooky hours is amongst us for sure. When a Japanese prime minister tell you it's worse than Greece publicly in an official statement.

[Denzel]

That's interesting.

[Ian]

That's tough. What?

[Denzel]

Y' all.

[Ian]

What? Okay.

[Math Hoffa]

Immediately, ladies and gentlemen, because you're gonna need one, I'll tell you that much.

[Ian]

Yep.

[Math Hoffa]

All right.

[Denzel]

Raw.

[Ian]

It's y' all been real.

[Denzel]

It's been real. Y' all traveling mercies be good. We'll see y' all Wednesday and we'll definitely see y' all on Thursday.

[Ian]

Yeah. Peace.

[Rashad]

When you're with Amex Business Platinum, you have the card that helps businesses dream bigger, get a flexible spending limit, that adapts with your business and earn 1.5 times Membership Rewards points on select business purchases so you can stock up on what you need to take your business further and get rewarded for growing bigger. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Not all purchases will be approved.

[Denzel]

Terms apply.

[Rashad]

Learn [e-mail] AmExBusiness Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a new podcast from NerdWallet. Smart travel doesn't just cover points and miles. They break down all the financial aspects of your trip, whether that's the best days to book, how to avoid hidden fees, or which fancy travel credit cards pay off and which ones are just an expensive flex. If you want your travel budget to work harder, then dive into the best deals, products, services and more with Smart Travel from NerdWallet. Wherever you get your podcasts.