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Money Matters update June 30 2025

If there is one thing I have learned over my many decades of life is that things we thought would change things forever never do.

I have lived through wars that I thought would never end, economic blow ups that were certain to end the financial `system` as we know it, Presidents that were too good to be true (and were) and the other kind as well.

No matter how bad or good things got, they always reverted off the extremes and delved back into normalcy, if there is such a thing.

Fast forward to today and we have a contentious political polarization, more foreign strife complete with bullets flying and people dying, inflation eating away at consumer pocket books and more weird things in general happening that make one think mankind will certainly be changed forever.

Not so and don’t worry too much about it I say.

Been there, done that and we always seem to survive as a species and the lights remain on.

I used to think and subsequently fear the many things that would pop up both economically and in life in general and never be able to see the forest through the trees. Whatever occurred seemed too dire and serious that I could not imagine that anything like what I was witnessing would work itself out so everything would be ok.

I would lose sleep, furl by brow and wring my hands along with the rest of the good people around me and be absolutely certain the end was near.

But it never came to pass.

What did pass was the thing I was so certain would never pass, and life went on as it always seems to.

I don’t know if its divine intervention, the intelligence of the human race or just the luck of the draw, but we seem to persist as a species and the markets seem to keep on chugging along, climbing the proverbial “wall of worry” as it is said.

Indeed, not only do the markets climb the proverbial wall of worry, seemingly life does too.

We fret as investors, we worry as dads and moms, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors and workers and bosses.

Seldom is the keel even, the winds steady and the seas calm. And if they are, we know another tempest is just off the port bow and we must be ever vigilant.

And so it goes with our markets today, our environment, our lives and our world.

Anytime I worry a bit TOO much, I remind myself that, whatever it is, this too will pass.

And it will.

I just know mankind likes to meddle with stuff, we strive for strife it seems, and we like to turn over apple carts and change things seemingly just for the sake of changing things.

And so it goes.

As economist John Maynard Keynes once implied way back in a 1923 musing of his: “in the end we are all dead”.

Not much comfort there, I know, but the jest of that matter seems to be don’t worry too much.

I think back to a line in the movie “Jurassic Park”, which seems to sum it all up. “Life finds a way”.

And it certainly seems to.

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(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS (Regulations)

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services. Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com

MONEY MATTERS UPDATE JUNE 28 2025 SAVINGS BUCKETS

SAVE AND REAP THE REWARDS

Families are always looking for solutions when it comes to saving for a variety of wants and needs. The reasons people want to save some money might be for a kid’s college, a vacation, a new house or boat, or just want to build a nest egg for retirement.

As a general rule, whatever we might save for, the money usually gets dumped into one account like a savings account or maybe even a checking account, although checking accounts are easily pilfered by our need to pay a bill or what have you. Having one big savings account is common but humans always function a little better at accomplishing things if we have a goal in mind, and some sort of constant reminder about that goal.

High yield savings accounts, being the preferred method as we want to earn as much as possible on our money, can offer a feature that many may not be aware of.

This feature is called “Saving Buckets”. Saving buckets are like envelopes in the one main account. They let a customer set up categories for each specific savings goal they might have in mind. These are offered by many banks and are free to set up. You can track your savings for a specific item. In other words, if you are saving for a new car, you can set up a savings bucket entitled “New Car” and dump money into that envelope.

In this way, by having a specific account for an item, it keeps in the forefront exactly what it is you are saving for. You can set up multiple buckets and designate what money goes where.

The advantages can be obvious and not so obvious at the same time. Naming an account keeps the specific need right in front of you and may allow you to make better choices as to how much to allocate to it and when. The balance for whatever it is you are saving for is also front and center whenever you check your statements.

The concept can also incentivize you to save more and make it easier to track your progress on each specific item.

Using buckets under one main account can also eliminate the need for multiple accounts making tracking your money easier.

Additionally, by maintaining only the one main account, the balance would be higher than it would be if holding separate accounts possibly qualifying you for a better interest rate as banks usually pay more the higher the balance.

It may also reduce any fees that banks might charge for each account as the buckets are considered just a piece of the one main account. You can also transfer money between buckets if something changes or even eliminate or cash out a bucket if need be.

There are, of course, things to consider when looking at establishing saving buckets. Savings accounts in general may not offer as much return as time constrained, fixed income options such as a CD or savings bond.

Savings accounts can also see their interest rates move down while CD or bond interest rates might be set for the life of the purchase.

Also savings accounts over $250,000.00 exceed FDIC insurance but that particular draw back can be reduced by simply naming an additional beneficiary to an account. This is because each account owner is eligible for up to $250,000 in FDIC coverage per beneficiary. Setting up beneficiaries on your account can increase your FDIC coverage.

Not all banks offer saving buckets and the number of buckets a bank might allow is also company specific so ask your bank if they offer this option. If not, you can easily find a bank that does.

There usually are no minimum amounts required in each bucket and every bucket, being just a labeled envelope, earns the same amount of interest as the account it is under. Remember, when you have saving buckets, it is still only considered one account.

Saving buckets are kind of a cool thing many people may not be aware of but they may help you better achieve your personal finance goals and needs.

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

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(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS (Regulations)

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Update HOW TO RUN AND MAKE MONEY IN THE RESTURANT BUSINESS JUNE 8 2025

This is a sign of a good resturant- People eat and spend a lot!

Last month I wrote an article on running a restaurant and as I was writing it, I realized, with a few specific differences, running a successful business is just as easy, or for many, just as hard as the very difficult restaurant business.

Actually it can be maddening to start a business and probably as it should be. For if it was easy, the things that make it hard are the seeds of giving good service and/or providing a good product.

An entrepreneur that starts a business will find out soon enough whether he or she is doing it correctly by how many “votes” they get in the process.

Votes in the business world are dollars. Put in simple terms, although business startups need time to get the word out and attract customers, eventually, given enough time, the votes (dollars) should start trickling in. Either that or what you are offering is not very much in demand.

The longer you operate, the more dollars (votes) should come rolling in. If you are doing it right that is.

I once had lunch with a business mentor that had been in the business of mentoring for many years. He made the comment he was having a hard time monetizing his service.

To me, that meant he had a hard time making enough money at doing what he was doing. In business terms, he had a hard time getting enough votes.

People vote with their dollars. Offer something they want and they’ll cast their votes your way and fill your coffers.

Take APPLE for example. Apple gets billions of votes every year because people love what they offer in the form of their phones and their ancillary businesses like the APP STORE.

If a new business is opened and the dollars don’t eventually start flowing in meaningful amounts, it either means the public doesn’t need or want whatever it is you are offering or in the way that you are offering it.

In the restaurant business, it might mean they don’t like your food or your service. If it’s a clothing boutique, maybe they don’t like the clothes you’re selling, or maybe your prices are too high.

It could be a number of things that are causing you not to get votes (make money). The bottom line is the public, much like a disliked politician would lose due to lack of votes, are not casting enough votes in your direction.

I can’t tell you how many people I talk to year after year that couldn’t make a business work.

Like my previous article mentioned: nine out of ten new businesses end up in the trash heap. And unfortunately, may do significant financial damage to the entrepreneurs in the process.

The failures are not tied to any one type of business, although the restaurant business seems to be the top dog in business flop overs along with web based businesses. Web based businesses have many home based platforms which are started on an idea and a whim with often little capital, which may be why the numbers are so high for web business failures. As for the high number of restaurant failures, as anyone that has run one will tell you, it’s a darn hard business both in hours and profit margins as well as the inherent mechanisms of offering a perishable item.

In conclusion, starting a successful business can be very rewarding both financially and personally if you come up with the right recipe both in your offering and how you offer it.

There are many things you will have to address and navigate in the process of starting a new business and I won’t list them all here due to space constraints, but plan on working an ungodly number of hours to both start up and run your new business.

You can forget about sleeping in and better plan on long days and even longer nights. Most successful business owners will tell you they never worked harder nor longer. It’s just the way of it.

Those that refuse to put in the long hours are probably the nine out of the ten that fail because they went back to bed.

All kidding aside, it’s damn hard to open a new business. So make a solid plan, perhaps get a mentor, listen to advice and research, research, research.

It’s not easy but it’s worth it if you do it right.

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

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(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS (Regulations)

Turning 65?

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Marc Cuniberti

Munger's Mantras UPDATE June 1 2025

Famous investor Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway have been in business making investors rich since 1965. Although Berkshire was founded in 1839, it was a much different company. The company buys other companies by investing directly in them or buying their stock. As any stock, Berkshire has it risks, and as part of the stock market, may go down in market crashes.

Although Buffett’s name is the one most often tossed around when mentioning Berkshire Hathaway, he had a right hand man named Charlie Munger. Having met at a party in 1959, they haD been together as business partners up until Munger’s death and both steered the company to legendary greatness.

Munger passed in 2023 at age 99 and worked as vice chairman up until the day he died.

Both Munger and Buffett shunned things they didn’t understand and had more of a general macro view when deciding what companies to buy.

Munger’s approach on how to invest were simple and straight forward and unlike any I have ever heard of before or since.

Inversion: Solve a problem from the back end forward. As a weather forecaster in the air corps, instead of opinionating on what weather was good to fly in, he instead thought of what weather would instead might kill pilots and simply avoided that. When investing, consider not only what you could make but what you could lose.
Opportunity cost: Could you make more money elsewhere. Should you invest in that dividend stock paying 3% when you could buy a CD paying 4%?
Circle of Competence: Admit what you don’t know and stick within the circle of what you do know. Stay within your limits of what you know and don’t guess.
Confirmation Bias: Avoid leaning into what you BELIEVE should happen and instead only focus only on what IS happening. We often look through rose colored glasses and see only what we want to see.
The Lollapalooza Effect: Multiple positive factors can amplify gains many times over. When all things align and are positive, gains can explode.
Second Order thinking: Considering the many possible outcomes now and farther down the road instead of just considering the initial idea, concept or possible expected outcome. Consider all possibilities that can occur now AND later.
The Map is not the Territory: All economic or investing theories are just theories only. Consider they are not absolute predictors of what will happen. Nothing is cast in stone.
Mr. Market: The market is a fickle beast and an emotional one. It may not always be logical or rational and in actuality, seldom is.
Social Proof: Avoid jumping o bandwagons or following the mob. Stay rational. When everyone is thinking the same thing, nobody’s thinking.
Occam’s Razor: The most logical and obvious answer often is the correct one. Consider all possibilities, but the most obvious answer more often than not is the right one.

In conclusion, Munger and Buffett used common sense to steer their company Berkshire Hathaway. Buying iconic brands like Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo and See’s Candies, among others, the reason for buying companies were not complexed.

It’s just a good business!

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

(end) As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly THANKS (Regulations)

You can sign up for his Investing class at Placer School for Adults (530) 885.8585. This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services. Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com.

STOCK PE AND VALUE UPDATE MAY 31 2025

CAN YOUR STOCK GUSH PROFITS?

When investors hear about how expensive stocks are, some might think it refers to a high stock price. For example, if someone compares a stock that costs a buck a share, and then looks at a stock that has a $900 price tag, they may think the $900 stock is more expensive.

On one hand, they would be right if it pertained to how we shop for most things.

After all, if we see a dress priced at $20 bucks and one priced at $2,000, in a certain sense, the $2,000 dress is indeed more expensive.

But what if the $20 dress is made from cotton and the $2,000 dress is made from gold thread and has $5,000 worth of diamonds on it?

The $2,000 dress with $5,000 worth of diamonds and woven in gold thread certainly is a better value as for $2000 you are getting over $5,000 worth of diamonds plus the gold thread and hence, could be said to be a better value than the $20 dress.

The same can be said about the comparative price of stocks.

Many investors may only look at the price of a stock when deciding what to buy instead of looking for the better “value”.

Although there are many intangibles and ways to evaluate the value of a stock, the most basic method that almost any investor can use is what is called the “Price to earnings ratio” (PE).

The PE is a common published figure on almost all stock screeners and it represents how much you are paying in company earnings per each share of stock you buy.

The PE is calculated by dividing the price of a share of the stock by the earnings per share.

For example, if a stock is priced at ten dollars and the company annually earns one dollar per share, then $10 (price per share) divided by $1 (earnings per share), the PE ratio for this stock is 10.

If the company earned $2 per share, then $10 divided by $2 is 5.

Now suppose you were looking at buying a grocery store and between the two stores you were looking at, grocery store A had two owners and earned two bucks a year. Each owner would get one buck a year in earnings. Its PE would be 5. (10 divided by 2).

Grocery store B also had two owners but earned only one buck a year. Each owner would get .50 cents a year. Its PE is 10. (10 divided by 1)

If both stores were priced for sale at the same price, Grocery store A, having a lower PE, would be the better value as each owner gets more money per year than grocery store B, which subsequently has a higher PE.

The PE therefore tells you what company is costing you more as it pertains to earnings. The higher the PE, the more expensive the stock relative to another with a lower PE.

This simplistic mindset can be one of many considerations an investor can look at when deciding what stock might be a better value.

Seasoned investors know that there are many more metrics one can look at when considering what stock to buy

Of course, a knowledgeable financial professional can always assist you when wading through a company’s financial vitals, but understanding even a small amount of how to evaluate a stock can begin to open the eyes of even the most beginning of investors.

After all, what is more simplistic in deciding what company to invest in then just seeing which company makes more money?

Although comparing PE is only one of many metrics that should be used, and its best to only consider companies in the same industry when using the PE comparison methodology, this common sense approach can start the mom and pop investor down the road of knowing a little bit more about the world of investing.

Education is the cornerstone of progress, and when it comes to your money, the more knowledge you have, the better you and your money will be.

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

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(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS (Regulations)

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