Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus, brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice, or recommendations, for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representatives, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker-dealer, member of FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisor representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Incorporated, a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice.
Announcer:
Now here’s today’s Financial Focus program.
James Nelson:
Good morning, and welcome to this week’s Financial Focus program, brought to you each and every Wednesday morning right here on KROS. It’s James Nelson here this morning, with a new face in the studio with us. Brad Fritz is joining us for the first time in a little while. Brad, how’s it feel to be back in the studio?
Brad Fritz:
Super, James, thank you. Thanks for the invite back. It’s been at least a couple of years, I guess. I turned over the reigns, David and I did, to you other guys. It’s good to be back. Thank you.
James Nelson:
I remember you and my dad, and Gene coming up here on a regular basis. Recently it’s been John and I, and especially Nate, being up here a fair amount. It’s good to have you back up here.
Brad Fritz:
It’s always good to talk to some old friends and clients.
James Nelson:
Exactly. Jumping into today’s program, we wanted to touch on a few things. The main topic is getting back to work. We’ve seen local, state, and federal guidelines relax a little bit. People are getting back to work, to some extent. Well, some people are getting back to work. We want to talk big picture, how that’s going to affect the overall economy, and what that looks like. We’re seeing it here. Iowa never totally locked down, Illinois did for a period of time, but it sounds like a lot of those restrictions are starting to ease up. People are trying to get back to life as we knew it.
Brad Fritz:
Living on the Illinois side of the river, as opposed to you on the Iowa side, the difference is what we’ve seen over there. I know Chicago is a big impact to that, just because of the mass confluence of people. I get that.
James Nelson:
Right.
Brad Fritz:
But the local areas out where we live, out here Whiteside County and Carroll County, and Rock Island I think has been a hotspot, but their cries are for, “We don’t have the contagion out here. Let us open up a little more relaxed, and let us do business and make a living.”
Brad Fritz:
You’ve heard the comments from people. The unemployment lines are almost impossible to navigate through. People are struggling and hurting. This isn’t the type of society/economy that we’re supposed to have people hurting in. We’ve been through one of the best stock market periods in recent memory, on these last several years. People should be feeling good about themselves, and doing well financially. And that’s not the case.
James Nelson:
We’re seeing the big disparity between some of the Fortune 500 companies versus Main Street, it doesn’t always translate in the same thing. You’re right, unemployment numbers are continuing to go up, at least in the near term. Hopefully that levels off, and starts moving back the other direction. I think, unemployment, John and I touched on last week. 15 or maybe upwards of 20% of the time, this thing’s all said and done. But I think the biggest fear for a lot of these employees is just, “Is my job going to be there when I want to go back?” The longer that this plays out, and the longer it takes for people to get back to work and try to get back to normalcy, are those jobs there? Are systems and processes changed, where we don’t need as many employees? What does that look like for when people do go back to work? I think that’s a big fear for a lot of folks.
Brad Fritz:
It’s a huge fear, especially in our area, geographically. We’re made up of a lot of smaller towns. What’s the backbone of the smaller towns, or the small businesses? I’ve said this before to many people, “What were our favorite haunts, our restaurants, our cafes, our retail shops, our entertainment places of months past?” Most likely a lot of those are going to cease to exist, and won’t be there on Main Street when this thing eases, and we go back to a somewhat normal life.
Brad Fritz:
There’s a lot of personal… I think what gets me the most about this is, there’s a personal effect to that. Where those people are our family and our friends, that are going to be without jobs, and without a livelihood. It’s a starting over point for a lot of people, at what age in their life? I look at myself for example, James, at my age. If I was in one of those positions, I couldn’t even imagine being thrust into the unknown, and the oh my gosh of, “What do I do tomorrow? How do I take care of my wife and I?”
James Nelson:
Exactly, and at no fault of their own. It’s just part of being in the mix of this. You work so hard to build a business, or you work at a job for a long period of time, and you put everything into it. To one day, not have that position, must be really tough. There’s going to be plenty of people feeling that pain.
James Nelson:
The other side of the coin is, looking at how it relates to some of the investments too. I know we’ve talked about this on several conference calls, as far as some of these companies that are almost set up in a way that they can handle a pandemic like this, and handle employees working remotely. You’ll look at some of the big household tech companies. They already have a lot of people that don’t work in the office day-to-da. They can continue on as business as usual, versus the manufacturing sector, which is big around here, obviously.
Brad Fritz:
Hand on stuff.
James Nelson:
Yeah, where you actually have to show up to work and make something, or produce something. In the services’ industry too, to some extent. The restaurants, and the hotels, and casinos, and all those types of jobs, they depend on people showing up to work. That’s where we’re seeing this big disparity. Where some of these big tech companies are driving the overall recovery in the stock market, but that looks very differently for those folks that are not in that world, and getting by day to day. They haven’t seen that recovery, and may never see that recovery.
Brad Fritz:
That’s true. Take it from our own personal perspective. Our office, right here in Clinton, with NelsonCorp Wealth Management. We’ve been through that this last two months, or two plus months. I think it goes back to late February or March, I don’t even remember, it’s been so long I forgot and lost track. We love being in the office, and we love meeting with our clients, and we love doing what we do in the office, in that environment with people. But we’ve, for the most part, shut down.
Brad Fritz:
We’ve had… Again, I hate this term, but I got to use it now because I don’t know what else to say, “essential people”. That’s crazy. Who’s essential versus non-essential? Our tax office, of course it was seasonal, because it was right in the heart of the tax season. They did a phenomenal job of trying to distance themselves, and continue to take care of our clients, and everything that was associated with that.
Brad Fritz:
My bigger point is, I’ve been working from home now since this March date. How does that change my business perspective? I’ve been able to do okay. I’ve been calling my clients from home. Everybody understands what we’re going through, and everybody understands what we’re having to do, and how we migrate through this. But will it have an effect on, like here in Clinton, Iowa, on businesses like us? We don’t manufacture a product, but we sure take care of a lot of people, and hands on is important for us.
James Nelson:
Exactly. At the same time, a lot of those clients didn’t want to come out, even if we were seeing people.
Brad Fritz:
That’s true.
James Nelson:
And they didn’t want to come, but you’re right, does that change the perception, moving forward? Where maybe we don’t need to come into the office, and a phone call will do just fine going forward. I think a lot of people are to that point where they’re scared, until this vaccine’s developed, when it’s developed. Are we going to see a second wave in the fall? I think people are going to be, at least a certain population, will be in this mode for quite some time.
Brad Fritz:
I do too, especially now with the weather turning like it has. It’s driving people outdoors. You read the stories about the disparities between, “What I can do recreational,” versus, “what I have to do for work.” Who you can come and go with, and where you can be, and what you can do. People are getting upset about, I think, and again it’s nobody’s fault locally or statewide, but the rules just don’t seem to play out across all levels and all lines. People are being treated differently in different states, and that’s upsetting people. They just want to get their lives back, and get on with their lives. Quite honestly, we’re all red blooded, hard working, Americans. People just want to go back to work.
James Nelson:
Yeah. They want to get back to normal.
Brad Fritz:
They do.
James Nelson:
Another thing that Nate and I always try to do, is just quickly try to tie it into how it relates to an investment portfolio, and how some of these changes affect people’s 401k balances, IRA balances, whatnot. I think the biggest thing, Brad, you chime in here too, but the biggest thing is just knowing what you own. We talk about the disparity between some of these tech companies versus manufacturing. We’ve almost never seen levels like this, where we’ve got some companies that continue to do very well, and there’s a big population of these Fortune 500 companies that are not doing very well. You wouldn’t know it by looking at the indexes, but how it relates to a client’s portfolio is very important to know what you own.
Brad Fritz:
Very important to know what you own, and what the breakdown is. And paying attention. I’ve had clients for years that have always just had the attitude of, “You take care of it. Don’t worry about it. Let me know if I need to do something,” type of attitude. There’s still some of that, but it’s going to be more important for people to be actively engaged, and involved in that. Go back to your point of, the indexers wouldn’t know that, but there’s still a lot of the bankruptcy talk going on. There’s a lot of companies that we know, that we’re used to going and shopping at the malls, or at the standalone places, that will not be there. Already are gone, and won’t be there tomorrow.
James Nelson:
Exactly, and probably would already be gone if it wasn’t for some of this government intervention, as well.
Brad Fritz:
True story.
James Nelson:
Hey, give us a call if there’s any questions. If we can help, we’d love to sit down with you.
James Nelson:
Again, this is James and Brad at NelsonCorp Wealth Management with this week’s Financial Focus program. Thanks again for tuning in, have a great rest of your week.
Brad Fritz:
Thank you.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management, in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker-dealer, member of FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisor representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Incorporated, a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice.
Announcer:
For more information, visit our website at www.nelsoncorp.com.