The Expert Podcast

…Hello again. At describe TV and we know what you want to hear about what you want to talk about. It has to do with the. potential risks to finances to your secure lifestyle things like AI. And there may be some indications that parts of AI are being banned And we'll take a look at that.

And this episode also, are there. Price. Crisises with electric vehicles. Is there a crash? In the crisis or in the prices of EVs.

And why is it happening What is it? Pretend for the future of that type of vehicle. we're going to talk about. the end of an era for a very unique loophole with vehicle titling And this may seem like a small niche subject for a lot of you but it's an interesting. Loophole that existed for almost 20 years where you could kind of get around some requirements for titling a vehicle that now has been shut down by one notorious state in the country.

We're gonna talk about business goals or on the one hand there's,

an example of a $50 billion business on the other hand. An example of how to create a business when you know nothing about business or about that business. But as usual one of the most prominent subjects that people like to hear about has to do with…

Housing. And real estate. And in this case, it is very specifically

about affordability Oh…

look, there's a lot of opinions about how much you should spend for a house And this is the title of the article that was in the Atlantic. It says even the experts don't know for sure Well that's because they're not really experts how much you should spend. Really depends upon your scenario but there is a lot of good rule of thumb to go by. First of all, it's a percentage of how much you have left over. After your other expenses So if you make a hundred thousand a year you might say well I should spend this much for house.

It also depends on other things. Do you have, other obligations Do you have. Child support. Spousal maintenance from prior marriage That makes a difference. Do you live in a high tax state That makes a difference.

Do you have a high car loans makes a difference. Are you in a geographical area which has a high cost of living? But one of the things that they get into in this article is…

That if you make 60,000 a year and you have no existing deaths, you could afford a mortgage of 1750 a month. If you want to be 35% of your income and that rule 28% 35% about a third of your income is a good one. That means you can currently buy a home for 250,000…

That sounds like a low amount. But. Maybe it's not that low amount. Part of the reason that real estate has ballooned to what it is. There's a lot of people who are making look, even if you double this to one 20, that would double this to 500…

Many of the houses that are purchased are for more than 500,000…

A good rule of thumb is about a third. Of your income. Back into a mortgage payment. And that's what you have because the other two thirds have to go to other…

You have automobile utilities repairs food. Right fuel for your car…

Occasional eating out vacations. You have to buy stuff You have to buy new clothes every once in a while. You have to purchase things for the house once in awhile, consumables. Right…

So a third for housing is reasonable And if you use that as a guideline you can figure out the numbers real quick. You can use a mortgage calculator to say well if I make 90,000, One third is 30,000. That's X amount per month back in into a mortgage payment based on the interest rate and you know what to spend. The problem comes in…

When…

You try to fudge the numbers. When you look at well, you know I make this much but I also have these expenses or I also have. an extra car payment or an existing obligation somewhere right Or five kids that would have to feed…

A…

Couple without kids that make 120,000 a year. Between the two of them. Can afford a lot more house than a family that makes $120,000 a year with five kids I did live in a. High cost of living area maybe a big city versus the couple lives in the rural area. Right Because your cost of living is going to be low.

So that's a big factor at the same time. Once again. Here's a good guideline of retirement savings. How much do you have in your 401k…

And. Typically if you're in your forties and earn 60,000 a year you should have about 180. Already save for retirement…

Three times your pre-tax salary. If you're in your forties, if you're older than that should be a little more. So if you're in your forties, Take how much you make times three That's how much you have for retirement. Now. That may seem like a lot or maybe it doesn't.

But. If you have…

That much saved in you retirement 180,000 Let's say…

And then you go another how many years when are you going to retire 70. Maybe. Right. You're going to be seven new encounter. That's 30 more years.

So how much more are you going to save? Maybe you save another 400,000. So now you have…roughly 600,000 let's say. And you're retiring at 70. Is that going to be enough to last you the rest of your life?

Well, if you make 60,000 a year and you have 600,000 saved up that's 10 more years of money until you run out…

So if you were 70 when you retire. At 80 you run out of money and you might say well you know I'm going to have interest in appreciation and the money is going to grow. Maybe it will but you're also going to have inflation. Which will eat up more of that money and believe it or not your costs will probably go up not go down when you retire because you'll have more time to spend money…

You'll also have some deferred. expenses for maybe maintenance on your house and you can have healthcare That's going to go through the roof. So…these numbers are bare minimum. And also nobody even has this much So if you're in your forties and earn 60,000 you should have 180. On average.

This is what really people have…105 So it's…

A third less. It's only 66% of what people say you should have. That's only making 60,000 And I think the average income is probably more than 60,000. So what does that tell you? That tells you that there may be a retirement crisis coming in 20, 30, 40 years…

What do you think about all this…

So in addition to that kind of crisis we also. Have another person coming out earlier today. We had. A. major bond trader that said people are going to run out of money at some point.

And here we go Another high end. Financial expert. Wharton professor says people are going to run out of cash That's the second time we've heard that in a week…

From financial experts If people run out of cash…

What is going on with the same story come from multiple places. Is there going to be a major cash problem…

So…

After the quick break we're going to talk about EVs artificial intelligence. Automobile industry. We'll do a quick circle around some business income ideas. But the first thing we're going to do is. Talk about…

The. Two. Major subjects that will be more part of the world. Of daily lifestyle. Five years from now.

Electric vehicles in AI right now They're probably. 0% of your life. That you think directly affects it, but in five years, they're both going to be major major factors. Be back listen a minute

…

So yes we're back. So here's the deal. A lot of people that watch our channel are interested in. Being in business maybe you are in business. And this is one of the biggest fears that people have is what if I don't know what I'm doing?

Right. You have no idea what you're doing with business…

You don't really have to know that much about your business You have to know about. Math you have to be able to do the math on a business…

Expansion is a necessary step in grill for business If you're not expanding you can't. There's no such thing as staying in the same, holding…

Gross should be exciting. And the way you do it is you have to plan and you have to be strategic You can't just say well, I'm just going to do this. I'm just gonna go for it. As a good example. There was a…

Restaurant…

Which. Had opened up seeping to find the article…

I'm not going to I'm not going to bore you with finding it. After two years. Of…

Upgrading a facility putting together a menu. designing the interior. Doing all kinds of, construction on the space. After two years of doing this spending lots of money they opened six months later they closed. What does that tell you?

There was not strategic Decision-making…

Right. They just over, they did a lot of decision-making but it wasn't strategic. They over-thought it. And math is real simple with a business. If you.

Figure out about how much you think you're going to make. In that business and you do the math. I'm going to make X amount per are you going to sell widgets I'm going to sell 20 widgets a day times $20 That's 400 a day. that's 2000 a week That's 8,000 a month Right? it's going to cost me.

500 a month for rent this much for insurance you do all your expenses and just do math Math is easy You can do it with a calculator. After you've done that If it looks like it's profitable then do two things. Take your projected sales and cut it in half. What you think you're going to sell Cut it in half. Then take your expenses that you think you're going to have and multiply it times one and a half You don't have to double it but if you think your expenses will be 10,000 a month make it 15,000 a month…

If you do that and the numbers still look like it's black ink then go ahead with it. Because whatever you think you're going to sell you're going to sell less Or if you have a month, Which. Is. Maybe. Slow.

Or if you have a. Period of time where you have to take some expenses. Then you're going to have to have cash and that's going to come from sales. So. You want us.

Do strategic decision-making find who your customer I don't guess don't think you know who your customers are know exactly who they are. And then set your pricing as a value Add making sure that. it's a value proposition for your customers that it's worth it. Every time you sell something to a customer you're asking that person to take the money that's in their pocket. Whatever they have and decide I would rather have what you're offering than my money.

Think of you're selling something for a hundred dollars that person's holding a hundred dollar bill…

Would I rather have that $100 bill. Or what you have and you have to make it a very good proposition…

How big could it be If you grow a business we'll take a look at Lithia motors. Lithia motors is a company. That is in. Oregon And this is their current building at that location used to be a little small mom and pop. Car dealership back in the fifties.

And it was a family who had this dealership tragically in I believe the early sixties the father was killed in a car accident. One of the sons bought out the business from his mother. And grew it into a business that now they're trying to get $50 billion in revenue…

And their coasts they're buying up businesses left and right buying up dealerships They own a bunch of car dealerships around the country. And…here's their revenues Look…

In 2018 was 11 billion, 2022 was 28 More than double. So you can actually do growth just like this article said you have to grow. Growing is an important thing You can't just stop and be stagnant. Expansion is a necessary step in growth You have to expand. And that's what Lithia motors is doing…

And they're growing by adding to their portfolio but also making their. Businesses bigger. So business can grow if you are strategic and it could be big numbers 50 billion that you don't need to have a 50 billion think of what number you need to have. Does it have to be big? Maybe you have to pay your bills, but also put some money away because if you don't…

You're going to only have 105,000 in your 401k. and have a tough time retiring So make sure that you're planning. For the future

…

We're going to talk about next. Let's talk about…

Ransomware. Cyber attacks This is a big deal. This is something which. Is effecting businesses around the country. And individuals and even what's called family offices If you have a significant family holdings, you may be also subject to being attacked.

Let's take a look What we're talking about

…

So here we go. How much is ransomware costing? Well guess what. It costs. 449 million half a billion.

Just from extortion. From ransomware…

How does this work…

These hackers these companies. We'll break into your system How do they do it And we'll see all these computers behind me. Every one of them is connected to the internet…

In your company, every device on your desk. Your mobile devices, your tablets is connected to the internet…

And if a hacker finds one of those devices that doesn't have the right. Anti-virus software that doesn't have the right firewall that doesn't have the right email protections or if a person using that device clicks on the wrong link or they answer the wrong email. Next thing you know, they're in…

And once they're in they can get to all the other computers in your network. And what they do is they lock them up They shut them down. So that you don't have access to anything. And when they do that. They know that your whole business is running on…

Your computers And if you don't your computers you're out of business. So what they do next is they send you a ransom demand If you pay me for a hundred thousand dollars $50,000, I'll unlock your system…

And you have to pay the money. And that's where half a billion was paid last year. How can you prevent it Well you can do. cyber insurance. You can do cyber defense you can do it protection.

One of the most important things If you do have cyber insurance which the experts will tell you is if you do have any kind of event that goes along with that. Do you have to do early communication If you suspect you have any kind of hack or attack. You want to contact? Your insurance company Very very very quickly If you delay…

They'll…question it and you won't have as much response time. This is right from the insurance company. If the insured hasn't worked with the insurance front, new forensic counter will have to start the process all over again. And they'll have to calculate the losses in a different way. So you want to contact early If you have a cyber insurance policy.

Very very important…

Move on to the next…subject that everybody loves to talk about EVs Eby prices on especially on use DBS. Are crashing. Maybe an opportunity if you want to buy use DV or it may be a sign that UVS are no good. Believe it up to you

…

So here we go. Used E V Prices are crashing Could not be. Plain enough. Why is that Well Tesla's the biggest reason Tesla's cutting prices. They are…

Buying market share. Tesla is buying market. and the way they're doing it is they are. Cutting prices in order to get more share. Average one to five-year-old UTV prices by month.

Right. You can see in 2022 they were kind of gradually going up Now they're going down in 23. Less than they were in 2022 part of it's because the car's a little bit older. Tesla price cuts is the biggest factor. On new vehicles.

And it's used vehicle prices are going down which affects all the other youth vehicles. So keep that in mind if you're in the market for a used Evy expect to be able to get a deal. What else is going on with EVs Well Mercedes has a new Evie that can go 620 miles on a charge. Even if you…cut back on that estimate to account for the fact that it might be cold out or the fact that you might be using your AC, or you might be towing something or there's a headwind, even if you cut it down to 500 even four 50, that's more than the range on most. Gas.

vehicles. So you're going to see. A lot more higher range vehicles coming into the marketplace at the same time. BMW is trying to keep up with Tesla. They want to sell 50,000 EVs this year.

That's triple what they sold…

In the first six months So they have to up their game…

Right Electric only counted for 10,000 units in the first half…

Everybody wants to be in the game. So use it to your advantage If you're a car buyer you're looking to get a car, you want to know. You know what's in it for you. Because the factories are also facing the fact that. The E V.

Acceptance level is kind of in a funk. Early adopters had enough. And supply is starting to outpace demand. There's a market problem. And.

The market problem is this…

After the curve happens, it kind of trails off…

Right. The era of early adopters ending. And we're sort of a no man's land between enthusiastic napping of vehicles and regular people just want a better car. Right. The first people who bought UVS were kind of like techie nerdy.

Geeky type people that just wanted something that was interesting. And I get it. That's that's a valid point You want to just see how the new car is, but once that novelty has worn off, Now what happens is. Regular people just want a good car If the Evie is not the best car to buy. What you end up with is bunch of EVs piling up online thoughts and that's what's happening now.

Ford has 90 days three months worth of Ford Madang ease. Electric vehicles sitting on their lots. And that's because all the early adopters already kind of got out of their system that they want an E V and now what's happening is normal people. Are saying is this really a good car? Maybe it is maybe it isn't we're not making that judgment, but that's what the people are doing…

When they're making the decision about their next car. Very very classic. market…

scenario to have happened

…

So how the car titles relate to all this Well, It's a sad day for people who bought old beat up cars because. The loophole called the Vermont registration Loophole is all done. The Vermont registration loophole existed for really almost 20 years. How did this work? Well if you bought a car on Craigslist Facebook…

Autotrader. Any of the places that sell. Used cars. Many of them came without a title because the seller couldn't find it They bought it from somebody else and flipped it. Some kind of, you know, backyard Backwoods deal and they didn't have a title So what do you do?

What people would do is they would go through the state of Vermont There was a loophole. That meant that if you filed by mail, To the state of Vermont they would give you a registration They wouldn't give you a title They would give you registration, but anybody could get one anywhere in the country. Didn't matter the vehicle. As long as you got a bill of sale showing you bought it and anybody could just write one up. A bill of sale…

You could. Take that bill of sale, mail it to Vermont. They would send you that registration Now you have some proof of ownership shows that you own it. Now you take that to your state and exchange it for a title. Boom You're in.

Well for the last three four years our car title division we've been recommending to people don't do this because a lot of states were starting to crack down. The. Taking these there people would bring these Vermont registrations to Idaho and Idaho would be like what are you doing? You can't do this. and it was harder and harder to do.

And there's better ways to get a title anyway. But it's official now about a week ago Vermont put out a bulletin on their website. They're not accepting any more registration applications from non-residents You have to live in Vermont Are you done…

Well, That changes things Now you have to do something different but the ways you get a title are still in play you can do a bonded title a court ordered title. All the other ways that you can get a title are still in existence and they're better. Even when Vermont was available, what you had to do is you have to pay. A big sales tax bill on the car When you got your Vermont registration they would charge you 6% of the book value didn't matter what you paid for it. So if you found some old beat up.

I don't know. Chevy Camaro in a barn somewhere. That you paid $500 $4,000 for. If they looked it up in the book and saw that the book value said 10,000 because a nice car is worth 10,000. They would charge you 6% of 10,000.

that's $600 Plus their registration fee About a hundred you're paying $700 to get that registration. If you just went to your DMV and filed for a bond to title. You'd have to pay your DMV Title fee Most states are less maybe 10 20 bucks. You have to buy a surety bond. But a surety bond on 10,000 is about a hundred bucks.

And you're in. So you're already saved money and you don't have to worry about going to Vermont sending it back back and forth. And it was a lot easier. But people want it to do Vermont So they finally shut it down…

So one of the big misconceptions about a bonded title is that you have to pay 1.5 times the value of the car If you read the laws about a bonded title in most states it says you have to. pay a bond of 1.5 the value of the car. So if the value of the car is let's say 6,000 times 1.5 that's 9,000 people were thinking I got to come out of pocket pay 9,000. That's not how it works. You have to purchase a.

bond. In the amount of 1.5, but surety bonds are cheap. As an example, if you buy a surety bond for 10,000 and less it's a hundred bucks and it goes up about $10 per thousand So if it was a $14,000 car you might pay one 40 If it's a $2,000 $20,000 car you might pay 200 it's cheap, cheaper than the text of Vermont And it's a better way to go…

Another factor that people were running into with…car titles is what's called a VIN verification or VIN inspection People were trying to avoid having a VIN inspection done. because you have to have a police officer come look at the VIN number, make sure it's legitimate and it matches your paperwork Check it on the computer make sure it's not stolen. People want to avoid that but here's the thing. We talked to a customer today. Who had a vehicle They purchased, never got a VIN inspection.

They had it for 10 years. It was an old 60 something Mustang. And. They want to go title it. And the title division said somebody else has a title with that same VIN number.

They just got the title last year…

They still have their car So it's not like the car's missing. What probably happened was. Somebody. Took a vehicle. 60 something Mustang.

That has three or four VIN numbers on at different places on the firewall the cowl the door jamb underneath, and they cut the car into parts and the VIN numbers went to different cars. So the fact that they did not get a VIN inspection means that they probably are not going to be able to get a title for that VIN number Cause somebody else beat them to it. They already have it…

So car titles are important. Here's another example where people are getting really really screwed over. On car titles. This is a dealership in Atlanta is shut down and the buyers have no titles There is no statewide system to help buyers who are stuck with cars They can't drive. They would buy a car from the dealership, get a 30 day temporary tag.

And if the dealer. not file the title. With the DMV you're out of luck. This is the dealerships empty Look at the picture. Right.

Why wouldn't the dealership give you a title Well what if they didn't pay for the car yet? What if they bought it at an auction It just bought it on. On credit…

What if they bought it from a buyer that traded it in to had a loan and never paid off the loan. There's a lot of reasons why the dealer wouldn't have a title. And there may be hundreds of people. Who have no title that bought the car from the car spot? It looks like that's the name of the allegedly.

Always have to say that. And now they're out of luck So that's why you have to look at some of these options that we have on car titles. Because. You might have to do a bonded title You might have to do a surety bond title You might have to do a court order title because if you don't you never never kind of get…a title. For your vehicle and you can't drive it without that…

So the last subject is. Drum roll please. AI is AI being banned. Is it being regulated? Are there more dangerous with it than people know about.

Well it looks like there's some authority figures stepping into AI. To try to prevent it from overtaking or doing anything illegal

…

So what do we mean by that…

Well, AI basically what it does is it goes out to the internet and scrapes all of the websites to get information to have knowledge It's kind of like you reading books to have knowledge AI reads the internet. Part of the problem is AI tools are running out of techs to train themselves on. AI chat GPT and the other ones have already read the whole internet They can't get any smarter. So they're running into roadblocks in addition. There are lawsuits happening that says…

Are they harming people by filing by publishing false information. And is it illegal for them? Too. Scrape this information. Look most of the information that's on the internet is copyrighted.

So if AI goes to websites and reads them to get information to use for AI tools, Then. You're basically violating copyright. Aren't you or aren't you…

Well there's some lawsuits already filed. That say that AI can't use copyrighted information to learn from. Most websites have in their terms and conditions you can't scrape our website for information You have to…read it as a human or you can't do automation. But a lot of AI tools are doing exactly that. In addition…

There's also people that are experts in AI saying that there's a doomsday. Possibility AI theorists. Is safe. that I don't think we're ready. I think we're all going to die.

That's a little bit dramatic a little bit fatalistic. But that's what. A…

Person who's supposedly an expert says about AI. He's promoted his theory that hostile AI could spark a mass…

Extinction event…

A lot of AI industry says that's not true. But. He's saying it is who's Right Who's wrong Well I guess we're going to find out. Right. These are draconian views.

But. They're not completely unfounded. I mean we've all seen the movies. Movies or are fictional obviously, but. You know AI already has attacked humans.

They they used AI to do a war game simulation. They put in the rules that the AI can not attack humans, but it found a loophole in the rules just like the Vermont. for titles, AI found a loophole on how to still be able to attack humans, even when it had rules that said that it couldn't…

Are you tired of automated systems and chatbots when you need assistance? Experience actual human.com and connect with real professionals, not automation. At actual human.com We bring you a network of professionals who are excited to answer your questions and provide guidance. Getting started is easy. Let us show you how.

Here's how it works. Step one. Select the best date and time for your video call. Step two. Describe your situation and the areas you're looking for Advice.

Step three. Connect one-on-one with an expert and get the undivided attention that you deserve…