S2EP10 – Season Finale: Market Resilience during Geopolitical Turmoil and the Power of AI
In this episode, the hosts reflect on Kim’s recent sabbatical in Europe, exploring language immersion, cultural insights, and personal growth. They also delve into the resilience of financial markets amidst geopolitical noise, the accelerating adoption of AI in business and daily life, and strategic tax planning for the year ahead. Plus, a creative approach to financial planning stories and a forward look at upcoming events and initiatives.
Key Topics:
- Kim’s European trip: language learning, cultural observations, and personal takeaways
- The impact of geopolitical events on markets and investor resilience
- The growing enthusiasm and integration of AI in industries and households
- The importance of long-term investing and weathering market storms
- The evolving landscape of private companies and IPOs driven by AI
- Practical applications of AI in everyday tasks, from meal planning to travel
- Strategies for proactive tax planning and ongoing financial management
- A creative storytelling approach for financial plans and client communication
- The future of AI as a supportive companion and potential commencement speech
- Upcoming events: mid-year market review, regional client gatherings, and new initiatives
Full Transcript of the Episode
Victor Gaxiola
Well, welcome back everybody to the Resilient Investors Podcast. It's been a little bit of it's been a while since we last recorded an episode, but we were waiting. There was a really good reason why. We were waiting for Kim to come back. And so welcome back, Kim, to the podcast. Yeah.
Kim Gaxiola
Thank you.
Carolyn Rowland
Welcome back, Kim. We miss you.
Kim Gaxiola
Good to see you.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah, well we all want to hear and we're actually gonna ask some questions about the time away and some of the lessons you learned and the time that you spent in Europe actually and spending some time in Italy and Spain. And I'm just kind of curious about your take and what you observed and what you learned and what I would consider somewhat of a even though you're not retiring anytime soon, kind of this trial retirement. Like what did you pick up from that? And would love to learn about that, obviously, because well, that affects my life too. So I guess that's why I really care.
But today's podcast episode is really gonna focus on some of the themes that were discussed throughout the entirety of season two, which were quite a bit. I mean, it was a pretty wild year so far, and yet we're still standing as we always are. So I wanted to really talk about big topics like geopolitical events. We talk about AI, we talk about you know Trump accounts, we're talking about, you know, private equity, all these exciting things. 'Cause when you look back at the nine episodes of season two, we covered a lot of ground. tax planning, tax preparation. So I'm hoping a lot of people are getting value, you know, by listening to the podcast and get a better sense of the world that we live in and how we operate and work with clients. So but what let's go back to where I started. Kim, tell us a little bit about your trip. What did you learn? What did you take away?
Kim Gaxiola
So, do you want to in English or Italian?
Victor Gaxiola
Inglesi, grazie.
Kim Gaxiola
Okay, English only, huh?
Victor Gaxiola
Well, maybe we start while you telling people what you did while you were there. I mean, you were there. Wha what was what was the real purpose of spending some time in Italy specifically?
Kim Gaxiola
Yeah, well, I wanted to start learning better Italian through an immersion program. so I spent two weeks at a school where the mornings were filled with Italian classes and interesting people from pretty much all over Europe and actually the world, I would say. So that was fascinating getting to know different people and what's going on in their worlds and being open-minded to understanding people. conversations don't get off real fast and I think and I start judging. But my challenge was to really go there and be open-minded and try and dig deeper and see why people are maybe on guard or whatnot. So that was fun. And then in the afternoons I had my tennis sessions, which did well. I came back with a much better, stronger serve. I've been told from friends that I play with often. And yeah, it was just some better skills. It was a skill building time. So that was really fun. And also, gosh, I always take it upon me to learn something while in...in Europe on how to make my food better.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah. Yeah, we all appreciate that. I especially appreciate that.
Carolyn Rowland
Mm-hmm.
Kim Gaxiola
And yeah, I came back wanting to make so many different things. I took a cooking class in Madrid, lots of tapas on the menu. But you know, anytime you take a cooking class, it's not just about the recipes that you get, but it's also about different little tips that the professional chef gives you. so, you know, that was really helpful. I always feel like I'm improving my trade.
Victor Gaxiola
Right. Well one thing I really appreciate about what you do is you do fully immerse yourself in this and and you know, so I I joined you two weeks after you'd been in Italy, had been going through the courses and what I really enjoyed seeing is that first night we went out to to eat at a restaurant and how you took it upon yourself to order in Italian, which contextually, you know, when you know you're in one place and you kinda remember those lessons about the food and you've got the menu to kinda help you and you how to say, I want this or I want that.
But you did really well. And what I found interesting is throughout the whole time we were there, we were attempting to speak Italian first, but people were trying to shift back to English. Like they knew we were English speakers and they would like and what I really appreciated is that you would say, No, no, no, I'm working on my Italian. And then they'd and then they'd kind of smile and go, that's sweet. You know, okay, go ahead. You know. I I think they were really nice about that.
Carolyn Rowland
Okay, I have a question. So you guys both are Spanish speaking, like second language. Is it hard or easy or like how does that work in your brain? Do you get your Italian and your Spanish mixed up or like, no, okay.
Kim Gaxiola
Yes. Okay. And I was with, and I was with, Fabiana, my, of, you know, my aunt and she speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English. And she was learning Italian too. And it was fully a big old confusion for her. because Italian and Portuguese are very similar, very, and actually maybe more
Carolyn Rowland
Mm-hmm.
Kim Gaxiola
phonetically common because the one thing that's hard in Italian is they do stick a lot of vowels next to each other and to get all the sounds out without skipping over something is really hard. know, voy, I want is V U O I and you have to sound out almost all of those sounds instead of just mixing it all together. Yeah.
Victor Gaxiola
I would say learning the language, especially the vocabulary, the actual descriptors, is easier knowing Spanish because they're based in Latin. So there's very similarities in, you know, description of words and things. But the structure is kinda similar too. The hard thing is that you're kinda hardwired to be thinking in one language. And so what I always find, even as a Spanish speaker, that oftentimes there's an immersion that I need to have when I go to Mexico or Spanish speaking country where you go from you do a switch that goes from thinking of it in English and then translating it to Spanish to just saying it in Spanish. And it usually takes two or three days before that happens. And so when it comes to Italian, it's funny because I'm thinking it in English, thinking it in Spanish, and then I'm saying it in Italian. And so there's all these levels. So it takes a little longer. So I what what I found really difficult is yes, I can pinpoint words and then if you're in specific context, you can kind of make paraphrase or make the gist
Carolyn Rowland
Mm-hmm.
Victor Gaxiola
What's being discussed. But the people in Italy speak so fast, so fast, you know, that it was just kind of like, can you slow that down? It's almost like you wanted I listen to podcasts at one point two, one point five. It's almost like I wanted to go the opposite way where you go to like a point zero eight or something. You know what I mean? Like, let me slow you down and then maybe I'll understand. So
Kim Gaxiola
Yeah. It took a couple days of Italian classes to start being able to hear every word instead of it being all sped up like you're saying, because after a while it was really easy for me to comprehend what I was like. It had no clue at the beginning. But the weird thing is like all language comes, I think, from the same part of your brain and it's in there deep embedded because I took French lessons many, years ago. And the first days I was in my classes, like things were coming out in French that I had never said or even remembered knowing. And then some would come out in Italian and the instructors like stops or not Italian, Spanish. And he's like, stop speaking Spanish.
And then I'm like, okay, I'm just not going to talk because I'm afraid of anything coming out. So it took me like three or four days before I was in the Italian language. But then once I was, it's really fascinating because it's like all the things you're struggling with at the bar or at the restaurant to say to them. You're learning those, those things as you're taking these classes. So the next day, you know how to say, I want a plain croissant. And you know, stuff like that and trying on clothes. Okay, I understand what's too big now, what's too small. So it was, it's really fun that immersion program. And it was funny because when we went, when we made it to Spain, I was thinking, I'm going to be so relieved. I just get to speak Spanish and I know it and it just comes to me, you know, easily. But when we got to Spain, we went to a restaurant and it was so weird because when you're immersing in something, you know, you stop translating, you just look at an object and know what that is in the language you're speaking. And so we were in a restaurant in Mexico. And I had ordered so many Biquera de Vinos, which is a glass of wine in Italy that there was a wine glass like on the floor from the last party that was sitting at this table. I picked it up because I thought it was going to fall and break. And I gave it to the waiter and like half of my sound, you know, I was like, here is. And then I said, you know, the glass, here's a glass of wine and glass of wine came out in Italian. And the first part of the sentence came out in Spanish.
Kim Gaxiola
Victor and my cousin Tiago are looking at me like, what are you speaking?
Victor Gaxiola
Uhhuh. You're were speaking gibberish. This was in Madrid, not Mexico, but yeah.
Kim Gaxiola
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, did I say? Anyway, so it is really weird how you just assign names to things in your brain. don't know if it really distinguishes what language is just what you've seen the most of. Apparently, I'd ask for a big can of the you know, much a lot.
Victor Gaxiola
So final final question on this this sabbatical and the time away. What what did you learn about yourself in the time that you were away?
Kim Gaxiola
I think I really enjoyed the quiet time and then the socialization with people. think I was looking at this as what's next for me. I've worked so hard in the last 25, 30 years and sure when I see people retiring all the time because that's what we're retirement enablers. I think, when is it my time? And I just think, like, I do, I say this to clients all the time, you've got to find something that you can identify yourself with other than your work when you retire. And I noticed that in myself, how much I still do identify with the work that I do, that, you know, I'm nowhere near ready there's still a lot of joy in the work that I do. And even though I wasn't working with clients, like, you know, every now and then when I had a moment, I would look and see what's going on here. Not as much politically, but just wanted to know what was going on financially and whatnot. I mean, I tried to take a break from the politics because you just can't be on. But then you come back and you...come back, I think what's really interesting is reentry, right? And things that people will bicker about here and complain about. You're like, I mean, I love that expression, know, so and so's living rent free in your head. Or, you know, this topic is living rent free in your head because I think like it bothers you more than it does the person that said that comment or you feel like you're being offended by it. And I come back here and I look at some of the like bickering that happens on social media and in real life too. And I'm like, why are we bickering about this? It's so little and trivial. It's not important.
Carolyn Rowland
Mm.
Kim Gaxiola
And, and you know, when you take it back to what we do and the things that we talk about with our clients and the things that they fear, and this kind of comes into what we're talking about right now, it's like, I went away for a month and a half. You know, it's not like that was that long in the grand scheme of things, but like, we've been talking about different themes this season of this podcast and You know, it's all still relevant, but our messages are true. And what I mean by that is, you can go back to our geopolitical conversation about what's going on in Iran and how scary the markets are volatile and our, you know, we hope that our audience took away that, you you should never do things with a knee jerk emotional reaction, give it time you know, where we are now looks so much different than where we were at the beginning of this conflict because we're used to it and, you know, almost become immune to it. It's just a part of the geopolitical time that we're in. And now the market's at an all time high. And so I, you know, you have to take all of that news and noise really with a with a you know definite You know be more intentional about how you think about things and don't be so emotional I would say you know this this conflict really we see a little bit of a change in prices here and definitely when you put gas in your car it seems like a lot more expensive, but like what were our hard, our problems with this conflict are nothing near what they're suffering with it in Europe because they're way more affected by this than us.
So, yeah, let time go. I think time is our best friend. Although some people may not think so, because with time we're all aging, right? But I do think time gives us the wisdom and really to see things more clearly. so with that, I'm gonna stop talking about this and maybe we can start talking about, you know. The theme of today.
Victor Gaxiola
Well, I mean, it is a theme. geopolitical noise did did pretty much take a lot of the headlines over the course of the first half of this year so far, and the concerns about that and like you noted, hasn't really impacted the market much by way of the fact that we are experiencing some all time highs, which goes to show just how resilient, you know, the financial markets can be. And the word that you use, which I think is true, is immune. There's like this immunity that says we're able to absorb bad news quicker, faster, and recover. And part of that is just really translating the news to say does this really impact the ability of companies to be able to continue to produce products or you know provide services because the US a consumer continues to spend money, goes out there and buys. I mean, we are a huge economy when it comes to that. And we started seeing some of the shifts and trends that have taken place from the actions from last year. When you talk about the tariff actions that took place over a year ago in the reshoring and the bringing back of manufacturing, there was a lot of talk, you know, middle of last year of how that was gonna impact, you know, small cap stocks and mid-cap stocks, and that the anticipation was that that was gonna actually improve their performance. And and guess what? It did they did, you know. So a lot of this talk is is more than just talk, it's almost very prophetic.
From the standpoint that you start seeing how, you know, if A happens, then B is likely to happen, and then C, and then you know, the further away you get from it, then the less a little grayer it can be. But it is extremely validating when you start paying attention, not necessarily to the headlines and to the to the things that are, you know, creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt, but the underlying fundamentals of these companies and the themes that are taking place and then the things that kind of follow. And that's exactly what we use as far as information and data to to create these strategies. You know, the portfolios that we build, whether it's growth oriented or conservative or more for fixed income. And I think that that's the important point. So we often hear, you know, the follow the data. Look at the data, not the narrative, because the narrative is going to try to derail you, derail the way you should be thinking. And in when you look at the data, the data doesn't lie. I mean you have a you have a t shirt, right, Kim, that says something like that. Like I think it says men lie data doesn't or something like that. I know. Yeah.
Kim Gaxiola
Yes, maybe I should wear that next podcast, right? It says, men lie, women lie, charts don't. But yeah, that's my really nerdy t-shirt. But I love it. Seriously. And I came back and I went, you I had not been reading any economic analysts updates while I was gone.
Carolyn Rowland
No!
Victor Gaxiola
Charts don't. Okay, that's right. Interesting.
Kim Gaxiola
And I came back, so I looked at the, there's one site where we have the anatomy of a recession and there's like all the different economic indicators and green light, yellow light, red light, right? And I think everything is green except for consumer sentiment, which is red. And so, you know, that's kind of what you're talking about is this whole idea like all the economic indicators are good except for consumer sentiment. And then when you talk about consumer sentiment, it's like, if you were to pull them, they think everything is horrible. However, if you were to look at their bank account, they're not acting as if everything is horrible because they're still spending a lot of money. And this is one thing, because I was having a conversation with somebody in Europe about this. And they're like,
Europeans are more conservative in that when they feel, you know, that things are getting bad, they don't spend any money. They save it all. And right now, I think they're going through one of these periods where they're all worried, you know, the financial things aren't going that well. they're really starting to watch their pocketbook and save more, spend less because they're worried about, you know...a recession. so I think that's interesting. We say one thing, but we don't act the same way. And it's an economic indicator only because we think that if you feel one way, you're going to act one way, but this is not what's been happening.
Carolyn Rowland
That's a big theme that I've been seeing in my reviews right now. I'm in the thick of my spring review season, but telling the story and showing the clients the data. Like, okay, what happened in Q1 versus where we are year to date? How are you feeling? There is a disconnect between consumer sentiment and how our economy is doing. And it's really interesting and it's been really interesting conversations. And we're only six months into the year, not even.
Kim Gaxiola
I know. So if you're listening to this and you do have that feeling of nervous energy about what's going on, what are you doing about it? My question to you is how are you addressing that fear? Because that's what our job is, is to let's bring up the things that you're worried about. And if it's because you fear a job loss, do you have six to 12 months of emergency reserves in case it takes a while to get a new job. Or, you know, will this bring you into your retirement? Do you have that prepared? So lots of way those consumer sentiments can turn into really good planning conversations, right?
Victor Gaxiola
Mm-hmm. Well, we often say in our business that, you know, past performance is not indicative of future results. But I was at a conference. I went to two conferences in in the last since the last time we recorded a podcast. And I started talking to one of the vendors that was there, and they had on display this one. I won't say who it was, but they basically had a pamphlet from one of their mutual funds. And this mutual fund had been around since 1936. Now we're big on individual stocks, not so much mutual funds, but this was an equity mutual fund. And when you pull it out, and I brought it back for Lucas, I actually gave it to him, and it was this massive fold out that basically imagine, you know, this chart. And what it was the funds price at nineteen thirty-six went initiated, and then it basically tracks the history of its price action of a you know, I think a simple one thousand dollar investment in this mutual fund. And what it would translate now, you know, if you since 1936 and you basically maintained that investment and you never wavered and you reinvested the dividends, what value that would be. Now, you think 1936, that's a whole lot of years. It's near a hundred years. but what I really loved about this chart is each year it basically pointed out a specific significant event, geopolitical, social, global, like World War Two, you know, World the Vietnam, it like all of it. And yet what didn't falter was the fact that this investment just kept growing. Despite the fact that there were some years where it faced some headwinds, there was never a ten year period where there was a negative return. And so I think that that's you know, when we when we talk to clients, especially young clients, we always say like time is the best thing they've got going for them because
They have the time to be able to kind of weather these storms. So again, geopolitical, you look you think of all the volatility, you think about all the events that have been happening at the beginning of this year, all the way through. There is always going to be events, right? That are going to create volatility, but that's on the short term. Because in the long term, as long as you s have the discipline, you stay in the market, you continue investing, you don't take those knee-jerk reactions, there is a ton of data that's gonna support that that's the best course of action. And so sometimes I feel that we're the we're the release valve for clients from the standpoint of that voice of reason, that little angel in the shoulder that is saying, you know, I think you should do this or I think you should, you know, be calm and everything's gonna be fine. And Kim, I think you bring out a good point. Like if you are going through something and you are concerned, part of our job is somewhat to be that sounding board.
To to hear what you have to say and then be able to kind of address it more through data as opposed to emotion. So anyway, I I just thought that that was an interesting area that we did cover and we're gonna continue to cover because it could be geopolitical now, could be financial. You never know what's gonna create the market volatility going forward.
That being said, I do want to segue to something because one of the other themes that we discussed a lot in this past season and continues to be, especially recently, is the enthusiasm within the corporate sphere, and I and I want to underline this of artificial intelligence and its growth and adoption across multiple companies as more and more companies are not only adopting it, but starting to find the efficiencies that come through AI. Now
Kim Gaxiola
So what else do we have?
Victor Gaxiola
I underscore that from a corporate standpoint there's a lot of enthusiasm because on a social side there seems to be some concern about AI. And you hear about it. So it's almost like this balancing act between the pros of it, you know, where people are seeing obviously the benefits of efficiencies, of cost savings, of just being able to optimize, you know, their time. I mean, I'm using it on a daily basis, so I can definitely see a lot of value.
But then you have that flip side where people are concerned about how it replaces jobs and how, you know, it's taking away the humanness, you know, of our conversations and things like that. I think it's gonna continue to be a big huge theme. And as you'll recall, you know, one of the podcasts that we did in season two was the enthusiasm that I had after attending the NVIDIA GTC conference and just seeing this ecosystem that's being developed and created, which is now leading to a lot of new IPOs.
So I know we talked a little bit about the IPO market and I think it's gonna lead to more mergers and acquisitions. So there's a lot of activity that I think AI is driving. It's the catalyst for making a lot of change.
Kim Gaxiola
Yeah, it's really fascinating because we're in such a different period than we were, you know, 10 years ago when startups were becoming IPOs, they were much smaller companies. And again, because of the private markets being a lot more capital friendly and, you know, private companies able to get money without having to go through the public markets has made it easier for them to grow in a really focused way without having to abide by public market roles such as quarterly earnings and all of that. So the companies that are coming out that are going public are not little startups. They are big, big companies. When you talk about SpaceX who just recently filed. And Anthropic, they're talking about that. I'm not sure if they've filed exactly yet, but they're in the process of that. Wow. There's a lot of AI companies that have revenues very strong. So it's not like it used to be, where it was just about the potential of future earnings. These companies are generating revenue now.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah, and I think that it's a little bit of a wild west as well, just because there are a lot of different players. You know, it's interesting if at every conference I've been to, and basically, yeah, in the last two, three years, there's always going to be an AI component, a discussion, a panel. As a matter of fact, I just got invited to be part of an AI panel at an upcoming conference to discuss how we're adopting it and how we're using it. And what I find is that as you talk to people, it's kind of interesting because it's like kind of like people support sports teams, you know. what are you a fan of? Same thing's happening with AI, because I'll talk to like well, which one do you? And you get the people that say, Well, I use Grok. You go, I use Gemini AI or OpenAI. You know what I mean? It's really interesting how there's like these little camps that are starting. I do think that there's likely to be more and more consolidation in that space that eventually there'll be just a few players. we saw that in the browser wars, you know, in the past. We've seen this happen in almost every industry where there's a lot at the beginning and then it kind of consolidates into a few. So it'll be really interesting to see which ecosystem manages to kind of persevere in the next couple of years.
Kim Gaxiola
And I think there's a lot of specialization going in those different tools, right? I still remember the conversation we had with the AI specialists over there at Cambridge. you know, it's almost like each, it, Groh, Claude, co-pilot, they all have a personality of their own and they all have something that they're special at. So if you want, you know, illustrations, PowerPoint, charts, you know, where are you going, Victor? Is it Claude? I don't know. But there's something for each, you know, type of information that you need. And knowing where to go is actually even part of this. The experience of getting better at it.
Carolyn Rowland
And it's not going anywhere, so, you know.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah, and I think that's it. I mean, I think people have initially thought, well, this could just be like a fad. It's it's not a fad. as we were discussing and as we've seen, it's really just becoming a core part of the infrastructure now. and there is a differentiator from the standpoint that those who do adopt, those who do actually find a way to be able to know how to, you know, use the large language models, the LMs, and provide, you know, very good prompts are seeing value and and and part of the challenge, which I think is important and you know, Colton at Cambridge says the same thing is start thinking about the things that you do do now and start thinking, is there a way it could be done either faster, better or more efficiently if you were able to employ an AI or AI agent. And so
Kim Gaxiola
Okay. Do you have something you want to do? You want to share a story, Carolyn?
Carolyn Rowland
I've made my life so much more efficient. As a full-time working mother, right, and managing our household between me and my husband. And so we're just trying to use it to just make things more efficient with meal planning, generating my grocery list. so it's just, it's helping me do my tasks more efficiently and it frees up time, which means it frees up time for my family. So that's how we're using it on a day-to-day basis. And of course we're using it in the business too, but.
Kim Gaxiola
Ooh, I need some help with my meal planning. That sounds very cool. Throw in the recipes I want to do for the week and then have it just tell me how much I need of everything and then probably order it for me, right?
Carolyn Rowland
and handling. Yeah, we could get there.
Victor Gaxiola
Well, the most the most clever and creative on that that I've thought of is that I heard people are like opening up the refrigerator and clearly showing what there's in the refrigerator, taking a photo and then going to AI and say, What can I make with this? And it comes back with some recipes and says, Well, I notice you have, you know, some chicken and you have this, this what about this? And I just think that's wild. It's like, Really, really, I mean, the future that I foresee as far as this, and I and I think it's much closer than we think, as in the conversations I've been having with clients when it comes to AI, is it wouldn't be unheard of for us, I'd say within the next year or two, to all of us have like a personal AI assistant that helps manage our calendar, manages our day, manages, you know, the kind of a kind of what I think the intent was for like Siri or for Alexa to be that assistant.
Carolyn Rowland
I would love that.
Victor Gaxiola
But now one that's a little bit more intelligent, that kind of knows you a little bit better, where there's that intelligence built in, to say, okay, well, Victor's a, you know, so-and-so age male. This is what he likes. These are his sports teams and such, where basically get those daily reports on how my sports teams did, or what this what the current state of the market. You know what I mean? I mean, like all of us will be able to kind of customize what that AI assistant's gonna be able to provide. So I think there's a lot of enthusiasm. I think we're just now just kind of scratching the surface and everybody's kind of trying to figure this out, both at a corporate level, but I think even at a household level, Carolyn, like you mentioned. I mean, personally, for example, we know we're going to be doing a road trip later this year because Mika's moving to Nashville. And, you know, the first thing I did is went to, you know, Gemini AI and basically said, hey, plan out a five to six day drive between Morgan Hill, California and Nashville with stops along the way and places of interest and things not to miss. And it came back with a full itinerary and you look at it and go, This looks pretty good, you know, and then you refine it a little bit, you take a look at it, but the suggestions were pretty spot on. So as it gains more intelligence, more data and it gets to know us a little bit better, I think it could be a real good companion, going forward.
Carolyn Rowland
Mm-hmm.
Victor Gaxiola
At least from a standpoint of like an assistant.
Kim Gaxiola
I had a fun creative way of delivering a financial plan before I left. And if you remember, so I was working with my sister who is a lot better with words than she is with charts and graphs, which I find very hard because how could anyone not understand what I'm showing in a chart, right? And so, I always know this about her. She likes a lot of words and having to type a lot of words for me is very taxing. So I got creative and I said, okay, I'm gonna make this interesting for her. Cause I think if I type a lot of words, it's just boring, gibberish, right? And so I said, It's a retirement scenario with three different options, you know, if they were to retire right now, if they were to retire in part-time work, and then, you know, retire in 10 years or something to this. So I asked AI with, you know, the data and the facts, I said, can you build this into a create your own adventure story? You remember those books where we used to read and say, okay, choose this and you go to page 45, choose this and you go to page 50 and you create your own endings. so essentially that's what we did is we, know, myself and I think it was co-pilot, we crafted this story for her and her husband and she really loved it.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah.
Carolyn Rowland
awesome.
Kim Gaxiola
It was a really fun way of presenting their plan to them and it had all the data and facts. as a matter of fact, I said, do you want me even to give you a letter for your client to give to their daughter to explain why they managed their money the way they did? And I was like, sure, I never thought of that, but that sounds interesting.
And so it came out with this letter and that's what I posted on LinkedIn a few weeks ago. It got a lot of great response and this whole idea of, you know, letting your kids know why you've done the things that you've done, you know, whether that means you give your kids more money while you're alive and leave them with less when you pass away or vice versa. What were your thoughts about that? Why did you do that? And, and so it's, It's even helping us be better planners, I think.
Victor Gaxiola
Well, I'll tell you just to kind of finish off on the discussion on AI. a lot of people are graduating from high school, a lot of graduations taking place right now, you know, high school, college graduations. And I was really curious, and this is something that happened yesterday and actually shared this with you. and I thought I'd be really curious, like if Gemini AI was asked to be the commencement speaker, what would it say to the graduating seniors? you know, the graduating class.
And so that's exactly what I did. I wrote a prompt that basically said, Okay, knowing what you know of the world today and knowing, you know, based on if you were to basically get on stage and address, you know, a graduating class, what would be your commencement speech? And actually wrote a speech. And it wasn't that. It was actually pretty good. It was pretty spot on. I thought it was pretty interesting because it falls along those a lot of the same themes that you would hear most commencement speeches, which is b based on optimism and enthusiasm. And, you know, you're the next generation and you're out there to, you know, take on the world and all that. But I just thought it was really interesting because I know that in a couple of commencement speeches in the last couple of weeks, there have been some where the AI comes up and people have been booed, you know, that they don't like that, that there's like this contra anti-AI sentiment. But
I do think that we're gonna need to start thinking of it more as a companion or as a as an assistant, you know, as something that kinda guides and enhance the human capital as opposed to trying to replace it going forward. But I posted it on LinkedIn. it's gonna be on our on our webpage as a blog post. But I thought it was pretty interesting to see what it what its take would be if it was to address a a group of graduating seniors.
Kim Gaxiola
I wonder how many commencement speeches are all going to sound the same because everyone's using AI, right? This is going to be the year of no variation.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah, they it probably is. It probably it'd be funny if it like word for word if you started listening go, Hey, wait a second, that looks like the one the AI wrote for me, you know.
Carolyn Rowland
Hmm, you're the best.
Victor Gaxiola
All right. Well, moving on, one of the other themes that I think was really important, Carolyn, we focused quite a bit on this and I'm I'm gonna look to you was we did one on the post tax season, you know, kind of a reset. I know you were very heavily involved in the tax season as we were preparing for the April fifteenth and then beyond. But one of the themes that kind of surfaced from this was that the tax strategy is not necessarily just a a one time thing, it's kind of a twelve month strategy. So I thought that was an important thing to talk about with people.
Carolyn Rowland
It is. Taxes and being strategic, it's not just a February to April 15 thing. And oftentimes when people wait until tax filing, it's too late, right? We want to be proactive so that your tax plan can also be resilient. so taxes really needs to be an ongoing strategy. And that is something that we do with our clients, right? We always do a mid-year check-in. And it's part of the narrative during my spring review season is, hey, let's review 2025, but let's...
Let's get ahead for 2026 and 2027. What can we take advantage of? So it really is ongoing. And I've been having a lot of great conversations too. so, you know, seeing how the one big, beautiful bill act, you know, being passed last year, in fact, a 2025 taxes that was kind of fun to see shake out and have conversations with a lot of my clients, like 65 and older is where I saw that benefit. And then, yeah, just a lot of tax planning going on right now.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah. Yeah, tax. Well, I like I said, it's kinda that I'm I don't I don't really think about it that much, but you're right. I mean, as com conversations start surfacing, I mean, the where I usually see it or I start top of mind as far as taxes is more having to do with like making sales and taxable accounts and making sure, you know, what's the capital gain likely to do, how does that impact the overall, you know, picture. And so one of the things that I've loved having you as you know, being collectively as a team and your experience in taxes is kind of bouncing that off of you and saying, hey, this is the situation, this is what it could generate. How's that going to impact, you know, their taxes? And having that oversight, I think, is so key. And it's so important because they go hand in and. You know, and prior to that, it would be kind of like unless you had a conversation with the CPA or their tax person, you wouldn't know. You know, you'd have to have that conversation to understand what kind of an impact that could make.
Carolyn Rowland
And I know people probably hear taxes or tax planning and roll their eyes, but that's why you partner with a financial planner or us is we bring that level, that value, and we handle it for you. Again, we're constantly looking through every decision we make with the tax consequence lens. So placing trades, especially in unqualified accounts, are we being as tax efficient as possible, not creating scenarios for our clients that it's like, we really shouldn't have realized that large of a capital gain, right? Because there's trickling effects. So yeah, it's been.
Kim Gaxiola
I feel really comfortable having you on the team and when our clients do decide to work with you on their taxes, it does help us so much in managing everything and even our workflows, we're getting more efficient with that practice as well. So I love having you on the team and being able to pick your brain about just the details. Okay, how much should we take out of the IRA?
Kim Gaxiola
versus the capital gains from the non-qualified and it's so much more seamless having you on the team. Yes, we're even more experts than we were before.
Victor Gaxiola
Yeah, and then and one other thing is let's highlight a milestone here you shared with us
Carolyn Rowland
yeah, okay, so. Nelly is 16 months. And if you know about this with milestones and kids, like it's right around 16 months that pediatricians really want to see your kids taking their first steps. And my kids are not like big on the gross motor. Like they're very advanced in other areas. So, and I also think that they like to make sure that they've got it down pat before they like execute it. That like the type A is coming out and I'm like, ooh, sorry. But.
Yeah, Nellie finally took her first steps and I got it on video and it's been so fun and it's a great time of year. Yeah, we're having so much fun as a family and I love my kids, love my family. So, good kickoff to the summer.
Kim Gaxiola
Awesome. Summer is such a great time with family and all the activities that happen. I'm so grateful we're in the industry that we're in. We kind of shape our schedules so that we can take advantage of summertime when our kids are well, and you'll appreciate that even more when your kids are in school because you'll want to be with them at this time where they're in school year, they're not there. So.
Carolyn Rowland
Yeah. And I've been in this industry for over 10 years that I've learned that nobody wants to see their financial advisor in the summertime. it's like fine, it works out just fine. So yeah, blessed that we do what we do and help our clients and we live the best life. Yeah, it's such a joy.
Kim Gaxiola
Seriously, that is okay with me. Yeah, yeah. I'm enjoying you here. I know, I don't know what happened to Victor, but he got lost. He was a surprise visitor.
Victor Gaxiola
I was in the studio over there and I came to...I think the unstable internet connection kind of knocked me out. But I just thought, well, I guess I'll just have to come over to Kim's studio. So did you hear my question regarding the Trump accounts? Okay, good. Hopefully that went through. Well, that's where I left it up because that was going to be my segue to talk about whether or the girls got set up with the Trump accounts because we did a whole episode and I know there's still lot of information to come out on that.
Carolyn Rowland
Yeah. the Trump accounts. Now we were talking about Nellie taking her first steps.
Kim Gaxiola
I guess the deadline is that now there's an app and you can go ahead and start signing people up. Yeah, tell us about it.
Carolyn Rowland
Mm-hmm. Yep. So should be like July 4th that this all becomes live, but you know, any child under the age of 18 is eligible. It's just that pilot program was intended for, you know, anyone born between 2025 and 2028. So that's a thousand dollar bonus. But yes, we did a whole episode on it. More information started to come out where there's a mobile app and then through the IRS and the Treasury that you can now track your application and like kind of see the status of the account. So.
I'm going to go follow up on that and see where Nellie's is at. I did not opt for one for Mara. We're just going for the bonus.
Kim Gaxiola
And then I have just another question for you, but this is kind of a random question is I'm so impressed with you and your technology that you got your resilient frame to go the right way and mine is the wrong way. So on our screen. Yeah. does it? okay. I'm showing it. okay.
Carolyn Rowland
It looks right. It looks right. Yeah, because mine looks mirrored. that's hilarious you say that. Yeah.
Victor Gaxiola
Well, I mean, this has been a great podcast. We covered a lot of ground. I do want to end with a couple of notes. One is that, and it's important to remember that resilience is built, right? And you build it over time with discipline and data. I think that's what we would say. Yes. That you want to really look forward to creating a, nothing's ever going to be completely bulletproof, but you can protect yourself in creating portfolios that feel strong about.
One of the shifts that we've made is as many people are aware and as we've been sharing in our investment reviews. One of the things I think differentiates the Resilient Wealth Planning team from a lot of others is the fact that we are very active when it comes to the construction of specific investment strategies and portfolios. We're big on individual stocks. I don't think we've ever shied away from that. I think people like the transparency and authenticity that comes with knowing what you own. And we made a significant change to one of our growth strategies three months ago, and now with three months worth of data, it has made an impact in those people who have had that portfolio just because of the innovative names, 30 individual stocks that have been doing outstanding, not all of them, but most of them have been doing well. And they are in areas and themes that we really are feeling high conviction for in the next wave of innovation in this country, in the healthcare, industrial space, technology, financials.
So there's a lot of different sectors and part of that is just by paying attention, taking the time and effort to listen to different analysts, going to conferences, going to these events where we talk to the actual portfolio managers. So that was another thing I got to go to Franklin Templeton and sit in with three portfolio managers who shared with us their outlook. And in general, everybody's kind of this cautiously optimistic. As Kim says, we're experiencing some highs looking at the bond market, obviously a lot of eyes are on the interest rate environment and the current new Fed chair. So there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of variables. And I think that the bottom line here is it's very challenging for any one person to be on top of all of it. And this is why I really love having this team. The three of us serve as an investment committee. We sit down and we discuss these things. And I think that we surface to it the best ideas and the best data. And that's what really creates what these strategies are that we're building.
And so if you are not currently working with someone and you're looking for a team, I think we're a great team. Just reach out. You can always contact us through our website. You can always send me an email at victor at resilient planning dot com. And so I kind of wanted to end by saying that this is the closeout of season two. We will be back in the fall with season three. One event that's coming up, which I think is important to note, it's coming up on July 8th I will be doing my mid-year report of the State of the Market. It's a halftime report. It's currently listed on our website under the events. You can register now. It'll be on Wednesday, July 8th, I think at 10 a.m. Pacific. It will be recorded. even if you know that you can't attend live, go ahead and register, because then you'll get a replay. And we will have the replay on all our social channels, including our website. So mark the calendar now if you can.
And we're also doing a road trip. So we're going to go up to Portland and to Seattle. We're planning two very special events in those two markets to visit with clients and visit with people while we're there. And we're really looking forward to that. We are. So with that, thank you so much as always for joining us on the Resilient Investors Podcast. Sorry about the little technical. Hopefully we'll be able to correct all this in the post, but we'll see you in season two, or season three, we'll see you in the fall.
Carolyn Rowland
Yes, thank you. Great to see you both.
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