Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - Motley Fool Money: 08.09.2013

Episode Date: August 9, 2013

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buys The Washington Post.  Groupon and Tesla surprise investors. And Disney survives the Lone Ranger.  Our analysts discuss those stories and retirement expert Robert Broka...mp shares some timeless retirement advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. Thanks for being here. I'm your host, Chris Hill. Joining me in studio this week, from Motley Fool One, Jason Moser. From Motley Fool Supernova, Matt Argersinger. And from Million Dollar Portfolio, Mr. Ron Gross. Good to see you, gentlemen. Hey, Chris.
Starting point is 00:00:31 Earnings Palooza rolls on. We're going to talk automotive, entertainment, consumer goods, and more. Retirement expert Robert Brokamp is our guest this week. And as always, we've got a few stocks on our radar. But we begin this week with a pretty big shakeup in the media industry. Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos stunned the business and media world by agreeing to buy the Washington Post for $250 million. And, Jason, this was particularly surprising here in the D.C. area when you consider that the Graham family has owned the Washington Post for 80 years. This is Bezos.
Starting point is 00:01:04 This is not an Amazon acquisition. Exactly. But what do you think of the move? Well, I mean, you made the point about the Graham family there. And actually, Bezos and Don Graham do have a friendship. Don Graham had advised Bezos on some ways to sort of get the newspaper across on the Kindle readers. And so, you know, it was definitely a surprising deal. But by the same token, when you look at what Jeff Bezos really is all about, and while this doesn't have really anything to do with Amazon, I mean, Amazon has everything to do with the way he looks at the world, the way he thinks. And so, I mean, we know that Jeff Bezos is first and foremost a long-term thinker and that when it comes to his business philosophy, it's always about the customer first.
Starting point is 00:01:46 And we certainly see that in what he's doing with Amazon. And he's going to make, as he said, bold investments where he thinks there's a sufficient opportunity to gain market leadership. And so what I think is – I think that he sees The Washington Post as this respected, reputable brand that's really had a difficult time making the leap into 21st century media. And for him, I mean, this guy is one of the most forward thinkers we know. And to be able to sort of take that platform, that brand that's already there and established, he's not going in with a roadmap. Matt. There's going to be a lot of trial and error, a lot of experimentation. But it's going to be something that he's going to, I think, look at this for years and years to come. It's going to be a long story to play out.
Starting point is 00:02:30 Yeah, I think it's interesting. We'll see with him. He'll take the Washington Post more national. He'll go to try to compete with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times to make it, I mean, it is national already, but even more so. Whereas when you see Warren Buffett accumulating all of these tiny, smaller regional newspapers, it's really the opposite. He likes them for the niche of being a regional player, that people really still rely on those papers for their news and for their advertising. So there's a lot of investment going on in the newspaper world, but for different reasons. Yeah, I wonder if this is going to end up – if you're like – subscribers to The Washington Post are going to get a free Kindle with their subscription. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:03:09 Because ultimately he's just trying to – Now I'm interested. Now I'm signing up tomorrow. But he's been very clear from the get-go. He's not looking to make money on selling the device. He's trying to make money from us using the device. So the device is secondary for him. And this is going to be yet another sort of piece of content, albeit a very big piece of content, that will go into sort of his universe.
Starting point is 00:03:27 Now, that's the newspaper world. When you go to the world of television, we've got a smackdown going on between Time Warner Cable and CBS. You've got millions of Time Warner Cable customers in Los Angeles, New York City, Dallas, who have basically had CBS cut off over this fight over retransmission fees. And I've got to say, and part of it is because I'm not affected, I love this. I just love that this is happening. This is far more interesting to me from a business standpoint than any of the hedge fund manager slap fights that we see going on on Wall Street. Because this makes me think that, Matty, this might not be the first one of these we see. No. I mean, we talk all the time about the cost of content and the value of it.
Starting point is 00:04:12 And this is just another example where two sides have a disagreement about that, and it's affecting millions of people. I mean, the PGA Championship is being played right now. It's going to be on CBS this weekend. And millions of people are not going to be able to watch the PGA Championship, presumably. Oh, goodness. That sounds awful. Well, for some of us it is. Wait until the NFL comes. This will be resolved. Oh, there you go.
Starting point is 00:04:32 And even the Big Bang Theory. That was my next point. For those out there that love that show, this will get done. Yeah, by September, certainly, it'll be resolved. But it's a bigger question, certainly, about content. I love CBS's timing here. I mean, they are really putting the screws to Time Warner when they have the chance, right? Because, I mean, to Matty's point about content,
Starting point is 00:04:51 I mean, CBS is running in there right now with the number one show on TV and under the dome. A lot of sports that they offer, a lot of sports that's coming up. I mean, they're saying, hey, right now we're kind of on top here. Let's just kind of get this while the getting's good. I mean, this is just a fundamental disagreement, right? I mean, they want X amount of dollars, and Time Warner says they deserve Y amount of dollars. They're going to have to meet in the middle because ultimately if they don't, then both parties come out losing. Well, we'll keep watching because, as I said, I can't believe that this is going to be the only one of these fights that we see.
Starting point is 00:05:23 In the second quarter, Tesla Motors sold 5,150 cars, which is 650 more than was expected. And because of that, Matty, shares up more than 12% on Thursday. Really? Is that all it takes? Just a few hundred more cars and that's it? You know, I think this is Alex Shearer who covers this in Stock Advisor, recommended Tesla for Stock Advisor. And is an owner. And is an owner of the Model S and the stock, and has done incredibly well. It's a beautiful car, by the way. The 650 cars is not a big deal, obviously.
Starting point is 00:05:55 I mean, this is a company, you know, Tesla's going to do 21,000 cars this year. I mean, Ford does about 10 million cars a year, just to give you some context. But what I think this is, this is a classic Wall Street catch-up. Wall Street's playing catch-up with this company. They're just behind the eight ball. Wall Street Journal actually had a story about this, how wrong analysts have been following Tesla in terms of their projections of profits and cars. And, like, for example, I read a few analyst reports after the call talking about how, well, you know, the demand for the Model S could be waning because, you know, the growth in the quarter over quarter with the Model S wasn't that bad. Tesla has a raise.
Starting point is 00:06:30 It's a $21,000 unit estimate. But to me, if you listen to Tesla and Elon Musk, all they're saying is, look, look, we have tons of demand for Model S. We just can't. We have third-party distribution problems. We have third-party supplier issues. We just can't meet the demand right now. And so I think that's kind of the bigger story right now with Tesla is that we know the demand is there. I mean, I think they bought 31 acres of land next to their largest production facility with the idea that eventually we're going to have to build out to maintain the demand. So I just think Wall Street's behind the ball.
Starting point is 00:07:01 They've been behind the ball for several quarters now. If they catch up, then maybe finally the stock price will catch up. But I'll also mention that, again, shorts have been pummeled on this stock. But going into this quarter, still 30% of the float roughly was short. So, if you're wrong on Tesla, ouch. Online travel stocks making headlines this week. Orbit's up 37% on Thursday after second quarter results were much better than expected. And Priceline's second quarter profits rose 24%, and the stock is hovering in the neighborhood of $1,000 a share.
Starting point is 00:07:33 What do you think, Ron? I think it's another high-flying stock I never own. That's what I think. People are traveling. These things look really strong. Profits are looking good. Bookings are up significantly for both companies. Even Asia, and surprisingly, Europe was solid. So we're seeing it all come in really nicely for both these companies. Obviously, Priceline is much, much, much larger than Orbitz, but 36% increase in one day for Orbitz is not too shabby. So I think the guidance was a little bit conservative for the second half of this year, but still nice and solid. So they're doing well. You made the point about Priceline being so much
Starting point is 00:08:15 bigger than Orbitz. Is this a situation where a couple of years from now, Orbitz is just no longer in existence or is acquired by someone else? Because it really does seem like increasingly Priceline is so dominant in this industry. And I'm wondering, at some point, it just becomes harder and harder for Orbitz to compete. It is harder. I'm not sure if an acquisition would make sense. I don't know why someone would want to buy it rather than just beat them into the ground. Plus, you could even come up with antitrust issues, perhaps, although there's certainly Expedia and the other folks out there. Expedia is having its own trouble since Trip Advisor was spun out. But Priceline is certainly the big gorilla here, and they're going to be
Starting point is 00:08:55 the guys to beat, and it's going to be tough. Shares of Disney down this week. Second quarter earnings came in slightly higher than expected, but they missed on revenue, Jason. And the Lone Ranger, for the 17 people who actually saw it, it's going to lose a minimum of $160 million for Disney. Yeah, the Lone Ranger is certainly not going to be one they look back on as a big success story. Thankfully, that didn't really play out fully this quarter. We get to wait for next quarter to watch that play out. But they did realize, I think, some pre-release marketing expenses there. But, you know, I mean, the thing is with Disney, the studio
Starting point is 00:09:28 segment. The movie segment really is the one that makes all the headlines because of the movies that they put out that typically do so well. But really, the biggest moneymakers for the company are seen in the parks and resorts and the big moneymaker in their cable properties and media networks with ESPN and ABC and things like that. And those two segments of the business perform very well. What we're seeing with parks and resorts particularly, because that accounts for about 20% of the company's operating income, is for a long time here during the financial crisis and the recession was that they were not able to really maintain any pricing. They were having to cut a lot of deals to get people into the parks.
Starting point is 00:10:04 They are able to really start – they're stopping that. I mean, they are able to maintain a little bit more pricing now. So what we're seeing is a little bit more of that operating leverage flows down to the bottom line there. They can maintain their pricing while traffic is going back up thanks to a slowly mending economy. So between that and the affiliate fees that they bring in on those cable networks, You know, sales came in a little bit light, but I stress a little bit light. And when you see the market react like this, it's an opportunity, I think, to pick up a really solid long-term hold. To go back to the battle between CBS and Time Warner Cable, how closely do you think the people at ESPN are watching how this plays out?
Starting point is 00:10:42 Because I have to believe if CBS has leverage, ESPN also has to be thinking about how much leverage they have with the cable operators. I would think very close, especially because you know that CBS is feeling like their sports properties are a big part of this equation. And so ESPN and sports are one and the same, essentially. And that's really what has been the argument for many of us not ever wanting to cut the cable at all. Coming up, the business of breakfast just got more awesome. Don't touch the dial. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money.
Starting point is 00:11:18 Chris Hill here in studio with Jason Moser, Matt Argesinger, and Ron Gross. Zillow's second quarter revenue was up 69%. Matty, they had a loss that was narrower than before. It seems like things are going in the right direction, but I don't know. You watch it a lot more closely than me. What did you make of the quarter? It was a very solid quarter. With Zillow and a lot of these companies in this space, don't pay attention to the bottom line so much.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Don't pay attention to earnings. I know. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain? No profits. I mean, top line, yeah, 69% revenue growth. But the marketplace business, which is their main driver, this is where agents and brokers pay Zillow thousands of dollars for placement and leads to connect with homebuyers. That was up 86% year over year. That's huge.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Their subscription growth within that, so their premier agents, was up 71%. They added 5,000 agents. That, to me, that tells me that business is very, very strong. Ron, your wife works in the real estate industry. How's she feeling about Zillow? She does. I was just talking to Chief Rule Breaker David Gardner about this the other day, and I think something he said struck me.
Starting point is 00:12:26 Zillow, at first, was capturing the smaller realtors, the people that were really looking to Zillow to increase their book of business. And they're slowly making inroads with the bigger real estate agents. And that's going to really, if they can be successful there, drive the business. I don't see it happening just yet, but I think we should see a little bit of that light at the end of the tunnel maybe. So that's something I would watch. Sticking with online stocks, shares of Groupon up more than 20% on Thursday after second quarter results. Jason, revenue up 7% year over year.
Starting point is 00:12:59 Not that big, but really seems like the fact that leadership is now being cemented with Ted Leontes as the chairman and Eric Lefkoski, the interim CEO, having the interim removed from his title. Right. Well, I mean, we can look at this quarter as sort of the good, the bad, and the ugly. You look at the good, and I think the leadership change certainly there, or the leadership confirmation, really, it takes that you remove that word interim there, and now all of a sudden you have some certainty there with the CEO and Ted Leonsis being in there as the chairman of the board. So that's great. And the trend in mobile was certainly encouraging, as they saw about 50% of their transactions in North America for the month of June were mobile versus 30% a
Starting point is 00:13:37 year ago. You know, the bad, I think that really, I look at that $300 million share buyback, and to me, that is just, it just reeks of just awful decision making. You know, a company in this position, when they're trying to turn things around, they have an opportunity really to take that $300 million and invest it in the business. Buying back shares, which is quite plainly, and they even said so on the call, it's just to offset dilution. Shareholders get virtually nothing out of that. And then really the ugly for me in this case is why I still would never invest in Groupon. While they have gone away from being a one-trick pony of just offering daily deals, now they're going into a couple of more tricks as offering goods and offering some
Starting point is 00:14:17 travel deals and even offering you to make your reservations for you at a restaurant. But the problem is they're sort of backing into these markets with your companies like OpenTable and Amazon and Priceline. I don't like their chances of competing against first mover big dog companies like that. And that's why I'm still very much off of this stock. Green Mountain Coffee Roaster's third quarter profit was up 59%. But Ron, revenue was at the low end of projections. What'd you make of the quarter? It seems like the very early reaction on Thursday for this stock, it tanked right at the open. And then it really seems to stabilize throughout the week. I think it tanked, as you said, on the lower, came in light on revenue, but lower coffee costs really drove profits, which of course is good.
Starting point is 00:15:01 I don't think you can extrapolate that out too far into the future, though. But I think what's more important is, though, even though the Keurig machines themselves were down about 4% in terms of sales, we saw these single server pods up 18%. And the big fear here with Green Mountain was when some of their patents came off that they were going to be in real trouble with the K-Cups. And what we're seeing is it's not so bad. They're really turning what they say, they're turning competitors into licensing partners. We see that with Starbucks. They've increased their relationship with them. So it's really not as bad as people had thought it would be, and I think the stock reacted appropriately.
Starting point is 00:15:40 You mentioned the lower coffee prices. That seems like the sort of thing that is just the automatic win for anyone in this business, Starbucks, Dunkin' Brands, that sort of thing. Of course, the flip side, they're not going to stay low forever, right? I mean, at some point, if you want to see the glass as half empty, don't you look at that and think, boy, that's going to hurt their margins as soon as those prices rise? Sure. You take it when you can get it. So it's nice to see margins up now. But the mistake for an analyst or an investor would be to carry that forward into future years because you would end up making a valuation mistake. Hey, you know what goes great with coffee? Breakfast. Taco Bell has been testing
Starting point is 00:16:19 the Waffle Taco. They were testing it in Southern California in just three locations, and they are now expanding it to three markets, Fresno, California, Omaha, Nebraska, Chattanooga, Tennessee, in about 100 locations. This is it, right? I mean, this is just the final test before it gets rolled out nationally, don't you think? I think so. I mean, I think this has probably got to be their biggest hit since the Doritos Loco Taco or whatever that is. I still haven't had one of those. This is something, yeah, neither have I.
Starting point is 00:16:49 I mean, I never will, and I never will have one of these breakfast tacos either. You know, Mac and I were talking before taping here. I mean, you just go back to basics here, man. I mean, the breakfast burrito is so good. It's just, you know, now all of a sudden they try to get novel with this waffle. It's not better wrapped in a waffle, though? The waffle that's a taco. I mean, just make it better.
Starting point is 00:17:08 If you inject maple syrup into that waffle, now you've got something. Well, now you're getting into a McGriddles thing, and I'm sure there would be a patent wore out or something like that. But, yeah, I mean, it's certainly they needed to do something with the breakfast menu because it doesn't seem very compelling now. And we're talking about it. So it must be important. It must be important. But on a more serious note, we've talked before about breakfast, coffee being a game changer for McDonald's, breakfast, expanding opportunities and revenue for these businesses. Why is Chipotle not going down this road?
Starting point is 00:17:38 Well, I mean, Chipotle is testing things like this at least. I mean, their stores right now are focused on their strengths, which is lunch and dinner, obviously, but there are a couple of stores that they have that open a little bit earlier, and they are using those stores as sort of testing grounds to see if that's a market that would be worth pursuing, and I would just say at this point to stay tuned. Let's bring in our man Steve from the other side of the glass. Steve, do you have any interest in maybe – I'm not suggesting you and I road trip to Chattanooga, although that would be fun, but a waffle taco, is that of interest to you at all? Can I name it the WACO? That might be confused with, if you spell it, as I think you might, then, I mean, it may be confused with WACO, and that might send some people home. Oh, ouch. No, I didn't want that. No. WACO. WACO.
Starting point is 00:18:25 Two Cs, maybe. I don't know. Two Cs. Sounds delicious. I don't know. I do like waffles, and I do like tacos, so I think it's a win-win. All right, drop us an email, radio at fool.com. Weigh in on the big stories of the week, but especially the waffle taco. All right, Ron Gross, Matt Argesinger, Jason Moser. guys. We'll see you a little bit later in the show. Up next, do you want to rule your retirement? We've got just the person to help. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. For many Americans, it is the number one
Starting point is 00:18:58 financial question they face, and that is, am I saving enough for retirement? For the answer, and for a few other topics, we turn to the Motley Fool's resident retirement expert, Robert Brokamp. Good to see you, my friend. Well, thank you, Chris. How are we doing? And when I say we, I mean the collective we. Do you have a sense of how Americans are doing at this point in time in terms of saving for retirement? I feel like it's the sort of thing where no matter how well we're doing, we could always be doing a better job. Right. And the answer to your question is not well. I mean, the average person is not saving enough to retire. They have not accumulated enough to retire. One issue, though, is I think
Starting point is 00:19:40 that we have to re-envision retirement. Our colleague, Morgan Housel, wrote an article a while back, and he cited some interesting statistics. And then back in the 1880s, 78% of people who were 65 or older were still working. You move ahead to 2010, just 22% of people are still working. So we're living longer, but stopping work earlier. So I think to a certain degree, we're asking too much of ourselves to accumulate enough over 40 years of work to pay for 30 years of retirement. I think we have to reconceive retirement, reconceive what we're going to do in our older years and think, you know what? Maybe doing something, some kind of work well into our 70s isn't such a bad idea. When you think about that whole notion of retirement, reimagining it, I think of earlier this week on Twitter, T. Boone Pickens came out and linked to a study that CNBC had done about people retiring later in life.
Starting point is 00:20:45 And the way he put it was, I'm never going to retire. When I retire, I'm going to retire in a box. I mean, is that really the mentality that we should be taking, that it is not this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it's just essentially dismiss it as we have come to know it to this point? I think so, and that's because the fact of the matter is retirement actually may not be good for people. There was a French study out recently that found that people who retired earlier were more likely to suffer from dementia later in life. Some possible reasons for that is our job gives us a certain level of intellectual stimulation Certainly gives us some social benefits, you know, we become friends with the people we work with So there are all kinds of benefits to retirement
Starting point is 00:21:29 And I would think one thing that people should think about especially if they haven't saved enough Is to think all right. What else do I want to do for the rest of my life? Maybe the kids are out of the house. The mortgage is almost paid off. You have a little bit more financial freedom Maybe take a job more for how much you enjoy it rather than the paycheck, and you'll be more comfortable with working well into your 70s and 80s. For people who are still thinking about, no, I actually do want to have the retirement community in Florida or whatever it is, however they envision retirement for themselves, and they realize, you know what, I'm not saving enough. Let's say you're 50 years old and you do a quick check of your finances. You think, I'm not saving enough. Are there a couple of ways that are sort of the best and quickest ways to catch up if you feel like you're not saving enough for retirement?
Starting point is 00:22:24 And if so, what are those things that someone, again, at the age of 50, if they want to start catching up, what's the best way to go about that? Well, like I said, when you get older, kids are out of the house, hopefully. You've paid for college, hopefully. So a lot of people at that stage in life suddenly find themselves with additional cash flow. So it comes down to really making sure that you save that instead of spending it. Uncle Sam helps a little bit in that 401k and IRA contribution limits go up for those who are 50 and older. So you need to start saving more.
Starting point is 00:22:56 The other thing is that is also not so fun, but very powerful is retiring just a few years later. So there's an example, use an example. So let's say you're 50 years old, making $75,000 a year, saving 10% of your income. You want to retire at 65 at about 70% of your current income to cover your expenses. And generally, that's what people do. They live on 70% of what they were making before they retired. If you're only saving 10% of your income and you've only accumulated $50,000 up to this point, you retire at 65, that money is going to only last seven years.
Starting point is 00:23:35 Not very long. And at that point, Social Security is only going to cover about 44% of your expenses. Okay. Let's say you delay to age 70 and still just saving 70%. You've extended how long your money is going to last from 7 years to 16 years. Wow. So your money is going to last longer. Plus, previously I said Social Security is going to cover only 44% of this person's expenses.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Now Social Security is going to cover 61%. That's because for every year you delay taking Social Security, the benefit goes up about 8%. So you delay to age 70, you've increased the amount of Social Security that you're going to get. That's guaranteed income. It adjusts for inflation. I know people have lots of questions about Social Security, but I think anyone in their 50s and older can pretty much assume that they're going to get it. You're listening to Motley Fool Money, talking with Robert Brokamp, retirement expert here at The Motley Fool. For a lot of people, the 401k plan is really their ticket to retirement, their main financial engine to retirement.
Starting point is 00:24:38 And yet, it seems like there's something of a growing backlash against 401ks. There are articles that I've seen that the system, the 401k system is really failing working Americans. What is the issue here and how bad is it? Well, first of all, one of the big problems with 401ks is that the employee has to manage it themselves. Employees are smart people, wonderful people. But that doesn't mean everyone in this country is an investment expert. It doesn't mean that everyone can work all day, come home, cook dinner, take care of the kids, and then at 10 o'clock at night, they want to sit around and learn about asset allocation and choosing the best funds and stocks. We're asking a little bit too much of people here too to make everyone becomes their own financial planner and not everyone has the time, inclination, or skills. So that's one problem.
Starting point is 00:25:27 The other problem is that 401k plans themselves are not often good investment plans. The costs may be high. You're limited by the investment choices, usually a handful of mutual funds. And often these plans are chosen and designed by the folks in the HR department, wonderful smart people,
Starting point is 00:25:45 also may not be investment professionals or experts. and to defray the cost of running a 401k plan, the employer might choose a plan that shifts some of those costs onto the employee in the form of higher expenses and more expensive mutual funds. So really, in a lot of ways, I don't want to go so far as to say
Starting point is 00:26:04 the system is rigged because it's not. It puts people in control of their savings. They can decide how much they can spend, a little bit on how to manage the money, that type of good stuff. But it's not the ticket to a secure retirement that a lot of people thought it would be, especially back in the 90s when everyone's accounts were growing at 20% a year. I just like the image that you just painted there, the whole notion of at the end of the long day,
Starting point is 00:26:32 once the kids are in bed, I can open up a bottle of wine and by candlelight say, honey, come on over here on the sofa and snuggle with me. We're going to buckle down with some asset allocation lessons. Talk index funds to me. Exactly. And you and I talked about this earlier in the week, the whole notion of opting in and why that's not automatic. When I think about all the transactions that the average person goes through online, whether it's a free email that you sign up for or a purchase that you make online and you are opted into email, marketing, catalogs coming to your home, that sort of thing. Is it that radical a notion for a company to say, oh, by the way, when you start working here, we have automatically opted you into our 401k plan?
Starting point is 00:27:21 That seems like an easy, like, again, that's the one thing I'd love to be opted into. Right. And it is becoming less radical. But as we were discussing earlier in the week, that even we at the Motley Fool on the 401k committee had a pretty heated debate about whether we should automatically enroll people because it's their money. We shouldn't tell them what to do with their money. But more and more employers are doing it. In fact, the Motley Fool is going to start doing that now. One reason people didn't do it beforehand was concerns about liability. Right.
Starting point is 00:27:52 So if I'm an employer, I'm going to put you in my 401k plan. Which investment do I choose? and am I going to get in trouble for choosing that? Fortunately, there was something called the Pension Protection Act in the 2000s, earlier 2000s, which said, yes, you can enroll people. And if you put them in an appropriate investment and they listed out specific ones, your employees can't sue you. So thanks to that, more and more employers are putting people in the 401k automatically and automatically escalating the savings rate so that they're saving more every year. What is your own vision of retirement like, and has it changed? I mean,
Starting point is 00:28:30 we've known each other a good 15 years or so. I am curious to what extent you think about how you envision your own retirement. You're married, you have kids, and also has that changed over time? I would say it hasn't changed. I think I am someone who is like T. Boone Pickens. I would be very surprised if I ever retire to a life of leisure. You know that at one point I was studying to be a priest. So I think at some point what's most likely is that I will take a job that is more along the lines of make the world a better place type of thing. And it might be still doing what I'm doing, but offer more financial planning service for lower income people, things like that. But again, like I said earlier, at some point in your life, you can focus more on what really brings me happiness as opposed to what's going to create enough income for me to take care of my kids and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:29:23 Do you ever find yourself, though, clicking through when the articles get promoted on a financial website or a general news site, the top 10 places to retire to, that sort of thing? Do you find yourself looking at that stuff? And if so, does anything leap out at you in terms of not just this looks like a nice location, but, oh, this looks like a financially, if not easy place to live. Certainly, this is a place where I can enjoy a comfortable retirement and not feel like I'm breaking the bank. Right. And that's also a very powerful way to increase your retirement security, especially if you are like us and you live in a higher cost part of the country. You sell your house, you move down somewhere where it's cheaper, you buy a house outright, taxes are lower, maintenance is lower, all kinds of things are easier to pay for and your dollar goes farther. And it doesn't even have to be in this country. I mean, we've talked before about this couple that I've profiled in Rural Retirement
Starting point is 00:30:26 who live all over the world on less than $30,000 a year because you can go live on a beautiful beach in South America on almost nothing. So more and more Americans are doing that as well. And that's also partially because health care is so expensive here. You can actually get decent health care in places outside of the U.S. What? Yes. Are you kidding?
Starting point is 00:30:48 Absolutely. No, no, no. That can't be right. And it's high-quality health care. It's much cheaper. I mean, obviously, you have to do your research and all that stuff. But that's another reason why many Americans are retiring overseas. Last question, and I'll move away from sort of retirement in this regard because we've been talking about people who are closer to retirement than the person I'm about to mention.
Starting point is 00:31:14 That is your oldest daughter who was in the office earlier this week. And I'm curious, when you talk with her about money, she is just starting to really make her way in the world in terms of having a job and all that sort of thing. What do you see in her and her experiences with money that make you as a dad go, oh, okay, she's getting it. She's really starting to learn. One of the, I think, least appreciated aspects of financial planning is your human capital, which basically is your ability to earn money, your skills, your social network, your affability, because that's important in the workplace. Do you get along with people? Do they want to work with you? And we actually, that's the discussion we had in terms of, all right, what skills do you have to build to get to the point where you have the job that you want?
Starting point is 00:32:03 Some of that is education. Some of it is, you know what? Just go find someone who offers that job, an employer that you like, and say, listen, I'll work for you for free for a little while. Just give me a chance. Give me the experience. I'll do whatever you need. I just want to get my foot in the door. You have to be pretty aggressive about stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:32:21 And we know people here at The Motley Fool have done that. I'll work here for a month. You don't like what I've done? Well, part ways, fine. You like what I've done? You can hire me and pay me for this month that I've been here. So I think that's one way to think of it. And then the other way to think of it, and this is the way we think about investing, is as you get older, accumulate companies, right?
Starting point is 00:32:40 So when you're a stockholder, you are a genuine part owner of the company. So to look at it that way, as you're using your human capital, earning some money, use that money to buy little pieces of companies that can grow along with you. He's a certified financial planner. He runs our Rule Your Retirement service. He is our resident retirement expert, Robert Brokamp. It's always good to talk with you. Thanks, Chris. Coming up, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar.
Starting point is 00:33:08 This is Motley Fool Money. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. I'm Chris Hill. Joining me in studio once again, Ron Gross, Matt Argesinger, Jason Moser. Guys, before we get to the stocks on our radar, Happy to say we get to welcome in a couple of new stations. Business 1310 WRSB in Rochester, New York, along with Sister Station WASB AM 1590.
Starting point is 00:33:38 We're on in the rock. Nice. Speaking of the PGA Championship, that's up there in Rochester this week. There you go. Again, we've got to do a little road trip here. Let's bring in our man Steve for the stocks on our radar, and he'll hit you with a question. And feel free to hit him back, Ron. But you're up first.
Starting point is 00:33:54 What's your stock this week? Heading back to Perry Ellis, P-E-R-Y, Diversified Fashion Clothing Merchandiser. They report next Monday, and they've been revamping their Perry Ellis line and their women's line called Raffaella. And they've been making great progress, but we need to see how that progress is continuing. So that's something I'm watching real close. I think it's very undervalued here, 40%, 50% upside probably. Wow. Steve, question about Perry Ellis?
Starting point is 00:34:19 First off, full disclosure, my wife's cousin does work for Perry Ellis, so I must disclose that. Okay. Secondly. Consider it disclosed. Do you consider Perialis to be a top-tier brand? I do not consider it to be a top-tier brand, but not everything can be. There's certainly a place for the mid-tier, and I think they actually do it quite well. But that is a fair question.
Starting point is 00:34:40 So my question for you, Steve, first of all, do you own a tuxedo, or if you need one, do you rent? I do own a tuxedo. And are you bow-tie or a regular tie? Real bow-tie. Tying it, and my father taught me how to do that, and yeah, it's stuck. Nice. Impressive. Fancy.
Starting point is 00:34:52 I do not possess that skill. Yeah, me either. Matt Argersinger, what do you got? Yeah, my company is X1, ticker X-O-N-E. This is one of the newer 3D printing companies. They IPO'd earlier this year. Really, they report earnings next week. Interesting, they're not the typical 3D printer.
Starting point is 00:35:10 They print things out of metal as opposed to sort of 3D systems and Stratasys, which are more focused on sort of plastic molding and things like that. So, very interesting company. Steve, question about X1? Will I ever have an X1 printer in my home, or will I contract that out to them? You will definitely contract that out, because I think their cheapest model is like a million dollars. Well, not to say, Steve, that you don't have a million dollars. I was going to say, if you know anything about Steve's success as an investor, that's, you know, I think, yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:39 Do you have a question for Steve? Sure. Okay, Steve, if you had to mold something using a 3D printer, what would you do? I would mold another one of myself so I could be in two places at once and get more done. Two steves is better than one. Wasn't there like a Michael Keaton movie about that one? That could be really scary. Multiplicity, I think.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Could you just mold another printer and put them out of business? Just keep producing printers? Oh, man. My brain just exploded. Jason Moser, stock on your radar this week? I know Matty will like this one. Boston Beer, ticker S-A-M. Craft brew sales in the United States continue to do well.
Starting point is 00:36:18 They've doubled, more than doubled since 2006. While the overall beer market remains relatively flat, no pun intended, craft beer continues to pick up that market share. And this is a very foolishly run company with founder and chairman Jim Cook and CEO Martin Roper, ensuring that the business is run with a long-term perspective. I think that they have some encouraging signs there with their little subsidiary in alchemy and science, developing new brews and partnerships. It's a stock that never looks cheap, and we said that two years ago when it was around $50 per share, and now it's trading over $200 per share. You've got to get in it at some point. I'm so thirsty right now. Steve, question about Boston Beer?
Starting point is 00:36:58 Are you familiar with their commercials? There's often a man with a very long, frightening red beer. I've seen those, yes. Have you seen any thoughts about that man's beard? I've just thought that it'd be a pretty cool job to be able, at the end of the day, to sit back and drink the product that you've created. So the beard never really entered my thinking. I'm going where I think you're going, Steve, which is I look at that beard and I just think, I don't drink this product, but I just worry that your beard is in that product at some point. Question for Steve?
Starting point is 00:37:29 Well, I kind of wonder why he hates beards, but I'm not going to go there. Steve, you have a son. I do, yep. And how old is he now? About two? Almost two in October. Now, understanding the drinking age in this country at 21 years old, but at what age do you think it's appropriate for a father to share his first beer with his son? You know, Vacation was on television last night, and there was this horrific scene. So I think Rusty was around 13. I'm going 13.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Nice. Good talk, son. Good talk. Good talk, Rusty. We've got about 30 seconds left. I'm going to hit Steve with a question which one of our colleagues, Danny Shaw, hit me with, which is, is there any truth to the possibility that, Steve, you are actually doing voiceover work for Cricket, which is the prepaid cell phone plan? Zero truth.
Starting point is 00:38:17 There's a doppelganger. It's not me. Someone printed Steve. Someone else said that as well. It's not me. It's a vocal doppelganger if you hear the radio commercial for Cricket. All right. Ron Gross, Matt Argesinger, Jason Moser.
Starting point is 00:38:28 Guys, thanks for being here. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. That's going to do it for this week's show. Our engineer is Steve Broido. Our producer is Matt Greer. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening.
Starting point is 00:38:36 We'll see you next week.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.