Five Fact Friday – October 29, 2021

Five Fact Friday – October 29, 2021
October 29, 2021 Site Admin Uncategorized 0 Comments

This week on Five Fact Friday, I’m talking about some spooky cool content you won’t want to miss. All treats and no tricks here!

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Full Transcription Below

Could it possibly be? Yes, we are back! If you’re seeing me on your screen, it can only mean one thing. We’ve got five great links for you because as you know, I’m Victor Medina, and this is Five Fact Friday. Hey, everybody, welcome back to Five Fact Friday. It has been a hot minute since we’ve put one of these videos out, but we have missed you. And you might be wondering what we’ve been up to. And the truth of the matter is we’ve been quite busy back at home with all of these tax law changes that are being proposed and a lot of people getting ready to get their affairs in order before the end of the year, we have been busy at Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth helping people plan their retirement. But we haven’t forgotten about you, and we’ve got five great links.

So let’s jump right into them, including one link, by the way, where yours truly was quoted. You’re gonna have to wait for that one. Let’s get to the first link, which is what I am reading. And it is Halloween time, which means that we’ve got a lot of people in costumes. We’ve got a lot of people getting ready to trick or treat on Sunday. And we have a lot of people with carved pumpkins trying to figure out how to keep them preserved for, well, longer than the hot minute that we’ve been away. And some people have taken to bleaching their pumpkins. I’ve gotta be honest, when I read this thing, it was the first time I’ve ever heard of it, and you shouldn’t do it. In fact, the link that I’ve included for you will teach you a way to preserve your pumpkins without bleaching them, which is harmful for the environment, especially because animals tend to consume them afterwards. It’s really bad news. There is a way to preserve them using a little bit of vinegar, but you’re gonna have to check out the link for that. Regardless of whether or not you’re gonna try to preserve your pumpkin or not, have a wonderful Halloween. Collect the best candies that you possibly can, and trade them with your neighbors, so that everybody gets what they want.

Next link and which is what I am watching. And by the way, it is a favorite video. I grew up in high school in my jazz band. In fact, after I graduated from high school, we created a couple of concerts with some buddies of mine. And I fancied myself as a bit of a crooner going up. And one of my idols was Tony Bennett. Well, the link that we’ve got for you is a clip from “60 Minutes” where he was preparing to give a concert. Now you may or may not know that Tony Bennett has been suffering from Alzheimer’s. And there was a lot in the background about whether or not he would be able to perform on this birthday gig that he was putting together, especially because he is really in the advanced stages of dementia. It’s got a heartwarming ending. He ends up performing with Lady Gaga. But you’ve gotta watch the video when he finally recognizes who she is on stage, and they performed brilliantly together. Now it’s not the whole concert. It is just the “60 Minutes” segments talking about preparing for the concert, but it is definitely worth a watch if you have time on your schedule.

The next link is what is new in tech. And by the way, this is one area of frustration for me. You know that there are some parts of the world that it is difficult to get a cell phone signal. For me, it seems to be some stretch of 295 when I’m driving. But wherever it is for you, it can be quite frustrating because we have become so dependent on contacting people, using our cell phone, or at least being within cell phone coverage to look up everything? I mean, how would we know what’s going on Instagram by our favorite influencers if we couldn’t connect absolutely anywhere and at any time? Well, they’ve got a new piece of hardware that would be actually able to connect to low orbit satellites that would still give you the same 4G or 5G connectivity. It requires a new piece of hardware, but take a look at the link because it might be coming into an iPhone or an Android phone in your future. It would be a way of making sure that you’re always connected. It probably has some practical applications about keeping you safe if something were to happen to you in one of these remote locations. So check that one out.

The next link is what is new in legal. And I have to share a little bit of personal news with you. My son who worked over the summer, my oldest son, Aidan, was actually getting into investing and wanted me to invest some of that money for him. Now I’m not gonna share with you any investment tips. That’s beyond this video, but he did send me the money to invest for him. And the way that he did that is he Venmoed me the money. Now you didn’t know that Venmo was a verb, did you? Well, he Venmoed me the money, same thing, as I said, if the PayPaled or Cash Apped or whatever else, but we are in this new world of electronic payments. By the way, places in Asia have been doing this for a long period of time where they’ve been using electronic payment methods, but we’re getting used to it here in the United States. And there’s a new law in place that says in January of 2022, if you are sending more than $600 using one of these services for payment, using one of the cash services for payment of services for something that you would otherwise be taxed for, well, guess what? They’re gonna want income tax on that money as well. Now you don’t have to get too worried. If you’re just sending money, like my son was sending me to go invest, probably okay to do. But if you’re actually using it to run your business, you maybe want to get aware of the fact that you might have to start to declare some that or at least declare some of the taxes on the money that is being transferred that way. By the way, I gotta clue you in on something. My son has been sending me the money. I don’t know how to get it from Venmo to where it needs to be. So he sends me the money, and I just write a check from my own personal funds to go invest that money for him. I think maybe by next year I might be able to figure out how to get that money out, but probably one of you needs something by Venmo. So maybe I’ll send you some of the money if I ever have to give you something, but not for services ’cause I don’t want you to pay for taxes on that.

The last link is what’s new in retirement. There’s a link that I was featured in. From time to time, I get the opportunity to give quotes to reporters who wanna hear from somebody like me. We might be a lawyer, who as a financial advisor with a particular perspective. And of course, you know that our specialty is dealing with people in retirement. Well, somebody had reached out to me and asked me what I thought about atypical retirement, sort of the non-traditional route. And although the link will lead you to a picture of the “Golden Girls,” I did not give the suggestion that you should move in with five of your single friends and decide that you’re gonna be retired that way. But I did offer a suggestion about something called geoarbitrage. Now, geoarbitrage is when you decide to move to an area where your currency is more powerful than the current currency that’s there. So you might’ve spent your entire retirement earning dollars in U.S. dollars, which has got a certain purchasing power. And if you wanted that money to last, you might move to a different location where your currency’s a little bit more powerful than one that’s there. And your money would last longer, and it would stretch out. You might actually get a higher standard of living than you enjoyed while you were here. I gave Ecuador as an example. There is a risk involved in that, which is that, of course, in currencies, if you deal in currencies, the currencies can fluctuate. And so one of the things you wanna make sure is that you have basically accounted for the fact of what happens if you have a wild swing in the currencies, but it might be a way for you to investigate an atypical retirement. There are a number of countries that might be able to give you or afford for you a better quality of living, a standard of living, get you to stretch out your dollars, might even lower your healthcare costs, but check them out.

All right, let’s do a quick review for this week, what I am reading is the “Don’t Bleach Your Pumpkins” article. What I’m watching is Tony Bennett on his 95th birthday giving a concert, even though he’s been suffering from Alzheimer’s. What’s new in tech is low orbit satellites that might give you the connectivity to get onto Snapchat and Instagram from anywhere in the world. What’s new in legal is the new charges that are gonna be associated with the pay services like Venmo. Finally, what’s new in retirement, a link that I was quoted in in Yahoo about atypical retirement. I just taught you a new word. It’s called geoarbitrage. Good luck with that one going forward. You’re gonna win a Scrabble game. I know of it. That’s it. We are back with Five Fact Friday. It will no longer be a couple months before we get to our next one. But until then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Make sure you dress up as your favorite ghost or goblin and give away the big candy bars to the people in your neighborhood. It’ll make you famous and well-loved. Catch you soon. Bye-bye.