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Tanya Flanagan  0:19  
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Tanya Flanagan  0:42  
You Good morning Las Vegas, and welcome to another Sunday in December. We are at the end of 2025 it is amazing when we look up and realize yet another 12 months have expired. Where are you? Where do you want to be? Why are you where you are? Where would you like to be, and what is your plan to get there? In that spirit, this is a conversation this morning that will be wholly centered for the most part, on financial planning. So we always set new year's resolutions. We get ready to close out a year, we look at the pressures of planning for Christmas. If you are a spender at this time of year, most people are, if they have it, they at least like to do some things that spread cheer, and it often involves buying gifts, but that also often leaves us in financial distress. And the intention is that we should not do that to ourselves, but we do in the effort of being kind or getting swept away by all of the fanfare that is glitter and gold and red and green and sparkly and wonderful, but um, today I want to talk about finances. Economy. There's a lot going on right now. Affordability is a word that's being thrown around and tossed all over the place, and just the basic expenses of life, eggs, food, vegetables, gas, commodities, tariffs face us sometimes when we go to sites and say, oh, I want to buy this. Oh, my God, there's a tariff on that. And some companies are even showing you what those tariffs are costing you, and we're feeling just the pressures of life in many different ways. So this morning, I decided to have a conversation about finances, financial responsibility, financial planning, where we sit, housing market, whatever it is that we can derive from this conversation and share with you. I'm going to do that, and I am welcoming to the show Jason Bauckham, who's a financial planner, gonna let him do a full fledged introduction of all of his credentials, just so that you can hear from him how qualified he is to be having this conversation with me this morning. So, good morning, Jason.

Jason Baucom  2:56  
Good morning. Tanya, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. It's really early. You know, I don't I really like to sleep in.

Tanya Flanagan  3:01  
That's why you get a cup of coffee Jason, and you cozy in, you settle in, and you come and you hang out. We've had great weather this week, and it's beginning to run out. Might not be as cozy and warm on Christmas. Maybe it'll feel a little bit more like that, but it is the last Sunday before we head into the big day of family sharing. But as we get ready to close out the year, I wanted to talk with you about where we are in this economy, affordability, and what that feels like, and what we should be watching for. Where are the potholes, where, where's the potential to get derailed? So you are a financial guru?

Jason Baucom  3:39  
Yeah, I am, you know, I don't like to tout myself, but yeah, I have a master's degree in personal financial planning, and I'm also a chartered financial consultant as well as a credit investment fiduciary, so I can pretty much handle most people's financial needs as well as business owners, and guide them in a direction to help helping achieve their goals.

Tanya Flanagan  4:00  
What made you get into this line of work? Well, as a kid,

Jason Baucom  4:03  
I used to love the game Monopoly is my absolute, my favorite board game. I love being the banker. I love counting money. I like learning about property. How you would, you know, build houses in hotels and you'd have a monopoly, and going around the board, that was absolutely my favorite board game. And so in my first, you know, the first real job I had, I would say, out of college, I would work in the bank for 10 years, and it was kind of inspired by that. So I got used to counting money and dealing with people every day. And that led to my current field with also within finance. I was a dual employee, where I spent half my time working in investments, insurance and the other side, retail banking. So I got to see both sides of the fence at once, and that led to me becoming a financial advisor, fully licensed about 11 Lexus longer than that, 13 years ago, became fully licensed financial advisor with series seven and 66 and several states for insurance. Parents, it's

Tanya Flanagan  5:01  
an impressive resume. Thank you. I'm glad that I know you folks. You can imagine the conversations I get to have with Jason. I call Jason every time I think I want to spend some money on something, or consider whether or not it makes sense to involve myself in an opportunity and just to talk about ways to be more responsible with the dollars that I earn so that I can plan for retirement or help children in my family, if it's college pursuits or something that I want to do or have the manifestation of a dream that might have to do with starting a business. So Jason is a person that I have conversation with, and I had the pleasure of meeting him, I think a girlfriend of mine pulled us together to have a conversation, to be smarter about how we were planning for our futures. And so that is one of thought five years ago, maybe

Jason Baucom  5:51  
now, longer, longer, it's a wow, it's been about a decade now.

Tanya Flanagan  5:55  
Is it? Yes, I was trying to stay young, but now I'm

Jason Baucom  5:59  
you're still young, and the years went by, but you still say magic, okay,

Tanya Flanagan  6:02  
I like the way magic happens. Call Jason. He can do magic and you can stay young. So thanks for coming on. Let's dive into it while we have some good time left in the show. And as I mentioned when I opened there's constant talk about affordability right now. As a financial advisor and planner, what do you say to people who want to plan for the future or become more money smart? Are there some simple steps to getting your house in order?

Jason Baucom  6:27  
Yes, the word affordability, it's probably, you know, it's, it's first, it's center, front center, right now, the most important thing you can do to make things more affordable is you got to audit yourself. You got to be able to audit your last 30 days of expenses, for example, for a recency bias. So let's take example. If you take track everything for 30 days and break it down into different areas to see your your your needs versus your wants, you able to go, go from there and categorize everything to see if it's truly something you need. Okay, businesses do this all the time when they would need to trim the what they call the fat so they can have more money to be able to grow their business or pay their employees more, or grow grow at all. So why not do that yourself? So you can divide your expenses in the categories like housing, food, transportation, entertainment. It makes it easy to, you know, look at a large percentage of your income and see where cuts can be possible. Everyone has to eat and everybody has to live somewhere, and someone you have to have transportation as well. So keep that in mind, a lot of people use the what we call the budget rule of 5030, 20, 50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% savings. And why that's important? Because if you stay within those statistical categories, you can better assess your own situation. You know, one of the things I always preach is to automate savings first, whenever possible. If you don't pay yourself now, you're going to be working a lot longer later. So if you're 25 and you know, you want to retire at 60, which is a difference of 35 years, paying yourself a now, little now will grow to something a lot bigger later, and trying to play catch up in your 50s and early 60s. So if you review your budget regularly, it can make a big difference. So for example, if you get a raise, that doesn't mean your budget increases. You keep your budget the same way, but you're able to save more and automate that savings because you're living comfortable with the at the current wage that you're at and your current means. Why go above that? Yes, you want, everybody wants more, more and more. But once you get to that point, you're not, you're you're being your own hindrance, rather than helping yourself by not regularly saving

Tanya Flanagan  8:37  
I want to ask you a question based on what you just shared. You say, because people do, the thing that happens is you are working. If you're fortunate in your work, you see a pay increase, and you just said, No, your budget doesn't increase. Your savings to yourself should increase. But what happens if you see the pay increase and what you were making wasn't really meeting your needs. What is a responsible way? Couple questions, what's a responsible way to infuse some of the money into your need, but not ignore the fact that you need to save? Like, what's the mindset? Because I think sometimes it's a mindset, and people are convinced they need it all. That's one question. The other component is there are moments in life for some regular, everyday, hard working people. It may be taxes, right, income tax returns, or maybe sometimes you have the fortune of working for a company that's able to give you a bonus. So you have this windfall of cash that comes the beginning of the year, wherever it comes middle year, and depending on your bonus right end of the year. So either way it goes this end beginning, the mindset that you share with people to wrap their heads about around being responsible when that windfall comes, because it's great if you get. Up the lesson when you're young, hey, here's $5,000 and you think, Oh, my God, got $5,000 right? Because you're young. And then you look up, and a month and a half later, your $5,000 is gone. Because then you realize that lesson, oh, that's not as much money as I thought it was, but it felt like so much when I got it. But every year, taxes come to some in that manner, or bonuses come to some. And if you don't develop the discipline to recognize that it's not that much, or what else should I be doing with the pay increase, the income tax return that the bonus? I tell young people? So for example, say the wind falls $5,334.60 take the $334.60 and do something for yourself so that you don't feel like you got a bonus or a windfall and you got nothing from it. And then sit with the five and and look at what do you really need to do? Or, you know what I'm saying, what's what's a real goal. So what do you say to people who feel like, Can my pay increase, but I need the pay to survive?

Jason Baucom  11:10  
Well, at the same time, is a few questions you have to ask yourself, have you already established an emergency fund? An emergency fund, we're looking at three to six months worth of essential expenses. If you have an established one, it's a good place to start with that. Why? Because you can be in a situation where you're unemployed, and if you're unemployed, you know it's going to cause havoc on you mentally and physically. And if you know you have an emergency fund, you're gonna be like, Okay, I can take care of this, and I know I have 90 days to be able to get into their job to replace my current income. In addition to that, if you have if you're getting that type of windfall, if you have some debt that's out there, tackle your high interest debt first, meaning that if you have credit cards and they're 29% 30% in interest, pay those down first. The highest interest should be paid first. So you're paying less, you're paying less of your paycheck to reduce your debt, if you so that's what you need to tackle, tackle that, or maybe a situation where you may need to save some money for a car. So that's a great amount of money for a down payment, if that ever becomes of need. So paying yourself first and creating an emergency fund is should be a high priority for anybody that gets any type of windfall.

Tanya Flanagan  12:22  
Thank you. It's very valuable and very useful information. I know it's helpful to me. I hope it's helpful to those of you who are listening. I talked about tariffs as well. What I love about having you on the show is your years of experience allow us to get a breadth of knowledge and just come away from this conversation today, so much smarter, but we have a new term that's always in the conversation now, tariffs and you smart, yeah, not fun if you're thinking about buying a new car sooner than later, because tariffs are supposed to make them cost more. But what is the forecast as the economy evolves and tariffs become more a part of our everyday spending consideration?

Jason Baucom  13:07  
Well, tariffs are essentially a tax. It's a it's a tax without representation, meaning that we didn't vote to have this tax imposed on us, but it's a tax that is being imposed on us because it's making things cost more. The best example I have for you is when Amazon had on their website. Initially, it lasted all a day, the price without a tariff and a price with tariff. You got to see it right away in real time when they're beta testing their site, to go ahead and see what the impact of tariffs would have on the pricing. So with the tariffs evolving you're going to have for you're going to forecast that you're going to have higher consumer prices, or you can say inflation slower spending because you're going to have less money to spend, because you're going to have be spending more on something else, increase business costs as potentially weaker GDP growth, with consumers bearing most of the cost through higher prices for everyday goods, like groceries, tech, clothes. Now, now, our business is currently absorbing that, yes, but they're going to pass it on eventually, once they reorganize their budgets for 2026 is going to be passed on the consumers the right size, the percentage that they need to take home. You know, because business need to stay in business. They're in business to make money. So if they have to increase their prices so they can sustain the same economic, you know, windfall that they've been having over the years, that's what they're going to do. You know, there's going to increase input costs and potential revenue dips, leading to reduce purchasing power and slow overall economic activity, despite strong, investments on their part.

Tanya Flanagan  14:43  
Wow, it's so much to consider that I think people are becoming more astute in having these types of conversations and giving consideration to this, because it's not a tax that we voted to have and to. Cart, but we are feeling the pinch. I have conversations every day with people about what it costs to go to the grocery store.

Jason Baucom  15:07  
Oh, absolutely like, for example, I can tell you every, every Christmas I smoke a brisket, right? Usually anywhere from 10 to 20 pound brisket. You know, it takes about, you know, it's three days process. Now, why'd I bring that up? At one point, I used to buy the brisket for 349 a pound. The same brisket I'm gonna buy this year is 589 a pound. So it's a significant increase. Now, am I gonna go still buy the risk? Yes. Why? Because some fact is, I'm only smoking one or two a year. It's not like I'm doing it every week. Okay? It's a holiday family get together. I'll go ahead and do that, but that's just one example that you're that you're looking at. So in the, you know, these higher prices, that's higher price on beef, that's and that's local. We're not that's not before importing, let's beef. We're still getting here in the United States. So you know, prices are going to go up in different areas that make up for imported goods. The higher prices on those you know. So with, with the wage growth not growing as well, and having higher prices, that means you're going to have more of your income actually pay for things a higher percentage than normally, without the without the tariffs, so consumers money is going to buy less, and that's going to slow overall spending.

Tanya Flanagan  16:16  
We are talking about the small spends right now, which are the important things too. You want to eat every day, but what about those big spends, where people are looking at they want to get into a house, they need to purchase a vehicle, they have children, they want to talk about college. There's also this federal education savings program that's out there. Can you talk a little bit about those spaces, of those big ticket items? And any advice for people who were considering such purchases?

Jason Baucom  16:44  
Yeah, if you're looking at a car, you know the first thing I'm gonna look at in the used car market, why? Because, let's say you go buy a vehicle new, the biggest thing that you're gonna take a hit on is depreciation. They depreciate faster because they're newer. If you buy a used vehicle, all the depreciation, most of the depreciation, has already happened. It happened at a slower rate once you buy a used vehicle. Plus there's more reliable vehicles out there, like a Toyota or Honda, we all know they last a lot longer. With that being the case, the the aftermarket car parts are going to be increased as well as the insurance is going to go up, because a lot of those parts are imported from China, and so when they're imported from China, there's going to be an extra tariff on there. So it's going to cause the aftermarket car price to go up in terms of replacement or your insurance as well, because those parts have to be used and imported. So that's a that's a tax on that on the back end. So with that being said, you know, you got to make some choices. There's going to be fewer choices to be made in terms of selection, because you're not going to have as many broad choices, because you're going to just have to source wherever you get vehicles from. Let's say there's 10 choices now, because there's only five, because we needed to buy these five at the dealership, simply because the other five cost too much, because the varying tariffs per country. So that also makes a difference. Not every country pays the same tariff, right? So when, when they go to make that decision to buy, like, Okay, we're gonna buy more of this, because it's gonna lead to reduced availability, but it's better for the dealership and the consumer in that aspect.

Tanya Flanagan  18:20  
A random question on becoming a smarter consumer. If you were saying at some point, I want to make sure people understand, if you're listening to the show and you're a complete newbie, the nuances of the of the terms, and we'll get into that in a second. IRAs, CDs, bonds, 401, K, insurance, money market accounts. But before I take that route, if someone just wanted to be smarter, what would you say? Read, because we learn, because we read, we immerse ourselves, we study. If you want to become smarter, so that when you do call Jason or call someone like Jason, what do you read? To recommend, some

Jason Baucom  18:59  
magazine, some magazines as well as books, but magazines Kiplinger, I really like it, because then they speak with people out in the industry about certain topics. So they they get the subject matter expert for that specific topic, an economist I follow. His name is David Kelly. He's a common economist with JP Morgan Chase, I like his objective opinion specifically because he's very objective. He takes He extracts himself, he looks at numbers, breaks it down, as opposed to go ahead and with being subjective and having feelings on there, he just breaks it down in a way that makes it easy to understand, as opposed to being long winded and dancing around the topic. He says, Here it is, this was going to happen. This was happening in the past, and this is what I believe. Here are the potential outcomes of why. So, that's a David Kelly. That's a guy follow from JP Morgan Chase. I don't work for them, but they do put out a, you know, a great markets playbook to help a. Advisors like myself know what's going on with different charts and graphs and make it relatable to our clients and showing them the why behind things.

Tanya Flanagan  20:08  
I appreciate that, and I don't know if people hear enough where to go, you know, to learn and to be smarter. Whether you like the Wall Street Journal, you like the economist, whatever, but just knowing some sources that make it make sense, in making it make sense, can you talk about the different tools that people can use in the investment space and need to understand? Because when you're young, I remember being really young in my in my 20s that I just left, you know, recently, but in my 20s, let's laugh. How dare you laugh,

Jason Baucom  20:41  
Jason, you mean 2020s, whatever.

Tanya Flanagan  20:43  
Jason, anyways, when I was 20, Jason, early, late, whatever, starting to work, I would go to conferences to improve myself and my career. Phil, at the time, I was a journalist every day, and you have these seminars to talk about financial investing, right? And it's like this quick snapshot of a Roth IRA of a CD of this, and they're trying to cover the whole gamut for a room of people, so it's not in depth. And you walk away feeling like, I should do this. Do I fully understand it? I don't. Then you get the job that has 401, K and, you know, five years of vesting, or whatever that may be, three years understanding those tools. What are people looking at? What are they dealing with? What is that?

Jason Baucom  21:28  
So if you do get a job that offers a 401 K, consider yourself lucky, because not every job has one and once you get that 401 K, it's it's on you to understand what's going on. Yes, get the HR manual out, read it, talk to the HR person, ask who the financial advisor is on that specific plan, and give them a call, send them an email, ask them for advice, what should I invest in? Because there's a lot of options, you know, and you want to make the best informed decision possible for yourself with the 401, K, a lot of companies will match that your contribution. So if they say we're going to match up to 4% or 5% whatever the number is, they're giving you free money, so might as well you contribute to that set number. So if they say, Hey, we're going to give you five 5% they can then, okay, go ahead and set aside 5% of your pay into that. And you usually have more than one option. In terms of you'll have a traditional 401 K, or a Roth, 401 K option, meaning that one's pre tax and one's post tax. The difference is, if you choose the Roth, you're paying the taxes now, but once you retire, you're not paying those taxes in retirement. So you were 30 years old and know you're going to retire in 30 years or but beyond that, you know in 30 years, the number that you have in there is the number you have. You don't have to worry about taxes and retirement, that doesn't count against your adjusted gross income for Social Security. That's another thing that's often overlooked. So I would tell you, you're like, Well, I want to take the tax deduction now. That's what a lot of people say. I want to take tax deduction now. Well, right now, our taxes at the lowest rates they've ever been. Okay, if you go back all the way to the Reagan administration in the early 80s, taxes were as high as 70% 70% and most people now are paying less than 35 so that being the case, payer taxes now, because taxes could go back up at any point. We don't know how much, but the more America spends, those have to get the money from somewhere. So taxes could go up. So take care of that tax bill now and then. Go ahead and let that money grow in a Roth IRA or a Roth 401, K, and you won't have to worry about that in retirement and and neither were your heirs if you somehow, if you passed away earlier than you thought you were going to, it would be able to pass on to them tax free.

Tanya Flanagan  23:42  
I love all of that, and it's so important because those are the basic tools that we hear about a lot all the time. They've been around for decades upon decades upon decades. And I want to talk about I wanted to talk about it because a lot of times communities of color are not advantaged. And really, people from all walks of life at any given point in time, regardless of your cultural background, can be at a disadvantage. So whether you come from a family that didn't talk about money because you didn't have money to talk about you were just trying to survive, or you just come from an environment where you are now, that generation that's beginning to earn an income that you can see future goals realized, having this conversation and listening and learning what you can do with your money to make it work for you, to make better, to be smarter. I think is a very valuable conversation. So I wanted to make sure I had you on the show to share your knowledge with the audience. I brought up the Educate the Federal Education Savings Program, that's now also a new trend, for lack of a better way to describe it, and we're getting into the last five minutes of the show. But for those who do or don't understand the i. The advantages of putting money in and the government supposed to match it. What do you think? What are the thoughts in the financial world about this?

Jason Baucom  25:08  
Well, there's, there's a couple different things. First we got to, we got to discuss the one big, beautiful bill, act, Oba. Now why do we need to discuss that? Because it expanded 529, the education savings plans that have been in existence. What did it expand so effective in 2026 the annual cap through kindergarten through 12th, expenses will double from 10,000 to 20,000 per child. So families have more flexibility. So for example, here locally in Las Vegas, you have Bishop Gorman High School, right? And tuition there is north of $15,000 a year. So if you're able to put money, more money away sooner in life for your children, you'll be able to take advantage and use that for high school and beyond. You can use it in earlier years as well, but now it's up to 20,000 so you'll be good there. Also the 529 funds can be used for non degree, post secondary credential programs such as welding, HVAC or EMT training. So it's a strategic, strategic push toward career focused education, not just college, so that there's some big changes that happen with that. I'm definitely in favor of those, because it doesn't matter what you do, but if you can have an opportunity to do something that you really love to do, you can funnel more opportunities to with that. The what you were discussing has been, quote, unquote, called the Trump accounts. The Trump administration established a new program through the working families tax cuts act, and it's for children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31 2028, coincidentally, for his term, that's why it's the Trump accounts. The federal government is going to provide a one time $1,000 seed contribution to each eligible child's account. Parents and others can contribute up to a total of $5,000 annually to the tax advantage account. Funds are invested in stocks and remain private property under Guardian control until the child turns 18 when they can be accessed for education, business or housing expenses.

Tanya Flanagan  27:05  
Now cash question in that space. So then a person, and we're getting to the last two minutes, and it's getting good, but then a person should feel like they're basically in the stock market with their child's college fund. Not that that's good or bad, but what do you say to the people who are risk averse? Because again, it's just like when you're doing 401, K Sure. 401, K Sure, it's, it's great to have it match it up, but no, you're in the stock market. Like, I don't want to, like, not tell people you're in the volatility of it and whatever it's doing, your money's doing that.

Jason Baucom  27:34  
True, very true. I would say the approach for that just go with the if the balanced account is available, meaning it's 50% stocks, 50% bonds, it's you're not going to get the same return you would get from a growth perspective or an aggressive perspective, but you will get a return and it'd be more balanced. So it would decrease volatility over the long run, which would be 18 years, you have decreased amounts of volatility. That would be, is where I would start, you could you could increase your risk tolerance, but at the same time, if you're not increasing your risk comfort, you're not going to increase your risk tolerance. So they need to go hand in hand, and that's where education comes in. You speak with the advisor and speak with him and ask him questions. Ask him or her questions about what they think and why, and ask for some historical data so they can certainly show them this is what it's done. This is not necessarily what's going to do in the future, but here's an idea of what could happen. So they get their arms around the subject

Tanya Flanagan  28:33  
before we get to the last second taking out on the show this morning, because it's just been such good information. Jason, how do people reach out to you if they are interested in having more you

Jason Baucom  28:43  
want to have a conversation with me, you can certainly go to JB wealth.org That's JB wealth.org There is a button on there to make an appointment. You can also send me an email at jason.bauckham@lpl.com that's jason.baucom@lpl.com or you can reach out to me on via phone at 702-812-6454, that's 702-812-6454

Tanya Flanagan  29:09  
Jason, I want to thank you once again for coming on the show, folks. I want to thank you for tuning in. I wish you a happy holiday. Stay safe, stay well, enjoy your family and friends and make great memories and think about your resolution around your finances. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you next time on 91.5 jazz and more. I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tonya, almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu. Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai