The Advisor Upside Show

Empower Investments Chief Investment Strategist Marta Norton breaks down the biggest risks facing markets, from AI earnings concentration to Fed expectations, geopolitics, and the future of the 60/40 portfolio.

What is The Advisor Upside Show?

The wealth management industry is changing fast, but many financial advisors are still using the same old playbook. Join hosts Sean Allocca and John Manganaro, along with leading industry expert guests, as they break down the trends shaping your business.

Each week, we'll cover critical topics while also having a little fun. It's all on the table, from retirement income planning and Social Security to the behavioral side of investing and what clients are hearing elsewhere. We've created The Advisor Upside Show because staying informed isn’t enough anymore. You need to stay ahead.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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John (00:00)
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Marta Norton (00:32)
there was one thing I hear pretty regularly, it's I've hit my number And that

number, whatever it is, is the trigger for someone to retire. I think that is a very dangerous way to look at what is ultimately a very complex situation.

John (00:51)
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Advisor Upside Show. My name is John Manganero. I'm a senior reporter here on the team at the Daily Upside, and I'm joined as always by my colleague Sean. Sean, how you doing today?

Sean (01:03)
Feeling good, John. Feeling good.

John (01:05)
All right, excellent. Well, let's keep this intro short because we're joined this week by another fantastic guest and Marta Norton from Empower Investments. If you're active on LinkedIn, you probably see Marta's commentary. She's always posting on there with very timely and insightful insights about the market. everything from the war in Iran to inflation to the jobs reports. I mean, she's very insightful and active, as I said. So we decided to bring her onto the podcast today and we're gonna be asking her about all these things and more. So

Sean, why don't we jump right into it?

Sean (01:36)
Let's do it.

John (01:38)
first of all, Marta, thank you so much for joining the podcast. How are you doing? How's your summer been going? You know, crazy to think that we're already talking about back to school season, but here we are in mid August. how how are you doing?

Marta Norton (01:48)
Yeah, I'm doing great. I'm great I'm glad to be here. You know, I think the thing that tells you it's been a good summer is if you're sad that it's ending and I'm definitely sad that we're in August. So everything checks out.

John (02:00)
Yeah, yeah.

Sean (02:00)
Mm-hmm.

John (02:01)
We've had a a fun summer here in the northeast. enjoying the World Cup. Sean got to go to a game or two, so I was pretty jealous about that. But yeah, it's

Sean (02:06)
I did one.

John (02:08)
been a a fantastic summer. Fun fun times here at the Daily Upside for sure.

Sean (02:12)
I wish I got to go to two, but the one the one was enough. But I

John (02:14)
One game.

Sean (02:15)
I checked it off the bucket list. But anyway,

Marta Norton (02:16)
Just one.

Sean (02:18)
well, maybe we'll jump right into it, Milo. and talk a little bit about earnings, which I know you've been kind of really on your mind in some of your commentary recently. you've said online that the earnings have been doing most of the heavy lifting, right, for stocks and equities. we've certainly seen strong earnings reports so far this year. They're just kind of soaring along. but if investors had to watch.

Just one metric over the next, say, six months or so, or or is there a metric that you look at a little bit differently or things that you've put a little more importance to that maybe others don't? Something that is a kind of a tell in the market that you're keeping a close eye on right now as these earnings continue to hit new records.

Marta Norton (02:56)
Yeah. Well, first let me give some context as to why I think earnings are so important because when we think about the long-term drivers of returns, right? Particularly within the equity market, it it does come down to the income that stocks generate and the earnings, you know, that they accrue. And and that really is the driving force behind returns over the long run. But you typically don't expect earnings to necessarily be the primary driver.

of returns over shorter periods of time. But in fact, that's what we have seen over the course of really the past year at least. If we decompose returns, we find that earnings were the primary driver and we actually saw valuations compress a bit. But I think when we look at conditions today and we ask ourselves what really matters for the market to continue to deliver, I think the primary expectation in markets today is that the AI transformation continues.

That the economy is well established and has a strong foundation, and that we are able to see these earnings accrue to companies, particularly within the AI space, but also that they broaden out to the rest of the US equity market. So that doesn't necessarily mean just that AI broadens out to the rest of the market, but that the consumer is strong enough, corporate fundamentals are sound enough that some of these other sectors can contribute.

And I think if we fail to see that type of broadening out, I think the market gets a little bit more skittish because it becomes more evident potentially that all things rest on AI. So I think that broadening out from an earnings perspective and from a market participation perspective is something that everyone's eyes are on in this climate.

John (04:38)
Yeah,

it'll it's a very sort of high risk bull market. I've I've heard it described that way. You know, that people expect returns to be strong, but you know, if if any one of these things falls out, we could really be in for some pain and and some volatility. you Marta, you mentioned you know, artificial intelligence. I you I don't think we've y had an episode yet where that theme hasn't come up, but just from the, you know, the the market perspective, it's some people think it's a bubble, others are are super bullish about, you know, where the AI trade and transformation goes. I mean

What are your what are your high level thoughts? I mean, so much demand for memory. That's one theme we've seen. But you know, there is concern that we're reaching speculative excess. W where do you stand?

Marta Norton (05:17)
Yeah, you know, I find this conversation to be one of the more polarizing conversations among investors. There are those who buy in, and really a lot of those are are futurists, technologists, folks who are really focused on that area and have maybe a a a very close perspective on how AI is developing. And then there are investors, particularly seasoned investors.

Who look at something like this and look at the spending that we're seeing in the economy and they look at triple digit returns for for areas like memory, and they are really leery about how things are coming together and what you know, what does this pretend and how does it compare to prior technological cycles? And so I do think that this is one of the big questions that the market is grappling with. And I guess what I come back to is

really understanding what the definition of a bubble is. And it you know, it seems to mean different things to different people. But when when I think about a bubble, it's not just a price thing. It's not just what's happening in the markets. You can certainly have massive accelerations and pullbacks and that kind of thing. And that in and of itself, that type of big market move, I don't think is enough to really be the defining foundation of what a bubble is. I think it also comes down to

fundamental excess. So this idea that not only are investors or markets behaving in in very euphoric fashion, but you also see people making economic and corporate decisions that are euphoric in nature. And this is where I think the great controversy is because as you look at the type of spending that we're seeing, particularly from the hyperscalers, the the numbers are just

jaw dropping, right? With you know the 2026 level is 600, 700 billion in spending just by a handful of companies to roll out this AI theme. That has the feel of speculative excess. And so there's a very narrow path to success here. And it's if that spending actually is is something that can be monetized by the very companies that are spending it.

And that I think is where the controversy lies. And frankly, I the jury is still out. We don't know exactly how that's gonna play out. I guess when I look at it, I tend to think that yes, we're seeing wild spending and not all the companies that are spending are gonna be successful. There's gonna be some good money poured after bad money.

But I also think that we could be looking at some companies that are truly able to monetize this. And so if you get valuations that are cheap enough, then maybe that's a time to to take a little bit of a chance on some of these companies that are spending so much.

Sean (08:03)
Yeah, maybe it's a good a good time to

maybe put those two themes you talked about together with the the massive soaring earnings and also the massive spending. So I guess it depends on where that all plays out, who are the winners, who are the losers. But from from the perspective of the hyperscalers, they're also have a lot of their free cash flow is getting compressed. And I think you've wrote about that on LinkedIn and other

Marta Norton (08:25)
Yep.

Sean (08:25)
places. so as you kind of think about the spending and also the earnings.

If

you're an investor kind of looking at some of these stocks today, or even an advisor that might be looking to put some of these stocks in client portfolios, are you caring more about the massive earnings or some of the free cash flow issues? Or maybe to put it in other ways, are investors just becoming impatient for these returns on AI spending and when are they gonna actually become reality?

Marta Norton (08:50)
Yeah, it's super fascinating because if you look at it on a price to earnings basis and you're just looking at, say, the Mag 7, for example, of course, they've rallied recently, but over the course of 2026, they have been just a massive disappointment for investors, although their earnings have come through. So you've seen this price to forward earnings compression, making that valuation metric look pretty attractive for these companies. In fact, be it at very low levels relative to a history stretching back to 2015.

But then if you look at them on a free cash flow basis, and you know, the certainly the money that they're earning is subtracting the money that they're investing, they look entirely different. I mean, that free cash flow has, in essence, collapsed. And so if you were to look at price relative to kind of cash flow metrics or free cash flow metrics, you might be a lot less enthused. And so I think what you need is kind of a bridge that connects the earnings perspective with.

the cash flow perspective. And the best way to look at this, and this is how I think the market is looking at them increasingly today, is kind of on a return on invested capital perspective. So taking a look at what that incremental spend is doing on an incremental profitability perspective. The trouble is that we have a mismatch right now because they have to kind of build it for people to come. And so right now they're spending so much that you have to make some assumptions around

whether they're actually gonna monetize or or earn the profitability to justify the spend. We're seeing some early signs of it. So one of the places to look in the market today, particularly for these particular companies, is the type of revenue that they're seeing from their cloud businesses alone and what kind of expansion we're seeing there. And we are seeing expansion. The trouble is a lot of that expansion is internally generated, generated within the industry itself. So you still have to take it with a grain of salt.

but there is some evidence, early evidence that the return on invested capital is there for certain companies. So that's that bridge that I'm focused on. So if I'm looking at at a portfolio today and I'm asking myself, do I wanna value it on a price to earnings perspective or a price to cash flow perspective? I'm probably gonna take some combination of the two and say, hey, I think these are somewhat attractive, but because there's so much uncertainty, maybe I won't overweight them quite as much as I otherwise would.

John (11:10)
Yeah, it's really interesting. And it's like the story of the Mag the Mag Seven this year has been so interesting. Like the the idea of us sitting here talking about the fact that f you know, according to certain metrics, they're potentially undervalued. That that's pretty amazing. I I wouldn't have seen that coming late last year, early

Marta Norton (11:25)
Right.

John (11:25)
this year. Are you kinda surprised to see them in that situation, Marta?

Marta Norton (11:29)
A little bit. I mean w how I've looked at it's particularly these names, but I think it applies to the broader AI ecosystem, which frankly is it has its tentacles across the US economy. It's not just in these Mag 7 names, it's also in small caps, it's in industrials, it's kind of spread out throughout the economy. But the one way I've looked at this is that the transformation is so long and coming. This is not something that we can build.

overnight. And so what we have to acknowledge is that there's gonna be moments of AI euphoria and AI moments of doubt. And those moments of doubt are gonna feel pretty profoundly scary and those moments of euphoria are gonna feel pretty profoundly exciting. So I think we have to take both of those extremes and kind of expect them as we go. I think the the surprise for me hasn't so much been the weakness of the hyperscalers, but I certainly didn't anticipate

how severe the bottleneck was for the memory names and you know, what kind of returns we were gonna see out of that space.

John (12:31)
Sean, it'll be fun to go to Future Proof and kind of bring some of these themes to all the AI focused companies and discussions there. I I'm v very much looking forward to getting the the vibe on the ground. usually feels pretty euphoric there, but that might have to do with the fact that we're on the beach. What do you what do you think?

Sean (12:47)
It'll definitely be it'll be fun. Yeah, the beach doesn't hurt. but yeah, it's funny to see the especially those Max 7 names because I saw some of them actually get into value ETFs. Like some of those big names were in the indices for some of these value products. just talking about the that they were actually undervalued to your point, John, which was interest interesting. Maybe we'll switch a bit to Fed rate cuts because that's always a fun topic, right? And this one's called.

Marta Norton (13:13)
The fun topic.

Sean (13:14)
This question we called market's favorite mistake. And the time there are several times that you've kind of pushed back on some of the market expectations for Fed rate cuts, which can obviously move a lot of a lot of different levers in the economy. Why do you think investors consistently underestimate how long interest rates can stay at?

Marta Norton (13:35)
Yeah. I mean, I I guess I think that the way investors have treated Fed cuts as kind of hope as a strategy. I don't know if it's necessarily completely something that they could pull out from the evidence as much as I think that it's very hard to let go of an era where rates were always coming down, the Fed was extremely accommodative. We had kind of thought of

A very low kind of close to zero interest rate environment as the status quo. And so the idea that that wouldn't be the case, that we could see a massive shift that wasn't temporary from the pandemic era, but that was actually long-lasting, I think that's really hard for the market to wrap its head around. And then I think it likes rate cuts, right? All else equal at lower rates is great for equity investors. and maybe not from a long-term perspective for the fixed income investor, maybe not from a savers perspective, but certainly.

Something that just, you know, it's the the party punch of the of the equity party. And so I think a lot of times people just want it and kind of try to will it into existence. It's been really interesting watching the evolution over the course of 2026 because we went into this year with the baseline assumption, at least in markets, that rates were coming down. And now we're in an environment where people are anticipating hikes. So that's been a pretty remarkable transformation.

But yeah, I think it all comes down to this hope as a strategy, which of course is is is not probably the proper way to invest.

John (15:06)
you know, Marta, it it for a lot of financial professionals, especially fairly young people in the industry, their whole first part of their career unfolded in a time whenever zero percent interest rates, even negative interest rates, were like

the

Marta Norton (15:19)
Right.

John (15:19)
rule. And now the things have changed so fundamentally, but people still have it baked in that the normal thing is basically zero rates or very low rates. But that that was an anomaly of of sort of the post financial crisis period and the industry.

Marta Norton (15:32)
Totally.

John (15:33)
has to really learn that lesson.

Marta Norton (15:33)
Totally.

John (15:34)
It it takes a while to actually internalize that. That's kind of what you were describing.

Marta Norton (15:38)
Yeah. Yeah. I just to just to follow up on that point, I think it's it been pretty fascinating that people have considered the pan you know, this post-pandemic couple of years that we've had as so unusual vis-a-vis what we had post-GFC where it was is such low interest rates. Because if you're looking at a longer history, to your point, it's actually been more than norm what we're experiencing today versus kind of this this kind of zero bound expectation. So

I I think it's it's more normal than we give it credit for. and I think that's one of the reasons why it might be more persistent.

John (16:14)
Yeah. And and Marta, could you comment on sort of how this year has unfolded and and what it's sort of demonstrated to us about geopolitical risks and and shocks and and you know, people spend a lot of time thinking and and rightly so. I mean, when when you see wars unfolding in the Middle East, it's very distressing to people. The human cost alone is extremely distressing to a lot of people, but just the how it actually does and does not affect markets, I think surprises people, confuses people. Could you talk a little bit about that and maybe what historic precedent kind of tells us about

How these things tend to unfold.

Marta Norton (16:46)
Yeah, it's really fascinating because I think a lot of times, and and to your point, rightly so, emotionally and maybe even somewhat psychologically, people draw a straight line from headlines to their portfolio, and they assume that whatever matters to the news cycle matters to their portfolios. And so I think immediately, as soon as we hear that, we can dismiss that to a certain degree. There are some things that make it into the headlines that clearly don't matter to markets. But I think

When it comes to geopolitics, people find it harder to dismiss the connection between the two. And this is something, frankly, that you know, I've I've spoken with lots of clients about, with lots of folks internally and externally about. You know, when does geopolitics matter to your portfolio? And I think what I I want people to remember is what those true drivers are of markets. And I I I started off our conversation talking about earnings being a major driver in the long run of how.

markets behave. And what I what I I want people to make sure they understand is geopolitics matter insofar as they change potentially the earnings outlook for companies. But if they don't change that earnings outlook or they don't necessarily have an enduring impact on inflation or the income that companies produce, then they're not necessarily going to really change how the markets behaved. And what's been so fascinating in the current climate

what we've had of course with the war in Iran, which what was that, February twenty-seventh, that kicks off. what we've what people have expected is we typically see higher energy prices right before a recession. So in that period of time there were lots of graphs going around showing how so many recessions have been preceded by really high energy prices.

But the environment is very different today. And one of the reasons the environment is different is because of where the US stands from a production standpoint. It's now the world's largest natural gas producer, it's also the world's largest oil producer. And we found that that companies and and countries have been really nimble in how they've responded to the supply challenge that's emanated out of Iran.

So, in other words, what we're not seeing is the same impact on earnings in this environment that we have seen historically, both from a consumer perspective and from a corporation perspective. And I think that's provided a bit of a hedge against the impact that we would otherwise expect from this type of geopolitical event. I guess you know, where I would come back to is just again reminding people.

What those primary drivers are of stock market performance, bond market performance. It's not everything that affects you emotionally. It's these handful of drivers like earnings, like income, to some degree inflation, that impact how corporations and consumers behave. And so it provides the US investor a bit of a hedge against some of these things that maybe have a greater impact overseas because maybe their sector makeup.

for that particular country is a little bit different. Maybe they're a little bit closer to the eye of the storm and their corporations are a bit more dependent. But here in the US, there is a bit more of a hedge than we've had historically.

John (19:52)
Yeah, that makes sense. And Sean, it also reminds me of the reporting that Emile on the team has been doing about the sort of blockbuster performance of some of the sort of tanker stocks

Sean (20:01)
yeah.

John (20:02)
and and and those ETFs, like fifteen hundred percent returns this year. It's pretty pretty mind boggling.

Sean (20:07)
The breakwave. Yeah, there there's one that focuses on shipping and and the shipping industry. And and yeah, it's been by far the best performing ETF of the year. I mean, I I think almost like exponentially better. Like you said, fifteen hundred percent returns on the year, which is pretty incredible. And we're actually looking back to see if there's some historical precedent to those or like just of having if that was like one of the best first halves of of the year for any of those phones, which I would imagine it'd be well, we'll get back to you on that once we do our data.

John (20:34)
Probably up there. Yeah.

Sean (20:36)
Yeah, hopefully it's

It's up there. But the other, the other big news, I guess, of of twenty twenty six was these you may have heard of SpaceX and Anthropic and these massive massive IPOs. And some of your recent research also pointed to the potential impact of of obviously SpaceX, but then OpenAI and that there's a handful of of other massive companies that are coming to market. And when they become public, you were talking about how that kind of does change the market structure a little bit. It certainly changes some indexes and some of the products that track those.

Those indexes, but it is this another kind of s IPO super cycle? Is it something bigger? Wh where do you see it happening? How is that impacting the markets?

Marta Norton (21:15)
Yeah, I think a lot of people, just given the fact that we're living through another technological innovation, are drawing comparisons back to the internet era when there was a massive amount of activity in the IPO market. What I think is the distinction this time around is it's not so much that we're having company upon company go public and take advantage of the environment, is having these three companies go public and really sitting at the epicenter of the AI economy.

They're able to give us much greater transparency into how AI is shaping up and what that uncertain future looks like as they begin to report earnings. But they're also massive in size. You know, their business models are well established. And they have potentially, depending on how much float comes available with the different companies, they have the ability to take pretty meaningful weights in the different indexes that are kind of mainstream indexes in the US.

Of course, SP 500 is a bit on hold, and at least for the SpaceX, until it hits a few other markers or milestones. But broadly speaking, the NASDAQ, the Russell, some these other indexes, they're already, SpaceX already on its way to to take up and soak up more assets there. So I think it's really that kind of the type of company that they represent, the size that they're at.

that in kind of the industry focus or the market focus on AI that makes them so relevant today. And that kind of gives us a sense of an AI super cycle, even though it's not the same flurry of activity that we saw in the dot com era. So I think they're transformative, but I'm not necessarily pointing to it as is one more sign of excess in the in the environment that we're in.

John (23:00)
Yeah, we'll we'll see. It'll be a very instructive ex like experience once we do kind of get to see into the books of the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic and and obviously SpaceX

Marta Norton (23:08)
Yeah.

John (23:09)
already. Very, very interesting.

Sean (23:11)
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Sean (23:39)
This week we're joined by Marta Norton. She's Chief Investment Strategist for Empower Investments.

John (23:45)
Marta, we've got one or two more questions for you. This one's very high level and feel free to take it whatever direction you want. But you know, typically with strategists like yourself, that you know, there may be one or two.

consensus views that you hear out there all the time that that don't quite sit right with you? Is there anything that, you know, your fellow strategists or industry folks are saying that you'd push back on or that you kinda doubt?

Marta Norton (24:06)
Well, I guess one of the things that pops to mind right away relates to this idea of rates and where are they headed and a lot of kind of data point by data point analysis. So we'll get us you know, we had some strong job numbers in the spring, and all of a sudden the narrative was that the labor market was remarkably healthy. And then we get the the labor data that we've had for the past two months, and people begin to immediately pivot and get a little bit more pessimistic, and you get the same kind of back and forth around inflation.

and I think the upshot is that you get a lot of volatility around views for rates. And so I remain in the no-hike camp for rates in 2026, whereas I think there's a lot more I guess at least kind of variety of opinion around that topic. And I guess a related concern that I think is really important for investors, particularly for the way they structure their portfolios over the long term, is there's been so much discussion around this idea that the 6040 is dead.

And I think a lot of that conversation when they say the 6040 is dead, what they really mean is the fixed income part of your portfolio isn't going to deliver anymore. And I guess I just don't share that same pessimism around fixed income. I actually like fixed income way more today than I did pre twenty twenty two when yields were at such rock bottom levels. So I tend to think there might not be a ton of protection.

in fixed income from inflation, but there is way more protection around growth and, you know, certainly growth disappointments. So I think that's something that I just want to make sure that investors remember as they structure their portfolios, that they don't necessarily have to t turn to one alternative after another. They can still have reasonable expectations for the fixed income side of their portfolios.

Sean (25:51)
What what's one thing you if you could convince in investors and advisors to to stop obsessing over?

Is there one like market statistic? Is there something they're paying attention to instead? If

Marta Norton (26:02)
Yeah.

Sean (26:03)
you could just try is it one thing that really irks you and you just wanna, you know, bury your head in the sand when you see it, what would it be?

Marta Norton (26:10)
I think especially in in the past, I would say the past two years or so, the one thing that has driven me crazy is this focus on, you know, consumer confidence, expectations, and that kind of thing. I you know, if if I if I am any indication of emotions not necessarily reflecting my reality, I'm always saying one thing or feeling one thing, but actually doing another. And I think that's true for us in mass as a population group.

So, this idea of focusing on consumers who expect you know extreme levels of inflation or who are incredibly despondent about the state of the economy, I think a lot of that can be really distracting and it's it's it's not worth putting equal weight on that versus the hard data. So it's just I I would just encourage people to focus on the hard data, of course, care about the vibes, but not necessarily invest according to the vibes.

Sean (27:07)
we invite our guests to critique one piece of misinformation or just outright, you know, bad advice that they've seen crop up on social media. There's a a ton of it, a ton of it out there to pick from. we don't need to name names necessarily, but you know, let's just see if we can clear up some of the

mis misinformation that we see out there. So what's one piece of bad say retirement plan or general financial advice that you've come across recently that just made you shake your head?

Marta Norton (27:31)
Well, if there was one thing I hear pretty regularly, it's I've hit my number or I know what my number is. And that that number, whatever it is, is the trigger for someone to retire. I think that is a very dangerous way to look at what is ultimately a very complex situation. And frankly, I get the temptation because when we're looking at the future, generally speaking, uncertainty is incredibly hard to

kind of get our hands around. And then when we think about retirement in particular, there are so many variables that are in full movement and kind of randomness, whether it's health concerns or whether it's, you know, longevity concerns or whether it's how the market's gonna behave. I mean, there are so many different variables that people are are trying to grapple with. And so I think it's really dangerous to focus solely on, you know, have I earned the wealth that I that I think I ought to have.

instead of kind of this bigger picture of thinking through kind of the wellness side of work and retirement and whether that makes sense, thinking through what the spending demands actually are and how those could change and morph in real time, thinking through the construction of the portfolio, I think it's it's it's a far more complex exercise than people give it credit for. And so I just I hate to hear it's distilled down to a single, I hit my number.

and I I'm I'm done worrying about it at this point.

John (28:57)
I like hearing you say that, Marta, because as the retirement reporter on the team, th those are the things that I dig into all the time, just trying to show

Marta Norton (29:03)
Yeah.

John (29:04)
trying to show people how complicated it can be and and just that there's a really big difference between the accumulation phase where, you know, there is a focus on maybe hitting a certain target or whether it's one or two million dollars and feel like you've got there, okay, that's one part of it.

Marta Norton (29:16)
Yeah.

John (29:17)
But coming down the mountain on the other side, there's so many number one, all the uncertainty about things like healthcare spending, you know.

longevity is uncertain. And then on the other hand, you don't know what the markets are gonna do. So it it's a very it's a very challenging thing. And I think it's an area where financial advisors can really shine. and you'd probably agree with that, that

Marta Norton (29:34)
Absolutely.

John (29:35)
it's a very hard thing to navigate on your own without some professional guidance.

Marta Norton (29:39)
Absolutely. And even if the financial advisor looks at someone's plan and numbers and everything and and says, this is great, that's just a great affirmation to have. Having that second set of eyes saying, Hey, from everything I've seen, you know, you're on track and and here's how we continue to move forward. I think i I think the affirmation alone is worth the relationship.

John (30:03)
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.

Marta, this was a fantastic overview of the markets. I I learned a lot and and I'm really glad we got to feature some of your thinking here on the podcast. I I follow along with what you produce on LinkedIn and other venues. So I'm really glad we were able to bring this to our listeners.

thank you so much for being here.

Sean (30:18)
Take

Marta Norton (30:18)
my pleasure.

Sean (30:19)
care.

Sean (30:21)
All right, everybody. I hope you guys enjoyed listening. If you want to rate us or give us a thumbs up, we can find us on all the podcast platforms we're we're there. So please, it's a huge help to us. when you guys

Reach out and and engage with those platforms. If you have any thoughts or questions, concerns, or things you want us to talk about or people to come on, drop us a line. the emails podcast at thedaily upside dot com. We'd love to hear from you. And John, what did I forget?

John (30:48)
well, we're on YouTube as well, where we're really picking up steam. I I have to say, I'm pretty stoked about the numbers that we're we're generating already on YouTube for a podcast that's really only been in the full swing of things for about two months now. So that's very gratifying, to be honest. I I love to see the the engagement from the readership. Lastly, I would just say if you're not already subscribed to the newsletters, head on over there. We have the flagship consumer-focused

the daily upside newsletter that that really got everything started. And then we've got our professional newsletters, the advisor upside, the retirement upside, and the ETF upside. If you subscribe to all those and the podcast, we like to think that you're gonna get all the information you need as a a practicing financial advisor who's really trying to go and be above and beyond for your clients. So that's about it, Sean. Let's go ahead and finish the episode here and and we'll be back again next week.

Sean (31:36)
Thanks everybody. See you then.