Omar sits down for an engaging discussion with St. Mary's Hall teacher, Jose Molina. Together, they discuss their passion for helping kids and the importance of engaging students in learning. At Saint Mary’s Hall, Jose teaches a personal finance course and overseas a student-managed investment group which has real money in a custodial account, allowing students to learn about investing and risk management. Omar and Jose discuss the importance of diversifying your portfolio, different asset classes, 401Ks and managing risk.
Growing Wealth.
Omar sits down for an engaging discussion with St. Mary's Hall teacher, Jose Molina. Together, they discuss their passion for helping kids and the importance of engaging students in learning. At Saint Mary’s Hall, Jose teaches a personal finance course and overseas a student-managed investment group which has real money in a custodial account, allowing students to learn about investing and risk management. Omar and Jose discuss the importance of diversifying your portfolio, different asset classes, 401Ks and managing risk.
Growing Wealth.
[00:00:00] Omar: Welcome to VaulkTalk. Really appreciate you all joining in for another session of just finance, chat, and banter with my good friends today. I've invited my friend and St. Mary's Hall high school teacher Jose Molina. Jose, thank you for joining us today. Welcome, welcome. So before we get started, you know, I think a pressing question on my mind is whether you are a tea guy or a coffee guy, or neither.
[00:00:25] Jose: Yeah, unfortunately neither. I tried coffee and didn't take, I was like, ah, it's too much caffeine. Although soda is what I drink, it's a carbonated, ah, I need the carbonation. I need the bubbles. And so I'll drink any kind of carbonated soda. I got not
[00:00:36] Omar: so much water, but yeah, I, I gotcha. Every, everyone has his or her preferred fuel in the morning, so I get it.
[00:00:42] Omar: I am currently drinking a black ASAM tea. This one is from my favorite company, tin Roof Teas. I order their teas online and every morning I wake up and start with my cup of tea. You're a tea guy. I'm a tea guy. I gotcha. Big time tea guy. Hot tea matter. If I'm gonna do anything [00:01:00] cold in the summertime, you know how it gets so hot and crazy here, like, you know, where's gonna start pretty soon?
[00:01:04] Omar: Yeah. Real, we're coming to that. Yeah, we're coming to that a week or two away. And when that happens, I'm, I'm gonna do some iced coffee. So I usually like iced coffees over iced teas, so, very cool. Now, now that we've got the really difficult stuff out of the way so I think, you know, just for our viewers you know what they'd probably wanna know or, or what I would like to know is just what brought you to San Antonio and just, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself and Sure.
[00:01:24] Omar: How you, how you came to San
[00:01:26] Jose: Antonio. Well, it, it's, I came to San Antonio twice, so right after college, right after college, I went to med school here. Oh,
[00:01:32] Jose: Didn't take, was there about two and a half years maybe? Decided this wasn't for me. I kind of didn't do the right research for it.
[00:01:37] Jose: I think. , so I withdrew stayed in the, me in the healthcare field. So I went to OT school. I was an occupational therapist. Oh yeah, sure. And I was an occupational therapist. I didn't know that. 2000. Yeah. Okay. 2001 met my wife.
[00:01:49] Jose: She was a medical student after me. She here in San Antonio. Boy, I was in OT school. Okay. I, I met her. And so we moved to Arkansas briefly for a couple years. She did a family [00:02:00] practice rotation there. And then she decided to go into pathology. So that's how it brought me back to San Antonio.
[00:02:05] Jose: I was working with pediatric With kids as an ot in Arkansas. And then came back and looked for a job in that area. Didn't, didn't have a great luck on on with that. And so pivoted and, and looked at doing, doing something else. And, and started tutoring. Actually started tutoring students.
[00:02:22] Jose: Cause I was, I went back to uts a to, look at getting another degree in, in math. I love it. Statistics. This is what I got my degree in eventually. Sure. But I met somebody there who was a teacher at St. Marisol. Okay. And she's like, oh, you should tutor at, you know, always kids need help and, and start Oak one and became like 50 or 60.
[00:02:39] Jose: Yep. Which you might understand. But yeah, so that was, that was how, how I got to San back to San Antonio and how I got to St. Mary's Hall. Actually, that was a connection there because I didn't know the school existed until even when I was here the first time I was at home.
[00:02:49] Jose: And so she, my wife continued her training as a pathologist and is now Chief Medical Examiner here in Bear County. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. Right. So she's, she's doing her
[00:02:57] Omar: thing here, so that, that's great. And you know, I think [00:03:00] we might have spoken about, you know, our passion for, tutoring and, teaching kids.
[00:03:03] Omar: Yeah, of course. And similar experiences along those paths. And, as you, as you very well know , another passion of mine is just helping kids.
[00:03:10] Jose: I was gonna say, so I didn't, I wasn't working at St. Mary's Hall until 2000, 3004. I was tour for a couple of years.
[00:03:15] Jose: Yes. And one of the board members, one of the students I was teaching or tutoring, her mother was on the board and said, Hey, you wanna just work? You tutor all the kids. Sure. Why don't you just work at the school?
[00:03:24] Jose: But then my wife said, look, you know, we're fine. You work too much and I want you at home more often, so get a study job. And so I said, okay, I will. And so I took the job. Sure.
[00:03:33] Omar: And, a nice impact to have, you know, because you get to see a lot more children through kind of the classroom setting versus tutoring For us, I think in our experience usually is one-on-one.
[00:03:40] Omar: When I think of like, yeah. Tutoring very,
[00:03:42] Jose: very much helped me become a better teacher though, because that's great. You, you, I saw the different types of learning styles with kids and so it helped me when I started teaching, not just have one, deliver one way. Sure. And so it helped me to try and figure out how to.
[00:03:56] Jose: Because to me, teaching's an art. It really is. It's a, you have the science and the art. The [00:04:00] science part, do you know what you're talking about? Do you know what you're teaching? Sure. And then the art is just, can you get it across?
[00:04:03] Jose: Can the well the kids actually come and
[00:04:05] Omar: to get the, to get it click, that's harder. I think I totally
[00:04:08] Jose: get it because you'll have some teachers up there, they really know information, but you see the kids and like, got it. They're not, they're not engaged. And, and so that's the key. I think that with anything, right, anything you're talking about, you're trying to, to give information to, someone and they're not paying attention to you.
[00:04:22] Jose: Oh, I know. It. It's it's a waste of time on both parts. So, yeah.
[00:04:25] Omar: And, you know, finance my experience in the wealth management industry and being a , wealth manager is really been, much of that is education. And so it's also in many ways, you know, kind of one-on-one with my client and tutoring and educating them about the investments, the investment process.
[00:04:42] Omar: And so you're absolutely right. There's a lot of similarities between those two worlds. Tell us a little bit more. I know your passion for helping children, students. Tell us a little bit more about what drew you in now into kind of the investment world. Because I also know you from the other arena, which is you and I talking shop.
[00:04:58] Omar: Right. Often about our investments [00:05:00] and Right. And what we do in the investment world
[00:05:02] Jose: to a point, you know, a lot more than I do, of course. But no. So, when I started teaching, I was teaching multiple classes. I mean, they had me doing algebra one, they had me doing algebra two. I've been doing pre-cal honors statistics too.
[00:05:12] Jose: I picked up statistics. Yes. My second, not my first year. I think when that teacher left that, that I told you about that, that I met at u ts a who got me into seminar hall after she retired. But they left the Voidance and I was the only one that with the master of statistics.
[00:05:25] Jose: I said, look, that's your, class. Yep. I said, sure. Which was kind of actually interesting because you know, getting a master, so the upper level stats courses weren't really. Helpful for teaching the courses in high, I think it was more difficult to do, I picked it up probably in 2005, 2006 AP Stats.
[00:05:41] Jose: And I was teaching that course, that was my main course that I was teaching. And then there was a teacher that brought in this book, this financial algebra book. Yes. In 2010, I guess it was 2010. He came back from a conference, Hey, look, you know, I, he didn't, he wasn't teaching, he's teaching precal.
[00:05:57] Jose: So he said, here's this book. You wanna, you wanna look at this and, [00:06:00] see if you wanna maybe teach it. You know, and I said, sure. So I took a look at it. I said, oh, this is fantastic. And this is relevant information for kids to understand, I think. And
[00:06:07] Omar: so, real quick yeah, that I, I love the fact that St.
[00:06:10] Omar: Mary's Hall has this financial algebra class and can you tell the viewers a little bit about some of the things that you learned that class? Because it's unique. Yeah. And I haven't seen it in many other curriculums in San
[00:06:21] Jose: Antonio, so it kind of more so it sort, it started with that textbook and it was called Financial Algebra.
[00:06:26] Jose: I'm teaching actually two courses now. And the names are, you know we name 'em differently than, okay.
[00:06:30] Jose: Instead of financial algebra, but they call it. Advanced algebra with financial applications. Oh, okay. I just wanted to make it sound a little bit more.
[00:06:36] Omar: Hey, sounds a little heavy.
[00:06:38] Jose: The other one I teach, that's, the yearlong course which has a lot more math in it than, because you can teach, I think, finance without all the math.
[00:06:46] Jose: Sure. There's programs out there to do it for you. There's, there's apps that do it do things for you. You can, crunch the numbers yourself. But then there's a course called that I called Principles of Finance and Investing, which is a semester course. Oh, okay. So I teach two
[00:06:57] Omar: now.
[00:06:57] Omar: I didn't know that. I actually, I don't know about this
[00:06:59] Jose: other course. It was a year [00:07:00] long course, very beginning. It was a year long course, and then we made it a semester course, and then the last couple years we incorporated, so it's two different courses. Okay. So I think what it gives is the students who.
[00:07:11] Jose: Who aren't like the math's, not their thing and, and they're not gonna be in calc or they're not gonna be in maybe, maybe in stats. That's that year long math course. Because it is pretty math heavy. Right. It just ties into the financial concepts into it. And, and
[00:07:25] Omar: I think that's one I recall it kind of teaches students or introduces 'em to the cons, like concepts of time, value of money.
[00:07:30] Omar: Correct. Correct, correct. And kind of like also, if I recall correctly too, I, like that there was real world applications to it. Like, you know, how to manage kinda like your credit cards, like how is Of course the APR calculated, right. And how, how do they take these on your balances and stuff. Right.
[00:07:42] Omar: So as far
[00:07:43] Jose: as subjects, yeah. So, so they teach kind of the similar, similar both costs teach similar concepts. Where we go into actually we talk about the psychology of, the cognitive biases and stuff. . We'll talk about that first. . In one of the courses and, and then but then we'll get into banking.
[00:07:55] Jose: Okay. Checking and savings, right? Yeah. We'll get into budgeting. We'll get into investing Of course. [00:08:00] And then we'll talk about credit. Types of credit. Managing credit. Yeah. Insurance. Talk about insurance and the importance of insurance system. So,
[00:08:06] Omar: so even like life insurance, for example. Life
[00:08:08] Jose: insurance.
[00:08:09] Jose: Wow. Auto, the big ones are auto and health. And then, and then of course I, I talk about life insurance on like the kids really kind of found that interesting cuz they, our kids are wondering if their parents are gonna leave 'em anything. So, but No, I'm kidding. But, so, yeah.
[00:08:23] Jose: So but it's really, I mean, kidding, but not kidding. Yeah. No, but the, the engagement is I enjoy teaching this course because the kids are engaged. I mean, cuz I sometimes a, have kids who are kind of ready, you know, they're seniors or whatever, and they're, they're pretty much done. But they'll, they'll engage in these courses just cuz they know.
[00:08:37] Jose: Oh, I can, and part of them, that's how important it's to at least have a general knowledge of what's going on before you get out there. Sure. Because I made mistakes when I got out there. I mean, I was in debt. Oh, rent. I mean
[00:08:47] Omar: everything. Yeah. What credit cards hit you quick?
[00:08:49] Jose: Credit cards are, yeah. How dangerous some of these apps are that you, you can spend all kinds of money and how, useful they are too.
[00:08:55] Jose: So yeah. Yeah. A lot of it's so in the course itself, you know it's a, not a [00:09:00] straight lecture. It's really a dialogue with the kids. , I have questions, we'll, watch certain videos, we'll talk about some articles but a lot of it's just going back and forth. Very, very
[00:09:07] Omar: conversational.
[00:09:08] Omar: Yeah.
[00:09:09] Jose: A hundred percent. That's kind of how they respond. I think with the math one that's a little different. That one I have to get into. Like the work, like we have to go through some of the formulas, you know, present value, future value. And I don't get too crazy with that, just cuz it's, those could be kind of complicated.
[00:09:21] Jose: Yeah, absolutely. I understand. But definitely you know, exponential function and how it works with the time with, if you put in a certain amount. You know, how much here's 6% interest and how much it'll be after 30 years
[00:09:32] Omar: and Sure. So compound compounding. Absolutely. Fundamentals of finance. Yeah.
[00:09:36] Jose: Really compound.
[00:09:37] Omar: You know, I, I think it's a invaluable education to receive in those early years before you even head out to college.
[00:09:44] Omar: I love the fact that St. Mary's Hall is doing this. You know, because as I mentioned, I don't really see it in many other curriculums in school. Right. I did it initially. Maybe more curriculums are now starting this process,
[00:09:55] Jose: but well, the, the curriculum I use now is a curriculum that's free.
[00:09:58] Jose: It's outta California. Great. [00:10:00] Everything's free. They do a great job. And that their sole purpose is to get. Every state to man mandate fine
[00:10:06] Omar: literacy. Fantastic for high school students, essentially. Okay, great. Yeah.
[00:10:10] Jose: And so it's a, it's a resource. It does all the work really, and I just kind of fill it in and I present it.
[00:10:15] Jose: I never have a, you know, I never have a, cause it's an elective, I don't have to take it. So I'm usually worried about, there's some electives there that people are worried about filling, but nah, that's usually filled. Kids are usually taking it, so yeah, it's fun.
[00:10:25] Omar: Sure. Well, you know, most, families around San Antonio know me for my tutoring business, brainiac.
[00:10:31] Omar: But one of the things they don't know is how passionate and excited I am about what I really do during the day. . Which is I spend on my time, you know, in the investment world. So what drew you into the investment world?
[00:10:41] Jose: , so it was actually young, a student who really got me into, into the stock market. So I knew what the stock market was, of course, you know, but he just said, look, Mr. Wayne, you teach, you teach statistics. This, this is, this is all about numbers. And I said, no, really? And so, yeah, that's why, that's how I got exposed.
[00:10:55] Jose: , I stick to investing with the, with the students? Yes. I strictly say,
[00:10:59] Omar: look, and, and [00:11:00] actually we, we can before we go into that. Yeah. Let's so when you say stick to investing, I should mention, and it's a great segue that you are also the teacher sponsor for the student Yeah.
[00:11:09] Omar: Investment club at St. Mary's Hall. Exactly. And so tell us a little bit about that club Okay. And, and what your role is as the teacher sponsor.
[00:11:17] Jose: I think it was 2014, we, started a group called the Student Investment Group. So kids got together and said, let's start a club. It was a club because we have clubs at, at our school. But they wanted to call it the group, separate student investment groups. Cig. They call it the Sig. Sig. Okay, great. So that was 2014 then. And then so we were just talking about investing and we were, we were talking about stock market and things like that.
[00:11:36] Jose: It was pretty general, but then I think I. Encouraged. I said, let's, let's make this real. Let's try and try. And I went to, I went to the Powers to be there at the school. Really the person in charge of the investment fund there at the school or I'm not sure what her, her title was. Yes, but she was, she was the chairman of the investment committee.
[00:11:53] Jose: Oh, of the school. Okay. Who handled the, so from the board, she handled the money. They, they have a company money, but she, I guess, engaged with [00:12:00] Right. She was on the board. Yeah. Correct. And so I went to her and I said, is there any way to make this real? Can I get the kids to trade instead of doing like simulated accounts like we did?
[00:12:08] Jose: Yes. I say, can we actually trade real money? And said, certainly. She said, yeah, let's look into that. And so she she had first thought let's take part of the endowment. And then they said, no, no, no. We're, we're not doing that. So, so we had to raise some money. So, okay. She said, let's raise some money.
[00:12:21] Jose: You can raise some money and the school will open an account for us. So we'll open an account for you and you just fund it and you. Have access to it and gets trained from there. It's a custodial account, I believe it's called a, it's a custo, a custodial account for the school.
[00:12:31] Jose: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. And so I, so I won the Master teacher award. We have this master teacher award thing that we did that's, there's a prize to it. There's a prize that comes with it. And so I took that and I seated the account. I was the first one to kind of seed that. That's amazing. That was about $5,000.
[00:12:44] Jose: Yeah. And then I had a few other investors, and so we had maybe about $8,000 or investors, but people who donated money. Yes. Maybe about $8,000 when we opened it up, but that was in 2015 that we did that. Okay. So we opened the account, and I remember the first trade we did that they did, now we, that the kids pitched was kmi.
[00:12:58] Jose: And so I still remember that [00:13:00] it was, it was kmi you know, Ken and Morgan, and it was a pipeline company. Right. Which didn't do well. So it, I think it, we lost by half of our portfolio. Oh no. Half, half of the, half of the I think we invested a thousand. Okay.
[00:13:11] Omar: So you lost half that allocation. Yeah.
[00:13:13] Omar: Yeah.
[00:13:14] Jose: We lost half. Then they doubled down on it. Oh yeah. Okay. So invested again and then it came back. And so we broke even. I think we broke even. We initially, I think at the beginning though, they were hesitant to, to make, to make stock pays to make trades.
[00:13:27] Jose: Sure. Just because I think it became real money. And I said, well, you know, school's money, don't think about it's yours. You know, this is for education purposes mostly. If we make money, great. That was a side, that was the secondary thing. But I really wanted them to get involved in, in a real way.
[00:13:39] Omar: Invest.
[00:13:40] Omar: Hey, you handling real, real, I think it made a difference. It's psychologicals very different than just paper trading.
[00:13:46] Jose: , the account was doing fantastic until 2022. Oh, we were of course, right? Yeah, we were, last year we were up. I mean, probably. 40, 50%. Cause we were keeping track of the s and p and how we were competing with that.
[00:13:58] Jose: Yes. And they were doing very [00:14:00] well. They were probably making, you know, averaging out 15, 20% a year looking at the average. Wow.
[00:14:05] Jose: Yeah.
[00:14:06] Omar: I kind of just, yeah. I was gonna ask you kinda like your role with the student management fund. Like, you know, do you like trust my, your philosophy mentality?
[00:14:14] Jose: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I was like, look you guys, it's yours to, to, to handle. Unless they like going crazy on it. I was like, okay, be careful. But, but it's a group thing.
[00:14:22] Jose: That's why I think it was so important. It was, it was a group effort, which I think is really important. In investing, I think it's gonna be lonely. It can be kinda lonely. Yes. From my own personal perspective, I was like, oh, this is not, I, I would rather be with somebody talking about investing than, than doing it on myself and this, this, this provided them that, that, that forum great.
[00:14:38] Jose: I, so that was great.
[00:14:39] Omar: . And, and do you have any sort of like risk controls around the portfolio or like, do you let them kind of determine how much Correct.
[00:14:46] Omar: The money they want to allocate? About what size is it now?
[00:14:48] Jose: Two to an extent. Yeah. So it got us about 54,000, so yeah. Yeah. Now some of that was not all,
[00:14:54] Omar: that was growth. Okay. I was gonna ask, is all organic growth or was there some contributions?
[00:14:57] Jose: Had some contributions. So we probably had about. [00:15:00] Maybe 20, 22,000.
[00:15:02] Jose: I have to go back around there of actual donations. Yes. And so we've, so it's sitting around 40 right now, so it wasn't 50 something. So Yes.
[00:15:09] Omar: And in a hundred percent essentially in the market right now, no but's heading in 2022.
[00:15:14] Jose: I'd say in the first, the very beginning years, we were maybe we half at the most in, I was really wanting them to, to do more pitches and, you know, I tried to encourage that, but I wasn't gonna make them that serve. Yep. And I'm, I gonna force somebody hate go pick this. Right? Sure.
[00:15:28] Jose: Around 2020 this young group came in and really just , one gentleman who said, let's dive into it more. And , his thing, we need to be fully invested. And sure enough he got that, he got that group fully invested
[00:15:39] Jose: We don't have like president and vice president. We have portfolio manager. Okay. Com portfolio manager, chief analyst. Yes. You know cfo you know, sector analysts. We, I just had names that were, that was Whitney's, sorry. That was, that was the young woman who helped me out with this. Her idea said, yeah, let's make, let's make the names.
[00:15:54] Jose: Sure. You know, more relevant. And so yeah, he took over and said, look, we are, we're going to pitch, pitch, pitch. And [00:16:00] so yeah, we were, we were fully in. That's what brought our portfolio up. So I think I would say cuz right after the pandemic or March or May of 2020, I'm guessing it took off the market took off.
[00:16:10] Jose: Yes. And we were all in. That's right. So we made all that. I mean, and they made some good, some interesting, you know, at the time one of them pitched Dardens, which is restaurants. Yes. I was thinking, boy pandemic, what are y'all doing? But sure enough it popped. I was like, good for you. Right. So I mean, you know, that that's, that was, that was their, you know, that's why I thought was really cool how that worked out.
[00:16:29] Jose: But yeah, so that it took off, but then yes, so we did a little rebalancing probably in 2022 which is probably smart at the time. And so they, they you know, we sold some funds here. And bought some others to, to bring Okay. Them all kinda level.
[00:16:41] Omar: And, and, and is it all active or is there any passive investing taking place in your student manage fund
[00:16:48] Jose: now?
[00:16:48] Jose: Do you mean when you say passive investing, they just buy and hold? Do you mean we buy
[00:16:51] Omar: or So like an E ETFs, like a, let's say the spider etf just kinda like passive away, just put
[00:16:56] Jose: So the cash we had, they wanted to invested.
[00:16:58] Jose: Yes. So they put it in [00:17:00] qqq. Oh, okay. So, so they did put it into,
[00:17:01] Omar: So for our viewers who don't know, you know, the, the, the BTF Triple Q or the box follows the NASDAQ 100. And so those are gonna be your big cap tech stocks, primarily tech driven growth stocks. But
[00:17:13] Jose: their thinking was of the three, the s and p, the.
[00:17:16] Jose: And the Dow and they thought that Nasdaq was the one we needed to be in. Sure. Cause that was the one moving Boston. Sure enough. We had some ETFs, right. We have a currently one now. It's it's a Vanguard Health. Oh,
[00:17:26] Omar: okay.
[00:17:26] Omar: The health sector. Vht. Oh yeah. Okay.
[00:17:29] Jose: We, although we are heavy in like in the tech and, and in the communications, like we have Facebook. Yes. Meta. We have meta, we have apple some of the big ones. Microsoft. Microsoft has been very good for the, for the group. Yes. Costco, that's an off, you know, that's one of our non tech. And, and then what else are they in?
[00:17:45] Jose: Goldman Sachs and some well known companies, although they, they got into. CrowdStrike, which,
[00:17:52] Omar: oh, interesting. Yeah, so this is much more geared towards kind of the growth space. And for, they were looking,
[00:17:58] Jose: that was a speculative [00:18:00] big pitch on their, they were, they, they said that, they said, look, we're gonna hang onto this, but we're still
[00:18:04] Omar: destroying it.
[00:18:05] Omar: And that, that's essentially cloud cybersecurity. Yep. And, and so, but really targeted more towards the smaller cap growth. And that one,
[00:18:13] Jose: Ingo? Yes. Oh yeah, sure. Electric vehicle, they got into that one as well. Those are the two that are really well right now. They're . Coming back up, cuz this, this year started off pretty good for the, for the, for the stocks.
[00:18:23] Jose: Yes. But, but yeah, 2022 it took a hit. And, and,
[00:18:27] and
[00:18:27] Omar: of course you know, one of the additions last year that I was aware of too was the addition of Tesla. Correct. Which soon after I think you all invested Correct. Significantly, but is now again, rebounding back up. So when something like that happens, does the group decide to add more?
[00:18:44] Omar: Did, did they double down when it really came down? Or was it like, Hey, you know, it's taking, it's taking a beating right now because Tesla had a rough year last year, if you recall. There are a lot of other Correct. Exogenous. So
[00:18:54] Jose: , They kind of didn't really keep track as well as they should have in those positions. So because I think that would've been [00:19:00] smart. But again, that was their, I don't want to, like I said, but what I, what I've kind of implemented with the new, we have a new portfolio manager. We have officer elections in January versus like a lot of the clubs have 'em in the beginning of the year.
[00:19:11] Jose: Yes. But I have 'em in January. And that was my own kind of thinking is because, so if it is a junior, then they'll be a senior. Oh, sure. So, so into spring, but then, I mean, into the fall, but in the spring, a lot of the seniors are, they're checking out, right?
[00:19:26] Omar: Yeah. So even in
[00:19:27] Jose: this group that I think is very important.
[00:19:29] Jose: Okay. You can still be a part of it, but if you're gonna be an officer, I really want you involved, right? Yes. So that's kind of why I do it. So we have a new guy and so I, I talked to, I talked to him, I said, look, you know, I think we need to do something a little different where we have. Somebody needs to keep track of the stock. I, I need you to designate who's gonna keep track of what stock. Yes. And then on a weekly basis, or even a bi-weekly basis report, how's it going? What are we doing?
[00:19:52] Jose: What do we want to do? Do we wanna put more money into it? Do you see something going on? What's, do we need to sell
[00:19:57] Omar: it? A hundred percent?
[00:19:58] Jose: Yeah, a hundred percent. Now. And if, and if they do [00:20:00] wanna sell it, They have to pitch that and the group has to agree, can't just tell me, let's sell it. Yep. Everybody has, it has to be a completely
[00:20:05] Omar: a group.
[00:20:06] Omar: So Democratic just majority's worked well. Majority wins. Yep. I think
[00:20:09] Jose: it's worked well, but you know, it's something you wanna do. Then yeah, I think, I think it's just individuals right now that we have in there. But I said you could be more than two people that I want somebody looking Apple. I want somebody looking at Tesla.
[00:20:18] Jose: I want somebody looking at and reporting. Yes. I think it's important. So that's, I should have probably implemented that or maybe somebody should have, you know, cause we're just kind of keeping track and, and we do have like a chief analyst who takes a look at the global mar like, like as a whole. How like macro you're doing Correct.
[00:20:32] Jose: Just kind of market you're doing. Cause 20, 20, 22, you know, I, I was looking at all the stocks. I was thinking, why don't we just get out? Yeah. I mean the trend is like, and come back in later down. Right, right. I'm like, what are we doing now? So we, we probably should have been maybe a little more engaged cuz we probably would've gotten out of CrowdStrike.
[00:20:47] Jose: Yes. Probably would've gotten out of Bbgo. Cause they took a, and there was some bad new, you know, I
[00:20:51] Omar: think some, well it was just a very discriminating and difficult environment for growth. Yeah. Last year. And, and so, you know, those growth [00:21:00] names as we saw the Nasdaq really plunged even farther it did than the s and p 500 or the Theo.
[00:21:06] Omar: Just because of being so gross. I think energy was the only thing that really did well. The energy did quite well. That's right. We didn't
[00:21:12] Jose: have the energy stock. And had we been in energy, I think we would've done it. I think we just didn't keep track as well. Sure. And that, that. I, I'll take some of that blame where I should have probably pushed some
[00:21:20] Omar: pictures.
[00:21:21] Omar: But, but again, this is really led by the students, and so it is, you're not, you're not even saying like, Hey, we need to diversify in our sectors. We don't necessarily, you know, have to keep X amount in energy, your X amount in. Correct. Healthcare or tech or, you know consumer discretionary. It's really you're letting the students decide.
[00:21:37] Omar: It could be like a hundred percent tech if that's what the students decide. I think.
[00:21:41] Jose: I think they, that there's enough voices in there that don't want that. Okay.
[00:21:44] Jose: That's just them. Yeah. Saying, look, that's not a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's smart. But even, you know, but
[00:21:49] Omar: it's, it's really cool that, that the students decide this. Right? Right. Hundred percent. This is all like the stu this isn't like, if, if they really want to, they could say no. You know Jose, we really, or Mr.
[00:21:58] Omar: Molina, we really want, [00:22:00] a hundred percent of this to be in tech, but, but you would probably advise them to say like, we don't want a hundred percent of it to be all in Tesla, for example. Yes. Right. Right. So that's where you, so you,
[00:22:09] Jose: , as you know, , in different industries, stocks go different ways, right?
[00:22:11] Jose: Yeah. They, they do. You can diversify within the actual industry or the, the sector itself. Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:22:16] Omar: Absolutely. There's always generally winners and losers. Like, even if the, the sector is rising or falling, not all of them are rising or falling at the same relative rate. So, so what I
[00:22:24] Jose: hope, what I, what I, I think the kids have done is created their own, like, mutual funds, right?
[00:22:28] Jose: Going back to what I teach in, in in the, in the, in the class, right? When I talk about investing in the class, I don't, I talk about individual stocks, I talk about bonds, I talk about, but I talk about how investing in. Is taught. I mean, well, how I, I think somebody, especially if you're not really gonna get into it, I just want you to understand what's going on.
[00:22:45] Jose: Sure. You know, and where your money's going and, and things like that. So I, I tell 'em straight up, here's, I said, look, here's, you know, you get a job, right? Hopefully they have a, a match , a 401k, . I said, that's the first thing you go, that's free money.
[00:22:57] Jose: They're throwing money at you. Like, put that money in [00:23:00] there and it'll go up a hundred percent as soon as you put it in there. Yep. You can't beat that. Right? That's right. And that's what I, put, put as much as I can up to the point of matching and then I take the rest of it and I'll go into, we invest somewhere else.
[00:23:09] Jose: Like my wife and I put our money in mutual funds. We do, we do diversify, but she's very risk averse. Sure. We talk, we diversify our money quite a bit. So we'll go into mutual funds, index funds. We have probably like six or seven. And and a bond fund of course, you know, as we're getting older, but right now, currently we're putting a lot of our money into our house.
[00:23:25] Jose: It's real estate, sort of we're saying let's pay it off.
[00:23:27] Omar: Yep. Another great asset class. Like, so we're just talking about different asset classes and, but I do have some of
[00:23:32] Jose: my, I think BOLO calls it funny money. I do have some money that I just play with Yes. On the side, which I'm like, I could
[00:23:37] Omar: lose this and I don't.
[00:23:39] Omar: I'm just about to, that's a great segue for what I'm gonna
[00:23:41] Jose: go next. Don't, don't talk to the students about that per se. I said, yeah, you can. There's these people that make, cause they, they know about it. They'll bring it up. What about. Making all, all those meme stocks and Yeah, I said, sure,
[00:23:50] Omar: that was like a hot thing.
[00:23:52] Omar: I remember the pandemic, everyone's sitting at home and you've got like GameStop that you know, at best maybe $3 ac, GameStop. I mean, it's like going up to [00:24:00] like 300 a share. It is very tempting. Three, $300 share. I mean, it's just wild. Right? I mean, you've got this and, and in some ways the, the story there too is real compelling cuz it's almost like the retail crowd versus the institution crowd.
[00:24:12] Omar: That's right. And up until that point, you know, , the philosophy that the institution crowd kind of always wins. They move together, they kind of have that information. And but then you had these retail guys kind of going out there and sticking it quote unquote to the re so the information, different sides of that story, right?
[00:24:24] Omar: Absolutely, absolutely. I'm presenting one side that Tends to be more of that kind of quote unquote, the, the Robinhood side. But no, absolutely, and, and, and a lot of people didn't understand the fundamentals of what was driving, right. Those price movements and that volatility in those names. You know, a lot of let's say just average retail investors never really understood the short side and the short covering that was this like taking place and kind the risk that the institutions had taken on that allowed for that to happen.
[00:24:50] Jose: We do usually amount $2,000 into it. Okay. We'll, of the 40,000, so, yep. You know that's about as much as we will we'll put into it. But yeah, no, and, and I, I, I think they've done well. [00:25:00] No. Well, again, we took a little bit of the hit and Sure. The, the young gentleman who graduated. Who was really got that thing really going, it was really generated by him.
[00:25:08] Jose: Okay. I'll give him credit and, and and, and, and other, other others. But boy, he got him going. And so and I think it's been mental leader, like, you know, leadership styles, how it goes. Sure. A little more passive as of now, but that's okay. You know, it's still, it's still functioning. We're still like beating the market, I think when we look at that.
[00:25:25] Jose: But we have about only two thirds invested. So, so that's where I'm hoping they. Come back this year, if not, and, and, and invest the rest of it. I mean, I do want em to be fully invested. Well, it is
[00:25:35] Omar: educational. Absolutely. And, and even if the other third isn't in the market per se, now there's actually ways to earn money on your cash.
[00:25:43] Omar: So, correct. It's the money market account right now. Exactly. It's the money market. Whereas before, you know, in the last couple of years Correct. You were, you weren't being paid to. That's a good point. Send cash. No. So it's a little bit, but it is, yeah. That's something. It's a small and then it helps kind of manage the volatility you know, as well.
[00:25:56] Omar: So, correct. Right. Correct.
[00:25:58] Jose: It is an asset class. Yeah, that's right. That's [00:26:00] right. Bonds, we don't do. Right. That's something I just teach in class, but I, we have our own little bond fund at home. I do 'em my own, but, but now bonds are, yeah, they're, they're not as exciting as stocks. Well,
[00:26:11] Omar: that's right.
[00:26:12] Omar: It's a different asset class and that, and that's exactly why you might want it in your portfolio because it's not as exciting as stocks, but it helps you sleep better at night. Correct. So. Well,
[00:26:20] Jose: and this one, you know you know, potentially,
[00:26:22] Omar: although LA Last year Bonds
[00:26:23] Jose: So I tell them, I said, look, you know, my, my wife and I, we, we are putting a little bit more as we get older in our money into, into less volatile, even though we're, they're diversified into index funds and mutual funds, which are pretty diverse, it's still no guarantees.
[00:26:36] Jose: Right. Our, our account took a huge hit. Yeah. You know, but I tell 'em, I said, look, you know my own account, I'm a teacher for heaven sake. I, my salary is not, you know, as the salaries, as they go, as teach for Teachers, my account in my retirement account is pretty, pretty. I was surprised when I was like, oh, wow.
[00:26:50] Jose: It's, it's pretty large. I like because of the matching
[00:26:52] Omar: the match. Right. It's counting.
[00:26:55] Jose: So target date funds that I think I put mine to be 10 years past. I wanted my [00:27:00] more aggressive. Yes. So instead of putting mine in 2030, I put it 2040. Sure. So it's a little more aggressive. So I was a little more aggressive at the time but yeah, so it helps, helps. And, and,
[00:27:09] Omar: and target date funds essentially are funds that you can think of them as managed funds, so to speak. Yeah. That are really based on when you're planning to retire and they adjust internally ask the allocation between your equities and your fixed income. Correct.
[00:27:21] Omar: And so it helps to manage the risk. So, and it makes it easy.
[00:27:24] Jose: And we do talk about the thing Roth IRA is I'm huge on Oh yeah. On
[00:27:27] Omar: Roth IRA after tax, a hundred percent in investment vehicle. Yep.
[00:27:31] Jose: Correct. Correct. The difference between Roth and traditional Yep. And and a brokerage account, right? Sure. They're all like,
[00:27:36] Omar: just regular individual investment
[00:27:38] Jose: account.
[00:27:38] Jose: A hundred percent. And then they love the Roth and everything. I said, look, do it, do it while you can. Cuz if you make a bunch of money, you can't put it in there. Right? Right. So you, and you can only put in like, I think it's 6,000, whereas, whereas in your 401k, your retirement account through your employer, you can put in like a lot more. I do have them do they are doing simulated stock portfolio of their own, right.
[00:27:54] Jose: So I have them and they're, they're really, and I, I limit it to 10. I I have to also put all their money in one [00:28:00] stock. Yes. So I give 'em a hundred thousand dollars of fake money and, and they, they put a, I said 10% to the most you can put in one stock and won't let you. I said it to where you can't put in more than that.
[00:28:08] Jose: Right. So like risk management. Yeah, a hundred percent. And so I have them pick their own kind of just, just look out there, what do you like, what do you know? Yeah. You know, I don't really delve into before I even talk about investing, I let them kind of learn their own cuz it's, yeah. And you
[00:28:21] Omar: know, that's nice.
[00:28:22] Omar: So last year, you know, like Max for retirement account let's say was like 6,000. And but that's where the brokerage or the individual account comes in handy too, because you can still take your after tax money and put it into an individual account, which doesn't really have the same tax benefits when you withdraw the money or as you earn income in the account.
[00:28:41] Omar: But it still allows you to generate growth through compounding. That's right.
[00:28:45] Jose: So my wife and I had a Roth ira but, but cuz she makes pretty good money, we couldn't put more there. It's still growing. . It gets kind of capped. . It's still growing. We're just not putting anymore in.
[00:28:53] Jose: Right. And then, so we have an IRA as well. Traditional area, but we also have the brokerage account. Yes. Which we are starting to put more of our money in. Yes. Because of [00:29:00] like, we can access it. Correct. A lot easier getting a penalty That's correct. From the retirement account, which we're not 59 and a half yet, so, right.
[00:29:06] Jose: Yeah, exactly. 60 years, whatever they pick it up, pick it to me.