Positive Aspects Of A Global Pandemic

Summary:

The global pandemic is not a good situation by any measure, particularly when it relates to finances. However, in today’s show we discuss the positive aspects of our situation.
In fact, Dan shares how this global crisis might actually provide the opportunity of a lifetime for many people.

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Podcast Transcript

Tony Shore
Dolphin Wealth Management Inc and Dolphin Financial Group are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and or any other government agency.

Daniel Wendol
COVID-19 has put the world on edge. The situation isn’t good by any measure, and the economy is on its knees. However, today we’re going to focus on the positive aspects of this global pandemic. We will talk about some of the opportunities that have arisen in this situation. In fact, I want to give my opinion about what might very well be the opportunity of a lifetime for many people, but which I’m afraid most will not cash in on.

Hello and welcome to another Dolphin Financial Radio, not live, but remotely from our homes. So if you do hear my children or dog in the background, that’s why. Today I want to change the narrative, flip the narrative, as I say and focus on the positive aspects of this global pandemic. What do you say?

Tony Shore
It’s hard to even say the sentence “positive aspects of the global pandemic.” I love that sentence. But you know what, there actually are, and you don’t want to be insensitive to people who are really suffering right now and there are a lot of people going through hard times, but we want to help those people. Tere are some things out there that can help people stay positive. There are some positive outcomes. So I see some positive things happening. I see this bringing people together. And I’m glad you picked this topic today. Dan, I really want to talk about this with you. And I’ve seen personally a lot of positive things that people are doing and can do, even during this time.

Daniel Wendol
You know that I like to keep things focused on the financial and retirement aspects, but I might have to go a little outside that, but I will say there are some financial opportunities here and the opportunity of lifetime…well, I’m going to save that one for the end. I want to end with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tony Shore
I can’t wait and it’s important information for everyone to know. So that’s exciting in and of itself, and I imagined that aspect will be financial, but in the meantime, can I start us off with the single most positive outcome of this global pandemic?

Daniel Wendol
From your perspective or you personally?

Tony Shore
For me personally.

Daniel Wendol
I’m interested.

Tony Shore
I’m not wearing pants.

Daniel Wendol
I have no way of confirming or denying that statement.

Tony Shore
Well, now that I am recording in my home studio every day and not going out, I don’t have to get dressed up. To me that’s a positive. I can wear shorts! Let’s not take it too far. When I say I’m not wearing pants, I am wearing shorts. Normally I would always have to wear pants. You can’t go to work in shorts. You can’t go into the radio studio in shorts. They don’t like it. People I work with prefer everyone wear pants. I like to call it my short pants. I’m wearing my short pants

Daniel Wendol
That is a bonus for me as well. I usually wear pants, and I’ll even sometimes wear a tie. But I’m not wearing either of those.

Tony Shore
No, I bet not. I’m in T-shirt. I’m in a T-shirt and shorts. So that’s a positive aspect for me. And I’m, I know I’m more simple and with the seriousness of the situation, we hate to make light, but there’s so much seriousness and doom and gloom out there. I think we need a little levity and look at the bright side at least once during this thing. And for me, I’m a simple person, Dan is you know, that’s what it takes to really make me happy. The knowledge of Hey, I don’t have to get dressed up. I can wear shorts and not get in trouble. I love that.

Daniel Wendol
That’s a good point. I think we can have some levity here. Before we get too deep into the levity though, I do want to talk about some of the actual financial benefits here. And then we can get into the levity. But you started down a good path. So besides not wearing pants or being able to wear shorts all the time, one of the things I realized that I see, and I think a lot of people are realizing now, is the true importance of an emergency fund. Like we’ve talked about in the past – the emergency fund. Some say three months of expenses, six months, and I’ll have conversations, especially with people that are close to retirement, they’ll say to me, listen $40,000 in the bank, that seems like a lot. I mean, I feel like I’m missing out. I think I could invest that and do better than zero percent interest. And I’ll often say, you know what, you just sometimes having money in the bank. The feeling you get from that is enough to make it worth it. Knowing that you have some money readily available, God forbid we go into a global pandemic. I have a feeling those people that have that Emergency Fund are a little less stressed than their counterparts that didn’t have an emergency fund.

Tony Shore
Well, yeah, you’re not the kind of guy to say “I told you so” but you’ve been preaching that- have three to six months of an emergency fund saved up and for a long time. Had people listened now that this is hit, if they’re furloughed or laid off or unemployed, all of a sudden, because of the pandemic. Boom, there you go. They have money to live on because they have that fund. So this is just an example and you can use this as a positive to get back on track and say, Okay, I’m gonna get serious about this now.

Daniel Wendol
Right. And, you know, to bring it back to your wearing no pants, Warren Buffett said, when the tide goes out, it’s chance for you to see who’s not wearing pants. So you get to see who didn’t have an emergency fund. The unemployment checks will come eventually. Same with the stimulus checks, but they might take a while. It’s a logistical nightmare for the government to get this done. And I don’t even want to go into that. But, you know, it would be a lot easier if you had that emergency fund, which a lot of people don’t have. They are living paycheck to paycheck. What the emergency fund does is give you that breathing room so you don’t panic. It also gives you an opportunity because if you think about it, another positive that’s come out of this economic turmoil this this global pandemic is that the stock market has tanked. There’s some stuff that’s on sale. Sometimes you have to go backwards to take a few steps forward. If you look historically, we’ve always come back from this. We’ve done a show already on the economy and the stock market and how to handle the crash going forward. But in general, if you had some dry powder as we call it, or some cash on the side, whether that’s in an emergency fund or or just sitting on the sidelines waiting for something like this to happen with the stock market, you’re in a better spot. So for people that have the emergency fund that they don’t need it because their job is stable, and they’re okay right now, maybe that emergency fund can be used to capitalize on the stock sale. If that stimulus check won’t have to go to pay the rent of the groceries, maybe you can invest it. So there are some positives to this financially. It’s bringing to light the importance of planning. It’s bringing to light the importance of an emergency fund and it’s also allowing an opportunity for people to start investing going forward at a lower price. I know it’s not the greatest exciting thing, but I think it’s worth noting.

Tony Shore
Well, it definitely is worth noting and obviously if you do have some money sitting on the side, maybe you’ve got a CD that you can access or you’re you just got a tax refund, hat you don’t need to live on, boom, you could buy some stocks when they’re on sale when they’re down so low, right?

Daniel Wendol
Yes, or invest in that health savings account that you always heard about. It’s an opportunity. There’s Roth conversion opportunities. I mean, there’s plenty of financial opportunity. There’s going to be probably dozens of other advisors talking about those on their shows, but I want to I want to bring it back to some more of the positives, not as a way to capitalize because we can talk all day about that. But there’s something else that’s been happening Tony, I think this is a great opportunity. This isn’t the opportunity to lifetime, but I’ve seen and I don’t know you maybe you can tell me, honestly your situation. I’ve seen in my own family, we’re spending less. Our spending is down, and for a lot of people that have lost the jobs or that are temporary furloughed, they’re forced into budgeting. They are forced to start thinking about the things that we never want to talk about. They’re eating out less. There’s less discretionary spending and more essential spending and that’s actually good.

Tony Shore
All of those are positive things. Really. That’s exactly right. I think we’re getting America back on track financially.

Daniel Wendol
Are you experiencing that in your family?

Tony Shore
Oh, yes, we are. Yep. 100%.

Daniel Wendol
I was noticing that just yesterday- going out for groceries and risking your life, literally to get groceries is tough. But when you bring it back to your house, you mentioned your daughter made a meal. When’s the last time that happened? When’s the first time that happened?

Tony Shore
Well, you know, she’s done it before, but it’s been a while. And now she has the time. And last time we went to the grocery store, we got the ingredients, she looked up a recipe and said, Get these items. And then she cooked us an amazingly elaborate meal. I mean, like you see the chef’s prepare on television. It was just amazing. This chicken dish with sauce and rice and all these spices and it was amazing.

Daniel Wendol
Really? How many are in the family that ate that meal?

Tony Shore
Well, there’s five of us, five of us, my wife and I and our three children.

Daniel Wendol
Yeah. Now imagine if you went out to a restaurant, pre virus, and you got that same meal for all of you would you expect it would be over 200 bucks?

Tony Shore
Oh, yeah. easily.

Daniel Wendol
I’m thinking that it was less than that.

Tony Shore
It was a lot less than that. Yeah. It was not even close. Yeah, I mean, maybe there was $15 of ingredients in there. $20.

Daniel Wendol
And the positive thing of this, Tony is not just the the monetary savings because that’s immediate. But I have a feeling that you would rather spend $200 to have your daughter do it then $200 to go out to a restaurant and do it.

Tony Shore
Oh my god. Yeah, yeah. And it’s just a family experience too. It’s really good. It’s good for her self confidence. It’s good for the whole family. And, yeah, yeah, it’s amazing. And obviously, we’re eating every meal together now, and families that didn’t ever do that are doing that, for better or worse. Some people think, well, it’s tough and, you know, don’t always get along. But you know what, for my family, I think it’s very helpful to spend this time together. And you know, you have your own corners you can go to or you can go outside for a walk. So, I think you can still get away from each other if you have to, but the forced togetherness is helping some families out there. I know that.

Daniel Wendol
Maybe divorce rates will go up because people are spending time with their spouse that they’ve never done.

Tony Shore
If they don’t know how to handle it? I mean, you know, my wife and I’ve been married almost 27 years. We can’t sit next to each other all day, you know, right? There’s too much yeah, you know, I’m working downstairs, she’s working upstairs, I have the downstairs office. So we’re still in our separate jobs all day. So, you know, if you work things like that out and we you know, for lunch, we might go for a walk if we if you know, our work permits, we’ll take a walk at lunch or in the afternoon.

Daniel Wendol
I think spending time with family is a positive that has come out of this. And maybe it’ll change the behavior of people going forward, but I don’t know. I think that having financial…Oh, there goes my dog….

Tony Shore
Speaking of working from home. Animals!

Daniel Wendol
Yeah…financial benefits. I get to spend more time with my kids and my dog. My dog right! I saved some money maybe doing that, but not spending on food, going out less, impulsive spending on things that I probably don’t need…focusing on what’s truly essential. Which brings me to my next point, Tony. Oh, by the way, even though I am in my own home , I’m spending more time virtually with family and friends.

Tony Shore
Oh, really? Yeah. In fact, you mentioned something to me before we started the show that how when you were a junior high, there was a group of you who used to get together and play cards. So tell our listeners about that. I think this is awesome.

Daniel Wendol
Well, I grew up at a time when we used to play poker all the time. Growing up junior high, high school, and I used to play with my my friends. And then when we all went to college, you know, we’d get together during breaks and play. But then when we get married, moved, moved out of the state had kids, it’s like, we haven’t really gotten together. In fact, since we have been under this house arrest for lack of a better term, we were able to get eight of us, eight of us together! We found this online poker place to play for play chips. And the beauty of it is we got on one of these video conferencing programs and all all of us were on camera talking to each other. We didn’t miss a beat, because that’s just the way we were, you know, as guys, it’s just easy to just pick right up. Even though so much has changed for a lot of us. I don’t know if I can even put a monetary value on that. It’s just so positive to do that. That potentially is the best thing that’s happened during this crisis for me – connecting with some old friends.

Tony Shore
That probably wouldn’t have happened if it were not for the Coronavirus.

Daniel Wendol
It would not have happened. Absolutely not. We wouldn’t have had the time and we wouldn’t have been forced to be around. You know, you think it’d be great, but it just doesn’t happen until something like this forces it. This is really a huge positive for us. And I got my Dad on video chat. I had him install it. That was a fun doing that over the phone! So he’s able to chat with his grandkids all over two different states. You know, it’s just amazing. I think it’s great.

Tony Shore
I think it’s awesome. Well, and if our listeners out there, want to talk to you about, you know, the opportunities that are available right now financially or, hey, they’re in a tough spot. They want to talk about getting a spending plan in place or getting a plan to make sure they’re gonna have money yet when they retire, or what to do with their funds during this time when the market is down. I know that there are strategies and tips and tools you have for them. And you are still willing to meet with people over the phone. I know you’re doing online meetings with your clients and with listeners, as well as phone meetings, how do our listeners get a hold of you?

Daniel Wendol
I have three different systems I use; I use Skype, I use Zoom, I use Ringcentral. So I have tools to do it. They just email me or call me and just go to DolphinFinancialGroup.com and connect with me online. And I’ll set up that web meeting, or a lot of people just want to do a phone call, especially my clients. They say they don’t need to see any more of Dan. But for people that are new, we’ll do a web meeting. And I think it’s a great way. I love it. So there’s some positive coming out of this, I might connect with people that normally wouldn’t want to drive to my office, or doesn’t want me to come to their house and this might be a perfect opportunity to open up new connections with people.

Tony Shore
So I’m trying to stay positive about it. I think that’s great. And what’s that number again?

Daniel Wendol
If you call it if you call my main office line, a local number, I’m not there. But if you call 888-508-5935, you can connect with me wherever I am. It’ll ring my virtual home line or my cell phone simultaneously. So it’s, it’s pretty good. 888-508-5935 now, Tony, I want to talk about what I feel is the biggest opportunity of a lifetime.

Tony Shore
What’s that? Okay, I thought it was the sale on stocks right now, but that’s not the opportunity you were talking about? There’s another opportunity?

Daniel Wendol
Coming from a financial adviser, or wealth manager, retirement planner, you could make a case Oh, this is an opportunity because the stocks down! I don’t know the bottom by the way, and I’m sure not trying to pick it. You can make the case it’s an opportunity to connect with your family or it’s an opportunity to change your career focus, or spend more time improving yourself mentally or physically. But that’s not what I feel is the major opportunity. I’ll say it like this – this virus will pass this, this crisis will pass and we’ll look back on it and say, what could we have done differently? And there’ll be people that say, Oh, I should have bought Boeing when it was at its lowest or something like that. And you could say, Oh, well, maybe I could tax loss harvest or improve financially. But I see this as different opportunity. The big, missed opportunity will be for people to become grounded or to realize what’s important. The opportunity now is to become a happier, more grateful person going forward. That’s where I think the real opportunity is.

Tony Shore
Yeah, to make yourself a better person and give yourself a better life. And for most people, we’re so stuck in the rut. Life is just moving at a breakneck speed. And so we get caught in these ruts and we can’t get out. But now we’re forced out. We’re out of the ruts. And some might think because we’re in the ditch, but going into the ditch, got you out of the ruts, and now is a chance to change the way you’re going to navigate. So you don’t get into the ruts when you get back onto the road. I guess. I’m trying to think of a good analogy. But I see what you’re saying is this is a great opportunity to better ourselves. And we see it happening already all around us. I mean, you know, we’re seeing instances of I know the Massachusetts, the far right wing governor of I think it’s Massachusetts is working with the far left wing Governor of New York. And to help each other in this crisis, they’re sending masks and ventilators to each other. Gloves. I forget what it was. I saw it last night. And so you’ve got finally you’ve got Republicans working with Democrats to get things done, at least on some level. That hasn’t happened in a long time. I’m gonna say almost 20 years, probably I don’t know. So, yeah, I think it’s amazing that it’s bringing people together. And I think people are helping each other. I think it’s gonna end up bringing the best out of us. It’s so sad that it took such a tragedy to do it. But let’s take that opportunity of a lifetime to better ourselves. Is that what you’re saying?

Daniel Wendol
The virus is a common enemy. So we have a common enemy and we come together as a country. And on top of coming together and helping other people which by the way, we’ve done shows on how being grateful and helping others actually improves your own self and family. It improves your own financial self. I want to take it even deeper Tony as a personal thing and say it’s time that people start to realize, and maybe this will be the the time that a lot of people make that switch, that money isn’t the answer. We’re more than our money. We’re more than our job. We’re more than our professional status. When you’re at home because you can’t go to work, or you’re laid off, or you’re furloughed, or you’re an NHL star, or an NBA player and you’re home doing nothing, you’ll start to realize what is important. Hopefully. Is my job truly that important? You know, I see people around me passing away, I saw one of your favorite band members died recently.

Tony Shore
Oh yeah. Adam Schlesinger. He was young. One of the great songs writers of our time. He could write an amazing pop hook and was the main songwriter and bass player for Fountains Of Wayne, who had the hit “Stacy’s Mom”, of course. He’s really known for writing “That thing you do” the song from the movie, That Thing You Do, he wrote and help perform that song. So he wrote that track and that’s one of the hooky songs you’ll ever hear. If you’ve seen that movie Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do with the band The Wonders. He wrote that and yeah, he was only 52 and supposedly no underlying health problems but he got the Coronavirus and it killed him. He passed away two days ago.

Daniel Wendol
That kind of thing allows you, I mean it’s a tragedy, but maybe it puts things in perspective. Maybe it’s like well, When this thing passes, do I have to go back to working 16 hour days? Do I have to try and push push push to make more money? Maybe not. Maybe being home and seeing that, hey, I don’t need to spend all this on frivolous stuff, I’m perfectly fine making X dollars. My family bonded and we spent more time and had more fun when my daughter made us dinner than going out to that fancy restaurant. These types of things. Maybe my professional status isn’t important. Maybe I don’t have to freak out if my dog is barking during my podcast. You know, little things. It adds up and you start to question maybe this is an opportunity to realize that it’s not all about money and power and wealth. It’s more about just spending time doing the things you love to do. And I’m hoping that this, as tragic as it is, might be a wake up call or an opportunity of a lifetime for people to change the way they approach life and money and their relationship with money. Maybe. I don’t know. I think that is truly the opportunity.

Tony Shore
Yeah. I would agree, I think that is the opportunity of a lifetime, Dan, and we need to take advantage of it and turn this negative into a positive in any way possible. And not get caught up in all the negative negativity and go outside, take a walk, spend some time, you know, do new activities with your family. But great show today, some real positive outlooks there. Dan, we’re almost out of time. Why don’t you let our listeners know one more time how they can get a hold of you.

Daniel Wendol
Yeah, sorry to get all philosophical on everybody. But I’m being completely upfront when I think that the money is going to be secondary to the other aspects of life right now. You can’t miss an opportunity to improve your financial situation. You have time on your hands. You want to talk about it. Now’s a perfect time to plan. Maybe you got hurt. Maybe in the past things didn’t work out. But let’s go forward. I’m willing to meet with you. Over the phone, or online. Eventually we’ll get the chance to meet in person. Tony, great to do a show with you today even though we’re miles away and you’re not wearing pants.

Thanks for listening to Dolphin Financial Radio based in the Clearwater, Tampa area.