Peter Dunn: [00:00:00] It's 2025. Hello, everybody. It's the Pete the Planner show. First show of the year for our live stream audience that probably doesn't exist today because, Dean, we're doing the show on a Thursday at 1 p. m. That's a high traffic time, is it not?
Damian Dunn: The ratings are going to be through the roof for this episode.
Peter Dunn: Christian Dame has been on the most sabbatical break. I think I've ever seen in human history. Dame prior to coming back at the start of this year, how long was your time off?
Damian Dunn: Nearly three weeks. It was a spoiler alert. It was amazing. It was every bit as good as you might have possibly imagined it. Waking up, not knowing, or knowing that I didn't have to talk to it's yeah.
Peter Dunn: Kristen, how are you? Do you own a home?
Kristen Ahlenius: [00:01:00] I own a home. I just own the same home that I've owned. Okay.
Peter Dunn: And no farm animals yet.
Kristen Ahlenius: No not in addition to what there already are. No
Peter Dunn: big rick swing. Big rick big rock swing I should say hello checked in with me last night on instagram Make sure that we're doing okay up here.
So that's very kind
Kristen Ahlenius: That was kind.
Peter Dunn: Hello, Dan. Guys, before we start the show, everyone's favorite show of the year, the Stock Pick Reviews and the Stock Pick Predictions for 2025, I do have to share some oddly disturbing news with both of you. I've not talked about of this with either of you. You guys, I've gone down a rabbit hole of content that I need to talk to you about, and I'm a little concerned.
I've started reading books on UAPs slash UFOs and whether they're real or not. Now, Dame looks like he's excited. Kristen looks less excited. [00:02:00] Dame, have you gone down
Damian Dunn: this
Peter Dunn: rabbit hole?
Damian Dunn: I'm just, more listening to the conspiracy theorists on social media and watching videos that they put out.
But I feel like I'm up to speed on where most of the people are. Thinking or hallucinating. I'm depending on your
Peter Dunn: perspective. Here's the challenge. At some point you start consuming it. You start nodding. You're like, wow. Okay. Okay. And then you find yourself this crossroads of, am I going to believe this?
And I'm right there right now. I'm like, I look, I believe in Jesus. I believe in Ted Lasso. I don't want to have to believe in UFOs. Why not? But I might. Why not? I don't know. Kristen, there's a book I'm in the middle of called Eminent and it is about this and all these things that sort of happened and it's going well, I'm consuming the content, but the author who used to work for the government, of course, [00:03:00] it's all started to fall apart when he was actually seeing green.
Orbs within his home like phantom orbs within his home and I was like, I think I'm out, like Sure flying egg over the pacific. I can do that I can't do green Ghostbusters orb in the home. So
Damian Dunn: location is very important to you on where you experience this, unknown flying object
Peter Dunn: Yeah, because his theory is as soon as I started working on secret projects, phantom orbs, I'm like, okay, Tony, or whatever your name is.
I think I'm out. It's Louise.
Kristen Ahlenius: So is the premise that like, he's an insider and now he's like telling the things that the people should know about the threats within that the government keeps secret or what?
Peter Dunn: I believe is too short set. He's there to blow the whistle. I think it's a little bit of blowing the whistle.
It's letting people know. Anyway, Craig P. [00:04:00] Anderson wants to know where we stand on Bigfoot. And ha all right, guys, it's the extravaganza. Everybody have a good break. Kristen, best thing of your break.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, geez.
Peter Dunn: Okay. Dane, best thing
Damian Dunn: of your break. Being able to completely unplug. You and I talked about this earlier.
First time in forever. Just
Peter Dunn: be present and be at peace. What was in New York city? I flights got canceled. I got stranded at LaGuardia. And may I say for our listeners, there was a time and place in which getting stranded at LaGuardia. Was the worst thing that could happen to you. It isn't it is the nicest airport in the world now Stunning terminal three LaGuardia Unbelievable
Damian Dunn: P you you've been known to frequent some airports with your role top three airports in your nation in the U.
S.
Peter Dunn: [00:05:00] Well, LaGuardia is now at the top of the list. I think Salt Lake City has made a lot of strides here recently, although one terminal is like a mile long. It needs people movers. It's so big. And then the third one, I'm just gonna homer it here. And just go with Indianapolis. It's really nice. Yes, everything closes after 6 p.
m. But it's really nice now top three worst. I'd be glad to give those to you as well fire away until I think kansas city just redid theirs, but there prior to that kansas city was one two and three on
Kristen Ahlenius: the list
Peter Dunn: It was so bad
Kristen Ahlenius: hard disagree
Peter Dunn: Oh, you know what? I like Minneapolis and Detroit now that I think of it as well.
Kristen, did you think of something that was fun for your break?
Kristen Ahlenius: I just spent a lot of time with my people and I, it just fills my cup. That was probably the best part.
Damian Dunn: You drove heavy machinery.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's true, I did. I drove the Lowepro.
Peter Dunn: I saw that. Nice picture of you and your special friend on Instagram over the holiday.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: It's very [00:06:00] kind. I'm not allowed to post pictures of me and my special friend. She doesn't want to be seen with me. All right. What are we doing here? Are we just going to start with the review?
Kristen Ahlenius: And then we'll
Peter Dunn: see where it goes.
Still getting back into it. And yes, I teased it before the break, but in the next couple of weeks, we're going to have a significant announcement. Yeah. It'll be pretty fun.
Are you ready to go? Are you doing dry January, anybody?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Tristan nods, first time on radio. I
Kristen Ahlenius: said yeah.
Damian Dunn: My my family got me a drink smoking kit. It would be rude for me to just say, you know what I'm not going to use it.
Peter Dunn: Dave, you got me this bottle of makers mark that's below my desk, but I'm going dry first quarter.
Kristen Ahlenius: Big Rick peer pressured me into doing 75 hard again.
So we're on day, whatever today is nine of 75. [00:07:00] Not we, as in me and Rick, maybe he is doing 75 hard. I don't know.
Peter Dunn: Aaron says the new KC terminal is look, you've Chiefs gear on in your profile picture, Aaron. I think you're a little biased on the KC airport now being really nice, but anyway. Okay, let's just go.
Let's just see what happens. You ready? Great. Three, two, one. This week on the Pete the Planner show, we answer your money questions. Here's how the show works. You email us askpete at pete the planner. com. That's askpete at pete the planner. com. Here's what happens. If we're taking questions, we'll answer them on the air.
If we're not, we're doing our own thing. Then you can wait just a little bit. So much so that I haven't even checked the email inbox in the year of our Lord 20. 25. Joining me as always is Kristen Lanius and Damian Dunn. Hello, friends. Good day. New year, same us big year ahead here on the Pete the Planner show.
But as always, in one of our first shows of the [00:08:00] year, we handle two very important pieces of business that usually takes the entire episode. We review our previous year, in this case, 2024. Stock market picks. Who is the top picker? Who is the biggest loser? And then we make our predictions for 2025. So Dame, without further ado, because who loves too much ado?
Line us up on biggest winners 2024. All right, Kristen, is there anything that we
Damian Dunn: probably ought to say before we get into this?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, before we get into this. Despite what I think might be a surprising year for us here on the Peter Vliner show, this is not investment advice. We didn't invest in these companies.
You shouldn't either listen to your professionals in your life. Not us. I, that
Peter Dunn: is fair, but I, We do have investments in the S& P 500, but because we talk about the S& P 500, we're not [00:09:00] recommending it. We're just saying what we think it was gonna go up or down. Just nice. That's right. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Here we go, Dane. All right.
Damian Dunn: All right. Let's start with the positive. It's New Year. New us positives, the winners, the best thinking we could have possibly pulled together in the year of 2024. Here's how it all shook out. Pete, you chose, do you remember who you chose?
Peter Dunn: Heckler mining.
You know what? I haven't seen, I didn't see how it wrapped up. How did it do?
Damian Dunn: I'll just go ahead and tell you, you were up. A tremendous 11. 8 percent for the year.
Peter Dunn: Here's the dumb thing, dame, you and I both said publicly for years, we'll take 8 percent all day long. I
Damian Dunn: know I'm so conflicted by laughing that you got 11.
8 percent because. Sign
Peter Dunn: me up. I'm fine with that. Do you have the, do I want to do something real quick. I want to go to Hekla. What's the ticker on that? HL. Pete, you are so engaged in [00:10:00] this. HL. Hewlett Lackard. Yes. What's the beta on this? Ooh, that I don't know. 1. 89. Okay. So here's what we learned.
If you're going to, I don't even know what the market did, but if you're only going to get 11 percent and you're going to have a beta of 1. 89, damn, that's a pretty big risk. Yeah. You swung.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. You took a chance. Didn't pan. It's hard to say it didn't pan out because you still did.
Okay. But
Peter Dunn: a pan
Damian Dunn: out
Peter Dunn: a mining joke. Could have been. Okay. Continue.
Damian Dunn: Alright. I was next in our order. I chose to fly the friendly skies with Delta Airlines this year. Cancel on flights. Worked out okay. It was up 52.5% for the year. It's just a little bit better than 11.8%, but 55.2%. I will, I'll take that.
I'll be satisfied.
Peter Dunn: Okay, so now I want to, , we're getting into beta for some reason today. , DAL. 1. [00:11:00] 35 beta there. Okay. So Dame, that's a great pick.
Damian Dunn: Okay. Okay. I think I was roundly criticized and mocked when I made that pick earlier. So even by a potential Delta employee, I will point out. But it worked out.
Okay. Kristen chose the company that transports our kids all over the country. Bluebird. Not blue bird buses. What's that? What's the ticker? B L B D. BBL. What was it? BLBD. Okay.
Okay. Okay. What'd it do? They were up 53. 35%. She beat me by less than 1%.
Kristen Ahlenius: Nice.
Peter Dunn: Beta 1. 57. She took more risk and the reward. So for those that are wondering why I'm talking about beta can help indicate the amount of volatility [00:12:00] or systematic risk Of a stock in compared to the overall market. So when I say, Hey, you took a lot of risk.
If it's at one, if beta is one, that means that you have, you're taking theoretically the same amount of risk that say the S and P 500 or the Dow Jones is taking. If. It is more than one, then you're taking more risk. If it's less than one, you're taking less risk. Kristen, did I butcher that? Because it felt pretty good.
That was really great, actually. When's the last time I've done something like that on this show? Probably never. Did I black out just now, Dame? Potentially. This is a totally new you. 2025 is the year of me knowing stuff. New year. Let's talk about UAPs. I'm sorry. Okay,
Damian Dunn: continue on, Dame. All right. So I wrapped that up.
Kristen wins. with bluebird and buses. Congrats. Who knew? All right, losers. Do I even bury? This is a [00:13:00] runaway at this point. I'll go through the formalities. Kristen, you chose AMC,
Kristen Ahlenius: right? The theater,
Damian Dunn: movie theaters. That is ticker AMC beat. Oh, thank you.
Peter Dunn: Got it.
Damian Dunn: AMC lost about 28. 4 percent last year.
Peter Dunn: By the way, we are not rooting for people to lose money or jobs. This is just a little trick, a little parlor game where we say, who do we think is going to have a rough year? Kristen, good pick in the sense that. The beta, because this is the year of the beta fish, 1. 94 risky pick. And what was her loss?
Damian Dunn: Negative 28. 4%. That's impressive. Solid. I feel pretty good about that, actually. I came in with a technical and philosophical pick of Beyond Meat, B Y N D. Okay. I'll wait for the okay. I
Peter Dunn: am down [00:14:00] 53%. Damn it. No surprise because their beta was 2. 3. Very risky pick. And then
Kristen Ahlenius: shouldn't you be using the word volatile?
Not to split hairs or anything, but
Peter Dunn: I think volatility and risks sometimes are conflated just as I'm conflating them. Okay. Okay. Just checking. No, that's fine. You're the certified financial planner practitioner. There you go.
Damian Dunn: Pete you chose a company that is no longer listed on the stock exchange.
Big Lots. That is a B I G ticker symbol beta of infinite at this point or zero. I have because it's not even in existence. Undefined. The beta is undefined. Technically you could still buy those shares for 20 cents, 28 cents if you really want some new wallpaper in your house. But essentially we will consider this a.
Complete loss for Peter Dunn. And
Peter Dunn: by complete loss, a complete win for Peter [00:15:00] Dunn. That's fun. I destroyed you guys there. Yeah. In one. Yeah. That's a tough one. There's a lot of retail that went out of business as been the trend the last few years, given e commerce. I'm curious as we get into our stock picks in the cup coming segments, how much we looked at 2024 trends.
Are we looking at political ramifications going forward, and we still got to get to our S and P 500 predictions too. I will say this with about 30 seconds left in this segment, Kristen, did you do more research or less research than last year?
Kristen Ahlenius: I did more research.
Peter Dunn: Day
Damian Dunn: more
Peter Dunn: or less?
Damian Dunn: Probably about the same.
But shading towards less if I did anything.
Peter Dunn: I did about 120 seconds worth of research. And it's not that I didn't want to do the work. I just had other things to do. Speaking of other things to do, coming up after the [00:16:00] break, what were 500 predictions? Who was right? Who is wrong and who is Kristen? All that's next on Pete, the planner show.
I'm Pete, the planner. I don't know. It felt like it meant something when I said that, but I realized it didn't make sense.
Kristen Ahlenius: Pete, when you chose Hekla mining, do you recall? Was you told us last year you did a lot of research? I did. Did you just look at the disclosures of Senators?
Damian Dunn: Politicians? No, why?
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh
Damian Dunn: Because it was popular with one particular senator.
Who'd that? Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Okay,
Peter Dunn: you guys I had my comedy show Yeah. For the holiday on December 20th in downtown Indianapolis at the night of the Notre Dame IU football game.
Kristen Ahlenius: Were you funny?
Peter Dunn: No, I bombed. Oh, you didn't? Yes, I did. I [00:17:00] bombed. Really? I hosted the show. And I bombed.
Kristen Ahlenius: Do other people feel that way?
Peter Dunn: Fair question, and I'm definitely not fishing for compliments from anybody. We had two colleagues, Jeej and Blake, and their people came. They said it was, they were like, oh it's good. Here's the thing. Last year, I killed. I was great, I'll tell you that. This year, not only was I unfunny. I wasn't quick.
Words weren't coming out. Yeah. Oh no. I bombed. Now my, Danny, friend of the show, Danny Dunn, actual comedian, killed, he was great. But, there's always next year. Maybe. I don't know. You may not get an invite. To be fair, and no one really cares, I had a stressful week that week, and to end that week on a Friday night doing yuck jokes at a baseball stadium, whatever.
Didn't knock it out of the park. [00:18:00] See that's better than anything I did that night. Terrible. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Peter Dunn (2): Aw.
Peter Dunn: Just a little. My son talked me into coaching and managing a futsal team in St. Louis, Missouri, next weekend. What are you thinking? I'm not. I'm just That was so stern. I've just turned into this pile of dad that just is Okay, son.
put it together. And then I'm like, I'll sign up. Then I got parents venmo in me like they're buying marijuana cigarettes or something from me because I believe that's how drug dealers are paid or be venmo. And now I'm coaching futsal, which is indoor soccer on a basketball court in ST louis Missouri next weekend for eight boys.
Does this turn
Damian Dunn: into really just like one of those, hey, you're there and you're the person who's in charge while the players just go and do whatever they want. Yeah, exactly.
Peter Dunn (2): Alright, fair enough.
Peter Dunn: Great. What [00:19:00] game, what do you do on New Year's? Do you do fun things on New Year's? Naive? Are you fun? You're not fun.
Sleep. I get a good night's sleep. Yeah. You don't have a We do this or you just a thing. No,
Damian Dunn: We've done fancy dinners before and stuff like that. But yeah, one of the kids wanted to go to a friend's house and the other kid just wanted to go to bed. And so that's what we, yeah, Kristen you're
Peter Dunn: fun.
What do you do?
Kristen Ahlenius: Actually, most of my close friends have very young kids. So we went to their house, but went home before midnight.
Peter Dunn: Loser. We have our friends in from St. Louis and I make a fancy dinner. Oh, I had some good ones this year. That's a good ones for sure. But Kristen, I kept thinking about over break and we were talking about what we do.
On Christmas Eve. I think we're talking about this either. It was team meeting or was it on the show? I don't know. And you said margaritas and pizza.
Peter Dunn (2): Yeah,
Peter Dunn: the entire break when I thought about Christmas Eve, I thought about Christmas having margaritas and pizza right now. And I'm the most [00:20:00] jealous I've ever been of anyone in my life.
What a great idea.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, we also did. You know what screwball is?
Peter Dunn: Peanut butter whiskey.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: I've never had it though. Delicious. Let's get back to the show in three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show. It's the Stock Pick Spectacular 2024 awards ceremony. To recap, every year on the show, for fun, for entertainment purposes only, we make biggest winner stock picks of the year, biggest loser stock picks of the year, and where we think the standard and poor 500 index will end over the year.
And then we choose next year's selections as well. In the first segment Dame did the review for us. And here is where things landed a quick review Dame of 2024. Great.
Damian Dunn: Kristen, we'll pick the best winner with bluebird buzzes up 53. 35%. [00:21:00] And Pete won the losers, the biggest loser with big lots who went out of business.
So we're going to consider that a complete and total loss, which means complete and total win for Peter Dunn.
Peter Dunn: Muchos gracias, por favor. By the way, I'm thinking I'm duolingo right now, so I can order all sorts of beverages in Spanish. Muy bien. What? Dame what does the S& P 500 prediction index tell us from 2024?
Our
Damian Dunn: Our predictions weren't quite as spread out as they have been in years past, but there was enough to crown a winner in our predictions. The S and P 500. Let me go this backwards. Pete, do you remember what you chose? I want to, I think
Peter Dunn: 14%, maybe exactly right. 14
Damian Dunn: percent Kristen, do you remember what you chose?
Kristen Ahlenius: Ten.
Damian Dunn: Eight. And Dame chose six or four. And I chose six because that's who I am. A forever pessimist. Forever [00:22:00] pessimist. Yeah, conservative. Conservative. I was a little off. We were all a little off, to be perfectly honest. But Pete was less off than the rest of us as the S& P 500 returned just over 24%. In the year 2024,
Peter Dunn: that's a day between that and the previous year with 220 plus years in a row.
Very rare,
Damian Dunn: right? Yeah, it's even more rare to have three in a row. So just keep that in mind with your prediction today.
Peter Dunn: Oh, I don't need your help with that. That Biden Bidenomics really
I'm sorry. That wasn't a shot. It was more of pretty good stock market last couple of years. It was all right. What's why, I'm gonna, I'm explaining how the stock market works all of a sudden, cause this is the year of education and me and the show, but Dame, when it goes 20 percent and you get those gains, then next year, you're getting 20 percent on those gains and the, it's just, that's the, that.
That is an escalating portfolio. You talk about [00:23:00] sequence of return risks when a person retires and you have a down year first, as opposed to two massive up years in the end, if you retired two years ago, you were loving life right now as it relates to your portfolio. Yeah. We often talk about
Damian Dunn: saying, you know what, don't get tied to looking at your statements or your balances all the time because it's, it.
Can just absolutely wreck you mentally. I will tell you after two years of back to back 20 percent return plus years, it gets addicting looking and just checking. I wonder how much money I made this month and going and checking it out and largely being pleased with what on a month in month out basis.
I will try and encourage you to pause that activity. If you've fallen into that trap. Because well, there's no guarantee that's going to continue going forward. In fact, I will promise you that at some point it won't continue. So be prepared.
Peter Dunn: We are now Chris to Kristen's favorite moment of the year on the show, where she [00:24:00] embarrasses Dame and I with her stock picks for 2025.
Kristen, can you give us a disclaimer before we get started on the festivity?
Kristen Ahlenius: This is for entertainment purposes only. We are certified in nothing. Do not take our advice.
Peter Dunn: You guys are both certified in something quite meaningful and related to the financial world, but people should still not take your advice today.
Kristen Ahlenius: But we are not investment advisors. There is a distinction with the difference.
Peter Dunn: Okay. Sorry. All right, Kristen since you won best pick of the year, I'm going to let you choose. Whether you go first or last on best pick of the year.
Kristen Ahlenius: I would like to go last, please.
Peter Dunn: Alright. Dame, I'm going to let you choose what to do next because you got second.
Damian Dunn: I will let, I will give you the privilege of going first to try and right the ship and the winners.
Kristen Ahlenius: Ouch.
Damian Dunn: Alright, let me
Peter Dunn: see what this ticker symbol is here real quick.
Kristen Ahlenius: You're going to tell us [00:25:00] what you chose and then why, right? I really want to know why. Okay, yeah.
Peter Dunn: Alright, pretty simple. I'm going blue chips.
This year. Blue chips. Yeah. Conoco Phillips, CNCO COP. And here's why I think oil exploration and production is going to be a massive instant priority in the Trump administration. And I think with the. sun setting of alternative energy focus. It is going to be a massive year for oil Titans.
And I believe ConocoPhillips is one that I want to choose to invest in. And just so you know, the beta 1. 19. And by the way, Dan, are we doing this based on. January 1st? Are we doing this based on January 9th? I think we can just do January 1st. I'm okay
Damian Dunn: with that if Kristen is.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's fine.
Damian Dunn: Alright, Damien, you're up.
Alright, my my pick [00:26:00] is a bit of a flyer. And I will explain why. Delta Airlines? Nope. I am choosing Vera Bradley.
Peter Dunn: Oh, as pick of the year?
Damian Dunn: As winner of the year. They have had some very Tough times. In fact, their largest shareholder just wrote a letter to the board of directors saying, this ain't going so great.
You probably ought to consider selling your business or taking it private. So what I am banking on
Peter Dunn: is a premium buyout. Okay, Kristen, I have to do something here and I'm sorry, but Dame, I have to put you on the spot. Okay. Are you operating on? Any inside information whatsoever on this? Very fair question.
Very fair. Because it's, they're up in your neck of the woods. True.
Damian Dunn: You love quilted bags. I do. Mrs. Advice actually ran their accounting department for a while, while somebody was out on maternity leave [00:27:00] decades ago at this point. Okay. Probably not decades ago. I strike that from she's not that old.
Kristen Ahlenius: She's so upset.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. Really bad choice of disclosure at that point.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh no. What an error.
Damian Dunn: What is wrong with you?
Kristen Ahlenius: So much trouble.
Damian Dunn: Yeah no. That information about the largest shareholder writing that letter is public information. It's on different news sources. It's been publicized, so there is zero insider
Peter Dunn: information.
Have you talked about this with anyone in person who lives within an hour of you? Other than Mrs. Advice? Yeah. No. Did she give you this pick? No. I asked her actually if she thought I was crazy. I feel like I'm scrutinizing because I feel like I hate this pick and it's a
Kristen Ahlenius: good one. That's
Damian Dunn: what I mean. Go completely sideways.
Now this is a great pick. I will say it's at the bottom of its 52 week range right now. It was, it's like a three something right now. It was as high as 8 in some cents. [00:28:00] Within the last year, but beta is just under two beta is, yeah so it could either completely died. Oh, no,
Peter Dunn: look at the face of the picture.
It's it's not on our live stream, which would be the entire radio audience and podcast audience. Mrs. Advice. Just comment that she's not happy. All right. Kristen, bring us home. We got 30 seconds.
Kristen Ahlenius: I chose Flutter Entertainment, and if you're not familiar, I wasn't until yesterday either, but you're familiar with their subsidiaries, which include BetBear.
And duel and sports bet.
Peter Dunn: Wait a second. This is blood money. It is. What is wrong with you?
Kristen Ahlenius: Listen, I'm not saying I agree that it's right. I just think that this is what's going to happen.
Peter Dunn: This reminds me of when a young Pete, the planner in sixth grade, bought tobacco stocks, everybody get lung cancer, but.
I'm [00:29:00] going to get a dividend. All right, let's do this. Let's take a break. Kristen's going to come back. Tell us why a bunch of degenerates are going to make her wealthy this year. All that's next on the Pete, the planet show. I'm Pete, the planner. Dame. That's one of the greatest self owns and show history.
Damian Dunn: Special thanks to Mrs. Advice for watching the show on a. Day and time, I
Peter Dunn: think
Damian Dunn: the best part
Peter Dunn: is the face, the lovely face she's making. You could interpret that face as one really staring daggers
Damian Dunn: at Dame. She's really reconsidering all of the decisions she's made in her life up until now that involve me.
Peter Dunn: Here's what's not disclosed about Mrs. Advice. And I, and now I'm stepping into the territory of danger. Her fingers are. Poised on the keyboard. She is a business titan. She's like a big deal. And we just brush it under the rug around here. Yeah,
Damian Dunn: she understands [00:30:00] a lot of stuff and is really proficient at it.
Peter Dunn: What's my ro Do you guys see this weird reflection here? They look weird. Is there a circle?
On the wall, yeah.
Kristen Ahlenius: You, it's a blue
Peter Dunn: orb. orb, a blue orb, yeah. You guys, we have a new next door neighbor here on the second floor of our building. Oh, you do? Oh. On the other side of this wall is a prenatal chiropractor.
And the weirdest thing, true story, I come in on Tuesday morning because I was stranded in New York on Monday, and so I don't know these people and I, but it's active over there, I'm in my office, playing solitaire, and I hear a baby cry, and I'm like, Doctor, you're pushing too hard, and it turns out not only do they do prenatal, but they also do Pediatric chiropractic.
Cool. It's called, I don't need to tell anybody what it's called. No free ads.
Kristen Ahlenius: Dan said that's the best callback [00:31:00] anyone will have in 2025. I'm calling it right now.
Peter Dunn: Mrs. Advice taking all the stump stool money in the separation. That is very funny. Alright. Kristen, let's hear a little bit more about Flutter when we come back, and then we will also, of course get into our other picks.
Let's start that in three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show. First year of 2025. Did I say first year of 2025? Perhaps it is the first year of 2025. It's also the first show of 2025 for those that don't know much about the show and just stumbled on it in this moment, right here, right now, let's do a little bit of what they call them.
The bizarre reset, which is also inside baseball. This show is a personal finance show hosted by me. Peter Dunn, AKA Pete, the planner. My co-hosts are Chris Lanius. Damien Dunn. No Relation is another co-host to the show. The show works like this. You email us, ask pete@petetheplanner.com. That's Ask Pete all one [00:32:00] word@petetheplanter.com.
We answer your questions on the air. The show is three things. It is a radio show of what you're listening to right now is a podcast, which you can listen to. And it is also a live stream show. You can listen to and watch on Fridays at 10 a. m. Eastern on all of the socials, except for X Dame. We're doing stock picks this year.
So far, we've made three selections of what we believe will be the best performing stocks and we don't have to beat everything. We just have to beat each other. I chose. ConocoPhillips, the oil and gas company, you chose Vera Bradley and Kristen, last year's winner, chose Fluffer? What is it? Flutter.
Flutter. That's different. Do you
Damian Dunn: know what the ticker is for that, Kristen? F L U
Kristen Ahlenius: T.
Peter Dunn: Low beta. Not a lot of, not a lot of volatility in degenerate gambling. So tell us, Kristen, why you think young men betting on sports is something that you want to benefit from.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. That's what I [00:33:00] said. They had a great year of growth last year, 52% but I just think that it's an industry will continue to see growth in unfortunately, actually we all have our opinions about sports betting here on this show.
And the great news is that analysts agree with me. The target price is actually about three Oh six and the current price is two 55. So I think I'm poised for success.
Peter Dunn: I hated your explanation. It was just too good. Daym, I'm worried about my pick compared to your, both of your picks.
Damian Dunn: I you and I aren't too far off in some of our thinking, and we will find that out here in a minute when we talk about our loser picks.
Peter Dunn: All right let's start. Since I was the biggest loser last year, I'm going to go last in the biggest loser. Second place was Me again. All right, so what do you want to do? Kristen, you can go first.
Kristen Ahlenius: All right. I chose a company for a multitude of reasons, instead of taking the Kristin Alenius approach, which is you choose a company you think is going to go [00:34:00] bankrupt, I chose the Damien Dunn approach, which is the company whose business model I don't quite understand or maybe agree with.
Peter Dunn: Your money line?
Kristen Ahlenius: And that is Sirius.
Peter Dunn: Sirius XM. Kristen, did I ever tell you I day traded Sirius back in the day and made oodles of money?
Kristen Ahlenius: You did not. I didn't. That surprises me.
Peter Dunn: Since we are broadcasting on terrestrial radio our executive producer of this show and our flagship station will love that you think that they're going to fail this year.
That's great.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Why do you fundamentally disagree with it? Earnings per share are down. I'm also bearish on the new car market, which is a huge entry point into Sirius. And finally, what's interesting is that I'm betting against the man himself, because Berkshire Hathaway has a 35 percent stake in Sirius.
So we'll see how I do.
Peter Dunn: I thought you meant Howard Stern when you said you're betting he gets the man. Oh, that. [00:35:00] He owns breast. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to look at insider holdings here. Actually. I think Howard Stern's got to be one of the top shareholders of this thing. I'm looking doesn't appear.
Anyway, people love having me look at insider holdings for stocks. Anyway game, what do
Damian Dunn: you choose as your biggest loser of the year? Pete, you made the comment on your winner that you feel like it's going to be a. Banger year for traditional energy sources where I tend to agree with you. So that led me to think about alternative energy sources that I think are potentially going to struggle and trying to find a company that's already not doing so hot wasn't too terribly hard.
I went with solar. Edge Technologies. They are, as you would expect, a solar panel company that has had some ups and downs. The analysts are out on them, largely price target much lower than what they are right now. And with the administration that's [00:36:00] coming in, I just don't think there's gonna be a lot of support.
And if there's Any way possible. I think they will take away any subsidies. They might be possibly receiving speeding up the slide on the stock price. So solar edge technologies. I don't think alternative energies are going to have a great next few years. I think all
Peter Dunn (3): chose to go the what's the next? I'm putting words in your mouth.
So feel free to correct me. I think we're looking at the next presidential administration and we're saying what can how will those policies in this. Yeah. impact the economy and the market at large. I know James just did that. I'm about to do that, Kristen. You did that indirectly with you not feeling hot about the new car market, right?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. And just about like interest rates and things like that. So I don't know if it's super. Yes, I guess sort of administration specific. But yeah, I thought globally in the niche that down.
Peter Dunn: Okay, here's my pick. I'm a loser. Everyone knows this. I am one of the biggest losers you've [00:37:00] ever encountered last year.
I chose big lots. It went out of business this year. I do not believe my choice will go out of business. That is not my strategy. It is more in the realm of Kristen strategy, but it's a more direct approach to Kristen strategy. General Motors. Is who I'm choosing to have a brutal year. This is not investment advice and yes, I realized that I'm now in the crosshairs of lots of hardworking Americans.
I just think the tariffs, I think interest rates. And some other factors, inflation will lead to a rough sales year for a general motors. Kristen felt this way too, but she's a coward and shows the indirect approach of choosing a satellite radio company that plugs into these new cars that aren't going to sell.
So that is what it is to be bold.
Damian Dunn: Interesting. Now, was there a particular reason you chose GM over another domestic Ford, because I, [00:38:00] full disclosure,
Kristen Ahlenius: I thought about Ford.
Damian Dunn: I've thought about Ford as well. I wish I could give you a good answer that I don't have one. Your 120 seconds of preparation
Peter Dunn: didn't
Damian Dunn: okay, that's fair.
Peter Dunn: I split them 40 seconds equally. And That was the 40 seconds. That's what I came up with. All right. We got two minutes left to make our S and P 500 predictions of the year. Once again, I won that one. Yep. How that's crazy. I'll go last. Who got second? That'd be Chris. Kristen. Yeah. What do you want to do?
Kristen Ahlenius: I want to go second. I want Damien to go first.
Damian Dunn: All right, Damien, what do you got? I traditionally, as everybody knows, have had a very conservative approach to what I think the stock market, the S& P 500 in this case, is going to return. There will be no change this year. Shocking. I'll be conservative again.
I'm going to say
I'm talking myself out of certain things. I will say eight percent.[00:39:00]
Peter Dunn: Wait a second, you just said you're going to be conservative and that's more aggressive than last year.
Peter Dunn (3): I know.
Peter Dunn: Kristen.
Kristen Ahlenius: I, it's just so hard to think that the market's going to return like that again, but I thought that last year too. So I'm going to be a little more aggressive maybe than I was last year.
I'm going with 12.
Peter Dunn: I'm going more conservative than last year. Which is shocking actually is shocking going 11. This is gonna be a tight one There is going to be a clear winner this
Damian Dunn: year with everybody's Prognostications in on the S& P 500s anybody want to change theirs?
Peter Dunn: That's a fair question Can we have a clarifying point here?
Obviously if it's in the 11s I win, or if it's 11. 51, does Kristen win? You got it. 11. [00:40:00] 51, it rounds up. And if we, you don't get every you do get everything below 8.
And then we just split the difference between 8 and 11? Yeah. Fair. Closest, yeah. All right. Check back every quarter, but listen every week right here on the Bit of Blasphemy.
Coming up after the break, the first biggest waste of money. Of the week of the year. And of course the news as read by one, Damian, Andrew Dunn, older this year, refreshed from a sabbatical and ready to get you to know what you need to know heading into your weekend. I'm Pete, the planner.
Damian, remember a financial conversation with one of your offspring. That is so stupid that you're just paralyzed with shame because I had one of those at a shoe store in downtown Manhattan last week with my son. My son has no money. Okay. Let's just put that out. He's 12. [00:41:00] He's got 47. Let's look at his bank account.
Is this bad? No. This is his checking account. Joint account, 42 and 68 cents. Okay. Now he has savings accounts, but he not allowed to access those. 42. 68. We're at a shoe store just off of Times Square. Inexpensive. And he picks up a shoe, where he's, the boys are hanging out.
He looks at it, he goes, it's on sale. I was like, okay. I said, everything here is on sale. And he said, It's only a hundred dollars and I said, Theodore, you don't have a hundred dollars only. It's not an appropriate word. There is no circumstance. And when you have less money than the amount that is being asked to be spent, can you say the word only you must say.
By God, this is a hundred dollars. That was a moment that I did [00:42:00] not cherish with them.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. My kids are the same age where they have opinions on what they want to buy and they think they have dollars to pay for stuff and somehow they keep coming up with dollars. I'm not entirely sure how that happens, but man, if my son doesn't bring me cash, when he says I need some new V bucks for fortnight we've been down that road,
Peter Dunn: your dogs ask for anything.
Oh, I can see one in the background. I was going to
Kristen Ahlenius: say she just sat up and I was about to say a word that would like make her. She begs for treats. She treats don't cause she'll run to the hallway closet.
Peter Dunn: Okay. All right. Dame. Are we ready for the last segment of the year by the last segment of the year?
The last segment of the first show of the year.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. Looking forward to the biggest waste of money. It's okay. No.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm sure I'll be the same guesser I was in 24.
Damian Dunn: Let
Peter Dunn: me get
Damian Dunn: ready for that though, by the way. You've improved a lot this last year.
Peter Dunn: She did, except the last show of the year, Dame, which you weren't [00:43:00] on.
Holy crap. It was so bad. It was embarrassing.
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't like multiplying by 10. I don't even think got me there. Like
Peter Dunn: What I'll have to go back and watch Chris and I got an email from your, a family member of you, of yours. I
Kristen Ahlenius: wouldn't be surprised.
Peter Dunn: And three to this week's waste of money of the week right here on the Pete, the planner show is.
The RBT Champagne Sabre, a new year brings new hope timeout granted. Damn, that's a Star Wars title. The RBT Champagne Sabre. No, and leaving behind 2020 should make us all want to celebrate time out. How old is this? Who wrote this copy? This is from three weeks ago. It's 2025 baby. We don't count in fives.[00:44:00]
To ring in the new year properly, or to start any celebration using a champagne saber, like this one ensures it will be memorable. Yeah, that's for sure. Forged from premium materials. In employing a modern design, can I get another timeout? I know I've gone three timeouts in description. Yeah, I wanna, I'm hoping you're going where I'm going.
If you say premium materials, I guarantee they're not premium materials because you would name the material. Like aluminum. Yeah, it's like made from natural chicken product. This saber is a perfect option for your special occasion. Each one offers ergonomic handles for ease of use and comes with a beautiful black steel stand.
for display in between uses. To begin, Kristen, are you a champagne sparkles drinker?
Kristen Ahlenius: No, I'm not. And can I confess? I don't even get what this is.
Peter Dunn: Okay. [00:45:00] Dame, are you a champagne sparkle drinker? Only for breakfast. Yeah. All right. I happen to love very good champagne. I love it. It's delicious. A saber is meant to, I'll grab this whiskey bottle below so I can show you how.
Okay. Okay. And I will grab this pen. And by the way, all the people on the radio and the podcast, you're going to have to go to youtube. com slash pizza planner and watch this playback minute 48 29. Okay. So Kristen, this is my bottle of champagne. And instead of taking the Foil off and then twist in the cage and then taking a towel and slowly popping the cork like a civilized human would do.
When you saber champagne, you go down the seam in the glass, you rub it like this. And I, and then you go up and then the saber catches the lip, like the shoulder, if you will, the champagne, and it pops off glass. The cage, the cork, [00:46:00] everything, and then you've got, sharp broken glass that you didn't pour champagne out of, but that is what a champagne saver is.
How much is this one? Because it's made of premium materials,
Kristen Ahlenius: right? So it's perfectly useless. It is, I gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I'm so bad at this. It is 150.
Damian Dunn: All
Peter Dunn: right. Dane?
Damian Dunn: I was gonna say 175.
Peter Dunn: New year, new Kristen, it is 150. No way! Yeah, Kristen, congratulations.
Kristen Ahlenius: New year!
Peter Dunn: New year, new you. There you go. All right, Dane, what is in the news this week?
Damian Dunn: A 608 pound bluefin tuna, which is equivalent to the size of, allegedly, a grizzly bear, a motorbike, or a very small cow, depending on who's riding in the headline, sold for 1.
3 million dollars at [00:47:00] auction at Tokyo's fish market this week. Only one fish has sold for more since records began in 1999. That was a 613 pound Omatuna fish equal to the size of a mountain zebra or a grand piano. Huh selling for 3. 1 million dollars in 2019. The winning bid was placed by the Onodera Group, a Michelin starred restaurant chain that has paid the highest price at auction.
Five years in a row. Pete, I
Peter Dunn: have questions. I ate at a very nice Japanese restaurant in New York last week and had some bluefin tuna. So what do you want to know? Bigger tuna taste better than smaller tuna? That's a great question. I don't actually know the answer to that. I will say there are parts of the tuna loin that taste better.
Then other parts of the tuna loin, the fattier parts of the tuna loin called the Toro or true Toro or O Toro is the more prized cut as opposed to just the lean loin [00:48:00] itself. Thanks for joining us, everybody. This is Year of Education with Pete the Planner. You guys, I feel like I woke up in
Damian Dunn: 2025 and I know stuff now.
I never in a million years was I expecting that answer from you. That was phenomenal. I'm
Peter Dunn: dialed in. I'm really proud, actually. Dame, I'm pretty sure you don't. You don't, you're indifferent or don't care for sushi where you at?
Damian Dunn: I actually prefer sushi over other forms of fish preparation.
Sure.
Peter Dunn: Kristen?
Kristen Ahlenius: Same as Dame, but I'm not picky. I just ate tuna from Sam's club on Sunday.
Damian Dunn: Great. Yeah, great. Lovely. What else is the news with President Joe Biden signing a bill over the weekend to improve Social Security benefits for millions of public sector workers. Many Americans may be wondering if they qualify for what the White House is calling the first expansion of such assistance in 20 years.
Kristen, I don't know if you've heard this, but I think you are going to be thrilled. On Sunday, President [00:49:00] Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which eliminates two decades old provisions. The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset that Reduce Social Security Benefits for a Portion of Retirees Who Received Pension Income.
Biden estimated the bill should lead to an average monthly increase of 360 for certain public employees and their spouses and survivors. The outgoing president said more than 2. 5 million Americans will receive a lump sum payment worth quote, thousands of dollars to compensate for the benefits they should have received.
In 2024, the bill passed by the House of Representatives in November and approved by the Senate by a 70 to 26 vote last month will cost 196 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Peter Dunn: Kristen I'm happy for those people, right? We're happy for those people, but we're making the social security situation worse.
Kristen Ahlenius: Just write the checks the trust fund can afford it. [00:50:00]
Peter Dunn: Yeah Dane, what do you think?
Damian Dunn: It's GPO and WEP are Terribly frustrating. Terribly frustrating
And confusing. Really tough to plan around. If you are, if you're not a financial planner with some software to examine all this, it's just really difficult.
So I am a big fan of simplifying the process. I also understand why some people would say, Hey, I did the work. Let me benefit from everything that's going together. It shouldn't matter if I work for a government agency or not. But you knew that when you signed up for the job. And it should just be part and parcel of the situation.
I'm not saying there's not a better way to do it. I just don't know if eliminating it altogether is the best and most responsible solution.
Peter Dunn: That's a rough one. We're going to see some interesting things in the next three weeks here out of DC. Are we not? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's highly likely.
Kristen Ahlenius: [00:51:00] Apparently,
Damian Dunn: Another news story. Many Americans are starting 2025 off a little worse than before, at least when it comes to credit card debt, almost. This percent of cardholders carry debt from month to month.
Kristen Ahlenius: 37%.
Damian Dunn: Kristen?
Kristen Ahlenius: 32%.
Damian Dunn: 48 percent carry debt from month to month. According to a new report by Bankrate, that's up from 44 percent at the start of 2024.
Peter Dunn (2): Those
Damian Dunn: carrying balances, 53 percent have been in debt for at least a year, which shouldn't be too terribly surprising. Roughly 40 percent 47 percent of borrowers said they carry a balance due to an unexpected or emergency expense, most commonly medical bills or car and home repairs.
Other site higher day to day expenses in general. Overall spending. I love it.
Kristen Ahlenius: I love it. Lifting start.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, thanks team. I didn't really great stories. I didn't think I was going to get that far. That's why I just pushed it to the back because I really didn't want to give that story. But. [00:52:00] It's the only one I had left in the
Peter Dunn: hopper.
All right. Some fun stuff in the coming weeks. We're going to be resetting how the show works for a lot of people as they understand it. New year, new mean means I'm going to try to teach you some things that I happen to maybe know. And when I don't, I've got two certified financial planner practitioners right here to back me up.
Dame prediction for the year. Golf of America. Golf of Mexico. Where do we end 2020 25? Is it happening? Gulf of Mexico
Damian Dunn: on the maps, Gulf of America in our hearts.
Peter Dunn: Chris, I'm not going to give you a chance to weigh in because there's nothing you can say that actually tops that.
Peter Dunn (3): Damn.
Peter Dunn: All right, everybody.
Thanks for joining us for the first show of the year. Sending you good vibes. Good vibes are all that's in the budget. I'm Pete the planner. Pete the planner show. That was amazing. It was really good. You guys. I did have a business idea. Over the holiday. I want to share with you.
Damian Dunn: Please. Everybody else is going to steal it now.[00:53:00]
Peter Dunn: Basically, it's a financial planning website in which you're matched with a financial coach. Not that terribly different from our business.
Kristen Ahlenius: Did you already invent
Peter Dunn: this? Yeah, I did already invent this, but it's there's been a name change from hay money. Okay. Which was the name of what this service was at one point.
I want to change the name to Only Plans.
Kristen Ahlenius: What do you
Peter Dunn: think?
Kristen Ahlenius: I love it.
Peter Dunn: Dame, I could give advice with my shirt off.
But that's extra. There's a market for this. It's the 600 pound tuna market,
Damian Dunn: you are sadly not wrong.
Peter Dunn: I love that there's a market for what I look like with my shirt off.
And I don't want to meet
Damian Dunn: the person that's interested. We didn't, try and quantify the size of the market. We're just saying there's a market out there.
Peter Dunn: Don't want to meet them. Alright, Chris, [00:54:00] anything else before we end this whole thing?
Kristen Ahlenius: I am just really looking forward to what more you have in the hopper as far as the education that you're going to provide the people this year.
You've set the bar really high.
Damian Dunn: I really have. I regret it already. I can't wait for next week's show planning. It's going to be tremendous to see what you come to the table with.
Peter Dunn: All right. Hey, for all you people that joined us on an off day, which would be the live stream people, obviously everyone else is recorded.
Appreciate you. Thank you. Sorry to mess up your vibe there. Everybody else as always stay getting money.
