MARIO PAYNE | From TOAMS Financial

The median net worth for Black households is currently $24K, compared to $188K for white households, according to McKinsey and Company. This massive wealth disparity reflects a long history of racism, including lack of access to education, financial services, and barriers to ownership.

Mario Payne believes that technology can be used to fix structural problems that have plagued the Black community for hundreds of years. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform financial services and equity ownership.

Mario generously shared his views on maximising income, getting started in the market, and some tips on learning about investing.

Mario speaking on dollar cost averaging, closing your eyes and enjoying the ride.

Mario Payne has a passion for making investing simple. His journey started in the United States Army as a financial sergeant. His responsibilities included monitoring soldiers’ financial goals. Mario then graduated from Tennessee State University. Where he currently serves as a TSU Foundation Board Member, helping to oversee his alma mater’s Endowment Fund.

He started his career in 2007 as a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones. Mario obtained his Series 7, 66, and life health and annuity licenses. Through this 6-year period, he learned how to manage client’s portfolios as well as how to build an investment advisory firm.

In 2012, Mario became a Certified Financial Planner™ as well as a fiduciary.

In 2013, Mario started his own investment firm TOAMS Financial. The meaning of TOAMS is Tithe Offering Alms Means Stewardship. He has built his SEC registered firm on the premise of helping clients while “Making Investing Simple.” Along with building his firm, Mario is very proud to be Dave Ramsey’s ONLY minority Endorsed Local Professional Smartvestor in all of Jacksonville, FL.

Mario made history in February 2022. The company he co-owns, launched the first African American owned AI ETF on the New York Stock Exchange. The symbol is LETB. The goal of this fund is to limit investment losses while maximizing gains.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS AFTER THIS BRIEF MESSAGE

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Chloe (2s):
Stocks for Beginners.

Mario (4s):
Most people aren't long-term investors. We say that we're long term, right? But we're not long term, right? We're more like two, three weeks, maybe a year. So a person who got in it's a slight pull back, let me get in. They probably feel bad right now. So it was very important to do your research. It's very important to not make a knee jerk decision when the stock is down. Sometimes the stock is down for a reason. You might not want to buy it. You might want to see kind of what else is going on.

Phil (31s):
Hi, and welcome back to Stocks for Beginners. I'm Phil Muscatello. There's never been a better time to start investing. No matter who you are or where you come from, the tools are there to start taking your financial life seriously. Joining me today to shed some light on how young African-Americans in the finance industry are changing the game is Mario Payne. Hello Mario.

Mario (52s):
Hey Phil. How we're doing today?

Phil (53s):
Really well, thank you, Mario is a certified financial planner with his own investment firm TOAMs financial and in February, he also launched the first black-owned AI powered ETF on the New York stock exchange. So before we get started talking about all those details, tell us about your background and how you ended up in arrived in the finance industry.

Mario (1m 14s):
Wow. So that's, that's a good question. First and foremost, Phil, you have a great radio voice. Anybody has told you about before, but it's like, it's like the it's like the quiet stone would feel right?

Phil (1m 25s):
Oh, it's because I've been inspired by Al, Marvin and Curtis

Mario (1m 31s):
And we go, there we go. So from a finance standpoint, I'm born and raised in Cincinnati. So I'm from Cincinnati. Originally went to college. When I was in college, I intern for a fortune 500 company that fortune 500 company hired me out of college. Once I got out of college, though, great rock and roll. And they had me on assignment to basically save them money, which I did. So it was like a six month assignment. I saved the company, literally four and a half million dollars. Now inflation is out the ying-yang as we know, but back in 2006, four and a half million dollars is like 16 to $20 million today. Right? So I saved them a lot of money.

Mario (2m 11s):
Philip don't, you know, my gift of saving them that money was a pizza party. It wasn't a promotion. It wasn't a, a raise. It was a pizza party. So I knew then I analyzed their company. I analyzed their books. I found ways for them to make money, how to cut expenses, how to have more revenue. So if I can do that for myself and I could do that for clients and make them money, that's what I want to do. So I started the research back in 2006, Google and YouTube was not as prevalent as it is now. So I did some research. I stumbled upon being a financial advisor. And I went through the process of trying to get hired.

Mario (2m 52s):
I interviewed and did applications for six different companies. I got hired with Edward Jones in 2007, from 2007 to 2013. I was an employee for Edward Jones, building my book of business, building my practice. And then in 2013, that's when I said, you know what? I can do this for myself. And that's what I lodged my firm. So it wouldn't be our 10 year anniversary of having my own firm next year. I'm SEC registered, but fiduciary I'm a certified financial planner. I got my CFP back in 2012 and just extremely blessed.

Phil (3m 24s):
And you operate out of Florida. I believe Jacksonville.

Mario (3m 28s):
Yeah, Jacksonville, the financial Mecca of the world it's mine, but believe it or not, no square foot wise. Jacksonville was actually the largest square foot wise city in America. So we do have that to brag about

Phil (3m 41s):
TOAMS. That's the name of your company? What does TOAMS stand for? And more importantly, what does it mean for you?

Mario (3m 47s):
Yeah, great question. So when I started my practice back in 2013, it was actually called MJP financial cause you know, my name is Mario Joseph Payne, right. So I got it's me, it's my firm, right. But, and of course, when I started my practice, I had a couple of hundred clients. No, my staff wasn't as big as it is now. We have a pretty large staff today. So I had an epiphany last year I was at a church and pastor was kind of talking about kind of giving back and kind of what, what is your gifts? So I was like, no, I'm going to change my name. So TOAMS, the T stands for tithe, the O stands for offering the A stands for alms means stewardship. So Tithe Offering Alms Means Stewardship.

Mario (4m 27s):
So the thought process is if I'm being a steward of your money, if I'm having your money grow, if I'm maximizing your gains, minimizing your losses, then of course you should make more money. If you're able to make more money than you. You know, if you're a believer, you know, we'll be tithing in more, be offer more, you'd have more money. So you can give your gifts that the Lord gave you in different ways as well. And you're being a steward. So, so that's where I came up with the name.

Phil (4m 50s):
And do you find that is a process that, that it works that actually trying to help other people helps you in terms of maximizing your own returns as well? I mean, that, that sounds awful actually saying it that way, because it sounds like you're doing it for selfish reasons, but I don't mean it that way.

Mario (5m 8s):
Well, I mean, any financial advisor would not be telling you the truth if they said that they were investing a client's money or got into this business not to make money. So definitely yes, it's great. You're able to provide for your family. I've been able to do things that I have as a financial advisor, that if I worked in other career paths, I would not be able to do financially. So it's definitely a blessing to be compensated, but I want to sleep at night knowing that you did was right for the client. I'm a fiduciary. So, so we have to do what's right for the client. We have to put the client's interests at heart. And then for my soul, from a Christian standpoint, I'd have to think I'll be rewarded when it's all said and done. So I don't know if you could put a price on it, but, but definitely is also my I'm in a position to help people and, and a little bit an opportunity to help people as long as I can.

Phil (5m 56s):
So let's get back to underserved communities in the United States. And I was shocked when one of my guests told me how difficult it is, just even for people to open a bank account, if they don't have a great deal of money, this must be a real hurdle for people trying to get even the most basic start in financial education and financial growth.

Mario (6m 21s):
Yeah. The S and arrests. And so individuals, you know, go through time periods that I life good and bad, right? So if a person, you know, got into some legal trouble, got into some financial trouble. So you think about when I was in college now, again, things are different, but in early two thousands, you know, when I was in college, literally when you first going to campus, we had a student center, right? The student center, it was probably like six or seven different credit card companies, right? Soliciting you to get their credit card. You know, you buy this credit card to get books by this credit card to get shoes. If you don't have a part-time job, you kind of need to, to help with your tuition.

Mario (7m 2s):
Right? So a lot of people get themselves in trouble. A young college student who gets themselves financially in trouble, who maxes out their credit card or maxes out 2, 3, 4, 5 credit cards, they're going to be in some trouble. So then when it comes to getting a loan, when it comes to trying to open up a business, when it comes to, you know, trying to buy a house, even buy the first car, if they have financial trouble, because of things they've done in the past, it's going to hurt them. They might not be able to open up that bank account with a bank because they've seen them delinquent. Some individuals go through bankruptcy, right? So it doesn't mean that a person is a bad person. It's just that they made a financial mistake. And that's why it's great now we have so many outlets of financial literacy.

Mario (7m 44s):
We have podcasts like yourself. We have other podcasts. We have YouTube. Now, if YouTube has some fluff as well. So you just want to do your research on, who's telling you good advice and bad advice, but definitely has resources out there. That's going to help a person make those types of decisions in a positive way so that if they did get themselves in financial trouble, they don't get themselves in more financial trouble by doing the wrong thing.

Phil (8m 6s):
And they're also often starting on the wrong foot with the student debt as well on top of these credit cards and things that they're, you know, you, you suddenly grown up, you're out of home and you want to have everything don't you.

Mario (8m 18s):
Yeah. And you know, student debt, you know, that's like a silent assassin. So for me, I was in the military. So, so w when I was in school, not all, cause I was army reserve. I wasn't active duty army, but about 65 to 70% of my school was paid for through the military. My girlfriend in college now, wife, you know, she was in state. So she was in state. She has some scholarships and we let's see. So when we graduated, it was probably about nine years after she graduated to, we actually paid off her student loans. And for us, because of me growing my practice and things of that nature, I was able to put more, you know, towards the student loan was getting out of college.

Mario (8m 58s):
So think about a person who may be, didn't have the best grades in college and kind of gets out of school and you know, the job or the occupation that they wanted when it got to college, wasn't there. And they're kind of building just kind of just making it, they might have some children and might have a wife, and they're not able to put as much as we were, you know, that that might stop you for years. You know, you have some people that, you know, they can be 56 years old, still paying their college debt. You know, think about doctors. You know, doctors make a nice amount of money depending on if they're surgeons or not surgeons. But if they're coming out of school with 200 5300, $400,000, that's a lot of money. So you definitely write a student loans is tough. So from a client standpoint, one of the things that we talk about, you know, the first two years of college, you know, you can do community college right now.

Mario (9m 46s):
Communtyy college is not as quote unquote, sexy as you know, college, college, right? It's not as fun, no sororities and fraternities like a four-year college or a major college. But if you do go to community college, you know, it's a lot less expensive. You have your core classes when you're done with your core classes, then maybe you go to that big university, you know, for your, you know, if you want a business degree or some type of degree, also from a college standpoint, now you have a lot of online classes, you know, you can do like, like a Google coding. It's it's companies out there that do like camps. If you want to get into tech where you might not have to go to college, but if you go to those boot camp and get the certifications, sometimes they help you get a job.

Mario (10m 28s):
I mean, it's tech jobs where you can make 80, 90, a hundred, $120,000 with no degree. Now it's a process. You have to go through that bootcamp. You have to get your certifications, but if you're able to get your certifications, then that's going to help you. So you don't have that 10 20, 30, a hundred thousand dollars of student loans.

Phil (10m 50s):
Let's turn to let Bob, is that the correct name? Let Bob let Bob. And I'm just taking this straight from the website where it says the media net worth for black households is currently $24,000 compared to 188,000 for white households, according to McKinsey and company. How do you see this as being changed? How can this be changed?

Mario (11m 13s):
That's a tough question. So first and foremost, some I think education, right from education standpoint, you have other, other nationalities besides African-Americans. They may have some more, better education, higher education, so that that's with anything, you can look at any statistic, any chart, right? The higher, the education from, you know, graduate number to not, not going to college, right, going to college, but not finishing, graduating postgraduate, you know, doctor, things of that nature, your income goes up. So the more individuals that have better education and higher education, I think that's going to help. Also technology, I truly believe from a standpoint, technology is the future.

Mario (11m 56s):
The actual founders, I'm an investor in Bob, but the actual founder and Bob, you know, he's big on tech. He actually went to an HBCU as well. Fam you graduated there. Tech is the ultimate game changer is the ultimate equalizer. So if you think about it, we talked about earlier, you know, individual coding or doing classes on YouTube, right? So I might not because of financial reasons, because of background, I might not be able to afford to go to a college, but if I'm able to teach myself how to code, if I'm able to go on YouTube that you know is free and learn how to code, if I'm able to get certifications, then you know, I don't have to spend tens of thousands of hundreds of thousand dollars.

Mario (12m 37s):
At some instances to go to a university, I can teach myself I can go a crash course. So now by having those certifications, I get hired at a company where I'm coding, making 80, 90, a hundred thousand dollars a year. So I think that from a technology standpoint is going to help bridge the wealth gap per se. And then also we'll take it a step further, the justice system, how things are set up. It is what it is more, African-Americans find themselves in trouble as they are younger. And once they're in the system is hard for them to kind of get out. Everybody makes mistakes. Some people get caught, some people don't get caught, but, but those mistakes that some African-Americans make hurt them.

Mario (13m 17s):
So I think if we have some reform with the judicial system, I think that's going to help as well. So, so those are a few things I think that'll help kind of bridge from an income standpoint, why Caucasian households are, or have a greater income compared to African-American households.

Phil (13m 32s):
Tell us about Let Bob, what, what what's the, the whole process and how does Let Bob work?

Mario (13m 38s):
Yeah, let Bob is amazing. So, so we launched our ETF on the market back in February. So the symbol is L E T B. So we have things proprietary that we're able to now as a, take a step back, nobody knows, but God, the future, right. And of course past performance does not give you future results. As I put on my fiduciary hat

Phil (13m 58s):
That's right. And this is not, this is not, we're not trying to sell anything, you know, consult a financial advisor before making any investments. We've got all the disclaimers out of the way and the compliance.

Mario (14m 9s):
Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. And even my clients, even I have my own ETF on the market from a diversification standpoint, all my clients are not in my fund. I mean, you know, that's just, you know, you want to be diversified. However, though, we do have things in place where we're able to not predict, but do a good job of, of, of kind of identifying what the market's doing. So we're able to maximize your gains. So if the market is going up, are you able to take advantage of that in a positive way? That's great. More importantly, from a preservation, a capital standpoint, and we are going through that now with the market being down, right? Preserving your capital. If we're able to kind of get you out the market or preserve your capital before the market really goes down, we've done our job.

Mario (14m 50s):
So from an investment standpoint, if you consistently not all the time, but if you consistently go up when the market's going up and consistently not go down as much, when the market goes down, you're going to outperform the market. I mean, definitely this year, you can definitely Google LETB, you know, everything is transparent. A great thing about having a, a fund is not, you know, when a person says that they're doing or, or what their clients are making is transparent. You know, you know, we performed very, very, very well compared to the market this year.

Phil (15m 23s):
So the ETF is artificial intelligence, algorithmic trading. Well, but without, and I know that's proprietary, but just tell us a little bit more about it. Which, which universe of stocks are you investing in and how is the capital protected?

Mario (15m 40s):
Yeah. Great question. So the benchmark is the Russell. I mean, so definitely if you Google see our, our benchmark is the Russell. We look at, you know, all the stocks in the Russell, 2000, we have different data. That's created to make everything automated, which again, we talk about technology, right? The great game. Game-changer right. Think about a person who was at work, right. If I'm at work, just working a job, providing for my family is 10 o'clock. You know, I look at the market and I own a stock, right. The stock is down and then just like today, right. The market opened up down and then closed the business. And it was very, very down. Right. So what if I had something in place from an automation standpoint that kind of triggered and automatically got out, you know, out of preserve my capital, right?

Mario (16m 25s):
So those are some of the things that we do from an automation standpoint, we're able to have triggers in place so that your get out, you know, when we see fit from automation standpoint, but then more importantly, you know, we get in when we see fit as well, because it's a two way street, right. It's great for individuals who solkd their investments back in January or back in February, they feel awesome. Right. You know, the NASDAQ was down over 30% Russell down over 30% when a hundred grand I've saved myself $30,000. I feel so good. But that's when the part of the battle, right. When do I get back in? Right. If I, if I wait to get back in to, you know, the market just back up, I've kind of missed out.

Mario (17m 6s):
I didn't lose any money, but I didn't gain. So if you're able to kind of get out, you know, when things are high and get back in, when things are low, then that's kinda the best of both worlds. Right? We got it right on upside. We got it right on the downside. And from an automation standpoint, you know, we're able to kind of do those types of things inside of the ETF.

Phil (17m 27s):
And, and that's an important thing about investing because you're kind of implying it, but without saying it is that psychology plays such a big part and how you look at the market as today. And we're recording on the 22nd of August. And when you say a day like this, and not only you're seeing a day like this, but you're watching CNBC and you're watching so much news about it and maybe reading online forums and there's panic in the air. And that's really so important for people to understand that they need to move away from that.

Mario (18m 2s):
Yes. And, you know, panic, paralyzes individuals with investments, right? So you think about 2008, I was talking to a client early today about this. If a person got out in 2008, they felt great, but if they didn't get back in until 2013, Then I've lost money. You know, we don't think about it that way, but inflation happened over five years, right? So the person who got out in 2008 and got back in, in, in 2009, you know, they did it right because they got out and they got back in typically, and we kind of circle back from African-American standpoint and it was a study done over 60% of African-Americans first time investors, if they first lose on an investment, it takes them on average 18 months to invest again.

Mario (18m 51s):
So think about that. Right? We have market cycles, market cycles, usually in between four to five years. Right. So if I get out when it's high, if I get, I mean, sorry, when it's low, excuse me, I get back in. I get out when it's low and I'm buying, investing when it's high, I lose in two different sectors, right? If an investor was worth $100, I sell it. When does that? 70, $70 now then I'll wait until the gets back to 100, again, I've lost $30 on a downside, but now it costs me $30 a bottle. Again, like that's $60 right there. Right. That's I mean, percentage wise, that's basically 50% if you kind of pair the, the up and the down. So the parallelization is real people call it, you know, FOMO, the fear of missing out.

Mario (19m 33s):
You know, you had a lot of people probably Friday and probably today, you know, that, that bought into the market now, longterm, you know, with the NASDAQ being down 20%, yes. Long-term close my eyes. Wake up five years from now, you buy something at 20% down. It's pretty good. Right. But most people aren't long-term investors. We say that with long-term right, but we're not long-term right. We're more like two, three weeks, maybe a year. So a person who got in on Friday or got in today saying, Hey, it's a slight pull back. Let me get in. They probably feel bad right now. So it was very important to do your research is very important to not make a knee jerk decision.

Mario (20m 13s):
When a stock is down, sometimes the stock is down for a reason. You might not want to buy it. You might want to see kind of what else is going on within the industry, within the sector. What's going on with management, what's going on with financials. We look at a stock like target, right? Target went down and a lot of people bought it. We look up three months later and back out again because their inventory. So just because the stock is down, doesn't mean it's a buy. You wouldn't really want to do your research. And for professional money managers, you know, that's, that's their job. The average retail person, not so much. You think about day trading, right? 90% of retail day traders lose. They have information. Google Google's free. Bloomberg for the most part is free.

Mario (20m 53s):
At least have Bloomberg terminal. You have market watch, right? You have free information. So with that free information, we still continue to do the wrong thing. I say all that to say, you definitely want to do your research. You definitely want to make sure the companies that you're buying are solid companies. And if you don't think that you're able to do the research buy an ETF, like a LETB, want to be diversified at all. Let me, but you want to buy ETS that does the research for you to make sure that you prayerfully maximize your gain and also minimize your losses.

Phil (21m 24s):
What do you tell young people who are investing for the first time,

Mario (21m 27s):
Close your eyes and enjoy the ride. Literally because you have updates and bad days, a person who invested January, 2020, they hated themselves. A person who invested April of 2020. They think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, right? So three months seems like a long, I mean, a short period of time. But for the investors, a long period of time, it's executer, right? A person who invested in 2020, like I said in January, they, they look up they're down by 20, 30, 40%, depending on the index, right? A person who invested in March, April, may they feel like a genius right now. Right? So you don't get it right.

Mario (22m 7s):
All the time stocks that we buy, you have good stocks, bad stocks, horrible stocks, great stocks. So, so you, you don't get it right all the time, but you don't want to do, as we talked about earlier, you don't want to buy stock. It goes down. Then you say, forget about it, throw down your laptop, throw down your, your phone. I'm never gonna invest ever again. You know, you have to take the good with the bad, the bad with the good, but literally close your eyes and enjoy the ride. Seriously, though, from a dollar cost averaging standpoint, we recommend a person, a dollar cost, average times like now, right? The market is trimming down from October of last year to now. So yes, we're buying high, but as the market continues to go down with buying and lower we're buying lower.

Mario (22m 48s):
So as the market gets back to where it was, those investments that you bought today, you being consistent are going to grow, are going to grow significantly. Once the market gets back to where it was. So enjoy the ride, be consistent, dollar cost, average, those, some, some of the things that you want to look into

Phil (23m 4s):
Dollar-cost averaging is when you actively put in a certain amount, say each week or each month into the market, no matter where the market is going up or down at that particular time.

Mario (23m 16s):
Yeah. Correct. Because nobody has a crystal ball. I mean, so we have an idea what the market is going to do next week. Next year, five years, we don't know completely. Right. So, but we do know is that the value of companies go up and down. So if we're able to buy long-term companies want to down, you're going to make more money. If you buy companies when her up and I go up further over time, you're going to make money again. Right. So since we don't know the perfect time of it going up or going down by you, putting in a certain amount of money and being consistent, right? It's like, it's like practice, right? They say it, Michael Jordan was the hardest practice player of all was the reason why, in some people's opinion now I think LeBron James, whole different conversation, but people would say that, you know, Michael Jordan, you know, is, is the goat, you know, a Kobe Bryant the same way he was relentless in practice.

Mario (24m 2s):
I mean, we're curse people out who would make people, you know, stay later. I mean, he was so keen on practice that he wanted to get practice early by, you know, Lord rest his soul by getting helicopters and flying over the traffic to and from. So we can get the practice and practice more. You should look at invest in the same way. If I continue to be consistent every single week, dollar-cost average. You want to research, you know, typically during the week, when does the market usually go down, right? Some people Sue studies to say, as Monday, some Lucas started to say Friday, well, and that's over a week timeframe. The days where the market's going to be down, we might want a dollar cost average on that day. Right. Because we might get a better share price. So, so you want to do your research and be consistent by dollar cost average in that allow you to have some, some nice profits over time if we're consistent.

Phil (24m 49s):
And that's one of the things about dollar-cost averaging now is that fees are so low and brokerage fees are so low that it becomes a no brainer. Really doesn't it?

Mario (24m 59s):
Yeah. And think about technology. Right? So that's one of the things that we talked about early in the conversation. And I was part of it, you know, just not part of it, but from a financial world, you know, when I started 15 years ago, it was commissions. You had Aisha mutual funds where, you know, you had to pay an upfront commission of up to 5%. Now you're like, why would somebody pay 5% to invest their money somewhere? But that's how it was in oh six and oh seven when I first started. Right? So a lot of investors young and African-Americans who don't have that upfront cache shied away from investing. But with technology companies, like WeBull companies like Robin hood companies, like, you know, our, our, our platform letbob.com that allows individual to basically buy and sell stocks at 0% commissions.

Mario (25m 44s):
Now all those companies are making money. So know, so a Robin hood, WeBull you know, the discount brokerage here. And when they say zero commissions, yes, zero commissions, but they're making money. I mean, there's no charity, it costs money to do the things they do from regular regulation standpoint, if I can talk, but definitely from a technology standpoint that has allowed new investors to get in, not need tons of money. Now you have fractional shares right now, Amazon split. But, you know, before the split, Amazon was very expensive, right. You know, who has, you know, a thousand to $3,000 of by Amazon, but with technology and the creation of fractional shares, you can buy a piece of Amazon.

Mario (26m 27s):
So you can have the growth percentage wise, not dollar wise, of course, but we're still, so we're fractional shares and technology as we talk about, I definitely think that is a, a game changer. And it'll be interesting to see a year from now because one year technologies like five years in human years, right? So one year from now three years from now, five years now, 10 years from now to be in a residency, how much more technology will help retail investors and also institutional investors as well, everybody.

Phil (26m 56s):
And it's also a dispiriting for young investors when they get started. And that might only be putting $5 a week away, for example. And they say their balance growing and growing. And it's not, it's not going anywhere, but again, it's looking at that long-term picture, isn't it?

Mario (27m 9s):
Yeah, it is. And so I'm also a Dave Ramsey, a smart investor. So I'm endorsed by, by, by Dave Ramsey. And so he, he put up a post about someone to say two months ago, and it was of a person maxes out their Roth IRA over a 30 year time period. They would have over $1.2 million in a regular index fund. Right. So maxing out my raw fire rate takes discipline, right? So maybe when I'm a 22 year old, I don't do it. But if I'm 30 and I had the cash, I can do it. Yes. From 30 to 60, that's a pretty fun ride. Now it's going to be a bumpy ride. If we're in a market, we're going to have good days, bad days, good years, like last year, bad years, like this year, but being consistent in dollar cost average.

Mario (27m 55s):
And as we're talking about, you know, you're going to be quite happy and you're going to feel great about your portfolio years down the road

Phil (28m 2s):
In terms of education. And in terms of talking to a young person who is starting investing for the first time, there's such a universe out there that they could be going into, they could be going into ETFs, individual stocks, mutual funds, whatever. And I'm just thinking about, I guess, that I've just been interviewing and about talking about just focusing on one thing just to get started, because really that's where the education comes in. Learning doing is learning, I think is the phrase that he used.

Mario (28m 31s):
One thing, that's a loaded question, right? So it depends on where you at from an investment standpoint. So I'll always recommend before you do any investing, you do your research, you do your research on what company that you want to, you know, we don't, we don't want to follow the masses, right? I mean, look, what's going on to the meme stocks, literally two weeks ago, bed bath, and beyond literally almost doubled in price. And then a day later is down by 75%. Right? So if I got in at his high and his high took three and a half days, so three and a half days, and now I invest a hundred dollars and now is worth 25. I'm probably not going to invest again for awhile, right?

Mario (29m 11s):
So you want to do your research. You want to see why it's being propped up, right? You want to see trends, you know, AMC bed, bath, and beyond GameStop, the same thing. It's kind of happening, we're profitable and perhaps down. Right? So, so you want to see why it's happening. You want to do your research. What should step that'd be the first thing to do before you do anything research then wants you to do your research. We want to execute before we actually want to have a plan. Am I going to dollar cost average? Am I going to put in one lump sum? I never recommend a person putting in one lump sum. Even if it's, Hey, I got this money. I want to invest. Yes. Well, let's do it over a two, three month time period, right? For person invested in June. Great.

Mario (29m 52s):
June, July, August is kind of back down a little bit. So you got some investments at a lower price. So after you do your research and you find a company or the ETF or the fund that you want to invest them, you want to execute before you execute though. You want to come up with a plan. But the first thing you wanna do is do a research. Because if you don't research a, you just invest your money, close your eyes, hope for the best you're setting yourself up for failure, just to be quite honest, even an index fund. So yes, over time an index fund is going to grow, you know, our ETF is going to grow, but just want to do your research though, you know, it's your heart on money.

Phil (30m 25s):
And that's what the part of the educational process really, isn't it educating yourself.

Mario (30m 29s):
Yeah. Correct. And, and, you know, I find even, even when I do research and it's a climb, I say, Hey, you know, look at this company. What do you think? You know, the more research and the more I know about that company, the better I feel about that investment. Right? So it's been times that I found out about companies by doing research and, and you know, so the more you know about something, the better you feel about your decision. So that might not make, have you make that knee jerk reaction? If it goes down or you might have to do any research, say, I know what's going to go down again because of XYZ. And I invest at that time. Lastly, I look at the charting, right? So this is the bit about fundamental analysis, technical analysis.

Mario (31m 10s):
I am on a camp of technical analysis. Technical analysis cannot show you what the stock is going to do in the future, but it does give you a background of how it acted in the past. So with that background, you're able to make a educated decision on how it was going to act when it comes to investing. When they get in right, same investment. If it's worth a hundred dollars. Now it's down to 75. Same investment is better to get in at 75 compared to a hundred, doing some technical analysis might allow you to stop and not make the decision to invest at a hundred. And it might make you kind of pay it back a little bit, wait awhile and do it at 75

Phil (31m 51s):
Patience in the market. Nothing like it.

Mario (31m 54s):
Patience is a virtue.

Phil (31m 55s):
So tell us, tell listeners how they can find out more about you and especially your ex excellent Instagram channel.

Mario (32m 2s):
Yeah. So everybody loves my Instagram. It's a way for me to give a, a comedic spin on investing. You know, people think investing is, you know, this I'm just always just old art form, just old investing. I just like to be fun, have fun videos. I go different places and talk about a company. So I'm giving research in a fun way, but my Instagram is TOAMS financial. So T O a M S financial I'd. That's my Instagram, Facebook TOAMS financial, LinkedIn Thomas financial Twitter. TOAMS financial. We have a TikTok page, a little younger crowd, and they're kind of breaks down investing from a rear community young standpoint, that socks are called painful profits.

Mario (32m 44s):
So P a Y N E F U L P R O F I T S payneful profits. The S pretty cool. Other than, of course our ETF again is let be, you can definitely go to our website, please do your research, go to our website. Let bob.com L E T B O b.com. If you want to be with our investment app, we're basically like Robin hood, but some things that kind of helps you before you make any bad decisions. Investment wise, you go to our website, sign up and that'll help as well.

Phil (33m 14s):
Mario Payne. Thank you very much for joining me today.

Mario (33m 17s):
Thank you. Peace. You guys have a good one.

Phil (33m 19s):
If you found this podcast helpful, please tell a friend, especially if it's someone who needs to start thinking about investing for their future, you'll be helping them and helping me to keep this show on the road.

Chloe (33m 30s):
Stocks for beginners is for information and educational purposes, only it isn't financial advice and you shouldn't buy or sell any investments based on what you've heard here. Any opinion or commentary is the view of the speaker only not stocks for beginners. This podcast doesn't replace professional advice regarding your personal financial needs circumstances or current situation.

Phil (33m 48s):
And thank you for listening to my podcast.

Stocks for Beginners is for information and educational purposes only. It isn’t financial advice, and you shouldn’t buy or sell any investments based on what you’ve heard here. Any opinion or commentary is the view of the speaker only not Stocks for Beginners. This podcast doesn’t replace professional advice regarding your personal financial needs, circumstances or current situation.