What the Midterm Election Means for Your Retirement with Matthew Peck – Ep 116

The midterm elections are over, and the markets have already experienced some dramatic swings. But what does the shift in Washington actually mean for your investments, retirement savings, and financial future?

In this episode, I sit down with Nick Nelson to break down the election results, what’s driving the recent market volatility, and what retirees should be paying attention to as we head into the next two years.

We explore how changes in Washington could influence inflation, interest rates, Social Security, and the stock market. We also discuss why the uncertainty surrounding AI investments and the possibility of political gridlock could have some unexpected consequences for your portfolio.

If you’re wondering whether the election results should change your retirement strategy, or if there’s anything you should be doing before year-end, this conversation will help you put the headlines into perspective.

In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:

• What The Midterm Results Mean For Investors
• How The Election Shook The Stock Market
• Why AI Stocks Are Facing New Pressure
• Why Portfolio Diversification Matters More Than Ever
• Why Political Gridlock Could Benefit Investors
• What History Says About Elections And Markets
• How Inflation And Tariffs Could Change
• What’s Next For Interest Rates And The Fed
• Could Social Security Changes Be Coming?
• Finding Opportunities In Market Volatility
• Should You Change Your Retirement Plan?
• Why Financial Guidance Matters During Uncertainty

Resources

• ICE
• GE Vernova
• Vistra
• Constellation Energy
• OBBA

Inspiring Quotes

• “Elections are very, very emotional. And so, wherever you end up on the outcome, our role is to set the emotions and the passions aside and really look at it from an economic and market, and fundamental basis.” – Matthew Peck

• “Gridlock is good. Gridlock might not be good in your opinion when it comes to certain policies that you might want to get enacted, but when it comes to the stock market, gridlock is good, at least historically speaking.” – Matthew Peck

• “We’re trying to be there over the long term, knowing that the market is going to roll over, it’s going to go in different directions, and whatever’s first is going to be last, whatever’s last is going to be first.” – Matthew Peck

• “Having someone by your side navigating through all of the ups and the downs is, to me, invaluable.” – Matthew Peck

[INTERVIEW]

Nick Nelson: Welcome, everybody, to a special edition of Matt’s Market on the Move. Today I’m joined with a familiar face, Matthew Peck. I’m Nick Nelson, who will be your host today. Matt, how are you?

Matthew Peck: I’m great. It’s good to see the election is over. A lot of people, obviously, a lot of angst and a lot of build-up and a lot of energy goes into election day. And it’s nice that it’s behind us, and now we get to sort of sort through the fallout of it. But beyond that, I’m good. How about yourself? How are the two little ones at home?

Nick Nelson: I’m good. Yeah, they’re both good. Daughter’s growing up fast already, so starting to do her fake talking and all of that stuff. So, yeah, everyone’s really good. But before we dive into it, just want to mention, we have a very important event this afternoon. It’s our annual turkey toss. How did you prepare this year? Because I am a past winner, I’m not sure if you are.

Matthew Peck: So, all of the listeners need to know what a turkey toss is. And so, imagine a semi-defrosted turkey flying anywhere from 10 to 20 feet in the air as you underhand it to a fellow shipmate, and you have to, A, make a fantastic toss, and then you have to kind of catch it. Like, imagine like a punt from a long distance away. Again, a kind of like a wet, cold, squishy cannonball that you get. And so, how I prepare is that I have a towel that I’ve cut a couple of spots to kind of wear, almost like a poncho or kind of like something in an old Western, right? That way, when I receive the punt, when I receive the semi-cold turkey, I don’t have to worry that it’s going to splash and get whatever juice is all over me. That’s how I prepare.

Nick Nelson: I will say that’s a veteran move, absolutely.

Matthew Peck: Yeah. And so, now for the audience, because everyone wants to know, how do you prepare as a champion turkey tosser?

Nick Nelson: Yes. You have to stretch. You’ve got to get the blood flowing. If you do that, you’re in good shape. That’s all it is. That’s the secret. Easy as that.

Matthew Peck: Love it.

Nick Nelson: Yeah. Well, thank you, Matt. So, to get on topic today, so obviously the topic today is just a follow-up of the midterms, and more importantly, the financial aspect of it. What does that mean for the financial markets? What does that mean for you as an investor or a retiree? So, just to start big picture, just kind of want to go over the results of the midterms and how the market has reacted thus far, because it has been a little bit crazy.

Matthew Peck: Oh, absolutely. To say it is an election with consequence. I mean, they’re all consequential, and they’re all important, but this election was a sea change for many reasons, and that will affect us on pocketbook issues, market issues, things along those lines. Before I sort of talk in general, I do want to let all of our listeners know that there are probably half the people that are listening that are upset right now, and then the other half, maybe 51% or whatever that may be, that are very happy right now. Elections are very, very emotional. And so, wherever you ended up on the outcome, our role is to set the emotions and the passions aside and really look at it from an economic and market, and fundamental basis.

And so, just want to let that be said. Now, let’s talk about the consequences of the election, okay? First off, it was huge. I mean, as a history geek, there were a lot of big movements that happened. I mean, Kansas had its first Democratic senator, Kansas, since 1932. I mean, close to 100 years, the state of Kansas has not elected a Democratic senator, and we have a Democratic senator out of Kansas. We have a Democratic senator out of Texas, and that’s since 1988. Huge. We have now, check this out, in New England, we don’t have a Republican senator. Do you know when that’s the last time that’s happened?

Nick Nelson: I don’t.

Matthew Peck: Never.

Nick Nelson: Okay.

Matthew Peck: Since the founding of the Republican Party, there has been at least one Republican representative in the Senate from the six states of New England. And that’s no longer the case. So, you have these milestones and benchmarks one after the other, really emphasizing how much of a shift this was, okay? And it was really a lot about affordability, which all kind of bundled up into a couple of different areas. Of course, the ICE and some of the cruel tactics that were happening across the country had an impact. But tariffs and the war on Iran drove prices up. And that affordability and pocketbook issues were huge in this particular election.

And so, I think we’re going to see those areas are really going to begin to be addressed first as to how can we address pocketbook issues, how can we bring down costs, how can we address affordability, and that’s going to be something big driving over the next, I’d say two years at least, if not more.

Nick Nelson: Yeah. That makes perfect sense. And from SHP’s point of view, all those areas that you just said, what are we kind of focusing on over these next two years now? Any shift in terms of what we’re looking at as it relates to the financial markets?

Matthew Peck: So, there will be impact. So, let me, because you’d also asked, too, about market reaction, right? Because there will be what we’re focusing on, right? So, to back up a little bit, the election was Tuesday, and then Wednesday was what a lot of people call the relief rally, okay? Elections went without a hitch. There, it was a clear-cut winners. You had the losers conceding to say, “Hey, it was a great campaign, and we lost,” and so forth and so on. And so, usually when that happens, and you saw it on Wednesday, that there’s a relief “Hoo, okay,” because markets like certainty. Markets like, okay, they like outcomes. They like clear outcomes, right? So, now boom, okay. Market’s like, “The election’s done. All that’s behind us. We now know the landscape. So, yay, we’re kind of off to the races.”

That was Wednesday. Less than 24 hours later, Thursday, and there is blood on the streets. I mean, a complete massacre on the markets. The Dow, the S&P 500, and specifically the Nasdaq, which, as of this recording, has entered into correction territory. Now, why was that? Why did we go from a Wednesday of a great day to a Thursday of a complete bloodbath, right? And it was because of data centers and the unraveling, or at least the slight taking the sort of temperature down on the AI trade, right? Because you mentioned about data centers. Data centers were another large issue in this particular campaign, and people were concerned about the impact. As they were building these data centers, they were worried about the impact on their electricity bills. Again, back pocket, or checkbook issues.

They were worried about resources like water, right? And I think vaguely, or at least a little bit, they were worried about, okay, if AI, because everyone’s talking about, I mean, even the makers of AI are talking about how it might lead to human extinction.

Nick Nelson: It’s a little bit scary.

Matthew Peck: Which is kind of a bummer.

Nick Nelson: Yeah. It is.

Matthew Peck: That’s why I have my little Care Bears positive vibes. This is how I get through my days. So, they’re going to be like, “Okay,” and there was a lot of anti-data center, for all those reasons. And the Democrats tapped into that. They said, “Okay, well, we’re going to be anti-data center as well.” And so, now, here again, back to Thursday in the market, they said that, “Oh, gosh, well, if the data centers now are either canceled or delayed or slowing, that’s going to be a huge hit to all the semiconductor chips, all of the AI trade, all of the picks and shovels, the chips themselves, the power companies like GE Vernova, and Vistra, I think is one of them, and Constellation Energy.”

All of the trades that have been powering the NASDAQ and really the markets in general in this AI build-out took a huge reversal because they said, “Well, look, if Democrats now are going to stop or slow this process, well, that’s going to slow profits, and that’s going to slow the trade.” So, markets responded to what that new landscape looked like.

Nick Nelson: Yeah, and I think that really highlights the importance of diversification because, correct me if I’m wrong, I believe there were sectors that were positive even on Thursday, but the overall market was down so much because of things like the S&P 500 that are a little bit heavily more weighted in those tech companies, and being backed by that AI. So, just wanted to mention that as a point, too, and I guess anything you’d like to add to that in terms of portfolios and diversification there.

Matthew Peck: Well, it’s really interesting to see, and this is where elections have the outcomes, right? Because here we have the data centers saying, “Oh, gosh, okay, Democrats now are going to slow down, and the AI trade’s going to slow down a little bit because the data centers are going to be built out a little bit.” Another thing is, because it was such a resounding victory, President Trump now has a little bit less power in his hands, and I’m not even going to get into the lame duck and what could potentially happen. But if you look strictly from a foreign policy, he’s definitely a little bit weaker than he was prior to the election. And so, now when he’s negotiating with Iran, he’ll might be looking for any type of deal that is going to sort of save face or whatever that may be.

Well, what that means is that oil is going to come down because hopefully they find something that settles up the Strait of Hormuz and there’s less tension in there. So, now at the same time that AI trade, that tech went down, oil went down. So, now energy sort of sold off. Two things that were directly related to the election outcome. And so, it’s really interesting to have energy and tech on the same day go down, but you’re right. On the other hand, consumer staples and some of the more defensive ones, and then specifically healthcare. Because I think one of the bipartisan or one area that they do think that Democrats will be able to pass legislation-wise is in healthcare, in restoring some of the healthcare cuts that were made as part of the OBBA.

So, it absolutely points to diversification. And I would also state why, as investors here at SHP Financial, when we manage our clients’ monies, we’re not making bets that the Republicans are going to win or the Democrats are going to win. And that’s not the business that we’re in. We’re just making sure that we stay as diversified as possible so that we provide a stable ride during volatile times and to make sure that we have our eggs in many baskets, not just one, because if that one basket goes to pot, then that’s not good for anybody.

Nick Nelson: Makes sense, and it’s a good reminder. And just to take one little step back there, the concept of gridlock has been on the news a lot lately, and obviously the markets have reacted pretty aggressively the first few days. But when the power in Washington is that concept of gridlock, typically the markets like that, or at least historically, because there’s less surprises. So, do you see that playing into the next two years as a benefit to the market, neutral, or any other influence?

Matthew Peck: Well, in that alone too, I certainly want to share with anyone that was upset or concerned about the market’s future performance, right? Gridlock is good. Gridlock might not be good in your opinion when it comes to certain policies that you might want to get enacted, but when it comes to the stock market, gridlock is good, at least historically speaking. Because when you have a split, whether it’s split Congress or Congress is in one party’s hands and the president is in the other party’s hands, like we have right now, what that means is that, in order for policies to get enacted, it has to be a compromise, right? When you have all one party in there, there’s a tendency to have very extreme or more extreme policies come out of there because they don’t need to negotiate.

The party doesn’t need to compromise. So, if you have all Democrats in there, you might have very progressive or left-leaning policies that come through that the market might not respond to well. Or if you have a full all Republicans in there, there might be laws that are too extreme or too on the right-hand side that the markets find concerning. In this situation, and in the past historically, when you have sort of that checks and balances that are happening, anything that will end up on the president’s desk will have to be hammered out between both parties because he won’t sign it. He has it, as you probably have already heard, but he has the power of the veto. And that is an extremely powerful sort of clause, or it’s extremely powerful power, right?

Because anything that gets in front of his desk, he can just veto it. And then two-thirds of the Senate and two-thirds of the House need to override it. And to get to that level is, even with the resounding win that the Democrats had, they still don’t have that ability to override the veto. So, if they want to get things done on healthcare and in other areas of priority, maybe it’s minimum… Another area they’re talking about is maybe raising the minimum wage. They can’t get any of that done unless they have either a veto-proof majority or they have President Trump’s support.

Nick Nelson: That makes sense. And on that topic, just looking at balances of power in Washington, is there a certain combination where the markets maybe do perform better, or the markets prefer, or what does that look like historically?

Matthew Peck: We’ll actually put up some slides on our notes, so definitely check it out, and you’ll be able to see, kind of go throughout history. I mean, all I can say is that, in general, this result is a very positive result for the market. And a couple of things I also would want to point out, too, is that if they’re able to find some type of solution to Iran and Hormuz opens up and oil starts to flow a little bit, that’s going to have a disinflationary impact. And so, prices might come down a little bit, or at least the cost of filling up your tank might come down a little bit. The other thing that’s sort of disinflationary is that, because of the fact that we do have gridlock, or at least checks and balances, a lot of the stimulus checks or the fiscal stimulus that has been sort of juicing the economy and almost spending a little bit too much, right?

I mean, the fact that there was even the thought of all Americans getting $5,000 if the Republicans win, I mean, no one really took that too seriously, but that type of policy is not going to happen anymore, right? So, there will be less sort of fiscal support from the federal government, which is good. Less spending from the government, because we have a debt problem, which is a whole other topic, of course. But the whole idea is that, okay, if the federal government is now doing less stimulus checks, okay, that will kind of slow down the economy a little bit. Right? And so, okay. And that’s sort of disinflationary, right? Because if the economy’s running hot, prices will run hot. But now, okay, if we have less stimulus checks, okay, that’s going to come down a little bit.

Maybe consumer spending comes down a little bit. All right, that’s good. That’s good for, I mean, not good for overall GDP, but could be good for prices. As mentioned about Iran, well, okay, if we are able to find some solution, now oil prices have come down, also disinflationary. And then lastly is back to the data centers that that’s been driving a lot of the costs up, too. I mean, the iPhones are more expensive now because memory chips are more expensive, and the only reason memory chips are more expensive is because they’re going into all of those racks in all those data centers. So, if we slow down there, prices might moderate a little bit. So, we are anticipating, in the current environment, a sort of lowering of, or just getting inflation closer down to the 2% that is our goal. Okay? Or less, the Federal Reserve’s goal. And so, those are the types of things that we’re starting that we anticipate coming out of this Congress as we head into 2028.

Nick Nelson: Got it. Yeah. And I was going to ask, how fast does that stuff actually happen? Because when you look at things in the market, stuff like you mentioned, inflation, interest rates, economic growth, earnings, all that stuff, like to me, if that stuff is positive, generally the markets are going to do well regardless of some of those maybe short-term changes and things that are applied based on what’s happening in Washington. So, anything to add to that as well?

Matthew Peck: I mean, I would add that all of those things I talked about that could be a disinflation, disinflationary, the whole idea there is to slow prices from going up, right? In the sense of, okay, if we’re at near 4% inflation, can we get that down to 3.5%? Can we get that down to 3%? Can we get that down to 2.5%? Can we get that down to 2%? Prices are still going to go up, right? So, sometimes they talk about, “Oh, we’re going to cut prices and somehow…” Oh, actually, I totally forgot. Sorry. Let me not talk about prices. The other one that we do anticipate Congress acting on is tariffs, because tariffs also cause prices go up. Tariffs sound great on a campaign, right? And then you talk to anyone in Michigan, they say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. How much am I paying for this? Because of why?” Right?

So, Congress, historically, they’re the ones that have the power to tariff. The president has power over foreign policy, so he or she can do whatever the heck they want on, well, within reason, whatever the heck they want on a foreign policy. Tariffs, historically, by the Constitution, was in the area of Congress to add or subtract or do what. Over the past 50, 100 years now, Congress has sort of passed laws that allow for the president to enact emergency tariffs or to call a natural emergency on aluminum or whatever that may be, which then President Trump applied to make sure the tariffs and to kind of fulfill his campaign promise. We anticipate those also being addressed. Maybe Congress decides to repeal those laws that they passed back in the ’70s, right? And to kind of bring back the power of tariff back to the Congress, right?

Also, we assume to be if tariffs get either reduced, eliminated, who knows what happens. We anticipate that also being disinflationary. So, the good news is that with all of these areas, if data center slows, if oil and energy prices come down, if tariffs get removed, things along those lines, we should see prices come down a little bit. There’ll be a slowing a little bit on economic growth like we talked about, but all of those, again, are good for prices. I do want to go back, though, to they might try to increase the minimum wage because, as I said, the whole goal is to have prices not go up as fast because you can’t have prices going negative two, negative four, negative six because if you get disinflation, that’s not good.

That’s like stagnation. That means that we’re, I don’t know, we’re not producing enough, right? And that means our GDP has gone negative. That’s recessionary. So, we don’t want prices to go negative. We do want them to come down a little bit for a lot of people that are struggling out there. So, okay, if we can bring down prices a little bit, but then if we can increase wages, and so one thought would be to increase the federal minimum wage. That might also end up on the president’s desk. We’ll see, right? So, if we can, as an example, bring down wages or find… Sorry. Bring down prices and then bring up wages, then suddenly we do have a good situation where people find it more affordable. Maybe they can afford that house, right? Maybe they can spend a little bit more. And then that closing of that gap would then lead to a broadening out of economic growth and then a broadening out of the stock market, respectively.

Nick Nelson: Yep. No, it makes sense. Thank you, Matt. And then talking just affordability, interest rates, things like that, the Fed is obviously in the spotlight as well, and the Fed operates independently, right? Or at least it’s supposed to.

Matthew Peck: Yes.

Nick Nelson: However, do you expect any changes with the Fed? I know come December, I believe there’s still a higher likelihood of a rate hike. But again, do you see any changes as a result of the midterms pointed towards the Fed specifically?

Matthew Peck: Two things there. First off, this is a great win for the outcome. The election outcome was a good win for Fed independence because with the Democrats now in control of the Senate, if President Trump does meddle or try to use the bully pulpit to push around the Fed to do what they want or to try to get rid of Fed members, well, the Senate has to approve the new people coming on. So, oh, I forget. I don’t think it’s Rice. I forget. There’s a woman that he’s battling with. Cook, I think her name is? I’m not sure. Forgive me. But he’s been trying to get rid of a Fed member for a while, right? And so, even if he’s successful, then the Senate has to approve her replacement.

So, the idea that he starts to push people out, it doesn’t do anything for him because the Democrats aren’t going to approve whoever he nominates to come back in. So, now the Feds has a wall of defense a little bit from meddling because, again, they approve whoever the replacements are, okay? On actual Fed action, markets, you’re right. We are anticipating one more rate hike come December. They didn’t want to do it before the election, of course, but most likely in December, just to prove their credibility, to prove that they are, in fact, going after inflation, and they want to get prices under control.

That being said, for all the reasons that we talked about earlier, about the fact that tariffs may be controlled a little bit better, if not eliminated, that oil may come down a little bit that data centers may slow a little bit. We don’t anticipate many more hikes after the one in December because all those other macro features should hopefully bring moderate inflation a little bit down and then allow the Fed to either hold rates or even maybe even cut them in the future. Long story short, Fed has a good protection now, and we’re seeing a one-and-done type of situation when it comes to rate hikes.

Nick Nelson: Got it. Thank you, Matt. And just to bring it back to kind of retirees and investors a little bit, so again, in the news you’re going to see Medicare is in the news, Social Security, the future of that. Is there anything that you or SHP’s eyeing in that area that could impact retirees, especially over these next two years?

Matthew Peck: I mean, I’ll take Social Security. I mean, everyone’s going to be calling me naive, and I don’t blame you. If there’s naive somewhere below here, or I don’t know, in those TikTok worlds, somehow they have words appear in front of you, and I don’t know exactly how that works, but…

Nick Nelson: Me either.

Matthew Peck: Okay. I just know it happens in magic. I don’t know if it’s captions or what, but that’s another point. We’ll have a deconstructing TikTok separately. But my joke is, or all joking aside, my hope is that we now have a lame duck president. We have a president that can’t get reelected, no matter how much he wants to, or at least has said he wants to in the past. Wouldn’t you want a legacy like that? From everything that I understand, he doesn’t really, I mean, he cares about himself. He doesn’t really care about necessarily his party or anything like that. He cares about what America First means Trump First, right? And nothing wrong with that. He’s done amazing things by his supporters.

But, I mean, if you have nothing to lose, wouldn’t you want to be like, okay, find a grand bargain on Social Security? You know, find a way to work with Democrats and really kind of go out in a bang. And the solutions are there. I mean, it’s a combination of a little bit less benefits. It’s a combination of a little bit higher taxes, delaying retirement age. All the solutions are there. And so, I’m hopeful that specifically on Social Security or maybe government spending, whatever that may be, I’m just hopeful that a lame duck president takes the opportunity to say, “Look, hey, I’m going to do things that might not get me reelected.” Well, guess what? You can’t get reelected anyways. So, take the opportunity to… It’s almost like a term limit, right?

They talk about having term limits on politicians so that they act in the country’s best interests, not their own best interests. In the little fiduciary land, right, which is where you and I live. So, I’m very hopeful that that happens, okay?

Nick Nelson: Good.

Matthew Peck: To your second question about anything else that we’re watching, I mean, we absolutely take the long view, right? If everything that happens over the next two years, prices come down and whatnot, and we see a broadening, great. All the great. But we’re always going to stay diversified no matter what happens. And not that we liked the sell-off in the Nasdaq, and is it in correction territory, we don’t mind if the air comes out a little bit. I mean, I would love the next couple of years to not talk about bubbles anymore and just say, “Hey, it got ahead of itself, and now the market’s rationally looking things and just saying, ‘You know what? We need to discount that a little bit, and let’s bring that down to earth a little bit.'” Right?

And we hope, again, for broadening because we’re diversified. We’re never going to go all in on one trade, like I was saying earlier. And occasionally clients are like, “Oh, well, the market did this, and you only did that.” And it’s like, well, yeah, because we’re trying to be there over the long term, knowing that the market is going to roll over, it’s going to go in different directions, and whatever’s first is going to be last, whatever’s last is going to be first. As all of our loyal listeners get on the Skittles chart on our ones with slides, you see that action, right? So, just staying patient, not chasing returns, not chasing shiny objects, just trying to stay patient and stay disciplined over the long term.

Over the short term, I would say we obviously are going to look into doing things like tax loss harvesting, Roth conversions, taking advantage of some of the volatility for tax planning. I think that’s going to happen sort of portfolio-wide as well as on an individual basis for people who have more what we call customized portfolios. So, I think long term is patient, stay disciplined. I think short term is taking advantage of any tax planning we can do by year-end.

Nick Nelson: Yep. And I was going to ask you, with the changes, any year-end things to take advantage of? You just hit on that right there.

Matthew Peck: I answered your question, Nick, already.

Nick Nelson: Before I even said it.

Matthew Peck: Just, I’m skating where the puck’s going.

Nick Nelson: That’s perfect. You’re a professional. But bringing it back to also financial planning, is there anything? So, you kind of hit on some tactics and some strategies, but is there any reason for someone that does have a sound financial plan to make any adjustments? And then I would say second part of that question, too, is what would you say to someone that is maybe nervous about the results of the midterm?

Matthew Peck: Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t be nervous because I would go back to the gridlock, right, where this situation does bode for stability and more certainty. And about that, right, is that we don’t anticipate any major changes to taxes, whether positive or negative, right? Meaning that when it comes to estate planning, right, and some of the federal estate tax levels and whatnot, right now there isn’t any talk of any change to that. So, I’d be very surprised if over two years, there are any dramatic changes to tax laws that would then have people need to reassess what they’ve done on estate planning basis. Tax planning, same idea, or just income and federal income tax, I think the same.

We’ll be all over it if it does in fact happen. But that’s what I mean. I don’t really see these dramatic things happening. I talked about maybe healthcare, maybe minimum wage, but all these things don’t really affect the retirees, right? So, all reasons to just not freak out one way or the other, or get too excited either, right? Don’t get too high or too down. Just stay calm and stay focused. So, in short, I wish there was some big grand reveal, right? About what’s going to be happening or how it’s going to be impacting us, but it’s steady as she goes, and obviously reach out to your advisor if you ever are nervous, especially on that Thursday. It was a pretty scary day for anyone that maybe either their first rodeo or just looked up that day. That’s what your advisor’s there for, to let you know that over the long term, the outlook is positive.

Nick Nelson: Yeah. Thank you, Matt. And then just to wrap up the conversation, so if you could leave like one thing to our listeners, to our clients, investors, whoever it may be, like what would be your main takeaway out of the conversation today?

Matthew Peck: I mean, main takeaway is I want everyone to follow politics. I want everyone to enjoy and to be aware, as citizens, as to what’s happening. But unless you really, really enjoy following it and then following all of the dominoes that fall, right? Following politics and then being, “Okay, well, what does this mean for healthcare? What does this mean for minimum wage? What does this mean for the markets?” And so, that’s what we do every day. So, I appreciate all the do-it-yourselfers that are out there. But man, oh man, I mean, I enjoy it because it’s my career, right? So, I would just advise people to have an advisor. I mean, I know it’s self-serving. Don’t get me wrong.

But having an advisor on your team, having experts on your team to help kind of read the tea leaves and be, again, an advisor. Be someone on your team, someone that you can collaborate with and work through what the new landscape is. Even though, again, we’re very positive because it’s going to be pretty stable, at least according to history. Having someone by your side navigating through all of the ups and the downs is, to me, invaluable.

Nick Nelson: Yeah, and I think that helps take your personal political views out of it a little bit because, yes, that’s important, but at the end of the day, if you have a sound plan, if you’re looking at the fundamentals, you don’t want to make any emotional vast changes which could lead to a negative impact down the road. So, I think that’s also just a good reminder of that as well.

Matthew Peck: I agree.

Nick Nelson: Great. Well, thank you, Matt. That’s all we have for today. We appreciate your insight and everything that you shared. Very valuable. And I’m sure if you’re listening to this, you thought the same. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day.

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