How Smart Planning Beats Bad Luck

Our 2 Cents – Episode #230

How Smart Planning Beats Bad Luck

Keeping with our October theme, we’re back with another edition of Our 2 Cents! In this episode, we explore unique ways to celebrate Financial Planning Month and uncover some fascinating money superstitions from around the globe. Tune in now!

1. October is Financial Planning Month:
   • The Lewits share practical tips to help you refresh and revitalize your finances this fall.
2. Money Superstitions:
   • Curious what financial folklore might be affecting your wallet?

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Podcast Transcript

Announcer: You’re listening to Our 2 Cents with the team from SGL Financial, Building Wealth for Life. Steve Lewit is the President of SGL Financial, and Gabriel Lewit is the CEO. They’re here to discuss all the latest and financial news, trends, strategies, and more.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to Our 2 Cents. You’ve got Gabriel here, of course, and Stephen Lewit here, of course. And you’ve got the whole crew behind the scenes that you can’t see here, of course. And we’re geared up here for a wonderful show with you, our valued listeners.

Steve Lewit: Of course.

Gabriel Lewit: Of course.

Steve Lewit: Of course.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes. Talking with you guys, even though we can’t hear you, is the best part of our weeks.

Steve Lewit: You know, I really look forward to our podcast. I really enjoy these and I think people enjoy it too.

Gabriel Lewit: I hope so. I hope so. I had somebody just yesterday say, “Hey, yeah. On one of your podcasts I heard,” blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, oh yeah, it’s always nice to know that somebody’s out there listening.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, yeah, it is. I heard somebody said that to me too, and I said, “Did I say that really?”

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I could envision that for you because I don’t know half of what goes through your head sometimes, but yeah.

Steve Lewit: Well, some people-

Gabriel Lewit: Nor do we want to.

Steve Lewit: Some people think … Actually we don’t want to know what goes through anybody’s head, for real.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s probably true. That’s probably true.

Steve Lewit: Okay, so the shutdown continues.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, as we expected and as we had prognosticated, not that we needed a big crystal ball to do that last week. There was indeed a shutdown. It did not get resolved.

Steve Lewit: It did not.

Gabriel Lewit: It is still unresolved, and it does not appear that there is a resolution in sight. So we said the longest one was, what? 34 days last Trump term. So we’ll see if we beat that this time. Hopefully not. Hopefully they get this thing figured out. But not much more to say there. Politics, as I mentioned last time, being politics, bickering back and forth, blaming each other and getting nothing done.

Steve Lewit: And the market doesn’t care.

Gabriel Lewit: And the market’s still kind of … Well, it’s not gone up much higher. It’s pretty flat over the last week. So yeah, it hasn’t really seemed to care much.

Steve Lewit: Much. Yep.

Gabriel Lewit: All right, now moving on here. We’ve got a great topic for you today. October is, you may not have known this, financial planning month.

Steve Lewit: Can I be honest with you? I didn’t know that either.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, if you go online, you can find that every single day of the year is-

Steve Lewit: Something.

Gabriel Lewit: A special day and every month is a special month. But yes, October is financial planning month. And with that in mind, us being financial planners-

Steve Lewit: Perfect topic.

Gabriel Lewit: And more particularly comprehensive, holistic financial planners, we thought that this would be a great one to talk about here today.

Steve Lewit: A brilliant choice.

Gabriel Lewit: Couldn’t be better.

Steve Lewit: That’s brilliant.

Gabriel Lewit: Just couldn’t be better. Okay?

All right. So what do we want to talk about in financial planning? Well, number one is do you have a financial plan? Okay. And if you’re our client, I would say the answer to that is probably yes.

Steve Lewit: If you’re our client, definitely yes.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay.

Steve Lewit: Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: I say should be, of course. But many of you listening to the show are not yet our clients. And the question there is do you have a financial plan? I know you talk a lot about this at workshops you give Steve.

Steve Lewit: At my seminars.

Gabriel Lewit: At your Seminars.

Steve Lewit: Definitely.

Gabriel Lewit: Want to elaborate a little bit on that?

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Well, the story I always tell is that we are financial planners. We don’t invest anything unless there’s a plan for it, and I tell the story that when people come to my office, and I’ve done this for 30 years, eventually I say, “Hey, did you bring your financial plan with you?” And 99% of the time-

Gabriel Lewit: Truly, truly, 99% of the time.

Steve Lewit: They just look at me. And some of them say, “Well, I think I left it home,” which means they don’t have it. And most say, “No, I don’t have a financial plan.” So in 30 years, maybe I see one or two a year at most, which tells me the whole community, the retirement community, which is our target market, the whole community is not planned out for the most important time of their lives.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. It’s a complicated thing, planning for retirement, it’s a one-time event, typically, in your life. We joke about that a lot, but you don’t usually retire twice.

Steve Lewit: It’s very serious. Plus you don’t have a second chance. 10 years go by. Well, if someone comes to us, Gabriel, and now they’re 75 or 80 years old and say, “Hey, this isn’t working out, can you fix it for me?”

Gabriel Lewit: Can we rewind till 65?

Steve Lewit: Yeah, you’ve lost all those years and time in retirement is precious.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So I think leading off here in financial planning month is just that simple question. Do you have a financial plan? And obviously if you’re a client of ours and you aren’t sure about that, you do have one, right? Come find us, we’ll review it with you. But if you’re out there and you’re thinking, I don’t think I really have a financial plan. I have some numbers, I have some investments-

Steve Lewit: Or you might’ve done a spreadsheet, but that’s really not a plan.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. And just having an investment account where you’ve got money, then, “I’m going to use this money for retirement.” That is not a plan. And we might talk a little bit more about what is a plan here in just a second in commemoration of financial planning month. But that’s the first question.

Steve Lewit: And I’ll just add onto that, Gabriel. If you do have a plan, let’s say you have another advisor, you’re not with us, and you do have a plan, I would suggest you come in and get a second opinion on your plan because there’s a lot of funky ways to plan that are not really in your benefit.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So for financial planning month, we are offering you, although we do offer this every month … It’s a special-

Steve Lewit: It’s a special this month.

Gabriel Lewit: A complimentary financial plan, second opinion, or review. Especially for financial planning. Yeah. So let’s take advantage of that.

Steve Lewit: We’ll bake extra cookies.

Gabriel Lewit: All right, now number two on our list of key things here to talk about in financial planning month is ask your financial planning questions. Now, Steve, dad-

Steve Lewit: Sure.

Gabriel Lewit: You have these seminars. In fact, you had one two nights ago, you’ve got one tonight.

Steve Lewit: Yes.

Gabriel Lewit: People ask you questions.

Steve Lewit: Yes.

Gabriel Lewit: I think.

Steve Lewit: They do.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. I haven’t been to one in a while, but the ones I used to go to-

Steve Lewit: It’s very participatory.

Gabriel Lewit: They ask a lot of questions.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, they do.

Gabriel Lewit: So, in financial planning month, this is a great opportunity. Ask the questions you’ve always wanted to ask. Of course, I’m going say you can email us your info at sglfinancial.com and we’ll talk to you about them on the next show. Any question. Big, small, silly, smart, whatever. Don’t worry about it. Ask the question. It’s about getting empowered and knowledgeable and informed.

So dad, what kind of questions are you typically hearing at your workshops?

Steve Lewit: I can rank them in order. Number one question. Will I have enough money to last my retirement? Far and away, if I say to the group, “What’s your number one question?” They all, “Oh, will I have enough money? Can I retire? Will it last?” That’s number one question.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.

Steve Lewit: Number two question

Gabriel Lewit: That’s a classic right there.

Steve Lewit: Classic. And the number two … Hasn’t … Up until about 10 years ago, I didn’t hear it a lot, but now I do, is, “How do we save on taxes? We give away so much. It’s not what we make. We don’t keep it.” The government is in our pockets all the time, and there’s a lot of frustration. And even in my seminars, you get a little bit of anger about it. It’s like, “Wow, I worked so hard and I’m losing all this money and if taxes go up in the future, I’m really in trouble.” The third question is, “In these tumultuous times, where should I invest my money now,” where should I be in the market-

Gabriel Lewit: Little more practical short term-

Steve Lewit: …very practical. Next question is long-term care. How do I pay for … Fidelity estimates that a couple at 65 over the next balance of their lives spend about $400,000 on insurance and another 300 on long-term care. That’s 700,000 bucks. Where do I get that from? And the fifth question is … What is the fifth question? I had it right on … Long-term care. Oh, I get a lot about trusts and estates. Should I have a trust, and stuff like that.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I just had a really interesting thought when you said that which I think it’ll make sense when I say here. So we talk all the time here at SGL, about four core pillars of retirement planning. In fact, we have a planning process that’s very systematic that we take our clients through called a four pillar plan. And our goal as a company, our tagline is “Building greater wealth for life.” Finding ways of building you wealth, creating money, making that money work for you in your life. And we do that through these four core pillars. And the four core pillars are so integral to what we do. They’re actually our logo.

Steve Lewit: Exactly. That’s how important it is to us.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So those four pillars are income planning, investment planning, tax planning, and then estate and legacy planning. And I don’t think you purposely meant to this. These really are the questions that people ask you, in order.

Steve Lewit: No. Honestly, I was not even thinking about that.

Gabriel Lewit: Pretty much in order at your seminars.

Steve Lewit: That’s how they ask the questions-

Gabriel Lewit: Is do I have enough income in retirement? Where should I put my money now, which is investments, how do I save on taxes, which is tax planning? What should I do about long-term care and estate planning is trust and estate. Those are core pillars.

Steve Lewit: Now I have something else to say at my seminar. By the way, folks, look at our four pillars here.

Gabriel Lewit: It just so works out that way. So as we were just talking a few minutes ago, what is in a plan? Well, that’s part of what’s in a plan. There’s other things, as you mentioned, insurance costs and there’s of course … What do I do about social security, which is income planning. What do I do about … I don’t know, whatever else. My house, should I pay off my mortgage or invest the money? Little questions like that.

Steve Lewit: Or in buying a second house, or should I do Roth conversions and how do I eliminate Irma? All these questions. It’s very complex.

Gabriel Lewit: It is, yeah.

Steve Lewit: And this is the other theme that I give it my seminars is once your paycheck stops, once you are retired and you have to depend on all your savings that you spent your entire life building and saving and accumulating, the whole world changes. Then income planning becomes important, taxes become really important, everything becomes more important in the stock market. Not that it’s not important, but these are more important.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I just thought that was interesting.

Now, last couple things here on this topic. I think the first one has nothing to do with money, but it has everything to do with money. Can you guess what it is?

Steve Lewit: I didn’t look at the right up. Nothing to do with … Your attitude.

Gabriel Lewit: Nope.

Steve Lewit: No, that’s a good answer though.

Gabriel Lewit: It is a good one.

Steve Lewit: I like that answer. Has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with money.

Gabriel Lewit: And maybe once I say what it is, you’ll disagree with that statement.

Steve Lewit: My spouse.

Gabriel Lewit: No, it’s your financial and retirement future dreams.

Steve Lewit: Love it. Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay.

Steve Lewit: Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: What’s your vision for you and your wife and your life … That rhymes. For the future. Or if there’s no wife, just you. You and your life.

Steve Lewit: You and your life, yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: Right. What is that vision? Now so much of that has nothing to do with money, but so often it has everything to do with money.

Steve Lewit: Absolutely.

Gabriel Lewit: Right? And because you’d be like, “Oh, I want to go travel the world.” And it’s like, well, you could do that without money, but what’s the number one thing say? “I don’t have the money to do that.”

Steve Lewit: “I can’t afford that.”

Gabriel Lewit: Hey, I’d love to go have a second home somewhere, but I need money for that. I was going to say for dat. For that.

Steve Lewit: Did you grow up in the south?

Gabriel Lewit: I got to pronounciate my THs.

Steve Lewit: You grew up in the south-

Gabriel Lewit: Sound like my daughter right now.

Steve Lewit: South Bronx with me, dat.

Gabriel Lewit: Oh gosh. Yeah. So money, one of those things where the most meaningful things in life often have nothing to do with money, but money plays such an integral part in all of them, and it really can be such a key thing. But it starts with this vision. What do you want to do in your life?

Steve Lewit: Yeah-

Gabriel Lewit: If money were no object, I often like to ask, right?

Steve Lewit: Look, we all dream about stuff, right? I do. You do. Everybody I think can relate. We have these dreams of things we’d really like to do. Some of them we know we’ll never do. I have this dream of going up in a rocket ship into space. Now I don’t have $3 million or 10 million to buy a seat-

Gabriel Lewit: You can do the one where you get the airplane that gets you near outer space and it’s weightless. That’s like, I think 30 grand or something.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Well, that’s not where I’m going to spend 30 grand. But the thing is to dream and then talk with your financial advisor and say, “Hey, this is something I really want to do,” and find out if you really can or can’t afford it. Because folks, Gabriel and I see this all the time. People say they can’t do stuff and then we say, “Well, why not? You’ve got the money to do that.” And they really don’t know that they have the money to do it.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, they can’t get over this concept of spending their money on something that they don’t need.

Steve Lewit: It’s too frivolous.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. And I’ll give you an example. Because I have a great example right here. There’s a gentleman I know very, very well that recently made a purchase. Completely frivolous. Nothing he would’ve needed, but he really wanted it. Do you know what it is?

Steve Lewit: I have no idea what you’re talking about. What could that be?

Gabriel Lewit: Well, it might be … What is it, 1940s Morgan?

Steve Lewit: 1982.

Gabriel Lewit: What is it?

Steve Lewit: 1982 Morgan.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. ’40s, ’82? Same thing.

Steve Lewit: Yeah.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, so yeah. So tell us, do you know this gentleman who I’m referencing?

Steve Lewit: No. I have no idea who he is. I don’t know anything about him, but it is so weird. This guy told me the same story.

Gabriel Lewit: So, it’s my partner in crime here, Steve Lewitt, bought a 1982 Morgan.

Steve Lewit: Red.

Gabriel Lewit: Red.

Steve Lewit: Beautiful.

Gabriel Lewit: Tiny little convertible thing that he has to crank to start the engine, I think.

Steve Lewit: It’s hard to get in and get out, I’ll tell you that.

Gabriel Lewit: Now, why did you buy this? Did you need it?

Steve Lewit: Absolutely not. I’ve always had this dream … Not a dream, but a comes recurring thought. I’d love to have one of those cars with the belt around the hood. I just thought they was so cool. And I’ve thought about that from a good portion of my life. And I said, “What the hell?” Just what the hell? I can afford it. And when I bought it I could hear my mother screaming in the background.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, I’m glad you mentioned that, because this happens in your head. Your other side of your head is being like, “Oh, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. What a waste of money?”

Steve Lewit: I heard all this chatter. “What are you doing? It’s so stupid. It’s so dumb.” And I said, “You know what? I’m buying that 1982 Morgan,” and I did.

Gabriel Lewit: You did.

Steve Lewit: And It’s great. And I love it.

Gabriel Lewit: You sure did buy it.

Steve Lewit: I sure did buy it.

Gabriel Lewit: I do actually have a picture of you, because I took one of you in it. We could put in the newsletter if people were so interested and Steve was so inclined.

Steve Lewit: Be fun, fun. Come for a ride. Let’s have a give-a-ride day.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you could. Does it even have an airbag? I don’t think so.

Steve Lewit: No. No airbags.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, be careful out there, please.

Steve Lewit: It does have three-point seat belts though.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay, there we go.

Steve Lewit: There we go.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s good. So that’s-

Steve Lewit: Do you know that car can go 100 miles an hour?

Gabriel Lewit: I’m sure it could. I don’t think I would want to do it in that car.

Steve Lewit: Neither would I.

Gabriel Lewit: So that’s the idea, guys, right? And just using Steve as an example, but if there’s things you think you really want to do and your other side of your brains like, “Ah, you can’t do that, it’s no good. You can’t spend it,” talk to us about it. We can do it. Because one thing you don’t get back is time.

Steve Lewit: I just had a client fly first class. These people are absolute savers. They don’t spend money. And they came in and said, “Steve, guess what we did? We flew first class and we loved it. We’re never going to fly back in the back of the plane again.” And the best part, they knew that they could afford it. They weren’t worried about it.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you always tell people, if you need easy way to spend some money, the next time you fly somewhere…

Steve Lewit: Just fly first class.

Gabriel Lewit: Fly first class, right?

Steve Lewit: Amen.

Gabriel Lewit: All right, so that’s what we wanted to cover today, okay? Build a plan for financial planning month. Check your plan, have us review your plan, figure out what’s meaningful in your plan. Help us help you get you a path to get there.

Steve Lewit: To your dreams, really.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. And maybe even pick just one thing you think doesn’t really make a lot of financial sense, but you think you really want to do it, and maybe we can help you work towards that. That would be a very fun goal for us to help you achieve.

Steve Lewit: I can tell you this, it’s very freeing to splurge now and then.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. I’m not saying go out there and start getting 20 Amazon packages on your door every day, but if that’s what you want, I guess.

All right, well, how can we help you? You can call us here info … Well, that’s an email, I guess. Call us at (847) 499-3330. Or you can email us, info@sglfinancial.com. During this financial planning month, if you have questions, truly, if you have more questions, because we love questions, email us info@sglfinancial.com and we will make sure we answer them on the next show for you. Okay?

Now we’re going to switch gears here a little bit, all right, to-

Steve Lewit: I’m smiling.

Gabriel Lewit: Something fun.

Steve Lewit: Yes.

Gabriel Lewit: Not that the other topic wasn’t fun, but not as fun as this one.

Steve Lewit: No, this is weird actually.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, why is it weird? Because it has to do with the superstitions.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Perfect.

Gabriel Lewit: Halloween superstitions-

Steve Lewit: Perfect timing.

Gabriel Lewit: Are all over the place right now. Right? I’m not walking under any ladders. I did not see a black cat, which I’m very happy about. Okay.

Steve Lewit: I saw a black dog. Does that count?

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t think so.

Steve Lewit: I don’t think so either. No, it does not. There’s no superstition. I’ll walk under a ladder.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Good luck.

Steve Lewit: You wouldn’t walk under a ladder?

Gabriel Lewit: Why would you risk it? Are you really going to push that button? I’ll just go around the ladders.

Steve Lewit: I don’t know what to say. What’s going to happen?

Gabriel Lewit: I’m just kidding, actually. I really would walk under a ladder. Yeah, so there are strange money superstitions from around the world that you probably don’t know about. I had no idea these were things, but we found them. Producer Gabby found them, thought it would make a great Halloween talking point here for us on the show.

Steve Lewit: Yes.

Gabriel Lewit: And so, we wanted to share those with you.

Steve Lewit: And some of them are pretty interesting, folks.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes. Yes. So, okay. Guess what? I’m going to let Mr. Steve here read number one.

Steve Lewit: All right. Number one is keep your purse or wallet at waist level or higher.

Gabriel Lewit: Why?

Steve Lewit: Well … So this is really weird, because at my seminar the other night, somebody put this lady’s bag on the floor and she was not happy about that. “Never put my purse on the floor.” And what this says here is that in Feng Shui, which is the Chinese organization of things like in your house and everything is-

Gabriel Lewit: Is that Feng shui?

Steve Lewit: Feng shui. I like feng shui. Feng shui. My Chinese needs a little upgrade. Sorry, all of those of you that speak Chinese. But how to say it again?

Gabriel Lewit: Feng shui.

Steve Lewit: Feng shui. My feng shui is never put your purse on the floor. In fact, there’s an old Chinese proverb that you might already have heard. A purse on the floor is money out the door.

Gabriel Lewit: I like that one.

Steve Lewit: I do like that.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, yeah.

Steve Lewit: I don’t believe it, but I like it.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Well-

Steve Lewit: It keeps your bag safer.

Gabriel Lewit: It says that placing bags on the floor shows disrespect for the order of things, and a disregard for your money and wealth. And it says, if nothing else, keeping your purse off the ground is a great way to keep it clean.

Now I fail on the wallet test in my pocket and my pocket’s below my waist. So I don’t know what to do about that. I’m not going to wear one of … I can’t do it. One of those man-

Steve Lewit: Man bags?

Gabriel Lewit: Those man bags go across the … Yeah, they’re all over the place. I just can’t do it.

Steve Lewit: I can’t do that either.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s not my style.

Steve Lewit: Now do you have a wallet?

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t have a wallet.

Steve Lewit: Do you have a money clip?

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t have a money clip. I have a money band.

Steve Lewit: Oh, I just stick it in my pocket.

Gabriel Lewit: No, actually … This is off topic here, but I have-

Steve Lewit: This is show tell day.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, it’s called a money band.

Steve Lewit: Oh, I like that.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s the slimmest possible thing you can get.

Steve Lewit: I want one.

Gabriel Lewit: It just goes around, and I got a little monogram thing that says Lewitt on it, and it’s about the size of a rubber band. It’s as slim as you can get. It works really, really well.

Steve Lewit: That will help me with this.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, you’ve got too much stuff in there. But you got to go slim, right?

Steve Lewit: You need your credit cards, you need your driver’s license, you need your firearms license.

Gabriel Lewit: So, I got my money band there.

Steve Lewit: You got some money in here.

Gabriel Lewit: But I keep it below my waist, so I guess I’m failing at the superstition.

Steve Lewit: You don’t carry any cash around?

Gabriel Lewit: Not usually. A little bit here or there.

Steve Lewit: Really?

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Okay, number two. This comes from Turkey. You’re not going to guess this one, but it says take bird droppings as a sign of good luck.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, I read that and I’m glad you’re reading it.

Gabriel Lewit: Now why does this have to do with money? Because apparently in Turkey, if you get pooped on by a bird, it’s a symbol of good luck and you’re supposed to buy a lottery ticket on the same day it happens.

Steve Lewit: Oh my. Oh my.

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know how often this happens in Turkey.

Steve Lewit: I’m going to go sit under a tree. We’ll see what-

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. You didn’t know, and now you know.

Steve Lewit: Little do-do’s can make you rich.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So don’t be upset when that happens. Go buy a lottery ticket and maybe it’ll be your unlucky lucky day.

Steve Lewit: Can you wash it off or do you have to leave it on there until-

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know.

Steve Lewit: Oh my god.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. You want to read Latin American’s money tradition here?

Steve Lewit: Where is it? Oh hold on.

Gabriel Lewit: It’s the next one on the list. I got this all organized for you.

Steve Lewit: Ring in the new year with cash in hand. Place of origin. All right, let me get … I have to turn the-

Gabriel Lewit: Steve’s not good at reading and talking at the same time.

Steve Lewit: Well, I’m not wearing my glasses either. So at midnight, set down your champagne and grab some cash, preferably from your own wallet, they add … What goes on in Latin America I wonder? Because according to Latin tradition, having money in your hand when the clock strikes 12 will ensure economic prosperity in the coming year.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes. And it does give some wise sage advice here. Don’t throw your money around like confetti after the ball drops. You may not get it back.

Steve Lewit: How often have you celebrated a new year by throwing money around?

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t.

Steve Lewit: Yeah. Right?

Gabriel Lewit: Yes, exactly. Yes.

Steve Lewit: That’s kind of … I don’t know.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Well, number four, this is originating from the originating from the United Kingdom. The UK.

Steve Lewit: And this is for you because you love this particular beast.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, it says a spider in your pocket means money is coming your way.

Steve Lewit: My son’s a spider killer.

Gabriel Lewit: Okay. It is believed-

Steve Lewit: He kills spiders. The little things. He just does them in.

Gabriel Lewit: All right, let’s move on. Is believed that an eight-legged spider that is caught and pocketed, Aka money spider, means that wealth will soon be woven into your life. All right?

Steve Lewit: What are the chances of finding a spider in your pocket?

Gabriel Lewit: I didn’t know there was such a thing as a money spider. Is that such a thing? A money spider? I don’t know. We’re going to Google this as we talk here. Okay. But it says what’s more, if you happen to find a money spider in your hair, it is a supposed sign of good luck and increased riches. Okay. Yeah. Called a sheet web weaver. I don’t know. I don’t want that money spider anywhere on my body, no matter how much good luck it might bring. Okay.

Steve Lewit: What happens if you do the spider in? Does that put a curse on you or something? Does the opposite?

Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know. Okay. Well this one is not really so much a superstition, just weird. And so we thought we’d talk about this oddity here on the show, but apparently there are people that will, in an effort to curb their credit card spending, literally freeze their credit by taking their credit cards in a Tupperware container, filling it with water, and then putting said Tupperware and water in the freezer to freeze your credit card in the middle of a giant block of ice. Okay? I do wonder if the tapping feature still works. If you take the block of ice with the tapping feature, will it still beep?

Steve Lewit: What are people thinking? What? I don’t know what to make of all of this.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Okay.

Steve Lewit: The next one is even better. Go ahead. I’ll let you do this one too.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Last but not least. In Eastern Asia, you need to keep your toilet lids closed.

Steve Lewit: And happy households around the world.

Gabriel Lewit: Because it says keeping the toilet closed puts you in a mindset to prevent prosperity and abundance from going down the drain. And it keeps good energy, and chi? Chi, chi, right? I think chi, yeah. In your home. So you got to keep those toilet lids closed, everybody. Okay?

Steve Lewit: Oh my gosh.

Gabriel Lewit: All right. No, there’s a couple more. Just to round these out. You got to hammer a coin into a fallen tree. Okay? This is in North Wales, okay. You might see coins wedged into the bark. Okay, good luck and financial fortune can stem from hammering coins into a downed tree. So money does in fact grow on trees if you find the downed tree with coins in it. Okay? Apparently in Japan you want to have the number eight somewhere in your home, which promotes the idea of growing prosperous. Because in Japanese, writing the numbers shape broadens gradually, it says here, which I don’t fully understand. And they said this item was number eight on the list. So there you go.

Steve Lewit: It’s kind of interesting. I’m going to look that one up actually. I like stuff like that.

Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Europe says bury a statue of St. Joseph in your yard.

Steve Lewit: A small one, not a big one.

Gabriel Lewit: Not like a giant … Yeah. Okay. And then in Ireland, don’t mess with Irish Ferry Forts, which are circular enclosures surrounded by an earthen or stone bank, once used to protect cattle at nighttime. Okay? So you don’t want to mess with it because if you do mess with one, it’ll give you financial hardship. So you’ve got to leave them be.

Steve Lewit: I’m not going to leave my house. I’m just going to stay in the house. I’m not going to do anything. Shut all my doors. So my feng shui is … Did I do that right? Feng shui?

Gabriel Lewit: No, you still got that wrong. Feng shui.

Steve Lewit: Feng shui. I’m a slow learner.

Gabriel Lewit: All right.

Steve Lewit: Never been good at foreign languages.

Gabriel Lewit: That’s okay. That’s okay.

Steve Lewit: Other than German, I was good at German.

Gabriel Lewit: So those are our superstitious topics for you for today, in the spirit of Halloween. I don’t know if you have any of your own that you’ve heard, please share them with us, right? Once again, we’d love to hear them and we’ll share them on the next show. Info@sglfinancial.com. Did you ever get any financial … I don’t know, pearls of wisdom or superstitions or things from your parents?

Steve Lewit: That’s a great question. My father owned … He had silver dollars, and he always said, “Collect your silver dollars. It will do you good. It’ll do you good.” I never did anything like that. But when he passed away, I opened a draw … When my mom passed away-

Gabriel Lewit: A draw?

Steve Lewit: A draw.

Gabriel Lewit: The draw.

Steve Lewit: A dresser draw.

Gabriel Lewit: Drawer.

Steve Lewit: Drawer.

Gabriel Lewit: Draw.

Steve Lewit: The draw. Don’t you guys have accents?

Gabriel Lewit: I like giving you a little bit of hard time.

Steve Lewit: Drawers? Yeah. So he died. Then my mother died, and then we went into that house and we were opening the drawers. The drawers.

Gabriel Lewit: Say doors.

Steve Lewit: We were opening the chest.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, no, I just want to try this. Say doors.

Steve Lewit: Doors.

Gabriel Lewit: Now say drawers.

Steve Lewit: Drawers.

Gabriel Lewit: There. You can do it.

Steve Lewit: Drawers. Drawers.

Gabriel Lewit: The draws.

Steve Lewit: Okay. Forget it. My enunciation today is being impeccably attacked. But anyway, there was a drawer of silver dollars. There must have been 1000 of them in there. Gold. So he really believed that. He said, “If you collect these silver dollars, you’ll be very wealthy,” and guess where his greatest wealth was?

Gabriel Lewit: Silver?

Steve Lewit: In silver dollars.

Gabriel Lewit: So, he had $1000 of wealth?

Steve Lewit: Well, he had more than that. But yeah. How about your parents?

Gabriel Lewit: Oh, just only if you found on the ground of some kind of coin with heads up.

Steve Lewit: Oh, you had to pick it up.

Gabriel Lewit: Right, with heads up it was good luck. I still picked up the ones with the tails up, right? Because I feel like it worked out for me. I don’t feel like I suffered misfortune from this.

Steve Lewit: Yeah, my parents-

Gabriel Lewit: But it seems to me a shame to leave money on the ground alone, all by itself.

Steve Lewit: Poor.

Gabriel Lewit: Poor thing. It’s got to be collected with other money and spent on something.

Steve Lewit: My parents Insisted that if I saw a penny on the ground, anything, you pick it up.

Gabriel Lewit: Yes.

Steve Lewit: You don’t leave money behind.

Gabriel Lewit: Leave no money behind. That’s the rule.

Steve Lewit: Which explains everything, whatever everything is.

Gabriel Lewit: Well, if you’ve got any to share from parents, from friends, family, your own experience, weird traditions, funny things, let us know. Info@Sglfinancial.com. We’ll share any more of them we get on the show next week.

We hope you enjoyed some of our fun topics here today, as well as our talk about financial planning and the importance to your finances and future that may bring. If we can help you in any way, give us a call, (847)499-3330 or go to sglfinancial.com, click contact us, and we are happy and willing and looking forward to helping in any way that we can.

Steve Lewit: Absolutely. Stay well everybody.

Gabriel Lewit: Stay well, we’ll talk to you on the next show.

Steve Lewit: See you.

Gabriel Lewit: Bye-bye.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to Our 2 Cents with Steve and Gabriel Lewit. For any questions about your finances, give SGL a call at (847) 499-3330, or visit us on the web at sglfinancial.com, and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.

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