Wimbledon Winnings & Wealth Wisdom
by SGL Financial
Our 2 Cents – Episode #222
Wimbledon Winnings & Wealth Wisdom
Welcome to this edition of Our 2 Cents, where wealth meets Wimbledon! This episode, we serve up surprising parallels between tennis and retirement planning. Then, a quick update on the economy and recent changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Are you ready to game, set, match your way to financial success? Listen now!
- The Financial Spin on Wimbledon Wins:
- Winning Wimbledon takes strategy and grit—just like retirement. Whether you love tennis or not, there’s plenty retirees can learn from the world’s best players.
- This Food Makes You Happier:
- Discover this delicious food researchers found boosts happiness and lowers stress.
- U.S. Economy Starts to Regain Its Stride:
- A quick look at the latest updates on consumer and business confidence, spending trends, and more.
- Affordable Care Act Changes:
- Learn about key ACA updates, including what’s changing, what might be ending, and how it could affect your coverage and costs.
Request Your Free Consultation Today
847.499.3330
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. We are excited to have you here for today’s show. I’ve got Steven Lewit here with us.
Steve Lewit: Lit up. I can’t wait for this show.
Gabriel Lewit: He is jazzed and ready to roll.
Steve Lewit: I am so jazzed today. I don’t know why I’m so jazzed today, but I’m jazzed.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, good, good. That’s exciting.
Steve Lewit: Well, I don’t know if it’s exciting for everybody else, but it certainly is exciting for me.
Gabriel Lewit: Good.
Steve Lewit: It’s so great to wake up and it’s like being enthusiastic about the day and about everything that’s happening and just really, really feel good. That doesn’t happen that often.
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know who you are right now.
Steve Lewit: That’s what I mean. It’s like-
Gabriel Lewit: It’s weirding me out.
Steve Lewit: Well, that’s because I had a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie this morning.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. All right. Well good healthy breakfast.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Excellent.
Steve Lewit: Yes. So what do we got today?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, we’ve got lots of things lined up for you. Our most esteemed listeners of the show here we are going to talk a little bit about tennis. I thought you would like this topic. Mr. Steve.
Steve Lewit: Ah, I’m in.
Gabriel Lewit: Everybody here hopefully he probably knows this by now, but my dad, Steve was prior to this current career a professional tennis player briefly.
Steve Lewit: Yes. Prior to two careers.
Gabriel Lewit: Two careers. Okay. Well, technically prior to this career.
Steve Lewit: To be more accurate. Yeah, I did. I played.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So it’s been a lot of interesting tennis action this summer. In fact, recently, a couple of weeks ago was the end of the Wimbledon tournament. I know there’s a couple other big tournaments coming up here in August. I think the US Open is another one.
Steve Lewit: It should be starting anytime.
Gabriel Lewit: I always get confused because isn’t there a golf US open too?
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So I always get those confused. But there’s a tennis US Open and that’s coming up in a couple of weeks here in August.
Steve Lewit: Wimbledon is like the prize prize. Everybody wants to win Wimbledon and bow to the king and the queen.
Gabriel Lewit: Wimbledon.
Steve Lewit: Wimbledon. I give you credit, most people pronounce it incorrectly. I just can’t pronounce it this morning. Wimbledon.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, we’re going to talk a little bit about tennis and what does tennis have to do with finance? What can we learn from tennis when it comes to our financial planning?
Steve Lewit: Well, what I learned about tennis is that you can’t make a living.
Gabriel Lewit: You couldn’t pay your bills.
Steve Lewit: Do not count on tennis as a retirement plan.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe select few can do that. Very select few.
Steve Lewit: Very.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Then we’re going to talk about a little bit of the economy. Just a quick update for you there. We recently did for our clients, many of you may have listened a market and economic outlook update for the second half of 2025. And we’ll share just a little bit of that here with you today. We don’t want to get too much in the weeds, and you certainly could request a copy of our webinar if you’d like to learn more about that.
Steve Lewit: Sure.
Gabriel Lewit: And then last time we talked a little bit about the changes to the Affordable Care Act, but we didn’t get a chance to dig into those, so we’re going to just touch upon those briefly here today as well.
Steve Lewit: I can’t wait.
Gabriel Lewit: You are so enthused today.
Steve Lewit: Can we jump in?
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Okay.
Steve Lewit: Stop the small talk.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, of course.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Let’s go.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, so Wimbledon.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, first of all, who won Wimbledon? Some fellow here named Jannik Sinner.
Steve Lewit: Jannik Sinner beats Alcaraz. I’m a big Alcaraz-
Gabriel Lewit: This is your world. You’re going to take point on this. Who are these folks?
Steve Lewit: Number one and number two in the world. And they are like Laver and Voyager in my age. They’re both champions and they’re both fantastic. And folks, if you’ve never watched tennis, when these guys play, it’s worth it to watch it because what they do on the court is beyond … It’s beyond your imagination. The way they move, the balls they reach, how fast they are, how hard they hit the ball. These matches last five hours, although this was a shorter match, just phenomenal. Phenomenal. Much better than soccer.
Gabriel Lewit: When I was a kid, you used to force me to watch tennis. I remember this and I’m like, “This is so boring. And these guys just grunt a lot. Why are they grunting so much?”
Steve Lewit: Well, my son is a soccer fan. I watch soccer.
Gabriel Lewit: To be fair, I have since come to appreciate how hard and how good they are. How hard it’s to be good at tennis and how just special some of these players really are.
Steve Lewit: Well, in all sports, I would say it’s not only tennis, but in all sports, even in my world, when I sang opera, the people that are on the top they’re eons beyond the second level. They’re so good. It’s hard to conceive it. I watched these guys. Look, I played tennis, I hit a thousand balls a day and I worked out and I fast and everything, and I got middle ranked 3000 in the world, something like that, which is pretty good.
Gabriel Lewit: 3000 out of a couple billion people. That’s pretty good.
Steve Lewit: Do you know how far that is?
Gabriel Lewit: From the top two?
Steve Lewit: From 3000 to 2000 is a jump, from 2000 to 1000 is jump, from 1000 to 500 is a jump from 500 to the top 100 is a jump, from 100 to top 50 is a jump, from 50 to top 10 is a jump. And golf’s the same way. These guys that play professional golf, we have no idea how good they are.
Gabriel Lewit: They are good.
Steve Lewit: They’re really good. Almost as good as you’re leading this broadcast. Almost.
Gabriel Lewit: Got to be top something right?
Steve Lewit: Top at something.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh man. Yeah.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I didn’t mean to go off on tennis world, but tennis is a lesson for financial planning.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I wrote here, you can’t win Wimbledon by accident. And the concept here is similar with your financial planning. It’s pretty much impossible just to happenstance, stumble across the way into perfect finances. We’re you’re top of your game. And so there are definitely parallels here between tennis and what it takes to be good at tennis and finances and what it takes to really excel and crush your finances just as you might if you were a tennis all-star. Would you agree?
Steve Lewit: Oh, absolutely.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. So number one on the list here is prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare. And do you think preparation plays a key for the folks winning Wimbledon?
Steve Lewit: If you go early to one of these major tournaments and you go to the side courts, you know what you see? You see these top guys and gals. By the way. Gals are as good as the … Not as good as the guys, but as elite as the guys. You see them, what are they doing? They’ll do an hour of forehands back and forth, boom, boom, boom, back and forth for an hour. They’re always preparing. Then they’ll go with their coach and look at video and formulate a game plan for the particular opponent. What’s his strength? What’s his weaknesses? Should I play more to his backhand or his forehand? Should I bring him into the net? Should I run him around? When we retire, we’re facing an opponent, and that opponent is the rest of the world. It’s the economy, it’s politics, it’s the dollar. We have it and we have-
Gabriel Lewit: Stock market.
Steve Lewit: The stock market. And we have to know what strategy to play against this opponent, otherwise we’re going to lose.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, and that comes with preparation.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. You understand your opponent, you understand what you’re trying to achieve, and then you prepare for those specific goals or concerns that you may be facing. Just as you said in tennis. In retirement, the market may be down, the economy may be challenging. All these different things that you’re going to face. If you are better prepared to face them, you are going to see better results.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely. Golfers play in the rain, they practice in the rain, they practice in the wind, they practice on 110 degree days. Why? Because they’re prepared.
Gabriel Lewit: Just in case. Yeah.
Steve Lewit: They’re prepared.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s I think, critical, of course, to being a successful player as well as a successful financier. And then the next part here is learning from your losses. Did you win every game or every match that you played? I think I know the answer.
Steve Lewit: Let me think. I think I lost a couple.
Gabriel Lewit: Lost a couple. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Lewit: It reaches the point-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, if you won every one, you’d probably be higher than 3000.
Steve Lewit: Well, the sad part about any professional level is to reach a point where everybody beats you. You just can’t get any better.
Gabriel Lewit: Everyone else is good too, right?
Steve Lewit: Well, they’re better than you and that’s when you give up.
Gabriel Lewit: Is that’s the message you’re sending to our youth?
Steve Lewit: No. Folks, don’t give up. Don’t give on retirement. But the thing is that you have to prepare and you have to know where you are on the court, which I don’t think is on your list. Is it?
Gabriel Lewit: Court awareness was not but learning from your losses. Where I was headed with that is assuming you don’t just give up.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I didn’t mean to go off-topic. I was going to get around to losses.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: So, when you know where you’re on the court then you can … If you don’t know where you are, then you’re going to lose the point because that guy’s going to run you ragged. So you have to know where am I, where do I have to get to? And losing a point is a lesson to being in the wrong place on the court.
Gabriel Lewit: So obviously in tennis you can lose a point and still win the match, but I guess the idea is if you have a mistake, if you learn from that, do something that didn’t work out well … And the same goes for your finances. You tried investing in a hot stock and you lost half your money, you timed it wrong, which of course market timing’s risky. You realize you had a wake-up call and you had to check up with your advisor who says, “You’re not saving enough. You’re not going to make it there for your retirement date.” 60 or 65. These kinds of lessons are helpful in a way, if you’re looking at them from a learning experience. How can I become better? How can I do better? You can learn from your mistakes or your losses, so to speak, just like as you would in tennis.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. When I lost points and matches, it was very hard not to judge myself and make it a learning experience. Instead, I was like, “Man, you suck. You’re just terrible.”
Gabriel Lewit: I think we’re learning a lot about Steve’s psyche here today.
Steve Lewit: But finance is the same way. We all make mistakes and the thing is, okay, you invested in the market and you lost 20% and you and your wife maybe or a partner are really upset about it. Well look at that and what is it telling you? It’s telling you maybe that’s not the way you should play that game. That’s where the lesson is.
Gabriel Lewit: Amen. Now, next parallel here is do elite tennis players have a coach? Do all tennis players that are trying to become better and win, have a coach?
Steve Lewit: Well, they have three coaches.
Gabriel Lewit: There you go. What kind of coaches do they have?
Steve Lewit: A strength coach, a movement coach, and a strokes coach. They might have a strategy coach.
Gabriel Lewit: So, they have coaches.
Steve Lewit: They have a team of coaches.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, why do they have coaches? Why did you have a coach?
Steve Lewit: Well, you cannot see yourself clearly about what you’re doing. You’re too emotional. You can’t see yourself clearly. You can’t see where you’re finishing the stroke high or low. You can’t see the little things that you’re doing that are incorrect, that are making it difficult. And I know where your point is. it’s the same way with finances. I don’t know how people retire. They do and they get by and maybe they do pretty good, but in my view, most people that don’t plan leave tons of money on the table. They give too much to the government. They get too little out of the money they’ve worked their life for.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I would imagine in tennis, if you’re a natural, you could probably get to a certain level without a coach. But then you’re going to reach a peak, a plateau, a ceiling, where you can’t get past that just on your own. The parallel here is you could do very good with your finances on your own. And good is good. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. You could have plenty of money, but the chances are of you reaching the peak of where you could be with your money from tax efficiencies, for example, with the tax planner to optimizing your income with a strong income strategy, which is something we focus a lot about. Optimizing your portfolio and your investments very specifically. The likelihood of you doing all of those things on your own is pretty low. You reach a ceiling with your finances, which still could be a very high ceiling, but as you like to say. You might be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I had a good buddy when I was in the opera. David. I think it was David Randall, but he was his own coach on his voice and he made it to the Met.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s pretty good. I don’t know a lot about opera, but that’s good.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. I auditioned at the Met, but he made it to the Met. But he was self-coached. But guess what? He didn’t get very far until he got coaches because he had to learn. There were certain qualities of the voice and how to attack notes and different interpretations. He could not do that himself, and eventually he got a whole bunch of coaches.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, the other part here, last but not least, is-
Steve Lewit: I have a piano coach, by the way. I’m learning the piano. Do you know that?
Gabriel Lewit: I do know you’re learning the piano. Yes.
Steve Lewit: Yes. So you can go on the internet and learn the piano, but you’re really not going to learn the piano.
Gabriel Lewit: You’ve actually gotten pretty good. I’ve got to give you some cred.
Steve Lewit: Well, a little cred.
Gabriel Lewit: A little cred.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Last but not least, if you’re doing well, do you give up a coach at that point? Hey, I’m doing great. I’ll stop doing things. I’ll let my foot off the gas pedal. I’ll pay less attention. I’ll practice a little less. No, because you stop doing that, you start sliding backwards. So it’s important to stay on top of your game to make sure things continue to go as efficiently as you want to stay diligent with your financial coach. Stay on top of the things that you know were working. Continue to do those things that made you successful. Same comes to your finances too. Continue to do your tax planning reviews every year. Check on the status of your plan, review your portfolio and your risk, all the things that you should be taking a look at. Those are, I think, very important to continue those things even once you know you’re doing well.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. If you have a really good relationship with your coach, then you can get through anything. But sometimes that melts down and tennis players fire their coaches. It wasn’t working. But if you have a good relationship with your financial advisor … I had great coaches. They got me through so much. And a good financial advisor, I think does the same thing. It’s not okay, we’re giving financial advice. What I think we really are doing is coaching people through life so that they can live happier, better, more peaceful lives, which is what it’s all about, I think.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Have a greater, happier retirement with more security and more peace of mind.
Steve Lewit: Build a team to help you support that.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, we hope you found that little tour through tennis world, Steve’s psychology-
Steve Lewit: I loved it.
Gabriel Lewit: I thought you might. And of course we were about a week or two behind. That was the intended timeframe of doing this after Wimbledon. But we do have much more tennis to come here this summer if you’re a tennis fan.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. US. Open. Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: So, make sure you pay attention and yeah, great tennis matches of course. And hopefully this is helpful for you when you think about your finances.
Steve Lewit: The problem is, Gabriel, most of our audience plays pickleball.
Gabriel Lewit: You’re not a pickle fan.
Steve Lewit: I won’t go on a pickleball court. I’m a loyalist.
Gabriel Lewit: You’re a traditionalist, right?
Steve Lewit: I’m a traditionalist. Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Well, if we have anything here-
Steve Lewit: Pickleball is great. It’s a great game by the way.
Gabriel Lewit: That piqued your interest, and we can help guide you through any of your financial planning questions. If we can become a coach for you or help explore that, give us a call. You could set up a complimentary time to talk with us here anytime. (847) 499-3330. And we would just chat through what are your goals? Where are you trying to get to with your finances and how can we help coach you to better results through our processes here and our expertise?
Steve Lewit: Yes, sir.
Gabriel Lewit: Again, call us (847) 499-3330. Now a little bit of an interlude here. I want to talk about something very important.
Steve Lewit: This is very close to my heart.
Gabriel Lewit: This may be the most important thing we’ve ever discussed on the show.
Steve Lewit: I think it might be. I think it might be. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Are you ready for this?
Steve Lewit: I’m ready because this is so important.
Gabriel Lewit: A recent study-
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Has said-
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Eating pasta makes you happier and seriously, it actually makes you happier according to the study.
Steve Lewit: This is so important. They should get a Nobel Prize.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s critical.
Steve Lewit: When I pasta I feel … I love past and I feel great eating pasta. But everyone says, “Don’t eat so much because it’s bad for you.” No, no, this-
Gabriel Lewit: Now you can point to these-
Steve Lewit: Absolutely.
Gabriel Lewit: To these individuals. This study.
Steve Lewit: I will not feel guilty tonight.
Gabriel Lewit: Because you are improving your mood.
Steve Lewit: I’m having pasta tonight.
Gabriel Lewit: Who doesn’t … Some people … Actually, I’d be curious. If you don’t like pasta, just email the show here, info@sglfinancial.com. I’m just curious. I’d love to hear a point of view. Does anybody here … Producer, Katie and Gabby, do you guys like pasta? I’m getting some nods.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Some very enthusiastic nods here.
Steve Lewit: That’s why Italian-
Gabriel Lewit: Big thumbs up.
Steve Lewit: Italians are so happy they eat pasta all the time. They’re so expressive and so happy.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So, okay. The study published in the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition undertaken by who would’ve guessed Italian researchers.
Steve Lewit: You think.
Gabriel Lewit: Found that pasta consumption is associated with increased happiness, reduced stress, increased mindfulness, and improved overall quality of life.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely. I can vouch for that because when I lived in New York in this building called the Ansonia, where it was just full of opera singers and dancers, my next-door neighbor was Luigi Marchio
Gabriel Lewit: Luigi. What a great name.
Steve Lewit: It was great. And Luigi used to make pasta for me and my family because he loved our family. Every day.
Gabriel Lewit: There you go. Do you remember Luigi?
Steve Lewit: No.
Gabriel Lewit: I remember Mario in Luigi.
Steve Lewit: Well, you knew them and you ate their pasta. And the best part of their pasta was the sauce that they cooked overnight.
Gabriel Lewit: Isn’t it officially called gravy for Italians?
Steve Lewit: I think. Yeah. You’re absolutely correct.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m not Italian but just thought that was the case.
Steve Lewit: So, folks, this is very important. You should have a, Luigi would say you eat a plate of pasta every day.
Gabriel Lewit: Did he say it just like that?
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Well, look what’s-
Steve Lewit: He was a baritone.
Gabriel Lewit: Why are we talking about this on a financial show? Well, our goal, as you heard just on this statement about pasta, our goal is to help give you increased happiness in life, reduce stress, improve the overall quality of your life. Normally with your money. But if we can help you accomplish that through your pasta intake-
Steve Lewit: Absolutely.
Gabriel Lewit: I think we’re achieving our goals here.
Steve Lewit: This was a genius choice of yours to pick this article. I’m going to submit them for a Nobel Prize.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Last part of this.
Steve Lewit: How do you submit somebody for a Nobel Prize?
Gabriel Lewit: What is interesting here is that the researchers found that these effects were heightened when pasta was enjoyed in a social setting, whether that be at a family gathering or at a dinner with friends. Now, I have no idea if they included the wine in the study that probably came along with the social setting that heightened the enjoyment, but it could be. It could be.
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Now you know.
Steve Lewit: Now we know. We know what we’ve always known because everybody that eats pasta is happier.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. I wasn’t going to add more. I got to say one more from the article here. Professor Francesco Pagnini. That sounds like Panini.
Steve Lewit: Panini, right?
Gabriel Lewit: Who led the study said, “According to this study, no other carbohydrate-based food such as rice, bread, pizza, or other nutritional options is able to trigger such an increase in happiness as pasta.”
Steve Lewit: Absolutely, Pietro.
Gabriel Lewit: Francesco Pagnini.
Steve Lewit: Francesco, you nailed it. Potatoes don’t do it.
Gabriel Lewit: No other fruit
Steve Lewit: Bread doesn’t do it.
Gabriel Lewit: Pasta.
Steve Lewit: It’s pasta.
Gabriel Lewit: Not rice pasta.
Steve Lewit: No, no, no, real pasta.
Gabriel Lewit: Enhanced durum wheat pasta.
Steve Lewit: No, no. Not wheat pasta.
Gabriel Lewit: Semolina.
Steve Lewit: Semolina. Yeah. No wheat pasta. No. No. Definitely not.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: Got to have the real thing. And if you get the big ones … What are the big noodles called? Rigatoni?
Gabriel Lewit: There’s cavatappi, rigatoni, spaghetti, mostaccioli. I don’t know. Put some gravy on it. Grated cheese on that. Delicious. I’m getting happy just thinking about it.
Steve Lewit: Did you see that? There we go. You see?
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Good news.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, another good news for you. The US economy is regaining or slightly maintaining its regain swagger.
Steve Lewit: Well, except that the news yesterday, I believe I read this, is that it actually slowed down a little bit.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, here’s the thing, a lot of people-
Steve Lewit: Did you check that?
Gabriel Lewit: A lot of people this year were projecting rightfully wrongfully a recession this year, which they’ve been for fairness, projecting for the last couple of years.
Steve Lewit: Two years of recession is coming.
Gabriel Lewit: So, all said and done though, the outlook here … We just did a market outlook event, as I mentioned last week where we did a webinar for an hour talking about all sorts of things here. And the general consensus that we talked about is that the signs of the US economy’s health are still pretty good all said and done.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. We’ve got it up on the screen. There is a forecast for contraction in the second half of the year. But a little contraction is not a bad thing.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, it’s ebbs and flows. If the economy was better every single quarter forever than the prior quarter … It just doesn’t work that way.
Steve Lewit: No.
Gabriel Lewit: So, it grows a little faster. Grows a little slower. Contraction doesn’t mean you’ve lost … Is contraction slowed growth from the prior quarter or negative growth?
Steve Lewit: No. Slower growth.
Gabriel Lewit: You mean slower. So it’s going to expand and contract a little bit.
Steve Lewit: Negative growth is not good.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Negative growth is not great.
Steve Lewit: Slower growth is okay.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So growth is growth and more growth is better. But all said and done things are pretty healthy in the economy. Market’s at an all-time high. Unemployment’s generally low. Consumer spending is …
Steve Lewit: Is off a little bit.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s off a little. Okay.
Steve Lewit: Housing pricing is spotty.
Gabriel Lewit: Tariffs are still uncertain.
Steve Lewit: Look, with all this stuff that’s going on politically, internationally with tariffs and wars and interest rate pressures, we’re doing pretty good.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: I was one of the people saying, “Oh, we got to have a recession because all the data said you’re going to have a recession.” I still think that the effect of tariffs is still in front of us. The real effect of it is months away. But we are doing pretty good right now.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So all said and done, that’s good news. That was just a little bit of a tidbit, interlude there for you.
Steve Lewit: Not as good as pasta.
Gabriel Lewit: But it’s not going to make you as happy as pasta.
Steve Lewit: Definitely not. It was good though. It was good.
Gabriel Lewit: All right, folks, to round out our show today, we wanted to just briefly spend a couple of minutes about the Affordable Care Act and some of the changes from the OB3, one big, beautiful bill act.
Steve Lewit: Well, this is another big deal because it affects millions of millions of people. Again, we don’t do politics here, folks, but we do have opinions and we are here to voice our opinion and not be bashful about it. It’s going to hurt a lot of people.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, we haven’t talked about what’s going to hurt people yet, but basically what’s going to happen is-
Steve Lewit: The changes will.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So in the one big beautiful bill act, there were some notable omissions which if we have to take a couple steps backwards here, the Affordable Care Act has been a way for people that don’t have insurance through workplace plans to get insurance and have coverage, and whether they have pre-existing conditions or not. It’s not the cheapest in the world even before some of these changes that we’re going to talk about but it allowed you to get coverage. And also depending on your income levels, there are credits called ACA credits that would drive down the cost of those premiums. And rewinding quite a bit further backwards, there used to be what we call credits or subsidy cliffs. In other words, if you made above a certain level of income, you would not receive credits. Those got waived. It was a number of years ago with one of the laws that got passed a couple of years ago. But what’s happening is with the new changes here, a lot of things are going to become more expensive now with the Affordable Care Act.
Basically the enhanced credits that were provided a couple of years ago from the Inflation Reduction Act are now going to be gone. So going into 2026, it is projected that the costs of this for the Affordable Care Act for insurance is going to rise substantially. Over 24.2 million people in 2025 get their insurance through the ACA marketplace. I think it’s important that if you’re getting your insurance from the marketplace, you are prepared for possible very large increases next year in your premiums and or reductions in credits, which would cost you more money basically in higher premiums too.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely. That’s going to happen.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. I don’t know if we’re going to get into a tremendous amount of detail here on this. There’s not that much to say other than, again, some of the tax credits are going to lessen for some people. The premiums are projected to rise quite a bit.
Steve Lewit: Quite a bit. Excuse me.
Gabriel Lewit: And you’ve got a plan for this in your financial planning, so you’re not surprised when this occurs.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So quite a bit is a 15%, they’re estimating to 20% increase. They’re estimating-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, let’s talk about that. If you’re paying 2000 a month for your insurance on a really good plan, what’s a 20% increase going to cost you?
Steve Lewit: $300. $2,400 a month. Hey, I’m a financial planner.
Gabriel Lewit: You’re quizzing me. Testing me. Yeah. 400 a month. $4,800 a year would be a 20% increase. That’s not chump change.
Steve Lewit: And most people are already on a tight budget.
Gabriel Lewit: And if that is in conjunction with losing your credits-
Steve Lewit: You lose your credits, you lose coverage.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, to get a plan that then meets your budget. You may have to go to a lesser coverage based plan, a higher deductible, more out of pockets, and it could cost you a lot of money potentially. Right?
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So they’re saying here, a family of three earning $110,000 could see their monthly ACA premium rise from … This is astounding, 779 per month in 2025 to 1446 or more. These are telephone numbers. A lot of these people are independent contractors. The whole reason for the ACA is to get these people insurance because we had a large population that was uninsured. Now, the question that I have is, okay, clearly, this to me is an attempt to … Well, I’m just going to say it. Is the administration does not like this. They want to put something back into it, and I’m okay with that. But I’d like to see what it is. Maybe it’ll be better. I don’t know, but I don’t see it right now.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, right now, there is no alternative to the Affordable Care Act other than getting group-based employment coverage. So you go to a company, they’re going to provide you with insurance coverage, they’re going to pay 70, 80%. It’s generally going to be better coverage at a lot cheaper price. But again, if you’re outside of a workplace employment plan or aren’t covered by a spouse, you have very limited options. You pretty much have to get the plan through the Affordable Care Marketplace and with less subsidies, less credits, higher price increases. This can create a spiraling effect where if people cannot afford it, they don’t sign up, they drop out. And if fewer people are in the insurance pool, prices then can increase across the board for the remaining people in the pool. What the long-term effects of this will be are yet to be seen. But again, from a practical short-term perspective, if you’re getting your insurance, which many of our clients have retired before 65 and their spouses are retired, and they are relying upon this as their insurance before they get to Medicare age. And it’s something that we are going to have to plan to budget a much higher amount for.
Steve Lewit: Look, I think you agree with this, Gabriel. We’re all for change if there’s something better. I have no problem changing. But we need to see what that is.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So again, I’m not trying to go down that path here.
Steve Lewit: I know you don’t want to.
Gabriel Lewit: I just wanted to report here on the updates so that if you’re planning your budget for next year, you can plan for that. Hopefully that was informative. If you have specific questions, if you’d like a copy of some of the articles that help give a lot of data on this so you could get a sense of what your pricing might look like next year, give us a call here. But more importantly, if we can help you with any parts of your finances here, if we can help guide you and coach you through your personal Wimbledon training with your finances-
Steve Lewit: Definitely. Definitely.
Gabriel Lewit: Please let us know. You can reach us at (847) 499-3330 or email us info@sglfinancial.com. Or you can go to our website, slgfinancial.com and click contact us. We would love to hear from you.
Steve Lewit: We would.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Well we hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and or week and we will talk to you on the next show.
Steve Lewit: Stay well everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Bye guys.
Steve Lewit: See you.
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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