AARP is at the Minnesota State Fair! Stop by the AARP Minnesota booth in the Education Building to get your questions answered about Social Security and play Plinko! Cathy McLeer, AARP MN State Director joins with Freddie Bell. She shares details about AARP MN’s history of advocacy and voter engagement. Freddie Bell’s new book, Words to the Wise is available at https://www.amazon.com/Words-Wise-Guide-Daily-Living/dp/B09LGRV334
New Beginnings with Freddie Bell
AARP at The Minnesota State Fair
AARP is at the Minnesota State Fair! Stop by the AARP Minnesota booth in the Education Building to get your questions answered about Social Security and play Plinko! Cathy McLeer, AARP MN State Director joins with Freddie Bell. She shares details about AARP MN's history of advocacy and voter engagement. Freddie Bell's new book, Words to the Wise is available at https://www.amazon.com/Words-Wise-Guide-Daily-Living/dp/B09LGRV334
- Broadcast on:
- 06 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
This is New Beginnings, hosted by award-winning broadcaster and speaker Freddy Bell. A program formed about America's 78 million baby boomers. Here's your host, Freddy Bell. Hi, everyone. This is New Beginnings. I am Freddy Bell. Glad you're with us today. And coming up on the show, many of our favorite partners including Label Sternbach and Friends from W.A.R.P. Minnesota. All this plus the words to the wise on New Beginnings. And our program is underway right now. Hi, everyone. And joining us right now is the esteemed founder and president of the Center for Combating Elder Financial Abuse, Mr. John Schwartz. He's here today. And before we get started, let's talk about how our listeners can define you when we talk about ending elder abuse. I'm sure that's perking up a lot of years. How can we reach out to you, sir? Hi, Freddy. Thank you very much for having me today. And our website is E-N-D-E-F-A.org. I'll spell it again, E-N-D-E-F-A.org, that's endelderfinancialabuse.org and you can reach out and we threw that. So please do. All right. Now, we've talked often, John, about strategies to combating financial elder abuse. But you've got a really good resource that I hope you can share it with us today that can help our listeners as well and is all due to a relationship you have with some folks at Wayne State University. Yeah, that's right, Freddy. I'm very excited to share this with everybody. I have had an opportunity to connect with Dr. Peter Lichtenberg, who's the director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, and they're near Detroit. And what Dr. Lichtenberg has developed is a 17-question financial vulnerability survey. This is huge, because this is exactly what our nation's 56 million elders need. You need to conduct an assessment on how vulnerable an elderly person is, because that's exactly what our financial predators do, and you and I've discussed this before in the past. With this survey, when I came across Dr. Lichtenberg's work and the survey, I was amazed, because this is the exact tool that our nation's 56 million elders need. It's a very simple tool, and it will tell you right on the spot what your concerns should be. Everyone, we're talking with John Schwartz, the founder and president of the Center for Combating Elder Financial Abuse. Tell us about, or can you share some of the questions that are on that vulnerability survey? Yeah, it's going to ask, do you live alone, do you live with family things of this nature? I can also share with you that they'll do a quick survey for you just to find out a little bit about your living situation, but it's very, very simple. You're going to give it your age. Do you live alone? Like I said, and then as you're in discuss memory, and then into that, Freddy, it goes into these very simple questions. How important is it to understand your vulnerability? What are some basic things? If I were to ask you right now, how can I protect myself against financial abuse people taking my hard-earned money, what would you tell me to do? Well, the first thing I'd tell you to do is once you conduct this vulnerability assessment and you find out where you are, get with a trusted and responsible family member or loved one and share this information and start hardening to target. Find your areas that you're most vulnerable. Maybe you do live alone and maybe your kids do live a couple of hundred miles away. That's a huge vulnerability because the predators will want to isolate you. Talk with your family and loved ones. Maybe ask them to visit at least one more time per year because that can make the difference. Then also, what I'd say, Freddy, is let's take a look at your use on social media because that's always been very concerning because that's exactly where these predators are operating. If they see a profile of an individual that's alone, hasn't been alone for a few years, they would love to target you. Then finally, just proper cyber hygiene. Please update when their computer says it has updates. Please make sure that you employ these updates because that's an incredible vulnerability too. The reason I say that is because these individuals, these predators, if they can gain access to your computer, they'll start speaking to you through the computer and claim that they're a Microsoft or some other company and that they've noticed a couple of vulnerabilities on your computer that they're being exploited right now and that you have to move quickly. Then once they get you on that, then they take you down the road. The cyber aiding, I can't talk about that enough, you've got to be up on your cyber intelligence and you have to be able to update these computers. Before we have to step away, how can we get more information and more importantly, is this survey on your website? Yes, it is, Freddy, it's on our front page of our website. What's really neat about that, you can conduct a survey. You don't even have to click on anything to find it. It's right there on the front page. Once you take the survey, then you can read about the convicted predators that we've already found to especially a Scott Cohen who stole $300 million through a Ponzi scheme. You can see your vulnerabilities and then read about these predators and start to determine if you're vulnerable to those type predators that we're posing. It's really, you spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes on the website, conducting the survey and then studying these predators. Now you're a little bit better off than what you were 30 minutes prior. Final time, how can we contact you, what is the website and what will you do for those folks who come in to visit with you? Hey, so again, our website is E-N-D-E-F-A dot org, again it's E-N-D-E-F-A dot org. Reach out to me if you have a situation that I can provide insight on. I'm happy to do that. Also happy to, if you want to reach out to me, ask me to come and speak with an organization. Reach out to me on the website and I'm happy to do that as well. Alright, he's John Schwartz, founder and president of Center for Combating Elder Financial Abuse and we're really appreciative of you for listening to New Beginnings. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Freddy Bell, subscribe to my podcast and visit FreddyBell.com to unlock a treasure trove of insightful content tailored to empower, entertain and enlighten you. Plus, visiting FreddyBell.com grants you exclusive access to bonus content behind the scenes and sites in a vibrant community of like-minded individuals eager to grow and connect. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your mind, elevate your mind, expand your horizons and join the Freddy Bell experience today. It happened this week in the year 2000, former president Gerald Ford was hospitalized after suffering a small stroke. In 2007, Fisher Price, part of the Mattel Group, recalled more than one and a half million Chinese manufactured toys, over fears that the paint could pose a health risk to young children if ingested. The toys affected included the popular Sesame Street's Big Bird and Elmo. In 2012, the US men's basketball team put on the greatest offensive performance in Olympic history with the 156-73 Route of Nigeria. The 156 points shattered Brazil's previous Olympic record of 137 set in 1988. In 2013, investor Carl Icahn sued competitor Giant Dale in an attempt to derail a buyout bid of the CEO, Michael Dell. In 2018, Apple became the first American public listed company to reach $1 trillion in value. In 2018, Pope Francis declares the death penalty unacceptable in all cases, reversing church teachings and adding to catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. In 2019, Ed Sheeran's divide tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time. In 2021, 70% of Americans had at least one COVID-19 vaccination shot. And in 2022, Emmy award-winning sportscaster Vin Scully died at the age of 94. It happened this week, and I'm Freddy Bell. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, Minnesota Family Investment Program, MFIP and WIC Nutrition, along with other available programs, can help you buy food while budgets are tight. SNAP, MFIP and WIC Benefits can help families access additional support as well, including health screenings, emergency assistance, nutrition education, and employment training. Apply online at applymn.dhs.mn.gov. This must be powered by the Minnesota Department of Health. Get the most from WARP, including advice and support to help you care for your loved ones. Fraud prevention with tips and tools to help protect you from scams and fraud, including a free helpline if you've been targeted, a scam tracking map, and watch dog alerts via email through the AAARP Fraud Watch Network. If you don't know AAARP, you don't know ARP. Thank you for listening to New Beginnings. You can stay up-to-date with this show. All you have to do is go to Google or to Apple and download the Freddy Bell Radio Shows app. You can download the Freddy Bell Radio Shows app and you'll be up-to-date on everything concerning this show and anything related to Freddy Bell. More to come. Stay with us. This is a news-oriented broadcast. All information is educational. Nature is non-attended. Be legal. Securities, tax, or insurance advice. Please consult with the appropriate professional before acting on information heard during the broadcast. You're listening to New Beginnings with Freddy Bell. Your broker loves them. Your advisor hates them. Join us as we discuss how to tell if the mutual funds in your portfolio are killing your retirement or a godsend. I'm Freddy Bell with Label Sternbach. Label is good to be back with you and we're going to talk about mutual funds today. Hey, how you doing? Unbelievable. So I have to ask you this stupid question label. What is so bad about mutual funds in the first place? Let's set the record straight, right? Individual funds on their own aren't inherently bad. And for the longest time, they were the only vehicle that the vast majority of people have access to to be able to do a whole lot of things. However, over the last 15, 20 years, as life changes, the financial landscape has evolved and there are now better tools that can do the same thing if not better than mutual funds. And so we've got to reevaluate and we've got to say, are we using the best instrument to accomplish the goals that we want to accomplish? And so when we think about mutual funds, right, and you know, we think about in the context of the greater investment world, there are a lot of, there are a lot of shortfalls to mutual funds for the everyday investor, right? Now that's not to say that there are mutual funds that that is the best option and it's the best vehicle for what you want. But for the vast majority of people, you've got to really take a hard look and say, is a mutual fund the right vehicle for me to have in my retirement account or in my brokerage account and it has to do fundamentally with how they're structured, right? Fundamentally, mutual funds are you are owning shares in an investment company. And when we think about investments, we don't really want to own like, you know, a piece of every single, you know, of an investment company, because investment companies are buying and they're selling, they're doing all kinds of activity. Oh, one is we want to own the underlying companies that they're invested in, right? If, you know, our nervous Nelly neighbor has to sell, we don't want to be impacted by that, right? Why should our retirement account be impacted because nervous Nelly next door is constantly buying and selling? But when you own a mutual fund, that's what happens because you are pooling your investments with the nervous Nellies and they get to dictate how often you're trading and how often the manager's trading, what the manager has to do in order to make people happy and you end up with an experience that isn't quite ideal. And I mean, for the longest time, it was the only experience available if you wanted to have access to professional money managers or you wanted to have access to, you know, broad-based index returns, right, if you want to actually hold entire S&P 500 without owning all 500 stocks in your portfolio, the only way to do it was through a mutual fund. But there are now better options. So when we talk about, you know, good, bad and ugly, well, mutual funds are great if you want to, you know, kind of have a hedge fund type, you know, pooled investment and you're investing in something that requires a pooled investment. But nowadays when you have ETFs that do everything that 90% of the mutual funds do, except you own an entire share and you're not impacted by the actions of other people, it makes a lot more sense to go into ETFs rather than mutual funds. And so at a high level, right, that's kind of, you know, that is one of the reasons why mutual funds aren't good, going into specifics, right, let's talk about something very specific that's weird about mutual funds is because you are owning shares in an investment company and not like shares of Apple or whatever. What ends up happening is you get a 1099 at the end of the year. And so all those trades and all those things that the company did throughout the year, because all the nervous nilies decided that they wanted to exit the market when the market was down and then they want to buy in when the market is high, right, and all the bad decisions that they make and all the money that the manager has to spend on doing marketing and all the money that the manager is spending on trading fees because of those nervous nilies, right? And all those things that are happening inside of the mutual fund, they get sent to you as a 1099 and it is very possible that you'll pay taxes in a year where your mutual fund is down because the market was down and you'll get a 1099 that has income and you're paying on income because of all the nervous nilies who made all the bad decisions. So when we're talking about investments and what's the best thing to do and what to hold, mutual funds definitely are not it. Now with your broker, they love it, right, JP Morgan, they love their mutual funds, right? If you're with JP Morgan or Edward Jones or Merrill Lynch or any of the big name people, right? So look at your accounts and I guarantee you you're going to be in mutual funds and the reason why they love mutual funds is because they get the high at a whole lot of costs in there, right? And they say, well, we're not charging you a fee. Well, maybe they're charging you an upfront commission or maybe they're taking expenses internally, right? And they've got, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in there are billions of dollars in there and they're charging it through the nose in fees that you may not see expressed through expense ratios or other other calculations because it's an actual company, right? And so it's got to pay a staff, it's got to pay a board of directors, it's got to pay marketing costs, it's got to, you know, pay for the lavish parties and the conferences and I know because I'm a financial advisor gets the benefit from that stuff. So speaking of that, you're talking about brokers, what's the primary reason a broker might prefer a mutual fund and how are these reasons aligned with an investor's interest? Yeah. So there are three reasons why a broker would prefer mutual funds over other investments. So number one is because generally speaking, if they're at a place like Edward Jones or Merrill Lynch or JP Morgan or Morgan Stanley or any of those big name firms where you go because you like the name on the door. Well, those big firms, they're big because they know how to make money. And one of the ways that they make money is by having these mutual funds and they make a huge amount of money on the inside and they tell their advisors, you are only allowed to sell our investments, right? They give them a list of investments that are allowed to use and they give them a list of strategies to put people in and, you know, 75, 80, 90% of the investments on that list are called proprietary funds, right, ones that are owned and run by the parent company. So they're double dipping over there and that's why they want to do it. So your advisor, he may not think it's the best thing since sliced bread, but he doesn't really have a choice and he's not allowed to tell you otherwise because his first loyalty will always be to his firm and not to you, right? So that's number one why brokers like it. Number two, it pays a commission, right? Because there's different shear classes when it comes to mutual funds, when it comes to ETFs, there generally isn't different shear classes. With a mutual fund, you get a different shear classes and each of those different shears have different rights. And generally speaking, it's around how much commission the broker is allowed to charge and he shares can be, you know, almost 6% commissions. And not only on the first purchase, but it can be on every subsequent dividend reinvestment, they could be getting a commission. Wow. So, yeah. So your broker, right, he loves it because he, you know, they're double dipping on the fees on the inside on the outside. They get trailing fees, you know, 12, 1 beefies, a trail every single year that could be up to 1%. The advisor who's selling it to you likes it because he gets an upfront commission, right? And then, you know, so these are generally speaking, the reasons why your broker wants to sell you a mutual fund. The on the flip side of it, right, there really is no reason, I shouldn't say there's no reason, there's very few reasons why you'd want to be in a mutual fund as opposed to an ETF. And it's so much so because of investor pressure, because of advisor pressure, a lot of the mutual fund companies have started ETFs where, you know, it's the exact same strategy that is in the mutual fund is available in an ETF format and ETFs have much more favorable tax treatment as well as generally speaking lower costs and a lot more transparency. So it's a lot harder for the issuers to hide those fees that they're making a ton of money off of. You gave us both sides of that from the broker perspective. So one of the long term label implications of keeping mutual funds in somebody's retirement portfolio and how can they either hinder or enhance a retirement's readiness? Yeah. So let's talk about, we'll talk about the positives and then I'll talk about the negatives. So the one thing that a mutual fund can do that an ETF can't do is it can be very, it can do strategies, investment strategies that are not ideal for an ETF format. So if you're trading intraday, if you have like some kind of, you know, strategy that looks at specific companies, you're constantly doing these like one off trades, right? Really think like a hedge fund, right? So if you're doing hedge fund trading, it's easier to do that in a mutual fund than an ETF because an ETF, you know, it's a trust every single morning, the money manager has to say what positions it's going to hold and then it holds those positions. It's not really meant for doing, you know, complex trading. It's more like, I want to own the S&P 500 or I want to, you know, I tactically buy and sell things on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, right? Even daily, it gets very expensive to do with an ETF. So generally speaking, it's like, you know, we're doing strategic type of moves. If you have something that trades every single day or even multiple times a day, which there are strategies like if you're doing, you know, currency type stuff or you're, you know, doing a long short where you're like arbitraging opportunities in the market makes sense to do that in a mutual fund or if you're doing, you're owning things that aren't very liquid, right? Let's say you're, you're buying, you know, really small companies because you have some algorithm that tells you that they're going to pop hard to do that in an ETF. Very few people will provide liquidity for the ETF. So it becomes expensive to do it that way. Mutual fund is a good format to do that outside of that, right? So speaking, so the pros of, well, the cons of a mutual fund, right, you've got all those hidden things and those trading costs. And then you have, you get your 1099 at the end of the year. So you're paying, you know, you're paying taxes on short-term gains and all the short-term trading that's happening inside of that mutual fund, whereas in an ETF format, you're not having that. There's a lot more transparency, a lot less ability for the manager to be able to kind of, you know, siphon off the profits from the fund before it goes to the investors. So you get a lot more out of ETFs than you would out of a mutual fund, which if you just want simple type of investments, even things like target date funds or where you want some kind of active management, it's still easier to do that in an ETF with a lot less cost than it is to do it in a mutual fund. So for an investor, right, when you're looking at your portfolio, right, you want to look and see, is there a, is there a very strong reason why this is a mutual fund and not an ETF? Because the default should be, I want this to be an an ETF where I get the most return possible and I pay the least in expense as possible and I have the most transparency possible. If it's an a mutual fund, you basically have no idea what's happening on the inside. They don't have to report very regularly there, so a whole lot of, you know, they can take out all kinds of things as expenses and you'll never even know it. So the default, the default should be that I shouldn't be in a mutual fund. I should be in an ETF unless I have a compelling reason, otherwise. Well, we just about out of time, Labo, but I want to know if we are invested in a mutual fund, what should we do today? What should we do before the quarter is over? So the first thing you should do is you should look and see if the mutual fund provider has taken the time and effort, if they have ETFs launched of those same strategies, they should have a list for you of funds that you can transfer into from a mutual fund to an ETF. And if this is in your taxable account or your brokerage account that you can do tax free. If it's in a retirement account, I would just go ahead and do that because they're generally speaking, there's no reason to hold on to those mutual funds, just moving into the ETF. You'll have a better experience outside of that, right? I would definitely recommend that you talk to an advisor and one of the questions you should ask them is, do you use mutual funds in your investment allocation? And if they say, yes, then ask them, is there a reason why you use mutual funds over ETFs and the ends are better not be because I make more money that way? Oh my goodness, I hope that's not the answer. That's about all the time we have for this episode of Labo on Fire, we're talking about mutual funds. And if you'd like to learn more information, you can certainly visit yields4u.com that's yields4theletteru.com and this is New Beginnings. It's time to turn to the lighter side on the Freddie Bell show after an overnight burglary attempt at a pub in England, the owner reviewed security video to see what happened. The burglar took two cash registers and several large televisions outside and then went to grab more stuff. But while he was inside the pub, two people saw some of the items and made off with the burglar's loot. Please don't think the two thieves were working with the first guy because of the look of confusion on the burglar's face. Can you guess? 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of what? It's the United States. And the typos in a resume can be bad. Three out of four hiring managers say just one or two typos in a resume would cause them to look elsewhere. About 36% would allow for one mistake while another 40% of managers say one strike and you're out. Here are some common errors that spell check just doesn't pick up. Number one, hope to hear from you shorty. Have a keen eye for derail. I'm attacking my resume for you to review. Following is a grief overview of my skills. GPA 34.0. Some people on Reddit were posting little-known facts about weird injuries. The man says when I was a kid I stepped on a toothpick and it went straight into my heel like inches. It had to be removed with vice grips. What's your most bizarre injury? Let me know. Call 888-639-9738. And elementary school students have some ideas about science. The following ideas about science were collected from essays, exams, and classroom discussions. Most were from fifth and sixth graders. You can listen to thunder after lightning and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don't hear it, you got hit, so never mind. When people run around in circles, we say they're crazy. When planets do it, we say they're orbiting. And most books now say our son is a star, but it still knows how to change back into a son into the daytime. And a vibration is a motion that cannot make up its mind which way it wants to go. News on the lighter side, and I'm Freddy Bell. Today, why are you going about your normal routine? 1,370 seniors will fall victim to financial fraud. Never saw it coming. Many will lose their life savings. You wipe this out. The Center for Combating Elder Financial Abuse conducts extensive research and provides comprehensive training to individuals and organizations to help prevent elder financial abuse. You wipe this out. Look at this outfit. Join the fight at AndEFA.org. Introducing the New Beginnings Podcast featuring career, health, and financial information for people on the go. To get your fresh start, visit FreddyBell.com/NewBeginning. Check out the new New Beginnings Podcast today. And now, our supporting partner, AARP, in the Twin Cities. We want to talk about voting, we want to talk about caregiving, and who better than to speak with than Kathy McClure, W.A.R.P. Minnesota State Director. How important is voting in our life in America right now? Oh, absolutely, as the elections are coming up, you know, we know that voters 50 and older, they are the majority in every election. Their voice matters and the issues that matter to them are the issues that candidates should be paying attention to. We know that voters 50 plus, they are stretched to the limit. They are caregivers. They are facing day-to-day challenges just to simply care for their loved ones and protect their hard-earned Social Security dollars. And that's why AARP is a nonpartisan organization that doesn't endorse candidates. We don't contribute to political campaigns, but we do lift up the issues, and we do ask candidates and our elected officials to address those issues like caregiving and Social Security that are so important to voters 50 and older. For those who are looking for information about voting, where to vote, who the people are on the ballots this year, is there information that you can share with our listeners and to your members in particular? Yeah, we want to make sure that every voter in the state has the information that they need in order to cast a ballot. And so we want to provide unbiased election information to voters of every party. We want everybody to have that information. So information about upcoming election dates, registration deadlines, options for voting. So if you want to vote by mail or if you want to absentee vote or if you want to vote early, you can find out how, when, and where to vote at AARP.org/mnvotes or we have a new way to get it. So all you have to do is grab your phone and text "mnvotes" to "22777" and you will receive a link right to your phone to your state's voting guide. That's really great. And you mentioned earlier, as we started our conversation about caregiving, talk about caregiving as it relates to this upcoming election and what it means. Yeah, so we have roughly 48 million family caregivers across the United States, 530,000 just in the state of Minnesota who are providing care or just simply assisting their older parents, their spouses, maybe a sibling, maybe grandparents or other loved ones. They help those folks every day, whether it's running errands, picking up groceries, even just simple tasks of daily living so that those individuals can live independently and in their homes where the majority of our members in the 50+ say they want to be as they age. And so issues that affect caregivers, that support family caregivers as they go through these daily challenges is so very important and it's so important to ask the candidates how they will support family caregivers because it really does make a difference in the election. There's a guide that you have or information for who cares for the caregiver, how can our listeners get more information about what caregiving is all about and how they can get some of the respite or even more information about this particular topic that is so vital to a lot of people listening? Yeah, well certainly a great place to start is aerp.org/mn. And there, if you've kind of followed the breadcrumbs, you can get to a Minnesota caregiving resource guide that has tools and resources, links to other helpful information, but that resource guide also has phone numbers and websites right here in the state of Minnesota that can help a caregiver on that journey. You can also find more information at aerp.org/caregiving and it is such a vital resource whether you're just at the beginning of your journey of caregiving for someone you love or you are in the throes of it, it is just in time information to help you as you navigate that process. Indeed. She's Cathy McClure. She is the State Director for AAARP Minnesota. We have to leave it right there, but if you need more information, you've got the information in front of you right now, www.daarp.org and you can get all the information you're looking for from AAARP Minnesota and this is New Beginnings. And now it's time for my Song of the Week. From his introduction to the world as a singer on the first season of PBS's Sesame Street in 1969 to winning four Grammy Awards in 2004, Luther Vandross was a permanent and dynamic force in popular music. In fact, people couldn't get enough of Mr. Vandross. Never too much is his first song written, composed, produced and performed by Luther. The R&B's song was released in 1981 as the lead single from Vandross' debut album of the same name. In addition to PBS, he was discovered by David Bowie, who overheard Luther singing to his song Young Americans. Bowie put him on the recording of the song, which was a tremendous boost to his career. Before becoming a superstar singer in his own right, Luther Vandross carved himself a niche as the go-to guy for soulful backing vocals, so much so that it didn't take long to pull together a list of 10 examples of his work, all of which were found within Rinal's catalog, ready for Luther Vandross and his group called Change. He learned to play piano by ear by following along with records and honed his vocal stylings by listening to various vocalists. As a high school student, he organized vocal harmony groups, which became a significant training ground where Vandross developed his velvety textured tenor voice. His last public appearance was on May 6, 2004 on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He died July 1, 2005 at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey at the age of 54 due to complications of a stroke. At the height of his career, Luther Vandross had become one of the most sought-after vocalists in music history, which brought him extensive wealth. And here is that first hit that put him on the map. Never too much, Luther Vandross, my song of the week. [Music], "The End" by TheFNDC.com. [Music], "TheFNDC.com" by TheFNDC.com. [Music], "TheFNDC.com" by TheFNDC.com. [Music], "TheFNDC.com" by TheFNDC.com. [Music], "TheFNDC.com" by TheFNDC.com. [Music], "TheFNDC.com" by TheFNDC.com. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Today is National Chicken Wing Day. It's the perfect excuse to indulge in everyone's favorite finger food. Whether you prefer them spicy, sweet, dry rub, tangy or smoky, chicken wings bring joy to gatherings and solo feast alike. Imagine a plate piled high with crispy golden wings, each bite bursting with flavor. From classic buffalo to innovative Korean barbecue, there's a wing for every palate. So grab some napkins, gather your friends and dive into a delicious celebration of this beloved culinary delight. Don't forget the dipping sauces, ranch, blue cheese and honey mustard are ready to make your wings sing. It's National Chicken Wing Day and we'll be right back. Minnesota is home to a robust network of more than 300 food shelves that may be able to offer additional food support to families and individuals who are suffering from hunger. Hunger solutions can locate a food shelf near you. Call the Minnesota Food Helpline at 1-888-711-1151. 888-711-1151 or use the interactive map at hunger solutions.org. This message is powered by the Minnesota Department of Health. [Music] Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. You want to be in a place where people know your name. The message is positive and you feel fulfilled. Come be inspired at Unity South Church. Unity South is a non-denominational, spiritual community with roots in love, acceptance and prayer. We believe that you have an indwelling spark of divinity. Come visit us this Sunday for the interactive discussion at 9 a.m. or the regular service at 10.30 a.m. Unity South is located at 7950, 1st Avenue South in Bloomington. A stimulating and uplifting Sunday school for preschool through 18 years old. Unity South Church. Embracing. Loving. Empowering. [Music] Hi, this is Freddy Bell. Subscribe to my podcast and visit FreddyBell.com to unlock a treasure trove of insightful content tailored to empower, entertain and enlighten you. Plus, visiting FreddyBell.com grants you exclusive access to bonus content behind the scenes insights in a vibrant community of like-minded individuals eager to grow and connect. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your mind, elevate your mind, expand your horizons and join the Freddy Bell experience today. [Music] As new beginnings continues, we now take you to the spirituality portion of our program where we introduce the Senior Minister of Unity South Twin Cities of Reverend James Stacy. We now join Reverend Stacy with a program already in progress. [Music] From a time of preparation, perhaps we've examined our lives and considered ideas and habits, thoughts, the way we've always done things, and that it was time for change. For change brings renewal, new possibilities. And so now we enter this Holy Week of Easter, and it brings us new opportunities. The Unity Minister who succeeded Charles Fillmore, Dr. Ernest Wilson, wrote in his book entitled "The Week That Changed the World." He entitled this week as a year in minuture, a year in minuture. What on earth did he mean by that? Are we cramming all of our activities of an entire year into one week? No, surely that's not what he intended. What he was suggesting is that book he wrote follows the Gospel story of this last week of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday in the final week of his physical life on this earth. What were the sequence of events that can be for us a master plan of living? The whole years it were, perhaps our whole life, wrapped up into one sequence that Jesus modeled for humanity. Well, let's dig into that a little bit deeper. Peg McFedrin wrote, "Whether we pay attention to it or not, every cell and organ system in our body is synchronized with the universal rhythms of nature, all layers of our being. Although our senses lead us to perceive that we are separate from the world around us, we are constantly exchanging energy and information with the environment. When our eternal rhythms are in sync with those of the environment, we experience well-being. Life moves in recurring cycles of rest and activity. Every cell, organ, and system in our body operates according to predictable rhythms with periods of dynamic activity in times of quietness. These same patterns of rest and activity are found within the cycles of nature. The sun rises and sets. The moon waxes and wanes. The tides approach and recede. So the human being can learn from observing nature. These all-important cycles of existence. But what makes the human being unique is that we are not bound or tied by the cycles of nature. Many of those in the animal kingdom can only have certain experiences in the year in certain seasons. And we know that's even more so true of the plant kingdom. The rose, unless it is a miracle, does not pop up in the snow of Minneapolis and December to bloom. It follows a very closely related cycle to nature. Human beings have more freedom. But yet, when we observe cycles of nature, when we observe the inner cycles of our soul, we're more likely to find our healing, our balance. We are more likely relieved of anxiety when there is change all around us. We can learn and be healed. Now today we celebrate Palm Sunday, that day that Jesus entered Jerusalem. And the week was filled with symbols. We could talk as to why this leader that so many of the crowds were looking to for hope, for new possibilities. And he arrives riding on a lowly beast of burden. Not only that, a young donkey cult. And so he rides into the city at the same time, historically, that the Roman leader was entering another part of Jerusalem with great fanfare, pomp and circumstance, great demonstration of power. And here, Jesus, this extraordinary spiritual leader, is coming in humility, will already at the start of the week. Some people were beginning to question, "What's going on?" Now they began greeting this man who had accomplished healing miracles about the land, had even just recently raised Lazarus from a burial tomb to new life. So they were excited. They were waving palms, they were throwing palms and throwing their cloaks and garments in the street so that he could ride over. They could prepare a way of honor for him. But none of them knew what was coming. None of them had a full sense of the cycle of which I wish to speak today. The Holy Week of Easter gives us a cycle of all human experience, a roadmap, as it were, or for those of us more technologically advanced, some form of energy, of how we can navigate the changes, the challenges, the big excitements of life with assurance. And so Palm Sunday teaches us of celebration. What were the people shouting according to the scriptures, according to the many songs such as the one that Steve just shared for us? Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, which if we're listening carefully, we can hear the words blessed are we when we come in the name of the Lord. Well, first, let's look at Hosanna. Do you know what it means? I had to research it. Yes, it's a shout of acclaim. But in Hebrew, it actually means save now. Save now. You just heard a message coming from the Reverend James Stacey, the Senior Minister of Unity's South in the Twin Cities. More information is found at their website at unityself.org. Here are today's words to the wise. Nothing endures like change. Change is the constant force that shapes our lives, pushing us to grow and adapt. Embrace change as the essential catalyst for progress and for transformation. Today's words to the wise, nothing endures like change. [Music] That's our show, and thanks to our special guests for stopping by and sharing information that we hope can change lives. If you missed any of today's show, you can subscribe to our podcast or just Google Freddy Bell, or stop by my website of the same name. Thanks for listening, and remember that each day is a chance for a new beginning. See you next week! [Music]