Is Your Job Safe from AI?
Plus, why age isn’t a barrier to investing in bitcoin
Ric Edelman: It's Tuesday, July 16th. On today's show, we talked yesterday about a new way AI is threatening jobs. Here's some more for you. There might be a silver lining in this one. The assembly line and automation wiped out millions of jobs a hundred years ago. Now AI is poised to wipe out high paying white collar jobs.
Do you write software code? Do you generate sales leads? The newest generation of AI chatbots can do these tasks and they do it faster and better and cheaper than humans. They can log into accounts. They can send messages for you over text and voice. They can write software programs. If you're in a sales career, the first place you started was as an internal wholesaler or a lead development representative, you basically have to find potential customers. Then you have to figure out how to contact them. And then you have to make your pitch. You either do this by phone, you know, cold calling or through sending emails. It's distasteful work, because 99 out of 100 people you contact blow you off. But if you can persist, you can get promoted. That's your goal.
But now, one AI company has automated all this. It works 24 hours a day with no human supervision. Once it finds a lead, it researches them online, and then contacts them via email or text, or even using some social media sites like LinkedIn. And it does this all by itself. It can also make actual phone calls to prospects. It'll actually engage them in conversation.
There's one interesting thing. And this is a bit relieving. Yeah, these systems will eliminate jobs of lead gen prospectors, but it will turn those people into sales assistants as they take the handoff from the AI chatbot. So you can further build the relationship with the customer. It's one thing to get someone to say they want to learn more, it's a whole other thing to actually turn that person into a customer and not only sell them your product, but deliver ongoing service after the sale. So this just might be an example of AI shifting the nature of work. Not replacing it, but helping humans walk away from the drudgery jobs so they can do better jobs that are more fun, more satisfying. And which pay a lot better.
Yesterday, I said that AI is so powerful that they're coming up with amazing ways to put it to work and that you need to make sure your career is insulated. Today, I'll add to that message and say that you also need to figure out how you can use AI to improve your job and even set the path for you to get a better one. Stay tuned, coming up next here on the podcast, one of the questions that I got from a listener here to the podcast.
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Ric Edelman: Welcome back, The Truth About Your Future continues. I got a question from Michael. Here's what he wrote. “Now that the Bitcoin ETFs have been around for a few months, I'm planning to invest some of my retirement accounts in them. I am 64 years old. Am I too old to do this?”
No, Michael, you're not too old at all. I mean, goodness gracious, at age 64, you could have 20, 30 years, 40 years to go. You're barely in middle age, my friend. So, no, it's not out of sync for you at all. If you believe in a diversified portfolio, if you believe in portfolio rebalancing, if you believe in long term investing, adding bitcoin ETFs to that diversified portfolio can make perfect sense. You should talk with your financial advisor to determine what amount of asset allocation you ought to have. Should it be 2%, 3%? Let your advisor help you with that. Which of the ETFs ought you to choose? Let your advisor help you with that, and doing it inside of your retirement accounts can make a great deal of sense because the profits on an annual basis, are sheltered. But you could argue that since these ETFs don't generate income, they don't pay dividends, they don't pay interest, that you don't really need to put them inside of a retirement account. Because these are growth assets. You only pay taxes when you sell, and that means they're already tax deferred, just like the assets in a retirement account are. And on that basis, why put them in a retirement account where the ultimate taxes are at your ordinary income tax rate, whereas if you keep them outside of your retirement account, the capital gains tax rate applies, which could be half the amount of tax? Again, talk to your financial advisor, tax advisor about this. I'm not giving you tax or legal advice. I'm telling you to go seek that.
But the fundamental bottom line question you asked, am I too old to do this? Absolutely not. You are not too old to do it. I would even argue that somebody in their 80s or 90s isn't too old to do it. On what basis do I say that? Real simple, if you were so old that you never think you're going to use the money because you're going to die with the asset, then in other words, that's not your money anymore. That's money you fully intend to give to your children and grandchildren. You are merely the steward of the money, and that means you ought to probably be managing the money with them in mind. So you might consider yourself too old at 80, but if your grandchildren are in their 40s, I think we could all agree that they're not too old to own bitcoin, and you're simply owning it on their behalf.
You can send me your question as well, just send it to Ask Ric at TheTruthAYF.com. The link is in the show notes.
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Ric Edelman: Hey financial advisors, are you fluent in crypto, blockchain, bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, tokenization – and most importantly, crypto taxation, estate planning, and asset allocation? Take the online course, become Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets. Thousands of financial professionals in 37 countries have enrolled. Become fluent in crypto so you can help your clients and build your practice. Enroll today and get your CBDA designation.
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Ric Edelman: On tomorrow's show, I'm going to tell you about the financial infidelity behind divorces.
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