The BEST AI Stocks to Invest In (Money Q&A)

Transcript:

On this episode of the personal finance podcast, the best AI stocks to invest in on this money. Q and a

what's up everybody. And welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew founder of master money. co and today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be talking through the best AI stocks to invest in on this money. Q and a, if you guys have any questions, make sure to hit us up. On Instagram, Tik TOK, Twitter at master money co and join the master money newsletter and respond there.

And we'll be able to answer any of your questions directly as well. And if you guys are getting value out of this show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on Apple podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player as well. Can I thank you guys enough? For leaving those five star ratings and reviews on Apple podcasts and Spotify.

So today we're going to be diving into a money Q and a with your questions. And we have three fantastic questions today. The first one we're going to be covering is the best AI stocks to invest in. And what I think about investing in AI. And I'm going to give you some of my top five stocks to invest in.

But in addition, I'm going to tell you how I personally invest in AI as well. Question two is how to make sure your kids don't blow their investment money early. So we're going to talk through how to structure that and how we can make sure that if we have a taxable brokerage account or something like that, that we want to hand down to our kids and you want to make sure they don't blow it on a brand new fancy Lamborghini when they come of age, or you want to make sure that they don't blow it on a random thing that you don't want them to, um, that you can actually set that up in a specific way.

And then lastly. How to tell your advisor you want to break up with their funds. And so nothing is better than getting rid of those really high cost investment fees. And we're going to talk through how you can do that on this episode as well. So this is an action packed episode. Cannot wait to dive into it without further ado.

Let's get into it. All right. So the first question is I am interested in investing in some AI stocks, and I was curious to what you think about investing in individual AI stocks. And is this a good move? Also, what are your favorite AI stocks? All right, perfect. So this is a great question. This is when I actually get a lot.

So that's why I'm answering it on the show. And I want to kind of talk through the difference between investing in some of these individual stocks and just buying an index fund or an ETF or something else along those lines. Now, first of all, if you're interested in investing in individual stocks, you absolutely have to be willing to put in the work.

Now, we've had three episodes with Brian for all day on this podcast. If you haven't heard those episodes, they are fantastic to dive back into. And what Brian talks about on those episodes. Is really how much work you have to put into and invest in individual stocks. He is an individual stock investor, and he even says on one of the episodes, 99 percent of people should just look at an index fund instead of going into individual stocks for the majority of their portfolio.

But at the same time, I am someone who is interested in some individual stocks from time to time, and I usually will invest in some larger individual stocks. And so I want you to kind of think through this as you go through this process. If I'm going to invest in individual stocks, am I willing to put in the work?

Am I willing to look at the financials and dig into the 10 Ks and the quarterly filings and do all these different things? Am I willing to look at the balance sheet? Am I willing to look at management and see how management is actually operating this business? And is this something I want to dive into?

Am I interested in listening to earnings calls and listening to updated news on all these companies? Is that something I want to do? If you're not willing to do stuff like that, then individual stocks may not be for you. In addition, does it fit your risk tolerance? Individual stocks are much more volatile than maybe some other stocks out there are.

So does it fit your risk tolerance to be able to invest in some of these individual stocks? Also, do you understand the underlying business? Because if you don't understand what you're investing in, then you're just gambling, you absolutely need to understand the underlying business, what it does, what makes it profitable, what expenses they have, what their economic moat is, meaning what the differentiator is between each one of these companies from its competitors, what the competitors do and what their actual offerings are.

You need to understand all of these different things. And that's going to be really, really important. And then lastly, is this going to fit your return profile? What is your rate of return in your investment plan? What do you want to make in that rate of return? And will this fit your return profile when you start that investment plan?

Now there are reasons to consider investing in AI. Obviously there's a ton of growth potential in AI out there. Uh, there is a ton of market leadership within AI and investing in companies that lead in AI research means that you can have some massive, massive longterm benefit. And if you're looking for an additional diversification in your portfolio, AI may be a great spot if you don't have a ton of tech companies, uh, within AI.

Now I'm going to dive into, um, some of these top options here that I would be interested in for individual stocks, but I want you to keep something in mind before I dive into these number one. Is how I personally invest in AI. And the way I invest in AI personally is just by buying an index fund. Why?

Because you're going to see when I talk about a lot of these companies, some of these companies are in the top 10 of the S and P 500, and that's a beautiful thing about investing in index funds and in the S and P 500 or a total stock market index fund is if a company is not performing well in the S and P 500, guess what happens, it gets kicked out of the S and P 500 and another company that is performing better will get added to the S and P 500.

There it is. Virtually the largest 500 companies in the U S stock market. So you're going to see a lot of companies who are invested heavily in AI and who are performing well with those AI investments are going to be in the S and P 500, and they're going to be heavily involved in the S and P 500, which is super, super important to me and what I think should be super important to you as well.

So personally, one way I do it. Is to invest in the S and P 500 or a total stock market index fund. I like VOO and BTI and all the other stock market index funds. So if you are an index fund investor, you're already invested in AI, whether you like it or not, because if you're buying the S and P 500, you have a high percentage of the top 10 weighted companies in the top 20 companies is going to be in the S and P 500 in that large weight of companies.

Takes up a massive portion of that index fund, especially the S and P 500. So let's look at some of these companies though. And the best ones that I think, uh, would be of interest to me if I was going to invest in some of these individual stocks. And one is Nvidia. Now this is obviously not financial advice.

This is just my opinion of companies that I like, but Nvidia is a great one. Any list that you look at of the best AI stocks to invest in Nvidia is going to be on that list. Why? Because they're really the leader when it comes to GPUs and GPUs are essential for AI and machine learning tasks due to their parallel processing power.

So they really literally create the GPUs for a lot of this AI technology. Uh, and so they are truthfully, uh, making massive, massive headway when it comes to being able to be in this AI game. In addition, NVIDIA also has an AI platform, which offers a comprehensive suite of AI tools and frameworks such as CUDA.

They have TensorRT and some other stuff as well. NVIDIA is also investing in their drive platform, which provides AI solutions for autonomous vehicles, which you'll see a recurring theme here. As I go through this list, autonomous vehicles are going to be the future of driving. Most people predict that at least.

And. Because of this, it is going to be something that a lot of companies are going to be able to capitalize on now. Autonomous driving, um, is something where most people are like, well, I don't want to get in a car if nobody's driving a car. But the way I compare it is to the elevator. If you know anything about the history of the elevator, if you're not a nerd like me, then you probably don't.

But originally when elevators were created, People were more comfortable getting into an elevator. If there was an attendant in the elevator pushing that button. And so when they go in the elevator, they'd want somebody in there with them to push that button because they felt safer. And so that's the same exact situation with autonomous vehicles.

Essentially, later on down the line, people got comfortable going in the elevator themselves. And now you don't ever see anybody in the elevator pushing those buttons for you. Instead, you push your own button. I'm an adult. I'm going to push my own button. And so when it comes to being in an elevator, You know, that's how that worked.

And I see autonomous vehicles being the same way. We just have to get comfortable and riding in them. And we will see, because the studies are showing that they can be much safer and they think it will reduce accidents, things like that. In addition, I can get some work done in the back of these autonomous vehicles too.

So, um, I think it's really cool in the future. I think we're going to see that coming up heavily in the next couple, you know, 50 years or so. So. In addition, Nvidia has a ton of AI research that they're doing as well. So Nvidia is a great one. It's gonna be like number one on every list that you look up because they are just so powerful, um, and they're so powerful in what they are doing.

Number two is Alphabet, or better known as Google. And Alphabet has AI projects left and right. I think Alphabet's gonna be able to. Um, do a lot of really cool stuff on the Google assistant side where they're going to be able to a take care of things like customer service and be able to have an assistant call for appointments and do all those different kinds of things because they have state of the art NLP models.

But in addition, they're also going to have a bunch of other AI tools as well. They have things like deep mind, which is working on. Everything from gaming all the way over to, you know, alpha fold, which predicts protein structures. They have AI in search and ads, which is going to be a very, very heavy cashflow machine, um, and enhances search algorithms and ad targeting using AI.

And they have Waymo, which is their self driving project as well. So you'll see a lot of these companies have self driving projects involved. Uh, number three is Microsoft and Microsoft has a ton of AI research coming out. So they have things like Co Pilot, which is basically their chat GPT. Um, they have Azure AI, which is cloud based AI services, which is just going to be a massive moneymaker for them.

Um, they have partnerships with OpenAI. They have AI for Good, which is like initiatives. Utilizing AI for Earth and AI accessibility, they have Cortana and Office 365. So they're integrating AI into the workplace and into workplace tools. And so it's going to really, really help you with a lot of different things there.

And so Microsoft is a huge, huge player in the AI game for sure. Also is Amazon. So you're seeing a theme here. It's just these massive companies that are the top 10 of the S and P 500. But Amazon has AWS. AWS is like one of their highest earning businesses. Um, and if you don't know what AWS is, it's like their web services and they provide AI and machine learning services through Amazon web services, including SageMaker, recognition, Lex, there's a bunch of different ones in there.

They also have Alexa, which Alexa is kind of. Improving in the AI front, but Alexa is not top notch when it comes to some of the voice assistant stuff. Uh, but retail and logistics is I think where Amazon is going to be thriving because they use AI to optimize supply chain management and they can also use it to recommend products, enhance customer service.

I just think Amazon's going to have a ton of different AI features, and they also have Amazon go, which actually uses AI as well, which are those stores that you can walk into and you don't even have to pay for anything. It just scans your phone when you walk in and walk out while it's in your pocket, by the way, it's not like you have your phone out and you're scanning something.

So that's another way that. They are using cashierless stores. And so that technology can probably also be used in a number of different situations. And then Tesla is a big one. So Tesla is for self driving cars. They have autopilot. They have been developing those AI driven autonomous vehicles for a long time.

They also have the dojo supercomputer at Tesla. And so that's powerful AI training computer to enhance Tesla self driving capabilities. And then they're using AI to optimize energy solutions. So, um, that's a big one for Tesla. If they can figure out how to utilize that energy solution with their power wall and power pack, um, that's going to be a really, really big one.

And so Elon Musk used to be on the board of open AI. If you don't know who open AI is, they're the owners of chat GPT. But. And when he was on the board of open AI, he said, this is getting too powerful, too quick and actually resigned from the board. So he knows a lot about AI as well. And so there's going to be a lot of different things that are going to be happening there.

I think Apple's not on this list. I haven't seen a ton of stuff coming from Apple yet. They probably can be soon. Apple's in the top 10 of the S and P 500 also. And there's other healthcare companies. So the healthcare side of AI, I think is going to be very, very fast growing. Whoever can come out on top on that.

And so that's another big one. I think for sure. You can definitely consider, uh, when you're looking at that as kind of watch some of those healthcare companies. I think that's one way to really, really look at AI is on the healthcare side. So those are just some of the companies that I would look at.

These are just blue chip, big old companies that most likely will have less probability of failure than anything else. And that's what I'm looking for when I invest my, my doll hairs. So, um, that's exactly what we're looking for on that one. And so just make sure you understand the business, you understand AI and you understand the considerations.

Before you invest in these companies. Let's jump to the next question. All right. So the next question is, how do you make sure your kids don't blow their investment money early if you are investing their money into a taxable brokerage account? So investing for your kids in a custodial brokerage account, I know one concern people have is their kid taking the money out to buy a car or a house or stop in the compound interest.

Another option I'm curious about is investing for your kids in a normal brokerage account and having them designated as a benefit. or possibly passing that account over once they are older and less likely to stop the compounding. Do you have any ideas on how feasible this is and how this will pay out?

You know, with taxes, things like that. Alright, so there is something you can do and there's something that you can utilize to control how these accounts are dispersed once your children become of age. And for me specifically, the reason why I don't use custodial accounts which I think you're talking about UTMAs, UGMAs, things like that is because when they come of age At 18, they can have this money just go directly to them.

Uh, and I use a taxable brokerage account instead because of a number of reasons. One of which is flexibility. Secondly, is I don't have to give them the money at the age if I don't want to by that time. Um, and so I want that flexibility to be able to do that if something were to ever happen or Who knows?

I just want flexibility with my money always anyways. So I actually put it in a taxable brokerage account. I'm fine paying the taxes on it if I have to or them. But one thing you can do is you can look at the option of a trust. And what a trust is going to do is it's going to give you the options to actually create rules around these accounts.

And so there's two types of trust that you can look into. There's the revocable living trust, and there's the irrevocable living trust. A revocable living trust is the one that I think has more flexibility because you have control. So the person creating the trust retains control over the assets and can modify or revoke the trust during their lifetime.

And so you can make changes as you go. As you're living and the trust document will specify how and when the assets in the brokerage accounts are distributed to beneficiaries. So you can specify exactly how that money is going to be distributed. Whereas an irrevocable trust, uh, once established, the grantor cannot easily change or revoke trust.

The trust of the person creating it cannot really change it. It's not very easy to change an irrevocable trust. And similar to the revocable trust, though, you can specify terms for distributions, but on the tax implications, assets are removed from the grantor's estate and potentially will reduce the state taxes.

It just depends on that. You got to talk to your CPA about that to see if it will for your specific situation. But it's definitely another consideration. Now I like the flexibility of the revocable living trust. Now the tax implication of a revocable living trust is the assets are still considered part of the grantor's estate for tax purposes, but it avoids probate.

So there may be a tax implication if you're really wealthy to go with the irrevocable instead of the revocable. Uh, but I like to have that flexibility. And so if you want to set up a trust like this, what you do is you go to a place like an attorney, Or you can go to a place like Trust and Will. Um, there's a bunch of places out there that you could do this.

Trust and Will is like a streamlined fast process. An attorney might be a little more expensive, but it also is good to have that advice and that customization. Um, and so ask some friends. If you know anybody who has a trust attorney, you can have a consultation with them. Or you can look at trustandwill.

com. That's another great place. That's where like I do my will and stuff like that. And what you're going to do is when you set up that trust, you're going to define the purpose and the terms. And you're going to put the purpose of the trust. And you're going to put all different. You know, reasons for why that trust was created.

You're going to specify the beneficiaries, meaning who is actually going to get involved with, um, actually being able to reap the benefits of that trust. Then what you're going to do is you're going to appoint a trustee, and it's going to be a person that you trust to manage the trust and its assets.

And so once you have that established, those big three things, then you're going to draft up the trust document, and you're going to have that document in place. And you're going to include a lot of specific things in this trust document, such as ages or milestones or achievements that can trigger distributions.

Now, here's the cool thing about this is that in a trust, you can do a lot of different things that are customized here. And one thing is you could do milestone based distributions. That's the key word that I want you to hear here. A milestone based distribution means that. So you have a million dollars in a trust, okay?

And you want your kids when they turn 30, they get 250, 000 of that. Well, the trust can specify that. And then when they turn 30, they're going to get 250 grand. Then when they turn 40, they get the next 250. When they turn 45, they get the next 250. And when they turn 50, they get the final 250. And you could specify stuff like that for age based stuff.

You could do it milestone based. So if they complete college or higher education, you can give them money, Triggered off that. If they buy a house, you can trigger money based on them buying a home. Uh, if they start a business or if they complete some other milestone, you can have it triggered based on that.

You can also do needs based triggers. Like if they had big medical expenses or if they had financial hardship, you can have those needs based triggers also come into play. And so that's the cool thing about trust. And I'm getting sidetracked here. But that's a cool thing that you can do is you could specify these very specific things.

Then once you have these specific things specified in the trust document, then you can move assets into that trust. Once you have these rules in place, that's kind of how I want you to think about it. You could set up specific rules and you can get real creative on this stuff. Uh, but you could set up these kinds of rules and then you can transfer the assets over.

And what you want to make sure is when you transfer assets over into a trust, you transfer the brokerage account and any of their assets into the trust, and then make sure that the title of the brokerage account will change to Reflect ownership by the trust. So the trust needs to be owning that thing.

You got to ensure that the brokerage firm properly registers. The account in the name of the trust is basically what the bottom line is there. So then you're maybe asking yourself, well, what about managing and distributing trust assets? How does that work or how do you actually think through that? Well, management is the trustees responsibility.

So they're there to manage the assets in the brokerage account. Uh, they make investment decisions and they ensure the trust grows according to its goals. So you can put goals in place for that trust. Uh, which is why this kind of starts to get a little bit complicated, but you can put goals in place, uh, to make sure that that works.

And then they also follow distributions based on your conditions and what you wanted to do, which we already talked about earlier. Um, now, when it comes to tax considerations, uh, For income taxes, for example, trusts are taxed on income that is not distributed to beneficiaries. Um, and irrevocable trusts must file a tax return, and it may be subject to higher tax rates on undistributed income.

And then for the beneficiary, the people who you're actually giving the money to, how are they taxed? Distributions to beneficiaries are generally taxed. To the extent they include income earned by the trust and then for gift taxes, which is another part of your question that you had there, when you transfer assets into an irrevocable trust, those can also be subject to gift taxes, but it can reduce the taxable estate, which is good.

And so that's another thing that you just want to consider. When you set these up. So a trust is a great way to kind of set this stuff up. If you think you're going to have a really big account over the years, you want to set up specific rules, a trust is another great option if you're dealing with some big dollars here.

And so, um, I think it's really helpful and really powerful if you want to set up specific parameters. I've always thought it'd be fun to set up a trust for like family members. Uh, where you can set up something like 200 years down the line. And I've done the compound interest calculations on this because I'm a nerd who just does this kind of stuff.

And if you look at the compound interest calculations, if you just do like a hundred bucks a month over the course of the next 200 years, your relatives would have something like billions of dollars in that account because compound interest is so amazing. So anyways, uh, but I always thought that would be funny, but then it's like, what's the purpose of that?

But I just think it'd be an interesting kind of experiment. Um, to kind of do something like that. But anyways, uh, so overall, that's one way you can set yourself up and protect yourself and your family based on those triggers and setting up those custom rules. I think that's a pretty cool way to do it and to make sure that the money is distributed in the way that you want it to, uh, and to make sure it's in a feasible place where, uh, it would make a lot more sense.

So you don't just give your money to your kids when they're 18 whatever else the rules are. So I think that's an interesting way to think about it. And trust are cool for that kind of stuff. I think it's really cool to have, uh, some customization that you can utilize so that your money actually goes where you want it to.

Alrighty. The last question is, uh, concerning breaking up with your advisor. So here's the question. Hello Andrew. I noticed that my financial advisor got rid of or sold a bunch of my precious V-F-I-A-X and bought B-A-C-L-X with a 1.32% expense ratio and the level load of 1%. But after a year, you won't get charged, but I will pay a 1.32% expense ratio.

Holy cow, that is ridiculous. That absolutely infuriates me inside my. Soul is full of heat right now, uh, just by making that move. So they took you from a low cost index fund to a high expense ratio with a load fund, uh, that is. Oh man, that makes me mad. All right. Uh, need some advice on how to nicely tell them that I'd like to do it alone.

Um, and manage my own portfolio, things like index funds and such. I'm not sure if I'm better off paying that 1 percent level load fee for getting out. Before one year. Or what other fees are associated with leaving Merrill Lynch and BOA firm? Also, if I get out early, how do I pay that annually expense ratio or the expense ratio fees coming out of my bottom line on a monthly basis?

Thank you for your help. And I owe you a espresso or drink next time I travel on over from Orlando. So shout out to Orlando Orlando magics, my favorite basketball team. I'm from Tampa, so we're close over there. Um, but that's pretty cool. So first of all. Uh, your advisor is my least favorite person that I've heard about today.

Um, for moving you from V F I A X, which is vanguards. If anybody doesn't know what V F I A X is, it's vanguards, 500 index fund, the Admiral shares, which is really low expense ratio. Uh, you basically pay nothing and they moved them over to black rocks. Target shares, which have a 1. 3, 2 percent expense ratio, which is sig nifficantly higher than VF IAX.

So, uh, let's understand these fees here for a second. So you have a 1 percent level load fee. And the reason why I'm going through this is because I want people to know how to look at their advisor stuff. So this is a fee that you pay up front for your advisor services. And if you exit before one year, you'll likely incur the entirety of this fee.

And so the first math we have to do is, does it make more sense to take the hit on that 1 percent fee, or does it make more sense to just go ahead and will we save money if we save on the 1. 32 percent that's left. On the expense ratio for this year, because this is an annual fee that comes out of your investment returns and is typically charged monthly, but calculated antholy.

So your expense ratio is typically charged monthly to answer that first question that you had is monthly is usually when those come out, unless they have some weird thing that they put in for annually. I don't think they did. If they did double check, uh, but usually that comes out monthly. It's just stated as an annual fee, so you will not have to pay the expense ratio fees.

For the rest of the time, but you will have to pay that 1 percent level load fee. And so what's the difference there? So say you're a couple of months into this, I don't know when they switched this over, but let's say that you're a couple of months into this. And you switch over and you save that 1 percent expense ratio over the course of the next 12 months.

Okay. And you just got to do the math and see how much is left on that load fee, uh, before you make that switch to see which one would come out on top essentially. So if you're only a month or two in, then you're going to have to pay most of that 1 percent load fee, but you still probably save some money because you're not paying the 1.

32 percent expense ratio. Um, and that's it. And so it probably still makes sense to just kind of move it out now, uh, depending on what the math is, but just do the quick math real quick. You can do a 1 percent load fee, look at the expense ratio over the course of the next 12 months. What's the difference here and how much left do I have to pay?

That's kind of how I'd look at it is just do the quick math and then you'll be able to see. The difference between the two and planning the exit strategy. Now, if you only have a couple months left on this, if they did it like nine months ago, then I would just wait it out and then move it after that 1 percent load fees off.

Um, but if you just started it, you're gonna be paying that thing anyway. Um, and you're gonna be paying the 1. 32 as well. Then that probably be the time to just. Eat it and move on now, how to communicate with your advisor is I actually wrote up a little email for you after I read this question just to give to you and I can email this over to you too.

Uh, and what this is is just a sample message on how to just talk to them, but it's really just being polite and clear about your decision to manage your portfolio independently and then explain that you prefer to invest in low cost index funds. Like VF IAX and that high expense ratios just don't align with your best fit strategy.

So, uh, you could write something like, I hope this message finds you well. I appreciate your efforts in managing my portfolio. However, I have decided to take on a more hands on approach to my investments and manage my portfolio independently. I prefer. To invest in low cost index funds like VFI AX and the recent move to be a CLX with a tire expense ratio does not align with my investment strategy.

I would like to discuss the best way to transition my portfolio from your management to my own. Please let me know what steps I need to take. If there are any fees I should be aware of. Thank you for understanding and assistance during this. And then whatever you say as your sign off, uh, toodaloo or whatever else you say.

Uh, so that's how I would, that's how I'm going to start putting toodaloo in my emails. That's how I would, um, that's how I would state it. And then just go ahead and transfer those assets over to wherever you want them to go. Uh, Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, all those are great. They have great index funds, as you know, and then going from there.

So, um, I think that's a really, really powerful thing. It's amazing that you are actually doing this. And it's amazing that you're thinking through this stuff. Those fees will absolutely destroy your wealth building ability long term. term. So it is so cool to see people saving money on fees. Now I have nothing against financial advisors, specifically certified financial planners.

I think they're amazing for setting up financial plans for people. And a lot of people probably are in their best interest to do something like that. But at the same time, it's also a great idea to just make sure that you have a plan in place that really fits your investment criteria. So anyways, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.

I cannot thank you guys enough for tuning in. If you guys have questions, make sure to just respond to me, join the mastermind newsletter, go to mastermind. co slash newsletter, and just respond to any of those emails that come in every single week. And we'll be able to help you out any way we can here.

And then you might get your question on the show, like everybody else did today. So cannot thank you guys enough for joining this episode, and we will see you on the next episode.