92.5 FM · Southwest Florida

Show Script // Saturday, July 25, 2026

Hosts: Alfie Tounjian, CFP & John Antonucci  ·  Two-host episode, no guest this week
Record Thu, July 23 · 10:30 a.m. ET  ·  Air Sat, July 25, 2026  ·  Four segments · ~12 min each
ALFIE · planning substance (navy) JOHN · listener's side, CTAs verbatim (rust) Call to Action · text PLAN or 15 → 239-747-1077
S&P 500
7,509.20
7/21 close · +0.89%
Dow
52,225
7/21 · +385 (+0.74%)
Nasdaq
25,837
7/21 · +1.29%
June CPI
3.5%
y/y · core 2.6% · m/m -0.4%
10-Yr Treasury
4.63%
7/21 · FOMC 7/28-29 upcoming
Fed Funds
3.50-3.75%
held · effective 3.63%
Brent Crude
$91.01
7/21 settle · Wed intraday ~$93-95
Top CDs
~4.35%
APY 3-5 yr · money funds low end ~3.3%
PRELIMINARY. Levels are the Tuesday 7/21 settled close unless noted. Wednesday 7/22 figures are intraday, never a settle. Re-verify every fast mover at the Thursday 7/23 morning pass before tape.
Backstage · not read on air
This week Two-host episode, no guest. Every bullet is labeled ALFIE (navy, planning substance) or JOHN (rust, listener's side), written to be read as-is or riffed past. Light mode only, tap the logo for five palettes. Data status Wednesday 7/22 preview pass. Settled numbers are Tuesday 7/21; Wednesday figures are intraday only. Seg 1B's results bullet is GAP until Wednesday-night earnings post. Re-verify all fast movers Thursday morning; the footer stamp flips at that pass. CTAs Seg 1 & 3: 2026 Tax Plan Playbook, text PLAN to 239-747-1077, complimentary, exclusive to the shows, 2026 edition retires 12/31 stated as fact. Seg 2 & 4: complimentary 15-minute call, text 15 to the same number or call for the answering service. Say complimentary, never free. No URLs on air. Sign-off Segment 4 closes with Alfie's TV sign-off, locked verbatim, do not edit. It is the only place em dashes appear in this build.
Cold open · JOHN · read verbatim · fresh hook, do not reuse

"Good morning, Southwest Florida. It's Saturday, July 25th, 2026, and this is Saving the Investor on 92.5 FM. John Antonucci here with Alfie Tounjian, certified financial planner, more than forty years in this business. Let's start with a number you already felt this week. Gas crossed four dollars a gallon nationally, and oil touched levels we have not seen since June. So here's my question: do you know, within fifty dollars, what that actually costs your household every month?"

"Most people guess high. A lot of people guess very high, and then they make decisions based on the guess. If you'd rather know the real number than guess at it, today's show is for you."

Structure: dated open, fresh audience-filtering question teeing Segment 1, then "today's show is for you." New question every week.

Segment 1 · ~12 min Segment One

Oil's Second Act

A · What a supply shock actually reaches B · Show me the money
Theme A

What a Supply Shock Actually Reaches

Brent Near $95 // Gas Over $4 // What It Really Costs A Retiree
Six labeled bullets // read as written or riff past them
  • JOHN: "Everybody listening filled a tank this week and felt it, so let's just say the number out loud. Gas crossed four dollars nationally, and here in Florida we're at three ninety-one, actually a little cheaper than the rest of the country." [AAA 7/22: national $4.060, FL $3.906]
  • ALFIE: "And there's a real story behind the pump. Brent oil settled at $91.01 Tuesday and traded near $95 Wednesday morning, the highest since June 11th, after eleven straight nights of U.S. strikes on Iran." [Settle 7/21; Wed 7/22 intraday high $95.47, Reuters/CNBC. PRELIMINARY, re-verify Thu]
  • JOHN: "Here's the one that sounds scary when you say it out loud. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve just hit 311.4 million barrels. That's the lowest it has been since 1983." [EIA weekly, wk ending 7/17, released 7/22]
  • ALFIE: "Now let me give you the arithmetic almost nobody runs. A household headed by someone 65 or older spends about $135 a month on gasoline. That's two and a half cents of every dollar going out the door, so the feeling at the pump is a whole lot bigger than the line in the budget." [BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024: $1,623/yr for 65+ households, ~2.6% of spending]
  • JOHN: "So the honest map looks like this. It reaches the grocery truck, diesel went from $4.58 to $5.13 in two weeks, and it reaches the travel budget, jet fuel is up about 25 percent in three weeks." [EIA on-highway diesel; Gulf Coast jet fuel spot 6/26 to 7/17]
  • ALFIE: "And here's what it does not reach. Your homeowners premium. Citizens approved an average 8.7 percent decrease for this year while crude was climbing. A written plan already assumed some year would bring an oil spike. It just never promised which week." [FLOIR 1/13/26, 330,000+ policyholders across all 67 counties]
Story hook · Alfie's voice "Think about the last time you dreaded opening a bill, and it turned out to be forty dollars. You'd spent a week bracing for four hundred. That gap between the bracing and the bill is where bad money decisions get made. Oil is doing that to Southwest Florida right now. The pump sign is enormous and lit up red on every corner, and the actual line in a retiree's budget is about a hundred thirty-five dollars a month. Plan for the bill, not for the bracing."
Theme B

Show Me the Money

Alphabet, Tesla, IBM // Reported Wednesday Evening // One Question For Your Own Money
Six labeled bullets // read as written or riff past them
  • JOHN: "Three of the biggest names in the market, Alphabet, Tesla and IBM, all reported Wednesday evening. Here's what they actually said." [GAP AT THIS PASS: results post Wednesday night, after this preview was written. Thursday morning: insert the actual revenue and EPS for each and strike this tag. Do not read consensus estimates as results]
  • ALFIE: "The question the whole street carried into Alphabet's report was three words. Show me the money. They're on track to spend $180 to $190 billion this year building AI, roughly double the $91.4 billion they spent in all of last year." [Capex guidance raised 4/29/26; FY25 actual per 2/4/26 release]
  • JOHN: "And they went out and raised almost $85 billion in June to help pay for it. That's not pocket change, that's a statement of intent." [Equity raise announced 6/1/26, ~$84.75B upsized at pricing]
  • ALFIE: "Nobody doubts the technology. The market is simply asking to see the return on all that spending, and that's a healthy question, not a hostile one."
  • JOHN: "IBM actually told us early. On July 14th they pre-announced $17.2 billion in revenue when the street was looking for nearly $17.9. That one's already a fact, not a forecast." [IBM preliminary release 7/14/26]
  • ALFIE: "Now turn that same question around on your own money. Not what do you own. What did it earn you last year, after fees and after taxes. The biggest companies on earth are being asked for proof this week. Ask your portfolio for the same proof."
Story hook · Alfie's voice "Every business owner listening knows the difference between a busy year and a profitable year. You can run at full capacity for twelve months, trucks out, phones ringing, everybody exhausted, and still finish flat. Busy is not the same as paid. The biggest companies in the world are being asked to prove that difference this week, after spending an amount of money that's genuinely hard to picture. Your portfolio deserves the same audit, and it's a much shorter conversation."
Call to Action · Segment 1 · ~30 sec · JOHN · READ VERBATIM · 2026 Tax Plan Playbook

"Here's the thing about the number Alfie just asked for. Once you know what your money earned, the very next question is what you actually kept, and that one is a tax question. Our 2026 Tax Plan Playbook is built around it: advanced strategies for generating income and preserving your principal, written in plain English. It's a complimentary white paper, and we offer it exclusively through this show and our television program. This year's edition is offered through the end of the year, we retire it December 31st. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077. That's the word PLAN to 239-747-1077."

Flow: text PLAN to 239-747-1077, then delivery. Complimentary · exclusive to TV and radio · 2026 edition retires 12/31 (true editorial sunset, state as fact, never as pressure). Confirm the opt-in flow with ops before tape.
John's Questions · Segment 1 · if a theme runs short · easiest to deepest

Q1  "Alfie, gas is the one price everybody sees three times a day. If oil stays up here, what's the one other bill you'd actually keep an eye on?"

Producer note: lets Alfie pick the diesel-to-groceries or jet-fuel-to-travel lane and stay on household transmission, not war talk.

Q2  "That reserve number, the lowest since 1983, sounds alarming out loud. What does it actually change for a family listening right now, if anything?"

Producer note: Alfie separates a macro headline from household exposure; no predictions, the honest answer is mostly nothing this month.

Q3  "You keep saying a written plan already priced this in. Show me. What does that actually look like on paper?"

Producer note: deepest. Cash reserves, spending bands, an income floor that doesn't depend on any one month's prices; tees the Playbook naturally.

Top 10 Household Costs a Supply Shock Actually Touches (and the ones it doesn't)run-short filler · tap to open
  1. The gas tank, less than you think.About $135 a month for a 65-plus household, roughly 2.6 percent of total spending.
  2. Groceries, through diesel.Diesel went from $4.58 to $5.13 in two weeks, and it rides in every truck that stocks the store.
  3. Airfare, with a lag.Gulf Coast jet fuel is up about 25 percent in three weeks, and carriers reprice on a delay.
  4. Cruise and travel packages.Fuel surcharges tend to show up on bookings weeks after the spike.
  5. Lawn, pool and boat service.Small operators run on fuel and pass it through quickly because margins are thin.
  6. Anything delivered.Furniture, appliances, building materials. The freight line moves before the sticker does.
  7. Plastics and packaging.Petroleum is an input, so some shelf prices drift up quietly weeks later.
  8. Snowbird travel budgets.Households that drive north and back feel one spike twice in a year.
  9. Electric bills, only sometimes.Depends on the generation mix, which is why you check instead of assume.
  10. Your homeowners premium, usually not.Citizens approved an average 8.7 percent decrease for 2026 while crude was climbing. Different machine.
Bridge: three of those ten are real for your household and seven are noise, and putting that on paper is what the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook is for. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077.
Segment 2 · ~12 min Segment Two

Six Months of Runway

A · The mid-year tax projection B · The widow's penalty
Theme A

The Mid-Year Tax Projection

A July Estimate // Six Months To Act // Versus A December Surprise
Six labeled bullets // read as written or riff past them
  • JOHN: "Here's a strange fact to start with. Your 2026 tax return is already more than half written, right now, in July. And almost nobody will read it before next April."
  • ALFIE: "That's exactly what a mid-year projection is. We take what's real so far, the income, the gains you've already locked in, the distributions you've taken, and we project the rest of the year down to one number. Where you'll actually land in the brackets."
  • JOHN: "And the boxes are generous if you're married. The 12 percent bracket runs all the way to $100,800 of taxable income, and 24 percent doesn't even start until $211,400." [IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, 10/9/25]
  • ALFIE: "Now here's the connection people miss. If you're on Medicare, your real ceiling isn't just the bracket, it's the next IRMAA income line, because Medicare looks back two years. The income you report this year sets the premium you'll pay in 2028." [CMS 2026 fact sheet 11/14/25; SSA POMS HI 01101.020. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "So a July checkup leaves you six months of levers. Your withholding, the size of a Roth conversion, harvesting a loss, timing a gain. A December surprise leaves you days."
  • ALFIE: "And room in a bracket doesn't roll over. Whatever you don't use by December 31st, the year takes back. That's why we do this in July, while it's still a decision and not a memory."
Story hook · Alfie's voice "Every contractor I've ever worked with down here prices the job at the halfway point. Nobody waits until the last week to find out they're over budget, because at the halfway walkthrough you can still change things, the finishes, the schedule, the scope. A tax return works exactly the same way. July is the halfway walkthrough. December is the final invoice, and by then all you get to do is read it."
Theme B

The Widow's Penalty

One Spouse Passes // Income Barely Changes // The Brackets Cut In Half
Six labeled bullets // planning while both spouses are alive, never fear-based
  • JOHN: "This next one is tender, but it matters too much to skip. When a spouse passes, the survivor keeps most of the income. What she doesn't keep is the tax treatment."
  • ALFIE: "In the year of loss she can still file jointly. The very next year, unless there's a dependent child at home, she files single. And for the families we serve, that child exception almost never applies." [IRS Pub. 501; Qualifying Surviving Spouse requires a dependent child. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "So same house, similar income, and every box gets cut in half. The standard deduction drops from $32,200 to $16,100, and the 22 percent bracket now starts at $50,400 instead of $100,800." [IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32]
  • ALFIE: "Medicare does the same thing. The first surcharge line falls from $218,000 for a couple to $109,000 for one person, and crossing it by a single dollar costs about $96 a month across Parts B and D. That's the law's number, not mine." [CMS 11/14/25: $81.20 Part B + $14.50 Part D = $95.70/mo. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "And Social Security sends one check instead of two. She keeps the larger one, and the smaller one stops." [SSA survivor rules. Confirm with CCO]
  • ALFIE: "Which is why every defense here is a both-spouses-alive decision. Fill the wide joint brackets on purpose now, decide which accounts get spent first, and know there's a form, SSA-44, that lets a survivor ask Medicare to reset the surcharge after a loss instead of waiting out the lookback. It's a form, not a favor." [Form SSA-44, qualifying life-changing event. Confirm with CCO]
Story hook · Alfie's voice · labeled hypothetical "Let me give you a hypothetical, and I want to be clear that's what it is. Picture a couple in their seventies out on Marco Island. Same pension, same IRA, same routine for thirty years. He passes in the spring. By the following January nothing about her money looks different on paper, the checks arrive, the accounts are the same. But every bracket she lands in is half as wide, her deduction is half as big, and the Medicare line she has to stay under is half as high. Nobody sends her a letter explaining that. It just quietly becomes true, and the time to plan for it was while they were both sitting at the kitchen table."
Call to Action · Segment 2 · ~30 sec · JOHN · READ VERBATIM · complimentary 15-minute call

"Here's what strikes me about everything Alfie just laid out. None of it is exotic, and almost none of it gets done, because nobody's job is to sit down in July and check. That is literally what the fifteen-minute call is for. People tell us all the time, 'I had no idea your firm did that.' Tax-efficient strategies, Social Security planning, estate documents, wealth transfer and trust funding, Medicare solutions, long-term care strategies, directly or through our strategic partners. Take the complimentary, no-obligation 15-minute phone call. Text the number 15 to 239-747-1077, or call that same number and our answering service will set the appointment, a weekday time with one of our four advisors."

Flow: text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and the answering service books a weekday slot with one of four advisors. Services named as categories only, no product pitches and no rates on air.
John's Questions · Segment 2 · if a theme runs short · easiest to deepest

Q1  "Alfie, what does somebody actually need to bring for a projection? Is this a shoebox of receipts situation?"

Producer note: disarms the effort objection; a couple of statements and last year's return get most of the way there.

Q2  "Roth conversions come up on this show every single week. How does a July projection change the size of one?"

Producer note: the ceiling is the lower of bracket room and the next IRMAA line; keep it conceptual, no client numbers.

Q3  "On the widow's penalty, give me the one decision a couple can make this year, together, that helps the survivor most."

Producer note: deepest and most emotional; steer to filling the wide joint brackets now and account-order decisions, empowerment framing only.

Top 10 Questions a Mid-Year Tax Projection Answersrun-short filler · tap to open
  1. Which bracket will I actually finish the year in?Everything downstream, conversions, harvesting, giving, depends on this one number.
  2. How much room is left in that bracket?Room unused by December 31 does not carry over; the year takes it back.
  3. How big can this year's Roth conversion be?Sized to the lower of bracket room and the next IRMAA line, not to a guess.
  4. Am I about to cross a Medicare surcharge line?The two-year lookback means this year's income sets 2028's premium.
  5. Is my withholding on track or badly off?Six months is enough time to fix it without an April penalty conversation.
  6. What gains have I already locked in this year?The March sale is real even if the 1099 doesn't arrive until February.
  7. Where are the losses worth harvesting?Far more useful found in July than hunted in the last week of December.
  8. Have I taken every required distribution?Confirm the amount and which account it comes from before the year-end rush.
  9. Is my charitable giving structured or just written?Appreciated stock or a qualified charitable distribution can beat a check.
  10. What December surprises are already scheduled?Mutual fund distributions can push income over a line you were carefully under.
Bridge: those ten questions are one conversation, and it fits inside the complimentary fifteen-minute call. Text 15 to 239-747-1077.
Segment 3 · ~12 min Segment Three

The Paperwork You Think Is Done

A · Hurricane season money prep B · Trust funding failures
Theme A

Hurricane Season Money Prep

Peak Is September 10 // Coverage Versus Rebuild Cost // Cash And Documents
Six labeled bullets // preparation, not fear
  • JOHN: "Six weeks from now we'll be in the loud part of hurricane season. The peak lands right around September 10th, which makes this the calm stretch, and the calm stretch is when preparation is cheap." [NOAA climatology; season June 1 to Nov 30]
  • ALFIE: "And the forecast is genuinely mild this year. NOAA says 8 to 14 named storms and better-than-even odds of a below-normal season. But I've lived down here long enough to tell you a quiet season is not a quiet season for the one street the storm finds." [NOAA outlook 5/21/26: 3-6 hurricanes, 1-3 major, 55% below-normal, 70% confidence]
  • JOHN: "So the money question isn't really the weather. It's whether the number on your policy could actually rebuild your house at today's prices."
  • ALFIE: "Because rebuilding costs in Florida are up close to 30 percent in five years, and a lot of dwelling limits are still sitting where they were set in 2021. And your hurricane deductible is a percentage of that dwelling limit, not of the claim. Two, five, sometimes ten percent." [FL rebuild cost reporting 12/17/25; construction inputs +6.2% y/y June, pub. 7/15/26; deductible options per 2025 Fla. Statutes. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "And flood is a whole separate policy with a 30-day waiting period. The week a storm gets a name is the week it's too late to buy." [FEMA/NFIP; homeowners policies exclude flood]
  • ALFIE: "Then the unglamorous part that decides how fast a family comes back. Cash you can physically reach when the power and the card readers are down, and your documents scanned to the cloud, the policies, the deed, the IDs. A storm can take the house. It shouldn't also take the proof of what was in it."
Story hook · Alfie's voice "Everybody down here has a hurricane box. The batteries, the water, the flashlight that never has the right batteries in it. We restock it every June without being told, it's just what you do. Almost nobody has the financial version of that box, and I'll tell you, the financial version is the one that decides how fast you rebuild. Same instinct, same month, one shelf over."
Theme B

Trust Funding Failures

The Trust Exists // The Accounts Were Never Retitled // Beneficiary Forms Win
Six labeled bullets // legal facts flagged for CCO
  • JOHN: "Now the second pile of paperwork you think is done. You paid good money for a living trust years ago. Beautiful binder, gold lettering, sitting on the shelf. Alfie, does the binder actually work?"
  • ALFIE: "Only if it was funded, John. Signing the trust builds an empty box. Funding is the retitling, a new deed recorded on the house, accounts re-registered in the trust's name. If that never happened, the trust owns nothing, and the family ends up in probate, the exact process they paid to avoid." [Trust funding mechanics. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "And here's the part that got me when I first learned it. Your beneficiary form beats your will. The form on file wins even when the will says something different."
  • ALFIE: "It generally beats the trust too. The Supreme Court settled this one. A man divorced, his ex-wife signed away her rights in the decree, and he never changed the form at work. When he passed, the plan paid the ex-wife. Unanimous decision. Because the form said so." [Kennedy v. DuPont, 555 U.S. 285 (2009); Egelhoff (2001); Fla. Stat. 732.703 voids some ex-spouse designations but not employer plans. Confirm with CCO]
  • JOHN: "So where does this actually break for real families? Because nobody thinks it's them."
  • ALFIE: "Two places, over and over. Any account opened after the trust was signed, because nobody circles back to retitle the new one. And the refinance, where the lender made you deed the house out of the trust to close, and it never got deeded back in. The audit is one afternoon. Every account, whose name is on the title, who is on the beneficiary line, primary and contingent." [Common funding failure points. Confirm with CCO]
Story hook · Alfie's voice "An unfunded trust is like buying a beautiful safe and never putting anything in it. The family knows the safe exists. They can see it, they were told it protects everything. Then the day comes to open it, and it swings open on empty air, because everything they thought was inside has been sitting out on the counter the whole time in somebody else's name. The document was never the protection. The titling was."
Call to Action · Segment 3 · ~30 sec · JOHN · READ VERBATIM · 2026 Tax Plan Playbook

"Nobody spends a Saturday reading declarations pages and beneficiary forms, and honestly, nobody should have to do it alone. What people will do is read something short that shows them where to look. That's our 2026 Tax Plan Playbook: advanced strategies for generating income and preserving your principal, laid out in plain English so you can see which pieces apply to your family. It's complimentary, it comes only through our radio and television shows, and this year's edition is offered through the end of the year before we retire it on December 31st. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077. PLAN to 239-747-1077, and we'll send it straight to your phone."

Flow: text PLAN to 239-747-1077, then delivery. Complimentary · exclusive to TV and radio · 2026 edition retires 12/31 (state as fact). Subtitle read as the document's subtitle, never as a promised outcome.
John's Questions · Segment 3 · if a theme runs short · easiest to deepest

Q1  "For the person driving right now, what's the single first page to pull out of the file cabinet tonight?"

Producer note: the declarations page; dwelling limit versus today's rebuild cost, one page, five minutes.

Q2  "You said the beneficiary form beats the will. Does having a trust fix that, or does the trust lose to the form too?"

Producer note: the form generally wins unless it deliberately names the trust; retirement accounts stay designation-driven; nuance flagged for CCO.

Q3  "Paint the picture nobody wants. The trust was never funded and the family is in probate. What does that actually mean for them?"

Producer note: deepest; months not weeks, statutory fee scales, public record. Factual and general, no dollar projections about any listener.

Top 10 Pieces of Paperwork to Verify Before Peak Hurricane Seasonrun-short filler · tap to open
  1. The homeowners declarations page.One page: dwelling limit versus today's rebuild cost, and the hurricane deductible percentage.
  2. The flood policy, separately.Homeowners excludes flood, and the NFIP has a 30-day waiting period.
  3. A room-by-room video of the house.Open the closets and cabinets; this is what settles a contents claim.
  4. The deed, and whose name is on it.Especially after a refinance; houses get deeded out of trusts to close and never deeded back.
  5. Every beneficiary form, primary and contingent.These override the will; a blank contingent line can send an asset to probate.
  6. Payable-on-death registrations at the bank.A simple form keeps a checking account out of the process entirely.
  7. Estate documents and powers of attorney.Scanned, plus a note on where the signed originals physically live.
  8. Driver's licenses, passports, Medicare cards.Replacing identification after a storm is slow, and it blocks everything else.
  9. A one-page account list.Institution and account type only, never passwords in the same file.
  10. Vehicle titles and registrations.Flood-totaled cars settle faster when the paperwork is not also underwater.
Bridge: half that list is insurance and half is estate paperwork, and both halves are mapped in the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077.
Segment 4 · ~12 min Segment Four

Fun Money and Bad Actors

A · Speculation creep B · Scam season
Theme A

Speculation Creep

Prediction Markets Expanding // Bitcoin Near $66k // Keep It In The Fun Money
Six labeled bullets // factual and neutral, no endorsement or condemnation, no buy or sell
  • JOHN: "Speculation keeps showing up in a better suit. This week Kalshi, the prediction market, asked regulators for permission to list perpetual futures on gold, silver and platinum. Contracts that never expire." [Filed with CFTC, reported 7/21/26, Bloomberg + pickups; 45-day review, no decision issued. Factual only]
  • ALFIE: "And the scale is real. Prediction markets did almost $45 billion of volume in June, up 75 percent in one month. This isn't a corner of the internet anymore, it's sitting on the same screen as your IRA." [$44.8B June volume, reported 7/3/26]
  • JOHN: "Crypto had its moment too. Bitcoin got back above $66,000 Tuesday for the first time in five weeks, slipped just under it Wednesday morning, and it's still down about 45 percent on the year." [7/21: $66,310; 7/22 am: $65,859; YTD -45.7%. PRELIMINARY, re-verify Thu]
  • ALFIE: "Even the regular market's plumbing tells the story. Retail investors traded a record $6.8 billion a day of options in June, and nearly half of it was in contracts that expire the same day you buy them. That's not an investment horizon, that's a bet with a clock on it." [Citadel Securities data, 7/1-7/5/26; 0DTE ~48% of retail options volume]
  • JOHN: "And to be clear, you're not telling anybody they can't have fun. You're telling them where the fun lives."
  • ALFIE: "The fun money bucket. Sized so you could lose every dollar in it without changing a single plan, and it never counts toward the retirement number, even in the months it's winning. The minute a speculation starts funding a goal, it stopped being fun money and became a risk your plan never agreed to."
Story hook · Alfie's voice "There's nothing wrong with buying a lottery ticket at the Publix on the way home. It costs two dollars, it's genuinely fun, and nobody builds a retirement around it, because everybody understands exactly what it is. The problem with speculation in 2026 is that it doesn't look like a lottery ticket anymore. It arrives on the same screen as your IRA, with a chart and a ticker and a professional interface. Same ticket. Better suit. The bucket it belongs in has not changed."
Theme B

Scam Season

AI Voice Cloning // Florida Ranks Second // One Family Code Word
Six labeled bullets // protective patterns only, empowerment not fear
  • JOHN: "Let's close the show by protecting somebody. Last year Americans 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in fraud losses, up 59 percent in a single year. And Florida ranked second in the whole country." [FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report, April 2026: 201,266 complaints from 60+; FL $709M, second to CA]
  • ALFIE: "And I want to say this next part carefully, because it's where these conversations usually go wrong. Being targeted is not a character flaw. These are not careless people. The tools got dramatically better, and the newest tool is your grandson's actual voice."
  • JOHN: "That's the voice cloning. The phone rings, it's his voice, he's upset, he's in trouble, he needs money right now, and please, please don't tell his parents." [IC3 2025: 3,143 AI-related complaints from 60+, $352.5M in losses; $5M+ to voice-clone distress scams]
  • ALFIE: "Every version of that call carries the same three ingredients. Urgency, secrecy, and a payment you can't reverse, gift cards, wire transfer, crypto. Those three together are the signature. No legitimate call has all three."
  • JOHN: "And the defense costs nothing. A family code word, agreed on a calm day, that anyone in real trouble can say."
  • ALFIE: "Plus the callback habit. Hang up, and dial the person back on the number already in your phone, never the number the caller gives you. That one habit defeats nearly all of this. And remember, it is always legal to hang up. You owe no stranger politeness at your own expense." [FTC standing guidance: callback verification, family code word, refuse urgency, credit freezes at all three bureaus]
Story hook · Alfie's voice "Anybody who was around in the seventies remembers the fire drill at school. You didn't stand there debating whether the building was really on fire. The bell rang, everybody walked the same route, and it worked precisely because it was decided in advance, when nobody was frightened. A family code word is a fire drill for a phone call. You set it on a calm Tuesday, so nobody has to make a good decision at eleven at night with a voice they love crying on the other end."
Call to Action · Segment 4 · ~30 sec · JOHN · READ VERBATIM · complimentary 15-minute call

"Everything we covered this hour, the tax projection, the survivor's brackets, the beneficiary forms, the storm file, even protecting your family from a phone call, it all lives in one coordinated conversation, and people are always a little surprised at the range of it. 'I had no idea your firm did that.' Estate planning documents, trust funding, Social Security planning, Medicare solutions, risk and cost analysis on what you already own, directly or through our strategic partners. Start with a complimentary, no-obligation 15-minute call. Text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call that number and ask our answering service for the appointment, a weekday time with one of our four advisors."

Flow: text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and the answering service books a weekday slot with one of four advisors. Second-opinion framing, services as categories only, no product pitches and no rates on air.
John's Questions · Segment 4 · if a theme runs short · easiest to deepest

Q1  "Alfie, give it to me in one sentence each. What's investing, and what's speculating?"

Producer note: horizon and role in the plan; keep it neutral, no comment on any platform or coin.

Q2  "How big is a fun money bucket allowed to get before it stops being fun?"

Producer note: sized to lose entirely without touching any goal; a per-family conversation, not a universal percentage, no suitability claim.

Q3  "Hardest one of the day. Somebody listening sent money last week to something they now have a bad feeling about. What are their first twenty-four hours?"

Producer note: deepest; bank fraud line and IC3 report fast, freeze credit, tell family, zero shame framing. If their accounts are involved, same-day call to us.

Top 10 Red Flags That a "Great Opportunity" Is Actually a Scam or a Gamblerun-short filler · tap to open
  1. The return is "guaranteed."Real investments disclose risk; only scams and gambles promise certainty.
  2. There's a clock on it.Tonight only, this week only. Urgency exists to stop you from checking.
  3. You're asked to keep it quiet.Secrecy is a tactic; legitimate opportunities survive a second opinion.
  4. Payment is gift cards, wire, or crypto.Rails chosen because they cannot be clawed back.
  5. It found you on social media.Investment fraud is the costliest category for older adults, and it very often starts in a feed or a DM.
  6. Nobody can explain how it makes money.If the mechanism can't be said in two sentences, the mechanism is you.
  7. The proof is strangers' testimonials.Screenshots of other people's winnings are marketing, not evidence.
  8. You're discouraged from asking your advisor.Anyone steering you away from professional eyes is telling you what those eyes would see.
  9. Everyone is "getting in now."Fear of missing out is the oldest sales tool there is, and it works best on smart people.
  10. It expires the same day you buy it.Same-day options, perpetual bets, round-the-clock markets. That's a casino's clock, not an investor's.
Bridge: if any of those ten showed up in something you're holding right now, that's exactly what the complimentary fifteen-minute call is for. Text 15 to 239-747-1077.
Show close · sign-off locked verbatim, do not edit

JOHN: "Alfie, take us home."

ALFIE: "Thanks for spending part of your day with us. And remember—you can also catch Saving The Investor on TV, Sundays at 11:00 a.m. on Gulf Coast News, right after Meet the Press. Until next time—be blessed."

For John · swap any segment's read

John's Alternate CTA Menus

Two menus of ten, five seconds to twenty, all verbatim-ready. Menu A drives PLAN → 239-747-1077. Menu B drives the complimentary 15-minute call (text 15 to the same number, or call and request it with the answering service). Language note: complimentary, never free. No promises, no pressure, date-based framing only (the real 12/31 edition sunset), never supply scarcity.

Menu A · 2026 Tax Plan Playbook · keyword PLAN

Advanced strategies for generating income and preserving your principal.

That line is the document's subtitle. John pairs it with the title on longer reads to describe what the guide covers. It is never escalated into an outcome, so no read may turn "strategies for" into "strategies that will." The limited-time line is true and anchors only to the December 31 editorial sunset.

  1. 5 sec"Text PLAN to 239-747-1077 for our complimentary 2026 Tax Plan Playbook."
  2. 5 sec"One word, one number: PLAN to 239-747-1077. This year's edition, with our compliments."
  3. 5 sec"The 2026 Tax Plan Playbook is yours through December 31st. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  4. 10 sec"If today raised a question you can't answer about your own return, that's the whole reason we wrote the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook. Complimentary, only through this show. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  5. 10 sec"July is the month with the most runway and the fewest people using it. The 2026 Tax Plan Playbook shows you what's still moveable. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077, with our compliments."
  6. 10 sec"Knowing what your money earned is half the answer. Knowing what you kept is the other half. That half is in the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  7. 15 sec"We publish one of these a year and we hand it out in exactly one place, right here on our radio and television shows. The 2026 Tax Plan Playbook: advanced strategies for generating income and preserving your principal. This year's edition is offered through the end of the year. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  8. 15 sec"Here's a fair test of any plan. Could you explain, out loud, why your money is sitting where it's sitting? If that sentence gets hard halfway through, start with the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook. It's complimentary. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  9. 20 sec"Something Alfie says that has stuck with me for years: a tax return is a report of decisions you already made. By the time you sign it, the decisions are behind you. The entire point of the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook is to move those decisions earlier, while you can still make them. Advanced strategies for generating income and preserving your principal, complimentary, and only through our shows. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."
  10. 20 sec"Two families can hold the same portfolio, the same dollar amount, the same funds, and hand very different amounts to the IRS over thirty years. Nothing about the market explains the difference. It's the sequence, the account each dollar came out of, and the year it moved. That's what the 2026 Tax Plan Playbook walks through, and we retire this year's edition on December 31st. Text PLAN to 239-747-1077."

Menu B · Complimentary 15-Minute Call · text 15

  1. 5 sec"Fifteen minutes, no obligation, with our compliments. Text 15 to 239-747-1077."
  2. 5 sec"Text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and our answering service will book it."
  3. 5 sec"One question answered properly is worth the call. 15 to 239-747-1077."
  4. 10 sec"Pretty sure isn't the same as checked. Fifteen complimentary minutes with an advisor will tell you which one you are. Text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and request the appointment."
  5. 10 sec"Bring us one page: the beneficiary line on your largest account. That's a fifteen-minute conversation and it's on us. Text 15 to 239-747-1077."
  6. 15 sec"Getting a second opinion isn't disloyal to anybody. It's what a smart consumer does with anything that matters, and this matters more than the car. Fifteen complimentary minutes, weekday, one of our four advisors. Text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and ask the answering service to set it."
  7. 15 sec"People say it on almost every call: 'I had no idea your firm did that.' Trust funding, estate documents, Social Security timing, Medicare solutions, long-term care strategies, directly or through our strategic partners. Find out what applies to your family. Text 15 to 239-747-1077."
  8. 15 sec"When did anybody last look at what you actually own, the fees inside it, and where two funds are quietly holding the same thing? That's a risk and cost review, and it starts with fifteen complimentary minutes. Text 15 to 239-747-1077."
  9. 20 sec"Here's the honest sales pitch, and it isn't much of one. Fifteen minutes. On the phone. No cost, no obligation, nobody comes to your house. At the end of it you'll either know your plan is in good shape, which is worth knowing, or you'll have found one thing worth fixing, which is worth a great deal more. Text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call and our answering service will set a weekday time with one of our four advisors."
  10. 20 sec"If you've built a seven or eight figure portfolio, the question stops being what to buy. It becomes whether all of it is actually working together, the investments, the taxes, the estate documents, the income plan, the insurance. Most families have good pieces and no coordination. Fifteen complimentary minutes is enough to find out which one you are. Text 15 to 239-747-1077."
Producer & CCO · pre-air review

Compliance Flag List

  1. This is the Wednesday 7/22 preview pass, not a tape-ready script. Seg 1B's results bullet is marked GAP pending Wednesday-night earnings, and every fast mover is marked PRELIMINARY. Nothing goes to air before the Thursday 7/23 morning refresh replaces those figures and the footer stamp is advanced.
  2. Format per host review: every bullet is labeled ALFIE (navy) or JOHN (rust), six per theme, alternating leads, written in spoken first-person voice so it can be read as-is or riffed past. Statistics inside bullets are verbatim-ready; producer source tags are never read on air. John's segment CTAs are marked READ VERBATIM. Each segment carries its own collapsible Top-10; there is no bottom-of-page list section.
  3. GAP LIST, items that could not be verified and must not be asserted on air: Alphabet and Tesla Q2 actual results (post Wednesday night, insert Thursday); the June 2026 CPI motor vehicle insurance 12-month change; any direct oil to homeowners-premium mechanism; the share of US homes underinsured versus rebuild cost; Lee, Collier and Charlotte county average premiums; the share of revocable trusts never funded; how much audio it takes to clone a voice; any settled daily close for bitcoin or ether. Marked GAP, never guessed.
  4. No buy or sell recommendations on any name. Alphabet, Tesla and IBM appear as sourced facts (and one clearly labeled GAP bullet) used to teach one principle, asking your own portfolio what it returned. Bitcoin, prediction markets and the Kalshi filing are reported factually with no platform endorsed or condemned.
  5. Oil is dated with care and never predicted. Brent settled $91.01 on 7/21; the $93 and $95 figures are Wednesday intraday and never called a close. The SPR figure is the fresh 311.4 million barrels from the EIA release of 7/22. War coverage is reported news with no forecasts and no fear framing; the segment is household transmission.
  6. Every number is sourced and dated in producer tags and never read on air. Money market yields are quoted at the conservative low end, about 3.3 percent, per standing rule.
  7. Tax law is never called permanent. Standing language applies: the scheduled sunset was removed and a future Congress can change rates. 2026 figures come from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32.
  8. The widow's penalty is planning content, not fear content, framed around decisions made while both spouses are alive. The Marco Island example is a labeled hypothetical told in Alfie's voice with no dollar projections; the IRMAA surcharge figure is the published cost of crossing a statutory threshold, not a projection of anyone's outcome.
  9. Legal and tax facts flagged to confirm with CCO: the IRMAA two-year lookback and 2026 thresholds; Qualifying Surviving Spouse rules and the dependent child requirement; Social Security survivor treatment; Form SSA-44 redetermination; trust retitling mechanics; beneficiary designation precedence over wills and trusts; Kennedy v. DuPont (2009) and Egelhoff v. Egelhoff (2001); Fla. Stat. 732.703 and its ERISA limitation; Florida hurricane deductible options and the calendar-year basis; the NFIP 30-day waiting period.
  10. Scam content gives protective patterns only: red flags, callback verification, a family code word, credit freezes. No operational detail on how any scam is run, and explicitly non-blaming victim framing.
  11. Playbook CTA keyword for 7/25 is PLAN, confirmed, and the prior keyword does not appear anywhere in this build. Limited-time framing anchors only to the genuine editorial sunset, the 2026 edition retires December 31, 2026, stated as fact. Three conditions must hold: the firm actually retires the 2026 edition on that date, the exclusivity claim stays true with no website or seminar distribution, and the subtitle is read as a subtitle, never as a promised outcome. Verify PLAN is provisioned on the texting platform before tape.
  12. Call CTA mechanic: text 15 to 239-747-1077, or call the same number and request the appointment with the answering service for a weekday slot with one of four advisors. Complimentary is used throughout and the word free is never used to describe either offer. No URL is read on air. Firm capabilities are categories only, offered directly or through strategic partners, with no product pitches, rates, or suitability claims.
  13. The upcoming FOMC meeting is referenced by date only, July 28-29, 2026, described as upcoming, with no prediction or characterization of the outcome.
  14. Styling is light mode only with the five-palette logo picker, hosts on opposed hues, default Daylight navy versus rust, choice persisted per device, print pinned to Daylight. Alfie's TV sign-off is locked verbatim and is the only place em dashes appear in the entire build.
Compliance · reviewed by CCO before broadcast

Advantage Wealth Partners (SEC-registered investment adviser). This program is for general educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Nothing in this broadcast is a recommendation to buy or sell any security or to adopt any strategy. No strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss, past performance does not indicate future results, and no return is promised or implied. All figures are drawn from the sources and dates recorded in the producer tags and were current as of the refresh noted in the footer. This script was assembled as a Wednesday, July 22, 2026 preview pass, and fast-moving figures including oil, Treasury yields, index levels, rate probabilities, cryptocurrency prices and cash yields must be re-verified immediately before tape.

References to Alphabet, Tesla and IBM are sourced factual reporting used to illustrate a general principle about measuring portfolio results. As of assembly, second-quarter results for Alphabet and Tesla had not been released; the results bullet is explicitly marked GAP pending their Wednesday evening reports, and IBM's preliminary figures were pre-announced by the company on July 14, 2026. Statements about the Kalshi filing describe a submission to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that remains under review with no decision issued and are not an endorsement or criticism of any platform, contract, or digital asset. Cryptocurrency and prediction market references are educational only.

Tax, retirement, Medicare and estate rules cited, including 2026 brackets and standard deductions, Qualifying Surviving Spouse status, IRMAA thresholds and the two-year lookback, Social Security survivor treatment, beneficiary designation precedence, trust funding and retitling, Florida hurricane deductible options, and National Flood Insurance Program waiting periods, are summaries of current law that are subject to change and should be confirmed with a qualified tax, legal, or insurance professional before acting. The Segment 2 example is a labeled hypothetical and does not represent any client, and no dollar outcomes are projected. Tax provisions referenced are not permanent; the previously scheduled sunset was removed and a future Congress can change rates.

The 2026 Tax Plan Playbook ("Advanced Strategies for Generating Income and Preserving Your Principal") is a complimentary digital white paper offered with no purchase or obligation, consistent with the SEC Marketing Rule, with no testimonials presented as typical, no false scarcity, no false urgency, and no promised outcomes. The subtitle describes the document's subject matter and is not a promise of income or of principal preservation. The limited-time statement reflects a genuine editorial sunset: the 2026 edition is withdrawn on December 31, 2026, and the firm must in fact retire it on that date. The exclusivity statement, that the paper is offered only through the firm's radio and television programs, must remain accurate. The 15-minute call is complimentary and carries no obligation. Services referenced on air, including investment management, retirement and income planning, tax-efficient strategies, trust funding and wealth transfer, estate planning documents, Medicare solutions, long-term care and life insurance strategies, and annuities, are offered by Advantage Wealth Partners directly or through strategic partners as described in the firm's Private Client Capabilities materials. Insurance, annuity, Medicare, and legal document services involve separate licensure and third-party providers, and nothing broadcast constitutes an offer of any specific product or rate. Confirm the on-air call to action mechanics, text PLAN or 15 to 239-747-1077 and answering-service scheduling, and this disclosure with the Chief Compliance Officer prior to air.