Up next is fox news anchor gerri willis and her book is rich is not a fourletter word. Good afternoon. We are delighted that you are here today participating in the 10th annual savannah book festival presented by Georgia Power and the Sheehan Family foundation. We are blessed to host such celebrated authors in the Trinity United Methodist church today, made possible by Curt Anderson and thanks to our members and donors who have made and continued to make Saturdays Free festival events possible. Before we get started i have a couple of housekeeping notes. Immediately following this presentation, gerri willis will be signing festival purchased copies of her book at tellfar square. Give her a couple of minutes because shell spend a couple of minutes with cnn cspan. If youre planning to stay for the next author presentation, please move forward so our ushers can get an accurate count of available seats. Now, lets please take a moment to turn off your cell phones and we also ask that you not use flash photography and for the question and answer portion, please be sure to raise your hand and wait for one of our ushers to bring a microphone to you, especially with having cspan broadcast this, its really important that you use the microphone. Gerri willis is with us today courtesy of will and jean holland. Gerri willis is an anchor and personal finance correspondent for the Fox Business Network where the willis report ran nightly for five years. Before fox business willis worked at cspan now im getting them turned around. She worked at cnn. [laughter] where she was personal finance editor of open house and later your bottom line two personal finance weekend programs. Before joining cnn, she was a longtime senior many if correspondent for smart money magazine. She is the author of two business books, the smart money fwied to Real Estate Investing and home rich. She was born in north carolina, and lives in westchester county, new york, with her husband of 22 years. So, please welcome gerri willis. [applaus [applause] hello. Hi, everybody, can you hear me . Am i loud enough . Yeah . Ive got your book, will, right here. All right, im so happy to be here in savannah. Weve had a great time. Will and jean holland hosted us and we managed to go out and play golf all day thursday, had a fabulous time, just loving, loving savannah. But i have to tell you, my brother is a minister and if he saw me up here, i think he would be completely appalled. [laughter] well, i love being in the south cause im from the south and you heard im from north carolina, my whole family is from the western part of the state, up in the mountains, spruce vine, population 4,000. Now, i dont know, but if youre in georgia, is that really considered the south . Or is that just like Something Else entirely . I dont know. Of note, im wearing pink for a reason, im recovering from Breast Cancer so if i get a little tired in the middle, just be patient. Ill fire back up. Well, glad to be here and i want to tell you, my book rich is not a four letter word how to survive obamacare, trump wall street and retirement and achieve financial success. This is my love letter for americans who want to make it on their own and get ahead on their own steam, do it themselves, and i bet, lets see hands, all of you in here are probably that kind of person. Youd rather run your own lives. Well, i am a big admirer of that and i want everybody to be financially successful. I wrote the book because i saw it was getting harder and harder to be financially successful. We had this great recession, its been hard to find a job, a job that pays well, a job that keeps you employed fulltime. Really difficult for people out there. And then, things weve seen seen before. College tuition prices out of control. You know, i tell people, i say, well, the rate of inflation in College Tuition is 3 over average National Inflation and they look at me like im crazy and i say do you know how much mom and dads across the country, their kids who have graduated from college and the kids who never made it to get the diploma, how much they owe, 1. 4 trillion. Thats never happened. Health care costs are out of control, too, despite the promises of obamacare, the aca, it was all supposed to get better, but it really hasnt. And then, people who are in retirement, near retirement, trying to save to get to retirement. If youre saving money youve had a horrible time for about eight years and now with the Federal Reserve keeping rates at zero, no rates, nothing, nad nadia nada, get no rewards for it. Im talking about those people who work hard, wanting to do the right thing and having a they can of a time getting that dime. Im on your side, absolutely. You know, did you guys see that movie manchester by the sea . Anybody see that, yeah, yeah . Casey affleck. I saw him interviewed. Hes a member of 1 , no doubt about it. He owns property in manhattan, okay . I saw him interviewed promoting the movie and hes got a man bun and like straggly hair down the side of his face, the straggly bun, ripped tshirt, torn jeans, and i thought, wow, is being wealthy that out of fashion . I guess it is. I guess it is. Well, it may be out of fashion, but its probably what you need to do for your families, right . To keep them safe, to keep them secure, to keep them happy, and i understand the motivation there, its not to wear your wealth on your shirt sleeves, but to do what you need to do for everybody that you love. You know, ive covered finances, ive covered personal finance for 20 years now. And i think what you begin to realize when you talk to these folks, these Financial Advisors out there, they prepare you for the challenges you expect, right . Youre going to get married, youre going to have kids, put the kids through college, youre going to retire, all of those things. Thats what they prepare you for, but the surprises im talking about, the incredible cost of a college education, high health care, they dont they dont know about that, theyre not so sure what to do. Those surprises, those things you pick up the phone and call your spouse and say we just got the worse knauss news, theyre not always there to help you with that. So, today what im going to talk about is that moment when you get that call, you get that news, the worst has happened, how you turn that into something good. Im going to start with the story from the first years when i was a business reporter, 1987, my first job. I was working for the Virginian Pilot in norfolk, virginia, dont drink, dont smoke, norfolk, norfolk, i dont know if youve been there, great place. But i was excited to be a business cub reporter and my boss came to maya day in 1987 and said the stock market is tanking, i need you to call traders and find out whats going on. I got on the phone, so excited First Business job on the phone talking to people and i call my favorite trader in the world, right . Ive got the phone handset, not a cell phone, up to my ear and i asked him whats up with the market and i cant hear him. Now, the news room is a noisy place, right . You cant hear anything, keep trying, cant hear him. I crawled underneath my desk and this hand on myright here, the hand set to the left ear and i realize theres a reason i cant hear him. Hes sobbing. Its october 9th, 1987. The stock market is tanking like a stone. The dow loses nearly 20 , 23 of its value in a single day, hasnt happened didnt happen before, hasnt happened since. Its a tragedy. This guy is having the worst day of his life, believe me. And newspapers the next day, they carry headlines like dow tanks, wall street in chaos, people were really, really worried. A bad day. But let me tell you, two days later, the dow regains 60 of its losses, two years later, the dow is up above a level it was before it started tanking. It was a bad day, but if you had been smart and you knew why you were in the market to begin with, if youd stayed steady, you would have been aokay. You know, Flash Forward to today, if you look at a bar chart of the dow, you can hardly see black friday, october 19th, 1987, it barely registers because it just doesnt look like that big of a deal. If youd used that opportunity to buy stocks, you would have been very, very wealthy now. Now, i was, you know, i was a kid who could barely make rent for me, this is a learning curve of extraordinary proportions, but my whole career is full of lessons like this. Where something that seems bad at the beginning turns out to be something that is really good. When i was at smart money magazine, they wanted me to write a book. They were doing books on different topics, here is your topic, here is your topic, i was assigned real estate, something i knew nothing about living in a third floor walkup in new york city and i was nervous. You have to write like 250,000 words, right , but i decided that i would do it and after i got over my anxiety the first week, i just sat at my desk staring at the empty paper, i finally wrote that book and it was that book that propelled me onto tv and started my career in television, cnn fox and on and on and so, again, bad news can become good news. I did have one of the worst case of my life not too long ago, a little more than a year ago. This book just dropped. By dropped, i mean it had come out, thats like industry jargon, what publishers call technical wording. I had a great week that week, id been on fox and friends, been on cavutos show, mornings with maria, id done the big shows promoting the book, but at the same time i had felt something in my right breast that i knew was not right. So i set up an appointment with my primary care physician, i went in to see her, she examined me, and she said, youve really got to go get this tested and i pulled out my book and i said, well, next tuesday looks good to me and she said, no, no, no, youre going right now. So, i went to the white plains hospital, i had a biopsy, they said this wont be painful, oh. And two days later my primary care physician called me and said, your tests are positive. And i said, you mean my Breast Cancer tests are positive . And she said yes. I said you mean, i have Breast Cancer . I dont know why they dont tell you that, they cloak it, your tests are positive and i then went on a multiweek journey of trying to understand what that meant and trying to sort of embrace it, right . I couldnt accept it. When i thought about it, the only thing i could think of was, i want to be done, i want to get back to normal, and the finish line is going to be maybe 12 months out, when im going to be cured. Thats the only thing i want today think about. I did everything they said, i had a mastectomy, i had eight treatments of chemo, i had the red devil of taxall and radiation. Its no fun. Im sure everybody in this room has some experience with cancer and thats one of the learning curves here. But, i did have one day where i did turn around and stop thinking about eight to ten to 12 months hence and that was my last red devil treatment. Now, i was being treated at memorial sloan kettering, and these people are fantastic, the nurses are fantastic, but even they, that day, on my fourth treatment could not get any of my veins to hold up under a needle. And they tried once. Twice. Three times. Four times. They started bringing in nurses from other places to like have a go and my veins. And the longer this goes, the more anxious i get, my shoulders are up at my ears, my hands are clenched and then i realized, this thought passes across my brain scans, this could either be your worst day of treatment or it could be your best. Its really up to you. And these nurses they dont want to kill you, they just want to administer this drug that you need to survive and to get better. And at that moment my shoulders came down, i breathed, my hands opened up, and i started participating in my recovery and in my treatment in a way i never had. The next needle, by the way, was number six, went in like that. And that was a turning point for me. After that it was all different. I started realizing the people who are around me and helping all the time. My husband david, who is sitting over here was just unbelievably patient and kind. He would make silly jokes. If i got too grumpy he would let me know that. He was wonderful and we had bought a small house, a second home in the berkshires, i dont know if you know that area, western massachusetts it looks a lot like Western North carolina, the same Mountain Range and we would go there a lot and spent a lot of Recovery Time there, walking in nature, walking the mountains and the hills, and taking a breath, and enjoying my life. My brother came and visited, i told you he was a minister, he stayed four days, we reconnected in a way we hadnt since childhood. We got to know each other, it was magical. And i started, as i would walk the mountains, being filled with gratitude and happy neines i was i was surprised by joy, if you know that book. It was revelatory and it wouldnt have happened if i hadnt had cancer. I dont think you should have cancer, im not a believer in that, not an advocate of that. Im just saying as bad as this was and bad as a sentence i was facing was, there were positives to come out of it, big positives. The worst day can translate into what was a great year, a great year of growth for me personally, a great year for all of my relationships, and i just want to say, i hope that you get to experience that feeling of being surprised by joy. Now, most of you are used to hearing me talk about money, right . Youre used to hearing me talk about the stock market or 401 k s, or you know, what you need to do to get your kids through college. Listen, theres rich that way and theres the rich the way i experienced it this summer. Close relationships, being able to do what you want to do with your friends and your family, enjoying your life, feeling fulfillment. I want you to have both of those, both sides of that coin. Thats what i really wish for you. Oh, just to get back to a story i told earlier, the story about black friday, october, 1987. Do you know what the dow level was then . Can anybody guess . Youre very close, 1,738. 1,738. Think about that. Not 17,000 1,738. Were now at 20,000. Things do get better. You know, we talked so much about how everything is so awful and so bad, not really. Theres a lot to look forward to. And i just appreciate your having me here today and listening to me speak and id be happy to take questions. [applause] anybody got any questions . I see one. Right here. Hi, how will bitcoin play in the future . Thats a great question. The question was how will bitcoins play in the future. I think that theres something of an opening of the mind about bitcoin and its becoming increasingly institutionalized. Whether it can become a larger player depends entirely on how its treated by the fed, by congress, and that to me is the real unknown. I cant predict that at all, but it is interesting that bitcoin has gotten so much traction and we continue to watch it. We spend a lot of time thinking about it, but it hasnt brecken mainstream, in my view, quite yet. The Pension System looks like its coming under greater and greater strain, Public Pensions we look at, california question, down the road going to be paid for and more and more necessary for people to provide for their own pensions cause a lot of companies are not providing pensions anymore. What can we do, or what National Policies would you propose to help americans save more money . Well, thats a great question. You know, its so funny, you say the Pension System, yes, its under duress, nobody i work with is going to be advantaged by the Pension Systems, were all saving on our own with 401 k s, its a generational change. To me, its going sound possibly circular, what we need to have is more people working, earning a good salary so that they can save. You know, weve tried lots of different ideas around 401 k s, barack obama introduced lots of tweaks to 401 k system, lots of myra trying to get people invested and the idea you would have a savings rate for 2 for people getting in the marketplace to experiment with investing, but i dont really see that introducing more vehicles really helps. Its already complicated enough. I think there needs to be more education at the elementary and secondary levels, that, to me, is the way to go and to help people understand the importance of it. No one nobodys coming in to save you if you dont save. You have to do it on your own and you have to have Strong Enough economy so people can participate and have something to save to begin with. But without knowledge, i think, and especially at a young age, its very difficult to get people to move forward. Thank you for the question. Go ahead. What policies do we need to adopt to get back to 4 growth in this country . 4 is what donald trump says he wants to have, 4 growth, gdp growth. Which is a high hurdle. And i believe its all about getting companies to spend and spend here and thats kind of what were working towards right now, i think. Its not easy. Its not simple, and our tax system in this country doesnt help companies that want to do business here. In fact, encourages them to go overseas, in my view. Thats tragedy for american workers. I think lower the Corporate Tax rates right now, our 35 Corporate Tax rate is one of the things pushing American Companies out of this country. So i think people think that, you know, Companies Just do business in the us of a because they like it here. Youve got to have more than that these days. You have to have a competitive tax structure and reducing that to 20, 15, youll be much more competitive. Ireland has, what is it, 12 or something tax rates. Theres no reason for companies these days to stay here and do business if they are automatically put on worse footing than other Companies Across the globe so i think that would be a great first starts. There seems to be a conflict between a consumerdriven society thats, you know, 60 to 70 percent of our economy driven by consumerism, but that counters saving. So were always enticing people to spend, spend, spend and comes out of the what is fundamental for the Retirement Savings posture. How do we resolve that . You make a good point. I think people love to talk about the fact that our Consumer Society encourages people to spend at the detriment of their own savings and their own future. What was interesting to me though, during the great recession, people actually held onto their money more and i think thats fascinating because the smarty pants economists in new york are making fun of consumers how they cant hold onto their money and here they were for the first time in my memory, hanging onto cash. And my feeling was why dont we get these companies to spend more and invest more in their operations and the economy will go forward and the consumers wont have to be the last ditch, we wont have to be the people buying everything. I think as you see the population age theres a more conservative approach to money management, too, its one of the things weve benefitted from. Its fascinating to watch as consumer get smart and outthink the economists in manhattan. Have a question. What is your opinion on doddfrank . Okay. Well, so this is the law that was passed in the wake of the debacle that was the Housing Market crash and the idea was that you had to put big severe controls on the banks so they would never, never do this again, but what dodd frank ignores is that the federal government played a very big role in housing policy and it was the federal government making loans that actually put a lot of people underwater. What i saw personally and at a very microlevel is that doddfrank discouraged a lot of small and medium sized banks from doing business and especially lending small business, they couldnt doddfrank was too big for them to deal with, too many rules, too many regulations, we lost a lot of banks in that category and those are the banks that fueled middle market growth. So it had a lot of unintended consequences and its one of the reasons we cant get past 2 gdp. Banks arent doing their jobs right now, they dont like doddfrank, the Federal Reserve keeps rates at almost zero, doing nothing and where do we sit . You want the loan for your business, but you cant get it. That would be my answer, thank you for the question. I want to thank you for sharing your soul with us. That was very touching, very touching. I teach seniors in high school. At least for myself, people know we have the benefit of having the colleges. What would you recommend to seniors in high school now if theyre going to have to take out Student Loans in order to go off to college . So, this is there is a lot going on here and it has to be a partnership between mom and dad and the child, right . And its fine by me in the kid says i want to do this on my own and be my own actor, but mom and dad have to be in the circle. Secondly, as you begin to look at these schools and youre deciding where to go, understand that the Sticker Price may not be the price that youre going to pay. Even a private school, these private schools cant command the numbers theyre asking for, its a matter of negotiation. And in the book, i describe exactly how you do that cause its tricky cause you cant call it negotiation. Its a wink and a nod and like what else can you do for me . Those are two things to think about. For moms and dads in this situation, the easy piece of advice, the simple thing is, this is a fouryear program, this isnt a fiveyear program, this is not a sixyear program. Do you know that 40 of incoming freshmen, only 40 of incoming freshmen will graduate in four years. I mean, thats just ridiculous. You know . Double major, no. No double major get your single major, figure out what you want to do. Were not goofing around here, theres a lot of money on the table and you have the responsibility to get the grades and do what you need to do. And kids see this, they have a right to this education. You have no right to a college education, what is the part of the constitution that says, you have a right to four years. I mean, no you have to work for it and i think that kids need to be told that because theyre not going to get it, you know, in high school. Thats for darned sure. About obamacare, whats your take on it so far . Doesnt look terribly encouraging yet, what do you think is going to happen . Well, im desperately trying to find out for our network, i tell you, i spend a lot of time on the phone with congressmen and experts trying to figure out exactly how the g. O. P. Is going to try to change this, tweak this. It currently is in freefall. The amounts of money being charged for obamacare coverage are through the roof. Ive had many people, individuals on our air that i found myself who talk about how expensive it is, cant afford it. People are going without coverage and it happens to be the very people who have their own business, who dont have a boss to turn to, who have to buy their own coverage in the open marketplace, who are getting really hammered by this. Thats the thing thats so concerning. I think whats, you know, going to happen, if it just doesnt turn into a big fight, is that youre going to see something thats much more has a lot more open market, free market kinds of elements to it. And well get back to something that is more manageable and cheaper, cause thats what you have to do. Im sorry, to make it work. But were a long way from that. There are several i think there are six to eight republican replacement bills out there right now and most of them call for, you know, lots of expanded hsas, Health Savings accounts, they want the insurers to be able to offer product across state lines. So, you see, an opening up of the marketplace and hopefully we get there. Theres no guarantee that the republican are going to come to any kind of concensus on this. Im trying to phrase this so its not a political question. Good. [laughter] but since you have experience both at cnn and fox, if i listen to and i switch back and forth, and theyre reporting on the same speech or the same issue, its like what were they watching . Does that come down from the top of each organization or is that up to each individual reporters take on the issue . Well, i can tell you what i experience, right . I report and i call people and i try to get to a camera and talk on camera about what i find out. Nobody tells me what to say. Nobody says youve got to be this way or that way. Nobody at cnn told me i had to be this way or that way, its really not the way it works. But you know, i have to tell you a little story, i hope you dont mind how i got from cnn to fox . You want to hear it. I forgot it, it was part of my speech and i totally forgot it. So, i had an interview at fox with the tippy tippy toptop executive, you know who i mean, and i was so excited because hes legendary in the television business. And so, you know, i had my best outfit on, i had the quarter inch pancake makeup on, i had my hair piled to the sky and probably a whole can of hair spray in my hair and i got up to a cab on columbus circle, if youre familiar with manhattan, i see heads nodding, and i was just so excited and nervous. Four blocks before i get to fox i get out of the cab, so anxious, i have to walk. Im walking, im walking, two blocks north of fox, all of a sudden theres a plop on my head and its wet and i know what it is. Its not the blue bird of happiness its a pigeon. And so i you thought i was anxious before, im really anxious now, can i get to cnn and get a Makeup Artist to fix that. No, too late. Do i know a Makeup Artist at fox. Know he, i dont, i do the next best thing. Theres a gap store across the street, i go in there and go to the bathroom and look at the mirror and belly laughing. The funniest thing id ever seen. The biggest interview of my entire professional life and i have bird poop literally on my head. So i get some toilet paper, i get it off and think to myself. This is not going to stop me from having the most important interview of my professional career so i go across the street, i go into Rogers Office and i sit down and my hands are literally shaking. And i look at him and he looks at me and he looked quizzically at me and i tell him the story of what happened. I know this doesnt sound like it happened, it really happened. Well, that broke the ice. And thats i think it was the blue bird of happiness that got me that job at fox, i really do. [applaus [applause] do you guys have any more questions. I have one. What do you think about repatriation of the corporations and if theyll do it . I hope they do, we need them here, we need to employ our people. Invest in United States of america. Ive been in the middle of this, i went to Business School at columbia, this idea that internationalism is the currency of the world and that what we need and everybody is equal. No, everybody is not equal and i dont want to be equal and im perfectly happy to tell you that im an american and im proud of it. [applaus [applause] so, im hoping that this economy really revs up, 4 , 5 , ill take anything you give me. Im hoping that thats what happens next. Talking about 4 growth, when you envision that Driverless Cars and trucks are going to eliminate 150,000 jobs if not more, and i just dont know how were going to overcome the advances of technology which is all good, but im not sure its good for employment. Thats a really sophisticated points and every time we talk about 15 wages, 15 an hour wages, all of those people who run these fast food restaurants say, okay, that means were going to automate, you realize that, there are going fewer people working in these restaurants, its the flip side of automations flip side is lower employment. These companies are going to have to come back and invest here bring more jobs so that were not all like plugging the Cash Register at cvs, not that thats a bad thing, but doing fast food jobs. We need more growth and we need more industries. Given the stock market growth, the abysmal state of Social Security. Right. And republican congress. Do you think theres any opportunity to have the Social Security system reworked to where theres Investment Opportunities . Boy, i wish, but i dont see anybody who has the stomach for that right now. You know, there are a lots of entitlement programs under fire, underfunded. I just, i dont see anybody even talking about it now. Paul ryan has talked about it in the past, but, you know, we are so focused on a handful of other issues right now, tax, obamacare, immigration, regulation, i just dont see that happening. And its a tragedy. When you got into the 15 an hour, hourly wage, and with the economy and growth. Well, i think that 15 an hour wage really doesnt make sense. What you find, when you really peel back the layers, is that a lot of companies have already raised wages and theyre in the business of raising wages right now because there arent enough workers to do the kind of jobs that we need to get done in some categories. I think telling companies what to pay for labor is a losing proposition and one of the reasons that companies leave the country. Thats just my view, im not a labor economist. I just play one on tv. On the topic of tax reform. Specifically the lowering of rates, but separate by personal and corporate. In your opinion whats the probability of it happening . And in your opinion whats the probability of it happening retro to 1117. Thats a great question. I think Corporate Tax changes are more likely than individual tax changes, and they keep saying, across the board, if we do tax reform well get it retroactive. Thats if they get it done by august. If the bill by august the president signing it by the end of the year, then its retroactive. I dont know if theyll get to individual or not this year, thats what were hearing on the hill. Hello again. Hi again. This one, the president elected, the stock market short squeezes, dry ships the first few days and metals after that, do you know what short squeezes are going to be . Good lord almighty i have no idea. I spend all my time on obamacare and tax reform. Youre probably better to answer that than me. Anybody else. The situation being as it is, if you heard about the proposal to tax some of the larger learning institutions and universities. Their endowments in some cases they have every a Million Dollars for students that they have. And they charge these amounts what do you know, wow. Wasnt it just harvard that said they were having major problems, major problems with, you know, their fabulous fancy pants investors and would have been better off just doing a simple index fund . Im amazed by that. Yeah, theres lots of questions being raised now about the amount of money that major institutions are putting together and it doesnt really make a lot of sense the kinds of money that institutions like harvard, institutions like yale, institutions like mit, on the west coast, theres a handful, too, have put together and how they deploy that money. I dont see a tax going through. Theres too Many Political too much political pressure in very high places to allow that to happen, but seems to me, i would love to see reform that comes from within instead of reform thats foisted upon these institutions, but its not right the way they operate, in my view. Regarding the issue of the money that is parked overseas that people want to bring back, dont you feel that that should not just be allowed to be brought back and be used for bonuses, wages, whatever, but specific guidelines if im bringing this money back to america, that i should provide specific actions on jobs, construction, r d, et cetera, so that its just not a freeforall, that you get to bring this money back . I think thats a great idea. I just want to see it happen. First things first, lets do the easy stuff first and get it done. I feel were a long way from even that, and you know, it would be great for the money to go to a great place, but im not sure i want these companies to be told specifically what to do with it. We need them to feel like were working with them for a change instead of against them, in my view. In my humble opinion which amounts to very little because i dont vote in the house of representatives or the senate. Ill take one more. Theres a tradition in italy that if a pigeon poops on your head, its going to bring you good luck. Its just been confirmed. [laughter] i love it. A longheld tradition. Thats a great way to end. [applaus [applause] thank you so much. Its been a pleasure speaking with you, i really, really enjoyed it. [applause]. So please join me again in thanking gerri willis, she was fantastic. [applaus [applause] upon exiting the venue our wonderful volunteers will enthusiastically accept your donations to the savannah book festival. Its because of your generosity that were able to keep the festival saturday free. Thank you for coming