Speaker:                      All right, let's start with the easy ones.  What is your name and what year were you born?

Mr. Federovich:          My name is Gene Federovich, and I was born in 1951.

Speaker:                      And one more time.

Mr. Federovich:          My name is Gene Federovich, and I was born in 1951.

Speaker:                      And tell us about your career.

Mr. Federovich:          My career started with Westinghouse, right out of college, right out of Penn State University.  I stayed with them and ultimately Siemens because of a consolidation with Westinghouse in power generation for nearly 40 years until I retired 3 years ago.  I took early retirement.

Speaker:                      And in your career with Westinghouse and Siemens, tell me about what you were setting aside and how you were setting aside money for your retirement.

Mr. Federovich:          Primarily in the beginning it was …

Speaker:                      Excuse me, start by saying "I was setting aside money for my retirement in …"

Mr. Federovich:          I was setting aside money for my retirement primarily in the beginning with a 401(k) through Westinghouse.  They had a matching program, obviously.  That was the right thing to do and turned out to be very beneficial.  So primarily grew the 401(k) through my career and then had other opportunities in stocks and stock options that proved to be very fruitful.

Speaker:                      What was it like in terms of emotions when the (and assuming the 2000 collapse you were still working in your career and you had years to go), tell me what it was like when the market and the dot.com bubble collapsed and, obviously, just start by saying, you know, when the market collapsed in 2000, I …

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah.  When the market collapsed, I guess in 2008 …

Speaker:                      Start with the .com collapse in 2000.  Start back then and then we'll progress to 2008.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  So what was the question?  I get lost.

Speaker:                      What it felt like when the market collapsed 2000.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh.  Well, when the market collapsed back in 2000, my philosophy had always been to buy and hold so, I don't make moves.  I don't make serious moves, but it seemed to me the complexion of the market really changed, because you had to move.  You had to be quicker on your feet.  You had to know when to get in and get out, but that was not my philosophy.  So I was kind of lost during that time period and I literally lost because I did stay in place.  Perhaps there were some of the stocks I should have gotten out of and I didn't because I felt that over time it would come back, but again, the market cycles seemed to be longer and longer than in the past, than the 80s and 90s. So it was much more difficult for me back at that time to find my sweet spot for investing and my strategy.

Speaker:                      In terms of percentage, how much did your portfolio go down during the .com bubble?

Mr. Federovich:          I'd say during that time period I …

Speaker:                      During the .com bubble my portfolio … like that.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh.  Yeah.  Okay.

Speaker:                      Remember that's about hardest …

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah, I know.  During the .com bubble, I'd say that my overall portfolio dropped 30%; at least 30%.

Speaker:                      What was that like seeing that on paper?

Mr. Federovich:          It was devastating.  But again, remember my philosophy and what I was taught is you're in for the long term.  You still have time.  I wasn't necessarily close to retirement.  So I still had faith that the market would come back, there would be some recovery and so I more or less stayed in place, but that, as it turns out on a portion of my portfolio, that was not a smart thing to do because a number of the investments that I made went belly up.  So staying in place just meant that I never had to sell the stock because it turned out to be worthless.

Speaker:                      So you were invested in a few of the .com stocks?

Mr. Federovich:          Absolutely, absolutely.  I got caught up in that.  I got caught up in the IPOs. Because of who I was investing with, I had access to the IPOs and this is where I feel I really got hammered because I believed in some of the IPOs that I was investing in that they really did have a future, they could be leading edge, you could be getting in on the bottom and, in fact, I should have bought and sold.  I should have flipped, although at that time you were being penalized for doing that.  In other words, you wouldn't have access any longer to the IPO market.  I should have done that because I left a lot of money on the table with the idea being that these particular investments would grow, these companies would start off small but exponentially become huge money-makers and I got caught up in the bubble and it exploded on me.

Speaker:                      So take us from the .com collapse, the 30% loss, you know, you got caught up in that.  Take us through the next few years as you kind of started rebuilding your portfolio and in the mid-2000s things started looking better.  Take us through kind of how did you rebuild from there?

Mr. Federovich:          Well, the way I rebuilt was to pull back and become very conservative.  I was investing in extremely well-known companies, blue chip companies, if you will, enjoying whatever dividend was paid at the time and feeling satisfied that because of being burnt so badly during that time period, you're better off with a dividend and maybe no appreciation for a while than taking a swing for the fence with something that’s highly risky and losing it all or a good portion of it.

Speaker:                      How much did your portfolio recover over the next few years?

Mr. Federovich:          Well, a number of things happened over the next few year and I'm assuming the next few years would be through --

Speaker:                      Up until the financial collapse.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, up until 2008. 

Speaker:                      Yeah.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, I see.  Okay.

Speaker:                      Take us from the bottom of the .com bubble up to just before the financial collapse.  Start it by saying, you know, after the .com bubble I rebuilt my …

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  After the .com bubble, I went very conservative and I went very much with a philosophy of fixed income, essentially.  So I grew slowly.  I grew a few percent a year, but I never really of course of 4 or 5 years did not recover, obviously, what I lost during the big dip, but I was positioned better for the future because my particular portfolio was not as risky perhaps as it had been in the past.  So I was starting to build a base of, for the sake of another word, blue chip type stocks, trusted companies that you knew would be there for 25-30 more years.

Speaker:                      Pick up with I built a base of blue chip companies ...

Mr. Federovich:          I built a base of blue chip companies, and it really performed relatively meagerly, but it gave me a return.  So I started to build 2%-3%, being happy with that because I could sleep at night and, obviously, it wasn't nearly as volatile as the positions I had been in the past and starting to think ahead as retirement gets closer, you got to start thinking more so of well, I'll just wait for it to come back to there could be a defined date that you're playing to.  So you need to have a strategy that will get you there financially, get you the number that you obviously think you'd need either to take early retirement or retirement in general.

Speaker:                      And from that point, so you've lost 30%, it's come back a little through your fixed income investments.  Now, take me to kind of, you know, you've got your feet back under you, you're getting fixed income and now the 2008 financial collapse hits.  Take me through, you know when the financial collapse of 2008 hits, and kind of go from there.

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah, in 2008 when the financial collapse occurred, I'd say that from a portfolio standpoint at that point, everybody got obviously hurt.  I'd say I lost around 10% okay, but I still felt I was on fairly solid grounds with where I had started to build my portfolio.  The other thing that was going on simultaneously …

Speaker:                      Hold on a second.  Take us, you know, the 2008 financial collapse, things kind of fell 10%.  Take us through that whole process.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  In the 2008 financial collapse, obviously I took another hit.  I'd say probably around 10%, but I still had what I felt to be a good base of conservative stocks that were pretty well known and safe for the long run and the future.  I wasn't too worried at that time, although, again, at that time I was starting to think, well, looking at my age, opportunity for retirement and so forth, I figured I'd start getting quite serious on reaching a goal, a financial goal that would allow me to do my plan for the future.

Now, the other thing that was going on simultaneously that I can't ignore is that I had a tremendous amount of career growth with Siemens and Siemens Westinghouse.  So opportunities there and income opportunities were growing significantly as well.  We had during that time some pretty significant market growth in power generation and so forth, that we benefitted from, as executives and employees of the company, incentives and forth, which gave me opportunities not only to invest more at that time, a larger amount of money, but even deferred incomes and so forth.  So, I had an opportunity now and income stream that I could flow into this portfolio and did so at that time.

Speaker:                      Great.  Were there ever, either due to the .com collapse or the most recent financial collapse, was there ever a point where you lost sleep or you were really torn by financial concerns?

Mr. Federovich:          If you consider the collapse and the internet bubbles and so forth, since then, is the question based on ... 

Speaker:                      Everyone should be that excited when …

Mr. Federovich:          She thinks I'm DiCaprio.

Speaker:                      Maybe either in the .com collapsing or the 2008 collapse, was there ever sleepless nights, like you know, am I ever going to recover from this? 

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, okay.  During the collapses, obviously, it impacts you pretty shockingly because it appears to happen pretty quickly.  It's almost like should I react?  And by the time you figure out whether you should react, it's too late to react.  So back at that time, I got upset at myself more than anything because I didn't take action.  But again, my philosophy and my strategy is to buy and hold, to believe in the investment, and to let it ride.  So, I felt bad that I didn't react, but then I still felt good.  I stayed true to my strategy.  At that time, I looked at that going well that wasn't a great strategy.  Not very smart, but later on and longer term, that clearly proved to be the right strategy for me.

Speaker:                      At any of those two points, either the .com collapse or the most recent one a few years preceding your retirement, did you ever feel that you might have to adjust your retirement time frame?

Mr. Federovich:          Did I ever feel that I'd have to adjust my retirement frame of when I was going to retire?  Yeah.  I actually did, as it turns out.  That's an interesting question.  They way I invested from 2008 and on, the opportunities that I had for more money to defer and so forth and grow my retirement fund, I actually moved up my retirement.  I took early retirement at 59 rather than 65.  So I did have enough resources at that time, and you're always a little cautious, you know, is that the right thing to do?  I've been out now 3 years.  It definitely is the right thing to do and my strategy did pay off and I'm happy I did what I did, obviously.

Speaker:                      Did you ever at any point in your investing career, have you ever used brokers, money managers, things like that and if you have, don't mention a company name, just say, you know, I used a full service broker and here are my results and things like that.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  Yeah, throughout my lifetime, I've used various full service brokers.  I've literally tracked talking heads and pundits and have received letters and advice and attended seminars and so forth, and pretty much over that course of time I've been – and I look back now, I'd say I've been disappointed.  It seems like pretty much everybody would be more than happy to take your money and invest it in something that they would develop a framework for, plug you in, and then come back at you on a quarterly basis for a check, 1% or whatever the fee might be, and that's about all you get and you get a nice report, beautiful colored pie charts explaining why the market went down 5% and when you call them and you talk to them about what the heck happened to my investment, why did it go down?  Hey, that's the market.  You know, the market's generally trending down.  So it sounded like to me a lot of excuses, and I was paying for it.  So it told me, well, over a 30 year period you think you would learn something and I said, well, one of the things I'm going to definitely do is I'm going to plan my – I'm going to do my own investing.  I'm going to do the planning.  I'll use help, and I'll use as much intelligence as I can from the market in the right places, but I’m going to do the thing by myself because I don't think I can do any worse than the experiences I've had with the full service, the pundits, the TV personalities …

Speaker:                      You spot Bill Spetrino, and then tell us the story. 

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.

Speaker:                      Whenever you're ready.

Mr. Federovich:          I first found out about Bill Spetrino extremely by luck and you know, with all the bad luck I had in the 2000 time period of investing and losing money, to have some luck was welcome.  And I was reading the Newsmax Magazine.  I was getting Newsmax through the mail, and ran across an advertisement for Bill and did some investigative work of him on the internet just to see what he was about and kind of the philosophy and then subscribed because I had an opportunity to get a discounted rate or I got it free for 3 months – I can't quite remember.  It was about 3 years ago, and started reading his "Dividend Machine" monthly report, monthly newsletter.  So I was lucky in that respect, but I was cautious of him because of my prior history of newsletters and full service people.  I was very cautious of him to try to first understanding his psyche and what he was about, and whether he was a flip-flopper or whether or not in fact he was somebody that could stay consistent. I had to read him for a while, and I did.  I did do that for a period of time before I actually started taking his recommendations.  Should I just keep going?

Speaker:                      Yeah.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  So in the beginning I tracked some of his conservative suggestions because at that point I had an end point of retirement in mind.  So I said well, I don't want to start swinging for fences.  I don't need to get aggressive.  I had enough money there to invest, so it's not like I had to double it over the next 5 years and I wanted to make sure that I made conservative moves so I could get a stream of income as well.  So I started out in his conservative portfolio, picking off Altria, MO, Phillip Morris, JNJ and, again, those are stocks years and years before that I would have never touched; too conservative., don't move much and pay a dividend but so what, but I started grabbing those and one of the things that I liked about Bill at the time, and it kind of excited me in a way because he was a lot like me, he's a bargain hunter for stocks.  He knows where the good stocks are, but he doesn't just have you buy the stocks because they're good stocks.  He has you buy them at the right time.  It's as important to have a good stock in your portfolio as it is the timing of when you buy it.  I learned that from Bill Early. 

So, when other people were saying, Hey Bill, this stock's not moving or it went up 5%, but now it's down 10%, he comes back to settle you down with the fact, that's an opportunity to buy, buy more, load on, layer, buy another layer of a lower cost.  Bring your average cost price down.  I liked that philosophy.  I really connected with that.  I enjoy the bargain hunting opportunity, but I also like buying cheap.  But not buying cheap, and quality and, again, Bill's philosophy of buying quality investments really excites me as well.  It comes back to the sleep factor thing that was talked about earlier.  I can sleep at night with the names that he recommends, because I know they're good solid companies.  They're actually increasing their dividends on a yearly basis, and that works well for me.  Now,  where I ventured out because I did gain more trust in Bill, and the reason I gained trust in Bill is that he's consistent.  He stays the course.  It's not one day he should be buying this, oops, the next day he should be selling that, and then Monday you're back to buying.  This guy is consistent.  He uses research and analysis to back his statements.  He understands the company that gives you a feeling of confidence.

Speaker:                      So pick back up with where we left off, where he doesn't tell you to buy on Monday, sell on Tuesday, and buy again on Wednesday.

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah.  What Bill does to you over time, he gives you a feeling of confidence.  Now, one of the things that I didn't like in the beginning with Bill is that I didn't feel that he communicated often enough.  When we first started out, the basic thing I received was that monthly letter, but within that 30 day period, a lot happened.  I mean, obviously, happenings with your investment, within the market and sometimes I felt a little alone out there like, what does Bill think or when's he going to come back, or I got to hurry up and get that next issue to figure out is there a move that we need to make.  So, I thought what was brilliant on Bill's part was the more frequent communications he does now.  I believe they call them the podcasts.  Those are outstanding.  They're about once a week or even more often if he feels there's an issue with a stock for the reason it's going up or going down, he'll come back to you with an explanation of what's happening at that time.  It may be a visit from Carl Icahn to the company something critical and important that you need to understand to continue with your investing of it, obviously, but to continue with also the confidence in him that he's got his finger on the pulse.  He doesn't go away and come back in 30 days and say I'll take another look at it.  This guy seems to be doing the blood pressure test.  You know, testing the blood pressure of the market, of the investment.  That builds confidence.  That allows you to sleep at night. 

Now, the confidence building also came very strong to me because he has skin in the game.  This is a guy that's investing in the same investments as well, and has done quite well.  His track record is incredible. I wish I would have found him earlier.  But his ability to pick good quality investments and to stay with it consistently in a conservative portfolio has been outstanding.  But again, now I go well, you know, there's also an aggressive part of his portfolio to take a look at and I took a look at some of the names and they're fairly well known.  They is Cisco, a few others that I invested in the past and I look at that and I say, well, should I or shouldn't I?  Now, am I really veering away from my strategy of staying within his conservative portfolio?  Needless to say, I went into the aggressive in a number of places and quite frankly, that's worked out very well and I've done extremely well with that.  I feel less vulnerable, even though it says "Risk Portfolio", I don't feel I'm taking a tremendous amount of risk as I had in the past during the 2000 era.  Then also he has a portfolio that's interesting, which he calls the International Portfolio.  This particular one, he really won me over – interesting, he won me over the time that he had recommended Siemens AG.  That's a company I spent a good part of my life with.  I know it's a quality company, and I did invest based on his recommendation and that has turned out to be, again, one of my best opportunities that I have taken through his portfolio.  Go ahead.

Speaker:                      Keep going.

Mr. Federovich:          And I just wanted to mention, there are other international ones I've also gotten into like Teva; another example of his philosophy.  Teva languished for a period of time and not going anywhere, not going anywhere, staying in the mid-30s, high 30s and then I looked at it and said well, and maybe I'll play just the range.  It seems to go from 35 to 40 frequently and then of course, Bill's in there just saying just keep building when it takes the dips.  So I did that, got in and as it turns out, just recently Teva has taken off.  It's in the mid- to high-40s, and I don't think there's any range to play any more.  I think that's a good long-term play and again, another one that he told us to hang in there for a long period of time and one of the things that I learned from him, and it's something that I don't possess in some respects, is patience.  He's taught me patience in investing; don't panic, view the pullbacks in good quality companies as opportunities to buy.  That is so critical for people to understand - opportunities to buy; don't panic and say do we get it, lose it now, do we take it out and we lose our 5%.  It's not like that with Bill.

Now, Bill will tell you when to sell, too and that's something that I missed from all the pundits and everyone that I got so-called excited about in the 2000's and the 90's.  They never tell you when to sell.  They tell you what to buy; never tell you what to sell.  Bill tells you, hey, it's time to sell.  One example I can think of off the top of my head is Lockheed Martin.  A good solid company actually located not very far from where we live here in Florida and went on his recommendation, I never looked back.  I'll take the profit.  I'll take the 30%.  Gave up the dividend, but I invested in another opportunity that he suggested and have done even better.  So, he does tell you when to sell, but it's not often because he doesn't have to sell often because I think he's got good long-term plays.  Now, there is one that I would beg to differ with Bill on and at the time that he recommended it I backed away from it and that was Radio Shack.  I've been in enough of the Radio Shack stores at the time to know that that was not something I ever wanted to invest in, but he was recommending it at the time and there are even some other individuals that I invest with that took him up on it and so forth, and you can ask Bill on that one, but that one didn’t turn out real well.  So I can honestly say to Bill that I got one right that you didn't and I'll be there's not a lot of people that can say that.

Speaker:                      The good news is that it still bothers him that he made that recommendation, people lost money, which is a great thing.

Mr. Federovich:          He still talks about it.

Speaker:                      Yeah. 

Mr. Federovich:          I'm sweating.

Speaker:                      So what was it like when you discovered Bill and the Dividend Machine?  What were your feelings?  Was it like a light bulb when off?  Like this is what I should have been doing all along, or this is what I've done in the past and now this is somebody who's going to help me invest in the future.  Give me your thoughts on what it was like when you discovered Bill and obviously start by saying "when I discovered the Dividend Machine …"

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah. When I discovered Bill and the Dividend Machine I was cautious.  I liked the fact that he spent a lot of time in his portfolios on the conservative side because that lined up perfectly where I was, not only under my long-term philosophy, but also he was a guy who professed buy and hold and that's my long-term philosophy and you couldn't find those people any more.  It was always you got to know when to spin in and spin out.  So that attracted me.  That's what initially attracted me to Bill and his concepts. 

As I studied him, and I'm a little bit of an academic in the marketplace.  I don't take things for face value.  I was able to study his philosophies and his moves to understand enough that this guy knows what he's talking about and he has a consistent theme that is a good fit for me at my stage in my life.  I was about to retire.  I took early retirement.  So in some cases I had lump sums, chunk of money that I had to make a decision on how am I going to invest it going forward?  Am I going to leave it with the company?  Am I going to go to some full service organization, to some Wall Street firm?  Where am I going to go?  And I said, well maybe I don't need to go anywhere.  Maybe I've found now a way to do 2 things; one is stay conservative, protect my investments and protect my future, but more importantly, one that I wanted to be involved with and that was the key.  I don't want to hand this off to some Harvard graduate and then every 90 days get a report in the mail and read about how I did.  That's not me.  I'm hands on.  I check it every day.  I read.  I watch programs that are financially oriented.  So I stay abreast.  I understand the companies that he's investing in.  So I appreciate the intelligence that he portrays and I hope I add some in my own way to my own strategy. 

So, I needed to have hands on and I needed a good source of trustable information.  So I became a believer.  I became a believer in Bill.  I became a believer in the Dividend Machine.  It's something that matches me perfectly and, again, I'm out there and I know a lot of folks that are in the same position as I am, especially at Siemens, and I'm telling them about the success and the strategy that's used in this type of situation and I know that they're going to be in similar situations very shortly (a lot of my friends) and they need to consider this because it's not foolproof, nothing's guaranteed.  Bill will be the first one to tell you that he can't pick them all, but I tell you he picks a lot of them and he does anguish and languish over a pick that maybe didn't go that well and he's the type of guy that I think the reason that he can't give up on it is he tries to, he keeps trying to understand where did I go wrong?  He tries to get to the nuts and bolts of what happened, so I don't repeat that mistake.

When I see that much caring going into a newsletter, and that much caring going into the fact that – and I know we pay Bill 6’ an hour – I think the guy deserves a raise.  I think if we want to pay him 8’ an hour, I'm fine with that now.  But kidding aside, the guy is worth it.  There's no doubt about it and it's not an investment that's prohibitive.  He's not going to come in and take 1%-2% of your portfolio and that's something that you need to protect yourself against, especially once you retire.  It's too easy to hand off to someone; let someone else worry about it.  I think you need to worry about it as a retiree.  That's important to you and your family's future.  You need to do it; do it with somebody like Bill.

Speaker:                      Couldn't have said it better myself.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  I'm looking at that car.  Are you going to let us use that for the afternoon?

Speaker:                      That was actually the prop – we were going to park behind it and pretend it was … It would look cool in that driveway.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, nice.  Yeah.  Well you need a 1951, not a '57.  Was that a '57?

Speaker:                      You just mentioned that you have recommended the Dividend Machine to some of your former co-workers at Siemens.  Can we kind of just focus on that for a minute, and just talk about just that aspect of it.  You know, did you recommend Dividend Machine to other people and if so, what did they say and start with, you know, "I have recommended Dividend Machine …"

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah, I have actually recommended the Dividend Machine to others.  Obviously, I'm connected with Siemens and a lot of executive types of financial people, so we share information, we share ideas, we share buys and sells and so forth.  So there's a lot of communication that goes on and when I presented the dividend income to this small select group, there was a lot of interest and I don't keep in touch every day with these individuals, but I know they're using it.  I know they're using the Dividend Machine and the reason I know that, quite frankly, is Radio Shack.  When that particular one came out by Bill, I got a lot of nasty calls from my group indicating their displeasure with the dividend income situation, but since then, they have actually gotten in deeper into other investments within the conservative and the other portfolio, they've more than overshadowed.  In fact, today I sent an email to one of my individuals who are connecting and he says, make sure you tell Bill that you have created a legion of people that follow him now.  He says; tell him not to worry about Radio Shack.  Tell him I love him for Apple.  He says, that's more than made up for it.  So, as they have increased their portfolio, as they've invested …

Speaker:                      Hang on for a second (background noise).

Mr. Federovich:          So as they expanded their investments within the Bill arena, the dividend income, they have found that occasionally you may stub your toe, but they've built a lot of trust with Bill as well: with his picks, with his ideas, with his calls.  I think the Radio Shack thing now is fading away into the sunset and probably before too long it will be forgotten; again, although Bill doesn't forget it.  Hopefully it will be, but they're looking forward to opportunities going forward because we all kind of wait for that next letter and that podcast and speak afterwards, because this is another opportunity and sometimes we even … [interrupted by passing car]

We're waiting for that opportunity, waiting for that podcast and that new letter to share new ideas and make moves and what we've found is you can't be slow on the moves.  In the beginning, we're a little slow and we lost opportunities like, I think it is called Herbalife and FRX.  We look back now and say gosh, I wish we would have taken some of that, but we were too cautious at the time.  You need to be cautious, but now that we've gained the confidence we move pretty quickly when Bill comes out with ideas and the group does as well and they thank me for the introduction to Bill, which is more [than] my pleasure. I'd like to spread the word for him if I could, because I think it's important that you invest with somebody who really cares, somebody who does have skin in the game, somebody that's investing alongside of you, somebody that makes their money from investing, not from selling newsletters.

Speaker:                      Perfect.  While we're on that topic, let's talk about some [of the things] you have seen in the newsletter.  If you can, don't mention the actual company name.  Just say, you know, on one particular stock I made this much, and on another stock I've made this much.

Mr. Federovich:          Can I talk about a range and talk in between?

Speaker:                      Sure.  Sure.  Yeah.  You know, I've made between this much and this much.  Start by kind of saying, you know, "Some of the biggest gains from the Dividend Machine have been and then go through …

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  Can I – I've got a little something else I can add in the beginning of that.  Is that okay?

Speaker:                      Sure.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  If I think back to why I went with the Dividend Machine, my concept at the time was, I'll be happy with the dividends and there were some significant dividends.  I think most 5%-6% and then 3%-4%-5%.  So I said, if I can get 3%-6% every year in dividends, and I don't lose any money on the principal, I'd be really happy with that.  It's okay.  But what I found with Bill is I got that dividend return, I got that dividend stream, but I also got a return besides that and I can think of a range right now of my portfolio.  First of all, none of the investments that I've made with Bill thus far is negative in any way.  They're all positive.  They're all pluses.  They range anywhere from +3% to 100% gain and everywhere in between; the high 80%'s, the high 90%'s, 70%, 60%.  I hadn't seen this.  This is incredible to me.  So here I am getting this dividend stream, this 3% to 6%, it's really all I wanted in the beginning and if you add it up, I'm getting double digit yearly returns from Bill.  So that's like hitting the Lotto for me.  That's way more than I asked for and it's paid off and Bill's the guy. Bill's the guy that's provided it.  He's been a very pleasant surprise who has benefitted our family and the growth of our investment and our security.  There's no question about it and I appreciate that.

Speaker:                      If you can, compare when your money was with a full service brokerage and you were getting, you know, I think you said 2%-3% a year with that on a good year, and then compare that to what you see in terms of the last couple of years with Bill, which I think you've mentioned you've averaged 14%-15% on your investments and kind of say, you know, "before the Dividend Machine I was averaging 2%-3% on a good year and since I've found Bill, I'm averaging 14% and 15%."

Mr. Federovich:          Okay. 

Speaker:                      Before I found Bill, my investment years, obviously they jumped around given the marketplace, but if you look at a stream of time it's probably in the 3%-4% range and that's investing in all different areas – in full service, newsletters, pundits, the whole thing and when I look now at the last 3 years, and that's since I've retired and found Joe, luckily …

Speaker:                      Bill.

Mr. Federovich:          I'm sorry, found Bill.  I'm getting tired.

Speaker:                      Just pick up, you know, "the last 3 years since I found Bill", and go from there.

Mr. Federovich:          All right.  The last 3 years since I've found Bill, I've averaged 14%-15% a year and that seems to me to be a bit obscene, because I don't feel like I'm taking enough risk.  I feel too comfortable with it.  I feel the investments are too comfortable.  Then I sit back and say, well wait a minute, you don't have to swing for the fence and try to hit the home run.  If you buy the quality stock at the right price, you can have those kind of gains.  So there's nothing to feel bad about.  In fact, I sleep very well now.

Speaker:                      And how has the value of your portfolio changed since you found the Dividend Machine, in terms of either a percentage or, if you're comfortable, a dollar amount?

Mr. Federovich:          I'd rather stick to a percentage.

Speaker:                      That's fine.

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah.  My overall portfolio that I invested with Bill, and you've got to remember that I didn't invest it all, obviously, and I've got other pockets, but his particular side of it has grown double digits every year, and I'd say I'm probably up right now 30% since I retired.

Speaker:                      Fantastic and you're reinvesting all dividends, correct?

Mr. Federovich:          Yes.

Speaker:                      Okay.              What's it like every month when you go to your on-line full service broker, wherever your money is sitting, and you see the dividends in your account that you can reinvest or whatever?  Describe like emotionally, like what is that?  Is it I'm being paid to do nothing, you know, I can't believe they're actually sending me checks.

Mr. Federovich:          Gotcha.

Speaker:                      Give me your thoughts on seeing that money every month for literally doing nothing.

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah, every month I do receive an investment report.  It's a summary of the month's activities and so forth, and the growth from the prior month.  The exciting part to me now is the last column, because in the last column, it's called "Dividend Return" and I look down at these numbers, these 6%, 4%, 5.9%, 3.2% and then I look at the contribution for that month, that stream of total dividends, and then they also estimate for you your estimated annual income resulting from those dividends and its incredible.  I mean, again, it's so exceeding my expectations at this point in time, increasing my feel of security that I've made the right decision to retire early and we'll have sufficient money to do what we need to do for the future and for our grandchildren and children as well.  I have no doubts now, no doubts I'm in the right place.

Speaker:                      Perfect and we're to the part of the program now where I read a statement to you and you just kind of give me the first thing that comes off the top of your head when I say that.  You touched on this one a little bit before when you mentioned that it costs about 6’ an hour to get Bill's advice.  We're going to do that on a day basis and it works out to be about 26’ a day.

Mr. Federovich:          That's what he gets?

Speaker:                      That's what we pay him.  Yes.

Mr. Federovich:          That's what you pay him?

Speaker:                      That's minimum wage.

Mr. Federovich:          I didn't know he made that much.  [Laughter]  I thought it was 6’ - oh, 6’ an hour, okay, all right.

Speaker:                      So give me your thoughts and kind of start by saying, you know, "for 26’ a day, I'm getting Bill's advice and that's, you know, some variation of "it only costs you 26’ a day to get Bill's advice.

Mr. Federovich:          I got you.  I got you. I know it's been calculated that it costs me about 26’ a day for Bill's advice.  I mean, I don't know what you can buy for a quarter any more.  I don't think there's much, even candy, but when you consider the leverage that I have, I feel almost a little guilty.  Here I am paying him 26’ a day and the opportunity that I have had for my investment to grow and the number that I look at in terms of investment growth, just in raw dollars, I feel a little guilty.  I mean, I just feel like – I don't want to feel like I'm robbing or stealing, I just feel a little guilty because it's comfortable in terms of it's not that hard to do with Bill.  Okay? He's made it easy.  He's made it understandable …

Speaker:                      All right.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  He makes it easy.  I mean, he makes it understandable.  I like keeping it simple stupid, the kiss principle, and he does that and he explains things in such a way and I know that he can be a lot more technical.  I know he wants to be.  I can tell on a podcast sometimes he stops himself.  He says, well, I really don't want to get into that technical explanation and I'll try to boil this down for you.  So I know it's there.  I know the background information, there's enough detail.  I trust that.  But he makes it simple and to keep it simple, to not have to pay much for it, and to make a lot of money doing it, and it's legal, what else is there?

Speaker:                      Please finish this statement and, obviously, you can start by repeating it "without the Dividend Machine, …"

Mr. Federovich:          Without the Dividend Machine … FedEx is coming.

Speaker:                      Yeah.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, he's stopping good.

Speaker:                      Let's hope for the best.

Mr. Federovich:          All right.  What was the …?

Speaker:                      Without the Dividend Machine …

Mr. Federovich:          Without the Dividend Machine, and I've thought about that because I'm a little afraid that some day Bill might go Hollywood and we couldn't afford him anymore, but if I think about – what was the question?

Speaker:                      Without the Dividend Machine …

Mr. Federovich:          Oh, without the Dividend Machine, I'd be lost, quite frankly.  That would really turn me upside down because I feel I have a long-term plan now and one I can stay with probably for the rest of my life and hopefully have it yield returns and dividends for my family for the future.  I would be extremely lost without Bill and Dividend Machine.  I'm not sure where I would go.  I'm not sure there is a place to go.  Bill is very unique. This whole setup, this whole idea, this 26’ a day is very unique.  I hope we can keep it to that level for a long period of time.

Speaker:                      On the flip side of that coin, if you can finish this statement " thanks to the Dividend Machine …"

Mr. Federovich:          Thanks to the Dividend Machine, I can honestly say that I feel good about handling my own investments now.  I feel comfortable with it.  I feel I have him in my back pocket, which I think is excellent in terms of confidence and making the moves that we make together.  I feel that we are a partnership.  I'm confident with him.  I can sleep at night.  I see an investment perhaps that I've made with Bill that goes down.  Now, I don't panic, I don't even think a negative thought.  Matter of fact, I think about I should buy more.  This is another buying opportunity.  This is another opportunity to load up in an area and I have unique opportunities with Bill to do that because quite a few of his stocks take off and you don't have that purchase opportunity, but what he instills in you is when you get either a market imbalance, and that can occur in a stock and it could be because people are shorting a stock, it could be because there's rumors about the CEO, whatever the case may be, and they're unfounded, and  invest.  Go for it.  Take a shot at it.  Rebuild, add a few more shares if you can do it.  Make it happen.

Speaker:                      Perfect and what do you like most about the Dividend Machine?

Mr. Federovich:          What I like most about the Dividend Machine is a lot of things I like most.  I like the fact that it's relatively inexpensive.  It's affordable.  I like the fact that it's driven by an individual who doesn’t have an ulterior motive to become a star on CNBC, someone that is looking out of the investor, of which he is one.  That's rather rare.  I like the fact that it gives me the security that I need at this point in my life, being retired and knowing that I can grow what I have and protect my family and enjoy a lifestyle that I think we deserve after working nearly 40 years.

Speaker:                      Perfect and a lot of people are going to watch this who probably think they're too old to benefit, that it takes too many years, I don't have the time, it's not what I need.  What would you say to somebody, and start by saying, "if you think you're too old to benefit from the Dividend Machine," …

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  If you think that you're too old to benefit from the Dividend Machine, you're wrong. You're absolutely wrong.  I think you can jump in at any age.  We had a number of discussions with my friends about this – well, this is a good time to get into this when you're retired or maybe after retirement.  I don't think so.  I think this is a strategy that he has for all ages.  I would encourage my children to invest this way and, obviously, I'm doing it and if my parents were both still alive and so forth and they had money to invest, I would encourage them to take the same route.  There are opportunities for all ages, for income streams, for income growth for protection that you can enjoy by following the strategy within the Dividend Income.

Speaker:                      Same thought process:  What about people who think that they aren't smart enough to benefit, that investing is too hard or too complicated?

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  I don't think you need an MBA to subscribe to the Dividend Income Machine.  I think that Bill, again, speaks in simple enough terms in his explanations and ideas and actions are actionable.  In other words, you don't have to further analyze his recommendations.  I really believe that you don't need an MBA, but in fact you need to build confidence.  You need to do that yourself.  You will do that very quickly with Bill for a lot of the reasons mentioned earlier:  his consistency, his honesty, so on.  That will grab you, but it doesn't matter what age you are.  I believe that you can benefit from his opportunities because if you look at it now, you go to the bank, they won't pay you anything in interest.  It's very difficult to get anything that will give you a couple of percent and feel safe, but what he gives you, the opportunities that he presents to you, are well beyond that and you don't have to be greedy.  You don't have to go to the International Portfolio if you're not comfortable with that.  You don't have to go into the Aggressive Portfolio.  It's right there, conservative, well-known companies that do well and a lot of his companies, even if there's a backup in the market, and they don't drop very much.  They're consumer type stocks that are protected.  So you do have protection there.  So I would recommend all ages.  I don’t care what age you are.  Give it a look.  You don't have to be as involved as I was, or I am now.  You really don't need to be.  I want to be and I enjoy that and that's part of my retirement, but you really don't need to do that.

Speaker:                      What about the people that think they don't have enough money to get started?  They think you need $100,000 to make any dent in terms of dividend income.

Mr. Federovich:          I don't think there's any limit on the amount of money you have to become an investor.  Even if you could buy, through a recommendation of Bill, you know one share of Apple, two shares, whatever the case may be, that's okay.  You don't have to have a $1 million, you don't have to have $100,000, I mean you can start with $500 or you can start with $100.  I just recommend you get behind him because the train's moving and I feel every day it moves forward and I think you want to get on it.  I really do.  Your returns will be there based on the amount of money you invest, obviously.  If you're looking to go in and hit home runs, don't go with Bill.  You know, you want a steady growth, a nice opportunity and you'll do well, but do it in a conservative way, do it in a protective way, especially if you're older, don't take a chance, but with Bill you're not taking a chance.  There's always an opportunity to go downward, I understand that, but I have a lot of confidence in Bill.

Speaker:                      Perfect and finish the following statement:  "the one thing I want people to know about the Dividend Machine …"

Mr. Federovich:          The one thing I want people to know about the Dividend Machine is that it's real.  Bill's real.  The investment strategy is real. 

Speaker:                      Start with the question again.

Mr. Federovich:          The one thing I …

Speaker:                      The one thing you want people to know about the Dividend Machine …

Mr. Federovich:          The one thing I want people to know about the Dividend Machine is that it's for real.  Bill's for real. The strategies are for real.  This isn't some back room think tank of MBA's that comes up with something this week that sounds attractive, says all the buzz words.  It's not like that.  It's real.  It's genuine.  It's worth taking a look at.  It's worth investing in and me, and I'm sure there are a lot of others that are enjoying the fact that we found Bill.

Speaker:                      Fantastic and next question, please finish the statement:  "if there's one thing I would like to tell Bill, it would be …"

Mr. Federovich:          If there's one thing I would like to tell Bill, it would be don't change, don't go Hollywood on me, don't change what you're doing because you're doing the right thing for not only yourself, and I understand you get a huge benefit from your investing – obviously that's good, but you're doing a lot of good for a lot of people and please don't change.  Don't change what you're doing.  Don't become too big.  Don't become too insensitive.  Continue to do it the way you're doing it.  Continue the communications.  I like the fact that the more we communicate with you the more comfortable we become and the more we understand you and if you can keep that up and increase it if you can, that would be appreciated.

Speaker:                      Perfect and one last question before we wrap this up - the common financial wisdom, if you will, is the portion of your portfolio that should be sitting in bonds is equal to your age so, most people such as yourself at this point should be in a lot of bonds and very little in terms of the stock market; that prevents them from getting dividend income, capital appreciation on stocks, things like that.  Give me your thoughts on the conventional wisdom saying that most people should be in bonds as they get older and not taking advantage of the stocks and dividends.

Mr. Federovich:          I'm so anti-bond that I've got to – I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but I'm just so negative a bond guy, I just …

Speaker:                      I think there are just a lot of people, especially our audience, that think I'm too old to be in stocks.  I need to be safe and conservative and in bonds and a lot of, I think, brokers steer them that way.

Mr. Federovich:          Can I give a personal experience on the bonds?

Speaker:                      Absolutely.

Mr. Federovich:          Some people may think that as you get older you should get more conservative in the bonds and so forth.  I've tried that in the past and I've never made a dollar on a bond.  I've tried municipal bonds.  I've tried all different types of bonds and never seemed to make a dollar.  Now, you do get some benefits from the dividend and so forth from the bond, or the interest I should say, but eventually you sell that bond and it seems to me that timing of bonds is so against the average investor, in my case.  I can't support bonds.  I can't tell people to get conservative in bonds.  My suggestion would be get conservative stocks that pay dividends, and something that you can watch and feel and monitor, but bonds to me is just a little bit of a crap shoot and it's almost like gambling in some respects, and I just have no respect for it and I've never made a dollar on it.

Speaker:                      Perfect and anything that you want to add?  I've asked you all the questions.  Is there anything that you want to spew forth and put on permanent film?

Mr. Federovich:          Yeah.  I guess if I get an opportunity some day to actually meet Bill face to face, one of the things I'd like to tell him, obviously, and I feel this from my heart, is thank you.  Thank you for what you do, how you do it, and I'm so thankful for finding you.  You've been important to me and my family and I hope you live a long life.  I know you live in Cleveland.  You have my sympathies for that, but some day if I can meet you I'd like to shake your hand and personally thank you for what you've done for us.

Speaker:                      Perfect.  Last part, you do know you're meeting Bill at dinner tonight, right?

Mr. Federovich:          I'm sorry?

Speaker:                      You do know you're meeting Bill at dinner tonight, right?

Mr. Federovich:          Yes.

Speaker:                      Okay.

Mr. Federovich:          Yes.  I didn't know I could say that, so …

Speaker:                      Look straight in this camera, and just say, you know, my name is __________ and I'm happy to be a Dividend Machine subscriber.  My name is _______________.  I'm thrilled to be a Dividend Machine subscriber or something along those lines, but just your name and I'm a Dividend Machine subscriber.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  When? Now?

Speaker:                      Yeah and if you keep your gaze here when you're done, too.

Mr. Federovich:          Here?  Okay.  I'm Gene Federovich, and I'm glad that I found the Dividend Income newsletter and Bill Spetrino.  I couldn't be happier.  I'm lucky, the luckiest man on earth.  Thank you.

Speaker:                      One more time.  My name is ________________, and then "and I am a Dividend Machine subscriber.

Mr. Federovich:          Oh.  Okay.  My name is Gene Federovich and I'm a Dividend Income letter subscriber.

Speaker:                      Dividend Machine.

Mr. Federovich:          I am worn out, man.

Speaker:                      This is the end.  This is the last part.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.  I'm Gene Federovich and I'm a Dividend Machine Subscriber.

Speaker:                      Can you just do me one more favor?  Same thing, just you know when you said it before you kind of put that last thought where you said, in the beginning it was more concise.

Mr. Federovich:          Okay.

Speaker:                      You know, like you were really excited before.

Mr. Federovich:          My name is Gene Federovich and I'm a Dividend Machine Subscriber and I'm really happy and lucky that I found Bill.  Bill Spetrino, he's the greatest.  Thank you, Bill.

                                   

                                    [END OF RECORDING]