John [00:00:07]

Well, Julie, I don’t know about you, but when things are kind of uneasy in the markets and up is down and down is up and nobody seems to know what goes on. It seems like a timely, a timely call for us to invite Amar Reganti from Wellington Management Company on our podcast.

Julie [00:00:26]

I agree. He always makes such sense of chaos and I think helps financial professionals really sort through all of the noise. And most importantly, I think provides such great talking points for them to provide with their clients. So I’m really excited to share some of his insights with our audience today.

John [00:00:46]

It’s funny because when you think about how we’ve transitioned over the past couple of years from everybody always wanting to talk equity markets and the risk in equity markets and the sectors and equity markets, and now we’re in just such more of a fixed income interest rate environment, everybody’s wondering what the fate or what the Fed is doing, where they’re heading, what they’re thinking, that I think it’s just a great time to have Amar on.

Julie [00:01:12]

It absolutely is. And it does seem rare that we’ve spent a half an hour talking about fixed income and the Fed. So the dawn of a new era.

John [00:01:22]

So why don’t you remind everyone, Julie who Amar Reganti is for those who have not heard them before. Tell our audience a little bit about Amar.

Julie [00:01:32]

Absolutely. Amar is the managing director at Wellington Management and fixed income strategist for Hartford Funds. As an investment director in Investment Products and Strategies, Amar works closely with investors to help ensure the integrity of their fixed income investment approaches. This includes meeting regularly with fixed income investment teams and overseeing portfolio positioning, performance and risk exposures, as well as developing new products and client solutions and managing business issues such as capacity, fees and guidelines. He also meets with clients prospects and consultants to communicate Wellington Management’s investment, philosophy, strategy, positioning and performance.

John [00:02:14]

So Julie, let’s invite our audience to listen in to a recent conversation we had with Amar for his insight on the interest rate cycle, on fixed income equities and really what advisors should be thinking about today.

John [00:02:30]

Hi, I’m John.

Julie [00:02:32]

And I’m Julie.

John [00:02:33]

We’re the hosts of the Hartford Funds Human-centric Investing Podcast.

Julie [00:02:38]

Every other week we’re talking with inspiring thought leaders to hear their best ideas for how you can transform your relationships with your clients.

John [00:02:48]

Let’s go.

Julie [00:02:50]

Amar Welcome back to the Human-centric Investing Podcast. We are so excited to chat with you again today.

Amar [00:02:56]

Thanks for having me back, Julie and John.

John [00:02:58]

Well, Amar, things have certainly been calm in the markets, obviously kidding, its fall. And uh boy, it just seems since Labor Day there’s been ups, there’s been downs. But I think the big question is Amar, as it pertains to the Fed and their actions regarding interest rates and rises or stability or maybe even cut, what do you think the market is pricing in these days?

Amar [00:03:25]

Yeah. Well, you know, the market is pricing in a fairly robust U.S. economy with cuts priced in at the latter half of 2024 and uh small in a percentage chance of an additional hike at the end of this year. But if you step back and say, what’s the market really kind of just sort of more qualitatively describing what it’s pricing in, it’s pricing in almost what we call a unicorn scenario, that of a soft landing, one where economic growth and inflation modulates to a level the Fed is comfortable with, but is not super detractive to what you call like long term like asset prices and growth and the markets kind of coming to grips with that type of scenario. And it’s a rare one. It’s one that we’ve we’ve hardly seen in modern capital markets. But but that’s really been the driver of sort of price action over the last few weeks.

Julie [00:04:26]

Amar, It’s interesting when we reflect back and think about the last meeting, in your mind, what are some of the important data points to think about as we think about the last meeting in your mind?

Amar [00:04:38]

Yeah. You know, first and foremost, it’s it really is just a world that is hyper focused on on seeing and observing real time data in in what I would call a deflationary environment where one, where inflation is slowing the market and market participants have comfort in that. And that’s reflected back in Fed communications. Right now, you know, what was so key about that last Fed meeting was not that talk of a hike either this year or or a hike that was executed. It was far more than the guidance the Fed gave was one of higher for longer. And why that was so important, that type of guidance was because it said the Fed would struggle to try to avoid, you know, it anticipates having to struggle to cut rates. Right. It’s likely that the longer term the Fed policy rate is is going to remain elevated prior to history. And the market, you know, fixed income markets particularly reacted to that. So just, you know, as context, when I look at the yield to worse, you know, sort of the key indexes that bond markets utilize like as of this morning, you know, one of the highest quality indexes, the the Bloomberg aggregate index was giving a yield to worse number of 5.6%. Emerging markets debt, you know, that same provider was giving us over an 8% type of number of global high yield was over 9%. So the market repriced rates substantially higher, and different parts of the fixed income market are reflecting, you know, mid to high single digit yield to worst, which is, you know, the most commonly used metric by fixed income practitioners when they think about yield in these markets.

John [00:06:34]

So Amar it’s interesting, if I go back to your comment a minute ago about it, kind of a unicorn landing, if you will. Sometimes listening to market talk is like reading a Dr. Doolittle book, right? We like unicorns. We don’t like black swans. But a question about that unicorn landing, if you think that’s what the market’s pricing in, what’s the risk of not seeing the unicorn landing?

Amar [00:06:59]

Oh, the risk is substantial John. The first thing that’s important to note is, is that there’s usually market chatter about soft landings uh at the late stage of almost every Fed rate hiking cycle in the last, you know 20 years. You’ll you can dig through, you know, press clippings of the time and statements by policymakers and market participants of how they anticipate a soft landing or a gentle landing or only speedbump after growth. And obviously, as all of us know, as seasoned market watchers and professionals, you know that the system didn’t play out. So you have to keep in mind there’s a very significant chance and at least history tells us this, that a soft landing is unlikely and indeed maybe not even tolerated by the Fed, because from the Federal Reserve’s perspective, one of the things they do need to see like, substantially looser to give them comfort, is the labor market. And if, you know, labor market conditions loosen and unemployment rates go up, you know, that usually happens in conjunction with a recessionary outcome. And there’s a variety of reasons for that. But you can very easily imagine a robust consumer losing confidence, pulling back, beginning to save or suspend, and the knock on effects of all of those things. So when we look at broad chunks of capital markets, you know, do you know, it’s hard to make one blanket statement about all markets, but generally speaking, it’s not pricing in what I’ll call recessionary conditions. And recessionary conditions would mean downward pressure on prices in what I would call risk assets. And generally it would mean, you know, a downward pressure on interest rates as a flight to quality dynamic took hold. That right now is is you know markets are are ignoring and it’s it’s very interesting because even as data comes in if the market’s really focusing on good parts of data, which is like the JOLTS dataset that came out that showed a high degree of job openings but tends to be focusing a lot less on actually the critical pieces of information the Fed’s utilizing like cooling inflation, which is actually happening right now.

Julie [00:09:23]

So you’re talking about some good pieces of data. Maybe you will shift gears a little bit and talk about maybe some of the disappointing pieces of data from your perspective as you’re thinking about kind of this year and reflecting on on you know as you’ve been analyzing that from your perspective, what are some of those data points,

Amar [00:09:41]

Yeah!

Julie [00:09:41]

Amar that that you’ve been thinking about?

Amar [00:09:43]

So it’s, you know, we’re in that stage of the cycle now where good news is effectively bad news. And that’s hard to get people’s head around, but it’s not so hard to think about it in that the goal of policymakers right now is to have some type of demand management going on. Right. And that demand management, really the focus should be on trying to effectively slow the economy and cool inflation. That’s taken a lot longer than almost anyone, including the Federal Reserve, ah expected. So for market participants, for people who investors, for clients, there’s been a really you know powerful lesson about patience this year. And it’s hard to absorb. And the reason is, is that in prior cycles, which all of us as human beings kind of benchmark, you know, your mind to, you know, when you have this rapid set of tightening conditions and interest rates going up by this much, we expect or think a recession is right around the corner. Ah there still and in our base case is that there is a recession, but the cycle is drawn out a lot longer than we’re used to. And there’s really important reasons on why it’s being more drawn out. In every prior cycle that, you know, the Fed started hiking. What you saw was almost obviously now in hindsight, what I call obvious indicators of overleverage or excesses in the system because of the amount of fiscal spending and aid that went out during COVID and immediately after the U.S. consumer kind of came into this in really, really good shape. And they’d spent the last decade de-levering and corporate treasurers had almost built a moat by making sure they didn’t have a ton of maturity or debt coming due within the next year or two. In fact, much of that’s been pushed out pretty substantially. So what you find is an economy that was in a lot better shape relative to prior cycles. And because of that, it takes that much more effort to the Fed to to slow things down. And that’s incredibly frustrating for people who’ve moved into a bit more defensive positioning uh have allocated, you know, significant amounts of fixed income and are looking to allocate more because what they’re looking now is not just that income which is healthy, but they’re looking for that total return right where rates go down and their bond prices go up substantially. And that is just been pushed out longer than than anyone kind of expected who was thinking about prior cycles. And I know that was a lot. But I think it’s kind of it kind of gives you a more holistic picture.

John [00:12:25]

So Amar how much longer can the U.S. consumer hold out? I mean, we we look at rising, you know, credit balances. Let’s throw in a couple of recent headlines for good news. We’ve got a let’s see, we’re going to have to start repaying student loans. The UAW is striking here, there and everywhere. And now our government can’t seem to figure itself out. So, you know, how how long can the consumer hold out do you see any weakness there in consumer spending?

Amar [00:12:55]

Yeah, we are seeing some weakness. What we’re seeing is what we characterize as a slow burn. Right. Versus sort of like a shock or a cliff. And you’re right. You know, you are seeing, you know, uptick in weakness in things like credit card data, but that’s specifically impacting some cohorts. Right. So it’s tend to it’s really kind of focusing on cohorts that have struggled economically or maybe in the younger demographic as things like student loans and other things really kind of kick off as and like higher consumer borrowing rates. But if you remember, you know, the consumer has an incredible amount of net wealth. You can’t just think about this in terms of cash savings or cash on hand. They’ve had significant appreciation in their equity market holdings. Their housing is worth, you know, a lot more even if we’ve seen some modest weakness in that area. So all of this kind of gives you this sort of consumer confidence on it combined with a really tight labor market. So what you need is, you know, weakness in one or more of those areas. Now, you know what you would expect sort of the labor market to soften given how sort of tight it is. As that softens, we do expect consumer behavior to pull back. Right. Just because one of the things that drives consumer behavior is confidence in the next paycheck in their employment. If that wavers, you broadly expect sort of a step back from consumers and that would ripple out into the broader economy. But but you’re right, these other factors are important John. You know student loan repayments uh higher borrowing rates on consumer lending uh the housing affordability, you know, where mortgage rates, you know, 30 year mortgage rates now are well above 7%. All of these like almost like a mosaic feed in to consumer behavior. It’s just that they started from a position of much stronger of strength this time versus the last cycle.

Julie [00:14:52]

I think it would be interesting Amar to hear your perspective on maybe even just reflecting on how have things changed even just from one year ago. You know, sometimes I think we step back and we’re looking at a, you know, a greater time perspective.

Amar [00:15:04]

Yeah!

Julie [00:15:04]

I think sometimes just even reflecting over one year. What are your thoughts on that?

Amar [00:15:12]

So much has changed in one year. So much has changed. And just, you know, from 21 onwards or even 2020 onwards, I think we’ve all lived with multiple market cycles, you know, since since the March of 2020. So one is, is that, you know, and I’ve said this for a few months here and it still holds, which is we’re at that what I call event horizon of of fed rate hiking. You know, one hike you know back when I think we last spoke, we had a few more to go. But like you’ve reached that top part, the biggest move has been made and what you’re waiting for is the cumulative effect of all of these rates to really start impacting the economy. And, you know, one could argue that the cumulative effect really hasn’t kind of kicked inn yet. And why is that? Much of the deflationary pressures that we’ve seen over the course of the last year and a half and it has has been related to things like supply chains that got a lot better. And the Fed has nothing to do with that. Right. The Fed is really thinking about demand management. And what we’re waiting to see is to see how all of these cumulative rate hikes start eroding demand by consumers and by businesses. And that’s slowly happening like, you know, the economy, you know, will get this sort of frictional drag from from a higher rate environment. And it will. And when you add on to that, we don’t expect any additional tailwind from new bills passed through the Congress or so on or any kind of fiscal stimulus or, you know, past what’s already been sort of gone through the Congress in part, you know, as John alluded to, because there’s effectively right now divided government. So all of these things, you know, let us know that that you can’t have an elevated red hot economy sort of forever, that there’s going to be a slowing. It’s going to happen in inflation. It’s going to happen in growth. And the real question right now is, is that we’ve become so used to cycles lasting four or five, six months that we expect to turn in a pivot immediately. And this is where we’re really counseling patience.

John [00:17:16]

So I would think that there’s some risk here. Right. For the for the cash investor, because let’s face it, they they got paid for being in cash this year versus other markets. Arguably,.

Amar [00:17:29]

Yes.

John [00:17:30]

I do think we have to we have to remember that many of those savings are taxable, that many of those savings are going to be subject to inflation. Yet, you know, this year especially, I know talking from our folks in the field, that the desire to sit in cash or see these, you know, people could look back and say, well, I’m really glad I did that in January. However, what’s the risk in your mind to continuing to kind of carry that attitude forward?

Amar [00:18:00]

Yeah, it’s you know, I think the real risk is that those cash rates are not going to last forever. And even what I’ll call very conservative forward, you know, pricing in markets has cash rates substantially lower in 2024. Now, the but that aside, you know, the cash rate somewhat evaporating. Okay. You know, it’s not as good as it was. It’s the failure to lock you know, lock in longer term rates, I think, which is going to be problematic for for investors. And why is that? I mean, I mean, there’s the obvious thing of, oh, I’d like to capture, you know, higher rates for longer. In the most efficient way possible and and extending into fixed income from cash is one way to do that. The other is, is that, Cash doesn’t provide you any type of total return like, you know, upside if the economy goes sideways or the cumulative effects of tightening hit the economy a lot faster than the modeling suggests. And, you know, cash rates will go down. The net asset value will sort of remain stable and it will be an equity data driven portfolio like that. That’s kind of the end result of what you get. So it’s really kind of critical to start thinking of a disciplined way that a long term investor should do, of thinking about locking in these rates that are out there a little bit further in the curve. And, you know, my colleague Nanette and this is available on the Hartford website, you know, did a really wonderful analysis kind of looking at our fixed income returns versus cash returns in prior cycles after the Fed was done with its last hike. And you could see over several years fixed income returns historically have dramatically outperformed those cash returns. So all of that is left on the table. Your overall asset allocation becomes much more equity data centric and sort of subject to the whims of risk markets. You’re effectively making the decision to think that, you know, recession is so far away that it’s unlikely to catch you off guard, which I consider kind of a pernicious form of market market timing. And then there’s just sort of the fact that the opportunity cost to add fixed income right now so remarkably low, you know, given how much rates of even move just over the last few weeks. And, you know, there’s you know, if you can kind of think about investing in fixed income, it should be far more thinking about it like a compass rather than any type of near-term movement. Right. Directionally, you have a sense of where you want to go and what you want to do and what you want add. And everything in the near-term tends to be just a lot of noise right up. So you can get caught up in that noise and instead, you know, you should what you should do is kind of look at these yields or worse and say there’s a chance for me to lock those in longer term. There’s a chance for me to make my portfolio a bit more robust. And that’s, I think, the kind of debate people need to be having when they think about like the bond market right now. So, yeah.

Julie [00:21:01]

Amar as we think, a little bit more forward looking. What should we be thinking about for the next Fed meeting in your mind? What what are some of the data points that are top of mind for you as you think ahead for that next session?

Amar [00:21:15]

Sure. You know what we’re looking for over you know, any Fed communications is really usage of the word balanced. Right. Where the Fed saying the outcome for the economy is far more balanced. And why is that important? Because it indicates to, you know, to to the Fed watchers, to people who read the communications market, participants, etc., that the Fed is thinking about things both from an upside and downside in terms of the broader economy and in its two sort of goals of employment and inflation management. We you know that, you know, some Fed speakers have certainly indicated that we’re getting closer to what they would call a more balanced set of outcomes. Others have not. So we’re we’re waiting to see and hear from more. Obviously, there’s data between now and the next Fed meeting. And this has become a very data driven Fed, which is that, you know, each Powell used a great quote at Jackson Hole, which was I’m paraphrasing here that we’re being guided sort of by. By stars and like. And like moonlight effectively. Which is that he and the Fed has an incomplete picture of exactly where we are in terms of innings in the broader economy. And every, you know, every important bit of data in employment and in growth and inflation gives them a little bit more clarity that that we’re on the right path. But generally speaking, like we’ve been seeing, you know, a cooling of the thing that matters most to them right now, which is inflation. And they’ve signal to that they’ve seen a cooling. They just want additional evidence before they begin what I’ll call a pause. And then the great pivot that takes place. I think it’s worthwhile to mention on on, you know, for all of us here that we we tend habitually to be as people. To be a little US centric and we tend to look at what’s going on at home. You know, bond markets are global and they’re interconnected. And it’s not just, you know, slowing growth and inflation in the US, we’re starting to see slowing growth and inflation abroad are certainly slowing growth in Europe. And of course, as many of you know, just China has gone through a substantial disappointing set of numbers and growth and their policymakers are working to try to alleviate that. But it’s unclear at the rate at which they can do that. So you’re while it feels like, you know, we’re going through a world of tight labor markets and high growth. Actually, when you step back, you know, you’re seeing just sort of slowing global growth. And the U.S. actually has been the bright spot in that, but that it can’t stay that way forever.

John [00:23:57]

So Amar it’s interesting to me hearing really that throughout the breadth of our discussion today, you’re just reinforce and reinforcing some really fundamental investment principles. Right? We don’t think about market timing and fixed income, but essentially, if you choose to sit in cash positions, that’s what you’re doing. No different than sitting in a parking lot until you decide that you’re going to time the equity market. So I think, you know, discussions around the importance of staying invested are important. And then what you were just talking about, the importance of diversification. And I think it’s made doubly difficult when we think about, you know, look, over the past decade, the international equity markets have been challenging. So I think sometimes advisors and especially clients are maybe not aware of opportunities that exist really globally, as you just mentioned.

Amar [00:24:47]

Yeh and globally and the ripple impacts on how it impacts us like fixed income as well. Like that’s almost two tiered right And you know, the the the the capital markets are are interconnected. So, you know, whether it’s almost I said this, whether we worry or not about it, like it impacts us and it certainly impacts like bond markets. So in a way, it’s sort of like good practice to understand what is happening abroad, not just from the opportunity set and fixed income, but also just from from a risk perspective to.

Julie [00:25:24]

John and Amar. That’s exactly where my mind was going is for the financial professionals listening today, thinking about the conversations that they’re having with clients. And maybe Amar could help them with what would be those 3 to 5 talking points or you know, phrases that they could take from this podcast today and share it with clients, you know, as they as they end this and turn around and have their next client conversation. Amar If you were sitting with their clients, say, tomorrow, you know, what would you, what, what’s the conversation that you would be having with their clients and helping them kind of have that conversation? I think that would probably be really helpful for our listeners.

Amar [00:26:04]

Yeah, I think there’s just a couple of things that jump out right away I like. One is you can’t wait till the recession or slowdown to pivot into that defensive asset class. It’s generally too late at that point, the rates have moved away from you. They’re not as attractive as they were before. So it’s important to have a disciplined patient process of doing it like now, you know, like or over over some intermediate period of time. Like there’s there has to be a plan and there has to be sort of follow through execution and discipline in that plan. The second is, is that you’re not being rewarded. You know, four years ago, five years ago, you know, we were talking about rate markets that were very, very low yielding, very difficult to kind of get that income that a lot of clients and investors really want. Now, you know, we’re talking on the highest quality fixed income, you know, mid to high single digits depending on what asset classes you’re looking at. So the opportunity cost has gone down dramatically and it’s in a way, just a wonderful way via locking in those longer term rates to be to use as as an income generating asset class. And then, you know, the third is is that and I think this is you know, I want to actually reiterate this point is is that, you know, if you’re talking about this week or next month or so on, yes, your cash looks attractive, but that will not last forever. And, you know, you have to come up with a way of still preserving liquidity and safety and recession protection. But but doing it in a way where you’ve actually been able to lock lock in those gains or sort of lock in those rates. And if you don’t do that, you know, it kind of just goes back to that, that initial point of you’re trying to time things out to a degree that’s very challenging.

John [00:28:01]

Because I think, Amar, correct me if I’m wrong, because as I think about past market cycles, if we were hinging on something like weakness in the unemployment rate, unemployment’s going to end up unemployment was typically a lagging indicator. Right. And if we wait for we wait for the Fed to make a decision, We wait. We we may very well have missed what sometimes can be substantial initial movements in the markets, Right?

Amar [00:28:26]

Yeah. And also just, you know, the the nature of of global fixed income markets is that they trade with incredible speed. Right. And once, you know, a narrative has set in, well, you’re you’re going to be sitting and waiting, maybe I’ll get it at a better price. But if it if the narrative is turned, you’re just going to have to kind of bite your sort of lip and then like buy at lower yields, which is really what you’ve been the whole point of these discussions and exercises, is to avoid having people be forced to do that. Right? They should do it when they have the flexibility, they should do it when they have the opportunity, they should effectively do it when when, when they actually have tailwinds behind them. From a valuation perspective, I think it’s incredibly hard to do it like perfectly or right on the same unlike on a given day or week.

John [00:29:20]

Amar, You talk, you’ve talked about the speed at which global markets, global fixed income markets, trade. You should see the incredible speed at which Julie and I now have moved through what we call our Lightning Round questions with our guest. So I know you’ve been through this before, Amar, where Julie and I are just going to ask.

Amar [00:29:39]

I’m ready!

John [00:29:39]

Many questions, right? Because our audience wants to get to know Amar a little bit. And by the way, we’ve come up with some new ones for you. So if you’re ready, Julie, why don’t you kick us off and and let’s get into our lightning round.

Julie [00:29:53]

Perfect. Well, let’s do it. Okay, Amar, look. How about this? What’s for dinner tonight?

Amar [00:30:00]

Salmon. There is salmon defrosting at home.

Julie [00:30:04]

Love it as a Seattle girl. I can. I can get behind that.

Amar [00:30:08]

It’s as good as the salmon you used to get, But, like.

Julie [00:30:11]

I think that’s probably true.

John [00:30:14]

Amar, if you could travel anywhere in the world for free, where would you go?

Amar [00:30:19]

Oh, wow. You know, in the nineties, in college, I had a chance to go to to South Africa, and it was an incredible place. I thought it was stunning. Love to, you know, go there again. And in part, it’s just because I travel a decent amount for work, but no one’s ever routed me through there again. So I would love to actually, like, revisit.

Julie [00:30:45]

Are you a fan of a paper to do list or a digital one?

Amar [00:30:51]

Paper, paper. Definitely a paper to do list.

John [00:30:53]

Would you rather watch a movie or binge a TV show?

Amar [00:30:58]

Binge a TV show and it feels like eating out on TV in a row.

John [00:31:03]

What’s the last one that you binged?

Amar [00:31:06]

So.

John [00:31:09]

Or are in the process?

Amar [00:31:11]

No, we’re having a revival of 1990s television shows. So we’re on season four of Northern Exposure, which I feel like very few people have watched recently and it’s been great.

Julie [00:31:26]

That is a good one.

Amar [00:31:28]

Yeah.

Julie [00:31:30]

Do you prefer a beach house or a lake house?

Amar [00:31:33]

Lake house. I you know, we’re lucky enough to live in New England and there’s beautiful lakes. And you can sometimes see right down to the bottom of it. And I think it’s wonderful to walk off a dock and swim when you have the opportunity of vacation. The ocean. Ocean can be terrifying, right? You can’t see to the bottom, you know? You know, And, you know, there’s. Could be unpleasant things. Too much risk from the fixed income guy.

Julie [00:32:01]

Unpleasant things.

Amar [00:32:03]

Yeah.

John [00:32:05]

Are you left handed or right handed, Amar?

Amar [00:32:07]

I’m right handed.

Julie [00:32:10]

Are you messy or neat?

Amar [00:32:13]

I’m messy. I have a messy desk. So it’s. Yeah.

John [00:32:19]

So if you had the choice, would you rather read a book or listen to Audible or listen to an audiobook?

Amar [00:32:27]

I’d rather read a book. I feel like when I’ve tried to do Audible, I’ve done some, you know, a number of them. I feel like I get distracted and end up doing something else, and then I miss stuff. So definitely reading.

Julie [00:32:42]

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Amar [00:32:46]

Oh, so I was really lucky that as a child I got to go to space camp and I wanted to be an astronaut. This was this was my dream as a kid. It still working on it, Julie.

John [00:33:04]

It’s Pepsi or Coke.

Amar [00:33:09]

Uh Coke.

Amar [00:33:12]

I don’t know why.

John [00:33:14]

I’m right there with you.

Amar [00:33:15]

Yeah.

Julie [00:33:16]

What was your favorite board game as a kid?

Amar [00:33:19]

Trivial Pursuit.

John [00:33:21]

Awesome.

Julie [00:33:21]

That’s a good one!.

John [00:33:22]

Yeah. Question My last question. Now, forgetting the fact that you give us all this great economic information. So your profession aside, would you prefer to travel to the past or to the future?

Amar [00:33:38]

Oh, I’m a I’m a history nut so definitely to the past. Yeah.

Julie [00:33:43]

And are you spontaneous or a planner?

Amar [00:33:47]

Spontaneous.

Julie [00:33:50]

Excellent. Well, Amar, we can’t thank you enough for joining us today again on the Human -centric Investing podcast and sharing your insights with us and our listeners today. And for those of you interested in hearing more about Amar’s thoughts, you can access his monthly fixed income commentary at Hartford funds dot com slash Amar. Thanks again, Amar, for all of your thoughts and insights today. We really appreciate it.

Amar [00:34:15]

It was great talking to you about. Thank you very much again.

Julie [00:34:17]

Thanks for listening to the Hartford Funds Human-centric Investing podcast. If you’d like to tune in for more episodes, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube.

John [00:34:32]

And if you’d like to be a guest and share your best ideas for transforming client relationships, email us. Guest Booking at Hartford Funds dot com. We’d love to hear from you.

Julie [00:34:43]

Talk to you soon.

Speaker [00:34:46]

The views expressed here are those of the podcast guest. They should not be construed as investment advice. This material and/or its contents are current as of the time of writing and may not be reproduced or distributed in whole or in part, for any purpose, without the express written consent of Hartford Funds.