The Money Alchemist Podcast

Managing investment return expectations.  

The truth behind terrible returns is a person that doesn’t quite understand market mechanics and how they tie into your financial goals.  

Watch this episode now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDMLU9XVm8Cd5c1-gWbk3VA

Sources:

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-12-reality

https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/global/en/insights/ltcma-2025-us-matrix_usd.pdf

https:...

Diversification is the foundation of most investment advice, but what if it's also the single greatest barrier to generating true, exponential wealth?

In this episode, we challenge conventional wisdom and explore the high-risk, high-reward strategy of concentrated investing. We delve into how some of the world's most successful investors built fortunes not by spreading their capital thin, but by placing high-conviction bets on a fe...

A war of the classes 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, so begins the famous novel Tale of Two Cities written in 1858.  Written by Charles Dickens, the motif of duality can easily be applied to our modern economy.   Throughout history, the state of mankind can generally be described as fitting someplace between bad and good.  

The economy is either terrible or great, depending on who you ask.  It’s a subjective...

News or Noise?

In our fast-paced, 24/7 news cycle, it can feel like a financial advisor's credibility hinges on keeping up with every daily headline. A tweet from a prominent news host, a new market prediction, or a breaking story from CNBC can make an advisor who isn't up to speed feel discredited.

The question of whether an advisor should be a news junkie is at the heart of today's episode. Ben and Brent explore their differing a...

Some beauty is skin deep.

Reinforcing a modern political trend, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) garnered only strict partisan support.  Carrying the timbre of our nation’s President, its name either strikes a nerve with unbearable annoyance or tickles the funny bone.  A dichotomy to define out times.  One many have grown weary of.    

Now signed into law, few Americans are unaffected by its reach.  Even fewer still understand...

Planning isn’t predicting.

Some things in life are more exciting than others.  Most of us woke up on the 4th of July with a lighter step and enthusiastic anticipation for the day.  Fireworks, need we say more?  No one in their right mind sets a meeting with their financial planner to map out a savings strategy on such a day.  

Just because something isn’t intuitively engaging doesn’t make it a waste of time.  Many things are like t...

I will just say in general, I’ve said SO many times, 99% of you watching do not need a financial advisor.  You need someone like me to teach you step by step how to invest for yourself”.  So says Tori Dunlap, one of the many outspoken influencers brimming with financial opinions that cannot be contained.

Like a bottle of Diet Coke shaken up by outside forces, the froth of conjecture can only go one way once an outlet is found.  The...

The average child spends about eight hours a day in front of a video screen.  We’ve now seen a generation of children raised on a digital cocktail of social media, video games, and streaming services.  A panoramic window into the world, algorithmically tuned for your child’s wants and subconscious desires. 

Ferraris turn more heads than Hondas, a human preference so intrinsic that it shows up in children.  And wealth is more attrac...

The American proverb “you get what you pay for” is well understood but not commonly applied.  Nowhere is this made more abundantly clear than in the food services industry, where people line up for cheap, borderline toxic calorie bombs to satiate their immediate cravings.  

One should not ask why healthy food is so expensive but why fast food is so cheap.  The idea that a drive thru diet is lower cost is an illusion once you factor...

Warren Buffett to Retire As CEO of Berkshire Hathaway 

When a person lives to the wise age of 94 and accumulates a networth of $168B, people tend to think he has some important things to say.  Nearly 20,000 Berkshire shareholders gathered in Omaha Nebraska on May 3rd to hear the resident Oracle speak live.  The annual tableau is something to behold.  Thankfully there’s YouTube.  

What does the 5th richest man in the world know abou...

Too low to sell, too cash poor to buy the dip.  So laments an X user over this past week as he describes his current state of financial affairs.  No one wants to be a sucker yet prudent investing requires that you subject yourself to the fickle whims of the market - all in.

It’s hard not to feel like a sucker when you buy something only to watch it go on sale the next day.  Unlike Costco, financial markets will not retroactively ma...

Fitful swings in equity and bond markets this past week have wrecked more sleepful nights than drunk neighbors on Independence Day.  What can be done? The NASDAQ hourly chart resembles an EKG reading of a fibrillating heartbeat.  Some fear this could be the heartbeat of the new American economy. 

Treasury Scott Bessent has been making the rounds on numerous media outlets with defibrillator pads at the ready.  Perhaps the cold plung...

America’s least favorite day is quickly approaching in a little over two weeks.  Millions scramble to frantically count their beans while the oppressive Eye of ‘Providence’ lords over them.  

April 15 may usher in the Spring with all its good vibes, longer days, and the smell of outdoor barbecues with freshly cut grass.  But it also marks a cumulative day of stress with the unholy combination of a strict deadline with complex accou...

The first few months of 2025 have produced mixed results for US equities.  Despite efforts to coax out the full economic potential of the U.S., domestic markets have lacked confidence.  Meanwhile, ‘safe haven’ assets such as Treasury Bonds and international stocks have broadly rallied.   

They say it’s been the worst start to a year since, well, 2022.   

With a ballooning Federal deficit and the potential for a more competitive ove...

The engagement farmers masquerading as prognosticators have been busy this month!  There’s so much doom to talk about.  It’s all so very exciting, and you need to tune in.  Ignoring the information so you don’t miss a perfectly timed nugget of information that will cost you everything. 

Even so, three months later we’ll forget the stress of today like it was our first dirty diaper.  We’ll move onto new stressors with potentially wo...

Journey > Destination.  

Does the world run on envy?  Charlie Munger, who once said, “the first rule of a happy life is low expectations”, argued that it does.  We even have the adage ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ to encapsulate this ongoing economic arms race.  

In-your-face financial flexing is difficult to ignore.  A moment of boredom followed by a screen tap and a world of obscene wealth can be streamed directly into your co...

The Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires have affected 59 square miles of land in Southern California.  Combined, they have consumed more than 16,000 homes and buildings and an uncounted number of automobiles.  

This natural disaster comes hot off the heels of two hurricanes that wreaked havoc in Florida and North Carolina, from which residents are still recovering.  Those who have been through the home building or remodeling process...

Why you have it and what to do about it.

 Financial stress is a response to a specific, often temporary, financial problem that can be resolved through specific action. As an example, you are about to close on a home purchase and are uncertain if loan underwriting will be completed in time.  These stressors can be quickly alleviated with the right course of action and often resolve themselves in time.

Financial anxiety involves mor...

Another year, different in how you make it. 

2025 is here and so are the renewed pressures of the ego to break through yet another motivational barrier.   The root of the word sublime stems from Latin to mean, roughly, high threshold.  The things that are most worth doing are not easy.

Sublime is a subjective word.  It’s true meaning found at that point where your aspirations meet the outset edge of your competency.  To find it, yo...