October 2, 2025 • 9 mins
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Surveys show Americans remain deeply anxious about retirement savings, but quick fixes and cookie-cutter portfolios often make matters worse. Drawing on lessons from Nassim Taleb and Warren Buffett, WDOWS stresses the importance of preparation over prediction—creating resilient, “anti-fragile” strategies that can withstand financial storms and unexpected shocks.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Surveys show Americans remain deeply anxious about retirement savings, but quick fixes and cookie-cutter portfolios often make matters worse. Drawing on lessons from Nassim Taleb and Warren Buffett, WDOWS stresses the importance of preparation over prediction—creating resilient, “anti-fragile” strategies that can withstand financial storms and unexpected shocks.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Don't lie to yourself, be honest with yourself, know thy self,
said Socrates and money. Every survey they do, the surveys
come out every survey when it comes to American adults
and their concerns in regards to having enough money save
for retirement year after year after year. Yeah, they're concerned.
(00:40):
Two thirds are concerned. This one's concerned. Only have this
much saved. I've been doing this for thirty years. None
of these surveys are surprising to me, nor are they
really quite frankly, very good. This is an old saying,
know something about solving problems. Many problems, once you recognize
(01:04):
the problem, are simple to solve. It's just not easy
to solve them. Kind of like dining, right, eh, Dining
is simple, it's just not easy. There are no shortcuts,
and this is part of the problems is where people
even get themselves further into trouble. No shortcuts. Everything in
(01:25):
life that has meaning value and worth involves work time
and effort. Just that simple. Everything in life that is meaning,
value and worth involves work time and effort. You're behind
right now the april. You think that there's going to
be some magical shortcut to get you back on track, Well,
(01:47):
guess what. Guess what, that's going to even put you
further behind. Trust me, I've been doing this for a
living for a very long time. Anyway. Anyway, they've got
various different gimmicks that they're coming up with now. I'm seeing,
and quite frankly, a lot of these gimmicks and plans,
(02:09):
in my opinion, I kind of liken them to various
and different workout fads and trends that we've seen over
the years. It's just going to end up frustrating people,
quite frankly, rather than actually putting them on the right path. Again.
I've seen people, you know, talk about percentages that people
(02:33):
should be socking away at a certain age that are
just patently absurd or ridiculous based upon the type of
inflation that we live in the cost of living here
in the United States. We've talked at great length about
the ridiculous sixty to forty portfolio and the other cookie
cutter portfolios that are sold to the masses via various
(02:56):
different simple algorithms. Okay, that only take into a count
whatever data is inputed into them. However, humanity and life
are never, never part of the equation. I wrote about
this several years ago, and I asked the question, said,
how many of you remember how many remember that first
(03:19):
four or one K plan questionnaire asking you what age
you were playing on retiring, what's your what's your risk tolerance?
Did you have anything but actually an uninformed idea or
guests when you were younger, at a young age. And unfortunately,
(03:44):
what this does too, is this this limit sheet. This
limits you as a person. Quite frankly, some people get
wrapped up in the decisions or the choices that they
made in their twenties, again limiting your future and quite
frankly your overall happiness. I've often talked about this gentleman,
(04:07):
and again I've recommended all of his books to everyone
here on the program. Nason Nicholas Talib, who has written
extensively on risk management, in particular his book The Black
Swans international best seller. I think what came out with
two thousand and seven, If I'm not mistaken and it's
still I think it just hit the best seller list
(04:27):
again just a couple months ago. And basically it's about
black Swans Tallius, the things that are out there that
you just don't see coming when when preparing for your future,
you need to understand that concept. Get your arms around that.
(04:51):
What we have done and what we have taught our
clients over the years, how we've prepared our clients for life. Okay,
it's not just retirement, pre retirement, post retirement, all this
stuff one should prepare rather than playing. What do I
(05:12):
mean by that? I'm gonna again. I've told this story before.
It's worth it. Because I came out of retirement. I'm
back coaching youth to cross again. So why not I
tell my players, tell the players that I coach, that
we want to be prepared. We want to be prepared.
(05:35):
We want to be so prepared for anyone, doesn't matter
who we're playing, doesn't matter who we're facing. We can
handle any situation. And again talk about dealing with the terrain,
dealing with the reality, oh the terrain, talked about Warren
(05:56):
Buffett put this in the column as well. He wrote
a message to shareholders back in this well, Jesus can't remember,
maybe two thousand and six. If I'm not mistaken, it
was a help wanted. Is any report read like a
help wanted? It wanted a young man or woman with
the potential to manage a very large portfolio. The ideal
(06:18):
candidate must be someone genetically programmed to recognize and avoid
serious risks, including those never before encountered. Other key requirements
and dependent thinking, oh stability, and a key understanding of
both human and institutional behavior. The reality is as odd
things are going to happen. Expect the unexpected market sells
(06:42):
off for no apparent reason. Hey, it happens now. Forrest
Gump ever already stepped in the poop. It happened sometimes. Yeah. Uh.
People out there that get it wrong, the investors out
there that get it wrong again and again and again.
(07:03):
And this includes a lot of the hedge fund guys,
private equity guys that again they're going out of business
at ever accelerating pace, stockbrokers, financial advisors, financial planners that
weren't taught properly, ones that promised these absolutely outsize returns. Again,
(07:26):
a lot of idiots on TV and radio doing the
same thing. We can make the money no matter what
the market is doing. Yes, we can guaranteed results. They
don't know what they don't know? Okay, that's that they
have a cognitive bias. They call it the Dunning Kruger effect,
(07:47):
and I'm not going to go too far into it. Resilience.
This is something that Talent talks about in his book
Anti Fragile. You want your yet, we want you want
your portfolio once it's again. I want a resilient portfolio, okay, right,
(08:08):
I want to be able to deal with financial storms.
Talib came up and it's these guys super bright. He
actually like searched the world languages for a word that
was the exact opposite with the word fragile, and he
couldn't find one. So he said, oh, you know what,
(08:31):
anti fragile, And this is what he wrote. He said,
some things benefit from shocks. They thrive and grow when
exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder and stressors and love, adventure, risk, uncertainty.
In spite of the ubiquity of this phenomenon, the area
is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let's
(08:52):
call it anti fragile. Anti fragility is beyond resilience. Or robustus.
The resilient resists shocks, stays the same. The anti fragile
gets better. This property, this idea is behind everything that
(09:13):
has changed with time, evolution, culture ideas, revolutions, political systems,
technological innovations, cultural and economic success, corporate survival, good recipes,
the rise of cities and cultures. This idea, this concept,
is central to what we do at Markowski Investments. It's
(09:37):
central to what our personal CFO program is all about.
Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Don't lie to yourself, be honest with yourself, know thy self,
said Socrates and money. Every survey they do, the surveys
come out every survey when it comes to American adults
and their concerns in regards to having enough money save
for retirement year after year after year. Yeah, they're concerned.
(00:40):
Two thirds are concerned. This one's concerned. Only have this
much saved. I've been doing this for thirty years. None
of these surveys are surprising to me, nor are they
really quite frankly, very good. This is an old saying,
know something about solving problems. Many problems, once you recognize
(01:04):
the problem, are simple to solve. It's just not easy
to solve them. Kind of like dining, right, eh, Dining
is simple, it's just not easy. There are no shortcuts,
and this is part of the problems is where people
even get themselves further into trouble. No shortcuts. Everything in
(01:25):
life that has meaning value and worth involves work time
and effort. Just that simple. Everything in life that is meaning,
value and worth involves work time and effort. You're behind
right now the april. You think that there's going to
be some magical shortcut to get you back on track, Well,
(01:47):
guess what. Guess what, that's going to even put you
further behind. Trust me, I've been doing this for a
living for a very long time. Anyway. Anyway, they've got
various different gimmicks that they're coming up with now. I'm seeing,
and quite frankly, a lot of these gimmicks and plans,
(02:09):
in my opinion, I kind of liken them to various
and different workout fads and trends that we've seen over
the years. It's just going to end up frustrating people,
quite frankly, rather than actually putting them on the right path. Again.
I've seen people, you know, talk about percentages that people
(02:33):
should be socking away at a certain age that are
just patently absurd or ridiculous based upon the type of
inflation that we live in the cost of living here
in the United States. We've talked at great length about
the ridiculous sixty to forty portfolio and the other cookie
cutter portfolios that are sold to the masses via various
(02:56):
different simple algorithms. Okay, that only take into a count
whatever data is inputed into them. However, humanity and life
are never, never part of the equation. I wrote about
this several years ago, and I asked the question, said,
how many of you remember how many remember that first
(03:19):
four or one K plan questionnaire asking you what age
you were playing on retiring, what's your what's your risk tolerance?
Did you have anything but actually an uninformed idea or
guests when you were younger, at a young age. And unfortunately,
(03:44):
what this does too, is this this limit sheet. This
limits you as a person. Quite frankly, some people get
wrapped up in the decisions or the choices that they
made in their twenties, again limiting your future and quite
frankly your overall happiness. I've often talked about this gentleman,
(04:07):
and again I've recommended all of his books to everyone
here on the program. Nason Nicholas Talib, who has written
extensively on risk management, in particular his book The Black
Swans international best seller. I think what came out with
two thousand and seven, If I'm not mistaken and it's
still I think it just hit the best seller list
(04:27):
again just a couple months ago. And basically it's about
black Swans Tallius, the things that are out there that
you just don't see coming when when preparing for your future,
you need to understand that concept. Get your arms around that.
(04:51):
What we have done and what we have taught our
clients over the years, how we've prepared our clients for life. Okay,
it's not just retirement, pre retirement, post retirement, all this
stuff one should prepare rather than playing. What do I
(05:12):
mean by that? I'm gonna again. I've told this story before.
It's worth it. Because I came out of retirement. I'm
back coaching youth to cross again. So why not I
tell my players, tell the players that I coach, that
we want to be prepared. We want to be prepared.
(05:35):
We want to be so prepared for anyone, doesn't matter
who we're playing, doesn't matter who we're facing. We can
handle any situation. And again talk about dealing with the terrain,
dealing with the reality, oh the terrain, talked about Warren
(05:56):
Buffett put this in the column as well. He wrote
a message to shareholders back in this well, Jesus can't remember,
maybe two thousand and six. If I'm not mistaken, it
was a help wanted. Is any report read like a
help wanted? It wanted a young man or woman with
the potential to manage a very large portfolio. The ideal
(06:18):
candidate must be someone genetically programmed to recognize and avoid
serious risks, including those never before encountered. Other key requirements
and dependent thinking, oh stability, and a key understanding of
both human and institutional behavior. The reality is as odd
things are going to happen. Expect the unexpected market sells
(06:42):
off for no apparent reason. Hey, it happens now. Forrest
Gump ever already stepped in the poop. It happened sometimes. Yeah. Uh.
People out there that get it wrong, the investors out
there that get it wrong again and again and again.
(07:03):
And this includes a lot of the hedge fund guys,
private equity guys that again they're going out of business
at ever accelerating pace, stockbrokers, financial advisors, financial planners that
weren't taught properly, ones that promised these absolutely outsize returns. Again,
(07:26):
a lot of idiots on TV and radio doing the
same thing. We can make the money no matter what
the market is doing. Yes, we can guaranteed results. They
don't know what they don't know? Okay, that's that they
have a cognitive bias. They call it the Dunning Kruger effect,
(07:47):
and I'm not going to go too far into it. Resilience.
This is something that Talent talks about in his book
Anti Fragile. You want your yet, we want you want
your portfolio once it's again. I want a resilient portfolio, okay, right,
(08:08):
I want to be able to deal with financial storms.
Talib came up and it's these guys super bright. He
actually like searched the world languages for a word that
was the exact opposite with the word fragile, and he
couldn't find one. So he said, oh, you know what,
(08:31):
anti fragile, And this is what he wrote. He said,
some things benefit from shocks. They thrive and grow when
exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder and stressors and love, adventure, risk, uncertainty.
In spite of the ubiquity of this phenomenon, the area
is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let's
(08:52):
call it anti fragile. Anti fragility is beyond resilience. Or robustus.
The resilient resists shocks, stays the same. The anti fragile
gets better. This property, this idea is behind everything that
(09:13):
has changed with time, evolution, culture ideas, revolutions, political systems,
technological innovations, cultural and economic success, corporate survival, good recipes,
the rise of cities and cultures. This idea, this concept,
is central to what we do at Markowski Investments. It's
(09:37):
central to what our personal CFO program is all about.
Watchdog on Wallstreet dot com
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