Wealth Formula by Buck Joffrey

Warren Buffet talks about being greedy when others are fearful. I think it’s fair to say that there is a great deal of fear in the financial system right now with interest rates climbing as quickly as they are. Eventually, this will lead to distress in all financial markets. The stock market is already down—especially tech stocks. The Real Estate market is frozen. There is very little trading. That’s why our investor group has not acquired anything since May. The worst part about where we are now in this cycle is uncertainty. Rates going up to more historical levels is not, in and of itself, problematic. The problem relates to the unexpected speed of rate increases and the fact that we don’t really know when it will end. Even with higher rates, we can go back to business as normal. Buyers and sellers just need to have some sort of interest rate benchmark with which to underwrite. But the Fed is moving the goalposts too quickly for anyone to use a specific interest rate to put into a spreadsheet. One thing you might be wondering is why there is no significant distress in the market. The answer is largely that most buyers on floating rates purchased rate caps. But over time those will expire and if rents are not raised quickly enough, they could see negative cash flow pretty quickly. We could start seeing opportunities early next year. And when we do, I will be buying! Over the last month, the cryptocurrency market also got hit hard. It went from beloved, even by teenagers, to red-headed stepchild status within days. In crypto, down markets mean DESTROYED. And… that’s where we are right now. Could it go lower? Maybe? But I am a buyer of bitcoin at this price. Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere over the next several years and I believe will eventually be worth a lot more than it is today. It may be controversial to say, but investments in bitcoin or bitcoin mining today might be some of the more obvious plays to make for savvy investors. But again, there is fear in the financial ecosystem. Investors, as much as they like the idea of buying low and selling high usually do the opposite in these situations. But remember, be greedy when others are fearful. Cryptocurrency is down but not dead. People just stop talking about it when there is a bear market. But that’s exactly why we should talk about it on Wealth Formula Podcast. My guest this week will tell us why blockchain and cryptocurrency are an inevitable part of the future…even for banks. And if that’s the case, should you be investing? Make sure to tune in and find out. Omid Malekan is the Explainer-in-Chief of blockchain technology. He’s the author of ReArchitecting Trust: The Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets, and Platforms as well as The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner’s Guide to the Technology That Nobody Understands. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School where he lectures on blockchain and crypto. An eight-year veteran of the crypto industry, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Spectator magazine, and his own blog on Medium.com. Malekan advises individuals and corporations on the intersection of the old and new. Learn more at www.omidmalekan.com Shownotes: How Omid got started working with banks on cryptocurrency policies What are the fundamental problems in the system that crypto potentially provides a solution for? How can blockchain and cryptocurrency restore trust in the system? Re-Architecting Trust: The Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets, and Platforms

As we get closer to the end of the year, I know a number of you are trying to figure out how to deploy capital. We will have some opportunities that are not real estate oriented.  I also believe that it is a surprisingly good time to consider various life insurance strategies that we have discussed before. I have included the email sent to me on this topic by Rod and Christian and they will be my guest on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast. Make sure to listen in!  —————————————————————————— We frequently receive questions about how the recent increase in interest rates will impact the strategies we teach that utilize the combination of high cash-value life insurance and leverage.   Interest rate reset First, it’s important to realize that rising interest rates are great for life insurance! Cash value life insurance is designed to outperform general interest rates.  When interest rates go up, it allows life insurance companies to generate higher returns in their general account, that additional return then passes on to the policy holder. In fact, we’re already seeing cap rates on IUL’s begin to climb and adjust to the market. This increase in caps will result in a higher overall return inside the policy! In traditional whole life insurance, higher interest rates means higher dividends!  It’s also important to understand that life insurance companies primarily invest in bonds and notes, the types of investments that are sensitive to interest rates. However, there’s a significant difference between an individual investor and an institutional investor. Life insurance companies are able to make considerably larger investments and for considerably longer time frames. We’re talking about as long as 40 or 50 years. This advantage allows them to be more selective as to the types of investments they buy and for how long they will lock. In the context of our strategies, the recent increase in interest rates is actually creating a much healthier and more profitable environment for life insurance companies, which of course also means that dividends and cap rates will rise.  Interestingly, the effect on loan rates is more short-lived. In many cases, when we run the Wealth Accelerator stress tests for the 1980’s, we actually end up with a higher long-term IRR than when we run our baseline projections using a very conservative 2% spread. The impact of higher rates on Wealth Formula Banking If you’re not yet familiar with Wealth Formula Banking, check out our webinar by going to www.wealthformulabanking.com. In a nutshell, we build up our investment opportunity fund inside of an overfunded whole life policy. We then loan against our cash value to invest in real estate, business, etc., our money stays and continues to grow inside of the account. By doing this, we’re able to double dip, and create value in two places at the same time. This is the perfect time to get involved with WFB, especially if you’re one of the many people who have money sitting on the sideline waiting for the right deal. Why let it sit in a checking account or money market account earning nothing, when we can put it in a WFB policy and generate a long-term 5%+ tax-free return? By the way, that 5%+ return is going up with interest rates!  Here’s a question I’m often asked: If I’m using a loan, and interest rates are rising, what does that mean for the WFB strategy? The good news is that for most of our clients there’s a direct relationship between the interest they’re paying on their loan and the interest that’s being credited to the portion of their cash value that is collateralizing the loan. So, if interest rates keep going higher, the interest rate we earn on the collateralized cash value will keep going higher as well. The Impact of higher rates on the Wealth Accelerator For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Wealth Accelerator, check out our webinar at www.wealthformulabanking.com. Briefly explained, we’re building an asset using leverage. The individual puts the initial funds into overfunded whole life and/or IUL policies, and then we finance all future contributions to the policy. We’re taking advantage of the spread that can be generated by creating higher growth in the policies than what we’re accumulating in interest on the loan. The goal is to generate double-digit tax-free returns, which then creates massive future tax-free income and/or income-tax-free funds for estate planning. Many people assume that the rise in interest rates kills the opportunity to create a spread. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As we mentioned above, a rise in interest rates creates a huge opportunity! The fact is, with interest rates going up, we’re already seeing caps rising within IUL policies. And, although there’s a slight lag time with dividends on whole-life policies, those will rise as well.  One aspect that I think can help alleviate concern as well is the fact that we carry a healthy cushion in the form of our “Net Equity” value. This represents the amount of extra cash value we have over and above the amount of our loan amount. As mentioned above, our design is built for times like this! In other words, we know there will be times when we will get less than a 2% spread, and even times when we’ll have a negative spread. This net equity serves as our buffer for times like that, so that we’re poised to take advantage of the times when the spread is a lot bigger than 2%. For example, in 2008, we would have cut into our buffer a bit because the market dropped and our IUL wouldn’t have produced a return in that year. However, the next 10 years would have averaged a lot higher than a 2% spread, with interest rates so low and the market growing so much. As a side note, we’ve also had people express concern about getting into an IUL policy while the market is down. Before we answer that, let’s be clear that due to the long-term nature of the strategy we don’t try to time the market. However, if we can choose, getting started when the market is down makes a lot of sense! We get to start at that lower market value, and ride the wave of the recovery. Christian Allen joined the financial services industry in 2004. Over the course of his career to date, he has developed a broad-based knowledge and experience set. He began as a traditional advisor, working with local clients in his home state. In that context, he began a movement of successfully partnering with other professionals, including accountants and attorneys, to assist clients in implementing sound financial strategies. He spent more than five years in management with 2 regional planning firms, during which time he assisted new and seasoned professionals in creating efficient systems and methods to build meaningful practices. Over the last several years, he has expanded to working across the country, teaching financial principles, and working with clients across a broad spectrum, including wealth accumulation, retirement distribution planning, as well as innovative, advanced planning strategies for both high-income and high-net-worth individuals and businesses. He’s a member of AALU, and holds the designations of Accredited Asset Management SpecialistSM and Accredited Wealth Management AdvisorSM Christian is married and has two children, and is an avid sports fan. Rod Zabriskie has been in financial services since 2009. Prior to going into business for himself, he worked in marketing and finance with several small businesses. He had the opportunity to purchase an existing furniture business in 2007, just prior to the Great Recession. The experience of struggling to stay afloat amid difficult economic conditions inspires Rod every day in his efforts to educate and assist his clients in implementing sound financial strategies. He strongly advocates for establishing a firm foundation, utilizing proven strategies and financial tools to create a strong base upon which we can each build our financial house. In addition to focusing on Wealth Formula Banking and Velocity Plus, he has expertise in retirement income planning. Rod has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing Communications, and an MBA with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. He and his wife Jodi are the proud parents of 7 wonderful children. As a family they thrive on spending time exploring nature, playing games and doing projects together. He enjoys sports, music and reading. Shownotes: What is going on with the Permanent Life Insurance Strategies space? How does the Wealth Accelerator work? What makes the Wealth Accelerator better than traditional premium financing?

What makes for a highly successful entrepreneur or investor? It is the appetite for calculated risk. As Bruce Arians, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers famously says, “No risk it, no biscuit”. In entrepreneurship this might be more obvious. You probably know entrepreneurs who took risks by leaving their day job and pursuing a business that they KNEW was going to be successful. I’m one of those guys. In my case I got fired from a job that helped accelerate the development of my first business. But the next one was even riskier.  Why was it riskier than the first? Well, when I started the first business, I had nothing. By the time I started the next business, I had a lot to lose. But I remember playing out the business model in my head and feeling like, “This will work”. In my mind, there was no risk…only upside. I know that sounds reckless but that’s the way young entrepreneurs must think to create successful businesses. In my case I was right fortunately. That next business did extremely well and took me to another level. Of course entrepreneurship is different from investing but there are some similarities. Again, it’s not hard to hit singles and doubles. But in order to hit home runs, you have to be willing to take some calculated risks. Often there is asymmetric risk where the upside is huge but there is a possibility of losing it all as well. Some of you have already experienced that for better or worse in the world of cryptocurrency. The bottom line is, “no risk it, no biscuit”. Ordinary investing will yield ordinary results. If you strive for more, you have to train yourself and your coronary arteries to be ok with risk. No one knows that more than my guest on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast. He has served as president and/or CEO of multiple major brands that you will recognize and is known for his unconventional approach for high performance through strategic thinking. Listen here to learn how to jump first and think fast! Frank O’Connell grew up as a farm boy in a small town of 2,000 in Ovid, New York, where he drove tractors, sold eggs, and won prizes at 4H Fairs. He learned the value of hard work from his mother, who told him that he could surpass everyone by outworking them. Because of the values instilled in him, Frank went on to live an outsized life as a corporate chieftain. For more than fifty years, Frank has helmed such companies as Reebok, Fox Video Games, HBO Video, SkyBox, Gibson Greetings, and Indian Motorcycles. Frank has led major consumer product revolutions, including Innovative food products, video games, video tapes, the Reebok Pump, collectibles, toys, greeting cards, action figures, and the iconic Indian Motorcycle. A student of hard work and business who learned his craft on the front lines of sales and marketing, Frank knew that the right thing to do was to Jump First and then Think Fast. In his book, he shares his personal stories, business strategies, and proven methods for management. Jump First, Think Fast details Frank’s many business successes – as well as some failures – in an honest and forthright way. Jump First, Think Fast is for those who want to think differently about business and learn how to find their place, trust their instincts, and enjoy the ride from a successful CEO’s stories, lessons, and life moments.

The last 15 years have been a game of chicken between the Federal Reserve and the financial markets. Think about the old movies where the kids would speed in their cars towards each other until someone decided to quickly turn out of the way and avoid collision and certain death. Similarly, the financial markets and the Federal Reserve have been trying to figure out who would chicken out first for the past several years.  Let me give you an example. Despite COVID shutting down the entire country, the asset markets (after quickly blinking) went sky high.  Why? Because investors knew that the Fed would come to the rescue and they did. Rates dropped to zero, quantitative easing controlled the bond markets and all of that helped to embolden investors and reinforce the concept that the Fed will always come to the rescue. If you were at a Casino, wouldn’t you keep playing if the house guaranteed you wouldn’t lose money at the end of the night? That’s the way investors came to see the Fed—as an insurance policy. So then we got this inflation thing because of the massive amount of helicopter money injected into the system and supply chains creating huge demand. Of course, the Fed started raising rates again. At first, the markets shrugged it off. Playing chicken again. Then the Fed showed some cajones and kept raising rates and now all of the sudden it’s not quite as clear if they will blink first. The Fed has been clear about getting inflation under control. They know it has to be done. That’s finally getting through to some investors…or is it? We also know that we can only raise rates so much because of sovereign debt issues. And what if we end up in a massive recession because of the rate increases? Many investors think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. The moral of the story is that there is now a well-established disconnect between the economy and financial markets. The question is where does this all lead us? Dr. Nomi Prins is one of the smartest financial authors out there and she’s just released a new book on this very topic.  She’s going to tell about this great distortion and what it means for us in the long term. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW! As a Wall Street insider and outspoken advocate for economic reform, Dr. Nomi Prins is a leading authority on how the widespread impact of financial systems continues to effect our daily lives. She has spent decades analyzing and investigating economic and financial events at the ground level and meeting with those that shape the world’s geo-political-economic framework. She continues to break stories by conducting independent research, writing best-selling books, and traversing the globe to share her knowledge and demystify the world of money. Before becoming a renowned journalist and public speaker, Nomi reached the upper echelons of the financial world where she worked as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, ran the international analytics group as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London, was a strategist at Lehman Brothers and an analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank. During her time on Wall Street, she grew increasingly aware of and discouraged by the unethical practices that permeated the banking industry. Eventually, she decided enough was enough and became an investigative journalist to shed light on the ways that financial systems are manipulated to serve the interests of an elite few at the expense of everyone else. Nomi’s forthcoming book: Permanent Distortion will be out October 2022. Leveraging her practical expertise and academic knowledge, she coined the concept Permanent Distortion as a way to educate readers on the gap between the financial markets and the real economy, and what it means for everyone’s future. Over the course of 2022 and beyond, she will be speaking at conferences around the world on this topic, as well as providing actionable ways to deal with it through media appearances, articles, and newsletters. Nomi’s latest best-selling book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, explores the conditions that led to the rise of the new era of central banks’ power and the impact they have on markets and the global economy. Her last book, All the Presidents’ Bankers, is a groundbreaking narrative about the relationships of presidents to elite Wall Street bankers over the past century and how they shaped domestic and foreign policy. Nomi’s other books include Black Tuesday, a historical novel about the 1929 crash, and the hard-hitting exposé It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. She is also the author of Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America, which accurately predicted the reasons and timing of the financial crisis of 2008, and was chosen as a Best Book of 2004 by The Economist, Barron’s and Library Journal. Nomi makes regular television appearances on BBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, CSPAN, Democracy Now, Fox and PBS. She has been a guest on hundreds of radio shows including for Marketplace, NPR, BBC, and Canadian Programming. She has also appeared in several award-winning documentaries alongside other prominent thought-leaders. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Newsday, The Guardian, The Nation, New York Daily News, La Vanguardia, and Salon.com, among other publications. She established international distinction for her presentation at the annual gathering of senior level governors and officials hosted by the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conference in Washington D.C. Represented by the American Program Bureau, Nomi has delivered keynote speeches at many prominent global venues including the London School of Economics, the UK Parliament, the Mexican Senate, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Google, Columbia University and the National Consumer Law Center. Prins’ insights and unparalleled observations have made her sought by politicians from all parties for advice and analysis of the financial system and the economy. She coined the term “permanent distortion” that describes how the Federal Reserve has created conditions where markets are feeding off its monetary policy decisions. Nomi served as a member of Senator (and presidential contender) Bernie Sanders’ Federal Reserve Reform Advisory Council. She is listed as one of America’s TopWonks. She is also on the advisory board of the whistle-blowing group ExposeFacts, a board member of animal welfare and wildlife conservation group The Elephant Project, and a member of the global advisory board of Ethical Markets. Nomi received her BS in Math from SUNY Purchase, and MS in Statistics from New York University. Nomi received her PhD in International Strategic Studies with a specialization in International Political Economy from The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. As a lifelong learner, she encourages others to do their own research, continue to ask big questions and think for themselves. Shownotes: At what point did we go from a short-term panacea to a permanent distortion? How much can the Fed raise interest rates? Is there any hope of getting inflation under control? PERMANENT DISTORTION: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever

If you made it out to our event last weekend I want to thank your for taking the time to prioritize our meetup. And if you were there, I’m guessing you were not disappointed. We had a few familiar faces in the morning talking about taxes and asset protection and some great presentations around asset allocation, the economy and bitcoin mining. But what I think really blew people’s minds were the talks on longevity by Dr. John Foley and Dr. Rob Hamilton. This is something we are going to do more often for sure given the response we have gotten thus far. These meetings are also great in that I get to see what others are doing. I am in a bubble sometimes in Montecito behind my computer screen and there is nothing better than going out to meet people of like mind. There are people in our community who are doing amazing things and it’s fun to hear their stories. It’s even more fun for me to hear that I’ve made a difference in someone’s life. Dr. Irene Lambiris was supposed to come to the meeting but ended up having to put her doctor hat on and miss it. I was bummed because she has a great story. And if you are up to hear about how a young female physician is kicking ass in the investor space, you are going to want to listen to this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast! Dr. Irene Lambiris. She is an internal medicine specialist in Henderson, Nevada. Although now she is only a part-time physician and is a full-time real estate investor.

Boring is Good when it comes to investing. I’ve started hearing others echo that sentiment lately. I’m not sure if I had something to do with it but I’m glad that message is spreading in the podcast ecosystem. A decade ago, I used to be perhaps the busiest cosmetic surgeon in Chicago. I worked hard and got great results. And you know what…when the economy was good, I was crushing it. It’s how I made my first million. From the outside, the cosmetic surgery field is glamorous and sexy. So are medspas that do botox, fillers and laser procedures. I can tell you from insider knowledge, however, that it’s hard to make money in these fields unless you have a competitive edge over others. Mine was marketing and a tendency to go overboard on ad spending that would clog the coronaries of most of my fellow surgeons. That said, when the economy goes south, those beauty procedures become less important than food, shelter and the rest of the necessities of life. That is when boring prevails.  Boring businesses involve unsexy things like cleaning, or selling widgets or widgets that make widgets. People need this stuff no matter what the economy is doing. Most of these kind of businesses exist in the background though—places where most people would not know to look. But if you can find these golden nuggets, you could make a fortune. A good example of the boring widget concept is the computer chip. Computer chips are critical in society today and the companies that make them are massively profitable despite not having the appeal of a brand like Apple. Just think about all the computers, cell phones and numerous other forms of hardware that MUST have computer chips to help our modern day society function. Computer chips have become commodities in world trade and are literally dictating global politics and even military strategies. This week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast is an expert in this area and is going to tell you all about this massively underrated commodity. Chris Miller is an Assistant Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also serves as Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and as a Director at Greenmantle, a New York and London-based macroeconomic and geopolitical consultancy. He is the author of three previous books—Putinomics, The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy, and We Shall Be Masters—and he frequently writes for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, and other outlets. He received a PhD in history from Yale University and a BA in history from Harvard University. Currently, he resides in Belmont, Massachusetts. Visit his website at ChristopherMiller.net and follow him on Twitter @CRMiller1. Shownotes: What exactly does a computer chip do? Could the US remain the number one economy in the world if it doesn’t domestically dominate the chip market? Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology How do you invest in computer chips?

I guess by now you’ve heard—we’ve got some inflation problems in the United States and globally and Central Banks are going to continue to ratchet up interest rates in attempts to reverse the tide. But wait a second. Why inflation now? Didn’t we print billions of dollars over the last 15 years or so? Why didn’t we have inflation then? Well, we kind of did actually. We’ve had historically low interest rates and quantitative easing since 2008. This kind of “money printing”, however, does not really benefit the common man. Low interest rates don’t make bananas cost more. But they do make stocks, real estate, and other assets soar in price. Ahh…so that’s where all the money went. Well, let’s not pretend we as investors did not benefit from this asset class inflation. We did. And of course, banks and institutional money benefitted even more. But again…the common man did not benefit from the usual money printing methodology. Arguably they weren’t hurt too much either. But they are getting hurt now because inflation has drifted from the markets to the price of food and energy. Certainly, there are a number of reasons for this. But, there is one precipitating factor that I believe began the process of shifting inflation to the main street. Before the pandemic, NONE of the efforts by the Fed or fiscal policy put money DIRECTLY into the hands of people who spend it. Of course, that all changed when businesses shut down and the government sent everyone money via parachute. Now don’t get me wrong. I know we needed to do that. People had to put food on the table. But I do believe that this is where the shift of inflation to the consumer began. Then you layer on screwed up supply chains and high demand for everyday stuff and of course you’re going to have high inflation. And now the Fed is raising interest rates with a vengeance to try to snuff it out. Will it? A recession and high unemployment probably will. But we have high wages, very low unemployment and continued supply issues. Raising rates doesn’t seem like it would help with those problems. Anyway, I’m no expert on interest rates and inflation but my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week is. He’s written a book on it. Make sure to listen to the show and try to figure out how you might potentially benefit from the economy today. Edward Chancellor is a financial historian, journalist and investment strategist. Edward read history at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with first-class honours, and later gained an M.Phil. in Enlightenment history from Oxford University. In the early 1990s he worked for the London merchant bank, Lazard Brothers. He was later an editor at the financial commentary site, Breakingviews. From 2008 to 2014, Edward was a senior member of the asset allocation team at GMO, the Boston-based investment firm. He is currently a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal, MoneyWeek, the New York Review of Books and Financial Times. In 2008, Edward received the George Polk Award for financial reporting for his article “Ponzi Nation” in Institutional Investor magazine. Edward Chancellor is the author of Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation (Farrar Straus/Macmillan, 1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Devil Take the Hindmost has been translated into more than half a dozen languages. In 2005, he published the report, Crunch-Time for Credit? (Harriman House), an analysis of the ongoing credit boom in the US and UK. Edward has also edited two well-received investment books, Capital Account (Thomson Texere, 2004) and Capital Returns (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). His latest book, The Price of Time, is published by Allen Lane in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Monthly Press in the United States. The Price of Time has been longlisted for the FT 2022 Business Book of the Year. Shownotes: What was the inflection point that turned an economy that was running on low interest rates and printing a lot of money to a significant inflationary problem? The last decade was the greatest period of asset price inflation in history Did “Helicopter Money” issued by the government during the pandemic contribute to the high inflation rates we are seeing now? The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest

Have you heard of the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement? The movement is defined by extreme frugality and extreme savings and investments in hopes of retiring early and living on small withdrawals of accumulated funds. The general rule of thumb is to live on only 30 percent of your income and invest the rest. So, if you make $300K per year and are in a tax bracket of 40 percent you would be living on $54,000 (less than 5K per month) per year after taxes in hopes of retiring a few years earlier. There is nothing special about the investing patterns for these individuals. They typically invest in a very traditional way through ETFs. The hope is that the market will keep going up and allow for 3-4 percent withdrawal for life at some point. What’s particularly interesting to me in the physician community is that the FIRE people are rather militant. They mock other physicians with nice cars and homes. It’s so weird to me. Should you consider this kind of lifestyle? Well, personally I would not. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun! And frankly, the militant FIRE people don’t sound like much fun either! To be clear, I probably do invest close to 70 percent of my income per year. But that’s because I make a lot more money than I need to have fun. In my opinion, that should be the goal—not to deprive yourself of Starbucks in hopes of living an austere retirement. So what if you are in a position where you are not quite financially where you want to be? Can you still enjoy some of the finer things in life? Buying a nice home in an area that will always appreciate is really an investment over the long term. What else? Well, one of my good friends only buys expensive vintage furniture for his home. Is that a waste? Well, the furniture he bought 5 years ago has significantly appreciated in value. This is the same friend of mine who has made a killing on buying and selling vintage cars. My friend helped me understand the concept of living and enjoying the fine things in life today and actually profiting from it. It’s really quite genius. Bottom line is that if you can enjoy something really nice and effectively not lose money over time, you are winning.  So can you do the same? Can you buy the cars and watches you want and potentially make money? My guest today on Wealth Formula Podcast has built an entire platform around this concept and it’s something you might seriously consider for yourself. Trade in the FIRE movement for the BEAST movement: Buy, Enjoy, Appreciate, Sell/Trade. I think you’ll have more fun. Pejman Ghadimi is a self-made entrepreneur, philosopher, author and the creator of the wealth transfer methodology. Over the last 20 years, Pejman has built a multitude of businesses ranging from a one-of-a-kind investment firm that focuses on alternative asset management known as 1 OFF Investments to a series of online education businesses including Secret Entourage, Exotic Car Hacks and Watch Trading Academy. These platforms have forced people to rethink their understanding of business, luxury assets and money management. Since their birth, Pejman’s companies have grossed well over $420,000,000.00 in combined revenue. A byproduct of his very own teachings, Pejman is the perfect example of how resourcefulness and self-education are the two most powerful keys to success. Today, Pejman is a mentor to over 76,000 students from across the globe and his teachings have created many 6, 7, and 8-figure Entrepreneurs, earning him the nickname “icreatemillionaires” Fun Fact: Pejman was featured on Netflix’s Fastest Car Season 2.

First of all, if you have not signed up for the next Wealth Formula Meetup, you should do so NOW. This is going to be a very cool event. We are going to do personal finance talks in the morning like we usually do with lessons on taxes, asset protection and real estate. We are also going to get a big-picture macroeconomics talk from a guy who ran a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East and an MIT-trained electrical engineer will give us a preview of a very exciting wind energy play as it relates to bitcoin mining! The afternoon is totally new and should be super fun. We will be talking about longevity and lifespan. I believe the first person to live to 150 years old has already been born. And I also believe that most of us have a really good chance of living to 100 and feeling like 50.  Why? The science and technology behind longevity is moving at light speed. Some believe that “Longevity Escape Velocity” will be reached by 2030. In other words, the ability for people to essentially become immortal may be near. One thing is for sure. The idea of chronological age dictating your health and wellness will be redefined in the coming years. In fact, it already has and you need to know this stuff so you can implement these things in your life TODAY! That’s exactly what we are going to talk about in the afternoon. Or…you can go on a bus tour like previous events. Your choice! People have a really hard time with getting their heads around new ideas like this—an entirely different paradigm which I believe we are on the precipice of. We live in our own reality that influences our cognitive biases. The reality we live in does not include people living to 150 and beyond. We think of ourselves as middle-aged in our 40s and 50s. But technology always sneaks up on us and provides us with a reset of our reality every few years. You probably are old enough to remember the days before the internet and cell phones. Some of the things we see today would have been downright futuristic just a decade or two ago. Furthermore, the concept of cognitive bias is bigger than technology. It affects everything in our life. We perceive the way we perceive because of our biases. What’s interesting to me is that with social media and different kinds of political channels, there is a divergence within our population of what that reality is.  I’ve never seen that before in my lifetime. That said, it is important to recognize your cognitive biases and try to add rationality—especially in the world of investing. My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week is an expert on cognitive bias and has written a book on how to overcome them to make the right decisions in your own life. Make sure to listen now! P.S. Sign up for our meetup HERE! Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a best-selling author, internationally-recognized thought leader and CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. He is a neuroscientist & behavioral economist who consults, coaches, and trains leaders on disaster avoidance, risk management, strategic planning, truth-seeking and decision-making. Gleb is co-author of Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back into Politics, published in 2020. He lives in Columbus, Ohio. Shownotes: What is Cognitive Bias? Why would someone decide to buy high and sell low? One huge cognitive bias mistake when it comes to Wealth Management How do modern news and media affect our cognitive bias?

When I was growing up, the Republican Party stood for small government and free trade. Democrats were apparently on the other side of the table. Maybe it is an incorrect generalization, but one thing is for sure…neither party supports real free trade anymore. Why? Well, I think it stems from an overriding trend towards nationalism. The problem is that free trade is actually very beneficial for economies. Over the past several decades no other country has benefitted more from free trade than the United States. There are many benefits to free trade. Obviously, you have a greater variety of goods to choose from. Free trade allows for the maximization of resources and makes them more efficient to allocate. It also promotes efficiency in production, improves employment (net effect), and finally, allows us to keep the cost of stuff we consume way lower than it would be if we didn’t have free trade. Just imagine what we would be paying for clothes without China! The body that regulates global trade is the World Trade Organization. And, as you can imagine, nationalistic forces have rendered it less effective than it was. To discuss the benefits of free trade and the health of global trade today, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the founders of the World Trade Organization, Congressman James Bacchus. Make sure to tune into this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast and learn about the world trade organization, the current trade environment, and some potential solutions to the trade problems of our time. Listen HERE! James Leonard Bacchus (born June 21, 1949) is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida from 1991 to 1995. He was a founding member and twice chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland from 1995 to 2003. He later became a fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations. Shownotes: China’s relationship with the World Trade Organization Nationalism vs. Patriotism What is the key to the success of the World Trade Organization? Trade Links: New Rules for a New World