Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors

You might've seen it on the nightly news or read it in the morning paper, but things got a little tense on Capitol Hill leading into Memorial Day weekend. Today we're going to talk about the debt ceiling crisis that almost happened in the US. Luckily, politicians figured it out, or at least kicked the can down the road. So, what does that mean for your finances? Well, hopefully nothing. But what about a couple looming questions like: What are the underlying factors that contribute to the need for the government to raise the debt ceiling repeatedly? Can the Treasury continue to take on debt? Does the recurring debt impact the long-term credibility of the government's financial decisions? How does the uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling affect financial markets, investor confidence, and economic growth both domestically and globally? Jesse's here to break down what is another confusing topic sure to affect investors of all kinds, the national debt ceiling. More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Investing can be stressful. We worry when our accounts are going down and grow overconfident when our accounts are going up. So how do we find a good baseline? Surprisingly, one of the answers has to do with chess and a Chinese emperor. Sit back and let Jesse improve your investing mindset as he explains 7 intriguing stories and facts about how the stock market works. Mentions: *Actual Stock Market Returns* Will Change Your Investing Perspective…: https://bestinterest.blog/actual-stock-market-returns/ Aswath Damodaran: A Valuation Expert's Take on Inflation, Stock Buybacks, ESG, and More: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/aswath-damodaran-a-valuation-experts-take-on/id1462214964?i=1000613283867 More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Time is coming for us all, and according to one survey, 73% of adult children haven't had detailed conversations with their parents about their parents' finances. In fact, many of them don't know how to even start the discussion. Today, on The Best Interest Podcast, Jesse explains a few ways to bring up this conversation, gather information, and details which topics you should discuss not just with your parents, but family at large. Communication is a huge part of personal finance and all relationships, and the mixture of finance and family is a place where communication is paramount. Jesse also reflects on the five regrets we commonly have at the end of life, and how David Foster Wallace thinks we should approach living a meaningful life. Mentions: GOBankingRates Survey: https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/family/americans-discuss-finances-aging-parents-survey/ Bronnie's List: https://bestinterest.blog/the-top-5-regrets-of-the-dying/ This is Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbGM4mqEVw More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Today, we explore the concept of FIRE, a community of individuals dedicated to the principles of achieving financial independence and early retirement. Jesse plays devil's advocate against FIRE, dives into the nuance of the 4% rule (a widely misunderstood concept in the FIRE community), and demonstrates how to shape financial independence to work for your personal goals. Then, Brad Barrett, the host of the popular personal finance podcast Choose FI, joins Jesse to cover the objective numbers when it comes to achieving financial independence before traditional retirement and why pursuing financial independence may be worthwhile even if you don't reach full FIRE. Mentions: Wade Pfau's Updated Trinity Study: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfau/2018/01/16/the-trinity-study-and-portfolio-success-rates-updated-to-2018/?sh=18e5e1946860 The Origin of the 4% Rule: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/choosing-the-highest--safe--withdrawal-rate-at-retirement-57731.html Mr Money Mustache's Shockingly Simple Math: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ Die with Zero: https://amzn.to/3LTxmh5 FIRE Starter: A Brief Intro to Personal Finance's Hot New Acronym: https://bestinterest.blog/fire-starter-a-brief-intro-to-personal-finances-hot-new-acronym/ You're Probably Using the 4% Rule All Wrong: https://bestinterest.blog/the-4-percent-rule/ How to Retire Decades Early: https://bestinterest.blog/how-to-retire-decades-early/ Choose FI Podcast: https://www.choosefi.com/ More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a couple weekly articles from The Best Interest. Today we explore the intersection of two of the most important components of personal finances, taxes and investing and why you might save thousands of dollars off your tax bill. Jesse tackles the topic of taxes from a few different angles: the most common mistakes in understanding taxes including tax brackets, how they work and why accepting a raise can't decrease your take home pay, the RRTTLLU framework of assessing investments and taxes, the "real returns" of different tax-advantaged accounts, and a deep-dive lesson in capital gains taxes. Mentions: Capital Gains Taxes 101: https://bestinterest.blog/capital-gains-taxes-101/ Roth is Better Than Traditional: https://bestinterest.blog/roth-is-better-than-traditional/ How Do Taxes Affect Stock Return?: https://bestinterest.blog/how-do-taxes-affect-stock-returns/ RRTTLLU: https://bestinterest.blog/rrttllu/ 15 Minutes Saving $120,000: https://bestinterest.blog/15-minutes-of-math/ How Do Tax Brackets Work?: https://bestinterest.blog/how-tax-brackets-work/ Reddit Investing Question: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-9EB24Y-ow0yutfVoWICM4We9p4m9b7C4JRoqKI9G_c/edit#gid=0 More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Uncle Jim is certain Tesla stock is about to go up. He's been right before. I mean he's also been wrong, but only when something unpredictable happened. So, should we trust Uncle Jim knows what he's talking about? Well, I'm confident the average "Uncle Jim" is way too overconfident. Larry Swedroe says the biggest risk to most investors is staring them in the mirror, and I'd have to agree. So, how does this overconfidence manifest itself in investors, and where does it come from? Sit back as I explore the concept of self-attribution bias and how to find yourself in the Goldilocks zone of confidence where it's not too warm, but not too cold. Mentions: A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing: https://amzn.to/3GsT6OH "Men's Honest Overconfidence May Lead to Male Domination in the C–Suite": https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/newsroom/newsn/1879/mens-honest-overconfidence-may-lead-to-male-domination-in-the-csuite "Overconfidence – Investors' Worst Enemy" by Larry Swedroe: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/overconfidence-investors-worst-enemy/ More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Why is personal finance so complicated? Even worse, the Internet is full of personal finance "experts" providing short-sighted, error-prone, and outright bad financial advice. Sure, we all need the basic advice - investing 101, budgeting, how to avoid financial frauds. But then there's the more complicated stuff… What happened at Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023? Why did bonds - a supposedly safe investment - suffer losses in 2022? How did the Great Financial Crisis happen - and could it happen again?! We all want to understand significant financial events but don't want to constantly read and watch a stream of negative news that stresses us out. Real topics with real implications, deserving a simple, straight forward explanation. We don't have time to be Warren Buffett or get Economics PhDs. We shouldn't have to! But we need to be aware of what's going on. This stuff affects our lives. That's where The Best Interest Podcast come in, hosted by me, Jesse Cramer. I take the important news, break it down in simple terms, and reinforce the important personal finance advice that these events should teach us. I use everyday experiences to make personal finance accessible for the average investor. Extensive research and simple narrative makes finance both informative and enjoyable. By day, I work for a fiduciary wealth management firm in Rochester, NY, helping clients 1-on-1 create their long-term financial plans and investment portfolios. By night, I runs The Best Interest - nominated in 2022 for "Personal Finance Blog of the Year." The Best Interest simplifies personal finance and investing to make your life easier, smarter…and a little richer, too. Come invest in knowledge with The Best Interest.

If a guy from Facebook messages you about whole life insurance more than your mom texts you, it's time to be suspicious. He may have more interest in your wallet than your well-being. But not all insurance is bad. Insurance is meant to protect wealth, not create it, and anyone who's crashed their car or broken their clavicle knows this to be true. So, what insurance is right for you? Jesse breaks down the types of personal insurance that can help protect your assets, your health and your loved ones. Oh, and he also throws shade at that guy from Facebook trying to sell you on whole life insurance. Spoiler alert: more often than not, whole life insurance isn't optimal for you. But Jesse's no expert on insurance, so he brings in Broc Buckles, owner of BC Brokerage, a fee-only insurance brokerage focused on making insurance simple. Broc walks us through what kind of insurance a 25-45 year old might benefit from, what insurance is overkill, and the difference between whole life vs term life insurance. Follow Brock: Website: https://www.bc-brokerage.com/ Email: Broc@bc-brokerage.com More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

Bank runs, collapses, and bailouts. Anyone else getting GFC PTSD? The Silicon Valley Bank collapse is the largest bank collapse since the 2008 Great Financial Crisis,, and the second largest U.S. bank collapse ever. So, why did it happen? Will this spark a larger contagion throughout the banking sector and the U.S. economy, and should everyday savers be concerned? Jesse breaks down the larger infrastructure of the banking industry, what specific mechanics led to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, and what might come of it in the near future. Mentions: Blog: https://bestinterest.blog/silicon-valley-bank-101/ It's a Wonderful Life Bank Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPkJH6BT7dM&t=5s Why Warren Buffett Said No to Lehman and AIG in 2008 WSJ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QeUcfqkUzc More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

So what did Warren Buffett mean by silver tongued demagogues and slaying dragons? Jesse sits down with Rob Bradley, a fellow Berkshire Hathaway shareholder and CFP in Rochester, NY, to discuss the wealth of knowledge behind Berkshire Hathaway's latest annual letter to shareholders. Buffett is widely regarded as one of the greatest investors of all time and his investing style has been studied and emulated by many investors over the years. Rob breaks down how Berkshire Hathaway has outperformed the S&P, invested in Apple as an indispensable consumer product, and poised itself to take advantage of domestic businesses based on their intrinsic value. Quotes: "Charlie and I are not stock pickers. We are business pickers." "When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country or particularly beneficial to CEOs. You are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver tongued demagogue, characters that are not mutually exclusive." "Successful investing takes time, discipline and patience. No matter how great the effort, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in 1 month by getting 9 women pregnant." "Bitcoin was probably rat poison squared." "Interest rates are to financial instruments as gravity is to matter." Mentions: Becky Quick, of CNBC will review questions that shareholders have submitted by e-mail and select those she believes will have the widest interest. Questions can be submitted to Becky at berkshirequestions@cnbc.com. Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2022ltr.pdf More of The Best Interest: Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.