The Higher Standard

Friends, please make sure your financial seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position because we are about to tell you why you need a trust. Make sure your economic seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you like Diddy sneaking through customs or in the overhead bins like his drug mule. ➡️ We are going to dive in to the la...

After many repeated requests, Chris shares his own basic investment strategy that took his personal growth portfolio from $0 to over $1,000,000 with as little oversight as possible. He provides you the names of the low cost index funds he uses, the allocation to each and then explains how he has built his portfolio from there. This is not investment advice; however, it is what he did to create his...

Chris, Saied and the spirit of Haroon are back at it and still playing with an updated beta version of the format for "The Higher Standard" podcast. We are trying to hit you right in the face before the intro, before the shenanigans with useful financial literacy. We are still going to get in to current events and our take, but we want to make sure that each and every single one of you find value...

In this "The Higher Standard" episode, Chris, Saied, and Haroon mix humor with economic deep dives. They cover building a top credit score and analyze S&P 500's performance via Bloomberg. Next, they tackle CNBC's report on the Fed's latest inflation measure. They then explore SuperCore Inflation with The Kobeissi Letter and tackle rent inflation's mysteries with the Washington Post. Plus, they...

The boys start the show right off the bat with a commonly asked about mortgage hack that will actually save you a whole lot of money. The problem is that it isn't really something too many people actually do. It requires discipline, planning and making sure your bank applies the payments correctly. The rest of the episode is spent diving in to the Fed and their rate cut paradigm. By all outward me...

The boys are off and running with shenanigans from the beginning. Haroon inadvertently opens his energy drink before the show started so he can't entertain you with his usual unnecessary interruptions, but don't worry, he filled his can with water for reasons we still don't fully understand. They spend a good amount of time recapping Jerome Powell's commentary from Jackson Hole, Wyoming which were...

Dive into the financial deep end with Chris, Saied, and Haroon for episode 217 of The Higher Standard podcast where they slice through the week's money maze with sharp wit and wisdom. From the dizzying heights of household debt mountains—mortgages to credit cards—revealed by The Kobeissi Letter, to decoding the inflation crystal ball before the big CPI reveal of 2024, they've got you covered. Don'...

In this exhilarating episode 216 of The Higher Standard Podcast, Chris, Saied, and Haroon dive into the the tumultuous tumble of regional bank stocks, led by New York Community Bancorp's dramatic diva moment — cutting dividends and flaunting losses like it's going out of style. But don't let NYCB's solo act fool you; while they're busy singing the blues and getting sued by shareholders for a throw...

With this weekly cadence, the boys have a jam packed episode of data and things to challenge your perspective about what's going on in the market. They hit CRE and office prices, the yield curve inversion, corporate debt defaults and even a theoretical Tech Bubble 2.0 discussion. Lots of charts, lots of fun and all The Higher Standard you can handle. Sponsored By Transcend Company: TRANSCEND your...

The Higher Standard is back, fresh off their new once a week cadence. It feels equally as weird for Chris, Saied and Haroon. Behind the scenes, our boy Hayden, is getting up to speed on all the editing work. The end goal is to bring you all better content, better shows and better guests. We start off episode 214 with a hard look at the housing market and where it could be going. Chris expresses co...

This was a sad episode. Reluctantly, the boys have decided to try and change things up a bit by going from two shows a week down to one. Chris, Saied and Haroon are eliminating the Friday episode so that they can focus on improving the quality of content and growing the brand. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I guess...

The boys stepped in to the studio a little saucy from an earlier business meeting over steaks and adult beverages.  So much so that they forgot to do the introduction of the show.  After 20 minutes of a sobriety check, they hop in to a recession discussion pointing out that history is pretty clear that we have not in fact avoided a recession.  Although Chris disagreed...

Chris, Saied and Haroon kick off the show with a slow and sexy leisurely introduction.  They know the road ahead is filled with some dark data and wanted you to be nice and warm for the cold, hard truth.  Then the roundhouse of data which signals that office space has hit an all time high vacancy number across the country.  A sign of the potential challenges that are...

This is an eclectic episode where the boys talk about boiling frogs and somehow relate it to the $34 trillion mountain of nation debt. Then they dive right in to how the pain in the real estate market is now beginning to have a heavy impact on Realtors with 45% of US real estate agents saying they're struggling to pay rent. If buying a home wasn't bad enough, home and auto insurance is becoming no...

Despite all the positive commentary regarding the increasing likelihood of a "soft landing," Chris, Saied and Haroon are not convinced that the economy is in a good place. Episode 209 kicks off with a look at the looming CPI report data and US national debt. Then they break down how the Fed has stopped talking about a recession for three consecutive meetings in a row now. The Higher Standard boys...

Trying something new, Chris, Saied and Haroon wanted to play a little game of "Cash or Trash." In this game they asked for you, the listener, to ask any questions you wanted to or name a popular social media personality you wanted to hear their opinion on. The idea was not to disparage anyone, but provide a roadmap and some insight in to what we look at when trying to determine if someone on socia...

Happy New Year friends! The Higher Standard is kicking off the year with some heat to make you think about all the positive data you are hearing. Chris and Saied were in the studio just before New Year's Eve to cook up this banger for you, while Haroon remained out on a prolongated PTO. He may be out on a sabbatical at this point. The boys dive in to the home prices and some red flags you need to...

That's right! While most other podcasts are on a winter break, The Higher Standard boys are still bringing you some fresh content the day after Christmas. We cover all the topics you want to hear most in this holiday banger. Mortgage rates could soon drop to 6.5% and Saied, Chris and Haroon will tell you why they know that is likely to be true. The housing market slowdown is rippling through the e...

As fans of Patrick Bet-David, Chris, Saied and Haroon were getting asked to review his "Reverse Market Crash: The Worst Possible Economic Outcome" video on YouTube. So we thought we would take a stab at watching it for the first time live and giving you our visceral and real reactions to it. It should be no surprise that The Higher Standard boys agree with many of PBD's points; however, they do cl...

Spoiler alert, Haroon is once again out on PTO. Man, The Higher Standard podcast must have some incredible employee benefits. So to honor the unsupervised recording, Chris and Saied elected to go almost entirely off script. No show notes, no structure, just two old friends talking about the economy and their lives. Chris and Saied dive in to what a "soft landing" for the U.S. economy means for you...

After a brief hiatus, the boys are back and ready for the December 12-13 FOMC meeting results. They already know it's going to be a "pause," but Chris, Saied and Haroon predict what they think will be the rhetoric coming out of the meeting. More likely than not is a rally based on pure market optimism. The boys pivot to a thorough breakdown of the wealth stratification in America today because we...

Jordan Franks is a fan of The Higher Standard having heard about it from the one and only Mind Pump! Having a huge personal interest in finance and building wealth has helped this former professional football player pivot to post football life with a zeal toward building his next chapter with the same discipline and commitment. After an impressive college football career at Jordan played in the Na...

Chris, Saied and Haroon are back and trying to read the economic tea leaves to help us all figure out what may or may not happen next.  Inflation cooled in October, but that doesn’t mean we have officially “beaten it.”  But, even the Fed’s Waller is out sounding confident that we have.  There has been a strong pull back in consumer spending, which the boys think is re...

In a jam packed episode 198, Chris, Saied and Haroon are very caffeinated and coming in hot.  You can just feel the palpable stench of the powerful combination of sarcasm and data.  Kicking off the show, the boys jump into US holiday retail sales.  They quickly pivot to how much the “typical American” has in a 401(k) account.  Then wham! Its all housing mark...

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the recession, I shall fear no Gary Shilling. Gary has been a permanent bear in the markets, but he did call and make a lot of money of The Great Recession. Now he is saying you can expect stocks may crash 30%, a recession looks imminent, and commercial real estate is a bubble about to burst. We give you 8 of his best quotes from a new intervie...