Bankless by Design

Who really makes the rules in your financial life? In Part 1 of The Golden Rule, Tricia Miller and her son Jonathan continue walking through the Human Problems section of Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker. Nelson's financial version of the Golden Rule is blunt: "He who has the gold makes the rules." But this episode is not about greed, domination, or simply having more money. It is about capi...

In Willie Sutton's Law Part 2, Tricia and Jonathan continue the Becoming Your Own Banker series with a bold and eye-opening conversation about the financial deals most people are taught to accept without question. Nelson Nash warned that wherever wealth accumulates, someone will try to get to it. In this episode, we look at qualified plans, employer matches, tax deferral, Wall Street, liquidity, a...

Libsyn Caption / Description In this episode of Bankless by Design , Tricia continues through Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker with Willie Sutton's Law, Part 1: When the Law Becomes the Thief . This conversation explores the chapter's deeper themes of legal plunder, taxation, control, and the question of who really has a claim on your wealth once it begins to accumulate. Even for listeners w...

Why would anyone put whole life insurance on a baby? In this episode, Tricia walks through a real policy illustration for a brand-new baby boy and explains why this decision is not about death — it is about life, insurability, capital, family banking, and generational stewardship. Money will flow through your child's life either way. The real question is: who will control the banking function? Thi...

This episode feels a little like storytime — and honestly, it fits. Tricia and Jonathan continue their conversation on Parkinson's Law by turning to one of Tricia's favorite old financial classics: The Richest Man in Babylon . Nelson Nash shows us the problem: expenses tend to rise to meet income. But The Richest Man in Babylon gives us a practical place to begin. Tricia brings her love of old boo...

In this episode, Tricia and Jonathan begin Part Two of Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker , where Nash turns from the technical side of Infinite Banking to the human problems. The focus today is Parkinson's Law — the reality that expenses tend to rise to meet income. More money will not fix our finances if our habits, appetites, and spending keep recreating the same problem. Tricia also explai...

What does it really mean to "pay yourself back"? In Part 2 of this conversation, Tricia Miller and her son Jonathan continue through Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker and unpack one of the most important principles of Infinite Banking: if you are going to become the banker, you have to act like the banker. They discuss repaying policy loans with discipline, paying interest back into the syste...

What if your greatest financial need is not simply more life insurance — but a better way to finance your life? In this episode, Tricia Miller and her son Jonathan continue working through pages 23 and 24 of Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker . This is where Nelson begins shifting the conversation from thinking only about death benefit to understanding the lifelong need for financing, capitali...

In this episode, I continue through Becoming Your Own Banker by Nelson Nash and talk about a mistake people often make when looking at whole life insurance for the Infinite Banking Concept: focusing too much on the dividend rate. The truth is, the dividend rate alone does not tell you what you need to know. What matters more is your behavior as the owner, the strength and structure of the company,...

In Episode 36 of the BYOB Series, Tricia Miller continues the walk through Nelson Nash's chapter on creating your own banking system through dividend-paying life insurance . This first half of the conversation focuses on dividends: what they are, how they are determined, and why dividend rate alone is not a sound way to compare policies or companies. Along the way, Tricia explains why policy illus...

In this episode of Bankless By Design , Tricia continues the Becoming Your Own Banker series by looking more closely at the product behind the process: whole life insurance. But this conversation goes beyond the mechanics of the policy itself. At the heart of this episode is a deeper idea: ownership matters . Tricia walks through Nelson Nash's explanation of how whole life insurance is engineered,...

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend and fellow practitioner, Will Fullington, to talk about a topic most churches and nonprofits have probably never considered: how the Infinite Banking Concept can help them build, protect, and steward capital for the long term. We talk about stewardship, liquidity, long-range thinking, and why churches need more than a savings account if they want to be prep...

Most people believe paying cash is the safest and cheapest way to buy anything. But what if that belief is costing you more than you realize? In this episode, Tricia and Jonathan unpack a foundational principle from Becoming Your Own Banker : You finance everything you buy—either by paying interest to someone else or giving up interest you could have earned. Through simple examples and real-world...

Are you actually being a good steward of your money… or does it just feel like you are? In this episode, we explore a foundational principle from Becoming Your Own Banker —that you finance everything you buy—and connect it to the Parable of the Talents. What we uncover is a powerful truth: 👉 It's not just about what you spend… it's about what your money could have been doing. We talk about: Why b...

In this episode of the Bankless By Design Podcast , Tricia and   Jonathan continue their Becoming Your Own Banker series with the chapter " Creating a Bank Like the Ones You Already Know About." Together, they explore what it would really take to start a traditional bank— from capital requirements and bank charters to deposits, lending, and the cost of establishing trust in the marketplace. They a...

Most financial conversations revolve around rate of return . But Nelson Nash pointed out something very different: the average American may be losing over 34% of disposable income to interest flowing to banks, lenders, and financing companies. In this episode of Bankless By Design , Tricia and Jonathan explore Nash's famous airplane analogy — explaining why most people are unknowingly flying into...

Most people believe the problem with their finances is that they aren't earning a high enough rate of return. But what if that's not the real issue? In Part 1 of our discussion on The Problem from Becoming Your Own Banker , Jonathan and I examine the quiet but powerful force draining wealth from most families: the volume of interest leaving their lives year after year. We talk about: – Why focusin...

Tricia Miller is joined by three fellow practitioners and friends— Jodi LaFrance, Nicole Gardner, and Becca Wilhite —to unpack their week at the 2026 Nelson Nash Institute Think Tank in Birmingham, Alabama (the 20th anniversary Think Tank). This conversation is a behind-the-scenes look at what Think Tank is, why the theme "thinking long range" matters, and what it really means to build a financial...

In this episode of Bankless By Design , Tricia Miller continues her conversation with fellow Infinite Banking practitioner Nolan Johnsrud, focusing on one of the most misunderstood parts of the Infinite Banking Concept: capitalization . Why did Nelson Nash say "don't be afraid to capitalize" ? Why does paying high premium come first? And why are policy loans not something to fear? This conversatio...

Saving money shouldn't mean putting life on hold. In Episode 26 (Part 1) of Bankless By Design , Tricia Miller is joined by fellow practitioner Nolan Johnsrud for a grounded conversation about Infinite Banking for real people. Together, they explore how Infinite Banking helps families save and live at the same time —so they can ultimately thrive. This episode covers mindset shifts around saving, t...

Tricia and Jonathan continue the Becoming Your Own Banker series with the second half of Nelson Nash's Grocery Store example (5th edition, page 16). They unpack the "back door" problem — why taking from your own system without paying it back is a quiet form of self-sabotage — and how scrupulous honesty, long-term thinking, and disciplined repayment are essential to building a thriving family banki...

If you understand the grocery store example, the rest of Infinite Banking gets easy. In Part I of the Grocery Store Example from Becoming Your Own Banker , we break down why Infinite Banking isn't about the rate of return—it's about turning inventory, velocity of money, and running your policy like a business . Using Nelson Nash's famous can-of-peas analogy, we explore how small margins become pow...

Infinite Banking is often explained as a math strategy — but Nelson Nash began somewhere else entirely. In this episode of Bankless by Design , Tricia Miller and her son Jonathan explore why imagination is essential to understanding the Infinite Banking Concept, and why logic and calculation alone aren't enough. Using the story of Carl Gauss, reflections from Becoming Your Own Banker , and real-li...

Do you have to be wealthy to become your own banker? That question stops more people than almost anything else. In this episode of the Becoming Your Own Banker series, Tricia walks through the true origin of the Infinite Banking Concept — and it didn't begin with wealth, comfort, or a perfectly organized financial life. It was born in crisis. By tracing Nelson Nash's journey, you'll discover why t...

Who really controls the money? In Episode 21 of the Becoming Your Own Banker series, we take a 30,000-foot view of money, banking, and control. Nelson Nash teaches that there is one pool of money in the world — constantly flowing through individuals, families, businesses, and banks — and the banking business exists to control that flow. Most people never stop to ask how much of the banking functio...