Breaking Into Finance

In this episode I chat with Blaise and Olivia about capital expenditures (aka "capex"), what it means to capitalize an asset and the role of depreciation in "averaging out" the cost of capital expenditures. As part of discussing how capex affects each of the three financial statements, we also introduce the "Cash from Investing" section of the Statement of Cash Flows...

Blaise and Olivia join to review the difference between debt and equity as components of the capital structure, as well as the potential consequences of overborrowing.

Olivia joins us for Part 2 of a two-part deep dive on how debt and interest expense impact the three statements. We pick up where we left off on Part 1, so please listen to that episode first if you haven't already. This episode also breaks down the Statement of Cash Flows in more detail. Lastly, here is a YouTube playlist with a video breakdown on how to look up and review financials statemen...

Olivia joins us for Part 1 of a two-part deep dive on how debt and interest expense impact the three statements. We also talk about taxes and how interest is tax-deductible. Part 2 continues with these themes, and also breaks down the Statement of Cash Flows in more detail.

In this episode we do a deeper dive on the balance sheet, with a particular focus on the differences between liabilities and equity.

In this episode Olivia is back to help us run through a more detailed example of how a change in revenue impacts all three financial statements. We also introduce the role of taxes and how tax accounting can (slightly) complicate our three statement math

How did Google add nearly $1 billion in profit during their most recent quarter without actually doing anything? In this episode, we break down a Wall Street Journal article about earnings management practices, and in particular some interested accounting decisions made by Alphabet (Google's parent) and Carvana.

In this episode we go a level deeper into the Income Statement, the line items that it tracks between the top line (revenue) and bottom line (profit), as well as some ratios and definitions.

We introduce Olivia O'Reilly and Blaise Siefer, two current liberal arts students at Middlebury College who will be learning the technicals along with listeners over the next several episodes. Olivia and I work through a personal finance example to illustrate what each of the three financial statements does and the benefits / information we get from being able to track each of them.

We're back with another interview with Austin Kipp where he shares his story and tips for breaking into investment banking (and then private equity investing) even after starting his career in a different industry (IT). In this interview Austin gives his take on cold outreach, networking advice and how to build your finance knowledge and rebuild your resume to execute a career pivot.

Now that we've debunked the myth that everyone who successfully gets a banking job has been on The Path since they were eight years old, I sit down with Alex Lawson to hear about how she navigated her way from Boston University to investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then eventually to Sixth Street.

The idea that everyone who breaks into finance did everything by the book - perfect grades, elite schools, early internships at big-name firms - is a myth. It's true for a vanishingly small number of people, but it's instructive to know what "The Path" looks like so that you can orient yourself and best determine your next steps. As management researcher Peter Drucker once said,...

Intro to the Breaking into Finance Podcast. We'll go through the technicals, jargon, soft skills and more with the help of a variety of guests ranging from investment professionals to current students.