The Fiscal Physical Retirement Podcast

The gold standard shaped money for generations, then disappeared. In this episode, Ryan explains what the gold standard actually was, how it tied a country's currency to a fixed amount of gold, and why the United States ultimately moved away from it. He and Aaron walk through the trade-offs in plain language: the discipline gold imposed, the flexibility it took away, and how its end shaped th...

Recession fears make for scary headlines, but how worried should you actually be? In this listener-question episode, Ryan tackles whether the economy is in a recession and how today's picture differs from the 2008 financial crisis. He and Aaron put the current worry in historical context, explaining what a recession really is, why this moment looks different from 2008, and why a long-term inv...

A handful of people quietly shaped the money system we all use today. In this episode, Ryan tells the stories of three of them: Alexander Hamilton, who built America's financial credibility and credit; Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal gave us Social Security, FDIC insurance, and the SEC; and Jack Bogle, who put low-cost index investing within reach of ordinary people. Ryan and Aaron connect...

Some of the most common money beliefs are flat wrong, and they quietly hold people back. In this episode, Ryan and Aaron break down three of the biggest: that investing is just gambling, that you should always pay off debt as fast as possible, and that budgeting means restriction. For each one, Ryan explains the kernel of truth, where the myth goes off the rails, and how to think about it more cle...

The best time to prepare for a layoff is before it ever happens. In this episode, Ryan walks through a step-by-step plan to get financially ready, starting with your survival number, the bare-minimum amount your household needs to cover each month. From there he covers building an emergency fund that fits that number, trimming fixed costs ahead of time, and knowing your options for health coverage...

If you could restart your financial life at 22, what would you do differently? In this episode, Ryan answers that honestly, and the takeaways work for anyone who wants to build wealth, not just recent grads. His list is refreshingly simple: start investing early so time does the heavy lifting, automate your savings so good habits run on autopilot, always capture your full employer match, keep life...

Is the middle class really getting squeezed, or is that just a headline? In this episode, Ryan looks at what has actually happened to middle-class buying power over the past few decades and why housing has become the single biggest pressure on most family budgets. He and Aaron separate the real strain from the noise, including why your personal inflation rate can look very different from the numbe...

The paper ceiling is the invisible barrier that keeps qualified workers without a college degree from being considered for jobs they are fully capable of doing. Ryan explains how it compares to the glass ceiling, which typically involves race or gender bias, and why degree inflation, the practice of adding degree requirements to roles that do not actually need one, has made the problem worse over...

BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street manage trillions of dollars, but they do not own the market. Ryan explains what asset managers actually are: intermediaries who run funds on behalf of investors. When you put money into a Vanguard index fund, Vanguard holds the underlying shares in trust for you. They charge a fee to do it; they do not own what is inside the fund. The more legitimate concern R...

A 64-year-old listener planning to retire in about a year asked Ryan for a practical checklist. Ryan's answer covers eight areas: gather all your data first, including pensions from multiple states and any old retirement accounts; get clear on your spending and goals; build your income plan; think through the tax and Social Security interplay; understand Medicare, IRMAA, and healthcare costs;...

Every publicly traded company is required to release its financial results every quarter. Ryan explains the four numbers investors pay attention to: revenue (total sales), earnings (what is left after expenses), profit margins (a measure of efficiency), and guidance (management's forecast for the next period). Guidance is often just as market-moving as the results themselves. Ryan and Aaron d...

Every registered investment advisor is required to send clients an annual ADV and privacy policy. Ryan explains what these documents actually contain: how the firm charges fees, what services it provides, any conflicts of interest, background information on the advisors, disciplinary history, and how client data is handled. Aaron shares that reading Alchemy's ADV gave him a clearer picture of...

This episode revisits how the progressive tax system works and layers in the specific 2026 updates most relevant to retirement savers. Ryan explains progressive brackets using plain-language examples so listeners understand that earning more money does not mean getting taxed at a higher rate on every dollar, only on the dollars above each threshold. The 2026 updates Ryan covers include changes to...

Medical debt is different from every other kind of debt because it is not planned. Ryan frames it as one of the big five debt categories, alongside mortgage, car, credit card, and student loans, but points out that no one wakes up choosing to incur it. Bills are often delayed, confusing, error-prone, and arrive from multiple providers at once. The practical advice here is worth the listen. Ryan ex...

Nonprofit does not mean the organization makes no money. Ryan explains what it actually means: there are no shareholders, so any surplus stays inside the organization instead of going to owners or investors. Nonprofits can charge fees, sell services, pay employees, and even pay executives well. The legal and tax classification says nothing about efficiency or ethics. Ryan and Aaron get into how to...

A Monte Carlo simulation runs thousands of hypothetical market scenarios against your retirement plan to calculate a probability of success. Ryan explains what that probability actually means: the percentage of simulated scenarios in which you do not run out of money before the end of your plan. The tool accounts for sequence-of-returns risk, meaning whether a bad market comes early or late in ret...

Bankruptcy is a legal process that can wipe out certain debts, restructure others, and stop collection activity while you get back on solid ground. Ryan explains the two types most people encounter: Chapter 7, which moves faster and can eliminate unsecured debts like credit cards and medical bills, and Chapter 13, which takes longer but helps restructure debt into a manageable payment plan for peo...

Some of the financial rules Americans live by today were shaped by decisions made decades ago. Ryan covers three of the most consequential: the creation of FDIC deposit insurance in 1933 after the Great Depression, the US leaving the gold standard in 1971, and the rise of the 401k system in the 1970s and 80s as pensions faded away. Ryan walks through the pros and cons of each shift without declari...

FDIC and NCUA insurance protect the money you keep in banks and credit unions up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per ownership category. Ryan explains what is covered, checking accounts, savings accounts, and CDs, and what is not, including stocks, ETFs, annuities, and crypto. The FDIC covers banks; the NCUA covers credit unions. Both work similarly. Ryan walks through the ownership ca...

Cost of living is what it costs to pay for housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and everything else you need day to day. Ryan explains how it differs from person to person, why the government's Consumer Price Index is a standardized basket that may not reflect your actual expenses, and how cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) at work are typically tied to that CPI number. Ryan and Aaron wo...

A mortgage is the loan you use to buy a home, and the home itself is the collateral. Ryan breaks down the four components of a mortgage payment, principal, interest, taxes, and insurance (PITI), and explains the difference between 15-year and 30-year terms, fixed and adjustable rates, and why adjustable-rate mortgages carry real risk when rates move. Ryan also covers amortization schedules, which...

An annual financial checkup is one of the highest-leverage habits you can build. Ryan walks through a practical six-part framework: reviewing your spending, checking cash flow and savings rates, evaluating debt, looking at retirement accounts and investments, doing a basic tax planning pass, and making sure your protection layer, insurance and beneficiaries, is current. The tone throughout is begi...

A bull market is a period of rising prices and investor optimism, typically defined as a 20% gain from a recent low. A bear market is the opposite, a 20% drop from a recent high, marked by falling prices and caution. Ryan explains what drives each, from strong earnings and low unemployment on the bull side to recessions, rate hikes, and financial shocks on the bear side. The bigger point Ryan and...

Short selling is how investors bet that a stock will go down instead of up. In this episode, Ryan explains the mechanics in plain English: you borrow shares, sell them, and hope to buy them back later at a lower price, pocketing the difference. Then they get into why it is so risky. Your potential loss is unlimited, and a short squeeze can blow up fast, as the GameStop saga showed. Ryan and Aaron...

A Ponzi scheme is a fake investment program that pays earlier investors using money from new ones. Ryan traces the history from Charles Ponzi in the early 1900s through Bernie Madoff, explaining why these scams look legitimate, at least at first, and why they always collapse once new money stops flowing in. Ryan covers the warning signs to watch for: returns that seem too high or too consistent, p...