Thoughts On Money [TOM]

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4jJ3yGu On the Thoughts on Money (TOM) podcast, host Blaine Carver with Brett Bonecutter and guest Joel Pietila (Associate Director of Planning) discuss Joel’s article, “The Utility of Money,” exploring how financial planning should account for personal values beyond maximizing wealth. Yoel shares a pumpkin patch story to illustrate choosing meaningful “ka...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4ywqFrr Host Blaine Carver talks with Brett Bonecutter and financial planner Matt Gregory about Gregory’s article, “What Could The Election Actually Do To Your Money?” Gregory says election anxiety commonly shows up in planning as questions about taxes, inflation, Social Security, healthcare, investing, and ultimately whether clients will be okay, and that...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4s5VJwC Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money podcast with Brett Bonecutter and Blaine Carver (“Joe Bob”) to explain bond yields and interest rates through a scripted “table read.” They frame interest rates as the price of money, shaped by supply and demand, time, risk, and expectations for inflation and growth. The discussion distinguishes loans fro...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4AXYRyJ Trevor Cummings hosts the Thought Someday podcast with Brett Bonecutter and Blaine Carver to discuss his blog post, “The Cost of Paying Later,” focusing on the cultural shift toward “buy now, pay later” financing from firms like Affirm and Klarna for everything from small purchases to luxury items. They argue people fixate on monthly payments rathe...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4hpwdik Brett Bonecutter hosts “Thoughts on Money” solo to discuss “Profits: Vice or Virtue?” inspired by David Bahnsen’s book and moral defense of profit amid renewed cultural debate over socialism versus capitalism. He argues free markets are not defensible because greed is useful, but because properly earned profit rewards value creation and serving oth...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4hc81Qi Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money (TOM) podcast with blog author Blaine Carver discussing why investors underperform market returns due to behavioral mistakes. Carver cites Morningstar data showing a 2016–2025 S&P 500 annual return of 9.9% versus 8.7% for the average dollar in U.S. mutual funds/ETFs, and a Dalbar 30-year study ending...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4AhW7vM Trevor Cummings hosts Thoughts on Money with Brett Bonecutter and analyst Ishan Chhabra to discuss Chhabra’s article “Good Company, Bad Stock,” focusing on how a strong business can still be a poor investment when purchased at the wrong valuation. Using a Red Vines analogy and Walmart from 2000–2011, they show how high expectations (Walmart at ~44x...

This week's blogpost: https://bahnsen.co/4A77CpN Trevor Cummings hosts a Thoughts on Money podcast discussion with Blaine Carver and Brett Bonecutter on how modern environments—especially social media algorithms and targeted ads—shape financial decisions, using the Stanford Prison Experiment as an example of behavioral influence. They critique an Instagram “real estate guru” video promoting “regul...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4xsigpq On the Thoughts on Money podcast, Trevor Cummings, Sarah Leitzke, and Blaine Carver discuss Sarah’s blog post inspired by “pearl party” videos and multi-level marketing, using them to frame a key consumer question in insurance: “How are you paid?” They outline three compensation models for people selling insurance: recruiting-focused, multi-level m...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/46j36GM Host Blaine Carver interviews Brett Bonecutter about his article “Is Gold a Good Investment?” prompted by Rand Paul’s Fort Knox visit and frequent client questions about gold. They outline why investors are drawn to gold—perceived capital preservation, durability/rarity, mistrust of fiat currency and debasement, de-dollarization, and crisis “shock...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4cmIBMV On the Thoughts on Money podcast, host Trevor Cummings speaks with New York-based Matthew Gregory and Brett Bonecutter about New York City’s proposed “pied-à-terre” tax—an annual surcharge on high-value properties not used as a primary residence, aimed largely at nonresidents. They discuss the controversial rollout, including a publicly released li...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4bDXOsO Trevor Cummings hosts a Thoughts on Money podcast discussion with Blaine Carver and Brett Bonecutter about when to claim Social Security (62, 67, or 70), comparing the tradeoff between smaller checks for longer versus larger checks for fewer years, and emphasizing that psychology and personal priorities often drive the decision. They note Social Se...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/45DhMjH Host Blaine Carver and author Brett Bonecutter discuss Brett’s article “Blue Collar Aristocracy,” challenging the “college for everyone” assumption in education planning and default 529 saving. Drawing from Brett’s experience raising eight boys and shifts advisors see in client questions, they focus on the economics of college: high costs, average...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/3RwqRr9 Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money (TOM) podcast with Blaine Carver and blog author Matt Gregory to discuss Matt’s article on lifetime gifting versus waiting to transfer wealth at death. They explain the annual gift exclusion ($19,000 per person, doubled for married couples) and how repetition can move substantial amounts without using the...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4wQMnWQ Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money podcast with Blaine Carver and blog author Sarah Leitzke, who opens with a family story about her grandparents buying “Vitamin O,” later found to be a scam, to highlight how older adults can become vulnerable to fraud, especially amid cognitive decline. The conversation covers real-world scam examples, wa...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4vpHumt On the Thoughts on Money (TOM) podcast, host Trevor Cummings, Ishan, and Blaine Carver discuss Ishan’s article “Temptation or Temperament,” contrasting efficient capital markets (efficient market hypothesis, especially the semi-strong form where public information is priced in) with inefficient human behavior. They explore how sentiment and biases—...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4eu3cR3 Brett Bonecutter hosts “Thoughts on Money” with author Blaine Carver to discuss “Trump accounts,” launching July 4, and whether they’re a game changer or gimmick. Carver compares them to his grandmother’s $1,000 investing gift and argues the accounts’ biggest impact is behavioral—getting more Americans, especially those without assets in a “K-shape...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/3RTyKah Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money (TOM) podcast with Brett Bonecutter and Blaine Carver to discuss Brett’s article on food and its economic and cultural implications. They explore how nearly any topic connects to money, then reflect on family dinners, modern home layouts, and how convenience and abundance may reduce intentional time toget...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4voyr5t Trevor Cummings and Brett Bonecutter discuss superheroes as a metaphor for investing, contrasting “superhuman” finance promises that are often too good to be true with the practical “Batman” approach of using tactical discipline. Trevor argues that earmarking—assigning a clear purpose and time horizon to every dollar—is a personal finance superpowe...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4eayQTh Today, Matthew Gregory writes the Thoughts on Money article, and discusses with Trevor about how to reframe estate planning from something morbid into an act of love that protects the people you care about by reducing logistical and legal burdens during grief. Using The Princess Bride’s “prepare to die” line and analogies like board games and omaka...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/3PFBC9R With Trevor Cummings out, host Blaine Carver talks with author Brett Bonecutter about artificial intelligence through the competing visions of a utopian “Jetsons” future versus a dystopian “Terminator” outcome. They discuss how AI may be overhyped in the short run but underestimated over the long run, define AI as pattern-recognition systems that a...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4nx56TO Trevor Cummings hosts the Thoughts on Money podcast with Blaine Carver and Brett Bonecutter to discuss Blaine’s blog “Financial Framework for Graduates”) and the challenges of “launching” into adulthood amid high costs of living and shifting cultural expectations. They debate when and how young adults should become independent, including the “boome...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/48QRb50 Trevor Cummings and Brett Bonecutter discuss Trevor’s “Not an Exact Science” blog post, prompted by a prospective client who achieved strong decade-long returns largely because nearly half his portfolio was concentrated in two top-performing stocks, leading to a conversation about diversification and how investors often blur skill and luck. They ex...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/4tJyhFD Trevor Cummings hosts a “Thoughts on Money” podcast episode with Blaine Carver and Brett Bonecutter, discussing Brett’s lighthearted blog post “$10 Finance Words” and how financial jargon can confuse or impress audiences. They contrast unavoidable shorthand with performative buzzwords, share pet peeves (like “curated,” “circle back,” and “HBD”), an...

This week's blogpost - https://bahnsen.co/42ccBWB In this week's Thoughts on Money, Trevor, Blaine, and Brett discuss Blaine's article, “The Next Bear Market,” which argues that a 20% market decline will happen at some point and that recent, fast recoveries (COVID, 2022, 2023 bank failures, and a short-lived 2025 ~19% drawdown) may be breeding investor complacency. They distinguish corrections (10...