The Money Alchemist Podcast

Agenda: What’s happening 10 min  All asset classes are up: bonds, stocks, precious metals, crypto  Valuations at ATH Brent’s new baby Equity flows from funds to bonds Crypto crunch in October - Bitcoin in corrective territory from ATH Tariff threat with China last week.  This week’s most interesting money story - Alfred Nobel 15 min Topic de jour - Open enrollment season - Optimize your choices 20...

This Weeks Topics: Enrollment and contribution best practices  Plan design - who these plans are optimized for  Fees, what they pay for How to collab with an advisor  Hidden secrets in the plan document  Recent policy changes that expand investment offering potential  _____   About your Hosts    Ben Jones, CFP®  Managing Director, National Wealth Management Group  www.nwmgadvisors.com    Sign up f...

Managing investment return expectations.   The truth behind terrible returns is a person that doesn’t quite understand market mechanics and how they tie into your financial goals.     Watch this episode now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDMLU9XVm8Cd5c1-gWbk3VA   Sources: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/the-12-reality https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/global/en/insights/...

Diversification is the foundation of most investment advice, but what if it's also the single greatest barrier to generating true, exponential wealth? In this episode, we challenge conventional wisdom and explore the high-risk, high-reward strategy of concentrated investing. We delve into how some of the world's most successful investors built fortunes not by spreading their capital thin, but by p...

A war of the classes  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, so begins the famous novel Tale of Two Cities written in 1858.  Written by Charles Dickens, the motif of duality can easily be applied to our modern economy.   Throughout history, the state of mankind can generally be described as fitting someplace between bad and good.   The economy is either terrible or great, depending...

News or Noise? In our fast-paced, 24/7 news cycle, it can feel like a financial advisor's credibility hinges on keeping up with every daily headline. A tweet from a prominent news host, a new market prediction, or a breaking story from CNBC can make an advisor who isn't up to speed feel discredited. The question of whether an advisor should be a news junkie is at the heart of today's episode. Ben...

Some beauty is skin deep. Reinforcing a modern political trend, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) garnered only strict partisan support.  Carrying the timbre of our nation’s President, its name either strikes a nerve with unbearable annoyance or tickles the funny bone.  A dichotomy to define out times.  One many have grown weary of.     Now signed into law, few Americans are unaffected by its...

Planning isn’t predicting. Some things in life are more exciting than others.  Most of us woke up on the 4th of July with a lighter step and enthusiastic anticipation for the day.  Fireworks, need we say more?  No one in their right mind sets a meeting with their financial planner to map out a savings strategy on such a day.   Just because something isn’t intuitively engaging doesn’t make it a was...

I will just say in general, I’ve said SO many times, 99% of you watching do not need a financial advisor.  You need someone like me to teach you step by step how to invest for yourself”.  So says Tori Dunlap, one of the many outspoken influencers brimming with financial opinions that cannot be contained. Like a bottle of Diet Coke shaken up by outside forces, the froth of conjecture can only go on...

The average child spends about eight hours a day in front of a video screen.  We’ve now seen a generation of children raised on a digital cocktail of social media, video games, and streaming services.  A panoramic window into the world, algorithmically tuned for your child’s wants and subconscious desires.  Ferraris turn more heads than Hondas, a human preference so intrinsic that it shows up in c...

The American proverb “you get what you pay for” is well understood but not commonly applied.  Nowhere is this made more abundantly clear than in the food services industry, where people line up for cheap, borderline toxic calorie bombs to satiate their immediate cravings.   One should not ask why healthy food is so expensive but why fast food is so cheap.  The idea that a drive thru diet is lower...

Warren Buffett to Retire As CEO of Berkshire Hathaway  When a person lives to the wise age of 94 and accumulates a networth of $168B, people tend to think he has some important things to say.  Nearly 20,000 Berkshire shareholders gathered in Omaha Nebraska on May 3rd to hear the resident Oracle speak live.  The annual tableau is something to behold.  Thankfully there’s YouTube .   What does the 5t...

Too low to sell, too cash poor to buy the dip.  So laments an X user over this past week as he describes his current state of financial affairs.  No one wants to be a sucker yet prudent investing requires that you subject yourself to the fickle whims of the market - all in. It’s hard not to feel like a sucker when you buy something only to watch it go on sale the next day.  Unlike Costco, financia...

Fitful swings in equity and bond markets this past week have wrecked more sleepful nights than drunk neighbors on Independence Day.  What can be done? The NASDAQ hourly chart resembles an EKG reading of a fibrillating heartbeat.  Some fear this could be the heartbeat of the new American economy.  Treasury Scott Bessent has been making the rounds on numerous media outlets with defibrillator pads at...

America’s least favorite day is quickly approaching in a little over two weeks.  Millions scramble to frantically count their beans while the oppressive Eye of ‘Providence’ lords over them.   April 15 may usher in the Spring with all its good vibes, longer days, and the smell of outdoor barbecues with freshly cut grass.  But it also marks a cumulative day of stress with the unholy combination of a...

The first few months of 2025 have produced mixed results for US equities.  Despite efforts to coax out the full economic potential of the U.S., domestic markets have lacked confidence.  Meanwhile, ‘safe haven’ assets such as Treasury Bonds and international stocks have broadly rallied.    They say it’s been the worst start to a year since, well, 2022.    With a ballooning Federal deficit and the p...

The engagement farmers masquerading as prognosticators have been busy this month!  There’s so much doom to talk about.  It’s all so very exciting, and you need to tune in.  Ignoring the information so you don’t miss a perfectly timed nugget of information that will cost you everything.  Even so, three months later we’ll forget the stress of today like it was our first dirty diaper.  We’ll move ont...

Journey > Destination.   Does the world run on envy?  Charlie Munger, who once said, “the first rule of a happy life is low expectations”, argued that it does.  We even have the adage ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ to encapsulate this ongoing economic arms race.   In-your-face financial flexing is difficult to ignore.  A moment of boredom followed by a screen tap and a world of obscene wealth ca...

The Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires have affected 59 square miles of land in Southern California.  Combined, they have consumed more than 16,000 homes and buildings and an uncounted number of automobiles.   This natural disaster comes hot off the heels of two hurricanes that wreaked havoc in Florida and North Carolina, from which residents are still recovering.  Those who have been through the...

Why you have it and what to do about it.  Financial stress is a response to a specific, often temporary, financial problem that can be resolved through specific action. As an example, you are about to close on a home purchase and are uncertain if loan underwriting will be completed in time.  These stressors can be quickly alleviated with the right course of action and often resolve themselves in t...

Another year, different in how you make it.  2025 is here and so are the renewed pressures of the ego to break through yet another motivational barrier.   The root of the word sublime stems from Latin to mean, roughly, high threshold.  The things that are most worth doing are not easy. Sublime is a subjective word.  It’s true meaning found at that point where your aspirations meet the outset edge...

Ben and Brent wrap up 2024 with a conversation on the state of the housing market.  Prices of single family homes continue to edge higher, being up 6% year over year.  This is on top of a record increase in median single family home prices over the past decade which now totals 102% according to Freddie Mac.     While unaffordability infects already strained budgets, forcing some households to quar...

There was a lot to discuss with family this Thanksgiving.  The election, stocks ripping, the return of crypto mania, and, of course, the evergreen subject of ‘the culture war’.  In many households, Thanksgiving takes its shape as thoughtsgiving as outspoken opinions crowd out any notion of contentment.     Few things can be as goading as that one relative who works in their trading fortunes into a...

In this episode, Ben and Brent discuss some of the possible economic implications of the election along with common year-end best tax optimization practices.  As we approach the end of the year and the start of 2025, one thing becomes clear: change is on the horizon.  Like viewing a hurricane from the shoreline, it’s tough to gauge the strength of its winds and the endurance of the force, but we k...

As we approach the end of the year and the season of generosity, it is appropriate to address the topic of gifting. Gifting money and assets is not as straightforward as it may seem.  Assuming you will receive a tax deduction for charitable contributions is often incorrect and can result in a reduced charitable contribution than otherwise intended.     Also, there’s no hard and fast rule that you...