Paul brings a story about a job candidate being asked to do some design work as part of the interview process. The problem is: he had been asked to do that before and wasn’t given a job. Today, Paul and Ira talk about the ethics of the situation, the tough job market in 2024, and how to balance personal boundaries and risk taking in your career. Later in the episode, Paul mentions three companies that make up 20% of a 500 company fund and investors are in a much riskier spot than they believe.

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Since 2020, we’ve seen most media outlets on high alert for a looming recession, but unemployment numbers have remained low. Today, Paul brings a WSJ article and asks, “So… when is that recession coming?” Paul and Ira encourage investors not to speculate on the timing of economic changes and talk about what has kept the economy out of recession over the last four years.

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Paul and Evan talk about struggles in the world’s largest pension fund, but to their surprise it was not California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), but China’s public pension fund. Listen along as these advisors explain what is going on, how these issues compare with Social Security in the US, and why our fear of China economics can lead us to bad financial decisions. Later in the episode, Paul talks about the FED and unemployment in the United States.

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Since AI technology has been available to the public, people have spent entire fortunes betting on certain companies or market segments in anticipation of its adoption into everyday life. What’s worse, the financial media outlets have made wild predictions about market crashes that have caused some investors to panic and move to cash. Now, the Wall Street Journal writes an article stating that AI has been largely disappointing and interest in it has cooled altogether. Paul wants you to know that any speculation around the success or failure of AI misses the mark. If you want to be an investor who can relax about money, the best thing you can do is ignore these kinds of headlines.

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Have you ever seen or heard a financial expert trying to explain away an academic investing principle because “things are different now”? Paul cautions that this is almost always a sales tactic. Listen along as Paul takes on one of these claims about the 4% rule and uses it to teach an important lesson about sequence-of-returns risk and taking an income out of your retirement savings while running the portfolio down.

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Today, Paul brings an article about teaching your children financial literacy skills and how to have the conversation in a way that gives them confidence to make wise money-decisions as they grow into adults. Studies have shown the children can start forming permanent money habits as early as 6 or 7 years old. Listen along as Paul talks about his experiences around money growing up and what financial skills you should teach your children that build the foundation of success with money and investing.

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Alabama just removed the state capital gains tax on gold and silver assets, which some pundits say will help ease the burden of Americans struggling with inflation and economic pressure. Paul asserts that this move just highlights that these commodities are not investments to begin with. Listen along as Paul and Ira talk through whether or not changes like this make a stronger case for or against investing in gold and silver. Later in the episode, Paul and Ira talk about the state of the insurance industry. Premiums on homeowners insurance policies are at an all time high, but insurance companies are having to get help from other insurance companies to cover their liability.

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The headlines read like commercial real estate has beaten investing in the market for the last 25 years. The reality is that someone cherry picked one REIT Index against a specific collection of large US companies to make their products look better to investors. Paul wants you to know that you will see these kinds of outrageous claims about real estate beating out the market, but the truth is that a well-diversified portfolio performs much better and already has exposure to real estate. Later in the episode, Paul and Ira talk about how companies only share the information that makes their products look superior instead of coaching and educating investors.

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Paul and Ira talk about relative loss. It’s easy to see when your investments lose value, but it’s harder to see when your investments are suffering a relative loss. Listen along as Paul explains what relative loss is and how to keep your investments working the way they were designed to.

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