Wealth Formula by Buck Joffrey

Why is decentralized finance advantageous? Let’s ask artificial intelligence. As you may recall from last week’s episode, ChatGPT is widely accessible to anyone right now. Here’s the explanation on the value of decentralized finance from the ChatGPT software itself: “Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is advantageous for several reasons: Accessibility: DeFi allows anyone with an internet connection to access financial services without needing to go through traditional financial institutions or intermediaries. This opens up financial services to people who might not have had access before, particularly those in underbanked or unbanked regions. Transparency: DeFi operates on a public blockchain, which means that transactions and financial data are visible to anyone. This transparency reduces the potential for fraud or corruption and allows for greater accountability. Security: DeFi uses cryptography and smart contracts to secure transactions, making it difficult for bad actors to manipulate the system. Additionally, DeFi eliminates the risk of a single point of failure, which reduces the risk of a catastrophic failure of the financial system. Interoperability: DeFi protocols are designed to be interoperable, meaning that they can work together seamlessly. This allows for greater flexibility and innovation in the development of financial products and services. Efficiency: DeFi operates 24/7 and is not subject to the same regulatory constraints as traditional finance, which means that transactions can be processed quickly and at lower costs. Additionally, DeFi eliminates the need for intermediaries, which reduces fees and transaction costs. Overall, these advantages make DeFi a compelling alternative to traditional finance, particularly for those who value accessibility, transparency, security, interoperability, and efficiency.” Not bad for a robot, right?  Here’s the thing. Decentralized finance is going to become mainstream finance in our lifetime. Large institutions are going to have to adjust or they will be irrelevant as the phone booth 20 years from now. So we need to understand what it’s all about and figure out how we can capitalize on it. My guest on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast will give us a human expert’s opinion on why. Listen NOW! Emmanuel Daniel is a global thought leader in the future of finance. He is listed as a top 10 global influencer in the “Fintech Power50” list for 2021 and 2022. He is also an entrepreneur, writer and a model train enthusiast. Much of Emmanuel’s writing is based on his experience in founding and running his TAB Global research and consulting house since 1996. Through platforms such as The Asian Banker and Wealth and Society, Emmanuel has had extensive contact with leaders in banking and finance around the world. He won the Citibank Excellence in Business Journalism for Asia in 1999 for his work on the internet in banking. “The Asian Banker Summit” won the best finance conference from the Asian Conference and Summit Awards in 2012. In his first book, “The Great Transition – the personalization of finance is here” published in September 2022, Emmanuel outlines how the banking industry will evolve from being focused on platform technologies to a level of personalization never seen before. He describes the roles of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, gaming and other technologies in this transition. The book features forewords written by former congressman Barney Frank, the co-author of the Dodd-Frank Act set of legislations that regulate the financial services industry in the US today and Richard Sandor, an innovator widely regarded as the “father of financial futures”. His writing is also based on his extensive travel to more than 100 countries, and he is intent on visiting all. He posts regularly on his travels and is working towards his second book which is tentatively entitled “The Winning Civlisation” and due for publication in 2014. As an entrepreneur, he was previously a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), a prestigious grouping of young business owners worldwide. He has served or is serving in advisory or consulting roles for various public and private sector institutions at any time, and is a well regarded confidante in leadership circles. He is a well-regarded global speaker on a variety of topics. But he prefers working on strategic assignments with selected clients. He is sometimes interviewed on BBC, Bloomberg and CNBC. Emmanuel was trained as a lawyer, has degrees from the National University of Singapore and the University of London, and attended a course on economics at Columbia University in New York. He travels widely and divides his time between Singapore, Beijing and New York. Shownotes: Is everything becoming “Financialized?” What is the Personalization of Finance? Central Bank Decentralized Currencies The Winning Civilization

Ok, I know you keep hearing about how the world is going to look radically different soon. I have too.  But what is that radical change and when is it going to happen? I’m no expert in technology but it is clear that the radical changes we are expecting are coming from two emerging technologies: blockchain and artificial intelligence. Blockchain really defines this thing that people call Web 3.  We’ve talked about it before on the podcast but essentially Web 3 is the decentralization of various industries such as social media and finance (aka DeFi). Artificial intelligence (AI) is the other technology that is supposedly part of this great disruption that is about to occur. We’ve seen it in action without necessarily thinking about it already. Look at the WAZE application for example where shortest driving routes are based on huge amounts of human generated data points. In the last couple months, a new demonstration of the power of AI has come to surface and is widely available. It’s called ChatGPT.  Again, I haven’t used it yet but essentially instead of searching for something on google, ask ChatGPT anything and it will give you an answer. Ask it to generate a speech on interest rates and it will. Ask it to give you a summary of a book and it will. It’s really fascinating stuff that I wish I had during college to do all my homework but, as you can imagine, it also has the potential of being dangerous. The problem is technology is growing at a faster pace than perhaps we are ready for. Just because these technologies are powerful doesn’t dissuade nefarious actors. It may be a bumpy road ahead. This entire space is so complicated that I wanted to get a real expert to discuss it…especially this ChatGPT thing. That’s what this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast is about. This was a really fun interview to do and I encourage you to tune in NOW. KARY OBERBRUNNER, is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of 11 books in multiple genres ranging from business to fiction to technology. He’s the founder and CEO of Igniting Souls and Blockchain Life. Together, these companies help authors, entrepreneurs, and influencers publish and protect their Intellectual Property and turn it into 18 streams of Income. In the past twenty years, he’s ignited over one million people with his content. He lives in Ohio with his wife, Kelly, and three children.

The two most common mistakes I’ve seen people make in personal finance is to not think about asset protection and to not think about estate planning. Not thinking about estate planning is sort of understandable. Death is a topic that many try to avoid. Some are even superstitious in that if they set up an estate plan, it could trigger their demise. The topic this week is not estate planning but we’ve done that show in the past. Here’s a little hint: The bare minimum you need is a will and a living trust to keep your assets out of probate should you die. OK, enough about estate planning. As I mentioned earlier, failure to implement a reasonable asset protection is the other most common mistake I see in new investors. Now I get it. If you don’t have much then you have little to worry about. But once you start accumulating assets you’ve got to do something. Let me explain why. If you are a real estate owner, you have got two enemies to defend against. The first is the tenant who slips and falls. The second is the guy with the broken bones your kid hit driving her new car. Either one would love to get at something valuable that you own in retribution (and probably a little greed). That’s where asset protection comes in. And here’s the thing. If you set up good asset protection from the beginning you may not get sued at all. A lot of this legal stuff is optics. If you put up a lot of walls and traps, you’re less likely to get sued in the first place because your estate will start looking a little bit like a turnip to any attorney working on contingency. Asset protection can be fairly simple but needs to be done right. My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week explains how and why that is important. He also spends a little time talking about tax advantages of producing movies which I thought was interesting as well. Listen NOW! Garrett Sutton has been practicing corporate law more than 35 years, assisting entrepreneurs and real estate investors around the world in protecting their assets and maximizing financial goals through his companies Corporate Direct and Sutton Law Center. Garrett, a highly sought after guest speaker, serves as a member of the elite group of “Rich Dad Advisors” for bestselling author Robert Kiyosaki. Garrett has authored several successful books for business owners, including “Start Your Own Corporation,” “Run Your Own Corporation,” “Writing Winning Business Plans” and “Loopholes of Real Estate.” These books are part of the bestselling Rich Dad, Poor Dad wealth-building book series. Shownotes: How does an asset protection plan aid an investor? Asset protection requirements for real estate and other types of investments Movie investments Veil Not Fail: Protecting Your Personal Assets from Business Attacks (Rich Dad Advisor Series)

When you are in the alternate investment space like me, everyone assumes you are a gold guy. I used to be. The idea of gold holding its value over time is very real. An ounce of gold in the times Christ would buy you a nice toga and sandals. Now, an ounce of gold will buy you a nice suit and shoes. Admittedly, that is a pretty darn good track record. So does gold belong in your portfolio? Well, for me, gold is not an investment. It’s money. So to the extent that you may want to have some of your “liquid assets” in gold, it may make some real sense. It’s just hard to carry in your wallet. I am still trying to find someone to convince me otherwise, but to me, real estate has all the qualities of gold that I want while providing additional benefits.  First, gold does not cash flow. When you buy real estate it should. In fact, with real estate, you can leverage and buy more of it and pay off the debt with income from the property. You really can’t reasonably leverage the purchase of gold and, if you did, you’d have no income to offset interest rate payments. Both gold and quality real estate are hedges against inflation. Residential property is particularly advantageous when it comes to inflation because leases are typically year to year and can keep up with the rise in the price of other goods and services. But to be clear, this is just my opinion. I don’t own physical gold but a lot of smart people do. I don’t claim to be right in that regard. Personal finance is…personal. On this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, I have a guest who speaks eloquently for the case of gold. Whether you are a gold bug or not, it’s worth a listen to help you make your own decisions. New York Times bestselling author and radio personality Charles Goyette, known for his outspoken libertarian views and his economic commentary, has been described as a fearless champion of liberty, peace, and prosperity. Charles and former presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul join forces on the nationally syndicated radio commentary Ron Paul’s America, heard twice daily on 125 radio stations. Charles also hosts Ron Paul – The Weekly Podcast, a sponsored, long-form discussion podcast. Charles is the author of New York Times bestseller THE DOLLAR MELTDOWN and RED AND BLUE AND BROKE ALL OVER. He is the co-author of THE LAST GOLD RUSH… EVER! Goyette spent many years as an award-winning and popular Phoenix radio personality with America’s leading broadcast companies, including Pulitzer, Hearst Argyle, and Clear Channel. Charles was widely known as “America’s Most Independent Talk Show Host,” and was voted Best Phoenix Talk Show Host by listeners who couldn’t get enough of his “Fearless Talk Radio.” Charles has also been a participant in the national political debate as a popular public speaker and is often called upon to share his views with national televisions audiences, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, CNBC and Fox Business Channel. He has appeared often on popular programs like Fox and Friends, the O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly Fox News; Stossel with John Stossel and FreedomWatch with Judge Napolitano on Fox Business; NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS; and on Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN, and many others. He has written for a number of magazines including The American Conservative and Gannett magazines, and for LewRockwell.com, CNBC.com, WorldNetDaily.com, and TheStreet.com. Charles Goyette is a U.S. Army veteran and a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service. Goyette had long rejected the U.S. national security policy known as Mutual Assured Destruction or MAD, in which the civilian population of the U.S. was rendered defenseless as a matter of policy and held hostages in the nation’s nuclear strategy. Before the election of Ronald Reagan, Charles became a supporter of a new defense policy to end the cold war standoff. After Reagan’s election, at the invitation of Reagan advisor General Daniel O. Graham, former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Deputy Director of the CIA and the originator of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Charles became a member of the national speakers’ bureau of High Frontier, the private organization founded by Graham to promote what became known as Reagan’s Star Wars defense policy. Beginning in 2002 with the lead up to George W. Bush’s elective war in Iraq, Charles Goyette found himself in a whirlwind of controversy and national attention for his outspoken opposition to the war. Accounts of his experiences opposing the war while a talk show host for Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest owner of radio stations and a company that had close ties to Bush, are available online, including the transcript of a speech called Wartime Confessions of a Talk-Radio Heretic he made to an economics group the very night the war broke out in March, 2003, as well as an account he wrote for the American Conservative magazine called How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio. During the Iraq war, Goyette became a regular contributor of geopolitical radio shows, commentary, and interviews to AntiWar Radio, a service of the leading website AntiWar.com. On a more personal note, Charles is a founding member of the Board of Directors and recent President of the Leonardo da Vinci Society for the Study of Thinking. The Society’s annual inductees include theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, creative thinking theorist Edward de Bono, physicist Fritjof Capra, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, biologist Lynn Margulis, and lunar astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Charles has completed a screenplay on the life of the famous American seer Edgar Cayce. Charles enjoys skiing, hiking, good company and conversation. He and his wife, Ali, live in Scottsdale, Arizona. Shownotes: The performance of the US Dollar versus gold Is gold a wealth preservation tool or a wealth building tool? Owning gold versus owning real estate assets. The Last Gold Rush… Ever!

I’ve never spent much time on the concept of short-term rentals (Vacation Rentals) before because it didn’t sound particularly appealing to me. But after interviewing Tim Hubbard for this week’s podcast, I may have changed my mind. Here’s the deal. Unless you are a limited partner in a syndication, there is no such thing as truly passive income in real estate. If you want your asset to succeed, you are going to have to do some work for it. And for me, making $300 per month for anything that takes more than 10 minutes per month is not really acceptable. But short-term rentals provide a sexier take on active ownership of real estate for busy professionals. Make no mistake, there will be some work involved. But now you may be making 5X the monthly income that you would with a traditional long-term rental. Maybe the rental income is still not that compelling. But what if you started buying properties in places you might actually like to visit yourself on occasion? At any point in the future, you could theoretically flip the switch and make it all your own. In the meantime, short-term rentals have extremely advantageous tax benefits—and not just to the real estate professional status types like me. If done properly, you could have a short-term rental, do a cost segregation analysis and apply that depreciation to other active income. Let me reiterate that I am not a tax professional but my understanding here is that through material participation in short-term rentals, depreciation losses can be ACTIVATED and used against your W2 income. If you can pull this off, the tax savings alone would be worth doing it in my humble opinion. With conservation easements pretty much DOA (victims of the IRS) and with oil and gas being full of crooks and fraudsters, short-term rentals could possibly be the best thing out there if you are trying to mitigate taxes. If this sounds intriguing, I highly encourage you to listen to this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast. At the very least, it’s an option you ought to know about. Tim is originally from Sacramento, CA and started his career in real estate as an investment broker selling multi-family and commercial properties in Northern California. He worked with a small team of five who completed cumulatively over $2 billion in transactions. He has been personally investing in real estate for the last 11 years and has since acquired a multi-million dollar portfolio comprised primarily of small multi-family properties in multiple markets.He has traveled extensively throughout the world in over 70 countries and stayed in hundreds of different short-term rental accommodations. About 7 years ago he realized the high returns that could be made from converting properties in to furnished short-term rentals and renting them by the night. Through trial and error he has figured out how to set up operations so that the business could be passive and has since successfully accommodated over 15,000 guests with excellent reviews from all over the world. He continues to expand with the help of his teams and manages everything remotely from his home in Medellin, Colombia. He also teaches others to do the same and shows them how they can successfully increase their income 3,4, or even 8x by implementing the right strategies to convert existing long term rentals in to nightly rentals. He holds a degree in International business and an MBA from the University of California, Davis. He’s a co-author in the Amazon best-selling book “Resilience” and the host of the popular “Short Term Rental Riches” podcast.

Digital currency is not dead. But it was wounded pretty badly over the past few months. Paradoxically, the undoing of the decentralized world happened from centralized companies and individuals like Do Kwon of Terra Luna and Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX. Ultimately, the greed of both these individuals and the flawed platforms that they ran resulted in billions of dollars being lost in the market. No one was immune. Companies like BlockFi ended up declaring bankruptcy and others, like the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) are on the brink of insolvency. Digital currency has never been a favorite of the SEC. This is an institution with a deep distaste for the wild decentralized west as it represents a very difficult animal to tame. The IRS also wants to dig its claws into digital currency realizing that they are likely missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because of people not reporting. They are also left with a huge challenge on their hands—trying to figure out who is misreporting. Bottom line is that the climate is right for some serious changes to the law involving digital currencies. This week, I speak to one of the foremost experts in cryptocurrency tax law to discuss the recent crypto collapse along with all of its implications. Make sure to tune in. There is some free tax advice in there for you as well if you own cryptocurrency! Andie Kramer is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the regulatory, tax, commercial, and governance matters that arise for individuals and businesses in trading environments. Andie represents multinational corporations, financial service firms, exchanges and trading platforms, hedge funds, energy companies, insurance companies, family offices, and businesses in all stages of their life-cycle. These clients are typically dealing with securities, commodities, derivatives, digital assets, energy (production and distribution), renewables, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) matters, nontraditional assets, and emerging asset classes of all types. Andie is widely respected for her multidisciplinary knowledge concerning the legal issues arising in market and all types of products that trade in them and the participants which use them. She is a trusted advisor and sought-after problem solver who provides the comprehensive advice that clients need to navigate the complexities that arise from the intersection of multiple asset classes, commercial realities, and ESG matters. Before founding ASKramer Law, Andie spent 30 years at McDermott Will & Emery, where she established and led the Financial Products, Trading, and Derivatives Group. She is the coauthor of Financial Products: Taxation, Regulation, and Design, the two-volume authoritative treatise widely used by market participants, advisors, and regulators. She has been ranked since 2009 by Chambers and Legal 500, the leading independent legal ranking firms. Andie was also named by the National Law Journal as one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America” for “demonstrated power to change the legal landscape, shape public affairs, launch industries, and do big things.” The National Law Review recognized Andie as a “Go-to Thought Leader” in virtual currencies and J.D. Supra readers voted her a “Top Author” in cryptocurrency taxation. Additionally, she is qualified by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as a tax expert witness. Andie was selected by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and the Chicago Lawyer as an “Inaugural Women in Law Honoree”; by Crain’s Custom Media for the “Chicago Notable Women Lawyers” list; named by Women in Law Business Guide as one of the leading tax practitioners; and honored as one of the “Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago” by Crain’s. Andie is also known for her longstanding work addressing and dismantling workplace gender discrimination. She served as a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and was coauthor of What You Need to Know about Negotiating Compensation, a 2013 guide published by the American Bar Association. With her husband, Al Harris, she has written two award-winning books, Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work and It’s Not You, It’s the Workplace: Women’s Conflict at Work and the Bias That Built It. Their forthcoming book, Beyond Bias: The PATH to End Gender Inequality at Work, will be released this spring. Andie is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois, where she received the Bronze Tablet Award, and she is a cum laude graduate of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law where she served as an adjunct professor for more than 20 years. She is an editor of and contributor to Energy and Environmental Project Finance Law and Taxation (2010) and Energy and Environmental Trading (2008). Generously philanthropic and civically engaged, Andie is the recipient of the “Unsung Heroine Award” from the Cook County Board of Commissioners and the “National Public Service Award” from the American Bar Association for her public service and pro bono activities. She founded and serves on the boards of a number of nonprofits and professional associations. She is a founding board member and chair of TWTC (formerly The Women’s Treatment Center) that provides housing and healthcare support and assistance to Chicago’s most vulnerable residents. Andie is a co-founder and the chair of WLMA (the Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Alliance), and she serves on the board of the Design Museum of Chicago. Shownotes: The recent crypto meltdown How did the FTX collapse affect the crypto sphere? What do people holding cryptocurrency need to know to report their taxes appropriately? Are there any laws that are different for 2023 than they were for 2022 that we should be aware of?

What is all this wealth stuff for anyway? I have spent the last 15 years trying to accumulate wealth. It wasn’t until about two years ago that I decided to start spending it. Why? Well, there were some major changes in my life and it made me think about mortality. Don’t worry…my health is great. But everyone has to die someday right? Before this realization, I was doing what pretty much all responsible professionals do. I was working hard and wouldn’t spend much money on myself. In hindsight, I’m not sure what I was waiting for. I probably should’ve tried to spend more on myself in my 20s and 30s and had some more fun. Of course, I can’t change that now. But what I can do is to start enjoying life and trying to figure out how to stay feeling young as long as possible so I can make up for lost time. The good news for all of us is that there is an abundance of science and technology growth in the field of longevity and it’s developing fast. We know so much more than our parents did on what to eat, how often to eat, how to optimize exercise and…what supplements and prescription drugs appear to lengthen not only lifespan, but more importantly, healthspan. There is so much information out there that it is also a time to be careful. Just think about all the money fraudsters can make off people by selling them the fountain of youth. As a physician myself (not practicing), I have spent a lot of time trying to understand what’s real and what’s not. Some of my friends and investors in our own community have pivoted their careers to the practice of longevity medicine. They know more than me. One of these guys is Dr. Rob Hamilton. Rob spoke at our last Wealth Formula event and seriously blew the audience away with his presentation. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge in the field of longevity and my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week. If this stuff is new for you, I urge you to start looking into what’s out there. After all, what’s the point of accumulating wealth if you don’t have a long healthy life to enjoy it? Whether you are already on that journey or are interested in learning more, you will want to listen to this podcast. I’m biased because of my interests, but I think you might find this to be one of the most useful podcasts you’ve ever listened to in your life. Doctor Rob Hamilton attended the University of Colorado for both his undergraduate degree (in Electrical and Computer Engineering) and medical degree. He completed residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of California in San Diego.He worked in a variety of settings including serving as part-time faculty at the Stanford University Emergency Department, but eventually moved to Redding, CA, where he has served the North State Region since 2002 as an Emergency Physician at Mercy Medical Center Redding and St. Elizabeth’s Community Hospital in Red Bluff, CA. He has also held a variety of administrative roles, including Medical Director of the MMCR ED and ultimately Regional Director of the North State Region for his medical group. In his capacity as an Emergency Physician he held a faculty appointment through the University of California Davis School of Medicine. After taking care of thousands of patients in the Emergency Department, Dr. Hamilton realized one of his goals was to help his patients avoid the ravages of aging and the disease that followed. He pursued advanced training in Age Management Medical Education and worked with Cenegenics San Francisco. Dr. Hamilton completed additional Fellowship Training in Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine as well as Stem Cell Therapy. He was awarded a Ph.D. honoris causa in Regenerative Medicine from the PanAmerican University of Natural Medicine. To this day he continues to attend conferences and seek additional advanced training to improve and hone his practice and skills. He partnered with the innovative direct primary care practice, Prestige Urgent Care, in Redding California to start Prestige Regenerative Medicine in 2015 and provides affordable care for patients across Northern California seeking his expertise in improving their lives and prolonging their health span. Dr. Hamilton now oversees the course of care and treatment protocols administered by all Prestige Regenerative Medicine providers nationwide. Shownotes: The Five Pillars of Anti-aging Medicine. What is Chronobiology? How important are diet, nutrition, and supplements? Are there potential “anti-aging” medical interventions available today?

If you read business or entrepreneurial books you are probably sick of people telling you that you have to take risks and get uncomfortable. I get it. But what are you doing to take risks and to get uncomfortable? After all, it’s really the only way to grow in your career or in your life. These concepts apply to everything. Think about all the things you didn’t do in life but would like to. Maybe you should try to do some of those things?  After all, what’s the purpose of wealth? It is to have the freedom to focus on self-actualization. Need an example? Well, I never learned to swim as a kid. I remember my older brother and sister going to swim lessons. I would go with my mom to drop them off. But I was terrified of anything but the baby pool. When it came my turn for swim lessons, I declined. And, unfortunately, my parents didn’t push back. So, I spent a good chunk of my adult life not being able to swim and it bothered me. As an adult, I tried private lessons on numerous occasions. I wasn’t afraid of the water anymore. I just couldn’t figure out how to move in the water. I had given up until 5-6 years ago when I heard Tim Ferris talking about having a similar experience as an adult who couldn’t get swimming down. He also had multiple trainers who failed to get him functional in the water. That is until he met Terry Laughlin, the creator of the Total Immersion (TI) Technique. Tim said that Terry got him swimming laps by the end of a week. Well, I had to give this a try. So I reached out to Terry who lived in upstate New York. As it turned out, he had end-stage cancer and hadn’t been doing lessons for some time. However, he had just finished chemo and was feeling a bit better so he invited me out anyway.  So a few weeks later, I was at Terry’s house out east in his training pool. The way Terry taught me was very easy and methodical. And believe it or not, by the end of the day, I was swimming. I stuck around for another day but had to get back to work. I figured I’d come back in a few months to get down the only part that I still struggled with—breathing. I wish I had stayed. Terry passed away just a couple of months later.  So now I can swim, but not long enough to do laps for exercise. I still can’t breathe. I tried another TI instructor, but it wasn’t the same. Terry was a master. The point of this story is to illustrate getting uncomfortable to get over a lifetime full of anxiety and self-consciousness about being unable to swim. All I had to do was find the right instructor and be uncomfortable for a day. You could probably apply this to things in your life. What have you been avoiding for the last few decades? Is it time to confront these things and move on with your life? You’d probably feel better. And if it’s something you need to do physically, well, you aren’t getting any younger either. My guest this week on Wealth Formula Podcast has a unique take on risk and discomfort. He suggests that we should constantly be seeking discomfort in our lives. Maybe he’s right. Listen in and see what you think! Sterling Hawkins is out to break the status quo. He believes that we can all unlock incredible potential within ourselves, and he’s on a mission to support people, businesses and communities to realize that potential regardless of the circumstances. From a multi-billion dollar startup to collapse and coming back to launch, invest in and grow over 50 companies, Sterling takes that experience to work with C-level teams from some of the largest organizations on the planet and speaks on stages around the world. Today, Sterling serves as CEO and founder of the Sterling Hawkins Group, a research, training and development company focused on human and organizational growth. He has been seen in publications like Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, The New York Times and Forbes. Based in Colorado, Sterling is a proud uncle of three and a passionate adventurer that can often be found skydiving, climbing mountains, shark diving or even trekking the Sahara. Maybe you’ll even join him for the next adventure – and discover the breakthrough results you’re looking for. He’ll have your back, #NoMatterWhat. Shownotes: How Sterling’s journey started How does one determine what type of discomfort can help them move ahead? Hunting Discomfort: How to Get Breakthrough Results in Life and Business No Matter What https://www.sterlinghawkins.com/

We are in a unique period of time with the economy. We know something is going to declare itself soon enough but have no idea when or what it will look like. This time it’s not just the contrarians. Everyone is predicting some kind of trouble in the coming months ranging from a mild recession (Biden) to an all out zombie apocalypse. Even the big brain contrarians differ on what lies ahead. Jim Rickards sees a rapidly coming deep recession followed by the Fed capitulating its hawkish stance.  Nomi Prins forecasts a deep recession as well but sees the markets as relatively shielded because of a great distortion between the real economy and the financial markets as the Fed caters to what the markets need to grow. My guest this week on Wealth Formula Podcast, David Stockman, differs from both Rickards and Prins. He believes that the Fed will not reverse its course regardless of recession and he also believes that what Prins describes as a distortion between financial markets and the economy will not last and that, rather, a great catchup will see the equity and real estate markets correct in significant fashion to reflect the fledgling economy. David Stockman was Ronald Reagan’s budget director and was in Washington through hyperinflation and the Paul Volker years. He has also spent a significant time on Wall Street in his career. He knows what he’s talking about. But so do Nomi Prins and Jim Rickards. None of them are dummies but they can’t all be right. That’s just the nature of the period that we are in. The best any of us can do is to study what the economic gurus are saying and try to make decisions based on what we can conclude for ourselves. Listen to my interview with David Stockman HERE. And, if you haven’t done so, go back and compare these opinions with those of Rickards (episode 348) and Dr. Nomi Prins (episode 339). They all make sense but they can’t all be right. Let me know what you think! David Alan Stockman (born November 10, 1946) is an American politician and former businessman who was a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan (1977–1981) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985) under President Ronald Reagan. Stockman was born in Fort Hood, Texas, the son of Allen Stockman, a fruit farmer, and Carol (née Bartz). He is of German descent, and his family’s surname was originally “Stockmann”. He was raised in a conservative family; his maternal grandfather, William Bartz, was a Republican county treasurer for 30 years. Stockman was educated at public schools in Stevensville, Michigan. He graduated from Lakeshore High School in 1964 and received a BA in History from Michigan State University in 1968. He was a graduate theology student at Harvard University from 1968 to 1970. He served as special assistant to United States Representative and 1980 U.S. presidential candidate John Anderson of Illinois, 1970–1972, and was executive director, United States House of Representatives Republican Conference, 1972–1975.

The new year makes me think about how things keep changing so rapidly (including my age). For those of us who went to high school in the era of pay phones, it is a truly remarkable trajectory and it makes me wonder what the next few decades will unfold. There are so many technological advances in Science and Technology that have already laid the foundation for a completely different world. As a former practicing physician, I can’t help but be excited about things like longevity science and potentially eradicating killer diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease If you think that sounds far-fetched for the next decade, I would disagree. All those billionaires who made their money in tech now realize that they are getting older and will die someday. They don’t like that idea and now a ton of their money is going into research to battle death. But how quickly can we get there? The problem in making those kinds of estimations is that we don’t know what other tools will be available to accelerate the work that needs to be done. One of those tools that will play a major role in revolutionizing healthcare and pretty much everything else in our lives will be artificial intelligence (AI). AI sounds scary but we are already using some of it today. Think of the app WAZE which calculates shortest drives based on traffic etc. Just like this application sneaked into our culture, I think you will see a ton of new technologies like this in several fields. One day you’ll see it all around you. Anyway, Artificial Intelligence is an exciting science and to help us learn more about it, I have an expert in AI on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast. This is fun stuff that you might consider investing in. Listen now! Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Avi is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab and the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Avi’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. Along with Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans, Avi is the author of the Globe & Mail bestselling book Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence. He has published academic articles in marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, physics, computing, and economics. Avi is a former Senior Editor at Marketing Science. His work on online advertising won the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science Long Term Impact Award. He testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on competition and privacy in digital advertising. His work has been referenced in White House reports, European Commission documents, the New York Times, the Economist, and elsewhere. Shownotes: What is Artificial Intelligence? The disruptive economics of Artificial Intelligence What are the big opportunities using AI that are out there right now? Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence