Smart Money

What’s up Smart Money Crew. Due to popular demand, we will be starting a segment on the show called “Veggie Tales.” This is the section where we get real about money, saving, and investing where we take out the flash and bang and get into the nuts & bolts. Nobody is born enjoying their veggies but if we build good habits around eating them, they take good care of us over the long term.

As John Dryden once said, “we first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”

1. Today’s Topic is on Budgeting & Tracking

a. You cannot hit a target you cannot see. Tracking is the first step to bringing financial awareness to your life. Just like a bodybuilder getting serious about working out and getting in shape, he tracks how much he eats, what types of foods he eats, and the workouts he performs. If you don’t track, you are driving blind.

b. The good news is in today’s day & age, tracking has never been easier. From electronic credit and debit card statements to applications designed to analyze and categorize your spending habits, tracking has never been easier. Start there. There are many great free apps like Mint or even your own banking app might offer these services. We are not Sponsored by any of these apps although if you would like to work with us here at Smart Money, please do reach out.

c. Simplify your life – cut those 10 credit cards into 2 or 3 depending on the category of spending. Schedule time on your calendar every month to review your statement. How much are you spending on what? How much are you making through your job, investments, etc.? How much are you netting? If this is the first time you’re doing this, you will most likely be shocked. Take away the flash and bang and you’d be surprised what’s left. It sounds sexy bragging to your friends that you make half a million but after taxes and deductions you’d be surprised how much actually ends up yours.

d. You cannot start investing until you start saving. You cannot start saving until you track how much you’re earning and how much you’re spending.

e. This is the least sexy part of making money. People love seeing and hearing about the Lamborghinis, the yachts, the private jets. The fact of the matter is truly wealthy people generally did not get there by flaunting it. Just Youtube Jeff Bezos Honda. The man was a billionaire and still driving a beat-up Honda Accord. They lived below their means consistently - day in and day out and ran a consistent budget surplus – something our local and federal governments should actually learn from.

f. Forget what the clowns you see on Instagram are doing. Track your progress, compete against yourself. You don’t start going to the gym and start trying to compete against Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. We are all running our own race. Leave judgment, guilt, and shame at the door. You will most likely be shocked at how much you are actually taking home at the end of the month. Awareness is the first step to change. Be patient with yourself, but also disciplined. As Jocko Wilink likes to say, self-love starts with self-discipline. Know that eating your veggies is better for you in the long-run even if that fast-food meal looks oh so tasty!

g. So this concludes our first episode of Veggie Tales – tune back in for the next episode where we will talk through the 80 / 20 of investing and why day-trading or other speculative activity is a loser’s game.

As always, this is your host, thank you Smart Money Crew for your support – until next time, track your spending and be well. Peace!

As the world battles through one of the hardest periods in recent history, healthcare workers have been fearlessly facing the situation head-on. While the rest of us quarantine and hide, they’re the ones who rise up and step forward in the face of danger. Not for money, not for pride – but for a higher calling. I wonder - what does it take to become such a person?

We are lucky to have a young medical student join us today on the Smart Money podcast. Coming from a lineage of great surgeons, he speaks on how and why he does what he does – what the future may hold, and advice for those looking to follow in his footsteps. Please give a warm Smart Money welcome for the soon-to-be Dr. Sohrab Vatsia.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

In a way, we’re all artists. The words we speak, the roads we travel, the moments we share. Our reality is merely the composition of our collective imaginations – swirling, colliding, dancing to the soundtrack of infinity. My next guest understood this from a young age – daydreaming, manifesting, and transforming her reality from a small suburban town in Ohio to becoming the designer behind the hottest trends today. Her pieces have been worn by supermodels like Bella Hadid and even perhaps by listeners like you. She also happens to be a humble, wonderful human who I was lucky enough to date as a younger man –new to the big apple, both filled with ambition, desire, and dreams. Smart Money Crew, please give a warm welcome to the wonderfully talented, incredibly humble – Kristin Parks. As always it’s your host Dean Thomas. :)

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that technology has drastically transformed how we live, work, and experience the human condition. My next guest took Tim Ferriss’ blueprint in the classic 4-Hour Workweek and life hacked his way to building several profitable e-commerce businesses generating more than a million in revenue. Exploring numerous paths in life before deciding the rat race was not for him, he tried everything from poker hustles to night club promotion before stumbling upon Amazon fba and eventually crowdfunding. Now living entirely remotely in SE Asian paradises like Thailand and Bali, he has shown me that although filled with risk, obstacles, and uncertainty, the entrepreneurial path is not only possible but attainable with enough self-belief, grit, and resilience. Smart Money Crew, please give a warm welcome to the amazingly humble and brilliant Vance Lee.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

So some folks have been asking me, “hey Dean! - why do some of your interviews have little if anything to do with money?” I think at its core this comes from a slight misunderstanding of the purpose of money and in turn financial freedom. If you are to believe our friend Mr. Maslow, after the basic needs of physiology and safety are fulfilled, the human creature desires not necessarily a never-ending quest for more stuff but rather higher goods like love, esteem, and ultimately self-actualization.

So then why do we choose to master money? To actualize the highest life we desire for ourselves, our families, and communities. Money is a tool to that end – nothing more, nothing less. It is a device in a capitalist economy that, if mastered, can bring us closer to our highest selves. And if bungled, will leave us broke, struggling, and in cycles of self-defeat. Financial freedom is a relative term. I know people earning millions of dollars a year who are broke. I know people earning a couple thousand who are wealthy.

As Forrest Gump says after discovering he never needs to worry about money again, “that’s good – one less thing.”

Being part of the Smart Money Crew is not about a never-ending quest for more stuff. It’s about mastering what you have so you can become who you were meant to be.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

I think it was Walt Whitman who said in life it’s not how many breathes you take, but friends who take your breath away…or something like that. My next guest started his career with me in the trenches and in this vast world that is our planet, we find ourselves conversing again half a decade later – a little older, a little wiser, but definitely still our unique selves. He’s someone you can not speak with for years and when you do again, it feels like home. Please welcome the incredibly intelligent, devilishly handsome, and newly engaged Clive Wong.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

Sometimes in life there are those serendipitous moments. Moments where you know you must say yes. I met my next guest on such an adventure while riding a camel exploring the expansive deserts of Dubai. Call it fate or call it destiny, this chance encounter brought me to become friends with one of Bollywood’s hottest young TV anchors with a resume spanning across big budget networks like Sony to being featured on the cover of international newspapers for his forays in men’s fashion. Beginning his career as an introverted hacker and software developer, he has shown me that perhaps it is not who are born as that matters, but who we decide to be that makes all the difference. As always, this is your Smart Money host, Dean Thomas. Sit back, relax, and please welcome to the show, my brother and one of Bollywood’s most eligible bachelors, Lakshay Narula.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

As New York City enters the darkness of winter, I think most if not all of us have had fantasies about leaving it all behind to live on a SE Asian tropical paradise sippin’ Mai Thais. My next guest did exactly that – falling in love with a small island off the coast of Bali, Indonesia (where a portion of the blockbuster novel Eat, Pray Love was set) and deciding it was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

Working hard back in his native Australia to save up some money as a delivery driver, he jumped head-first into the future he envisioned for himself – become a master dive instructor on the tropical island paradise that is Gili T. In our conversation, we discover that perhaps happiness lay not in the acquisition of material possessions as we are led to believe in the West but rather in the enjoyment of love, camaraderie, and community in the good times and bad. As always, it’s your host Dean Thomas. Thank you for joining us on this Smart Money adventure.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this incredible podcast with my very first dive instructor, Father Nicolaas.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

Decades from now looking back, we can safely define 2020 as a pretty unusual year to say the least. It was the year when a deadly virus spread across the planet and brought great cities like NY to a complete standstill. Longstanding bars and restaurants shuttered seemingly overnight leaving residents either moving out to the suburbs or back home with parents. Stuck at home all day, novice day traders jumped in droves into the stock market creating unprecedented volatility - while dating, social life, and even elite university educations transitioned online almost exclusively.

In this podcast, I catch up with an old friend of mine who can speak first hand on these trends. A violin virtuoso and ivy league graduate, Gwendolyn Howard is a young professional currently living in NYC with her sister who is currently taking a gap semester from Harvard University. Gwen has made unprecedented amounts of money this year dipping her toes in the world of day trading (which we at this podcast do not condone nor recommend) and speaks on the major trends she sees as a recent university graduate living in the Big Apple. Our conversation ranges from her experience in the virtual dating world (which has become the new norm) to her views on the value of a liberal arts education in a world seemingly dominated by technology and engineering. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the podcast.

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)

In this short episode, we talk about the entrepreneurial spirit and how young professionals should approach advice from friends, family, and even mentors. Thank you for your support and hope you enjoy :)  

Smart Money is a podcast recorded by Dean Thomas, a former investment analyst at Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group who quit the corporate life in 2019 to backpack the world, start his own business, and explore spirituality. None of this should be construed as investment advice but rather education and entertainment as a fellow participant in this unprecedented marketplace. We hope you enjoy :)