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It's Tax Day, and AJ is joined by Senior Financial Planner Ed Zolotarev for a wide-ranging episode that covers estate planning horror stories, AI models going rogue, and why older Americans keep getting richer while everyone else treads water.
They kick things off with a fascinating New York Times story about a professor who left a $6.4 million estate to a political organization he cared about in the 1980s, never updated his will, and now his family is suing to get the money back. AJ and Ed break down who should get it, what the law says, and what the real lesson is for anyone who has not looked at their beneficiaries recently. Then it's on to an Anthropic AI model that went rogue and submitted a fake anonymous tip to Philadelphia's unsolved murders database, which the police flagged as spam, but Anthropic did not find out about for three months.
They also cover Anthropic's Investor Day and what it signals about the timing of an IPO, a Wall Street Journal piece on why affluent older Americans have seen their net worth grow 37% since the pandemic while younger generations are stuck at 4%, and what a potential Fed rate hike means for clients trying to make housing decisions right now.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane and AJ are back together after XYPN in San Diego, and they have a lot to catch up on before getting into the articles. There's the St. Louis gunfight origin story, AJ's viral BQE Instagram post that her PR team took a little too seriously, Mayor Mamdani fixing potholes, and Shane's Mexico City neighbor group chat situation.
Then they get into it. The Wall Street Journal says 7% mortgage rates are wrecking the homebuyer playbook, and AJ, a current 7.875% mortgage holder with a condo board lawsuit on her hands, has thoughts. Scott Bessent is comparing Trump accounts to the GI Bill, and AJ has a lot of thoughts about that, too, including a deep dive into redlining and a book recommendation. Oura Ring has postponed its $2 billion IPO, which Shane and AJ saw coming, and they break down what it signals for the broader IPO pipeline, including Anthropic and OpenAI.
They close with a Journal piece on whether AI could finally convince lazy bank customers to move their money out of low-yield accounts, and a conversation about Instinct, the hot new Silicon Valley AI assistant that saved AJ $45 on a sweater and picked a bar near the B train.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
200 episodes. Shane and AJ are back together and they have a lot to catch up on. Ibiza, Future Proof, Martinis and Mortality, and a Time Magazine article about AI that had Shane looking at sailboats. They kick things off with a Substack piece called Travel Isn't a Hobby, whether affluent people who travel constantly are actually enjoying it or just stuck on a hedonic treadmill, and the Japanese concept of misogi, doing something hard once a year and pairing it with something luxurious.
Then it's on to the nScale IPO, a British company going public in New York with $140 million of its $280 million in revenue not yet materialized, and the Oura Ring IPO, where the entire $2.2 billion raise is going to pay off a VC and cover employee tax withholding rather than grow the company. A viral tweet from a researcher claiming AI will wipe out humanity sent the internet into a panic and may have derailed Anthropic's IPO timeline. Shane has a conspiracy theory about it. They close with a Reddit question from a 36-year-old woman who is already financially independent but can't figure out whether to keep running the family business her dad built.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
AJ is back, and she brought senior planner Melanie Taylor along for a special episode that has absolutely nothing to do with markets, IPOs, or interest rates and everything to do with books, billionaires, and Dolly Parton.
AJ and Melanie kick things off with their summer reading lists, trading recommendations on everything from Lonesome Dove and The Historian to Dungeon Crawler Carl and Lena Dunham's memoir Fame Sick. They also dig into the If Books Could Kill podcast and the story of Three Cups of Tea, a book that turned out to be less about building schools in Pakistan and more about a very creative money laundering operation.
Then it gets a little more serious. AJ pulls the Forbes list of America's most generous philanthropists, and the numbers are not flattering. Charitable giving rose 14% last year, but billionaire fortunes rose 18.5%, meaning the giving is not keeping pace. They also celebrate the life and legacy of Dolly Parton, who died on August 25th at 80 years old and somehow managed to give more meaningfully on a $450 million fortune than most billionaires do with hundreds of billions. They close with a conversation about Trump accounts, donor-advised funds, and how Brooklyn Fi matched employee donations to the Imagination Library in Dolly's honor.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane is joined by BKFi tax manager Tiffini Parker for a jam-packed half episode covering AI compute markets, Stripe's singularity announcement, wealth management's cash hoarding problem, South Korean dating culture, and a Reddit question that every financial advisor will have opinions about.
They kick off with AI computing power becoming a tradable futures contract at the CME, what that actually means for transparency in the compute market, and why Stripe buried a four-page memo about the singularity inside an acquisition announcement. Then it's on to the Wall Street Journal's $3 trillion problem — why investors are keeping too much cash in money market funds and why advisors can't seem to convince them otherwise.
They also cover the dating scene in South Korea, being completely overtaken by Samsung chip engineers and what massive AI-era bonuses are doing to the marriage market, Spirit Airlines' flight attendant data privacy fight against Google's bankruptcy bid, and close with a Reddit question from a $17 million net worth individual who sold his company and wants to know if he should hire a financial advisor. Shane and Tiffini have thoughts.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane and Kody Sherlund are back for episode 199, one away from a big milestone, with a packed slate covering tax policy, tech layoffs, opportunity zones, private fund pitfalls, and California's groundbreaking wealth tax.
They kick off with the IRS issuing proposed regulations on employer contributions to Trump accounts, what Section 530a actually means, and where these accounts fit in the order of operations next to a 529. Then it's on to the latest wave of tech layoffs at Google, TikTok, Etsy, and Zillow, whether AI is really the culprit nobody wants to name, and why creative destruction has always worked this way.
They also cover Opportunity Zone 2.0 and deferring 2026 capital gains into 2027, the Wall Street Journal's warning that private funds come with big tax bills most people aren't factoring in, and California's new wealth tax, which saw only six billionaires leave but take $27 billion in potential revenue with them. They close with the most common question on the internet: " Do I need an LLC?"
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane is joined by senior financial planner Ed Zolotarev for a wide-ranging episode covering gambling, tattoos, sleep trackers, IPO races, and the golden age of the AI solopreneur.
They kick off with a Fortune piece revealing that Americans now spend more on sports betting than on movies, art, museums, and music combined, close to $165 billion a year on the books. Shane and Ed dig into who is driving the growth, what the 2018 Supreme Court ruling unlocked, and why the bankruptcies and credit card debt data from legalized-gambling states should have everyone paying attention. Then it's on to a YC founder asking desperate job seekers to tattoo the company logo for an interview, and the New York Times opinion piece on whether all this body data from Oura Rings and WHOOPs is actually making people healthier or just more anxious.
They close with the race between OpenAI and Anthropic to be first to IPO, SpaceX's first post-IPO earnings report, which sent the stock down 13% on the day a billion shares were released from lockup, and a Wall Street Journal piece on the growing world of AI-enabled solopreneurs doing millions in revenue with zero employees.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane is joined by Kody Sherlund for a packed episode covering surveillance cameras, rocket ships, World Cup tax bills, and why the millennial generation is splitting into two very different financial realities.
They kick off with the Flock Safety CEO speaking out after the LAPD suspended use of the company's surveillance cameras, and why Shane thinks "we just read license plates" is not the whole story. Then it's on to Anthropic's unusual plan to allow all employees to submit 10b5-1 trading plans post-IPO, what that actually means for the thousands of people sitting on life-changing equity, and why it is a smarter approach than a traditional lockup.
Then they dig into the SpaceX IPO, now one of the worst-performing large IPOs in recent history, down 30% to 40% from its peak and sitting well below its debut price. Shane and Kody break down who was really selling at $200 and who is holding the bag. They also get into Spain, potentially owing the IRS a chunk of its $50 million World Cup prize, the corruption history of FIFA, and new Fed research showing that millennial homeownership and wealth are splitting dramatically based on when you were able to buy a home.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane and Ethan are back for another week, this time with gin and tonics and World Cup jerseys. Episode 196 covers a Wall Street Journal piece on the AI backlash, which has tech executives hiring bodyguards, installing security measures, and concealing where they work as public sentiment toward AI turns sharply negative. They also dig into Trump's 50% tariff on Canadian goods using a 1930s trade law, the blockbuster wave of new stock issuances that is raising questions about the bull market, and a Business Insider piece on why working moms with children under five are dropping out of the labor force at an alarming rate and what it would actually take to fix it.
They close with a Reddit post from someone in the Rich People Personal Finance subreddit who wants exposure to private companies like Anthropic, Stripe, and Eleven Labs through a private-market fund charging 1.5% plus 15% of profits. Shane and Ethan have thoughts on whether that itch is worth scratching.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
Shane and Ethan are back, and the World Cup jerseys are out. Episode 195 covers the Jersey Mike's IPO and the Forbes disclosures revealing that family members collected around thirty million dollars in compensation ahead of the company going public, Jeff Bezos co-leading an AI startup called Prometheus and declaring that AI will make single income households viable again, and Vinod Khosla's ten billion dollar purchase of the Seattle Seahawks plus the 20-year beach access lawsuit he has been fighting with the state of California.
They also break down New York City's new pied-à-terre tax targeting non-resident property owners and what it actually means for people like Ken Griffin who own a $238 million penthouse but live in Florida, and close with a Reddit question from a business owner going from $500K to three million dollars in income who wants to know what to do with his money and why Reddit keeps telling everyone not to hire a wealth advisor.
Topics covered:
Timestamps:
🔔 Subscribe to The Liquidity Event on YouTube: YouTube Channel
🌐 Learn more about Brooklyn FI financial planning: brooklynfi.com
✍️ Leave us a voicemail question for a future episode: memo.fm/theliquidityevent
📱 Follow Brooklyn FI:
LinkedIn: / brooklyn-fi
Instagram: / brooklyn_f.i
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