When it comes to building wealth, the allure of exotic investment products can be hard to resist.

From cryptocurrencies to rare collectibles, these options promise excitement, exclusivity, and the potential for big returns.

But are they truly superior to buying the market or some rental real estate? Let’s take a look at a few popular exotic investments.

The upside is real—early adopters have seen life-changing gains, and blockchain technology offers genuine innovation. However, the volatility is intense; prices can crash as fast as they soar, and risks like hacks or regulatory shifts loom large.

Compared to the stock market’s historical 7-10% average annual return (adjusted for inflation), crypto offers a wild ride that can pay off—but only if you time it right. In my opinion, if you want to jump on the ride, there is no better time than now.

Investing in art, fine wine, or vintage cars blends enjoyment with potential gains. A well-chosen piece can appreciate significantly.

For enthusiasts, the emotional reward is a big draw. On the flip side, these markets are illiquid (selling takes time and effort), and costs like storage, insurance, and commissions add up.

Unlike real estate, which generates rental income, or stocks with dividends, collectibles don’t pay you while you hold them.

Private notes involve lending money directly to individuals or businesses—often real estate developers or small companies—in exchange for interest payments, typically offering yields above traditional bonds or savings accounts.

It’s a chance to earn solid returns, sometimes 8-12%, while supporting specific projects or borrowers. The appeal lies in the potential for steady income and the ability to negotiate terms.

However, defaults can spike during economic downturns, and your money is often locked in until the note matures.

Compared to real estate, which offers rental income and appreciation, or stocks with liquidity and diversification, private notes are a niche play that requires careful vetting of borrowers to make sense.

Speaking of niche plays, private equity (PE) often comes up as the ultimate exotic investment, especially for the wealthy.

It’s frequently billed as a special opportunity reserved for the elite, where funds pool big money to buy, revamp, and sell companies for hefty profits. The perception is that PE is a gold mine, delivering returns that leave the stock market in the dust.

But is it really the wealth-building powerhouse people think it is? This week’s guest on the Wealth Formula Podcast argues that private equity might not be the golden ticket it’s cracked up to be.

The post 500: What Is the Big Deal about Private Equity? appeared first on Wealth Formula.

As I reflect on the difference between Trump’s first administration and his current one, I notice a marked shift. When Trump first took office, his message and objectives weren’t clear to me. Beyond the promise of building a wall, I struggled to understand his vision.

This time around, it’s vastly different. His message is laser-focused, and I’ve been particularly intrigued by the administration’s economic approach. Many of his advisors and cabinet members come from the private sector, bringing a deep understanding of markets and business that’s unprecedented in American government.

One of the most notable figures often in the news is Elon Musk. There are mixed feelings about him now, with some people even vandalizing Teslas—a stark contrast to how he was viewed just a few years ago as an icon among liberals. Personally, I admire Elon for his vision and commitment to changing the world through Tesla and SpaceX. He doesn’t need to be involved in these endeavors, but his passion for making a difference is evident. I believe his efforts to impact America’s economy align with his broader mission. What better way to change the world than by strengthening the economy of the greatest nation on earth?

However, Elon isn’t the only notable figure Trump has brought on board. There’s an impressive roster of individuals, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who might be the mastermind behind Trump’s overarching financial plan for America. I’ve been following Bessent closely, reading his statements and listening to his insights. When I tune in to what he has to say, the confusing aspects of the current economy become much clearer.

On this week’s episode of the Wealth Formula Podcast, I’ll share what I’ve discovered and what I think it means.

The post 499: Scott Bessent’s 3-Part Playbook for America appeared first on Wealth Formula.

Renewable energy is often discussed in political terms, but here’s a straightforward look at the financial side.

In the last decade, solar energy costs have fallen dramatically—by nearly 90% since 2010. 

In top markets, solar panel costs dropped from about 29 cents per kilowatt-hour to under 3 cents. By contrast, new coal and gas plants still cost between 5 and 17 cents per kilowatt-hour, and these figures don’t include the unpredictable nature of fuel prices.

According to firms like Lazard, solar and wind power now average around 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, while operating existing coal plants typically costs 4 to 8 cents. This clear cost advantage is encouraging a shift away from fossil fuels.

Globally, the change is evident. Countries like China, Europe, the United States, and India are ramping up their renewable investments, with almost every new power plant built today relying on solar or wind. 

Nuclear power is also seeing increased investment as a reliable, low-carbon option. As we have discussed on previous shows, that is my primary reason for being so bullish on uranium stocks.

The bottom line is that even if you’re not interested in the conservationists’ approach to energy, renewables are replacing fossil fuels rapidly.

This week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast will help you capitalize on that.

The post 498: What Renewable Energy Looks Like without the Politics appeared first on Wealth Formula.

It’s been some time since we did an Ask Buck show, and I realized last week that I have some unanswered questions in the inbox.

The first question I read ended up being kind of a broad one, but it made me really think about how it all started for me.

I started this podcast over a decade ago after realizing that there were not a lot of good resources for high-paid professionals to learn about personal finance.

Of course, there were the Suze Ormans of the world, but what I wanted to do was to share what I had learned in my attempts to mimic the wealthy when I first came out of surgical residency training.

There were many painful lessons along the way on my own journey. But I did manage to put it all together better than most.

With that, I feel comfortable providing perspective on how I would do it if I were starting over again today. That’s exactly the question I got from one of our listeners and the one question I will address on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast.

The post 497: Starting from Scratch as a New High Paid Professional appeared first on Wealth Formula.

I really hope you listened to last week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast. If you did, it may have convinced you to get some exposure to bitcoin in your portfolio.

And if you did that last week, all I have to say is…WELCOME TO CRYPTO!

As of this writing, bitcoin is trading at approximately $84,000, a decline of over 20% from its recent high of nearly $107,000. 

If you’re not used to this kind of volatility, get used to it. And, I might also make the suggestion that you embrace it! Why?

Well, lets take a brief look at some bitcoin history:

The point I am making, of course, is that bitcoin has historically experienced significant corrections which have often led to rapid recoveries within defined periods.

It is not insignificant that there are some big buyers out there in 2025. The current dip coincides with increased interest from institutional investors:

This increased involvement has shifted the perception of Bitcoin from a speculative asset to one that is integrated into diversified portfolios. Even in 2017, a lot of smart people truly thought that bitcoin would crumble to nothing. 

But now we even have government entities exploring bitcoin’s role as a reserve asset. Countries such as El Salvador have adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, and others such as the United States are evaluating its potential as a reserve asset.

Some U.S. states are considering legislation to allocate up to 10% of public funds to digital assets.

The point I’m making here is that bitcoin is not going to zero. In fact, the finite amount of bitcoin along with all the new buyers can mean only one thing over the next few years: bitcoin is going up in value.

What I am trying to say here is that you may seriously want to consider buying the dip. This is, of course, not financial advice. You can speak with your wealth advisor who knows nothing about bitcoin to do that lol!

Oh, and by the way, Solana got slaughtered too. And so you might look into that one as well since its better then ethereum in virtually every way but has a fraction of the current market capitalization.

If you are getting sick of all this crypto talk, I apologize. In fact, this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast was supposed to be about gold and silver. But it turned out even the gold bug I interviewed had gotten infected by bitcoin and the conversation moved in that direction pretty quickly!

The post 496: The Gold Bug Who Got Infected by Bitcoin appeared first on Wealth Formula.

To my credit, I was relatively early in my recognition that Bitcoin was for real and that it wasn’t going to zero. It was 2016, and, up to this point, I had the misfortune of hearing only one narrative about Bitcoin—that of Peter Schiff.

Peter is a very smart guy and quite convincing if you listen to his podcast. At the time, I was an avid listener and my opinion on bitcoin was shaped only by his view.

It wasn’t until I went to an entrepreneurs’ meeting in the Fall of 2016 that I heard the real narrative behind Bitcoin for the first time. Now’s not the time for me to explain it, but for those of you who are interested, I would suggest reading The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous.

Inspired by this new perspective, I went home from that meeting and bought Bitcoin for the first time—at about $5K. In fact, with bitcoin fluctuating up and down I managed to acquire a decent “bag” of bitcoin by the time “crypto winter” arrived in 2017.

Fast forward to today, and that bitcoin would be worth eight figures had I held it. But I did not. You see, in 2019, I had some bills to pay, and the Bitcoin price hadn’t moved in a couple of years.

Selling my Bitcoin seemed like the easy solution. After all, I reasoned, I could always buy it back. Well, I never did buy it all back. My family acquired some through kids’ trust over the years, but nowhere near the amount that I initially had.

This decision ended up being one of the most painful financial lessons I’ve learned over the years (and there has been plenty of pain!).

And the lesson is not just about Bitcoin. The lesson is about following your convictions. If you go back to my podcasts on Bitcoin over the past 7-8 years, you can hear it in my voice.

Throughout that time, I made predictions over and over—many of which have come to fruition already and others that we seem to be on the verge of.

So why, given my convictions, don’t I own much Bitcoin? Because I didn’t follow through on those convictions. I thought I could get in right before things started taking off. Rather than accumulating bitcoin along the way, I waited for just the right price—which never seemed to be low enough.

In hindsight, what difference would it have made if I bought at 3K, 5K, or even $20K at this point? If I believed, as I have predicted that bitcoin would hit $250K within the next 3 years, why would that matter?

There’s another reason I didn’t buy Bitcoin: it provided no tax benefit. I put almost everything into real estate and other tax-efficient investments. That’s not a bad strategy in general, but not carving out an allocation for something I believed in so much was just stupid.

The key lesson here is about being rational and following your convictions. Don’t get greedy and don’t always let the tax wag the dog.

Now, you might be wondering what I think about Bitcoin today at nearly $100K. Well, my stance hasn’t changed. I still believe Bitcoin is going to hit at least $250K within the next 3 years. So, in that regard, it’s still something I would buy if I had the liquidity (as real estate investors often do not).

The story for Bitcoin is getting better and better every day. And I think it’s very important for you to take it seriously if you are not. After all, Wall Street and Governments across the world have adopted it as a truly legitimate asset, and it may very well end up an asset stockpiled by the US treasury in short order.

You may or may not decide to invest in it, but not knowing about it as an investor in this day and age, is ill-advised. To understand why, listen to this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast.

And, I am serious when I say, miss this episode at your own financial peril.

The post 495: What You MUST Know about Bitcoin in the Era of Wall Street and Government Adoption! appeared first on Wealth Formula.

Hey everyone,

On this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast, I’m talking with members of our very own community who are using Wealth Accelerator and Wealth Formula Banking as part of their personal financial plans.

They’re going to share their individual journeys – why they chose Wealth Accelerator/WFB, what challenges they faced along the way, and, most importantly, what kind of results they’re seeing.

These are real stories from your peers that you should find helpful. If you’ve been looking for strategies that are both safe and profitable in times of financial volatility, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Join me as we explore real-world examples of how sophisticated strategies, grounded in solid mathematics and reliable insurance products, can help you engineer a more secure financial future.

Buck

The post 494: Wealth Formula Community Members Share Their Stories appeared first on Wealth Formula.

People have a misconception of what the tax code is. While there are a few pages devoted to telling you when you must pay taxes, the majority of it is about the situations in which you can avoid them.

That’s why it’s important to find a competent tax professional. And that’s not as easy as you might expect. You see, most high-paid professionals get their tax professionals from referrals from other professionals.

And, most high-paid professionals like doctors are very risk-averse when it comes to anything financial. So they tend to go to the “conservative” CPA—the one who never gets audited.

Well, that CPA has the easiest job in the world. He’s got all sorts of high-paid clients who want him not to do his job, which, in my opinion, involves trying to find you deductions.

Now, let me be clear. I’m not suggesting that you try to find someone who is going to break the law for you. You just need someone who is willing to look at the tax code and find out where there are opportunities to save you on taxes.

When you go down that rabbit hole, though, you also need to have your guard up. Some of the strategies used by CPAs can get a little too risky. The last thing you want is to end up paying penalties and end up paying more money than you would have in the first place.

In addition, even if the tax code is used appropriately, it may be the case that the end operator is not going to make the theoretical benefit actually happen.

Let’s take oil and gas for example. The advantages of investing in drilling programs are very clear in the tax code. The problem is finding an opportunity that might actually pay you a return. Of the multiple investments I’ve made in oil and gas, I’ve NEVER made money. In fact, I’ve never even gotten my principal back.

My conclusion over the years has been that the best way to save on taxes is actually good planning. As Tom Wheelwright, author of Tax-Free Wealth, says, if you want to change your tax, you have to change your facts.

Bottom line: there are plenty of ways to save on taxes if you think bigger and plan smarter. You don’t have to do anything crazy or controversial. Just be strategic, understand the rules, and always, always know your risks.

Remember, in the world of taxes, pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered. So be aggressive, but be smart about it. Your future wealthy self will thank you.

This week’s podcast is going to give you some good ideas and, in my opinion, some very bad ones! 

The post 493: Tax Strategies for High Paid Professionals appeared first on Wealth Formula.

When I started this podcast a decade ago, I was completely focused on real estate. I had some pretty dogmatic views back then and didn’t really consider other investment options.

That mindset worked for me. I’ve been a real estate investor since 2010, and while the market’s in a tough spot right now, we did enjoy over a decade of a bull market. That’s just how investing goes—ups and downs, and you hope the good times outpace the bad.

Regarding real estate, I believe we’re essentially back in 2010. The markets have taken a beating, and if you can stomach it, this is a prime time to buy. History shows that people who act when things look grim often reap big rewards down the line.

That said, I’m more open to other types of investments these days. As this cycle eventually recovers, I want to share more than just real estate opportunities with you. There’s a whole world of potential out there, and it’s important for both of us to stay informed.

Lately, I’ve been especially interested in tech. I did my surgical residency in San Francisco and knew plenty of Silicon Valley folks about 15 years ago, but I regret not digging deeper into that scene. Back then, I didn’t have the money to invest, so I never thought to learn more.

Better late than never, right? Now I’m in a position where I can invite really smart people onto this podcast to chat about fascinating topics. Over the next few years, that’s what I plan to do. I want to make an effort to learn about new things with you that might also help us financially.

This week’s podcast is a great example. It was a blast because I learned so much in such a short period of time, and it really sparked my curiosity about opportunities in tech—maybe through angel investing or venture capital.

To do anything like that, you need to get educated. And talking to my guest this week was a right step in that direction.

In less than one hour, I learned why tech investors panicked last week when China’s AI platform, DeapSeek, revealed its superiority and cost-effectiveness compared to leading American AI platforms. I finally understood what the big deal about quantum computing is. And I became further convinced that Ethereum will eventually get wrecked by Solana.

That is a HUGE ROI on time spent!

So, expect more episodes like this. I hope you’re up for it. For now, check out my conversation with Arun Krishnakumar—it’s the most interesting conversation I’ve had in a while!

The post 492: What you Need to Know Today about DeepSeek, Quantum Computers, and Blockchain appeared first on Wealth Formula.

For most people, taxes are nothing more than a necessary evil—a burden to be minimized and avoided at all costs. But that mindset might not be the most productive one to take.

Consider that the tax code might not just be a drain on your resources but a roadmap to creating wealth. The truth is that the tax code is nothing more than a series of incentives. It’s filled with opportunities for those who understand how to use it.

As painful as it may be, think of the government as a business partner offering rewards for certain behaviors. Invest in housing, create jobs, or produce energy, and you’re rewarded. These aren’t loopholes or tricks but deliberate strategies to stimulate economic growth.

But most people miss the opportunity. Why? Because they treat taxes as a once-a-year obligation rather than a year-round strategy. They react instead of plan. And in doing so, they leave money on the table—money that could be used to fuel their financial future.

Every financial decision has tax implications. Whether it’s how you structure your business, where you invest, or how you time your expenses, the choices you make today ripple through your financial future. When you approach taxes strategically, they become more than just a line item on a balance sheet—they become a tool for helping you achieve financial freedom.

That’s what separates those who feel trapped by taxes from those who use them as a springboard for wealth. It’s not about avoiding responsibility; it’s about understanding the rules of the game and playing it well.

In this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, I explore the latest incentives with someone who knows the game as well as anyone: Tom Wheelwright. He’s a tax and wealth strategist who has helped countless entrepreneurs and investors transform their approach to taxes, unlocking incredible opportunities in the process.

If you’re ready to stop dreading tax season and start leveraging it to your advantage, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss.

The post 491: Tom Wheelwright – Tax Changes Coming for 2025! appeared first on Wealth Formula.