What's Up With Money?!

Summer school! The history of the U.S. Gold Standard. You're welcome!

The bi-metallic standard.

Thanks to your favorite broadway star and ours, Alexander Hamilton, we had the start of the currency situation in the U.S.

We mainly used silver within the country for exchange and we used gold for international trade.

1834 - Things start to shift! Drama!

Despite what you may have been told...

The U.S. was only on a true gold standard for about 50 years - 1879 to 1933.

That's when we ended convertibility.

Convertibility - The ability to exchange dollars for a specific & equal amount of gold.

Why do "runs on banks" keep coming up in U.S. History?!

Cited Sources

Brief History of the Gold Standard in the United States by Craig K. Elwell

The Gold Standard Throughout U.S. History from APMEX Knowledge Center

History of the Gold Standard from Britannica ProCon.org

It's time for Summer School!

Our next series is History 101.

We look at the history of U.S. currency, the Gold Standard, the dramatic, edge of your seat, politics of the dollar.

There will be a quiz!

Michael Lewis really brings you into the world of the Oakland A's to the point where you feel like you're there, in the draft room, or Hatty's living room at Christmas or the night they win their 20th in a row.

Bill Beane (without really intending to) changed these players lives. He did intend to change baseball - and he did.

There are some really good lessons to learn from this book - especially for the middle class and how we have to play the financial game different from the "old baseball men."

This might get us in trouble but most financial advisor's do not know what to do with normal middle class people that do not have a few hundred grand ready to invest and thousands of dollars that they are saving each month.

The game that advisors like Jonathan know how to play requires a lot of money just like the rich teams in baseball.

Financial advisors do not have a whole lot for the 90% of people given the way the game is played and works.

How do you help someone financially succeed when they only make $75k or less?

There is not a lot of money to make off of the middle class because the industry makes money off of managing lots of money.

So, there is incentive to work with high net worth folks because that is all they know.

But... what if we could find a way to play and help the middle class and solve for this market inefficiency?

Middle Class Moneyball!

"What begins as a failure of imagination ends as a market inefficiency. When you rule out a class of people to do a job because of their appearance you are less likely to find the best person for the job."

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

We take a deeper dive into, "Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game," by looking at some specific quotes that are key to understanding the philosophy of Moneyball and how it's helpful for financial thinking.

"If he's such a good hitter, why doesn't he hit better?"

&

"We aren't selling jeans here."

Does this player or financial tool do what it's actually there to do - beyond does it have a good "face?"

Everyone develops rose colored glasses around different financial tools, like the 401(k) or stock market, that these are supposed to work and perform and translate to on-field production.

How many times have you heard the following...

These are ways the industry and the guru's have said to us that certain things are good hitters. But when we actually explore it more we come to that key question - "Why doesn't it hit better?"

It isn't that any financial product is good or bad - It's just that they play different positions and do different things. Finance is a team sport - not just saving money.

Baseball had poor teams and there were some owners that wanted the rich teams to subsidize them in order to get rid of the inequity in baseball... but then there was the A's that won 100 games a year with near the lowest salary in all of MLB.

How did this happen?

They actually looked deep at players to get ones that actually did the job of hitting, walking, long pitch counts and more.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game

We are exploring Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game.

This is where the middle class (90% of us) find themselves and find today's financial advice. It is for the Yankees or the Red Sox - the rich teams.

The game we are playing in the 2020's is not the same as we were playing in the 1980's.

But... everyone is still trying to play according to the rules provided by "the old baseball men" from the 1980's.

So what do we do?

We need to play a version of Moneyball and throw off the old wisdom and do things different - but that is scary!

Most of the old wisdom goes only as far as the stock market and retirement accounts.

What does it look like?

Well... it takes several things.

If you do this you may develop a financial team that helps you get further than you could get from buying only one "superstar" player.

We all know it takes 9 players in baseball but have not caught up to the idea that it takes 9 players to win in the financial world as well... Especially when we have limited budgets like the Oakland A's.

It's our One Year Anniversary! Join us as we look back on our first year of What's Up With Money?! and look ahead at Year Two!

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we're doing 4 mini episodes.

Paying taxes are good!

Some countries love paying taxes - so why don't we?! It's often hard to identify where we see tax benefits in our daily lives. Most of the impact of our tax dollars seem invisible to us today.

Our health is determined by 5 things. The Social Determinants of Health.

Why Taxes Are Good #1

Built environment is our taxes at work and it's for our health. When it's lacking it's harmful to our health.

Why Taxes Are Good #2

Poverty in a society is an enormous tax on society. It's beneficial for us to build strong social systems to prevent it and bring us all down.

What's Up With Money?! Book Club

World Health Organization On Social Determinants of Health

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes.

Tax never again money is so important!

Darth Vader said, "You don't know the power of money that is never taxed again."

Money that will not be taxed again has a lot of benefits to many other things that you may not be aware of like tax on Social Security or other taxable money.

Most advisors will only go as far as telling you about how a particular account will work. We want you to know how that account impacts everything else. A "good" account could have bad consequences...

Things To Ask Your Advisor:

The advisor you meet with should know about all financial products and how one affects another. For every good advantage there is a disadvantage that must be planned for!

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes.

Tax deferral! We love not paying our taxes now and sending them to future you, but is it a good idea?

Many will tell you that you will be in a lower tax bracket in the future so its better to defer - but we do not know where taxes will be going in the future.

So it is a bit of a bet.

Do you think taxes will be...

Your answer should inform you on deferring.

The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement by Josh Scandlen

Be sure to check out the U.S. tax code today!

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes.

The money your money makes is taxed less than the money you make from work!

The U.S. tax code is long. Very long! Millions and millions of words. Way longer than The Bible or the entire Harry Potter collection.

Most of it is about how to avoid taxes and not what you owe tax money for. Think about that!

What's Up With Money?! Book Club

Check out the U.S. tax code today!