What do you get when you mix a loonie doctor with a couple of the most rational and evidence-driven financial professionals around? Listen to my appearance on the Rational Reminder Podcast and find out!
I had the pleasure to spend about 40 minutes chatting with Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore on their Rational Reminder Podcast. Those familiar with their work will know that they deep dive into some very complex financial topics for advanced investors. Ben has generated some great papers that I and others often reference, like this one. As a duo, they boil down all of that deep analysis into really pragmatic approaches to investing and personal finance for the average DIY investor.
So, you can imagine how excited I was for this opportunity. Don’t worry. I got all of my fanboy excitement out of the way in advance of the podcast.
Some pre-podcast exchange and hopefully some future blog content.
We also had some really great email exchanges about some technical details of risk management and asset location. To keep the podcast safe and avoid inducing intra-cranial catastrophes, we only touch on that briefly in the podcast. Ben framed the issues brilliantly [sorry, residual fanboy outburst] in the white paper that he put out last week about post-tax asset location optimization. In my mind, there are several ways to approach the findings.
The best approach (I think) depends on the individual investor. For those not facing much of a tax burden, not bothering with asset location is probably the best route. However, when thinking of more complex situations like incorporated high-income earners – it may be worth it to some. The debate then becomes about what is optimal and what is the biggest risk. The mathematical and behavioral answers are different. I hope to explore that on the blog further in the near future.
We covered a lot of very important frying-pan-free-territory.
The most important issues for most high-income professionals are not the nuances of investing. We make enough money that we just need to get that “right enough” and avoid a few traps.
However, we face multiple other issues that we must get right, but struggle with:
- We make big money – that can be a big tool or a big problem if we don’t deliberately think about it. We need to build holistic wealth.
- Our careers occupy major places in our lives. How do we make them fulfilling? How do we balance our careers with our other roles? Play your banjo.
- Insurance is like gambling. Do you know when to hold’em? Know when to fold’em? Know when to walk away? Know when to run?
- Doctors love evidence. How does that translate to finance?
- Lessons about money from my patients.
We cover all this and more. Ben and Cameron make it an easy listen. Enjoy. I did.
Thank you for not panfrying my brain listening to the podcast on my way to work haha! I totally agree with stressing deliberate thinking when we have more freedom with our income compared to the average Canadian. I was at a conference and some researchers were discussing about increasing taxes on surgery drinks as a way to nudge public behaviour to a healthier lifestyle. Given how these and similar policies might not have the same effect for high income folks, we need to make deliberate and conscious choices to manage our health and way of life. Big money can cause big problems to our wealth but also our health if not handled with care!
Thanks Mark! I took great delight in making that graphic. Have been waiting to use that drug-free America joke since I started the blog. Having enough money to get away with bad behaviour is definitely an under-recognized pitfall. We see the extremes with celebrities, but we are definitely at risk.
-LD
My 2 favourite weekly personal finance updates collided!
Congrats – it is a fantastic podcast – I listen every week. As a doc who does lots of research, I appreciate Ben’s evidence based approach to investing.
Based on Ben’s proclivity for stats – I thought you guys might get down to more nitty gritty but the more wholistic conversation you had was excellent.
Two great points were the discussing of how to divide time and his surprise that we essentially have a disincentive to work more which is an unintended consequence of the tax legislation.
Ultimately, the discussion on asset location – is a bit different than his white paper as the corp is more like an RRSP in that they are both pre-tax dollars (to a certain extent for the corp) and you have much less invested with post-tax dollars (as most would rather not pull out more than they need!).
Anyway, congrats and fantastic work.
Thanks Bari Doc. Ben and I had some great discussions offline. As you can imagine, it got really technical really fast. We decided not to go there with the podcast – we wouldn’t have been able to do it justice without it taking over the whole podcast. Maybe I’ll get invited back. I am hoping to do some more work on the asset location piece with a corporation and random returns.
-LD
Hey LD!!
That was a great interview on Rational Reminder!!
I find Ben extremely helpful for my DIY proclivities. I love his YouTube channel and podcast!!
Hey Dr. MB. Thanks for listening! It was a great experience both on and off the air. Ben puts out some great material and I think our interactions off-air helped both of us rethink how we frame some complex issues into a practical approach for DIY investors. More to come.
-LD