Hi Ben, Cameron, Thanks for getting around to the survey results... I was looking forward to hear/see/read about the results, as I was a respondent in the n=310. Candidly, I am surprised the sample size was not larger -- the hour or so of time was a small return favor to the channel and community, and was in and of itself, a good exercise. I have been dutifully consuming RR content starting about 18 months ago (plus some back episodes), but almost exclusively in podcast form. You were my humble and trustworthy companion on many a late night, solo pandemic walk. This is my first time looking up the RUclips channel and subscribing. I am a big fan and appreciate the time and effort you put it into this. Not to put pressure on you guys, but I really hope the series does not comes to an end, Worst case, I hope you develop a transition strategy if either of you decides to step away . I love the breadth and depth of topics, especially the financial planning and investing material (more so than some of the tangential topics around lifestyle, reading, etc., but those are often thought provoking as well). I favor the latest format shift to push the main topic to be earlier in the episode, so thanks for that as well. You seem never to be running out of future topics, but I would like to selfishly nominate one more idea (on mini series): Expat investing and financial planning (especially US/Can). This may seem to be a little bit too niche for your broad community. Keep in mind that there are an estimated 1 million Americans living in Canada (not sure about numbers of Canadians in US), for whom financial planning (and tax planning) comes with particular complexities and challenges. I know you have featured Andrew Hallam, who touches on some of these topics but there are some other specialty shops. It's honestly hard to find fact-based, unbiased and thorough info on this topic -- it would be powerful and impactful to democratize such knowledge (beyond the specialty cross-border investment management shops that charge 100-200 bps for AUM). A similar but different topic could be fin/tax planning for snowbirds, which much be a pretty significant population of folks doing it or CURIOUS about it. There are a number of angles to cover, from tax tips to estate planning and more. Again, such topics might not match up perfectly for your RR listener venn diagram (geographically), but not sure. Anyway, just a couple of ideas to add to your radar.
The goal setting and happiness content is what I get the most out of, from your podcast. The technical portfolio stuff goes way over my head and since I follow a diversified low cost index strategy I don't really think I need to fully understand :) Your podcast has inspired me to think about specific goals and actively work towards them, particularly in the non-financial realm. I'm considering ways to pivot from pursuing early retirement to contributing to my community somehow, perhaps an animal rescue organisation since that would combine many of my passions. If I could give any feedback, I would personally like to see more empirical analysis of simple personal finance and investing advice. I quite enjoyed Ben's episode on Dave Ramsay's advice, for example. I would also love to know if there is research on financial literacy in children and what they are influenced by. Thanks again :) Gavin from Australia
Really interesting to see the results of this! I appreciate all the statements said about the limitations of such a survey. Something that I've taken away from participating in the survey is that immediately after submitting it, I realized that I wasn't going to get e-mailed a copy of what I submitted (since it's anonymous). I was tempted to email you to give you some information in the hopes of identifying my submission so I could get my data... Then it dawned on me... I couldn't even remember all the goals that I came up with shortly after submitting the survey!!! It makes me think the activity is more important than the output and that a Master List, is encouraging more activity. My data likely had a lot of duplicates anyways, and could be summed up by the encapsulating goals that are published in the paper.
Hi Ben, Cameron, I was looking for the white paper from the survey and I found a typo on the PWL Capital resources page for the results, in the "Imagine the life you want to live..." paragraph the "Effective goals are statements..." sentence is repeated twice. Thanks for all your hard work on this study and over the past few years on the podcast as a whole. I know that the podcast focuses mostly on intermediate/advanced financial topics and that having guests like Andrew Hallam and Morgan Housel did produce more manageable episodes for less financially literate individuals, but would you consider doing an episode on the basics of personal finance. Maybe this is too similar to episode 195, but just an idea that may help more people take the first steps to improving their financial situation. Thanks again for all you do for personal finance enthusiasts, from a fellow Ottawan and hopefully future client.
58:57 I have some qualms with that formula... If you're 22 and graduate college, get a 100k/yr job, that formula says that your net-worth should be 220k. Makes no sense.
You guys are awesome. Thank you! Also, go listen to the Rogan/Jobs AI interview (Cameron mentions it). Just listened, I thought it was pretty fascinating. (At least through my Friday afternoon work lens.)
Beeing independet to do what? From your own definition I would rather put it in the mean categorie and not the goal as it doesn‘t show the end of the road and the feeling of independence doesn‘t fill your day. You could argue the same for security, altough I would argue it’s a foundation to living a good life. Thanks for the thought provoking work, I can’t argue against independence as the goal #1 on the master list but in my eye it falls short in it‘s relevance as a standalone goal.
Strategy Discussion over at PWL Ben: Based on a 2018 paper there is evidence that people change their financial goals to match the goals of the majority. If we show a master list of financial goals to our clients, we can direct our clients in the direction we want. Cameron: Ok, that sounds really dark. Ben: No it's not dark, i think you are misunderstanding me. Cameron: *sign of relief* yeah i think i am Ben: Yeah you are - we provide our clients with the best and scientific confirmed advice and also take their wishes and opinions into consideration. The thing is they won't say no to the master list. They would never say no. Because of the implication.
Time for loved ones specified wanting more time with family etc. while ownership of time was more generally about not having time constraints. For example: "spending more time with my aging grandmother" vs. "I want more time to read, sleep, and simply relax". -Ben
Cameron Passmore: Just a goal that you thought might have been there that wasn't there? I'm just curious. Ben Felix: I mean, the master list didn't exist. This exchange is very dismissive. A more thoughtful exchange would make the very interesting podcast easier to listen to.
The Next Millionaire Next Door Net Worth Calculation does come from the first book. "Chapter 1 - Meet The Millionaire Next Door - How To Determine If You're Wealthy - Whatever your age, whatever your income, how much should you be worth right now? From years of surveying various high-income/high-net worth people, we have developed several multivariate-based wealth equations. A simple rule-of-thumb, however, is more than adequate in computing one's expected net worth. Multiply your age times your realized pre-tax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be. (Examples cut) Given your age and income, how does your net worth match up? Where do you stand along the wealth continuum? If you are in the top quartile for wealth accumulation you are a PAW, or Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth. If you are in the bottom quartile, you are a UAW, or Under Accumulator of Wealth. Are you a PAW, a UAW, or just an AAW, Average Accumulator of Wealth? We have developed another simple rule. To be well positioned in the PAW category, you should be worth twice the level of wealth expected." (Paraphrased) Conversely, if (your income) is one half or less than expected for (your) income/age category, (then you would be) classified as a UAW. "PAWs vs. UAWs - PAWs are builders of wealth - that is, they are the best at building net worth compared to others in their income/age category. PAWs typically have a minimum of four times the wealth accumulated by UAWs. Contrasting the characteristics of PAWs and UAWs is one of the most revealing parts of the research we have conducted over the past twenty years." Of course, this would keep pace with inflation as incomes rose with inflation.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you Guys for ALL, ALL your excellent work!
Interesting to know the demographics of those who completed the survey and the common objectives . Thank you
Hi Ben, Cameron,
Thanks for getting around to the survey results... I was looking forward to hear/see/read about the results, as I was a respondent in the n=310. Candidly, I am surprised the sample size was not larger -- the hour or so of time was a small return favor to the channel and community, and was in and of itself, a good exercise.
I have been dutifully consuming RR content starting about 18 months ago (plus some back episodes), but almost exclusively in podcast form. You were my humble and trustworthy companion on many a late night, solo pandemic walk. This is my first time looking up the RUclips channel and subscribing. I am a big fan and appreciate the time and effort you put it into this. Not to put pressure on you guys, but I really hope the series does not comes to an end, Worst case, I hope you develop a transition strategy if either of you decides to step away . I love the breadth and depth of topics, especially the financial planning and investing material (more so than some of the tangential topics around lifestyle, reading, etc., but those are often thought provoking as well). I favor the latest format shift to push the main topic to be earlier in the episode, so thanks for that as well.
You seem never to be running out of future topics, but I would like to selfishly nominate one more idea (on mini series): Expat investing and financial planning (especially US/Can). This may seem to be a little bit too niche for your broad community. Keep in mind that there are an estimated 1 million Americans living in Canada (not sure about numbers of Canadians in US), for whom financial planning (and tax planning) comes with particular complexities and challenges. I know you have featured Andrew Hallam, who touches on some of these topics but there are some other specialty shops. It's honestly hard to find fact-based, unbiased and thorough info on this topic -- it would be powerful and impactful to democratize such knowledge (beyond the specialty cross-border investment management shops that charge 100-200 bps for AUM). A similar but different topic could be fin/tax planning for snowbirds, which much be a pretty significant population of folks doing it or CURIOUS about it. There are a number of angles to cover, from tax tips to estate planning and more. Again, such topics might not match up perfectly for your RR listener venn diagram (geographically), but not sure. Anyway, just a couple of ideas to add to your radar.
Thanks for the feedback. Safe to say we have no plans to end this.
The goal setting and happiness content is what I get the most out of, from your podcast. The technical portfolio stuff goes way over my head and since I follow a diversified low cost index strategy I don't really think I need to fully understand :)
Your podcast has inspired me to think about specific goals and actively work towards them, particularly in the non-financial realm. I'm considering ways to pivot from pursuing early retirement to contributing to my community somehow, perhaps an animal rescue organisation since that would combine many of my passions.
If I could give any feedback, I would personally like to see more empirical analysis of simple personal finance and investing advice. I quite enjoyed Ben's episode on Dave Ramsay's advice, for example. I would also love to know if there is research on financial literacy in children and what they are influenced by.
Thanks again :)
Gavin from Australia
I am glad to be one of the 310 to take the survey
Really interesting to see the results of this! I appreciate all the statements said about the limitations of such a survey. Something that I've taken away from participating in the survey is that immediately after submitting it, I realized that I wasn't going to get e-mailed a copy of what I submitted (since it's anonymous). I was tempted to email you to give you some information in the hopes of identifying my submission so I could get my data...
Then it dawned on me... I couldn't even remember all the goals that I came up with shortly after submitting the survey!!! It makes me think the activity is more important than the output and that a Master List, is encouraging more activity. My data likely had a lot of duplicates anyways, and could be summed up by the encapsulating goals that are published in the paper.
Hi Ben, Cameron,
I was looking for the white paper from the survey and I found a typo on the PWL Capital resources page for the results, in the "Imagine the life you want to live..." paragraph the "Effective goals are statements..." sentence is repeated twice. Thanks for all your hard work on this study and over the past few years on the podcast as a whole. I know that the podcast focuses mostly on intermediate/advanced financial topics and that having guests like Andrew Hallam and Morgan Housel did produce more manageable episodes for less financially literate individuals, but would you consider doing an episode on the basics of personal finance. Maybe this is too similar to episode 195, but just an idea that may help more people take the first steps to improving their financial situation.
Thanks again for all you do for personal finance enthusiasts, from a fellow Ottawan and hopefully future client.
58:57 I have some qualms with that formula... If you're 22 and graduate college, get a 100k/yr job, that formula says that your net-worth should be 220k. Makes no sense.
As per all rule of thumb, they are BS other than their use case
You guys are awesome. Thank you!
Also, go listen to the Rogan/Jobs AI interview (Cameron mentions it). Just listened, I thought it was pretty fascinating. (At least through my Friday afternoon work lens.)
Beeing independet to do what? From your own definition I would rather put it in the mean categorie and not the goal as it doesn‘t show the end of the road and the feeling of independence doesn‘t fill your day. You could argue the same for security, altough I would argue it’s a foundation to living a good life.
Thanks for the thought provoking work, I can’t argue against independence as the goal #1 on the master list but in my eye it falls short in it‘s relevance as a standalone goal.
Strategy Discussion over at PWL
Ben: Based on a 2018 paper there is evidence that people change their financial goals to match the goals of the majority. If we show a master list of financial goals to our clients, we can direct our clients in the direction we want.
Cameron: Ok, that sounds really dark.
Ben: No it's not dark, i think you are misunderstanding me.
Cameron: *sign of relief* yeah i think i am
Ben: Yeah you are - we provide our clients with the best and scientific confirmed advice and also take their wishes and opinions into consideration. The thing is they won't say no to the master list. They would never say no. Because of the implication.
What was the distinction in the paper between "Having time to spend with loved ones" and "Having ownership of my time"
Time for loved ones specified wanting more time with family etc. while ownership of time was more generally about not having time constraints. For example: "spending more time with my aging grandmother" vs. "I want more time to read, sleep, and simply relax".
-Ben
Keep up the good work!
Coupe looks good ben
Cameron Passmore: Just a goal that you thought might have been there that wasn't there? I'm just curious.
Ben Felix: I mean, the master list didn't exist.
This exchange is very dismissive. A more thoughtful exchange would make the very interesting podcast easier to listen to.
The Next Millionaire Next Door Net Worth Calculation does come from the first book. "Chapter 1 - Meet The Millionaire Next Door - How To Determine If You're Wealthy - Whatever your age, whatever your income, how much should you be worth right now? From years of surveying various high-income/high-net worth people, we have developed several multivariate-based wealth equations. A simple rule-of-thumb, however, is more than adequate in computing one's expected net worth.
Multiply your age times your realized pre-tax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.
(Examples cut)
Given your age and income, how does your net worth match up? Where do you stand along the wealth continuum? If you are in the top quartile for wealth accumulation you are a PAW, or Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth. If you are in the bottom quartile, you are a UAW, or Under Accumulator of Wealth. Are you a PAW, a UAW, or just an AAW, Average Accumulator of Wealth?
We have developed another simple rule. To be well positioned in the PAW category, you should be worth twice the level of wealth expected."
(Paraphrased) Conversely, if (your income) is one half or less than expected for (your) income/age category, (then you would be) classified as a UAW.
"PAWs vs. UAWs - PAWs are builders of wealth - that is, they are the best at building net worth compared to others in their income/age category. PAWs typically have a minimum of four times the wealth accumulated by UAWs. Contrasting the characteristics of PAWs and UAWs is one of the most revealing parts of the research we have conducted over the past twenty years."
Of course, this would keep pace with inflation as incomes rose with inflation.