Shownotes Transcript
Walking the money for the rest of us. This is a person of finance show on money, how IT works, how to invest IT in, how to live without worrying about IT and your host, David time. And today is A Q and a episode is something that we do about once a year.
He was last year. We did IT with me. Today are my son's camden and bread. They are partners at money for the restless have been for yes, almost. You're in a half now.
They'll read some of the questions it'll try in, but we're going to start off with some more investing related questions. And then the later has some more, let's say, philosophical related questions. So Cameron, once or haven't started here.
So our first question says, hi, David team, can you please explain how your investment approach differs if IT does, from active management or marketmen versus a passive buy and hold strategy? I'm unclear on this distinction, and I get the impression from your work that you generally believe that investors cannot beat the market with any consistency, yet you pursue strategies such as portfolio tilting to do just that. What am I missing in the seeming contradiction? If you have previously explaining this distinction in some other forum, just directing me to the content, and that would be fine.
The same in contradiction is, what do we mean by the market? The question refers to beating the market, and in financial theory, at the root of passive bin hold investing is something known as the market lio. And this is a theoretical bundle of investments that includes every acid available in the financial market, concludes stocks, bonds, preferred stock, equity, reads public and private asset to potentially.
And so batches the theory and the ideas that if you're a pass of investor, you own this market portfolio in the proportional weights based on size. But we can't observe the market portfolio and and that leaves us to figuring out what should our asset allocation be. Now data confirm that most active stock managers leg comparable index phones, and that's why I primarily invested in stocks via index funder etf.
But how do we decide what other asset classes to include in our portal folio besides stocks? And and what should be included? And what are those weights? What do we do about equity strategy such as momentum and value? That history have outperformed a size waited portfolio.
And so that leaves us with our approach of money for the rest of us, which comes out of my how I invested professionally is broad diversification using a variety of asset types, understanding the portfolio drivers of those returns, the cash flows, the cash low growth, wet investors to pack for the cash lows and look at that data and then make an allocation decision. Few investors are truly passive because they need to decide what assets to hold, what the way should be and how to rebaLance. And so what we do IT money for the rest of us is help with that decision, come up with expecting returns, provide tools such as as a campus to help investors do that.
And invested means making changes, even investors that believe they're totally passive have to rebaLance. Now what we can distinguish that from market timing, which is much more active and much more aggressive in many regards, and IT can work just doesn't fit my temperament. The portfolio turn rate can be much higher and IT can be exhAusting and in potentially tax and efficient.
So our approaches less active. It's more of a wait and see and to see what closed in with the tide. We spend a lot of time in the last month or so on the podcast on plus membership talking about treasury inflation protected securities because there was an opportunity that we hadn't seen in decades.
IT was a print decision to make an additional allocation there. Equity reads got as cheap that they're they've been in five years, which means the expectant return was higher IT made to make an allocation there like I did in my purfoy lio. And so we allowed to make allocation decisions even if you're a buyin hold investor. We make decisions are in its just sort of a broad range in terms of how active investors are. But very few investors that I know unless there are one hundred percent stocks and never make a change, are truly bion hood investors.
Alright, next question is, you've been an investment professional for a long time. What are two or three things you've changed your mind on in the last ten years, in the last two years?
So I left the investment industry you as a money manager in twenty the begin to twenty twelve. And we were actively managing portfolio since, I guess, two thousand. Three is when we launched the basically, we got discretion to make portfolio changes for our clients, what we called active vait allocation, which is really the impetus for how I always managed money like discussed.
And the focus there was on, on valuations. We looked dead sentiment and where other bubbles momentum and and we would make allocation decisions. Asset allocation decisions spent less time on economic trends. We were aware of IT, but really coming out of that two thousand and nine, the financial crisis was so startling in a severity of losses and very few people saw IT.
And so I sort of when on a path of and how what do we miss and how does this whole macro thing work, and that's when I was first introduced to modern monetary theory, accounting identities, how government deficits, federal deficits, provide cash to the private sector to spend, how money is created and debt dynamics. And in all the things that we talk about on money for the rest of public versus private money. But a lot of IT was theory up until that, the pandemic, where we saw how powerful central banks were by running huge quantitative using programs combined with a federal budget deficit.
And what do we see? We saw the money supply increased forty percent. We saw a huge jump in networks and a jump in liquidity, the money supply, and that pushed up Prices significantly.
And IT IT basically wiped out a lot of the financial stress from the pandemic and set the stock market roaring and to years later, inflation at the highest level in thirty years. And so what did I learned from that? The power central banks, that how we invested before, you just have to recognize that central banks will do whatever they can to reduce the pain in the economy.
And that leads us to have greater humility as investors, fewer changes and the focus on what we control what we can control is the compounding of our assets, and we can control how much cash are receiving in the form of dividends and interest. And we can control what we're paying for those assets and make adjustments when it's really obvious that this is an opportunity and those unity is come less than they used to because of central banks. I would say that's IT that its central banks, we've seen a textbook ase of what causes inflation, huge jump in the money supply combined with supply constraints in the capacity to produce goods and services.
Our next question is, if you were to make a list of some ways to fail with money, spending money on things you cannot afford might be one of them. However, what the strategy can result in is an elevated social status, which can definitely a other life benefits. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on social status as a consideration when spending slash investing one's money.
I have had a lifelong g fascination with status, starting with very much Younger I grew up in. We could call at a lower middle class household, probably barely hanging on to that level of states. But I recall in as a software high school reading the book babbit by nuclear Lewis, and he was all about status and rode a research report on status and how status fits in with culture.
And recently I and this year I finished a book by W. D. David mars called status in culture.
And in one of his conclusions is empirical research shows we all, as a fundamental human desire, crave status in much of IT. This was probably what was most alarming about the book. A lot of its subconscious.
We would justify IT will purchase things not because we think IT don't increase my status, but will say, well, it's because it's beautiful or there is some other you know it's a great value or I I just happen to like IT. But underneath that, it's often kind of this desire of for status. And I don't I be interested in Cameron and bread. Do you make status purchases?
I mean, I think the answer, like you said is is yes and no. I think I I have a tendency to try to consciously avoid making status purchases, but I can definitely tell that around. For example, in the last year, about a pair of airports, you know, was doing a picture of research on different wireless bluetooth headphones to use while i'm not running, have an iphone.
So airport's made sense. But as I searched and I became more aware of IT, one of the things that I use start paying attention to is what types of headphones to people have. And a lot of people have complained that apple only makes airports in White.
And I say, why don't they make him in other colors? And one of the things I noticed is I very quickly started noticing when other people had White headphones, and then checking if they were airports or not. And I realized that there was a subconscious element of, this is kind of a status thing is, I have the real deal, which embarrassed me a little bit, to realized that there was a subconscious level of that.
I was really just trying to find, you know, the best kind of headphone for my need. But I realized that that was a branding and status decision by apple, that a lot of those design elements that they have are our status things. And so I don't think I find myself actively trying to buy status in that sense.
But I think IT is pretty common for us to anything, maybe fairly common for me to recognize that some of my decisions I might classify more as identity decisions and the kind of person that likes this, I think, which is the type of status or or you know, when we try to you know, we try to avoid things like virtue signal. But if you are saying i'm going to buy something like this because I believe that is the more eco conscious thing to do or that's some more economical thing to do. And occasionally you know that something that I do because I want a company to notice or I want society notice, and that's a part of status as well.
As far as, you know, the social benefits, I don't think I consider that as much. But when I was thinking about this question earlier, one of the things that came to mind to me is I think that there can be benefits, but it's so hard to measure. It's chasing status and other people's eyes just because we just can't see this is my opinion.
but. Since we can't know exactly what they are thinking, IT just doesn't seem like A A good use of time. And to me, I came back to the the principle the money for the rest of us book is that investing, speculating or gambling and spending money specifically to elevate social status, especially money that you don't have or on things you cannot forget, is a speculation at best, is no guaranteed positive return on that.
And I would say that is more often than not, IT probably is a gamble. And so I think in my mind, that specific scene seems like one to avoid. But I do think that we and I know that I so consciously, occasionally ly consciously do make purchases where status is an element.
IT turns out back on the airports that the cool kids currently are back to using apple wired pots, actually have the wired so bad. Any thoughts?
I have two thoughts about this. One would be going back to that, spending money on things you can't afford yet. My wife went and got a masters degree in occupational therapy, and we definitely could not afford the forty thousand dollars year in tuition and for the two years. And that something that has definitely, I don't know if I would say, like our social status has necessarily improved, is definitely allowed us to earn a much higher income for her to earn a much higher income.
And while we are still paying that off, IT has definitely benefited us, which now is I think now having worked so much with money for the rest of us is just the benefits of the extra mely leveraged investment and seeing those poos as far as raising social status, I don't think I really make purchases to affect this, but I do feel that pressure in outdoor clothing. So I do a lot of outdoor activities, rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding. And I will often feel pressure to to know already have a lot of in poster syndrome with that.
And so there are sometimes where i'm like, do I look like I fit in here? And I don't think I make purchases about that, but I certainly is on my mind. I remember when I was twenty one, I had a very looking moustache, and I was hiking with a friend, and he told me, he says, I really like hiking with you.
IT makes me look like I fit in, because as having a ridiculous mash at twenty, being like I fit in on the trailer, I used to hike a lot with these king sandals called chuck's. And IT was the status thing if you had this like very ten feet with your your choko lines on them. And I I can't wear choco OS anymore because of a foot injury and IT sometimes i'm like, man, I I don't fit in and so that is something I deal with.
But I try to, I recognize IT coming at me and then try not to make those decisions. But I definitely, I the pressure because I don't want people, you know, judging me. Just sad. But is the way, as I suppose.
well, why we make funny, your pale feet and family hike. The reality is so we do feel pressure, and there are sort of table stakes or unwritten rules to china join a group which can take some speculative spending to see if we can at least IT to the level where we can participate and then be rewarded based on on our merit. But realty is, status is here.
We all do is consciously. We need to be aware of IT and try to be strategic in our use of status, seeking purchases. Bright, let's go to our next question.
This listener asks. I have some investments and fundraised, a company you suggested is a good option for real estate participation. I agree that they are great.
The CEO in furries in repeated podcasts has asserted that we are headed for a deep, deep procession and feels optimism is misguided. He's not being alarmist, just factual. He's also not promoting anything by making the statement, just giving his view IT seems to me your view is more moderate. Were headed for hopefully a soft or soft I dish landing with some, but not dramatic input. I would appreciate more feedback and input from on this topic.
I'm not sure what facts he's looking at. So we look at economic indicators, corporate profits, interest strates and in all these things on a monthly basis as part of our monthly investment conditions and strategy. And deep d processions come generally when there are some type of excesses in the system access debt, which leads to release some type of baLance sheet recession.
And when you look at where things are, household and businesses are still in decent shape, again, thanks to the the central banks and huge budget deficits, which continue when we look at leading economic indicators such as PMI data, the most recent composition, PMI, which includes manufacturing and services, is at fifty point four IT. Actually PMI ted to improve this month. The job report this month for the U.
S. Was so I don't see the huge excesses that would lead to a significant recession. Now the takes welfare interest rates, the high, the pie pile he read to take cold. But we'll see. But you know at this point, i'm having a hard time finding IT. So i'll have to check out what fun rises said because when we look at in some of our research partners, they don't see IT either, but we're looking for where we're wrong. But you know, based on in a number decade, you are looking at this, I just I don't see what would cause a very, very deep cession.
Next question, what is the worst investment move you made this year and why .
been a pretty good year? I suspect for most of us with the markets, the worst investment was not realizing that one of the mutual funds that I hold, the w line real state, an income fund D B R X, was closing the is a an equity read fund in october. We mention this in our monthly investment conditions report that equity reads were the cheapest had been really since you briefly in twenty twenty.
But way back in twenty eighteen, just looking at the dividend yield, that was four point six percent. That was the highest since two thousand nine, except for a couple of weeks in march twenty twenty. And so I already more to equity reads in october using the vanguard real state E T F N Q.
And then I was preparing for our conditions report this month and noticed I couldn't find the double line fund anymore. And turns out IT had got liquidated, closed, and they sent the money in, in early november. So basically, they perfectly time the equity read bottom because equity rates are up over twelve percent in the months in november.
And so I basically lost all that appreciation, not being aware that double line was closing. The fun effect IT annoying me so much that I tweed IT to the powers to be a double line, and then decided that was petty and took to tweet down after ten minutes. But you have to be aware of what in your portfolio, and I guess, notifications from fund companies. Because I, if I had known, I would have rolled over, put more equity reads in bn, q or other, some other option, but I didn't. So now I sort of lost that big rebound in equity reads, and that's a little frustrating about you guys.
I think my worst investment this year was just sitting on cash for too long and still sitting on cash for too long. My family and I was saving up for a car, and I should have had that invested in some sort of cash wavelan and just didn't get around to IT and even didn't fund my I R. A as soon as I could have. And so just lost out through inflation and not getting some of the games that came throughout the year. So my mistake was not acting honestly.
My is probably pretty similar. My investment portfolio is pretty straight forward though. I think that we could also talk about just different leveraging different retirement accounts. Um so for me, it's still getting you know sure that we're getting all of the the systems in place to make sure that we're consistently getting the investments in where we want them and and the savings and where we want them as well.
So we got to be on top of that. That's true when we talk about cash pounces every time we open up our business checking account and see yet we're earning point whatever one percent on our cash realize oh, we could earn more but we have to go open up another account somewhere outside of our a corporate bank. And so yeah, it's sorry.
How about you? How valuable is your time or just a frustration? And it's probably not as valuable as amount of money we lost this year, keeping in our corporate cash in a very below building checking account are there?
Next question says, since the stock market is driven by institutional investors and returns have been concentrated in the top seven stocks, what valuation metrics are they using to justify the Price? Nobody using any valuation method seems to think the Prices make any sense. What explains the disconnect?
There are all types ways to invest, but you know, at its core, and active manager will hold a very expensive stock because they believe that the earnings and revenue growth will be Better than expected. So that would be one reason they can justify the Price because they believe that those companies will then maybe it's it's several years out, will do much Better than what's Priced into the stock.
I mean, that, that would be the only reason to do IT. Well, that would be one reason to do IT. The other would be based on your Price for where the investor believes that other investors will come in and bid up the Price you ve been further and that the original investor will hopefully get out and talk.
That's really any Price can be justified. And I think tesla is a great example. We've seen tesla get credible expensive over the years and there was some viable disagreement on what the right Prices is.
But there were some that argued that was super, super cheap even when IT was very, very expensive on very valuation metrics. So they justify because they think the company will be Better than expected that's Priced into the stock or it's just momentum and they believe that the momentum will keep going up. They'll be able to get out before there's some type of momentum crash.
Our next this is what, if anything, have you learned from .
charlie monger? What i've learned is and I if you've listen to the podcast, I have not done very many epsom at all. Warn buffet and charlie monger.
I think we've done one about what I really respect about them. Certainly, they're incredibly good investors, but they're doing what they love. And chilly monger did what he loved, showing that you don't need to retire.
If you really enjoy what you're doing, maybe you make some changes, figure out different aspects of IT, but you don't have to quit. I have a good friend who primary care. Decision just passed away at eight seventy sticks.
And this friend has had the same doctor for forty years. And he ask his doctor like, why don't you retire? You're in your seventies. And the doctor was like, because this is, but I I love to do. And so the whole point of living, like where to retired, is a structure alive, so we don't unretire from and and charlie monger and warm buffer t are great examples of that.
In your recent die with zero podcast episode, you talked about different times in your life that you home, school and even commuted for school, I realized is a bit personal. But as a Young parent, i'd love to listen to an episode where you reflect on schooling, parenting and maybe most importantly, choosing locations to move or choosing to be flexible. I know you've moved to turn over the years and IT great to hear about IT, what worked and what you'd recommend .
that Sarah education and what definitely what do you guys champion was is to focus on what was best for, you know, with three children, all of her involved in our family business here. But do is best for them. We've done, we've done public schools.
I've done private schools. We've done home schooling and back and forth, including commuting from easter night to heard of sund valley and being in sun valley during the weekend, coming back on the week. And and that was what work I think we tried to we didn't move a lot when we are raising our kids and and partly think a perl was always win a move.
I wasn't I did not. We almost moved once when I was growing up, but I basically stayed in the same neighborhood my entire grow up years, and I was the same neighborhood down the street from where my dad grew up. And so the thought of changing schools terrified me. And so I was always very hesitant to move our kid.
Could I varied being in place so much and the where the perl had moved all the time? And I was sort of a point of contention? So when we moved from ohio to idaho, I sort of told our kids that we, this is IT like, this is our move or moving here. And we gently stuck to IT, switched you into one house once.
But now that they are grown, we've basically moved a lot, trying to figure out where do we want to live? How do we want to live? And the perl likes to redo houses and what we both do in and that has made to all types of housing projects, but ultimately know where flexible when IT comes to moving.
And and I did tell the process that when our kids are girl, we live for everyone. And and we've generally done that. We've made the decision together but been willing to move. So what about you guys with any thoughts.
I think, thinking IT over your statement, and he said that you always try to do what was best for us is something that I always felt. Well, maybe, you know, when I was Younger, moving to idle from ohio was not my favorite thing. I can look back and, you know, see the benefits of of what happened.
But you were always incredibly patient when we were taking kind of education journey and ever felt pressured into things. And I got a lot of ley, which I think is is pretty interesting IT exactly a lot of people like talk to that like, wow, your parents are really relaxed. When I came to that, you were very involved, but they were like, you kind thought you were crazy sometimes like i'm trying home school, you know this semester and that didn't work as well for me.
So you know, going back to some of the private school. But just even I remember in high school being really interested in in going abroad and mom being like you should go abroad. You should try as you should look into a study of broad.
They have high school study abroad programs, and you would send me, then you should look at this one. And I always felt very encouraged to do what was going to help me. Most kind of what I was interested in signified that that is, was a very special circumstance, right? Not everybody has that opportunity to you be as flexible to give those opportunities to their children. And so is is really am really grateful for that. But I think that the the attitude, the willingness to to the extent that you are able and I think that that's what I think makes the differences to that you were able to to be able to listen.
You still know, use your greater use of experience to ultimately help make the decision that you thought was best, but to listen to what we needed or what issues we were having in school, and to spend time talking through that, and to brainstorm ideas for what would be the most effective within the means that we had, I think, is something that I look back on us is having been really important. And the fact that you don't feel betrayed by fact that one of your children in technically graduated high school that we all managed to find alternative routes into, you know, whether I was getting A G E D, or in my case, I don't get anything, and managed to sort of back door apply away into different community colleges, universities, and have all ended up with degrees, I think speaks to a level of mental flexibility and support that was very appreciated. But I think that that big thing I would look back on that I think that is useful for everybody.
Y's just listening. You know, we all have different means. We all have different ability to act, to make certain decisions that all of us have the same privileges in life. Listening makes a huge difference. And really .
trying to understand, I degree with many of the things that camden said and and I switched schools a little bit more than did. And even as a teenager, I recognized the reason why was that our parents are trying to facilitate us with what was working, what we needed. At that time.
I went to like seven different schools until I graduated. I actually, after my soft more year, I earned my god ment to college, and then even to for one semester was like, I don't think i'm ready for this, I don't know what I want to do. And my parents even supported me and stop and going into college at the time, and so was whatever best suit us at the time.
And I can really look back now and as an adult, see how each of the schools affected me in positive, negative ways and have really helped me become the person I am today. I think some of the things I really value about that was seeing different education styles and even different belief systems. You know, I went to one school that was the headmaster was was very conservative. And I was I look back at some of the things that he, us and IT was in, being able to see that from point of view was really interesting.
And then my last year of high school, I was a liberal art school that was so radical, different than that previous school I had been to, and really being able to see both sort of perspectives on education and the world, and and even just political and social viewpoints, I think was really valuable to me, and has something that has really affected me in my life since then. I will admit, I definitely was on team, not moving again. I know there were several times my mom wanted to move, and I was over here like, please, I don't want to move. And I I do feel sort of bad about that because I know SHE really wanted to move. I am very grateful for IT because I really need connections with people I still have today that i'm very grateful for that I might have missed out on otherwise.
Yeah yeah. That note the point bread made about friends. And you know, as the prony have moved more in last few years, we've not lost connections with friends that we made an ohio and the friends who made an idaho.
And you realized that IT takes a long time to make friends like really, really good friends. And we we have lots of acquaintance and and we can call lemn friends in arizona that we have to we do. But it's not the same of friends that you've known decades from shared experiences. And I think knowing we have good friends around the country makes IT easier. And to say, right, we want to try something else, because one of a good relationship with our kids who are our friends, but we also have other friendships that we make sure we we spend time as we travel, connecting with them, having dinner, reaching out because just recognize how long IT takes to actually build those friendships and that, that takes decades. And so we want to make sure that we honour friendships and keep them going.
I think it's also been interesting to see how that's transitioned into my ult life. My spouse and I have also moved a lot in the six years we have been married. We've lived in six different states and sometimes in different locations in those states.
And we have both really enjoy to I think it's significant with what my father, David, said about friends though, is that for the first time in our marriage, we have no plans on moving from where we live now. And one of the big things that really affected that is our fancier is that we ve got super lucky and immediately found friends and found a community that we just really love. Also, there is a lot less snow. And as an adult, I decided that I wanted to not live in the snow.
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So our next question is, assuming you own your own home, should the equity value of your primary residents be faced in as part of your retirement planning? For example, if you have one million dollars in A O N K I R A and other liquid assets, one million dollars in equity in your home is IT smart to use two million dollars in assets as the basis for retirement purposes. Or should you leave the home equity value out of planning questions?
IT depends on whether you plan on downsizing or not. We recently actually cover this in plus episode for fifty six, where a member was trying to figure out how to go about that because in their case, they they did plan on creating A A vacation home at some point. And downsides, the primary residence.
And so for they were using the retirement spending spreading that we have on the site and in the way that they did IT, is you just assume so I think in their case, year ten of retirement, they we're gonna get lumpsum and added to the ernest baLance. And then a few years later, another lump sum in what that allowed them to do was to have a higher spending rate. And so instead of starting with the four percent spending rate, they could start with a six percent spending rate because I knew they were going to get this lump to some from their house.
In our case, in terms of my retirement planning, I exclude the value of our primary residence. We will include the value of our cabin in like our network statement that we our portfolio allocation that we share, percentage ges that we share on plus membership. But the reality, I think from a spending standpoint at this point, we're excluding both our primary residents and that cabin because we'd have no plans to sell IT and for now. And so we just don't include IT.
What was the last thing you read that changed your understanding .
of the world for me, is the book how the world really works by buckle of meal, combined with the the book the day the world stop shopping by J. B. I've discuss both of them. The podcast, those two books, helped me realize the lack effect of our economic system, how it's evolved over decades in terms of economic growth.
The resources needed, cement, oil, all the carbon inducing things that we use, and just seeing how even the economy is so consumer to pendant, and how much over consumption the west is relative to in many developing countries. And IT was sort of, in some ways, discords ing to realized climate change is gear is increasing. But I don't anything changing majority.
I think it's because we we tend them much along as humans. In fact, i'm reading another book that a member recommended earth for all survival guide for humanity, which talks about two approaches, the model long approach versus making huge major changes. And even as I read that as like, all right, we're probably in a model long and you know technology will help is set up.
I don't see a consensus globally for making major changes, and and I also worry about the potential intended consequences of that. So my world view changed in terms of recognizing the power of lock and effect and why things are the way they are. The same time, i've made personal changes in the areas that I can actually have control over and changing in terms of consumption patterns of that sort.
Well, I also read the day the world's stop shopping this year. That was also very good. But my most recent one is, is a little bit different. IT was a memorie by William finnegan called barberie days a surfing life.
And I know that that might be kind of an interesting kind of book to say that I changed my understanding of the world, but his input and description of surfing, I just had never really spent a lot of time thinking about surfing. You know, I ve seen of IT. I watched a bit, a bit during the tokyo olympics when surfing was there for the first time by reading this memoria and just kind of his experiences about surfing problem to serve his life. Because I just changed my view on IT and really grew my respect of IT. And i've actually spent a lot more time thinking about IT than I thought I would and have found a lot of interesting kind of analogies with other areas of my life.
I think what I found most interesting was the amount of time we spends talking about just how long IT takes to learn to read a surf spot, to learn to read a particular filer wave brick, that people will spend lifetimes getting to know the unique rhymes of the surf spot that they grew up next to, of their favorite ones, that they love to visit that because it's something it's always changing but does have some consistent patterns that there's just so much that they're looking forward and doing by feel and all of these senses. And I found that just to be really fascinating and and i've spent a lot of time thinking about that. And so well, it's a small part of the world and a part of the world that I have never directly experienced, that never gone surfing. I have actually spent a lot more time thinking about that book in the way that they approached ed, the ocean and surfing. Then I thought I would have for something that I just happened to see on an employee pix shelf at my local bookstore.
thin Cameron, that's really need I. I have to read that one. I think the most recent thing that I read that changed my understanding the world was the doug and I thread other another translation of the dodgy before, but I read the translation this year that was done by mark s.
Molinos willink to that in the shown nuts. And I just related to this translation a lot more. First off, IT had been translated in twenty twenty one verses. I think the when I had read of us like the eighteen hundreds. But I also really enjoyed IT because I had Marks commentary on IT.
But in addition, that included a lot of quotes that taught similar principles that were being taught in each each section of the, and so includes quotes from other douwe st. texts. IT includes other religious scripture sections, as well as just like even rock and roll quotes, IT quotes like pink floyd.
And and that really helped make IT very relevant to me. And I I think IT really changed my understanding of the world, because, obviously, being raised in the united states, I come from the world perspective in a very western way. And I think we so often forget that there are other ways of thinking. And I studied religion and Anthony gan college, and this was one of my my favorite to learn about was just different ways of thinking in different world views, and and realizing like thinking in ways that I had, I had never thought of even thinking about, and how much that can really change one's perspectives. And so I I love reading through the dougal and learning to look at the world with a much less dualistic way. And and looking at the significance of emptiness and how that plays a role in life as well, is just really trying to and deve it's one episodes on this, really trying to embrace the way that that ever effort of, I think the way to put in the book was, you know, striving without any attachment for the end result one way or another, or trying to be an empty boats. And and really that's really had A A great impact on me and how I view the world and something i'm still very actively trying to cultivate, though not too actively, because that would be against what the .
whole point is that great? That leads into our final question, which i'll go here and read this one because I went to comment a little bit on bridge, said find a question, tell us what this year has been like, business and family. And we very much take a dollars approach to our business.
So we don't have these major goals each year. We just sort of want to improve what we do, and we tend to work in shorter term springs. But i'm not sure sprinting would be how you would describe our approached to business other than just kind of focus the area with certain projects we want to work on over the next two or three months.
The overall business perspective, it's the chAllenging gear. You know any pod casters. It's been a tough year for podcast, which is interesting because podcast itself industries is grown.
But if we look at, for example, downloads per episode, they are down. Your typical podcast is probably down twenty percent. Ad rates are down fifteen to twenty percent over the past year and and we're seeing that in money for the rest.
The number of downloads that we're getting, no part of its that how apple and others count download has changed, but it's let us sort of deal with. So how do we as a business, we've basically been flat this year from a revenue standpoint and learning standpoint at which is fine because we just want to make sure we stand business and keep enjoying IT. And so that it's been an absolute pleasure to work with cambden and bread and our daughter on money for the rest of us. And it's something that I really enjoy and cambon, i'll talk about some of the projects that we're working on now, but generally speaking, were focused on the outcome in a very double where other then produce quality products, be helpful to our listeners, inner members and and provide them the tools to to help them become more confident in their investment decisions.
That sounds up, up pretty well. It's been a an interesting year for that.
We have had some big things that happen, though no many of you have heard about acid camp that was in the biggest that this year, we've been real focused on making sure that money for the rest of us and money for the rest of us plus are running well, that we're finding the areas to improve, that we're talking with our members, our listeners by acid camp definitely represents kind of one of the bigger steps that we've taken in recent years, just building something from scratch and releasing something completely new. And that was a really big adventure for us. S A lot of interesting conversations.
We've been very grateful to our team over at base blocks development team at of ukraine that we've worked closely with. And it's been exciting to have people start using that, been exciting to get their feedback and to be thinking about how we can continue to improve IT and get IT out there. And so that's been a really IT as the camp sits in a different space a little bit than money for the rest of us.
It's less a membership community. It's more because you could say a software as a service in tech, and it's just really kind of changed the way that we think about approach certain things. but. IT fits into our ecosystem well, and that's probably been outside of the the changing podcast landscape that safely been the biggest development business wise in one of our most exciting areas as we continue to strive for growth without being a to the outcome, as seems to be earth, our theme, talking through that. So that's been a really good experience for building both our ability to work as a team, but also continuing to find ways to help our listeners and the people in the money for the rest of this community be empowered. They're investing.
I know i've learned a lot from IT. Well, when you think about IT, the output from asia camp we use all the time. And when we were used the investment news letter, we're using IT on in our plus community in terms of our monthly reports.
And it's the need of a broader community that, that is very much developing or driving what we're doing with us a camp in terms of additional enhancements to add fixed income next next year to add some technical measures, basically just A P E ratio and it's summary tables is driven by the broader community, just not just the asset camp subscribers, which we thinks a good thing because that's how we know IT will be an effective tools. So we definitely appreciate everybody this feedback if you're a listener member, subscriber, whatever. Thank you for this this year for listening the podcast, sharing with others.
We weren't able to get to every question, but we read every question and will more than likely use some those in in future episode des over the next year like we typically do. And thank you for that. This is our last episode for twenty and twenty three.
We typically take a couple weeks off at the end of the year, so will be back with our first episode of the year, the first week of j anywhere. And so happy new year, everyone. You may be missing some of the best money for the rest of content.
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