Written By Paula Pant
Welcome to the world, Generation Beta.
The babies born 2025 through 2039 are the newest generation, coming after Gen Alpha.
They’re the first generation to be born into a world powered with AI, just as Gen Z was the first born into a world with ubiquitous internet.
They’ll soon be rolling their eyes and saying, […]
By Paula Pant
Grab your free copy of the 52-week guide to micro-improvements at affordanything.com/financialgoals
_______
In 2012, the British cycling team pulled off what seemed impossible. After 76 years of losses, they won the Tour de France, took second place, and grabbed 8 Olympic gold medals. Their secret? Tiny improvements that added up to massive change.
That’s the philosophy behind “One Tweak a Week,” a year-long financial roadmap broken into 52 small, manageable steps. Each tweak takes less than an hour — many just minutes — but compound into significant financial progress over time.
The plan breaks down into four quarters. Quarter 1 lays the groundwork with foundational habits like writing a financial motivation statement, calculating net worth, and choosing key metrics to track. It’s about getting clear on where you stand and where you’re headed.
Quarter 2 shifts focus to optimizing your money. You’ll track prices, adjust thermostat settings to cut energy costs, create a “fun fund” for guilt-free spending, and develop strategies for charitable giving. This quarter also tackles professional development and emergency medical expense planning.
In Quarter 3, the focus turns to systematic improvements — maintaining proper tire pressure to save on fuel, capturing work-from-home savings, planning for seasonal expenses, and building a buffer for unexpected price increases.
Quarter 4 wraps up with fine-tuning your system. You’ll evaluate housing options, manage variable food costs, set micro-saving challenges, and create strategies for handling market uncertainty.
The approach mirrors what British cycling performance director Dave Brailsford calls “the 1 percent margin for improvement.” He transformed the team by focusing on tiny details — everything from athlete hand-washing techniques to bringing specific mattresses to hotels for better sleep. Even painting the maintenance floor white to better spot problematic dust on bike gears.
Like Brailsford’s approach, these financial tweaks might seem small on their own. But together, they create a comprehensive system for building lasting wealth.
The guide is available at affordanything.com/financialgoals.
By Paula Pant
Let’s take a look back on the biggest financial and economic stories of 2024 – and a look ahead to 2025!
The Fed
GDP
The Bull Market
The Deficit
Inflation
Bitcoin
Basel III Endgame
and Scientific Breakthroughs
By Paula Pant
Jason is confused by the recent discussions about the efficient frontier and Paul Merriman’s four-sector strategy. It seems a lot like another form of stock-picking. What’s the difference?
Michelle straddles the Roth income threshold and is frustrated that she never knows if she’ll qualify for a Roth contribution until tax season. Is her current savings plan too complicated?
Evan has $100 to spend on personal finance books for his high school’s library. What books would Paula and Joe put on this limited shelf space?
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these three questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
By Paula Pant
What happens when an astronaut goes blind during a spacewalk?
For Chris Hadfield, this wasn’t a hypothetical scenario. While working outside the International Space Station, cleaning solution from his helmet visor spread into both eyes, leaving him completely blind in the vacuum of space.
His response? Stay calm and methodically evaluate options. He could call Houston. He could have a crew member rescue him. He could try to cry to flush out his eyes – though that’s tricky in zero gravity.
This story opens our conversation with Polina Marinova Pompliano, former Fortune Magazine reporter and author of the new book “Hidden Genius.”
Through her interviews with high-performers across fields — from astronauts to investors to extreme athletes — she uncovers patterns in how people handle uncertainty and build resilience.
Take trust, for example. Reid Hoffman’s formula is simple: Trust = Consistency + Time.
It’s not enough to show up sporadically when it’s convenient. Trust builds through meeting deadlines, following through on commitments, and maintaining clear communication — even during challenges.
Reliable consistency compounds over time, much like interest in an investment account.
Or consider Charlie Munger’s approach to beliefs. Rather than defending positions “to the death,” he argues you should only claim to believe something if you can argue the opposition’s viewpoint better than they can. This forces you to genuinely understand different perspectives rather than just reflexively disagreeing.
The conversation explores how people navigate major setbacks, from Conrad Anker surviving an avalanche that killed his climbing partners to Polina’s own experience of quitting Fortune magazine right before COVID hit. A key theme emerges: resilience isn’t about avoiding difficulty, but about training yourself to handle it through small daily practices.
Former Navy SEAL David Goggins calls this “callusing the mind.” By deliberately doing one uncomfortable thing each day – whether that’s running in the rain or having a difficult conversation – you build your capacity to handle larger challenges. The goal isn’t to become superhuman, but to expand your comfort zone step by step.
By Paula Pant
Jackie is sold on Paul Merriman’s “Four Funds” approach, but she’s overwhelmed by the logistics of diversifying her single fund portfolio.. What are the best practices to redistribute her investments, handle taxes, and manage rebalancing?
Heidi’s mother recently passed and she’s struggling to decide between distribution options, their tax implications, and investment options for the […]
By Paula Pant
Bitcoin is hitting new all-time highs. Is this just another bull cycle, or are we witnessing a fundamental shift in how the world thinks about money?
That’s the question at the heart of our conversation with Tatiana Koffman, General Partner at Moonwalker Capital and author of “The Myth of Money.”
Koffman joins us to explain why Bitcoin might be considered “digital property” rather than just a currency. She breaks down how Bitcoin derives its value from mathematical scarcity – similar to how gold becomes harder to mine over time, Bitcoin becomes more difficult and expensive to create every four years through events called “halvings.”
The conversation moves through several key developments in cryptocurrency. We discuss the recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs and how traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase (whose CEO Jamie Dimon once openly criticized crypto) are now embracing these products. Koffman shares insights about crypto adoption worldwide, from El Salvador’s experiment with Bitcoin as legal tender to Dubai’s emergence as a crypto hub.
When discussing Africa’s cryptocurrency landscape, Koffman explains how Nigeria’s unstable banking system has driven crypto adoption, with many young people using decentralized exchanges to participate in global markets. She describes how some Nigerians have built significant wealth starting from nothing, using “airdrops” (free tokens given to early adopters) to begin trading.
The interview includes a debate about inflation rates and economic data reporting, with Koffman expressing skepticism about official figures, while I push back on claims made without supporting evidence.
Koffman also explains different categories of crypto investments, distinguishing between Bitcoin as a potential store of value and what she calls “meme coins” – speculative assets she compares to gambling. She provides context about stable coins, particularly USDC and Tether, and their role during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
For those interested in investing in cryptocurrency, Koffman suggests starting with exposure to Bitcoin through regulated platforms like Coinbase or ETFs, while emphasizing the importance of proper security measures. She explains concepts like “cold wallets” and “seed phrases,” comparing them to different levels of bank security.
Looking ahead, Koffman discusses cryptocurrency’s potential role in reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar, particularly in developing economies, while acknowledging the challenges of creating stable alternative currencies.
Find Koffman’s weekly newsletter at mythofmoney.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TatianaKoffman.
By Paula Pant
Joanne is confident that her short and long-term financial plans are set, but she’s not certain about the medium-term. What’s the proper way to allocate money for different time horizons?
Jessie is intrigued by Paul Merriman’s simple portfolio recommendations but wonders about his lean away from growth stocks. Are value funds generally better for everyday investors?
Nancy is worried she’ll miscalculate her financial independence number because her net worth includes pre and post-tax money, plus liquid and illiquid investments. What’s the right approach?
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these three questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
P.S. Got a question? Leave it here.
Written By Paula Pant
Once upon a time, in southern California in 1994, there lived a man named William Bengen.⠀
His friends called him Bill.
Bill was a Brooklyn kid who studied aeronautics at MIT. He wrote a breakthrough paper on advanced model rocketry. He spent 17 years as an executive at a soft drink company. […]
By Paula Pant
Bill Bengen, the former rocket scientist who discovered the “4 percent rule” of retirement planning, joins us at the Bogleheads conference in Minnesota.
Bengen clarifies that calling it a “rule” is misleading since it doesn’t fit everyone’s situation. The 4 percent figure came from studying the worst-case scenario since 1926, when someone who retired in 1968 could only safely withdraw 4.2 percent annually. Out of 400+ retirees in his database, that was the only one who had such a low safe withdrawal rate — most could take out much more.
Recent research has pushed the “safe” withdrawal rate closer to 5 percent. But Bengen identifies eight key factors that affect how much you can withdraw, including how long you’ll be retired and whether you’re drawing from taxable or tax-deferred accounts.
For early retirees planning for 50-60 years, Bengen says the safe withdrawal rate asymptotically approaches 4.2 percent — meaning even with an infinite time horizon, it won’t drop below that. He thinks the common advice to use 3 percent for early retirement is unnecessarily conservative.
Bengen shares what he calls the “four free lunches” in retirement planning:
1. Using an equity glide path (reducing stocks at retirement, then increasing later)
2. Diversification across asset classes
3. Regular portfolio rebalancing
4. Slightly overweighting higher-returning assets like small-cap stocks
When it comes to market drops versus inflation, Bengen has clear advice: Don’t panic during bear markets — they typically recover. But if you hit extended high inflation early in retirement, it’s time to “head for the bunkers” and cut expenses drastically.
Beyond finance, Bengen shares his excitement about space exploration as a former rocket scientist who graduated from MIT just months before the moon landing. He hopes to live long enough to see humans reach Mars and believes space tourism helps people appreciate Earth’s beauty and fragility.
The interview ends with a light-hearted discussion about whether Pluto should still be considered a planet (Bengen still calls it one, out of habit) and speculation about future tourism to Saturn’s moon Titan once the sun’s expansion makes it warmer in a few hundred million years.
