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This episode dives into the macroeconomic chaos of 2025. Hans breaks down the yen carry trade, quantitative easing, and why the 10-year Treasury isn't budging despite Fed rate cuts. Brian connects it back to what matters: how you position your family's finances when nobody knows what's coming next.

The tension is real. On one hand, the debasement trade says go long equities—they're going to keep printing money and asset prices will rise. On the other hand, forward P/E ratios are at 23x, historically correlated with flat or negative real returns over the next decade. And then there's AI—a real time Black Swan breaking every economic model we thought we understood.

Chapters:

• 00:00 – Opening segment

• 01:25 – 2025 macro overview: building resilience against all outcomes

• 05:05 – Fed rate divergence: Japan raising while the US cuts

• 06:55 – The yen carry trade explained

• 10:30 – Quantitative easing: how the Fed creates money through primary dealers

• 13:45 – The Cantillon effect and why Wall Street benefits first

• 15:15 – Congress is the root cause, not the Fed

• 17:05 – Why Austrian economists were partially wrong about 2008 QE

• 19:30 – Will this round of QE hit faster?

• 21:45 – The bond market is calling the Fed's bluff

• 25:45 – The case for growth assets in an inflationary environment

• 28:00 – Forward P/E at 23x: what the metric means

• 34:05 – How forward P/E correlates with 10-year returns

• 40:30 – Why you need both growth and guaranteed savings

• 42:00 – The dual paths of wealth: protection and growth

• 45:15 – The house fire story50:10 – AI as the wildcard disrupting all economic models

• 53:05 – The slow-motion Black Swan we're living through

• 56:45 – The 1994 email clip: we're there again with AI

• 59:00 – Closing segment

Key Takeaways:

• Two Narratives, One Strategy: The inflation/debasement trade says buy growth assets. Elevated P/E ratios say expect flat returns. Both are valid—which is why you need exposure to both growth and guarantees.

• The Fed Isn't the Root Problem: Congress can't stop spending. The Fed enables it by monetizing debt through quantitative easing. Until spending stops, money printing won't stop.

• The Bond Market Doesn't Believe the Fed: Rate cuts should lower mortgage rates. They haven't. The 10-year Treasury is rising because bond buyers are pricing in continued inflation and fiscal recklessness.

• Forward P/E Matters: At 23x, historical data shows a strong correlation with flat inflation-adjusted returns over the next decade. That's not a prediction—it's a data point worth considering.

• AI Changes Everything (Maybe): What took 30 years of internet development now happens in 12 months with AI. It could accelerate productivity beyond anything we've measured—or it could be a bubble. Nobody knows. Plan accordingly.

Book a call: https://remnantfinance.com/calendar !
The Fed just cut rates. Japan just raised theirs to a 30-year high. The bond market is calling the Fed's bluff. And Congress keeps maxing out credit cards while writing their own spending limit increases. What does this mean for your money—and how do you plan when the signals are screaming opposite things?

The Dual Paths of Wealth: You're always walking two roads—protection and growth. Whole life insurance designed for IBC lets you do both simultaneously: guaranteed savings you can leverage into growth assets without abandoning either path.

Many philosophers have contemplated the inevitability of death and taxes. But despite knowing both are coming, most people avoid planning for either until it's too late. What happens when you die without a proper estate plan? What's the difference between a will and a trust? And why does the government already have an estate plan for you—whether you like it or not?

This episode tackles estate planning head-on. Hans walks through the foundational concepts from his CLU coursework while Brian shares the painful reality of navigating Pennsylvania's probate system after losing his mother. The contrast is striking: life insurance proceeds arrived within a week, tax-free and hassle-free. Everything else? A year-long nightmare involving shyster attorneys, arbitrary timelines, and a state government eager to collect its pound of flesh.

The episode also addresses a critical oversight many families make: naming minor children as contingent beneficiaries on life insurance policies. Insurance companies cannot pay minors directly, which reintroduces the exact inefficiencies you were trying to avoid. One possible solution? Establish a trust and name it as your contingent beneficiary.

Chapters:

• 00:00 – Opening segment

• 02:00 – Why estate planning matters for everyone

• 03:30 – Brian's probate experience in Pennsylvania

• 07:30 – The one-year waiting period and attorney fees

• 11:45 – Life insurance: the easiest transfer by far

• 15:00 – Definition of estate planning: accumulate, manage, conserve, transfer

• 17:30 – Effective vs. efficient transfers explained

• 19:45 – The three places your assets can go

• 24:00 – Federal estate tax: 40% above the exemption

• 29:00 – The five-year thought exercise

• 37:00 – Minor children as beneficiaries: the hidden problem

• 43:30 – What would change if you had five years left?

• 54:00 – Heritage over inheritance: passing down more than money

• 59:05 - Closing Segment
  

Key Takeaways:

• You Already Have an Estate Plan: If you haven't created one, the government has a default plan for you—and it prioritizes creditors and bureaucratic process over your family's needs.

• A Will Is Not Enough: Wills direct the probate court on asset distribution, but assets still go through a lengthy, costly, public legal process. Trusts bypass probate entirely.

• Life Insurance Skips the Mess: Death benefits transfer directly to beneficiaries, tax-free, within days—no court involvement, no waiting periods, no attorney fees.

• Don't Name Minors as Beneficiaries: Insurance companies cannot pay children directly. Name a trust as your contingent beneficiary to maintain efficiency and control.

• The Five-Year Exercise Changes Everything: If you knew your exact death date, your priorities would shift immediately. Use that clarity now—maximize protection, spend time with family, stop deferring what matters.

• Estate Planning Is for the Living: Half of estate planning—accumulation and management—happens while you're alive. This isn't just about death; it's about building and protecting wealth today.

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Joe Withrow, Brian Moody, and Hans Toohey deliver a joint strategy session on building a financial foundation that survives contact with reality. Why does traditional financial planning put growth before protection? What happens when your plan gets punched in the face? And why is Infinite Banking the only savings vehicle that accomplishes two critical goals simultaneously?

Most people have been trained to think their 401(k) is savings and their term life insurance is "just in case." They're told to focus on growth—index funds, average rates of return, retirement projections—while protection and actual savings become afterthoughts. But when job loss hits, disability strikes, or markets crater, the whole plan collapses. This episode reveals the proper order of operations: protect first, save second, grow third. Hans breaks down why "average rate of return" is a meaningless data point. Brian illustrates the parallel paths of protection and wealth accumulation with the diagram that makes it all click. And Joe explains why buying insurance isn't an expense if you do it correctly—it's saving money that immediately becomes accessible capital.

The conversation covers IBC mechanics, policy loans that don't disrupt compounding, real estate purchases funded with cash value, the power of dinner table time for passing down values, and why building generational wealth starts with one decision: get the foundation right, then everything else becomes possible.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Opening segment

• 01:25 - New Year's resolutions: tangible goals vs. vague aspirations

• 08:50 - The invention of "Retirement Inc." in the 1970s

• 11:05 - Protect, Save, Grow: the proper order of operations

• 13:10 - What traditional CFPs get wrong about protection

• 14:35 - Why "average rate of return" is a useless metric

• 16:40 - Brian's parallel paths diagram begins

• 19:30 - The two parallel paths: protection and wealth accumulation

• 22:30 - What can disrupt the wealth curve? (audience participation)

• 25:50 - Poor investment decisions: the most common sabotage

• 27:05 - Infinite money printing: Congress is the real villain

• 30:05 - Low Stress Options trading: the 1% per week framework

• 32:25 - Why people abandon the framework (and regret it)

• 33:00 - Systematizing savings: DCA into gold and Bitcoin every week

• 36:25 - UPMA for fractional gold ownership

• 37:45 - IBC: not an expense, it's saving money

• 39:15 - The kids' policies: $3,000 payment = $3,500 cash value

• 40:10 - Legal protection: equity in life insurance vs. bank accounts

• 41:15 - Brian: IBC's rate isn't big compared to investments, but...

• 42:50 - Whole life matches a guaranteed event (death) with guaranteed outcome

• 44:30 - Joe's real estate purchases funded by policy loans

• 45:30 - Hans breaks down policy loan mechanics (not simple interest)

• 47:40 - Annual compounding with principal-only repayments

• 48:15 - Hans's approach: keep loans levered for LSO trading

• 49:45 - Cash doesn't find opportunities, opportunities find cash

• 51:00 - Brian's land purchase: opportunity requires capital

• 53:10 - Making purchases for freedom and security, not money itself

• 59:30 - Actionable next steps

• 1:08:40 - Heritage over inheritance: building bloodline strength

• 1:09:30 - The Five Pillars: financial is just one piece

• 1:10:10 - Passing down American values and family culture

• 1:12:25 - Dinner table time: 90 minutes in the '70s vs. 11 minutes today

• 1:14:30 - Start at your locus of control and expand outward

• 1:15:20 - Multi-generational thinking: buying IBC for grandkids

• 1:27:00 - Closing segment

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Youtube: @RemnantFinance (https://www.youtube.com/@RemnantFinance )

Facebook: @remnantfinance (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560694316588 )

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Got Questions? Reach out to us at info@remnantfinance.com or book a call at https://remnantfinance.com/calendar !