300 Years of Financial Advice

Ben Carlson spoke with Joseph Moore,⁠ author of How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn’t), about 300 years of financial advice. What works, what doesn’t, and how our ideas about building wealth have changed over time. They also discuss real estate as a wealth-building tool, when it makes sense to sell versus hold, how real estate compares with stocks, and why your personality should play a role in how you invest. (Listen)

When someone is deep into their career it is often hard to see an alternative. Fortunately for clients with marketable skills and a financial cushion there are plenty of alternatives. Sometimes all someone needs is the permission to explore something outside of their established world view. I especially like the chart above that visually shows how this can happen.

It’s often said that AI today is the worst it’s ever going to be. That being said, there are concrete reasons to be skeptical of today’s LLMs as a financial resource. The paper reviewed here shows ‘heuristic collapse.’ In short, they are unable to handle the full scope of a person’s financial situation and default to simple heuristics. Advisors, prospects and clients still need to be wary of what AI models are saying.