Dr. Brian Portnoy and Josh Brown: Beyond the Orthodoxy - How Financial Pros Invest (EP.126)
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Dr. Brian Portnoy and Josh Brown’s book How I Invest My Money, captures the stories and investment strategies of 25 top financial advisors. The book highlights that while there are established dogmas that tell you how and why you ought to invest, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ way to invest. Today we speak with Brian and Josh about the key insights that we can derive from their work. We open our conversation by exploring how they conceived and developed their book before talking about why fully rational investing is a myth. After diving into how we allocate money to solve our unique needs, Brian and Josh share how people use their portfolios to express themselves. We then discuss common investing themes in the book, including how most advisors have an aversion to debt, and how their experiences have guided their strategies and outlooks. From why we should place more value on social and human capital, we look into why financial planning has a profound impact on how you manage your investments. We touch on direct indexing, the relationship between money and happiness, and the unexpected yet incredible perspectives that came from giving advisors a license to tell their stories. Near the end of the episode, Brian and Josh reflect on how their book might have changed their views and how their work fits into their visions for the financial industry. Tune in to hear more on the usually secretive topic of how financial advisors invest their money.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Brian Portnoy and Josh Brown, authors of How I Invest My Money. [0:0:15]
• Why we invest and reflections on commentary made by the Rational Reminder community. [0:02:58]
• Josh shares his motivations for being transparent on where and how he invests. [0:05:25]
• Hear about the genesis and subsequent development of Brian and Josh’s book. [0:07:19]
• The common needs that individual investors have beyond getting a return. [0:10:18]
• How the uniqueness of everyone’s life affects their investing decisions. [0:13:09]
• Why there is no strict ‘right way’ to invest — invest according to what’s right for you. [0:14:35]
• ESG investment and seeing your portfolio as a form of expression. [0:17:21]
• Exploring common investment themes that arise in Josh and Brian’s book. [0:20:07]
• How Brian and Josh developed their personal investing outlooks. [0:21:44]
• Why we should place more value in human and social capital. [0:25:16]
• Brian expands on why we should invest in human and social capital. [0:28:35]
• The importance of financial planning in managing both your life and investments. [0:31:50]
• Answering the question: is direct indexing the future for outcome-driven portfolios? [0:36:55]
• Assessing a client’s risk profile as central to modern financial advising. [0:39:34]
• Portfolio customization and direct indexing versus helping clients create a portfolio around their purposes. [0:40:58]
• Funding contentment and the relationship between money and happiness. [0:42:22]
• Whether the stories featured in their book have Brian and Josh’s views. [0:46:18]
• When your life is your benchmark, how do you derive your portfolio benchmark. [0:49:15]
• How their book fits into Brian and Josh’s visions for their industry. [0:54:43]