Long Angle

"Anything goes on a plane." The sagest piece of advice on screen time for kids. Thank you to education, parenting, and career path expert Michael Horn for joining us on the Navigating Wealth podcast. Link to the full episode in the comments. A few other excellent insights from Michael: WAIT UNTIL 8TH FOR PHONES. Your kids won’t like it, and will claim it makes them a social pariah. But your job is to parent, including being the bad guy. Boredom can be a developmental advantage, and a lack of screens fosters the ability to self-entertain. For girls in particular, social media is incredibly dangerous and has virtually no redeeming benefits. ED TECH ISN’T AS BAD AS YOU THINK For those of us whose only introduction was COVID, we saw the worst it had to offer. When done well, it is a time-limited supplement to traditional learning for those topics where personalization matters, not a replacement. Experimental learning models like Alpha School, Acton Academy, and Summit Public Schools are worth watching. SCHOOLS ARE IN THE EARLY INNINGS OF FIGURING OUT AI Like calculators or word processors before them, AI tools will eventually be blended in. Most likely, kids will learn the foundational skills unassisted, and then let AI take over the “rote” work to focus on higher order skills. Entering the workforce unable to leverage AI won’t do graduates any favors.

Strong academic research demonstrating that Value outperforms Growth. But, real world examples show identifiable Growth-oriented investors beating the index for multi-decade periods. How do you reconcile these two? Thanks to David Gardner for joining the Navigating Wealth podcast to discuss his personal journey in stock selection! Link to full episode in the comments. I particularly appreciated David's humility and not claiming to have all the answers, despite an unusually impressive track record. For anyone who knows him, it's no surprise that David puts a much great emphasis on corporate qualities than PE multiples. But, it's how he gets there that I found most interesting. Thanks as always to Sriram Gollapalli and Matt Shechtman for joining me in this conversation!

I could not be more thrilled to announce the launch of the Navigating Wealth podcast! First episode dropped this morning! We discuss why women's sports offers one of the most compelling athletic investment opportunities, real estate commissions, US-vs-ROW investing, AI's impact on careers, and much more. Link to the podcast in the comments. Thank you to Daniel Altman for being our inaugural guest, to Sriram Gollapalli and Matt Shechtman for co-hosting with me, and to Ryan M. for amazing production. I'm thrilled about the upcoming episodes we have lined up! Please drop me a line if you have guests you'd recommend we talk to.

Under-appreciated reason why wealth managers still charge by AUM: they're not dumb. I have long looked at wealth management pricing from the consumer's point of view. It doesn't cost anything to add an extra zero to a trade, so why charge me 10X as much? Matt Shechtman makes a great point on the wealth manager's point of view. A truly talented wealth manager has more client demand than he can serve. If you have to choose, why choose the hourly client? In practice, this often leads to a "no deal" scenario. A very smart client only wants a very smart wealth manager, and a very smart wealth manager only wants AUM clients. As Groucho Marx said: "I don't want to work with any RIA that will have me as a client [on my terms]." It's an interesting market failure. In the comments is a link to the full Navigating Wealth episode where we explore Long Angle's first annual Professional Services Benchmarking study. This survey explores spending, satisfaction, churn, etc. across a range of professional services, from accountants and attorneys to daycare and personal trainers. I also put a link to download the report in the comments. (Spoiler alert: people LOVE their personal trainers!)

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