Ritholtz Wealth Management

Chief Operating Officer

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Cornerstone Research

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Analytics Consultant

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Provide financial and economic analysis for commercial litigation matters.  Support experts in preparing for deposition and trial testimony.

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Federal Reserve Board (Banking Supervision and Regulation)

Risk Policy Intern

Stanford University

Research Assistant for Program on Energy and Sustainable Development

Acumen LLC

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Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)

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I can't stand AI-assisted writing anymore. It’s all over Substack. It’s in my LinkedIn replies. It’s everywhere. Like a disease slowly infecting our literary consciousness.

My latest on the rise of AI writing and why cognition will always be an edge:

https://lnkd.in/esAjhX7q

Nick Maggiulli

NY Times Bestselling Author | COO at Ritholtz

Your career is an asset class.

If you work in tech, you shouldn't own a lot of tech stocks. If you're a real estate agent, you shouldn't invest in a bunch of rental properties. Why?

Because you are inadvertently doubling down on the same set of risk factors.

Most people think of their career and their portfolio as distinct buckets. Your career is your income and your portfolio is your wealth.

But they are deeply connected.

If you're an engineer at Google and tech sells off, you risk losing your job and the portion of your wealth linked to technology stocks. If you're a real estate agent and the housing market slows, you risk losing commissions and rental income.

I work at a wealth management firm whose revenue is directly tied to the stock market. Do you think my personal exposure to financial assets should be the same as someone working in fashion or retail? Should we both just buy the S&P 500 and call it a day?

I don't think so.

Your career is an asset class. Hedge it accordingly.

My wife and I never fight about money. Why? Because of the system we use.

I call it the "Separate + Joint Method" and here's how it works:

All of our income flows into one joint account. All of our shared expenses come out of the same account. Any excess gets split equally into our separate accounts each quarter.

The key rule: Whatever one person withdraws from the joint account, the other can too. If I take $1,000 out to buy myself a nice guitar, my wife gets to withdraw $1,000 to spend as she sees fit as well.

This works regardless of who earns more and it provides financial independence to both parties. More importantly, if one partner steps back from paid work, they aren't financially punished for it.

I wrote more about it here: https://lnkd.in/ehBHncQW

You can't budget your way to $10 million. You can't coupon your way to financial freedom.

There's a mathematical limit to how much you can cut your expenses (it approaches zero). Even the top 20% of earners have to spend something on their necessities (see chart).

But there's no limit to how much you can increase your income.

There's a reason why those with the highest incomes also have the highest savings rates—they have far more than they need.

Stop trying to reduce your budget by 10% and start trying to increase your income by 50%.

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There are two types of risk in life: Fast Risk and Slow Risk.

Fast Risk is the stuff that makes headlines. It’s the things that we are warned about everyday:

"Don’t drive without a seatbelt."
"Don’t cheat on your spouse."
"Don’t use too much leverage."

The reason for this is simple—the consequences of Fast Risk are immediate and usually devastating. You get severely injured. You get divorced. You go broke. There’s a clear line between how your life was before and after the risk materialized.

But then there’s Slow Risk. 

Slow Risk is the accumulation of bad decisions that eventually leads to an unwanted outcome:

It’s developing heart disease after decades of improper eating. 
It’s getting divorced after neglecting your spouse for years. 
It’s sitting in cash while you wait to buy the dip.

With slow risk, there’s no single event that you can point to and say, “Here’s where I went wrong.” No. It’s the cumulative effect of your improper decision-making that leads you astray.

Everyone thinks about Fast Risk, but intelligent investors focus on Slow Risk too.

Return on Hassle > Return on Investment

Focus on maximizing sleep, not maximizing returns.

If you know, you know.

When was the last time you got called in the middle of the night about your index fund?

One of the biggest myths I hear in finance is that property investing gives ‘passive income’.

In reality, property/real estate is one of the least passive investments there is.

This graph from Nick Maggiulli illustrates it well.

Property can be a great investment - there are plenty of benefits that come with it.

But it’s not passive. 

You aren’t going to get a call in the middle of the night about your index fund.

You might get one about your rental property.

Make sure the extra return is worth the extra hassle.

The worst investments I've ever owned all share one thing in common—I couldn't sell them.

My latest on the high price of illiquidity and how I learned this lesson the hard way: https://lnkd.in/eai8tggt

Every year I compile my favorite investment writing, and 2025 did not disappoint.

Like it, share it, or bookmark it for later. Whatever you do, don't miss out on these amazing pieces.

My Favorite Investment Writing of 2025:

Open article: Protected: My Favorite Investment Writing of 2025 (DRAFT) by ofdollarsanddata.com

Protected: My Favorite Investment Writing of 2025 (DRAFT)

I think I've found the mortgage-backed security (MBS) of our era. It's called conduit debt financing and it might be how the AI bubble eventually pops.

My latest on the obscure financial structure that could trigger the next crisis:

https://lnkd.in/epB_-n8Q

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