57 episodes

Why is personal finance so complicated? Even worse, the Internet is full of personal finance “experts” providing short-sighted, error-prone, and outright bad financial advice.

Jesse Cramer has a knack for using everyday experiences to make personal finance accessible for the average investor. His extensive research coupled with skilled narrative makes personal finance actually enjoyable.

By day, Jesse works for a fiduciary wealth management firm in Rochester, NY. By night, he runs The Best Interest - nominated in 2022 for "Personal Finance Blog of the Year.”

The Best Interest simplifies personal finance and investing to make your life easier, smarter…and a little richer, too. Come invest in knowledge with The Best Interest.

The Best Interest Podcast Jesse Cramer

    • Business
    • 4.9 • 44 Ratings

Why is personal finance so complicated? Even worse, the Internet is full of personal finance “experts” providing short-sighted, error-prone, and outright bad financial advice.

Jesse Cramer has a knack for using everyday experiences to make personal finance accessible for the average investor. His extensive research coupled with skilled narrative makes personal finance actually enjoyable.

By day, Jesse works for a fiduciary wealth management firm in Rochester, NY. By night, he runs The Best Interest - nominated in 2022 for "Personal Finance Blog of the Year.”

The Best Interest simplifies personal finance and investing to make your life easier, smarter…and a little richer, too. Come invest in knowledge with The Best Interest.

    7 Facts That'll Change How You Invest in the Stock Market - E56

    7 Facts That'll Change How You Invest in the Stock Market - E56

    Investing can be stressful. We worry when our accounts are going down and grow overconfident when our accounts are going up. So how do we find a good baseline? 
     
    Surprisingly, one of the answers has to do with chess and a Chinese emperor. 
     
    Sit back and let Jesse improve your investing mindset as he explains 7 intriguing stories and facts about how the stock market works.
     
    Mentions:
    *Actual Stock Market Returns* Will Change Your Investing Perspective…: https://bestinterest.blog/actual-stock-market-returns/

    Aswath Damodaran: A Valuation Expert’s Take on Inflation, Stock Buybacks, ESG, and More: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/aswath-damodaran-a-valuation-experts-take-on/id1462214964?i=1000613283867
     
    More of The Best Interest:
    Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog
    Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog
     
    The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

    • 44 min
    Conversations with Aging Parents - E55

    Conversations with Aging Parents - E55

    Time is coming for us all, and according to one survey, 73% of adult children haven’t had detailed conversations with their parents about their parents’ finances. In fact, many of them don’t know how to even start the discussion.
     
    Today, on The Best Interest Podcast, Jesse explains a few ways to bring up this conversation, gather information, and details which topics you should discuss not just with your parents, but family at large.
     
    Communication is a huge part of personal finance and all relationships, and the mixture of finance and family is a place where communication is paramount.
     
    Jesse also reflects on the five regrets we commonly have at the end of life, and how David Foster Wallace thinks we should approach living a meaningful life.
     
    Mentions:
    GOBankingRates Survey: https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/family/americans-discuss-finances-aging-parents-survey/
    Bronnie’s List:
    https://bestinterest.blog/the-top-5-regrets-of-the-dying/
    This is Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbGM4mqEVw
     
    More of The Best Interest:
    Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog
    Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog
     
    The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

    • 45 min
    Choosing FI, with Brad Barrett - E54

    Choosing FI, with Brad Barrett - E54

    Today, we explore the concept of FIRE, a community of individuals dedicated to the principles of achieving financial independence and early retirement. 
     
    Jesse plays devil’s advocate against FIRE, dives into the nuance of the 4% rule (a widely misunderstood concept in the FIRE community), and demonstrates how to shape financial independence to work for your personal goals.
     
    Then, Brad Barrett, the host of the popular personal finance podcast Choose FI, joins Jesse to cover the objective numbers when it comes to achieving financial independence before traditional retirement and why pursuing financial independence may be worthwhile even if you don't reach full FIRE. 
     
    Mentions:
    Wade Pfau’s Updated Trinity Study: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfau/2018/01/16/the-trinity-study-and-portfolio-success-rates-updated-to-2018/?sh=18e5e1946860
     
    The Origin of the 4% Rule: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/choosing-the-highest--safe--withdrawal-rate-at-retirement-57731.html
     
    Mr Money Mustache’s Shockingly Simple Math: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
     
    Die with Zero: https://amzn.to/3LTxmh5
     
    FIRE Starter: A Brief Intro to Personal Finance’s Hot New Acronym: https://bestinterest.blog/fire-starter-a-brief-intro-to-personal-finances-hot-new-acronym/
     
    You’re Probably Using the 4% Rule All Wrong: https://bestinterest.blog/the-4-percent-rule/
     
    How to Retire Decades Early: https://bestinterest.blog/how-to-retire-decades-early/
     
    Choose FI Podcast: https://www.choosefi.com/
     
    More of The Best Interest:
    Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog
    Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog
     
    The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

    • 1 hr 17 min
    Roth vs. Traditional, and Other Vital Tax Topics - E53

    Roth vs. Traditional, and Other Vital Tax Topics - E53

    Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a couple weekly articles from The Best Interest. Today we explore the intersection of two of the most important components of personal finances, taxes and investing and why you might save thousands of dollars off your tax bill.
     
    Jesse tackles the topic of taxes from a few different angles: the most common mistakes in understanding taxes including tax brackets, how they work and why accepting a raise can’t decrease your take home pay, the RRTTLLU framework of assessing investments and taxes, the “real returns” of different tax-advantaged accounts, and a deep-dive lesson in capital gains taxes.
     
    Mentions:
    Capital Gains Taxes 101: https://bestinterest.blog/capital-gains-taxes-101/
    Roth is Better Than Traditional: https://bestinterest.blog/roth-is-better-than-traditional/
    How Do Taxes Affect Stock Return?: https://bestinterest.blog/how-do-taxes-affect-stock-returns/
    RRTTLLU: https://bestinterest.blog/rrttllu/
    15 Minutes Saving $120,000: https://bestinterest.blog/15-minutes-of-math/
    How Do Tax Brackets Work?: https://bestinterest.blog/how-tax-brackets-work/
    Reddit Investing Question: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-9EB24Y-ow0yutfVoWICM4We9p4m9b7C4JRoqKI9G_c/edit#gid=0
     
    More of The Best Interest:
    Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog
    Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog
     
    The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

    • 41 min
    The Big Risk Staring You in the Face - E52

    The Big Risk Staring You in the Face - E52

    Uncle Jim is certain Tesla stock is about to go up. He’s been right before. I mean he’s also been wrong, but only when something unpredictable happened. So, should we trust Uncle Jim knows what he’s talking about?
     
    Well, I’m confident the average “Uncle Jim” is way too overconfident. Larry Swedroe says the biggest risk to most investors is staring them in the mirror, and I’d have to agree. 
     
    So, how does this overconfidence manifest itself in investors, and where does it come from? Sit back as I explore the concept of self-attribution bias and how to find yourself in the Goldilocks zone of confidence where it’s not too warm, but not too cold. 
     
    Mentions:
    A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing: https://amzn.to/3GsT6OH
    “Men’s Honest Overconfidence May Lead to Male Domination in the C–Suite”:
    https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/newsroom/newsn/1879/mens-honest-overconfidence-may-lead-to-male-domination-in-the-csuite
    “Overconfidence – Investors’ Worst Enemy” by Larry Swedroe: 
    https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/overconfidence-investors-worst-enemy/
     
    More of The Best Interest:
    Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog
    Contact me at jesse@bestinterest.blog
     
    The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.

    • 25 min
    Why is Personal Finance so Complicated?

    Why is Personal Finance so Complicated?

    Why is personal finance so complicated? Even worse, the Internet is full of personal finance “experts” providing short-sighted, error-prone, and outright bad financial advice. 
     
    Sure, we all need the basic advice - investing 101, budgeting, how to avoid financial frauds. But then there’s the more complicated stuff…
     
    What happened at Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023? 
    Why did bonds - a supposedly safe investment - suffer losses in 2022? 
    How did the Great Financial Crisis happen - and could it happen again?! 
     
    We all want to understand significant financial events but don't want to constantly read and watch a stream of negative news that stresses us out. 
     
    Real topics with real implications, deserving a simple, straight forward explanation. We don’t have time to be Warren Buffett or get Economics PhDs. We shouldn’t have to! But we need to be aware of what’s going on. This stuff affects our lives. 
     
    That’s where The Best Interest Podcast come in, hosted by me, Jesse Cramer. 
     
    I take the important news, break it down in simple terms, and reinforce the important personal finance advice that these events should teach us.
     
    I use everyday experiences to make personal finance accessible for the average investor. Extensive research and simple narrative makes finance both informative and enjoyable. 
     
    By day, I work for a fiduciary wealth management firm in Rochester, NY, helping clients 1-on-1 create their long-term financial plans and investment portfolios. By night, I runs The Best Interest - nominated in 2022 for "Personal Finance Blog of the Year.” 
     
    The Best Interest simplifies personal finance and investing to make your life easier, smarter…and a little richer, too. Come invest in knowledge with The Best Interest.

    • 1 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
44 Ratings

44 Ratings

Financial Samurai ,

Wonderful podcast

Jesse, I enjoy your topics and your topics. Just started listening and reading your work. Hope you keep it up for the long term! -Sam, Financial Samurai

Jane1980727 ,

Great podcast!

Jesse’s podcast is fantastic! I love the interviews, and Jesse also does a great job explaining complex financial topics. Really enjoy listening and definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking to improve their finances and stay inspired along their journey!

kmp14617 ,

Great podcast!

This podcast covers a wide range of investment topics that are informative and useful to the average investor. The show includes both 1 on 1 interviews and panel discussions that cover all sides of a given topic. If you are new to investing or maybe a seasoned investor that is open to new perspectives, this is a great podcast for you!

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