Risk Parity Radio
Risk Parity Radio is a podcast about investing located at www.riskparityradio.com. RPR explores risk-parity style portfolios comprised of uncorrelated or negatively correlated asset classes -- stocks, selected bonds, gold, managed futures, and other easily accessible fund options for the DIY investor. The goal is to construct portfolios that are robust and can be drawn down on in perpetuity, and to maximize projected Safe Withdrawal Rates regardless of projected overall returns.
Risk Parity Radio
Episode 433: More About Transitions, Leveraged ETFs And Other Gambling Problems And Wisdom From The Great Jim Rohn
In this episode we answer questions from Mason, Brian, and Anonymous. We discuss portfolio transitions from a highly overlapped portfolio and related consideration, treasury strips funds and leveraged ETFs (twice), and the power of advice from the great Jim Rohn. UNLIMITED POWER.
Just remember that "Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion."
And we discuss our campaign for the Father McKenna Center and Quebecois updates to our website.
Links:
Father McKenna Center Donation Page: Donate - Father McKenna Center
The Source of the "We Don't Know" Clip: Jim Rohn Join the 3% Club and Walk away from the 97%
Breathless Unedited AI-Bot Summary:
Transforming your portfolio into a risk parity approach doesn't have to be complicated, but it does require both strategy and courage. This episode dives deep into listener questions about making that transition while navigating tax implications and psychological barriers.
When Mason asks about converting his advisor-built collection of funds into a risk parity portfolio, Frank reveals a crucial insight most investors miss: holding multiple similar funds creates "false diversification." Those four large-cap funds in your portfolio? They're basically the same investment with different names. True diversification comes from understanding what's inside each fund, not collecting different tickers.
For those curious about leveraged ETFs like UPRO, Brian's question leads to fascinating observations about why some leveraged products perform better than others. The conversation reveals why Treasury strips funds like GOVZ/ZROZ make reasonable substitutions for standard Treasury allocations, while leveraged gold ETFs might be problematic for long-term investors. Frank shares his personal experience reducing his own UPRO allocation and explains why experimentation with small portions of your portfolio is the wisest approach to newer investment strategies.
The philosophical foundation of the show emerges when a listener asks about the "Nobody Knows" sound clip. The attribution to motivational speaker Jim Rohn opens a window into the mindset that drives successful investing. Rohn's philosophy that "affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion" perfectly captures why just thinking about better investment outcomes isn't enough—you must take action to create them.
Ready to reshape your investment approach? This episode provides both the practical steps and the motivational spark to move forward confidently. As Rohn reminds us, "If you think investing is risky, wait till you get the tab for not investing."
A foolish consistency, is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Voices:If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer, a different drummer.
Mostly Mary:And now, coming to you from dead center on your dial, welcome to Risk Parity Radio, where we explore alternatives and asset allocations for the do-it-yourself investor Broadcasting to you now from the comfort of his easy chair. Here is your host, frank Vasquez.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity Radio. If you are new here and wonder what we are talking about, you may wish to go back and listen to some of the foundational episodes for this program.
Voices:Yeah, baby, yeah.
Mostly Uncle Frank:And the basic foundational episodes are episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Some of our listeners, including Karen and Chris, have identified additional episodes that you may consider foundational, and those are episodes 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 56, 82, and 184. Whoa, and you probably should check those out too, because we have the finest podcast audience available.
Voices:Top drawer, really top drawer.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Along with a host named after a hot dog.
Voices:Lighten up Francis.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But now onward to episode 433. Today, on Risk Parody Radio, we'll just be doing what we do best here, which is tending to your emails.
Voices:Surely you can't be serious.
Mostly Uncle Frank:I am serious and don't call me Shirley. But before we get to that, let's talk about one of my favorite people in the world right now.
Voices:The best, jerry the best.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Who is our good friend Luke from Quebec?
Voices:Here's another one for you. Say peanut you heard that one before. Who is our good friend Luke from Quebec? Here's another one for you. Saint Peanut. You heard that one before. I heard a lady say that once while I was in a store and I was mind blown Saint Peanut, saint Peanuts, even peanuts are being sanctified here. I want to go to the church of Saint Peanuts. I want to know what kind of miracles that peanut did that got sanctified.
Voices:That's like peanut, hazelnut, cashew nut, macadamia nut. That was the one that was sent her into going crazy.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Luke is a youngish man with some programming skills. Luke is a youngish man with some programming skills, you know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills, who has taken it upon himself to volunteer to see if he can do something to improve our website.
Voices:Just come up.
Mostly Uncle Frank:And he's already created a kind of demo placeholder for us to look at. So if you go to the Risk Parity website, wwwriskparityradiocom, and then you look at the buttons at the top and click on the one that says Alt Site, you'll go to this demo template, which I'd like as many of you to check out as possible, because if I can get some comments from you about what you think of it, we can improve this website.
Mostly Mary:I think I've improved on your methods a bit too. I employed some Chiara Scuro shading.
Mostly Uncle Frank:I will warn you that not all the links and things are working there yet. So don't look at it for that, just look at it for its presentation, basically, and what's there, and then hopefully we'll be able to greatly improve that website without me really having to do anything. It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. But good things can happen when you have top men volunteering for men working on it right now?
Voices:Who?
Voices:Top men.
Mostly Uncle Frank:So please check that out and let us know what you think. Please send an email for that, and not a comment on the site, to frankatriskparodyradiocom.
Voices:Yes.
Mostly Uncle Frank:And Luke and I will take a look at those and figure out what to do next.
Voices:So the literal meaning of voyons is let's see, voyons voir. But here it's used often to express surprise and even frustration. Voyons, ok, gogol, ok, gogol, voyons, ça marche pas là. Hey, gogol, tu te caves là.
Mostly Uncle Frank:C'est technologie de marde, I don't think we'll be making any changes to the website for another couple of months, but in the meantime we will just play around with what we've got there and see what happens and when you combine it with don't, it's like damn, Voyons donc qu'est-ce que tu fais, Voyons donc ça, se peut-tu du monde de même?
Voices:Wow, là, Juste juste wow là. And maybe we'll include a Québécois section. You, little fucking bastard, shut the fuck up, dude, I'm gonna puke. I'm gonna puke. Poo, less, dude, poo in the trash dude. And you can even roll the R to make it that much richer. You, little fucking bastard. You, my little Christ, I know bastard, but now without further ado. Here I go once again with the email and.
Mostly Uncle Frank:First off, without further ado, here I go once again with the email, and First off. First off, we have an email from Mason.
Mostly Mary:The other morning I had a talk with Bob. Bob, you plus other words, is like having a boogish board.
Mostly Mary:And Mason writes Hi, Frank and Mary. Thank you so much for the work that you do. The information in your podcast is like nothing else out there, and your outlook on life and charitable work are inspiring. I just made a donation to the Father McKenna Center through my donor advised fund. I just made a donation to the Father McKenna Center through my donor advised fund confirmation attached. Here's my question, or questions. Most of my portfolio is currently in an accumulation strategy in a taxable brokerage account. This strategy was set up for me by an investment advisor with whom I no longer work, but it has done well as an accumulation portfolio. I plan to retire in the next few years and I want to transition to a risk parity style portfolio. Ideally, I would transition everything now, but I would like to mitigate taxes if possible, since there is a good amount of gain in the portfolio.
Mostly Mary:Here is the breakdown of my entire portfolio across a number of different accounts Taxable IVV 50.48%. Qual 14.57%, iyw 5.05%, esgu 7.44%, usmv 2.43%, ifra 0.19%, ira, iau 0.39%, gldm 2.86%, vglt 12.53%. There are two obvious options for transitioning One all at once, two dollar cost averaging by selling some taxable accounts each month. Even if I were to sell my entire taxable account all at once, I think I may still dollar cost average into assets that are very high right now, like gold and international equities. Does that make sense or is it just market timing? Recently, inspired by your excellent podcast, I've been wondering if using a treasury strips fund and a leveraged gold fund in my IRA could help better approximate a risk parity portfolio without selling assets in the taxable account. For example, I could use GOVZ or ZROZ in place of VGLT and UGL or DGP in place of GLDM. This could potentially help stretch my limited IRA funds further, getting more diversification for every dollar. Am I on the right track here or do I have a gambling problem?
Voices:Uh, what it's gone. It's all gone. What's all gone? The money in your account it didn't do too well, it's gone.
Mostly Mary:My thinking is that if I use this option, I would still DCA over time to get to my ideal portfolio, but this would just give me more diversification. While I'm in the process of doing that, is it better to just pay the taxes now and move on? Note I know this is a long email with lots of embedded sub questions, so please feel free to break it up and address the below in another episode, if needed.
Mostly Mary:For context below is the portfolio I'm planning on transitioning to. Do you think it has too much of a value tilt? Any obvious issues you see with it 16% US LCG, 16% US SCV, 23% International Developed SCV, 28% LTT, 17% Gold. This portfolio is inspired by both the weird portfolio and your own golden ratio. A few notes on the tweaks I've made. There is no cash in the portfolio because they have cash reserves elsewhere. I own real estate and invest in private mortgage lending outside of this portfolio, so I opted to drop US REITs, since I already have a lot of exposure to US real estate. I looked at international REITs per the weird portfolio but decided against them because one, I couldn't find good long-term data to use in backtesting and two, I experimented with just spreading the REIT allocation over the other equity allocations and the numbers worked very well. This portfolio allows for a 5.3% perpetual withdrawal rate when backtested on portfolio charts with data from 1970 to 2024.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Thanks again for all you do, mason. Well, first off, thank you for being a donor to the Father McKenna Center, mason, as most of you know, we do not have any sponsors on this program. We do have a charity we support. It's called the Father McKenna Center and it supports hungry and homeless people in Washington DC. Full disclosure. I am on the board of the charity and am the current treasurer. We are currently running a promotion because one of our listeners put up $15,000 in matching funds.
Voices:Yeah, baby, yeah.
Mostly Uncle Frank:We're calling it the Top of the T-Shirt Campaign and if you want to know more about that and why we're calling it that, if you haven't listened to it already, go back and listen to episode 426 to get filled in on that. But anyway, if you do donate to the Father McKenna Center, you will go to the front of the email line and there's two ways to do that. Either go to the Father McKenna website donation page directly I'll link to that in the show notes and make sure you mention Risk Parity Radio in a little comment or dedication box that they provide when you make your donation. Or you can go to our support page at wwwriskparityradiocom and you can join our patrons on Patreon that way who give monthly, and then we collect that all and give it to the center at periodic intervals. Either way, you get to go to the front of the email line.
Voices:Don't be saucy with me, bernays.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But now let's get to your questions. First, let's talk through what you already have here and how it fits into the grander scheme of things. So, going through these funds IVV, which is 50% of your holdings, is an S&P 500 fund. Qwal is a quality, large cap quality focused fund. Iyw is a tech focused fund, and ESGU is also a large cap fund focused on ESG. Esgu is also a large cap fund focused on ESG. What you should really recognize, though, is all of these funds are very similar to each other and they have a lot of overlap, so there's probably no reason to hold all of them, and you will find this to occur a lot of times.
Voices:Financial advisors will put you in a bunch of different things like this Am I right or am I right, or am I right, right, right, right.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But there's no reason to be holding all of them. If you really want to see what's going on, go to Morningstar, put these things in and look at their portfolios and you can look at what style boxes they appear in. Here we're looking at all large cap blend, large cap growth and then also look at the individual holdings which are listed there and you'll see tremendous overlap with these. They're all MAG-7 type stuff. So if you're constructing a portfolio, you would not really want to have all four of these things together because they're not really doing anything.
Voices:That's the fact, Jack. That's the fact, Jack.
Mostly Uncle Frank:It's kind of a false diversification that people get into because they're not really looking at what's in the fund. They're looking at what the name of the fund is, and that's not really the way to go when you're trying to analyze one of these things. So it's not wrong, it's not bad, but it's not any real form of diversification with those four things. The other two are diversified USMV is a low volatility fund. It plays kind of like a large cap value fund, and IFRA is an infrastructure fund, and that is a small cap value fund. It has some utilities and other things in it. You have such a trivial amount in that, though it doesn't really matter. 0.19% is not worth holding in virtually anything. But now we're talking about transitioning this thing virtually anything, but now we're talking about transitioning this thing. There are a couple of factors that are not in your email that I would want to look at first, and one is basically how much are your expenses versus how much of this portfolio and how much is covered with something else, because you really need to know what those things are before you do anything. But as for transitioning this, yeah, you could do it all at once, particularly at this point, because the stocks are at, or near an all-time high. I know gold is too, but it's not that big a percentage. I don't think of your overall target, but if you were to dollar cost averaging by selling some of the assets and converting them every month, that would be fine too. This is not going to matter which way you do this. In the very long term, if you're thinking about the next two or three decades, whether you converted today, at one day, or did it over a period of months or even a couple of years, is probably a coin flip as to which one is going to be better, and there's really no way of knowing. So I would do it the way that feels most comfortable to you psychologically, and if that's selling a little bit and converting it over time, that's fine. Go ahead and do that. The one thing I would really be looking at, though, is the tax situation with this, and that's another thing. I don't know from your email as to what tax brackets you're in and how much this would affect your tax bill next year. So there may be some good reasons to only do part of the conversion this year and part of it next year. I can't see it probably needing to go over more than a couple of years. But I don't know your tax situation and that is a consideration when you're doing that you can also think about. Well, can I sell particular tax lots that will result in lower taxes, because I think you want to keep whatever you're keeping out of this portfolio. You make that the longest held tax lots because if you sell those, like it would do, automatically that would result in the higher tax bills where if you sell more recently purchased funds, you'll have a lower tax bill in this conversion.
Mostly Uncle Frank:All right, your next question has to do with the use of funds like GOVZ or ZROZ in place of VGLT, which are basically treasury strips funds that have a longer duration than something like VGLT. And then you also asked about leveraged gold funds like UGL or DGP. I think I really have two different answers for those. What I've seen is that the GOVZ and ZROZ do tend to mimic pretty well a one and a half times leveraged TLT or VGLT, at least in terms of how they react to movements in interest rates, and they also are relatively inexpensive, and so I do think they make a good choice for somebody who just wants to minimize the space in their portfolio for treasury bonds for whatever reason, but still have the same kind of impact if we were to have a recession and falling interest rates all of a sudden sometime. So I think those can be good choices, just make sure you use them in moderation.
Mostly Uncle Frank:I'm less sanguine about these levered gold funds like UGL or DGP. I have to tell you I haven't looked at them very closely recently, but my experience in looking at them over the past decade or so is they do tend to have drags on them. They don't necessarily perform the same way that gold does, because they are really designed more for short-term holdings. And that's the problem with these leveraged funds. Yes, you can use them long-term, but some of them really don't work that well. So I don't use those personally, but I know some people do and don't have a problem with them.
Voices:You can't handle the gambling problem.
Mostly Uncle Frank:All right, looking at what you're planning on transitioning to, it's 16% large cap growth, 16% US small cap value and 23% international developed small cap value. That adds up to 55% in stocks. Yeah, I do think that's a little bit overweighted on the value side, particularly if it's all in small cap value.
Voices:I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.
Mostly Uncle Frank:That is going to give you a more volatile portfolio overall and it's also going to be heavily divergent from the US market itself, which sometimes causes people some psychological consternation. So I would probably make it half growth and half value, and then, whether that's in the international small cap value or US small cap value, I'm pretty agnostic about that Just recognize the currency speculation that is always inherent in those sorts of things. I will say that the Avantis and DFA ETFs now that they have for international small cap value are quite good and that is certainly an option. I think there's also now an international all-value fund that they've rolled out for Avantis, and it seems like they keep rolling out things there every six months or so. So take a look at what's there and see what you really want to have. My view is generally that, since we really don't know what's going to perform best in the future on terms of growth or value, it's better just to hold them both and be agnostic about that and then rebalance them when it becomes appropriate.
Mostly Mary:A crystal ball can help you.
Voices:It can guide you.
Mostly Uncle Frank:The one thing I think you should avoid is small cap growth, but you don't have any of that, so that's not an issue. Now, you mentioned you had 28% long-term treasuries. That is actually on the high side for that allocation Usually between 15 and 30 percent tends to be where you want to be. So this portfolio will do really well in recessionary environments, but it will drag it down in non-recessionary environments is what you should recognize from that kind of holding and it will create more volatility in non-recessionary environments as well. I think the 17 percent gold is fine if that's your only alternative asset in this portfolio. Also, recognize that it can be very volatile, and these days there's a fairly strong negative correlation between the treasuries and the gold. I don't know how long that's going to last, because sometimes they're positively correlated, but you can have decades like the 70s or 80s or this decade, where one of them is obviously just crushing the other one in terms of performance. Now, as for REITs, I think they're optional. They would provide a little more diversification and I would treat them as one of your stock allocations if you choose to hold them, but I'm fairly agnostic as to whether you actually want to hold them or not, as to whether you actually want to hold them or not. Just make sure you try to hold them in a tax-efficient manner, because they tend to pay ordinary income and therefore generally belong in retirement accounts.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Now you said you've run backtest with this on portfolio charts. I would go ahead and use multiple calculators. I would use Testfolio, even though it's hard to model small-cap value on there right now. It's interesting, he's got the sectors back to the 1920s but that hasn't been broken down by growth and value yet. But that site keeps improving all the time and I would definitely use it for some modeling. I'd also go model at Portfolio Visualizer and then, if you can pull out the Big Earn Toolbox from Early Retirement Now that is a spreadsheet so it's a little bit difficult to use and you really only want to focus on the data since the 1920s because that's the robust data. But I also like modeling things there to the extent I can.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Because, again, ultimately what you're comparing here is a portfolio A choice to a portfolio B choice, and if you can see that something similar to portfolio A outperforms something similar to portfolio B over all of these different calculators and different time frames, at least for the purposes of withdrawing from in particular, then you know that you're on the right track there, and, while the multiple calculator test is tedious, I do think it's the most robust way to really get a handle and really get confidence in whatever you're thinking of holding, and so that's what I would do next in your case, if you haven't done that already, when you use the Testfolio website, go to the help section and the ticker section, because you can see how he's built out simulated data sets, even for things that don't have long time series in their current ETF form, and some of those go back to the 60s and some of them go back to the 20s, but it's a very useful set of data to work with.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Hopefully, all that helps and thank you for your email. Second off. Second off we have an email from Brian.
Voices:Hey, brian, care to place a wager? And Brian?
Mostly Uncle Frank:Wright. Hello Frank, I've been waiting to buy into you and Brian right.
Mostly Mary:Hello Frank, I've been waiting to buy into YouPro until it went down to a decent number.
Voices:You have a gambling problem.
Mostly Mary:Once the tariffs hit, I saw my opportunity to pounce Now. That being said, my Roth is 70-30, with SCV, avuv at 70% and SPLG at 30%. This allocation is based off other accounts that I have 457 and my wife's rollover IRA so it's a more diversified portfolio than just those two funds. I wanted just a little more cowbell in my Roth and my wife's Roth, so I just cut the SP500 fund down to 25% and added UPRO at 5%, so nothing life-changing.
Voices:I'm telling you, fellas, you're gonna want that cowbell.
Mostly Mary:I plan on rebalancing Upro anytime it's between 5% to 10% above its 5% allocation to keep it from being even more risky. I re-listened to episode 152 on Upro and my question is are you willing to share what you have in your Roth and what percentage is you pro? Also, what rebalancing guidelines do you have for that specific account? Is it based on the Roth itself or your overall portfolio? I understand you won't be touching that Roth anytime soon, or that it may be for your future heirs. I'm just curious, more than anything.
Voices:Hey, it's me, knock knock, so you got my money. Yeah, huh, oh yeah, I'll pay you soon. Yeah, well, um, here's a suggestion. Um, have the money by tomorrow and there won't be any problems. Huh, yeah, 24 hours. Why, what happens in 24 hours? I don't know, not psychic man, I'm just saying it would probably be better for everybody if you had the money tomorrow. Yeah, all right, I'll see what I can do. Sweet, sweet, great. Uh, how's everything else going Good? All right, all right, see you later, don't forget. Nah, you're not going to forget.
Mostly Mary:Hopefully you'll get to this before the end of the year. Being that you're Mr Popular now. Have a great day, brian from Tacoma.
Voices:So, uh, it's been 24 hours, got my money.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Now, just for reference, Brian sent me this email on April 10th 2025, sent me this email on April 10th 2025, which is essentially at the nadir of the spring drop, after Liberation Day, or Obliteration Day, depending on your perspective. And yeah, I guess it would have been a good time to buy some Upro at that point in time, at least if you had it in and knew which announcement was going to come next.
Voices:Yeah, that's what happens, man. Oh, come next. Yeah, that's what happens, man. Oh my God. Yeah, that's what happens. Where's my money? You're going to give me my money. Where's my money, man?
Mostly Uncle Frank:But you know what we say when people start talking about leveraged funds here.
Voices:Well, you have a gambling problem.
Mostly Uncle Frank:For those of you who don't know, you pro is a three-time leveraged s&p 500 fund.
Mostly Uncle Frank:So if you went and headed and did that, congratulations there it is winner, winner chicken dinner I think we did end up selling some gold and buying some large cap growth around that time as well, but nothing like this Upro extravaganza that you're talking about. Ramming speed, ramming speed, ramming speed. Now you asked me about our roth allocation, where I do experiment with some leverage funds because I know we really don't need that money. I talked about that back in episode 152 and, yeah, what that is migrated to these days or looking more like, is kind of like that Optra portfolio, the last sample portfolio, a return stack portfolio. So I've cut back on the UPRO allocation for that and I do treat this Roth like an experimental portfolio because it's not really a significant portion of our assets. So I think originally we had something like 20 to 25% in UPRO in that account and I've cut it back to more like 15. It's interesting. One of the other changes we made with that over time is we used to have some tmf in that account, but I have found that that leverage bond fund really does not work very well and so we've gone with zroz or go, I think, and I've been wondering why things like UPRO seem to work fairly well whereas things like TMF do not work well.
Mostly Uncle Frank:In terms of leveraged funds. I mean part of it is just the stock market has performed very, very well and the bond market has performed very poorly. But even with that, in comparison to their underlying assets, the UPRO has performed better relative to its underlying asset the S&P 500, than TMF has performed relative to its underlying asset something like TLT. I think part of that is likely to be what you'd call volatility drag, that if you're working with some kind of a leverage thing that's going up and down a lot, that actually will detract more from its overall performance. It's the idea that if something drops 20%, it has to increase 25% to get back to where it was. So if it's tending to go up and to the right most of the time, like the S&P 500 or UPRO, that seems to be less of a problem. If it tends to be going up and down all the time, like a bond fund, as interest rates fluctuate, then you get more of that volatility drag as a natural result of that.
Mostly Uncle Frank:I have not analyzed that in any rigorous or mathematical way, but I think that's what's going on with respect to how these things have been performing. But it's a good way to learn to actually experiment with small portfolios like this or small allocations to things that you're wondering about, because whenever you're dealing with something relatively new, you don't want to go whole hog into something like that. You won't get hurt if you just hold a little bit of anything, and I think that's the best way to approach anything that is new. This is also why I found the sample portfolios and, in particular, the experimental portfolios on the website to be particularly interesting, not because they succeeded very well, but because they've failed or they haven't really failed all the way, but they certainly have not performed the way you would have want them to perform.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But prior to that, when we started them in 2020, there were a lot of suggestions, including the hedge fundies graded venture fund or portfolio that, holding a mixture of Bupro and TMF was going to be something that would have a good long-term performance and, as it turns out, it probably doesn't. And even if it does, it's highly volatile, as we've seen those experimental portfolios go from the absolute best to the absolute worst in the time we've been watching them. Anyway, the lesson you should learn is you should be careful with this stuff and use it only in moderation.
Voices:Where's the money? Yeah, you like that. That feel good. That feel good moderation.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Even though I know some of you are a lot bigger gamblers than I am. Of course, you're a lot younger too. This is the grandson of the 17th richest man in California.
Mostly Mary:Does he drink?
Mostly Uncle Frank:What he wants is money, because he doesn't know when to say that's it. I'm two million ahead, I have a car and a house and a family and it's all paid for. I mean, even I did that. Now, as for being Mr Popular, now it's good to be the king I have to tell you, after I appear on a few other podcasts, what always inevitably happens is a few more people come over to listen to this, find out how strange it is, and then I get some hilarious one-star reviews. This is pretty much the worst video ever made.
Voices:Napoleon, like anyone can even know that.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But hey, you know, if you don't like my sense of humor, you know what Napoleon, you can leave. Fortunately, since this podcast is non-commercial, I don't have any pressure to try to expand the audience in any way, and I'd rather have a smaller, more interested and devoted audience, and more enthusiastic and interactive, than worry about pleasing the masses and growing the numbers in any significant way.
Voices:Forget about it.
Mostly Uncle Frank:We should go over a million downloads later this year. I'll let you know when that happens. Hopefully that helps. Be careful out there and thank you for your email.
Voices:So, brian, we're even now right Ready to start a new life in England. I've got my money. Your wounds have healed up nicely. What do you say? We let bygones be bygones. Hmm, you shot me in both my knees then lit me on fire.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Last off. Last off of an email from Anonymous. I have no name and Anonymous writes.
Mostly Mary:Silly question when does the nobody knows sound clip come from and how do I get a copy?
Voices:We don't know. What do we know? You don't know, I don't know.
Mostly Mary:Nobody knows, I don't know, you don't know, nobody knows Nobody even knows where the clip comes from.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Now there's an interesting question that opens up a rabbit hole. That is actually the great Jim Rohn, who is one of the best motivational speakers to ever speak, and he did most of his work in the 1980s and 1990s.
Voices:Let me tell you about the power of association. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, want to know your future. Look at your friends, want to change your future. Change your friends. I'm not saying abandon your old friends. I'm saying expand your circle. Include people who inspire you, challenge you, push you to grow. Because here's what I found you can't soar with the eagles if you're hanging around with the turkeys.
Mostly Uncle Frank:About 10 or 15 years ago I got curious about these motivational speakers like Tony Robbins, etc. And of course, when I get curious about something, I want to know the history of it. So I studied the history of motivational speakers for a while. It goes all the way back to the 19th century. Actually, in the early 20th century you go back to writers like James Allen, who wrote as a man Thinketh, amongst many other things, somebody named Wallace D Waddles, who wrote a book called the Science of Getting Rich. And then this flows along through people like Earl Nightingale in the middle of the 20th century and you get to Jim Rohn and then people like Tony Robbins and many others, and what you learn is there are kind of two tracks that have been followed or developed, and one of them is the think and grow rich, or only think and grow rich track, which is represented by what they call the secret these days, and that's this idea that you can just think things, manifest things is what the buzzword that is used today and your life will improve.
Mostly Mary:Now you can also use the ball to connect to the spirit world.
Mostly Uncle Frank:I don't think that's true, and Jim Rohn was one of the people that pushed back on that. He said yes, that's great to start. If you want to accomplish something, you need to start thinking about how to do it, thinking that you can do it, because if you think you can't do it, then you can't.
Voices:You're not going to amount to jack squats.
Mostly Uncle Frank:But he also famously said that affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion I am a scientist, not a philosopher which means that you have to get up and do something about your situation and not just think about improving your situation. It doesn't work that way.
Voices:You're going to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.
Mostly Uncle Frank:If you need knowledge, you've got to go get the knowledge. If you need skills, you've got to develop the skills. Whatever it is you need to do, you need to actually go out and do it after you've been thinking about it.
Voices:All we know is some get the spark and say I'm going to change my life. I'm going to change my health, I'm going to change my relationship with my family. I'm going to change everything. And if it starts with an apple, if it starts with a walk around the block, if it starts with a book, if it starts with a journal, whatever it starts with, I'm a candidate. I'm ready to go and change my life.
Mostly Uncle Frank:And so that's a lot of what that clip is encapsulating. If you listen to it in its full form, it's about three minutes long. I will link to it in the show notes, but I'm also going to play that whole clip at the end of this podcast, just so you can hear it. Because if I'm looking for some motivation, that is the kind of thing that I go and listen to, and it is part of the ethos of this podcast, because if you want to spend more money in retirement, the first thing you need to do is realize that you can, but you have to go do something about that in terms of constructing a portfolio that allows you to do that. If you're going to sit around and say it can't be done, then no, you can't do it and you better hoard your money.
Voices:This is called the timid approach to life, and my caution was always the risk. Risk used to drive me right up the wall. I used to say what if this happens? What if this happens? And on top of that, if this was to happen, look at the fix I'd be in. I better not try. Then I'll tell you what changed my whole life when I finally discovered it's all risky. The minute you were born, it got risky. If you think trying is risky, wait till they hand you the bill for not trying. If you think investing is risky, wait till you get the tab for not investing. See, it's all risky. Getting married is risky. Having children is risky. Going into business is risky. Investing your money is risky. It's all risky. I'll tell you how risky life is. You're not going to get out alive. That's risky.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Anyway, thank you for bringing that up. I'm happy to share it with you and thank you for your email, but now I see our signal is beginning to fade. If you have comments or questions for me, please send them to frank at riskparityradarcom. That email is frank at riskparityradarcom. Or you can go to the website, wwwriskparityradarcom, put your message into the contact form and I'll get it that way. If you haven't had a chance to do it, please go to your favorite podcast provider and like subscribe. Give me some stars, a follow, a review.
Voices:That would be great.
Mostly Uncle Frank:Okay, Thank you once again for tuning in.
Voices:This is Frank Vasquez with Risk Party Radio signing off and neglect, won't even walk around the block for their health, won't even eat an apple a day, won't even take the time to refine their philosophy for a better life. Walk away and join the three percent. Guess how many people can retire from the income of their own personal resources when it comes time to retire? Answer five percent. In america, five% of the people are independent. 95% are dependent. Take charge of your own retirement. You can multiply it at least by 5. Let the government take care of it. Some company take care of it. You got to divide by 5. I'm asking you take charge of your own retirement. Take charge of your own life. It happens to be one of the titles of my own cassette program. Take charge of your own retirement. Take charge of your own life. It happens to be one of the titles of my own cassette program. Take charge of your own life. That's what we've talked about here All morning.
Voices:Take charge of your own day. Don't have days like most people have. You'll wind up broke and poor Pennies. No treasures, trinkets, no values. Change it all. And it starts as simple as an apple a day. It starts as simple as the first book of your new library. It starts as simple as the first journal that you get, and make the first entry that, when people see it, will say this is the beginning of a study of a serious student. They're going to be healthy, they're going to be powerful, they're going to be rich, they're going to have it all. Look, they've committed themselves to a whole new journey. I'm asking you to do is what Easy not to do. But walk away from the 90%, walk away from the 97%, walk away from the 95%. Don't go where they go, don't do what they do. Don't talk like they talk. Develop you a whole new language. Be part of the few. Guess, when I went and got this little book, richest man in Babylon. Guess, when I went and got it the same day I heard about it. I went and got it.
Voices:Somebody says well, mr roan, does that make you different than most everybody else? The answer is yes. Somebody says why is that? We don't know. What do we know? You don't know, I don't know, nobody knows. All we know is some get the spark and say I'm going to change my life, I'm going to change my health, I'm going to change my relationship with my family, I'm going to change everything.
Voices:And if it starts with an apple, if it starts with a walk around the block, if it starts with a book, if it starts with a journal, whatever it starts with, I'm a candidate. I'm ready to go and change my life. I invite you on that journey. Once you look back on it, you will never turn back. You'll never go back to the old ways and the old language and the old neglect, never. Cardiovascular problems and alone in America create over a thousand funerals a day and 70% of it is neglect. I'm asking you not to hope they're going to fix this out here next year so that you'll be healthier. I'm asking you to pick up some new disciplines so that you will be healthier. Drive yourself to do it, book by book, entry by entry. It's all available for you.
Mostly Mary:The Risk Parity Radio Show is hosted by Frank Vasquez. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment tax or legal advice. Please consult with your own advisors before taking any actions based on any information you have heard here, making sure to take into account your own personal circumstances.
