326. Why Crypto Still Confuses Investors

Crypto continues to be one of the most misunderstood areas of investing. In this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, we sit down with Robert Swarthout, Founder and CEO of Teton Crypto Capital, to unpack why crypto still feels confusing, what problems it’s actually trying to solve, and how regulation could shape its future.

Related Podcast Episodes: 

Ep 312. Is Crypto Right for You?

Ep 306. Crypto in Your 401(k)? The Future of Retirement Investing

Ep 286. How can I evaluate crypto as a potential investment?

Other Links:

Teton Crypto Capital

Learn More:
- About Wiser Wealth Management
- Schedule a Complimentary Consultation: Discover how we can help you achieve financial freedom.
- Access Our Free Guides: Gain valuable insights on building a financial legacy, the importance of a financial advisor for business owners, post-divorce financial planning, and more!

Stay Connected:
- Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter
- A Wiser Retirement® YouTube Channel

This podcast was produced by Wiser Wealth Management. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Cutting Through Crypto Confusion

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Today we're going to cut through the crypto confusion from the biggest mistakes people make to what crypto actually tries to solve and what regulation means for all of this. Stay tuned to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to a wiser retirement podcast, where we cut through the noise and bring you real, honest conversations about investing retirement and building lasting wealth. No sales pitches, no gimmicks, just everything your financial advisor won't tell you.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Welcome to the Rise of Retirement Podcast. I'm Casey Smith. Today I'm joined with Robert Swarthalt, founder, CEO of Teton Crypto Capital. Today we're going to discuss why crypto still confuses investors. Hello, Robert. How's it going? Welcome back. Thanks for having me. It's been a while. It has. We, you know, we You know, I learned recently that I'm only on 50% of my podcast. Okay. I was like, we did record a bunch in a row, but but uh I haven't been on in a while. And then I was like, oh, Sean's kind of taking over my podcast. Good grief. That could be a coup. I know it could be. She gets a lot of views. So, you know, I get I get why.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Right, yeah. The um, you know, it it could be a um a slow takeover that they noticed the next day.

unknown 1:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

All of a sudden the views are a huge disparity.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

And we just changed our podcast art. So our podcast art no longer has my picture on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Uh, but that's fine. It's it's this is a team effort. Wiser is very much a team effort, it's not about one person. Yeah, which is why we had call it Wiser Wealth Management and not Casey Wealth Management. Exactly. It's up about about all 18 of us now.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Wow. That's I remember um in my last business at that stage that like the 14 to 18 people was my most favorite period. Um after that, you know, it can be fun, but it was just it got less and less fun as there was more on place.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

I wasn't doing any of the things that I enjoyed doing at that point. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Yeah. Well, my my thing, uh, my success has always been because I hire people way smarter than me. That is that is the secret. I walk through here every day going, wow, these people are just really, really good.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

They get to focus on one thing, the two things.

Meet The Guest And Setup

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Yes, that's true. Instead of winning 10 heads. That's true. I come in with 22 things to do, and they can just be really good at planning or really good at HR or really good at, you know, part for portfolios, right? Um, okay, so you've been having uh great success in your crypto fund. Yep. I get your newsletters, which uh congratulations on that. Thanks. A recent survey by the National Cryptocurrency Association. There's associations for everything. Uh nearly 90% of Americans said they feel they don't know enough about how cryptocurrency works, and the lack of understanding is the biggest reason they haven't adopted it yet. Uh I thought that was very I thought that's a very interesting stat. Uh it feels a little loaded. Yeah, I know, Justin. Yeah. Um we continue to have more crypto in our portfolios, meaning more clients in our crypto models that are asking for it.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

And I that will continue to increase until functionally everybody or those that want it.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

I honestly feel like we're getting close enough that we should just be like, we have cryptos in our portfolio. It's gonna be less than three percent. Uh, if you don't want it, then you can know you can notify us. But everybody's gonna get it because what happens is you know, company email open rates like 70%. So or no, it's not even that high. It's 55%. Okay. 55% of our company emails get opened, uh, which means that you probably didn't even know that we offered to have crypto in the portfolio because you don't open an email. Right. Uh we we catch them doing the review meetings, of course, but right. Um, so there there was like a second wave as as review meet review meetings came through. But I would still argue that people struggle with what it means. It's in there because Casey and and Shauna and Andrew, or uh yeah, Andrew, William, and and Michaela said you should have cryptos in your portfolios, they go, okay.

Why Investors Still Struggle With Crypto

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Right. But you know, it's you know, Andrew, Andrew shared the data in a it's been a while a podcast, but like about how how much it can benefit a portfolio. Yes. Um, but I think that at the end of the day, I think people get hung up on crypto because it's this mystical internet money thing, right? Yeah. Um, if you rewind uh the early 1990s, people didn't understand the internet. They're like, why would I send an email when I could just send a letter? I mean, we are kind of in that same stage with crypto still. Um you couldn't necessarily invest in the internet back then. I think that's the difference now. Um and people hear these wild stories about somebody investing$100 and turning it into some gigantic number with crypto. I think largely those days are behind us. That that is gambling. We'll be very clear about that. Yeah. Um, and that's not what I think we're here to talk about, but but people, I think, um get those two um confused sometimes. Um and I think that at the end of the day, just trying to step back and understand, you know, I need it as my portfolio because X, Y, and Z reason, or I don't need it in my portfolio, whatever it may be. Um, but having reasons why you're doing something is important.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

So what do you think the biggest mistakes people are making with crypto right now?

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Um I think that people are trying to time the market. I'm I'm a big believer in just a buy and hold strategy with crypto. Um it's this is a a wave, and in my opinion, the wave is gonna be bigger than the internet was um proper. So uh this will play out over decades. Um it'll transform finance. Finance is a much bigger deal around the world than the internet is, even though the internet basically touches our life from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep. Right. Um but I think that over time, you know, it's gonna rewrite finance. It's gonna in the and then blockchain can be used for things not attached to finance, like boating or car titles, house deeds. We've talked about this in the past. So like it'll slowly permeate everything. And um, you know, you're you're betting on the long term if you're betting on crypto versus the mistake that people make now is I think they're trying to bet on the next year, the next six months wild swings of crypto. I mean, it was just down the last two days, and good good luck in guessing why. Like it's it can be tricky. Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

So when we did our initial crypto investments here, I told everybody it was a 10-year 10-year-old. Absolutely. Yeah. So we're gonna we're gonna put two percent of your portfolio in here and we're gonna look at it again in 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Right. And you know, and in my opinion, not financial advice, I think that 2% becomes of substantial unless you are rebalancing along the way, right? I mean, like you're gonna have that challenge of figuring out like, do I really want to sell something? Right. That's generally not not the challenge. Um, it's like, you know, take an underperformer um and buy some more of it. Um, I think this is, you know, obviously it'll have its periods where it underperforms, but yeah, it's um it's the highs and dips. And, you know, part of I think the reason why you hear these crazy stories of people losing money or people making a bunch of money is again those swings is because there hasn't been regulation. So it's like the market can be easily manipulated up or down. Yeah. Um and if you're trying to do this on a day-to-day basis, good luck. Because it's 24-7, 365. You're not gonna get any sleep, um, or you're not gonna get good sleep, and it's that's the challenge of um you know, having a clear head to make good decisions.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

What I'm saying sometimes are people who are doing this on their own have a way they they don't understand alloc asset allocation, and their allocation is way weighted toward crypto, almost like rolling the dice is crypto going to work out or not? And if it doesn't work out, they're in a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

And I would say when I've seen that, it's generally the a younger crowd. Um, and I don't, you know, they may have their reasons. I I kind of made up that they're maybe playing some catch-up for whatever reason. They can't afford the house they want to buy or all these things. You know, there's in some sense the younger crowd has a deck of stacks that stacked against them these days. Um so they are they're doing that, and yeah, they may have 90% of their net worth in crypto. Yeah. Um in in if you're young in your early 20s, maybe, but like as you get older, that seems pretty crazy, even to someone that loves crypto like me.

Allocation, Volatility, And Time Horizon

SPEAKER_04 7:50

So yeah, or even higher. Right, yeah, 100%. Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, and then there's also all the um all the biases, all the financial biases um kick in where uh you don't you don't you feel like you don't you don't want to miss out. So you're making purchases that you don't understand. Uh also you're um when when it sells off, you start selling in a panic because oh, it's going down, I'm losing money, I gotta get out of this thing. Right. And that's not really how you need to be thinking about any of this.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Yeah, I mean you can kind of apply a lot of the same kind of thinking you might do with stocks or you know, the equities. Like if everyone's racing to go buy something, it may now may not be the time to buy it. Yeah. Um, or vice versa. So you have that and just you the herd mentality. The herd mentality, and then like even more so in crypto is sometimes referred to as tribalism because it's like you may find a token or two that you really love. You buy into it, and all of a sudden all the other ones are crap because mine are awesome. And that that this is it it's exhausting because that's all over the place in crypto. Um, you see that even with the Bitcoin guys, like a lot of the Bitcoiners are like that where this is a one token world and all the other ones are just trash and going to zero, which you know, some of them will go are trash and will go to zero, but most of them, if you if you are buying correctly, will not. Um so it's just you know, having patience and having, you know, just I guess the patience to want to spend the time to do the research, or I guess the easy way to do it these days is the ETF, the say the bitwise um top 10 index. Like you're cut you're taking some of the risk out of choosing the wrong token. Like if a token's already in the top 10, 15, I mean, imagine that index will expand over time, much like an SP 500.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

I was really I was really excited about that index, and I've made it made recommendations about it, you know, personally to people. But uh I'm really disappointed that it issues a K1. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And that's that's kind of a deal killer for us as a firm. Right. Because as a firm, that means people are gonna do their taxes in February because they're excited about their taxes for whatever reason. And then there's a K1 that shows up in March and they don't remember to wait for the K one. Yep. So that that whole uh ETF is on hold for us right now until we we figure out what the best course of action is.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

I wonder why there's a K1 on that. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

It's how it's how the ETF is built. It's so it it's um to not get a K1, they'd have to have built it differently.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

And not to initially jump ahead here, but like, do you think that's a regulation issue? Like regulations will clean up whatever caused them to do that?

SPEAKER_04 10:27

No, well, no, not necessarily. Not necessarily. Yeah. Um we'd have to really get into weeds, and I don't think our listeners want to want to get into that. I can do a whole podcast on ETF structures, but uh but yeah, that that part was disappointing. I still think that's it it's worth an investment from a personal standpoint because you're getting if you don't know what to buy in crypto, you buy an ETF and it literally has a top 10 in it by market cap size.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

And and they they're gonna deal with the weighting um and they're gonna do all the adjusting underneath the hood. It's it's a passive way to make an investment into a market that you probably don't have enough knowledge in. I'll be very frank.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Or if you buy it inside your IRA, the K1 does is doesn't matter anymore.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

Yeah. Because so you just have to buy it in a retirement account and you don't have to wait for the K1 to show up. If you buy it in your brokerage account, you're gonna have a um is that a problem? It's just you get away for it before you buy your tax return.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

I um helped my sister-in-law buy that, so I'll have to keep that in mind when I tell her to do her taxes. Um I think that may have been from me too. I think I believe yeah, exactly. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Um, yeah, I don't know if I fully even realized it at that point, but in our in our committee meeting, Andrew was like, this has a K1. I'm like, what? Why? And then he told me, I was like, Oh, that makes sense, but why? Right. Make it stop. Why would you do that? Uh you'd have to have the only way around it now is you have to have a ETN, and we don't want that because if the company went out of business, we'd be we don't own anything. Absolutely. It'd be like a financial crisis all over again. Who is this? Oh, Lehman Brothers. They had ETNs. Correct. I think three that that went out. Anyway, uh, not to uh take us out of out of our conversation here. Um I chasing hype and trends, I I feel I feel like there's less of that now.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Because crypto's not in a super if euphoric cycle right now. Yeah. That that will come back. There's no doubt that will that will come back as things in you know, when you go to get your haircut and the person that's never talked about crypto start talking about crypto, that is a signal.

unknown 12:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Take advantage of that. And if you have crypto, it's probably the time to start taking some off the table.

SPEAKER_05 12:20

Right.

Behavioral Traps And Tribalism

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Um, when they're telling you about this new coin, especially like I I find entertaining, and not that I know all 20,000 tokens. I I won't claim to say that, but like I feel informed enough to know when somebody brings up a new token and tells me how it's going to solve the world's problems and I've never heard of it before, I'm like, okay, pump the brakes a little bit on this one. Um maybe it's awesome, but and maybe it's early. But but it you you could think about that market cap scale as the further that you get down that market cap scale, that's a risk scale. And it's just inverted, it's going the opposite way very quickly. And um, you know, and you you could be right, and you could turn a hundred dollar investment into a much bigger number, but the odds of that are probably like going to buy a lottery ticket.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

And I think that's what some people are trying to do with their crypto, they think is their lottery ticket. And yeah, I think it's a new asset class that should be a part of your portfolio. It's gonna be a part of your everyday life 10 years from now. Um, but you have to use it within moderation because of the volatility. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Before we jump back into the episode, do you know if you are ready to take off and launch into retirement? Get your pre-retirement checklist, a free guide from Wiser Wealth Management from cash flow to social security. We've got your account down covered. Go to wiserinvestor.com slash guides to download your free guide today. Now let's get back to the episode.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

So what do you think? Um what what problems are is is crypto trying to solve? I think this goes back to one of the first episodes we did is like why crypto? What is crypto? Sure, what is blockchain? But but why does crypto even exist? Maybe this will help people get over the hurdle of the why, why crypto.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Yeah, I mean, you know, if you fully rewind back to the financial crisis in 2008, 2009, crypto grew out of that, or the genesis of crypto happened because the um the mistrust in the system back then, um, how it seemed like money was being given to s to bail out a bank and maybe in the and at least in their opinion, the banks caused the problems and all the things, right? We don't need to rehash all that. But mistrust in the system is it was the genesis of Bitcoin. Um and you know, I I love using this analogy. Like we live in a world that every single day seemingly has less and less trust. Like, I don't care where you look, crypto is doesn't have a middleman and it's a trustless system. So it's like an interesting place and time for it to kind of be happening. Um so you know, whether it's purely just the money side of crypto or just a transaction, and you want to have we've talked about this before, a smart contract is code that runs on a blockchain. It executes on the blockchain based upon what the code says. And you don't have to have an attorney or a um a judge to kind of enforce a contract. It's gonna do what inputs it has and whatever outputs it has to do that. So you know, that can get confusing really quickly, but I think that it it allows people across the globe to interact in ways they've never been able to do it. Borders kind of dissolve and go away, um, at least in country borders. And I think, you know, there we could talk a super long list about what crypto is doing, but fundamentally I think it's trying to provide trust in a way that you normally wouldn't have trust by taking a middleman out and allowing people to freely interact it much more efficiently, whether that's time or money.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

So basically crypto is a tool and technology, not just an investment vehicle.

ETFs, K-1 Headaches, And Practical Access

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah, and I guess to kind of rewind just a little bit, crypto is a use case of blockchain. Blockchain is the fundamental type of technology underneath it. Again, you could use blockchain to do voting, you could use for car titles and house deeds. That's not really on anything monetary there. Yeah. Um, but the the monetary use of it is often referred to as crypto. And, you know, it could be smart contracts to help settle. Um, I've seen all sorts of like um exotic Wall Street products are s are being um introduced. Even yesterday the um NYSE announced that they've been working on a platform um to bring their entire exchange onto blockchain um 247 365 with fractional um fractions smaller than a penny um for trading and um for the actual fractions of a share of whatever company. So like this is going to go from a year and a half ago, this was fantasy land, to happen very quickly, I believe. And you know, even like two months ago or maybe three months ago, Paul Atkins, the um SEC chairman, said that within two years he thought all US markets would be on blockchains. My guess is they would be running in parallel. We're not fully doing a switch over in two years. That seemed a little far-fetched to me. But um all of a sudden it seems like we're on pace because NASDAQ's already talked about this, and all of a sudden you had NYSC, which is massive. Yeah. Um, and the flows. So I it's gonna be like a it's gonna seemingly feel like a light switch moment, I imagine, here within two years, where we look back and we're like, oh my gosh, this is everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah, all that trading you see on the floor and people standing around tables, that's all for show.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

All for show. And um, so it's gonna go to instant settlement as well, um, is what they were talking about in this. So it's currently T plus one, I believe. Yeah. And think about all the liquidity that would be freed up. It's like trillions of dollars that are just tied up in that one day cycle over and over and over again. Um, so it's it's pretty crazy to kind of think what impacts that might have. I don't I don't like claim to have the answer to that. Um, but I've been wondering like, does that is that a good thing, a bad thing? Is it a short-term good thing, short-term, bad thing?

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Like it frees up liquidity, but also it could free up hype too. So if you have a really polarized situation and market selling off quickly, and that money is gonna move into something else, that plus one day is now instant. That means it's it's just gonna move a lot faster.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah, like I I would imagine circuit breakers need rethought, like all those things, like a bad news event. Normally, like a lot of times you'll see bad news or manipulation. Or manipulation, or or yeah, in anything not good um happen sometimes after hours. Well, after hours goes away. Um so you have that problem to deal with, the problem in air quotes. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

And yeah, you could have 24-7 trading.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Right. But but they've um there was I read a study, this is a little bit of an aside, but like I read a study, had we had blockchain and we knew we were fully on a blockchain back when the financial crisis happened with Lehman, there's a good chance it wouldn't have been nearly as bad because they would have known the liabilities and where they were at versus having to uncover them as they were basically taking a company through bankruptcy. Yeah. Um, and it it was like 10% of the problem what we what we actually ended up thinking the problem was. Right. Um, so I don't know. There there could be a positives, but again, in life, there's always the surprise negatives that seem to surprise people more often than the positives.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

So absolutely. Um, okay, so let's talk about regulation. So we've had some regulation uh in the last year since the Trump administration, the Genius Act, right? Yep, for stable coins. Uh for stable coins. Speaking of stable coins, uh, have we have you seen a uh increase of them purchasing US treasuries? Um it's I have you seen any data that that would that would say that wow, they owned 1% of treasuries, now they own five.

Recognizing Hype Cycles And Risk

SPEAKER_03 19:28

I I don't know that answer. What I have noticed is you started to see some more um basically sponsors come up with um to start run their own. Um I mean, it's a little over a year, but like Ripple has their stablecoin in dollars. It is past the 1 billion, I think it's 1.3 billion um market cap. So it's still relatively small compared to USDC or Tether. Yeah. Um, but you have uh the state of Wyoming has issued their own. Um, and they have their own laws that also govern it on top of the US one. So it's a little bit more um strict there. I don't want to say there's another state or two that has talked about that. Um and you have companies doing it too. So right now, by law through the Genius Act, if you're the issuer of a stable coin and say you go and you put money into my stablecoin and I'm the issuer, I get to collect all the interest on whatever I may have, I'm not allowed to pay you interest. So that's a very simple way to use a stable coin, but it's also terrible for the holders. And it's amazing for the issuer. Right. Especially in the interest environment we're in right now. Yeah, because there's um right no income. You're right. So I mean you're they're getting four or five percent. Um so kind of wrapping this back around the um the Clarity Act that's trying to go through the Senate. So the the House passed their version of the Clarity Act last summer. Um the the Senate is working on their version they will get reconciled assuming it gets through the Senate. But the um uh the Bankers Association is now fighting um because they were trying to slip in a provision in this Clarity Act to allow issuers to pay alter um uh optionally pay interest to holders much like a bank account. Yeah right novel concept um but the um uh there there's that that seems to be the holdup right now uh the the I guess the biggest holdup um through the Senate so it was supposed to be voted on last week it did not it look got bumped at the end of the month there's all these negotiations there's a bunch of drama happening around this right that I I think at the end of the day it all gets figured out um nothing in Congress seems to go smoothly so this is it we just have to get through the drama. Right. Um but it's but that that's part of it. So the the it would be part of the bigger bill for clarity. Um I would just hope that this doesn't hold up the bigger clarity act because we need the clarity. We can go back come back and fix stable coins later if we need to. Right. Um but the rest of crypto is being held up in my opinion um not just the market cycle, the actual use of it in major ways until the Clarity Act passes.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

So so I think just to be clear regulation I think we we think that in negative terms. So we think something has to be regulated because uh either something's bad happened or or we're gonna we're gonna put put the put the stops to something good happening through regulation. Regulation is positive because what we don't have right now is the clarity what it's called the Clarity Act right on how uh coins should be treated.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

So yes is it is it a security is it a commodity is it's a hybrid if it starts out you almost can always make the case that when a new crypto network starts it starts as security because it's centralized it's a small number people have it and it's a vested interest in their efforts likely right right um as it expands becomes decentralized what's that definition there's all these things that are getting put in there um and I I think the industry longs for this um no joke clarity because um lar largely because the four years under the Biden administration and then how they dealt with crypto they functionally tried to put it out of business. Right. Um they would act real friendly and then they would they would you know come in we would like to talk to you and then they would then they would give them a um a wells notice because they were going to come after them. The SEC basically everything in crypto was a nail and they're just running around with their hammer.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Um so under this Clarity Act that um that they're working on it seems seemingly most cryptos would be viewed as commodities once they're above a decentralized definition. That means that they're under CFTC um uh I guess uh oversight there would be some that would still be um securities they're trying to figure out how to have like a um like a like a year or two period as something's new it can kind of grow up it certainly is a security but like give it give it the ability to grow out of that likely become a commodity without having to do full securities registration because something small that basically put them out of business um as too owners um to kind of allow the technology to blossom. So we um we see it I you know I keep going back to this market seemingly has been trading sideways it's more so gone down the last a couple really last four months than up but it feels like it's waiting for the Clarity Act. It felt more positive a week ago or two weeks ago when we thought it was about to be voted on. It seemed like it was going to pass then all of a sudden it didn't happen obviously. So it's a catalyst and I think it's a catalyst for the people that want to trade it right um from a pricing perspective but also a catalyst for the builders that want to have rules of the road to knowing that if I do this I'm not gonna get sued and p end up in prison. Right? Um I I have rules the I know what the game is that I'm playing.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

So how does that what gives people more confidence you think people are going to go buy Bitcoin because of Clarity Act? Or you think it helped it probably helps the other coins I don't think it has anything to do with Bitcoin. Yeah because Bitcoin's already really been deemed as legitimate.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

And it is a commodity. I mean like it's they they have said that. So the it helps every all the other tokens that are out to solve specific problems. Bitcoin is more of a digital gold generalist if you want to kind of use that analogy the rest of tokens are generally trying to solve a problem or a couple problems. So it gives them the ability to say this is what I'm doing and take the example of those that are trying to solve payments problems. All of a sudden it allows the banks to actually use them. Banks are not going to touch something that's not unregulated because they are the most regulated industry in the world. So it's kind of a stacking upon each other there. And just kind of um you know I in some ways it's also being defensive like if you have a the administration maybe the Trump administration goes crazy or an administration after that decides they hate crypto if there's regulations in place that is law, it's a much harder for them to play games um than it is currently because they it's at the whim of whatever they decide when they wake up each morning.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

So that makes sense.

Midroll: Retirement Checklist CTA

What Problems Crypto Aims To Solve

SPEAKER_03 25:42

Well thank you for for chiming in on these questions um we uh so we we we do uh three questions in three minute segment okay uh you've been on the broadcast many times sure we haven't done this though but we haven't done this yep so the wiser team is is taking turns doing it as they come through okay we don't we don't ever repeat it so we just do it one time until we change the question I guess we have to have different answers every time we're gonna have different answers each time so let's take three minutes here uh at the end of the segment and let's say uh or let's ask first question what's a money mistake you're weirdly glad you made um mistake is probably a little bit in air quotes here um but I you know my wife Tessa she this is um Thanksgiving of 2022 and she we're going around the table saying what we're thankful for and it comes to her and we she got like a week or two prior had bought a horse and you know supported I hadn't been to the bar many times to see it but you know it is what it is. She comes around she's like I'm thankful for my horses and I'm like there was an S on the end of that um and you know and so she's from Nebraska she grew up with horses so I knew that was like a happy spot for her um so but I guess the mistake here again air quotes was being supportive. I've come to love being around the horses I I admittedly do not like riding them at all. I do it maybe once every couple years. I saw you at Christmas time. Yeah that was uh when I had nothing else to do in Christmas morning um we went on a trail ride which it was beautiful out this year. But but you know just they're like big dogs and I've come to enjoy their personalities and um kind of been able to do things around and for them and stuff. Right. And and have a another business that's blossoming out of that. So we'll kind of see how that goes.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

If you could only travel to one place where would you go and who are you taking?

SPEAKER_03 27:25

Yeah so being incredibly busy like I would like to be able to go to our house in Idaho more often. So I that's my answer. And anyone that wants to go really I actually don't mind being there by myself. I've done that a a time or two. Right. But uh I I think as this the the barn gets um finished building and uh get done with my check right here um for flying I'll have more time back. I I'm quickly going to go from having no time to having a lot of time it seems seemingly happens and uh maybe I'll spend some more time out there.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

So uh what is something you believed strongly 10 years ago that you don't believe anymore?

SPEAKER_03 28:03

So those that know me know that I come from a software development background. I've for basically probably a couple decades at this point told people that didn't mind sitting in front of a computer that um become a software engineer you have a job for the rest of your life. I don't know if that's the case anymore. Um AI is going to is is already starting to transform that industry. So AI can write a lot of code software developers largely you know this is not this is a very blank estate but I don't think it's 100% true are there to stitch these things together. But this is early days for AI writing code. At some point it's kind of like what's the developer do? Um and you know I then you start thinking about robotics with AI like all that world. So I don't I don't think that anyone's job is safe the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

Uh any industry could be I don't care what industry it is.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

At this point I mean once we have good robotics um surgeons are are ripe for the picking too so yeah it's a crazy world. I mean or pilots yeah for that matter.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

It'll be a while for them.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

It'll be a while because people that are sitting in the back want to know that this to troubleshoot if there is a problem. That that's what that job will be for a while.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

We were we were somewhere recently and and um my uh my wife it was my wife's first time seeing a Waymo and I was like oh that's a car that uh doesn't have a driver it just computer picks you up and drops you off it's like an Uber but there's no driver. Yep. And she's like I would never get into that. I would never trust that. And it's like well thousands of people do. And more every day. More every day yes uh what I've read about Waymo recently was uh it it adapts to the um driving of the city so it's adapting to how people drive so it's not like this little slow car doing that right that in Atlanta that'd be a problem. So Michaela was telling me because she lives down there she's like these Waymo cars are super aggressive now. Like a honking a windows like cut you off and they're moving with the flow, zigzagging in and out of lanes I'm like well they're supposed to adapt to their environment. So if if we drive crazy in Atlanta it'll be driving crazy with us.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

But it won't cause accidents because it's too slow, I guess. Or driving the speed limit.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Right, which is the a big concern in Atlanta because everyone drives so quick. So yeah yeah exactly.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

All right those are good answers. Thank you. Uh thanks for listening to today's episode if you guys are interested in learning more about wiser wealth management or want to schedule a consultation uh to meet with one of our fiduciary financial advisors you can do so by going to wiserinvestor.com or you can click on the episode notes. Also in our episode notes today you can link directly to Tonk Crypto Capital if you would like to learn more about investing and their fund. Thanks for listening.

Blockchain Beyond Money And Market Plumbing

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Thanks for listening to a wiser retirement podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening that way you don't miss any new episodes we'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review. If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today head to wiserinvestor.com and reach out. This podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and is not to be considered as investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any financial products, securities, digital assets or any other investment vehicle or basis to make any financial decisions. Wiser Wealth Management Incorporated is a registered investor advisor with the SEC. The host and or guest may personally own securities, digital assets or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast. Neither the host nor guest of the show are compensated for their participation and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients, listeners or similar interests. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed, be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, insurance professional andor legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein past performance is not indicative of future performance