The podcast momentum is building. We offer the following write up as a teaser for Episode 5.

“Mom, I have a problem. I have a credit card—and I need you to pay the bill.”

“I’m not paying the bill, you have to figure it out. Consider this a lesson.”

That was the exchange Joe Saul-Sehy had with his mother shortly into his first semester in college. Within 90 days, his credit was wrecked. He had no job, no income, no financial aptitude whatsoever—understandably so.

Joe grew up in a family where the topic of money was constantly swept under the rug. His parents even went as far as asking the kids to leave the room if a financial discussion bubbled up.

So, who is this guy, and why would Matt spend an hour interviewing someone who admitted he has been “horrible with money?”

Joe Saul-Sehy is the co-host of The Stacking Benjamins Show: the record-smashing, award-winning, wildly popular podcast covering all things money-related. After years of avoiding conversations about money, Joe now broadcasts conversations about money to thousands of people every week.

In episode five of Take the Long View, Joe joins Matt to tell the story about his mission to make conversations about money fun and accessible. During this interview, Matt and Joe discuss financial independence, the perils of comparing your situation to others, and a traumatic experience with a minibar in Chicago.

Much like Matt, Joe has a knack for burying yawn-inducing jargon into stories that are as entertaining as they are enlightening. As Joe says, “If you don’t think you’re learning, you’re much more open to learning.”

Give it a listen and be sure to share the show with anyone else who’s fed up with finger-wagging, buttoned-up lectures about how you should handle your money.

Oh, and in case you missed it, Joe interviewed Matt back in 2016 right after the launch of Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor.

Click here for Episode 5 on Apple or here for other platforms.

As you’ve likely heard, the podcast is up and running – spreading our story and message to curious investors around the world. We’re thrilled with the success of the launch and encourage you to listen to all four episodes when you can find the time. All feedback is welcome. We offer the following write up as a teaser for Episode 4.

When most athletes transition from the sports world to the business world, the process is painstakingly slow. For Dave Butler, it took 24 hours.

After attending the University of California-Berkeley, Butler was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1987 NBA draft. But a player’s strike and a torn calf muscle cut his hoops career short. After a final stint with a pro team in England, Butler marched into his coach’s office, told him he took a job on Wall Street, and hopped on a flight to New York the next morning.

Since trading his basketball jersey for a suit, Butler has built an impressive career, ultimately leading him to his current role as the Co-CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors. Today, more than two decades after stepping off the hardwood, Dave Butler joins Matt Hall on episode 4 of Take the Long View: the podcast that nudges you to reframe your thoughts about your money, emotions, behavior, and time.

Listen to the episode here via Apple or here through other platforms.

Key topics discussed:

• Introducing Dave. [00:42]

• Dave’s background in professional basketball. [04:10]

• Dave’s transition from basketball to finance. [06:14]

• Dave’s early days in finance. [07:17]

• Starting out at Dimensional. [11:04]

• The origins of indexing. [14:02]

• Early days of Dimensional and the 9-10 fund. [16:10]

• Setting and meeting expectations. [18:35]

• Philosophical alignment. [19:45]

• Dan Wheeler’s influence. [21:52]

• Dimensional’s reach and its growth over the years. [26:17]

• Finding balance between work and other areas of life. [30:14]

• Dave’s favorite part of working at Dimensional. [33:32]

• Dimensional as a visionary in the field. [35:57]

• Investing philosophy. [38:25]

• Talking finance at parties. [42:08]

• Current projects. [44:23]

A professor set a large jar in front of her class of savvy business students and filled it with fist-sized rocks until it was full.

“Is the jar full?” she asked the class.

Most of the class nodded in approval. Then, she took out a bag of gravel, and dropped a handful of it into the jar until it slid into all the spaces between the big rocks. “Now is it full?” The class was starting to catch on. Several students said the jar wasn’t full yet.

“Well, let’s find out,” she said. The professor brought out a bucket of sand and poured it into the jar. With a few shakes, the sand filled the tiny crevices around the rocks and gravel.

“Is it full now?” she asked yet again. The class thought: What could possibly be smaller than sand? Sure enough, the professor took out a jug of water from behind her desk and poured it into the jar where it diffused through the rocks, gravel, and sand, filling the jar to the brim.

“Your life is like this jar,” she explained. “If you don’t put in your big rocks first, they’ll never fit around the little stuff.”

We did not write this story; it’s been around for years. We’ve heard it a hundred times or more from financial thought leader Larry Swedroe, and Matt Hall felt it was so powerful, he included it in his book Odds On.

If anything, the message becomes more relevant as each day passes. In 2019, it’s easier than ever to fill our proverbial jars with sand and water: shopping, entertainment, text messages, and so on. Meanwhile, there’s less and less room for our big rocks: family, community, education, financial freedom – the not-so-sexy yet foundational qualities of a life well-lived.

Our job at Hill Investment Group isn’t just to maximize the value of your investment portfolio. That’s part of it, but our greater job is to help you put your big rocks in place. All of them.

How’s your jar looking?