Wealth Formula Podcast Podcast By Buck Joffrey cover art

Wealth Formula Podcast

Wealth Formula Podcast

By: Buck Joffrey
Listen for free

About this listen

 Financial Education and Entrepreneurship for Professionals Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • 514: Currency Wars, Capital Flows, and Bitcoin

    514: Currency Wars, Capital Flows, and Bitcoin
    Jul 6 2025
    I know some of you are tired of hearing about Bitcoin and digital currencies. That’s not what this week’s show is about. This week’s podcast conversation is broader—it touches the entire global economy. But…you just can’t talk about macroeconomic trends anymore without talking about digital dollars and Bitcoin. Leaving them out today would be like ignoring gold when discussing commodities. There’s a section this week in my interview with Ian Reynolds that dives deep into the bond market and the growing influence of stablecoins. And I realized—it might be helpful to give you a bit of context up front. If you’re already familiar, consider this a refresher. If not, this will make the second half of our conversation a lot more useful. Let’s start with the 10-year U.S. Treasury—arguably the most important interest rate in the world. This one number influences everything from mortgage rates to stock valuations to how much it costs the government to borrow money. Historically, when inflation drops, yields on the 10-year tend to fall as well. That’s the standard relationship: lower inflation usually leads to lower yields. But that’s not what’s happening right now. Despite a year of cooling inflation, the 10-year Treasury yield has stayed surprisingly high. Why? The answer boils down to supply and demand. On the supply side, the U.S. government is flooding the market with Treasuries—over a trillion dollars’ worth every quarter—to finance its growing deficits. That’s a lot of new bonds entering the market. At the same time, demand isn’t keeping up. Foreign central banks like China and Japan, which used to be some of the biggest buyers of our debt, are pulling back. Some are dealing with their own domestic issues. Others are deliberately reducing their exposure to the dollar as a reaction to U.S. foreign policy over the past year. So: more supply, less demand—what happens? Bond prices go down, resulting in higher yields for bond investors. That, in turn, means higher borrowing costs for everyone—including the U.S. government, businesses, and consumers. That’s why, even with inflation falling, the 10-year hasn’t followed the script. But here’s where things get interesting. A new kind of buyer has started stepping in: stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins—like USDC and Tether—are digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar. They’ve become essential plumbing for the crypto economy, but their growth is increasingly relevant to the broader financial system. Why? Because in order to maintain their dollar peg, these companies need to back their coins with something stable—and that “something” is often short-term U.S. Treasuries. It turns out, that’s a great business to be in. These stablecoin issuers collect real dollars, turn around, and invest them in T-bills yielding 5% or more. That spread—between what they earn and what they pay out—is pure profit. It’s essentially a 21st-century version of a money market fund, just running on blockchain. And it’s growing fast. Tether now holds more Treasuries than countries like Australia or Mexico. BlackRock has launched a tokenized Treasury fund that already has nearly $3 billion under management. And just this week, Mastercard announced that it’s integrating USDC and other stablecoins for cross-border settlement. In other words, this isn’t fringe anymore. It’s moved into the mainstream, and it’s growing quickly. Even lawmakers are catching up. Just this month, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, a bipartisan bill that sets clear regulatory guidelines for stablecoins. It requires full backing by liquid assets—like Treasuries—and regular public disclosures. It’s now headed to the House, and while not law yet, the momentum is clearly there. The takeaway? Regulatory clarity is coming, and that opens the door for large institutions, payment processors, and even governments to scale up stablecoin usage with confidence. So why does this matter for bond yields? Because if this growth continues—and all signs suggest it will—stablecoin issuers could become a major new class of permanent Treasury buyers. That consistent demand could help reduce or at least stabilize borrowing costs for the U.S. government over time, especially at the short end of the yield curve. It’s not a magic fix, but it’s one of the few credible tailwinds for demand in an otherwise stretched bond market. And it’s coming from a place most economists didn’t expect: crypto. So with that context, let’s jump into the conversation with Ian Reynolds. On this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, we talk about macro trends, currencies, Bitcoin, and yes—the bond market. But now you’ll see how it all fits together.
    Show more Show less
    34 mins
  • 513: How to Sell Your Business Without Selling Out - The ESOP Strategy

    513: How to Sell Your Business Without Selling Out - The ESOP Strategy
    Jun 29 2025
    My mission at Wealth Formula Podcast is to provide you with real financial education. You may have heard of something called the Dunning-Kruger curve. In short, when you start learning something new, you know that you don’t know anything. That’s the safe zone. The dangerous part is what I call the red zone—when you’ve learned just enough to think you know a lot, but really… you don’t. Then, eventually, if you keep learning, you get to the point where you finally realize how little you actually know—and how much more there is to understand. That’s kind of where I am now. And so, the only thing I can do—and the only thing I encourage you to do—is to keep learning more than we knew yesterday. Take this week’s episode. We’re talking about Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs. Until recently, I didn’t fully understand how they worked. And I’d bet most business owners don’t either. Which is exactly why this episode matters. Even if you don’t currently own a business or a practice, I still think it’s important to learn about strategies like this—because someday you might. And in the meantime, you’re expanding your financial vocabulary, which is always a good investment. So, what is an ESOP? At its core, an ESOP is a legal structure that allows you to sell your business to a trust set up for your employees—usually over time. It’s a way to cash out, preserve your legacy, stay involved if you want to, and unlock some massive tax advantages in the process. But before we talk about all the bells and whistles, let’s address the number one question that confuses almost everyone—including me: Where does the money come from? If you’re selling your company to a trust, and your employees aren’t writing you a check… how the hell are you getting paid? Here’s the answer: You’re selling your business to an ESOP trust, which is a qualified retirement trust for the benefit of your employees. That trust becomes the buyer. But like any buyer, it needs money. So how does it pay you? There are two main sources: Bank financing – Sometimes, the ESOP trust can borrow part of the purchase price from a lender. Seller financing – And this is the big one. You finance your own sale by carrying a note. That means you get paid over time, through scheduled payments—funded by the company’s future profits. The company continues to generate cash flow, and instead of paying it out to you as the owner, it pays off the loan owed to you as the seller. So yes—it’s a structured, tax-advantaged way to convert your equity into liquidity using your company’s own future earnings. You’re not walking away with a check on Day 1—but you are pulling money out of the business steadily and predictably, often with interest that beats what a bank would offer. And here’s the kicker: If your company is an S-corp and becomes 100% ESOP-owned, it likely pays no federal income tax, and often no state income tax either. That means a lot more money stays in the business—available to fund your buyout faster. If you're a C-corp, you might even qualify for a 1042 exchange, which can defer or eliminate capital gains taxes entirely if you reinvest the proceeds in U.S. securities. And here’s something the experts probably won’t say out loud—but I will: This isn’t always about selling your business. Sometimes, it’s just a very clever way to get money out of your business and pay less tax. You’ll hear ESOP consultants talk about legacy and succession planning—and that’s all true and valuable. But in reality, some owners use ESOPs as a pure tax play. They stay in control, they keep running the business, and they simply create a legal structure that lets them pull money out tax-efficiently while rewarding employees along the way. Think of it less like a sale and more like a smart internal liquidity strategy. You still own the culture. You still drive the direction. But you’re also getting paid—often better than private equity would pay you—and doing it on your terms, with serious tax savings. Now, what if you actually do want to exit and walk away? That works too. If you’ve built a solid leadership team, you can sell the company to the ESOP, step back, and let them run it. Or the ESOP trust can sell the company later to a third party. In fact, ESOP-owned companies often become more attractive to buyers because they tend to be profitable and well-run. So ESOPs don’t limit your exit—they give you more ways to exit. On your terms. Today on the show, I speak with Matt Middendorp, Director of ESOP Consulting at Vision Point Capital. He works with business owners across the country to help them figure out whether an ESOP is the right move—and walks us through how the whole thing actually works. This is complex stuff. That’s why it’s so important to hear it from someone who does this every day.
    Show more Show less
    31 mins
  • 512: Investing in the Final Frontier - Space

    512: Investing in the Final Frontier - Space
    Jun 22 2025
    Not long ago, I made the case that it’s not too late to buy Bitcoin—even after it crossed the $100,000 mark. Why? Because the nature of the opportunity has changed. When governments and institutions start stockpiling a finite asset, you're no longer just betting on price—you’re watching a new system take shape. And interestingly, a very similar story is unfolding not in financial markets, but in orbit. For most of the last century, space was strictly the domain of governments. NASA, the Department of Defense, the Russian and Chinese space agencies—these were the only real players. Private capital didn’t have much of a role. That changed with SpaceX. SpaceX didn’t just innovate—it obliterated the cost structure. In 2010, it cost about $50,000 to launch a kilogram into orbit. Today, thanks to the reusable Falcon 9, that cost has fallen to under $2,000—and Starship could bring it below $500. These aren’t marginal gains. These are cost reductions that unlock entirely new industries. We’re now seeing an explosion of opportunity: satellite internet that connects the most remote parts of the globe, smartphones that communicate directly with orbiting satellites, and AI-enhanced imaging tools that monitor everything from crop health to military activity in real time. Last year alone, space startups raised nearly $13 billion in private investment, even in a tighter funding environment. And Morgan Stanley projects the space economy could surpass $1 trillion by 2040—double its current size. Perhaps most surprising of all: over three-quarters of global space revenue today comes from commercial activity, not government programs. This isn’t science fiction. It’s infrastructure. It’s logistics. It’s telecom. And yes—it’s investable. And that’s why we are talking about it on this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast.
    Show more Show less
    30 mins
No reviews yet