Leverage is the sharpest tool in the financial toolkit, and like any sharp tool, it can help you build or it can cut you. In this episode of AWM Insights, Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna break down the difference between consumption leverage and balance sheet leverage, why a 30-year mortgage and a margin loan carry completely different risks, and the guardrails we use before any family borrows against a portfolio: sizing, timing, break-even, the cushion test, and a real repayment plan. The short answer is "it depends," and the biggest variable is who controls the situation. We close with Charlie Munger's famous warning about the three ways a smart person goes broke, and why leverage is the one that can turn volatility into permanent loss. Connect With Us Call or text us: 626-862-0355 Website: https://www.athletefamilyoffice.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1NxpK21N1vKWEExC45YEA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/awmcapital/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awmcapital/ X: https://twitter.com/awmcapital Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/awmcapital/ Chapters [00:00] Introduction — Why leverage is the sharpest tool in the toolkit, and why the short answer is "it depends." [01:44] The Many Flavors Of Borrowing — Credit cards, lifestyle financing, mortgages, car loans, and student debt. [03:19] Debt Isn't A Moral Question — Consumption leverage vs. balance sheet leverage, and the mortgage as an advance against human capital. [05:21] Borrowing Instead Of Selling — Using leverage to fund spending without realizing a taxable gain, and why it gets complicated. [06:04] Timing And Sizing — Why financing everything to stay invested is a slippery slope, and how margin calls happen in a sell-off. [07:33] Who Controls The Situation? — Mortgages vs. margin vs. pledged asset lines. [10:07] The Break-Even And Cushion Tests — What the loan really costs vs. the tax hit, and how much room you have if things go wrong. [11:41] Repayment And The Weight Room — Why every loan needs a payoff plan, and what lifting weights teaches us about risk. [12:50] Liquor, Ladies, And Leverage — Charlie Munger's warning, and how leverage converts volatility into permanent loss. [14:07] Closing — Send us your questions and feedback.

AI agents can already book travel directly. That raises a hard question for loyalty programs. If a customer books through an agent instead of a portal, does their loyalty status even factor in? Ian Andersen joins to unpack how agentic booking works today and how it optimizes almost entirely on price. He walks through the standards emerging to change that, including Google's Universal Commerce Protocol and Talon's Universal Incentives Protocol. Both are starting to make loyalty data machine-readable. The conversation covers what program and product leaders should prioritize now and why waiting has a real cost. Connect with Switchfly Website: https://www.switchfly.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/switchfly/ X: https://twitter.com/switchfly YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchflyOfficial Chapters [00:00] Introduction to agentic AI booking and why loyalty programs are affected [00:01] Agentic booking goes mainstream: Google, Sabre, PayPal, and Mindtrip [00:04] The optimization blind spot: price and availability, but not loyalty [00:10] Emerging standards: Google's Universal Commerce Protocol and Talon's Universal Incentives Protocol [00:20] The API-readiness payoff: build once, plug into whichever standard wins [00:22] AI readability as the next answer engine optimization frontier [00:25] Context loss from travel agent to digital platform to AI agent [00:31] Quantifying value beyond price, and the two-user problem [00:41] Closing takeaway: even ignoring this is a plan, just an expensive one

In this episode of "In the Interim…", Dr. Scott Berry talks with Dr. Alun Bedding, a professional certified coach and statistician who spent decades in pharmaceutical statistics, including as global head of statistical methods, collaboration, and outreach at Roche, before founding his own coaching and consulting practice. The conversation traces Alun's path from statistician to coach and unpacks what coaching is: a forward-facing partnership built on exploring a client's own thinking, not on advice, mentoring, or therapy. Alun and Scott draw a direct line between good coaching and good statistical consulting as both begin by questioning the stated goal rather than accepting the first request at face value, whether that request is "I want to be a better manager" or "I need a power calculation." The episode covers why coaching must be uncomfortable to produce real change, why self-coaching runs into the limits of blind spots and self-bias and where AI coaching tools genuinely help and where they fall short. Key Highlights Coaching is a partnership exploring a client's own thinking, not advice or mentoring. The parallel between coaching and statistical consulting: determining the real goal behind a request. Why effective coaching must feel uncomfortable to produce genuine progress. The limits of self-coaching, and why blind spots require an outside challenger. How sports and performance coaching shifted from instruction to inquiry. Where AI coaching helps and where human presence and challenge remain irreplaceable. The difference between coaching and therapy: forward-facing versus backward-facing. For more, visit us at https://www.berryconsultants.com/

After three episodes with Roger Ferguson Jr. on building a 1Hundred Year Family, Justin and Mena sit down with his son, Roger Ferguson III, an Investment Manager at AWM, to reflect on what it’s like to grow up inside those lessons and why generation two, not generation one, is where families actually keep or lose their wealth. *Connect with Us* • Call or text us: 626-862-0355 • Website: https://www.athletefamilyoffice.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1NxpK21N1vKWEExC45YEA • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/awmcapital/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awmcapital/ • X: https://twitter.com/awmcapital • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/awmcapital/ *Chapter* [00:00] Introduction: Justin and Mena welcome Roger Ferguson III to reflect on the three-part series with his father, Roger Ferguson Jr. [00:02] Roger reflects on interviewing his dad and discovering lessons he didn’t realize were being taught. [00:03] Why Generation Two Is The Real Test: “It’s not the first generation you have to worry about, it’s gen two and beyond.” [00:05] The Power Of Repetition: How hearing the same lessons for thirty-plus years built the instinct to make better decisions. [00:09] Values In Practice, Not Just Words: Diversification, right-sized positions, and saving relentlessly as lived principles. [00:11] The CEO Who Sat In The Middle Seat: Living the say-do ratio, no matter the title or the balance. [00:15] Discipline Over Dollars: Why more resources demand more discipline, especially in a social-media-comparison world. [00:16] Rethinking “$100 Million Isn’t Enough”: Unpacking the generational wealth debate and the power of compounding time. [00:20] Closing Thoughts: Own your wealth, make an impact, always be a pro.

On this week's episode: most people assume tax deductions come from spending money you don't want to spend, and never ask what the tax code has already built in for anyone willing to take on real risk. The math nobody walks you through: 1. Every other investment keeps active and passive income in separate buckets — but a working interest in oil and gas gets treated as active, even when you're 100% passive. That's not a workaround. It's written directly into the tax code. 2. Buy $100,000 of Apple stock and you get zero deduction, just a higher basis for later. Put that same $100,000 into oil and gas, and you deduct it this year, against your active income — a difference no other asset class offers. 3. Intangible drilling costs can turn a $100,000 investment into a 90%+ first-year deduction, not a rough estimate but a calculated share of what actually goes into the well. 4. Six out of ten retail oil and gas investments lose money. The fix isn't avoiding the asset class — it's buying leases that are already producing, which removes the industry's biggest failure point, the dry hole, almost entirely. Get in touch: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/?utm_source=revo-taxpayer&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=s4e28-oil-gas-tax-plan&utm_content=show-notes#contact-1 Connect With Us • Website: https://www.revotaxpayer.com/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revotaxpayer/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revotaxpayer/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revo-taxpayer-advocacy • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiddenMoneyPodcast Chapters [00:00] Introduction: oil and gas, and the tax code's best-kept secret [00:02] Why "don't let your tax tail wag the dog" is bad reasoning [00:03] Tax 101: active, passive, and portfolio income [00:08] The exception: how oil and gas becomes "active" even when you're passive [00:12] Real numbers: turning a $100K investment into a 90%+ deduction [00:16] The Apple stock test: why this deduction is unlike any other investment [00:17] The real risk: why most retail oil and gas investments lose money [00:19] De-risking with insurance and the year-two flip to limited partner [00:35] The strategy with zero dry-hole risk