Sanford Leeds is Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's premier business school where he lectures on topics in finance, is a lawyer & former prosecutor, an MBA, & aside from being a finance & economics wizard, he's an incredibly funny & great person who cares about making the world a better & more equitable place. Connect with Sandy & follow his market updates at:

OUTLINE:

0:00 Intro

2:10 Sandy’s journey from law school, getting his MBA, working in finance , to teaching at UT

3:38 Sandy’s biggest lesson = most of us have no idea where we’re going to end up

5:00 How important is finding the right thing?; What are the benefits & advantages of liking what you’re doing?

9:09 Does the prosecution lifestyle leak into other parts of your life when you’re a lawyer? He prosecuted the case for the movie “Boiler Room”

13:00 What does it take to work in wealth management

16:19 What do the common people need to be aware of economically & financially to know what to do with their hard-earned money?

1. Stocks grow as economy grows over time

2. Most managers don’t beat the market; just invest in the overall market

3. You shouldn’t time the market or guess when the market is gonna go up or down (Talks about this & the stock market amidst the pandemic); lessons learned throughout this time

23:47 The Wallstreet Bets saga & digital revolution in finance — retail investors vs hedge funds, smart money vs the common people

27:41 What is does it mean to short- sell a stock?

31:00 What is a gamma squeeze?

31:36 Unfairness & collusion in the financial markets; Is it a disingenuous argument of hypocrisy for hedge funds to say that the common retail investor can’t come together via social media platforms to invest in a stock?

35:42 New ways of valuation that have grey areas — extreme bullishness, SPACs, social media

38:06 Timing the market is a fools game; When the Consumer Price Index (CPI) = 4% inflation or is over 4% = That’s a dangerous sign when the fed says it’s time to slow shit down; More Fed inflation talk

41:09 The student debt crisis; is college worth it with today’s prices? Fool's game or necessary for success?

- Best insurance policy to guarantee a middle class lifestyle at least

- College is a winning bet for most people but not as much of a winning bet as it used to be because its more expensive

- Signaling effect

- We want people to go into fields with lower pay because they have value so how do we balance all that?

- 18 year olds are faced with daunting decisions that will influence their careers & lives for years to come

48:15 Pressure from external figures causing someone to go down a certain path (i.e. guidance counselor says you’re good at math so be an engineer, or dad says do this)

51:42 Why the cost of college has gone up so much

57:48 How debt obligations create limitations & an inability to take bigger risks; brain power being missed & inability for people to go be entrepreneurs because of things like student debt = killer for society because this kills innovation

59:29 Variables & considerations before taking debt to go to college that one must understand

* True total costs

* Perceived benefits

* Intrinsic value of being educated

* Impact on future lifestyle

“Public universities = best bargain & bang for your buck”

1:07:19 What’s going to happen with all of this student debt?

* = 3% of gov. debt

1:09:11 Socioeconomics of college being so expensive that people think “oh well it ain’t for me”; the problems with kids counting themselves out too early

1:11:41 How to not only be financially successful but be fulfilled & happy

1:17:14 Pursuit of extrinsic motivators such as status aren’t fulfilling long term

1:18:25 Groupthink, competitiveness, & toxicity at top business schools, narrow perspectives of only certain types of people in the world (consultants, bankers, losers) for students of certain majors (finance, etc.)

* School wants ppl to make highest starting salary so they can make more money & students get more money

* Top 1% of smart kids being made to compete against one another

* “Focus on learning, not grades!”

1:21:38 Where you can find Sandy’s content

Podcast info:

- Podcast website: https://smartalecshow.com

- RSS feed: feed:https://feeds.simplecast.com/ngBH2BfM

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/634MOIW...

- Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

- Amazon Music & Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/969...

Connect with Alec on Social:

- Linktree to all platforms: https://linktr.ee/smartalec

Recorded in May 2021