The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Scott talks about Bitcoin, explaining why it won’t replace traditional investments and why long-term diversification matters. He then shares tips on standing out in job applications and gives advice on investing inheritance money. Subscribe to No Mercy / No Malice Buy "The Algebra of Wealth," out now. Follow the podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is a money podcast that you'll actually want to listen to. Follow Net Worth and Chill wherever you listen to podcasts. Your bank account will thank you later. Welcome to Office Hours at PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropgmedia.com.

Again, that's officehoursatpropgmedia.com. So with that, first question. And also, I have not heard or seen these questions. Hi, Professor Galloway. Thank you for your time. My name is Mike. I'm 35 years old. I live on Long Island in Nassau County. I have a modest job and my wife's a teacher in Brooklyn. My question is, what will happen to the value of my limited wealth and that of other Americans that don't have Bitcoin when the US buys a strategic reserve and there's more widespread adoption?

Will the value of my retirement portfolio collapse? I'm worried about losing everything and my family falling behind. I feel like I'm gambling on which currency will be more prevalent or even exist in 20 to 30 years. What should we do? Thanks. Hi, Mike from Long Island.

So you're 35, it sounds like you're in a good relationship. You both are working, your wife's doing something important as a teacher. So the first thing is to recognize you're young. Sounds like you're in love. You're both employed. Things are pretty good for you. So, okay, so the honest answer to your question is nobody knows. I talked to Michael Saylor and

when I leave his, I had lunch with him, when I leave the lunch, I think I should put everything into Bitcoin. And then an hour later, I'm like, wait, what is Bitcoin again? Anyway, so the bottom is nobody knows. Trump recently announced that his administration will be considering the creation of a national digital asset stockpile. While this really isn't quite a strategic reserve, it could still have a massive impact on America's involvement with cryptocurrency, specifically if the US government weighs in and buys the shit down, the price would go up. Currently, America holds more Bitcoin than any other government as a result of large scale asset seizures, about $5 billion as of 2023. Even so, they've sold none of it. Countries including Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, Brazil,

and Poland are all taking steps to review Bitcoin as a reserve asset. In the past 10 years, Bitcoin is up over, Jesus Christ, 48,000%. In the past year, it's up 140% since the election, it's up 50%. So, okay, what do you do? The genius of Bitcoin in my mind is they've come up

with this incredible means of creating a somewhat credible sense of scarcity. What do I mean by that? We keep printing more dollars, we've had inflation, so you could argue that the value of the dollar goes down every year. You know, I bought a house, every house I bought 30 years ago is worth,

I wish I never sold it, is worth six to 10 times what I bought it for, more than inflation. Is that because the assets got them in value and it's producing more rent? No, it's because there are more dollars chasing fewer assets. That's the definition of inflation, or simply put, the dollars you throw into your mattress get worth less and less every year because we keep producing more of them. Bitcoin has created this credible feeling that because of the algorithm or the structure where it requires more and more numbers to be thrown at an algorithm or at a math problem that it takes more energy it limits the supply and they say they're gonna stop mining Bitcoin at 21 million coins.

And the market believes it. So the market says, all right, this is a credible store of value and a place to hedge inflation. It's also a place to hedge currency risk. If you're in Argentina and your pesos are worth 30% less every month, you immediately get them,

and there's currency controls meaning you can't trade it for dollars. You immediately go into Bitcoin. So there is real use cases here, right? every month, you immediately get them and there's currency controls, meaning you can't trade it for dollars. You immediately go into Bitcoin. So there is real use cases here, right? It's not a payment system. I've never been paid or paid anyone in Bitcoin. I don't see it as having a lot of utility.

I don't, you know, I just don't use the blockchain. Call me, call me old fashioned. So the question is, what do you do? I think it's highly unlikely and I wouldn't wring your hands too much or spend too much time worrying that your assets are gonna go to zero because of Bitcoin and America's decision or not decision to create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. What you might wanna do is maybe put two, three,

4% of your net worth into Bitcoin. That way you're a little bit hedged, and if it does go up two, three, ten fold, you feel as if you've participated in the upside. I would not go all in on this, um, much less really anyone asked that. If you're making some money, my guess is your wife has good benefits. If you max out your 401k, anything that's matched or tax deferred, try and match that out, try and get money taken out of your paycheck so it's never in your hands.

And make sure you're diversified and in low cost index funds. So if you're worried about crypto, or you think that in fact it's going to be something that might take off, put a little bit of money in. Don't put all three or four percent or five percent in at one time, dollar cost in because it's a highly volatile asset. But if you want to hedge a little bit against the upside of the downside of your current portfolio, then yeah, put a little bit of your money into, I would just probably do Bitcoin. I think some of the other shit coins are just too volatile and you end up staring your phone all day, but sure.

Uh, dip your toe if you think if that's going to make you feel a little bit better, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't lose sleep thinking that all other assets are going to crash. Thanks for your question. Question number two. Hi, Prof. G. I'm Peter from Boston. I got my first job out of school nearly four years ago at a small firm, and for the first time,

I'm looking to change positions to a larger company with a deeper talent pool for mentorship and better growth opportunities. In my current role, I was able to take on a lot of responsibility early on due to the fact that we were a small team and grew rapidly since I started. As someone who has been on the other end

of the hiring process, do you have any advice on how to stand out when my experience and abilities are greater than what the number of years on my resume might suggest? Phrased another way, how do I know if I'm just a big fish in a small pond aiming too high? Thanks for your time. Everyone thinks, well, thanks just a big fish in a small pond aiming too high?

Thanks for your time. Everyone thinks, well, thanks for the question. Everyone thinks they're aiming too high until they hit the target. I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done. I wasn't qualified to get a job at Morgan Stanley. I definitely wasn't qualified to get into business school. I wasn't qualified to start a strategy.

I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done. So, just put that away thinking that you're aiming too high. You may not hit the target. You know, you may apply to be a VP somewhere and they say, sorry, you really aren't qualified. But the way you do this is you start interviewing and the easiest questions are the hardest to answer. And that is, you know, what they're going to ask you. Why should we hire you? What's different about you? Right. What do you bring to this company that's unique? Yeah. Why do you want to work here and what do you do to try and improve your, you know, your sustainable advantage or these assets that are differentiated, right? In some, what differentiates you?

Why is it relevant to us? And how do you, what practices or what do you do that makes it sustainable? So you literally want to show up and kind of act like they'd be crazy not to hire you, right? I also find it kind of a hack in interviewing to get the person to like you, because a lot of this is based on relationships and how they feel about you after the interview,

is start asking them questions. People are narcissists or they're self-involved and they love talking about myself. So Lisa, how did you get involved at Salesforce? Or what do you like about working here? Or when you look at my skills, what do you think? Do you think I'd be a good fit here? So what you wanna figure out

and you wanna be confident is to say, okay, I think I'd be great at this, but is this the right fit for me? Start asking them questions. Who does really well at Salesforce? Or I'm just using that as an example. But the key here is you, you know, you miss all the shots you don't take, just start interviewing and find out if in fact you're in that weight class. But circling back, you know, everyone's an imposter. Everybody thinks they've fooled people, not everybody. Most people think they have fooled people when they get the job or get into graduate school or get a high character boyfriend

or girlfriend. So yeah, aim high. If you miss, don't take it too seriously. Keep aiming. And if you really want to see what your currency is in the marketplace, then go into the marketplace and try and start interviewing. Thanks for the question.

We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for PropG comes from Domo. A lot of people think that data is just cold hard facts, about as impersonal as you can get. But wouldn't it be great if you could ask your data anything at any time, like how are sales this quarter? Or how's the new marketing campaign performing? Or what does the overall health of the company look like? And what if that data could get you those answers right away, complete with charts and graphics and actionable information? Well, with Domo's AI and data products platform, you can get just that. Domo lets you channel data quickly, securely, and innovatively to deliver measurable insights wherever and whenever you need them. Anyone on your team can use Domo

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This week on ProfG Markets, we speak with Alice Han, China economist and director at Greenmantle. We discuss the potential impact of tariffs on China's economy, how Tesla is fairing against BYD, and how a Trump presidency could shape China's foreign and domestic policies. Trump is the biggest dove in a house full of hawks. Everyone else around him wants to push him towards being more hawkish on China, on trade, on tech, on military. And I sense that, you know, whether it's Rubio or Hegseth or Waltz, they're going to try to push the agenda of being tougher on China and having more

deterrence vis-a-vis Taiwan. You can find that conversation exclusively on the ProfG Markets podcast. Welcome back. Question number three. Hey the ProfG Markets podcast. Welcome back. Question number three. Hey, ProfG. I'm Josh, a 27 year old from Mexico, working in marketing for a large multinational company. Thank you for everything you do.

Your content really inspires and helps my day today. So I really appreciate it. Sadly, my father passed away last year and left me with an inheritance that I will just receive. This has left me with a financial question. My first thought was to buy two apartments, since it's money that I didn't really work for and see that securing something like that left me. However, I know today, renting and investing the money in the market make more sense.

This would also leave me the opportunity to use the money for grad school if I needed it, since I know it's something that could boost my career. I've been lucky enough to land a job that makes good money and have advanced quickly in the corporate world. So my question is, what's your stance on renting versus buying and what would you do if you were a 27 year old male that suddenly received a lump sum like this. Again, thank you for your thoughts and all the content. Cheers. So the first thing you want to do is you want to put it in a bond fund or a treasury fund that's getting four and a half or five percent right now. If it's $100,000, that's $5,000 a year, low risk or no risk. So you're getting $400 a month, but don't just let it sit there. Put it into some sort of, um, you know, T bill fund or what do they call it? Certificate of deposit, whatever you want to call it. Basically, if you put money in at interactive brokers or Schwab, I think you get between four and 5% while you're trying to figure this out.

Okay. So in terms of where to put it, uh, you want to lean into your advantage. If you understand the local real estate market and you, you, or someone in your life could manage those apartments and you're scrappy and maybe know how to fix up an apartment, buying real estate, fixing it up and turning into rental properties is a fantastic way to build wealth slowly. I own almost 30 rental units in Delray Beach, Florida, and they've been one of my best investments.

It's obviously a lot is about when you buy, where you buy, and I bought in Florida when no one else wanted to buy, which is the time you want to buy because prices were really, really low. I bought these things for about an average of 100, sometimes 120,000. They produce really good rental income.

And my guess is they've tripled in value since then, but I don't want to sell them. I want to have cashflow as I get older. So I think rental units, if you have some advantage, do you understand the local markets so you don't overpay? Do you have the ability to manage them? Do you have some skills to improve them, to upgrade them? Otherwise, you'd be better off just buying REITs

than managing your own real estate because there really is some headache around managing these things. I would suggest if you don't have those advantages or market knowledge around real estate, that you just take the money and you put it in low cost ETFs. Not only SBY or QQQ, the NASDAQ,

but start thinking about maybe putting half of it even in some sort of diversified, low cost, um, world index sans the U S why do I say that the U S has become very expensive. And while, I mean, what do you know, you want low cost, you want diversification, you want an index fund or an ETF, but you're still to a certain extent, trying to find alpha and pick stuff. So even though you're picking all of the S&P with SPY, I think the S&P I would argue is historically expensive, maybe even overvalued.

I was with a buddy of mine who runs private wealth for JP Morgan. And he was saying, I said, the market cap of the US right now is equivalent to half of the total market cap of the globe. And he said, actually, it's worse than that because if you count our in debt, 70% of the capital markets are in the US. So if you add up the money corporations have borrowed and US borrowing, consumer borrowing, plus the value of our stock market,

70% of the value is supposedly registered in the US. So if someone said to you, you can buy the US for $70 or you can buy the rest of the world for 30, I would argue this more than 70% of the value is supposedly registered in the US. So if someone said to you, you can buy the US for $70, or you can buy the rest of the world for 30, I would argue this more upside to buying the rest of the world for $30. So I would use a robo-advisor, spend some time on AI and say, I want low cost index funds.

And I will also want to make sure that I'm not only diversified within the U S but I'm diversified to a certain extent around my investments from the US but low-cost ETFs or index funds also it sounds if you're doing well, I'd be reticent or careful to blow that money or Invest that money in grad school unless you really think it's gonna pay off Because you've been given a gift from your father his hard work his time that money or invest that money in grad school, unless you really think it's going to pay off. Because you've been given a gift from your father, his hard work, his time. And at your young age, at 27, say, I don't know, say it's $50,000. By the time you're 67, which will happen much faster than you think, with a low cost ETF, you're probably gonna have a really nice nest egg

or something to fall back on. So, and I would imagine that's what your father wanted. So I'm not saying don't invest in yourself, don't go to grad school, but maybe be very selective if you're doing well at your job and make sure you can get some financial aid. Just because I hate to see kids borrow a lot of money or spend a ton of money on grad school

when it may not provide the pop that they're anticipating. That never used to be an issue. It always used to be worth it. Now you actually have to do the math. Let me back up. This is a really good problem. Congratulations to you, but again, low cost ETFs, and I would do say 50, 60% US, 40% international.

If you wanna lean into real estate, make sure you know what you're doing and you have some advantages there. But again, this is a good problem and I'm sorry about your father's passing. It's something we all deal with, but it's something I don't think any of us are prepared for. It's heartbreaking when it happens, so I'm sorry about your dad. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propgmedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our

technical director. Thank you for listening to the ProppG pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy No Malice as read by George Hahn. And please follow our ProppG Markets pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.