Podcast · 184 episodes
The Rational Reminder Podcast
by Benjamin Felix, Cameron Passmore, and Dan Bortolotti · English
A weekly reality check on sensible investing and financial decision-making, from three Canadians. Hosted by Benjamin Felix, Cameron Passmore, and Dan Bortolotti, Portfolio Managers at PWL Capital.
Latest episodes
Wealthy People Are Hiding in Plain Sight (ft. Owen Zidar) | #428The episode argues that most American “wealth” is built by owning private businesses in ordinary, local industries (“everywhere millionaires”), not by celebrity-style tech/finance.24 Sep 2026 · 1 h 5 min
What to Know Before (and After) You Hire an Advisor (w/ Matthew Taylor) | #427How to evaluate and litigate negligence/fiduciary breaches by Canadian financial advisors; warning signs before hiring; and why private assets and finfluencers are risky for retail investors.17 Sep 2026 · 1 h 18 min
The Finances of Marriage | #426How marriage affects personal finances, using research on spending personalities, prenups, wedding/engagement spending, and how couples structure money (joint vs separate accounts), including…10 Sep 2026 · 1 h 8 min
All episodes
Wealthy People Are Hiding in Plain Sight (ft. Owen Zidar) | #428The episode argues that most American “wealth” is built by owning private businesses in ordinary, local industries (“everywhere millionaires”), not by celebrity-style tech/finance.24 Sep 2026 · 1 h 5 min · 33 chapters
What to Know Before (and After) You Hire an Advisor (w/ Matthew Taylor) | #427How to evaluate and litigate negligence/fiduciary breaches by Canadian financial advisors; warning signs before hiring; and why private assets and finfluencers are risky for retail investors.17 Sep 2026 · 1 h 18 min · 34 chapters
The Finances of Marriage | #426How marriage affects personal finances, using research on spending personalities, prenups, wedding/engagement spending, and how couples structure money (joint vs separate accounts), including…10 Sep 2026 · 1 h 8 min · 20 chapters
The Ethics Problem in Financial Services (Dr. Moira Somers & Philippa Hann) | #425The episode discusses why financial misconduct happens in financial services even among “good people,” focusing on psychological vulnerabilities, organizational incentives, and system-level failures.3 Sep 2026 · 1 h 24 min · 45 chapters
50 Years of Evidence-Based Investing (w/ David Booth) | #424Evidence-based investing over 50 years; why markets are hard to beat, the role of data/science, and how to invest under uncertainty (Stay Calm, Learn to Embrace Uncertainty).27 Aug 2026 · 1 h 5 min · 35 chapters
The Future of AI in the Workplace | Special Episode (Mike Sullivan and Vinay Gidwaney)How companies should adopt AI in the workplace without replacing people—using AI to amplify employees, redesign tasks, and build “workforce intelligence.” The episode frames AI as ubiquitous and…25 Aug 2026 · 1 h 24 min · 40 chapters
The Biggest Myths in Personal FinanceThe episode debunks “biggest myths in personal finance,” focusing on saving vs spending timing, how markets relate to the economy, and common investing misconceptions (dividends, index funds,…20 Aug 2026 · 1 h 14 min · 25 chapters
80 Years of Financial Knowledge in 53 Minutes | #422 (Bill Bernstein)A tribute to Jonathan Clements via his posthumous book Money and Me, plus Bill Bernstein’s financial and behavioral-psychology lessons on spending, happiness, estate planning, inflation risk, and…13 Aug 2026 · 54 min · 23 chapters
Barry Ritholtz: "90% of financial products are crap" | #421Barry Ritholtz returns to discuss his book How Not to Invest, arguing that most financial products and advice are low-quality, forecasting is inherently unreliable, and long-term investing should…6 Aug 2026 · 1 h 29 min · 37 chapters
Answering Your Financial Questions | #420An AMA episode answering listeners’ financial questions, focused on career development for future advisors, whether physicians should borrow to invest, and how to teach kids about money; it also…30 Jul 2026 · 1 h 36 min · 36 chapters
The State of Retirement Research | #419 (Jean-Pierre Aubry)State of retirement research, focused on how retirement investors’ risk exposure is set (desired vs actual stock allocations), how financial advisors and target-date funds (TDFs) influence those…23 Jul 2026 · 1 h 2 min · 24 chapters
"I Sold 50% of My Portfolio. What Now?" | #418 (AMA)An AMA on market timing after selling stocks for “bubble” fears, comparing lump-sum vs dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and how to re-enter.16 Jul 2026 · 1 h 6 min · 27 chapters
A Financial Plan For Your Entire Life | #417 (Dr. Paul Kaplan)Life cycle finance—how to plan savings, investing, and spending across an entire lifetime to smooth consumption from working years into retirement.9 Jul 2026 · 1 h · 21 chapters
Is VEQT Costing You? (& Other Questions) | #416An AMA episode focused on ETF fee trade-offs (VEQT vs component ETFs), what “diversification” means (global market portfolio vs S&P 500), why active managers’ outperformance fades with scale, how…2 Jul 2026 · 59 min · 20 chapters
Shannon Lee Simmons: How To Stop Feeling Broke | #415Why many Canadians feel “broke” despite decent incomes; how to reduce money anxiety and overspending driven by social comparison and cashless friction; practical alternatives to traditional…25 Jun 2026 · 1 h 20 min · 31 chapters
Answering Your Financial Questions | #414An AMA answering listeners’ financial questions, plus discussion of PWL Capital’s institutional business and how PWL differs from typical active-asset-management advice.18 Jun 2026 · 1 h 15 min · 24 chapters
How Canadian ETFs Actually Work | #413 (Morley Conn)How Canadian ETFs function behind the scenes—creation/redemption, liquidity channels, NAV vs market price, ETF pricing for illiquid underlyings, bid-ask spread drivers, block trades, and key…11 Jun 2026 · 1 h 8 min · 25 chapters
Ben Carlson: Investing at All-Time Highs | #412Ben Carlson discusses investing when markets are at all-time highs, why “risk” differs from “volatility,” how crashes and “lost decades” work historically, and practical ways households should manage…4 Jun 2026 · 50 min · 27 chapters
Market Simulations & Financial Planning | #411 (John Yang)How to model expected returns for long-term financial planning, emphasizing that assumptions about the distribution shape, time-series behavior, and portfolio-level math (geometric vs arithmetic…28 May 2026 · 1 h 17 min · 32 chapters
Episode 410: The State of Investing in 2026State of investing in 2026, using ICI’s Investment Company Factbook to describe how regulated funds (mutual funds, ETFs, closed-end funds, UITs) shape global capital markets, index vs active trends,…21 May 2026 · 58 min · 30 chapters
Episode 409: Investment Banker - What Private Equity Doesn't Tell YouWhy private equity, private credit, and private real estate attract capital despite evidence of underperformance versus public benchmarks; how performance is measured (IRR, TVPI, PME), why marketing…14 May 2026 · 1 h 16 min · 30 chapters
Episode 408: Elroy Dimson – Investing & OptimismWhy financial market history matters for forecasting, and what long-run global data (DMS) reveals about equity risk premium, survivorship/easy-data biases, diversification, and factor premia…7 May 2026 · 1 h 14 min · 35 chapters
Episode 407: Michael Kothakota - The Shape of Financial PlanningInterdependent integrative financial planning theory—why “good” financial advice must be modeled as an integrated, multi-objective optimization across multiple planning domains and over time,…30 Apr 2026 · 1 h 19 min · 29 chapters
Episode 406: When Massive Private Companies Go PublicThe episode examines “mega IPOs” from massive private companies (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, etc.) and how index-fund tracking rules may force public index investors to buy these stocks…23 Apr 2026 · 1 h 11 min · 36 chapters