The Liquidity Event Podcast: Episode 84

 

Episode 84: Longevity, Mail Fraud, and an 8 Billion Dollar IPO

Welcome to the Liquidity Event podcast! In this episode, we cover Dr. David Sinclair's consumer longevity company, Tally Health, which promises to reverse aging. The Supreme Court also ruled that bankruptcy filers can no longer avoid debt incurred by someone else's fraud - because let's face it, who doesn't love being punished for someone else's mistakes? On the bright side, Eli Lilly is cutting insulin drug prices by 70% and capping patient costs at $35. And if you're worried about your privacy at work, just remember that everyone can see your calendar entries - so make sure to block off some time for your daily existential crisis. The USPS also has a life-upending flaw that they refuse to fix, but who needs reliable mail service anyway? Finally, we can't wait for the ARM IPO filing. We'd give an arm and a leg for it - but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Read the Full Transcript:

Presenter:

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered tax or investment advice. Welcome to the Liquidity Event, a show about all things personal finance with a laser focus on equity compensation hosted by AJ and Shane of BrooklynFi. Each episode we'll take you through the week's news on FinTech, IPOs, SPACs, founder wins and fails, Crypto, and whatever else these nerds think is interesting. Learn more and subscribe today at brooklynfi.com.

AJ:

Hello and welcome to the Liquidity Event Podcast. So, we're your hosts, AJ.

Shane:

And I'm Shane.

AJ:

And this is episode 84 being recorded on March 8th, airing on March 10th. This week, we've got lots of great stuff for you. Happy International Women's Day to me, by the way. We've got lots of spicy meatballs for you. We've got NestMint trying to solve the housing crisis in the unique way as part of the section we're calling alternatives to the unaffordable housing market. Then, we've got news on how to literally live forever, Tally Health wants to help you cheat death. And it wouldn't be the liquidity event without taxes. So, we're talking about how accountants are not just underpaid, they are also bored. Happy tax season, Shane, how you doing?

Shane:

Happy tax season, I'm good. I just got done delivering some bad news over a Loom video, so you know me. That's my day-to-day these days.

AJ:

Classic, classic, classic. Speaking of day-to-day, what you reading these days?

Shane:

I'm halfway through the fourth Harry Potter. I think I have a new favorite defense of the dark arts teacher. Mr. Mad-Eye Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret and bounces him around. Very fun.

AJ:

No spoilers folks. No spoilers. No one talks to Shane. Your mind's about to be blown. Wow.

Shane:

I've avoided spoilers for-

AJ:

Oh, my God.

Shane:

... what, 20 years now?

AJ:

Wow.

Shane:

25 years.

AJ:

Oh, my gosh.

Shane:

So, don't let me down now.

AJ:

I want a spoiler right now, but I won't. Anyway...

Shane:

Bro, if you took an opportunity to literally directly spoil something I've been avoiding for this long, that might be the end of it for us. Live on the podcast.

AJ:

Anyways.

Shane:

You see the beginning and the end of our relationship on a podcast.

AJ:

On a podcast.

Shane:

Some some money spoiling-

AJ:

When I gave away...

Shane:

... the beginning of our...

AJ:

TBD on the big reveal for you. I'm excited for you.

Yes. Last week we asked readers to vote on what book I should read next, either Harlem Shuffle or The First Tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt biography. And honestly, the results were mixed, but I ended up starting The First Tycoon, the Cornelius Vanderbilt biography, and it's really good. It's riveting. You would love it. It's literally all about sailing. The first 100 pages are about Cornelius Vanderbilt being a badass sea captain, and steamboats and New York Harbor and lots of good stuff. Lots of-

Shane:

Those days are gone man.

AJ:

Lots of lawyering.

Shane:

Born too late.

AJ:

Yeah. Lot of lawyering going on

Shane:

Aren't too late.

AJ:

Lawyering and steam engines. The Cornelius Vanderbilt story.

Shane:

Wait. So, did he come from money or is he a bootstrap?

AJ:

No. No, no, no. Bootstrap. Bootstrap all the way. I mean, bootstrap is in comfortable upbringing. Not from nothing, but certainly not, did not inherit the fortune. Had to make it on his own.

Shane:

Yeah. Well, why have universal Health Care 1.000001% of us could potentially-

AJ:

Could potentially...

Shane:

... become billionaires.

AJ:

Become billionaires.

Shane:

Our system is working here in the United States. Just look at these seven to eight people that it worked out for.

AJ:

And here's the 700-page book about them as well. Yeah. Anyway-

Shane:

Yeah, study up. Up next, the Snowball, the Warren Buffet story. More reasons health care will never work.

AJ:

One really great investment in 1970 can make you a billionaire.

Shane:

Yeah, no, but I am interested in how that book goes. Let me know because I-

AJ:

Oh, that's great-

Shane:

... I do-

AJ:

I love it.

Shane:

... like Robert Baron, self-Made stuff like that. That'd be fun.

AJ:

Love it. Yeah. I was going deep on the Vanderbilt family tree, but I'm not there yet. I have a new section that I wanted to propose to you live on the podcast, which is tech that is changing your life. We love tech. I love apps. I love making, I love optimizing. I love using tools to take care of menial tasks, so I'm just wondering... I know I sprung this on you, so maybe I'll start, and this was a suggestion from you, but tech that's changing my-

Shane:

No, no. Oh, go for it. Yeah, I've got answers for you.

AJ:

... Tech that's changing my life. This app called Habit, or is it Habit Tracker? I don't know.

Shane:

Just Habit.

AJ:

Habit.

Shane:

Yeah.

AJ:

If you're looking for it in the app store, it's like a pink box with a white check mark. Very confusing. There's like 9,000 apps called Habit Tracker. Super helpful, super simple, great UI. I've been drinking water. I've been taking my heart medication, which for some reason for years, I just couldn't take because I have ADHD, and I'm going on walks. I'm doing my physical therapy exercises. I'm 14 days on a lot of Habit's, so that's new for me.

Shane:

Oh, that's great. It's working out.

AJ:

Yeah.

Shane:

Yeah.

AJ:

How about you? What tech is changing in your life?

Shane:

Yeah. Well, I'll piggyback off of that. I've been using the app too. My reminders from Habit are to meditate, get sun, and to check my personal finances. If you do check your transactions every day, you do tend to spend less, and I'm trying to make 2023 a big year for savings. So, I've been checking my transactions every day, and I found a few little mistakes on there, here and there. I thought somebody spent $1,500 on my credit card and I freaked out, and I looked all over and it turned out it was just one of our business cards that we had bought a new laptop for one of our employees. I was like, "Who the hell spent $1,500 on my credit card?"

AJ:

It was Michael. It was Michael. Our new CFP.

Shane:

Our newest senior financial planner, Michael O'Brien. So, he's good. He's not fired. We're good.

AJ:

Cool. He didn't steal your credit card. He just needed a laptop to do the work that we hired him to do. Cool, cool, cool.

Shane:

Well, between you and I, I'm sure we have what, 20 cards across business and personal, so it does become difficult to keep track of all of the-

AJ:

It does.

Shane:

... balls in the air, so-

AJ:

It does indeed. Speaking of frauding, your employers, let's jump into some articles. Let's jump into this Supreme Court case around bankruptcy. This was a CNBC article. The Supreme Court ruled nine to zero, a unanimous decision that bankruptcy filers cannot avoid debt incurred by another's fraud. So, good news for you, Shane. Actually, this is bad news for you, sorry. This is not the outcome that I was hoping for here on this one. If I defraud everyone and land our company in debt, you cannot have innocent relief from my fraud because we are in a partnership together. So, sorry about that in advance. I found this-

Shane:

Good to know.

AJ:

... Yeah, so this case is... The details of this case are pretty wacky, high level. This girlfriend and boyfriend bought a fixer upper apartment house in San Francisco-

Shane:

House.

AJ:

... House in the HGTV Golden Age, decided to fix it up and flip it, sold it for 2 million, I believe, and basically misled the buyer, misrepresented a lot of things such as there's a fire escape in the house, and it turns out there was not. So, essentially some poor, poorly timed and poorly executed real estate transaction, they're blaming bankruptcy, and the court said, "No, no, no, no. You may not have reprieve from this just because it was your partner's fault." I think this is a lota baloney. What about you?

Shane:

Yeah, I mean, this happened 20 years ago. I don't know why the Supreme Court is even taking this case, first of all. I am interested in Supreme Court mechanics, so I did look up when the Supreme Court takes cases and apparently, they get the summers off which is just really fucking cute.

AJ:

Well, you know, you got to read the constitution and refresh. You got to keep up with the literature.

Shane:

Have you listened to a podcast 5-4?

AJ:

No.

Shane:

It's all about how the Supreme Court is a political cesspool and they think that they're above everyone, and in reality, it's literally just politicians that decide on this case. We did get a nine to zero on this case-

AJ:

That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

Shane:

... it's interesting because very rarely happens. But yeah, you should be held accountable for somebody that you engage in a partnership with and when they commit fraud. I think this is why though, when you have these giant partnerships, the LLP system instead of the LLC system, I do think that that LLP, that's why PricewaterhouseCoopers and all these giant partnerships are LLPs because I do think that they get protection from other members of the partnership that commit fraud because there's just too many partners to be exposing everyone. I think they just took this case because there's probably some nuance to how they described. I saw some discussion about using the passive voice and when that would be useful-

AJ:

Yeah. It was like a grammar argument.

Shane:

Yeah, exactly. So, it is interesting that the Supreme Court will take cases like this to just clear up a little passive voice element to it, a case from the 1840s. So, I'm guessing when that's what they do, sometimes they don't take cases that seem much more impactful and much more relevant. But yeah, I don't know. We get until, I think June until they break and we're going to see some more Supreme Court. I know student loan forgiveness is something that will actually have an impact. I'm not sure when that one's going to be decided.

AJ:

Yeah. Probably not before they break. So, we'll have to wait even longer, which is a decision that tens of millions of people are waiting with bated breath on the outcome.

Shane:

Yeah. And speaking of taking breaks, if you have breaks on your calendar, everyone can see them. The heart of realizing everyone can see your work calendar entries. Nice. Wall Street Journal article about remote work. It's a topic that you and I had just been discussing, and it came across my feed and I posted it here for us to dive into. Yeah. I mean, and in this age of remote work, apparently, everyone has the choice of making everything public on their calendar, including personal items or just little friendly reminders to take a nap or go get a chicken, which is one narrative within this story. What are your thoughts on having everything available or making everything private on your calendar, AJ?

AJ:

I don't know. I have pros and cons. So, at BrooklynFi, we have everyone's calendars public, which worked really well for a long time, but literally, last week, I messaged you and I was like, "Is it time to give people a little more privacy?" And that was honestly out of self-interest because yeah, I had a doctor's appointment. I had a bunch of doctor's appointments. I use my work calendar. I live in dime by my work calendar, so I want to put details on there. So, I didn't want to just say doctor or out. I wanted to put the name of the doctor where I was going, so I would know where I was going on Google Maps. That's the argument for keeping it private. But also, if you have all your time blocks, I know that we have employees who will put on a time block. It's like, "I'm busy, I'm doing deep work." Cool, great. We should respect that. But also, if I need to have a meeting with our leadership team, I literally can't find a time because everyone's got all these deep work time blocks.

So, I don't know what the right answer is here. It's a very delicate balance. I think you have to ask people what they're comfortable with. I don't need to see everyone's colonoscopy specifically, but I would also like to know if someone's got a client meeting, or some hold on the calendar.

Shane:

Yeah. I have a lot of thoughts on this. First of all, I'm going to call you outlive on the podcast. You just suggested that we move a meeting to my lunchtime tomorrow, because you looked at my calendar and saw that it was lunch, and I surely don't need that time, right?

AJ:

Well, it was more of a looking at moving lunch to a different time. I saw a different time slot available for your lunch. It could have been moved two hours earlier.

Shane:

Two hours earlier?

AJ:

Mm-hmm.

Shane:

Hmm, okay. Yeah, so, I mean, this is what we're talking about here. First of all, I think this is a 40% boomer article, people that don't know how to edit their calendar and then, 60% actual remote work culture concern. I mean, someone in this article put a colonoscopy on their calendar, which is half boomer, and then, half actual remote work concern because maybe you don't put the full details of your doctor's visit, but you do need to put that you're going to go to the doctor and that can't be moved and you can't book something on top of that. But somebody in her office was like, "Hey, how was your colonoscopy?"

AJ:

That's a problem. It's not her fault. We're putting on our calendar.

Shane:

So, insane to ask somebody. And then, somebody else said, "Go, get a chicken," because they wanted to cook the chicken later in the day and somebody said, "Hey, can I put this meeting on top of your chicken retrieval task that you have later?" And yeah, and they were like, "Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. It's a mildly embarrassing. And yes, you can put things on top of there. But yeah, we all do need things to help us remind. We need reminders on what things need to happen in their calendar and our email are a good way to use that. I missed a meeting on Monday because it was on my personal calendar, and I booked it with my personal item-

AJ:

Of course.

Shane:

... but I totally forgot, it doesn't copy over to the business calendar. And I've got six different email addresses, six different calendars. So, it's like, how do we strike a balance here? I don't know-

AJ:

Yeah.

Shane:

I hear you.

AJ:

 I don't have a good [inaudible 00:13:21]. I honestly don't have a good answer here. Because personal calendar, that works too. But then, I get all these annoying. Delta will be like... They'll get the date wrong on my flight and that'll book off an entire day and then, no clients can book meetings. It's just messy. I don't know what the right answer is here. It's a private details section. Maybe you have a hold that's either work meeting or personal time, and then, you can only see the details. I don't know. Google Calendar, please fix this. You have a lot of smart people working for you. Can we put a little bit of... Can we pull a million dollars of resources away from your AI product, and just fix the simple issue that impacts millions of people literally right now today in-

Shane:

Yeah.

AJ:

I have a question. I have a question for you.

Shane:

Uh-huh. Sure.

AJ:

At what age did you start sharing your Google Calendar with your significant other?

Shane:

I've never had a significant other that really knows how to... My last significant other of four years would've been the one, but she was on Outlook, so do the counter island thing.

AJ:

So, it was a Mac versus Apple commercial.

Shane:

Yeah.

AJ:

And you're. Justin Long.

Shane:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, before that, I was in my 20s and I don't think I had any significant others that were worthy of a Google Calendar share to be honest. They were probably bartenders and stuff and such. Why? Where are you going with this?

AJ:

No. I'm just curious.

Shane:

You and [inaudible 00:14:47] obviously share each other's calendars.

AJ:

Yeah, and I've been doing it since the early days of dating because it just makes sense. It's like, "This is what I'm up to." It's very courteous to your significant other to be like, "Hey, I'm busy on Friday. You might want to make other plans." So, I'm very pro sharing your calendar as early as possible in a relationship.

Shane:

I could see that sounding lazy to a significant other as well like, "Hey, why don't you just check my calendar instead of actually sharing what your plans are for the afternoon." I could see it both ways, AJ.

AJ:

This is very calendar and scheduling, and personal time and work time is very personal. I do not have the right answer to this, but I do think Calendly is ruining our lives, but we'll discuss that another time. Speaking of having-

Shane:

Yeah, my fear....

AJ:

Go ahead.

Shane:

Go for it.

AJ:

I was going to say, speaking of having your life ruined, we've got an article here, the life upending flaw that the USPS won't fix. This sucks for people that this has happened to, I'm sorry. But essentially, when you go through a simple change of address, you move for a little while or you move apartments, you sell your house, whatever. You're moving around, and you go online, and you fill out a form. There's not really a lot of confirmation of your identity here. And it turns out that anyone can literally just walk into a post office, fill out a piece of paper and change someone's address. So, it's a really great way to start receiving someone else's mail for whom's identity you would like to steal. So, unfortunately, this happened to a unnamed Microsoft executive, and your life gets upended when your identity is stolen, and this is a very easy way to do it. So, big scam alert here. If you're changing your address, make sure that you keep track of noted mail that might be missing. Maybe give it a little test postcard to yourself to see if you're actually receiving mail or not.

Shane:

This is an iconic scam, I must say. We talk about wire fraud and mail fraud on the podcast many times in the past, and this is more of a little-

AJ:

Glad to know, old-fashioned mail fraud is alive and well.

Shane:

Like stealing. Someone's like a lot of their mail. I guess people are changing someone else's mailing address in hopes of getting their birthday, social security number, credit cards, et cetera. Pretty ingenious scam. I'll put it up there on the top 10 list of ways to fuck with your nemesis right next to filing a false 1099 for $100,000 income glitter bombing somebody, and then, also Instagram follow bombing. For those of you that don't know, you can pay about 50 bucks to have 10,000 people follow someone else without their consent on Instagram. Really fun way to fuck with somebody. And yeah, I mean, I guess, Australia and the UK, if you want to change your mailing address, you have to show proof of ID. In the US of A, we don't require that because [inaudible 00:17:39]-

AJ:

Privacy,

Shane:

... smaller government-

AJ:

Privacy, privacy. Yeah.

Shane:

Yeah. But sure, I could just go steal AJ's mail and say that I no longer live at X, Y, Z 11201. That's your zip where you're at, 06?

AJ:

Well, let's not reveal my zip code on the podcast. So, let's go with yeah. Yeah, let's go with that.

Shane:

77080. And then, yeah, so, you've talked about where you live many times.

AJ:

For sure.

Shane:

And then, I guess, the only confirmation is that they'll send a letter to the old address and be like, "Hey, we updated your mailing address, but it's very easy to miss," and "yeah, and if you're in Palm Springs for a month, and you don't get that piece of mail-"

AJ:

And your...

Shane:

... I guess, there's a great little anecdote about a guy that lived in a really tiny apartment that changed the address of the entirety of UPS in Atlanta. So, he had literal bathtubs of mail outside of his house, including checks, business checks.

Fun fact, AJ. Over 75% of business payments are being a B2B payments are still made by paper, physical check from one to another. Can you imagine?

AJ:

Is that just like Walmart writing a paper check to a payroll company? That's what I imagine that is. It's like a couple. That's the only way that you could possibly have. That's true protection from wire fraud is literally, here is a check that I wrote for you. Oh, sounds like Charlie's back from his wallet.

Shane:

Charlie just came back from the dog record. Yeah. All my people are here. The house cleaning lady and the dog walker. I've got people like you do now.

AJ:

Your care team. Got to have a care team.

Shane:

Yeah, my care team, yes. Mexico. Speaking of foreign investments, we do have the United Kingdom's ARM, the biggest crown jewel tech company in the United Kingdom has decided they do not want to list on the London Stock Exchange due to Brexit, so they're going to be coming over the pond.

AJ:

I mean, yeah, potato chips-

Shane:

The United States since 2023-

AJ:

... potato chips are such an important part of the British economy. I'm just really excited that the United States is going to get some of the potato chip monopoly. Oh, oh, it's computer chips. Not potato chips. Sorry.

Shane:

Oh-

AJ:

My bad.

Shane:

... I was wondering where you were going.

AJ:

My bad. My bad.

Shane:

Okay. The potato chips.

AJ:

Side note. Best potato chips in the world, Walkers. What's the flavor? It's like prawn. It's prawn cocktail with a hint of eve sham tomato is the best potato chip flavor in the world. Oh, but anyway, you want to talk about this $8 billion IPO because this is liquidity.

Shane:

Yeah, not crisps.

AJ:

Sounds good.

Shane:

Right. By the way, the best chips in the world are Queso Ruffles in Mexico City. By the way, you have not tried those yet? I think it'll turn your-

AJ:

Turn my head. Turn heads.

Shane:

Shrimp chips. Are we talking about shrimp chips right now versus Queso Ruffles?

AJ:

No, no. They're-

Shane:

Dog.

AJ:

... they're potato chips. They're flavored like shrimp cocktail.

Shane:

And the cast right here. We're done.

AJ:

Anyways.

Shane:

All right.

AJ:

ARM, British computer chip designer owned by SoftBank. They're trying to go public in the US, the likely to file their IPO at the end of April, which is very exciting because as you have known if you listen to this podcast, not a lot of big IPOs happening in the US market these days. So, this could be... I think the biggest one in what, four years they said if they're trying to raise 8 billion, which is very exciting, very, very exciting for us. To me, this is like we've been saying, who's going to be the big tech IPO after to break this drought, the so-called canary in the coal mine that we've been waiting for.

Shane:

Yeah. The tech space has been really lackluster in the IPO world for a while. We're looking at ARM raising $8 billion. Hopefully, they're going to file on April according to these people that spoke anonymous due to the confidentiality of the agreement. Hopefully, we'll get a Reddit, we'll get an Instacart, we'll get a Stripe. We've seen a lot of activity from those companies in terms of filing and then, just general financial questions from inbound clients throughout 2023. So, hoping to see a resurgence.

AJ:

For sure.

Shane:

We're back, baby.

AJ:

For sure. I've got one more spicy meatball, and then, I want to talk about living forever before we do part. One more spicy meatball, president's budget, we have a preview press release from the White House that says we're going to extend Medicare solvency by 25 years or more. Yay. So, Medicare was going to run out in 2028, and now, we get to go through at least 2050. How are we going to pay for that, Shane? How are we going to pay for extending Medicare access?

Shane:

Sure, sure. I'll talk taxes for a little bit. Well, the whole thing about Biden was he wanted to increase taxes on people making more than $400,000 per year. The idea was those people are not struggling in America, and the wealth gap has expanded so much since Medicare was introduced, that it was time for people at the top end of the spectrum to contribute. So, they're looking to increase the top tax rate. The additional Medicare tax was 3.8% in the past. They're going to bump that up to 5% for people making over 400,000. Obama introduced the 3.8% tax back in 2010, I believe. And then, there were previously revenues that were coming from that tax where allocated not just to the Medicare Health Insurance Trust fund, essentially, the place where all those funds get parked in order to pay for Medicare in the future. So, they're going to dedicate all those funds specifically to that trust fund. Kind of weird that they weren't dedicated before, supposedly these-

AJ:

Because it's literally a Medicare test.

Shane:

A test in solvency. Yeah. It's very annoying. Apparently, social security funds also get used for defense budgets and whatnot, which is very frustrating. But this will extend the solvency from Medicare from 2028. Oh, my God, what the hell? That's only five years from now to the 2050s. There were some other ways that that helps out. The Medicare prescription pricing that was introduced in 2003 or 2004, apparently the government could not get involved and Medicare didn't cover prescriptions. But then, when they did get involved, it cut down the cost of Medicare prescriptions significantly. And when they introduced that bill, they thought it was going to cost 400 billion. There's a great Planet Money podcast about this, by the way, about what the CBO does independently pricing how much legislation will cost. But when they did get involved, it cut down the cost of Medicare prescription purchases by a hundred billion dollars. So, giving more leverage to Medicare to get involved in prescription pricing will decrease the cost of Medicare by $200 billion over the course of 10 years, which is just super LOL.

AJ:

Seems worthwhile. I like-

Shane:

That has to come straight out of the insurance company's pockets or big pharma's pockets. Where does that savings come from? Less-

AJ:

I guess so.

Shane:

Money going to being gouging seniors by big pharma.

AJ:

I feel like the healthcare is so big, and there's so many players that is so even for someone who understands it at service level, it's just impossible to understand who the bad guys are and where the money's going and where savings can possibly be found. But big step in the right direction by the Biden administration. I would say something else that's hidden in here that I want to point out is that it eliminates cost sharing for mental health visits. Meaning that, if you are on Medicare, you'll actually have at least three mental health visits a year covered completely instead of having to pay for it yourself. So, recognizing that mental health is also a part of health, giving some legitimacy there, because a lot of folks in this country are struggling with that. So, I liked that a lot.

Shane:

Not me.

AJ:

You didn't like it. Yeah. You hate mental health. I know that for about you.

Shane:

No, no, no. My mental health is 100%.

AJ:

Oh, perfect. Perfect. Well.

Shane:

Running on all cylinders, obviously.

AJ:

Well, let's add you to the insurance pool to spread out the wealth a little bit to those who do need to work on their mental health. Speaking of working on yourself, let's talk about living forever. We have been-

Shane:

We got plenty of time to talk about this because you and I are going to live. We're what? About to have our quarter life crisis when we round our 40s?

AJ:

Yes, exactly. Yes. Planning on living forever. Quarter life is still on the horizon, not past. Ooh. So, we talked about listening to this podcast lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair before, and Sinclair revealed his health tech startup called Tally, which it's been a while since I've looked at the offering. What do you do? You get $1,500 for a blood test to tell you your biological age, which will help you then make decisions about what vitamins and nutrients and diet and exercise practices you should be following. I think you get some... It's like a subscription, and you get some supplements that are customized based on your profile. Is that your understanding here?

Shane:

My understanding is for 1500 a year, you get four tests, and each of those tests will give you your biological age instead of your chronological age 'cause you could be 35 chronologically, but biologically, you could be anywhere from 22 to 60 if you're... Whether based on your behaviors, whether that's smoking or eating right. And I believe that's just your blood's biological age. I think your skin has its own age, and your hair has its own age and all that other fun stuff. But it also, yeah, it'll give you an app that tracks your biological age and then, it'll give you recommendations about what to do to get your biological age down. And then, you get four of those tests per year, and then, every 30 days they'll send you a package of prescription drugs like spermidine, and metformin. I'm not sure what the drugs are, but unfortunately, I can't participate in this because anything that requires a shipment every 30 days is not going to work for me when it comes to pricing because I'm never in the same spot. But are you going to do it? I think you should check it out.

AJ:

I'm going to do it.

Shane:

I love to see-

AJ:

I'm going to do it.

Shane:

Yeah. Yeah. This is a tech thing. This is health check. This is a write-off. This is going to the brook on the fire-

AJ:

For sure.

Shane:

...credit card. Our clients will be doing this.

AJ:

Definitely. No, I'm going to do it. I think it's time.

Shane:

I am curious what your biological age is.

AJ:

I bet it's 24.

Shane:

Not your self-perceived mental age, not your-

AJ:

I'm 24.

Shane:

... passed single age.

Your actual blood work age.

AJ:

I have great blood.

Shane:

Is that the age you want to be?

AJ:

No. I'm just kidding. I do perpetually think of myself as 27 for some reason. But anyway, that's a conversation for another time. I'll discuss that in one of my three mental health visits.

Shane:

Not taking that bait on the podcast. I got plenty of articles.

AJ:

Anyways.

Shane:

All right.

AJ:

So, yeah. I mean, look, I'm pro. Anything that motivates people to take care of themselves and not taking care of yourself is hard. So, whatever app or tool you need to use to make eating better, getting a little bit of exercise going outside, which is something I struggle the most. Whatever you got to do, I'm there for it. So, this is not the last-

Shane:

Well, before we move on, I do want to note that we can get one test done for 250 bucks. So, if you don't want to subscribe for $1,500 a year and deal with all that other stuff, you can at least figure out your biological age for about 200 bucks.

AJ:

Another thing for us to compete about who is younger biologically.

Shane:

That's probably a good thing for us to compete about. Yeah.

AJ:

Someone... Yeah. Unrelated, someone asks me... We do a lot of calls with potential clients, and a question we get a lot of the time is like, "What happens if you die?" And today, for some reason if someone asked me that today, and it caught me off guard, and I wasn't in the right-hand space to answer that question. They meant what happens to my money and who's going to take care of me if the owners of the firm are no longer available and around, which I had an interesting answer to, but it caught me off guard because I was like, "I don't know what happens when I die." I don't know why. You asking?

Shane:

What'd you say?

AJ:

I said we have a great contingency plan in place that involves some other planners to help you tomorrow, and then, we have a long-term contingency plan in place for our employees to come in and take care of our clients. So, BrooklynFi is not going anywhere. So, don't get hit by a bus.

Shane:

What are the odds of both. Yeah. Okay. I almost got hit by a bus the other day.

AJ:

Cool.

Shane:

Eli Lilly to cut prices of insulin drugs by 70%. Cat patient costs at 35. Speaking of 35, my age. That's the segue. Eli Lilly is cutting prices on insulin for the type one of those with type one diabetes.

AJ:

All right. Hot take here.

Shane:

What do you think?

AJ:

This is based on the... Remember when Elon took over Twitter and then, anyone could buy a blue check mark and someone bought, made a fake Eli Lilly and said, "Insulin's now free," or like $2. I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back and started this price reduction, not pressure from society and an actual, profitable way to do this. Thoughts.

Shane:

That is a hot take. I know. I think this is a PR related thing for sure. Going all the way back, what was the first big farm at PR fuck up. Martin Shkreli realizing that you could just buy up a patent and then ,change the prices on-

AJ:

And jack the price off.

Shane:

Yeah. And then, the price of insulin has been... I guess, there's not a terrible... There's got to be millions of people with type one and type two diabetes that need insulin. And in America, big pharma has been gouging those people for way too long. And you can get those medications around. I mean, when was insulin invented in the '30s or something-

AJ:

Yeah. We've had it for a really long time. Well, I mean, that's the whole thing. In the rest of the world, it's really cheap. It's literally not profitable in other places to manufacture these drugs because it's just... And they're so regulated in other countries because so many people need it to stay alive, and it's actually relatively inexpensive to reproduce it. And the patents are expiring, so there's no money in producing a drug but you can get a generic version of for a few cents. So, this is good news, I believe.

Shane:

Yeah. The take is that the cost benefit analysis has been done, and it's finally tipped to the point where the revenue you generate from charging $85 instead of $35 for insulin is not worth the effort. And honestly, I think this just goes to show that we do need a medical bill of rights in the United States for any type of condition, disease, what have you, that you can't help as a person. It's not fair to you. You're born with this issue, whether that's type one diabetes or frankly contraceptives and tampons for women's... Happy International Women's Day. That you need to just be on equal level. See, you shake your head, you shake your head. That's not helping anybody out. That's not helping a single person out. I wrote that out of the goodness of my heart. That's sincere. I do think what other countries do cover like? New Zealand covers tampons for... It's always like a small island country that gets it right.

AJ:

Yeah. So, where socialism can work and thrive where your population is, it can be helped. The US is too big and wieldy for programs like that.

Shane:

No. I mean, the US is too obsessed with sex and suppressing women and all of that.

AJ:

All of the above.

Shane:

But I don't think it's too big. I think it's just too fucked off.

AJ:

Sure. And on that note, this has been the Liquidity Event, folks. Thank you for listening. You can email us your financial problems at liquidityevent@brooklynfi.com. Of course, you can leave us a voicemail at memo.fm/liquidityevent. I will play it on the air. Show notes at brooklynfi.com/episode84. And finally, stands can leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform if you want to be weird about it. We will see you next week.

Presenter:

Thanks for listening to the Liquidity Event, hosted by AJ and Shane of BrooklynFi. Head on over to brooklynfi.com where you can subscribe to the podcast or YouTube channel. Or if you want to learn about their full service, financial planning, tax, and investment firm specializing in tech professionals and creatives on the path to financial independence. We'll see you next time on the Liquidity Event.