Brian McCann

I switched careers and became a financial advisor. Started my own solo-RIA focussed on financial planning and investment management. I ran it for 12 years and recently shut it down. If you are thinking of a similar route I'm happy to answer questions.

@ramit I wouldn’t tell them they’d have 14m when they die. I would encourage them to take an extended break. See how retirement might feel. Then see if it possible to scale backafter that. Working 4 days. Then maybe 3 in a year or two. Subject to their employer flexibility

New couple on my podcast, 63 & 58, both want to retire. 3 advisors have told them they can, but they still don't believe it - Income: $409K - Investments: $4.4M - Net worth: $6.2M - Debt: $510K - If they keep working, they'll die with $14 million What would you tell them?

@BoringBiz_ Would be interesting to see what some of these people did post retirement. The few I know/follow continued to do interesting stuff.

The FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement has done an immense amount of harm to society This is coming from someone who used to be a believer in FIRE, but I have realized just how much of a fallacy it is, as I have grown older Taking a bunch of high potential income earners and convincing them that their life goal should be to pursue a net worth that allows them to check out of society is immensely damaging to the social fabric Many of these people sit on the upper echelon of office jobs, have built great businesses, or are at the top of their field in their career field They should be inspired to continue doing what they are best at, and ultimately, mentor and give back to the next generation who want to pursue those same goals Instead, many of these FIRE folks become wandering retirees with a meaningless life who are trying to grasp on to money as their north star It is a false sense of security and accomplishment. Becoming wealthy should never be a goal in the first place. It should have always been to pursue something that adds meaning to your own life and to society It is a completely fallacy to believe that retiring will be your source of happiness. More often than not, it has the complete opposite effect

@AdamSinger So cool! You will love it

It's Friday we should post some good news to the timeline. God willing, I'm going to be a father in November. Get over your nihilism and have a kid. It's why we're here, after all

@kingdomcapadv @evfcfaddict Well done! Thanks for sharing.

Kingdom Capital Advisors Q2-26 letter is now available: kingdomcapitaladvisors.com/fund-letters/q…

@egr_investor Fair enough. Let’s hope they were more diversified than that. But human nature being what it is…

I’m not sure the article itself makes that claim, and I hope Costco employees aren’t actually heavily concentrated in company stock within their 401ks. My response is directed at the quoted tweet, which explicitly attributes the outcome to Costco stock performance: “Costco alone has thousands of hourly workers with over $1 million in their 401(k)s due to Costco stock growing over 2,000% in just 20 years.”

Costco millionaires are a survivorship-bias story built on decades of saving, employer contributions, and extraordinary stock performance, not a typical outcome. Most individual stocks underperform Treasury bills, and concentrating your 401k in employer stock compounds your exposure to the same company that pays your salary. Diversify your financial capital from your human capital. And $190K growing to $800K over 30 years is about 4.9% annually before inflation, taxes, maintenance, and insurance.

@atelicinvest Thanks for that. It is very interesting. FWIW we lived in Sweden for 4 years and sold our apartment last year. n=1 but our broker called his whole list and advertised on their website before we listed on Hemnet. Many acquaintances sold their properties wo ever “listing”.

@Bootstrap68 disclaimer - this has not been verified. Just straight output. Given my experience it is more likely than not mostly correct, but there might be some overreaches / errors. autonomousresearchcorp.com/research/hemne…

I'm way late on this But what is happening to Hemnet is *so* fascinating.

@W98AB @viggy_krishnan Great discussion! We just return from living in Stockholm for 4 yrs. Often get the question which is better? So difficult to answer because they are completely different systems.

@viggy_krishnan I would say they are at the top because of human capital and thats purely a lifestyle preference but being able to go from US -> Europe isnt that easy either. Even going from france to germany isnt super easy

@AKWilk Sure. Sure. I don’t think they are really fooling anyone tho

@Bootstrap68 Agreed! But calling this type of thing a 'deep dive' and charging a lot of money for it is a bit disingenuous.

Substack is great, but they are absolutely not ranking 'best research.' They're ranking momentum, conversion, engagement, and probably some mix of reader growth and payment growth. More than one of the top five rising finance Subs literally copy and paste AI generated writeups and call them deep dives. The ranking basically means 'this is working as a product'. Which sucks.

@RTelford_invest Yes. Everything everywhere is situational. When it doesn’t work it usually because of serial dilution.

Glad to hear it’s worked for you. Have actually been thinking about this more recently. I think there are many situations here - is the new equity for a specific purpose/investment that will turn a profit? Or is it just for survival? If they just diluted, will they dilute again while I’m a new shareholder etc. timing the entry after dilution can be tricky too - often times it’s a falling knife after even announcement. All that said - I think there are opportunities post-dilution - just a few factors to consider. Haven’t been able to systematically do it yet, but let’s see!

Multibaggers dilute too. It’s one is the drivers behind the dreaded “roundtripper.” Especially in Microcaps: a) as most are predominantly equity financed, and b) when more capital is required for the next phase of growth. When said equity suddenly becomes much more valuable after multibagging, this is a great opportunity for management to access new capital, but not so much for existing shareholders. Example here:

@majgeoinvesting Prepare don’t predict

Same phases happens during every hype cycle: 1 - Everything goes up. The quality and the crap. 2 - Perma bulls say valuations don’t matter. 3 -Perma bears predict Armageddon. 4 - The first few pullbacks get bought immediately. The junk rallies hardest, “reinforcing” the idea that valuation doesn’t matter. Bulls get cocky, downing top shelf shots. The bears get depressed and are annoying to be around, downing bottom of the well shots. Then it starts. 5 - Uber drivers tell you they’re crushing the market. Some dude at a barbecue says he’s buying AI stocks full-time because investing is “easy.” Just like what happened in other cycles in the past such as dot com, EV, crypto and cannabis. 6 - Meanwhile, “quality” investors get frustrated because disciplined investing is underperforming speculation. Some abandon their process and chase what has already worked. 7 - Eventually almost everything becomes expensive. Then valuations reset for a painful period of time. Nothing consistently works. 8 - Investors who never understood what they owned discover that conviction borrowed from social media, AI summaries, or momentum isn’t conviction at all. Many sell near the bottom. 9 - A few perma bears finally have their moment on CNBC, declare victory, but most forget to calculate what years of being early and wrong did to their long-term returns, and their youth. 10 - The quality bulls become too afraid to buy at the bottom. The lesson isn’t to become a “bull” or a “bear.” It’s to: • Avoid becoming either at the extremes. • Understand this isn’t a game of “I’m right, you’re wrong.” There are many ways to make money in the market. • Know what kind of investor you are and build a repeatable process around it. • If you’re a fundamental investor, don’t think you’re smarter than everyone else and become envious of the MOMO crowd just because they’re making money. Their game isn’t your game. • If you’re a FOMO investor, not really paying attention to time tested fundamental principles, don’t think “now is different” or mistake a bull market for investing genius. Beta has a funny way of making everyone feel like an expert. •Expect cycles. For most, an awareness of the type of investor you really are, and maintaining the discipline it requires, will matter far more than your ability to predict the next cycle. •If you’re a FOMO / MOMO investor, you better realize that a good deal of the stocks you own may not have a bottom when they fall. •If you’re more of a fundamental investor, sometimes you’ll just have to be patient for longer than you’d like.

@AKWilk Agreed!

A great opening snippet from one of my favorite weekly newsletters, The Six at 6. billyoppenheimer.com/june-28-2026/ "While I didn’t resonate with the opting out of marriage, children, and dogs part, I’ve had stretches of imagining that if only I had no obligations, no interruptions, no outside demands, nothing on my plate except what I put there, I’d be more productive, more creative, more free. But I’ve come to think the opposite is nearer the truth: constraints, obligations, interruptions, and outside demands make people more productive and creative, not less."

@Biotech2k1 What are the depressed markets that you will target next?

My GTC sale for $TOST finally triggered today at $29. That clears me out of my lowest conviction Fintech name at a slight profit. I hit a new all time high in my fintech portfolio today now surpassing my Tech which had its 60% gain from SaaS stock a few months ago. As $FINX goes higher, I will slowly fade companies until I get down to my top 4 or 5 names.

@Biotech2k1 Love your account and would like to be able to comment.

Been a long time since I did an open post. I only allow people I follow reply to posts. That keeps out the bots and scammers. If you want me to follow you, just let me know. I am more than happy to follow anyone who wants to discuss stocks.

@ramit I think the psychology is tough for a lot of people.

@Bootstrap68 Great comment. In my experience, people think about this serially and, since they literally do not believe that renting can ever be a superior option, they never even get to the part about investing the difference

CNBC asked me to send a pic in our apartment for an article on renting. Instead, I sent a pic of us in Tokyo — part of our 3-month sabbatical to Barcelona, Paris, Marrakech, and Tokyo “Running the numbers” is more than a math exercise. Being highly intentional about your spending allows you to create your personalized Rich Life My Rich Life is probably very different than yours. Some of it might sound weird, even bizarre. That’s good! The more you refine your vision of a RL, the more bewildering it will be to others

@pradeeepk But is Autodesk really cheap?

Software is cheap $SAP $ADSK