👋 Hey, it’s Dan — with my dad, Steve.
And this time, I had to play referee.
We brought in our first guest — Val Zarn, an advanced market specialist from Symmetry Financial — to tackle one of the biggest questions in personal finance:
Should your money be focused on protection… or growth?
It was the classic matchup — Boomer fundamentals vs. modern strategy.
💡 The Conversation: Two Roads, One Goal
Steve’s Corner:
My dad’s philosophy is simple — protect what you’ve built.
He believes real wealth starts with discipline and predictability.
You build slow, avoid overcomplicating things, and never risk what you can’t afford to lose.
Val’s Corner:
Val sees it differently.
He believes in using advanced tools like Indexed Universal Life (IULs) and structured leverage to grow and protect wealth at the same time.
To him, the goal isn’t just avoiding loss — it’s positioning money to do multiple jobs at once: grow, protect, and provide tax advantages.
🎙️ My Role (Dan) — The Referee
My job was to keep it fair.
And let’s just say, this wasn’t your average polite agreement session.
Steve and Val went back and forth — one defending the simplicity of slow compounding, the other arguing that playing defense forever means you’ll never win the game.
At one point I said:
“It’s like watching two coaches argue over the same playbook — one wants to run the ball, the other’s drawing trick plays. Both want to win — they just see the field differently.”
🧭 Key Takeaways
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Protection and growth aren’t opposites — they’re phases.Val’s approach: leverage smart, tax-advantaged tools (IULs, structured income plans).
Steve’s approach: stay disciplined, don’t chase shiny objects.
My takeaway: The best plan is one that fits your actual life — not just your spreadsheet.
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🎬 Watch the Full Conversation
We couldn’t fit it all in this email — trust me, you’ll want to hear the full debate.
👉 Watch the Full Conversation Here
💬 Want to Talk to Val?
Val offered to help MBMC readers explore if advanced strategies like IULs or market-leveraged protection plans are right for them.
👉 Book a discovery call with Val Zarn here
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PS. We Read Every Reply
Who do you think won — Team Protection or Team Growth?
Reply to this email and tell me whose corner you’re in.
We might feature your take in the next episode.
— Dan & Steve
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Wall Street Isn’t Warning You, But This Chart Might
Vanguard just projected public markets may return only 5% annually over the next decade. In a 2024 report, Goldman Sachs forecasted the S&P 500 may return just 3% annually for the same time frame—stats that put current valuations in the 7th percentile of history.
Translation? The gains we’ve seen over the past few years might not continue for quite a while.
Meanwhile, another asset class—almost entirely uncorrelated to the S&P 500 historically—has overall outpaced it for decades (1995-2024), according to Masterworks data.
Masterworks lets everyday investors invest in shares of multimillion-dollar artworks by legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
And they’re not just buying. They’re exiting—with net annualized returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5% among their 23 sales.*
Wall Street won’t talk about this. But the wealthy already are. Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but…
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.