InvestED: The Rule #1 Investing Podcast · Phil Town & Danielle Town

Portugal and Election Eve

·48 min·2 clips
Phil predicts $8 trillion to $10 trillion of federal deficit spending over the next four years.
1. InvestED: The Rule #1 Investing Podcast uses “Portugal and Election Eve” to connect a family trip, a COVID scare, and a market outlook. 2. Phil Towne and Danielle Towne host the episode, and Danielle also appears as Elena’s sister and a doctor who challenges the medical assumptions made in Portugal. 3. The episode is for a travel-and-family catch-up that turns into a thesis about election-year deficit spending, inflation, and stock-market positioning. 4. Phil describes meeting Danielle in Portugal for a dad-daughter week, then dining at Sublime Comporta with a 12-course tasting menu built around local ingredients. 5. The restaurant hands out a list of suppliers at the end of the meal, and Phil says he photographed it so he could track down the sources later. 6. During that dinner Phil starts coughing, first sounding like an allergy reaction to the tomato course and later worrying the illness might be more serious. 7. The next morning Phil texts, “I’m sick, don’t come home,” which triggers a pharmacy stop for COVID tests, Robitussin, throat drops, and masks. 8. A rural Portugal emergency-room stop on a Sunday becomes a dead end because the waiting room is full of ambulances and real emergencies. 9. The family drives to the Algarve with windows open and masks on, and Phil later isolates in the rental house while the others stay outside. 10. A tourist clinic in the Algarve gives Phil antibiotics after an Australian doctor examines him and says the illness is bacterial bronchitis. 11. Elena pushes back on the idea that the doctor can know it is bacterial without a flu or COVID test, and the family keeps masking in the car. 12. Phil later tests positive, cancels his flight to Brazil for his brother’s second wedding, and then recovers enough to travel once he finally tests negative. 13. He still makes the nonstop Lisbon-to-Belo Horizonte flight and reaches a Brazilian wedding with carnival dancers, drummers, multiple bands, and hors d’oeuvres from 6 PM to midnight. 14. Phil tells a story about talking horses with the bride’s uncle, who gestures through a word he cannot remember and keeps trying for about 10 minutes. 15. Danielle describes the event as a party where women from their 18s to their 70s line up and twerk in time with the band. 16. Phil returns to the U.S. after the trip, then says he spent three days racing his car at Chuckwalla Raceway near Palm Springs and won three races. 17. The investing discussion begins with Phil saying that, whichever candidate wins, the federal government will likely keep spending heavily over the next four years. 18. Phil says the U.S. is already spending about one quarter of tax revenue on interest and argues that higher borrowing costs could push the Federal Reserve into a circular problem. 19. He references the 1970s, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Paul Volcker, and 14% to 20% mortgage-rate eras as examples of officials doing hard things to fight inflation. 20. He ends by citing Warren Buffett’s cash buildup, saying investors should have cash ready, buy the index if they do not know what they are doing, and prepare a list of companies for a future selloff.

As heard by us

An election-day catch-up that leans on travel, family, and easy banter more than on structured takeaways.

Phil and Danielle turn an election-day recording into a loose family catch-up, moving from a dad-daughter trip in Portugal to a brother's wedding in Brazil.

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You want investing talk that sounds like a father-daughter catch-up, with travel and real life colliding.

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