Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors · Ryan Miller

The Future of Investing is Dead? His $3B Is Quietly Making Moves

·45 min·3 clips

Jeff says $37 trillion of debt, $2 trillion yearly deficits, and $75 trillion in unfunded liabilities point to inflation.

1. Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors centers this episode on whether the 60-40 portfolio still works after the rate regime changed. 2. Ryan Miller hosts the conversation, and Jeff Sardi is the guest managing $3 billion at Morton Wealth, which makes his allocation decisions central to the discussion. 3. The episode asks what replaces stocks and bonds when inflation, debt, and volatile rates make the old playbook less useful. 4. Jeff says the 60-40 mix benefited from a falling-rate environment from the early 1980s through 2022, when lower rates helped both stocks and bonds. 5. He argues equities remain expensive by price-to-sales, price-to-earnings, and price-to-cash-flow metrics, and he compares some valuations to 1999-2000 dot-com levels. 6. He says bonds are less attractive than they were when rates were near zero, so both halves of the classic portfolio look challenged. 7. Jeff explains that diversification should focus on the 10-15% of down markets and the 5% of crash periods, because correlations tend to move toward one. 8. He says the Fed has stayed dovish since the 2008 crisis through QE1, QE2, and QE3, and he questions how much room it has left to stimulate. 9. Ryan uses a rope analogy for short-end and long-end rates, and Jeff agrees that a cut in short rates can still push long yields higher. 10. Jeff says the 10-year yield spiked after the Fed lowered rates in fall 2024, which is why he worries the bond market could resist future stimulus. 11. He names commodities, gold, real estate, and private credit as the main alternatives replacing a larger share of stocks and bonds. 12. He says private credit has drawn more money because investors earned more there than in traditional bonds and because many loans are floating-rate. 13. Jeff also says big-name firms have crowded into private credit, which has weakened underwriting standards in parts of the market. 14. He points to healthcare royalties as a niche example, where a small number of specialists can understand patent protection and FDA approval risk. 15. Jeff says gold deserves a permanent allocation as an insurance policy against currency debasement, not as a short-term trade. 16. He says his firm views private credit as a meaningful, long-term fixed-income substitute because clients still need income, ballast, and resiliency. 17. The tone is interview-based, with Ryan pressing for practical portfolio implications and Jeff answering in long, explanatory blocks. 18. The style is analytical and macro-heavy, with repeated references to interest-rate regimes, debt arithmetic, and portfolio construction. 19. Investors in alternative assets, private credit, and macro allocation will get the most from it. 20. Listeners looking for stock-picking tips or short-term market calls may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear look at why the old 60/40 playbook no longer fits.

Making Billions treats the 60/40 portfolio as a model shaped by a different market, when falling rates and cheap capital made the balance between growth and defense look more straightforward.

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Why you'd press play

See how a $3B manager is adapting after the 60/40 era stopped working.

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