Phil Ferguson
465 episodes listed below
Blunt money talk for skeptical adults.
The Phil Ferguson Show turns market anxiety, investing ideas, religious claims, and political irritation into long, plain-spoken arguments. It is practical, skeptical, and messy in a deliberate way, with corrections, listener emails, travel notes, and warnings about bad financial ideas left in the flow.
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The Phil Ferguson Show is a bluntly skeptical program where money, politics, and religion keep colliding. Its center of gravity is personal finance. Recent episodes spend substantial time on private credit, mutual funds, donor-advised funds, AI stock-picking tools, annuities, viaticals, Roth conversions, portfolio rebalancing, long-term gains, home costs, and asset allocation. The show likes mechanisms. It asks how an idea works, what assumptions are being smuggled in, and whether the math survives contact with reality. It is especially wary of market prediction and back-tested investing stories. When AI portfolio tools promise a custom index, the show treats the phrase itself as suspect. Short answer: it does not like marketing fog. The style is conversational and unvarnished, with corrections, listener emails, disclaimers, and second attempts folded into the episode instead of hidden away. That makes the show feel less like scripted financial content and more like someone working through a problem out loud. Politics is not a side issue. Trump, war, oil, Iran, and market risk all appear as part of the same practical question: what should a person do with uncertainty without panicking? Religion is another steady target. Atheism, agnosticism, charitable giving, and religious claims are discussed with skepticism and dry humor rather than diplomatic distance. The show also has room for travel, language learning, concerts, cruises, and the ordinary scheduling friction of a financial-advice life. It can be warm with listeners. It can also be irritated, repetitive, and deliberately unsmoothed. That is the point. The value is not elegance; it is a clear bias toward index-fund discipline, caveats, and calling out bad ideas before they become expensive ones.
Made for: For listeners who want practical investing skepticism without the soft-focus tone of mainstream personal finance. It especially fits people comfortable with politics, atheism, market mechanics, and long-form digressions in the same hour.
What sets it apart: The show pairs detailed portfolio mechanics with open irritation at hype, religious certainty, and political risk. Its rough, corrective style makes the analysis feel lived-in rather than packaged.
information and opinions on money, politics and Religion. All the things you should not discuss with your family.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Phil Ferguson pressure-tests investment claims while connecting taxes, policy and market uncertainty to practical financial decisions.
Phil Ferguson treats financial claims as propositions to be tested, not sales pitches to be accepted. He questions AI-built portfolios through the weaknesses of backtesting, examines the mechanics and risks of private credit, and argues for broad diversification when oil shocks…
Phil Ferguson brings a calculator to political panic, so you can keep headlines from managing your portfolio.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A skeptical look at market risk, mutual funds, and private credit.
This episode stays squarely in Phil Ferguson's lane: skepticism about investing. It opens with spring market swings, a stretch of losses, and those fast rebound days, then circles back to the same plain warning that nobody knows what comes next and most predictions are worth…
A blunt look at AI stock-picking gimmicks, an annuity example, oil prices, and a weak multi-fund pitch.
Episode 547 spends its time on Phil Ferguson's familiar lane: AI stock-picking tools, back-tested portfolio claims, an annuity example, oil prices, and a multi-fund idea that does not hold up well under pressure.
Blunt money talk that turns headlines into practical budget math.
Phil Ferguson works through a 50-year mortgage pitch, the 2025-to-2026 tax tier changes, and a brief look at rising health-insurance premiums.
A blunt, useful hour that turns car shopping and conference chatter into something unexpectedly practical.
Phil Ferguson starts in current-events unease, then slides into the familiar grind of needing another car. The Iran strike news and the risk of oil disruption set the mood, but the family situation makes leasing feel less like a lifestyle move than a plain math problem.
A book interview gives way to a blunt politics segment on tariffs, deficits, and market volatility.
Phil Ferguson's show 520 opens with an interview with Catherine Stewart about her new book. Ferguson praises it as well written, easy to read, and fun to read, even if the subject is pretty depressing.
Fast weather context for the day ahead.
Stephen Dubner tests bourbon economics, Alzheimer's research, and money advice against hard data.
Daily business news with Kai Ryssdal, tracking Fed policy, oil shocks, and private credit.
Galloway rotates Office Hours Q&A, Raging Moderates politics, and China Decode geopolitics weekly.
Phil Ferguson covers three financial topics in Episode 548: a critique of a listener's mutual fund portfolio showing that their carefully selected funds returned 16% in 2025 while a simple Vanguard 2045 target-date fund returned 20%, a detailed warning about private credit investments where companies like Blue Owl and Blackstone have suspended withdrawals and investors are selling at 20-40% discounts, and an introduction to donor advised funds (DAFs) as a tax optimization tool for regular charitable givers.
Episode 547 of The Phil Ferguson Show covers four financial segments: a critique of AI-generated custom investment portfolios that rely on back-tested data, a detailed breakdown of Pacer Financial's market-savings product that returned 5.48% annually versus the S&P 500's 11%, a segment on how oil prices interact with stock market performance, and an annuity example.
This episode covers investment scams, AI portfolio building concerns, and viaticals as part of a broader discussion on finance and investments.
This episode explores whether atheists and agnostics give more or less money to charity compared to religious people, featuring research from guest Ryan Cragun.
Phil Ferguson clarifies his updated recommendation to increase international stock index fund allocations from 40% to 42-45% for 2026, addressing listener confusion about this adjustment.
This episode discusses asset allocation strategies and a market adjustment for February 2026, featuring segments on managing investments across different accounts.
This episode covers portfolio rebalancing techniques and a review of the Synthony concert blending symphony with electronic music.
Phil Ferguson discusses his busy schedule as a financial advisor at the start of the year, reflecting on client communication patterns and his personal goal of learning Spanish.
Phil Ferguson discusses gold investing, 2025 market performance, Roth IRA conversions, and HSA contributions.
Phil Ferguson discusses cryptocurrency, health insurance issues, and interviews Jasmine Falk about escaping Saudi Arabia.
Phil Ferguson discusses a minor technical issue with his microphone and cables, reflecting on the challenges of show production.
Mid-late November 2025, and Phil has a lot on the desk.
The host reminisces about his early career giving investment advice on radio and podcasts, setting the stage for a show about money, politics, and religion.
Phil Ferguson introduces his long-running podcast, discussing his expansion to YouTube and technical challenges with audio quality.
Phil Ferguson discusses his donation to the Freedom From Religion Foundation and criticizes Trump's presidency.
Late June, and everything is a little tangled.
The host introduces his show covering money, politics, and religion, encourages listener feedback, and discusses his approach to correcting mistakes.
Phil Ferguson discusses recommended books and provides advice on investing in REITs, warning against high-fee sales pitches.
Phil Ferguson discusses Trump's presidency, market reactions, and previews segments on EVs and a BlackRock webinar rant.
Show 520 opens cranky and caffeinated.
This episode discusses portfolio withdrawal rates for retirement planning, featuring an interview with John Gleason (the godless engineer) about his projects and a segment on determining the correct percentage to withdraw from investments annually.
Phil Ferguson discusses politics, religion, and the stock market, including an interview with Seth Andrews of The Thinking Atheist.
Phil Ferguson discusses annuities and interviews a researcher about funding issues under the Trump administration.
Phil Ferguson discusses updates on crypto, detailed math on IRA to Roth conversions, and the benefits of trusts.
This episode reviews EV charging infrastructure changes in Southern Illinois and Chicago, compares loan versus market investments, and includes political commentary on the upcoming Trump presidency.
Phil Ferguson discusses financial topics including night shares trading, the 4% retirement rule, and the FIRE movement, along with personal travel stories.
Phil Ferguson introduces his show covering money, politics, and religion, previews an interview with geologist Karen Kirk on topics like climate change and countertop materials, and criticizes a CNBC staff member.
This episode discusses a long-distance EV road trip experience and touches on pension-related financial topics.
This episode features an interview with Sarah Ray, president of the American Humanist Association, along with segments on required minimum distributions (RMDs) and stock volatility versus time in the market.
Phil Ferguson discusses his recent trip to CSI Con, church fraud, real estate investment trusts, and upcoming Scopes Monkey Trial anniversary.
Phil Ferguson interviews Kate Cohen about her reasons for leaving religion and why others might consider doing the same.
Phil Ferguson discusses part six of his Polaris Plan, focusing on six index funds for investing in the U.S.
The host discusses the approaching Hurricane Milton in Central Florida, sharing updates on its projected path and his personal situation in Orlando.
Phil Ferguson discusses his recent travel, the FFRF conference, and upcoming segments on the Polaris Plan and investment diversification.
Host Phil Ferguson introduces his show covering money, politics, and religion, and mentions a recent appearance on a recovering from religion podcast.