
Show Notes
My guest today owns land on the moon.
And somehow, that is not even the most interesting thing about his approach to money. Joseph Moore is a historian and professor who spent years studying how Americans have tried to get rich over the last 300 years — from land speculation and market bubbles to stocks, crypto and today’s biggest investment trends.
And after all that research, he came to a pretty provocative conclusion: a lot of the financial advice we hear over and over again may not actually be the best way to build wealth.
So Joseph decided to test history for himself. He created a cryptocurrency. He systematically shorted Jim Cramer’s stock picks. He studied how investors behaved through centuries of booms and busts — and used some of those lessons in his own portfolio.
Along the way, he became a millionaire.
His new book is How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (and Didn’t).
Today, we’re talking about what 300 years of history can teach us about getting rich, why he says diversification alone won’t make you wealthy, how to recognize hype before it’s too late, and the money advice he thinks far too many of us blindly follow. How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.
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Today's episode is for anyone who has ever stood in the vitamin aisle reading about the exact right creatine dosage for a woman "in this stage of life" and thought... okay but where's the aisle for my retirement savings?