Market Report: The AI Bet, Wealth Taxes, and Jay-Z's Superbowl

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The other day I was going through my desk and I found a journal right from when I graduated and it had pen and paper, how much I spent each day. At this time, I think I was making around $40,000 and access cash flow was pretty tight. So I had to watch every penny. I think about how far we've come with technology and advancements to help us with this stuff. We don't need a journal with pen and paper anymore. The answers are out there and Monarch is one of those answers. Monarch is literally, it's like having a financial advisor in your pocket. So you can use AI to help see what you're spending. Monarch will help you have full visibility in your accounts. It will help you see your trends.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  It will help you set goals, map out big purchases, see if you're actually on track to where you wanted to be. You can ask Monarch's AI assistant, anything about your finances. Like, hey, how much should I spend on travel last summer? Can I afford this vacation without touching my savings? You can spot things you wouldn't think about before, like, oh, hey, has my spending gone up or just inflation? I was using pen and paper. Now you can use tools, like a full financial advisor in your pocket, and that's called Monarch. So what you want to do is you want to go to monarch.com, use code trading. The first year of Monarch Core is half off at just 50 bucks. That's 50% off your first year.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Just go to monarch.com with code trading.

• 1:31Haley Sacks?

  This is Financial Tea.

• 1:35Haley Sacks?

  What is up sippers? Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the market report, which is where I give you the three stories you need to know to stay rich this week. But before we jump in, I have to add that I, like everyone else, of course, saw the Elizabeth Holmes documentary this weekend. The numbers are insane, like it made $15 million its first weekend and $20 million this past weekend, which is honestly bizarre. Like documentaries almost never hit consecutive eight-figure weekends. And the production budget was $7 million. So Nathan Fielder and A24, which is the production studio that made it, are absolutely kicking.

• 2:16Haley Sacks?

  And you know, one part of me was wondering like what Nathan Fielder buys with his riches. Like he seems so low key, so sort of archerics. I mean, I could maybe see him with a cool watch in a John Mayer sort of way, but I feel like he's more investing his earnings into his next project vibes. I mean, a true artist. But anyways, I've also been thinking about the doc from a financial perspective, obviously. I mean, my whole TikTok is filled with people's theories on the doc, which is like a really fun rabbit hole to go down. But I've been thinking about it from a money perspective. And a central part of the movie is about Elizabeth's partner, Billy, wanting a cut of the movie's profits, which he later forfeits.

• 2:58Haley Sacks?

  And I know, I know for, you know, documentary ethical reasons, subjects shouldn't get paid for documentaries. And this is the right thing to do. But I think it's a little crazy. This whole movie is built on Elizabeth Holmes's image and name, and she doesn't even get any piece of the pie. Like, I know it's not standard and I know that she owes $452 million in restitution. So whatever she did make would just go right to that and be wiped out. But I don't know, I can't stop thinking about the irony of like little Miss Holmes just building a billion-dollar empire by selling this illusion to wealthy investors, who are mostly old men, by the way, then losing everything.

• 3:39Haley Sacks?

  And now this indie-ass studio, A24 and alt-comedian are making tens of millions of dollars, selling that same illusion right back to us. And I know she's a fraudster and I feel bad for everyone that she defrauded. And I'm not on her side. I didn't like turn from the movie. But I just feel bad that everyone in the ecosystem gets this massive payday off of her name, like executives, directors, distributors, but then the person who built the myth, just sitting in Bryan, Texas, in a federal prison cell, like watching the cultural stock price of Elizabeth Holmes hit this all-time high completely for free. Oh, I also made a ragu this weekend. Yes, it did take six hours.

• 4:23Haley Sacks?

  I did find the recipe on Instagram and you rise. It was not good. Like my boyfriend kindly eat it, but it fully cost me $75 in groceries and took a million hours. And the juice was just not the squeeze. So I just want to let this be the warning to everyone. Do not comment recipe on a person's post, even if it looks amazing. They are going to DM you the link to their Substack. You're going to spend way too much on ingredients and you're going to take an entire afternoon making it. And then you're just going to be disappointed. So I don't know. I feel like this was sort of the culinary equivalent of like buying a random meme coin because a 22-year-old on TikTok said that it was going to the moon.

• 5:05Haley Sacks?

  Like, I was like, oh, is this gross sauce sort of a metaphor for how we consume advice online? Like, we're just living in this attention economy designed to monetize your impulse, whether, you know, it's a lifestyle creator peddling a ragu recipe that they have barely tested, but then made the video just look really great, so you want to make it too. Or a finfluencer selling you a $400 course on stop buying. Or even Elizabeth Holmes pitching a blood testing miracle in a black turtleneck. I feel like the playbook is always identical, where it's like the packaging is immaculate, the production value, basically cinematic, and then the underlying asset has no actual fundamentals.

• 5:47Haley Sacks?

  Which brings me to why you need to be fiercely protective of where you get your advice and why I'm so glad that you are listening to the Financial Tea Podcast. Because in a world full of algorithm chasing hype, this really is the antidote. Like, I am not here to sell you smoke or mirrors or any sort of overcooked promise. Like, we actually do the homework. We vet all of our facts, we cut through the noise and I'm just here to tell you the unburnished truth about money. So yeah, do not comment recipe, but do comment tea when I post a new episode, so I could send you the link. Oh, and also, yeah, of course, make sure you subscribe and leave us a rating. As I told you, we are up for renewal, as real sippers know. So this is very important right now because we're trying to keep making the show.

• 6:32Haley Sacks?

  And you know, numbers don't lie, check the scoreboard. Anyways, let's jump into our three stories, because I know you're not here just to hear about my fail sauce. So our first story is about index funds, because yours and mine is secretly dating big tech. And you know index funds as this like holy grail. I always tell you to buy them. Don't buy individual stocks, buy index funds. It's one ticker, you get access to hundreds of companies. You don't have to like be a day trader. You can have this amazing portfolio just in one go and then just let compound interest do the heavy lifting and go enjoy your life. And by the way, that still is the gospel. I love index funds. Warren Buffett famously advises everyone to own them for a reason.

• 7:17Haley Sacks?

  And it's really because active managers of funds charge fat fees. But with the index, it's cheaper and they always beat that. The tea that nobody is talking about is that index funds are currently making ultra-expensive bets on AI, whether you, as the person who bought the index fund, swiped right on it or not. So like, if you own S and P 500 fund, which I own so many of, like VOO or SPY, or maybe your 401K target date fund, you might think that you own a diverse slice of American businesses. Oh, I own a piece of banks and airlines and laundry detergent. But in reality, the S and P 500, those funds are weighted by company size.

• 7:59Haley Sacks?

  So basically, the bigger that the company is, the more of your money will go right into its stock. So right now in the S and P, just 10 companies are making up roughly 40% of the entire index. And I just want to be clear that at the peak of the dot com bubble, and I'm not saying that we're in a bubble, but I just want to share this, that number was 27%. So that means that one out of every $10 you invest, four are riding on just 10 tickers. And right now, those companies are all making the exact same all or nothing bet on AI. And this week is earnings, which means that companies report like how they're doing. And around 160 companies are going to report earnings.

• 8:43Haley Sacks?

  What we're really holding our breath for are the earnings of Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. Because alongside Meta, these companies are spending billions, like historic billions on chips, at data centers, and AI. And now the market just wants to know, like, is all of this AI spending actually driving profit? Or are we just sort of burning cash to keep up with each other? Like, is it this dick measuring contest of who can spend the most on AI? And look, you did not hear me say dump your index funds. Like, I am fully basically invested in index funds. This is where I keep my money. And by the way, this concentration is why your 401K and your portfolio has crushed it over the last five years, because these stocks are doing so well.

• 9:27Haley Sacks?

  But I just really believe that being a smart investor means knowing what you want. We might talk so much about S and P 500 funds that they want to talk about it. And look, if you're 10 plus years from retirement, like I am, you can chill. Like dollar-cost average, tune out the daily earnings drama and just let the market naturally cycle and rebalance. It totally will. But if you're someone who thinks like 10 boardrooms controlling 40% of your wealth is nerve-wracking, you can also check out an equal-weight S and P 500 ETF, like RSP. So that means that every company will get an equal 0.2% slice, which means that you will drop your top 10 company exposure from 40% down to 2%. And then, you know, you can buy some international funds or small caps and you're going to get true diversification,

• 10:13Haley Sacks?

  which is why, which is what you really thought you bought in the first place. But I don't want you to get me wrong. Index fund investing is still the best wealth-building tool in history. I just want to be clear that right now you aren't just betting on America. You are betting on AI and bankrolling that build-out. And I am too. But like I said, I'm 10 plus years away, so I'm going to let it ride. But you know, if you're closer to retirement or you have more of an issue with this morally, I just want to flag it because I talk so much about these funds. I don't want you to think that I'm like pulling one out over on you. Okay. And then our second story, speaking of AI, is about Mark Zuckerberg. Oh, he haunts you guys. And Sort of about the tax system in America because I feel like there's two. There's one that like regular W two workers deal with.

• 10:58Haley Sacks?

  And then there is this like custom setup built for billionaires. And we're in this really interesting time that on November 3rd, Californians are voting on a one time 5% wealth tax on billionaires. And I want you to notice that I said wealth tax, not income tax, because this tax will target an entire net worth. So like for Mark Zuckerberg, who's worth roughly $240 billion, that means a $12 billion tax bill if it passes. But here's the catch. Zuckerberg has taken a $1 annual salary since 2013. So his wealth is not sitting in a savings account. It is almost entirely locked up in Meta stock.

• 11:43Haley Sacks?

  So having to sell his voting shares to then pay the C could have slashed his control of Meta down towards 50%. So Zuckerberg was like, okay, I'm gonna just leave California. We've seen a lot of founders do this. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin already did before the January 1 residency cutoff. But to keep him around, Meta signed a founder alignment agreement. So that means that they are issuing him a brand new class of non-voting Class C shares. And he can immediately sell 20% of them to cover the tax bill without surrendering a single vote or losing any of his power in the company. And in exchange, he commits to stay in California for eight years

• 12:28Haley Sacks?

  or per the fine print, wherever Meta is headquartered, which means he and the company could still be together later. And you might be like, why does this matter? Why are we talking about this in the market report? I have a normal paycheck. Why would I care? And, you know, I want to talk about it because I think that it is a masterclass in how geography can really dictate your wealth. This is obviously set from New York where they take all of my money in taxes. But, you know, high cost of living areas really drain you invisibly. State taxes are super obvious, but I think that the real tax is in the daily friction. Like, you know, the $18 salads and the normalization of a $12 coffee and the, you know, $5 grocery run markups, which I definitely face in Brooklyn. And then the housing prices that just force you to keep way more cash on hand just to tread water.

• 13:13Haley Sacks?

  So I don't know. Liquidity is definitely freedom. And Zuckerberg got squeezed because paper net worth doesn't pay bills. Like when an unexpected tax hit or financial emergency arrives and you have zero liquid cash, you're going to be forced to sell assets when you don't want to. And obviously Zuckerberg got a corporate board to engineer custom cash for him before a tax even passes. But most of us don't have that opportunity. So I would just say be intentional about where you live, audit your cost of living and keep your cash cushion ready. My sister just moved to Nashville and she's like living her best damn financial life because there's no income tax and like everything is so cheaper. I'm jealous. Okay. And our final story is really fast, but I just want to tell you that Jay-Z is in charge of who performs at the Super Bowl.

• 13:57Haley Sacks?

  And he put himself, like he has chosen the headliner for the 2027 Super Bowl. And he was like, yeah, I think that we should do Sean Carter. Have you guys ever heard of Sean Carter? He was fully choosing between Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber. They were the other finalists. I just was laughing that you got Bieber like sitting by his phone, waiting for the call. And then Jay-Z like looked in the mirror and was like, you know, maybe me though. Have you ever heard of me? What's really cool is that Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation, has produced the halftime show for the NFL since 2019. They have this $5 million a year deal. And then when they did Kendrick Lamar, it got a historic 133.5 million viewers. And Bad Bunny has got 128 million viewers in 2026.

• 14:41Haley Sacks?

  So it's become this insane platform. I feel like because of Roc Nation, they really like kicked it up a notch. And so I feel like Jay was like, okay, maybe it's my time to cash in. Like this is too good to give to someone else. And so beyond sort of the sheer comedy of hiring yourself, I just feel like this is the ultimate wealth rule where stop auditioning for the gig and just own the production company. Like even Sylvester Stallone put his daughter in a movie this week and was like, yeah, it's nepotism. Like when you only trade your personal time for a paycheck, you are just the talent waiting to be picked. You're at the mercy of the buyer. You're at the mercy of Uncle Sam because every single dollar hits maximum personal taxes. But this is not the case of Jay-Z because he also didn't pitch the NFL as a performer.

• 15:23Haley Sacks?

  Like Roc Nation LLC bought the platform that decides who performs at the Super Bowl. Then they take the fees, they write off the expenses and they control the room. So it's really smart because it's very vertically integrated. Yeah, I don't know. Jay-Z really is not a businessman. He is a businessman and I'm excited for this too. Because I know that Blue Ivy is going to perform with him. And you know how much that means to me from the perspective of someone who loves seeing celebrity children put to work because then they can have custodial IRAs. Okay. Well, I will see you Thursday. I'm doing an episode, a solo episode on Thursday about my boyfriend moving in with me, which I'm really excited about, being very financially transparent. So I hope that you love it and yes, stay rich. And let me know in the comments what you want more of. We're going to do more international stories next week. Love you guys.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  UKG is the workforce operating platform with unified HR, payroll and workforce management built to solve the unique challenges of frontline work. Powered by People First AI and decades of labor data, UKG turns workforce intelligence into real time decisions around staffing, pay, compliance and productivity, enabling every worker to confidently take action as work happens. Because when work works, everything works. Learn more at ukg.com/work. UKG, HR, Pay and Workforce Management.