The Missing Billionaires: A Guide to Better Financial Decisions

Victor Haghani · James White

Feb 2024 · Gildan Media · Narrated by Victor Haghani and Jon Vertullo

About this audiobook

Over the past century, if the wealthiest families had spent a reasonable fraction of their wealth, paid taxes, invested in the stock market, and passed their wealth down to the next generation, there would be tens of thousands of billionaire heirs to generations-old fortunes today. The puzzle of The Missing Billionaires is why you cannot find one such billionaire on any current rich list. There are a number of explanations, but this book is focused on one mistake which is of profound importance to all investors: poor risk decisions, both in investing and spending. Many of these families didn't choose bad investments—they sized them incorrectly—and allowed their spending decisions to amplify this mistake.



The Missing Billionaires book offers a simple yet powerful framework for making important lifetime financial decisions in a systematic and rational way. It's for listeners with a baseline level of financial literacy, but doesn't require a PhD.



Part One builds the theory of optimal investment sizing from first principles, starting with betting on biased coins. Part Two covers lifetime financial decision-making, with emphasis on the integration of investment, saving, and spending decisions. Part Three covers practical implementation details, including how to estimate the expected return and risk on a broad spectrum of investments.

About the author

Victor Haghani founded Elm Wealth in 2011. He has forty years' experience working and innovating in the financial markets, and has been a prolific contributor to academic and practitioner finance literature. He lives in London and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. James White has spent two decades working in finance, covering the gamut of quantitative research, market-making, investing, and wealth management. He is currently the CEO of Elm Wealth, and previously has held research, trading, and executive roles at PAC Partners, Citadel, and Bank of America. He lives in Philadelphia. Jon Vertullo is a voice-over and on-camera talent who has been performing on mic, stage, and screen since the age of ten. His voice has been described as "friendly, trustworthy, and engaging, with a sprinkling of nerdy fun!"