Abigail Adams Beat Warren Buffet’s Rate of Return and Ben Franklin Loved Debt: Personal Finance Lessons From Colonial America

History Unplugged Podcast · Jul 2, 2026 · 54m

Many so-called timeless beliefs about money pitched by financial advisors today (compound interest, real estate, index funds, retiring early) are not timeless pieces of wisdom, but a set of ideas invented within the last century, mostly by accident. In fact, the biggest financial dangers come from building a financial strategy around government rules that seem like they’ve existed forever but can change overnight. In 1913, when the income tax was created, interest on debt was explicitly excluded from taxation. For 70 years, savvy investors borrowed as much as possible and deducted the…