Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Senior Care Academy is the podcast for caregivers, senior care providers, and families with aging loved ones. Hosted by experienced professionals, we explore essential topics like elder care planning, dementia support, financial advice, and emotional wellness for caregivers.
Each episode offers expert insights, practical tips, and resources to help you navigate senior care with confidence. Whether you're a healthcare provider, a family member supporting aging parents, or a senior adult seeking guidance, this podcast delivers actionable advice tailored to your needs.
Subscribe now for in-depth discussions, expert interviews, and real-world solutions to improve the quality of care for the seniors in your life.
Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Common Sense Over Hype: Safer Retirement Paths with Barry James Dyke
What if the game isn’t just hard—it’s tilted? We sit down with Barry James Dyke, president of Castle Asset Management and author of The Pirates of Manhattan, to unpack why so much financial “wisdom” is marketing, where today’s biggest risks actually hide, and how seniors can secure dependable income without betting the house.
Barry explains how banking really works, why central bank policy shapes your grocery bill, and the uncomfortable truth about incentives on Wall Street. We get into the coming hazards he sees in private credit, private equity, NAV loans, and continuation funds—areas that look calm from the surface but can freeze when you most need liquidity. Then we pivot to solutions that don’t depend on lucky timing: covering fixed expenses with guaranteed income, building a cash and T‑bill buffer, and letting growth assets be the satellite rather than the core.
We also talk about choosing advisors with real independence, reading the fine print on arbitration and fees, and stress‑testing a plan against back‑to‑back downturns. Barry’s Five F’s—faith, family, friends, fitness, finances—offer a grounded way to make better choices and resist the casino vibe of app‑based speculation. Along the way, we dig into data on pension fund returns, why the U.S. trails other nations in retirement outcomes, and the simple guardrails that keep you calm when headlines scream.
If you want common‑sense guardrails, clear language, and a retirement plan that survives reality instead of averages, this conversation is for you. Listen, share with someone who needs a steadier plan, and subscribe for more practical interviews. Your future self will thank you.
Welcome back to Senior Care Academy, a help of the podcast. Today's guest is Barry James Dyke. He's the president of Castle Asset Management, a fiduciary advisor firm known for holistic macroeconomic planning. With over 40 years of experience, Barry is a bold, contrarian voice in finance, exposing Wall Street's hidden risks, advocating for safer long-term income strategies. He's a best-selling author of The Pirates of Manhattan. He has some other books coming out, like um, that's okay. He's working on some books. Um, and he's been featured in major media and financial documentaries. So Barry's research-backed client first approach helps individuals take control of their financial future with clarity, truth, and transparency. So Barry, thanks so much for giving some of your time.
SPEAKER_00:Camp, thank you so much for uh uh being letting me be of service to you. And um it's great um to connect with you. And um you sent me some some some great questions. So, you know, if you if you want me to go ahead with some of these things, it would be because it's yeah, um, it's focusing on seniors, I'd be happy to. I think of course, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I just I guess before we jump into that, I'm curious. So you've I'll kind of the first question before we get in that is you got into financial markets, um, you've been in it for over 40 years. What I assume when you got into financial markets, you were probably like most um fiduciaries and financial advisors that are like, yeah, all everything that's being fed from Wall Street, they're all into it. So what has changed your view to creating the Pirates of Manhattan um and the other books that you're writing right now?
SPEAKER_00:Um one of the one of the things which I've learned, uh Caleb is so much of it's just a bunch of crap. And um it's it's just it's it's a it's it's it's it's all so much of it's propaganda, and it still is. And um we're in another bubble coming up. There's no question about it. Uh and um um, you know, and I think it I hate hopefully I'm not, but I I fear this is gonna be worse than than 2007, 2008. Um last time we had uh last time we had um subprime mortgages were blowing up. This time it's gonna be private uh credit, it's gonna be uh uh private equity, it's gonna be things like um uh net asset value loans and um continuation funds and all this other crap. And um it's um one of the things I've learned is really you have to uh believe in the fundamentals. I mean, you're you're Utah, but I'm you know, um I think now more than ever, I think people have to really um um look at what is the right thing to do and also use common sense. Yeah, that does that that there seems to be no common sense in Wall Street or in the media, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that is I mean, over 40 years of experience diluted down of just like you've gotta it boiled down to common sense, but like I said, common sense isn't super common sometimes. Um what over your 40 years is one mistake that you wish that your younger self could have avoided, or that I mean, for somebody like myself, getting more I'm just in my um late twenties, you know, more into financial stuff. What would be the biggest thing for me to try to avoid?
SPEAKER_00:I think people need to know how banking really works. I think that I wasn't really I wasn't able to become a best-selling author and sold my books politely. Go to people and go to Barry JamesDyke, by the way.com if they want to pick up any of these books. Um and I've sold 45,000 copies of the books, literally through word of mouth in 23 countries. But I I couldn't be a service cable until I figured out the banking system. That's interesting. And until I understood the banking system, I really didn't understand finance, and and I didn't understand how the Federal Reserve worked and all that other stuff. And and I'm not being um conspiracy theorists or whatever, but until I understood the actual mechanics of it, um and how central banks work and how they um they essentially um uh create massive inflation, I I really couldn't be of service. So so so that's it. So I think really one of the things uh which I older people, believe it or not, do not understand this stuff um either is that um matter of fact, they kind of freak out sometimes um when I explain that the Federal Reserve is not federal, there are no reserves and and that banks can create money out of thin air. And if they you know pay back the money they create out of thin air, they can repossess their assets. So I think the whole thing is you know, you gotta have a good offense in life, but I think one of the first things you really have to have is to have really good uh uh offense as well. And I think and um one of the things which for me anyhow, one of the most important things is my life is my faith, you know, and and and and what I do. And you know, I couldn't do anything without my uh the grace of God, and um, you know, it's uh so that's really the most important things in my life. But those are just kind of the things which from 40 years of experience, and because you know it it it's criminal now what's going on. Um you know, and that and there's over speculation, and um your generation cale too, which which kind of frightens me. Um but it there's too much gambling going on now.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. It's a lot of virtual gambling. I read something recently that like Vegas is slowing down and shutting down because people can just jump on their phone.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, well, yeah, that's the whole thing. Well, see, that's that's what I'm saying. And you know, the old saying goes, What's the difference between Las Vegas and Manhattan? Do you know? Have you ever heard of that joke before? I haven't heard of that joke. Well, one's a casino in the desert, and another one's a casino on the island of Manhattan.
SPEAKER_01:That's funny.
SPEAKER_00:I know so so the get so the gambling thing I I think is really important to understand, but but that's you know, um, we talk about the fundamentals now, but the the the the gambling now in your your your age bracket, if you will, is horrific. And you know, and I've actually studied this in the in the UK because actually they legalized gambling there, I don't know, 20, 30 years. Um the suicide rate is very very high. And and because now you can you can have a casino on your smartphones.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I I so so some of the things which I've learned, I guess maybe one of the I guess maybe the uh the thing I've learned for seniors is really to be prudent. I mean, get the fundamentals taken care of, take, take, get the groundwork taken care of for, put the foundation down. All this other stocks, whether it be NVIDIA stock, whatever, it could be a fantastic stock. But a lot of it is it's kind of like the window dressing. People that need to get the fundamentals down correct. They need to get the blocking and tackling together. Yeah. Okay. Until they get that, um, they're not gonna, you know, they're not gonna have a uh safe retirement. And you know, um, I don't know, I I, you know, and it is luckily, gosh bless me, I do business with people around the country. And I actually did just finish off doing a um pretty large uh retirement plan for a client and mine in Colorado. And you know, we we put together the whole thing with structural guarantees and annuities and things like that, and they're gonna be really they're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. That's awesome. I'm speaking of less strong and firm uh investments and gambling things. Is there a moment over the 40 years that you saw somebody fall victim, whether it was just a pure financial scam or was a super risky investment, it just has stuck with you, really resonated?
SPEAKER_00:I wish it wasn't just one-time occurrence, Caleb. Um I've seen it happen numerous times. And um and it it's it's horrific. And if people understand it when if they ever open up the brokerage statements, and no one ever does. Um but if you open up your brokerage statements from any any brokerage firm you you what is you're open to what is called arbitration. So if you lose money, it's really you you you give up your right to sue. Interesting. You know, so so that that's one of the things. So I've actually seen people with massive losses, you know, happen uh numerous times, and I wish it I wish it wasn't a um I think I've seen I've seen it happen a lot. And when and you understand the game, and I do, it's rigged in favor of Wall Street or the uh other banks, and um, and and there's literally not much you could do it. And then if you look at the the the lawyers, everything's so lawyered up, Caleb. Um that uh you you really don't have much to stand on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, that's one of my the thing that's um with a lot of financial advisors that I've noticed is like like you said, the loss, because they're just getting like a percentage fee, the it could perform not great, but they still get paid, and then you just like lost money. And so it is interesting that there's kind of all those legalities to be like, hey, give us all of your money, and you know, hopefully we do well, but either way, we're gonna get paid. Like those firms are my least favorite sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, and that's the whole that's the whole model. Okay, that's the whole model today. It's all about assets and management, AUM. Okay, and I'm everyone's gonna make fees. I'm I'm not against fees, I'm not against I'm a capitalist, okay? But the whole thing is that the the the like I had dinner with a friend of mine, um she was about three or four months ago. No, no, no, about three or four weeks ago, excuse me. And a good guy, and you know, very and I I said, Cliff, I said, how, you know, how you know, and he was telling about something new, and I said, Cliff, you know, I know this research. I said, How could you, how could you, you know, I didn't want to embarrass him, but I was like, Sentry, how can you do this if you really do? Yeah. And and a lot of these warehouses, whatever, it's just about as just getting as much assets under management as you possibly can, and and making the sale. And um, and I I understand that we all have to sell. Um but the thing is I think when you're dealing with people's money and their livelihoods and their in the retirement plan, um, you have to take this, you know, it it's a it's a it's a it's a privilege and a gift to help people with this stuff. Um but one of the things which uh I'm very passionate about is the um um the status of Americans' retirees.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, if you talk about season retirement, um one of the things that I think would be interesting to your uh uh listening audience is that now there's a company called Mercer out of Australia, and each year they do a uh world from the calculation of the best retirement systems in the world, you know, the top 30 countries. Actually, they do about 45, but the only thing ones I look at is the top 30. Yeah. Now we're the number one economy in the world, Caleb. All right, yeah. We're the number one capital markets, which means we're the we you can raise more money in the United States than anywhere else. So we're the number one economy, we're the number one capital uh um markets uh country in the world. Where do you think the US stands in terms of the top 30 retirements? Let's scale from one to 30. Where do you think we are? Number one being the best, number 30 being the worst. 18.
SPEAKER_01:And and really worse 30. Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're horrible. Actually, Mexico, if you can believe it. I and I I I'm not making this up. Um and I'll happily send the link to anyone.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I could link it in the show notes or something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the yeah, so Mercer, who does this out of Australia doing this for 16 years, by the way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, yeah, we're number 30. I mean, and and and actually, and which is kind of criminal, is that um in terms of integrity, which I think is you know the ability to tell the truth, I think we we we ranked dead last, if not not dead last, I think maybe number 29 or out of the 30. So these are the facts of come, you know, which face a majority of Americans. You know, and now of course there's always gonna be exception to that, and you know, and you know if you're ri really rich, you're gonna have no problem retirement, okay? Yeah. All right, or if you're government employee, um you know, uh staying government, teacher, whatever, you you're getting a guaranteed annuities, which are the best way to go. And all by the way, all the best retirement systems in the world, and I've researched this to death. Um, the Netherlands, Israel, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, they're all they're all the best retirement systems are all annuity-based, except for the US. So we've got to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01:We're number 30, so it's obviously working.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, so yeah, so so so one of the things we would so foreseen is like really it's putting putting uh sink belts around your money in guardrails, okay? Because Wall Street and asset managers, they're not gonna do it. Yeah. You know, yeah, I and I I think you know, I'm I'm I'm very grateful, God's blessed me. I understand this stuff. Don't ask me how to change the oil in my car. But I know how these financial systems work.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What so for the listeners, what when you say like put a seatbelt around your finances, is that like an annuity, or what are the biggest like hidden risks that especially people going into retirement overlook? Or people find it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, the first thing we you know, you've got to care you you've you the first thing you have to really do is is have you know the um the basics taking. And and by the way, this research, by the way, which in Fidelity or Fidelity's been doing this called the four backs theory that came up with this in 2001. I've honed it. Um the first thing is you'd have all your fixed costs covered. You know, you know, your housing and your and your fuel and all all your fixed costs, which you know, with and then you know you plug in your things like travel and food and all that other stuff, which you need to do. So so you give take care of these things first. And and if and and so and people say, well, I don't like annuities. Well, I guess you know everyone everyone buys them. Matter of fact, um, you're in Utah, right? Yeah, is it Zion's Bank Corp?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's kind of the regional bank around here.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know what, you know what Zion's Bank Corp did with with their retirement plan? I don't know. They bought a big annuity to retire into fixed to fund their retirement. Interesting. Yeah, matter of fact, isn't Zion's, I think it's one of the oldest state chartered banks in the country, I think, something like that.
SPEAKER_01:I think so. I don't know. I bank with them. I probably should know more about them.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, really? Okay, so yeah. So but it's all true. So so anyway, so your own your own bank had actually bought a new one to fund the retirement system. And um, but this would be coming out the other researchers uh put together. So again, there's no panacea. I think you know the the first thing is you know, I always tell people I have my five F's for seniors, and I really can give them every anyone. I like it. And my five S, do you want to hear them?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, please.
SPEAKER_00:Well, my first the five S essentially is my faith. My faith is the most important thing in my life. You know, they did a question of my belief in God. Um, I call him Jesus Christ or whatever. So that's really the most important thing. I couldn't do without my faith. Life is too hard for everybody, all right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's it's hard to stay grounded without something.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know how people do it without. I tried, okay, that didn't work out too well, all right? Um this time of means family. Obviously, you know, you know, you know, one of the really the real joys in this life. I don't know if you're married, you have children yet or whatever, but um now obviously we we we have to do this stuff for for um you know our family, you know. And I it's only for my family, my grand granddaughters. Um so that's really number two. And number three is friends. Um none of us can do any of this stuff without friends. I mean, you have I just saw your engineer with uh Chris or whatever. No one can do anything on their own. Totally. Okay, you can do what you do without friends and and and people. Um the next thing I think is really, really, really, really important is fitness. You talk about um seniors retire and thing on that. Stay active, okay? If you rest, you rust. Yeah. You know, so um so fitness is a very big part of my life. I'm pretty regular in the gym. Luckily, I live in the I live in a beautiful place. I live on the ocean on the east coast. Um, so um they although it's getting dark now early, but I so you know, so it's a great place to walk, get outside nature. And then the last thing is finances. So um, you know, it's I think if you take care of your faith, your your family, your friends, and your fitness, I think finance will fall into place. And and I think a lot of the things which if it's with seniors, I think is really preservation, conservation of capital is really, really important. Um, again, I'm not against the uh people who want to invest, um, but it it it's it's a treacherous flow. And the thing is, one one of the things that I've learned is these banks and these asset managers, they make money whether it goes up or done. They don't really don't care.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. On that note, are there red flags? Obviously, you don't want to like poo-poo on on other people, but are there like red flags that whether it's younger people or seniors, that they should watch for when they're trying to pick out their advisor or their financial institution um that they work with?
SPEAKER_00:Um I you know, I said a lot of us comments is I think if you look people in the eye, I think people are students of the of the business, okay? And also having some independence. Um because if we generally have a big warehouse, one of the big warehouses or one of the big renowned brokers, they're gonna push this crap. Yeah. And um, so I think you're if you if you possibly can get some type of independent person because the agenda it it is pushed, and you know, I've I've sold, you know, all all these everything you can imagine over over the years, and um I've learned that you really have to you know buy yourself when you buy these products, you have to, you know, be invested in yourself. You know, also you have to look at what's behind the deal. Okay? And if people really understand what's behind the deal, um and who's benefiting from it. Because after after all, you know, we're here to serve people in this. So um so I think you know, integrity I mean is is probably the most important thing. Yeah. Um but it's hard to tell because people, you know, people are salesmen, and if people believe you know the markets do go up, but if you the research I'm coming out is that to to pick a diff an individual stock, and and there's it's it's it's very difficult.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's actually there's a guy by the name of Henrik Bessenbinder, he's an economist out of um uh people can Google him on Henry Henrik Bessenbinder, he he did about picking stocks, and it's it is if you understand the the real numbers behind this stuff, uh he tracks stocks since 1926 to 2019. It's virtually impossible to pick the right winners.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Trying to actually win in the game. There is something that brings up something um a lot of the time, obviously compounding interest, all those things are very real, um, and very powerful. There's the thing that um is always interesting to me when I talk to different advisors is they're like, if you put this in, it'll grow you know 7% every single year. But then they're like, they're doing it over a hundred year span. I'm like, well, I need to pull the money out in 30 years. And if you did 30 years from like we're still up from 90s till 2020, if I just if I was left money, but then you know, 2008 and then the spike in 2021, it's just interesting. The it's gonna grow no matter what, guaranteed. 7% per year is always an interesting kind of thing to me. Um, but I like those two things that you mentioned of like one is integrity, if you can find that, and then independent, because I've also experienced that with people that are housed specifically with just one firm. Especially like at the bottom of the rung. They have their things that they have to sell, whether like you need them or not. Um and a lot of the time when you pull back the covers, you're like, oh, it's not a very uh pretty site. They just have to tell how they get up the chain.
SPEAKER_00:It's not, and you know, uh because a lot of this stuff is and I have got some I've got I've got the actual reports on this. Um one's done by Cliffwater Associates out of uh Marina Del Rey, California, and the other one's out of done by Piscatica Research out of uh Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and they calculated all the returns. You couldn't make this stuff up, Caleb. All the long-term returns on pension funds. Now, the that's really one of the only reasons we can we can measure because uh it's a fixed obligation in time. In other words, they have to pay a certain amount of money. And what Cliffwater found, and what Piscata research found, and they were doing this total totally independently, is that the 30-year returns on investments were almost identical to treasury bills. Maybe maybe within five, ten basis points, okay? So again, you know, and these are pension funds like I don't know, Utah has in Utah or California, Calipers and Calstridge, which is you're you're next to California, right? Can you talk next to California?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I've gone to California a lot, or a few states over, but I've been there a lot. All right. So they're the two largest uh pension funds in in the world.
SPEAKER_00:And and so my my point is if you if you look at the real rates to return on these giant pension funds, they pretty much mirror what a 30-year treasury bill is. It's really kind of it's kind of spooky. But when you see the what a sales job, Wall Street's done. You know, it's you know, it's just you know, and and the thing is when you understand that the banks really aren't accountable for everything. Um when you look at what would really happen during 2008, and I have, um these banks were never held accountable. Um they were big they were allowed to become bank holding companies and get TARP money, uh couple asset relief program money. And then they were getting, you know, uh spaces of free cash from the um from the Federal Reserve. And this is all fact. I got it from the government accounting offices. Wow between, you know, between uh Morgan Stanley and uh Burrow Lynch and uh Bank of America and uh Cindy Group. You know how much they you know how much they they borrow from the uh from the Federal Reserve?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's probably a gross amount. Eight trillion. Jeez, that's insane.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the thing is that you know, if Caleb, you're you're a small business person, okay. If you if you screw up, no one's gonna bail you out, okay? But this is but this is this is the truth. And I testify in court and all of this stuff. And but yeah, and and then I didn't come up with this research. It was actually Bernie Sanders who did this, who we say we do well about Bernie, you know, but he pulled this uh GAO report together in the Federal Reserve found documented that you know these banks between just four banks that pull out you know eight trillion and eight trillion credit. That's Goldman Sachs pulled pulled out eight hundred and fourteen billion from uh December of 2007 to July of 2010. Wow. Wow. Not making this stuff up. So the whole thing is if it if for your listeners out there, if it sounds too good to be true, I don't know what your folks told you, but generally if something sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Yeah. And so, so um, so and and and and I think quality too, I think is well, quality never goes out of style.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and you know, I I you know, I I like nice stuff and they be and good quality will last.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Like that. Barry, we're this has gone by. It's super interesting, and I wish we could keep talking. The last question, I guess, that I have is kind of for the senior demographic. If you could give one because I think a lot of the people, the seniors that I talk to, especially, if they didn't lay the groundwork in their 20s and 30s, they're feeling hopeless. Is there like one actionable item that seniors could try to take today to protect their financial future? Well, print first, but um Yeah. You know, yeah. Family, friends, fitness first. And then a financial thing.
SPEAKER_00:Friend first, really, because you know the the the we we are in a huge retirement crisis. There's no question about it. Um I I you know, don't panic, just do you know, one day at a time, I guess. I think really you have to and if people have any questions about it, they can email me or they can get through my website. I I answer people and I just get one. That's awesome. Uh and I I and I'll reach out. People reach out to me, I'll reach out to them still as long as I possibly can. Um there's always hope. I mean, we still live in a great, great country, you know, and um but you have to take you have to take control of it, okay? And um you have to look out which which is best for you. And um, you know, and you you must be wary of Wall Street and and and and the marketing machine and the media. The media is horrific in this country. If you really want to get if you really want to get good uh financial advice, subscribe to the Financial Times out of London, okay? The other stuff is well, you know, but the some of the Bloomberg, the journal, things like that are good, but a lot of them do this because most of their income comes from the average from the banks and um luxury goods manufacturers. So I think really, yeah. So you know, think for yourself and um and visit barryjamestyke.com because they want to understand what's really going on.
SPEAKER_01:Um it's Barry JamesDyke.com.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, BarryJamesDyke.com.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Dyke spelled D Y K-E. Yes, yeah, yeah. Huge, I would recommend. I'm gonna go look at it again right after this. It's just good advice, and it's been super helpful for me as a younger person. And then a lot of our listeners are either like providing care to seniors, whether it's through their employment or to their seniors themselves. So I appreciate you taking time, Barry, and like really educating us and helping us think for ourselves, I guess, more than anything, is the big takeaway is try to think for yourself and do research. So awesome. Okay, well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much, Caleb.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.