E33: Dan Egan: The Behavior That Builds Wealth

Mary Katherine Johnson sits down with Dan Egan, VP of Behavioral Finance & Investing at Betterment, to decode how our habits, narratives, and timing drive financial outcomes more than hot tips ever will. Dan explains why success comes from matching risk to time horizon, building automatic systems that spare your willpower, using tax-aware prompts (hello, long- vs short-term gains), and reframing money from a scarce enemy to a tool you can wield responsibly, and often with your community.

We dig into teachable moments that stick, how to design routines that “pay yourself first,” why an emergency fund is an entrepreneurial launchpad, and when debt can be a power tool rather than a trap. Dan also shares practical ways to stay calm in chaos, compartmentalize stress, rest deliberately, reduce worst-case scenarios, so you can be brave precisely when opportunities are biggest. Close the tab on hype; open the door to behavioral clarity that compounds. Subscribe to Fortunes of the Bravefor bold, credible, visionary conversations that help you take the next right step.

Key Takeaways:
• Match risk to time horizon; patience is a strategy, not a slogan.
• Automate good behavior, save first, spend what’s left; protect willpower.
• Use tax-aware nudges to avoid costly “surprise” decisions.
• Build an emergency fund to buy optionality, calm, and entrepreneurial freedom.
• Reframe money as a tool; avoid high-interest debt but use smart financing when it creates value.
• Education works best at the moment of action; context beats one-off classes.
• In volatility, compartmentalize, rest, and pre-plan the downside so you can act.

Chapters:
• 00:00 – Welcome + the “behavioral” in behavioral finance
• 00:59 – Dan’s path: from high-net-worth advice to Betterment’s design-led investing
• 03:31 – Why we study what we’re bad at: calibrating “worth it”
• 06:02 – Time horizon, risk, and the patience problem
• 09:53 – Teachable moments: tax nudges and long- vs short-term gains
• 12:52 – Why traditional money classes miss; learning when you actually care (and AI caveats)
• 17:20 – Habit design: automate, pay yourself first, avoid willpower drain
• 19:42 – Emergency funds as the springboard to bold moves
• 22:55 – Money narratives: scarcity vs tool; debt as instrument vs trap
• 27:37 – Community financing over a faceless bank? (Reg CF mindset + the bakery slicer)
• 31:54 – Staying calm in chaos: compartmentalize, recover, reduce worst cases
• 35:19 – “Is anyone going to die?” and other sanity checks
• 36:49 – Parting advice: money is a tool—use it to build a better life

Resources Mentioned:
• Betterment — behavioral product design & investing tools
• Long- vs short-term capital gains (principles)
• Regulation Crowdfunding (concept) and community debt instruments
• “The best way to predict the future is to build it” (attributed to Lincoln)

Connect with Dan:
• Company: Betterment https://www.betterment.com/
• Role: VP of Behavioral Finance & Investing
• Search: “Dan Egan Betterment” for articles & talks

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