Lyn Alden: "For the first time in modern history, life expectancy in the US is not increasing."

The ninth guest of the PFI Macro Anchor Podcast was Lyn Alden, an investor, best-selling author, and worldwide speaker with a focus on the intersection of money and technology.

Her background consists of a blend of engineering and finance. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management, with a focus on engineering economics, systems engineering, and financial modeling.

From 2009 to 2021 she was an electrical engineer, and then subsequently the head engineer and system integrator, at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Cockpit Simulation Facility.

In 2016 she founded the research firm Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, which provides investment research for retail and institutional investors. It started as a side hobby to express her lifelong interest in investing, but soon became so large that she left her engineering work to focus on it full time.

In 2022 she joined venture firm Ego Death Capital, where she serves as a general partner. She’s an active advisor, and/or board member in a variety of technology startups.
In 2023 she authored the best-selling book Broken Money about the past, present, and future of money through the lens of technology. From shells to gold, from ancient bills of exchange to central banks, and from the invention of the telegraph to the creation of Bitcoin, she examines how the introductions of new technology have shaped what we use as money over the ages.

Her work has been editorially featured or cited on the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Business Insider, Marketwatch, Time’s Money Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Street, CNBC, US News and World Report, and other media. She has appeared on Fox Business, Yahoo Finance, Kitco, Real Vision, The Investor’s Podcast Network, The Rebel Capitalist Show, Macro Voices, Forward Guidance, and many other shows and podcasts.

While she limits travel to a few instances per year, she’s spoken at Princeton University, the Human Rights Foundation’s Oslo Freedom Forum, the New Orleans Investment Conference, Singularity University’s Abundance 360, Bitcoin Atlantis in Madeira, and many other events globally.

On a select basis, she also speaks to institutional boards and executive steering committees. In terms of her personal life, she grew up in poverty as a child, including bouts of homelessness, and does what she can to empower disenfranchised or oppressed groups. She lives part of the year in the United States and part of the year in Egypt, with family in both countries. Her hobbies include mixed martial arts and writing science fiction.

The podcast is hosted by Andre Chelhot, CFA, Chief Economist (PFI).