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US Bank Business Essentials Plus Credit Card Review (New Card, $1,000 Offer)

Credit Card

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15 October 2026

US Bank Business Essentials Plus Credit Card Review (New Card, $1,000 Offer)

Application Link

Benefits

$1,000 offer: spend $15,000 within 150 days of account opening to earn $1,000.

Unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase.

Maintain a qualifying balance in an eligible U.S. Bank Business Checking account to earn up to 3.5% cash back on up to $200,000 in eligible purchases annually. See the table below for details:

Qualifying Balances Cashback Rate

$15,000 2.5%

$75,000 3%

$150,000 3.5%

Earn 5% cash back automatically in your highest-spend eligible category each month, on up to $200,000 in spending annually.

Disadvantages

$295 annual fee, NOT waived for the first year.

Money held in U.S. Bank Business Checking earns little to no interest, so the opportunity cost can be substantial.

Not every spending category qualifies for 5% cash back. The current definition is: “Top Categories” include accounting & tax services, airlines, cell phone service providers, dining, entertainment (such as bowling alleys, golf courses, entertainment parks), office supply stores, postal & shipping services, and utilities. These “Top Categories” may change in the future without notice.

Foreign Transaction Fee (FTF) 是存在的，所以出了美国就不要刷了。

When to Apply

We recommend waiting until you have at least two years of credit history, a solid understanding of credit cards, and most of the worthwhile cards you qualify for before bothering with U.S. Bank.

Summary

The boosted cash back rates may look attractive, but the opportunity cost of keeping that much money on deposit is substantial. Assuming you could earn 4% APY in a competitive savings account, keeping $150,000 here would cost you $6,000 per year in forgone interest. Even if you max out the $200,000 annual spending cap, the extra 1.5 percentage points in cash back would earn you only $3,000. And don’t forget the annual fee. By this math, parking money here solely to earn a higher cash back rate simply isn’t worth it.

The 5% cash back category is more interesting. If more than approximately $9,833 of your annual spending qualifies for the 5% rate, the additional cash back compared with a flat 2% card could cover the annual fee. Still, the eligible categories seem fairly limited, so this card probably isn’t worth considering for most people.

Related Credit Cards

Historical Offers Chart

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Qualifying Balances	Cashback Rate
$15,000	2.5%
$75,000	3%
$150,000	3.5%

Mortgage renewals rival buying stress for Quebec homeowners: RBC

Mortgage

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15 October 2026
0

More than one-third of homeowners report renewal anxiety, while affordability concerns are shaping buying decisions and interest in multigenerational housing.

the anatomy of inflation – Bank Underground

Banking

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15 October 2026
0

Marcus Buckmann, Galina Potjagailo and Shobhit Rawat

What can artificial intelligence reveal about firms’ pricing decisions from text-based business intelligence? We use a large language model (LLM) to quantify pricing narratives from reports documenting discussions during the Bank of England’s company visits. The LLM is prompted to derive scores for output-price changes and decompose them into determinants, including direct and indirect input costs, labour costs and demand. The resulting measures recover economically meaningful signals from firms’ narratives over time, from weak demand following the global financial crisis (GFC) to broad cost pressures and subsequent effects through wage and price setting during the recent inflation surge. The latest narratives point to marked cost increases following Middle East conflict, but so far less broad and persistent than in 2022.

Inside firms’ pricing narratives: exploiting text sections from business intelligence reports

Inflation data tell us how aggregate prices are changing but reveal little about the factors shaping firms’ pricing decisions and the mechanisms driving inflation. To shed light on these narratives ‘on the ground’, Bank of England staff regularly meet companies across the United Kingdom, documenting discussions in company visit reports. Alongside manually assigned company visit scores, a typical report contains information on the firm, such as its location, employment and turnover, as well as detailed qualitative notes summarising staff discussions with the contact on demand, costs, wages, margins, investment and prices. This business intelligence provides a direct qualitative view of how firms perceive economic conditions, form expectations and explain their decisions. Yet these text-based reports have remained largely underexplored as a source for systematically quantifying such narratives over time.

In ongoing research, we use an LLM (GPT‑5.4) to analyse these text sections. Our data set contains 66,820 reports from January 2005 to September 2026, averaging around 260 per month, although volumes have declined somewhat over time (to 237 per month in 2026). To manage costs, we analyse a random one third sample up to 2025 and the full sample for 2026. The text sections have become substantially longer over time, with median length increasing from 585 words in 2005 to 1,254 words recently, allowing a more nuanced quantification of pricing narratives in the later part of the sample. The reports cover 2,000–3,000 firms per year. Manufacturers and medium-sized firms are somewhat over-represented relative to the UK business population.

Using an LLM to derive scores and decompositions of pricing determinants

For each report, the LLM quantifies reported and expected output-price changes over the past and next three to 12 months relative to normal conditions. This mirrors the Bank’s existing practice of manually scoring firms’ assessments but applies it systematically across the text. Importantly, rather than simply tracking whether prices are rising or falling, the LLM decomposition maps the factors cited by contacts to a set of economic determinants. This allows us to trace the evolution of firms’ pricing narratives over time, akin to recent work on aggregate inflation narratives from newspaper articles. Analysis at the Reserve Bank of Australia instead quantifies business intelligence into stand-alone scores using dictionary methods.

We instruct the LLM to separate the following six determinants in our preferred specification: direct energy-related costs, input costs that pass-through indirectly via supply chains such as via energy being used to produce inputs, labour costs, demand, profit-margin adjustment, reflecting the extent to which firms absorb or pass through higher costs, and strategic complementarities, which capture how firms adjust prices in response to competitors facing similar pressures. Further, any unexplained component is assigned to an unattributed category.

The LLM analyses the full text of each report and is instructed to assign contributions only when a factor is explicitly linked to firms’ pricing decisions. For example, wage developments contribute to the labour costs component only when described as influencing price-setting and receive a zero contribution otherwise. Reports with insufficient pricing information are excluded. Averaging these report-level scores and determinant contributions produces aggregate and sector-level monthly scores and decompositions.

The LLM recovers intuitive inflation narratives.

Chart 1 shows the LLM score for realised output prices (black line), demeaned over the sample period and rescaled to CPI inflation. It tracks CPI inflation (dotted blue) closely, albeit with greater month-to-month volatility, despite a larger unexplained component following the GFC and during the recent inflation episode. The LLM score is also highly correlated with Bank staff-assigned company visit scores (yellow), but occasionally turns sooner, such as in 2016 and 2021, and unwinds more quickly thereafter, most notably in 2023.

Chart 1: LLM score of business contacts’ output price changes over the past three to 12 months, against manual Bank staff (Agents’) scores and CPI inflation

Notes: LLM output-price scores (black line), demeaned and rescaled to CPI inflation (dotted line, mean of 2.9%, max: 11.1% in October 2022). Aggregated across all reports used. Original scale for LLM score: [-100;100], Bank staff (Agents’) scores: [-5;5].

The LLM decomposes the score into determinants, shown in Chart 2, overall capturing an economically meaningful inflation anatomy over time. During the GFC, the LLM decomposition points to price pressures dominated by weak demand, followed by downward pressure from strategic pricing and unattributed factors, although this weakness was less evident in CPI inflation. Labour costs also weighed on prices in the subsequent recovery. In 2014–15 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, lower global oil and commodity prices were reflected in weaker indirect cost pressures, though less so than in CPI inflation. Following the Brexit referendum, firms’ narratives instead pointed to rising non-labour costs and a larger unattributed component, potentially reflecting heightened uncertainty.

Chart 2: LLM decomposition of business contacts’ output price changes over past three to 12 months

Pricing narratives during the 2021–23 inflation and recently

In 2021, firms reported broad-based direct and indirect cost pressures, supported by strong demand and smaller contributions from margins and strategic pricing. During 2022–23, labour costs and price-setting channels became increasingly important, particularly among service providers, as demand weakened. By 2024–25, labour costs had emerged as the dominant upward driver, coinciding with announced increases in the National Living Wage and employers’ National Insurance contributions. To get a more nuanced picture, in Chart 3 we also separately aggregate results by goods producers and service providers, rescaled to goods and services CPI inflation, respectively.

Chart 3: LLM decomposition of output price changes, by goods and services producers, from 2021

Notes: Demeaned and rescaled LLM output-price scores (black line) and decompositions (bars), aggregated separately by goods and services producers. Demeaned and rescaled based on goods inflation (mean: 2.3%) and services inflation (mean: 3.6%), respectively.

The effects from the Middle East conflict on realised pricing narratives have so far remained relatively subdued. A temporary rise in direct cost pressures was followed by some indirect cost pressures in recent months. However, these effects remain much more muted than in 2021–23 and have been accompanied by weak labour cost pressures and subdued demand. For services firms, the decomposition also suggests sustained price pressures from strategic pricing and profit margins, pointing to some continued ability to pass through higher costs into prices. However, compared with 2022–23, weaker wage pressures may provide greater scope for firms to absorb part of these pressures rather than pass them through.

Past versus expected narratives

Around turning points, what businesses expect may be more informative than what they report about the recent past. We therefore separately quantify expected output-price changes and their determinants over the next three to 12 months. Chart 4 compares past and expected contributions: both tend to move closely together, possibly reflecting both the difficulty of fully separating past and future developments within the reports and contacts’ tendency to extrapolate current conditions. The largest divergences emerged around major shocks. In early 2021, expected price pressures strengthened ahead of realised pressures, particularly through direct and indirect costs and profit margins. Since the start of the Middle East conflict, direct cost pressures have risen more sharply in expectations than in realised narratives and remain elevated, while a temporary rise in expected indirect costs appears to be feeding into realised pressures, albeit much less than in 2022–23. In the future, we aim to explore whether expected pricing narratives contain leading information for inflation.

Chart 4: Comparing contributions to past and expected output-price changes

Notes: Selected LLM decomposition contributions for past three to 12 months (solid) and next three to 12 months (dashed) narratives, 2020–26, aggregated across all reports, no rescaling, 12-month one-sided moving average.

Validating the LLM determinants against external series

Finally, the LLM-derived pricing determinants closely resemble established macroeconomic indicators. Chart 5 shows, for example, that the direct cost component tracks UK CPI energy inflation, while the demand component aligns well with a Bank of England staff estimate of the UK output gap, using an approach based on a state-space model similar to those developed for the Euro area. Given the uncertainty surrounding output-gap estimates in real time, the LLM-derived measure of firms’ demand pressures may provide a useful complementary indicator. This suggests that the decomposition recovers economically meaningful signals from firms’ narratives despite not being designed to directly identify aggregate structural inflation drivers.

Chart 5: Selected LLM decomposition contributions compared against external series

Notes: LLM direct-energy (left) and demand (right) contributions from decomposition of realised output-price changes over past three to 12 months. The LLM contributions are rescaled to the corresponding dashed-line external series. The output gap is a Bank of England staff estimate from a state-space model estimated over 1988 Q1 to 2026 Q3 and is linearly interpolated from quarterly to monthly frequency for plotting.

Sources: Bank of England staff calculations, ONS and authors’ calculations.

From qualitative intelligence to quantitative evidence for policy

We show how LLMs can transform narrative business intelligence into quantitative indicators while preserving meaningful distinctions between pricing determinants. The approach complements Bank staff’s qualitative assessments by providing a consistent framework for comparing narratives across firms, sectors and time. Beyond tracking whether firms report prices rising or falling, it helps uncover the drivers behind those changes and distinguish inflation episodes by their narrative anatomy. In the current conjuncture, for example, it suggests that cost pressures following the Middle East conflict remain concentrated in direct costs, with limited evidence of the broader propagation mechanisms seen during the 2021–23 inflation surge. More generally, it opens new possibilities for turning qualitative business intelligence into timely quantitative evidence for economic analysis and policy.

Marcus Buckmann works in the Bank’s Advanced Analytics Division, Galina Potjagailo works in the Bank’s Monetary Policy Innovation Lab and Shobhit Rawat works in the Bank’s Agency Network.

If you want to get in touch, please email us at bankunderground@bankofengland.co.uk or leave a comment below.

Comments will only appear once approved by a moderator, and are only published where a full name is supplied. Bank Underground is a blog for Bank of England staff to share views that challenge – or support – prevailing policy orthodoxies. The views expressed here are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of the Bank of England, or its policy committees.

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I’m an Introvert — Here’s How to Make Networking Less Miserable

Business

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15 October 2026
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Key Takeaways

There’s no rule that says these business relationships have to be cheap or temporary. In fact, some of my most fruitful connections started out in very network-y ways, and quickly blossomed into something much more durable.

To maintain these valuable connections, cast a wider net than feels natural, give before you need anything and let the relationship stay light.

“Networking.”

Perhaps no other word inspires such panic in the introvert’s heart. The idea of standing around in a soulless hotel ballroom, trying to deftly balance a small plate of food while shaking hands with someone else trying to do the same? A nightmare.

I get it. For years, I avoided it, too. I told myself I was too busy building Jotform to spend an evening trading business cards with strangers. In reality, I just didn’t like it.

What I did like, however, was building connections. I cherished the feeling of talking shop with like-minded people, hearing about their latest projects and telling them about mine; forwarding an article to a long-time acquaintance that reminded me of a conversation we’d had; congratulating a former colleague on a new venture; or complimenting a fellow founder on a successful product release.

That’s when I realized that networking doesn’t have to be making stilted small talk while you quietly weigh the feasibility of escape via air vent. Nor does it have to be a numbers game where you shake as many hands as possible.

It can, in fact, be as simple as talking to people you find interesting, and being willing to reach out when you have something to say. Done right, it doesn’t have to feel like work at all.

Why “networking” is the wrong term

Some words just naturally inspire a deep sense of ick. Through no fault of its own, “networking” has become one of them, placing it on par with other disquieting terms like “moist” and “synergy.” It implies a cheap, transactional nature; something to discard once it stops producing value.

But there’s no rule that says these relationships have to be cheap or temporary. In fact, some of my most fruitful connections started out in very network-y ways, and quickly blossomed into something much more durable.

I actually think my introverted nature has something to do with that. I don’t ask questions if I don’t want to hear the answer. Nor do I waste time on conversations that don’t genuinely interest me. I’m not built for small talk, so I just…skip it.

Networking advice often centers on a series of tricks, like repeating someone’s name twice in the conversation, or dropping in a well-timed personal anecdote. But the truth is, people can tell the difference between someone working the room and someone who’s actually listening. There’s not a lot of value in a shallow, unmemorable interaction.

Instead, ask the question you actually want to ask. Have the conversation you want to have. If the person you’re chatting with isn’t on the same page or doesn’t seem engaged, there’s no reason to force yourself to keep going. Give yourself permission to end the interaction tactfully and move on.

The power of weak ties

In 1973, a Stanford sociologist named Mark Granovetter conducted a study that may make you rethink your beliefs about casual acquaintances — I know they forced me to rethink mine.

Granovetter found that, contrary to popular belief, it’s actually our most peripheral acquaintances — what he calls “weak ties” — who end up serving as our most important sources of new information and ideas.

You might assume that your closest connections (otherwise known as “strong ties”) would be the most valuable when it comes to finding a new job or sourcing a new hire, but that’s actually not the case. Those closest to us are just that — too close. There’s too much overlap between the information they possess and the people they know to be truly helpful. Weak ties, on the other hand, offer fresh perspectives and a pool of information we don’t already have.

Here’s my advice on growing and maintaining these valuable connections:

Cast a wider net than feels natural

Strong ties tend to form on their own. You don’t have to try with the people you already see every week. Weak ties take a deliberate push.

That means saying “yes” to the coffee with someone outside your usual circle. Talking to the person at the conference who works in a completely different industry than yours. The goal isn’t necessarily to befriend everyone; it’s more ensuring that your circle includes a few people who see the world differently than you.

Give before you need anything

The fastest way to kill a weak tie is to only appear when you want something. Rather than always popping up with an ask, reach out before you need a favor. Send the article you think they’d like, or congratulate them on a launch with no agenda attached.

I do this constantly with people I’m not particularly close to. Most of the time, nothing comes of it directly. Every so often, that small gesture is the reason someone thinks of me first when an opportunity comes along.

Let the relationship stay light

A weak tie doesn’t require monthly check-ins to survive. It just needs to not go completely cold. This can be an easy, introvert-friendly lift — a comment on something they posted, a quick reply when they reach out. None of it has to be heavy to keep the connection alive.

The pressure to “maintain” a relationship is part of what makes networking feel so taxing. Weak ties don’t ask that much of you. The only requirement is that you show up occasionally, and mean it when you do. These ties may stay loose, and that’s completely okay. They may also blossom into some of your most valuable relationships.

Key Takeaways

There’s no rule that says these business relationships have to be cheap or temporary. In fact, some of my most fruitful connections started out in very network-y ways, and quickly blossomed into something much more durable.

To maintain these valuable connections, cast a wider net than feels natural, give before you need anything and let the relationship stay light.

“Networking.”

Perhaps no other word inspires such panic in the introvert’s heart. The idea of standing around in a soulless hotel ballroom, trying to deftly balance a small plate of food while shaking hands with someone else trying to do the same? A nightmare.

I get it. For years, I avoided it, too. I told myself I was too busy building Jotform to spend an evening trading business cards with strangers. In reality, I just didn’t like it.

Pantera Capital-backed startup Fission raises $10 million to help investors cash out of tokenized funds faster

Finance

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15 October 2026
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Money can move into tokenized private funds much faster than it comes out. Even as asset managers use blockchain technology to turn fund shares into digital tokens, a lack of liquidity can mean investors must wait months to find a buyer. Fission, a New York-based startup, is building a system designed to let investors skip that wait and sell their tokenized fund shares in seconds.

On Thursday, the startup, founded in 2024 by CEO Jonathan Shaffer, CRO Steve Bendit, and CTO Chris Humphrey, announced a $10 million Series A to address the liquidity problem. Pantera Capital led the round, which closed in September, with participation from Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital, and Ari Rubenstein. Fission declined to disclose its valuation.

Although tokenization has helped investors skip cumbersome paperwork to invest in funds from major managers such as BlackRock, Apollo or Janus Henderson, it doesn’t guarantee that they will find buyers when they want to sell their holdings. Fission’s approach is to act as the buyer, allowing investors to sell through its platform rather than wait for the fund to process a withdrawal. Investors connect their digital wallets and submit a sale, while Fission handles the legal and trading mechanics behind the scenes.

“It would take you normally about 200 days to sell [a] product. For a fee, you can sell it right now and get your money back, and this will settle… in 90 seconds or less,” Shaffer told Fortune.

The missing exit

Tokenization has gained traction on Wall Street as asset managers put fund shares and investment products on digital ledgers. BlackRock expanded its lineup in August with two tokenized money market products, while JPMorgan’s asset management arm has also stepped up its efforts, launching its second tokenized money market fund for U.S. investors in May.

This recent push also extends to brokerage distribution: Pittsburgh-based investment manager Federated Hermes announced a partnership with Prometheum this month to offer tokenized funds through brokerages, with the first product expected in early 2027.

But liquidity issues remain. In June, InvestaX, a platform for digital investments, said investors in tokenized private-credit products mostly put money in or withdrew it through the funds, instead of selling their holdings to other buyers. An earlier report by the International Organization of Securities Commissions, a global group of financial regulators, found that firms had made more progress creating digital tokens than establishing markets where investors could sell them to one another.

“Where tokenization is today has really been focused around the bridging layer and the issuance layer… but what Fission is focused on—the post-tokenization problem—almost nobody is focused on,” Franklin Bi, general partner at Pantera Capital, told Fortune.

Fission’s founders encountered the problem firsthand. As an investor at Point72, the hedge fund of billionaire Steve Cohen, Shaffer watched Wall Street turn private fund shares into digital tokens without shortening investors’ waits to cash out. As he dug into the mechanics, he connected with Bendit, then head of business development at Securitize, a company that puts financial assets on blockchains. After more than two years discussing why fund liquidity remained elusive, they teamed up with Humphrey to launch Fission and build a faster exit for investors.

Today, the startup has eight employees, with team members on Long Island and in Los Angeles. Most of its customers are institutional investors or organizations that hold assets on blockchains, Shaffer said. They include U.S. and overseas hedge funds with tokenized private-credit or equity holdings, crypto organizations managing their treasuries, and stablecoin issuers that keep reserves in tokenized investments that earn interest. A smaller but growing group of wealthy individuals also uses the platform to cash out personal holdings.

The Series A follows a $1.6 million pre-seed round led by SALT Fund and Kraynos Capital. Existing investors New Form, gumi Cryptos Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, Manhattan Venture Partners, Reflexive Capital, and Lattice Capital also continued their backing.

30 की उम्र से पहले FINANCIAL FREEDOM कैसे पाएं?

VIDEOS

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15 October 2026
42

YouTube Description

क्या अमीर बनने के लिए 60 साल की उम्र तक इंतज़ार करना जरूरी है? 🤔
या फिर आप जवानी में ही Financial Freedom की तरफ बढ़ सकते हैं?

इस वीडियो में हम समझेंगे पैसे और wealth बनाने के 3 अलग-अलग रास्ते — Footpath, Cycle Lane और Expressway. 🚗💰

हम तीन दोस्तों — रोहन, कबीर और अनय — की कहानी के जरिए समझेंगे कि सिर्फ ज्यादा कमाना ही काफी क्यों नहीं है, और Saving, Investing और Valuable Skills आपकी financial journey को कैसे बदल सकते हैं।

इस वीडियो में आप जानेंगे:

💰 Income और Wealth में क्या अंतर है?
📉 Lifestyle Inflation आपकी wealth को कैसे रोकती है?
🏦 Saving और Investing क्यों जरूरी हैं?
🚀 अपनी Income बढ़ाने की क्षमता कैसे विकसित करें?
🧠 Valuable Skills आपकी सबसे बड़ी investment क्यों हो सकती हैं?
💼 Business और multiple income sources का क्या role है?
⚡ Financial Freedom के लिए Expressway क्या है?
🎯 कम उम्र में wealth-building की शुरुआत कैसे करें?

याद रखिए —
Saving आपको सुरक्षित रख सकती है, Investing आपके पैसे को grow कर सकती है, लेकिन Valuable Skills आपकी earning capacity बदल सकती हैं।

अगर आप अभी Financial Freedom की journey शुरू करना चाहते हैं, तो यह वीडियो आपके लिए है। ❤️

👇 कमेंट में बताइए:
आप अभी Footpath, Cycle Lane या Expressway — किस रास्ते पर हैं?

वीडियो पसंद आए तो Like 👍 | Subscribe 🔔 | Share 📲 जरूर करें।

⚠️ Disclaimer:
यह वीडियो केवल educational और informational purpose के लिए है। इसमें दी गई जानकारी को किसी भी प्रकार की financial, investment या business advice न माना जाए। किसी भी investment decision से पहले अपनी research करें और जरूरत पड़ने पर qualified financial professional से सलाह लें।

#FinancialFreedom #PersonalFinance #WealthBuilding #MoneyManagement #Investing #Finance #FinancialLiteracy #FinancialFreedom #PersonalFinance #WealthBuilding #MoneyManagement #Investing #HighIncomeSkills #FinancialLiteracy

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Rove Adds JetBlue TrueBlue as Newest 1:1 Transfer Partner

Credit Card

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15 October 2026
0

Rove Adds JetBlue TrueBlue as 1:1 Transfer Partner

Rove today announced the addition of JetBlue’s TrueBlue® loyalty program as its newest 1:1 transfer partner.

Beginning today, Rove members can transfer Rove Miles to TrueBlue at a 1:1 ratio. To celebrate the launch, Rove has also launched a 20% bonus through November 14, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET, meaning every 10,000 Rove Miles transferred will become 12,000 TrueBlue points during the promotional period.

The addition gives Rove members another way to turn miles earned through everyday shopping, hotel bookings, flights, dining, and other purchases into award travel.

TrueBlue becomes Rove’s 22nd transfer partner, joining a growing network of airline and hotel loyalty programs that includes Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, JAL Mileage Bank, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and more.

The Benefits of JetBlue TrueBlue

TrueBlue points do not expire, and JetBlue-operated award flights have no blackout dates. Members can use points across JetBlue’s network and access additional redemption opportunities through the airline’s growing roster of global partners.

JetBlue has expanded its loyalty partnerships in recent years to include airlines such as Qatar Airways, United Airlines, and Etihad Airways, extending the reach of TrueBlue beyond JetBlue’s own route network.

For Rove members, the new partnership creates another path from everyday earning to travel: earn Rove Miles across Rove’s platform, transfer them to TrueBlue, and redeem them toward eligible flights.

Rove’s Growing Partner Network

With the addition of JetBlue TrueBlue, Rove members can transfer their miles to 22 loyalty programs:

Aeromexico Rewards

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

Air India Maharaja Club

ALL Accor

Cathay

Copa Airlines ConnectMiles

Etihad Guest

Finnair Plus

Frontier Miles

Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

JetBlue TrueBlue

Miles & More

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

SAS EuroBonus

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles

Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Red

Rove members can also search live TrueBlue award availability directly through Rove, allowing them to compare redemption options alongside cash fares before deciding how to book.

Rove Sign Up Bonus

If you don’t have a Rove account yet, you can sign up now through our referral link to earn 500 miles instantly.

It’s not much, but it’s also very easy as there are no requirements to earn the bonus.

From a $55K Rental to BiggerPockets CEO and Financial Freedom

Investments

globalinvestmentstrategy.com
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15 October 2026
0

16 years ago, Eric Augustyn had the same fear that keeps many of us up at night: What if I get fired? He had just survived the 2008 financial crash, and while lucky to have a job, Eric was nowhere near financial freedom. This reliance on his W-2 created a fire that pushed him to buy the one asset everyone was warning him about—rental properties. He found one of the cheapest rentals he could buy, and spent nights and weekends fixing it up to eke out a small profit.

And guess what? It worked.

After repeating the system for more than a decade, Eric now has a rental property portfolio that has given him true financial freedom, built on the pillars of cash flow, community, and continuous improvement. That made him the perfect choice as BiggerPockets’ new CEO, with the sole mission of helping you reach financial freedom through real estate (and have an easier time than he did).

Today, we get the story on Eric’s first rental and his current portfolio, why he does not self-manage his rentals, investing over 2,000 miles away, and what’s coming down the BiggerPockets pipeline that will make buying your first, or next, rental property easier.

Dave:
Before real estate, Eric Augustin had the same fear that keeps us all up at night. What happens if I get fired? He had just survived the 2008 financial crisis, and luckily he still had a job, but he knew it wasn’t a guaranteed path to financial freedom. If he wanted to control his own destiny, he needed to do something different. He needed real estate. And even though everyone told him that buying rentals in that market was a mistake, he did it anyway. Eric saved up 20% down, bought one of the cheapest properties he could find, and spent nights fixing up the property after 12 hour corporate work days. After that first deal, he was hooked. He hired a property manager, he joined the BiggerPockets community in 2017, and 16 years later, that nervous newbie investor has an expansive portfolio of single family rentals and small multifamilies across multiple states.
This journey and his experience in the corporate world is why Eric is BiggerPockets’ new CEO. Today on the show, we’ll go in depth on Eric’s own rental property portfolio and the lessons he’s learned along the way. And then Eric is going to reveal what the team at BiggerPockets is building to make your real estate investing journey much easier than his own.
What’s up everyone? I’m Dave Meyer, chief investment officer at BiggerPockets. And today we’ve got a super special episode for you. I am joined today by Eric Augustin, who is a member of the BiggerPockets community, longtime real estate investor, and now the new CEO of BiggerPockets. Eric and I got together and recorded this show last week at BPCon in Orlando, and I can’t wait for you to hear about his story and his vision for the next chapter of BiggerPockets. Let’s bring him on. Eric, welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast. It’s so fun to be here with you.

Eric:
Yeah, Dave, thanks so much for having me. It’s actually really funny to be across from you because usually I’m at the gym listening to you, but now I’m across

Dave:
From you. Well, this is going to be a fun episode. Eric is the new CEO of BiggerPockets, so really interested to hear about what the vision is for BiggerPockets and for you to share that with the audience. But you are also a real estate investor yourself. So tell us a little bit about how you got started.

Eric:
Yeah, absolutely. So I started in 2010 and my story kind of is two different tales. One is a W2 path that I took and another one is what I would say kind of the path to financial freedom or what BiggerPockets offers. So my W2, I started out as a mechanical engineer. I went into finance at Goldman Sachs. I was on the operational side of that. And after the financial crisis, I moved out to Salt Lake City to help build out that office. Now, like a lot of people in the W2 world, sometimes the amount you put into work, the compensation expectation doesn’t come out of that. And Goldman Sachs is a fantastic company. If anybody has a chance to work there, absolutely take it. They’re wonderful. The people there are wonderful. But after 08, it was really anyone’s game on what was going to happen.
So my expectation was slightly different. And I said, okay, well, what I realized at that moment was if I really wanted to be financially independent and not be in a situation where a crisis or a company could dictate what my financial status would look like, I needed an alternative path. And at the time I chose real estate. And the funny part is we’ve talked about this. The funny part is if you chose real estate in 2010, you looked crazy.

Dave:
You were a psychopath.

Eric:
Absolute psycho. People like, “What are you doing?” Literally people blamed real estate for bringing down the retirement, the economy, everything. So in 2010, I bought my first town home. It was in Magna, Utah. I bought a foreclosure. It was on the market probably for two years, and I bought it really not knowing anything about real estate.

Dave:
Why did you pick real estate? If it was so crazy to do it in 2010 and you were looking for stability outside of your W2, what about real estate attracted you?

Eric:
I was living in New York City at the time, and when you live in New York in your early 20s, purchasing a home isn’t even really a factor. You just don’t think about it. You’re going to rent and maybe rent into your 30s, and that’s just natural. And I’d say it’s the same today. I went out to Salt Lake City, Utah, and I looked at how beautiful, one, that city is. And then two, I said, wait a second, I can buy a home for, at the time, a town home was anywhere between 55 to 150K for interconnected town home. I said, oh my gosh, that’s unbelievable. That’s achievable.

Dave:
Yeah. I think there is something just tangible about real estate that even though everyone was saying it was crazy and there’s no bottom to this market, but just seeing, hey, I can live here for X. If I pay this off over 30 years, it’s going to net me a nest egg. There’s just something that makes sense about that regardless of what’s going on in the big macroeconomic environment.

Eric:
Yeah. So obviously I work for a capital markets firm and you can own a security, so I can own five shares of Apple. Does that mean I can walk through the front door at Apple? Does that mean I can share my opinion? Does that mean I can make decisions with that company? Yes, I can vote, I guess, but not really. When you own a piece of real estate, it’s a business. I have to make decisions on this asset every day and all day. Someone’s living in this asset, which I actually like. I think providing a home is just an essential human thing, and I hope more people can invest and also be within real estate. So yeah, there’s something really special about it.

Dave:
Tell us about your first deal. You come to Salt Lake, you’re kind of new there, you’re seeing all these houses. How’d you go about identifying what kind of property you wanted to buy and which strategy you were going to use?

Eric:
I found a investor-friendly agent at the time. Kate Splan was her name, and I think she lives in Park City now, but I must have been such a headache for her, by the way. Looking back, I knew nothing what I was doing, and I just went to the least expensive areas. And at the time, town homes really took a hit. Condos took a hit. Usually in a crash, those take a hit a little bit more than an SFR or just a regular single family. So I went there and I bid on a place, got it for 55K, and I was off to the races. And I was working about a 12-hour day. And then nights and weekends, I was doing the repairs myself using YouTube. If I really got into trouble, I called my father for help.

Dave:
He’d walk you through it.

Eric:
Yeah. He’d say, test this, try this. The electrical was a real pain because some of it had been stripped out.

Dave:
So how’d the first deal turn out? You bought it, you did the renovations. Did you like it? What happened?

Eric:
So I was scared every weekend thinking if I don’t get this fixed in time, if I don’t get it rented, I’m so stretched thin that I’m going to be in trouble. So I kept pushing, I kept working weekends and doing it, and then I had to rent it out. And I will say this, I am not a property manager. I learned that very quickly. And it’s kind of interesting because my property manager now of 16 years almost noticed that by the way I was listing things.

Dave:
You’re not good at this.

Eric:
I’m not good at this. I’m not good at

Dave:
This. Me neither.

Eric:
Part of it was, I remember one of our first renters, it was a single mother. She had lost her husband in Iraq and she worked for Verizon Wireless at the time. And I remember she was late on her first month and I said to myself, I’m like, oh man.

Dave:
This is your first tenant, late on the first month? My

Eric:
First tenant late on the first month.

Dave:
That’s scary.

Eric:
And I said, “Oh man, I’m so lucky. I have a job.” After 08, you were just so happy you had a job. And I’m like, “I have a job. I’ll make it through. I’m still young. I have no liabilities. I have no children. I’ll be fine.” So I said, “Don’t worry about it.” And then I’m sure she was a great lady. Next month, “Hey, a little bit behind. Let me pay you this. Let me pay you that.” And actually somebody cold called me and said, “Hey, notice your listing. We noticed you’re purchasing property here. Would you be interested in us being your property manager?” So I went out to coffee, had a coffee, told them the story, and they’re like, “I think we need to take this over for you. I appreciate you trying to be a good guy, but I think we need to take this over for you.”

Dave:
Wow. So you went to third party management almost immediately within two months or whatever that was?

Eric:
Yeah, within about two months.

Dave:
All right. How’d you feel about that decision?

Eric:
I’m a huge fan of third party management. I’m a huge fan. And if you take a look at the amount of time DIY has to put in, I don’t think it’s worth it. And I actually did renovations on about 10 homes myself until I realized too, that’s probably not worth my time either. And my time is probably worth securing deals, forming a network, expanding to different states, more of the scale part of the operation. But I will say, I think everyone should do a piece of maintenance themselves because you need to know what things cost and how long they take to get done or you will be ripped off. And everything will be more than you think it is always.

Dave:
Especially now.

Eric:
Yes. All

Dave:
Right. So you did this first deal, you offload it. Is that sort of what gave you the confidence to do another one? Because it sounds like you’re kind of struggling with the first one and offloading it maybe allowed you to think less about the day-to-day and more about sort of the big picture strategy.

Eric:
So I did the math and I did what I think most people do is, okay, if I get to 10 doors and 400 a month, that’ll be 4,000 a month and maybe then I don’t have to work or I don’t have to be fearful of losing my job. And you do the door count math in your head. So I set out to get 10 doors and that’s kind of what started.

Dave:
And how’d that go? You get to 10 doors?

Eric:
I did get to 10 doors, but one of the ways I got to 10 doors was actually house hacking.

Dave:
Okay. So you went back to it?

Eric:
I went back

Dave:
To it. Unusual route. I did the same thing actually, not my first deal, second deal, house hack.

Eric:
Yes. And I say, if I knew everything I know now, we’d be having this on a boat. We’d be good. We’d be somewhere in the Mediterranean. It would be amazing. But some people have unteachable lessons, right? They have to learn the hard way and I had to.

Dave:
How long did it take you to go into house hacking and what’d you buy?

Eric:
End of 2010, 2011 was the first property I bought. House hacking was around 2013.

Dave:
Okay. Yeah. And was it duplex, single family?

Eric:
Fourplex.

Dave:
Okay. Fourplex. Nice.

Eric:
So I met a loan officer at the time. His name was Mike Metzger, Bank of Utah. And he saw what I was doing and I was looking for any bank that would give me a loan. Loans were really tough,

Dave:
Super hard.

Eric:
They were tough to get back then. And so I came across Mike and Mike said, “Eric, can I make a suggestion? I think you might be doing this wrong.” I said, “Yeah, sure, Mike.” He said, “You need a house hack.” I said, “Well, what’s that?” And he’s like, “Well, basically you live in one and you rent out the others.” And I was like, “Was that even legal? If I take a loan, can I do that?” He’s like, “Yeah, absolutely. It was even better. Since you’re living there, it’s your primary, you can use FHA. And then you can refi out, assuming you put some value into it and it appraises, you can refi it out, go back to conventional for it, and then you can FHA your next house hack.” He was the one that got me to 10 units, that got me to 20 units over time.
Wow. And actually, really sad, he passed early. I’m sorry

Dave:
To hear

Eric:
That. And I was actually, when I found out about it, I was overseas. It was too late, couldn’t attend the funeral. I sent a message to the Bank of Utah just with my condolences, but he changed my life. And honestly, if his family or kids are listening, I want them to know he changed my life and I know he changed the life of others and I now try to change the life of others. So yeah, it’s something special. And it’s interesting. I had Connor, our head engineer, pull the file and his name is in our system from 2012.

Dave:
That’s so cool.

Eric:
Yeah.

Dave:
2012 is OG BiggerPockets. Way before even my time.

Eric:
Yeah.

Dave:
That’s pretty cool.

Eric:
OG level.

Dave:
But it kind of shows just the power of mentorship and networking in this community. At least in my experience, just having people show you the ropes and teach you is far more important in determining how successful you wind up becoming.

Eric:
I look back, I was so stubborn. I actually think if a mentor was there, I don’t know day one if I would’ve taken it. And even though I asked for it, I don’t even know if I really wanted it. I was so stubborn. I wanted to prove something myself. I wanted to prove my own identity away from my W2 identity. But what I would say to anyone is just get a mentor, beg, plead, whatever, to work for free, get a mentor. Everything’s about compounding, so just start earlier with someone who knows what they’re doing.

Dave:
Well, it sounds like you got great advice and off to a really strong start. I want to hear how you scaled up to an even bigger portfolio, but we got to take a quick break. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I’m here with BiggerPockets CEO, Eric Augustin. We’ve heard about how he got started house hacking with the help of a mentor in Salt Lake. Eric, how do you take your portfolio from there? You want to get 10 units, you got there. So what was the next step for you?

Eric:
Yeah, so I took a look. Obviously investing in Salt Lake City was due to me moving out there for my job. And then I said, “It’s so interesting. People from New York in the coastal cities, they do not know how amazing Salt Lake City is.” And I said, “One of the places do maybe the coastal cities frown upon a bit or maybe these cities have a branding issue that I could lean into. And the fact I knew how to now leverage third party management, could I just take my buy box and go into these cities?” And Tampa was actually the second one I went into.

Dave:
What year?

Eric:
So I did that 2012. All

Dave:
Right. So you crushed it.

Eric:
So I did pretty

Dave:
Well. Tampa’s been a very good market over the last 15 years. The

Eric:
First place I bought, I bought a triplex in Dunedin and that absolutely blew up. And then I was in Clearwater, New Port Richey, kind of all around there and a little bit in St. Pete, but St. Pete was pretty rough back then.

Dave:
So tell me a little bit about that decision because if what you were doing is working in Salt Lake, why go somewhere else?

Eric:
So I wanted to prove scale. I wanted to prove that I didn’t need to be there because when I started leveraging third party and I started leveraging some people to help with some of the renovations I was doing, I said, “Man, could I replicate this anywhere?” And Tampa’s one of them. Now, interestingly enough, I was at a auction down in Tampa and I was next to a guy that was from New Jersey. And he’s like, “Where are you from?” I said, “Actually, I’m from the East Coast, but I live in Salt La City now.” He said, great. Do you love it? I said the mountains are stunning. I absolutely love it. He goes, “Do you like Tampa?” I said, “Yeah, I like being by the water. Weather’s good down here. Pretty nice.” He goes, “You want to know a secret? Buy rentals in places you want to travel to because if you enjoy visiting your rentals, you enjoy going out with your property manager, going out with your contractor.
If you enjoy it, then work almost becomes your vacation life.

Dave:
Totally.

Eric:
And it’s still work.

Dave:
That’s such a good point.

Eric:
It’s still work. So he says I have places in California, I have places in Colorado, in Tampa and still New Jersey.” And he’s like, “I don’t ever feel like I’m working. I feel like I’m just living my life.”

Dave:
I really do believe that making real estate enjoyable is kind of one of the keys to it because it’s a grind. You’re doing this for 10 years, 20 years to reach financial freedom, totally worth it, better than a corporate career in my opinion, but you got to find these ways to make it enjoyable that it’s something you don’t dread and that it’s something you look forward to. And I think the vibe check, that’s incredible advice, especially when you’re investing out of state.

Eric:
And here’s the thing too. I know you’re a very analytical guy and appreciate that. With that said, go to a local bar where you’re thinking about investing in and just ask the staff, where do you live? What have you heard? What are people doing? You start asking the staff, people around you will go, oh, you know what I heard? I heard this, or I’m looking over here. And I tell you that will point you in the right direction.

Dave:
They’re not like, get the hell out of here, New Yorker. We don’t want

Eric:
Salt Lake. Yes, that’s right.

Dave:
No, it’s so true. There are plenty of places I’ve gone, make sense on paper, look great on paper, and I get there and I’m like, eh, I don’t like it. I don’t get it. It’s not for me. I’m sure other people can make it work, but for me, I don’t understand this place. Other places I’m like, oh, I get this place. I can see where people want to live. I can understand the vibe and the kind of renters that are going to be in this market. Those are the places I pick and it’s just what works for you. So you picked Tampa, you have Salt Lake. Were just those the two places or did you look elsewhere also?

Eric:
So I looked elsewhere. Actually, a lot of people don’t know. I invest in Austin was another place. I was only there for a little bit. I invested in Tulsa.

Dave:
Oh, another good one.

Eric:
I was there for a little bit. But mainly my strongholds are Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Cleveland, Tampa, Champaign, Illinois, and Huntsville, Alabama.

Dave:
That’s a lot.

Eric:
It’s a pretty good amount. I have great people, great teams that are in each of those locations. And going back to it, it’s funny, the vibe check you talked about, right? So I go into a bar in Cleveland and sometimes Cleveland gets, I think, a bad rap. So I go into a bar in Cleveland. Everyone is happy. Everyone’s happy there. I

Dave:
Think it’s so important. Quality of life.

Eric:
Quality of life. Everyone’s happy. And I don’t know if it’s because the cost of living is less there, whatever it might be. And they almost have this look in their eye of saying the people of Cleveland and they say, “Hey, we know a little secret that you don’t know, and we’re pretty happy here.”

Dave:
Tell me a little bit about managing these managers, because it’s a lot. And I think it’s probably the biggest hurdle people see to out-of-state investing. How did you find them? Because it sounds like you got, I don’t know if it was lucky, but you found a great one in Salt Lake City. Was it easy to find teams everywhere else?

Eric:
You kiss a lot of toads. I know that’s a terrible saying, but either way, you absolutely do. And you go through a lot. And my managers are very, very local because at the time, the national players weren’t the best. And I actually think the institutionalization, a little bit of SFR contributed to the national players becoming a lot better. That’s probably

Dave:
True.

Eric:
I would look at national players now. However, I am somewhat loyal to, for instance, my property manager from Tampa is here at BPCon.

Dave:
Oh, that’s awesome.

Eric:
We’ve been together obviously for about 15 years.

Dave:
Happy anniversary.

Eric:
Yeah. Pretty loyal. Pretty loyal to me. But the way I look at it is I don’t view my PMs as I manage them or they’re just a manager of my property. I view them as my friends and I view them as people that have helped me achieve to where I’ve gotten today. For instance, I give out Christmas cards and Christmas bonuses.

Dave:
You should. That’s awesome.

Eric:
And no one thinks about that with their property manager. They’re like, “I only call you when I got a problem or there’s an issue or you call me when there’s a problem.” Yep. Nope. The relationship can be so much different. You can dictate what you want.

Dave:
How do you set that tone? Because I think property managers get calls from all sorts of investors. When I talk to my PMs about this, they’re like, “You’re pretty different from other owners.” How do you establish that rapport? Because I think everyone hears that, “I want that,” but it can be hard to establish that.

Eric:
Good property managers don’t need you.

Dave:
That’s a good point.

Eric:
Yeah, that’s right. They don’t really need new clients, right? Or

Dave:
Good agents too. It’s like the same thing. Yeah,

Eric:
Good agents. They have their reoccurring clients they work with, but what I try to do is I come in, I meet with them face to face. I say, “I understand I’m not from here. I am out of state.” I show the appreciation to that city that I honestly feel and the reason why I invest in that city. And then I tell them, “Look, I would love you to get me one and my goal is to work to 10, and I would love to do that in one to two years. We may get there, we may not, but that’s my goal because I want to show a pledge to them that I want to keep giving them business because they have to put food on the table just like everybody else does. And then I say, Hey, if it works out and we get to 10, I’d love to get to 50 doors.
The market could shift, things could happen. We might not get there, but I’d like to do it. The other thing is, I learned this the hard way, but I don’t nitpick every little thing. If we want to start at 10%, let’s start at 10%. I’m not going to nickel and dime down to nine. And then this person’s thinking, ah, the relationship has already started off so transactional.

Dave:
Yeah, it makes total sense. So what does the portfolio look like today?

Eric:
So as far as direct ownership in real estate, I have roughly around 180 doors spread out about the states we talked about. SFR, so one to four, a few small multi, 10 unit up in Green Mountain Falls, that’s kind of on the larger side of it. So I have the direct ownership in real estate, and then I have the LP side of investing, so passive pockets. So I definitely put a lot of LP checks out there, private equity real estate, and also within venture. I’d say those are in a little bit of hot water right now, especially the 21, 22 vintages. I also got into some small business, so home services, so property management. What I did find out is I’m not even good at owning a property management company, just not my thing.

Dave:
This isn’t for you.

Eric:
Yep. We’ll just leave that one on the side. And then I’m in some in-home healthcare, some mobile dog grooming, and some franchises.

Dave:
Amazing. Incredible portfolio in 16 years. And you said you started out 16 years ago looking for an alternative path to financial freedom to compliment your career as W-2 employee. Do you think it’s worked?

Eric:
So I think I stayed after my first investment. I mean, I stayed in corporate America for another probably 10, 12 years. And what I found was the more I built my identity and my self-confidence through investing, the better I was as a W-2 employee. And I actually saw my career take off a little bit more. And I’ll tell you why, and this is why I think at least. So I was having a conversation with an MD, his name was Frank at Goldman, and he’s like, “Geez, Eric, I can’t believe you said that in that meeting.” He’s like, “That took some confidence there.” H didn’t say confidence in another one. And he said, “That took a little bit to say that there.” And I said, “Frank, what’s the worst that happens? I get laid off and I just doubled down on real estate where I seem to be doing pretty well on the nights and weekends.” So that’s that.
And what I found was a lot of the people that were the really strong men and women in business at these firms respected the fact I would take a chance, take a risk, say what I thought and be willing to execute on it. And I think that actually drove me further in my W-2. That’s really

Dave:
Interesting.

Eric:
Until I hit a point where I realized I want to just make a shift in life.

Dave:
Yeah. I haven’t really thought about that. I think about the other way around that, for me at least, having a W-2 has allowed me to take risk in real estate because if I take a swing and I miss, I still can pay my bills from my W-2. But it’s so true that you just gain this confidence and sense of self-reliance a little bit with entrepreneurship that you can go and take some swings in your career. And it sounds like you took a couple swings and they all hit.

Eric:
Yeah. In the beginning it was absolutely the way you described. And then when I found a W-2, it might’ve been due to the 08 financial crisis, but there was always this fear that you’re going to be fired or that

Dave:
You – Oh, for sure.

Eric:
And it’s not just that your paycheck’s going to be cut off, but you put so much time into this entity, into this company, into this brand, and it almost kind of becomes you. You’re part of the brand and that’s where a lot of your confidence lies. So you don’t want to be like, “Oh, you don’t want to be fired.” And they’re constantly churning and the markets are constantly changing. So that’s something where it just gave me a confidence to not worry about that.

Dave:
Yeah, your whole identity is not tied up in your W-2 job. You have something else.

Eric:
I got something else. And it’s funny too, because you go to a picnic in a backyard and you’re some type of event and people just want to hear the title, “Oh, you worked for Goldman. Oh, you work for Blackstone Porco. Oh, you did this.” And it’s so easy for them to then put you in a box. And I actually never really wanted to talk about that. I wanted to talk about real estate. I’m so proud of what I built. I’m like, “Hey, but can we talk about this duplex I just bought?” And crazy what happened when we got into under the floorboards. That’s what we found. That’s what I actually wanted to talk about more and was more proud because that was me. That was my identity I built.

Dave:
So Eric, tell us a little bit about how BiggerPockets has played a role in your investing career.

Eric:
So I became a member of BiggerPockets in 2017, and I remember I was talking to another Goldman employee and he’s like, “Hey, have you seen this BiggerPockets?” He’s like, “I think they’re doing what you’re trying to do and growing everything.” I was like, “Well, what is this?” And I’m not a guy of a huge online presence and just my personality. And I look into it, I’m like, “Oh man, this is exactly what I’m trying to do.” And at the time, a lot of my actual time was used up. And I said, “But I’ve got some extra capital now from what I was producing via rent.” And I said, “I would love to sponsor some flippers.” And at the time, a lot of the DSCR lenders, debt service coverage ratio lenders, were only going after institutions.

Dave:
It was pretty small back then.

Eric:
It was pretty small and they were going after two million and above. So these flippers that needed 100 to 200, they didn’t have any avenues. So what I did is I pledged some of my own money. I went out to friends and family. I borrowed some money, and then we lent it out to flippers that were posting on the forum

Dave:
That

Eric:
Wanted to do flips.

Dave:
That’s

Eric:
Awesome. Yeah, we did over a dozen. We did several. And my confidence was I flipped homes. I knew exactly how to look at it. I could underwrite in my head. I was confident if I had to take it over, I could do it. You

Dave:
Could do

Eric:
It. And I could return money back to the people that lent to me. I was pretty confident in that.

Dave:
All right. So that was your first introduction to BiggerPockets. I mean, sounds like helped you accelerate your career and opened up a whole new channel in what you were doing in real estate.

Eric:
100%. Opened up a whole new channel. I was more of a reader than a poster. I don’t really have much of a social media profile. I don’t post much. It’s just kind of not my thing, but I loved digesting everything from there. Absolutely did. And the other part I loved is learning other people were doing what I was doing.

Dave:
Yeah. Isn’t that comforting?

Eric:
As much as I can come here and be like, oh wow, this was successful, this wasn’t, it was not a straight line. There were down, down moments. And to know there are other people going through what you’re going through and that you can talk to, you can reach out to, you can speak to. My contractor, for instance, in Cleveland, his name’s Rich Price, huge BiggerPockets fan. Huge, huge, huge falls pockets, everything. And for us to just be able to talk through an issue when a $3,000 reno turns into a 30, and he knows the pain I feel on that, even when that happens to me today.

Dave:
Well, it’s funny, you were talking about going to barbecue, talking about real estate. It can be kind of hard to find people who do want to talk, but everyone wants to talk about real estate, but not investing. They don’t want to talk about renovations. They don’t want to talk about DSCR loans. And once you find BiggerPockets and you find your people, it’s exciting if you feel part of something, but it really can accelerate your investing career, just getting the wisdom of the crowd that exists in the larger real estate investing community.

Eric:
100%. And I think with BiggerPockets, you go there for two things. First is education. Education is kind of the easy part. Most people can read, so you can read it down and you can see, okay, this is what I have to do. The hard part is confidence. And because you were taking a pretty big risk when you signed that loan doc, assuming you’re taking debt on something. And I equate it to when you first learn how to drive in a car. You can YouTube how to drive anywhere. It’s actually not that hard. However, you always have someone in that passenger seat helping you. Maybe it’s a family member, maybe it’s a friend, someone teaching you along the way, because if you mess up at 60 miles an hour, there’s consequences to that. If you sign a loan doc that’s 4X your salary, there’s consequences to that.
So you need people to guide and shepherd you, and that’s what BiggerPockets does. And that’s why I’m such a big fan of the community and I’ve been a member for 10 years.

Dave:
So you’ve been a member for 10 years, now you’re the CEO. How did you go from being a real estate investor, working at private equity companies to being the BiggerPockets CEO?

Eric:
So if you asked me a year ago, is this on the cards? It wouldn’t be in the first one million of options. Not because I wouldn’t love to do it, but it just wouldn’t be on the options. Not

Dave:
On your radar.

Eric:
Not on the radar. So I got a call from a board member of BiggerPockets and they said, “Hey, are you aware of BiggerPockets?” I said, “Of course. Been a member of the community 10 years. Absolutely love it.” He said, “Yeah, would you mind coming on? We’re in some management change right now. We’d love you to take a look and we’re thinking about how to shape the strategy for the future.” So I came on as an advisor at first and I said, “Look, I think a few things. One, I think BiggerPockets almost lost its way a little bit from this OG feel that it used to have. And it’s tough because the environment’s changed. There are headwinds for everybody in the real estate industry.” So I don’t blame anyone for that. It just kind of felt like that a little bit. Second, I said, “Well, how do we bring this into 2026?
The forums, albeit great, just felt a little out of date to me.” I said, “All right, how are we going to change the product side of this a bit?” So I put together a strategy form and we were taking a look at options of people to be a CEO. And what we were looking for is someone who had experience in the private equity capital market space, because it’s a pretty large company. And then at the same time, reflected the values and what our members have gone through from house hacking and up. So as we were moving through, honestly, I spoke to a few operating partners. I threw my hat in the ring and said, “You know what? I think I’m kind of called upon to do this a little bit.”

Dave:
You’re just writing the job description. You’re like, “Wait, this sounds like me.”

Eric:
I’m like, “I think this is kind of my calling.” And it’s pretty serendipitous. I would not expect to be here today, but I’m honored to be in this seat. I did not build BiggerPockets. Josh Dorkin did two decades ago. I am honored to carry on his legacy of what he built. I’m honored to be here at BP Con with so much energy.

Dave:
It’s awesome.

Eric:
It’s absolutely insane how many lives. And that’s the one thing, probably the best part about my job is people come up to me once they find out in the CEO BiggerPockets and they say, “BiggerPockets changed my life.” Four out of five people say that.

Dave:
Isn’t it amazing how many people have been so positively… Impacted by BiggerPockets.

Eric:
It’s amazing. Actually, why I’m also so grateful is I’ve worked for amazing companies. I’ve had amazing mentors at the companies. I’ve never felt a true passion working for those companies. I just haven’t. And I gave it my all when I was there, but I didn’t wake up every day and say, “You know what? I want to go into banking and just sit at my desk and type away in Excel.” I just didn’t. But every day we get up and we try to help the everyday American become wealthier through real estate.

Dave:
Yeah. It’s different when you work at a mission-driven company. When it’s just everyone’s here, you go to BP Con, you meet people from all walks of life, all different sorts of people who are all coming together, do the same thing, and just help each other too. Really, it makes working here so much fun. Well, it’s been fun having you on board. I get to see a little bit behind the scenes where the company is going and your vision and what the next iteration of BiggerPockets is going to be. What can you share with the audience about what they can expect to see in the coming years?

Eric:
So really three things we’re looking at. One is we want to connect people with people. Two is we want to connect people with assets. And three is we want to connect people with services that help them acquire and manage those assets.

Dave:
Great.

Eric:
And yes, you could say I also sell, but I’d rather people keep hold as long as they

Dave:
Can. Yeah, for sure.

Eric:
I’d rather that.

Dave:
So tell me about each of those three things, people to people, networking, that kind of thing.

Eric:
Absolutely. So I’ll give you a few examples. Our product and engineering team have only been on board for about two and a half months, but if you go on the website, you’re going to see a lot of different things. First, you’re going to see an investor map. You’re going to see where a lot of our members are located, where they invest, and you can directly DM and reach out to them. So yes, we have the forums. We’re not going to get rid of the forums. They’re kind of a staple. Of

Dave:
Course.

Eric:
But we’re shifting more towards a 2026 feel of a visual map of where our members are because real estate is very local. We’re going to start building out a feed so you can see what members are doing, what projects they’re working on.

Dave:
Thank you.

Eric:
Yes. Yes. We’ll be blowing that up. Interesting, we will have AI to help you scrub through the forums if you want to do it quicker. Oh,

Dave:
Cool. That’s good.

Eric:
But the difference is every time the AI returns a search, we’re going to suggest you connect with the people that contributed to that information.

Dave:
That’s awesome.

Eric:
Because it’s about people at the end of the day. And when we look at education and confidence, those people can give you the confidence to transact.

Dave:
Having people in your neighborhood who know good contractors, who know what rent should be, who know good areas to invest in, makes all the difference. It’s so, so important.

Eric:
100%. I had a member DM me from Cleveland and said, “Hey, are you looking at buying? What’s your strategy? What do you buy?” I told that person and he said, “Hey, you should get in contact with this individual. They really sourced great deals for me.” Perfect. And we had a little back and forth. That was it. And I’ll probably take them up on the office.

Dave:
Save you 10 hours more. Yeah.

Eric:
A ton of phone calls. All

Dave:
Right. So that’s an example of the people to people. Second one was people to assets. Tell us about that.

Eric:
What we’re looking to do, the map first identifies where other people are. The next piece of the map is we are going to start working with some businesses and individuals to bring off-market properties onto the platform. So for instance, rental retirement, we’ve had a very long relationship with them, with Zach there. They’re one of the first that we’ll be onboarding on here and onboarding a lot more. So everyone says, you hear this all the time, “I want off-market deals. I want

Dave:
Off-market deals.”

Eric:
And look, sometimes on-market deals are as good as off. Sometimes in certain markets, however, there’s something magical about an off-market deal. And look, you have to be ethical around this. There are some things that could be broken there, but there are very ethical off-market individuals that do that. There are also a lot of institutions right now that are looking to dispose or sell their assets. Obviously now there’s been some administration changes. Yes. Yes. So that’s something where a lot of these institutions would actually like to sell to investors and they want to sell because they’re easier than prepping a home for a homeowner.

Dave:
They’re more predictable.

Eric:
Yep. And they’re more predictable. Usually the loan closes at a higher percentage rate, so people are looking there. So we’re going to give an avenue for people to transact off-market.

Dave:
I like that. That’s very cool. All right. So I mean, that’s probably one of the top three or four questions I get all the time. How to find off-market deal? How do I find off-market deals? And I’ll be honest, I am too lazy to find them myself. I’m not doing direct to seller marketing, but if someone does it for me, I’m happy to pay a commission for a great deal. And it sounds like we’re going to centralize that so you can do all that searching in one place.

Eric:
Yep. We’re going to aggregate. We’re going to aggregate. And look, bear with us. We’re going to have to vet. Everyone knows there’s a few bad actors out there and we’re going to do our best to vet that and screen people to let them in. But it’s pretty new to have an aggregated central area of all off-market properties.

Dave:
Well, I’ll say bear with us, but also be a part of it. Give feedback to us. That’s the main thing. We’re doing this for you. So if you like an operator, you don’t. If you have ideas on how to improve the aggregation or really any part of the website, I can just speak for knowing Eric a little bit. We love that feedback. So participate in the community by giving us feedback and telling us what you want to hear.

Eric:
We appreciate if you give it directly to us. Anybody can DM me. There’s no AI in back of it. It’s me writing. Anybody can DM me and you’ll hear my response. Also, we do have an AI agent that scrubs forums for feedback. Oh, that’s cool. And then every morning our engineering team gets feedback of what people have written, what they want, what they’re looking for, and then we put that in priority.

Dave:
Awesome. That’s great. I mean, this is a community and community, we really want to hear from all of you how we can be helping you on your real estate journey. So we talked about people to people, talked about people to assets, and then you said people to services and tools.

Eric:
We’re going to start doing something and we don’t have the name exactly right yet, but basically we’re going to have an investor stack. And your investor stack is going to be who you use for a loan, who you use for title, who you use for insurance, who you use on the ground. Maybe it’s a property manager, maybe it’s a national property manager. And people are going to build out what their investor stack looks like. So it’s copying tech stack, it’s copying capital stack, those types of things.

Dave:
So it’s like a combination of your team and your technology.

Eric:
Correct.

Dave:
Yeah. And that’s your stack.

Eric:
That’s your stack. And then people can show what they use and people can debate what they use. With our chief growth officer, we’re constant debate, Lawrence and I, if he’s a DIY and I’m a third party. And he would say, “I would never have a third party in my stack. I think I’m going to win this battle.” But he wants him to be the property manager in the DIY, but people can debate it.

Dave:
That’s the fun part of being in a community. And about real estate, there’s no right answer to a lot of these things, but there’s probably a couple of combinations of technologies and tools and teams that work. And by being a part of the community, you can sort of find those well-worn paths that have a higher probability of success.

Eric:
BiggerPockets is a democracy and the best ideas usually float up. They get voted up on our forms and people are able to see and read those. And I don’t really believe we have a competitor as far from a community perspective, but there are a lot of real estate gurus out there. Some are good. Absolutely. But you kind of have to follow what they say.

Dave:
That’s right. Yeah.

Eric:
And it’s their way of the highway. And that works for a lot of people. And I know a lot of them out there and there’s a lot of good actors out there. Obviously there’s some bad, but I like the community feel more. I want to see who I connect with, who I don’t.

Dave:
I agree. For some people, they want to be told what to do, like follow this exact playbook and that can work for people. But I think as you grow as an investor, you naturally want to expand too. And one route doesn’t usually work. Do you know many investors who have been doing this for a long time that have just followed one playbook forever?

Eric:
No, because markets change, the economy changes, you can always count on change. So you can’t do that. And the faster you can pivot and you can move, the better. And what I have found is it’s not like someone has a crystal ball of how to pivot. You know what they do? They call up a lot of smart people and they say, “What do you think I should do?” They gather about five different opinions and if four of them say go in one direction, they go in that direction.

Dave:
And then give that feedback back to the community. Did it work? Did it not? Everyone sort of gets smarter together. That’s so cool about BiggerPockets.

Eric:
100%.

Dave:
All right. So exciting times ahead. I feel it every day being a member of the community, but also an employee of BiggerPockets that we have exciting stuff coming. So thank you for coming on and sharing the vision for BP with the audience.

Eric:
And look, I appreciate this. It’s such an honor to be on this podcast. It really is. And it’s an honor to represent this community and I’m lucky to be in this seat. I hope I continue to earn the respect of everybody in this seat. And I wake up every day and you know this, I wake up every day pretty early.

Dave:
He does.

Eric:
Wanting to do the best for this community and really represent it to its fullest potential.

Dave:
Oh, awesome. We’re lucky to have you. And just having someone with your background ethos who knows what it’s like to be on this path is super important for the future of this company and bright things are ahead. It’s been a great company for a long time. We’ve been around for 22 years now. I think people don’t realize BiggerPocket’s been around for 22 years and the best is still ahead.

Eric:
100%. And it really comes back to, it’s kind of funny when I just joined the company, I was speaking to a few employees and I could tell the ones that owned rentals. And the question I ask is, I say, “Hey, when you’re signing that loan doc and you’re about to close on your first or second rental, what do you feel?” And for people who are not in real estate or maybe haven’t experienced, they’re like, “Oh, you must be happy. It’s coming to an end. It’s concluding.” You are scared. Terrible. Terrified. You are scared out of your mind.

Dave:
I still do. Every time.

Eric:
I had to sign a DSCR loan the other day and I was like, wait, I’m still PGing this? Oh my gosh. It’s scary as can be. And to have a community at your

Dave:
Packet. 100%.

Eric:
And that’s what I want. When we think about the vision of BiggerPockets, I want people to feel via our product, via our podcast, via our in real life presence, that we all have each other’s back.

Dave:
Yeah, absolutely. We’re going to have more with Eric right after this quick break. Stick with us. Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. We are talking today with the BiggerPockets CEO, Eric Augustin. Let’s get back to our conversation. All right. Well, this has been a lot of fun. Before we get out of here, we have some rapid fire questions for you. We want to know a little bit more about you. First up, popular question. Do you have a favorite real estate or business book?

Eric:
So you’ve probably heard this one before, but Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Dave:
I think I’ve heard that 1500 times probably. Yeah, I did. Look,

Eric:
That’s an OG book. It absolutely is. It really teaches you what good debt is. So I think that’s important. I’d say millionaire next

Dave:
Door.That’s a great one. All right. Second question. What is one hill you’re willing to die on about real estate? You got any hot takes?

Eric:
Yep. If you buy something on a good cost basis, you’ll be okay. So I think money is made on the buy. And people do disagree with this. I get a lot of people disagreeing with this, but I think for two reasons. One, if the market does dip, you already got it at a discount, so you might just even out. The second piece is you’re going to make mistakes. I still make mistakes and sometimes I make mistakes because I get distracted on something else and that gives me a lot of room to make those.

Dave:
Especially in this kind of market, we’re seeing corrections in a lot of markets more important than it’s been in a long time I think to buy that good price. Yeah, for sure. This is something I struggle with. I got to talk to a lot of cool investors and I’m always getting shiny object syndrome, getting FOMO. People are doing cool stuff that I’m not doing. Do you get that about anything?

Eric:
Yeah. Kind of weird you say shiny object. One thing that I’ve bid on, I’ve tried to own and still I want to achieve is actually a manufactured housing project.

Dave:
Oh, that’s a good one. Or

Eric:
Referred to as a trailer park. I really want to own one. I actually want to spend a few weeks there living in the park. I want to experience that. But it’s challenging. There’s so much hair on those. I’ve seen a few where it looks like the city wants to get involved heavily. So I’ve never pulled the trigger on it, but that’s my –

Dave:
Price has gone up a lot on them

Eric:
Recently. Secret’s out. Secret’s out on that model.

Dave:
Yeah, that’s a good one. So outside of real estate, or maybe not actually, what does an ideal weekend look like to you?

Eric:
So yeah, my weekend probably looks a little bit different to my ideal one. So my ideal weekend is actually traveling to my properties, viewing them, looking at new potential properties, and then going out to dinner with my property managers, my contractors, my insurance broker. That’s what I love.

Dave:
Doing deals.

Eric:
Doing deals.

Dave:
Just wants to do deals.

Eric:
I love looking at them. I love going through certain tenants I do meet, others I don’t meet. Yeah, it’s pretty special. It’s lame, but that’s an ideal weekend for me.

Dave:
It’s true. I love it. You’re just passionate about it. Yeah. All right. What’s your favorite TV show? Do you watch

Eric:
TV? I do sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I relax at night with it. Yeah. So I’m going to throw you off on this one a little bit. If I’m really being honest, Star Trek: Next Generation.

Dave:
Yeah. Is that the OG one?

Eric:
Not the OG. Okay. Captain Kirk’s OG. This one’s with Captain Picard.

Dave:
Just the fact that you know that.

Eric:
Just correct you on that. But it’s funny, I was speaking at someone who works at a large lending shop and I admitted to them that I’m kind of a big Star Trek. And she said, “That’s so weird.” She goes, “My aunt always says that if the world just watched the next generation, it’d be a much happier place and people would realize that the issues we have in life aren’t really that big of a deal and we can resolve them together.” And the weirdest thing is, that’s actually how I feel. Really? I think everyone watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, all the problems we see today are explained throughout those episodes, world would be a better place. I’m

Dave:
The moral guide to society. All right. I’ll have to check this out.

Eric:
We might not be far off. I mean, we are building a starship to go to Mars apparently. Yeah. Yeah. So we might not be far off

Dave:
As well. This will be research for us. Yeah. All right. What’s one luxury item? You have a guilty pleasure you indulge in?

Eric:
I like cars.

Dave:
Oh, okay. I

Eric:
Don’t know if that started as a mechanical engineer watching fast and curious. That came out at just the right time for me. I was getting

Dave:
My – Big Vin Diesel fan.

Eric:
More Pole Walker, but yeah, that’s probably I gravitate to a little bit more. But at that time, I think that was really cult classic, at least I grew up with. And yeah, there’s something about a really nice car that if it’s two-seater, when I’m in there on the highway, cruising, it’s like I’m in my own cabin and can be alone for a second. I love people. I love this community, but there are parts where I want to be alone, listening to what I want to listen to, cell phone down, and just be cruising.

Dave:
That’s great. Awesome. All right. I’m not a car guy, so I won’t even understand what the answers to this question mean, but what’s your favorite car you’ve owned?

Eric:
So this one’s also going to throw you off a little bit. It’s actually a RAV4. Toyota RAV4. And the reason it’s a Toyota RAV4 is –

Dave:
Such an investor answer.

Eric:
Actually, when I moved to Salt Lake, I bought a 2006 Porsche Cayman S and I got along

Dave:
With – I know that is a classic car.

Eric:
Spent a lot of money and I had this kind of NewYork thing where, oh, I’m moving to Salt Lake and buy myself a car. I’m going to this, this, that. I sold that car a year later and took the money and bought that rental out in Magna

Dave:
Because

Eric:
I realized, what did that car mean? What did that mean? And I can get that car, let me make some money in real estate and maybe one day I can even get a nicer car.

Dave:
Well, I assume the RAV4 is not your dream car though. Do you have a grail car that you want to get one day?

Eric:
100%. Aston Martin. Oh,

Dave:
Yeah?

Eric:
So big James Bond fan.

Dave:
Oh God, those are so cool.

Eric:
Yeah. Huge James Bond fan.

Dave:
Like a classic or new?

Eric:
Oh, if I could get a DB5 classic, 100%. And I don’t buy new cars. I would buy three years old, hit the depreciation curve. Yes, it’s amazing and I don’t blame anyone for buying a new car, but no, I let hit the depreciation

Dave:
Curve. All right, great. You told me the other day you’ve been to like 40 something countries?

Eric:
I’ve been to a lot of countries, yeah. But I had a cheat code. I lived in Asia for a while. I lived in Bangalore, India or Bangaluru as it’s pronounced now.

Dave:
What’s your favorite country you’ve been to and why?

Eric:
That’s a tough one. Can I give you a few?

Dave:
Yeah.

Eric:
All right. So in Asia, I think Thailand is really interesting. And people hear that, they think hangover, they roll their eyes, they think of all these different things. But it’s actually one of the freest countries in Asia

Dave:
That I’ve seen.

Eric:
And the expression there is amazing. The food’s amazing. I think if you look at the history of Thailand, there’s something very special, I guess kingdom of Thailand. So there’s something very special there. I think in Europe, I saw the Sograta Familia in Barcelona and said, being an engineer, I said, “This is the most amazing structure I’ve ever seen.”

Dave:
It’s the craziest.

Eric:
If people haven’t seen it, one, Google it. Two, if you can go, go. It’s absolutely amazing.

Dave:
Yeah. I’m not an architecture guy at all, but going there, your jaw drops to the floor. It’s an unbelievable feat of creativity and engineering. It’s taken what, 140 years or something to build. It’s still going.

Eric:
Still going.

Dave:
Yeah. It’s so cool.

Eric:
It’s absolutely unbelievable. It’s tough for me Andrew. I could keep going. I can name some of the Middle East that I enjoyed heavily. I went to Jerusalem. That was an unbelievable experience. Incredible experience. And I hope people will be able to return there safely at some point. But I could keep going. I think everything’s so unique, but there’s… Let me tie this back. I know I tie everything back to real estate. I’m sorry on that, but let me just –

Dave:
That’s why you’re

Eric:
Here. It’s why I’m in the seat. But let me tie it back to real estate. What I will say is I’ve explored buying real estate in different countries, and I will say it is so much more challenging –

Dave:
So

Eric:
Hard. Than the US. And then you look at the numbers, you look at the lending, you look at the insurance, you look at all the risks that are involved. And I’m telling you, the US is the best place to buy real estate. It

Dave:
Really is.

Eric:
I think back to this quote, not to go back to my capital markets days, and I don’t know if Jamie Diamond’s the one that fully coined this, but the United States is the best piece of real estate on the planet. It absolutely is. And you can have planes, mountains, desert, coastal. You can have all that under one country, one citizenship, one passport. We have friendly neighbors to the top. We have friendly neighbors below. We’re surrounded by two large oceans, and we have a plentiful amount of natural resource. We are so lucky. We are so lucky to be here, and I’m happy to own a piece of the United States.

Dave:
Same. I completely agree. Well, Eric, thank you so much for being here. This was a lot of fun learning a little bit about your history and about the vision and future for BiggerPockets. I think I can speak for the whole community and audience in saying that we’re excited about things to come and appreciate everything you’re doing.

Eric:
No, thanks so much. Appreciate your time. I’m so excited for BP Con. I know this will probably air a little bit after that, but the energy in that room is amazing. And like I said before, I’m just honored to be in this seat and I want to wake up every day and do the best I can.

Dave:
And thank you all for watching this episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast. We’ll see you next time.

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what MPC transcripts can tell us about policy thinking – Bank Underground

Banking

globalinvestmentstrategy.com
-

15 October 2026
0

Dragos Gorduza, Livia Silva Paranhos and Ivan Yotzov

Monetary policy decisions reflect incoming data, forecasts, and policymaker preferences. In this post, we use large language models (LLMs) to analyse Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) transcripts from 2015 to 2017. We extract structured measures of individual views on inflation and growth, and the narratives justifying policy decisions. This gives a new perspective on UK monetary policy makers’ reasoning, using recently published transcripts. We show that concerns about economic growth relative to its potential weakened and later strengthened over the sample, while concerns about above-target inflation increased. We link these measures to voting behaviour and show that, over the sample period, both growth and inflation measures predict votes for higher rates, but only growth measures explain votes to cut Bank Rate.

Central bank deliberations are nuanced and cover a wide range of topics. Policymakers speak amid considerable uncertainty, and evidence from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcripts (Bennani and Romelli (2024); Aruoba and Drechsel (2026)) highlights that their reasoning is not always fully captured by voting records alone. The same vote can reflect very different concerns about inflation, growth, risks, and their balance. Our approach recovers part of that structure from MPC discussion transcripts using LLMs. In addition, the transcripts provide an opportunity to study how policymakers’ narratives and concerns evolved around the EU referendum in June 2016. This period was characterised by a relatively stable pre-referendum environment in 2015, increased economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote, and the start of a shift towards policy normalisation during 2017 as inflation rose and the economy proved more resilient than initially predicted.

Newly released Bank of England internal policy transcripts and extracted views from MPC members

Our main data set comprises 258 publicly available statements from individual MPC members covering 29 meeting transcripts between 2015 and 2017. These statements cover the meetings when members provide their indicative policy decisions. They are released with an eight-year lag, and 2017 is the last available year currently. We use generative AI tools to extract several dimensions of policymakers’ views from the text. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to apply frontier natural language processing to these recently published transcripts.

First, we extract statement-level information for all speakers in the transcripts. The MPC consists of nine members and due to several tenures expiring during our sample, we have a total sample of 14 speakers (seven internal and seven external MPC members). Three meetings in 2017 only consisted of eight MPC members. We focus on each speaker’s view of UK inflation relative to target and output growth relative to potential over a one-year horizon. These measures relate closely to the weights policymakers implicitly place on inflation and output stabilisation in their decisions (eg Carney (2017)). We test how these text-based measures relate to voting decisions, including differences across speakers and over time.

In the LLM prompt, ‘inflation versus target’ scores how the text portrays the level of UK inflation relative to the Bank of England’s 2% CPI inflation target over the year ahead: -5 means inflation is judged very far below target, 0 close to target, and +5 very far above target. ‘Growth versus potential’ is the analogous measure for UK output growth relative to potential output over the same one-year ahead horizon. Each quantitative measure is produced by a separate call to a LLM (OpenAI gpt-5-mini), so that every variable maps to one explicit instruction. The output is constrained to a single integer on -5 to +5 scale via a structured response format.

Second, we identify the main arguments underpinning policy deliberation in each statement. Using LLMs, we rewrite these arguments as concise causal statements, classified by topic, type, and tense. We classify arguments into 14 topics (an argument can cover multiple topics), such as inflation, labour market, output, exchange rates, and political events. The topics are drawn from existing analyses of monetary policymaking transcripts (eg Prat et al (2018)) looking at the FOMC transcripts) and central banker speeches. These topics are selected to exhaustively cover the various issues policymakers may raise during their discussions; we focus the discussion on six out of the total 14 topics in this post for conciseness. Figure 1 below shows an example passage from Andy Haldane in February 2016, from which we extract the underlying causal argument and topics.

Figure 1: Extracting causal arguments and topics from MPC transcripts

Growth sentiment weakened and later recovered over the sample, while concerns about above-target inflation increased

We first show that these narrative-based indicators capture economically meaningful variation. In Chart 1, we plot our two text-based metrics of ‘inflation versus target’ and ‘growth versus potential’, alongside annual CPI inflation and GDP growth over the period. Growth sentiment deteriorated in the months prior to the referendum, and sharply following the referendum, before improving in 2017. This partly reflects lagged movements in GDP growth and the exceptional uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the UK economy. Financial markets reacted sharply following the referendum vote (as highlighted by MPC members themselves in the June and July 2016 meetings), business surveys deteriorated markedly, and a range of contemporaneous forecasts, including official assessments, warned of a substantial slowdown and potentially severe recessionary risks. As the economy proved more resilient than initially anticipated, growth sentiment recovered through 2017. This pattern partly reflects lagged movements in realised GDP growth. Meanwhile, perceived inflation relative to target closely tracks CPI inflation trends over this period (correlation of 0.75). Further analysis shows that the relationship between perceived growth and inflation becomes more positive and more statistically significant in the period after the referendum. This is consistent with a stronger ‘demand-side’ interpretation of the economic trends during this part of the sample.

Chart 1: Trends in text-based inflation and growth metrics over 2015–17

Narrative topics and differences across members

We next study how the content of the transcripts changes over time and across MPC members. This analysis is conducted at the statement level, with the language model identifying explicit causal statements and assigning them to one or more topics. Across 2015–17, the most discussed topics are output, inflation, and monetary policy rate setting, accounting for 19%, 15%, and 14% of statements, respectively. The rate-setting category is deliberately narrow: it captures only phrases referring directly to the policy-rate decision, while statements about considerations that may bear indirectly on that decision are classified by their immediate subject. Following the referendum, discussions became more focused on monetary policy rate setting, inflation–output trade-offs, and political events, while references to inflation and financial markets declined. Chart 2 shows these shifts.

Chart 2: Distribution of topic shares in MPC transcripts before and after the Brexit referendum

Views on inflation and growth help predict voting behaviour

Finally, we analyse whether these new text-based metrics explain Bank Rate voting behaviour. We focus on Bank Rate voting specifically, and not on the asset purchase decisions taken over this period. We regress binary outcomes for the decision to vote for a rate increase, rate hold, and rate cut on the member-specific views regarding inflation relative to target and growth relative to potential. The regressions additionally control for speaker fixed effects, annual CPI inflation, annual GDP growth, and year-ahead Bank of England forecasts for inflation and growth. Therefore, we test whether these new metrics capture any variation in voting behaviour over and above the aggregate data and official forecasts.

Chart 3: Voting behaviour and views on inflation and growth

Chart 3 summarises the results over the full sample and all MPC members. The left panel shows that perceptions of above-target inflation and above-potential growth both push members towards voting for a hike. These estimates are statistically significant at the 5% level. The middle panel shows that stronger views about above-target inflation are associated with a lower likelihood of voting for a hold, whereas the relationship with ‘growth versus potential‘ is insignificant. In the right panel, the pattern reverses: views about above-potential growth significantly reduce the likelihood of voting for a rate cut, while the inflation coefficient is small and insignificant. Overall, the qualitative assessments members express translate systematically into their policy choices.

While Chart 3 pools across the whole committee, the same relationships also hold when we estimate member-specific reaction functions, running a separate regression for each MPC member (excluding those who voted in fewer than 10 meetings and those who never voted for a hike or cut). For the likelihood of voting to increase Bank Rate, the coefficients on inflation versus target and growth versus potential are positive for essentially every member, and for a number of them the relationship is strong and statistically significant. For the likelihood of voting to cut, the coefficients on growth versus potential are negative across the board, consistent with the pooled finding that weaker growth perceptions increase the likelihood of a cut, while the inflation coefficients are smaller and more dispersed around zero. Reassuringly, then, the aggregate result is not driven by a handful of members: the link between expressed views and votes is a common feature across the committee, even as its strength varies from member to member.

Conclusions

Historical MPC transcripts contain rich information beyond simple vote tallies. Using frontier LLMs and natural language processing, we convert policy discussions into structured sentiment and narrative measures. We highlight how these measures change over time, across MPC members, and how they relate to voting behaviour. We focus on Bank Rate votes because policymakers explicitly describe the policy rate as the main policy instrument over this period. Future work could compare narratives in publicly released historical transcripts with contemporaneous public communications, such as MPC speeches, to examine how policy reasoning is expressed across different forms of published communication.

Dragos Gorduza and Livia Silva Paranhos work in the Bank’s Advanced Analytics Division and Ivan Yotzov works in the Bank’s Structural Economics Division.

If you want to get in touch, please email us at bankunderground@bankofengland.co.uk or leave a comment below.

Comments will only appear once approved by a moderator, and are only published where a full name is supplied. Bank Underground is a blog for Bank of England staff to share views that challenge – or support – prevailing policy orthodoxies. The views expressed here are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of the Bank of England, or its policy committees.

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APM Financial Fitness: October 2026

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15 October 2026
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Inflation continues to dominate this month’s media headlines and contribute to consumer stress. More Americans are using their savings to pay for groceries and utility bills, while others are postponing essential spending like medical and dental care. In addition, the Federal Reserve announced a rise in baseline interest rates. But the news wasn’t all bad: the NFL season officially began September 9th, a day earlier than usual.

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