Sound Investing

Paul returns from a two-week Baltic cruise refreshed and ready to dig into the numbers. He opens with a 12-month performance review of the recommended portfolios at Avantis, DFA and Vanguard — Avantis averaged 31.1% across the 10 equity asset classes in the Ultimate Buy and Hold, versus 27.7% at DFA and 26% at Vanguard — and explains why the non-traditional index funds keep outperforming tradition...

I joined my longtime friend Tom Cock for a special edition of Talking Real Money — a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of indexing, the proposed changes to the S&P 500, and why investors should understand both the strengths and limitations of traditional index funds. I explain why firms like Dimensional Fund Advisors and Avantis Investors use a more flexible, evidence-based approac...

Paul Merriman joins host Roben Farzad on Full Disclosure for a rare conversation alongside Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth and author of the new book Risk and Reward: How to Handle Market Volatility and Build Long-Term Wealth . Roben called it a “truth teller tandem” — the first time these two have sat down together — and the result is an hour of warm, ca...

I recently sat down with Steve Chen on his Boldin Your Money podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about evidence-based investing — and why it matters more than ever in a world of speculation, hype, and constant financial noise. We covered my early days as a stockbroker in the 1960s, the psychology that trips investors up in downturns, how low-cost index funds transformed personal finance, facto...

Paul and Chris answer 10 listener questions in one hour — covering asset allocation, investor behavior, funds, indexes, and fund management. They also dig into Daryl Bahls' hot-off-the-press alternative portfolio analysis. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Intro 01:11 — Funds vs. their indexes 06:04 — Which asset can I drop? 10:50 — Buy and hold for a lifetime? 16:04 — Tracking errors 20:24 — How many years to...

In Session 3 of the 2026 Bainbridge Community Foundation Spring Financial Education Series, Paul sits down with Mike Piper — CPA, Personal Financial Specialist, and the voice behind the Oblivious Investor blog and the free Open Social Security calculator — for one of the warmest, most practical conversations of the series. Mike has a rare gift: taking the topics that intimidate most investors and...

In the final episode of the 2026 Boot Camp series, Paul Merriman sits down with Chris Pedersen and Daryl Bahls to tackle the last fork in the road every investor faces: how to and how much automation to use. After all the boot camp decisions — stocks versus bonds, which equity asset classes, how much fixed income, how to handle contributions and withdrawals — the final question is how...

In this interview from the 2026 Bainbridge Community Foundation Annual Financial Education Series, Paul sits down with Bill Bernstein — neurologist, financial historian, and author of The Four Pillars of Investing and If You Can — for a wide-ranging conversation drawn from 50-plus years of investing experience. Bill explains why you're only rewarded for taking risk in well-regulated markets (and w...

Chris and Paul explain what target-date funds are and do, and how to augment them with some small-cap value to get the broad diversification benefits of the other Sound Investing portfolios. They describe several approaches and tools investors can use to determine what might be best for them. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 03:03 Target-Date Funds 07:00 Glide Paths 15:17 TDF Backtesting 19:55 TDF Weaknesses...

Paul sits down with Chris Pedersen and Daryl Bahls for the first Q&A session in months — and this one is built around the questions readers and listeners ask most often. Chris and Daryl share what they're working on next (Best-in-Class ETF updates, Target Date Fund work, telltale charts, risk-adjusted return analysis), Paul talks about a smarter way to use AI for the questions outside our...

Paul and Chris introduce the new Avantis and DFA Best-in-Class fund family recommendations and talk about the shift away from evaluating and recommending à la carte choices from multiple fund providers.  They emphasize that the quality and breadth of the offerings from Avantis and DFAhave reached a point where it's better and more sustainable to recommend these fund families than to continuall...

This special two-part session opens with Paul Merriman solo — paying tribute to Tim Ranzetta of Next Generation Personal Finance, sharing the latest numbers on state-mandated financial literacy, and walking through Daryl Bahls' quilt charts to show annual earnings invested in the S&P 500, large-cap value, small-cap blend, and small-cap value since 1928.Then Paul sits down with Christine Be...

Paul Merriman sits down with Larry Swedroe — author of 22 books and one of the most respected voices in evidence-based investing — for a conversation that covers everything from the five factors that actually matter to why Bitcoin might go to zero. Larry explains why judging your investment decisions by their outcomes is one of the most dangerous mistakes you can make, lays out the academic criter...

Paul Merriman sits down with Mark Zoril, founder of PlanVision, in the first episode of a new series spotlighting affordable financial planning options for do-it-yourself investors. Mark built PlanVision in 2012 around a simple premise: investing isn't as complicated as the financial services industry makes it seem, and technology makes it possible to deliver thoughtful, unbiased financial adv...

At 82 years old, I still work. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I joined Brian Herriot and Kirby Denison on “The Time Freedom Podcast” to talk about exactly that. But we ended up covering a lot more than I expected. Here's something that might surprise you: I managed money for thousands of people over 30 years and built a firm to $1.6 billion under management. And I have never onc...

Q&A Highlights How does a 4-fund portfolio compare to a 10-fund portfolio? What is the best way to invest for a child’s future? Is it too late to use a diversified strategy like the 10-fund portfolio at age 50? Can I create and test my own custom portfolio using your tools? How should I invest during periods of inflation or uncertainty? What are some recommended fund options available at Schwa...

Paul Merriman is dedicated to helping do-it-yourself investors build portfolios they can stick with for life. In this episode, he shares what he believes is the closest thing to a perfect long-term equity strategy he's ever seen. Paul traces the evolution of index investing — from John Bogle's cap-weighted S&P 500 funds to the academic research of Fama and French, whose factor-based wo...

In this episode, we explore how  flexible (variable) withdrawal strategies  can strengthen your retirement plan—and why fixed, inflation-adjusted withdrawals may increase risk over time. Using detailed distribution tables—including  Table F1.3 (flexible withdrawals)  and comparisons to   Table D1.3 (fixed withdrawals) —Paul walks through real historical outcomes across decades to show how adjustin...

In Boot Camp #6, Paul Merriman walks through real historical data starting in 1970 to test what happens when retirees withdraw 3%, 4%, or 5% from a $1 million portfolio — adjusted for inflation — across some of the toughest market conditions in history. This episode covers: The difference between retiring with “enough” and “more than enough” How inflation quietly turns $30,000 into $130,000+ over...

In  Boot Camp #5 of 10 , Paul delivers what he believes is the  most important session in the series —especially for new and early investors (teens, 20s, 30s, and anyone just getting started). Instead of treating investing like speculation, Paul reframes it as  building—or buying—a business  over decades. Using clear, data-driven tables and “fine-tuning” comparisons, he walks through a simple, rep...

How much should you really have in stocks vs. bonds — and what happens when the market turns south with a vengence? In Boot Camp #4, we break down the fine-tuning asset allocation tables that show exactly how different combinations of equities and bonds have performed from 1970 through 2025. This episode goes beyond average returns and dives into what investing actually  feels  like during the wor...

Welcome to  Bootcamp #3 of the Sound Investing Series  with Paul Merriman — where real investing data meets practical long-term strategy. 📈 In this session, Paul breaks down the performance of diversified portfolios vs. the S&P 500 using decades of historical data going back to 1970. You’ll learn how different combinations of equity asset classes have performed in  good markets, bad markets,...

In this second session of our 10-part Boot Camp series, we dive into the piece that’s helped shape decades of investing decisions: The Ultimate Buy & Hold Portfolio. For nearly 30 years, this research—co-created with the late Rich Buck—has explored a simple but powerful question: What happens when you go beyond the S&P 500 and build a lifetime portfolio across 10 equity asset classes? Star...

What if small decisions — just a half-percent here or an extra year there — could change your financial future by millions? In this episode, we continue our annual  Boot Camp  series by tackling one of the biggest forks in the road investors face:  stocks and bonds . Drawing on nearly a century of academic research and data, we break down what the math actually tells us about compounding, risk, di...

Sometimes the best moments are the unexpected ones. This week brought one of those moments when Daryl Bahls delivered an extraordinary surprise: access to  every  table used across our entire investing Boot Camp Series — months of work, ready ahead of schedule. That gift makes it possible to move forward faster, including setting up pages for the upcoming Series and potentially releasing the table...