Sound Investing

Four years ago we wrote one of our most popular articles, " How To Turn $3000 into $50 million ."  This article, originally published at  MarketWatch , has had over 500 comments and many of them were calling the strategy crazy.  In this podcast Paul offers at least 10 solid lessons about this strategy, as well as discussing the first 4 years of returns. Lessons include ret...

The most common question Paul receives these days is, "What is the best investment approach, The Ultimate Buy-and-Hold strategy or 2 Funds for Life?”  The potential long-term returns of these two strategies may be very similar but they will take very different paths.  The Ultimate Buy-and-Hold requires a lot more attention but offers substantially less risk than 2 Funds for Life. &n...

In this interview with Ken Roberts, of  Ken’s Bulls and Bears , the conversation covered many bear market-related topics such as: How big a loss should an investor expect to suffer? What should investors do to prepare for a significant decline? What should investors do to prepare for a significant decline? How have you prepared your own portfolio? Is market timing a smart way to manage the ri...

This podcast is adapted from  Financial Fitness After 50 , created for PBS as part of a contributors’ package of DVDs, CDs and book in 2012. To watch the video, rather than listen to the podcast, click here. Paul also recommends reading the recent  MarketWatch  article, written with Rich Buck, on  10 Ways to Make Your Retirement Savings Go Further . The foll...

Paul addresses 14 questions from listeners and readers, but first he speaks to an interesting case of an investor who has greater trust in a bar of gold than a government bond-based Vanguard fund.  Where are your Fine Tuning Tables for 2019? 9:33  Where can I get a better rate of return in my checking account? 11:20  Does …

This recent Marketwatch article, “This strategy beats a total stock market fund and gives you more diversification,” attracted almost 85,000 readers in its first week, so Paul decided to address some topics and questions submitted by readers of the article. These include: The use of individual stocks vs. mutual funds or ETFs The risk of small-cap value compared …

Paul shares bear market observations and advice from Sir John Templeton, Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch, as well as offering his own ideas. He starts the podcast by reading an article by Jason Zweig, “Everything You Know About the Crash Is Wrong”.  Jason discusses a period when investors would buy funds at 150% to 200% more than their net asset …

Listen in as Paul shares insights from a special week of presentations to three very different groups interested in sound investing.  On Wednesday, he addressed high school financial literacy teachers in Washington state.  Thursday he spoke with young FIRE investors at a meeting of Choose FI Orlando, Florida.  And on Saturday, also in Orlando, he was joined by Chris Pedersen to present “Two Funds...

In this podcast, Paul addresses four different but related issues regarding the management of your investments.  When should you fire an advisor?  Paul discusses the ethics and competence an advisor and others must have. Ken Fisher’s recent problems have raised another requirement one could expect from an advisor. This could be very important to listeners who are about to …

In this podcast Paul addresses questions from his investor listeners on managing risk, pensions, early retirement and more in the current market. Topic 1:  Napkin Finance has produced a terrific graphic that compares 5 different types of experts who can help you manage your money.  Unfortunately, they forgot to include free services like ours or newsletters that …

The podcast addresses five different topics from our readers and listeners. It starts with a discussion of the likely future returns of growth vs. value. I read a short blog from Seth Godin, titled “Getting to the truth”: Your anecdote isn’t true. I know it happened. I know that your experience, your feelings, your outcomes are …

In last week’s podcast, I responded to some recent controversies about small-cap-value returns. I examined and shared my findings of a study that looked at the history of returns for many of the popular asset classes: S&P 500, Total Market Index, Large-Cap Value, Small-Cap Blend, Small-Cap Value, U.S. Long-Term Bonds, U.S. Treasury Bills and Inflation. …

Some controversy and concern seems to have risen about small-cap-value returns. While on vacation in Europe recently, I used the early morning hours to complete a study examining the history of returns for many of the popular asset classes: S&P 500, Total Market Index, Large Cap Value, Small Cap Blend, Small Cap Value, U.S. Long Term Bonds, U.S. Treasury Bills …

In this sequel to Part 1, Paul and Ed Fulbright of Fulbright & Fulbright, CPA, PA, continue their conversation about the growing interest in the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) Movement on Ed’s weekly educational radio program, Mastering Your Money. Paul talks about his experience with FIRE, including the recent movie, “Playing With Fire”, his (first) …

Financial Independence Retire Early (Part 1) Paul joins Ed Fulbright of Fulbright & Fulbright, CPA, PA, on his weekly educational radio program, Mastering Your Money, to discuss the FIRE Movement.  F.I.R.E. is an acronym for Financial Independence Retire Early. It’s a growing movement of people who are practicing FIRE principles — high savings rates, frugal living, and low-cost index funds — with...

This podcast is the audio-only version of the video, Target Date Funds: America’s #1 Retirement Investment, in which Paul illuminates why Target Date Funds are America’s best retirement investment, and how to maximize that investment with his 2-Funds-For-Life Strategy. While this strategy is ideal for young and first-time investors, it can be effectively used by investors at any stage who want to...

In this interview — with Joe Andersen, CFP and “Big Al Clopine, CPA of Pure Financial Advisors, Inc. on their podcast, “Your Money Your Wealth” — Paul makes the case that owning just two funds for life is a “home-run” investing strategy for some investors. Plus, the hosts answer your money questions: how should teachers, and others without Social Security or pension, save for retirement? …

How to avoid the big mistakes pre-retirees make Paul addresses the huge decisions facing investors in the final push to meet their retirement goals, about 10 years before retirement. Cautioning against the tendency to jump from one strategy to another or be swayed by Wall Street, Paul presents 12 points for creating a solid long-term investment strategy before you …

Paul joins old friend and Vestory advisor, Tom Cock, on Tom’s Seattle radio show, “Talking Real Money”, which begins with addressing the need for emergency money. In answering call-in questions, they discuss the major decision of when to start taking Social Security, annuities, FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), how often to rebalance a Buy-and-Hold portfolio at M1 Finance, possible …

In October 2018, Paul and Chris Pedersen recorded a video that offers a new and significant advantage to standard Target Date Funds. Following the release of the YouTube video, “2 Funds for Life — A simple strategy to maximize your retirement investments,” Paul responded to many questions and decided to use this podcast to expand his answers to several of …

Are you aware of the many ways that mutual funds can legally and cleverly mislead investors?  An investor should be able to expect the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but, in reality, mutual funds are marketed putting the best foot forward, like almost every other highly-profitable product. In this podcast, produced for the PBS Special, “Financial …

In a recent article and podcast on diversification, Paul noted that dollar cost averaging can be a form of timing diversification. It ensures that an investor will not put all his/her money in at the top of a market. It also ensures “picking up more shares when prices are lower and fewer shares when prices are higher.” Paul suggested that …

Paul addresses each of these questions which reflect some aspect of investor’s concerns related to risks and returns. How can people invest in a system that is destined to collapse under our massive national debt? What average yearly return do you expect for your different stock/bond Best-In-Class portfolios over the next 5 to 10 years? What do you expect …

Before discussing diversification, which is always about risk management, Paul Merriman presents the returns of the Best-In Class ETF portfolio  The goal of that portfolio was to recreate the DFA portfolio Paul holds in his own account. For the first half of 2019, the advantage goes to the B-I-C ETFs. Way to go Chris Pedersen!  Regarding diversification, Paul …

Paul Merriman answers questions about a wide variety of investor concerns: profitable focus funds, using a pension as a substitute for bonds, moving DFA funds to Vanguard, the impact of higher taxes on the market, performance of major asset classes besides the S&P 500, defensive investment strategies for a bear market, popular sector funds, the impact of saving …