Sound Investing

Paul addresses the 4 most common questions he receives from readers and listeners: Will indexing work as well in the future as in the past? Will small cap and value asset classes produce higher than S&P 500 returns in the future? How often should I rebalance? How do I best put my money into the market at these historically …

Paul speaks with Ken Roberts in this episode of “Ken’s Bulls and Bears,” as they answer listeners’ questions: 7:55- How important are the expenses I pay on my investment portfolio? 10:06- Is diversifying really that important? What about loading up on winning stocks like Facebook and Apple? 19:54- What can investors do to manage risk in …

In just 50-minutes, Paul covers 50 of the most important investment ideas, each of which should lead to better returns, less risk and greater peace of mind. This is the audio portion of a video you can see at Paul’s website. Be sure to click here  to access key supporting materials for this presentation. Warren …

Paul shares the latest research on how to combine value portfolios with other asset classes to produce low-risk portfolios appropriate for those saving toward retirement as well as those taking distributions in retirement.  Learn five important keys to selecting those value funds most likely to produce the best returns, including the names that Paul includes in …

This podcast covers three topics which are the source of many questions. Asset allocation starts with a recent interview from Vanguard titled, “Strategies for constructing globally diversified portfolios.”  In the other two topics, Paul addresses a number of popular alternative investments. He references a recent study on long-term returns for private equity funds (1984-2016) and …

Covering a lot of ground in this podcast, Paul discusses rebalancing your portfolio, an AARP article on “What to expect in your 70s and beyond,” the new Callan Periodic Tables for U.S. Equity Investment Returns, the Lipper Performance Report for the 25 Largest Funds, and an update on his recommended portfolios at Motif …

Paul answers 14 questions recently posed to his email account, info@paulmerriman.com. Given the amount of email Paul receives, he again asks that you keep your questions short and general, as he cannot answer to personal situations. For hundreds more Q&A’s, please visit the archive at his website, under “Ask Paul”.  A very …

PLUS a new index study and 6-month and 15-year returns for DFA and Vanguard   Paul’s MarketWatch.com article, “Why picking stocks is only slightly better than playing the lottery” has such a provocative title that he was not surprised to get a lot of responses. Because the title was intended tongue-in-cheek, he was surprised how many …

Paul recently met for 90-minutes with Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Family of Funds. Paul reflects on the main topics of the meeting, including what research Jack trusts, why he limits his recommendations to U.S. large cap companies, why the S&P 500 fund offering was almost cancelled, how much luck had to do with his success, …

What’s wrong with 401k’s and what can investors do to improve the outcome? Paul poses answers to these questions plus tells the story behind his suggested 401k portfolios, starting in 2011. His intention was to update those plans as the companies made changes.  For a number of reasons the updates didn’t get done.  Now, with the help …

In this first-ever interview by Paul for his weekly podcast, he speaks with blogger and columnist Rob Berger of doughroller.net about some of the most difficult questions investors face in this high flying market.  Like Paul, Rob educates the public with many valuable recommendations and resources.  They discuss the best ways to plan and …

In the last podcast, Paul focused on accessing retirement distributions for those using fixed distributions with adjustments for inflation.  This approach is particularly suited for investors who retire without a lot of extra money saved.  If you have not listened to the last podcast, Paul strongly suggests you take the time to learn about the reasons he …

One of the most important decisions an investor will make is how much to take out of their investments in retirement. That, in conjunction with the right balance of equities and fixed income, can lead to smooth sailing or some rough seas during retirement.  In this podcast Paul compares using the S&P 500 equity asset class, a …

As promised to the more than 125 attendees of this Puget Sound chapter presentation, Paul answers the following 20 questions. Since many investors have the same or similar concerns, this podcast should be of interest and use to a broad range of investors, from first-time to well into retirement.  1.  If many people invest in small caps, …

This is the second of the four most important podcasts I do each year. For those who have listened to previous Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation podcasts, this one is the best I’ve done. I normally discuss only the implications of investing in the worldwide equity portfolio, along with many combinations of fixed income. The purpose of this discussion …

The Ultimate Buy-and-Hold Portfolio Update 2017 Every year Paul updates his Ultimate Buy & Hold Portfolio. In this podcast he covers the original 50/50 U.S. and international equity asset classes, AND the recent all-value portfolio (find those tables here). What if you added each of the asset classes – that have …

The 2017 SPIVA Study – which measures the performance of actively managed funds against their relevant S&P Index benchmarks –is out and the facts are here for investors to see. In this podcast, Paul covers the highlights of the study. The answers to some most important investment questions are found in this report. Are actively or passively managed …

I am thrilled to introduce George Sisti  one of the smartest people in the field of personal financial planning, as well as asset allocation.  I think the best way to introduce George’s work is to share a couple of his recent articles. In the first, George discusses the possible impact of “Fake News” on an investors’ …

Are you daunted by the long list of Merriman Motif portfolios? In this podcast Paul explains why he offers so many portfolios and how investors may choose from among the offerings. The Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation Tables that support each of the portfolios can be found here.

In a recent interview on Ken’s Bulls and Bears, Ken Roberts and Paul discuss a range of topics including the differences between the expected risk and return of small cap value mutual funds and ETFs, the steps that investors can take to invest for an early retirement, the most important facts that every investor should know and the …

In this podcast Paul reads and comments on a letter from a regular listener.  The letter discusses  what the investor is doing for her 3 children and the concerns she has when the children are old enough to cash out the proceeds.  The letter also offers some of the confusion she had when she first contacted Motif to open an …

The new Motif Investing portfolios – based on Paul’s Ultimate Buy-and-Hold portfolio strategies – have generated a lot of questions. Paul discusses whether it makes sense to move large accounts from Vanguard to Motif, what kind of investors will probably get the most out of Motif long term, the conflicts of interest now that Paul’s foundation is receiving …

Paul discusses the latest update of the Fine-Tuning Your Asset Allocation tables, which compare three different portfolio scenarios.  In this podcast he focuses on the Ultimate Buy-and-Hold All-Value Equity Portfolio. The “Fine-Tuning Tuning Your Asset Allocation” table – created and updated by Paul and Rich Buck for 15 years – allows investors to compare possible returns and likely risks of …

Paul talks with collaborator Chris Pedersen about the new Motif Investing portfolios they created based on Paul’s Ultimate Buy and Hold portfolio strategies and sound investing principles. These portfolios were created to make it simple and inexpensive for anyone with a minimum of $300 to get started investing now; and also for those more-seasoned investors to implement …

Paul explains why he’s excited to offer this new, easy, low-cost way to implement his Ultimate Buy and Hold portfolio recommendations, and invest wisely for the long term. To learn more about Paul’s “one-click-and-you-re-done” portfolios at Motif Investing, Click here.