Sound Investing

Paul provides a crash course in beginning investing in this presentation (with slideshow) to professional members of the Youth Business Alliance so they can use these principles and tools to educate and empower their students in financial literacy. This is the video (or podcast) to share with your teenage and older children, family, friends and anyone wanting to understand why and how to invest over the long term. Paul covers the 12 big decisions—each worth about a million dollars—that every saver/investor needs to make to set and stay a course for financing their retirement. These decisions, or steps, are further elaborated in his book, We’re Talking Millions, available for free in pdf and audio at his website. Paul’s goal is get this book into the hands of a million reader/listeners. Even if you’re a seasoned investor, you will find value in reviewing these steps for yourself and those you might share it with to empower them to become a sound investor as well. Get you free pdf or audio book: https://paulmerriman.com/signup/ or buy the print, eBook or audio book: https://amzn.to/2KH36Kr The Youth Business Alliance (https://youthbizalliance.org) was formed in 2012 and provides a year-long four-part course to high school youth. In the YBA program, students learn soft skills, workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills to prepare them for their career trajectories. In addition, students hear from volunteer guest speakers every week who speak about their life stories and professional careers and field trips to get behind the scenes visits to local businesses.

Chris Pedersen, Director of Research for The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, joins Paul Merriman to explain and elaborate on his ideas and tables published as the cover story in the AAII Journal(October 2022), titled, “Double Your Lifetime Purchasing Power in 20 Minutes.” As Chris states in this broadcast, the article particularly pertains to people doing open enrollment, especially if they have an employer-provided 401k program. “For those who invest in defaults of the 401k programs, most typical across the industry, and do that for 40 years of their career, and then do fixed 4% withdrawals in retirement, and you look at all the cash flows in and cash flows out, and the standard investment, which is a target date fund, and then you adjust for inflation and you ask, ‘What was the impact on how much they have to spend over a lifetime?’ It doubles their spending power, even adjusting for inflation, just by investing in a target date fund, which is kind of unbelievable.” Read Chris’ article at: https://www.aaii.com/journal/article/21644-double-your-lifetime-purchasing-power-in-20-minutes You may be asked to enter your name and email for full access. You can join AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) risk-free for a month or become a member for a small fee. The AAII is an independent nonprofit corporation formed in 1978 for the purpose of assisting individuals in becoming effective managers of their own assets through programs of education, information and research. Podcast listeners should know there is a slideshow available on the YouTube video version. Call To Action! Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all. Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends. Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and  2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work. Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. Thank you!

The focus of most of the work we do at The Merriman Financial Education Foundation is to help investors put together portfolios that we believe will produce higher rates of return per unit of risk. In this podcast we look at the math of making more money, as well as specific decisions that are likely to lead to better returns.   The podcast references our following Tables: Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation, Sound Investing Portfolios and Fixed Distributions and Flexible Distribution.  The math portion of the podcast focuses on the impact of small increases in return, along with small increases in annual investments and a lifetime of accumulating, distributing and passing money to others. The discussion covers the tables in this PDF. Leaving the simple math, Paul uses historical returns to compare hypothetical returns and the choices investors must make. Everyone of these choices is likely a million dollar decision: Save vs. spend Start saving early vs. waiting Selecting stocks vs. bonds Select a few vs. many companies Choose the S&P vs. other equity asset classes Choose the S&P vs. combinations of equity asset classes Add 10% more equity Taxable vs. tax-deferred Tax-deferred vs. tax free Load vs. no-load Index funds vs. actively managed funds Buy and hold vs. market timing Target date funds vs. do it yourself Target date funds plus small cap value Gifting one million dollars with $365 vs. major gift at death The make or break decision of distributions

Paul Merriman, Chris Pedersen and Daryl Bahls each share his studies and comments about rebalancing a portfolio—how often, how much change before rebalancing, and when does it make sense not to rebalance? They also answer listener/viewer questions and Paul makes a special offer for a free chapter from Larry Swedroe’s book, Your Complete Guide to a Successful & Secure Retirement. (See details in ‘Links’ below). Q&A Which asset classes should be in taxable accounts and which in tax-advantaged accounts?  To answer this oft-asked question, Paul recommends Larry Swedroe’s book, Your Complete Guide to a Successful & Secure Retirement and encourages investors to read Chapter 10 from the book, “The Asset Location Decision." See “Links” below for details to buy the book and access the free chapter. “Is there a rebalancing bonus?” Chris answers this question and illustrates his answer with the chart, “Is There a Rebalancing Bonus? … Not Much.”  See this chart and others mentioned below. “I want to help my 36-year-old daughter establish a retirement portfolio. What do you think of using Vanguard Life Strategy Moderate Growth Fund (VSMGX)?” Chris answers by suggesting a better answer may be a Target Date Fund and shows the Vanguard Target Date Fund Glidepath. See this and other charts and tables mentioned here. “Can I expect to invest in the funds you recommend today and hold them for the rest of my life?”  Daryl’s answer is yes, using our 4-Fund portfolio. He shows why by comparing the Total Market Index funds to our “No-Nonsense Portfolios” in Table 1a: “No-Nonsense Portfolios for Sound Investing: Equity Asset Allocation” and Table 2a.1, which shows “Comparison Data,” drawing special attention to our U.S. Only 4-Fund Portfolio over the Total Market Index and S&P 500.  Daryl also offers a third Table, “No-Nonsense Portfolio Performance Rankings by Decade (1970-2021). See these and all charts and tables mentioned here. MORE LINKS Rebalancing: The implications of adding a small amount of small-cap value to a Total Market Index portfolio. See this Table. You can get your copy of Larry Swedroe’s book, Your Complete Guide to a Successful & Secure Retirement at: https://amzn.to/3gb3noz. If you purchase via our link, it may result in our Foundation receiving a small commission that supports our financial education outreach at no additional cost to you. Read this FREE chapter from Larry’s book, “The Asset Location Decision,”  courtesy of Mr. Swedroe and publisher Harriman House.

In this presentation to the Boston Bogleheads® Chapter (Sept. 12, 2022), Paul presents the “10 most important new lessons learned by The Merriman Financial Education Foundation.” The foundation is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of helping the DIY investor make sound investment decisions for a lifetime and become the best advisor to the most important investor on earth…you!  Paul also gives an overview of the 12-million-dollar decisions covered in his book, We’re Talking Millions: 12 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement. Stay tuned to about 1:20 for some great questions: •  Does Total Market Index or S&P 500 approximate your 4-Fund approach and which has better returns? •  Are there target date funds that approximate the 4-funds in the equity portion? •  How do you approach international funds in the 4-fund approach? •  What is it about small-cap value companies that gives a premium? •  Can you define ‘value’? •  Is there an advantage to the 4-fund strategy if you’re retired, with a 15-year horizon? • Which of your Best-in-Class ETF recommendations should I follow? • Regarding equities and taxable accounts versus tax-advantage accounts, do you mirror the 4-fund across both types accounts and will I have a large tax liability in the taxable account? Watch the slideshow About The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy (https://boglecenter.net/): It is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving financial literacy. The Center’s mission is to expand the legacy of John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, by promoting the principles of successful investing and financial well-being through education and community. Bogleheads® is a registered trademark of the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy. The Center envisions a world of well-informed, capable, and empowered investors. Community outreach is achieved through the Bogleheads forum, wiki, and blog, as well as in-person and virtual Bogleheads chapters worldwide.

Inspired by a conversation with George Sisti, Paul's good friend and trusted Truth Teller, Paul makes the case that successful investing is 99.9% defense. (See article referenced below). The good news is: almost every one of these defensive steps are easily applied to managing a portfolio. And once you set the process in motion, it should be relatively easy to stay the course. Of all the defensive steps we should be able to control personally, there is one hurdle for investors that often leads to serious, and likely costly mistakes: maintaining the commitment to buy-and-hold in bear markets! While buy-and-hold sounded realistic when the portfolio was established, the experience of losing 30% (average bear market loss) is a difficult pill to swallow.  Human nature is shouting, “Don’t be a patsy! Why sit there and watch your life savings disappear without a fight or flight to safety?” Paul discusses the best ways he knows to help control the temptation to cut your losses. See Mentioned Link: The 12 Best Retirement Investing Lessons:  https://paulmerriman.com/the-12-best-retirement-investing-lessons/ George Sisti,CFP™, is a certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and the founder of On Course Financial Planning, a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor firm. https://oncoursefp.com/ You can read more by and about George at: https://paulmerriman.com/george-sisti-certified-financial-planner/ Call To Action! Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all. Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends. Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and  2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work. Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. Thank you!

In this interview with Ken Roberts, host of Ken’s Bulls and Bears Report, a weekly radio show in Reno, NV, Paul addresses questions and more: 1. Should investors believe the “experts” predictions of catastrophic future returns for the stock market? 2. What are the most important investment decisions that people have to make? 3. What are the biggest financial mistakes that retirees make? 4. What are the new tools your Foundation has developed to help people invest in equity funds? 5. What is the one asset class that every stock investor should own? 6. Is it really possible to invest successfully with just two funds? 7. Are there really 150 model portfolios that are performing well? 8. What are those 7 factors investors should be focused on in building their retirement portfolios? 9. How can the combo of S&P 500 and Small Cap Value be less risky than the S&P 500 itself? 10. What are your thoughts about the bear market we are in, and is this one of the worst bear markets ever? 11. Should people include cryptocurrencies in their portfolio? Call To Action! Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all. Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends. Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and  2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work. Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. Thank you!

Paul is interviewed by Jordon Grumet, MD., aka “Doc G,” personal finance expert, hospice doctor and host of the “Earn and Invest” podcast. They discuss Paul’s “7 Biggest Investment Decisions” and more, as Paul addresses these questions: Do investment strategies change over time? Is there a place for stock picking? How important is dividend investing? What are the best equity asset classes? How much does an additional 0.5% return matter? What is a modern “simple portfolio” and what is the premium? How much should you invest in each asset class? How much in equities vs. fixed income? How much to take in retirement distributions? How much to take out of retirement investments? How to select a lifetime glide path? All matters referenced in this podcast can be found at https://paulmerriman.com Paul recommends Jordon Grumet’s new book, Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor's Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life Call To Action! Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all. Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends. Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and  2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work. Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation.

Tune in Sept. 17 at noon (eastern time) for a Zoom presentation and Q&A on “The 10 most important new lessons of the past 10 years,” as Paul Merriman addresses the Boston Bogleheads Chapter. See info below. In this broadcast, Paul, founder of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, Chris Pedersen, Director of Research, and Daryl Bahls, Director of Analytics, answer a variety of questions from our listeners, viewers and readers. See links below. 1.  Can you compare 3 years of returns of your Vanguard ETF, Vanguard mutual fund and Best-In-Class (BIC) ETF recommendations?  Chris answers and discusses the likely reason for the BIC outperformance. 2.  Would it make sense to get rid of the small-cap blend fund and hold 1/3 each of large-cap blend, large-cap value and small-cap value? (The questioner notes that small-cap blend rarely outperforms small-cap value.)  Daryl answers this by discussing his findings by using the 1928-2019 Quilt Chart. 3.  What are the pros and cons of multi- and single-factor funds?  Chris responds. 4. Should micro-cap value be considered as a part of a diversified portfolio?  Daryl responds. 5.  Which is more risky, large-cap blend (S&P 500) or large-cap value?  Daryl responds. 6.  How should I manage investments during major declines? Chris and Daryl answer. Mark Your Calendar: Paul invites listeners to a Zoom presentation on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022 at Noon (Eastern Time), sponsored by The Boston Bogleheads Chapter.  It’s free and open to the public.  As The Merriman Financial Education Foundation is in its 10th year of educating investors, Paul will focus most of the presentation on the "10 most important new lessons of the past 10 years,” followed by Q&As. Here is the zoom link for this meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89860498182?pwd=OVFZeWtKNGh2bTVGQUtzeUlPMGlOUT09 Meeting ID: 898 6049 8182 Passcode: 311045 Links: The Merriman Financial Education Foundation: https://paulmerriman.com/the-merriman-financial-education-foundation/ Vanguard ETF: https://paulmerriman.com/vanguard-tax-deferred-etf-portfolios/ Vanguard mutual fund: https://paulmerriman.com/vanguard-tax-deferred-etf-portfolios/ Best-In-Class (BIC) ETF recommendations: https://paulmerriman.com/best-in-class-etf-recommendations/ 1928-2019 Quilt Charts: https://paulmerriman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sound-Investing-Portfolio-Quilt-Chart-1928-2021-V1.3-1.pdf Boston Bogleheads: https://www.bogleheads.org/blog/portfolio/boston-bogleheads/

In this podcast Paul invites listeners to an upcoming free event and addresses the following topics: •  Jeremy Grantham and Harry Dent have made bold predictions about catastrophic future returns. Should we take them seriously? •  How have the Vanguard and Best In Class ETF recommendations performed this year? •  Would investing in VTI give the same returns as the 4-Fund of Life portfolio? •  Is it too late to reduce your equity exposure if you can’t sleep at night? •  How accurate and meaningful are the Sound Investing charts showing returns that go back to 1928? Mark Your Calendar: Paul invites listeners to a Zoom presentation on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022 at Noon (ET), sponsored by The Boston Bogleheads Chapter.  It’s free and open to the public. As The Merriman Financial Education Foundation is in its 10th year of educating investors, Paul will focus most of the presentation on the "10 most important new lessons of the past 10 years." Here is the Zoom link for this presentation: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89860498182?pwd=OVFZeWtKNGh2bTVGQUtzeUlPMGlOUT09 Meeting ID: 898 6049 8182 Passcode: 311045 You Can Support Financial Education! Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all. Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends. Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and 2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work. Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. Thank you!