Sound Investing

Fellow Retirementor Ken Roberts always has a long list of questions for me on his Ken’s Bull and Bears Report.  In this interview Ken asks questions about stock performance in a growing economy, how to beat the market, the need for professional advisors, lessons learned from the Trump election, my favorite Bogle quotes and  how to be sure …

The most common question I get is focused on the likelihood of abnormally low future returns on stocks.  This is not only a common question today, it is one of the most common questions investors have after any difficult market period.  How can anyone possibly know what happens next?  There is always a list of reasons for the …

We are surrounded by people who lie. Experts say we lie on a regular basis, so the fact that our politicians, corporations and those trying to sell us something often lie should not be a surprise. Paul wants investors to search hard for the truth, not just by others but also lies we tell ourselves. He suggests a …

Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, John Bogle and Ben Franklin and more… Paul discusses some of the most meaningful financial quotes and suggests that reviewing such quotes once a year may help you be more committed to and focused on the most important investment basics.This recording was produced for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as part of a 2011/12 pledge …

What will market do under President Trump? And 12 other important investment Q&A’s When Paul addressed members of the community in a seminar co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Community Foundation on Nov. 3, 2016, he was unable to answer all questions at the time but agreed to do so through this special podcast. Here are the questions addressed on …

Sam Marks from Invest Like a Boss planned a 30-minute interview, but he and Paul were having so much fun it lasted over an hour. Here is what Sam wrote about the interview: Paul Merriman is an internationally recognized authority on mutual funds, index investing, asset allocation modelling and buy-and-hold strategies. He has over …

The 2-fund value portfolio may offer higher returns How can young investors prudently reach for higher rates of return?  The most dependable approach is building a portfolio of all value ETFs or mutual funds. In the last podcast I focused on an all-value portfolio comprised of U.S. large and small-cap value asset classes.  But it even gets …

Examining 88 years of returns and risks of an all-value portfolio, Paul explains why young investors might legitimately consider a 100% all-value portfolio, while the combination of these asset classes should account for only a small part of a retiree’s portfolio. In the discussion of this 2-Fund Combo, Paul suggests a number of related and useful articles and podcasts, particularly …

Paul examines the difficult bear market of 1973-74, preparing investors for a long bear market struggle and demonstrating the value asset classes can hold up well on the way down, as well as bounce back strongly after the market turns around. For more on the subject, click here-http://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2016/05/04/the-worst-bear-market-that-nobody-ever-talks-about/

John Bogle and Burton Malkiel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal titled “Turn on a Paradigm” in which they make the case for capitalization-weighted indexing over indexes focused on value and small-cap stocks. Paul offers his justification for adding small-cap and value to an equity portfolio, based on the academic research of Eugene Fama …