Episode 413: Overcoming Financial Setbacks, Finance Board Follies, Inflation And Large Cap Growth Funds In Merriman Portfolios
Apr 10, 2025
This episode dives into the recovery journey from financial setbacks, offering practical advice for rebuilding wealth. The hosts bring humor into serious discussions, analyzing social media behaviors in finance and the Dunning-Kruger effect. They share insights on inflation, stressing diversification and the value of gold as a hedge. The conversation concludes with strategic ETF investment tips, favoring small cap and value stocks while promoting a balanced portfolio approach to navigate market volatility.
33:57
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Recover From Financial Setbacks
Focus on your career or skill development during financial stress.
Read "Mindset" by Carol Dweck to learn about controlling what you can.
insights INSIGHT
Financial Social Media Psychology
Frank Vasquez categorizes financial social media posts into a few types.
These include honest questions, Dunning-Kruger effects, and affirmation-seeking.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Inflationary Portfolio Protection
To protect portfolios during inflation, consider managed futures, commodities, and value stocks.
Property and casualty insurance companies can also perform well, like Allstate and Progressive.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In this book, Carol S. Dweck introduces the concept of two mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe their abilities are static, while those with a growth mindset believe their abilities can be developed through effort and learning. Dweck shows how these mindsets influence success in school, work, sports, and personal relationships. She also discusses how to adopt a deeper, truer growth mindset, and how this can transform individual and organizational cultures. The book emphasizes the importance of perseverance, learning from failures, and embracing challenges as key components of the growth mindset[1][2][5].
In this episode we answer emails from Harry, Sally, Jack and Javon. We discuss recovering from financial set-backs, my life on the Choose FI board, assets that do well in inflationary environments and large cap growth funds like MGK in Merriman-type portfolios.
When financial disaster strikes, where do you turn? In this deeply empathetic episode, Frank Vasquez responds to a listener who's lost nearly everything through leveraged investments caught in market turmoil. His compassionate yet practical response offers a roadmap back from financial devastation, emphasizing that starting from net worth zero with income potential creates a foundation many successful investors have built upon.
The conversation shifts to examining the psychology behind financial social media, where Frank taxonomizes poster behaviors into revealing categories. From genuine question-askers to Dunning-Kruger sufferers repeating harmful advice from financial media marketing materials disguised as guidance, this analysis helps listeners navigate confusing information landscapes. His take on affirmation-seekers posting humble brags or seeking validation for poor decisions provides particular insight into why certain destructive financial ideas persist online.
With inflation concerns mounting due to potential tariffs and immigration restrictions, Frank offers practical portfolio protection strategies beyond traditional TIPS, which merely help investors tread water rather than outperform during inflationary periods. His breakdown of managed futures, commodities, value-tilted stocks in hard assets, and property/casualty insurance companies provides actionable alternatives. The discussion culminates in comparing investment theorist Paul Merriman's value-tilted ETF recommendations with Frank's diversification approach using Shannon's Demon principles, demonstrating how different philosophical frameworks can lead to successful long-term investing.
What distinguishes this episode is Frank's ability to balance technical expertise with emotional intelligence, offering not just investment strategies but wisdom about resilience and perspective during financial hardship. Whether you're recovering from losses or preparing for economic uncertainty, this episode delivers both tactical guidance and reassuring wisdom from someone who's weathered financial storms himself.
Have questions? Connect at frank@riskparityradar.com or through the website contact form. Please like, subscribe, and share with fellow investors seeking thoughtful financial guidance.
Risk Parity Radio 
