Sound Investing

Sign up for our bimonthly newsletter at PaulMerriman.com and join 30,000 savvy investors who value free financial education. You can download a free pdf copy of We’re Talking Millions! 12 Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement at https://paulmerriman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Were-Talking-Millions.pdf We ask that you share it with family and friends! Paul was planning a traditional "Happy Holidays!" podcast but woke up to information that set his hair on fire. While he has been writing articles about index funds for decades, the most read is “30 reasons to fall in love with index funds”.  While the most common advantages are low expenses, low turnover, massive diversification, Paul suggests the #1 reason may be staying as far away as you possibly can from commission-based sales people, con artists and other conflicts of interest typically not associated with index fund providers. Many do-it-yourself investors rely of services that have a large presence on the internet. A wonderful aspect of the internet is the ability to do meaningful due diligence on the reputations of those offering their "special ways" to perform better than index funds.  But can you depend on the information you find on the internet? Paul discusses the services of “search engine suppression consultants.”  These very clever people are wizards at making bad information disappear.  In fact, in many cases their fees are not earned until all the damaging information is totally eliminated.  He reads an example of one such article that claims to address the pros and cons of a well-known investment manager.  The pros are strong convincing points, while the cons are almost the mistakes that we would expect would be found in any firm. Paul also addresses the outrageous life-changing fees teachers are being charged and the work of an unscrupulous sales person who holds himself out as a friend of his community. The bottom line: None of these bad investments would be available through those who supply very low-cost index funds. The low costs eliminate almost any chance to misuse the investor.

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 return numbers that will help investors understand the unexpected path they are likely to travel with this strategy. Investors may be surprised to find that some investors in the strategy have earned a 24% compound rate of return over the first 4 years. For more articles and podcasts on this strategy, click here.

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.  2FFL is available in 2 levels of risk: one for investors who want to take a little additional risk early in the process and much more nearing retirement, and another who are comfortable with lots of risk early on and less at retirement.  This discussion concludes that the Ultimate Buy-and-Hold strategy is likely to be more appealing to those 50 and over, while 2FFL is more appealing to investors starting in their 20s and 30s. Access the Ultimate Buy-and-Hold strategy: https://paulmerriman.com/the-ultimate-buy-and-hold-strategy-2019/ Access the 2 Funds for Life strategy: https://paulmerriman.com/2-funds-for-life/ To stay apprised of Paul’s updates on these strategies and much more, subscribe to our free twice-a-month newsletter at https://paulmerriman.com/

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 risk of a bear market? You may also want to read Paul’s recent MarketWatch article, 8 Steps You Can Take Now to Prepare for a Bear Market If you enjoy Paul’s podcasts, visit his website for free articles, recommendations for mutual funds, ETFs, 401Ks, two funds for life strategies, videos, free books and more: PaulMerriman.com

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 following is the list of the rest of the DVDs in the contributors’ package: 10 Investment Guarantees Every Investor Should Know 15 Risks of Managing Your Money 20 Money Losing Myths How to Avoid the 20 Most Common Investment Mistakes Retirees Make

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 …