Weekly podcasts with Paul Merriman. Strategic planning for investing at every stage of life.
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Paul and Chris reflect on Paul's recent discussion with Rick Ferri. Paul adds information he wished he'd included, and Chris reacts to Paul and Rick's positions. Together, they discuss the behavioral, trust, and performance benefits and trade-offs of seeking meaningful diversification by adding Small-Cap Value to a portfolio. CHAPTERS 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:50 - Chris' 30k Foot View 00:06:16 -…
Watch the video here. Paul sits down with Rick Ferri — not for a debate, but for the kind of honest conversation two people can only have after spending their careers chasing the same goal from different directions. Rick makes the case against tilting: the small cap premium largely disappeared once the research went public around 1980, and he believes value stopped working around 2006. Paul…
This Friday I'm sitting down with my friend Rick Ferri for a debate that I think matters a great deal, even though — or maybe because — Rick and I agree on almost everything. We both believe in diversification, low costs, index funds, ignoring predictions, and staying the course. Where we part ways is what happens after that. Rick's case is that you should simply own the whole market. A total…
Paul returns from three days at the Garrett Planning Network retreat with a lesson that has almost nothing to do with investments - and everything to do with getting your money's worth from professional advice. Garrett advisors work by the hour, a business model Paul believes eliminates the conflicts of interest built into assets-under-management relationships. For $1,000 to $8,000, he's convinced…
Paul discusses his upcoming trip to Minneapolis to address almost 100 hourly financial planners at the Garrett Planning Network annual retreat - then shows, in real time, how he uses AI alongside the Truth Tellers. This example is prompted by a Ben Felix video arguing that most people save without knowing their real "why." Paul asked ChatGPT to explore the question and shares the full AI response,…
The hardest part of investing isn't choosing funds - it's building a set of beliefs strong enough to keep you disciplined when the market, the news, and your own emotions all conspire to pull you off course. In this episode, Paul sets aside the usual fine-tuning tables and turns to one of his favorite books, Ben Carlson's Risk and Reward. Table by table, Ben makes the same point in a dozen…
A longtime listener wrote in after watching a Ben Felix video making the point that factor investing may not beat the S&P 500 by the end of an investor's lifetime - and could even do worse. His question was simple: is factor investing really worth the effort? Paul's answer turned out to be two answers, so he's splitting it into two episodes. This week is about the thinking. Next week is about the…
Paul returns from a two-week Baltic cruise refreshed and ready to dig into the numbers. He opens with a 12-month performance review of the recommended portfolios at Avantis, DFA and Vanguard — Avantis averaged 31.1% across the 10 equity asset classes in the Ultimate Buy and Hold, versus 27.7% at DFA and 26% at Vanguard — and explains why the non-traditional index funds keep outperforming…
I joined my longtime friend Tom Cock for a special edition of Talking Real Money — a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of indexing, the proposed changes to the S&P 500, and why investors should understand both the strengths and limitations of traditional index funds. I explain why firms like Dimensional Fund Advisors and Avantis Investors use a more flexible, evidence-based approach…
Paul Merriman joins host Roben Farzad on Full Disclosure for a rare conversation alongside Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth and author of the new book Risk and Reward: How to Handle Market Volatility and Build Long-Term Wealth . Roben called it a “truth teller tandem” — the first time these two have sat down together — and the result is an hour of warm,…
I recently sat down with Steve Chen on his Boldin Your Money podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about evidence-based investing — and why it matters more than ever in a world of speculation, hype, and constant financial noise. We covered my early days as a stockbroker in the 1960s, the psychology that trips investors up in downturns, how low-cost index funds transformed personal finance,…
Paul and Chris answer 10 listener questions in one hour — covering asset allocation, investor behavior, funds, indexes, and fund management. They also dig into Daryl Bahls' hot-off-the-press alternative portfolio analysis. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Intro 01:11 — Funds vs. their indexes 06:04 — Which asset can I drop? 10:50 — Buy and hold for a lifetime? 16:04 — Tracking errors 20:24 — How many years to…
