Sound Investing
Weekly podcasts with Paul Merriman. Strategic planning for investing at every stage of life.
Episodes
This updated discussion of the Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio highlights the advantages of equity asset allocation and worldwide diversification. The presentation was presented to members of the Washington State Society of CPAs.
At the end of the presentation Paul adds his list of 15 million dollar decisions that all investors will make in their lifetime.
Join me on Catching Up to Fi l with Rick Ferri to discuss key investing topics like asset allocation and the pros and cons of small-cap value vs. total market funds.
TIMESTAMPS / CHAPTERS
00:00 ⛓️ Understanding Bonds and Young Investors
02:31 🌟 Introduction to Financial Literacy Titans
03:12 🎓 Paul Merriman's Financial Education Foundation
04:18 🧠 Rick Ferri and the Bogle Center for Financial Literacy
12:09 ⚖️...
In the left corner, we have Paul Merriman, the seasoned finance veteran weighing in at 183 pounds. In the right corner, Dr. Karsten Jeske, the scrappy newcomer at 208 pounds. The bell rings, and the small cap value debate begins.
This episode features a financial boxing match between two investment heavyweights with dramatically different perspectives. Paul Merriman champions diversification through the efficient frontier, which mea...
If a retired investor has the ability to use a flexible distribution strategy it will likely produce one of the best financial outcomes in retirement.
Before discussing flexible distributions Paul lists the reasons he believes that 99% of successful long term depends on defensive steps. After listing 18 defensive decisions he explains why flexible distributions are better than fixed distributions for those who have over said.
The move from the accumulation to distribution period of an investors lifetime includes some very important decisions.
- What asset allocation between equities and fixed income?
- What combination of equity asset classes in the equity portion, as well as fixed income asset classes?
- What amount of distribution will be made annually?
- Will the payments be monthly, quarterly or annually?
- Will payments be adjusted for inflation and how often...
Young and first time investors have to address a number of monumental decisions.
- How much money to save for the future
- How much they should invest in equities and bonds
- How much of the equities should be in large, small, value, growth, U.S. and international asset classes
- How much to increase the investment each year
This podcast/video helps the investor address those decisions. For those listening to th...
This is the 4th in a series of 9 Boot Camp videos/podcasts.
The previous three segments covered :
In this presentation Paul focuses on the differences between the risks and returns of different percentages stocks and bonds. He also discusses one table that mixes different percentages of the S&P 500 and small cap value...
Chris Pedersen updates his recommendations and describes his selection process in an interactive presentation with Paul and Daryl along for the ride.
This "Best In Class ETFs Recommendations" presentation is the 9th in the Boot Camp Series. (We have not completed some of the earlier presentations due to the high interest in Chris' Best In Class Recommendations).
The focus of each the Boot Camp presentation is to help...
The 2024 numbers are finally in and we have produced the #1 investment decision in the Bootcamp series. There is no question that the biggest lifetime decision an investor makes is the choice between the safety of bonds and the potential long term growth of stocks. Here is a link to the pdf of the set of slides Paul uses in the presentation. The presentation includes the updated 1, 15 and 40 year returns tables along with t...
The purpose of this podcast/video is to help investors understand the likely risk and return parameters of small cap value, S&P 500, 2 Fund Portfolio (50% each SCV/S&P) and 4 Fund Portfolio (25% each SCV/S&P/SCB/LCV). In each case the best, worst, and average 1, 2, 3, 5, 10. 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 year returns are listed.
The following tables are discussed:
This is the second presentation in the Boot Camp Series.Click for video.
The first presentation (Stocks Vs. Bonds) will be available in the next two weeks.
This presentation makes the case for diversifying a portfolio using multiple equity asset classes.
Paul uses 4 set of tables to make his case:
In this Podcast, Paul, Chris, and Daryl describe the Sound Investing Portfolios and their background, rationale, construction, and performance.
00:00 - Intro
02:00 - DFA Background
05:47 - Portfolio Rationale
11:45 - Allocations
14:11 - Backtesting & Comparisons
19:32 - Rewards of Diversification
28:42 - Differing Good Times
32:40 - 70/30 US/Int'l Portfolios
35:05 - Which Funds?
39:08 - Close
During the Podcast the following tables...
In this insightful conversation, renowned financial expert Paul Merriman shares his wealth of knowledge and experience in investing. He discusses his journey from stockbroker to founding his own investment advisory firm, and eventually establishing the Merriman Financial Education Foundation. Paul delves into various topics, including:
✅ The importance of data-driven investing and understanding the math behind it
✅ His meeting with ...
The podcast starts with a brief history of the growth of the Merriman Financial Literacy Foundation. From it’s small beginning in December 2012, it has produced over 1000 videos, articles and podcasts, published 6 books, spoken at many national conferences, underwritten a university class on investing for non finance majors at Western Washington University, produced portfolios for do it yourself investors, produced recommended mut...
In this first Q&A podcast of 2025, Paul, Daryl, and Chris discuss several listener questions and expand on Paul's rebuttal of Big ERN's recent criticisms of diversifying with small-cap value.
0:00 – Introduction
0:29 – Responding to Big ERN's critique
2:11 – Small-cap value lumpsum vs. dollar-cost averaging
6:38 – Daryl's take on SCV's premium persistence
8:46 – Chris' take on SCV's premium persistence
15:50 – Paul highlig...
There has been a lot of anti small cap value articles and podcasts over the last several years. I have been asked many times whether I think the small cap value premium is a thing of the past.In this podcast I have addressed the most commonly discussed criticisms of small cap value. During the presentation I reference a blog entitled, "Small-Cap Value Stocks: Diversification or Di-WORSE-fication?"
The Early Retirement Now newsle...
On December 26, 2019 Paul recorded a podcast entitled, “Could This Be the #1 Reason to Invest in Index Funds?” We were shocked to learn that over 1,000,000 investors opened the podcast. In this podcast he addresses the topic again in “Could This Be the #1 Reason to Invest in Index Funds? Part 2”
The podcast reviews the well established index advantages and adds one that may be the biggest reason an investor is able to find comf...
Paul, Daryl, and Chris discuss the risks of investing and life.
Paul starts with an introduction and admission of his challenges managing risks related to diet and health. He then gets Chris and Daryl to chime in with their definitions and perspectives on risk.
Daryl then shares a framework for evaluating risk from his days as a systems engineer. The framework looks at risks in two dimensions: likelihood and impact (or severity...
While I was at the Bogleheads conference in Minneapolis earlier this year, I had a lengthy interview with Paula Pant.
I enjoyed the interview and found lots of questions and comments under the YouTube presentation that I wanted to answer.
While I wrote short comments on the site, I decided many of the questions were worthy of more discussion.Here is a link to the YouTube interview and podcast:
#1. “Most of my holdings are in c...
The podcast is dedicated to answering questions about:
Target date funds: “Do you think someone that simply maxes out their retirement accounts with target date funds and total market funds will be “fine”?
Selecting a distribution strategy: What advice can you give to a DIY investor who is trying to decide what to do about how they access their money to live on and how much to take out?
Buy and Hold vs. market timing: I believe...
Popular Podcasts
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.