Dear Friends,
Already three weeks into this new year and, while I’m preparing a virtual presentation for the White Coat Investor’s Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference, February 9-12 in Phoenix, my team is full steam ahead on projects to keep you up-to-date on our latest research and resources for DIY investors at all stages of life.
In this week’s podcast and video, Chris Pedersen, Daryl Bahls and I “Zoom in” to discuss our plans for the next few months. Chris will update the Best-In-Class recommendations. Daryl will update all of the important tables, including: Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio, Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation, Accumulation and Distributions and the No Nonsense portfolio tables. (Currently found at: https://paulmerriman.com/best-advice/). And I will create a new presentation discussing the very popular “White Coat Investor” article by Dr. James Dahle, “150 Portfolios Better Than Yours.”
Next month I will record the presentation for our “sound investors” with updated numbers and additional information to help investors evaluate the portfolios for your personal use.
Why is this article important?
Jim Dahle’s article, “150 Portfolios Better Than Yours” (LINK TO LATEST UPDATE https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/150-portfolios-better-than-yours/) was originally published in 2014, has grown to over 200 portfolios. The list includes many of our portfolios. While there are thousands of portfolio strategies – and many investors spend their lives moving from one strategy to another – this list of 200 shines light on the fact that the key to choosing the right one(s) is to find the strategy you will use and maintain for a lifetime. That is, stay the course!
As far as we know, no one has studied which of 200 should be the best. But, it seems to me there are two meaningful ways to measure “the best”: the return you are likely to get and the risk of loss you will likely experience.
My presentation reviews 20 portfolio strategies, measuring return and risk in a way that I hope will help investors compare the portfolios so they can find the balance of risk and return to meet their personal needs.
Of the 20 portfolios we examined, the range of long-term returns was 10% to 14% on the equity portion. Of these 20 portfolios, 8 have considerably higher returns. We want investors to understand what these highest returning portfolios have in common, and what will likely make these portfolios better over the long term.
In regard to White Coat Investor, they provide a lot of valuable information for all investors, not just doctors. Jim and his team cover many investor issues, like student loans, insurance, taxes, and IRAs. To get a sense of the quality of their information I recommend these recent articles, “The Backdoor Roth Lives On” and “Can I Be My Own Financial Advisor? 8 Reasons You Can and Should Be”.
7 Things We Do Best
When it comes to personal finance, such as estate, retirement and tax planning, we all know there are many aspects to consider. We try our best to bring you links to experts we trust in these fields. However, we are a small organization and believe we can best serve you by focusing on helping do it yourself investors make seven of the most important financial decisions of their lifetime.
In our articles, podcasts, videos and books we touch on a lot of topics but here are the seven that we think will make the biggest difference in your financial future.
Retirement Investing with Dr. Robert H. Pass
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with/interview by Dr. Robert H. Pass, MD, host of the Pediheart Podcast. Dr. Pass is Professor of Pediatrics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Division Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and Director of Pediatric Cardiac Electrophysiology Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital.
In his notes, he wrote: To end 2021 we speak with noted investing author and authority Paul Merriman about his thoughts on how to simply invest one’s 403b retirement plan for a good investment return. What are the many benefits of target date funds and why does Mr. Merriman love them but suggests a simple way to do even better?
During the podcast Dr. Pass offers a free copy of “We’re Talking Millions!” to his listeners by emailing him. You don’t need to contact him for your free copy of our book but, rather, get it here now, and please share it with others! You can direct them to: https://paulmerriman.com/signup/
Questions & Answers
In our latest podcast/video, Daryl, Chris and I review 2021 returns and answer the following questions. I hope you’ll watch or listen to discover our answers. Access and search our archive of Q&A’s on our website at “Ask Paul”.
Personal Story
“Thank you Paul. Perhaps the best YouTube video you’ve made as of yet. I was so focused on my investments as a pre-retiree – to minimize drawdowns in the upcoming de-cumulation phase of life – that I lost focus on the power of compounding for the young teens. I will open 2 custodial Roth IRA’s today. Nice job sir.”
Helping you build a better financial future,
Paul
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