Hi Paul and Team,
"Happy Thanksgiving! I am beyond grateful for your work. Just filled with appreciation. You’ve changed my future life, and my current life- Plus the lives of people near me. I can only pay it forward as I can never pay you all back."

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Every Thanksgiving morning I get up between 3 and 4 and spend about 3 hours writing a list of all the people, and groups of people, I am thankful have been in my life or are presently in my life.

It reminds me how unbelievably lucky I have been in finding people to help our Foundation and in finding people the Foundation can help. As I put together the list that focuses on the work of our Foundation it includes those we are helping as well as those who are helping us reach our readers, listeners and viewers.

My husband died and now I need to take over the family finances. Should I hire the adviser who brings cookies and wants me to buy an annuity?

It is reasonable to conclude that we will have over a million people who will use our information at some time during the year. We are so thankful for the many organizations that make that possible: Marketwatch.com, American Association of Individual Investors Journal and their chapters, Youtube, Western Washington University, Next Generation Personal Finance, Morningstar, Bogleheads, high school and university teachers, Bainbridge Community Foundation, Bainbridge Senior Center, Amazon, M1 and many websites where our work is often mentioned or featured in a podcast. During 2024 those include “Forget About Money,” "Afford Anything,” “Choose FI,” “The Rational Reminder,” Rob Berger, and Rob Pass.

Of course we are thankful for all the folks who follow our work, and feed us questions and comments so we can focus on solving your problems. We also know a lot of the new followers come from the recommendations from current those who have found a level of trust in our research. Those referrals are golden.

While my wife and I have been able to cover most of the annual costs of the foundation, as well as the Western projects, we do have additional expenses. We are very thankful for your contributions.

We know we don’t have all the answers to your financial questions but we do know a number of other “teachers” we believe are worth listening to. We want to thank the Truth Tellers for all they do to help give investors direction that is meant to steer an investor in the right direction.

There are a handful of people who have been involved for most or all of the last 13 years. It is difficult to express how important they have been to our success. Margie Baxley and Reneé Ashley, who are our only paid employees have been responsible for our website and social media. Renee joined us in 2020 and Margie has been with us since almost the first day we started the Foundation.

Finally, Chris Pedersen (writing, research, director), Daryl Bahls (research and creator of over 200 tables a year), Paul Heys (writing and director) and Rich Buck (writing) have put in thousands of volunteer hours over the last 13 years. They deserve a standing ovation! Thank you for all you have done to help change the financial futures for thousands of people.

And finally the person most responsible for all of this happening. There would be no foundation without the gentle push I got from my wife, Zan, as I was getting ready to retire. We were selling our ownership in the Merriman Wealth Management and both agreed we should leave some money to Western Washington University. I was suggesting putting $1 million into an endowment to fund ten $5,000 scholarships annually. All we had to do was write the check and commit to having lunch with 10 scholarship recipients once a year.

Zan asked if there wasn’t something more we could do that would help the 10 students a year. Out of that suggestion came the Foundation and the commitment to create a class that was meant to help non-finance majors prepare to take the best financial steps after graduation.

We decided not to commit the million dollars to an endowment but instead to put the money in a Foundation and commit an annual payment to underwrite Personal Finance 216. That also allowed us to do many more things with the Foundation.

What was supposed to be a chicken salad lunch with 10 students each year has grown to over 700 articles, videos and podcasts. Plus, Zan and I are now working on a program at Western that will require every student of have about 40 hours of financial literacy.

Latest Podcast- The Magic of Goal Setting

As this podcast is being released on Thanksgiving Day Paul begins by thanking those people who choose to follow the Foundation’s work, those who forward our articles, podcasts and videos to others, and those who donate time and money to the Foundation.

He also addresses the challenges of living at three different homes (Bainbridge Island, Portland and Rancho Mirage) in 2024. We know some donations have been lost in the mail.

Our concern is people will declare a charitable deduction that did not actually happen.

By the way, the permanent address of the Foundation is now -

2445 NW Westover Road #311,

Portland, Oregon 97210

Paul comments on his challenges in recommending cryptocurrency.

Finally he discusses the life changing impact of goal setting.

The following are articles and videos on goal setting from some of the Truth Tellers Paul recommends.

⁠Jim Dahle⁠ writes to young doctors but the information is usually good for all people who are putting together a financial plan. ⁠The Power of Focus in Your Financial Life⁠

Jonathan Clements is struggling with cancer and for anyone facing death sooner than expected, and the goal setting that might be considered, I think you will find his journey worth reading. ⁠The C Word.⁠

William Bernstein has recently updated his best selling , ⁠“The Four Pillars of Investing.” ⁠ In this short introduction you will hopefully decided it’s worth reading the rest of the book.

Here is a podcast that you won’t want to miss. Larry Swedroe is interviewed by another Truth Teller, Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore. The book they discuss has been updated since the interview. ⁠"Your Complete Guide to a Successful and Secure Retirement"⁠ is one of the best books I know for those trying to address the many important retirement goals.

While Christine Benz is the Director of Personal Finance at Morningstar I thought it might be interesting to get her take on the non-financial plans we should consider. Her new book has become a best seller. ⁠How to Retire: 20 lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement.

Giving Tuesday- December 3, 2024

This Giving Tuesday, support the Merriman Financial Education Foundation and help empower individuals with the tools to make informed financial decisions. Your donation makes financial literacy accessible to all. https://donate.paulmerriman.com

The Magic of Goal Setting

Interview with Brian Barnes- Founder and CEO of M1 Finance

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In This Edition
Happy Thanksgiving
Latest Podcast
Donation