“Stay the course. No matter what happens, stick to your program. I’ve said ‘stay the course’ a thousand times, and I meant it every time. It is the most important single piece of investment wisdom I can give to you.”

— John C. Bogle

In This Edition

›Bringing Financial Freedom to New Audiences

›Truth Teller of the Week: Ben Carlson

›This Week’s Podcast: Stuff Happens: Perspective From Ben Carlson’s Risk and Reward

›From a Viewer

From Paul

Bringing Financial Freedom to New Audiences

One of the great joys of my work today is speaking to people who are just beginning their financial journey.

Last week I had the privilege of spending more than three hours with 89 graduating nurses at Texas A&M University. Together we explored one simple but life-changing idea:

How can a handful of smart financial decisions add millions of dollars to your lifetime financial security?

We talked about turning human capital into financial capital, the power of saving early, evidence-based investing, avoiding costly mistakes, and why financial freedom is built one decision at a time.

Many of you have asked what these presentations look like, so we’re making this one available for you to watch.

▶ Watch the Texas A&M Presentation

While this presentation was designed as a comprehensive three-hour program for graduating nursing students, I also enjoy presenting much shorter programs.

Topics can be customized for:

• Colleges and universities
• Investment clubs
• Employer retirement and 401(k) groups
• Community organizations
• Service clubs
• Professional associations
• Churches and nonprofit groups

Presentations can range from 30 minutes to three hours, depending on your audience and objectives.

My mission is simple:

Help people make a handful of financial decisions that can change the course of their lives.

If you know of a group that could benefit from an educational presentation—either in person or by Zoom—I would be delighted to explore the possibility.

There is never a charge for these educational programs.

If you’d like to discuss a presentation for your organization, simply send me an email with a phone number: paul@paulmerriman.com

I hope you’ll enjoy the Texas A&M presentation. Who knows? It might inspire someone you care about to begin a lifetime of wise financial decisions.

By the way, if you want to see what the students had to say about the presentation, check this out.

Truth Teller of the Week

Ben Carlson

With this week’s podcast built around his newest book, there’s no better time to spotlight Ben Carlson. Ben is the author of the A Wealth of Common Sense blog, where for more than a decade he has done something rare in financial writing: taken the scariest moments in market history and turned them into reasons for calm.

His specialty is perspective. Where headlines shout about crashes, corrections, and bubbles, Ben quietly pulls up the data — the worst days, the deepest drawdowns, the longest recoveries — and shows that the bad stuff is normal, survivable, and already priced into the long-term returns investors count on. It’s the same message at the heart of Risk and Reward, and it’s why I keep coming back to his work: he doesn’t promise the future will be smooth. He proves you don’t need it to be.

Clear writing, honest data, and no predictions — that’s what makes Ben a Truth Teller.

Meet Ben Carlson

This Week’s Podcast

Stuff Happens: Perspective From Ben Carlson’s Risk and Reward

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 different ways: the bad stuff is normal, it’s happened before, and it will happen again. The goal isn’t to avoid it — it’s to expect it, so you can stay the course.

Along the way, Paul walks through:

• The 10 worst days, months, and years in market history — and how the market behaved 1, 5, and 10 years later
• Why bonds turn a 43% stock loss into something far gentler, and why a simple 60/40 has never had a losing 20-year period
• How stocks actually perform before, during, and after a recession (the average is a gain)
• The “dead cat bounces” of 2000–2002 and why three years of false hope wear investors down
• What a century of international returns says about putting all your eggs in one basket
• The most quietly important number in investing: the market’s average daily return of 0.03% — a lifetime of baby steps

The theme underneath it all: future returns will likely look a lot like the past. We simply have no way to know the sequence — and that’s exactly why realistic expectations, low costs, and broad diversification matter more than any forecast.

The biggest enemy of the investor, as the data keeps showing, isn’t the market. It’s the investor.

BRINGING FINANCIAL FREEDOM TO NEW AUDIENCES

Last week I spent more than three hours with 89 graduating nurses at Texas A&M University, exploring one life-changing idea: how a handful of smart financial decisions can add millions of dollars to your lifetime financial security. Many of you asked to see what these presentations look like, so we’re making this one available to watch (link below).

LINKS

• Ben Carlson, Risk and Reward (Foundation earns when you use this link)
• Texas A&M nursing school presentation (3+ hour video)
• Texas A&M student feedback
• Mike Piper, Social Security Made Simple / other titles
• Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies
• Free books from Paul Merriman
• Boot Camp series & tables

▶ Listen Now

From a Viewer

“Great conversation! I discovered Paul’s channel a few years ago and made some changes to my portfolio as I was going into retirement. I diversified into a buy and hold index portfolio. My mother got me interested in investing in the early ’90s and I watched her invest in the ’80s by calling her broker every time she wanted to purchase a stock. And I remember Fidelity trading fees! So glad it is easier today and cheaper! Teaching my nieces how to invest for retirement today using the Merriman buy and hold strategy. Thanks so much for all the shared knowledge!”

— Comment on YouTube about Paul’s interview with Ben Carlson

Thanks for listening, for sharing this information with others, and for your generous donations. And please keep getting the free We’re Talking Millions link into the hands of people who might be helped.

All the best to you and your family,
Paul Merriman

From Paul Merriman

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