“You can’t tune out the massive industry of investment prediction unless you want to; otherwise you’ll never have the fortitude to stop listening. But if you can plug your ears to every attempt (by anyone) to predict what the markets will do, you will outperform nearly every other investor alive over the long run. Only the mantra of ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care’ will get you there.”

— Jason Zweig

In This Edition

›The Most Important Hour of My Investment Education

›Truth Teller Articles Worth Your Time

›This Week’s Podcast: The Investing Myths That Cost a Fortune

›Testimonials

From Paul

The Most Important Hour of My Investment Education

Over 30 years ago, I attended a two-day workshop at Dimensional Fund Advisors that became a turning point in my investment education.

The academics who spoke made a compelling case for evidence-based investing. They explained markets, diversification, risk and expected returns in ways that strengthened my belief that disciplined investors had a better chance of success than those trying to predict what the market would do next.

But the real game changer came from a one-hour presentation by Weston Wellington.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Weston would become one of the most important Truth Tellers in my 60-plus-year journey of trying to help investors build better financial futures.

What made his presentation so powerful?

I think it was because Weston wasn’t simply teaching us what to invest in. He was teaching us how to think about investing.

Most investors live in an environment built around predictions. Turn on financial television. Open an investment magazine. Read the financial news. Somebody is always telling us which stocks are attractive, where interest rates are headed, whether the market is overvalued, what the Federal Reserve will do next or which investment will lead during the coming year.

It creates the impression that successful investing requires knowing what happens next.

Weston helped me see something very different.

The market already contains the collective expectations of millions of buyers and sellers. Prices change when new information arrives — and by definition, genuinely new information is something we didn’t already know.

That means the investor’s job doesn’t have to be predicting the next surprise.

It can be much simpler: diversify broadly, keep costs reasonable, understand the risks you are taking, maintain the discipline of “staying the course” and let markets work for you.

That sounds so obvious today.

It wasn’t obvious to me then.

And apparently I wasn’t alone.

Weston joined Dimensional about the time they came into my life, and he spent more than three decades teaching investors and advisers. At his retirement, a colleague recalled that countless clients had described an “aha moment” that began with something Weston had taught them. His presentations didn’t merely transfer information. They changed the way people interpreted the financial world.

That is a rare gift.

A Truth Teller Doesn’t Tell You What Will Happen

One reason I eventually came to think of Weston as a Truth Teller is that his message wasn’t based on claiming superior knowledge of the future.

Quite the opposite.

Again and again, he examined confident predictions made by very smart people and compared them with what actually happened.

The lesson wasn’t that experts are foolish.

The lesson was that the future is extraordinarily difficult to predict — and your financial security shouldn’t depend upon somebody doing it successfully.

That idea had a profound effect on me.

Once you accept it, much of the investment industry’s daily noise becomes less important.

Instead of asking:

“What should I do because of today’s news?”

you begin asking:

“Has anything changed about me?”

Have my goals changed? Has my need for money changed? Has my tolerance for risk changed? Has my time horizon changed?

If not, why should today’s headline require me to change a carefully constructed long-term portfolio?

That is an extraordinarily liberating way to invest.

The Greatest Teachers Change the Student

Weston has now retired from Dimensional. As part of that transition, he recorded an interview reflecting on investing and the lessons he spent decades teaching. I encourage you to watch it.

But there is also a much shorter video I hope you will watch. For me, it captures something larger than investment education.

Great teachers don’t simply give students more facts. They cause something to click. The student suddenly sees a familiar problem through a different lens.

That is what Weston Wellington did for me.

I entered that two-day Dimensional workshop already an investment professional. I left thinking differently about how markets work, what investors can and cannot control, and what my responsibility should be when helping other people make financial decisions.

Decades later, I still feel the influence of that hour.

And it makes me think about the work our Foundation does today.

We have produced hundreds of articles, podcasts, videos, tables and presentations. But information isn’t the ultimate objective.

The objective is the “aha moment.”

It is the moment an investor finally understands why starting early matters.

Why half a percent matters.

Why diversification matters.

Why costs matter.

Why chasing last year’s winner is so dangerous.

Why nobody needs to know what the market will do next in order to become a successful investor.

Weston Wellington gave me one of those moments.

My hope is that somewhere along the way, our work has done the same thing for someone else.

Because perhaps the greatest return a teacher can earn isn’t having a student remember what was taught. It’s having the student see the world differently because of it.

I thought I was going to Dimensional to learn about better investments. Weston Wellington helped me learn something much more valuable: a better way to be an investor.

Truth Teller Articles

Worth Your Time This Week

A few recent pieces from our Truth Tellers that I think are well worth reading and watching.

I Thought I Had These 3 Retirement Topics Figured Out. Here’s Why I Changed My Mind

Lessons for retirees and preretirees on target-date funds, TIPS funds, and asking for help.

Christine Benz

10 Things You Need to Know About Investing

On risk and return.

Ben Carlson

Ben Felix on the Bogleheads

Includes a segment on all-in-one funds (jump to 43:19).

Ben Felix

How to Get Rich Slowly

George Sisti

The 3 Kinds of Guaranteed Retirement Income (And Why You Rarely Get All Three)

Rob Berger

This Week’s Podcast

The Investing Myths That Cost a Fortune

It was a pleasure to be invited back on System Trader with Jack Lempart. We covered a lot of ground — from the biggest mistake of my own career and a $20 bet with my 13-year-old grandson, to the myths that keep people from investing, how to grade what’s actually inside an ETF, and where the biggest premiums really come from. Watch the full conversation below.

▶ Listen Now

▶ Watch on YouTube

Testimonials

“Paul M and Team. Thank you for all you do. Paul, I cannot say enough about how valuable your information is and the awesome way in which you teach. Thank you for all you do, forever. Bless you!!”

— From a listener

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

Resources & Ways to Connect

Free Book Download

Get Paul's latest book — completely free. Thousands of investors have used it to build a better financial future.

📚 Download Free Book

Latest Podcast

Sound Investing — practical, no-nonsense financial wisdom you can act on today.

🎙️ Listen Now

YouTube Channel

Hundreds of videos on investing, retirement planning, and building long-term wealth.

▶️ Watch on YouTube

Follow on TikTok

Short, powerful investing tips delivered daily. Share with the next generation of investors.

🎵 Follow on TikTok

Support the Foundation

Your donation helps us continue providing free financial education to investors everywhere. Every dollar makes a difference.

❤️ Make a Donation

Three New Truth Tellers — and Why They Don't Always Agree