“Something that everyone knows is not worth knowing.”

Bernard Baruch

In This Edition

• A Note from Paul: Greetings from Stockholm
• This Week’s Podcast: They’re back, Talking Real Money - Investing Talk
• Truth Teller of the Week: Tom Cock & Don McDonald
• Key Characteristics of the Most Common Investment Scams
• From a Listener

A Note from Paul

Greetings from Stockholm

Our last stop on our 14-day cruise around the Baltic Sea was Stockholm, Sweden. What a magnificent ending to a trip that took us to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Denmark. What blew me over was the fact that I didn’t gain a pound on the trip — though there is definitely something fishy about that reading, since I know for a fact I moved one notch on my belt along the way.

On page 189 of Ben Carlson’s Risk & Reward, Table 18.1 lists stock-market returns for developed markets by decade, from the 1970s through the 2010s. In all but one decade, Sweden outperformed the United States — and in the one decade the U.S. came first, Sweden came second. With the exception of a single decade, Sweden beat Japan as well.

As Ben says, “Diversification is a survival strategy. It might not protect you against bad years or even bad cycles. What it’s meant to do is protect you against terrible decades. Every country has them. Even the United States.”

Next week’s podcast will compare the returns of the Avantis and DFA ETFs to the indexes and average fund categories — and I will try to catch up on the many questions that came in while I was at sea.

This Week’s Podcast

They’re back, Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Recently I sat down with Tom Cock for a special edition of Talking Real Money — a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of indexing, the proposed changes to the S&P 500, and why investors should understand both the strengths and the limits of traditional index funds. We talked about why firms like Dimensional and Avantis take a more flexible, evidence-based approach, what 100 years of market history in Dimensional’s Matrix book can teach us about staying disciplined through downturns, how to think about risk and bear markets, and a simple strategy for helping a newborn build real retirement wealth over time. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

▶ Listen to the Episode

Truth Teller of the Week

Tom Cock & Don McDonald

This week’s Truth Tellers are two of my oldest friends in this business — Tom Cock and Don McDonald, the voices behind Talking Real Money. For decades they have given straight, commission-free, common-sense guidance to investors who simply want the truth. Tom is the one who pulled me back into this work 30 years ago, and I can’t think of two people I trust more to look out for the everyday investor.

See why Tom and Don made our Truth Tellers list →

Worth Knowing

Key Characteristics of the Most Common Investment Scams

Knowing how to spot a financial scam is one of the simplest ways to protect both your money and your personal information. AAII has put together a special report on the key characteristics of the most common investment scams — the red flags worth committing to memory before they ever land in your inbox.

Read the AAII special report →

From a Listener

“Super duper interview! Love Paul and Ben and the questions and comedy were exceptional!!!”

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

From Paul Merriman

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Greetings from Stockholm — and a lesson from Sweden