"Good luck is when opportunity meets preparation, while bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality."

Eliyahu Goldratt

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When I address college kids I make a big point of discussing the importance of the randomness of life. Almost every day something may happen that will change the direction of your life in a meaningful way. And you may not realize the impact for many years.

Here are a four examples from my life. The interesting part of my story is these chance happenings have had an impact on all of the people who follow our work.

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In 2012 I was preparing to retire without a life plan. I had the financial plan under control but I really didn’t have a life plan.

Due to series of personal events I ended up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with the responsibility of hosting one of the featured writers who was there to speak at the Annual San Miguel de Allende Writers’ and Literacy Festival.

While I had attended in the past I had not participated in the workshops. As I was responsible for transporting our guests, I decided to take a class on self publishing. The presenter was Aysha Griffin.

Aysha’s 50 minute class gave me the confidence that I could do it! Well, the reality was I could do it but I needed her help. That led to Aysha working with me on our first three books and it led to a working relationship for over 10 years until her unexpected death in 2023. By the way, it was Aysha who was responsible for putting together our website, including hiring Margie Baxley and Renee Ashley, two very talented people who are still working on our project.

Without Aysha it is possible we wouldn’t have our Foundation!

The starting of the Foundation was another rather random event. This time it was a simple comment from my wife that motivated the earliest work of our Foundation.

On the last day of 2012 we were selling our ownership in the Merriman Wealth Management. My plan was to take part of the proceeds and donate it to Western Washington University to endow 10 annual scholarships. It would be quite simple. We would give Western the money and they would do everything else including investing the money, selecting the students, give the students their scholarship and each year my wife and I would attend a lunch where we would meet the recipients.

When I explained it all to my wife, Zan, she said something that blew a hole a mile wide in my plans. She simply asked, “Isn’t there something more you can do for these students?”

I don’t remember whether the idea to support a class on personal investing came immediately or it took a couple of days but the idea came and instead of a setting up a simple scholarship fund I took on the challenge of getting WWU to offer a class designed to help non-finance majors.

So instead of setting up an endowment we set up our Foundation to meet the annual cost of the class. And now our Foundation is instrumental in establishing a financial literacy program for all students who pass through Western.

Who would know what the challenge to do more for the students would lead to?

The next “randomness” example, and it had a huge impact on the formation of our Foundation, was the unlikely retirement of one of the dearest friends of my life.

In 2006, Professor Lewis Mandell, considered one of the founding fathers of the financial literacy movement, moved from Buffalo, NY to Bainbridge Island, Washington (where we lived) to retire.

That was a life changer for me. We become good friends and he was extremely helpful in establishing our Foundation and negotiating the contract with WWU.

And now, another stroke of amazing luck. In our new Portland, Oregon condo, literally 2 stories above us lives Bill Bernstein, one of our Truth Tellers. We had lunch together yesterday and I found out I have met my match. Bill is as passionate about helping do it yourself investors do better as I am. And in our first conversation we have already started figuring out how to work together to help others.

It’s going to be fun and I hope it will be another step toward better investing results for you and your family.

M1 Finance Update

What Is M1 Finance?

We are excited to affiliate with M1 Finance, an innovative, commission-free, automated online brokerage firm designed to help you build wealth by investing in a target allocation.

You can easily buy Paul Merriman’s recommended Sound Investing portfolios commission-free, starting with as little as $100 to invest. And because M1 Finance uses fractional share investing and automatically invests any time your cash balance exceeds $10, dividends and new contributions will immediately go to work. You will find links to Paul’s M1 Finance “Pies” at the bottom of this page.

Put your investments on autopilot. M1 Finance supports automatic scheduled transfers and investing so that you can remove the emotion and nuisance of manual steps.

Rebalance with new contributions or by clicking a button. M1 Finance first applies new contributions to under-target assets, so every contribution nudges you back towards your desired allocation. If that’s not enough to keep your allocation on track, you can also trigger a commission-free rebalance at any time, which will happen in the next trading window. And, if you sign up through our affiliate link to M1 Finance – which costs you nothing extra – you’ll be helping sustain the work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, making it possible for us to improve and maintain recommendations into the future.

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"The tools and content you provide have changed my life! In particular, the quilt charts, the lifetime investment calculator, and the summaries from Chris on the 2 funds for life strategy have been most impactful – along with the many videos and podcasts that explore real questions, with real, specific answers. I have passed on your content, along with some demos to everyone I know – several are work friends who just had babies, so they were particularly interested in your recommendations on how to save for a new child." D.C.

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Call To Action!

Here are a few simple ways to support the financial education work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, a registered 501(c)3. In so doing you help better the lives of individuals, families and communities, creating more opportunities for all.

Subscribe to our weekly “Sound Investing” podcast, available on your favorite listening platforms and leave a review. Tell us what you think!
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and hit the thumbs up, subscribe, leave a comment and share the link with your social media and friends.
Use our M1 Finance affiliate link to set up a brokerage account and use our portfolio suggestions. If you fund your account with a minimum of $1,000, our foundation will receive a one-time affiliate fee —at no cost to you—which helps support our financial education projects.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Buy our latest books, We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Retirement and 2 Funds for Life: A quest for simple & effective investing strategies; all the profits help support our work.
Support our mission by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation.

In This EditionHow lucky can we get?M1 Finance UpdateLatest Podcast

In This Edition
How lucky can we get?
M1 Finance Update
Latest Podcast