"The cult of consulting suggests that if you simply had better advice from someone who knew more than you, your problems could be solved. Generally, the advice isn’t really the hard part. There’s endless good advice just a click away. The art is in creating the conditions for people to choose to act on the advice. Good advice unheeded is a waste for everyone involved. That’s why expensive consultants can stay in business, and why committing to a process before you’re sure of all the details makes it far more likely that you’ll succeed. We might not need better advice. We might simply need to do the work of being able to work with the good advice we already have." - Seth Godin

In This Edition

Truth Tellers Score Again!
Retiremeet
Latest MarketWatch Article
Latest Podcast

I am working on a project that is part of the Merriman Financial Literacy Program at Western Washington University. It includes the work of several of our Truth Tellers. I hope you are finding the Truth Tellers helpful in your quest to be a successful DIY investment advisor.

Here are a three TT articles worth reading-

Historical Returns For Stocks, Bonds, Cash, Real Estate and Gold
The tables and graphs are worth the effort if you are struggling with the idea of building more diversification into your portfolio.

Your Financial To-Do List for the Year Ahead

If you are looking for the ultimate to-do list for your financial planning calendar, Christine Benz has built it for you.

Spending It

Retirees are all faced with the decision of how to take their annual distributions. Jonathan Clements has written a wonderful article on the topic.

Retiremeet 2025

I just talked with Tom Cock this morning. His Annual Retiremeet Conference is filling up. If you want to attend the Retiremeet in person I suggest you make the reservation soon. As I mentioned last week, I will speak in person and will be around during the day to talk with investors. If you have a question do me a favor, send me the question so I can do some research if necessary. Also, I’m always interested in your comments about how we could make our site more useful. I look forward to seeing you there.

For those attending online there is a $5 charge, which is being donated to a Financial Literacy Program, no not ours!

MarketWatch- Which total market fund is best for long-term investors?

If you own an index fund, I’m guessing you’re probably satisfied. So long as it’s a no-load index fund with low expenses, you’ll probably do fine.

But some investors — and I hear from them frequently — are intent on squeezing more performance from the U.S. stock market, without embracing either market timing or active management.

Long considered the benchmark for the U.S. stock market, the S&P 500 includes 500 of the largest and most well-established U.S. companies that are considered less risky than smaller ones. This is the route favored by Warren Buffett. Read More.

Latest Podcast Why should small cap value make higher returns?

In this first Q&A podcast of 2025, Paul, Daryl, and Chris discuss several listener questions and expand on Paul's rebuttal of Big ERN's recent criticisms of diversifying with small-cap value.

Watch video here.

0:00 – Introduction

0:29 – Responding to Big ERN's critique

2:11 – Small-cap value lumpsum vs. dollar-cost averaging

6:38 – Daryl's take on SCV's premium persistence

8:46 – Chris' take on SCV's premium persistence

15:50 – Paul highlights the random timing of SCV vs. S&P500 returns

19:50 -- Are there good alternatives to Vanguard's Wellesley fund?

26:18 -- Does 2 Funds for Life mean no SCV in retirement?

29:35 -- Why not let Buffet manage our money in BRK.B?

33:52 -- What portfolio to get a 3.6% safe withdrawal rate in retirement?

38:53 -- Which accounts do we tap for our annual spending needs?