“The goal isn’t to get rich. Rather, the goal is to have enough money to lead the life we want.”

— Jonathan Clements

In This Edition

›Truth Teller of the Week: Jonathan Clements

›This Week’s Podcast: AVGV, Truth Tellers, AI and Finding Your Why

›From a Listener

Truth Teller of the Week

Jonathan Clements

This week’s podcast asks the question at the center of everything: what do you want your money to do for the people you love and the life you hope to live? No one wrote about that question more clearly, or for longer, than Jonathan Clements — the source of this week’s opening quote.

For nearly two decades Jonathan was the personal finance columnist at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote more than a thousand columns making the same patient case: spend with care, index broadly, keep costs low, and remember that money is a tool for a life — not the goal of one. He later founded HumbleDollar, where he shared that wisdom freely right up to the end of his life in 2025 — including some of the most honest and courageous writing about money and mortality ever published.

If this week’s episode gets you thinking about your “why,” Jonathan’s book How to Think About Money is the finest companion I know. His voice is missed — but his work is still doing exactly what he built it to do.

Meet Jonathan Clements

This Week’s Podcast

AVGV, Truth Tellers, AI and Finding Your Why

This may be one of the most important podcasts I’ve shared since starting the Foundation in 2012.

This week I’m in Minneapolis speaking to about 100 hourly financial planners at the Garrett Planning Network annual retreat — and learning everything I can about how hourly advice can serve do-it-yourself investors.

In this episode, I show you in real time how I use AI alongside our Truth Tellers. A new Ben Felix video made the point that most people save without knowing their real “why.” So I asked ChatGPT to think it through, and what came back is worth your time: six steps to creating your why, ending with the order it believes everything should follow — first the purpose, second the plan, and third the portfolio.

In the second part of the podcast I answer a question many of you have asked: build the worldwide all-value portfolio yourself with five Avantis ETFs, or just buy AVGV, a worldwide portfolio of value ETFs? Over the last three years, AVGV compounded at 21.1% (up 77.4%), while the do-it-yourself five-fund version compounded at 22.2% (up 82.6%) with no rebalancing. Doing the work likely earns more — but a recent Morningstar study suggests many investors do better buying the package, because the package never loses its nerve and automatically takes care of rebalancing the portfolio.

This is one episode where I would appreciate your feedback: are further examples of AI use of interest to you? Email me at paul@paulmerriman.com.

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From a Listener

“You’ve turned a guy with millions of mistakes in his past into a reasonably knowledgeable investor through watching every one of your podcasts, interviews and bootcamps.”

— From a listener

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All the best to you and your family,
Paul Merriman

From Paul Merriman

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