"Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate."

– William A. Ward

In This Edition
Truth Teller Tim Ranzetta and NGPF.org have done it again!.
Bogleheads Conference- Early Bird Registration
Texas Becomes 29th State to Require Personal Finance Course for High School Graduation
Latest Podcast
Testimonial

Truth Teller Tim Ranzetta and NGPF.org have done it again!.

The NGPF Mission 2030 Fund is a nonprofit advocacy affiliate of Next Gen Personal Finance and provides technical support to policy makers in Texas, as it does in all states in pursuit of its goal to guarantee all high school students in the United States will be guaranteed to take a personal finance course before graduation. NGPF Mission 2030 Fund’s advocacy has led 19 states to pass laws ensuring a guaranteed personal finance course for high school students.

Texas Becomes 29th State to Require Personal Finance Course for High School Graduation with Passage of HB 27

On June 20, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 27 into law, making Texas the 29th state to guarantee a personal finance course for all high school students, starting with the class of 2030.

“As a result of this legislation, 76 percent of high school students in the U.S. will now be guaranteed to take a standalone Personal Finance course,” said Yanely Espinal, Advocate for NGPF Mission 2030 and Director of Educational Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a leading nonprofit dedicated to providing high-quality personal finance curriculum and professional development at no-cost to educators and school districts. “This landmark policy is evidence of the strong, bipartisan support for equipping Texas students with essential real-world financial fundamentals.”

Representative Ken King (R - Canadian) jointly authored HB 27 with Representative Linda Garcia (D - Austin) to ensure that every student graduates with the financial knowledge needed to make informed decisions about money, from budgeting and understanding products and services offered by local banks and credit unions, to building credit and investing.

Senator Pete Flores (R–Pleasanton) sponsored the companion bill, SB 625 in the Texas Senate, playing a key role in advancing the effort.

“Guaranteeing every high school student a comprehensive financial education is essential for fostering lifelong self-reliance and economic competency,” said Representative Ken King.

Representative Linda Garcia commented, “With the passage of this bill, the Texas House has made it clear that we are prioritizing our students and preparing them to enter the workforce and manage their own finances. I’m grateful to Chairman King for his continued work on financial literacy initiatives and Speaker Burrows for making this a priority in the Texas House. This bill will make a material impact on the number of students graduating with the knowledge and skills they need to be financially prepared for life after high school.”

The bill is structured to minimize fiscal impact by utilizing existing resources and free, open-source instructional materials, ensuring statewide implementation without significant new expenditures. The requirement goes into effect with the incoming first-year class for the 2026–2027 school year.

Educators and community leaders widely agree that requiring financial literacy education will close a critical gap and prepare young Texans for the economic realities they’ll face upon graduation.

Vincent Branch, a longtime educator and leader in Houston ISD shared, “My own financial education came from on-the-job training and costly mistakes. Wouldn’t we rather our young people learn these valuable lessons in our public schools, rather than in the school of ‘hard knocks,’ as I and so many other adults in Texas did?”

Teachers have demonstrated strong readiness for this change. Texas teachers have completed nearly 20,000 cumulative hours of free professional development workshops with Next Gen Personal Finance. These sessions vary in topic from taxes and investing, to consumer skills and new types of credit.

This legislation reflects growing national momentum as Texas joins a majority of states in recognizing the importance of equipping students with practical financial skills for lifelong success. The NGPF Mission 2030 Fund, a nonprofit that advocates for this policy in all states, is a supporter of HB 27.

Bogleheads Conference- Early Bird Registration

Just a quick reminder for today: early bird pricing for this year’s Bogleheads Conference is ending soon. (Monday, June 30th is the final day.) If you’re considering joining us for the conference, now’s the time to register!

Our lineup of speakers this year is impressive! In addition to the Bogleheads regulars such as Bill Bernstein, Christine Benz, Allan Roth, Rick Ferri, and others, you’ll get to hear from experts such as John Rekenthaler, Cameron Huddleston, Paul Merriman, and more. IRA expert Ed Slott will be joining us, and estate planning attorney Jenny Rozelle (whom many attendees listed as their favorite speaker from last year’s conference) will be returning. We’ll also hear from Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji.

You can find more information and register here:
https://boglecenter.net/2025conference/

Now is also a great time to secure your hotel room at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio if you have not yet done so. You can use this link to get our discounted group rate.

The Bogle Center aims to run these conferences “at cost,” and all of the speakers are volunteering their time. What this means for you: the Bogleheads Conference is an incredible value, relative to what you are likely to find from other financial conferences.

Latest Podcast: The SPIVA Report- Proof You Can Buy!

Today, we're diving into something super important for anyone interested in mutual funds: the ⁠SPIVA Report⁠, it's a big deal, and we'll break down why.

But before we get to that, a quick note about August 4th. Chris, Daryl, and I are getting together that day to figure out how we can do even more to help you, not just now, but for the rest of your life as we all get closer to retirement. This is a huge goal, and we'd love your input! What can we do to improve our educational materials? Please email me your ideas at ⁠paul@paulmerriman.com⁠. We're thinking about everything, from AI's role to helping you build a portfolio that truly lasts a lifetime, send your thoughts my way!

The SPIVA Report: Active vs. Passive Investing

Alright, let's talk ⁠SPIVA⁠. This report has been around since 2002, tracking the performance of active versus passive mutual funds. They analyze virtually every actively managed fund, comparing them to appropriate market indexes. They go to great lengths to ensure fair, "apples-to-apples" comparisons.

A crucial aspect they address is survivorship bias. Many underperforming funds get merged or liquidated. If you were investing, these funds were part of your initial choices. SPIVA accounts for all funds, not just the ones that survived, giving a much more accurate picture. This is a key difference from other reports that only look at surviving funds, which can make active management look better than it is. They also track style consistency – ensuring funds stick to their stated investment approach, unlike some active managers who might "drift" in their investments.

What the Data Reveals: The Long-Term Advantage

While single years can show active managers doing okay, the real story unfolds over longer periods. Let's look at large-cap core funds (like those tracking the S&P 500):

1 year: ~76% underperform.
10 years: 96% underperform!
15 years: 97% underperform!
20 years: 93% underperform.

This is a powerful reason why I advocate for index funds. They're built on a formula, not on human managers trying to guess market winners. Across almost all equity asset classes, over 90% of actively managed funds underperform over 20 years.

Why? The first advantage for index funds is lower expenses. While active fund fees have come down, they're still a major factor. The biggest hidden risk, though, is manager's picks and timing. Active managers try to beat the market with individual stock selections, but the data shows it's incredibly risky. (By the way the report doesn’t address taxes on active funds and that can be another 1% drain annually.) SPIVA's quartile data highlights this: for small-cap value over five years, the top 25% of active funds started at 10% or more. But the bottom 25% earned significantly less than 7.8%. This means you're taking on volatility and the risk of vastly underperforming your chosen asset class.

The report directly compares index returns to the average active fund in the same asset class. For small-cap value over 10 years, the index compounded at 8.2%, while the average active fund hit 7.3% – nearly a 1% difference! Over 20 years, for small-cap VALUE funds, the index returned 9% versus 7.4% for the average fund. These seemingly small differences translate into millions of dollars over a lifetime.

Survivorship & Patience

Another eye-opening stat: over 20 years, only 36% of all domestic funds are still in business. For large-cap growth, where the action has been recently, only 26% of funds from 20 years ago are still around. This suggests poor performance led to closures or mergers, hiding underperformance from investors.

In the end, you, the investor, are the hardest worker. Your discipline to stay the course during tough times is paramount.

The SPIVA report is a quality piece of research, factual and fair. While the future won't be identical to the past, it often "rhymes." The longer your investment horizon, the more likely choosing index funds (traditional or non-traditional) will lead to success, avoiding performance that may be more luck than skill. Patience is key, and we want you to have patience in owning funds with a very high probability of success.

We are rooting for your investment success, not just for you, but for your children and grandchildren! So, good luck, and don't forget to send those suggestions for our August 4th meeting to ⁠paul@paulmerriman.com⁠.

Testimonial

"I am an 16 year old from Bainbridge Washington. I have listened to every single one of your podcasts up to the bootcamp series. I have also read your book, “We’re talking millions”. I would like to thank you for helping me understand investing better and helping me set myself up for a brighter future. Because of the knowledge I have learned from you, I was able to convince my parents to meet with a financial consultant and now they have opened an Roth IRA."

The SPIVA Report- Proof You Can Buy!

June Q&A with Paul, Chris and Daryl

How to make sure you don’t run out of money in retirement

In This Edition Truth Teller Tim Ranzetta and NGPF.org have done it again!.Bogleheads Conference- Early Bird RegistrationTexas Becomes 29th State to Require Personal Finance Course for High School GraduationLatest PodcastTestimonial

In This Edition
Truth Teller Tim Ranzetta and NGPF.org have done it again!.
Bogleheads Conference- Early Bird Registration
Texas Becomes 29th State to Require Personal Finance Course for High School Graduation
Latest Podcast
Testimonial

Great News for Financial Literacy!