BIO: Paul Merriman is a nationally recognized authority on mutual funds, index investing, and asset allocation. After retiring in 2012 from Merriman Wealth Management, which he founded in 1983, Paul created The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, dedicated to providing investors of all ages with free information and tools to make better investment decisions.
STORY: Paul has had a series of bad investments, and they were all driven by emotions. It wasn’t until Paul got the emotion out of that process that his money started to grow.
LEARNING: The first five years of the money you put away can, theoretically, represent 40% of the value of your portfolio over the long term. Start investing early so that you can benefit from the compounding effect.
“It was not until I got the emotion out of the investing process that I started to get the money to truly grow. And to realize that the greatest success in this process is time.”
Paul Merriman
Guest profile
Paul Merriman is a nationally recognized authority on mutual funds, index investing, and asset allocation.
After retiring in 2012 from Merriman Wealth Management, which he founded in 1983, Paul created The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, dedicated to providing investors of all ages with free information and tools to make better investment decisions.
Paul is the author of eight books, including We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement.
At his website, he provides over 700 articles, podcasts, and videos, plus recommended mutual fund and Best-In-Class ETF portfolios at Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab.
Worst investment ever
Paul has had several bad investments, and they all look alike. Some of these mistakes were in the commodities market, others were loaning money to friends, and some were investing in early small companies. Other mistakes involved trying to trade the market and make quick money. Though different, all these mistakes had one thing in common: they were driven by emotions. It wasn’t until Paul got emotions out of that process that his money started to grow.
Lessons learned
- The first five years of the money you put away can, theoretically, represent 40% of the value of your portfolio over the long term.
Andrew’s takeaways
- If you don’t get it right at a young age, your time will run out and you won’t get the value of compounding.
Paul’s recommendations
Paul recommends reading his free book We’re Talking Millions! 12 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement. He also recommends checking out BootCamp for Investors on his website, where you’ll find eight topics that will teach you the essential things you need to know, including how much you need in bonds, what equity asset classes you should have, how to take money out of your investments at retirement, and more.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Paul’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to get his new program at Western Washington University up and running.
Parting words
“The payoff for getting a good education is the biggest return you’re ever going to get. So find yourself some good teachers.”
Paul Merriman
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