The most important investment decisions

Enjoy this wide-ranging conversation between Rob Berger and Paul Merriman on Rob’s “Financial Freedom Show” (YouTube video channel) as they discuss these important investor topics:

Timestamps
0:00 - Welcome to the Financial Freedom Show!
0:61 - Small Cap Value
20:44 - Other consistent funds

22:59 - Equity portfolio

27:00 - Deciding/4 fund strategy

30:13 - Links below/Quilt chart

45:19 - Stock vs Bond allocation/Market Timing

49:37 - Investing strategies/risk

50:50 - Retirement withdrawal strategy

53:14 - Challenge

55:23 - Glide Path

58:18 - Market Timer's strategy with the current market

1:00:59 - AVUV over VBR

1:08:10 - Measuring value

1:10:46 - Paul's Bond Portfolio

1:12:35 - REIT's

1:13:55 - Tired

1:15:21 - What's next for Paul

1:18:33 - Bogelheads conference

1:19:51 - Links below/Financial Freedom

Recorded with a live Zoom audience, they also fielded questions.

Some comments on Rob’s video page include:

“My two favorite financial experts alive today discussing personal finance together. Perfect! Thank you both for your time, talent and wisdom.”

“Rob, for the recent interviews you have done, this is my favorite! Paul is so passionate about his beliefs. I have been listening to Paul's podcast over the last 18 months. He has convinced me of the long term power of tilting your equity portfolio towards small cap value. I added the 10% tilt at the beginning of 2022.”

“Great down to earth, easily explained info I can put to good use. Best guest to date!”

Links to help investors:

This link gives the case for the 10 U.S. and international equity asset classes: https://paulmerriman.com/ultimate-buy-and-hold-strategy/

This link shows 9 different ways to combine the 10 equity asset classes and the 52 year returns for each.
https://paulmerriman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sound-Investing-Portfolios.pdf

This link provides data combining each of the 9 equity portfolios along with different percentages of fixed income:
https://paulmerriman.com/fine-tuning-your-asset-allocation/

This link shows the impact of using the 9 portfolios and all the combinations of fixed income assuming an initial annual investment of $1,000 with a 3% annual increase on investment:
https://paulmerriman.com/2021-fixed-contributions/

This link shows the impact of using the 9 different equity/fixed income as a source of fixed retirement distributions. Each years distribution is adjusted for inflation. Beginning distributions range from 3 to 6 percent:
https://paulmerriman.com/2021-fixed-distributions/

This link shows the impact of annual distributions based on a percentage of assets, without inflation adjustment. Distributions range from 3 to 6 percent:
https://paulmerriman.com/flexible-distributions-2021/

This link compares the annual to 20 year returns of 4 major U.S. asset classes:
https://paulmerriman.com/90-years-of-evidence-shows-investor-patience-leads-to-better-returns/

This links to the Merriman Lifetime Investment Calculator. The calculator can be used for investors in both the accumulation and distribution periods of their investment life:
https://paulmerriman.com/lifetime-investment-calculator/