How did we do in 2022?

Dear Friends, Thanks again to our donors who generously support our work and mission! Here at the Foundation, we look ahead to a new year with exciting plans to offer you even more tools, information and resources to help realize your long-term financial goals. And, please see “A Worthy Goal” (below) to discover a way […]

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Dear Friends,

Thanks again to our donors who generously support our work and mission! Here at the Foundation, we look ahead to a new year with exciting plans to offer you even more tools, information and resources to help realize your long-term financial goals. And, please see “A Worthy Goal” (below) to discover a way you can support financial education without it costing you a cent.

But first, let’s look back to how we did in 2022. In this week’s podcast, “Sound Investing 2022 Review,” I give you the facts as we know them. In comparing Best-in-Class ETF portfolios and Vanguard ETF returns to average ETFs in each asset class, we see that despite many losses in the market, those who followed our work fared much better than most investors. 

While the focus of our work is to help you make good returns in the best times we also hope you will lose less in the worst times. In most cases, our recommendations did better than average, and in many cases better than the indices themselves.

Even if you’re not a regular podcast listener, I hope you’ll tune in and be encouraged to stay the course.

Financial Education Goes to College

If you are—or know—a young and/or first-time investor, our last video of 2022, “Sound Investing 101: how to wisely invest with confidence” offers a comprehensive overview of investing and the key decisions that will shape your future.

This lengthy presentation, made to 154 Rutger’s University engineering students, was one of the high points of my year given their level of interest and engagement in learning about and implementing sound investing principles.

In addition to the video, we released a podcast last week, “14 Commonly-Asked Investor Questions,” in which I answer additional questions received from the Rutger’s group. I hope you’ll scan the questions to see if I answer some you may have at this point in your investing life.

Letter from the President of WWU

In the virtual world, we are unable to truly measure the impact of what we share with others. We can cite how many “opens” for articles, podcasts, videos; how many subscribers or social media followers, but not who, how, and if the information is being applied. I’d like to share with you an exciting exception, a real-life example of the effect financial support has on the lives of thousands of students and teachers.

One of the outreach projects I’ve personally funded through our Foundation, since its inception in 2012, is a class on personal investing at my alma mater, Western Washington University. This unsolicited letter from Sabah Randhawa, President of WWU, encourages and inspires me, knowing our work has a real impact.

“Western Washington University is excited to join in celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Merriman Financial Education Foundation. The Foundation’s work over the past decade has made a tremendous impact by expanding access to Financial Education and Investing classes to students from disciplines across campus—not just those studying Finance.

The Foundation’s support has enabled us to launch a new freshman seminar series on Financial Literacy, offer additional classes in Personal Investing and train K-12 teachers on how to incorporate financial education into their classrooms.

As an alumnus of Western, we are proud that Paul Merriman, ’66, has been recognized as a leader in Financial Education and are deeply grateful for the many ways he has shared this wisdom with students, alumni and the community. The Foundation has also played a pivotal role in laying the groundwork for a University-wide Financial Literacy program which is vital to ensuring our students and alumni have the knowledge and skills they need to have a successful financial future.”

529 Plans

According to the SEC site, “A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan designed to encourage saving for future education costs. 529 plans, legally known as “qualified tuition plans,” are sponsored by states, state agencies, or educational institutions and are authorized by Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code. 

“There are two types of 529 plans: prepaid tuition plans and education savings plans. All fifty states and the District of Columbia sponsor at least one type of 529 plan. In addition, a group of private colleges and universities sponsor a prepaid tuition plan.”

I get a lot of questions about 529 Plans and, because this is beyond the focus and scope of our work, I defer to some of our Truth Tellers for their knowledge and insights.

An article from Dr. James Dahle of The White Coat Investor: Best 529 Plans

From Ben Carlson’s “A Wealth of Common Sense,” “Good News & Bad News About Saving For College”

From Tim Ranzetta’s NextGen Personal Finance, “NGPF Podcast: Richard Ellis of my529 talks college savings plans with Yanely”

Two articles from The Balance (soon to be cited as one of our Truth Tellers), “Best 529 Plans” and “What Are the Disadvantages of 529 Savings Plans?”

While not one of our designated Truth Tellers, savingforcollege.com has been seen as a great source of information on 529s.

A Worthy Goal & Invitation

Our goal is huge: to have a million people read We’re Talking Millions! And, hopefully, act upon the 12 simple steps to supercharge your retirement. If you haven’t already read and shared it, and encouraged others to do so, you can help us tremendously “spread the word” that it is free to all in both PDF and Audio Book formats.

With your help, we will make a significant difference to all young and first-time investors, one person at a time.  If you send the link to ten friends, and they send it on to ten friends… Well, you get the idea. Together, we can help motivate a million young people to start their journey to financial prosperity.

Personal Story

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with all of us listeners on the “Earn & Invest” podcast. You’ve really given me a lot to think about. I’ve been relying tremendously on others when it comes to my investments. First, my brother. Now, a financial advisor. So, when you mentioned the last “why,” as in ‘why take the time to learn how to make uncomplicated investment decisions?,’ I was shocked to think about how much money I could save if I just knew what I was doing vs. giving it away to an investment advisor.

Honestly, investing has always been an intimidating subject for me. So, instead of challenging myself to learn more, I’ve just been doing the usual…investing $6,000 a year into my Roth IRA & contributing to a matched 401k through work. After listening to this podcast, I’m now excited and eager to learn all that I can and to make more sound decisions regarding my investments. I greatly appreciate your insights and look forward to devouring as much as possible from your website. Thank you for all of your help!
— Mara

Helping you build a better financial future,

Paul & Team

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