Paul gets many chances to answer questions from people who are later in their investing journeys and have specific concerns about a retirement that doesn’t seem too far away. Today, Paul shares a list of questions from college students after teaching a college class at Trevecca about personal finance. Listen along to hear about investing from a different perspective and some of the conversations that this younger generation are having about money and investing.

Start relaxing about investing by scheduling a 15-minute call with one of our advisors here.

Actively managed portfolios usually have high fees and are full of strategies that lower the diversification of your investment and engage in market timing and speculation. As a result, the industry has another product for the more conservative investor – index funds. There are more than 3 million index funds available on the market in 2024. They are sold as a great way to capture market returns at incredibly low costs. In a two-part episode, Paul helps you become an educated investor by explaining what indexing is and why these products aren’t a good solution to the problem of actively managed funds.

Start relaxing about investing by scheduling a 15-minute call with one of our advisors here.

The whole premise behind Target Date Funds is that investors only need to choose a date they want to retire and then check out of the investing process. What’s worse is that all the major companies market these products as long term investment, but barely include any of the asset categories that have historically performed the best over long periods of time. Today, Paul and Ira talk about why the default investment of your 401(k) is likely a bad option and why many American workers are being set up to work past the date of their target date fund. Later in the episode, Paul talks about the reality of retirement for single women in America and the challenges that arise from lower pay, longer life expectancy, and no partner.

Start relaxing about investing by scheduling a 15-minute call with one of our advisors here.

After a few years of inflation, CD interest rates have risen up to around 5%. This has an investor asking Paul why he would take the risk to invest in market segments with historic 5% returns, like international companies, when he could just recommend CDs instead. Paul explains why you can’t compare the average return of international stocks over 20+ years to the return of CDs for the next few years – it just doesn’t add up.

Start relaxing about investing by scheduling a 15-minute call with one of our advisors here.

Paul wants to make it clear: you can’t trust the financial industry. It’s their job to sell products, and they do it by telling you something you want to hear and giving you part of the truth about their products. It’s your job to be an informed investor and not fall for these sales pitches. Today, Paul walks through a few products being sold that he saw in the news this week and talks about investors he knows who have gotten hurt from falling for these kinds of headlines. Paul urges investors to get smart and get involved in the process. Later in the episode, Paul talks about how it was hard to convince people to diversify in the 90s because of a huge run with large US stocks and why investors usually aren’t able to make a wise decision until after they’ve made a costly mistake.

Start relaxing about investing by scheduling a 15-minute call with one of our advisors here.