The Long View

Today on the podcast, we welcome back Mark Berg. Mark is the founder of and lead advisor at Timothy Financial Counsel, which is an hourly financial planning firm that he started in 2000. Prior to launching Timothy Financial, Mark served as a client manager at a fee-only financial planning firm, and he has provided fee-only financial guidance since 1995. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wheaton College and is a certified financial planner practitioner and NAPFA-registered financial advisor. He served on the national board of directors for the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors from 2008 through 2011. In the spirit of full disclosure, Timothy Financial is the firm that my husband and I use for financial planning. I have no financial relationship with the firm other than that we pay them for their services.

Background

Bio

Timothy Financial Counsel

“Mark Berg: Hourly Financial Planning Is ‘A Vast Blue Ocean,’” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, March 28, 2023.

Funding for College

“529 Plan Tips for Grandparents to Save for College,” by Emma Kerr, usnews.com, Sept. 7, 2021.

“How to Allocate Assets for College Savings,” by Christine Benz, Morningstar.com, Jan. 19, 2022.

“Morningstar 529 Ratings: The Best Plans of 2024,” by Hyunmin Kim, Morningstar.com, Oct. 29, 2024.

“What to Do With Extra Money in Your 529 Plan,” by Amy Arnott, Morningstar.com, June 30, 2022.

“The Best Way to Save for College,” by Christine Benz and Susan Dziubinski, Morningstar.com, Oct. 11, 2022.

Our guests this week are Jim Murphy and Charlie Hill of T. Rowe Price’s Municipal Bond Investment Team. Jim leads the team and is portfolio manager for several high-yield muni strategies. Charlie, who has been at T. Rowe since 1991, manages several short and intermediate term municipal-bond funds. Morningstar’s manager research team rates T. Rowe Price’s municipal bond capability highly with several strategies carrying Gold medalist ratings.

Background

Jim Murphy Bio

T. Rowe Price Tax-Free High Yield PRFHX

T. Rowe Price Tax-Free High-Yield Advantage PATFX

Charlie Hill Bio

T. Rowe Price Tax-Free Short-Intermediate PRFSX

T. Rowe Price Tax-Free Short-Intermediate 1 TTSIX

Municipal Bonds

“Reasons to Fall in Love With Municipal Bonds Right Now,” by Amey Stone, barrons.com, July 28, 2023.

“It’s Been a Poor Year so far for Municipal Bonds,” by Tim Gray, nytimes.com, July 18, 2022.

“3 Tax-Free Funds That Are Gems,” by Russel Kinnel, Morningstar.com, Sept. 11, 2024.

“Muni-Bond Niche Defies Sales Slump as Banks Seize on Cheap Rates,” by Nic Querolo and Sri Taylor, fa-mag.com, Oct. 22, 2021.

“Municipal Bonds: Where to Find Opportunities in a Volatile Market,” by Elizabeth Foos, Morningstar.com, Aug. 6, 2024.

Other

“Build America Bonds (BABs): Types, Restrictions, Vs. Other Bonds,” by James Chen, Investopedia.com, June 8, 2022.

“Ed Slott: What Investors Need to Do Before the Tax Cut and Jobs Act Expires,” Interview with Christine Benz and Ed Slott, Morningstar.com, Feb. 6, 2024.

Texas Permanent School Fund

Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico

Our guest this week is Charlie Dreifus. Charlie is portfolio manager of the Royce Special Equity Funds, highly regarded by Morningstar’s Manager Research team. Charlie was named Fund Manager of the Year by Morningstar in 2008 for his work on the Small-Cap Value US Equity Strategy, which he began running in 1998 after portfolio management stints at Lazard and Oppenheimer. Charlie’s investment career began in 1968. He holds degrees from City College of New York and Baruch College.

Background

Bio

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Investment

Steven McBoyle, co-portfolio manager

Small-Cap Value

“Small-Cap Funds Are More Promising Than They Have Been in Years. Here Are the Ones to Buy,” by Lewis Braham, Barrons.com, Oct. 11, 2023.

“Why Value Veteran Charlie Dreifus Balks at Banks and Favors the Rust Belt,” by John Coumarianos, citywire.com, April 21, 2022.

Other

Chuck Royce

Abraham Briloff

“A Conversation With Investing Legend Charlie Dreifus,” Interview with Russ Kinnel, Morningstar.com, Aug. 14, 2020.

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

Tim Hipskind

“Irving Kahn, Oldest Active Wall Street Investor, Dies at 109,” by Sam Roberts, nytimes.com, Feb. 26, 2015.

Our guest on the podcast today is Anne Tergesen. Anne is a reporter covering retirement for The Wall Street Journal. Her stories often explore how retirement and preparing for retirement are changing today. She writes frequently on topics related to 401(k) plans and retirement savings, spending, and legislation. She also writes about employee benefits, longevity, and aging. Before joining the Journal, Anne worked for BusinessWeek magazine covering personal finance. Together with colleagues, she recently won a Front Page Award from the News Women’s Club of New York and was a finalist for Gerald Loeb Award. She was awarded a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and won a Best of Knight-Bagehot Award in 2006. Anne started her career covering local news at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Background

Bio

The Wall Street Journal articles

401(k)s and Retirement

“More Americans Are Treating Their 401(k)s Like Cash Machines,” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, March 11, 2024.

“6% of Your Paycheck Is Becoming the New Standard for 401(k) Saving,” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, June 28, 2024.

“The 401(k) Investors Convinced That Target-Date Funds Miss the Mark,” by Anne Tergesen and Oyin Adedoyin, wsj.com, Aug. 3, 2024.

“The 401(k) Rollover Mistake That Costs Retirement Savers Billions,” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, July 22, 2024.

“Is Your Company’s 401(k) Match Unfair?” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, May 25, 2024.

“Retire at 65? It’s More Like 62,” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, April 25, 2024.

“David John: Improving the Retirement System,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, Sept. 27, 2022.

Automatic: Changing the Way America Saves, by William Gale, Mark Iwry, and David John

“The Way We Retire Now,” a Wall Street Journal Series by Anne Tergesen and Veronica Dagher.

“Here’s What Retirement Looks Like in America in Six Charts,” by Anne Tergesen, Veronica Dagher, and Rosie Ettenheim, wsj.com, March 31, 2023.

“She’s a Retirement Authority—And Still Made Mistakes. Here’s What She’d Do Differently,” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, Oct. 12, 2024.

“Is There Really a Retirement-Savings Crisis?” by Anne Tergesen, wsj.com, April 23, 2017.

Other

Vanguard’s “How America Saves 2024”

“The U-Shape of Happiness Across the Life Course: Expanding the Discussion,” by Nancy Galambos, Harvey Krahn, Matthew Johnson, and Margie Lachman, National Library of Medicine, July 1, 2021.

Employee Benefit Research Institute

David Blanchett

“The Retirement Crisis: Perception Vs. Reality,” by PGIM Global Communications, pgim.com, July 9, 2024.

Laura Saunders

Michael Kitces

Our guest on the podcast today is Phil Moeller. He’s the primary author of the Get What’s Yours series of consumer guidebooks, including a newly revised edition of Get What’s Yours for Medicare: Maximize Your Coverage, Minimize Your Costs. In addition, the series includes Get What’s Yours: The Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security and Get What’s Yours for Health Care: How to Get the Best Care at the Right Price. Phil wrote the “Ask Phil” Medicare column for the PBS NewsHour website, Making Sense, reported on aging healthcare and retirement for Money magazine, and wrote “The Best Life” feature on aging and retirement for US News & World Report. He began his career as a newspaper business reporter and editor, and has worked for The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, The Chicago Sun Times, The Hartford Business Journal, and The Louisville Courier Journal. He later founded the insure.com consumer website and also worked as a communications executive for a large insurance company.

Background

Bio

GetWhatsYours.org

Insure.com

Books: Get What’s Yours for Medicare: Maximize Your Coverage

Get What’s Yours: The Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security

Get What’s Yours for Health Care: How to Get the Best Care at the Right Price

Parts of Medicare Explained

“Phil Moeller: What’s New for Medicare—and More—in 2024?” by Phil Moeller, uhc.com, Jan. 10, 2024.

“Phil Moeller: Filling the Coverage Gaps in Medicare,” by Phil Moeller, uhc.com, Sept. 25, 2024.

Get Started With Medicare

What Part A Covers

What Part B Covers

Medicare Advantage Plans

What Medicare Part D Drug Plans Cover

Compare Medigap Plan Benefits

Working Past 65

Private Insurance

“Learning to Love Insurance Brokers (Within Limits!),” by Phil Moeller, substack.com, April 22, 2024.

“Medicare Moment by Phil Moeller: Moving From Employer Health Insurance to Medicare,” Video by Phil Moeller, uhc.com, Nov. 21, 2022.

Other

“Washington State Establishes a Long-Term Care Program,” by Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, crr.bc.edu, Aug. 13, 2024.

Medicare Plan Finder

Medicare & You

KFF

Today on the podcast, we welcome back Jonathan Clements. Jonathan was one of our first guests when we launched this podcast, and today marks his third appearance. He’s the founder and editor of HumbleDollar, and he has written or edited several books about money and investing, including My Money Journey and How to Think About Money. Earlier in his career, Jonathan spent almost 20 years at The Wall Street Journal, where he was the newspaper’s personal finance columnist and six years at Citigroup, where he was director of financial education for the bank’s US Wealth Management arm. This past June, Jonathan shared his devastating recent cancer diagnosis, and he’s been writing candidly about the experience on HumbleDollar. We’ll link to those posts in the show notes. I wanted to conduct today’s interview solo because Jonathan’s work has been hugely influential to me personally, and he also wrote the foreword to my forthcoming book. I couldn’t be more grateful.

Background

Bio

HumbleDollar

“Jonathan Clements: ‘It’s in Wall Street’s Interest to Make Everyday Investors Think That They Are Stupid,’” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, July 31, 2019.

“Jonathan Clements: ‘Humility Is a Hallmark of People Who Are Financially Successful,’” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, Dec. 26, 2023.

Books

My Money Journal: How 30 People Found Financial Freedom—And You Can Too

From Here to Financial Happiness: Enrich Your Life in Just 77 Days

How to Think About Money

Articles

“Turned Upside Down,” by Jonathan Clements, humbledollar.com, Oct. 5, 2024.

“Never Quite Enough,” by Jonathan Clements, humbledollar.com, Sept. 21, 2024.

“Opinion: Living Was Easy. Dying Is Harder,” by Jonathan Clements, washingtonpost.com, Aug. 28, 2024.

Other

How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement, by Christine Benz, Forward by Jonathan Clements

EGFR Exon 20 Insertion Mutation and Lung Cancer

“FDA Approves Amivantamab-vmjw for EGFR Exon 20 Insertion-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Indications,” fda.gov, March 1, 2024.

“Jonathan Guyton: What the Crisis Means for Retirement Planning,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, June 17, 2020.

“Bill Bernstein: Revisiting the Four Pillars of Investing,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, July 11, 2023.

“Jason Zweig: Temperament Is Everything for Most Investors,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, June 29, 2021.

Today on the podcast, we’re delighted to welcome back Jeremy Grantham. Jeremy is the long-term investment strategist at his namesake firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., or GMO, which he cofounded in 1977. He serves on GMO’s Asset Allocation Committee and board of directors. Prior to GMO, Jeremy was cofounder of Batterymarch Financial Management and before that was an economist at Royal Dutch Shell. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Sheffield and his MBA from Harvard University. Jeremy is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, holds a CBE from the UK, and is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In 1997, he and his family started the Grantham Foundation for the protection of the environment, which supports research and action to address climate change.

Background

Bio

GMO

Grantham Foundation

GMO Quality III

GMO US Quality ETF

“Jeremy Grantham: The US Market Is in a Super Bubble,” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, Feb. 8, 2022.

Bubbles and the Market

“The Great Paradox of the US Market,” by Jeremy Grantham, gmo.com, March 11, 2024.

“AI Craze Stokes ‘Bubble Within a Bubble,’ Says GMO’s Jeremy Grantham,” by Christine Idzelis, marketwatch.com, March 11, 2024.

“Entering the Superbubble’s Final Act,” by Jeremy Grantham, gmo.com, Aug. 31, 2022.

“Jeremy Grantham Says the AI Bubble Will Burst and Take the Stock Market Down With It. Here Are His 14 Best Quotes From an Event This Week,” by Theron Mohamed, markets.businessinsider.com, Feb. 18, 2024.

“China Turmoil Poses a Risk to the Magnificent 7, Jeremy Grantham’s GMO Says,” by Yuheng Zhan, markets.businessinsider.com, Feb. 9, 2024.

The Environment and Sustainability

“Sustainability or Bust: The Sheer Impossibility of Eternal Compound Growth,” by Jeremy Grantham, gmo.com, March 18, 2024.

“GMO Horizons,” by Jeremy Grantham, gmo.com, Feb. 27, 2024.

“Pollution, Population, and Purpose,” The Great Simplification podcast with Nate Hagens and Jeremy Grantham, gmo.com, Feb. 15, 2024.

“Jeremy Grantham Assesses Long-Term Threats Through an Investor Lens,” by William Hughes, cruxinvestor.com, Dec. 31, 2023.

Our guest this week is Jack Nelson. Jack is lead manager of the Stewart Investors’ Global Emerging Markets Leaders Sustainability strategy, which is highly regarded by Morningstar’s manager research team. Jack joined Stewart in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2011 after obtaining an MA from Oxford.

Background

Bio

Stewart Investors

Emerging Markets

“Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Strategies Update,” Q&A With Jack Nelson, stewartinvestors.com, April 2023.

“Finding Resilient Businesses in Emerging Markets Is Key to Long-Term Success,” by Jack Nelson, trustnet.com, Dec. 15, 2022.

“Stewart Investors’ Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Strategy Marks 15-Year Anniversary With Benchmark-Beating Returns,” prnewswire.com, May 7, 2024.

“Go Beyond the Data to Find Quality Sustainable Investments in Emerging Markets,” by Jack Nelson, investordaily.com, July 16, 2024.

“Stewart Investors Launches EMs ex-China Sustainability Fund,” by Natalie Kenway, portfolio-adviser.com, July 11. 2024.

Artificial Intelligence

“Am I Invested in AI?” stewartinvestors.com, Aug. 4, 2024.

“A + I Equals More Than NVDA,” stewartinvestors.com, March 27, 2024.

Other

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War, by Robert Gordon

Inovance

Yifeng Pharmacy Chain Co Ltd

Samsung Electronics

“Unilever’s India Unit to Rebrand ‘Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Grow & Lovely,’” reuters.com, July 2, 2020.

Principles for Responsible Investing

Delta Electronics

Our guest this week is Ankur Crawford. Ankur is a executive vice president and portfolio manager at Fred Alger Management, based in New York City. Ankur comanages the Alger Capital Appreciation Fund, which is highly regarded by Morningstar’s Manager Research Team, among other US large-cap growth equity strategies. She’s also the sole manager in the Alger Concentrated Equity Strategy, which is available as both an ETF and a traditional mutual fund. Prior to joining Alger in 2004, Ankur worked as an engineer at Intel and earned a PhD in material science and engineering from Stanford.

Background

Bio

Alger Capital Appreciation Fund

Alger Concentrated Equity Strategy

Market Volatility

“Bad News Is Good News for the Market Again, Says Alger’s Ankur Crawford,” Closing Bell interview, cnbc.com, May 14, 2024.

“The ‘Magnificent 7’ Should Have Another Good Earnings Season, Says Alger’s Ankur Crawford,” Closing Bell interview, cnbc.com, June 20, 2024.

Artificial Intelligence

“AI and the Declining Cost to Create,” by Ankur Crawford and Patrick Kelly, alger.com.

“Empowering Intelligence,” by Ankur Crawford and Patrick Kelly, alger.com.

“Still Very Early on in the AI Megacycle, Says Alger’s Crawford,” Squawk on the Street interview, youtube.com, Feb. 15, 2024.

“AI Adoption Looks Like ‘Structural Imperative’ for all Companies, Says Alger’s Ankur Crawford,” Closing Bell interview, youtube.com.

Other

Cadence Design Systems

Martin Marietta Materials

We’re doing something a little different this week. Amy Arnott and Dan Lefkovitz are flipping the microphone around and interviewing the anchor host of this podcast, Christine Benz, about her new her book, How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement. Christine is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar. She has been with the company since 1993, where she’s served as director of the fund research team, editor of Morningstar Mutual Funds, and cofounder of this podcast in 2019. She has written several books about investing. Christine is a proud graduate of the University of Illinois.

Background

Bio and archive

How to Retire

How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement by Christine Benz

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Nonfinancial Aspects of Retirement

Michael Finke

Jordan Grumet

Laura Carstensen

Annuities, Retirement Portfolio Planning, and Social Security

Wade Pfau

Retirement Income Style Awareness

William Bernstein

Fritz Gilbert/The Retirement Manifesto

“The Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist,” by Fritz Gilbert, The Retirement Manifesto, March 27, 2018.

Freedom for Fido

Mary Beth Franklin

Jonathan Guyton

“Decision Rules and Maximum Initial Withdrawal Rates,” by Jonathan Guyton and William Klinger, FPA Journal.

Jamie Hopkins

The Bucket Approach

Harold Evensky

“The Bucket Approach to Building a Retirement Portfolio,” by Christine Benz, Morningstar.com, Nov. 23, 2022.

“The Bucket Approach Is Flawed—Here’s a Better Way,” by Rob Berger, Forbes.com, Aug. 2, 2020.

“Do You Need More Than 3 Buckets?” by Christine Benz and Susan Dziubinski, Morningstar.com, May 22, 2024.

Housing

Mark Miller

Healthcare, Long-Term Care, and Estate Planning

Carolyn McClanahan

Cameron Huddleston

Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances, by Cameron Huddleston, June 25, 2019.

Jennifer Rozelle

Other

“Carl Richards: ‘Let’s Focus on Being a Little Less Wrong Tomorrow,‘” The Long View podcast, Morningstar.com, May 13, 2020.