Get smart or get screwed

Sound Investing

In this podcast, Paul examines the outright lies made by industry leaders about the difference between index funds and active management. They hope to skew your thinking to their advantage – not yours. Trillions of dollars in Americans' retirement savings are invested in large and small accounts managed by banks, brokerages, mutual funds, and insurance companies, which continue to fight the regulation of fiduciary responsibility.

Whether your IRA or 401K will assure a safe retirement remains largely a gamble. In the documentary “The Retirement Gamble” – as true today as it was when made in 2013 – producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria build on reporting from the groundbreaking series “Money, Power and Wall Street.” They reveal how fees, self-dealing, and kickbacks bring great profits to Wall Street while imperiling the prospects of a secure future for individuals. The documentary explores who has the consumer's best interests in mind, and whether there is a better way to manage our retirements.

Paul’s book, Get Smart or Get Screwed: How To Select The Best and Get The Most From Your Financial Advisor, looks at why the brokerage industry is not serving your best interests and includes extensive lists of questions you should ask – and services you should receive – from an advisor. In particular, Chapter 16, which he reads in this podcast, addressing how not to “get screwed" by emotional appeals.

Watch the Frontline Documentary: “The Retirement Gamble”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkOQNPIsO-Q

Get your copy of Get Smart or Get Screwed: How To Select The Best and Get The Most From Your Financial Advisor. It is available for sale at Amazon and other online booksellers, which supports the work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, or download a free copy.

Here is what others have written about this book:

“Excellent book especially for a DIY investor or someone just learning about personal finance… There is a plethora of bad investment advice out there in the world… It is difficult to sort through all the nonsense and to determine the true from the false… Fortunately, for Merriman's readers, he takes them by the hand and leads them through the jungle of nonsense out there in the world and explains how to avoid being taken in.” - DN

“As a teacher of community-based investing classes, [I found it] a very useful book… I will definitely be adding it to my recommended reading list! I particularly liked the 2nd half of the book (chapters 11-16) that contains real-life examples of the bad practices and bad products you'll run across in your interactions with securities and annuities sales people. I had to follow the investment industry for years to learn about the various schemes and deceptions that need to be avoided. But you can gain all that knowledge in a week by reading (and rereading a few times) this part of the book.” – AP

“This easy to read and easy to understand book is consistent with the other 4 books of Paul Merriman's that I have now read… What I have liked most about each of his books, although they may be written about different aspects of investing and in different words, is that they provide a consistent philosophy and recommendation on how to invest.” – DD

Correction- Get Smart or Get Screwed was published in 2012 and not 2011.