L M Forbes' 50 years on Wall Street

Send us Fan Mail Retirement planning doesn't need a spreadsheet with forty variables. It comes down to about five numbers, and you can work them out on the back of an envelope. In this episode, I walk through what you spend, what's already guaranteed, and how to find your gap. I also show what waiting ten years to start saving really costs, and the one place where waiting actually pays you. Your assignment is one envelope and about ten minutes. If you'd like to comment on this episode, or req...

Send us Fan Mail What are you actually buying? If your answer is a ticker symbol, a tip from your brother-in-law, or a stock that "used to be forty dollars," this episode is for you. Ben Graham's idea was simple: a stock is a piece of a real business, and price is not the same thing as value. In this episode, I explain why that difference matters, how cheap stocks turn into value traps, and why the market's bad days are usually mood, not business. I'll also tell you about a retired schoolteac...

Send us Fan Mail Ben Graham never met a modern index fund, but I think he would have liked it. In this episode, I look at what Graham asked of the defensive investor and see how the S&P 500 measures up. I also tell you about a client who just couldn't leave a good thing alone, and I explain why Graham would still ask the question that matters most: what are you paying? If you'd like to comment on this episode or request a subject for a future podcast, leave me a message in Fan Mail. I rea...

Send us Fan Mail Margin of safety sounds like a complicated investing term, but the basic idea is something we use every day. We leave early for an appointment, keep extra money available for an unexpected expense, or allow some room for a mistake when making an important decision. Investing is no different. In this episode, I explain margin of safety in plain English and show why investors should not build their financial future on the assumption that everything will go exactly as planned. S...

Send us Fan Mail The market drops, the headlines turn red, and every instinct in your body says get out. In this episode I break down why selling at the bottom feels like survival — it isn't — and share Ben Graham's take on why the market's mood swings have nothing to do with what your investments are actually worth. More importantly, I'll walk through exactly what to decide today, while you're calm, so you're never making that call on the day you're not.