Ep. 2015: The Smart Money Myth

Harvard, Yale, and other elite endowments hire armies of experts and pour billions into private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, and real estate—yet simple public-market investing often leaves them behind. Don and Tom unpack the numbers, the fees, and the small college that took a much simpler route. Then Darcy calls with a retirement portfolio that gets an enthusiastic A+: globally diversified stocks, a bond ladder, smart asset location, and a flexible spending plan. Her biggest challenge may be resisting the urge to make a good plan more complicated now that she has time to tinker. Finally, the guys answer whether a two-fund VT-and-BND portfolio is too simple, explain how RMDs can help rebalance it, and compare small-cap, U.S. stock, and global ETFs. The recurring lesson is refreshingly boring: diversification, low costs, and simplicity beat expensive complexity. 01:22 Elite endowments versus simple markets 09:19 The small college that chose indexing 15:10 Darcy's retirement portfolio gets an A+ 23:22 Is a two-fund portfolio too simple? 28:25 Comparing active, index, and factor ETFs Questions? Comments? Click!