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On Demand

Target Date Funds: America’s #1 Retirement Investment


Total Credits: 1 including 1 Finance - Technical

Average Rating:
   198
Categories:
Financial Planning |  On Demand Pass
Faculty:
Paul Merriman
Course Levels:
Basic
Duration:
1 Hour
License:
Access for 90 day(s) after purchase.



Description

Since the introduction of the modern mutual fund in 1924, no other investment product has been as important to investors as the target date fund (TDF). Paul explains how TDFs work, 10 reasons TDFs are likely to make investors more money, 6 reasons many TDFs make investors less than they should and how to select the best-performing TDFs. For investors willing to add a second fund, to work along side their TDF, Paul shows how to substantially increase the expected life-time return with a “2 Funds For Life” strategy.

 

Theoretically, the TDF only requires an investor to make two major investment decisions. Investors in their working and saving years, only need select the year they expect to retire, and the TDF takes care of all investment decisions. The second decision, which likely happens at retirement, is a bit more complex, as the investor needs to decide how to invest during retirement, while providing regular income to meet their cost of living. Paul discusses four possible investment strategies that can be used by investors through the end of their life.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how to select target date funds that will best serve their own and their clients' personal and business needs
  • A carefully chosen TDF could easily add an additional 1% to their long-term annual return, without taking additional risk

Major Subjects:

  • All about TDFs, plus “A Dozen Million-Dollar Investment Decisions" that will likely improve the financial future of any investor, with or without TDFs

Course Materials

Faculty

Paul Merriman Related Seminars and Products

Merriman, LLC


Paul Merriman is a nationally recognized authority on mutual funds, index investing, asset allocation and both buy-and-hold and active management strategies. Now retired from Merriman, the Seattle-based investment advisory firm he founded in 1983, he is dedicated to educating investors, young and old, through weekly articles at Marketwatch.com, and via free eBooks, podcasts, articles, recommendations for mutual funds, ETFs, 401(k) plans and more, at his website.

 

In 2013 he created The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, dedicated to providing comprehensive financial education to investors, with information and tools to make informed decisions in their own best interest and successfully implement their retirement savings program. A major project of the Foundation is funding the curriculum development and teaching of the 4-credit course, “Personal Investing” (for non-finance majors), at Paul’s alma mater, Western Washington University, which began Fall 2013.


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Overall:      4.8

Total Reviews: 198