The Long View
By Morningstar
Empowering long-term investors with actionable insights on retirement, personal finance, and portfolio strategy. Hosts Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson talk with influential leaders in finance and investing every Wednesday.
42 episodes
All Episodes
Restricting Investor Behavior to Improve Long-Term Portfolio Returns
Modern, frictionless investing platforms encourage habits that erode long-term wealth. You can secure a lasting advantage by intentionally building restrictive environments that prevent you from interfering with your own investment strategy.
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Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Retirement Income Decumulation
After decades of saving, many retirees develop a psychological barrier that makes it difficult to spend their money. Creating a guaranteed income stream gives them the peace of mind to enjoy their savings without worrying that the funds will run out.
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Replacing Market Speculation With Data-Backed Investment Philosophy
Market volatility is not your biggest risk. Trying to outsmart the market is. Instead of worrying about active management, use a data-backed, long-term strategy to turn investing from a source of stress into a way to build wealth.
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Why Rigorous Implementation Defines Successful Passive Investing
Passive investing is a misleading term that overlooks the intense technical work required to succeed. Real long-term wealth comes from mastering the quiet mechanics of implementation and behavioral discipline, rather than chasing flashy performance labels.
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Automating Portfolios to Mitigate Investor Behavioral Bias
Success for investors comes less from choosing the right assets and more from closing the performance gap caused by emotional, reactive trading. Build a simple, automated portfolio to remove the temptation to sabotage your own wealth.
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Transitioning From Passive Aging to Active Place Planning
Aging in place often happens by default, which can lead to isolation and financial instability. Instead of treating your home as a static asset, turn it into a strategic tool for longevity by auditing your environment to support a 100-year life.
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Mitigating Systemic Risk Through Diversification and Guaranteed Income
Current market mania creates a fragile foundation for retirement. Move beyond the illusion of stability in flashy growth stocks and private equity to build a resilient portfolio capable of surviving inevitable, painful market corrections.
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Building Resilient Systems for the Retirement Red Zone
Retirement success depends on structural engineering rather than simple accumulation. Build a resilient financial foundation using bond ladders and annual plan updates to survive market volatility and secure your long-term lifestyle.
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Replacing Fear-Based Retirement Planning With Strategic Drawdown Management
Retirement planning often fails when it is driven by fear of tax myths. Move away from rigid rules of thumb and binary thinking to master strategic drawdown management. This allows you to enjoy your wealth instead of obsessing over hypothetical tax traps.
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Prioritizing Long-Term Viability Over Short-Term Market Consensus
Modern capitalism favors short-term career security over systemic stability. This creates a structural blind spot regarding long-term resource limits. Real competitive advantage comes from betting against the market consensus to prepare for a future defined by finite resources.
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Prioritizing Earnings and Unit Economics Over Speculative Growth
Building wealth depends on tracking unit economics and earnings instead of chasing speculative hype. By prioritizing companies with proven profits and verifiable execution, investors avoid the trap of unprofitable growth and build sustainable, long-term returns.
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Hidden Risks and Costs of Semi-Liquid Private Market Funds
Private market access often hides structural traps where theoretical premiums are actually accounting artifacts. Avoid phantom returns and liquidity death spirals by looking past marketing narratives to analyze true fee transparency and operational infrastructure.
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Widowhood Exposes Flaws in Financial Planning Infrastructure
Widowhood collapses financial plans not because of grief alone, but because systems ignore shattered decision-making capacity. Confidence--not knowledge--is the true currency of survival. Prepare before the crisis, or lose everything after.
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Stewardship Over Salesmanship in Investment Design
Don Phillips reveals how the investment industry's push for hot new products erodes long-term returns, exposing a hidden misalignment between what sells and what truly benefits investors. The real edge? Building portfolios for ownership, not marketing.
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Simplicity, Discipline, and Behavior Drive Enduring Investment Success
Discover how simplicity, discipline, and understanding human behavior create resilient investment strategies, cutting through industry complexity for your long-term financial well-being.
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Bengen's Retirement Planning: Inflation, Valuations, and Personalization
Retirement security demands more than a fixed percentage. Discover how inflation, market valuations, and personalized planning create a dynamic strategy for lasting financial resilience.
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Market History, Psychology, and Automation Shape Long-Term Investing Risks
Understand market history's hidden pitfalls and profound opportunities. Learn how complacency and the allure of immediate gratification create crucial edges for long-term investors.
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Value Investing Prioritizes Survivability and Foresight Over Cheapness
True advantage lies not in avoiding risk, but in embracing difficulty and foresight. Discover how prioritizing survivability and long-term conviction builds enduring value in dynamic markets.
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Navigating Whiplash Economy: Systems Thinking for Supply Shock Uncertainty
Navigate a "whiplash economy" where supply shocks defy models. Discover why traditional indicators fail and how to build resilience through scenario planning and prioritizing data integrity.
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Model Portfolios: Strategic Advantage Beyond Security Selection
Model portfolios redefine the advisor's role, enabling a strategic focus on client planning and sophisticated wealth management, not just security selection.
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Beyond Estate Plans: Anticipating Incapacity and Long-Term Care
Estate planning is more than assets; it's anticipating incapacity and ensuring dignity. Discover how conventional wisdom fails and gain an advantage in proactive, resilient planning.
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Challenging 4% Rule: Rethinking Retirement Risk and Reward
The 4% rule fails in most countries, exposing retirees to significant portfolio depletion risk. Discover resilient strategies beyond conventional wisdom.
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Identifying Enduring Competitive Advantages Beyond Obvious Strengths
Identify true economic moats by looking beyond great products and embracing the difficult work of mapping long-term consequences to find sustained profitability.
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Late Start Physicians Leverage Mistakes for Financial Independence
Embrace the "late start" as a superpower for financial independence. Discover how intentional saving and reframing career pressures unlock autonomy and a richer life, regardless of your starting point.
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Proactive Retirement Strategy: Actionable Insights for the Five Years Before Retirement
The five years before retirement demand decisive action, not passive observation. Proactively shape your financial future to transform potential anxiety into a manageable sprint towards well-being.
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Re-Wiring Retirement: Shifting Mindset From Saving to Spending
Retirees face a hidden fear of spending, not saving, due to a lifetime of ingrained financial habits. This analysis reveals the psychological "re-wiring" needed for a truly fulfilling retirement.
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Reframing Financial Success: Deploy Resources for a Fulfilling Life Sooner
Financial success is not wealth accumulation, but strategically deploying resources to live a fulfilling life sooner. Don't let "later" arrive too late.
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Private Markets' Evergreen Shift: Navigating Liquidity, Metrics, and Valuations
Private markets offer higher returns but hide risks in illiquidity and misleading performance metrics. Understand valuation nuances and manager liquidity experience to gain a strategic edge.
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Arbitraging Human Psychology for Sustainable Investment Advantage
Discover how understanding enduring human psychology--not chasing trends--unlocks sustainable investment advantage, revealing the hidden cost of prioritizing narrative over price.
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Vanguard's Evolving Fixed Income Strategy: Beyond Low Costs
Vanguard's active fixed income strategy builds durable advantage through repeatable alpha sources, technology, and patience, redefining the "Vanguard Effect" beyond low costs.
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Proactive Personal Affairs Organization Eases Family Grief and Logistical Burdens
Proactive planning transforms grief into a manageable process, offering loved ones clarity and peace during difficult transitions by addressing complexities others ignore.
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Private Markets Hide Distress Through Misleading Metrics
Uncover how private credit and equity metrics deceive investors, revealing hidden risks and inflated returns through PIK interest and PME paradoxes.
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Optimizing Retirement Tax Planning Beyond Fear-Based Narratives
Optimize retirement taxes by strategically spending taxable accounts first, preserving tax-advantaged funds for Roth conversions during your "golden years."
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Harnessing Inertia and Biases for Improved Investor Outcomes
Harness inertia with smart defaults to boost investor outcomes, as inaction is the most powerful force in finance. Discover how understanding human biases leads to greater financial well-being and happiness.
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Personalized Portfolios: Adherence Over Theoretical Optimization
Build portfolios you can stick with by aligning investments with your life needs and time horizons, not just chasing returns. Temporal diversification prevents forced selling during downturns.
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Holistic Retirement Planning -- Beyond Finance to Purpose and Relationships
Retirement success means planning for purpose and relationships, not just money, to transform extended lifespans into fulfilling opportunities.
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Global Diversification and AI Productivity Boosts Amid US Equity Rotation
Global diversification is crucial as emerging markets and Europe offer compelling growth, while US equity outperformance may not sustain due to high valuations.
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Active Management Alpha Generation in Inefficient Municipal Bond Market
Leverage technology and deep credit analysis to exploit municipal bond market inefficiencies, generating alpha by identifying overlooked opportunities and managing risk proactively.
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Proactive Planning for Successful Aging and Caregiving
Plan for aging proactively: "Time travel" with elders, set family boundaries, and secure legal and financial plans to ensure your wishes are met.
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Financial History Reveals Recurring Risks and Enduring Resilience
Chronic U.S. deficits deviate from historical norms, breaking a pattern of debt reduction after emergencies, which now risks future crisis response capacity.
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Dividend Investing Strategies for a Shifting Market Landscape
Dividend stocks are poised for a breakout in 2026 as frothy tech valuations shift, offering defensive resilience and attractive international yields over 3% versus US yields of 1.1%.
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Active Management's Edge in Fragmented Bond Markets
Active bond management exploits market fragmentation and complexity, offering consistent outperformance where passive indexing risks unintended exposures and systemic vulnerabilities.
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