The Long View

Our guests on the podcast today are Andy Clarke and Nelson Wicas, co-authors—along with Ganesh Suntharam—of the new book, The Architecture of Wealth: The Art and Science of Portfolio Construction. Andy has spent more than three decades as an investment researcher and writer. He has worked at Morningstar and Vanguard, where he served as assistant to Vanguard Founder and indexing pioneer, John C. Bogle. Andy has published research in practitioner journals such as the Journal of Index Investing. He is the author of Wealth of Experience and a CFA Charterholder. Nelson has developed and managed quantitative equity strategies for more than 30 years. Most recently, he worked at Redpoint Investment Management, where he was a founder and research analyst. After completing his PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Nelson joined Vanguard to help establish its quantitative equity management function. Nelson later helped found Vanguard’s investment counseling and research team to produce portfolio construction insights for clients and internal teams. Nelson has been a visiting professor of economics at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 The Architecture of Wealth

00:06:42 Why Portfolio Construction is an Art and Science

00:10:03 Bogle’s Approach to Active Management

00:15:38 Why Index Investing Isn’t Passive

00:22:09 The Birth of Modern Portfolio Theory

00:26:58 Behavioral Finance, Investor Biases, and Impact of Education

00:36:13 Why Index Funds Finally Took Off

00:39:25 Evaluating Active Managers

00:43:27 The Small-Cap Effect

More From The Long View

Charley Ellis: Indexing Is a Marvelous Gift

Jeff Ptak: The Simple Secret to Becoming a Better Investor

Andy Reed: Inertia Is the Most Powerful Force in Behavioral Finance

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Jeff Ptak. He’s a longtime Morningstar employee and currently serves as managing director for Morningstar Research Services. He originally joined Morningstar back in 2002 as a senior mutual fund analyst. Jeff was one of the original two co-hosts of this podcast and regularly posts his thoughts on Morningstar.com, Substack, X, and LinkedIn. Ptak’s work really focuses on investor outcomes. One of the highlights from the podcast today was when Ptak talked about how such a small number of stocks tend to generate a disproportionate amount of the market returns and what that means for diversified actively managed funds. He also discusses what target-date funds get right for investors, as well as what some of them may be missing.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 Mind the Gap and Investor Behavior

00:08:04 Crypto ETFs and Timing Mistakes

00:11:33 Active Funds and Letting Winners Run

00:23:00 Improving Investor Outcomes Through Lower Costs

00:30:09 Private Markets, SpaceX, and 401(k) Risks

00:34:15 Thematic ETFs, Speculation, and Fun Money

00:38:40 Market Timing Myths and Portfolio Construction

00:42:16 Is Tech’s Dominance Sustainable?

More From Morningstar

Read: Mind the Gap 2026

Leyla Kunimoto: Why Investors in Private Markets Need a Louder Voice

Will Danoff: ‘Be Very Careful of Unprofitable Companies’

Don Phillips: Encouraging Better Outcomes for Investors

 

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

 

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

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Today on the podcast we welcome back Nick Maggiulli. He’s the author of a new book called The Wealth Ladder: Proven Strategies for Every Step of Your Financial Life. His first book was called Just Keep Buying. In addition, Nick writes a wonderful blog called Of Dollars and Data, which is focused on the intersection between data and personal finance. In his day job, Nick is the Chief Operating Officer and Data Scientist at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 Writing The Wealth Ladder

00:05:30 The Six Levels of the Wealth Ladder

00:09:52 How Wealth Changes Across Net-Worth Levels

00:16:16 Why People Rarely Fall Down the Wealth Ladder

00:21:00 Spending Rules and the 0.01% Rule

00:29:25 Career Choices, Income, and Opportunity Costs

00:37:42 Investment Risks and Ascending the Wealth Ladder

00:44:29 Money, Happiness, and Life Beyond Wealth

More From Morningstar

Jim O’Shaughnessy: Investing Lessons From a Lifelong Learner

Dan Haylett: ‘The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming’

David Bach: ‘Start Enjoying Your Life Sooner’

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Stefan Sharkansky. Stefan is a Ph.D. statistician who specializes in finance. He wrote a provocatively titled paper, “The Only Other Spending Rule Article You Will Ever Need,” which was published in the Financial Analyst Journal. Stefan has also developed a related website called, The Best Third, designed to help people with their retirement spending plans and portfolio structures. In addition, he developed and operates the website PersonalFund.com, which provides proprietary cost analysis of mutual funds to financial advisors. Stefan has a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Washington.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:43 Why the 4% Rule Can Lead to Underspending

00:07:23 TIPS Ladders vs. Retirement Annuities

00:08:48 Reducing Fixed Spending and Stock Allocation

00:12:09 Why Individual TIPS Beat TIPS Funds

00:18:53 A Formula for Stock Portfolio Withdrawals

00:23:54 Historical Returns vs. Monte Carlo Simulations

00:29:30 Should Retirees Diversify Globally?

00:32:23 Leaving a Bequest Without Underspending

More From The Long View

Brett Arends: Worried About Outliving Your Money? There’s an Answer

Dana Anspach: Don’t Let Fear Ruin Your Retirement

Bill Bengen: ‘Inflation Is the Greatest Enemy of Retirees’

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Ryan Frederick, an author, speaker, and entrepreneur focused on the intersection of place and healthy longevity. As founder and CEO of HERE, he provides content courses and coaching in place planning, a holistic, research-based approach to help people find the right place for every stage of life. He’s also the author of Right Place, Right Time, a book that helps individuals think through housing decisions for the second half of life. In addition, Ryan provides strategy consulting to organizations looking to create better places, including Fortune 500 companies, institutional investors, health systems, and housing developers and operators. He’s also a member of the Advisory Council for the Stanford Center on Longevity. He previously served on the National Advisory Board of Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center Task Force on Health and Housing. He’s a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford Business School.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 Senior Living, Longevity, and 100-Year Life Planning

00:08:39 How Place Influences Health as You Age

00:10:37 The Four Pillars of Place Planning

00:16:19 Income’s Impact on Housing, Home Equity, and Limitations of Aging in Place

00:30:01 Place Planning Tools and Building Community

00:41:43 New Housing Models, Cohousing, and Age Diversity

00:49:13 Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Healthy Aging Dashboards

More From Morningstar

Your Retirement Countdown, With Christine Benz

Harry Margolis: How to Confront Aging Challenges Head-On

Joy Loverde: Planning Ahead for Care Needs as You Get Older

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.