Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of dining with long-time friend Paul Merriman and his wife, Suzanne, during their visit to Vermont. Paul began publishing an investment newsletter, Fund Exchange, in 1983 – right around the time my father started The Mutual Fund Strategist. Over the years Paul grew his small newsletter business into a billion dollar investment management firm before stepping down as President and Board Chairman in 2011. Nowadays Paul is “retired” and pursuing his real passion of improving financial literacy, particularly among young adults. He does this tirelessly through his radio program, regular MarketWatch column, and books such as First-Time Investor: Grow and Protect Your Money, which was published late last year. Recently, Paul endowed a college course about financial literacy in his home state of Washington. Last night’s dinner was a fun walk down memory lane. We chuckled at the thought of how our newsletter timing advice was once disseminated, not over the Internet, but by phone. Paul actually called every single subscriber with buy and sell signals and, if he reached a busy signal (remember those?), he would call again! And then there were the charts; we had to tediously plot stock market data by hand on graph paper. It was all so time-consuming. Thanks for a delightful evening, Paul.
