The Rational Reminder Podcast

In this Ask Me Anything episode, Ben Felix, Ben Wilson, and Louai Bibi tackle a wide-ranging collection of listener questions spanning investing, retirement, family finance, and financial planning. Along the way, they combine academic research, practical experience, and thoughtful discussion to separate evidence-based decisions from intuition.
 
The conversation explores everything from teaching children healthy money habits and the long-term behavioral challenges of value investing to sequence of returns risk, retirement spending strategies, and global portfolio construction. The episode concludes with an in-depth discussion of Louai Bibi's National Financial Planning Award-winning financial plan, highlighting the importance of holistic advice, evidence-based planning, and continuous improvement through client feedback.
 
Key Points From This Episode:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(0:05:30) Advice for aspiring financial planners: Building skills, credentials, networks, and mentorship early in your career.
(0:07:35) Why young advisors should be "a sponge" and learn from both good and bad professional experiences.
(0:09:41) Ben Felix on completing the CFA, CIM, and CFP early—and why creating content accelerated his learning.
(0:11:51) Why getting large numbers of client-facing "reps" can dramatically improve an advisor's ability to communicate advice.
(0:15:44) Choosing the right firm, team, and mentors—and how networking helped Ben Felix ultimately join PWL.
(0:18:53) Should a young physician borrow from a professional line of credit to invest?
(0:24:55) Robert Merton's perspective on leverage for young investors and the risks of implementing leverage through margin borrowing.
(0:28:21) Why the psychological experience of investing borrowed money can be very different from owning an unleveraged portfolio.
(0:30:35) How much leverage is needed before it meaningfully changes a long-term financial plan.
(0:31:36) Should investors increase their equity allocation before considering leverage?
(0:33:39) Louai's experience working with physicians and why becoming debt-free can change how people feel about borrowing to invest.
(0:36:00) Louai and Ben Felix share their own experiences with leverage.
(0:36:59) How to teach children about money, scarcity, saving, generosity, and spending.
(0:38:26) Ben Wilson's approach: Save 50%, give 10%, and let his kids decide what to do with the remaining 40%.
(0:40:02) Using wealth for memorable family experiences rather than simply giving children more money.
(0:42:51) Why anticipating an experience can be an important part of the enjoyment it creates.
(0:43:42) Is the value premium worth the behavioral challenge of potentially enduring years of underperformance?
(0:44:11) Ben Felix explains why the difficulty of sticking with value may itself contribute to the premium.
(0:45:47) Can having a sufficiently large portfolio eliminate sequence-of-returns concerns?
(0:49:41) Reframing "sequence of returns" as "sequence of withdrawals"—and why flexible spending matters.
(0:51:21) Separating retirement expenses into fixed needs and flexible spending.
(0:52:47) The purchases that have delivered the best personal ROI for Ben, Ben, and Louai.
(0:53:08) Ben Felix on his indoor basketball hoop, family travel, sauna, and prepared meal delivery.
(0:56:56) Ben Wilson on family vacations, skiing, cycling, and why his family chose a pool over a cottage or boat.
(0:58:27) Louai on his 49-inch monitor, his dog, and investing in health and fitness.
(1:00:42) How should investors geographically weight a global small-cap value portfolio?
(1:05:13) Why a globally diversified portfolio that an investor can actually stick with matters more than finding a theoretically perfect country allocation.
(1:07:19) What should investors approaching retirement or FIRE do about sequence-of-returns risk?
(1:09:00) Research comparing declining, rising, and static equity allocations during retirement.
(1:13:38) Why risk tolerance, time horizon, spending needs, and financial-plan resilience should drive retirement asset allocation.
(1:15:07) The National Financial Planning Awards, the judging process, and the sponsorship conflict disclosure surrounding Louai's award.
(1:18:37) Inside Louai's 47-page award-winning financial plan and the range of planning issues it addressed.
(1:20:06) What Louai believes actually distinguished the submission: Not one clever strategy, but a holistic decision-making process.
(1:21:39) Why Louai sought feedback from planners outside PWL and how the award process can improve the broader team.
(1:23:26) Why Louai believes financial-planning knowledge and feedback should be shared rather than "gatekept."
(1:23:56) How feedback from the Rational Reminder community changed Louai's thinking about investment risk.
(1:24:40) Why defining risk purely as short-term volatility can overlook the bigger risk of failing to achieve financial goals.
(1:27:59) How public feedback through the podcast creates a powerful learning loop for the PWL team.
(1:28:29) A PWL client review on the value of planning, professional experience, and advice that puts the client's interests first.



Links From Today's Episode:

Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
 
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

In this episode, we are joined by Jean-Pierre Aubry, Associate Director of Retirement Plans and Finance at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, for a research-driven conversation about retirement investing, financial advice, pension fund management, and inflation. Drawing from years of empirical research, Jean-Pierre shares insights into how households actually invest, how financial advisors shape portfolio decisions, and why investors often hold asset allocations that differ from their own stated preferences.
 
We also examine the investment strategies of public pension plans, why their increasing reliance on alternative assets has largely failed to deliver superior performance, and the institutional forces driving those decisions. Finally, Jean-Pierre explains how inflation disproportionately affects retirees, why many households overreact during inflationary periods, and why understanding retirement risks—from market volatility to sequence of returns—is critical for long-term financial security.
 
Key Points From This Episode:
(0:06) Introduction to Jean-Pierre Aubry and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
(6:29) The Center's mission: producing objective, accessible retirement policy research.
(7:03) Why investors' actual stock allocations are higher than their stated ideal allocations.
(9:31) Defaults and target-date funds may explain the gap between desired and actual portfolios.
(10:46) Investors tend to underestimate long-term stock returns and overestimate market risk.
(11:22) Financial advisors generally encourage higher equity allocations by reducing investor pessimism.
(12:06) How advisor compensation can create incentives to recommend higher stock exposure.
(13:42) Research showing advisor recommendations vary more across advisors than across client profiles.
(16:56) The "advisor fixed effect": advisors largely recommend portfolios consistent with their own philosophy.
(18:57) Why working with an advisor often leads investors to hold more equities.
(20:26) How target-date funds work and why auto-enrollment is reshaping retirement investing.
(22:57) Why advisors and target-date funds are generally improving retirement security.
(23:57) The evolution of public pension investing from bonds to equities and then alternative assets.
(30:12) The growing influence of consultants and peer effects on public pension investment decisions.
(31:14) Why pension plans with greater allocations to alternatives have generally underperformed peers.
(32:23) Comparing public pension performance against a simple 60/40 index benchmark.
(36:43) Whether indexing may be a better long-term solution for public pension investing.
(39:35) Concerns about adding private assets to default retirement plan options.
(40:15) Maintaining objectivity while researching politically sensitive retirement issues.
(42:58) Why investment policy remains the "final frontier" for improving public pension systems.
(46:45) Why retirees are especially vulnerable to inflation.
(50:06) How inflation affects retirees differently across age and wealth levels.
(51:52) Why households tend to overspend during inflationary periods.
(53:38) How financial advisors adjust recommendations when inflation and interest rates rise.
(54:11) Why inflation ultimately reduces retirement security for many households.
(54:42) Which retirees face the greatest market risk.
(55:35) Why most retirees have little understanding of sequence of returns risk.
(55:56) Advisors understand sequence risk, but that knowledge doesn't appear to transfer to clients.
(57:23) Why declining equity exposure over time remains the canonical life-cycle investing approach.
(58:25) Jean-Pierre's definition of success: purpose, meaningful relationships, and financial security.
Links From Today's Episode:

Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
 
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

In this AMA episode, Ben Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson tackle a wide range of practical investing questions submitted by listeners. They begin by discussing one of the most common investing mistakes—market timing—and explain why getting back into the market is often harder than getting out. From there, they explore the evidence behind lump sum investing versus dollar-cost averaging, why high valuations rarely justify sitting in cash, and how your discomfort with investing may reveal a mismatch between your portfolio and your true risk tolerance.
 
The conversation also pulls back the curtain on PWL Capital's investment committee, detailing how new investment products are evaluated, how due diligence is conducted, and why even seemingly simple index funds require ongoing scrutiny. They then examine whether any recent Canadian ETF innovations are genuinely useful, discuss retirement-focused T-Series asset allocation ETFs, debate whether gamified trading creates opportunities for active management, and respond to questions about inflation, currency debasement, and the real drivers of long-term stock returns. As always, the episode closes with a lighter listener question before reading a review from the audience.



Key Points From This Episode:
(0:04) Introduction and why AMA episodes continue to resonate with listeners.
(0:55) A listener asks how to reinvest after selling half their portfolio over bubble concerns.
(2:00) Why successful market timing requires being right twice.
(3:04) Why all-time market highs are normal and poor signals for investment decisions.
(4:00) What market valuations can—and cannot—tell us about future returns.
(5:00) The evidence comparing lump sum investing with dollar-cost averaging.
(6:34) Why even the worst historical entry points rarely favor dollar-cost averaging.
(9:07) How investment anxiety often points to an overly aggressive asset allocation.
(11:37) The psychology of buying after market crashes and why investors rarely do.
(13:20) Why the best strategy is often whichever gets you invested and keeps you there.
(16:14) A behind-the-scenes look at PWL Capital's investment committee.
(17:23) How new securities are researched, reviewed, and approved.
(19:10) How acquisitions have changed the firm's investment oversight process.
(20:15) Annual due diligence on ETF providers and fund managers.
(21:55) Why even plain-vanilla index funds require performance monitoring.
(25:17) Are there any genuinely innovative new Canadian ETFs?
(26:27) Why most ETF innovation is driven by investor demand rather than better investing.
(28:19) Avantis ETFs and discount bond ETFs as notable recent developments.
(33:52) Why ETF issuers tend to launch products after investment themes become popular.
(33:52) Where investors should spend their planning time when wealth is still relatively small.
(35:00) Why growing human capital often has a greater impact than optimizing investments.
(37:59) Budgeting, saving, and account selection early in an investing journey.
(39:14) BMO's new T-Series asset allocation ETFs and how they generate retirement income.
(41:56) Understanding managed distributions and return of capital.
(44:08) Why these retirement ETFs may suit DIY investors but not every retiree.
(48:31) Whether gamified trading and meme stocks create opportunities for active managers.
(50:08) What the evidence says about active management in small-cap growth stocks.
(53:39) Why market competition limits persistent opportunities from retail speculation.
(53:39) Do stocks only rise because governments debase currencies?
(55:59) Inflation measurement, currency debasement, and common misconceptions.
(58:10) Why productive businesses—not money printing alone—drive long-term stock returns.
(59:53) Ben answers a listener's basketball shoe question.
(1:02:02) A listener review from Switzerland and closing remarks.
Links From Today's Episode:

Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
Dollar Cost Averaging vs Lump Sum Investing - https://pwlcapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Dollar-Cost-Averaging-vs-Lump-Sum-Investing.pdf

Buy The Dip - https://pwlcapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/PWL-Felix-Warwick-Buy-The-Dip_A.pdf
 
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Paul Kaplan, economist, CFA charterholder, former Director of Research at Morningstar Canada, and co-author of Lifetime Financial Advice, for a fascinating exploration of life cycle finance. Drawing on decades of research in economics, portfolio construction, and asset allocation, Paul explains how financial planning should be grounded in optimizing lifetime consumption rather than relying on disconnected rules of thumb.
 
We explore how life cycle finance integrates consumption, saving, investing, and retirement spending into a single framework, why risk tolerance and risk capacity are fundamentally different concepts, and how human capital should be treated as part of an investor's balance sheet. Paul also walks through the life cycle model he and Tom Idzorek developed, explains why traditional retirement rules like the 4% rule lack theoretical foundations, and demonstrates an open-source spreadsheet that allows anyone to experiment with the model for themselves. This conversation brings together economics, portfolio theory, and financial planning into a practical framework for making better lifetime financial decisions.
 
Key Points From This Episode:
(0:04) Introduction to Dr. Paul Kaplan and the topic of life cycle finance.
(4:38) What life cycle finance is and why consumption smoothing is its central objective.
(5:20) How life cycle models optimize saving, investing, retirement spending, insurance, and annuities.
(6:36) Linking life cycle finance with Harry Markowitz's mean-variance optimization.
(8:38) Why consumption—not wealth accumulation—is the true focus of financial planning.
(9:56) The concept of an economic balance sheet: financial assets, human capital, liabilities, and net worth.
(10:59) Holistic investor profiling beyond traditional risk tolerance questionnaires.
(13:23) Why risk tolerance and risk capacity should never be combined into a single score.
(16:48) Assessing the risk characteristics of human capital.
(17:36) Applying utility theory behind the scenes in financial planning software.
(19:15) Sample profiling questions that measure lifetime consumption preferences.
(20:54) Why maximizing lifetime utility ultimately means optimizing consumption.
(22:55) How preferences, needs, and circumstances shape lifetime financial plans.
(24:13) The primary outputs of a life cycle model: consumption and asset allocation.
(25:01) The roles of life insurance and annuities in lifetime financial planning.
(27:44) How uncertain investment returns influence both spending and asset allocation.
(28:19) Why longevity assumptions are critical in retirement planning.
(29:37) Simplifying complex life cycle optimization into practical formulas.
(30:27) Why life cycle finance challenges rules of thumb like the 4% withdrawal rule.
(31:12) Flexible retirement spending versus fixed withdrawal strategies.
(34:01) Why consumption should be treated as an output rather than an input.
(36:05) The importance of asset location and after-tax portfolio construction.
(37:04) Why asset allocation and asset location should be solved simultaneously.
(38:19) Harry Markowitz on why asset allocation became the foundation of modern investing.
(40:06) The need for financial planning software built on life cycle theory.
(41:55) A walkthrough of Paul's open-source life cycle finance spreadsheet.
(46:58) Understanding economic balance sheets and asset mix visualizations.
(49:17) Which investor characteristics have the greatest influence on optimal asset allocation.
(50:52) Why Nobel Prize-winning life cycle finance research has yet to become mainstream practice.
(51:37) The evolving role of financial advisors in helping clients make rational financial decisions.
(52:50) How Paul's own investment philosophy emphasizes indexing and asset allocation.
(54:13) Factor investing, popularity theory, and connecting behavioral finance with asset pricing.
(56:42) Paul's definition of success: applying first principles with rigor and integrity throughout his career.
Links From Today's Episode:

Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
Dr. Paul Kaplan: https://www.paulkaplan.com/ 
Lifetime Financial Advice (CFA Institute Research Foundation): Lifetime Financial Advice| Research Foundation 
Life Cycle Finance Spreadsheet (Paul Kaplan's website): https://www.paulkaplan.com/lifetime-financial-advice 

*Disclosure: Links to third-party materials are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of the products or services offered therein.
Frontiers of Modern Asset Allocation (Wiley): https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Frontiers+of+Modern+Asset+Allocation-p-9781118029689 
Popularity: A Bridge Between Classical and Behavioral Finance (CFA Institute Research Foundation): https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/foundation/2021/popularity-a-bridge-between-classical-and-behavioral-finance
 
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

In this AMA episode, Benjamin Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson tackle a wide range of listener questions covering portfolio construction, diversification, active management, pensions, fiduciary duty, and short-term investing decisions. They examine whether breaking apart all-in-one ETFs is worth the complexity, why global diversification remains the default despite long stretches of underperformance, and how investors should think about risk when they have defined benefit pensions or short-term financial goals. Along the way, they discuss the limits of active management, why simplicity often beats optimization, and even reveal their favorite board games.
Key Points From This Episode:
(0:01:12) Whether investors should replace asset allocation ETFs with individual component ETFs to save on management fees. 
(0:01:40) Why simplicity has real economic value—and how small fee savings compare to behavioral costs. 
(0:05:38) Portfolio drift, rebalancing discipline, and the hidden costs of managing multiple ETFs. 
(0:06:08) How recent fee reductions narrowed the cost gap between VEQT and its component funds. 
(0:06:51) When using individual ETF components may make sense for larger portfolios or asset location strategies. 
(0:11:16) The hosts share their favorite board games—and why poker has surprising parallels to investing. 
(0:15:01) What true diversification actually means beyond simply owning the S&P 500. 
(0:16:07) Why the global market portfolio remains the logical starting point for most investors. 
(0:19:46) Addressing claims that modern index funds have become "too concentrated." 
(0:21:52) Why active managers tend to lose their edge as assets under management grow. 
(0:22:15) Diminishing returns to scale and the efficient market for manager skill. 
(0:27:03) How defined benefit pensions should factor into portfolio construction and risk capacity. 
(0:33:53) Understanding fiduciary duty for Canadian portfolio managers and financial advisors. 
(0:37:17) Why publicly holding yourself out as a fiduciary carries legal and ethical implications. 
(0:39:22) Can individual investors outperform active funds by picking stocks themselves? 
(0:42:32) Why time, effort, and research alone rarely translate into market-beating performance. 
(0:45:04) Why international stocks have lagged U.S. equities—and why diversification still matters. 
(0:47:10) The role of valuation expansion in explaining decades of U.S. outperformance. 
(0:50:05) How to invest money earmarked for a home down payment over a three-to-five-year horizon. 
(0:53:31) Applying the same time-horizon framework to RESP investing and education savings.
Links From Today's Episode:

Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/



Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)