Ben Carlson and Paul Merriman on Full Disclosure

Paul Merriman joins host Roben Farzad on Full Disclosure for a rare conversation alongside Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth and author of the new book Risk and Reward: How to Handle Market Volatility and Build Long-Term Wealth. Roben called it a “truth teller tandem” — the first time these two have sat down together — and the result is an hour of warm, candid, data-grounded talk about how individual investors can actually succeed.

The conversation opens with a great question: does a century of S&P 500 history mean anything when index funds didn’t even exist for most of it? Paul explains why those long-run numbers still matter — not as a promise of the next ten years, but as a guide to the full range of what markets can do. From there, Paul and Ben trace just how far investing has come since Paul entered the business in 1966: the death of the 8.5% sales load, the arrival of IRAs and 401(k)s, fractional shares, and commission-free trading. As Ben puts it, the barriers to entry have been bulldozed, and today’s investor has a better shot at strong net returns than ever before.

But more choices bring more temptation. Paul and Ben dig into diversification as a risk-management tool — why a tilt toward small-cap value and a meaningful allocation to international stocks can pay off over a lifetime, even when the S&P 500 is dominating the headlines. They revisit the lost decade of 2000–2009, the lessons of Japan’s 1989 peak, and the hard discipline of rebalancing into the pain when an asset class is out of favor.

They also get practical about the things keeping investors up at night: inflation as one of the biggest risks most people underestimate, the real trade-offs in today’s bond market and long-duration Treasuries, and an honest look at the FIRE movement — including why meaning, longevity, and a 30- or 40-year retirement complicate the dream of retiring early. Throughout, Paul shares his own story, including why, at 82 and with more than he needs, he still holds half his portfolio in equities because of a caution he’s carried since his twenties.

Ben closes with the thought that may stay with you longest: the most important thing an investor can understand is not the market — it’s themselves. Knowing which mistake you’d regret more, and what you can truly live with, is the foundation everything else is built on.