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The Wizard of Oz is about a Kansas farm girl who is traveling along a yellow brick road to get to the City of Oz, home to a person with special powers whom she believes can solve all her problems. Along the way she finds some odd characters who are seeking a heart, a mind and courage. When they arrive in the presence of supposedly omnipotent Wizard of Oz, they pull back the curtain to discover that he is just an ordinary man from Omaha, Nebraska, using mechanical trickery to conceal his real self.

There is a parallel between the Wizard of Oz and your 401(k). For decades Wall Street professionals have used vocabulary to create an illusion of investment superiority. But the curtain that hid Wall Street’s truth has been pulled back and their deception has been revealed. Millions of ordinary investors have discovered that through the use of the unique features of a 401(k) and index funds, they already have the skills they need to outperform the pros. In this insightful episode of my podcast, I will explore many of the vocabulary terms Wall Street types use to distinguish themselves from ordinary strap hangers like you and I.

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Investing is not rocket science, nor is it a roulette wheel. It's a plow horse, a giant animal who turns the earth over, step by arduous step, so that when harvest time comes, the earth pours out an abundant crop.

Wall Street Dummies are investors who have learned how to combine the unique characteristics of 401(k) plans with a plow horse approach to self-direct their own investment portfolios and outperform the pros. Over the course of the past decades, they have amassed a combined net worth of $15 trillion, a staggering figure that is double that of the federal governments annual budget.

In this insightful episode of my podcast, I will explain why the stock market resembles a plow house and detail strategies used by 401(k) investors to be first in line when the harvest payout begins. Where will you be at harvest time?

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At the end of it every straightaway, there's a curve. But this exciting and informative episode of my podcast is not about auto racing. It's about how to preserve and grow the assets in your 401(k). In the last two years the S&P 500 has grown over 50%, and the NASDAQ, over 70%. With each passing day the number of times the word bubble appears in the Wall Street Journal increases. Wall Street Dummies understand that now is the time to keep emotions in check. They also understand that the because of the unique structure of 401(k) plans they are able to respond when Mr. Markets straightaway becomes a curve. In the following discussion I will outline these options and help you chose the one that works for you.

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During my 62-year journey with Wall Street, I have been a witness to and a participant in, many significant events. I was there on Black Monday, 1987. I enjoyed the ride of the once in a lifetime 1990’s bull market. I chuckled my way through the dot.com bubble and cried in my beer during the subprime meltdown of 2007 to 2009. All of these events were profoundly documented and dissected by the financial median and their Wall Street cronies.

The subject of this incredibly insightful episode of my podcast is a less documented and dissected stock market development, the index fund revolution. The index fund revolution percolating for fifty years and just recently has become a force to be reckoned with.

Contrary to a plethora of urban myths, index funds are not totally passive in construction or application. I begin this episode with a discussion on why actively managed funds fail to beat the market. I conclude with a presentation on how index funds actively respond to the ever-changing market infrastructure and how 401(k) plan participants can use them to outperform the pros.

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Up until a few weeks ago I had no desire in delving into the mystic world of crypto currency. However, when Trump announced that he was going to direct the Department of Labor to allow cryptocurrency and private equity as an option to the country’s 90 million 401(k) participants, I concluded it was time to risk becoming tainted and find out what all the hoopla was about. Not to become proficient in it, but rather to understand what form it might take in order to enter the 401(k) realm and help the unsuspecting public deal with this new offering/temptation. I spent countless house scouring the internet and reading the few available books on the subject. Spoiler alert: the voodoo part of the title of this episode applies to cryptocurrency.

And since you are already listening, I thought I might as well throw out some of my pithy thoughts and observations on the on the ongoing war of words between President Trump, the Fed chairman Jerry Powell and just for good measure I will throw Jim Kramer into the mix. The topic is relevant and timely because American workers hold $3.7 trillion dollars’ worth of bond funds in their 401k plans that have come under pressure due to the confluence of the Trump tariffs, Musk’s DODE brouhaha and the anemic decline in the inflation rate. This is where the snake oil thing comes into the picture.

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As we transition from summer into the fall months, the words of Will Rogers come to mind: “The worst month to invest in the stock market is September. The others are January, February, March…..November, and December.

So far, the stock market year 2025 has been interesting, but not overly dramatic. In this episode of my podcast, I will provide listeners with my thoughts and observations on where we are, how we got here and some comments about where the remainder of the year might take us. Do not take my comments concerning the remainder of the year as a forecast. They are observations based upon my ongoing 62-year journey with the stock market and subject to change at a moment’s notice.

Investing is not a one size fits all proposition. As you listen to my comments, I request that you put them in the context of your own asset base, temperament and skill level. There is however, one approach that the rational, disciplined retirement fund investors can use to remain sane in a chaotic environment: Forget the needle and buy the haystack.

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There are 90 million American workers with company sponsored 401(k)plans. These 7,143 plans have a cumulative value of $14 trillion. This figure is twice the amount of the federal budget and 25% of the total value of the US stock market.

Plan participants are required to choose their investments from a list of mutual funds prepared by a financial professional who is compensated by the funds they recommended. In 2015, the US Supreme Court mandated that employers must provide reasonably priced mutual funds or be fined to make up the difference.

But with the stoke of a pen, President Trump has turned the 401(k) world on its head. On August 1, he signed an executive order directing the Department of Labor to open up 401(k) plan dollars to previously unavailable alternative investment vehicles such as private equity, real estate, and crypto currency.

The exact implement date and details of the investment products are yet to be determined. But we do know that the Wall Street marketing departments have been burning the midnight oil to prepare investment vehicles based on concepts yet to be tested and proven.

In this episode, I will share my thoughts on how Wall Street might package these alternative assets into a product for use in 401(k)s. I will also share my thoughts on how they might perform and how to evaluate their performance vs those funds currently available in 401(k) accounts.

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Eighty million American workers participate in their companies 401(k) plan. Collectively, they have $14 trillion dollars invested in these plans. They make their own investment decisions by selecting mutual funds from a list prepared by an investment professional who is compensated by the mutual funds they place on the list. Last year, American workers paid $275 billion dollars in fees to have Wall Street manage their mutual funds. Over the course of the next decade this figure will exceed $3 trillion dollars.

There are those 401(k) participants who choose funds with minimal fees and superior performance. Others choose funds with high fees and subpar performance. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average 401(k) balance is $123,465. There are several million whose balance exceeds $1 million.

In this episode I will explore how the 401(k) program is structured, and what it takes to become a member of the elite $1m 401(k) club.

SPOILER ALERT – this is not a once in a life time stock pick. Becoming a 401(k) millionaire require discipline and patience.

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