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The Long View

The Long View

Written by: Morningstar Christine Benz - Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning Ben Johnson - Head of Client Solutions Amy Arnott - Portfolio Strategist
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Empowering long-term investors with actionable insights on retirement, personal finance, and portfolio strategy. Hosts Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson talk with influential leaders in finance and investing every Wednesday.2025 Morningstar, Inc. Careers Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Finance Personal Success
Episodes
  • Jeff Ptak: The Simple Secret to Becoming a Better Investor

    Jeff Ptak: The Simple Secret to Becoming a Better Investor
    Aug 18 2026
    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    52 mins
  • Nick Maggiulli: Climbing the Wealth Ladder

    Nick Maggiulli: Climbing the Wealth Ladder
    Aug 11 2026

    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.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    55 mins
  • Stefan Sharkansky: The Retirement Spending Plan That Adapts as Markets Change

    Stefan Sharkansky: The Retirement Spending Plan That Adapts as Markets Change
    Aug 4 2026
    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    40 mins
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