Mike Piper: Scammers Are Getting Smarter. Is Your Financial Security Keeping Up?

Our guest on the podcast today is Mike Piper. Mike is the author of several personal finance books, the latest of which is called Household Cybersecurity: A CPA’s Guide to Protecting Your Accounts and Personal Information. Mike also writes a wonderful blog called Oblivious Investor, and he’s developed a free tool exploring Social Security claiming decisions called Open Social Security. One thing we loved about the conversation with Mike and about Mike’s book is his attention to the interplay between cybercrimes and cognitive decline as we age. He has a lot of helpful tips for troubleshooting that issue. One of the really interesting points he made was that financial problems can actually be an early warning sign of cognitive decline for an older parent or other family member. Mike shared simple, helpful tips that are easy to implement, including why you should create a guest network that’s separate from your main network at home, and how that can improve your cybersecurity.Episode Highlights00:00:00 Introduction00:02:41 Why Cybercrime Is Increasing00:04:10 How AI Is Making Scams More Convincing00:08:25 How to Spot Cyber Fraud00:15:21 How to Create Stronger Passwords00:19:25 Multifactor Authentication and Passkeys00:33:27 How to Secure Devices and Home Networks00:36:53 Are Bank or Investment Accounts Safer?00:39:21 Can Financial Problems Signal Cognitive Decline?00:45:24 When to Bring in a Financial ProfessionalMore from The Long ViewDana Anspach: Don’t Let Fear Ruin Your Retirement Erin Moriarity: My Dad Lost About $1.5 Million on Bad Investments. Here’s How to Avoid His Mistakes Jean Chatzky: How to Create a Forever Paycheck for Retirement If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Today, we’re happy to welcome two guests from the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies. Spencer Look is the associate director of retirement studies and public policy for Morningstar, and Jack VanDerhei is the director of retirement studies and public policy. Jack previously worked as the research director at the Employee Benefit Research Institute from 1996 through 2022. Spencer and Jack both produce a lot of really helpful research on retirement outcomes, Social Security reform, and retirement policy. One of the highlights was their more balanced take on whether there’s really a retirement crisis in the US. We hear a lot of really dire warnings about that, so we appreciated their perspective on where there’s room for improvement, as well as data on things that aren’t quite as bad as some people might have us believe. You won’t be surprised to hear that we really enjoyed the discussion about long-term care. Spencer and Jack have both concluded that the retirement planning community has underrated long-term care as a risk factor for people’s retirement plans.Episode Highlights00:00:00 Introduction00:02:52 Modeling US Retirement Outcomes00:07:06 Is There a Retirement Crisis?00:11:17 Evaluating Retirement Policy Reform00:14:49 Planning for Social Security Changes00:18:01 Access, Auto‑Enrollment, and Accumulation00:21:14 How the Saver’s Match Works00:30:52 Turning Savings Into Retirement Income00:34:45 Planning for Long-Term-Care Costs and LongevityMore from The Long ViewJean Chatzky: How to Create a Forever Paycheck for Retirement Dana Anspach: Don’t Let Fear Ruin Your Retirement Jamie Hopkins and Bonnie Treichel: Why You Can’t Set and Forget a Retirement Plan If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Our guest on the podcast today is Erin Moriarity. Erin is the originator of the Erin Talks Money channel on YouTube, where she explains personal finance and retirement planning concepts with easy-to-understand videos. Erin received her bachelor’s degree in business at Northern Michigan University and completed the Certified Financial Planner program at The Ohio State University. We loved hearing about Erin’s thought process on providing financial information to people who weren’t being well-served by traditional financial advice models. Erin also explained why people shouldn’t worry too much about Social Security benefits going away due to lack of funding, and the value of working with an advisor later in life, even if you’re a do-it-yourself investor.Episode Highlights00:00:00 Introduction00:01:21 Early Financial Education00:04:14 Bringing Financial Advice to the Middle Class00:14:16 Rethinking Conventional Retirement Wisdom00:19:07 Psychology of Saving to Spending00:20:59 Planning for Long-Term-Care Costs00:26:53 Can You Count on Social Security?00:32:20 Annuities and Protecting Your Finances as You Age00:42:05 Lessons From Financial MistakesMore from The Long ViewStefan Sharkansky: The Retirement Rule That Leaves Too Much Money Behind Brett Arends: Worried About Outliving Your Money? There’s an Answer Jean Chatzky: How to Create a Forever Paycheck for Retirement If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Today’s guest on The Long View is Robin Wigglesworth. Robin is the editor of the Financial Times finance blog, Alphaville. He’s also the author of Trillions, which is the definitive book on the past, present, and future of passive investing. Robin’s joining us today to discuss his latest book, A Fabulous Debt, which is a history of the bond market. The history of the bond market is marked by war, peace, market mania featuring a very colorful cast of characters, and so much more. Robin is such a brilliant writer that he really brings every aspect of a history to life. One of the highlights of the show was when he was talking about the huge amount of capital spending we’re seeing in artificial intelligence and how it parallels the railroad boom in the 19th century. He made the point that debt-fueled capital spending sprees tend to end quite badly, although the scale of capital investment in AI this time around is still quite a bit smaller. As Robin points out, history rarely repeats, but often rhymes, and we might be living through one of those rhyming moments today.We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening! Episode Highlights00:00:00 Why the History of Bond Market Matters00:09:38 Venice and the Birth of Bonds00:16:34 How Britain Shaped America’s Financial System00:24:48 The Poyais Bond Scam00:30:13 Railroad Capex and AI Spending00:37:08 Jay Cooke and The Father of Junk Bonds00:41:55 The Rise of Credit Ratings00:47:07 How Bond Markets Replaced Banks00:57:11 How Much Debt Can the US Carry?More From The Long ViewWade Pfau: Higher Bond Yields Are a Plus for Retirees Ben Carlson: Exploring Risk and Reward Jeremy Grantham: ‘Almost Everything Looks More Attractive Than the US Equity Market’ If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Our guest on the podcast today is Elliott Appel. He’s a financial planner and the founder of Kindness Financial Planning. He’s also an author. His latest book is called How to Help Your Parents As They Age: A Financial Planner’s Guide to Caregiving, which chronicles his father’s last years and the key lessons he learned along the way. He’s also co-host of his own podcast called the ME and Money Podcast. We really loved this conversation because Elliott provided so many tangible tips that people can use to help their parents, and his personal story really provides a lot of color.We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening! Episode Highlights00:00:00 Introduction00:01:23 Financial Planning Through Life Transitions00:03:22 Appel’s Journey Planning for His Father00:08:45 How an Eldercare Consultant Can Help00:13:03 Estate Planning and Choosing the Right Power of Attorney00:17:05 Guardrails for Aging Parents’ Finances00:24:43 Put Parents on Your Cellphone Plan00:27:17 Navigating Healthcare, Housing, and Care Transitions00:33:59 Managing Caregiver Stress and Burnout00:43:31 Rethinking Aging and Death in the USMore From The Long ViewBeth Pinsker: Lessons From ‘My Mother’s Money’ Kathleen Rehl: Helping Widows and the Advisors Who Serve Them Sally Balch Hurme: Getting Your Affairs in Order as You Get Older If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

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.We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening! Episode Highlights00:00:00 Mind the Gap and Investor Behavior 00:08:15 Crypto ETFs and Timing Mistakes 00:11:44 Active Funds and Letting Winners Run 00:23:11 Improving Investor Outcomes Through Lower Costs 00:30:20 Private Markets, SpaceX, and 401(k) Risks 00:34:26 Thematic ETFs, Speculation, and Fun Money 00:38:51 Market Timing Myths and Portfolio Construction 00:42:27 Is Tech’s Dominance Sustainable? More From MorningstarRead: 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 [email protected]. 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.

Today on the podcast, we welcome back Jean Chatzky. Jean is the author of a new book about retirement planning called The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money. In addition, she has written several other New York Times bestselling books about money and investing. She’s also CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast Her Money with Jean Chatzky. She served as the financial editor of NBC Today for 25 years and is the financial ambassador for AARP. She appeared frequently on CNN and MSNBC, and was a recurring guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening!Episode Highlights00:00:00 Introduction00:01:00 Why Retirees Struggle to Spend00:05:18 Creating a Retirement Paycheck00:09:25 Choosing Annuities and Financial Advice00:20:40 Bridging the Social Security Gap00:23:40 Managing Sequence-of-Returns Risk00:28:42 Retirement Planning for Couples and Working Longer00:37:17 Protecting Against Financial Fraud00:40:39 How Jean Chatzky Reimagined RetirementMore from The Long ViewBrett Arends: Worried About Outliving Your Money? There’s an Answer Dana Anspach: Don’t Let Fear Ruin Your Retirement Stefan Sharkansky: The Retirement Rule That Leaves Too Much Money Behind If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Today’s guest on The Long View is David Booth. David is a repeat guest, the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and has just released a new book titled Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life. One of the interesting through lines on the episode really centered on data. David explained that without data, people are just arguing beliefs. There was so much time within the industry where investors really were in a data desert. That foundational layer was critical to everything that David, his colleagues at Dimensional, and so many others around the broader investing industry have ultimately brought to bear for the benefit of so many investors over the years. Plus, David explained that having access to a more complete dataset can really help provide a sense of calmness and reassurance for investors, even in an uncertain environment. Episode Highlights 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:21 How Market Data Revolutionized Investing 00:09:22 Learning From Eugene Fama 00:16:16 Communicating Financial Science 00:20:40 What is the Efficient-Market Hypothesis? 00:24:11 Diversification and the Limits of Indexing 00:32:37 Is Dimensional Active or Passive? 00:34:24 The Science Behind Factor Investing 00:40:29 Trusting Markets and Embracing Uncertainty More From Morningstar David Booth: ‘Usually the Great Ideas Start Out as Small Ideas and Then You Build on Them’ Don Phillips: Encouraging Better Outcomes for Investors Charley Ellis: Indexing Is a Marvelous Gift If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

Our guests on the podcast today are Andy Clarke and Nelson Wicas, co-authors—along with Ganesh Suntharam—of the new book, The Architecture of Wealth: The Art and Science of Portfolio Construction. Andy has spent more than three decades as an investment researcher and writer. He has worked at Morningstar and Vanguard, where he served as assistant to Vanguard Founder and indexing pioneer, John C. Bogle. Andy has published research in practitioner journals such as the Journal of Index Investing. He is the author of Wealth of Experience and a CFA Charterholder. Nelson has developed and managed quantitative equity strategies for more than 30 years. Most recently, he worked at Redpoint Investment Management, where he was a founder and research analyst. After completing his PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Nelson joined Vanguard to help establish its quantitative equity management function. Nelson later helped found Vanguard’s investment counseling and research team to produce portfolio construction insights for clients and internal teams. Nelson has been a visiting professor of economics at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Episode Highlights 00:00:00 The Architecture of Wealth 00:06:42 Why Portfolio Construction is an Art and Science 00:10:03 Bogle’s Approach to Active Management 00:15:38 Why Index Investing Isn’t Passive 00:22:09 The Birth of Modern Portfolio Theory 00:26:58 Behavioral Finance, Investor Biases, and Impact of Education 00:36:13 Why Index Funds Finally Took Off 00:39:25 Evaluating Active Managers 00:43:27 The Small-Cap Effect More From The Long View Charley Ellis: Indexing Is a Marvelous Gift Jeff Ptak: The Simple Secret to Becoming a Better Investor Andy Reed: Inertia Is the Most Powerful Force in Behavioral Finance If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at [email protected]. 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.

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 [email protected].   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.