He's an associate professor at Brigham Young. Soft spoken, with a dry subtle sense of humor. When he started talking I didn't think he was going to be a good speaker. By the time he was done I thought he was great. The best thing about him? His salsa.
No, not the dancing kind of salsa. Tomato salsa, with cilantro, onions, and all the other yummy stuff you put in salsa to make it good. And no, he didn't cook for us. He talked about investments.
Specifically he talked about the research behind the 7Twelve portfolio. Ever heard of the 7Twelve portfolio? I hadn't either.
So how did he manage to get me thinking about tomato salsa while speaking about a specific way of building a well-designed portfolio of diversified investments? With his analogies.
As he said, you can shop for fabulous tomatoes, and the best cilantro you can find, but if you don't have a good salsa recipe to follow, you're still not going to have good salsa.
Most people, he said, shop for investments as if they are looking for the very best tomatoes, and they neglect what really matters - a good recipe to follow.
If you want a good investment recipe to follow, one the would have sustained a comfortable level of retirement income even over the last ten years, go pick up a copy of the 7Twelve portfolio.