Telling the truth
about investing

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About The Evidence-Based Investor

There are few bigger priorities for people today than investing for the future. A combination of the rising cost of health and education, soaring house prices, longer life expectancy and the increasing strain on welfare budgets means it’s vital that everyone does what they can to remain financially independent for the rest of their lives.

But the reality is that most of us are saving far too little and levels of financial literacy are pitifully low. All too often we base our investment decisions on industry marketing and advertising or on what we read and hear in the media. That wouldn’t matter if brokers, fund managers, advisers and
financial journalists acted solely in our best interests. But everyone’s conflicted to some degree or another, and as a result ordinary investors typically end up doing precisely the opposite of what they should be doing.

There has, in fact, been a welter of independent, peer-reviewed research dating back to the 1950s on how best to invest, and the findings are remarkably consistent. Yet although this evidence is widely known in academic circles, the investing public remains largely oblivious to it. Even investment professionals and industry commentators are either unaware of it or for their own reasons choose to ignore it.

This blog is an attempt to redress the balance. My goal is to inform investors about what the evidence says; to explain why we don’t hear more about it; and to help like-minded financial advisers to communicate the benefits of an evidence-based approach.

If you’re hoping to get rich quick, this isn’t the blog for you. I’m not an investment professional; I’m a journalist. The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be seen as advice.

But if you’re looking for the truth about investing or, like me, you’d like to see this hugely important industry change for the better, then welcome aboard. Let’s enjoy the journey.

Robin Powell, MA (Oxon) MCIJ

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About Robin Powell

Robin is an award-winning journalist and campaigner for positive change in global investing, advocating better investor education and greater transparency.

For most of his career in mainstream journalism, Robin worked in broadcast news and current affairs. For 14 years he was a news reporter and documentary maker for ITV Central and network ITV News and ITV Sport. He went freelance in 2005, and spent seven years working mainly for Sky News and for The Politics Show on BBC1.

Robin is a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists and was a Visiting Media Fellow at Duke University in North Carolina.

Married with two children, Robin lives in rural North Warwickshire. A former intern on Capitol Hill, Robin has supported a number of lost political causes over the years, and a few sporting ones, including Aston Villa Football Club and the England cricket team.

As well as The Evidence-Based Investor, he edits Adviser 2.0, a blog which explores the changes taking place within the financial advice profession.

He is the writer and presenter of many highly-acclaimed online documentaries about investing, among others the titles Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors, and Investing: The Evidence.

Robin is Founder and Executive Director of Ember Regis Group and its subsidiaries Regis Media, a niche provider of content marketing for financial advice firms and wealth managers with an evidence-based investment philosophy, as well as Ember Television, which produces and distributes broadcast-quality video content. Ember specialises in sharing new and disruptive ideas and in helping clients to become thought leaders in their field.

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