With more than three decades in research at Morningstar, John Rekenthaler has had a front row seat to the tectonic shifts in the mutual fund business. During his career, John has seen the industry go from one dominated by actively managed funds (e.g., Fidelity's Magellan fund) to one where index funds now hold more than 50% of fund assets. We reminisce about John's early days of Morningstar where one could leaf through binders with information on hundreds of funds (yes, I relied on these reports for my earliest investments in mutual funds). Please be sure to check out John's thought pieces in his Morningstar column after listening to the podcast. Enjoy! 

Details:

• 0:00~1:02 Introduction
• 1:02~2:04 Role at Morningstar
• 2:04~3:34 Early money lessons 
• 3:34~5:37 From a Ph.D. in English to Morningstar
• 5:37~9:06 The early days at Morningstar
• 9:06~14:21 The Morningstar star rating
• 14:21~16:39 Increasing the transparency of mutual funds
• 16:39~20:17 Conversations with fund managers
• 20:17~26:00 Low-cost funds and the rise of the individual investor
• 26:00~26:26 A word from NGPF
• 26:26~32:18 Experience investing
• 32:18~36:54 The rise of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
• 36:54~42:02 What to teach students about money
• 42:02~43:06 Conclusion 

Resources:

• John Rekenthaler's columns on Morningstar.com
• Best Way to Learn About Money

Quotes:

• “An educated consumer means not only knowing what to do with your own money, so personal finance issues… but understanding also the motives of companies or doing some work in the issues of corporate profitability.”