Here’s my last column for the Dallas Morning News. I didn’t post it until now because, well, I was busy writing the columns you’ve been reading since early August on this website and I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t still writing…
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This is my last column for the Dallas Morning News. It has been a long and wonderful run. There is no way I can fully express how thankful I am for my regular readers.
You let me be your personal learner, the guy who did your reading and research. With your trust, I made some sense of the chaos and complexity called “personal finance.” Not to mention the arcane guessing game called “economics.” I know I’ve been useful because I’ve received years of reader letters, thanking me for contributing to their secure finances and comfortable retirement.
My journey with you has never been just about money. It’s been profoundly close and personal, both ways. Readers to me. Me to readers. This is real life — grappling with the losses and hurts that are more difficult to overcome than anything involving mere money.
It’s also been great fun. My favorite definition of wealth, for instance, comes from a reader, Dallas real estate investor Larry Fellman.
“You’re wealthy,” he says, “when more money won’t change what you drive, what you eat, where you live — or who you sleep with.”
That’s a wise, robust and earthy definition.
My column first appeared in the Dallas Morning News 44.5 years ago. It appeared as a syndicated feature. In 1985, I joined the paper as a staffer. When I first retired in 2006, the column continued in syndication while I co-founded and developed AssetBuilder, one of the first very low-cost investment management firms. Finally, from 2018 to now, I wrote the column under contract as a freelancer. But I have considered myself part of the Dallas Morning News since I arrived here from Boston in 1985.
As a retiree, I’ve turned out to be quite unreliable. Call me restless. Carolyn, my wife and partner in everything, tells people, “We’re living in our Fourth Last House.”
You’ve haven’t seen the last word from Scott Burns. A book on Couch Potato investing is done. It will be released by Wiley early next year. And I will continue adding posts to my personal website. You are welcome to visit.
You can find it by Googling my name. Just remember I’m the columnist Scott Burns, not the screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. Not Scott Burns the former music producer. And not any of the athletes named Scott Burns. Alternatively, you can just go to www.scottburns.com.
Will I be writing about the same stuff? In some ways, yes. My interest is in facts and data, and I will continue providing links to sources, earlier columns, and other resources for readers.
If low-cost investing ever stops being the best solution for most of us, I’ll strive to be the first to let you know. I view the world with an economic lens. But I also view it as a biologist and as a nerdy generalist.
Beyond that, aging is an adventure. An opportunity. It is not a disaster. I’ll be writing more about that. Approaching my 85th birthday, I qualify as an “Age Scout.”
Finally, there is evidence that all the problems we face have solutions. Most are hiding in plain sight. To find them, we’ll need to turn away from grievance ridden social media. We can do this once we start to remember what “we” is.
And there it is, a renewed mission.
This information is distributed for education purposes, and it is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, or service.
Photo: Doug Blasius, June 3, 2023. Scott Burns starting the descent from the cloud shrouded Pyrenees on the Camino de Santiago, Frances route.
(c) Scott Burns, 2025
I sit here crying. You have made me more money than I ever dreamed I could have. And you did it in a practical way that I could always understand. You even answered a question of mine many years ago. At 83, I guess I will have to trudge my financial road to the end pretty much by myself. I just wonder how I will manage if something new and horrible shows up. The current conditions and crazy people scare the liver lights out of me. But you say you will let us know. I will continue to read anything and everything you write for the rest of my life. Bless you Scott Burns. You are a gift from God.
Melinda, Thank you so, so much. You made my day!
Hey Scott – I feel like we have been old friends for a very long time! In the early 1980’s (fresh out of A&M engineer) I followed your advice in the DMN about investing in utilities that paid nice dividends – my 1st great lesson from you! Many additional lessons followed, resulting in my early retirement at 57. Your message about fees and Couch Potato investing is spot on – and sooo much easier than any other method!
Thanks for everything my friend, and I will keep up via this website!
Hi John,
Let’s raise a glass to A&M! Three of our grandchildren are devoted Aggies — a math and computer science grad, a physics grad, and a bio-engineering grad now in the bio-engineering Ph.D. program.
I was lucky and blessed to have been in Dallas and come across your columns when I first graduated from college in 1985. While I took an investing course elective in college, your couch potato portfolio always made so much more sense. Throughout the financial turmoils over the past 40 years, your wisdom has been my North Star – and every time I deviated, I always seemed to regret later. Your approach over the decades has reduced my stress and has made for a comfortable upcoming retirement. Now my only problem is how to deal with the tax consequences of future RMDs – but not a bad problem to have 🙂 Thank you for all you’ve done.
H Andrew,
Thanks for your very kind note. I wish I could bottle the feeling it gives and distribute it to all the people who never get to feel that their work is appreciated!
Scott
Mr Burns,
I was fortunate enough to hear you speak many years ago at the Anatole Hotel and even ask you a question, and I believe I will be privileged to hear you again next week in San Antonio.
Thank you is not enough but it’s the best way I can express my gratitude for all the education you have provided over the years. I eagerly look forward to every word you share and will continue to come here for your wisdom. You have been the light guiding me down what at one time was a dark and scary road.
Thank you again so very, very much.
Randy Taylor
Hi Randy,
I’m looking forward to the Bogleheads meeting next week in San Antonio. Please introduce yourself! I’ll be there for the entire conference.
Scott,
I have followed you since the late 90’s. I started using your Couch Potato system and it has given my husband and I a very comfortable retirement income. However, I think the best lesson you taught me was not to worry and obsess about having enough to retire. You convinced me that we could adjust, move or downsize if necessary. We would be okay. That made the last 20+ years so much more peaceful.
Thank you!
Shawn
I’m delighted to hear that, Shawn! Our ability to change and adapt is a lot more powerful than spending effort on trying to get a higher return on our investments.
Having arrived at Mr. Feldman’s definition of wealth, and in spite of early 1980’s deviation into rental real estate, I owe my financial peace of mind to Scott Burns. You advised buying I bonds when they first were offered I believe, and they anchor the bond portion of our portfolio. No home runs just steady stream of base hits with couch potato.
Thank you for the gift of no stress over fees, sales pitches, or retirement anxiety.
Thanks for your very kind note. As a journalist I owe almost everything to someone else — the folks who do all the number crunching and historical data searches before others do. In this case, the first person who worked the math on early TIPS was the late Steve Leuthold in Minneapolis. To the best of my knowledge he was doing research on the relationship of P/E ratios to future performance as well. But, early on, he showed how TIPs earning 4 percent over inflation were virtually unbeatable. And they were!