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Hi, and welcome to The Longview. I'm Christine Ben's Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning for Morningstar.

And I'm Jeff Battack, Chief Ratings Officer for Morning Star Research Services.

Our guest on the podcast today is syndicated personal finance columnist and author Scott Burns.

Scott began his career as a newspaper columnist in the Boston Herald in 1977, where he was also

the financial editor. In 1985, he joined the staff of the Dallas Morning News, whereas

column became one of the most widely read features in the paper. Along the way, he created

what he called Couch Potato Investing, which involves buying and holding a broadly diversified portfolio of

low-cost index mutual funds. Scott has authored or co-authored several books, including

the coming generational storm and spend till the end, both of which he co-authored with Lawrence Kotlakov.

He received bachelor's degrees in humanities and biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Scott, welcome to the Longview.

Thank you.

Well, thanks for being here.

You know, we wanted to start by discussing your evolution toward what you have called couch potato investing, something that you've become kind of famous for.

And it's an ultra-minimalist

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