I still recall the first time I went to a Merriman investment workshop. It was the fall of 1988, and I made my way to a funky meeting room in a building owned by the Seattle Mountaineers Club. The speaker was Paul Merriman, who had started an investment advisory firm five years earlier.

Whatever I had expected to get out of the session, I know that I got much more than that.

That workshop opened my eyes to a world of investing built on research and discipline, a world in which any unnecessary costs were regarded as toxic. I learned about some of the biggest mistakes investors had made before me, and how I could avoid them. I discovered that I could have an investment advisor who was truly on my side without a conflict of interest.

I certainly hadn’t expected to be told how I could successfully invest on my own, without paying anybody. But that’s one thing I remember clearly from that day.   

Paul was a charismatic and gifted speaker who knew his material very well and had an amazing ability to connect with his audience. That’s just as true today as it was in 1988.

Little did I dream that someday I would be leading investor workshops alongside Paul and later leading them on my own as I drew heavily from Paul’s material. Neither Paul nor I could have envisioned a day when anyone who owned a personal computer could “attend” such a workshop from home. Now that day is here.

Paul and I and other Merriman educators continue to lead free in-person workshops throughout the year. Although we simply cannot take them everywhere in person, advances in technology mean that now we can bring our workshop to investors wherever they are.

Do investors care? I think so. The last time we did an online workshop, the participants hailed from every state except Oklahoma and West Virginia. Even if we could lead an in-person workshop in every state, many people would find it difficult or impossible to attend. Online, those difficulties vanish.

I want to tell you a little about what happens in an online workshop and what we cover. Then I’ll tell you how you can take part.

The curriculum for the workshop online is similar – but not identical – to that of the in-person one. We talk about how to avoid the mistakes that trip up unwary investors. We discuss the importance of careful asset allocation and tell you how to go about it, with specific fund recommendations. We discuss the need to follow a discipline, limit expenses and of course to control investment risks.

We discuss the pros and cons of working with an investment advisor, and for those who want or need the services of an advisor, we show how to find the right one and then how to get the most from your advisor.

As I learned in that Mountaineers Club meeting room in 1988, there’s no substitute for being able to interact with a workshop leader who really knows his stuff and how to apply it to individual cases.

To do this in an online workshop, we encourage participants to submit questions ahead of time via email so Paul and I get a sense of what’s on the minds of this particular audience. We address some of those topics during the workshop. After an in-person workshop you can come up and ask follow-up questions. Paul and I are committed to delivering a similar experience after online workshops, and we do it via phone and email, as appropriate.

While our in-person workshops tend to last from 90 minutes to three hours, the online versions are usually limited to an hour, in order to make them appealing to people who don’t want to spend  more time than that.

Another important difference is that our online workshops include topics that we don’t normally cover at our in-person events. For example, we have discussed investing in 401(k) and similar plans as well as market timing.

Finally, our online workshops are archived so they are truly available whenever they’re convenient. We know this is useful because hundreds of investors watch our presentations weeks after they are posted.

It’s easy to experience our online workshops. You’ll find archived events at our educational web site, where you can also register for upcoming sessions.

Whether you’re new to our investing philosophy or an old hand, you’ll find these events stimulating, educational and oh-so-convenient. Our goal is to help you become a wiser investor and make better decisions for yourself and your family.

One last bit of good news: Our online workshops carry exactly the same price tag as our in-person sessions. They’re free.

Tom Cock is a Merriman educator