If you’re traveling this Thanksgiving and want something both smart and calming to listen to, we have a great pick. Investing 101 – It’s a short, clear episode from the Rational Reminder podcast, which highlights the same evidence-based investing principles we believe in.

In the episode, hosts Ben Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson revisit the research-backed ideas that support a disciplined investing experience: owning markets instead of trying to time them, staying globally diversified, keeping costs low, and maintaining focus amid market noise.

We’re sharing it because even the most experienced long-view investors benefit from revisiting these fundamentals, especially during a season that’s often busy and hectic, yet ultimately about gratitude and perspective.

Pop in your headphones, take a walk, or queue it up on your flight home, and share it with a friend. It’s 40 minutes well spent.

As this season of gathering kicks off, if someone you care about could benefit from our approach, give us a call or email us here.

Listen here

Matt Zenz appeared on the October 4 podcast episode of Excess Returns to discuss the case for evidence-based investing and the challenges that can accompany scale among the industry’s largest investment firms. He shared how research-driven firms, such as Longview Research Partners apply more nimble strategies to maintain efficiency and align with evidence-based principles.

“HTC” WARNING: Be forewarned, this is Highly Technical Content, best consumed by the heavy-duty fact finders in our audience.

Be sure to listen at the 44:30 mark, where Matt explores the benefits of agility in investing and how smaller, research-focused funds can often make decisions and implement changes more efficiently than larger counterparts.

Hill Investment Group and Longview Research Partners did not compensate the podcast or its hosts for this appearance.

What 20 Years Have Taught Us

Twenty years ago, we launched Hill Investment Group with a simple idea and a bit of idealism. We called our firm the Island of Idealism: a place where evidence mattered more than ego, long-term thinking trumped short-term noise, and clients could breathe a little easier knowing they had a guide they could trust.

That idealism is still with us. But over two decades, it’s been sharpened by experience. We’ve helped clients weather storms, tune out the headlines, and stay committed to plans built for decades, not days.

In the spirit of reflection, I reached out to my co-founder, Rick Hill, to help compile this list. Rick is now retired, but his thinking (and our friendship) continues to shape our work and HIG culture.

Here are 20 lessons we’ve learned in 20 years. Some are personal. Some are practical. All of them are built to last.

20 Lessons in 20 Years

1. Evidence beats emotion.
2. You don’t need to predict the future to build wealth. You need a process.
3. Costs, taxes, and behavior matter more than market forecasts.
4. Markets reward discipline, not cleverness.
5. Diversification is the only free lunch. Eat it every day.
6. A sound allocation only works if you stick with it. Education builds confidence, and confidence fuels discipline.

7. Our most successful clients are curious and engaged. They’re fun to work with, understand the philosophy, and like to delegate.
8. Listening is more powerful than convincing.
9. Trust is earned through credibility, reliability, and intimacy, not promised through performance.
10. Simplicity makes people feel smart. Complexity makes them feel confused. We care deeply about simplicity.
11. People want progress, not perfection.

12. Culture matters and should be tended like a garden.
13. High standards are contagious. So is apathy.
14. You don’t need to be big to be mighty.
15. The right people are worth the wait.
16. Saying no creates space for what matters.

17. Don’t check your portfolio when the world feels upside down. Check your plan.
18. The Stockdale Paradox applies to investing: Confront the facts, believe in the outcome. Untether from the short term.
19. Market volatility is normal. History proves it. You get paid for tolerating the bumpy ride.
20. Take the long view. It’s the only one that works.

Whether you’ve been with us since the early days or just recently joined the journey, thank you for trusting us. We’re proud of what we’ve built, and we’re even more excited about what’s ahead.

Still client-focused. Still evolving. Still taking the long view.

For your further exploration

• Hear the origin story: Matt & Rick on the “Island of Idealism”
• Read about it in Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor
• ️Explore the Stockdale Paradox in this podcast episode