Members Learn and Share Through PRISM Academy

This year, AAII rolled out a new feature in the AAII Community called the PRISM Academy. The PRISM Wealth-Building Process is designed to give members a framework for aligning their investment decisions with their financial goals. The academy setting offers members an interactive space where they can discuss their questions and issues with other members as they go through each step.

Goal Setting at All Ages

Most longtime investors may think, “Why would I need to start by writing down and prioritizing my goals?” This may be the first thought of members logging into the online AAII PRISM Academy for the first time. With the PRISM Wealth-Building Process, goals are a central theme to investing success. They give you the direction, motivation and drive to invest and plan for your future self.

By skipping the first step of PRISM—P, Prioritizing Your Goals—you miss a crucial part of the course that involves self-reflection. With clearly defined goals, investors can set themselves up for success and identify which objectives are the most important, how far off their goals are, how much money will need to be saved in order to achieve those goals, as well as the duration of their goals to ensure there is enough money to fund them.

Embrace the Cyclical Process

We chatted with Robert M., a lifetime AAII member and PRISM Academy participant, about his experience of starting the process with goal setting. Robert was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources AAII Platinum offers members and turned to PRISM to help digest some of the content. “I decided to work through the PRISM Academy, even though I am not a new investor. Having a project background, I was drawn to the fact that you start PRISM with written goals,” shared Robert. “Now that I have nearly finished the steps, I can say that the written goals step was the best part! I thought I had my correct goals in mind but found through Charles Rotblut’s videos that I missed the most important one.”

By going through the five-step PRISM Wealth-Building Process, Robert was able to prioritize his goals and develop a cyclical plan he could use time and time again. “Since I retired, my actual #1 goal is to remain able to support myself financially. My other goals turned out to be aspirational, and some of them may not be realistic. Just this one thing made the entire PRISM program a success for me,” said Robert.

Within the PRISM Academy, countless AAII members learned the difference between types of goals and why it is important to clearly define what you’re working toward, as well as why you should rank your top three. “I really appreciate you differentiating between aspirational and regular goals,” Robert went on. He revealed that he wanted to give back to his church and community. He had to understand how far off that goal was, how much it would take to fund it as well as the duration of funding that goal would require. Robert commented, “Now I can start on that plan, being sure I will be positioned to do something significant.”

Simple and Clear Steps to a Plan That Works for You

As a lifetime investor, Robert already had a wealth of knowledge and experience with investing as well as with building a portfolio. But as you may know, learning doesn’t stop just because you have experience in something. Robert said he was overjoyed to learn about the PRISM Academy and that it was a simple and easy process to cross-check that he was on the right path to funding his financial goals. “Thank you for making this available just when I was looking for a better way to invest!” enthused Robert.

And Robert isn’t the only one. There are hundreds of AAII members, beginning through advanced, that have utilized the wealth of information the PRISM Academy holds. In the first step you lay your foundation by prioritizing your goals, then you learn how to recognize your risk tolerance, identify your investment management preferences and select as well as manage which investments go into your portfolio. At the end, you develop a clear monitoring process that will assist you as you go through life stage changes or as your allocation needs a refresh.

Join the Club

If you’re interested in learning how to effectively develop a plan and have the confidence to follow it, jump into the online AAII PRISM Academy today to ensure you’re on the right track to fund your future goals! Visit https://community.aaii.com to log into your AAII account and click the button that says “Join” get started today in the PRISM Academy.

AAII Community Grows to Address Member Needs

Over the past six months, we’ve been bolstering up our integrated, online AAII Community platform where investors can bounce ideas off other members, share their perspectives on various strategies and interact with members across the nation.

Two Community groups stand out: the Income Investing and Retirement Withdrawals Communities. These groups help members understand how to get into the income investing arena as well as plan for retirement withdrawals that could potentially battle inflation. Hundreds of members are actively engaging with one another as they discuss the pros and cons of target-date funds and how to invest in bonds as interest rates continue to rise. In a matter of minutes, investors have their questions answered and are offered new perspectives on techniques to weather the storm.

Community discussions are easy to join and a FREE benefit for all AAII members. Additional groups include Allocation Strategies, Stock Screening, Options Investing Strategies, Sustainable Investing (ESG) and Mutual Funds & ETFs. New communities are continually developed to cover specific topics so you can always find a group that fits your individual investing needs. 

AAII Journal Online Gets a Facelift

The AAII Journal webpage at AAII.com has been recently upgraded. The online AAII Journal is now fully optimized for smaller mobile device screens, removing the need to pinch and zoom to read an article.

A handy “Save” function has also been added to all articles. Use the bookmark icon to save an article and then access your saved articles in My Library at the www.aaii.com/journal page.

In addition, the redesigned AAII Journal home page highlights recent videos where popular authors share their financial know-how.

Choose the AAII Journal tab at AAII.com to check out all the new features.

Academic Awards: Fostering Investment Education and Research

Four papers won awards for investment research from AAII in 2022. The awards are presented as part of AAII’s ongoing effort to encourage education and research in the area of investments and are given for papers that provide insight into investing.

The awards are made in conjunction with the meetings of major finance associations around the country. The best academic paper presented at these meetings is selected by a committee of investment research experts.

AAII awards the writers of winning papers. Papers are selected based on the quality and thoroughness of research and on the contribution to shaping effective investment decisions.

Since the program began in 1983, more than 150 awards have been presented. Recent award-winning papers and recipients include:

• “Democratization, Inequality, and Risk Premia,” by Max Miller of University of Pennsylvania, awarded by the Financial Management Association.
• “Do pre-IPO investments generate information advantage? Evidence from mutual funds,” by Julie Ngo and Albert Wang of Auburn University, awarded by the Eastern Finance Association.
• “From Man vs. Machine to Man + Machine: The Art and AI of Stock Analyses,” by Sean Cao and Baozhong Yang of Georgia State University, Wei Jiang of Columbia Business School and Junbo Wang of Louisiana State University, awarded by the Midwest Finance Association.
• “Identity, Diversity, and Team Performance: Evidence From U.S. Mutual Funds,” by Richard Evans of University of Virginia, Melissa Prado and Emanuele Rizzo of Nova School of Business and Economics and Rafael Zambrana of University of Notre Dame, awarded by the Southern Finance Association.

These papers are technical; however, the AAII Journal does publish the findings of papers that are of particular interest to individual investors.

AAII Financial Summary

Annually, AAII publishes its year-end balance sheet for members and life members interested in the finances of the association. Prior years’ balance sheets can be found online in the Member News sections of past AAII Journals.

Note: Deferred membership revenue is recognized periodically as income over the membership period. Deferred life membership is recognized periodically as income over a 25-year period. This accrual method of accounting reflects the Association’s long-term obligation to its members.

Supplemental Benefits

AAII offers several supplemental benefits to members. These include discounts on financial publications and an insured money market deposit program from Discover Bank.

We view these programs as supplemental benefits and do not want to lose sight of our main purpose. However, many of these programs are helpful to a significant number of our members; in some cases, they provide AAII with additional income. For example, with the Discover money market program, AAII receives 0.05% per year on the outstanding deposits. These funds help us to support our investment research grants and to educate individual investors.

Future supplemental benefits will also be offered as opportunities, and not as recommendations. Only you can decide what is best for you. 

AAII Privacy Policy

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