If you create an account at M-1 Finance via our affiliate link — which offers direct access to our recommended portfolios — The Merriman Financial Education Foundation may receive a small fee (for accounts over $1,000.) This fee will cost you nothing extra and helps support our financial education work. Thank you!

What Is M1 Finance?

We are excited to affiliate with M1 Finance, an innovative online brokerage firm that is commission-free, automated, and is designed to help you build wealth by investing in a target investment allocation. 

Now you can easily buy Paul Merriman’s recommended Ultimate Buy and Hold portfolios commission-free, starting with as little as $100 to invest. And because M1 Finance uses fractional share investing and automatically invests anytime your cash balance goes over $10, dividends and new contributions will go to work right away. You will find links to Paul’s M1 Finance “Pies” at the bottom of this page.

Put your investments on autopilot. M1 Finance supports automatic scheduled transfers and investing, so you can remove the emotion and nuisance of manual steps.

Rebalance with new contributions, or by clicking a button. M1 Finance applies new contributions to under-target assets first, so every contribution nudges you back towards your desired allocation. If that’s not enough to keep your allocation on-track, you can also trigger a commission-free rebalance at any time and it will happen on the next trading day. And, if you sign up through our affiliate link to M1 Finance – which costs you nothing extra – you’ll be helping sustain the work of The Merriman Financial Education Foundation, making it possible for us to improve and maintain recommendations into the future. 

More Things to Know About M1 Finance

M1 Finance is commission-free and convenient, but there are also some limitations: 

1. Customer support is not nearly as responsive as full-service brokerage firms.
2. M1 Finance requires a minimum initial investment of $100 to purchase a Portfolio (or Pie), and $10 for incremental investments.
3. M1 Finance only accepts market orders for buying and selling — no limit or stop-loss orders.
4. M1 Finance trades are all executed at 9:00 AM Central Time.
5. M1 Finance automatically invests cash in the account anytime there is more than $10.
6. M1 Finance accounts have a “Portfolio” at their top level which can be made up of “Pies” that include asset allocations which are stable and don’t drift with market values 
7. M1 Finance Merriman Pies are just a setup shortcut so any changes in recommended ETFs or allocations (as happens with the target date funds) will not be sent to investors as notifications. Investors will need to manually update, or come back and re-click the short-cut links to synchronize over time.
8.  M1 Finance doesn’t support online sign up for UGMA (custodial minor accounts), but does support them through a paper process.

Getting Started at M1-Finance — Overview & How-To Video
M1 Finance Overview Video

Paul Merriman M1 Finance Pre-Built Portfolio Pies Now Available!

To use these at M1 Finance, follow these simple steps:

1. Create an account at M1 Finance (please use our affiliate link)
2. Click the portfolio you want below
3. Click “COPY TO MY ACCOUNT”
4. Click “Add to Portfolio” next to the desired Pie in the “PIES” page of M1 Finance
5. Setup funding and deposit schedule to start investing

UB&H WW 50% Eq. for Tax-Deferred

UB&H WW 60% Eq. for Tax-Deferred

UB&H WW 70% Eq. for Tax-Deferred
UB&H WW 80% Eq. for Tax-Deferred

UB&H WW 90% Eq. for Tax-Deferred

UB&H WW 100% Eq. for Tax Deferred

UB&H WW 50% Eq. for Taxable

UB&H WW 60% Eq. for Taxable

UB&H WW 70% Eq. for Taxable

UB&H WW 80% Eq. for Taxable

UB&H WW 90% Eq. for Taxable

UB&H WW 100% Eq. for Taxable

All Value WW 100% Equities

All SCV WW 100% Equities

“Instead of naming our M1 Merriman Aggressive Target Date Fund Pies by year of retirement, we’ve named them by the number of years you have until retirement. We did this to avoid having to periodically update the allocations. As you get older and closer to retirement, you’ll want to trade from longer time-to-retirement Pies to shorter ones. M1 Finance is set up to trade the minimum shares needed to establish the new allocation. If you want to be more precise and have a smoother asset allocation over time, then feel free to use the Custom Merriman TDF Allocation Calculator to finely tune your own M1 Allocation Pies.”

40+ Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
35 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
30 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
25 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
20 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
15 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
10 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
5 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred
0 Years to Retirement Aggressive Target Date Tax-Deferred