Finance Legend Burt Malkiel on His Career, Not Retiring, Life Advice

A 92-year-old Wall Street veteran says young people should be open-minded about their career paths, and workers should retire later.

In a wide-ranging interview with Business Insider, Burt Malkiel said he could have never predicted his winding career trajectory.

In addition to being Wealthfront’s chief investor and the author of the regularly revised “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” Malkiel is a former Princeton economics professor, investment banker, US Army lieutenant, and economic advisor to President Gerald Ford.

If someone had told him that he would become an academic when he was growing up poor in Boston, he would have told them they were “absolutely crazy,” he said.

‘Put a little aside each week’

As a young child, Malkiel planned to spend his whole career on Wall Street.

“I loved the stock market even though I never had a dollar to invest,” he said, adding that he paid as much attention to General Motors’ stock price as he did “Ted Williams’ batting average.”

Malkiel eventually landed a job at Smith Barney, a storied wealth manager, but, after a few years, took a leave of absence to complete an economics Ph.D. at Princeton. He abandoned plans to return to banking after he was recruited to teach at the university and to be a director at Prudential Financial.

When it comes to their chosen career, young people should “be flexible and realize that you could very well change your mind,” Malkiel said. “Don’t close off any opportunities,” he continued, adding that unexpected detours can make life “richer.”

Malkiel, an evangelist for passive investing via index funds, also said young people should “put a little aside each week” to invest in a diversified portfolio of “index-type securities.” That’s “something that you will be very happy that you did later in life,” he said.

Working later in life

Malkiel told BI he’s still “spending a fair amount of time each day working” despite being in his 90s, and he believes many older Americans without physically demanding jobs should remain in the workforce for longer.

The US is “wasting an enormous amount of talent by encouraging earlier and earlier retirement,” he said. Continuing to work “absolutely” contributes to a person’s “feeling of worth” and being interested and engaged in “what’s going on,” he added.

“I’m sure that the rest of us probably will feel much better by working longer, and the economy will be stronger,” Malkiel said.

He said the government should raise the retirement age “very gradually” and predicted that this might be necessary to avoid bankrupting the Social Security system.

What keeps him awake at night

Asked what kept him up at night, Malkiel chuckled and said his Cavapoo, Lucy, who was barking in the background. He described her as a “hellion” — but an “extremely sweet” one.

Answering the question less literally, Malkiel said he’s a “card-carrying Republican,” but still “quite concerned” about Donald Trump’s actions as president.

He said that tariffs would make the US and its trade partners worse off, an immigration crackdown could magnify the threat of an ageing population, and Trump’s “apparent hatred” for universities and efforts to withhold research funding from them will hurt the country.

“I don’t see how you make America great by weakening some of our greatest institutions that are the envy of the world,” he added.

But Malkiel said he was optimistic the US would overcome its challenges in the long run, despite “stumbles along the way.”