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“3 Things You Need to Know + 1 You Don’t!”
The 3+1 Active Investors Series is BlackRock’s weekly investor video franchise, created to start your week with insights from the voices shaping markets. Featuring the firm’s leading active investors, each episode highlights three perspectives on what’s driving markets today.

BlackRock | 3+1 Series 
FC Transcript V1 060826 
Episode 112: Nick Nefouse

I’m just trying to think of a line, though. You want me to do it? Okay.  

Hi, I'm Nick Nefouse, I’m head of the retirement solutions team and head of Lifepath. Today we're going to 
be talking about staying active in your portfolios. Here are three things you need to know, and one you 
don’t.  

Number one.  
We've seen diversification become more challenging really in the last couple of years. Inflation is what's 
causing some of these diversification problems. When you’re seeing higher inflation, or even volatile 
inflation, it tends to impact fixed income markets, and the ability for fixed income markets to diversify. 
Secondly, and related to this, is policy induced volatility. You're seeing more of this decoupling from 
different parts of the world. Take more policy-induced volatility and less diversification from traditional 
diversifiers, like fixed income. Frankly, just need to be more active in how we build our portfolios.  

Number two.  
As a retirement investor we have to think about market risk, we have to think about inflation risk, longevity 
risk, sequencing risk. What's happened in the last couple of years is that “market risk component” has 
become more challenging. We've needed to broaden out into other areas of the world, whether it's 
Europe or Japan. We've also had to look to areas like liquid alternatives, and introduce things like private 
markets and guaranteed income. So, what we’ve had to do is get a little bit more precise in how we 
allocate to different asset building blocks to deliver retirement outcomes.  

Which brings us to…number three. 
There's a concept we use on the team simply called, “Grow, protect, spend.” Starting off we really want to 
maximize growth, as you're nearing retirement we wanna start increasing protection, and then the goal in 
retirement is to maximize your ability to spend. One of the big mistakes that we see people make is they 
say, “I’ll do this later.” Active is not being just a passive bystander in your retirement planning, but it's 
being active in how you think about savings, time horizon, and spending in retirement.  

And finally. 
I'm a lacrosse coach on the weekends. I coach two of my younger sons. Their lacrosse teams. We're 
talking about nine and eleven year olds trying to teach them how to play lacrosse. For the international 
listeners I'm sure you have no idea what lacrosse is. It's basically where Americans run around and hit 
themselves with metal sticks. It is the national sport of Canada, though, so it's worth looking up.  

To get more three plus one and learn everything you need to know and some things you don’t. Make sure 
to follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube. See you next week. 

3+1 Episode 12: Nick Nefouse

In this episode of 3+1, Nick Nefouse, Global Head of Retirement Solutions, shares why staying active in your portfolio may be more important than ever as retirement investors navigate a more complex market environment.

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BlackRock | 3+1 Series
FC Transcript 061826
Episode 111: Rick Rieder

What are the questions again? Was that okay? Good morning.

I'm Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock. It’s the week of July 13th. Here are three things you need to know, and one you don’t.

First up…
If inflation stays sticky, people have to think about, okay I own a couple of assets that I gotta be careful about. Long bonds and equities. Equities, you've got upside, as long as their cost infrastructure stays down and as long as productivity kicks in. The other one is long bonds. Markets will put some pressure on long bonds if inflation ends up being higher. Talking about yields, that is mid-long single digits. I like staying in the short end of the curve, and quite frankly, investing internationally. Things like merging markets, Europe, where you don’t have as much of that inflation transmission.

Next Up.
Because you’ve got an economy that’s growing, how the Fed looks at that growth, that’s going to be really important. I personally think you can allow that growth to continue, because it’ll allow for higher levels of employment, or a slowdown in the reduction of job openings. So, I think the Fed should be tolerant of better growth data. My view is particularly when the debt burden in the US is so high, you need to allow for a stronger level of growth, we need to allow for more people to be hired. For the system to breathe.

Which brings us to…
Going into the Summer, Fall months tends to be a little more volatile. Income continues to be a winner. I still think it’s going to be a winner. I think one of the things we’re gonna think about: reduce a little bit of your growth risk, the assets that are a bit more volatile. You hold that income into the Fall, and then as you get to the tailend of the year, you start to reverse that a little bit, to anticipate the beginning of the year. Seasonals matter. I always think that they are quirky, everybody knows what it is. But, they tend to follow it because cash flows tend to move alongside of that.

And the one thing you don’t need to know…
We have coming up the Open. It’s always one of the most fun tournaments to watch. Always fun to watch the quirky nature of the weather. I’m a big fan of Rory Mcilroy, and I’m riding with the leader.

To get more three plus one and stay up on everything you need to know… And some things you don't, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube. We'll see you next week.

Video Playlist

BlackRock | 3+1 Series
FC Transcript 061826
Episode 111: Rick Rieder

What are the questions again? Was that okay? Good morning.

I'm Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock. It’s the week of July 13th. Here are three things you need to know, and one you don’t.

First up…
If inflation stays sticky, people have to think about, okay I own a couple of assets that I gotta be careful about. Long bonds and equities. Equities, you've got upside, as long as their cost infrastructure stays down and as long as productivity kicks in. The other one is long bonds. Markets will put some pressure on long bonds if inflation ends up being higher. Talking about yields, that is mid-long single digits. I like staying in the short end of the curve, and quite frankly, investing internationally. Things like merging markets, Europe, where you don’t have as much of that inflation transmission.

Next Up.
Because you’ve got an economy that’s growing, how the Fed looks at that growth, that’s going to be really important. I personally think you can allow that growth to continue, because it’ll allow for higher levels of employment, or a slowdown in the reduction of job openings. So, I think the Fed should be tolerant of better growth data. My view is particularly when the debt burden in the US is so high, you need to allow for a stronger level of growth, we need to allow for more people to be hired. For the system to breathe.

Which brings us to…
Going into the Summer, Fall months tends to be a little more volatile. Income continues to be a winner. I still think it’s going to be a winner. I think one of the things we’re gonna think about: reduce a little bit of your growth risk, the assets that are a bit more volatile. You hold that income into the Fall, and then as you get to the tailend of the year, you start to reverse that a little bit, to anticipate the beginning of the year. Seasonals matter. I always think that they are quirky, everybody knows what it is. But, they tend to follow it because cash flows tend to move alongside of that.

And the one thing you don’t need to know…
We have coming up the Open. It’s always one of the most fun tournaments to watch. Always fun to watch the quirky nature of the weather. I’m a big fan of Rory Mcilroy, and I’m riding with the leader.

To get more three plus one and stay up on everything you need to know… And some things you don't, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube. We'll see you next week.

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