“After the 2008 Crisis Got Me Thinking That There Has to Be a Better Way to Invest, I Started Doing a Lot of Financial Research. The Thing That Disturbed Me the Most Is That Most of Them Were Saying the Same Thing. People Work So Very Hard for Their Money, Usually for 40/50 Year and Usually at Jobs They Don’t Particularly Enjoy. They Need to Have the Respect of the Financial Industry to Be Given, At the Very Least, Access to All Information As It Pertains to Investing.”

Set forth below is the text of a comment that CanuckAnon recently posted to another blog entry at this site:

Hi Rob,

A quick one as I’m tight on time today.

To further detail why I think the way I do, kind of comes down to two…abstract ideals, for lack of better terminology.

1) After the 2008 Crisis got me thinking that there has to be a better way to invest, I started doing a lot of financial research (on the internet, of course!). Didn’t matter the source, I read it; if it seemed reasonable I filed it, unreasonable, filed in the circular bin. I’ve found an exceptionally small (dismally small?) amount of really solid and intelligent personal finance agendas out there. The rest are mere regurgitation, especially in the face of cart-upsetting facts.

The thing which disturbed me the most is that most of them were all saying the same thing, and the ones pandering to new and young investors were saying it the loudest. What got me was that these newbies weren’t even being honest or even all the information out there so they could at least formulate conclusions of their own. I guess you could say I want to stand up for the non-educated so they get a fair shot at utilizing their money in a fair manner.

2) Which leads to the second “driver”. It isn’t only my money I have invested. I’ve inherited money from two grandparents and a parent. When I did so I accepted the transfer of wealth with utmost sincerity and seriousness (there’s reasons why generation wealth in N.America does not last). This was wealth created by the lives of three people, I surely wasn’t going to disrespect that immense amount of labour capital simply by throwing it all into stocks without question. The people on the “sell” side don’t care about the human(e) part of the equation, but they sure care about the dollars.

People work so very hard for their money, usually for 40-50 years and usually at jobs they don’t particularly enjoy. They need to have the respect of the financial industry to be given, at the very least, access to all information as it pertains to investing.

One of my most endearing opponents (as I am his) is a mutual fund salesman who operates his own financial planning company. His concrete mantra is for his clients to stay 100% invested 100% in mutual funds at all times. That is, spend all your money on his mutual funds and nothing else — and keep it there — forever (how else is he supposed to collect his management fee?). I have a few other issues with him and his business “theories”, but this a major one.

I think I’ve pulled a ‘Rob’ here and thrown open the flood gates! lol Reigning it in….

I’d love to contribute to your new discussion board when it’s up and running. A couple of concerns, i) I’m not exactly sure how much in terms of quality etc. I can contribute above and beyond personal anecdotes and limited research. Being nothing but a repetitive ‘Chatty Cathy” can kill a board; ii) I’m not anywhere near up to speed on the whole VII theory et al so my contributions may be exceptionally limited in scope, which brings me to the final concern; iii) how can a discussion board expound on what VII is past what it is? Every investment theory has a set degree of parameters past which you are into other things. What can you see discussion board contributors posting that you haven’t already done so in your extensive articles?

Finally, whew!, can you provide me a link(s) to the “peer-reviewed research in this field showed that there is precisely zero chance that Buy-and-Hold can ever work for a single investor” ?

Gotta run for now but I’ll be back! Have a great week and thanks!