Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:
Without posts from the people you call “goons”, you wouldn’t have any content. When do you expect to actually post something original?
The Goons are the story today, Anonymous.
We have known intellectually what works in stock investing for 33 years now. That knowledge has been suppressed for 33 years now because it causes the Buy-and-Holders psychic and financial pain to acknowledge their mistake. We cannot continue like this indefinitely. We are destroying millions of dollars of wealth EVERY DAY as a result of our unwillingness to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and move on. The total losses are now in the TRILLIONS of dollars.
Something that cannot be continued eventually comes to an end. No?
You are simply wrong when you say that I do not post original content here every day. The process stuff is both original and important. The 12-year cover-up of the errors in the Old School safe-withdrawal-rate studies is the most important finance-related story in the history of the United States. We all need to come to terms with the human misery we have caused by not following the laws and traditions of the United States. My daily blog entries help us to come to terms with what has gone down. The fact that only Goons comment here does not show that these blog entries are unimportant. It shows that they are SO important and so far-reaching in their significance that most of us don’t feel comfortable “getting involved.”
I’ll switch back to content-oriented stuff when the Ban on Honest Posting has been lifted at every investing discussion board and blog on the internet. I obviously love that stuff. I have already written HUNDREDS of content-oriented articles and HUNDREDS of content-oriented column entries and THOUSANDS of content-oriented blog entries and THOUSANDS of content-oriented discussion-board and blog comments and SCORES of content-oriented podcasts and FIVE unique and powerful calculators. And I obviously have only scratched the surface of what can be done by those exploring the implications of Shiller’s “revolutionary” (his word) findings of 1981.
So there is going to be tons and tons of content-based stuff in coming days to add to the tons and tons of content-based stuff already available. But the process-oriented stuff is ten times more important today. Once the Ban on Honest Posting is lifted, we will be seeing honest investing advice with Jack Bogle’s name on it on a daily basis. We will be seeing honest investing advice with Bill Bernstein’s name on it on a daily basis. We will be seeing honest investing advice with Scott Burns’ name on it on a daily basis. And on and on and on and on and on.
The leverage that comes with opening the entire internet to honest posting on the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research in this field is nothing short of mind-blowing. Holy moly!
I would be failing to honor my responsibilities as a journalist to write about anything else until the Ban on Honest Posting has been lifted, Anonymous. I do make one exception. The majority of my entries for the Value Walk column relate to matters of substance. I like to keep those focused on substance as a way of forcing me to spend some time each week looking for new insights of a substance-oriented nature. So I allow myself that little luxury. Other than that, though, I mostly write today about the need to open every board and blog on the internet to honest posting as I see that as being the area in which the long-term leverage benefits are greatest by far.
Does all of that make good sense to you, my long-time abusive posting friend?
It certainly makes good sense to me.
Rob
Anonymous says
Rob,
Give me your advice. I am 51 years old. I plan to work until I am 60. At this point, I am sitting on about $2.5 million, not including the house and will be adding about $150k to that every year. Tell me how you would invest that $2.5 million and the additional annual investments.
Rob says
You should invest it in accordance with your beliefs, Anonymous.
You know my beliefs and you know that they do not match yours. Following mine will not work for you because you can never have confidence in someone else’s beliefs that you do not share.
You should be working to open every board and blog on the internet to honest posting. By hearing other beliefs being endorsed by lots of other people, you may in time come to have confidence in them.
Until you are convinced, you should continue doing what you currently believe to be the right thing to do.
Rob