A Rich Life

The Old Ideas on Saving & Investing Don't Work -- Here's What Does

“Give Me a Few Days to Chew On It….We’ll Figure Out Something”

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Recent blog entries have reported on correspondence that I have had with www.IndexUniverse.com re an article on Valuation-Informed Indexing that I sought to have published at the site. Set forth below is the text of an e-mail sent to me by Matt Hougan on February 6, 2008, follow-ups from me to him and Jim Wiandt sent on February 6, February 11, February 21, and February 26 and February 29, and a response from Matt sent on February 29.

Rob –

Thanks for the response. Give me a few days to chew on it — I have a few deadlines looming. If you don’t hear back from me by Friday, feel free to bug me about it and we’ll figure out something.

Best,

Matt

Matt:

That sounds great. Thanks for letting me know where things stand.

Rob

Matt:

You suggested that I drop you a reminder re the article on “A New Approach to ‘Staying the Course’ ”

Rob

Matt:

Could you please give me an update re where things stand on the article discussed below?

Rob

Will do tomorrow, Rob. Sorry – slammed here with deadlines,

Matt:

I thought I should provide another reminder.

Rob

Jim:

Thanks again for your earlier follow-up.

I’ve exchanged several e-mails with Matt since then. He’s expressed interest in going ahead with the article on “A New Approach to Staying the Course.” But he has said several times that he is too busy with other deadlines to do what it takes to move it ahead immediately and has asked that I remind him at various times about the need to continue moving forward. I’ve sent a number of the reminders.

Should I continue sending reminders? Is there some other way to get this article moved to the top of the pile? I think it is important and it is of course somewhat time-sensitive.

Rob

I’ll drop him a line. I think you should have a quick answer and that if your article is slated to be published somewhere, we should be working our own way through submissions.

Jim

Rob – Thank you for your persistence and patience. I have looked at both your original article and at your Stock Return Predictor web page.

On some consideration, I’m going to decline to run your articles at this time.  As discussed in previous emails, I feel strongly that any article from you would have to be fully supported by data … not just skimming the surface but offering a data-heavy analysis of the key issues of “Valuation-Informed Investing” and its historical track record over long time periods. So far, I haven’t seen that. I’m not sold enough on the concept to roll it out in pieces over time, as you suggest … I’d have to be 100% on board before I did that … and that would require seeing the data in a concise article format. I’d be open to reading that when you have it.

Best wishes in all your efforts.

Sincerely,

Matt Hougan