I’ve posted Entry #148 to my weekly Valuation-Informed Indexing column at the Value Walk site. It’s called Why It’s a (Not Entirely) Good Thing That Robert Shiller and Jeremy Siegel Are Personal Friends.
Juicy Excerpt: It’s wonderful that he is warm with Siegel and with lots of others in the field who hold very different viewpoints. But we need Shiller making the case for a new approach to stock investing as strongly as he can possibly make it. I have seem him on numerous occasions fail to do that. One doesn’t gain the sense listening to Shiller that Siegel’s investing advice is nearly as dangerous as one concludes it to be when one follows the logic chain set forth in Shiller’s book where it leads one.
The Pink Unicorn says
Do you ever notice that no single expert gets it just right, except for Rob. Given the success of other expert investors, that must mean that Rob is exceptionally wealthy. Hey Rob, we can’t wait to see your financials. Give us the update so that we can all be envious of your massive net worth.
Rob says
I don’t agree that no one gets it right but me, Pink. Shiller has made huge contributions. So has Russell. So has Bogle. So has Buffett. So has Arnott. So had Benrstein. So has Grantham. So has Smithers. And on and on and on.
I have gone to places that none of these people have gone to because I have had lots of up-close and personal experience with the emotionalism of the Buy-and-Hold Goons. There was no way to see that so clearly in pre-internet days. Someone had to be the first person to see that aspect of things in an in-depth way, It happened to be me, that’s all.
My best wishes to you and yours.
Rob the Traveler to Entirely New Places
Rob says
You are not angry because only I got it right, Pink.
You are angry because you got it so wrong.
That’s reality, my old friend. That’s the part that hurts so bad.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Let’s compare investment returns and net worth and then we will see who got what wrong.
Trebor Martin says
Rob,
Can you please explicitly state what is the error in the retirement studies that purport to have found. Please do not link to article you wrote where you claim to have found an error but do not specify exactly what is was.
Also, could you point to a single relationship with a financial professional where the relationship did not end badly after your endless and pointless pontificating? I can name quite a few where it did end badly…Wade Pfau, Scott Burns just to name a few.
Trebor
Trebor Martin says
Yet more discussion of the pros and cons of the 4% retirement withdrawal guideline in a world where such discussions are banned. This is a pretty weak conspiracy if you ask me.
http://www.morningstar.com/Cover/videoCenter.aspx?id=599997&lineup=MUTUALFUNDS
Rob says
Let’s compare investment returns and net worth and then we will see who got what wrong.
We need to throw prison sentences into the mix to get a proper accounting, Pink.
I’d rather have 10 cents and be a free man than have 10 billion and be sentenced to serve the remaining years of my life in prison for an act of financial fraud that was in a very real sense a betrayal of all my friends and of my country.
It’s not even a close call.
Rob the Patriot
Rob says
Also, could you point to a single relationship with a financial professional where the relationship did not end badly after your endless and pointless pontificating?
Demanding that the same standards of ethics that apply in all other fields of human endeavor apply in the investing advice field as well is not “pointless pontificating,” Trebor.
Most of the people who work in this field have had jobs in other areas of endeavor at some point in their lives and know what it feels like to be able to do honest work. So, yes, it does hurt them when I remind them of the ethical standards that apply in all other fields.
The answer is not for me to stop demanding that people of integrity be permitted to work in this field. The answer is for all of the thousands of people who have expressed a desire that honest posting be permitted to oin together and demand that my good friend Jack Bogle say those liberating words “I” and “Was” and “Wrong.”
Once Jack says those words, no one will ever again be afraid to tell the truth about what the peer-reviewed academic research of the past 32 years tells us about how stock investing works. The Buy-and-Hold Mafia can hardly destroy someone’s career when he or she is merely repeating something that the King of Buy-and-Hold has himself said publicly.
From that point forward, it’s good stuff piled on top of good stuff piled on top of good stuff for every last one of us. Including all of our Wall Street Con Men friends. No more pontificating!
I can live with that. How about you?
Rob the Reluctant Pontificator
Rob says
Yet more discussion of the pros and cons of the 4% retirement withdrawal guideline
The pros and cons of financial fraud — How very modern!
Whatever will they think of next?
Rob the Old-Fashioned
The Pink Unicorn says
Your prison schtick is old and your response shows that your finances ate probably a failure. That doesn’t look good for your credibility.
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
I think one of the only places where honest posting is not allowed is this website, given the number of posts that are deleted. It is YOUR fault for getting banned at other boards for behavior. Despite the fact that you are banned, all topics are freely discussed, including your beloved SWR topic.
Rob says
Your prison schtick is old and your response shows that your finances ate probably a failure. That doesn’t look good for your credibility.
Woe is me, Pink.
Rob the Defeated
Rob says
I think one of the only places where honest posting is not allowed is this website, given the number of posts that are deleted.
What choice do I have with all of them there peer-reviewed academic research studies showing that Buy-and-Hold just might work this time, Pink?
You do what you gotta do, man. You’d probably do something similar if the tables were turned.
I’m just too proud to admit my mistake at this point!
Everybody knows it too. That’s the thing.
Rob the Proud (and Ashamed!)
Rob says
It is YOUR fault for getting banned at other boards for behavior.
Good point.
Who did I think I was posting honestly on retirement planning studies at a retirement planning board?
What a laugh!
Rob the Joker
Rob says
Despite the fact that you are banned, all topics are freely discussed, including your beloved SWR topic.
It’s discussion that wins the day.
Honesty matters not.
It’s lots and lots and lots and discussion that we need.
There can never be too much discussion.
Good point, Pink. I forgot.
Rob the Discussion Advocate (Except When He Forgets)
Rob says
including your beloved SWR topic.
I am the only one who ever discussed safe withdrawal rates at the Motley Fool board.
I tried and tried and tried to bait John Greaney into saying something about the topic but the guy just plain out-foxed me. He may have had some secret opinion about safe withdrawal rates. But John was a wise fellow who knew to keep his opinions on such matters to himself.
I keep forgetting this stuff!
Rob the SWR Blabbermouth
The Deleted plop contributor says
Poor Rob. His little feelings got hurt by getting banned from the boards. Now he has spent the last 11 years throwing a temper tantrum.
Notice when he is asked a direct question, he avoids and refuses to answer. Here is one asked by Trebor:
“Can you please explicitly state what is the error in the retirement studies that purport to have found. Please do not link to article you wrote where you claim to have found an error but do not specify exactly what is was.”
Notice that Rob hasn’t answered it. Same goes for the continuous questions on his financial results. An honest answer to these questions would expose Rob for being a fraud.
Rob says
His little feelings got hurt by getting banned from the boards.
You would cry too if it happened to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4
Rob the Hurt One
Rob says
Notice that Rob hasn’t answered it.
It’s a secret secret.
Rob the Mysterious
The Deleted plop contributor says
It is because the answer to both of those questions would not look good for you, Rob and a $299 logo won’t be any help.
Rob says
Okay. I cannot tell lies any longer, Deleted.
I’m down to my last $153. I also have four soda bottles which I understand can be redeemed for five cents each in several of the United States of America.
This may be my last post here.
No prison term for you.
You are free!
Rob the Broken Man
Rob says
Greaney tried to warn me.
I just wouldn’t listen!
Rob the Stubborn Old Fool
Rob says
It turned out that that wasn’t my last post.
But this one might be.
You just never know.
No one has a crystal ball.
I mean, come on.
Rob the Running-Out-of-Time (Maybe!) Guy
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob will never give a straight answer to anything that could reveal him as a fraud, but we already know that he is.
Rob says
And a meanie.
Rob the Fraudulent Meanie