“Until the Buy-and-Holders Are Able to Acknowledge That They Are Capable of Error, We Cannot Get the Accurate Studies Out to People Because it Hurts the Feelings of the Buy-and-Holders for People to See That They Got it Wrong.”

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

None of your silly story has anything to do with your lengthy unemployment, failed retirement or failed investment plan…..just more of passing the blame.

And all of your anger and shame goes back to Bogle’s failure to act in response to Shiller’s 1981 research findings for 36 years now.

In every other field of human endeavor, people know that, when they discover they have made a mistake, the thing to do is to get it corrected PROMPTLY so that they can move on with their lives. There shouldn’t be any controversy over the need to correct a mistake in a retirement study. The longer the cover-up goes on, the harder it becomes for you to go back and fix the mistake that should have been fixed a long, long time ago.

It is not the guy who discovered the error who is at fault here, Sammy. It is the guy who learned that he got an important number wrong in a retirement study and who failed to take quick action to correct it. And all those who encouraged him to continue the cover-up are secondarily to blame.

I offer no apologies for pointing out the error. If I had gotten a number wrong in a retirement studfy, I would want it poined out to me. I would consider the person who informed me of the error my best friend in the world because of the embarrassment he would be saving me by helping me to get the study corrected before it did even more harm.

You are looking at things from a mixed-up perspective. People need access to ACCURATE safe withdrawal rate studies. Until the Buy-and-Holders are able to acknowledge that they are capable of error, we cannot get the accurate studies out to people because it hurts the feelings of the Buy-and-Holders for people to see that they got it wrong. I didn’t do what I did to hurt your feelings. I did it to protect lots of people from suffering failed retirements. A failed retirement is a serious life setback. Everyone in this field should be working together to prevent as many failed retirements as possible.

This is my sincere take re this terribly serious matter, in any event.

Rob