A Rich Life

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

“It Doesn’t Matter, Even If You Are Right. Not One Bit. Because Everyone Thinks You Are a Complete Ass and You Will Be Long Forgotten When Someone Actually Does Anything Semi-Productive With the Vague Notions You Have Been Spewing for 10+ Years”

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Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to a discussion of a blog entry at this site:

It doesn’t matter, even if you are right. Not one bit. Because everyone thinks you are a complete ass and you will be long forgotten when someone actually does anything semi-productive with the vague notions you have been spewing for 10+ years.

You’re wrong, What.

You pretend to think I am an ass. You are in a tiny minority. When I go to the Financial Bloggers Conferences, I meet lots of people. Not one of them has ever indicated in any way to suggest that he or she thinks I am an ass.

People are EMBARRASSED. That much is so.

People are SCARED. That much is so.

People are CONFUSED. That much is so.

That’s not at all the same thing as thinking I am an ass.

I have seen a parallel case showing how this will turn out. My site host (SiteSell) is owned by a fellow named “Ken Evoy.” He is a smart guy and he came up with some ideas for how to get traffic on the internet that were ahead of their time. His ideas worked for a good number of years. People LOVED him. I never followed his system because it didn’t make sense for what I am trying to do with my site. But I certainly noticed how much people loved the guy. It was over the top.

The Evoy system no longer works since Google came out with its Panda and Penguin changes. People don’t say “Oh, Evoy had good ideas but Google has changed.” Hardly anyone does that. There is one group, smaller than before, that continues to love him to this day. That group says that Panda and Penguin don’t affect the system despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. Another group now hates the guy with a burning passion. Their businesses have failed. They blame him.

Evoy is John Bogle.

Bogle is very smart. Bogle did things no one before him was able to do. Bogle deserves to be lauded as a hero. I laud him as a hero and always will. But I do that with an appreciation of the one thing he got wrong. Those who today laud him without an appreciation of the thing he got wrong are going to turn on him after the next price crash. I OPPOSE that. I think that’s a mistake. But I cannot control the world. I am virtually sure that that is what is going to happen.

I am not certain to succeed. But the risk for me is not the risk you point to. If people reach a point where they are willing to hear the realities of stock investing, I have the only site on the internet with 11 years of material exploring those realities. My site will go viral if a good percentage of the population opens up to the message. I am not worried about what happens to me in that event. In that event, I won’t have to file any legal papers to enjoy a $500 million payday. I will have multiple parties pushing the money on me, asking me to take it fast to help them with their guilt feelings.

My risk is that people are going to become excessively disillusioned with Buy-and-Hold. Valuation-Informed Indexing is Buy-and-Hold with one change. If people come to hate Buy-and-Hold with a burning passion, their emotionalism may cause them to tune out Valuation-Informed Indexing as well on the grounds that they just cannot bear to hear about anything that even reminds them of Buy-and-Hold.

If you were smart, you would join me in doing what you can to insure that that doesn’t happen. People don’t hate Buy-and-Hold today. So, if the Buy-and-Holders joined forces with me, we could stop the next crash from happening and all would be well on about 20 different fronts. But I obviously don’t control what people do. I am not expecting the Buy-and-Holders to help out. I hope they will. I urge them to. But I understand that that part of this is out of my hands.

I think you are wrong in your take as to how things will play out. I think you are being emotional once again. You are so ashamed of what you have done over the 11 years that you would rather see the entire planet go to hell over seeing Rob Bennett get any acknowledgment for the amazing work he has done over these past 11 years.

That’s on you, What. Your hate doesn’t just hurt me. It hurts you too. In very, very serious ways. It so blinds you that you cannot even see how much it is hurting you. All I can do is type out those words and hope that they cause some melting of your heart. I have said many times that I am happy to help you in any possible way and I of course stand by those words today. If you are too filled with false pride to accept my help, then that’s just the way it is. It makes me very sad. But there’s not one darn thing I can do to change the situation if that is indeed what the situations is (all signs indicate that it is).

I wish you well, man. I will keep on saying that with a hope that one of the times I say it the message will get through to a part of you that remains capable of hearing it.

Rob

“You Try to Dominate All Conversations. Your Posts Make Up 80 Percent of the Content. You Rarely Consider Other Comments…The Volume of Your Posts Was Huge, Like Always, and in the Course of 24 Hours, You Turned a Mild Supporter Into a Detractor.”

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Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to a discussion of a blog entry posted at this site:

Rob, just do a quick search of your past interactions. In almost every thread, you try and dominate all conversations. Your posts make up 80% of the content. You rarely consider others comments unless it furthers your position or if you can use it to distort a conversation. I was reading through some old FMF posts the other night and noticed a thread that you jumped in on. Most FMF threads get 20 or less comments. In this one, it quickly passed 100 and FMF shut it down. You seemed to be demanding a guest post and then the debate started. The volume of your posts were huge, like always, and in the course of 24 hours, you turned a mild supporter (Apex) into a detractor.

Do want to change perceptions? If so I suggest you do the following:

Make massive apologies (starting with Wade);

Establish credibility (it is earned, not given away);

Listen 90% of the time, and comment less than 10% of the time- note the percentage of conversation on other blogs;

Be humble;

Don’t insult your audience.

I’m not going to be making any apologies, Pink.

There’s one exception. I am willing to apologize for waiting too long to put forward the post that I put forward on the morning of May 13, 2002. That was wrong.

Outside of that, apologizing is the worst possible thing I could do.

It’s not a problem that Buy-and-Holders and Valuation-Informed Indexers do not agree. That’s a good thing. That’s healthy. For so long as we disagree, the Buy-and-Holders can keep the Valuation-Informed Indexers honest and the Valuation-Informed Indexers can keep the Buy-and-Holders honest. We all benefit from being exposed to the other point of view on a regular basis.

The problem we have is that the Buy-and-Holders got used to being dominant during the insane bull years. They made so much money in so little time that they began thinking that they knew it all. They became arrogant, and, worse, got away with it. They became accustomed to shouting down other points of view. Yuck!

The Buy-and-Holders are responsible for their own bad behavior, Pink. But you know what? The Valuation-Informed Indexers played a role in causing the messed-up situation we have today too.

The Valuation-Informed Indexers failed to speak up when they should have spoken up. Buy-and-Holders advanced death threats and most of the Valuation-Informed Indexers (but not me!) tolerated it. That was wrong. And it didn’t just hurt the Valuation-Informed Indexers. It hurt the Buy-and-Holders too. It led them to believe that behavior that is 100 percent intolerable might be tolerated.

No!

That’s the thing that we all very much want to change deep in our hearts.

I’ll apologize if I get something wrong. That’s a very, very different story.

But I am not going to apologize because I discovered the errors in the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies. That discovery helped everybody. In some part of their consciousness, the Buy-and-Holders want to get the numbers right. My post helped them do that. So no apologies for the exceedingly helpful and brave post of May 13, 2002.

Rob

 

Valuation-Informed Indexing #146 — What’s Missing from the Wall Street Journal Article Saying “Goodbye” to the 4% Rule

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I’ve posted Entry #146 to my weekly Valuation-Informed Indexing column at the Value Walk site. It’s called What’s Missing from the Wall Street Journal Article Saying “Goodbye” to the 4% Rule?

Juicy Excerpt: Making mistakes need not be such a terrible thing. It is often by making mistakes that we learn new things. But the learning process is short-circuited if we never ask the “Why?” question. The error in these studies are not hard to uncover. I saw it the first time I looked at one of them (the error is that the studies do not adjust for the valuation level that applies on the day the retirement begins). Should the author of the article not be interviewing people in this field to learn whether they have learned from the mistake and are taking steps to see that it is not repeated?

“If You Had Been Banned on One or Two Boards, One Could Say That Maybe There Was the Possibility That Someone Overreacted in Banning You. However, When You See That It Is Consistent Behavior from You Followed by the Consistent Reaction of Those That Read the Boards and Administer the Boards, It Is Clear that the Problem Is You.”

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

Rob,

From what I have read and have also seen in MANY examples, you were banned due to your continued abrasive attitude as well as your refusal to answer direct questions as well as provide proof to back up your claims (such as threats). If you had been banned on one of two boards, one could say that maybe there was the possibility that someone overreacted in banning you. However, when you see that it is consistent behavior from you followed by the consistent reaction of those that read the boards and administer the boards, it is clear to see that the problem is you.

I gave you an example of a similar issue the other day. As I mentioned, I was looking at old postings on the FMF board. I am sure you will agree that this particular board is mostly devoid of confrontation and friction. However, we saw what happened when the comments section (heavily dominated by you) surpassed 100 comments in very quick order and FMF had to shut down the comments. This is not an exception. It seems to be a pattern for you.

You seem to have a campaign every time you post and try to drive over people like a Mack Truck.

I am grateful to you for asking a real and important question here, Pink. You are giving voice in this particular comment to a feeling that is shared by many smart and good people.

To understand what is going on, you must understand the context in which these discussions have been taking place.

Buy-and-Hold was the first effort at a research-based strategy for ordinary people. People LOVE the idea of rooting their investing strategies in peer-reviewed academic research. Buy-and-Hold provided millions of people with AMAZING results for DECADES. People LOVE Buy-and-Hold. They view the Buy-and-Hold pioneers as HEROES.

I say that Buy-and-Hold is dangerous. I say that it is irresponsible. I say that it is a Get Rich Quick scheme. I say that it caused the economic crisis. That’s strong stuff. That strikes the many good and smart people who view Buy-and-Hold in a very positive light as SHOCKING.

People have never heard anyone say the things I am saying before. My words come as a shock. That’s why my posts generate so many questions and comments. It’s not anything I do that causes this. It is the nature of the discussion that causes this. I am questioning fundamental beliefs. That is unsettling on a deep level. People respond in all kinds of unusual ways when their fundamental beliefs are questioned.

The Buy-and-Hold Mafia has handled this by shutting down debate at every board and blog. THAT IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.

We need to do just the opposite. We need to ENCOURAGE debate. We need to have a NATIONAL debate. We need these discussions to go viral. We need to get tens of thousands of people, experts and ordinary investors both, involved.

Why?

Because that is how we Normalize the discussions.

We are never all going to agree. It wouldn’t be healthy if we did.

But you are right that we cannot have 200 questions directed to Rob each time he says “hello, how about them Orioles?” We need people to come to accept that there is more than one legitimate viewpoint on all these questions. To do that, we must educate people as to the basics. We do that through discussion. Rather than shutting down discussions, we need to encourage discussions.

Once we do that, the phenomenon that you refer to will fade away in a natural way. You won’t have to force it to happen. It will happen because people will come to know the answers to their many questions. Whether they change their minds about what works in investing or not, they will settle down. Valuation-Informed Indexing will over time become one more thing to take into consideration when deciding on an investing strategy.

I have put forward the new ideas. I don’t apologize for that. The new ideas are very much worthy of the consideration of every investor alive.

I have not caused the circus atmosphere. We have seen a circus atmosphere because debate on these questions has been held back for so long that, when people have an opportunity to ask some questions, their enthusiasm flows over the top of the cup.

Yes, we need to settle things down a good bit.

But not by further suppression.

We need to settle things down by handling discussions of investing strategy in the same way that we handle discussions of every other subject under the sun. We need to accept that there is more than One Right Way to Invest and show respect and affection and gratitude to those who hold viewpoints other than our own that they seek to share with us on discussion boards and blogs.

Rob

“The Buy-and-Hold Mafia Used Its Power and Money and Influence to Cover Up The Errors in Those Retirement Studies. If You Are Capable of Imagining a Scenario in Which the People Who Led the Cover-Up Don’t Go to Prison for a Long Time, You Are Capable of Imagining Something that I am not Capable of Imagining.”

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Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to the blog at this site:

We are all responsible for our own financial decisions.

There are millions of people who were in the process of planning retirements during the years 2002 through 2013. We “knew” as a society at that time that the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies got the numbers wildly wrong. Yet the millions of people who were planning retirements did not “know” this. Why? Because the Buy-and-Hold Mafia was employing death threats, board bannings, tens of thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs to stop those millions of people from learning what they need to know.

Who is responsible for the losses, Pink? Who pays the bill?

The millions of middle-class people did the right thing. They didn’t act foolishly. They went on the internet to see what the peer-reviewed academic research says. They did all they possibly could do, no?

So why were they taken? Because the Buy-and-Hold Mafia did not use its power and money and influence to get those studies corrected as soon as possible. It instead used its power and money and influence to COVER UP the errors in those studies.

Now –

They can’t pay the bill. There is not enough money to pay the bill. So those people are going to suffer in horrible, horrible ways. They will be left destitute. In their old age. With no resources. After lifetimes of productive work. Because they did the right thing. Because they listened to the Wall Street Con Men who are promoted 24/7 on television and radio and newspapers and on the internet.

If you are capable of imagining a scenario in which the people who led the cover-up don’t go to prison for a long. long time, then you are capable of imagining something that I am not capable of imagining, Pink.

I certainly wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person, in any event.

Rob

“I Am the Most Knowledgeable Person Today on the Subject of How Average Middle-Class People Should Invest in Stocks Not Because I Spent 20 Years in School or Possess a Genius Level I.Q. It Is Because I am Honest. That Gives Me a Huge Edge in a Field that Is 100 Percent Corrupt.”

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Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to the blog at this site:

I think millions would disagree with your level of knowledge versus those you have listed.

Millions would disagree with what I say about my level of knowledge TODAY, Pink. We agree re that one.

How about tomorrow? What happens tomorrow matters.

Bogle does not believe that he can respond effectively to my questions about Buy-and-Hold, Pink. We know that beyond any reasonable doubt.

I announced plans to ask Bogle questions at one of the Bogleheads annual meetings and he responded fearfully. And, when Rob Arnott copied Jack on his e-mail to me saying that my views on investing are “sound.,” Jack did not respond. Nor has Jack responded to my e-mails to him.

Jack sees the entire Buy-and-Hold house of cards collapsing before his eyes and can’t figure out where to turn.

What are the millions going to say about who is better informed re the realities of stock investing following the next price crash, Pink? I think it is fair to say that there will be few calling Bogle an “expert” tomorrow. And, once word gets out all across the internet that I discovered the errors in the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies a full 10 years before any of the big-name “experts” in this field, who do you think is going to be perceived as the true expert in the eyes of millions of middle-class investors?

Now –

The full truth is that people will be overstating my expertise then as much as they are understating it today. That’s unfortunate. The reality is that I know lots of things that Bogle and Bernstein and Swedroe do not know. But Bogle and Bernstein and Swedroe also know lots of things that I do not know.

If those guys were as smart as they pretend to be, they would acknowledge what they do not know. They would stop playing this stupid little-boy game of pretending that they knew it all on the day they were born. Everyone sees through that garbage. Many have been reluctant to say they see through it for so long as they have continued hoping that Buy-and-Hold might work out okay for the first time in history. But, if Buy-and-Hold destroys as many lives this time as it has on every earlier occasion it was tried, millions are going to acknowledge that they have at least suspected for a long time now that a lot of the “experts” possess an expertise primarily in marketing.

Get Rich Quick sells, Pink. I get that loud and clear.

Research-based strategies work.

I am the most knowledgeable person today on the subject of how average middle-class people should invest in stocks not because I spent 20 years in school or possess a genius level I.Q. I am the most knowledgeable todaybecause I am honest, because I care about what will happen to the people who will follow my advice.

That’s gives me a huge edge in a field that I think can fairly be described as 100 percent corrupt today, Any field in which errors in retirement studies have been publicly revealed but not corrected for 11 years is 100 percent corrupt. No?

I ain’t no great shakes in my knowledge of stock investing. And, in fairness, I learned most of what I know from people like Bogle and Bernstein and Swedroe. But the full reality here is that I am 11 years ahead of those guys today. Because when I saw the reluctance of the Buy-and-Holders to acknowledge their errors, I abandoned ship and got about the business of figuring out why the “experts” in this field are so arrogant and puffed-up and defensive.

It’s not all a math exercise.

Honesty matters. Caring about what happens to the people who follow your advice matters.

This is a field in which you can quickly go to the head of the class just by being honest and by caring about what happens to the people who follow your advice.

I look forward to the day when my good friends Jack and Bill and Larry catch up to me and then surpass me. Nothing would make me happier. I pray every day for that to happen.

Rob

“There Is No Such Thing as an ‘Expert’ in a Field in Which We Are as a Society Only Beginning to Come to Terms with the Most Fundamental Questions. When Buy-and-Hold Was Developed, There Were Smart People Who Thought That It Was Not Necessary to Change Your Allocation in Response to Valuation Shifts. They Didn’t Know.”

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Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to this site’s blog:

Rob said: “Again, these are merely the sincere views of a non-expert who has spent a lot of time trying to understand conflicts and weaknesses in the conventional understanding of stock investing. ” But Rob, you said you are more of an expert than Jack Bogle, William Bernstein, etc.

Both things are so, Pink.

I never went to Investing School. I never managed a big fund. I am no investing expert.

But, yes, I am 11 years ahead of Jack Bogle and Bill Bernstein and Larry Swedroe and all the other Buy-and-Holders.

They aren’t experts either, Pink.

There’s no such thing as an “expert” in a field in which we are as a society only beginning to come to terms with the most fundamental questions. Do valuations affect long-term returns or do they not? That’s the ABCs. When Buy-and-Hold was developed there were smart people who thought that it wasn’t necessary to change your allocation in response to valuation shifts. They didn’t know. If you don’t know the ABCs, you are obviously not an expert.

Now they know.

Now we all know. Now that Shiller has published his research and now that Wade and I have published the research that shows clearly the huge practical implications of Shiller’s revolutionary theoretical findings, we all know. Or at least we all should know.

But Bogle and Bernstein and Swedroe cannot today bear to admit that they don’t know it all. So they play stupid games. And thereby get themselves deeper and deeper into the mess that they created by pretending to know things that they in reality did not know.

I am not an expert. But I am 11 years ahead of those who haven’t even yet acknowledged that they were wrong about safe withdrawal rates and why.

I gave up on Buy-and-Hold on the evening of August 27, 2002, when John Greaney threatened to kill my wife and children if I ever dared to “cross” him again by putting up another honest post on safe withdrawal rates. I never looked back.

When did you come to see that Buy-and-Hold is a big pile of smelly garbage, Pink?

If you haven’t done that yet, why haven’t you? What do you need to see?

What is Bogle waiting for? What is Bernstein waiting for? What is Swedroe waiting for?

It’s one thing not to be an expert. It’s not possible for any of the humans to be true investing experts today. Our knowledge of the realities simply is not yet sufficiently advanced for anyone to claim that title.

It’s something else to be corrupt. If you don’t speak out against death threats and board bannings and tens of thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs, you are acorrupt non-expert.

Is that not so, Pink?

Rob

Valuation-Informed Indexing #145 — The Financial Crisis and the Systematic Failure of Academic Economics

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I’ve posted Entry #145 to my weekly Valuation-Informed Indexing column at the Value Walk site. It’s called The Financial Crisis and the Systematic Failure of Academic Economics.

Juicy Excerpt: “The economics profession appears to have been unaware of the long build-up to the current worldwide financial crisis and to have significantly underestimated its dimensions once it started to unfold. In our view, this lack of understanding is due to a misallocation of research efforts in economics. We trace the deeper roots of this failure to the profession’s focus on models that, by design, disregard key elements driving outcomes in real-world markets. The economics profession has failed in communicating the limitations, weaknesses, and even dangers of its preferred models to the public. This state of affairs makes clear the need for a major reorientation of focus in the research economists undertake, as well as for the establishment of an ethical code that would ask economists to understand and communicate the limitations and potential misuses of their models.”

“I Cannot Commit Perjury Myself. So I Cannot Make the Past 11 Years Go Away. I am 100% Sincere About Doing All That I Can (Short of Committing Perjury) to Help You Out.”

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Set forth below are the texts of three related comments that I recently put to the Goon Central board:

Such silly, impotent threats are all you have left in your empty life.

Time will tell the tale, GW.

That’s the drama of the thing.

Rob

Does endlessly repeating them help you distract yourself from the reality of your plight and help you get through the day? 

I repeat them because your behavior shows that they are the aspect of the matter that most concerns you.

If I could wave a magic wand in the air, I would do it in exchange for bringing the economic crisis to an end. I think it would be worth it 50 times over.

But I don’t have a magic wand. So my job is to come up with something else. The best that I have been able to come up with is to offer to do all I can to get the prison sentences reduced.

I understand that that may not be a good enough deal to get your support. I wouldn’t want to go to prison either. I get it, GW.

But I don’t have any other cards. I can’t commit perjury myself. So I cannot make the last 11 years go away.

I am 100 percent sincere about doing all that I can (short of committing perjury myself) to help. I think there is a good bit that I can do.

The other side of the story is that I cannot in honesty promise no prison terms. That’s not a call that is mine to make.

My view is that the best that I can do given the circumstances that apply is to offer to do everything in my power, to note that I believe that there is a good bit that I can do, and to be honest in saying that I personally do not believe that it is in my power to make everything A-OK for your Goons. I also honestly believe that the deal you would get prior to the next crash will be far, far better than the deal you will get after the next crash.

I’m your friend, GW. But I’m not an idiot. I do not want to go to prison myself. So you are going to have to recognize that there are limits to what a person in my circumstances can do.

If you can’t do that, then we wait until the crash and see how things play out. I don’t want that. But it’s not in my power to force it to play out otherwise. So I have to accept that that’s where things stand.

The reason I mention the prison sentences is that talking about the prison sentences is real and practical and positive and constructive and life-affirming. It’s an important piece of this puzzle that needs to be worked out. I will of course be happy when we are all dealing with a very different sort of puzzle pieces. I didn’t cause it to be played out this way, that was you and your Goon friends. I try to help out with the prison sentences because that is the best thing available to me to do today.

You’re always a few years behind the curve, GW. There would have been no financial liabilities or prison sentences in 2002. In the years immediately preceding the 2008 crash, my guess is that there would have been financial liabilities but not prison sentences. Now some sort of prison sentences are unavoidable and you are not willing to sign on to that. After the next crash, you will be wishing that shorter prison sentences were a possibility but I will at that time no longer be able to arrange for the reduced prison sentences that I believe I probably could arrange for today. By always being behind the curve, you always push your best options off the table.

But pay no attention to my strategy tips. I’m the dummy who discovered the errors in the Old School SWR studies 10 years before any of the Big Shots in this field. I’m the really, really dumb and really, really lucky guy.

I’ll continue to extend the hand of kindness to you as many times as I am able to do so. Because that’s what I would want a friend to do for me if the tables were turned. If you want to stop me from extending the hand of kindness to you, tell your pal John Greaney to shut down the board and I won’t be able to engage in such efforts any longer. You hear about my efforts to get the prison sentences reduced because he provides a forum for me to engage in such efforts. Blame yourself. Or blame Greaney. Or blame Bogle. Or blame whoever you want. I want to be able to sleep at night after the deed is done. So intend to continue to extend the hand of kindness to you regardless of how slight I believe the odds are that you will ever work up the sense and courage to extend your hand in return.

I wish you all good things, in any event.

Rob

Such silly, impotent threats

It’s common for those making impotent threats to have 140 endorsements of their work on the home page of their blog, some from the biggest names in the field. It’s common for those making impotent threats to have an academic researcher spend 16 months working with them to develop research that in the researcher’s assessment is the most important investing research produced in three decades. it’s common for those making impotent threats to have the Wall Street Journal write about findings they talked about on public discussion boards nearly 11 years earlier as if they were the new discoveries of the top experts in the field.

I forgot.

Rob

“I Have Publicly Declared My Intent To Have the Bogleheads Forum Added to My Site As a Sub-Domain. It’s the Top Investing Board on the Internet Today.”

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Set forth below are the texts of two related comments that I recently put to the Goon Central board:

How much he values the board from which he is banned and how envious he is of the people that can post there.

I value the board immensely, GW. There is no dispute re that one.

I have publicly declared my intent to have the board added to my site as a sub-domain. I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t see great value in the board. It’s the top investing board on the internet today.

With me or someone I appoint making board administration decisions, we will be able to attract more people of integrity to the board and those who are there now and who possess integrity will feel free to post their honestzzz views.

Buy-and-Holders will of course be welcome to participate in all discussions.

Whether I am “envious” or not depends on how you use the word. I see the board as a very valuable resource. So I am certainly “envious” of those who are able to make use of that resource. That is obviously so.

But am I willing to sacrifice my personal integrity to obtain access to that learning experience? No way, no how. It’s not even a close call.

And I am not “envious” of those who have made the other call. I think they have made a huge mistake.

Will you be envious of me when I am handed the $500 million settlement check? I wouldn’t be gaining that check if I had agreed to post dishonestly, you know.

Rob

That the Bogleheads freely discuss exactly those topics which Bennet claims are banned.   

The fact that my friend Brian’s post was taken down because it contained a link to the Risk Evaluator shows us precisely how “free” the discussions are there, GW.

Community members are permitted to say anything about safe withdrawal rates except what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research shows to be the case.

That’s not what Buy-and-Hold was about in its early days.

That’s not what it will be about once we open every board and blog on the internet to honestzzz posting on SWRs and many other critically important investment-related topics.

You can help. May I put you down for 20 e-mails per day?

Rob