Any post of Taylor that has nothing to do with finance, but just the wisdom he has developed over the many years of life. He has a way of conveying simple messages much the same way as Mr. Bogle, but still with profound meaning.
Staythecourse:
Being compared, in any way, with Mr. Bogle is the ultimate compliment.
Thank you and best wishes.
Taylor
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake |
Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. |
Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
I am partial to "Best nose hair trimmer (Is this okay to ask?)" viewtopic.php?f=11&t=145435
which of course was locked by LadyGeek. And one of great responses by livesoft,
"I think you are supposed to be plucking these hairs whenever you are out in the car and stopped at a stop light. At least that's what I see all the time".
I like posts discussing concepts related to "why keep playing when you have won the game?" And similar topics. Also discussions about SWR with very conservative, long term variables. Finally, the net worth survey results.
"The two most important days in someone's life are the day that they are born and the day they discover why." -John Maxwell
Threads that discuss posters' life experiences as they relate to one's priorities (such as our recent thread by that name, 'priorities,'), choices as to whether to move or to stay in retirement and why, characteristics of various places where people live and why they love it there, etc. Posters are very thoughtful and give advice that has some substance and perspective to it......
One man's massive leverage strategy right before the brink of the 2008/2009 Market Crash. This is a 29 page classic and very interesting. I think parts of it are fictional, but there is a post from an admin that eventually confirmed at least some of the OPs initial claims.
No one, deserves more credit for outstanding posts than the unsung heroes who post on the Boglehead wiki and have made it the best financial wiki on the internet.
My personal vote goes to Lady Geek whose work behind the scene, and her valuable posts on the wiki and on the forum, make her a leader in Mr. Bogle's Crusade "to give ordinary investors a fair shake."
Thank you, Lady Geek!
Best wishes.
Taylor
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
Taylor's response to a "Why not 100% stocks" thread...
Taylor Larimore| 09-28-00
Our family owned "Larimore's Diner" in Foxboro, Mass. in 1929. I was 5 years old and remember. When the depression hit, we lost the Diner and moved into my grandfather's home in Miami. Grandfather, who was an investor and chief executive of an investment trust company, lost everything--including the Miami home we lived in.
These figures show what a REAL bear market is like:
BEAR MARKET OF 1929-1937 (Dow plunged 89%)
-1929--1930--1931--1932
(-31%)(-25%)(-43%)(-08%) Large Cap Stocks
(-34%)(-35%)(-47%)(-06%) Mid/Small Cap Stocks
(-47%)(-38%)(-50%)(-05%) Micro Cap Stocks
(+04%)(+07%)(-02%)(+09%) 5-Year Treasury Bonds
BEAR MARKET OF 1973-1976 (S&P fell 43%)
-1973--1974
(-15%)(-26%) Large Caps
(-39%)(-29%) Micro Caps
---(-70%) Coca-Cola
---(-82%) Intel
---(-73%) McDonald's
---(-86%) Merrill Lynch
---(-86%) Walt Disney
---(-71%) Xerox
Figures cannot convey the horrifying and debilitating effects of a bear market. You watch in agony as month after month your life savings evaporate before your eyes. Gloom and doom talk is everywhere. Nearly everyone else is selling. You have no idea when, or if, your portfolio will stop losing money.
Your friends and relatives urge you to sell. Nearly all financial experts recommend "sell". You are ridiculed for trying to hold on. You begin to have self-doubt. Dispair sets in. Buying stocks is unthinkable. Suicide's increase. That's a REAL bear market.
Now you understand why very few "old-timers" are 100% in stocks.
Best wishes.
Taylor
I do not have the long term perspective of Taylor but this post really hits home for me after going through 2008. For younger investors who have not gone through a major crash, make sure your assett allocation matches your risk tolerance. Possibly even more importantly, make sure it matches your spouses risk tolerance.
Taylor's response to a "Why not 100% stocks" thread...
Taylor Larimore| 09-28-00
Our family owned "Larimore's Diner" in Foxboro, Mass. in 1929. I was 5 years old and remember. When the depression hit, we lost the Diner and moved into my grandfather's home in Miami. Grandfather, who was an investor and chief executive of an investment trust company, lost everything--including the Miami home we lived in.
These figures show what a REAL bear market is like:
BEAR MARKET OF 1929-1937 (Dow plunged 89%)
-1929--1930--1931--1932
(-31%)(-25%)(-43%)(-08%) Large Cap Stocks
(-34%)(-35%)(-47%)(-06%) Mid/Small Cap Stocks
(-47%)(-38%)(-50%)(-05%) Micro Cap Stocks
(+04%)(+07%)(-02%)(+09%) 5-Year Treasury Bonds
BEAR MARKET OF 1973-1976 (S&P fell 43%)
-1973--1974
(-15%)(-26%) Large Caps
(-39%)(-29%) Micro Caps
---(-70%) Coca-Cola
---(-82%) Intel
---(-73%) McDonald's
---(-86%) Merrill Lynch
---(-86%) Walt Disney
---(-71%) Xerox
Figures cannot convey the horrifying and debilitating effects of a bear market. You watch in agony as month after month your life savings evaporate before your eyes. Gloom and doom talk is everywhere. Nearly everyone else is selling. You have no idea when, or if, your portfolio will stop losing money.
Your friends and relatives urge you to sell. Nearly all financial experts recommend "sell". You are ridiculed for trying to hold on. You begin to have self-doubt. Dispair sets in. Buying stocks is unthinkable. Suicide's increase. That's a REAL bear market.
Now you understand why very few "old-timers" are 100% in stocks.
Best wishes.
Taylor
I do not have the long term perspective of Taylor but this post really hits home for me after going through 2008. For younger investors who have not gone through a major crash, make sure your assett allocation matches your risk tolerance. Possibly even more importantly, make sure it matches your spouses risk tolerance.
Thank you Taylor.
I remember reading this during the 100% stock hype a few years ago. Such wisdom for us young whipper-snappers
No one, deserves more credit for outstanding posts than the unsung heroes who post on the Boglehead wiki and have made it the best financial wiki on the internet.
My personal vote goes to Lady Geek whose work behind the scene, and her valuable posts on the wiki and on the forum, make her a leader in Mr. Bogle's Crusade "to give ordinary investors a fair shake."
Thank you, Lady Geek!
Best wishes.
Taylor
Thank you. Anyone can discover the wiki's "unsung heroes" by clicking on the "View history" tab which is at the top-right corner of every wiki article.* If you have a favorite article, click on the tab and see who contributed. You'll often find several wiki editors have worked on it.
* FYI - We use the same software as Wikipedia; you'll find the same "View history" tab there.
To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
This was one of the first posts I read when I joined this forum. It has tons of great advice. Unfortunately, Gekko's is not as active in this forum as he used to be. I keep a copy of his post which I like to read from time to time.
Trust yourself, Break the rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Don't listen to naysayers, Work your butt off. "It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped. Choose now and well"
Sunny Sarkar wrote:Taylor's response to a "Why not 100% stocks" thread...
Taylor Larimore| 09-28-00
Our family owned "Larimore's Diner" in Foxboro, Mass. in 1929. I was 5 years old and remember. When the depression hit, we lost the Diner and moved into my grandfather's home in Miami. Grandfather, who was an investor and chief executive of an investment trust company, lost everything--including the Miami home we lived in.
These figures show what a REAL bear market is like:
BEAR MARKET OF 1929-1937 (Dow plunged 89%)
-1929--1930--1931--1932
(-31%)(-25%)(-43%)(-08%) Large Cap Stocks
(-34%)(-35%)(-47%)(-06%) Mid/Small Cap Stocks
(-47%)(-38%)(-50%)(-05%) Micro Cap Stocks
(+04%)(+07%)(-02%)(+09%) 5-Year Treasury Bonds
BEAR MARKET OF 1973-1976 (S&P fell 43%)
-1973--1974
(-15%)(-26%) Large Caps
(-39%)(-29%) Micro Caps
---(-70%) Coca-Cola
---(-82%) Intel
---(-73%) McDonald's
---(-86%) Merrill Lynch
---(-86%) Walt Disney
---(-71%) Xerox
Figures cannot convey the horrifying and debilitating effects of a bear market. You watch in agony as month after month your life savings evaporate before your eyes. Gloom and doom talk is everywhere. Nearly everyone else is selling. You have no idea when, or if, your portfolio will stop losing money.
Your friends and relatives urge you to sell. Nearly all financial experts recommend "sell". You are ridiculed for trying to hold on. You begin to have self-doubt. Dispair sets in. Buying stocks is unthinkable. Suicide's increase. That's a REAL bear market.
Now you understand why very few "old-timers" are 100% in stocks.
Best wishes.
Taylor
Glad you reported this, as I never read the original. Around the same time as the first crash an ancestor lost everything (was effectively 100% real estate...logging co with leverage) to the bank. He and his wife controlled about half of what is now one of America's hottest small city real estate markets. During black swans, it's not just equities that hold risk. Something for those folks who want to diversify via real estate that are using debt.
P.S. I also love the best new SF books and best beer threads.
Here are 2 of my favorites, from Jack Bogle - yes, THE Jack Bogle!
"Bogleheads X - The Best!" - Jack Bogle's thank you to the Bogleheads for the 2011 Conference.
His advice - "A lot will happen in the coming twelve months. It's a perilous world out there, so get your asset allocation right - for you - and then just Stay the Course." www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=84344
nisiprius wrote:And in todays news, stocks soared on expectations that nothing would happen, then plunged on news that nothing happened.
We interviewed Lemuel Gulliver, head of research at Nisiprius Investments for his take on this.
"Our research department was expecting nothing to happen, but we underestimated the actual degree to which nothing happened. I mean, it was really nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nil. Expecting nothing to happen, the market was stunned when those expectations were fulfilled, and reacted to nothing with something. The market then surprised itself by its own reaction, and then reacted to its reaction so that overall, the reaction was nothing. Now we will wait to see how Asian markets react to this lack of reaction, so that we can forecast the U.S. market's reaction to the Asian reaction."
To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
I find the most memorable are "thread locked" as it exemplefies the efforts of the moderators who do such a great job keeping everyone on point. To me, these posts are more important than anything else, as they set rules and order.
On behalf of the Mods and other Admins, I'd like to say thanks for the kind words. It's always nice to hear that our work is both helpful and appreciated.
To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
I'd like to acknowledge the many helpful posts made by #cruncher and thank him/her for contributing so much solid information to the Bogleheads Community.
Lots of favorite posts. Leveraging everything right before 2008 was a good read on market timing. Larry Swedroe is always interesting. Is there any way to see threads ranked by number of posts or views?
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf
I would like to send a shout out to my "neighbor" the east, Homer. Would love to sit on his deck at his new lake condo and enjoy a couple cold beers (Bud Light of course).
And this post (and ensuing thread) opened my eye to how quickly the investing community can forget, as new investors enter the workforce: "How bad was was 2008, really?" viewtopic.php?f=10&t=207809#p3186855
I love reading posts from people about my age that indicate they have less income or assets than I have. It makes me feel good. I love to read these.
It naturally follows that I dislike posts that indicate they have more of the same than I have. This makes me feel bad.
pingo wrote:Nisi's refreshing lemonade analogy was the first thing that came to my mind.
Wow! Hadn't seen that one before. So so so good. Nisiprius -- I wish there was an applause emoji to celebrate you. Instead, I will just have to use the lemonade one:
pingo wrote:Nisi's refreshing lemonade analogy was the first thing that came to my mind.
Wow! Hadn't seen that one before. So so so good. Nisiprius -- I wish there was an applause emoji to celebrate you. Instead, I will just have to use the lemonade one:
davidfl wrote:Typically this would be a red flag for me except that she's very frugal, low maintenance, ...
I have her reading up on investing and personal finance...
I'm writing up a cohabitation agreement which she has agreed to sign.
Have you thought of writing a romance novel?
The wind swept over the moors as she gazed at the stark moon. She contemplated her aloneness, her emptiness. Until a hand touched her shoulder...
"Lord Beckworth!" she exclaimed, spinning around to face his chiseled features, "Why, I thought that you... that you..."
"That I had sailed for Australia with Miss Higgenpenny? Let's say I had a change of heart. I couldn't stay away from you! Your brown, sad eyes haunted me. As did your frugality and your low level of maintenance.
"Oh, but my thoughts were filled with memories of us as well!" she replied, "Our walks together. The dances we shared. The personal finance books we took turns reading from by candlelight."
Beckworth gently picked up her right hand and placed a folded piece of paper in it. "For you," he said quiety as he stared seeminly into her very essence.
"Is this....? Why, it is! A cohabitation agreement!" She clutched it to her heaving breast as tears of joy streamed down her face. "Let me just get a pen!"
JupiterJones wrote:
The wind swept over the moors as she gazed at the stark moon. She contemplated her aloneness, her emptiness. Until a hand touched her shoulder...
.
.
.
Beckworth gently picked up her right hand and placed a folded piece of paper in it. "For you," he said quiety as he stared seeminly into her very essence.
"Is this....? Why, it is! A cohabitation agreement!" She clutched it to her heaving breast as tears of joy streamed down her face. "Let me just get a pen!"
JJ
That post is quite memorable. (You're the second in the thread to point to this one. Ladygeek linked to it on the first page of this thread, which is where I first got to see this. Direct link to this post in that thread: viewtopic.php?p=1265568#p1265568)
Please keep these coming! I really appreciate all the links to these great posts
abuss368 wrote:Hopefully Taylor will see this post and provide his perspective.
abuss368:
I have worked in two government agencies that issue bonds so I am familiar with bonds. Bonds are extremely complex. It is one of those things that the more you know the more you realize you don't know.
I recall my first visit to Shearson-Lehman in New York City where I went to sign closing documents for a large municipal bond issue by our Miami Dade County Housing Authority. The S-L executives gave me a tour of their "bond room." I was awed to see about 100 highly skilled bond professionals, focused on their computers, seeking the slightest advantage to purchase and sell bonds on hundreds of world-wide exchanges.
One of my take-a-ways was that bonds are extremely efficient and very difficult to chose one bond fund over another. It is why experts seldom agree on the "best" bonds or bond funds (which are issued in hundreds of permutations). Any increase in expected return is nearly always accompanied by an expected increase in risk. There is no "free-lunch" in the bond world (except diversification), which is one reason I selected Vanguard's very diversified Total Bond Market Index Fund for my favorite Three Fund Portfolio.
"ANY good quality, low cost, diversified, short- or intermediate-term bond fund will do the job of providing safety and income to a portfolio."
abuss368 wrote:Hopefully Taylor will see this post and provide his perspective.
abuss368:
I have worked in two government agencies that issue bonds so I am familiar with bonds. Bonds are extremely complex. It is one of those things that the more you know the more you realize you don't know.
I recall my first visit to Shearson-Lehman in New York City where I went to sign closing documents for a large municipal bond issue by our Miami Dade County Housing Authority. The S-L executives gave me a tour of their "bond room." I was awed to see about 100 highly skilled bond professionals, focused on their computers, seeking the slightest advantage to purchase and sell bonds on hundreds of world-wide exchanges.
One of my take-a-ways was that bonds are extremely efficient and very difficult to chose one bond fund over another. It is why experts seldom agree on the "best" bonds or bond funds (which are issued in hundreds of permutations). Any increase in expected return is nearly always accompanied by an expected increase in risk. There is no "free-lunch" in the bond world (except diversification), which is one reason I selected Vanguard's very diversified Total Bond Market Index Fund for my favorite Three Fund Portfolio.
"ANY good quality, low cost, diversified, short- or intermediate-term bond fund will do the job of providing safety and income to a portfolio."
Stocks let us eat well. Bonds let us sleep well.
Abuss: That's my "perspective."
Best wishes
Taylor
Taylor sold his TIPS fund and now has Total Bond Index.
Keep investing simple.
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
There have been some fine suggestions so far, to be sure. As long as we don't have to limit ourselves to 'serious, important'(TM) posts my list of favorites also includes stlutz's 'Final Definitive Thread' series.
Any post by Munchkin Man immediately got my attention for it's style. I always looked forward to his posts. Sadly he has not posted in quite some time.
The closest helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
123 wrote:Any post by Munchkin Man immediately got my attention for it's style. I always looked forward to his posts. Sadly he has not posted in quite some time.