All Seasons wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:34 am
I am leaving the Bogleheads forum -- a departure likely to be permanent. However, before I leave I wanted to share why I am doing so with my fellow Bogleheads. To keep this
actionable, I'd like you to consider the following passages as food for thought as to whether or not
you should leave this forum.
I have been enlightened, enthralled, educated, and occasionally miffed at the discussions here. It has been a wild ride, and I have enjoyed my times perusing the many topics. I have had the pleasant experience of familiarizing myself with the thinking of men whose intellect exceeds my own including Larry Swedroe, Taylor Larimore, John Bogle, Rick Ferri, and many others.
Enjoyable as it has been, browsing this forum has done nothing but cause the horizon of my mind to be occluded by the latest in financial research and the stock market. There are constant reminders of the level of the Dow or the latest happenings with cryptocurrencies. There are innumerable threads about factors and international investments. The debates about optimal SCV allocation are interminable. The very act of frequenting this forum defeats the purpose of the Boglehead philosophy: that you shouldn't need to pay any mind to your investments at all. Your money should be beneath you. It should be working for you, silently. It should not be something that is allowed to consume appreciable portions of your mental energy.
Frequenting this forum can only cause you to act. To tinker. To modify and modify until you reach an "optimal" allocation as per the latest factor paper or whatever it may be. The very act of browsing this forum all the time is antithetical to the very principles that our community espouses.
To be a good Boglehead -- to truly live that philosophy of financial zen that passive investing is supposed to bring -- I must
leave the Bogleheads forum, and direct my energies towards other matters.
Thank you for the engaging discussions.
This need to tinker, to modify and modify, to view this forum as a cause to act, apparently as an imperative to act?
... are you so easily persuaded by all such "distractions", such as advertising?
Do you always need to read the *entire* newspaper or magazine/etc., once you see it or notice a headline, or read something that is indeed relevant/of interest to you?
Are you so quickly convinced by what your friends or relatives say they do, or perhaps suggest that you try?
(Or would you be needing to avoid reading/watching other media, or even interacting with others...?)
My guess is your answer will be "no".
So why is this forum different?
And if this forum had not been here, or had you never decided to read/participate here at all, how would you have had any of the education or enlightenment that you mention having here?
So *now* you complain that " browsing this forum has done nothing but cause the horizon of [your] mind to be occluded by the latest in financial research and the stock market"...?
Are you having what we call in the stock market a "really bad day"?
And needless to say, you (and all of us) are free to pick and choose which forum we wish to read or participate in, and even which topics within each of these.
All of that, for you, is up to you.
But kindly don't assume that others will necessarily have the same opinions as you have, or make the same decisions... or imply that
we should do so, too...
(Implying that others should do what you do is an odd way to interpret the "actionable" part of the Bogleheads forum.)
RM
Edit to correct a particular spelling error...
This signature is a placebo. You are in the control group.