The Bogleheads®

From Bogleheads
Bogleheads at Vanguard 2018.jpg
 Bogleheads 17 Conference (2018)

Bogleheads, a term intended to honor Vanguard founder and investor advocate John Bogle, are investing enthusiasts who participate in the Bogleheads Forum. The forum's members discuss financial news and theory, while also helping less experienced investors develop their portfolios. There are more than 120,000 registered members and the site receives an average of nearly 2,000 posts each day. Some members also participate in national or local chapter get-togethers.

The Bogleheads community encompasses the forum, the wiki, the blog and three investment books (The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning and The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio). Affiliated sites include a presence on Facebook,Reddit and Twitter, and The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy. The Center sponsors a series of podcasts, the annual Bogleheads Conferences, the Bogleheads YouTube channel, the Bogleheads Virtual Life Stage chapter meetings, and the weekly Bogleheads Twitter Spaces discussions.

Investing philosophy

The Bogleheads approach begins with an investor deciding on percentage allocations to various asset classes, such as U.S. stocks, international stocks, U.S. bonds, etc. The desired allocations are then implemented using low-cost vehicles which are true to the targeted asset classes. Tax costs are carefully considered, influencing decisions as to what investments to place in taxable versus tax-advantaged accounts.

Bogleheads emphasize regular saving, broad diversification, and sticking to one's investment plan regardless of market conditions. Information relevant to the group's core beliefs is available in both The Twelve Pillars of Wisdom and Vanguard's investment philosophy, and are explained in greater detail in Bogleheads investment philosophy.

Online history

The Bogleheads' history is one of growth and an increasing sense of group identity.

Vanguard Diehards

The Bogleheads group informally began in March 1998 when Morningstar established the Vanguard Diehards Forum to discuss Vanguard funds.[1] By October 2001 the Morningstar forum had grown into Morningstar's most popular forum.

Today is a very special day for Morningstar's Vanguard Diehard Forum. It is the first time any Morningstar Forum has received 100,000 postings. My first Diehard post was in March 1998. None of us ever dreamed that 43 months later we would be Morningstar's most popular forum.

— Taylor Larimore [notes 1]

Diehards.org

In July 2001 Alex Frakt and Larry Auton debuted diehards.org as a convenient index and search capability in support of the Morningstar Vanguard Diehards Forum.[notes 2]

Figure 1: The Diehards.org homepage as it looked in September, 2001.

Figure 1 shows how the diehards.org homepage originally looked in September, 2001.

The Bogleheads Forum

An independent and noncommercial Bogleheads Forum was established on February 19, 2007 by an individual with username Phoenix. The primary driver behind creation of the new forum was acute disruption at Vanguard Diehards resulting from Morningstar's lax moderation policies. Technical obsolescence of the Morningstar boards was a secondary reason. One week after founding, Alex Frakt and Larry Auton agreed to host the new forum. [notes 3] Alex and Larry accomplished the changeover quickly, and the diehards.org homepage adopted a split-screen format, listing posts from both forums.

Figure 2: The Diehards.org homepage as it looked in March, 2007.

Figure 2 shows the look of the diehards.org homepage in March, 2007, when it incorporated posts from both Morningstar and the Bogleheads forum.

On January 29, 2019, in response to the increased presence of members across the globe, the forum added three non-US forums and welcomed Bogleheads® España as our affiliate forum in Spain.[2]

Bogleheads.org

After the inception of the Bogleheads Forum, activity on Vanguard Diehards decreased markedly, primarily due to rapid growth of the competing board. Also contributing to the decline was Morningstar's unpopular site redesign in September 2007.[3]

On May 31, 2008 Alex and Larry switched default domain names from diehards.org to the more natural bogleheads.org. The newly minted bogleheads.org home page no longer indexed posts from the Vanguard Diehards Forum.[notes 4]

Bogleheads wiki

In April 2008, a small group of forum members began experimenting with an off-site wiki. After a few weeks of joint effort, the group presented the forum administrators with a proposal to create a Bogleheads.org. hosted wiki. The forum administrators agreed with the proposal, and Alex and Larry kindly consented to host the new venture. The wiki was officially introduced on May 13, 2008.

Bogleheads® on Facebook

The Bogleheads® Facebook page was announced on January 11, 2011.[4] The site is managed by a small group of forum volunteers. The page seeks to continually fulfill the following purposes:

  • To maintain a Bogleheads.org presence on social networking website Facebook.
  • Serve to guide visitors to the Bogleheads® Forum.
  • Spread the word about Bogleheads® community and forum on Facebook.
  • Have an appearance consistent with the Bogleheads brand and respect to our mentor John Bogle.
  • Maintain content and presence that is lasting; a page that does not require daily moderation or policing.

Since inception the site has seen steady growth, having passed 13,000 followers in 2019.

Bogleheads® blog

The Bogleheads blog was launched on March 4, 2014. On September 8, 2014, the blog was moved to Financial Page-a Bogleheads blog, maintained by Barry Barnitz. The blog was transferred to the bogleheads.org server in February 2020. The blogging team provides up-to-date information across a broad range of site activities. These include local chapters and calendar; boglehead contests,boglehead podcasts, boglehead portfolio and retirement tools; as well as interviews. Specialized topics of interest are also covered in our blog postings.

Podcasts

The Bogleheads on Investing Podcast, sponsored by The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy, and hosted by Rick Ferri, is a monthly podcast series featuring well-known figures in the investment world. The initial podcast, an interview with John C. Bogle, was published on September 14, 2018.

Bogleheads YouTube

The Bogleheads YouTube channel, sponsored by the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy, was launched on August 19, 2021. The channel provides Boglehead Conference videos, videos of the Boglehead Local Chapter "Life Stage" virtual meetings, and audios of the Bogleheads on Investing Podcast series.[5]

The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy

The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy, a non-profit organization set up "to expand John C. Bogle’s legacy by promoting the principles of successful investing and financial well-being through education and community" (see more about the Center's mission).

The Center was approved by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity on February 6, 2012. The approval was retroactive to Nov. 22, 2010, the date of the organization's incorporation as a non-profit Texas Corporation.[notes 5]

Donations to the Bogle Center are tax-deductible. [6]

In one of its first actions, the Center trademarked the name "Bogleheads", and it is now a Registered Service Mark of The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy. [7]

Notes

  1. Taylor Larimore provides the following account of the forum's founding and early days in 100,000 POSTS !!!! !!!!, written in October 2001.
  2. Alex details the site's inception in the 2007 post Diehards.org history. The idea for what would become diehards.org was planted in this thread started on 6/13/01:Has anyone noticed....
  3. The conversation An announcement to the forum's membership, which occurred a week later, provides background information, and it details the willingness of Alex Frakt and Larry Auton to host the upstart forum at diehards.org.
  4. Alex provides an explanation in this Bogleheads forum post: "Why?"
  5. Further information can be found in this Bogleheads forum post: "Re: Tax-Deductible Donations to the Forum?" Tax return filings for the Bogle Center can be downloaded from the Foundation Center at Form 990 Finder

See also

References

External links

News articles