Best of Discuss

If You Can't Beat It, Buy It

M*_Darrin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:59:00 GMT

The best of for July 3, 2009 is an article by Taylor Larimore entitled If You Can't Beat It, Buy It. Learn why longtime Discuss contributor, author, and Boglehead Taylor Larimore says trying to beat the market is a loser’s game. Plus, see Taylor’s simple four-fund portfolio picks.

Taylor Larimore, CCL, has made nearly 25,000 posts on the Morningstar forums and was a co-founder of the Vanguard Diehards forum. He is co-author of "The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing" and the soon to be published, "The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning."

Risk Management in Diversified "Buy & Hold" Portfolios

M*_Darrin — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:30:00 GMT

Best of for May 22, 2009:

Risk Management in Diversified "Buy & Hold" Portfolios by norbertc


	norbertc (aka Norbert Sohl) was born of US / German parents into a military family. Childhood in Bordeaux, France; Valley Forge, PA, Verdun, France, and San Francisco Presidio, CA. Education at UC Berkeley (BA) and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (MBA). Twenty year career with an oil major doing operations research and I/S project management, followed by consulting work in Europe and Africa. Major hobbies are home construction and investing. Semi-retired, married with one daughter. Resident and happy taxpayer in Paris, France, since 1998. Read more by Norbert and view all his shared portfolios.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Fixed Income

M*_Darrin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:29:47 GMT

The best of for August 28, 2009 is an article by DrHelen entitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Fixed Income.

Doctor Helen is a retired physician manager who lives in Connecticut with her husband and two cats. A participant in defined contribution pension plans since 1970, she discovered fairly early on that leaving all the investing to plan managers was not wise. She attributes her fondness for managed mutual funds to an early and profitable exposure to Michael Price’s Mutual Shares. She has been an active poster since she first joined Morningstar in late 2006; she finds the advice she is given on the forums some of the best around and wishes to thank all of her cyber friends for continuing to educate her.

What's Your Time Worth?

M*_Darrin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:27:00 GMT

The best of for August 21, 2009 is an article entitled What's Your Time Worth?

Every week we feature a favorite author or post from our Discussion boards. If you'd like to be a contributor, send us your best.

An Inadvertent Entrepreneuresse

M*_Darrin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:35:00 GMT

The best of for August 13, 2009 is an article by Hetty Green entitled An Inadvertent Entrepreneuresse.

Hetty Green specializes in organizing small business, home and mobile offices, especially for the creative person. She wanders the earth but claims legal residence in California. She has breezed in and out of the Politics, Off Topic and T. Rowe Price forums since 2004.

“Fixing” Target-Date Funds

M*_Darrin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:33:00 GMT

The best of for August 4, 2009 is an article by Mel Lindauer, entitled “Fixing” Target-Date Funds.

Mel Lindauer is the co-author of The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing (Wiley, 2006) and The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning (Wiley, 2009). He's a long-time contributor to the Morningstar Vanguard Diehards forum.

The Trend is Our Friend

M*_Darrin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:31:00 GMT

The best of for July 31, 2009 is an article by DeerIslander entitled The Trend is Our Friend.

DeerIslander is a co-founder and frequent contributor to the popular ongoing T/A Thread at Fidelity Family in which posters discuss technical and fundamental developments on assets in a large number of markets. See the comments unfold in Discuss by clicking the T/A link above.

14 Reasons To Like Index Funds

M*_Darrin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:30:00 GMT

The best of for July 24, 2009 is an article by Taylor Larimore entitled 14 Reasons To Like Index Funds.

Pressing Hot-Button Topics on Discuss

M*_Darrin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:29:00 GMT

The best of for July 17, 2009 is an article by Oildog entitled Pressing Hot-Button Topics on Discuss. Oildog culls through some of his favorite posts on active management, Buffett, performance-chasing, and bubbles.

Oildog spends most of his waking life analyzing the world economy and world politics. He considers himself to be a value investor in the tradition of John Maynard Keynes, Benjamin Graham, and Warren Buffett. He invests in both stocks and funds based on expectation of high long-term return without much concern for short-term volatility. In his view, investment success requires knowledge of a wide range of fields, including economics, statistics, accounting, history, politics, and psychology. He believes active management can add value, but professional managers are often hindered by bad incentives - the need to constantly outperform; the need to accumulate assets; the need to earn lucrative fees. The individual investor needs to search for situations where manager's incentives are closer to their own.

Building a Sustaining Portfolio

M*_Darrin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:21:00 GMT

The best of for July 10, 2009 is an article by ElLobo, aka Chuck Wolfe, entitled Building a Sustaining Portfolio.

ElLobo (aka Chuck Wolfe) is a 64 year old retired engineer. Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, he moved to the Pacific Northwest soon after receiving his Masters degree in Nuclear Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He remains a Steeler fan to this day, enjoying grandkids and taking care of 14 acres of property with LaLoba (Jan), his retired teacher spouse of 11 years. Retirement hobbies include home construction (they are still married after building two retirement homes together!), fine woodworking, gardening, and personal finance. He has been a regular poster on the M* forums for a decade now!

10 questions with rascfw & "Set Up Your Portfolio with Little More than a KISS"

M*_Darrin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:30:00 GMT

The best of for June 26, 2009 is an article by rascfw, "Set Up Your Portfolio with Little More than a KISS". We asked rascfw 10 questions to get a sense of what kind of investor she is. Here are her answers:

How often do you check your portfolio?

Since the FALL of 2008? Weekly or biweekly. Before that? 3-4 times a week.

What was your best stock/fund pick to date?

Over my investing lifetime: EMLX, now known as ELX Emulex... traded multiple times with 200%+ actual returns each time.

Within the past year: F Ford ...average price/share including commission is $2.28 (still owned).

What was your worst stock/fund pick to date?

Over my investing lifetime: If you mean total-dollar investment, my answer is yet again EMLX, now known as ELX Emulex: I lost over 90% of my tush of my investment in EMLX (and almost as much in BVSN) in every single flippin' retirement account in 2000/2001.

Within the past year: DWT, now known as BBLKF Britannia Bulk, down 99.99% --but a drop in the bucket dollar-wise compared to ELX and my other tech nightmare, BVSN Broadvision. At least I learned to minimize my exposure to any one investment from my EMLX and BVSN days. I might not shoot the lights out profit-wise, but maximized potential profits also mean maximized potential losses and that is foolish and unacceptable for me. Sadly, I am not Warren Buffett or George Soros.
If you could meet any major financial figure, who would it be?

That's a hard one and I'd have to think about that for a while. Perhaps a better question might be which financial figures do you admire? Listed alphabetically: John Bogle, Warren Buffett, Jim Cramer, Jeremy Grantham, Bill Gross, Paul Merriman, Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, Charles Royce, Charles Schwab, George Soros. If I sit here long enough, I'll think of a whole lot more... Bill Miller, William O'Neil, Marty Whitman, etc. Sir John Templeton, unfortunately deceased, would have been my first pick handsdown. The rest might seem to be a motley crew but they all each have characteristics I admire and achievements that few of us can emulate or aspire to.
What is the most important term or idea in the investing world?

There are way too many terms and ideas to say just this ONE term or idea is the core tenet of the financial world. Being backed into a corner, though, I'd have to say compounding and the Rule of 72.
What is the least important term or idea in the investing world?

Hedged investments. IMO, most investors will lose more and pay way too much investing in what most of us do not understand. Stick with what you know. If you want to work with investments that offer extreme volatility and high risk, try emerging markets and precious metals.
What is the most overrated term or idea in the investing world?

Buying on margin. In the long run, the (brokerage) house always wins. Why do I say that? If your forays into buying on margin are not kept brief compound interest is working against you.
What was your biggest lesson/mistake?

Failing to diversify properly and stupidly following the lemming crowd in the midst of the 1999-2001 tech bubble. I paid for it dearly and I will not allow it to happen again. Diversification, stoicism and cultivating a contrarian perspective are of supreme importance to me. I like to think I'm doing fair-to-middlin' --LOL!
If you started over on Discuss, what name would you choose?

I'd still be "rascfw" -- I chose that because it's easy for me to remember: It's the acronym for my husband's and my initials.
What investments do you perceive as good buys right now and why?

When I invest, I'm looking for what I feel is undervalued or on fire-sale. IMO, that means areas like Latin America; NASDAQ index funds or QQQQ; Asia [(Korea, India and China -- and in that order) note -- Japan might be a good buy right now but I have not checked it out recently]; realty funds or CEFs; gold and commodities funds. This is all just my opinion, of course, and NOT a recommendation. Please remember that right now to me means right now, the summer of 2009.


	rascfw (aka Susan), spent the first part of her career advancing through Merrill at mach speed: Sales Assistant, Registered Sales Assistant, Financial Consultant... all achieved in less than 4 years. She then worked so hard as a Financial Consultant, she burned out and turned her back on the financial world. Regardless, Susan never lost her love for investing. You can now find her swapping ideas across the Discuss forums, particularly at HandsOn. As reflected in the above article, Susan sees learning as a never-ending process and encourages everyone to learn all they can about investments and investing strategies to help them plan for retirement and exceed their goals.

5 Tips for Penny-Pinchers

M*_Darrin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:27:00 GMT

Best of for June 19, 2009:

5 Tips for Penny-Pinchers by various authors

The Tightwad Tips forum community offers some creative ways to save a buck or two.

Asset Allocation: Where to Put Your Money to Work in Today's Market

M*_Darrin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:28:00 GMT

Best of for June 12, 2009:

Asset Allocation: Where to Put Your Money to Work in Today's Market by retired at 48


	retired at 48 (aka Bob Simons), a Penn State Engineering Graduate, was a General Electric Quality Assurance Manager involved in the Naval Nuclear Submarine Program. Retiring in 1993, at age 48, Bob focused extensively on portfolio design and management for his personal investments and is now sharing his insights and wisdom learned on the Morningstar forums. Read more by Bob, view his shared portfolios, or visit his favorite forum: Portfolio Design/Management.

The Secret of Wealth

M*_Darrin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:30:00 GMT

Best of for June 5, 2009:

The Secret of Wealth...isn't really a "secret" at all by Mel Lindauer


	Mel Lindauer is the co-author of The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing (Wiley, 2006) and The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning (Wiley, 2009). He's a long-time contributor to the Morningstar Vanguard Diehards forum.