Hi Bob,

That's an interesting interview and I love how they mixed in the Ameriprise commercial, but I feel like the somewhat sloppy associated story (attributed to Chris Arnold -- note that the pie chart still says "real estate" though the legend now says REITs) is somewhat less authoritative re Swenson's preferences than the book  . . .

In terms of the book, as long as we're on p. 79 note that that's also where he calls TREA "a nearly unimaginable fair deal"  . . .  odd phrasing, to my mind,  as I don't think he'd characterize Vanguard's REIT fund as substantially less "fair," so to me it all suggests that at least back in 2005 the man really, really dug TREA . . . now, REITs had certainly come down in price by April 2008, but at least for me Arnold's "precis" (and, of course, TREA's ER increase) aren't enough for me to infer that that 2005 enthusiasm for TREA has much waned . . . in any event, I usually avoid making arguments from authority in the first place and was just trying to give the (non-REIT-fund-owning) OP a quick heads-up about Swenson.  It would certainly have been more precise to say that, "as of 2005, David Swenson was both a) an advocate of a 20% allocation to real estate and b) a great enthusiast for TREA in particular."

All best,

Pete