Are you a “Boglehead”


Taylor Larimore, 81, a former official at the Small Business Administration, one of the co-founders of the Vanguard Diehard forum on Morningstar, and one of the three authors of “The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing” on the the Boglehead philosphy ….

The closest thing we have to the Boglehead Philosophy is Mr. Bogle’s “Twelve Pillars of Wisdom” in his book, Bogle on Mutual Funds. Here are the “12 Pillars” (abbreviated) in his exact words:
1. Investing is not nearly as difficult as it sounds.
2. When all else fails, fall back on simplicity.
3. Time marches on. Time dramatically enhances capital accumulation as the magic of compounding accelerates.
4. Nothing vertured, nothing gained. It pays to take reasonable interim risks in the search for higher long-term rates of return.
5. Diversify, diversify, diversify.
6. The eternal triangle. Never forget that risk, return, and cost are the three sides of the eternal triangle of investing.
7. The powerful magnetism of the mean.
8. Do not overestimate your ability to pick superior equity mutual funds, nor underestimate your ability to pick superior bond and money market funds.
9. You may have a stable principal value or a stable income stream, but you cannot have both.
10. Beware of fighting the last war. You should not ignore the past, but neither should you assume that a particular cyclical trend will last forever.
11. You rarely, if ever, know something the market does not.
12. Think long term. Stay the course.

Oh, yeah, I found a great podcat with John Bogle on Venture Voice. Definitely worth a listen.