Which Boglehead contributors do you value the most?

[CaliKid]

I visit there occasionally. A lot of thoughtful posters over there for sure but I feel it's a bit too overwhelming with the "fire your financial advisor and leave frugally." It gets old to me.

I can't think of the one person I like most but will come up with it eventually. They always have very practical and down to earth advice and said in a straightforward manner.

 

[big-papa]

I've been a member on Bogleheads for about a long as I have followed this forum. I don't go there as much anymore, I think in part because of the (imo) heavy handed moderation and tendency for a few opinionated posters who seem to have all day, every day, to try to convince the internet of their brilliance.

As with this site, I've learned a lot from the Bogleheads forum over the years, and I'm a couple of years into a semi-lean FIRE, which I am very thankful for.

My question is....which Bogleheads contributors do you respect the most, and learn the most from? As in, when XXXX posts their input, you always read it?

For me, it's Nisiprius who is still active. Very knowledgeable, very good communicater, and humble enough to admit that most things in investing are not black/white.

Also, I gained a lot from Willthrill's posts. Knowledgeable, patient, and obviously confident enough to go against the Bogleheads dogma. But eventually, unfortunately, he left the forum.

How about you?

vineviz was the man. I probably learned more from him than anybody else on the forum. As an engineer, I definitely liked his analytical approach to things. He tended to be rather blunt, though, and that was a big turnoff to some members. He left in early 2023 never to return. He left rationalreminder.ca about 6 months later.

In real life, he's Vincent Vizacharo, a CFA and owner of denouement financial planning. I strongly suspect that he was probably running out of spare time to post to forums while trying to run a business.

On the flip side, there are some regulars there that I simply can't stand. Some people who just repeat what they've heard. And some people who are overly emotionally invested in whatever it is they're doing and have very thin skins if challenged.

All in all, I like the forum and read and contribute there pretty often, under a different ID name than here. I like both forums but for different reasons - different vibe, as they say. Rationalreminder.ca for the same reason - yet another vibe.

What I don't like is that it's owned by an individual. And that gets reflected in how the moderators operate as well as some of the forum's rules. I would much prefer that it had its ownership under the Bogle Center for Financial Literacy.

Cheers.

 

[Exchme]

I wouldn't. And I don't think I'm the only one here. IMO he too often takes a flawed approach and surrounds it with a wall of words and tables of data. See the recent "Roth conversion in pictures thread", page 5 (currently the last page) as an example.

I think McQ likes to make provocative posts for the sake of it. He's probably a good researcher of historical data, but ever since his flawed and nonsensical Roth Conversion paper, I no longer take his analyses about much of anything too seriously.

I learn from there, but find that it takes a lot of time to make a post there as there will always be a "Well, actually..." person that tells you that you're wrong about something. If you have a thick skin, you can learn a lot. It's definitely narrowly moderated, many of the most interesting and human threads here would not be allowed there. So I check there in the morning, but hang out here more.

A few other names that I read when they post:
Ben Mathew (TPAW planner author)
Grabiner (set me straight on some financial theory)
Alex_686 (insider view of mutual fund operation)
Taylor Larimore (because he's 100 years old, still going strong and still posting!)

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I wouldn't. And I don't think I'm the only one here. IMO he too often takes a flawed approach and surrounds it with a wall of words and tables of data. See the recent "Roth conversion in pictures thread", page 5 (currently the last page) as an example.

I think McQ likes to make provocative posts for the sake of it. He's probably a good researcher of historical data, but ever since his flawed and nonsensical Roth Conversion paper, I no longer take his analyses about much of anything too seriously.

Yes, I agree. When he asserted that the commutative law of multiplication applies to a single transaction, but not necessarily to a series of transactions, I tuned him out.

 

[big-papa]

I think McQ likes to make provocative posts for the sake of it. He's probably a good researcher of historical data, but ever since his flawed and nonsensical Roth Conversion paper, I no longer take his analyses about much of anything too seriously.

I learn from there, but find that it takes a lot of time to make a post there as there will always be a "Well, actually..." person that tells you that you're wrong about something. If you have a thick skin, you can learn a lot. It's definitely narrowly moderated, many of the most interesting and human threads here would not be allowed there. So I check there in the morning, but hang out here more.

A few other names that I read when they post:
Ben Mathew (TPAW planner author)
Grabiner (set me straight on some financial theory)
Alex_686 (insider view of mutual fund operation)
Taylor Larimore (because he's 100 years old, still going strong and still posting!)

+100% on Ben Mathew. A heck of a nice guy too. He and I correspond offline as well.

Cheers.

 

[Koolau]

I haven't been over there for years. I like our community here much better.

 

[NameTaken2]

I scan Bogleheads recent posts every AM, then add tabs for threads to review and learn from.
Breadth/depth of knowledge is impressive, along with willingness to help on nearly ANY topic.
IMO the criticisms here are petty-
There's so many interesting/informative Boglehead threads that I don't mind when a couple battling Boglehead Heavyweights derail one, or there's too much dogma, too much preaching, etc.
I scan threads and read only valued posters -when a thread goes astray I simply stop reading.

Too many great Boglehead posters to name favorites -but agree with those mentioned.

My Bogleheads criticisms are related to the dinosaur forum format:

• No thread synopsis by hovering over thread title to determine if I want to open a tab for it.
• No "Ignore" option for posters you prefer not to follow.
• No thread subscription options, ie: 3 options by email: instant, daily or weekly.
• No "Like" options.

 

[big-papa]

I scan Bogleheads recent posts every AM, then add tabs for threads to review and learn from.
Breadth/depth of knowledge is impressive, along with willingness to help on nearly ANY topic.
IMO the criticisms here are petty-
There's so many interesting/informative Boglehead threads that I don't mind when a couple battling Boglehead Heavyweights derail one, or there's too much dogma, too much preaching, etc.
I scan threads and read only valued posters -when a thread goes astray I simply stop reading.

Too many great Boglehead posters to name favorites -but agree with those mentioned.

My Bogleheads criticisms are related to the dinosaur forum format:

• No thread synopsis by hovering over thread title to determine if I want to open a tab for it.
• No "Ignore" option for posters you prefer not to follow.
• No thread subscription options, ie: 3 options by email: instant, daily or weekly.
• No "Like" options.

Same criticisms here. Many of the items you're marking are available with the software they use for the forum, but the owner of the forum has chosen not to enable them. Again, I'd prefer to see the forum change ownership to the Bogle Center for Financial Literacy. Pretty sure that the majority of the forum isn't on board with some of the more restrictive rules. But we'll never know for sure because one of the things the software provides is the ability to have polls. But the owner decided to disable this feature a few years ago.

By the way, there is also a bogleheads reddit community as well. Bogleheads, the website, states that it has no affiliation with this community. So, if you want to see more of a "wild west show", the reddit community might be for you. I found the signal to noise ratio way too low for my taste. There's a goldilocks zone when it comes to forum rules and moderation, I think.

Cheers.

 

[VanWinkle]

I got sneered at for a post I made about investing and never returned. It's a rich man's club and I'm not in it.

Definitely not a rich man's club as there are many women there just like here. I find there are people from all financial backgrounds and means on both Bogleheads and this forum. Please don't group people that way.

 

[CaliKid]

I have been meaning to circle back to this thread... Klangfool is my favorite. They are straight-forward, down-to-earth, practical. They are a great contributor in my opinion!

 

[big-papa]

I have been meaning to circle back to this thread... Klangfool is my favorite. They are straight-forward, down-to-earth, practical. They are a great contributor in my opinion!

For certain, different folks who regularly visit bogleheads are going to have their list of favorites and least favorites. I would put <mod edit> pretty much at the bottom of my list of regular contributors.

Cheers

 

[Golden Mean]

CaliKid said:
I have been meaning to circle back to this thread... Klangfool is my favorite. They are straight-forward, down-to-earth, practical. They are a great contributor in my opinion!

For certain, different folks who regularly visit bogleheads are going to have their list of favorites and least favorites. I would put <mod edit> pretty much at the bottom of my list of regular contributors.

Cheers

Ah yes, the WATTA YA GONNA DO WHEN THE RECESSION COMES!!!!11, poster.

 

[big-papa]

Ah yes, the WATTA YA GONNA DO WHEN THE RECESSION COMES!!!!11, poster.

Exactly. "And what if you lose your job?" is another common theme. If you're like <mod edit> what if you lose it a bunch of times?

He's fairly conservative in some ways (somebody yesterday used the phrase "comically conservative") and I definitely get that given his employment history and longer term history with his family overseas. It's somewhat analogous to what some of our parents or grandparents experienced with the great depression and how they did what they did later as adults. He also has a very strange portfolio that is part 3-fund, part Larry Swedroe, and part Wellesley. There's some mental accounting going on with how he says he treats it and most believe that a much simpler portfolio would likely give him just about the same results.

But, hey, if all of this works for him that's great, he should continue on - It's when somebody believes they've found the "ultimate" anything or that what they're doing applies to everybody else is where I begin to have issues..

Cheers.

 

[bada bing]

I haven't been to Bogleheads in maybe 6-8 years. Definitely not since I retired. I do have one favorite poster there that I followed daily during his "excellent adventure", Hedgefundie. He was the one that embarked on a leveraged portfolio right before the 2008 collapse. Epic long running thread dealing with incredible losses. Same time as all the rest of us had the wheels come off our own portfolios. I looked forward to logging in every day to see what he had done. It took a little sting out of sitting through the great financial crisis.

I don't remember the posters names, but I was exposed to two ideas there that I took to heart. Mega-backdoor Roth and mortgage arbitrage. My use of both of those has made significant differences in my finances over the years.

I don't spend nearly as much time on finances anymore and I like to think I'm knowledgeable enough for my modest needs now. I just check in here for my internet fix. It would be great if one of you would go on full tilt and post about it, like Hedgefundie did 16 years ago, though.

 

[street]

Medchemguy is one that I look up too.

 

[Koolau]

I wonder if BH contributors ever discuss the ER community contributors.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I haven't been over there for years. I like our community here much better.

I go there once a day or every other day, quick scan to see if I can contribute to a discussion, then leave. There is no sense of community (in my opinion) that comes close to matching here, and the moderation there is much more heavy handed than here, and that's saying something.

I don't think fun is allowed there. The most recent thread that turned me off was about free agency and baseball that got locked after about a dozen comments. Unless the thread is actionable it dies! The red queen says "off with his head."

Anyway, tons of great info, but just not my thing, and as such, I haven't developed or noticed any one member in particular.

 

[Taco]

I don't think fun is allowed there. The most recent thread that turned me off was about free agency and baseball that got locked after about a dozen comments. Unless the thread is actionable it dies! The red queen says "off with his head."

I was just about to post that "This thread is not actionable and has been closed... " when I saw your post. You nailed it.

It does make me appreciate the moderators here.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Exactly. "And what if you lose your job?" is another common theme. If you're like <mod edit>, what if you lose it a bunch of times?

It doesn't surprise me at all that <mod edit> has lost his job multiple times. Maybe he should take a look in the mirror.

 

[jollystomper]

I go there a couple of times a week. I do not value any one contributor, any one contributor will not be right all of the time. I instead look at the aggregate of contributors on a particular topic to determine the guidance.

 

[simple girl]

MODERATOR NOTE:

We urge our members to use discretion when making specific comments about posters from other forums. Please refrain from personal attacks on the character of individual posters.

It would be unsettling to read a thread on Bogle commenting on personalities here.

Thanks for the interesting discussion.