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My name is Gene and I'm a retired IT manager with 34 years experience in IT. After college I did a stint in the USMC in the mid-70's, conductor on the railroad, and then during an economic recession went back to school and got a 2nd bachelors degree in computer science. I then did half my IT career in corporate America and half as a civil servant. I grew up in the southwest and after military service returned to the southwest to raise my family (1 girl & 2 boys). I went through an unwanted and unexpected divorce at 49, but remarried 11 years later to a wonderful companion who's truly my soulmate. We both retired in 2018 and we're having a great time in retirement. We're currently in good health and live in a 55+ community. We love our home but we plan to ultimately move into a CCRC at some point to remove that uncertainty and risk.
Comments
I certainly don't know exactly the context Graham was considering when he made that statement, but I suspect one (possible) aspect is that anything that's useful will be less useful if everyone knows it and practices it. For example, early on Bogle himself said chaos would result if 50% of the stock market was index investors. Bogle later revised it to 70%. Clearly, if 100% of investing was index based there'd be no market price setting and the system would fail to efficiently allocate capital to the more deserving companies. So reflecting on Grahams statement, any advantage in the stock market (including even index investing) really only lasts as long as everyone isn't using it. In the case of index investing, I suspect it does apply to index investing but I doubt that day is anytime soon. Just my 2 cents. Gene
Post: Why would index investing be different?
Link to comment from November 16, 2025
Exactly. For example, I would assume both Vanguard and Schwab will ultimately update their applications so the user can disable ACATS transfers from the application. It just seems like a no-brainer. So yes, security is the main driver for me to spread my money around. Tightly connected to security is access. If a bad event occurs and things get worked out completely to everyone's satisfaction, funds might still have been unavailable for an extended period of time while things are getting sorted out. So I consider access tightly coupled to security. I should also say that although my career was in IT, cybersecurity wasn't my area of specialization so don't overweight my comments on cybersecurity. I'm just commenting on things fairly obvious to anyone who's trying to keep an eye on current scams/threats to their financial assets. Gene
Post: A Question of Cash.
Link to comment from November 3, 2025
I was referring to security, but thinking about your question I do think it applies generally as well. For example, my wife did a Roth conversion last year on Vanguard and it took a few days to "finalize". I did one on Fidelity this year and it happened instantly. Not really a big deal, but I liked the experience on Fidelity more.
Post: A Question of Cash.
Link to comment from November 3, 2025
That's a good point and certainly applies to my comment. However, cloud provider concentration risk only applies to a certain class of problems. Unfortunately there are many many more that are independent of who the cloud provider is, but rather are dependent on the technology being deployed. Recently many banks have disabled voice authentication because AI's can now easily defeat them. Doesn't matter who the cloud provider is, but rather whether the customer is still using voice authentication. Another example, the Fidelity application allows the customer to lock down their accounts to prevent ACATS transfers. Schwab and Vanguard don't yet have this feature. Has nothing to do with the cloud provider. Personally, I think each has their strengths and weaknesses, so my wife and I use all 3 of them for some of our funds.
Post: A Question of Cash.
Link to comment from November 2, 2025
Interesting topic. Doesn't sound over the top to me. We always have a little cash in the house; definitely carry a few days worth when traveling. To me an interesting related topic is whether it's wise to centralize all financial accounts at a single financial institution. I happened to recently hear Geoffrey Hinton (the 2024 Nobel winner in physics for his work in AI) mention this topic in an interview. He specifically mentioned the heightened cybersecurity threat from AI and that he's personally distributed his financial assets for that reason. Although not due specifically to the AI threat, my wife and I had made a similar decision a while back to spread our liquid assets across a few financial institutions with the goal of maintaining access to some funds if either one of our accounts, or the financial institution itself, was unavailable for a protracted period of time.
Post: A Question of Cash.
Link to comment from November 2, 2025
Excellent article. One nit; I think governmental 457b plans don't have the irs age requiremet/penalty after separation. I don't know about non-governmental 457b plans.
Post: Rule of 55: Early Retirement
Link to comment from November 1, 2025
Agreed.
Post: There are two financial related issues I think about a lot- even more so as we age.
Link to comment from October 31, 2025
David -- I agree with your comment about "the best gift you can give to your children is living in a CCRC". I'd suggest it also applies to one's spouse. Gene
Post: There are two financial related issues I think about a lot- even more so as we age.
Link to comment from October 31, 2025
My wife and I married 11 years ago when I was 59 and she was 54 so we both wanted to keep our money separate. We each contribute to a joint account we use to run the household and travel. I have kids and am interested in passing on a legacy, while my wife doesn't and has no such interest. Consequently our individual portfolios have different goals. My wife is more interested in income and generally more conservative in her investment choices, while I have a bit more interest in growth. We share ideas, but we each manage our portfolios separately. We do coordinate and plan ahead so we don't create unexpected tax/IRMAA consequences. My RMD's start next year while hers starts 5 years later. But rebalancing and investment decisions generally are individual. Gene
Post: How do Couples Rebalance with Multiple Accounts
Link to comment from October 28, 2025
From the perspective of avoiding unnecessary investment changes, I think there's a lot of wisdom in this concept and I generally agree. However, there is another perspective and I'd be remiss not to caution investors to know the details of their responsibilities as account owners for the timely detection and reporting of discrepancies. If there was unauthorized account activity and a significant period of time has elapsed before detection and reporting, that could be construed as negligence and might negatively affect the account holders ability to receive restitution under the law.
Post: I don’t know. Or care. But I will at the end of April.
Link to comment from October 28, 2025