We grew up in Florida and still spend 4 or 5 months of the year snow birding there from upstate New York. The weather is great down south in the winter and we enjoy spending time with family and friends there. Car insurance is VERY expensive in pinellas county Florida. Homeowners insurance is a mess and is VERY expensive in Florida too. But still Florida is a great place to spend the winter. Florida man is alive and well there. Recently a retired military man (like myself) in the Florida town of Dunedin nearby unloaded 30+ rounds from his AK-47 at his pool cleaner who showed up unexpectedly in his backyard after dark. Thank goodness no one was hurt. Sometimes I am embarrassed to live in Florida too. Guess I am not embarrassed enough not to go there though.
inspiring story. I went to DeMatha High School in 9th grade. My History teacher, Morgan Wooten, who was also our basketball coach, used to say “Luck is where Preparation meets Opportunity”. I would say your preparation met your opportunities every step of your long journey. Impressive.
Jonathan - Salute from a long time reader and fan as well as Boglehead / MBA with 40 plus years of investing in low cost equity / now index funds. It worries me when I see you write this and think of how many investors will translate your lean in / lean out out loosey goosey strategy into market timing. As a former instructor pilot in the USAF for two decades, our first rule of thumb was never to show or tell a student pilot a flying maneuver we didn’t want them to try. Oh how many people hurt themselves when they tried to do what their hero instructor pilot showed them. I would kindly state this essay falls into this category. You have a bit more experience and judgement, a bit more resources, a bit more ability to accept the risk the over balancing technique brings an investor. I think as a role model we all would be better served teaching a disciplined rebalance and stay the course in accordance with one’s long term ability and willingness to assume risk. Of course disagreeing with you on one topic (although a very important one) won’t stop me from admiring all you have done for the individual investor for decades. Thank you. We are lucky to have “enough” as Mr Bogle would say, ScottPoppleton@gmail.com
Syracuse, NY
Great article Ed. At Lockheed Martin we all had one power point slide to "brief" to introduce us to our new boss - lots of humor and pictures. Wade gave his and ended it with I have two daughters both English majors ... the engineering centric crowd laughed. Next up was Valerie who said "my name is Valerie and I am an English major." They were friends so no offense was taken. I worked with Valerie a lot. She rose in her career in our proposal center; helping our team put together large government proposals. She was often asked to review engineer talk as well as briefs before they were given to the bosses. She cleaned up and clarified many technical major's English disasters. She was focused and a hard worker. There is a path for English majors but it may be a harder path to make a living. In my experience the harder the major, the easier it will be to get a job. It is tough to advise our kids. Knowing what I know now at age 62, if I was financing my kids education again, I would make sure they would begin college with an end job in mind or I'd encourage them to get some real world experience so they have some idea of what field they want to work in before they start college. It is not easy to know at that age. Or one could become a pilot like I did and never have to work. Being a planner, I majored in Civil Engineering just in case flight school didn't work out. Good luck.
For business news I like to listen to Joe, Becky and Andrew on CNBC Squawk box in the morning on occasion. Joe is conservative, Becky is middle of the road, and Andrew is more progressive. Fox News is quite divisive in my humble experience. Being a Vanguard low cost index fun bogleheads.org disciple (check it out), I stay the course with my 3 index funds and don't trade on the business news. Happy investing!
Comments:
We grew up in Florida and still spend 4 or 5 months of the year snow birding there from upstate New York. The weather is great down south in the winter and we enjoy spending time with family and friends there. Car insurance is VERY expensive in pinellas county Florida. Homeowners insurance is a mess and is VERY expensive in Florida too. But still Florida is a great place to spend the winter. Florida man is alive and well there. Recently a retired military man (like myself) in the Florida town of Dunedin nearby unloaded 30+ rounds from his AK-47 at his pool cleaner who showed up unexpectedly in his backyard after dark. Thank goodness no one was hurt. Sometimes I am embarrassed to live in Florida too. Guess I am not embarrassed enough not to go there though.
Post: Seeing the Benefit
Link to comment from July 28, 2023
inspiring story. I went to DeMatha High School in 9th grade. My History teacher, Morgan Wooten, who was also our basketball coach, used to say “Luck is where Preparation meets Opportunity”. I would say your preparation met your opportunities every step of your long journey. Impressive.
Post: Come a Long Way
Link to comment from July 12, 2023
Jonathan - Salute from a long time reader and fan as well as Boglehead / MBA with 40 plus years of investing in low cost equity / now index funds. It worries me when I see you write this and think of how many investors will translate your lean in / lean out out loosey goosey strategy into market timing. As a former instructor pilot in the USAF for two decades, our first rule of thumb was never to show or tell a student pilot a flying maneuver we didn’t want them to try. Oh how many people hurt themselves when they tried to do what their hero instructor pilot showed them. I would kindly state this essay falls into this category. You have a bit more experience and judgement, a bit more resources, a bit more ability to accept the risk the over balancing technique brings an investor. I think as a role model we all would be better served teaching a disciplined rebalance and stay the course in accordance with one’s long term ability and willingness to assume risk. Of course disagreeing with you on one topic (although a very important one) won’t stop me from admiring all you have done for the individual investor for decades. Thank you. We are lucky to have “enough” as Mr Bogle would say, ScottPoppleton@gmail.com Syracuse, NY
Post: A Dangerous Moment
Link to comment from June 28, 2023
Great article Ed. At Lockheed Martin we all had one power point slide to "brief" to introduce us to our new boss - lots of humor and pictures. Wade gave his and ended it with I have two daughters both English majors ... the engineering centric crowd laughed. Next up was Valerie who said "my name is Valerie and I am an English major." They were friends so no offense was taken. I worked with Valerie a lot. She rose in her career in our proposal center; helping our team put together large government proposals. She was often asked to review engineer talk as well as briefs before they were given to the bosses. She cleaned up and clarified many technical major's English disasters. She was focused and a hard worker. There is a path for English majors but it may be a harder path to make a living. In my experience the harder the major, the easier it will be to get a job. It is tough to advise our kids. Knowing what I know now at age 62, if I was financing my kids education again, I would make sure they would begin college with an end job in mind or I'd encourage them to get some real world experience so they have some idea of what field they want to work in before they start college. It is not easy to know at that age. Or one could become a pilot like I did and never have to work. Being a planner, I majored in Civil Engineering just in case flight school didn't work out. Good luck.
Post: College Conundrum
Link to comment from March 8, 2023
For business news I like to listen to Joe, Becky and Andrew on CNBC Squawk box in the morning on occasion. Joe is conservative, Becky is middle of the road, and Andrew is more progressive. Fox News is quite divisive in my humble experience. Being a Vanguard low cost index fun bogleheads.org disciple (check it out), I stay the course with my 3 index funds and don't trade on the business news. Happy investing!
Post: Hearing Voices
Link to comment from January 28, 2023