"Valuation-Informed Indexing Is the Same Song We Sing. Glad You Belong to the Same Choir We Do."
Carolyn McClanahan, Director of Financial Planning
for Life Planning Partners, Inc."Retirees Now Frequently Base Their Retirement Decisions on the Portfolio Success Rates Found in Research Such as the Trinity Study.... This Is Not the Information They Need for Making Their Withdrawal Rate Decisions."
Wade Pfau, Academic Researcher
"The P/E10 Tool Could Drastically Change
How the Entire Investment Industry
Operates and Measures Risk."Larry, A PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"The Your Money or Your Life Book
for a New Generation."Beatrix Fernandex, Book Reviewer
for Dollar Stretcher Site"A Newer School of Thought Believes That the Safe Withdrawal Rate Depends on How Stocks Are Priced at the Time You Begin Making Withdrawals."
Scott Burns, Dallas Morning News Finance Columnist
"The Evidence is Pretty Incontrovertible. Valuation-Informed Indexing...Is Everywhere Superior to Buy-and-Hold Over Ten-Year Periods."
Norbert Schenkler,
Co-Owner of Financial WebRing Forum"There Are Time-Periods Where Stocks Are a Terrible Addition to That Portfolio. Yet Inexplicably, We As Planners STILL tend to Suggest That It Is 'Risky' to Not Own Stocks When in Reality the Only Risk Is to Our Business."
Michael Kitces, Maryland Financial Planner
"Big Moves Out of Stocks Should Not Be Done at All. But Strategic Asset Allocation Can Be Done At Very Rare Times, Maybe Six Times in an Investor’s Lifetime, Three Times When the Market Is Stupidly High and Three Times When Stupidly Low."
John Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Funds
"There Is An Extensive Literature About the Predictability of Long-Term Stock Returns. There Is an Extensive Literature About Short-Term Market Timing. My Question Is About Long-Term Market Timing. The Literature Seems Slim."
Wade Pfau, Retirement Income Professor
at The American College"Your Ideas Are Sound."
Rob Arnott, Financial Analysts Journal Editor
"For Years, the Investment Industry Has
Tried to Scare Clients Into Staying Fully Invested
in the Stock Market at All Times, No Matter
How High Stocks Go. It's Hooey.
They're Leaving Out More Than Half the Story."Brett Arends, The Wall Street Journal
"There Are Time-Periods Where Stocks Are a Terrible Addition to That Portfolio. Yet Inexplicably, We As Planners STILL tend to Suggest That It Is "'Risky' to Not Own Stocks When in Reality the Only Risk Is to Our Business."
Michael Kitces, Maryland Financial Planner
"Valuation-Informed Indexing Provides More Wealth for 102 of 110 of the Rolling 30-Year Time-Periods While Buy-and-Hold Did Better in Eight of the Periods."
Wade Pfau, Academic Researcher
"There Is a Growing Behavioral Economics Movement, But It So Far Has Had Limited Impact. Economists Are Not Fond of the Softness and Imprecision of Psychology. These Notions Are Considered Vaguely Unprofessional and Flaky."
Robert Shiller, Yale University Economic Professor
"I Would Occasionally Get a Response Post
Saying I Was 'the Best Since Rob Bennett
Challenged Us to Think.'"A Popular Bogleheads Forum Poster Named "Retired at 48" Who Was Banned for Challenging Buy-and-Hold
"There Is Always An Unlimited Supply of Complainers Against Any Good Idea."
Mr. Money Mustache Blogger
"Rob: This Has Been One of the Most Insightful and Helpful Comments I Think Anyone Has Ever Posted. Thank You for This Lesson and for Sharing Your Knowledge on This Subject!"
My Money Design Blogger
"It Is Great to See a Finance Journalist Who Understands That Valuations Matter. Efficient Market Zealotry Is Rampant in the Journalism Community. I Just Love Your Valuation-Based Return Calculator."
Rich Toscano, Pacific Capital Associates
"Valuation-Informed Investing and Passive Investing Share More of a Common Ancestry Than It Might Appear at First."
Jacob Irwin, Owner of Passive Investing Blog Carnival
"Big Moves Out of Stocks Should Not Be Done at All. But Strategic Asset Allocation Can Be Done At Very Rare Times, Maybe Six Times in an Investor’s Lifetime, Three Times When the Market Is Stupidly High and Three Times When Stupidly Low."
John Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Funds
"Every Detail Shows Rob's Respect
for His Information and His Reader."Audrey Owen, Owner of Writer's Helper Site
"The Evidence is Pretty Incontrovertible. Valuation-Informed Indexing...Is Everywhere Superior to Buy-and-Hold Over Ten-Year Periods."
Norbert Schenkler, Co-Owner of Financial WebRing Forum
"A Fascinating Retirement Calculator."
Michael Kitces, Maryland Financial Planner
"You’ve Accomplished Something Radical
With Your Idea of Passion Saving."Mark Michael Lewis,
Money, Mission & Meaning Talk Show Host"The Your Money or Your Life Book
for a New Generation."Beatrix Fernandex, Book Reviewer for Dollar Stretcher Site
"A Newer School of Thought Believes That the Safe Withdrawal Rate Depends on How Stocks Are Priced at the Time You Begin Making Withdrawals."
Scott Burns, Dallas Morning News Finance Columnist
"Retirees Now Frequently Base Their Retirement Decisions on the Portfolio Success Rates Found in Research Such as the Trinity Study.... This Is Not the Information They Need for Making Their Withdrawal Rate Decisions."
Wade Pfau, Academic Researcher
"The P/E10 Tool Could Drastically Change
How the Entire Investment Industry
Operates and Measures Risk."Larry, A PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"Valuation-Informed Indexing Is the Same Song We Sing. Glad You Belong to the Same Choir We Do."
Carolyn McClanahan, Director of Financial Planning
for Life Planning Partners, Inc.- "New Research by Rob Bennett Shows That
Even a 4% Withdrawal Rate Could Cause Failure
If You Start Retirement When
Stock Market Valuations Are High.”Bernard Kelly, Consultant
"This [The Stock-Return Predictor]
Is a Very Handy Little Tool."Felix Salmon, Market Movers Blog
"A Much Simpler Way to Bring the Valuation Issue to Focus." (Referring to The Stock-Return Predictor)
Karteek Narayanaswarmy, Blogger
"It's Informative, It's Based on Solid Data and It Provides Useful Results." (Referring to The Stock-Return Predictor)
Political Calculations Blog
"Meet Three Couples Who Left the Corporate World to Do the Kinds of Work That Satisfied Them."
Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money Columnist
"A Very Solid Approach to Investing."
Michael Harr, Founder of Walden Advisors
"Rob Bennett Has Been on a Tear With One Outstanding RobCast After Another."
John Walter Russell, Owner of
Early-Retirement-Planning-Insights.com Site"It’s Time for a Different Way to Look at Investing, and Rob Is Onto Something Here."
Kevin Mercadante, Owner of Out of Your Rut Blog
"My Afternoon Train Reading."
(Referring to Rob's Article titled
Why Buy-and-Hold Investing Can Never Work)Barry Ritholtz, Owner of The Big Picture Blog
"What Is It With Guys Named Rob?
Longtime Index Agitator Rob Arnott Has Now
Been Joined on These Pages by a
Vanguard Diehard Agitator Named Rob Bennett."Jim Wiandt, IndexUniverse.com Publisher
"He Offers a Fresh New Perspective
that Will Motivate You to Get on Track
With a Solid Savings Plan."Lynn Terry, Click Newz Blog
"While Browsing at www.PassionSaving.com the Other Day, I Discovered an Article Featuring Ten Unconventional Money-Saving Tips. Each of These Offers a New Way to See Money."
J.D. Roth, Owner of Get Rich Slowly Site
"Rob Has Ideas About Investing That Many Bloggers Find 'Interesting.' His Posts Are Often Controversial and Always Thought Provoking."
Miranda Marquit, Planting Money Seeds Blog
"Is There a Way to Turn Saving Into Something Fun? If There Was, I Bet a Lot More of Us Would Do a Lot More Saving. I Found a Website Where This Basic Premise Is Explored in Great Depth."
The Great WeiszGuy Blog
"I Have Much More Confidence in My Ability to Understand What Is Happening....I Thank You for Your Public Service, and, In Another Dimension, for the Personal Courage It Took to Make It Happen."
Elizabeth, A PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"I Was Hooked on the Idea of [Passive] Index Indexing, But Something Inside Made Me Wonder "Too Good to Be True?" and "What's the Downside?" I Happened on to Your Site and Valuation-Informed Indexing Seems to Make Sense."
Coleen, PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"Reads Like a Casual Conversation
with a Likable Guy Who Wants Nothing More
Than to Help Others Experience the Same Joy
and Happiness He Has Found."Kara, Reader of Rob's Book
"Your 'Secrets' Are Exactly Like Magic Tricks: Once Revealed, They Look So Simple, Yet You Need Somebody to Show You How It Works."
Kramerizio, Secrets of Retiring Early Reader
"Rob's Da Man! Never in the History of the Diehards Forum Has One Poster, Always Making Civil and Well Thought-Out Posts, Managed to Irritate So Many Without Anyone Being Able to Articulate a Good Reason As to Why."
Mephistopheles, Bogleheads Forum Poster
"I’ve Been Surprised at How Controversial This Idea Is, but If Most People Are Buying and Holding, They Are Emotionally Invested in This Strategy."
Jennifer Barry, Live Richly Blogger
"The Findings for [Long-Term] Market Timing Are So Robust That It Hardly Matters How We Do It."
Wade Pfau, Asociate Professor of Economics
"The Elegant Simplicity of His Ideas Throughout Warms the Heart and Startles the Brain."
Tom Gardner, Co-Founder of the Motley Fool Site
"Mr. Bennett Evidences an Unusual Skill....
You'll Have to Buy a Copy....Extraordinary....
A Massive Heap of Crap."John Greaney, Owner of the Retire Early Home Page Site
"By Reading All the Information on Your Website I Was Able to Develop a Part of Me I Didn't Know I Would Be Able to Become."
Javier, PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"Innovative Financial Thinking."
No Limits, Ladies Blog
"Knowledgeable."
Hope to Prosper Blog
Bill Schultheis, Author of The New Coffeehouse Portfolio
""He Offers Down-to-Earth But
Nevertheless Eye-Opening Insights About
the Why and the How of Early Retirement."Secrets of Retiring Early Reader
"Challenges Unfounded Assumptions."
Bill Sholar, Founder of the Early Retirement Forum
"It’s Always Good to Read Something New That Challenges Your Way of Thinking."
Invest It Wisely Blog
"Rob, Thanks for All of Your Articulate, Well-Written and Well-Reasoned Commentary."
Elle, a Poster at the Joe Taxpayer Blog
"Although Rob and I Don’t See Eye to Eye
on Every Detail, His Site Is a
Valuable Resource for Research."Ken Faulkenberry, Portfolio Manager
"Thanks, Rob. I Love Seeing So Many
Personal Finance Bloggers Who Offer Such
High Quality Content on Their Own Sites Come Here
to Weigh In [on Your Ideas]."Married With Debt Blogger
"A Ton of Tremendously Useful Content."
Network Abundance Radio
"Your Enthusiasm Is Infectious."
Ruth, a PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"I Woke Up at 4:00 am and Stared at the Wall for 20 Minutes....Thank You for Doing What You Do."
Tasha, A PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"It Might Just Give You
a New Way of Looking at Saving."Kevin Surbaugh, Owner of Debt Free 4Ever Blog
"'Staying Too Long in a Job Where You Don’t Feel Relevant Takes a Toll,' Said Rob Bennett, Who Worked for Years in a Well-Paying Corporate Communications Job Where He Didn’t Have Enough to Do."
The New York Times
"You Have Started One of the Most Interesting
and Stimulating Discussions This Board has Seen
in a Long Time."Poster at Motley Fool Site
"A Respected Author and Commentator, Mr. Bennett has Dedicated Himself to Educating Average Investors to Avoid the Most Common Errors."
Liberty Watch Site
"I've Gone from Shattered Dreams of Early Retirement to Glimpses of Hope to Reassurance from Quantitative Research."
Patricia, A PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"Some of the Most Helpful and Insightful
Market Discussions on the Web
Take Place on These Pages."A Poster at the Safe WithDrawal Rate Research Group
(Founded by Rob)"Rob is the Only Person I Know
(If Only via Message Board) Who has Completely
Opted Out of Participation in the Stock Bubble.
And You Know What? He Has Benefited Immensely from Doing So."Poster at Motley Fool
"Makes the Subject of Saving Edgy and Fresh."
Maxine, A Reader of Rob's Book
"Rob Bennett, the Author of a Book Called Passion Saving, Thinks the Saving Problem Is Partly One of Packaging. So He Prefers to Couch it in the Language of Freedom."
The Wall Street Journal
"I LOVE This Article and
Am Proud to be Publishing It!"Chuck Yanikoski, Executive Director of
The Association of Integrative Financial and Life Planning"Rob Bennett: Some People Disagree With Him, and He Rubs a Lot of People the Wrong Way. But He Has Interesting Ideas About Valuation-Informed Indexing, and He Delves Into a Lot of What Makes a Successful Investing Strategy."
Miranda Marquit, Planting Money Seeds Blog
"Rob….Wow…..Your Response Sent Shivers
Up the Ol’ Pilgrim Spine."Neal Frankie, Owner of the Wealth Pilgrim Blog
"I Have Counseled My Clients to Allocate a Percentage to Equities Based Upon Market Valuations....I Feel Like I've Found a Kindred Spirit. Fascinating Web Site."
Tom Behlmer, Financial Planner
“A Simple Age-Based Asset Allocation Formula Is Not Appropriate, and Any Sensible Asset-Allocation Formula Should Combine Both Age/Investment Horizon and Market Valuation Levels.”
RationalInvestor.biz
"Had a Guest Post This Week from Rob Bennett, Where He Discusses the Benefits of Value-Informed Indexing, Which I Find Very Intriguing."
Sustainable Personal Finance Blog
"I Can Appreciate Rob's Comments.... Buy-and-Hold? For the Most Part, a Long Obsolete Theory."
Neal Deutsch, Certified Financial Planner
"Utterly Brilliant!"
Secrets of Retiring Early Reader
"Your Website Is So Enjoyable That It Is Keeping Me From My Research As I Am So Excited That I Have Found Such a Valuable Resource."
Stuart, a PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"What We're Talking About Here Really
...Is Empowerment."Motley Fool Poster
"The Return Predictor Is Based upon the Principle that Over the Long Term, Stock Market Prices Will Reflect the Ten-Years Earnings Growth of the Underlying Companies. Prices Return to a Common Growth Pattern."
Links.com Review of The Stock-Return Predictor
"Rob’s Arguments in Favor of Value Investing Actually Make a Lot of Sense In a Way That Should Make Any Rational Buy-and-Holder Uncomfortable."
Pop Economics Blog
"What I Don't Understand Is How Rob Can Correspond in Such a Sweet and Polite Way
-- Yet He Irritates Me to No End!"Financial WebRing Forum Poster
"You Go About It in a Manner that is Catastrophically Unproductive by Adding Missionary Zeal that Inflates Your Importance and Demeans Others. The Whole Idea That There is a New School of Safe Withdrawal Rates Reeks of Personal Aggrandizement."
Scott Burns, Dallas Morning News
"Inflammatory."
Morningstar.com Site Administrator
“What Warren Buffett Did Was Essentially Quite Close to What Rob Bennett Has Written. Buffett Has in Fact Been Cleverly Incorporating Long-Term Market Timing Based on Valuation of the Market in His Allocation of Money to Stocks.”
Investor Notes Blog
"This Report Offers A Fresh Perspective That Is Rarely Found In Other Financial Literature."
Secrets of Retiring Early Reader
"Rob Bennett Says That Market Timing Based on Aggregate P/E Ratios Can Be a Far More Effective Strategy. This Claim Is Consistent With Shiller's Analysis and I Can See How It Might Be So."
Rajiv Sethi, Economics Professor at Columbia Univeristy
"Retiring Early Was A Concept I Did Not Entertain. I Was Going to Retire at 65 After Putting in 40 Years. Now I Am Glad To Say That All That Has Changed."
Secrets of Retiring Early Reader
"In a Couple of Days, I Had
Devoured the Entire Book."Reader of Rob's Book
"FIRECalc May Not Be the Last Word
on Safe Withdrawal Rates."Jonathan Clements, Wall Street Journal
"It Seems to Me That Some on This Board Feel Threatened by the Arrival of Rob and His Ideas. They Feel a Threat to Their Perceived Elite Status."
Motley Fool Poster
"You've Got to Say One Thing for Rob. He Has NEVER Lowered Himself to Ad Hominen Attacks -- Subliminal or Otherwise -- on Any Other Person on This Board. Not Once. Ever. At Least Give Him Credit for That."
Motley Fool Poster
"I Have Never Seen Rob Show Incivility. No Matter What. Truly Amazing. Either He Is Really the Output of an Artificial Intelligence Program, or the Man's on the Way to Becoming a Saint!"
Early Retirement Forum Poster
"You're the Politest Guy on the Internet.
Such a Soft Touch!"Jonathan Lewis
"Props for Keeping Your Cool in the Married with Debt Article. Best of Luck Combating Buy-and-Hold."
Money Mamba Blogger
"I Caught Up [at the Financial Bloggers Conference] With a Fairly Controversial Financial Blogger
Named Rob Bennett, Who Struck Me As the
Nicest Guy Around. There -- I Said It!"Digerati Life Blogger
"In Rob Bennett's Case, He Was Banned for No Known Listed Forum Policy. Except His Viewpoint Was Different From Other Bogleheads and
[He Was Perceived As] a Threat."Investor Junkie Blog
"Mr. Bennett, You Are Spot on About Integrating Some Type of Valuation Filter to One's Stock Allocation. Astute Investors Have Incorporated Some Type of 'Valuation Timing' Into Their Investment Decisions Since the Beginning of Time."
Poster at the Psy Fi Blog
"His Insights Into What Is Really Going On In The Stock Market Are Quite Compelling."
Future Storm Blog
"It Was an Epiphany...Valuation-Informed Indexing Beats Buy-and-Hold Over Most Long-Term Holding Periods at Much Lower Volatility."
Sam, a PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"I Am Intrigued By Your Ideas."
Adam Butler, Portfolio Manager
"I Read the Book and I Loved It.
The Philosophy Resonated with Me.
I Am a Believer in Your Concept."Dr. Peter Weiss, Author of More Health, Less Care
"If Your Investment Ideas Can Do for Investing
What Weston Price’s Ideas Did for Food,
You’ve Got Our Attention."End Times Hoax Blog
"I Have Looked at His Website and Reviewed His Research and Find It Both Compelling and Completely Logical and Common-Sense-Based."
Poster at Free Money Finance Blog
"If Investors Paid More Attention to Valuations, We Would Have Fewer Boom-and-Bust Cycles. The Investing Institutions Are Definitely Going to Avoid It Because It Affects Their Income."
Hope to Prosper Blog
"The Calculators on Your Site Are Great Resources. It Amazes Me How So Many People Can Say 'Valuations Matter' Yet, in the Next Breath, They'll Say That We Should Ignore Valuations."
John Marlowe, Logistics Analyst at Hess Corporation
"Must Read As Per My Viewpoint
For All Value Seekers."Ajit Vakil, Value Investing Congress
"His Approach Is Both Mathematically Rigorous
and Easy to Understand."Online Investing AI Blog
"There Is Nothing More Doubtful of Success Than a New System. The Initiator Has the Enmity of All Who Profit By Preservation of the Old Institution and Merely Lukewarm Defenders in Those Who Gain
By the New One."Machiavelli
"Difficult Subjects Can Be Explained to the Most Slow-Witted Man If He Has Not Formed Any Idea of Them. But the Simplest Thing Cannot Be Made Clear to the Most Intelligent Man If He Believes He Knows Already What Is Laid Before Him."
Tolstoy
"I Am Not Afraid. I Was Born to Do This."
Joan of Arc
"First They Ignore You, Then They Ridicule You, Then They Fight You, Then You Win."
Ghandi
"I Certainly Have Seen the Academic Profession Squelching Unfashionable ideas and Have Often Been on the Wrong Side of It. Kuhn Shows How Most Pathbreaking Scientific Ideas Are Rejected at First, Usually for Decades.”
Carol Osler, Brandeis International Business School
"We Cannot Assume the Existence of Predictability Just Because There Are No Studies
That Fully Reject It."Valeriy Zakamulin, Economics Professor
"I Am Also Extremely Grateful to Rob Bennett for Motivating This Topic and Contributing His Experience and Encouragement."
Wade Pfau, Academic Researcher
"Rob Bennett Was an Early Pioneer in 3rd Generation Modeling by Advocating (Through Various Online Forums) that Withdrawal Rates Must Be Adjusted for Market Valuations Consistent with Research by Campbell and Shiller."
Todd Tresidder, Financial Mentor Blog
"I Am Fascinated by the Growing Body of Research that Revolves Around the P/E10 Ratio by Robert Shiller, Doug Short, Wade Pfau, Michael Kitces, John Hussman, Crestmont Research, Jim Otar, Mike Philbrick, Adam Butler & Rob Bennett."
Kay Conheady in Advisor Perspectives
"Rob Is an Enigma in the Personal Finance World. He Has Interesting Theories on Investing Based on Market Valuations. But He Weaves a Tale Which Makes the Stories of Alexander Litvinenko & Gareth Williams Seem Tame by Comparison."
Don't Quit Your Day Job Blog
"In Recent Years, the 4 Percent Rule
Has Been Thrown Into Doubt."The Wall Street Journal
"A Safe Withdrawal Rate Is Very Dependent
on the Valuation of the Stockmarket
at the Retirement Date."Economist Magazine
"I Have Read Everything I Can About Valuation-Informed Indexing. Buy-and-Hold Is Extremely Problematic. I Respect the Passion, Hard Work and Research That You Have Put Into This Very Important Issue. Your Work Has Huge Value."
Carl Richards, Owner of Clearwater Asset Management
"The World of Personal Finance Blogging Needs More Rob Bennetts. He’s Passionate. He’s Intelligent. He’s Writing Things That Go Against the Grain."
Financial Uproar Blog
"Beyond Awesome."
Larry, a PassionSaving.com Site Visitor
"The Wealth Management Industry Seems Intent on Containing This Discussion for Fear Clients Might Discover that the Emperor Has No Clothes."
Adam Butler, Portfolio Manager
"Recommended Reading."
Jesse's Cafe Americain Blog
“All Who Are Still Holding Equities at Present Levels Because Their Financial Adviser Insists that Timing Market Cycles Is Impossible to Do -- Read This!"
Juggling Dynamite Blog
"The Fact that Aggressive and Short-Term Market Timing Was Unproductive Did Not Mean That There Were Never Times When It Would Be Wealth-Maximizing to Get Out of the Market."
Scott Burris,Director of the Center for
Health Law, Policy and Practice"The Amount of Return You Can Expect From a Diversified Equity Portfolio Is Inversely Correlated to the Market Valuation at the Start of the Holding Period. It Is One of the Most Robust Statistical Relationships in Modern Finance."
Todd Tresidder, Financial Mentor Blog
"Why Would Your Job Be Jeopardized
By Such a Sensible Claim?"Marcelle Chauvet, Econmics Professor
at University of California"Received Worrisome E-Mail from Rob Bennett. Warns of Risk with Buy-and-Hold Investing
-- I Have No Clue."Vivek Wadhaw, Business Week Columnist
"As Attorney, Tax Expert and Financial Writer Rob Bennett Told Us, the Problem Is That, By the Time Shiller Published His Research, Many Big Names Had Already Endorsed Buy-and-Hold."
ZeroHedge.com
"This Seems to Me to Be a Fundamental Challenge to Some of the Most Basic Tenets of the Boglehead Paradigm."
Bogleheads Forum Poster
"You Want to be Very, Very Wary of Anything Connected with Rob Bennett, the Most Infamous Troll in the History of Investing Forums on the Internet."
Alex Fract, Owner of Bogleheads Forum
“I’ve Had My Fill of Those Long-Winded Posts that Include Distortions, Unsubstantiated Claims, Misquotes and Comments Taken Out of Context.”
Mel Lindauer, Co-Author of
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing"Haven't You Noticed Yet That NO ONE Discusses Your Ideas, NO ONE Mentions Your Name, NO ONE Goes To Your Web Site."
One of the Greaney Goons
"I've Had Similar Experiences. I Know of Two Young Professors Who Wanted to Do Research on Fundamental Index and Reported to Me That Their Colleagues Advised Them That This Line of Research Could Derail Their Career Prospects."
Rob Arnott, Financial Analysts Journal Editor
"As with Drug Studies Funded by Drug Companies, It Would Be Churlish to Suppose that the Chicago School of Business Was in the Bag. But It Would Also Be Idealistic to Assume That There Was No Funding Bias at All."
Bogleheads Poster
"This Sort of Intimidation Is Not Acceptable. The Cigarette and Pharmaceutical Industries Found Research Supporting Their Products By Funding It. But That Was Big Money Supporting Outcomes, Not Dissuading Others."
Lyn Graham, 25-Year CPA
"Financial Economists Gave Little Warning to the Public About the Fragility of Their Models. There Is No Ethical Code for Professional Economic Scientists. There Should Be One."
Paper Titled The Financial Crisis and
the Systemic Failure of Academic Economics"The Situation [Referring to the Intimidation Tactics Used to Silence Academic Researcher Wade Pfau's Reporting of the Dangers of Buy-and-Hold Investing Strategies] Seems Well Below Any Professional and Academic Acceptable Standards."
Albert Sanchez Graells, Law Lecturer
Many Academics Can Become Quite Strident When Their Views Are Challenged. Academia Is Often Subject to Self-Serving Bias That Obliterates Ethical Bounds."
Ted Sichelman, Law Professor
"I Don't Like Too Much the Conspiracy Idea. I Am Not Pressured By Anyone in My Research."
>"This Is What Investing Should Be -- Calculated, Deliberate, Confident, Informed and Simple."
Aaron Friday, Owner of Aaron's Blob Blog
"It Is Obvious that Rob, in Attempting to Identify New Safe Withdrawal Rate Strategies...Is Goring Your Ox. If Rob Improves on [the] Safe Withdrawal Rate Methodology, the Implication Is Clear: You Are All, Metaphorically, Out of Business."
Bogleheads Poster
"I Applaud His Effort to Inject Another Piece of Objectivity Into a Very Complex, Highly Subjective Topic -- Making Money in the Market."
Bogleheads Poster
"Naturally, I Am Finding That Valuation-Informed Indexing Can Allow You to Reach a Wealth Target With a Lower Saving Rate and to Use a Higher Withdrawal Rate in Retirement Than You Could With a Fixed Allocation."
Wade Pfau, Professor of Retirement Income
at The American College"A Careful Examination of Past Returns Can Establish Some Probabilities About the Prospective Parameters of Return, Offering Intelligent Investors a Basis for Rational Expectations About Future Returns."
Jack Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Funds
"The Ability to Estimate the Long-Term Future Returns of the Major Asset Classes Is Perhaps the Most Important Investment Skill That An Indivisual Can Possess."
William Bernstein, Author of
The Four Pillars of Investing"The Stock Market Resembles Roulette. In Both Cases, the Accuracy of Sensible Forecasts Rises Over Time."
Andrew Smithers, Co-Author of Valuing Wall Street
"Returns Are for the Most Part a Matter of Simple Arithmetic...Much of Our Industry Seems Fearful of Basic Arithmetic of This Sort."
Rob Arnott, Financial Analysts Journal Editor
"How Can It Be That One-Year Returns Are So Apparantly Random and Yet Ten-Year Returns Are Mostly Forecastable? In Looking at One-Year Returns, One Sees a Lot of Noise. But Over Longer Time Intervals the Noise Effectively Averages Out and Is Less Important."
Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller
"The Notion That Rich Valuations Will Not Be Followed By Sub-Par Long-Term Returns Is a Speculative Idea That Runs Counter to All Historical Evidence. It Is an Iron Law of Finance That Valuations Drive Long-Term Returns."
John Hussman
"It's January and the Temperature Is Below Freezing. If You Asked Me Whether It Will be Warmer or Cooler Next Tuesday, I Would Be Unable to Say. However, If You Asked Me What Temperature to Expect on April 9, I Could Predict "Warmer Than Today" and Almost Surely Be Right."
Michael Alexanfer, Author of Stock Cycles
"If the Response Is "Who Knew?", It Won't Be Much Comfort for Retirees in the Employment Line at Wal-Mart. This is Especially True Since a Rational Understanding of History and the Drivers of Longer-Term Stock Returns Can Help Retirees To Avoid That Surprise."
Ed Easterling, Author of Unexpected Returns
"New of the Demise of the Random Walk Has Only Very Slowly Spread, In Part Because Its Overthrow Came as a Shock. If the Random Walk Hypothesis Were Correct, the Most Likely Return Would Be the Historic Average Return. The Evidence, However, Is Strongly Against This."
Andrew Smithers, Co-Author of Valuing Wall Street
"I Don't Think We Can Debate the Merits of This Type of Forecasting [Referring to the Numbers Generated by The Stock-Return Predictor] Unless We Believe 'This Time It's Different.'"
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
(Before the Ban on Honest Posting Was Adopted There)"I've Seen Absolutely Nothing From You That I Can Use in a Tangible Fashion to Formulate an Investment Plan. Your Ideas Are So Mushy That It's a Complete Waste of Time to Even Consider Them."
Bogleheads Forum Poster
"Do You Really Think Your Tool
[The Stock-Return Predictor]
Is 'Wiser' Than the Market?
If It Was That Easy,
Everybody Would Be Doing It."Bogleheads Forum Poster
"The Expected Return of Stocks [As Reported By The Stock-Return Predictor] Needs To Be At Least the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) Rate for Stock Investing To Make Sense."
Bogleheads Forum Poster
"I Have Used Valuations to Adjust My Asset Allocation For Many Years With Very Favorable Results."
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
(Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting)"I Don't Care If You Do or Don't Believe That the Market Will Behave Similarly in the Future As It Has in the Past. Either Way, This [The Stock-Return Predictor] Is an Excellent Way to Understand What the Market Has Done In the Past."
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
[Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting]"My Role Is To Give People Who Don't Like What the Historical Stock-Return Data Says About the Effect of Valuations on Long-Term Returns Somebody To Yell At On Internet Discussion Boards."
Rob Bennett at Bogleheads Forum
(Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting)"It Really Is a Shame and Indefensible That So Many Feel the Need to Jump Into It With No Interest of Posting on the Topic But Just to Disrupt. Are You That Insecure? Some on the Forum Have an Interest in This Topic. If You Don't, Stay Out!"
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
[Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting]"Irrational Behavior Does Follow Patterns. But How Many Experts in Behavioral Finance Believe That Such Knowledge Can Be Used to Predict Markets? Basically, None. Your Model Cannot Attain the Level of Predictive Value You Claim."
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
[Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting]"The Safe Withdrawal Rate Studies Are Based on History. This [The Retirement Risk Evaluator] Shows, Based on the Same History, What the Probabilities Are for the Future at Various Starting Points. If the First Has Value, Then Surely This Does Too."
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
"There Are Hundreds of People Who Contributed to This. This Calculator [The Stock-Return Predictor] Demonstrates in a Compelling Way the Power of This New Internet Discussion-Board Communications Medium."
Rob Bennett at the Bogleheads Forum
(Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting)"A P/E10 of'26' Is Bad. Now Look at the 30-Year Return Predicted by the Calculator -- 5.4 Percent Real. That's Not Bad. There Are All Sorts of Strategic Implications That Follow From Understanding That Stocks Provide Different Sorts of Returns Over Different Sorts of Time-Periods."
Rob Bennett
"I Would Never Invest in Anything Without Having Any Idea What the Expected Return Is. For Instance, I Would Not Walk Into a Bank And Say "I'll Take One Certificate of Deposit, Please" WIthout Asking What Rate They Are Offering."
Poster at Bogleheads Forum
[Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting]"I've Seen Things Said on Investing Boards That I Have Never Heard Said in Discussions of Any Non-Investing Topic. The Question of Whether Valuations Affect Long-Term Returns Is a Topic That Causes People More Emotional Angst Than Does Abortion or Impeachment Proceedings or the War in Iraq."
Rob Bennett at the Bogleheads Forum
"It's Not Possible For Those Who Have Come to Believe That Stocks Are Always Best to Accept that Valuations Matter. The Two Beliefs Are Mutually Exclusive. If Valuations Matter, There Is Obviously Some Valuation Level At Which Stocks Are Not Best. The Two Paradigms Cannot Be Reconciled."
Rob Bennett
"The Great Safe Withdrawal Rate Is Over. Rob Bennett Has Won. The Technical Evidence Supporting This Assertion Is Rock Solid."
John Walter Russell,
Owner of the Early Retirement Planning Insights Site
[This Statement Was Put Forward on August 3, 2003.]"I Am Afraid that the Emperor SWR [for "Safe Withdrawal Rate"] Has No Clothes."
A Poster at the Early Retirement Forum
[This Statement Was Put Forward on October 8, 2003.]"I Cite You and John Walter Russell in My Paper as the Earliest and Strongest Advocates of This Approach [New School Safe Withdrawal Rate Research]."
Wade Pfau, Professor of Retirement Income
at The American College"Dear Rob -- I Just Became Aware of Your Past Research in September. Since Then, I've Read Archives From Many Discussion Boards and Websites, and I Always Find Your Writing to Be Very Interesting and Intriguing."
Wade Pfau, Professor of Retirement Income
at The American College"I Think Rob Bennett Did Provide An Important Contribution in Terms of Describing a Way for P/E10 to Guide Asset Allocation for Long-Term Conservative Investors. I Also Think He Was Right on the Issue of Safe Withdrawal Rates."
Wade Pfau, Professor of Retirement Income
at The American College"What Studies Show This [That Long-Term Timing Doesn't Work]? In Particular, Are There Some Academic Studies That I Haven't Found Yet? That's All I Want to Know."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau at the Bogleheads Forum After His Own Search of the Literature Turned Up Not a Single Such Study
"Because the Precise Timing of This Mean Reversion Is Not Known in Advance, Expecting the Result to Happen in the Short-Term Will Not Be Possible. But Long-Term Investors Who Can Be Patient Can Wait for This Mean Reversion and Will Eventually Come Out Ahead."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau
"Your Work Is at Odds with the Ethos of the Board -- Here the Theme is John Bogle's Philosophy, Which Eschews Market Timing. This Board Came Into Existence to ESCAPE One Individual, the Very Individual With Whom You Have Openly Aligned Yourself."
A Lindaurhead (to Researcher Wade Pfau)
"The Problem With Long-Term Market Timing Is That It Takes Too Long to Find Out If You Are Right or Wrong."
A Poster at the Bogleheads Forum
"Why Is It Such an Odious Violation of the Tenets of Bogleheadism to Explore Whether Someone Who Has Enough Patience Might Be Able to Benefit from the Transitory Nature of Speculative Returns (the Idea That the P/E Ratio Eventually Ends Up Where It Started)?"
A Poster at the Bogleheads Forum
"Let Me Explain Why I Posted About This Here. Valuation-Informed Indexing Has Had Critics for Years. But Until Norbert Did It In 2008, Nobody Seemed to Have Provided a Serious Investigation of It. I Couldn't Understand Why. That Bothered Me."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau at the Bogleheads Forum
(Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting)"If You Really Don't Like Market Timing in Any and All Forms, You May Not See Any Point in an Empirical Investigation. You View Me as One of a Long Line of Hucksters Trying to Sell You Some Snake Oil. I Don't Want to Be Such a Person."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau at the Bogleheads Forum
(Prior to the Ban on Honest Posting)"Having a Completely Ineleastic Demand for Equities Is a Bit Bonkers. No One Acts That Way with Life's Other Important Commodities. Campbell Advocates a Linear Valuations-Based Strategy so That You Wouldn't Be Making Big Changes. This Would Be Like Rebalancing But More Flexible."
A Poster at the Bogleheads Forum
"The Whole Idea of Valuation-Informed Indexing Belongs to You. Do You Mind if I call the Paper 'Valuation-Informed Indexing'? I Would Give You Credit. I Have Been Toying With the Idea of Sending the Paper to the Journal of Finance, Which Is the Most Prestigious Journal in Academic Finance."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau, in an E-Mail to Rob
"I Definitely Need to Cite You as the Founder of Valuation-Informed Indexing, As I Have Not Found Anyone Else Who Can Lay Claim to That. Shiller Pointed Out the Predictive Power of P/E10 But Never Discussed How to Incorporate It Into Asset Allocation, As Far As I Know."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau
"I Tested a Wide Variety of Assumptions About Asset Allocation, Valuation-Based Decision Rules, Whether the Period Is 10, 20, 30 or 40 Years, and Lump-Sum vs. Dollar-Cost Averaging To Show That the Results Are Quite Robust to Changes In Any of These Assumptions."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau
"Yes, Virginia, Valuation-Informed Indexing Works!"
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau
(Wade Holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton.)
(The Buy-and-Hold Mafia Threatened to Get Wade Fired From His Job When He Reported His Findings.)"I Wrote Up the Programs to Test Your Valuation-Informed Indexing Strategies Against Buy-and-Hold and I Am Quite Excited. You Say in the RobCast That VII Should Beat Buy-and-Hold About 90 Percent of the Time. I Am Getting Results That Support This."
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau
"Never Underestimate the Power of a Dominant Academic Idea to Choke Off Competing Ideas, and Never Underestimate the Unwillingness of Academics to Change Their Views in the Face of Evidence. They Have Decades of Their Research and Academic Standing to Defend."
Jeremy Grantham
"There's So Much That's False and Nutty
in Modern Investing Practice."Warren Buffett
"Following Conventional Wisdom Has Led a Generation of Investors Down the Road to Ruin."
Steve Hanke
"It Is Sad That the Idea That Price Doesn't Matter...Should Ever Have Been Seriously Considered."
Andrew Smithers, Co-Author of Valuing Wall Street
"The Conventional Wisdom of Modern Investing Is Largely Myth and Urban Legend."
Rob Arnott, Former Editor of Fianncial Analysts Journal
"Economics Is a Dog's Breakfast of Theoretical Ideas and Alleged Causal Relationships That Are At All Times Unproven and In Dispute."
Terence Corcoran, Editor of National Post
"Since They Did Not Diagnose the Disease, There Is Little Popular Confidence That They Know the Cure. What If Economics Is, Actually, At the Same Level as Medicine Was When Doctors Still Believed in the Application of Leeches?"
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
"One of the Most Remarkable Errors
in the History of Economics."Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller
(Referring to the Logical Leap from the Finding That Short-Term Price Changes Are Unpredictable to the Conclusion That the Market Sets Prices Properly)"Everything Has Fallen Apart."
Peter Bernstein, Author of Against the Gods
(Referring to the Old Thinking About How Markets Work)"We Wonder Why Funds and Banks, Full of the Best and Brightest, Have Made Such a Mess of Things. Part of the Reason Is That We Have Taught Economic Nonsense to Two Generations of Students."
John Mauldin, Thoughts From the Frontline
"Perhaps Most Scandalously, the Theory [Behind Buy-and-Hold] Remained Received Wisdom Long After Empirical and Theoretical Arguments Had Demolished It Within the Academic Community."
John Authers, Financial Times
"I Love the Humans Dearly (the Title of the Book I Am Writing Is Investing for Humans: How to Get What Works on Paper to Work in Real Life) But They Can Be a Trial at Times. Hey! Helping the Humans Learn What It Takes to Invest Effectively Is Not All That Different From Being Married!"
Rob Bennett
"We Are Going to See Hearts Melt Following the Next Crash. I Will Be Working Side-By-Side With All of My Many Buy-and-Hold Friends to Rebuild Our Broken Economy."
Rob Bennett
"Wow, I Did Not Realize You Had Achieved This Much Success and Had Many Devoted Believers/Followers. That’s Great, Then Ignore the Opposition. It Is Great to Have Opposition: That Means You Are Doing Something Right."
Robert Savickas, Associate Finance Professor
at George Washington University"I Do NOT Believe I Know It All. I Believe That Shiller Discovered Something Very Important and It Appalls Me That More People Are Not Exploring the Implications of His Findings. My Aim Is To Launch a National Debate."
Rob Bennett
"I Can See How Many Readers Would Be Put Off by the Somewhat Sensational/Scandalist Tone and Would Not Persevere to Read, Thinking You Are Losing Your Mind."
Robert Savickas, Associate Finance Professor
at George Washington University"I LOVE Everything About Buy-and-Hold Other Than the Failure to Encourage Investors to Take Price Into Consideration When Setting Their Stock Allocations. That's a Mistake That Was Made Because Shiller’s Research Was Not Available at the Time The Strategy Was Being Developed."
Rob Bennett
"Valuation-Informed Indexing Sounds Like a Real Thing. If It Is and I Can Thoroughly Understand It, Then It Will End Up In My Classrooms and in My Students' Minds (Of Course, With References
to You and Wade)."Robert Savickas, Associate Finance Professor at George Washington University
"I Can Confirm Wade Pfau's Experience. Whenever I Send My Papers to the Financial Analysts Journal or Similar Traditional Journals, I Get Rejected."
Joachim Klement, CIO at Wellershoff & Partners
"As a Fan of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, I Know That Progress Can Be Frustratingly Slow and What Is Typically Needed Is Either a Crisis or the Ascent of a New Generation of Scientists Who Did Not Build Their Careers on the Old Models and Theories."
Joachim Klement, CIO at Wellershoff & Partners
"We Trace the Deeper Roots [of the Financial Crisis] to the Economics' Profession's Insistence on Constructing Models That, By Design, Disregard the Key Elements Driving Outcomes in Real World Markets."
Knowledge@Wharton
"I'm Your Friend. I Am Not a Boil on Your Ass."
Rob Bennett, In a Response Comment
to One of the Greaney Goons"Rob Gets Himself So Worked Up Over What Someone Else Is Doing With Their Own Money and Not Bothering Rob in the Least. As Long As They Aren't Knocking on Your Basement Door, What Do You Care? They Are Happy and Content. Leave Well Enough Alone and Focus on Your Own Account."
Dab, One of the Greaney Goons
"I've Been on Forum Since the BBS Days and I Think Rob is Special. He Could Be an Internet Meme If He Put Some Effort Into It. Someday, He Will Realize That the Only Thing He's Good At Is Being an Epic Loser. He Just Needs to Embrace That Idea and Run With It. Watch Out, LOLCats, Here Comes Pathetic Guy!"
Wabmaster, One of the Greaney Goons
"Your Lies Are Not Even in the Realm of the Possible, Much Less Actually Credible, Much Less Actually True."
Drip Guy, One of the Greaney Goons
"You Guys [the Greaney Goons] Are the Same Jokers Who Have Done This Before, Sparring with Rob Over Nonsensical Issues On This Site and Others, Leveling Personal Attacks, and You Don't Even Use Real Names! Rob Is Entitled to His Opinion, But the Fact That You Challenge Every Jot and Tittle of What He Says Makes It Clear You Have An Unholy Agenda. Please Take It Elsehwere."
Kevin Mercadante, Owner of the Out of Your Rut Site
"Rob, Take This As Friendly Advice. You're a Smart and Articulate Guy and You Could Be Making Valuable Contributions to This Discussion. I've Dealt with the Mentally Ill Before and I've Found That They Sometimes Can Be Reasonable If Gently Redirected."
Goon Poster
"Always Remember Others May Hate You, But Those Who Hate You Don't Win Unless You Hate Them, and Then You Destroy Yourself."
Richard Nixon
"I’m a Numbers Guy. And I Believe I Understand Rob’s Thesis, that Future Returns, Over the Next Decade, Have a Tight Inverse Correlation to the PE10 for the Starting Point. Remember, Correlation Doesn’t Need to be 100%, Only That There’s a Bell Curve of Potential Outcomes that Shift Meaningfully Based on the Input."
Owner of Joe Taxpayer Blog
"What a Difference a Threat to Get the Father of Two Small Children Fired From His Job Has on an Investing Discussion, Eh? Long Live Buy-and-Hold! It’s Science! With a Marketing Twist!"
Rob, Referring to the Wade Pfau Matter
"I Respect Rob and His Analysis. He's Bright, Energetic and Passionate. [The Goon Stuff] Is Really Nonsense. I Enjoy a Thought-Provoking Conversation With People I Respect."
Owner of Joe Taxpayer Blog
"The Fact that Shiller is a Proponent of the Approach Takes it from a Fringe View to Mainstream, in my Opinion."
Owner of Joe Taxpayer Blog
"I Have had Academic Researchers Tell Me That They Dream of the Day When They Will be Able to do Honest Research Once Again. I Have had Investment Advisors Tell me That They Dream of the Day When They Will be Able to Give Honest Investing Advice Again."
Rob Bennett
"Rob, Take This As Friendly Advice. You're a Smart and Articulate Guy and You Could Be Making Valuable Contributions to This Discussion. I've Dealt with the Mentally Ill Before and I've Found That They Sometimes Can Be Reasonable If Gently Redirected."
Goon Poster"Let’s Call a Spade a Spade, Shall We? Wade Pfau Stole Your Research and Put His Name on it, Throwing You Just a Tiny Crumb of Acknowledgement to Ward Off a Lawsuit. He’s Profiting Handsomely By His Theft, Widely Published, Widely Respected. While Rob Bennett Continues to Toil in Total Obscurity. It’s So Incredibly Unfair, I Think If It Happened to Me, It Could Actually Drive Me Insane."
Goon Poster
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Community Comments on the Great Safe Withdrawal Rate Debate
Set forth below is the text of a post that I put to the Motley Fool board in the early days of The Great Safe Withdrawal Rate Debate (the post … Continue reading Community Comments on the Great Safe Withdrawal Rate Debate
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