 We're celebrating Taylor Landmore's 100th birthday today, and he is the coordinator. He lives in Miami. He is the coordinator. The, you know, the driving force behind our South Florida chapter. I am Miriam, the coordinator of the South Florida Chapter. I would like to introduce the Bogleheads who have helped me tonight with this meeting. Gory is from New York City. He's the head of the New York City chapter. Co-coordinator. Jim is the coordinator of the Chicago chapter. Carol is the coordinator of the Dallas Fort Worth chapter. And Lady Geek is the Bogleheads administrator and chief moderator. Okay. And I would also like to give special thanks to Kathleen Ryan, who put out the very warm, happy birthday thread on the forum, and to Annette, who put out a wonderful post about what Taylor means to me in honor of his birthday. And I'd like to acknowledge Professor McHugh, who put on the forum a very nice historical analysis. Miriam, can you pause for a second? For those not speaking, can you please mute? Thanks. I muted the person. I thought it was. Okay. Thank you. First, let me point out that Taylor, Taylor's hand is raised. His hand will be raised throughout the meeting because that way he's in everybody's upper, you should be in your upper left hand corner of the screen. And also, if you notice that Taylor, when he speaks, he will use a amplifier, a voice amplifier. So sometimes it may be hard to hear, but we worked it out and we can hear him fine. We'll hear him fine. Taylor, you can switch your mic. Remember, you can switch your amplifiers. You have the two amplifiers. You can switch those if you want. Let me see. Oh, yes, this meeting will be audio recorded. It will not be video recorded. So you can, you know, keep your videos open if you would like. And we'll try to get a transcript posted on the forum of the meeting. Let me see. What else? If you want to change your name and you don't know how to do it, just post it in the chat and Jim or someone will help you to change your name. Basically, you just hover over your little window and there are three ellipses in it. There's an option to change your name. Just put your new name in, click OK, and you're all set. The chat will be saved for Taylor to read later. You can save the chat also. If you don't know how it is in the lower, where your chat, you have to bring up your drop-down menu for the chat. And at the bottom, it will have three little dots. If you click on that, there will be an option to save the chat. It saves it as of that moment. So wait more to the end of the meeting and you can save the chat with everything in it. We will keep the meeting open for you to be able to do that. If you have any other Zoom questions, put them in the chat. Anything else, Carol, Gory, Lady Geek that I forgot to mention. I'll be publishing the unanonymized version of the chat. As I do for all the chapter meetings, say we're recording audio only, but Zoom will also save the chat too. So in case anybody really misses it or I miss it, it'll be available. I just have to publish it. Okay. Our agenda for tonight, we're going to first have birthday wishes from many people who are here. And we also then have a very special happy birthday greeting for Taylor from the United States Army. Then there is a special award for Taylor from his Bogleheads. We're also going to show a short three-minute video, a beautiful video of Taylor's life. We've shown this before, but we cannot. It is beautiful. You will love it. And we'll have a birthday cake, sing happy birthday, and then we'll open up the meeting for everybody to raise your hand if you'd like to speak. We'll call on you when you raise your hand. For those who just arrived, welcome. Well, I don't want to have to go over that again. Okay. Taylor, I'd like to introduce you tonight. We're celebrating Taylor's 100th birthday. We are honoring the man who for the last 26 years since 1998 has been helping all of us understand personal finance and achieve our financial goals. It was Taylor who started the Vanguard diehards. He started the Bogleheads, what has become the most successful and highly regarded and useful personal finance forum anywhere. He started the Vanguard diehards in 1998 on the Morningstar website. We have since moved out onto our own standalone website, Bogleheads.org forum. He still posts on the forum regularly at 100 years old, helping others to achieve their financial dreams, create a sensible portfolio, save and invest for a secure retirement, enjoying your family while your portfolio is on autopilot. It's not on autopilot. We check it, but at least we know it is safe. We will not do worse than the market. Jack Bogle called Taylor the king of the Bogleheads. Taylor, would you like to say a few words before we get going? Okay, start over again, Taylor, please. We can't hear you. Can you maybe start over again, please. Okay. Yes. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Taylor. Okay. Well, could everyone hear him? No, we couldn't hear the last. It was just asking if everyone could hear him. No, we could not hear him. We heard much of it, but that's not the end. Not at the screen. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Taylor, I'm going to introduce your partner with the Bogleheads, Mel Lindauer. Mel joined the Vanguard diehards in 1998 also and he quickly became Taylor's co-partner in answering questions and educating investors about index fund investing and portfolios. And he also coordinated the Bogleheads conferences for many years. Jack called, Jack Bogle called Mel the prince of the Bogleheads. So, Mel, do you have, would you like to say a few words to Taylor? Taylor. You have one minute except that you're a prince who can have two or three. I'm getting, I'm getting feet back here. Let me, let me shut down the second computer and we'll try again. We can hear you fine. Happy a hundred, Taylor. I don't know if Taylor realizes that I usually get the best of him. He doesn't. He came out, thank me. I told him we'd make a deal a number of years ago. I said, Taylor, I'll promise to come to your hotel. You've got a lot of years to make up and hang in there before I hit a hundred. Seriously, I'd like to say that Taylor was post-generates. When I joined the forum, Charlie, the bank or not, or Charlie after was founded. I kind of leaned in the background and wanted to see who knew what and see what was going on. It was obvious that Taylor was the leader. There were some posts on annuities and nobody would answer them. So, I started answering them because I knew about annuities. Taylor got in touch with me and said, Mel, maybe we ought to work together. That's when we wrote your first post, 3321 on the Morningstar Vanguard diehards forum. That was a post that anybody could refer new people to, which told them what to expect, how to format their questions, and so forth. I guess it was in 2000 or 1999 when I made a post on the Vanguard diehards about the happy Thanksgiving. We were like a small family. Everybody chimed in and what they were thankful for. Taylor chimed in and said, he was thankful for Jack Bogle because I live in the house in Jackville. That's when we got a handwritten note from Jack asking if there was any interest in getting together with him at a non-resort, specifically said at a non-resort place. So, Taylor and I started working on figuring out how we could make this happen because for us, that was like getting an audience with the Pope or an invitation to the White House. So, in 2000, Taylor got in touch with me. I was a snowbird at that time. Taylor got in touch with me knowing I was going to be in Florida and Jack was the keynote speaker at the Mommy Harold Making Money seminar. So, we decided that this would be a good time to try to get together with Jack. So, I called the Mommy Harold people and asked if they could give us a place for maybe an hour to have lunch with Jack or something and they kind of shoot us away like we just didn't belong and didn't fit in. So, I got in touch with Jack and told him that Mommy Harold people said they couldn't work it out. He said, well, I'll go wherever you want me to go. So, that's when Taylor and I decided to invite the forum members to join us in Miami with Jack for an evening and we said, well, what if we get 100 or 200 people? What are we going to do? So, we decided we would have a small gathering with Jack and we hired a maid and a chef and had an evening with Jack at Taylor's condo and that was the start of the annual bugleheads conferences. We thought it was a one time off. What a beautiful evening we had with Jack and just as an aside, the Mommy Harold people came hand in hand and asked if they could send a photographer and a reporter instead of being jerks like they were to us. We let them come and we ended up with a nice front page story on the Mommy Harold business section. It carried over the inside. But Jack went online at the end of the evening on Taylor's computer and that was very confusing because people couldn't understand that they thought Taylor was impersonating Jack and Jack was talking about the wonderful evening he had with Taylor, the king of the bugleheads and Mel, the prince and that's where I became the prince of the bugleheads officially anointed by Jack, which was a total surprise to me but what a pleasure. And after that meeting people started saying, when's the next one? And when's the next one? We thought this was it. So, that was the start of the bugleheads conferences and our relationship with Jack and Jack would go wherever we wanted him. We tried for a number of years to go where he was appearing. Morning Star Conference hosted us for the third one at the Morning Star Conference because Jack was a keynote speaker and then the CFA conference in Denver was our fourth one. But then after that in 2005 Taylor and I were busy writing the first book and Jack said, no, when's the next conference? And I said, Jack, we couldn't find any place that you were appearing at. He said, I'll go wherever you want me to go. And that was the start of our own independent conferences and we started moving around the country using the local chapter people to help us out with the parents meeting. Taking care of the hotels and things like that. So, it's been it's been quite a ride and it's hard to believe Taylor. I just figured out that it was a quarter of your life that we've spent doing this going on 26 years now. And time really flies and when you're having fun and it's been a great ride. It was hard to believe that with all the people that tried to publish books that can't get them published. We got an author publisher calling us up and asking us to write a book. And I hung up on him several times because I thought it was a hoax. But it turned out to be a real joy. And in fact, Taylor and I are now publishing this. You're having a difficult time hearing you now. We've got to get to work and work on updating the book. But it's been a hell of a ride and I couldn't ask for a better partner than Taylor to ride along. Taylor, it's been a real pleasure. And I hope you are around for my 100th. Thank you so much, Mel. Taylor's holding up a sign that says. It's hazy. I can't see what it said, Taylor. It probably says you love me and I know that. Thank you, Mel. I'd like to introduce Christine Benz. Christine Benz from Morningstar. Hi, Christine. Hi, Miriam. Thank you for organizing this wonderful get-together. Would you have a little something to say for Taylor? Well, I would. I've got no audio. Can you hear me, Mel? I hope everyone can hear me. We can all hear you. Okay. Wonderful. So, Taylor, happy 100th birthday. I just put in the chat that, you know, I always say that it was one of the great privileges of my career to get to know Jack Bogle a little bit. But it's been an equally great privilege to get to know you and hear about your amazing life and get to really call you a friend. I look at the people who are here tonight and it's really kind of a who's who of people I respect in this industry. But I think the really fantastic thing is that you've made an impact on so many people whose faces we don't see, but just thousands of people helping them figure out how to invest well, manage their money reasonably, but most of all sleep well at night and have peace about their financial lives. So I just really treasure your impact. I treasure our friendship and friendship and wish you many more years of success and happiness. All the best to you, Taylor. Thank you, Christine. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you. Mike Piper. Hi, Mike. Hi, Taylor. Happy birthday, firstly. But also thank you for being a teacher to me personally and to the rest of us. A mentor to me as a writer that has meant a lot. I know that so many other people on the forum have learned from you with your personal finance, but I've learned from you as a writer and that's something that I think has been a joy to share. And thank you for being a friend. Having somebody rooting for me and rooting for all the rest of the Bogleheads has just meant so much to me. Thank you. Happy birthday. Likewise. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you, Taylor. Bill Bernstein. I can be on mute myself here. Well, Taylor, again, happy birthday. You know, I'm in law of the life that you've lived. You served your country 80 years ago. And as a slightly older man, you served your country again in a different way. You've touched the lives, I don't know, hundreds of thousands, millions of people in much the same way that Jack did. And I think that, you know, I'm grateful to you. And I think that the country is grateful to you for so many different reasons. So happy birthday and many more. Thank you, Bill. Allen Roth. All right, on mute. You guys have said it all. Happy birthday, Taylor. A century of a life well lived with many, many more years to come. As Bill said, you defended all of our freedom in World War II. You have helped so many people achieve financial freedom. I suspect directly and indirectly it has been millions, not thousands or hundreds of thousands. You've meant so much to me, Taylor. Thank you for everything. I inspire to be 0.1% as good a person as you are. Thank you, Allen. Taylor, we have, and also for our guests here, we have a very special happy birthday greeting for you. We wish to thank Boglehead, old computer guy, for obtaining for us this special greeting. This is from the U.S. Army, expressly in honor of your service in the Army during World War II in the Battle of the Bulge and Baston, which was the heavily forested region between Belgium and Luxembourg. The Battle of the Bulge took place there from December 1944 to January 1945. Everyone here knows the story. Taylor has written about it many times on the forum and told us. The U.S. Army and the 101st Airborne were snowed in. The Germans demanded the American surrender and Brigadier General McCullough replied, nuts. The next day, the skies cleared and General Patton's Army broke the siege and reached Baston on December 26, 1944. While Taylor was on duty, huddled in a snowy foxhole, which he had to dig himself in the yard of a farm in Baston. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the U.S. in World War II. Taylor, this is the birthday wish that is given to you by Major General Leslie Perser, U.S. Army Retired. She is the civilian assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Gory, can we show the Army? Yes, and I'll just thank you, Miriam, for that intro. I'll just tip what folks should expect. You'll see a static photo on your screen and a minute of audio and we've adjusted the volume for an average experience you should raise or lower it as needed. Greetings, Mr. Laramore. I am Major General Leslie Perser, U.S. Army Retired. It's my pleasure to wish you a happy birthday and my honor to know someone who has served in Baston. As part of the biggest single battle in World War II and the most confusing, you helped to keep a huge logistics supply hub from German hands. Y'all went in with insufficient supplies and the screaming eagles fought valiantly. Despite being outmanned and outgunned, you held Baston. The 101st Airborne Division lost many men, but apparently God had a different plan for you. He clearly wanted you to continue to serve and that you did. We are so thankful for you and wish you the very best on this huge milestone, your 100th birthday. Happy birthday, sir, and many more. Thank you, Lori. Taylor, you're on mute. Try again. Probably just thanks for putting on mute, but I thank the general. Okay, thank you. The family who lived in the farmhouse in Baston where Taylor lived in his boxhole was so grateful they brought him hot food and cocoa. Taylor was 18 years old at that time. Taylor has kept in touch with that family since 1945. He has visited in Belgium and their descendants came this past week to Miami for Taylor's 100th birthday. One of the men spoke at Taylor's family birthday party and said, quote, well, this is the best quote I have. It is hard to convey how much we, our family values what you did for us. You risked your life for us and without your valor, we would have been overrun by the Germans who were right over the hill. This is who Taylor is. He has kept up with a natural kindness and decency to others. Taylor, would you like to say something? Okay, thank you. I would like to call on Jim Dolly, the white coat investor. Hey, thanks for giving me a chance to speak. I'll keep it short and sweet. Thank you, Taylor, for everything you've done. But I wanted to highlight not what you're most famous for, which might be Baston or maybe the three fund portfolio, but another important principle that I think I learned from you, which is a quote from a popular poem in earlier days that many roads lead to Dublin. And I think the reason why that idea is so important is because it encourages tolerance of other people and their ideas and variations and a focus on what really matters rather than the little things that we get hung up sometimes, particularly on the Boglehead's forum and Taylor's calm reminder that there are many roads to Dublin, I think, is a call to tolerance for the slight variations that we see among all of our investing styles and personal finance decisions. So I'm grateful for finding your Bogleheads more than two decades ago and this made all the difference in my life, certainly, and now the lives of those that I'm trying to touch myself and share that same message across the country and the world with doctors and other high income professionals. Thank you. Thank you. I saw Mike Nolan. Mike, are you still here? I am. Thanks, Mary-Om. Taylor. Welcome. Mike is the, is Jack Bogle's, well, one of Jack Bogle's assistants for many years, what, seven years, eight years, nine years? Eight years, yes. Eight years. We used to see Mike at the Boglehead's conferences, he's delightful. So Mike, do you have anything, do you have any birthday greetings for Taylor? Absolutely. Happy 100th birthday, Taylor. This is an incredible event and if I may be so bold, I'd like to read a couple of words that Jack wrote about you years ago. Taylor Laramore is as fine a human being as I've ever met, warm, thoughtful, intelligent, investment savvy, and eager to help others. A combat veteran of World War II and an exceptional sailor are only a few aspects of Taylor's background. I mention them because the first demands courage and discipline, the second, careful planning and staying in the course one has set, all the while adjusting to the winds and tides, these traits, as it happens, are the principal traits of a successful investor. And quote from Jack and Taylor, I think you've done as much as anyone in this great country to help others become successful investors and for that I thank you and wish you a happy birthday. Thank you, Mike. Laura Dogu. Laura is the, well, we have the king of the Bogleheads, the prince of the Bogleheads, Jack Dogu, well, was it Jack? She is now the queen of the Bogleheads. Laura is one of the, Laura is the Boglehead who created our post that we use every day, many, many times on the forum, that putting your portfolio, that lays out your portfolio so that other Bogleheads can see your portfolio and answer your questions about your portfolio. And that post is still being used, Laura, over and over again, every single day, every Boglehead will say to newbies when they come, please, you know, use this format that Laura has written in this post. And we thank you for that. Do you have words for Taylor? Oh, of course. Happy birthday, Taylor. I'm really excited that I can celebrate this important event with you. It's not anybody that just gets a shout out in Christine Ben's weekly email to everybody. I was just reading that earlier today. So congratulations on that as well. I wanted to comment on a different aspect. I really am impressed with the fact that when the internet arrived on the scene, when you were probably approximately 75 years old, you managed to jump online, learn all of this new technology, and for 25 years as the world has changed rapidly, you personally kept up with all of those changes. And I think it's a struggle to do that. And you've done a great job. And the result of that is that you've been able to share your wisdom with so many people around the world and all of your experiences. And I just think back that you may have lost the easy ability to speak with your voice, but you still have a very powerful voice that you've been able to share through the internet all of these years using that using that technology. So thank you for taking the time to learn that. Thank you for sharing all of your time over these last many, many years. You impacted me. I stumbled across the Vanguard diehards. And then I moved over to the Bogleheads, like most of us or many of us did. And I really wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I too live in a house, not only the Jack built, but really, honestly, the Taylor built. Happy birthday, Taylor. Thank you, Laura. I'm going to introduce Taylor, several Bogleheads who have made the forum, the special forum that it is. In addition to Laura, we have here tonight, Alex Fracht, a Boglehead administrator who was instrumental in creating our current website, Bogleheads.org, as we know it today. Hi, Alex. Hey, let's look here and find a place to sit. All right. Would you like a few words? Yes, please. All right. Well, happy birthday, Taylor. I always let people know that the forum was, I wrote the forum rules to try to create a place that operated the way Taylor operated. So he's welcoming. We just try to keep things on topic, keep things civil, keep things polite, treat everybody with respect. And really, the fact that that's the way he created or he set the tone for the Morningstar forum, that's what I wanted to do with the Bogleheads forum. And that's why we operate the way we do. And I think that's why we've lasted so long and continue to grow over the years as so many forums have disappeared to absorb by Reddit or Facebook or whatever has taken over. But it's really the site is, the whole site is a tribute to the, like I said, the civil tone that Taylor set and the way that he jumped in on every, in the early days, every question, every portfolio question, he was one of the first ones to answer and really let people know how things were, you know, how things were done there. So, yeah, I just tried to recreate that. Thanks, Stella. And have a great day. Thank you. In addition, we have one of the early Bogleheads here who Tashina, Tashina, welcome. Tashina is the original admin, the original moderator for the forum, one of two, I believe. And Tashina also has another special signature for the Bogleheads forum. She is the lady who designed our logo. Every time you log into Bogleheads, you see this beautiful compass, I guess it's a compass for a ship's compass in the corner that's beautiful, looks like a pie chart with a compass put together. And it's in colors and it's just, you know, beautiful and perfect. That was designed by Tashina. Hi, Tashina. I don't know if she's going to speak, but I welcome you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for inviting me and thank you, Taylor, for everything you've done for our forum. He's worked on the advisory board with us for many years, which is the board that helps decide the direction of the forums and whether or not people will stay on the forum or not. And I can tell you that Taylor, that's where I mostly worked with him and he has always been so kind and rational and reasonable in a world that often isn't. That's the one constant that you always have with Taylor is that he's always going to be kind. And I think that's one of the most important things you can say about somebody. So thank you, Taylor. Thank you, Tashina. Very nice. Okay. Lady Geek, is there anybody else that I should introduce? For women, from other people? I mean, we have, I see a number of forum members I recognize. Nesiprius is here, David Grabner, Bruce Steiner. So yeah, I don't know. Okay, so let me just then give a shout out to the moderators. And Lady Geek, of course, is our admin and our chief moderator. In addition, the moderators do so much work on the forum and they help to keep it civil and working smoothly. Many of them are here tonight. Claycord, JCA, German expat, Kendall, Ms. in Place, MKC, old computer guy, Pops 1860, Pruden. And then we also have one of the original moderators, Arrete, who also comes on board sometimes. Thank you for all you do for the forum. Okay, Taylor, we now have an award to give you from the Bogleheads. Okay, we would like to present this to you. I'm going to show it. Lady Geek, can you queue it up for the first? Let me show it and read this. Taylor likes awards. Okay. The Bogleheads award certificate honoring our friend and mentor. Now Lady Geek is going to show this in large. Our friend and mentor, Taylor Laramore, for his signature achievement in creating the Bogleheads three fund portfolio. Our appreciation and congratulations, Taylor awarded on Taylor's 100th birthday, January 25, 2024. Thank you, Lady Geek. Okay. And we also have to go with this award, not all awards come with a birthday pie, but Lady Geek has created the birthday pie. Okay, yeah. Because what I want to say was the three fund portfolio, you always talk about asset allocation chart as a pie chart. Well, here is the three fund portfolio, pie. So this is the pie chart as a pie. And to be fair, we spend quite a bit of time discussing where those asset allocations should be. US versus international is probably our number one. Let's say we have lots of many, many pages of disagreements and still not to settle. So I just made okay, equal, you're all equal. And that and we're done. So we now have so here is Taylor's birthday pie of a three fund portfolio. And I'll be I'll post in the chat links of everything we share here. So okay, so that's so we can post links to this. It's all the Bubble Center SharePoint site. Thank you. Thank you. That's awesome. Bye. Wow. Thank you. For those of us just joining us, welcome. I just like to point out the Taylor's hand is raised to keep him in the upper left corner of your screen. The meeting is being is not being video recorded, but it is being audio recorded. It's okay to keep your video off or on the chat will be saved. And you for you to read later and also the chat, you can save it yourself at the end of the meeting. And please sign in post your birthday wishes in the chat. I'd like to introduce Taylor's family. Taylor's Taylor's son, Michael. And is jet did Jeff is Jeff here yet? He has a son, Jeff, he'll be here. And Taylor's partner, girlfriend, Taffy, who is sitting next to him. Hi, Taffy. Michael has prepared a video of Taylor's life. And as I said, we've shown him this before, but it is wonderful and we're showing it again. Please note that the first slide you're going to see is a black and white slide from the air. That photo is a photo of Taylor's boyhood home in Miami, where he moved during the depression in 1932. And he grew up in that house in Miami on Brickle Avenue. Ironically, he lives now in the house that Jack built, which is literally one property away from that house. Only now Taylor lives in a large condo condominium. But he literally lives right next door to where he grew up in 1930, where he started in 1932. The home is on Biscayne Bay. It belonged to his grandfather. And Taylor has said that his parents and his grandparents lived in the Northeast. They lost their businesses during the great depression. He has said that his grandfather was in investing and in mutual in a mutual fund actually. But he was 100% stocks didn't work out well during the depression. But his grandfather did have many homes and he was able to keep this one home in Miami. Gory, are we ready with the video? We are ready. Thank you, Miriam. And similar to last time, just folks we tested for the optimal volume. So you may hear it too loud or you should adjust the volume on your end. And starting. Thank you. Thank you, Gory. Let me get back here to my, okay. Some other people to introduce today. Mel Turner is here. Mel is one of the original Vogelheads who helped Mel Lindauer with the Vogelheads conferences. Hi, Mel. Hi there. Happy birthday, Taylor. It was a privilege to serve on the board several years and put on the conferences with Mel Lindauer as our leader. But the other leader was Taylor making sure that we not only were financially independent, but we helped others. Which is from the leadership of Taylor that we have that attitude. So thank you very much, Taylor, for all your guidance. Okay, we are now ready for Taylor's birthday cake, baked by the Vogelhead chief baker, Lady Geek. Lady Geek, can you present the birthday cake? And then when she presents it we can all unmute and sing happy birthday to Taylor. Okay. Ready? One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Taylor. Happy birthday to you. Okay, now we would like to open them. Oh, Taylor, we're pretty good, right? On the happy birthday. Okay, now we can open up the forum, the meeting for anybody who would like to speak out loud. You can raise your hand and we will call on you. That said, that said. Okay, happy birthday, Taylor. And I want to thank you for everything that you've done for us on the forum. And I very much enjoyed all your posts. So I always read them and I know you read mine. Happy birthday. Thank you, Ned. Thank you. Happy birthday, Taylor. And I'd like to say thank you very much for your kindness and thank you very much for teaching me how to sail and treating me like a member of your family. Thank you very much. You're one of my sons. He truly trusted me like his son. He even writes to my mom, Taffy and him right to my mother. So, Sankh, is it true that when you moved to Miami and Taylor invited you to go sailing to teach you how to sail that you didn't even know how to swim? That's true. That's true. I went and took swimming classes and he taught me how to sail. He always encouraged me to do different things. He was the one who pushed me like he insisted that I go to the Bogleheads conference and I'm so happy to have done that to meet a lot of people right now on this call. It's wonderful. He always encourages people to do positive things and he's always very kind. And he has good humor. Doesn't mean kindness. Doesn't mean tower. He has good wit and humor as well. He has a nice rise sense of humor. Ned said, do you want to speak some more or can we put your hand down? That's okay. Anybody else? Anybody else like to speak? We had some questions that were posted and I don't have them in front of me but I do remember Taylor that one of the questions was what was your worst investing mistake? Look up. Look up. We can't hear you. The light. Not coming through at all. I know what he's saying. His worst investing mistake was having children. No. I thought he wrote in his book his worst investing mistake was that he made so many he can't even figure out which is his worst investing mistake. Taylor why don't you try your different amplifier that you have? Just look up at the light. Yeah. That held. Yeah. Now it's working. Be close. Hey, thank you. Anybody else want to speak? Missy Prius. I just wanted to share from time to time. Taylor and I have been among those suggesting that single premium immediate newities are useful and Taylor has mentioned from time to time that he has one as do I. And so I want to share with you a very short quotation from Jane Austin. Some of you may know it. She wrote, if you observe people always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them. I think that Taylor has two single. You had two at one time so I guess that's why he lives so long. Thank you. Speak louder. Speak closer Taylor and look up. Yes. There was a post on the Bogleheads forum where the person said, I guess the insurance companies that sold Taylor those single premium annuities are fired, the agents who sold them to him. They keep sending him letters requiring a signature proving that he's still here. Is that right? Yes. Oh my goodness. Isn't that interesting? Every year. How do you prove that he's signing it? Actually, he just signs it, you know, and I may continue when he's gone. Okay. I know it's getting late. We're going to wrap up the meeting. And remember everyone, this meeting is being audio recorded. We'll put it out in the forum once we get a transcript or a link. Again, special thanks to my Zoom team, Lady Geek, Gory, Jim, and Carol. And also just a little shout out for those of you who would like to join and the Zoom team. We would, you know, it's fun. It's good to help. It's part of helping the Boglehead community to organize these Zoom meetings and hold them. They were wonderful during the pandemic because we could meet. We could meet everybody all over the country and all the different chapters and the new life stage chapters, the starting out chapter, the retired chapter, have had meetings and we meet people around the country. And as Jack Bogle has said, the real value of the Bogleheads that Taylor saw, why he created an internet forum, which, by the way, Morningstar, I believe, said wouldn't work. It has worked, you know, beautifully because people want to talk about their investments and they want to talk about what they did right and what they did wrong. And so these Zoom meetings allow us to speak with each other and to have presentations. And so if you'd like to join up, send a private message to me or to Lady Geek or to Gory. And, you know, if you don't know Zoom, that's okay. If I can learn Zoom, everybody can learn Zoom. It's really not difficult and you'll enjoy it very much. Gory, you have a question? Not a question I wanted to share. My thanks and best wishes to Taylor. You're exceptional in so many ways. Your character, integrity, sense of humor, determination to help others. Something else exceptional is the community you helped create. That community not only helps empower people in the first degree, but it also helps empower people that those people go on to empower. So there's this aspect of perpetual motion to it that continues long after any of us. So thank you for all that you do and especially for inspiring such a civil, respectful community. Happy birthday. Well said. Lady Geek. Okay, just want to recognize that in addition to the United States, we have representation members here who are also bulkhead form members from our Canadian sister form. So you have people from Canada and also want to make sure that this is worldwide. So, you know, we have a non-US investing section now and there's a considerable amount of posts on there on that. They call it a simple, outside the USA, they also call it a simple portfolio for funds. So the concept's been around a while. So I just want to mention that everybody here, no, don't just focus on US. We have Canadian here and I maybe, I'm not sure I do see some perhaps Japanese. So just want to bring that perspective online. And thank you, Taylor. It was a wonderful meeting you a few years ago. You and Tabby. Yes, we do have a Japan Bogleheads group and the lady who runs it worked for Vanguard in Pennsylvania and she told me that she used to see Mr. Bogle on campus and he always, you know, remembered her and talked to her. Okay, I couldn't read the Japanese, the Catacana, but the, I know her. Thank you. Nice to see you. Yes. Good morning. And also we have Bailo Selhi here from Canada. And I also like to thank all of you who came to this meeting and who participate on the forum, making it, you know, the wonderful, wonderful forum that it is. No more questions. No more comments. Okay. Taylor, we wish you all the best in the, Oh, Kathleen Ryan. Hi. Hi. I just figured out how to raise my hand. How embarrassing. Well, anyway, Taylor, it's so nice to see you. I love you and happy birthday. And I won't be long-winded here because I was at the forum. So it's so nice to see you and sending lots of love. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to say something new. Yeah, I, you made up both about my birthday and it's had, I think, 400 replies. All of them complimentary to me. Most of them overstated because I'm not that good and sometimes I'm a bad boy, but it was your most it's on right now. Which is with all these lovely remarks, which may be the nicest thing that's ever happened to me, that may be dancing, not being able to have each other, but you're of yourself. Hi, everybody. Taylor, I'm going to wish you the best in the coming year. May you continue to have good health, have your warm smile, your good spirits. We hope you have good times with your beautiful family and your many Boglehead friends. We look forward to your financial wisdom and helpful posts on the Boglehead's forum, the forum that you created now 26 years ago, as Jack Bogle's son, Andrew Bogle, said in his speech in 2022 when he inducted you into the Boglehead's Hall of Fame, quote, you have likely assisted hundreds of thousands of people and two generations through your advice, guidance, your online posts and your books. Taylor, what a splendid 26 years it has been. We thank you and happy birthday. Thank you, everybody, for coming. We're going to stay here for a few minutes to give you time to save the chat and to chat if you were to chat. Thank you, Miriam, for organizing a wonderful year of UN Lady Geek on the pie and the birthday cake and the certificate. Wow. Shall we ourselves and give a big round of applause? Thank you. David, hello. We didn't, David Graven, we didn't get to introduce you. David is on the board of, what is it? The advisory board of the Boglehead's Forum and I'm the DC chapter coordinator. Although I didn't really have that much to do with the DC meeting, I did some scouting of sites, but really want to thank the Bogle Center for all the work they did in organizing the absolutely the Bogle Center. I already wish Taylor a happy birthday in the chat. I'm one of many people who thank the Bogleheads because I also live in a house that Jack built. I remember that at the 2013 Bogleheads meeting, I talked about the fact that as an investor, I'm not just trying to accumulate numbers, I'm trying to do something with this money and now I'm actually making use of all of all that I've done. It's thanks to people like the Bogleheads that I've been able to do this. Well, we've been able to do it because of your wonderful posts about taxes and asset location. David is really good on asset location. Even there, I've always said the collective wisdom of the Forum is so much more than any one of us. I've learned a lot. I've been corrected when I get something wrong or miss some points, even once when I was asking for one of my own financial decisions. Well, one of your financial decisions is you were 100% stocks in 2008, right? I was the risk of 100% stock. I was 90% stock and I overrated with your stock, so I lost 60% of my portfolio in that crash. And what did you do? Well, since I was 90% stock, I had to rebalance when the market went down and harvested a lot of losses. I've had $3,000 capital losses every year, plus they've offset gains from things like when I sold stock to buy my house. And here also, I must reiterate something I say repeatedly on the forum. Whenever I post my portfolio, I never recommend anybody match my portfolio. If a portfolio like mine is right for you, then you know enough to ignore that advice. And what did your emotions say to you when you lost 65% of your portfolio? I was used to these things. This was not my first bear market. And I had a portfolio like that since 2002. That is after I'd been through a bear market with a lot of stock. As a percentage of my portfolio, I have a much larger portfolio by 2008. But I'm used to this. I'm a mathematician. I wrote my thesis on random walks. All right. So I'm used to these things. I'm used to these things. I'm willing to take a risk that's mathematically reasonable to take. And I recommend other investors do this only if they know that they're going to stick with it. I was on the forum in 2008 and saw a lot of people who discovered they did not have the risk tolerance when they actually lost half their portfolio to stick with it. I stayed the course, which one of Taylor's models is one of the most important things. So find a course you can stay. And there's nothing wrong with being a conservative investor. If the most important thing is to have a strategy that you can stick to and get the money invested. Right. Get it in that. Get it in there. Make sure that if you need to, just make sure that money from your checking account automatically goes into your IRA. Silence. Do good. Taylor, we can't hear you. Try again. Gory, you have something to say? Yeah. I'd just like to add to my earlier comments in that how extraordinary is it that Taylor, you're 100 and you're still so engaged and 100% there. And so a lot of times we have these discussions about a meaningful retirement and engaging with community and finding purpose and meaning for others and a life dedicated in service of others. And you still at age 100 exemplify all those things. So you're a role model in so many ways. And I think we could follow in your, you know, we'd be fortunate to follow in your footsteps. And he still posts on the forum. I mean, he'll post four or five posts a day. And they are meaningful posts. He brings in quotes. He helps people on his three fund portfolio thread, which has, you know, like 3,000 something posts on it. Not all Taylor's. He's maybe half of them. And, you know, he's up to 60,000 posts down in the forum or something. It's incredible that at age 100, a person can create help for another person on personal finance. Logical help for a person. He's muted. Taylor, you're muted. Okay. Now we can hear you. What you're doing now. Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. He's saying he is having difficulty finding the words, telling you all how much all of this has meant to him. Thank you, Tappy. Nobody else wishes to speak. Hello, Bruce Steiner. Are you doing your work in your law office? No, I'm home. I'm in my office like half the days and at home half the days and on the weekends I'm home. How many clients do you have who have reached 100? A hundred. I had a state of somebody who was 110. And I had another one of somebody, a man even, who was 102, I think. So, and there are, and people are in the 90s is not so unusual anymore like it was years and years ago. It's amazing. So, Taylor, you're a spring chicken. Actually, Rick Ferry had a great idea. He said next year will be Taylor's 101st and his division in the war was the 101st Airborne. So, I told him the party next year is going to be 101st Airborne Party. We'll see you there, Taylor. That's a really remarkable story about the Battle of the Bulge. It was wonderful reading about it and Taylor post about it a lot and it's really incredible what, you know, our young soldiers, Taylor was 18 when he went to Europe to fight. He was 17 when he enlisted apparently, 17. And he went over there and he had to dig his own boxhole in the snow. And what I read was that it was very cold weather and that area of Europe was just heavily forested and the soldiers were, you know, it was quite difficult. And here's this 18-year-old kid, Taylor, going to Europe, serving his country. It's really an emotional, it's emotional reading to read about that and to see, you know, to meet somebody who has been through that. And Taylor posts a lot on the forum about his experiences there. He has one experience where he lost his sleeping bag or someone took his sleeping bag in the, you know, when it was freezing cold. And I don't remember what he did, but I think it was like he, I don't remember what he did. Michael, Michael's there. When he lost his sleeping bag, I guess he slept with no sleep. Oh, I know what he did. He slept standing up. I believe he slept standing up, like leaning against a truck or something, because he didn't want to get on the ground. It was too cold. I'll talk to that, talk about that gentleman, Taylor Larramore. Larramore, yes. Wow, that's a legend. Yes. He says you're a legend, Taylor. He is a legend, yes. He is, yes. It's unbelievable. 102 is still doing investment. I'll add to Miriam's comments about Taylor's service in the video that we played of his life. It showed that he won the French Medal of Honor. Is that right? Yeah. Well, he told me he went to Europe. But I don't know how long ago, maybe more than once, to actually visit the family and go back to the farmhouse where he was in the front yard during the war and met the family. I guess they were still living there at the time. So that's kind of interesting that they were still there in the same spot. But when they, when they, they're very, very, very proud of Taylor, very happy that he was, that they, well, the Americans were there and that Taylor was in their front yard. And only they were very really frightened of what was over the hill. Taylor, we can't hear you. Closer. Yes, now you can hear you. So, because of the job that gave me my go-go during the war, because I was in the, in the front yard where I lived in my puzzle. And it was, it was now every night, family, I don't know what you call them, the people that got, the people that their children came and visited me yesterday. Five of them came from Pasadena to Miami to celebrate with me my 100th birthday. I guess they tried to be nice to everybody sometimes it's hard, but you will, you will feel so much better yourself and hopefully make others feel a little better themselves. I think Taylor has taught many people how to discuss personal finance nicely or decently because his posts on the forum are, move closer to the microphone, Taylor. Taylor once told me, he said, I often wonder why I lived as long as I did. And then he said, I think it's because after I've been through a war, after I've been through a real war, I, I realized that little things don't matter and that there was no value at all, no use, no reason to get upset about little things. And he said, so he tried to live his life normally without getting upset about little things. And we can see that he has done that. And one could see how after what he went through during World War II, and all our soldiers did, that that's, that's a good, well, it makes sense, makes emotional sense, violence do good. Taylor, it's difficult for me to express in words how grateful I am to you. I sent you a message in 2015. I remember the time I was in college still. I discovered the Bogle has 2010. I was 19, joined in 2011, 20 years old, and I'm 33 now. It's completely changed the trajectory of my financial life. I'm so grateful for all of your wisdom over the years for the entire community. Thank you. Thank you, silence. Any other comments? Dr. Bernstein, how are we doing here on the forum? Hold on. I think that the forum is probably the most valuable asset that the community has. And it's the most important thing that we do. It's a site where thousands, hold on a second. I didn't realize how dark I was. Okay, much better. Yeah, I think that the board is easily the most valuable thing that the Bogle heads do. It's a place where thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people have come with questions and have gotten steered straight. And it's a legacy that will live on in Taylor's name. I think you'd be very proud at what he started. How did you find the Bogle heads? Oh, that was easy. I wasn't attuned to the Bogle heads until, I believe, 2000 or 2001, when Jason Zweig wrote a column. And I believe it was entitled, Here Come the Bogle Heads. Yes, Money Magazine. Yeah, and I looked at it and I said, whoa, this can be a home for me. And so I came to the very next conference. I think it was 2002. And I've been to, I think, every single one except for one of them since. And I'm proud to be associated. Thank you. Taylor, you're muted. You're still muted, Taylor. Now we can hear you. You obviously, he actually probably never talked to my children. Well, that's a subject, Dr. Bernstein. How do you get your children on the forum? How do you get them investing? You know, simply all they have to do is put it on autopilot into their 401k. And autopilot into their IRA. Now it is hard for some people to contribute to both. But, you know, just auto-contribute like David Gravener says. And yet they're afraid of doing that because they won't have enough money to live on, they think. Yeah, well, investing is important. And I'll get to that in just a second. But more important than investing is saving. You can be Warren Buffett. And if you can't save, you're still dead in the water. And the most important, you don't teach your kids anything about thrift by lecturing them about it. You have to live the life. If your kids have gotten used to seeing you driving a beamer and living in a McMansion and wearing Armani suits, you've probably ruined their financial prospects for life. Because they're going to want to live that lifestyle too. They're going to get used to it. You know, as far as investing goes, I mean, that's why I wrote If You Can. Which is, you know, an adjunct to what the small adjunct to what the board does. I mean, it's not rocket science. Invest in a life strategy fund or a target date fund. Or if you must make things more complicated, do the pre-fund portfolio yourself. You know, I think that for most people, just put the money in the 401k and the target date fund and, you know, look at it once a year to make sure you haven't victimized by fraud. And get on with your life. But the first thing is you have to be able to save. You know, it's real, it's understanding that a BMW is not a motor vehicle. It's an IQ test. Yeah, when my son moved out of the home here and moved into an apartment, he immediately looked for it to be furnished. Well, my husband and I, of course, when we, you know, had our first apartment, we lived, you know, on bricks and wood for shelves. And that was our dresser also. And we didn't, we had one chair and we had a dining, you know, a kitchen table left over from one of his friends and a bed also from his friends. So that was our first place. My kids now would be appalled at having to do that in their first apartment. It's interesting. Yeah, that was, I mean, I mean, bricks, that's idle luxury, we use cinder blocks. But, you know, if you max out your 401k every year, over several years, early in life, Jonathan Clements wrote about this, that one way to do it is rather than start out, you know, putting the little bits into your 401k, and then as you make more money, you put more, and then as you make more money, you put more. And by the time you're in your 50s, you're maxing out your 401k. Instead of that, and try to invert it, and try to max out your 401k in your 20s. So that by the time you're in your 30s, you have a giant pile of money in that 401k. It works on its own, then it generates money for you. It works on its own. It has its own life with capital gains and interest. And before you know it, if something happens in your 50s, you want to change jobs, you get fired, you get laid off, or you get so tired of it, you just want to change a career into a lower income career, or just, you know, take a vacation, a long-year vacation. You can do it because you don't have to panic. The retirement is around the corner. You have that 401k, which is already growing at what, average of 10% a year, or 7% a year, just by the fact that you put in a big pot of money early in life. Yeah, that's true. Gory? Taylor, you're muted. Yeah. Yeah, I'll come in after Taylor. I think it's a good night, and I thank all of you for your kind remarks, so you know what I mean. One more comment, Taylor. The old phrase, a man is known by the company he keeps, so I just want to recap how many amazing accomplished people spoke so highly of you. It's an honor for them to be in your orbit to have known you. So whether it's Christine Benz, Bill Bernstein, Mike Piper, Alan Roth, the list is very long. So if Mike Dolan, Jim Dolly, I mean, such a phenomenal group of people feel honored to have known you and learned from you. It's really extraordinary. You're welcome, Taylor. You're welcome. We'll say good night to you, Taylor.