Beyond Buy-and-Hold #67

By Rob Bennett

I was talking by telephone with a supporter of mine the other day. He generally shares my views on investing. He likes my stuff. He thinks I have made important contributions. He also thinks I am a bully.

Well, not exactly.

He really did use the word “bully” in the conversation. He also used the word “intimidating.” He said that he didn’t think that either word properly described me. He wasn’t able to think of the precise word that fits. But those were the two that came to his mind.

If I am not quite a bully, I am something close to it. This is according to a friend of mine! This is according to a supporter!

How did I respond when he said that?

I said that I certainly acknowledge that many people feel that way about me.

I don’t. I don’t feel that way even a tiny bit. But lots of smart and good people do. The evidence that this is so is so overwhelming that it would be foolish of me to deny it. Lots of people think I am a bully. You probably do.

Why?

Hanging the “bully” label on someone we don’t agree with

One, I argue my case forcefully. I make no apologies for this. My view is that it is my job to do this. When I decided to become a journalist, I did not send in applications to journalism school. I sent in applications to law school. The journalists who I most admired were people who were able to learn all there was to know about a subject of public importance and then tell the story in a compelling way. I am a bit of a wimp in my personal life but not in my professional life. I want my articles to say something important and I want them to be well argued and forcefully argued.

Arguing a case forcefully is not viewed as bullying by people who agree with you. But it is often viewed that way by people who do not agree with the message being conveyed. I hit hard, never at people, only at ideas. But the people who hold those ideas sometimes feel as if I am hitting at them and so my stuff can be a bit hard to take to those who have never before heard the point of view I expressed put forward to them.

The other thing that makes me seem bullying is that I use numbers to make my case.

All of the work that I do in this field is rooted in the academic research of the past 30 years. I don’t say “it is my opinion that those who went with high stock allocations from 1996 forward will live to regret it,” I say “those who went with high stock allocations from 1996 forward will live to regret it in the event that stocks continue to perform in the future anything at all as they have always performed in the past.” Those are hard words to hear if your retirement plans are riding on the question of whether you were right or not to follow Buy-and-Hold strategies over the past 16 years.

I cause people to experience hurt feelings. That’s what it comes to.

I don’t like it that that is so. Not even a little bit. A friend of mine from the days before I wrote about investing commented that I used to be “a puppy-dog poster” and wondered what happened to me. The subject matter changed, that’s what happened.

The puppy dog fellow is the real me. But that fellow is a guy who wants to help people win financial freedom as early in life as possible. Doing that when writing about stock investing in the wake of the most out-of-control bull market in history is not a smart way to pick up Mr. Congeniality awards. No one who tells the truth about stock investing is going to be widely perceived as warm and cuddly at a time when stock prices are where they are today.

There’s a price to be paid for having strong opinions

Would I have more success if I made more of an effort to be cuddly and friendly and warm?

In one sense, yes. More people would like me if I did that.

The trouble is that there are so many others taking it that way. Most people in this field are willing to get the numbers wildly wrong if it will make their readers or listeners or clients happy with them. I want to help people achieve financial freedom early in life. I see people throwing away their chance at the brass ring by over-investing in insanely overpriced stocks and “experts” telling them that they are doing the right thing and it makes me want to throw up.

I look forward to the day when I will not be perceived as a bully anymore. When we get to a point where we are all trying to rebuild the economic and political system we destroyed during the Buy-and-Hold years, I am confident that people will again view me as a puppy dog because I will once again be able to show warmth and friendliness and gentleness without upsetting people by also reporting mathematical truths that it pains them to hear.

Until then –

Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!

Stand back! There’s a mad dog on the loose! And he’s a comin’ to get you!

Rob Bennett has written on how to escape the rat race. His bio is here.

Rob Bennett has written on how to escape the rat race. His bio is here.

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