Saturday, December 10

A Midwinter Day’s Meetup

Discussion Topics:

  • Invest Like a High Net Worth Investor
  • My Spending Plan Sucks! ~ Grappling with Inflation in Uncertain Times
  • A Million is Not Enough or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 2% Rule

Links:

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Topic: Healthcare–Private insurance, ACA, HSA’s, Medicare

Panelists: Harry Sit (left), Jeanne Texeira (center), and Greg Dietrich, moderator (right)
Presentations:

The Healthcare Maze by Jeanne Texeira

Saturday, October 8, 2022

Topic: Simple & Effective Balanced Lifetime Portfolios — 2022 Update
Straightforward portfolios that achieve massive diversification across industries, geographies, stocks, bonds, and various equity premium factors plus two Funds for Life strategies that augment target-date funds to reduce risk with age, increase expected returns, raise safe withdrawal rates, and achieve higher overall survival rates. Chris will also compare past performance to more complex approaches, showing that complexity is not necessary in accumulation or retirement.
Chris Pedersen is Director of Research at The Merriman Financial Education Foundation and creator of the 2 Funds for Life investing approach to augmenting target-date funds. He is an engineer by training and a new opportunity finder by nature. In his work for the foundation, he develops and maintains a set of best-in-class exchange-traded fund (ETF) recommendations, the customizable Merriman Aggressive Target Date glidepath calculator, and regularly contributes to articles and podcasts.  Like the rest of the Merriman Foundation staff, his work is motivated by a genuine desire to learn and help, free of any financial incentives or conflicts of interest.
Presentation:  PDF  |  Video

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Our first in-person meeting since March 2020.

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Topic: Double Header: The Boglehead Traveler and Is Crypto the New Tulipmania?

The Boglehead Traveler: Led by Greg Dietrich

When Greg isn’t cooking up ideas for meetings, you’ll find him walking on the bike trail close to his house or planning his next vacation adventure.

What travel tips have worked for you? We’ll pool our suggestions for saving money on airline tickets, accommodations, meals and experiences, international travel, eco-tourism, cruises, guided tours vs. doing it yourself, how to plan trips, maintain a budget and maximize enjoyment while being frugal, when to splurge, getting the most from your money.

Is Crypto the New Tulipmania? Led byChris Goslow

 

Chris is a composer, pianist, and piano teacher. He and his wife have lived happily in Sacramento since 2012. Chris is an advocate for index fund investing and financial literacy.
In the recent years, perhaps no asset class has gotten more attention than cryptocurrency. For millions of people, crypto represents the possibility of riches, not to mention the world-changing benefits of blockchain technology. As a technology, it is surely innovative. But as an investment? Time will tell whether “this time it’s different”, or whether crypto is another bubble waiting to burst–another “tulipmania” sent to teach us yet again the devastating folly of greed and naivete.

 

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Topic: What if this turns out to be a terrible time to retire?
Presenter: Christine Benz, CFP®. She is Morningstar‘s director of personal finance and author of 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances and the Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success. She also serves as the director of media relations for The John C. Bogle Center Foundation for Financial Literacy, the parent organization of the Bogleheads.
Presentation: PDF  |  Video

Christine Benz, Morningstar

 

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Topic: The Four-Letter Words of Investing (FEAR and RISK) and how to navigate them through volatile times. The presentation slides are here.
Presenter: Chris Goslow. Chris is a composer, pianist, and piano teacher. He and his wife have lived happily in Sacramento since 2012. Chris is an advocate for index fund investing and financial literacy.
Presentation:  Video

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Topic: The Education of an Index Investor: Philosophy, Strategy, and Discipline
Presenter: Rick Ferri, CFA. The John C. Bogle Center Foundation for Financial Literacy is the parent organization of the Bogleheads and Rick is the president of the board. He is a former US Marine Corps pilot and the author of 7 books on investing.
Presentation: PDF  |  Video

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Topic: The Investor’s Imperium: A Guided Discussion
Impresario: Greg Dietrich

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Topic: Rebalancing: Staying the course with your target asset allocation
Presenter: Jerome Moisand
Presentation: PDF  |  Video  |  Spreadsheet

Jerome spent his career working in Telecommunications in various engineering, product management and strategy & planning positions. He’s now financially independent and volunteers part of his time on personal finance and passive investing topics. He’s an active member of the Bogleheads community, maintaining various historical databases, occasionally writing blog articles. He acted as the coordinator of the Metro-Boston Bogleheads chapter for 6 years. When not playing with spreadsheets, Jerome likes to fish, travel and read.

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Topic: Bogleheads Talk Money–a Call-in Show: Questions Asked, Questions Answered
This meeting was sponsored by Sacramento Area Bogleheads and South Bay Bogleheads.

 

Saturday, January 8, 2022

Topic: Presentation by Ravi Ranganathan on “Doomed to Failure: Why Humans Weren’t Built to Play the Market and How to Use This Knowledge to Your Advantage as an Investor”. Ravi used concepts from behavioral psychology, decision science, evolutionary psychology, causality illusions, and black swan blindness to explain why our incredible mental circuitry that’s designed for efficiency and survival is ill-equipped for the task of winning in the markets.
Presentation:  PDFvideo
Ravi Ranganathan is a lead software engineer at Netflix. He is married and has a 19-month-old. In his spare time he enjoys Mediterranean cooking, macroeconomics, and French. He began investing at age 18.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Topic: Presentation by Chris Goslow on “Dogs of 2020 vs. Barron’s Top 10”, followed by open discussion on a range of season-appropriate topics: What are you thankful for this year? What are your biggest regrets? What are your financial goals or New Year’s resolutions? Time permitting, we’ll talk about how to future-proof your investments.

Chris Goslow is a composer, pianist, and piano teacher. He and his wife have lived happily in Sacramento since 2012. Chris is an advocate for index fund investing and financial literacy. He is also a dedicated runner who completed two marathons in 2021–the California International Marathon and a solo marathon along the American River.

The presentation is here.

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Topic: Interview with Bill Bernstein. He is a Boglehead, neurologist, author, and co-founder of Efficient Frontier Advisors. Learn more about his book The Delusions of Crowds in Kirkus’s review.

The interview video is here.

Saturday, October 9, 2021

Topic: All About Real Estate: Members shared their knowledge and experience regarding home ownership and investing. This meeting was be co-produced with the South Bay Bogleheads chapter.

Saturday, September 18, 2021

The presentation slides are here. The presentation video is here.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Topic: Socially Responsible Investing: Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

Kevin Dillon provided us with a deep dive into ESG investing—its history, current popularity and probable future. Kevin’s been an investor for 5 years and is a voracious reader of financial books and investing websites. He has been a member of Sacramento Area Bogleheads since 2017 and has never missed a meeting! He currently serves on the SABH chapter leadership team. In 2020 Kevin spoke about alternative investments for both the Sacramento and South Bay Bogleheads chapters.

The presentation slides are here. The presentation video is here.

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Topic: Lifestyles of the Rich and Frugal: A guided discussion on ways to build and preserve wealth.

We discussed the myriad ways to build and preserve wealth by living beneath ones means. All about spending less, lifestyle, how the average investor can live well without going into debt, the rewards of delayed gratification, ideas on how to implement a budget or mindset, when to increase spending. Asset allocations likely to result in sustained financial success in accumulation, early and late retirement phases.

Facilitator: Greg Dietrich. Greg has been an investor for nearly 20 years, gainfully unemployed for the last 5 of those years! He learned along the way that nurturing a portfolio of different investments combined with paying off debt (and more than a little luck) could lead to financial independence. When he’s not cooking up ideas for meetings, you’ll find him walking on the bike trail close to his house or planning his next vacation adventure.

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Topic: Open forum: a guided discussion on all things financial.


Facilitator: Greg Dietrich

Greg’s been an investor for nearly 20 years and unemployed for 5 of those years. More importantly, he learned along the way that nurturing a portfolio of different investments combined with paying off debt (and a bit of luck) could lead to financial independence. When he’s not cooking up ideas for meetings, you’ll find him walking on the bike trail close to his home or planning his next vacation adventure.

Sunday May 16, 2021

Topic: To Every Season
A Review of Estate Planning for Each Season of Life

Speaker: Nancy Williamson Esq. Her profile is here. Her presentation is here.


Saturday April 10, 2021

Beyond CDs and Bonds: Fixed Income Alternatives in the Low-Yield Environment

Speaker: Harry Sit

Harry is the author of My Financial Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Managing Your Money and he writes the popular The Finance Buff blog. His presentation slides are here.

 

Saturday March 13, 2021

How Diversification Works

Speaker: Greg Dietrich

 

Greg’s presentation is here. The presentation video is here.

Other resources related to diversification:

Diversification (finance): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversification_(finance)

The Intelligent Asset Allocator by William Bernstein, McGraw Hill 2001, 2017

5 Tips for Diversifying Your Portfolio: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/072303.asp

Vanguard’s Principles for Investing Success (2020): https://about.vanguard.com/what-sets-vanguard-apart/principles-for-investing-success/ISGPRINC_062020_Online.pdf

3 Ways Diversification Saved Us During the CoronaBear by Jim Dahle: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/diversification-saved-us-coronabear/

How Investment Diversification Works: https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/diversification.htm

How Diversification Works [Rebalancing] by Ben Carlson – A Wealth of Common Sense: https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/07/diversification-works-2/

How Does Diversification Actually Work? by Bob French, CFA: https://retirementresearcher.com/diversification-actually-work/

 

Saturday February 20, 2021

Winners and Losers–2020 in the Rear View Mirror

Speaker: Greg Dietrich

Greg’s presentation is here

Recommended Article: How to Calculate your Return- The Excel XIRR Function

Saturday January 9, 2021

A Conversation with J.L. Collins

Author of The Simple Path to Wealth

Saturday December 12, 2020

Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Digital Assets

Speaker: Alan Baker

Alan’s presentation is here.

An interview with Alan on Gnat-TV

Saturday November21, 2020

International Investing – Why it Matters

Speaker: Paul White, CFP, Relationship Executive, Flagship Select, The Vanguard Group

Paul’s presentation is here.

 

Saturday October 10, 2020

Uncommon Common Sense: Investing in Index Funds

Speaker Greg Dietrich’s presentation in PDF format – 33 pages/slides

 

Saturday September 12, 2020

Do annuities make sense for your portfolio?

This was a joint Zoom meeting of the Sacramento and South Bay Bogleheads chapters.

Speaker Mel Turner’s slides in PDF format

Annuity Riders | 11 Most Common Annuity Riders to Fit YOUR Needs, by Jeff Rose, Good Financial Cents, 2020

July 11, 2020: Social Security & Retirement Q&A

Mike Piper, CPA is the author of several books including Investing Made Simple. He runs the popular Oblivious Investor website and the Open Social Security calculator.

June 16, 2020: The Bogleheads Happy Hour

References:

Investing through Volatile Times (Part 2)
By Chris Goslow June 8, 2020

Rational Reminder Episode 100: Prof. Kenneth French: Expect the Unexpected by Ben Felix May 28, 2020

June 6, 2020: The Good, The Flawed, the Bad, and The Ugly

The World of Alternative Investments According to Larry Swedroe

Presentation Slides are here.

May 9, 2020: A Practical Guide to Staying Afloat

Presentation Slides are here.

Referenced Articles:

“What if You Only Invested at Market Peaks?”
Posted February 25, 2014 by Ben Carlson

April 11, 2020: Finding the Bottom: Choices During a Bear Market

Presentation Slides

Finding the bottom-Presentation.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17aVbDC0byLx_cchqI_bov9XR8EVLDIC9/view?usp=drivesdk

Referenced Articles:

From Harry Sit (aka The Finance Buff):

Tax Loss Harvesting vs Rebalancing vs Doing Nothing (2015)

https://thefinancebuff.com/tax-loss-harvesting-vs-rebalancing.html

Rebalancing in a Bear Market (2009)

https://thefinancebuff.com/rebalancing-in-a-bear-market.html

From Bogleheads:

Opportunistic Rebalancing: A New Paradigm

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10670

From Christine Benz: 10 Sources of Emergency Cash, Ranked from Best to Worst. Morningstar Mar 30, 2020

https://www.morningstar.com/articles/975122/10-sources-of-emergency-cash-ranked-from-best-to-worst

From Ben Carlson: My New Theory About Future Stock Market Returns, A Wealth of Common Sense

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2020/04/my-new-theory-about-future-stock-market-returns/