We are celebrating Taylor Laramore'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 Vogelheads who have helped me tonight with this meeting.

Gauri 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 Vogelheads 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? I muted the person I thought it was. Okay, thank you. First, let me point out that Taylor's hand is raised.

His hand will be raised throughout the meeting, because that way he's in everybody's upper, he 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, and 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, Goree, 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. 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 it is beautiful. You will love it. 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 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 use... I'm talking loud here. Start. Now we can hear you. Start over again, please. Okay. One, two, three. Can you hear me? Yes. So good. I'm glad to see so many of you that I've learned to love on this forum. Some of you I have met personally, and I guess I think of you as my babies.

But I don't think any man has said to himself that we're having right now, and I thank you. Thank you, Taylor. Okay. Yeah. Could everyone hear him? No, we couldn't hear the last. He was just asking if everyone could hear him. No, we could not hear him. We heard much of it, but not the end.

Not at the screen. Just can't believe I've been so lucky as to deserve a video like this. I can't even... I don't even have a computer, so how you manage this is foreign to me, but my love comes out and my own. 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 Bogle called Mel the prince of the Bogleheads. So, Mel, would you like to say a few words to Taylor?

You have one minute, except that you're a prince, you can have two or three. I'm getting feedback here. Let me shut down the second computer. Okay, we'll try again. We can hear you fine. Happy 100th, Taylor. I don't know if Taylor realizes that I usually get the best of him.

He can't outthink me. I told him we'd make a deal a number of years ago. I said, "Taylor, I'll promise to come to your 100th if you promise to come to mine." So, Taylor, you've got a lot of years to make up and hang in there before I hit 100th.

Seriously, I'd like to say that Taylor was most generous. When I joined the Vanguard Diehards shortly after it was founded, I kind of laid 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.

And then Taylor got in touch with me and said, "Mel, maybe we ought to work together." And 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 1999 when I made a post on Vanguard Diehards about Happy Thanksgiving, and we were like a small family. Everybody chimed in and what they were thankful for. Taylor chimed in and said he was thankful for his kids and so forth. He said, "I'm thankful for Jack Bogle because I live in the house that Jack built." And 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.

Jack 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 Miami Herald Making Money Seminar. So we decided that this would be a good time to try to get together with Jack. So I called the Miami Herald 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 shooed us away like we just didn't belong and didn't fit in. So I got in touch with Jack and told him that my Miami Herald 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 Bogleheads Conferences.

We thought it was a one-time-off. What a beautiful evening we had with Jack. And just as an aside, the Miami Herald 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 Miami Herald business section and carried over to 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 Bogleheads, and Mel, the prince. And that's where I became the prince of the Bogleheads, 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 Bogleheads 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.

Morningstar Conference hosted us for the third one at the Morningstar 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 got in touch and said, "Mel, 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 various meetings, taking care of the hotels and things like that. So it's been quite a ride, and it's hard to believe, Taylor. I just figured out that was a quarter of your life that we've spent doing this.

We're going on 26 years now. And time really flies when you're having fun, and it's been a great ride. It's hard to believe that with all the people that tried to publish books that can't get them published, we got a 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 now, the publisher has asked us to update the first book in the book, which we've written. We are having a difficult time hearing you, Mel.

We've got a deadline on that now, June the 30th, Taylor, or June the 1st. So 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're 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 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 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 wish you many more years of success and happiness. All the best to you, Taylor. Thank you, Christine. Thank you, Christine. I think you have probably done more than anyone else except Jack to bring successful personal finance to the ordinary person.

I try to do it the more awful way, but it's the best. 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. Thank you for being a friend. Having somebody rooting for me and rooting for all the rest of the Vogelheads has just meant so much to me.

Thank you. Happy birthday. I have two books, and I think there's just one of you and I like short books. My last book was pretty short, but some people like my book better, but I try to keep everything down to a minimum. Likewise. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you, Taylor.

Bill Bernstein. I'm going to unmute myself here. Well, Taylor, again, happy birthday. I'm in awe of the life that you've lived. You served your country 80 years ago. 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.

I think that I'm grateful to you, and I think that the country is grateful to you for so many different reasons. Happy birthday and many more. Thank you, Bill. Alan Roth. All right. Unmute. 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, Alan. 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 in Bastogne, 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 Americans surrender, and Brigadier General McAuliffe replied, "Nuts." The next day, the skies cleared, and General Patton's Army broke the siege and reached Bastogne 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 Bastogne. 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 Purser, U.S.

Army, retired. She is the civilian assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Gorrie, can we show the Army? >> Yes. And I'll just -- thank you, Miriam, for that intro. I'll just tee up 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. Larimore. I am Major General Leslie Purser, U.S. Army, retired. It's my pleasure to wish you a happy birthday and my honor to know someone who has served in Bastogne. 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.

You all went in with insufficient supplies, and the Screaming Eagles fought valiantly. Despite being outmanned and outgunned, you held Bastogne. 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, Glory. Taylor, you're on mute. >> Say go ahead. >> Try again. >> Probably a good thing to put me on mute, but I thank the General. >> Okay, thank you. The family who lived in the farmhouse in Bastogne where Taylor lived in his foxhole 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 then, since 1945. He has visited them 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 Bastogne 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 Bogleheads 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 it's 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 Ellen. Hi, welcome. Mike 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 Bogleheads 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 Larimore 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 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." End 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 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 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 Vogelheads 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 that Jack built, but really, honestly, that Taylor built. Happy birthday, Taylor. Thank you, Laura. Thank you. I'm going to introduce Taylor. Several Vogelheads who have made the forum, the special forum that it is. In addition to Laura, we have here tonight Alex Fracht, a Vogelhead administrator who was instrumental in creating our current website, vogelheads.org, as we know it today.

Hi, Alex. Hey. Let's sit 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.

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 Vogelheads forum. And that's why we have, 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 forms of what have disappeared, absorbed by Reddit or Facebook or whatever has taken over. But it's really, the site is, the whole site is a tribute to, 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, Taylor, and happy birthday. >> Thank you. In addition, we have one of the early Vogelheads 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 Vogelheads forum.

She is the lady who designed our logo. Every time you log into Vogelheads, you see this beautiful compass. I guess it's a compass for a ship's compass in the corner that's beautiful. It 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 -- >> Hello. >> Hi. Welcome. 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 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 from other people? I mean, we have -- I see a number of forum members I recognize. David Grabner, Bruce Steiner. So, yeah, I don't know if -- >> 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.

Clay Cord, JCA, German Expat, Kendall, Misen Place, MKC, Old Computer Guy, Pops 1860, Pruden, and then we also have one of the original moderators, Arete, 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 -- Chris, 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 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 spent quite a bit of time discussing where those asset allocations should be.

U.S. versus international is probably our number one -- let's say we have lots of -- many, many pages of disagreements and disagreements are still not settled. So I just made, okay, equal. You're all equal. And we're done. So here is Taylor's birthday pie of a three-fund portfolio. And 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 on the Vogel Center SharePoint site. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> That's awesome pie. Wow. >> Thank you. For those of us just joining us, welcome. I'd just like to point out that 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 and post your birthday wishes in the chat. Okay. I'd like to introduce Taylor's family. Taylor's son, Michael, and 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 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 Brickell 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 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. Gauri, 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, Gauri. 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, Taylor. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Taylor. Happy birthday to you. Okay. Now we would like to open -- oh, Taylor, you have any -- 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. Net said. Net 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, Net. Sasank? >> 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. >> Oh, I thought you were one of my sons.

>> He truly trusted me like a son. He even writes to my mother, Taffy and him write to my mother. >> Sasank, 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. 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. >> Kindness doesn't mean power. It's good wit and humor as well. >> He has a nice wry sense of humor. Ned said, do you want to speak some more, or can we put your hand down?

That's okay. Anybody else? Would 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. >> We're 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. >> Does that help? >> Now it's working. Be close. >> I'm going to an investment club. We would make the best stock. We were investing in that about a year ago. I made so much back loss money, so I realized that making individual stock.

>> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else want to speak? >> I just wanted to share from time to time, Taylor and I have been among those suggesting that single premium immediate annuities are useful. Taylor has mentioned from time to time that he has one, as do I. I want to share with you a very short quotation from Jane Austen.

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, he had two at one time, so I guess that's why he lives so long. Thank you. >> .

>> Okay. Speak closer, Taylor, and look up. >> Yes. >> . >> . >> . >> . >> Okay. There is a post on the Bogleheads forum where the person said, "I guess the insurance companies that sold Taylor those single premium annuities fired the agents who sold them to him." >> They keep sending him letters requiring a signature proving that he is still here.

>> Is that right? Oh, my goodness. Isn't that interesting? How do you prove that he is signing it? >> He just signs it. I may continue when he is gone. >> Okay. I know it is getting late. We are going to wrap up the meeting. Remember, everyone, this meeting is being audio recorded.

We will put it out in the forum once we get a transcript or a link. Again, special thanks to my Zoom team, Lady Geek, Gori, Jim, and Carol. Also, just a little shout out for those of you who would like to join the Zoom team. It is good to help as 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 in all the different chapters in the new life stage chapters, the starting out chapter, the retired chapter, have had meetings. We meet people around the country. As Jack Bogle has said, the real value of the Bogleheads that Taylor saw while he created an internet forum, which, by the way, Morningstar, I believe, said wouldn't work.

It has worked beautifully because people want to talk about their investments and they want to talk about what they did right and what they did wrong. These Zoom meetings allow us to speak with each other and to have presentations. If you would like to join up, send a private message to me or to Lady Geek or to Gori.

If you don't know Zoom, that's okay. If I can learn Zoom, everybody can learn Zoom. It's really not difficult. You'll enjoy it very much. Gori, 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. There's this aspect of perpetual motion to it that continues long after any of us. Thank you for all that you do, and especially for inspiring such a civil, respectful community.

Happy birthday. >> Well said. >> Lady Geek. >> Okay. I just want to recognize that in addition to the United States, we have representation members here who are also Bulk Aheads Forum members from our Canadian sister forum. You have people from Canada, and also want to make sure that this is worldwide.

We have a non-US investing section now, and there's a considerable amount of posts on that. They call it a simple -- outside the U.S., they also call it a simple portfolio, three or four funds. The concept's been around a while. I just want to mention that everybody here -- don't just focus on U.S.

We have Canadian here, and I'm not sure I do see some perhaps Japanese. I just want to bring that perspective online. Thank you, Taylor. It was wonderful meeting you a few years ago, you and Taffy. >> Yes, we do have a Japan Bulk Aheads 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 remembered her and talked to her. >> Okay. I couldn't read the Japanese, the katakana, but I know her. Thank you. Nice to see you. >> Yes. >> Good morning. >> And also, we have Bilo Selhai here from Canada. I'd also like to thank all of you who came to this meeting and who participate on the forum, making it 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, Kamri. You made a post about my birthday, and it 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 post.

It's on right now. It was all these lovely remarks, which may be the nicest thing that's ever happened to me, that may be something I'm here to have a picture of yourself. Come on, stand up and show them. >> 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 Vogelhead friends. We look forward to your financial wisdom and helpful posts on the Vogelheads forum, the forum that you created now 26 years ago.

As Jack Vogel's son, Andrew Vogel said in his speech in 2022, when he inducted you into the Vogelheads Hall of Fame, "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 wish to chat. >> Thank you, Miriam, for organizing a wonderful UNLADY GIG, and the pie, and the birthday cake, and the certificate.

Wow. Shall we ourselves give a big round of applause? >> Thank you. Thank you. David, hello. David Grabener, we didn't get to introduce you. David is on the board of, what is it? >> I'm on the advisory board of the Vogelheads 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 Vogel Center for all the work they did in organizing the conference. >> Yes, absolutely. The Vogel Center. >> Yeah. I already wished Taylor a happy birthday in the chat. I'm one of many people who thank the Vogelheads, because I also live in a house that Jack built.

I remember at the 2013 Vogelheads 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. Now I'm actually making use of all that I've done. It's thanks to people like the Vogelheads, 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 the forum about 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. I lost 60% of my portfolio in that crash. >> 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. >> What did you do? >> 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. >> What did your emotions say to you when you lost 65%? >> I was used to these things. This was not my first bear market. 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. I'm used to this. I'm a mathematician. I wrote my thesis on random walks. I'm used to these things. I'm willing to take a risk that's mathematically reasonable to take.

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 that they did not have the risk tolerance when they actually lost half their portfolio to stick with it.

>> I cannot -- >> Stay the course. One of Taylor's mottos is one of the most important things. Find a course you can stay. 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 money invested.

>> Right. Get it in that. >> 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. Look up at the light.

Try again. Bye-bye. Lori, you have something to say? >> Yeah. I 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. 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.

You still at age 100 exemplify all those things. You're a role model in so many ways. I think we could follow in your -- we'd be fortunate to follow in your footsteps. >> Silence. >> 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 3,000-something posts on it. Not all Taylor's. He's maybe half of them. And he's up to 60,000 posts on 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 are you 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, Tabby. >> 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?

>> I had an estate of somebody who was 110, and I had another one of somebody, a man even, who is 102, I think, and people are in the 90s. It's 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 posts about it a lot, and it's really incredible what 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 foxhole 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 reading to read about that and 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 when it was freezing cold, and I don't remember what he did, but I think it was like he, I don't, I don't remember what he did.

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 talked about that gentleman, Taylor Laramore. Laramore, yes. Wow, that's a legend. Yes. He says you're a legend, Taylor. He's a legend, yes. He is, yes. It's unbelievable, one or two 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, you know, 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 they're very, very proud of Taylor, very happy that the Americans were there and that Taylor was in their front yard. Apparently, they were very, really frightened of what was over the hill. Taylor, we can't hear you, closer. You cannot hear me? Yes, now you can hear you. Okay.

That family you spoke of, the shelter that gave me a go-go during the war because I was in their front yard where I lived in my bustle and there was snow every night. That family, I don't know what you call them, the people that go, 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 the rule is try to be nice to everybody. Sometimes it's hard, but 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- or they look up to the beautiful pond right in the middle of the stream. Move closer to the microphone, Taylor. I cannot describe how much I feel and gratitude for the program. Thank you to each of you for coming tonight. 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 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 calmly 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 a good- well, it makes sense, makes emotional sense. Silence 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 Heads 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 need to- 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 he'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, it was 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. You obviously, you actually probably never talked to my children, so. 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 401(k) and autopilot into their IRA.

Now, it is hard for some people to contribute to both, but, you know, just auto-contribute like David Grabener 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 know, 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, you know, lecturing them about it. You have to live the life. You know, if you've got, if you've got a, if you've got, if your kids have gotten used to seeing you driving a Beamer and living in a McMansion and wearing, you know, 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, to what the small adjunct to what the board does. I mean, it's not rocket science. Invest in a light strategy fund or a target date fund, or if you must make things more complicated, do the three-fund portfolio yourself.

You know, I think that for most people, just put the money in the 401k and the, and the target date fund and, you know, look at it once a year to make sure you're, you haven't been 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. I mean, I mean, bricks, that's, that's, 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 fifties, you're maxing out your 401k. Instead of that, try to invert it and try to max out your 401k in your twenties. So that by the time you're in your thirties, 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 fifties, 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 that retirement is around the corner. You have that 401k, which is already growing at what, 10 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. - Taylor, you're muted. Yeah, I'll come in after Taylor. - I'm going to say goodbye again. I thank all of you for your kind remarks. - One more comment, Taylor. It's just, there's, you know, 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 Dolley, I mean, such a phenomenal group of people feel honored to have known you and learn from you.

It's really extraordinary. - You're welcome, Taylor. You're welcome. We'll say goodnight to you, Taylor.