All right. So ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce Mr. Mel Lindauer. He was dubbed the Prince of the Bogleheads by Jack Bogle. He is one of the Boglehead Forum's founders, along with Taylor Larimore. And he has contributed thousands of posts. He's been helping investors learn the Boglehead way.

He's the author of "The Boglehead's Guide to Investing," and one of the authors. In 2010, Mel helped create the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy, and has been the president, or was the president, from 2012 to 2019. He's also an elected official, vice mayor, I believe, in Daytona Beach Shores, and was re-elected in 2018 and 2020.

So with no further ado, let me introduce Mr. Mel Lindauer. Hello, everyone. Thank you. I'm sorry that because of my wife's health issues, I can't be with you in person this year. However, it's still great to be with you via video. This will be the first of our 20 conferences that I haven't attended in person.

I understand that my good friend and partner-in-crime, Taylor Larimore, the king of the Bogleheads, will also be appearing on video immediately following me. I'm sure that's going to be an exciting session. Taylor and I go back a long way to the start of the Bogleheads on Morningstar nearly 25 years ago.

Initially, there were no Bogleheads forums at Morningstar. Many Bogleheads were posting on the Morningstar mutual fund forum. Back then, Bogleheads was a derogatory term that others used to make fun of our group. --my thunder. Because others used Bogleheads as a derogatory term, when Morningstar eventually agreed to give us our own forum, they were hesitant to call it the Bogleheads forum.

So they named it the Van Andorre Dialogues forum, and added a less noticeable sub-title, "Bogleheads Day and Night to Talk About Your Favorite Fan Company," or the fun company. Even though we didn't personally know each other, our small group of Bogleheads still felt like family. In their family spirit, I made a post on the forum at Thanksgiving time in 1999, expressing my thanks for all the good things I had in my life.

Others jumped in, saying that was what they were thankful for. In addition to posting how thankful he was for his wife and family, Taylor stated that he was also thankful for his beautiful condo overlooking Biscayne Bay that he calls the house-- OK, Taylor. OK, Mel, Mel, you're just taking all my thunder here.

Jack Bogle, Jack Bogle was responsible for his investment success and his ability to live the good life in his beautiful condo. Jack Bogle saw that post and sent a handwritten note to Taylor, asking Methods if there was any way, any interest in us Bogleheads getting together with him, at a non-resort place, typical Jack.

For us, that was like getting an invitation to the White House for an audience with the Pope. So Taylor and I started trying to figure out how we could take Jack up on his generous offer. At that time, I was for Snowbird, sending my winners to Florida. Knowing that, Taylor contacted me, letting me know that Jack was going to be the keynote speaker, along with none other than Jim Craver, at the Miami Herald Maker Money Seminar in January, and wondering if we should try to see if we can get together with Jim there.

I agreed, and the planning started. I contacted the Miami Herald Group, asking if they could provide us with a time to play during the seminar, where we could have a fun lunch with Jack. They shooed us away by group, because they didn't have time to meet with us. Jack called Jack's office and told him what they said.

Jack's response was, "I'll go anywhere you'd like." So we made plans to get together with Jack at a private affair in Taylor's lovely Miami condo. We barged in staff to help with the dinner, and Taylor and I hosted Jack in about a 20-something overhead, at an evening with Jack Boone that none of us will ever forget.

I should point out that once the Miami Herald folks found out that Jack would be joining us bogaheads off-site, they came hat in hand and asked if they could send a photographer and a reporter to cover our evening with Jack. Instead of being jerks by refusing to commentate them as they had done to us, we allowed them to join us, and ended up with a great story with pictures of our evening with Jack on the front page of the Sunday business section of the Miami Herald.

After that lovely dinner, we all sat around in the living room and chatted with Jack as he answered everyone's questions and chatted about whatever anyone inquired about. It was truly a magical evening. Jack then said that he wanted to make a post on the Morning Star Forum telling all the bogaheads who couldn't attend what a great night he had that evening with his bogaheads in Florida.

When making that Morning Star Forum post, Jack named Taylor the king of the bogaheads and me the prince of the bogaheads. I told Taylor countless times that this is one prince who has no desire to be king, so he's going to have to stick around as long as I do.

So far at age 98, Taylor's doing a great job of living up to his part of our bargain. Taylor and I had figured that the Miami get-together with Jack was a one-time event, but then other bogaheads who weren't able to attend the Miami get-together with Jack started asking when and where the next event would be held.

A bogahead named Dave owned a farm near Vanguard and offered to host our second event. Sadly, Dave died before the scheduled event, but his family insisted on holding the event in Dave's honor. Jack Bogle served as our guide as we toured nearby Vanguard, and Jason Swagg, who was with Money magazine at that time, spoke at the event and ended up writing a very nice story with lots of photos for Money magazine titled "Here Come the Bogleheads." Future events were planned around events where Jack was speaking.

Morningstar hosted us for our third event at their big event in Chicago where Jack was speaking, and other groups, such as the CFA Institute, did the same in future years. Eventually, though, we ran out of invitations to hold our events in coordination with an event where Jack was speaking.

In 2005, when Teller and I were busy writing our first book, Jack asked me when the next event was going to be held. I told him that we couldn't coordinate it with anywhere where he was speaking, and that's when Jack told me not to worry about where he was speaking, that he'd go wherever we wanted him.

That's when we went out on our own, using local Boglehead chapters to help with the coordination of the subsequent conferences around the country. At this time, I need to give a big shout-out to my former Vogel Center board and conference team members who made the previous events such a great success.

They included Pat and Eddie Rager, and Paul and Linda Gloverson. And several other members of my team are volunteering right here at the conference again today. Mel and Kathy Turner and Gail Cox. I called them my dream team, and that title was well-deserved. They made me look good, for which I'm eternally grateful.

And now, with the passing of the torch to the new Boglehead Center board members, the Boglehead conferences are going to live on bigger and better than ever. Enjoy your conference experience. Hopefully, I'll see you next year. Thank you, Mel. Wait, wait, wait. One more time for Mel. All right.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much, Mel, for taking the time today. I know how busy you are. And we hope that everything goes well for you and for Marlene. So take care, and we'll see you at the conference next year. Sounds good, Rick. You take care. Semper Fi, everybody.

Semper Fi. Semper Fi.