This page sets forth links to articles referring to Rob Bennett’s book Passion Saving: The Path to Plentiful Free Time and Soul-Satisfying Work to his daily Financial Freedom Blog, to the rise of The New School of Safe Withdrawal Rate Analysis (founded and led by Rob) and Valuation-Informed Indexing, and to Rob’s other writings on the Passion Saving approach to money management.
Bankrate.com, Find Frugal — But Not Cheap — Gifts
Juicy Excerpt: “Show your affection not by spending a lot but by being creative in picking the perfect gift within the spending limit,” suggests Rob Bennett, author of the daily Financial Freedom Blog at PassionSaving.com.
Fortune, Recipe for a Meltdown
Juicy Excerpt: Forget the chatter, ignore the headlines, and follow the math. Prices will get a lot more attractive. The process is underway. All investors have to do is wait.
Note: This article does not make direct reference to the Valuation-Informed Indexing approach to investing. However, it provides a good summary of the principles that demand that rational investors lower their stock allocations when prices reach the sorts of levels that apply today as well as an explanation of why P/E10 is a better valuation tool than the more frequently cited P/E1.
Aaron Friday writes in his blog entry for February 8, 2008, that: “I stumbled across Rob Bennett’s website in one of my hazy and tired, nightly quests for truth on the internet. This man has a lot to say about saving, spending and investing, and all of it is worth reading. His ideas about using, saving and investing money are what kettlebells are to physical training. They’re functional, they’re powerful, and they’re simple. They will inspire you to learn what makes investing work and what makes financial freedom possible. Just be open-minded and get ready to read, a lot. We’ve exchanged a few emails, and he hasn’t even suggested that I buy his book, which I will. Smart, insightful man. Good guy. Go there and read it all. Your personal wealth is a tool. Use it masterfully, confidently and with a purpose.” I am grateful to Aaron for those extremely kind words.
CareerChanger at Squidoo.com lists as one of her “Practical Career Change Resources” the article at the “Retire Different!” section of the site entitled “Six Unconventional Mid-Life Career Change Tips.”
FrontierMidWife is using PassionSaving.com to “make some plans for my future lifestyle.” She explains that: “I listened to a podcast about this guy who coined this term…passion saving. It’s all about saving in order that you can pursue your passions now, or soon, NOT “saving for retirement.” She adds that, “It actually is a lot like the “Your Money or Your Life” idea,” which is so (that book was the single biggest influence on my thinking in the saving area).
InvestorBlogger links (no longer available) to the article “Financial Pornography Is Not Sexy,” in the “The Self-Directed Life” section of the site.
I post a Letter to the Editor at the Early-Retirement-Planning-Insights.com site entitled Valuations Before the Great SWR Debate.
I say: “The Great Safe Withdrawal Rate Debate is the product of three recent developments. One, we have more access today to statistical data on the long-term performance of stocks than we have had in the final years of any earlier out-of-control bull market. Two, middle-class participation in the stock market is greater today than it was in earlier out-of-control markets (because we now provide for our own retirements, and such). Three, the internet discussion-board communications medium permits sustained questioning of arguments and methodologies to an extent that earlier communications mediums did not.”
The University of Toronto lists the article “Stock Valuation Made Easy” (at the “Investing for Humans” section of the site) as “Recommended Reading.” [Link no longer available.]
The University of Toronto refers its students to PassionSaving.com for background on fundamental analysis of stocks. [Link no longer available.]
Johnny2000 gives us a push at LinkFilter.net
Texas Money Talk lists PassionSaving.com as one of its “Daily Reads.”
I post a Letter to the Editor at the Early-RetirementPplanning-Insights.com site entitled When P/E10 Equals 8. I say: “Drawing down from a portfolio with a high stock allocation is inherently a dangerous business. Most retirees of today have no idea what sort of risks they are taking on when that make that shift from the accumulation stage to the distribution stage.”
The FIRE Finance blog includes “The Financial Freedom Blog” in its list of The Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs (#94 in the “Compete Rankings” list).
Bob’s Financial Web Site presents tables showing the strong correlation between P/E10 values and Year 20 returns.
Bob’s Financial Web Site presents lots of tables on SWRs and P/E10 and such.
The Tightfisted Miser writes a review of my book Passion Saving: The Path to Plentiful Free Time and Soul-Satisfying Work. The blog author writes: “This book is more about motivation than nuts and bolts…. The main focus of this book is changing how you think about money and savings.”
Katy Marquardt writes about the split-off of the Bogleheads community from the Vanguard Diehards community at her U.S. News and World Report blog. I argue in a comment that: “The internet discussion board is an important communications medium of the future. We learn things on discussion boards that we cannot learn through books or magazine articles or speeches. The magic is that we get to see how real live people apply the theories they learned about in books and magazine articles and speeches.”
I write a guest blog entry for the plonkee money blog entitled Saving 10 Percent Is Death. I say: “Telling people to save 10 percent places a ceiling on their saving efforts as often as it places a floor on them. The save-10-percent advice encourages a way of thinking about saving in which people see it as something that must be forced, something that is boring, something that requires self-denial.”
I post a Letter to the Editor at the www.Early-Retirement-Planning-Insights.com site entitled Year 10 Choices. I say: “Should allocation shifts be made only after PE/10 changes have been “confirmed” by holding at the new level for a specified amount of time? Or should the shifts be lagging shifts, completed only after the actual PE/10 has moved a little further in the same direction as the change that prompts the allocation change according to the numbers?”
I post a Letter to the Editor at the www.Early-Retirement-Planning-Insights.com sit entitled The Story Behind the Numbers. I say: “The idea that investors make allocation decisions with the thought of what is going to happen in 30 years uppermost in their minds is a myth. It is a myth without foundation in facts or experience or reason. It is a nonsense assumption.”