The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio

Appendix II Meet the BogleheadsMel Lindauer, President, The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy

EARLY HISTORY

In 1998, there was an effort by Taylor Larimore and others to create a new online discussion forum at Morningstar.com. The new forum would be devoted to discussions of index fund investing as espoused by Vanguard founder, John C. (Jack) Bogle. The folks leading this effort were called “Bogleheads.” Back then, the term “Bogleheads” was used by non-Bogleheads as a bit of a derogatory term. However, we Bogleheads accepted it as a badge of honor.

Morningstar finally gave in to the pressure and established the new forum, but they were reluctant to name it the “Bogleheads” because they were concerned that it might be considered offensive. Instead, they chose to name the new forum the “Vanguard Diehards,” with a subheading “Bogleheads Unite to Talk About Your Favorite Fund Company.”

The new forum was a smashing success and soon became the most popular forum on Morningstar.com. Eventually, the number of posts on the new forum surpassed the count of all the other Morningstar forums combined.

BOGLEHEAD CONFERENCES

Jack Bogle responded to a Thanksgiving 1999 post he saw on the forum, asking if there were any interest in getting together with him for a day at a non-resort location. Of course there was, so Taylor and I decided to have our first-ever Boglehead get-together with Jack in Miami, where he was to be the keynote speaker at the 2001 Miami Herald Making Money seminar. ...