Thank you to everybody who took the time to answer the survey this weekend. The results were quite enlightening.
Regarding complexity
The biggest takeaway was that literally nobody said that they felt the articles/topics were too technical or complex, and 64% of respondents indicated that they’d like to see it taken up a level. Sounds fun. I’ll see what I can do. 
Granted, that doesn’t mean I intend to start spending a lot of time on complex/arcane investment strategies. I’m a firm believer that most investors stand to gain very little from strategies more complex than a simple buy & hold plan using low-cost, diversified funds.
Regarding asset allocation suggestions
Several readers indicated that they’d appreciate some guidelines for suggested asset allocations at various points throughout life. In that vein, I’ve updated my “asset allocation pyramid” article to include what I think are two very reasonable asset allocation glide paths.
Unfortunately, guidelines/suggestions are really the best I can do. There are simply too many other variables to pinpoint a precise “you should have X% in bonds, and Y% in stocks” type of answer based purely on age.
Regarding requests for historical return data
Also, a handful of readers requested that I share more facts about historical returns– “how did strategy A do against strategy B over period X?” type-of-stuff.
Strange as it may sound, I often go out of my way to avoid quoting historical return data to prove a point. I’m extremely wary of the seductive nature of data. As we’ve seen lately, our tendency to place too great a degree of trust in data has lead to some very sad scenarios for investors nearing (or in) retirement.
Of course, that’s not to say that I don’t see any value in analyzing historical investment returns. Quite the opposite in fact. I simply try (not always successfully) to avoid coming to conclusions too quickly.
Also, for any of you who are interested, I have a spreadsheet that’s a pretty good collection of data for returns provided by stocks, bonds, and gold going back to 1928. (More on this later though, it needs to be cleaned up a bit so that it’s fit for outside consumption.)
Thanks again!
So thanks again to everybody who took the time to fill out the survey. I really appreciate your feedback, and I’ll be doing my best to give you what you’ve asked for.
And that’s enough about that.
Tomorrow we’ll be back to our regular investment-related discussion.
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“(More on this later though, it needs to be cleaned up a bit so that it’s fit for **outside consumption.**)”
Lol nice =)
In regards to avoiding historical data, how about a discussion of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ideas in The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness impact an oblivious investor?
George: That’s a good idea. I’ll work on including a discussion of Taleb’s ideas in an upcoming post. Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) both of those books, I’m a big fan of his constantly-skeptical way of thinking.
Interesting findings. You’ve got to remember of course Mike that you’re asking *your* audience, not the audience that might be reading if you added X or Y. But you know that.
I’m still finding it a huge challenge to grow my UK focused blog. I don’t have the US competition, but equally the UK types don’t seem to get so passionate about money. I’ve started thinking I may need to go more personal, but that’ll probably take me down a much more mark-to-market How Am I Doing approach that you wouldn’t approve of… and which could be bad for my bank balance!
Anyway, congrats on the growth of OI. Your crisp clean articles deserve a wide readership, and it’s nice to see the comments taking off.
As you’re getting more active on Twitter, maybe you should put a link on the home page?
“You’ve got to remember of course Mike that you’re asking *your* audience, not the audience that might be reading if you added X or Y.”
Indeed. Still busy working on how to deal with that information though, heh.
As to growing your blog: Is it particularly important that the readers you attract be UK readers? My experience reading your site is that all of the same investing principles apply, which is why I link to it all the time despite the fact that 75% of my visitors are from the US.
I wonder how/if it would affect your articles/marketing if you thought of your blog as “a personal finance blog in the UK” rather than “a UK personal finance blog.”
Hi Mike, thanks for your thoughts. You make a good point, perhaps that would be an interesting way to spin it. I think I do have to find some sort of competitive difference… It’s getting crowded in the blogosphere.
Your Oblivious Investing brand is great from that point of view. My only concern is are you worried you’ll run out of topics?
I saw an interesting book in a store today by a US writer that you might want to have a look at btw. It was called the ‘Gone Fishing Portfolio’ if I remember correctly. It was 10 ETFs, but some odd ones like gold miners as well as most of the core assets of course. He claims it’s outperformed the S+P with less volatility (haven’t got it to hand, so can’t quote exactly).
You’re absolutely right that the personal finance blogosphere is getting crowded. From that perspective, it might make sense to do exactly the opposite of what I originally suggested. Perhaps try playing up the fact that you’re in the UK? (Put it in the page title/tagline/include the idea somehow in the logo?)
As to running out of topics: Well, sure. I really only have a handful of them to start with.
But I feel like I have a practically unlimited amount to say about each of those topics, hehe. And with “don’t worry about what happens in the day-to-day market” being one of my primary concepts, I think there will always be a need for somebody to take whatever is going on in the news, step back a bit, and try to put it in perspective.
And thanks for the book suggestion–just added it to my Swaptree list.
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