King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

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daviddo
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King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by daviddo »

Financial advice he wrote as early as 930 B.C.:

"Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return." (International Allocation, Stay the Course)

"Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." (Index funds, futility of picking individual stocks)

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Don't time the market)

"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)

Does anyone know of a more senior Boglehead?
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nedsaid
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by nedsaid »

This is pretty good. King Solomon argued for broad diversification and that there is no sure thing. Sound advice.

I can't help but saying that being a King offers advantages to wealth building that most of us don't have. :D

A nice post, welcome to Bogleheads. Keep posting.
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Johnnie
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by Johnnie »

That's pretty bogle-icious.

Earlier Boglites? Didn't Pharaoh have a "seven years of grain in storage" policy? Pharaohs preceded Kings of Israel.

(Helps when you have the fertile Nile valley and annual flood - "rain makes grain," as they used to say down at the Board of Trade.)
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jpelder
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by jpelder »

He also did violate the informal Boglehead rule: stay married to your first spouse. 700 wives? I don't know how he had the time...
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baw703916
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by baw703916 »

Ancient rulers did all tend to suffer (or sometimes benefit) from home country bias--kind of like investing a lot of your assets in your employer's business. Though that was perhaps unavoidable...
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Sunflower
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by Sunflower »

Cutting babies in half - asset allocation. :P
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cfs
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by cfs »

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard to our shipmate David. Your first post! Always good to see new shipmates checking in.

Thanks for reading.
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zaboomafoozarg
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by zaboomafoozarg »

"Meaningless, meaningless," says the teacher, "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
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zaboomafoozarg
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by zaboomafoozarg »

Johnnie wrote:Earlier Boglites? Didn't Pharaoh have a "seven years of grain in storage" policy? Pharaohs preceded Kings of Israel.
Yep, the book of Genesis mentioned Joseph doing that while in Egypt.
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blaugranamd
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by blaugranamd »

Johnnie wrote:That's pretty bogle-icious.

Earlier Boglites? Didn't Pharaoh have a "seven years of grain in storage" policy? Pharaohs preceded Kings of Israel.

(Helps when you have the fertile Nile valley and annual flood - "rain makes grain," as they used to say down at the Board of Trade.)
Just grain? Sounds pretty undiversified. Should have stored smaller lots of every food known to mankind in proportion to the total food weighted percentage they account for in the world. (Total World Food Index), TWFI.

Though, to be fair, Pharaoh got insider trading advice on what the market was going to do in 7 years from God and Daniel, so he was smart to use it.
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rec7
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by rec7 »

daviddo wrote:Financial advice he wrote as early as 930 B.C.:

"Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return." (International Allocation, Stay the Course)

"Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." (Index funds, futility of picking individual stocks)

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Don't time the market)

"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)

Does anyone know of a more senior Boglehead?
That cool.
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Traveller
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by Traveller »

blaugranamd wrote:Just grain? Sounds pretty undiversified.
Well, wasn't that really just the community emergency fund? Who diversifies their emergency fund?
NMJack
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by NMJack »

daviddo wrote:Financial advice he wrote as early as 930 B.C.:

"Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return." (International Allocation, Stay the Course)

"Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." (Index funds, futility of picking individual stocks)

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Don't time the market)

"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)

Does anyone know of a more senior Boglehead?
Hard to argue with the man that God gave wisdom to like no other, and great wealth to boot. Of course, it was the wisdom that he asked for. :sharebeer
Last edited by NMJack on Sun Jul 24, 2016 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
NMJack
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by NMJack »

Okay, here's one that many won't like. "There is nothing new under the sun." In other words, we CAN expect history to be an indicator of what the market will do in the future! :P
wije
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by wije »

daviddo wrote:"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)
Sorry I didn't see how sowing seed in the morning is AA or diversification. Sounds like market timing to me.
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Blister
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by Blister »

Wasnt Solomon the guy with all the wives and mistresses. Certainly not a Boglehead there. :wink:
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by RadAudit »

Blister wrote:Wasnt Solomon the guy with all the wives and mistresses. Certainly not a Boglehead there. :wink:
Diversification.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by triceratop »

RadAudit wrote:
Blister wrote:Wasnt Solomon the guy with all the wives and mistresses. Certainly not a Boglehead there. :wink:
Diversification.
daviddo wrote:"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)
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camper1
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by camper1 »

Does anyone know of a more senior Boglehead?
How about Noah? Wasn't his Ark the ultimate emergency fund?

Got him through a pretty rough 40 days and nights :D
NMJack
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by NMJack »

camper1 wrote:
Does anyone know of a more senior Boglehead?
How about Noah? Wasn't his Ark the ultimate emergency fund?

Got him through a pretty rough 40 days and nights :D
Somebody already mentioned Joseph and, if I remember correctly, he stashed a 7 year emergency fund for all of Egypt (even shared it with his brothers who had stuck him in a hole in the ground).

Of course, for 40 years the Israelites without an emergency fund just relied upon manna from heaven. Another lesson for another forum.... :beer
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Kalo
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by Kalo »

daviddo wrote:
...
"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Don't time the market)
...
This one also makes me think of paralysis by analysis.

Kalo
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by convert949 »

zaboomafoozarg wrote:
Johnnie wrote:Earlier Boglites? Didn't Pharaoh have a "seven years of grain in storage" policy? Pharaohs preceded Kings of Israel.
Yep, the book of Genesis mentioned Joseph doing that while in Egypt.
Sounds like the bucket approach to me!
synpacket
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by synpacket »

Interesting, I always suspected John Bogle wasn't really the first. The name always seemed just a little too convenient for my liking.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by markettracker »

wije wrote:
daviddo wrote:"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (AA, diversification)
Sorry I didn't see how sowing seed in the morning is AA or diversification. Sounds like market timing to me.

It's about income diversification.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by bsteiner »

“If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me.” – Banquo in Macbeth, Act 1, scene 3. In other words, diversify.

“Ventures are not in one bottom trusted, nor to one place, nor is my whole estate upon the fortune of this present year.” – Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, scene 1. In other words, diversity and don’t put all your eggs in one boat.

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11, also says to diversify: http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo ... ter-11.htm#.

The Talmud also says to diversify: “One should always divide his wealth into three parts: [investing] a third in land, a third in merchandise, and [keeping] a third ready to hand.” Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia 42a.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by finite_difference »

It's surprisingly difficult to track down quotes from individuals prior to 500-600 BC. What's the original source for the 930 BC quotes? In terms of connecting economic quotes to an individual I think 930 BC could be hard to beat. Nicely done. The book of Genesis are stories that were collected and passed down if I recall correctly, some of which didn't make the cut.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by alfaspider »

finite_difference wrote:It's surprisingly difficult to track down quotes from individuals prior to 500-600 BC. What's the original source for the 930 BC quotes? In terms of connecting economic quotes to an individual I think 930 BC could be hard to beat. Nicely done. The book of Genesis are stories that were collected and passed down if I recall correctly, some of which didn't make the cut.
Not really too surprising to me. There really aren't that many surviving written records from before the height of classical antiquity. Prior to the rise of Greek city states like Athens, there were too few written records, too few efforts at preserving texts, and too few people who could read them. And, you have to consider that 3,000 years is an incredibly long time for something made out anything biodegradable to survive. Many of the texts from classical antiquity survive only because they were copied and preserved by scholars in the middle ages until the printing press was invented and they could be reproduced easily. Most surviving texts from before the Greeks were carved in stone.
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by convert949 »

bsteiner wrote: The Talmud also says to diversify: “One should always divide his wealth into three parts: [investing] a third in land, a third in merchandise, and [keeping] a third ready to hand.” Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia 42a.
Land = Bonds, Merchandise = Equities, Ready to hand = cash and equivalents??? Makes sense to me :D
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Re: King Solomon was the original Boglehead - historically speaking

Post by GoldenFinch »

Kalo wrote:
daviddo wrote:
...
"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Don't time the market)
...
This one also makes me think of paralysis by analysis.

Kalo
I was thinking more of the ant and the grasshopper. The grasshopper is watching the wind, checking out the clouds, and is failing to work and plan for the future. Bogleheads are definately big on planning for the future. :happy
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