I just finished reading this thread on The Bogleheads Forum (a popular place where index investors hang out and philosophize about personal finance):

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=121776&newpost=1781884

The topic at hand isn’t all that important—it was a bunch of guys debating the get-the-party-started question of international allocation within a portfolio—but I wanted to point out an example of the dumbest way to approach personal finance or any other topic: the constant appeal to authority.

When one of the writers asked what percentage of his portfolio should be international stocks, the first reply was this:

“Why not hold 20-30 international instead? Most of the experts seem to suggest this as the ‘going allocation’ for international.”

That’s a terrible, terrible way to think, and it’s a terrible, terrible way to argue. The only way you can improve as a person is if you understand why you are doing something. It doesn’t particularly matter what … Read the rest of this article!