You might know the difference between a bond and a bond fund, but there's nothing in your post that highlights the distinction for the readers who don't. As an example, you state:
> I’d also recommend investing in a bond index fund. Bonds tend to do well when stocks do poorly, and vice versa, so investing in both will tend to reduce your risk.
Notwithstanding the fact that "bonds tend to do well when stocks do poorly" is a vast oversimplifcation[1], "I’d also recommend investing in a bond index fund" is far too general a statement to be considered actionable advice.
This is not actionable advice either:
> But there is a simple trick to minimize your taxes: buy municipal bonds for the state where you live. For example, Vanguard offers municipal bond funds for many states, including a bond fund for California.
Vanguard offers multiple bond funds for California (there's an intermediate-term and long-term). Which one are you referring to, and why?
If you followed the title of your post ("Nine hard-won lessons about money and investing") and didn't package your own lessons as "advice" (your words, not mine) for everyone else, I think folks would have responded less critically to it. Instead, you ironically dissed financial advisors while providing "advice" far less detailed and actionable than one could expect from even the most mediocre or inexperienced of financial advisors.
> I’d also recommend investing in a bond index fund. Bonds tend to do well when stocks do poorly, and vice versa, so investing in both will tend to reduce your risk.
Notwithstanding the fact that "bonds tend to do well when stocks do poorly" is a vast oversimplifcation[1], "I’d also recommend investing in a bond index fund" is far too general a statement to be considered actionable advice.
This is not actionable advice either:
> But there is a simple trick to minimize your taxes: buy municipal bonds for the state where you live. For example, Vanguard offers municipal bond funds for many states, including a bond fund for California.
Vanguard offers multiple bond funds for California (there's an intermediate-term and long-term). Which one are you referring to, and why?
If you followed the title of your post ("Nine hard-won lessons about money and investing") and didn't package your own lessons as "advice" (your words, not mine) for everyone else, I think folks would have responded less critically to it. Instead, you ironically dissed financial advisors while providing "advice" far less detailed and actionable than one could expect from even the most mediocre or inexperienced of financial advisors.
[1] https://media.pimco.com/Documents/PIMCO_Quantitative_Researc...