I Guess I'm at 'That Age'

Two people recently died who had an influence on my life, so I was sad to see them go.

They’re two people you’ve probably never heard of: Harris Wofford and John C. Bogle.

Harris Wofford was appointed to the United States Senate in 1991 by Gov. Robert P. Casey following the death of Sen. H. John Heinz III in an airplane crash. (If you’re like me and have seen more than a half-century roll past, then you might remember that shocking event.)

At the time, I was a rookie reporter at the Altoona Mirror, covering the City Hall beat. I wore an imaginary fedora to work each day and wrote detailed stories about whatever Altoona City councilmembers were fighting about that week.

My politics were a little different then and I was inspired by Wofford’s appointment. He had helped get John F. Kennedy elected president, served in Kennedy’s White House and helped form the Peace Corps. He was active in the civil rights movement and later, as a senator, championed universal health care. (According to wikipedia, in 2015, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh complained of Wofford, “Health care as a right – you know who started that line of thinking? A guy named Harris Wofford, who was a senator from Pennsylvania.” As I said, my politics were different back then.)

I was electrified by the possibility of working with Wofford. To me at the time, he seemed to be a different kind of politician, one who was in it not for his own gain but to truly get positive things done for the nation. I based this on comments he made following his appointment. Anyone who had helped found the Peace Corps and who had been a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. had to be a good person, I thought.

I dashed off a letter and resume offering to work for him. I was not certain that his office would have any interest in me and I was right. After a few weeks, I got a very nice rejection letter telling me that a lot of people had applied to work for Sen. Wofford and he obviously couldn’t hire everyone.

A bit more cynical

It’s hard now to recapture that feeling of excitement that a politician awoke in me. Today, 28 years later, I’m far more cynical. I find it hard to belive that most politicians actually work for the public good and that they have anything in mind beyond their own egos and the acquisition of power.

Wofford’s death on Jan. 21 at the age of 92 reminded me how far I’ve come in my politics. Today, it is unlikely that any politician would inspire me to want to work for him. Today, I would have trouble reconciling my political beliefs with Wofford’s.

But when I heard of his death, it brought up in me a remembering of those bright-eyed days long ago when I thought I could sign up for a campaign to make the world a better place.

Sigh.

John C. Bogle

The other guy, John C. Bogle, was the inventor of the index mutual fund. An index mutual fund, according to wikipedia, is a mutual fund “designed to follow certain preset rules so that the fund can track a specified basket of underlying investments.”

Most people are familiar with mutual funds only as something an investment guy told them to put some money into inside their 401(k).

I spent some time in the world of investments – selling stocks, bonds and mutual funds – and once I realized what was really going on, I fled.

I am disparaging no specific person or firm when I say this, but my experience in the world of investing showed me very clearly two things:

1. Many “investment professionals” are more interested in their own Mercedes-Benz payments than in their clients making money and

2. The world of Wall Street no longer permits the (relatively) easy success of the small investor. The big guys have rigged the system.

Before you fire off an email telling me that you are an investment professional who has made millions for his clients or that you’re a day trader who has made himself rich, let me say four little words. Two of those words are for the “investment professional” and those words are “fiduciary duty.” The other two words are for the “genius” investor and they are “horse puckey.”

My apologies for the rough language and for stepping on toes, but those are my firmly held and informed opinions about the world of investing.

I’ve decided to put my retirement money into businesses with actual customers, not whatever the heck it is they’re selling on Wall Street these days.

I revered John Bogle because he spoke about investing pretty much the way I did above. He had no time for the con men or the idea that investing was too complex for the average guy. He invented a simple form of investing that tracked the stock market and rewarded its investors as the market grew.

With Bogle’s index mutual fund, there was no need for expensive advice from an “investment professional.” Ordinary people could put money into an investment that would grow along with the market. It required no special expertise to use or understand.

That makes him a hero. He died Jan. 16 at 89.

Thanks for reading.