fun w/ excel

mtg #5... 4-nov-2006 (woodbury)

hey, folks... what a great mix of diehards... new folks to the group and vets, the learning and learned, etc...

present (19):

logistics:
- started at 12:00, lots of people left at 2:30, everyone left by 3:30 (last breakout groups met on ETFs, small cap intl, and AA)
- throwbacks in woodbury
- see attached pic... 2 missing that had to leave early...

agenda:
0) noticed on the way in to the restaurant, there were 4 bald eagles flying and swooping around the restaurant... kind of cool. big birds
1) ENTIRE GROUP: “formal” introductions, e.g. your name, how you found diehard forum or this mtg group, where you live
2) asset allocation reviews by group (jim d, arleigh, paul s, phil, sandra, any others that volunteer... please bring 10 copies of your AAs [%s only])
3) pros / cons of investing in retirement accounts (401ks, roth IRAs, SEPs, etc) vs. taxable accounts
4) direction of market in 2007. (interest rates, inflation, economy, what congress changes may bring)
5) ENTIRE GROUP: investing changes each person is planning for 2006-07
5) open discussion / other issues people want to discuss
6) next meeting timing / location / format

note: for those diehards not present, don’t be fooled by the above rigid sounding agenda... these were just starting points / talking points. there were informal discussions of AA, changes, bonds / TIPs, int’l small caps, authors / books, etc

next meeting:
in 4-5 months, location to be determined, same (informal) agenda. any and all ideas for locations, dates, formats on the next meeting are more than welcome!
- phil suggested ensuring the next location has a wifi hot spot, so that we can be doing ‘instant x-ray’, and ticker lookups, etc. on laptops
- IPS... next meeting for anyone willing to share their Investment Policy Statement see http://news.morningstar.com/classroom2/course.asp?docId=4439&page=1&CN=COM for details on what an IPS is
- wes and diane volunteered to host another get together at wes’ place in chanhassen... altho very grateful for the invite, we don’t want to ‘use up our welcome’ too soon and make them work too much. so we’ll probably take them up on their offer for the late summer get together two meetings out. thanks, wes and diane! can’t wait to see what you cook for us (slow cooked ribs!?!)

personal thoughts
these meetings just keep getting better and better for me. having our own room (or place of business, ala wes’) really helps the meeting go well (instead of competing to talk in a loud restaurant. from here on out, we’ll try to always get a ‘back room’ or private meeting area. besides the ‘entire group discussions’, i don’t know the specifics of the other groups discussions. but on our end, it was a very good time. i was shocked to look at my cell and realize it was already 2:00... time flies when talking w/ diehards, i guess. looking forward to next one

best,
chuck d

mtg #4... 15-jul-2006 (wes's place chanhassen)

present (9):

agenda:
- bowing to the boglehead that diane got off ebay ;-)
- bbq pork shoulder that wes prepared, w/ all the fixin’s... a definite highlite
- informal discussions of AA, changes, bonds / TIPs, int’l small caps, authors / books, do-it-yourself investing vs. letting ‘professionals’ burn thru your money (no bias here, tho), individual stock investing, etc etc

next meeting:
in 3-4 months, location to be determined, same (informal) agenda. any and all ideas for locations, dates, formats on the next meeting are more than welcome!

misc thoughts
thanks again, wes, for the excellent set up and meal. for me personally, this was the ‘best’ mn diehard meeting yet... great food, not too loud for discussions, good turnout, we’re getting to know and remember each other’s asset allocations and investing philosophies better, and got us out of the 100 degree heat and into a very nice AC set of rooms. i scanned in page 213 of the boglehead book. john advised starting w/ this page. and THEN reading the rest of the book. attached find some pix of the event and p213.

mtg #3... 25-mar-2006 (billy's, grand ave)

MN (midwest) diehards:

great seeing everyone again, and great meeting some new DHers, too! we met for about 2.5 hours at billy’s on grand today.

11 attendees (left to right):

steve s went to fidelity as part of his trip north... the fidelity guy told him to ‘save and invest less money’! that fidelity guy must not work w/ many diehards...

also, steve s showed some software he uses to manage his portfolio: the bailey fund manager... http://www.beiley.com/fundman/index.html free for first 30 or 90 days, then $60, i think he said...

i won’t rehash the entire meeting, but we had lunch, then moved into a quieter room, broke into two tables, and discussed everyone’s portfolios that wished to share theirs, along w/ other investing issues / questions. lots of talk about i-bonds and general bonds, as well as tax deferred investing, rebalancing, etc. very good info and topics, i thought.

for mark and other ‘new’ diehards, here’s link to diehard forum
http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/asp/AllConv.asp?forumId=F100000015

and the DH page that lots of folks use to view the morningstar page:
http://www.diehards.org/

diehard chapters
http://www.lostsprings.com/diehards/chapters/

wes volunteered to host the next midwest diehard meeting at his business in chanhassen (thanks, wes!). in about 3 months, give or take... june-july-ish. stay tuned for future emails as we get closer to summer.

if anyone has additional ideas for future topics, formats, ways to organize the meetings, i’m all ears. i’m pretty informal (too informal?) during these, and just like the discussions to flow naturally and go where they may...


best regards,
chuck D <<< and the mystery of my moniker was solved, too. i signed up w/ morningstar back in ’99, almost as a fluke. i used as my username an old school rapper, chuck D of public enemy, thinking it would be a one-time use / visit to the site... well, 7 years later, i’m still visiting the diehard forum.. as chuck D... whoda thunk it? too late to change now! (and as always, if you want to be removed from this email list or change your email to another account, just reply back to this, and i’ll make the change)

mtg #2... 25-jun-2005 IGH, appleebees

all: once again… i had a great time chatting w/ everyone. there were 7 of us. for those not able to make it… here’s the ‘mtg minutes’:

steve (from worthington) brought along his vanguard printout of ‘everything you wanted to know about your funds but were afraid to ask’ report. we also discussed asset allocation, investing in retirement (jim just retired 6 months ago… great perspective), the new roth 401k, % international, ‘worst investing mistakes’ we’ve made. (wes and his can of oil that still sits on his desk was a great lesson/reminder story). a pretty free wheeling discussion all over the map of investing / health of economy / deficits / strength of dollar / AA / etc. hope it was worth the trip for steve (3 hrs… ONE(!) way… now that’s a dedicated dieharder!)

started at 12:00, wrapped up about 2:15

next get together: september/octoberish, on a saturday, 12:00… we need restaurant and city ideas for next meeting… i’d throw out the ideas of majors sports café in woodbury (great, quiet meeting rooms w/ lunch), or ferns on selby in saint paul (no special rooms but big restaurant) or doolittles in eagan (seating may be crowded/loud). and the dates of sep 17 or oct 22. anybody care to ‘vote early and often’ on place/date?

chuck D

mtg #1... 12-mar-2005

who: MN Diehards… all spouses, significant others, friends, etc. welcome to also attend
when: march 12th, 12:00,
where: at bonfires on grand ave, st. paul,
what: kickoff meeting of MN Diehards
why: discussions about diehard topics, some good (reasonably priced) food, etc

========

i guess we're 'official'... thanks for the quick responses. here's some info and questions:

- we're chapter #14, MN/Twin Cities.

- we're listed on the official, unofficial chapter website here, and have our 'pushpin' on the map > http://www.lostsprings.com/diehards/chapters/

- there's 7 of us (so far), mostly from metro area and one from worthington (gets the award for longest possible commute

- 1st get together, march 12th, 12:00, at bonfires on grand ave, st. paul, w/ all spouses, significant others, friends, etc. welcome to also attend (i think i can safely put my wife in the 'no' column... she's already sick of discussing finances w/ me!)

- then, we could generate some topics of conversation, or just wing it (possible starters: how did you find the diehards website? how did you find vanguard? your biggest investing mistake? (i enjoyed that thread on the board last month), etc.

- what are your ideas for organizing, for communicating (any webmasters out there?), for meeting locations, dates, times, formats, etc? can you make it on march-12, if that works for most others?

chuck D