Quotes from Taylor Larimore

Market timing is a poor substitute for a long-term investment plan.

Protect your assets with the proper types and amounts of insurance. Insurance is for protection. It's not an investment. Don't confuse the two.

It turns out that an investment of $601 at the beginning of each month in stock index funds, coupled with an average annual return of 10 percent, grows to the sum of $1,249,655 in 30 years. Incidentally, $601 a month is approximately 28.9 percent of a yearly salary of $25,000. And in case you might be wondering, yes, the math works the same for everybody.

Nevertheless, it's money that won't be compounding in their accounts and building their net worth.

Being a Boglehead requires planning, commitment, patience, and long-term thinking.

What most young people don't understand is that SAVING is more important in the beginning than finding the best performing investment. Having the ability to "Pay yourself first," manage your debt load, and determine a vision of what you want to accomplish is vital to your success.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years. —Warren Buffett

When emotions run high, logic flies out the window, and performance usually follows.

advisors who've earned designations from institutions with these tougher standards are more highly regarded by most Bogleheads. Two of the professional designations that fall into this highly regarded category include the Chartered Financial Advisor (CFA) and the Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

It's important to understand that bonds and bond funds have a low correlation (they don't always move in the same direction at the same time) to stocks, so bonds can be a stabilizing force for a portion of your portfolio.

We recommend that mutual fund investors avoid load funds. If financial advice is needed, use a fee-only financial planner—not a mutual fund salesperson who has a conflict of interest.

As an investor you can be well above average by settling for slightly less than the index returns.

Minors Act (UTMA) or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) are one way that parents can earmark funds for their children's education. Often gifts of cash for a child's birthdays and other special occasions end up in this account, and it grows over time.

Barra, a research firm, did a study of market impact cost and found that a stock fund with $500 million in assets and a turnover rate of 80 to 100 percent could lose 3 to 5 percent a year to market impact costs.

Morningstar is also a good source for finding out what a particular mutual fund's turnover rate is.

There is currently no limit on the amount you can gift to pay for someone's school tuition or medical bills, providing you pay them directly to the school or medical facility. Be aware, though, that while you can pay for someone's college by paying their tuition

It's important to note that Vanguard offers their low-cost ETFs commission-free, eliminating the previously mentioned downside associated with having to pay commissions to buy and sell ETFs.

Use tax-loss harvesting in your taxable account as part of your rebalancing strategy. If you have losers to sell, then sell them prior to December 31, so you can get the tax benefits on this year's tax return. If you have winners to sell in your taxable account, you might want to wait until after January 1 to sell in order to push the tax bill into the following year.

The child cannot be listed on the bond as either an owner or co-owner. However, if the child is listed on the bond as the beneficiary, the bond will still qualify for the tax-free educational benefit.

Index funds outperform approximately 80 percent of all actively managed funds over long periods of time. They do so for one simple reason: rock-bottom costs. In a random market, we don't know what future returns will be. However, we do know that an investor who keeps his or her costs low will earn a higher return than one who does not. That's the indexer's edge.

Don't invest in things you don't understand.

Indexing via low-cost mutual funds is a strategy that will, over time, most likely outperform the vast majority of strategies.

William Bernstein, Ph.D., M.D., author of The Four Pillars of Investing, frequent guest columnist for Morningstar and often quoted in The Wall Street Journal: "An index fund dooms you to mediocrity? Absolutely not: It virtually guarantees you superior performance.

You can invest in both a Coverdell ESA and a 529 plan at the same time. You're allowed to change the beneficiary to another family member. Finally, unlike an UGMA or UTMA Custodial account, you retain complete control of the assets.