A tribute to Money’s Walter Updegrave

Daniel Solin writes for U.S. News & World Report a tribute to recently retired Money columnist Walter Updegrave.

Solin writes, “As a fellow journalist, I admired the clarity of his writing and especially the soundness of his advice. There are relatively few sources of good financial advice. The space is largely dominated by what Jane Bryant Quinn correctly called ‘financial pornography.’

“Jonathan Clements set the standard most of us try to follow during his tenure at the Wall Street Journal. My colleagues Larry Swedroe and Jared Kizer are an excellent source of financial advice. You can find Swedroe’s blog at CBS MoneyWatch and Kizer’s blog at Multifactor World. My colleague Carl Richards has a unique ability to simplify investing. His blogs appear on The New York Times. Allan Roth’s blog at CBS Money Watch is always worthy of a careful read, as are the blog posts of my former colleagues, Jay Franklin and Mark Hebner, which can be found at the website of Index Funds Advisors. Rick Ferri’s blog posts are among my favorites. They appear in Forbes. The Bogleheads forum is also an excellent resource for investors.

“Unfortunately, most of what passes for financial journalism is not informative or helpful to investors. Examples abound, but the most obvious are Jim Cramer, and almost all the talking heads who appear on CNBC and other financial news programs who purport to have the ability to predict the direction of the markets or to select stocks or mutual funds that are likely to outperform. Websites likes Seeking Alpha perpetuate the myth that trying to beat the markets is an intelligent way to invest, rather than simply gambling. To illustrate this point, the title of a talk I give to investing groups is: “Seeking Alpha…and Getting Clobbered!” That’s a more accurate description of the reality for investors.

“Updegrave’s final column typifies the solid advice that marked his tenure at Money. In answer to an inquiry from a reader who wanted to know about his personal retirement planning, Updegrave noted that he saved on a regular basis and funded retirement accounts available to him as a freelance journalist and subsequently as an employee at Money.”

Read more here.