Taylor Larimore – Author Biography
Early Life
Taylor Larimore was born in 1924. As a young man he served as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge — service for which he earned multiple decorations. After the war he graduated from the University of Miami’s School of Business Administration and built a career in financial services, including work as an insurance underwriter, an IRS revenue officer, and chief of the financial division of the Small Business Administration in South Florida.
Career
In retirement Larimore discovered the investing philosophy of John “Jack” Bogle — low costs, broad diversification, and index funds — and became its most devoted apostle. On the Morningstar Vanguard Diehards forum and later Bogleheads.org, he spent hours every day for years answering investors’ questions for free, preaching what he called the Boglehead philosophy. Bogle himself dubbed him “the King of the Bogleheads.” With Mel Lindauer and Michael LeBoeuf he co-authored The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing (2006), which became the movement’s bible, followed by The Bogleheads’ Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio (2018) — his signature advice: a simple portfolio of total U.S. stock, total international stock, and total bond index funds.
Major Works
Larimore’s books are The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing (2006, with Mel Lindauer and Michael LeBoeuf) and The Bogleheads’ Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio (2018). His decades of forum posts constitute an equally important body of work.
Writing Style and Themes
Larimore writes with veteran clarity and gentlemanly directness — short sentences, plain truths, zero jargon. His central message never wavered: keep investing simple, keep costs low, diversify broadly, stay the course. His recurring themes are humility before the market, the folly of complexity sold by the financial industry, and generosity — he gave his wisdom away for free to strangers for decades. His famous three-fund portfolio is the ultimate expression of his philosophy: everything you need, nothing you don’t.
Legacy
Taylor Larimore is the beloved patriarch of the Bogleheads — the online community of do-it-yourself investors that is John Bogle’s living legacy. His decades of free counsel helped countless ordinary people secure their retirements, and his three-fund portfolio remains the default recommendation for sensible investing. He proved that the most valuable financial advice is also the simplest — and that generosity compounds like interest.
