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Those who know me well will tell you that I'm something of a pedant. I'm not proud of it.

Left to my own devices, I'm one of those who'd go around correcting everybody's grammar. It grates on my nerves when people mangle their usage of “me” and “I”, for instance. (It's never okay to say, “She gave that to my wife and I.” And you can't make “I” possessive: “My wife and I's house is big.” Blarg!)

That said, I've learned to let things go in my old age.

Generally speaking, I just ignore grammar errors. Maybe once or twice a year, I'll correct somebody if I think they might want to be corrected. (Maybe they're another writer, for instance. Or maybe they're trying to present themselves professionally and the mistake interferes with that.)

Besides, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes of my own. I have idiosyncrasies of my own. (The way I punctuate with quotation marks is deliberate but it's certainly nonstandard.)

J.D.'s note: Last September, I wrote that I didn't believe the world of personal finance needed more politics. I acknowledged that there were vast systemic issues that hold people back, but I argued that personal finance is personal.

While I still believe that individual action is (and always will be) the primary driver of financial success, my “no politics” stance has softened. No, that doesn't mean that Get Rich Slowly is suddenly going to change into a politics blog. That's not who I am. But it does mean that I'm willing to address political issues that affect our finances. (And, to be clear, I'm open to addressing these from both liberal and conservative perspectives.)

Pop quiz! If I asked you, “Who invented the index fund?” what would your answer be? I'll bet most of you don't know and don't care. But those who do care would probably answer, “John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group.” And that's what I would have answered too until a few weeks ago.

But, it turns out, this answer is false.

Yes, Bogle founded the first publicly-available index fund. And yes, Bogle is responsible for popularizing and promoting index funds as the “common sense” investment answer for the average person. For this, he deserves much praise.

But Bogle did not invent index funds. In fact, for a long time he was opposed to the very idea of them!

What's the best long-term investment? Because you're a money nerd (and a GRS reader), I hope your answer to this question was, “Stocks!” If the future is anything like the past, that's the correct answer. History has shown that stocks are the best long-term investment — and by a wide margin.

Unfortunately, most Americans believe otherwise.

As a part of its annual Economy and Personal Finance survey (conducted during the first two weeks of April), Gallup News asked 1017 American adults, “Which of the following do you think is the best long-term investment: bonds, real estate, savings accounts or CDs, stocks or mutual funds, or gold?”

Here's how people answered: