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> I looked up Schwab's costs, and boy are there are a lot of asterixes there I have been a Vanguard customer for 15 years, always invested in index funds, and

> I looked up Schwab's costs, and boy are there are a lot of asterixes there I have been a Vanguard customer for 15 years, always invested in index funds, and never ever paid even just $0.01 in transaction fees. And the other brokerages are virtually just the same, there is a lot of healthy competition so everyone offers their index funds with free trading. You really have to go out of your way to pay fees (e.g. buy derivatives or some weird mutual fund with fees). > And how much have you put into that? I keep track of it in several spreadsheets, and as of today 40% of my portfolio comes from direct contributions, and 60% is market returns. The beauty of it is that the longer you keep your portfolio running, the wider this ratio gets (due to compounding effects) while keeping the same risk tolerance. > It was probably not 4 figures. No reasonable investment would allow you to go from 4 figures to 7 figures in a decade — maybe in 30 years. I am not a speculative investor, I don’t buy bitcoin nor Tesla nor single stocks. I invest in world-diversified index funds since my risk appetite is heavily skewed towards capital preservation rather than 100x returns.

falcolas 7y ago
So at least 6 figures went into it, somewhere between $400,000 and $4M. The simple ability to invest that much money over 15 years puts you in exceptionally rare air. A vast majority of people can't afford to save over $27,000 per year, let alone invest it. Your financial stability, even minus your investments, are likely at a point that a vast, vast majority of people are incapable of reaching (short of a lottery ticket, or similar event). I'd also point out that, as an investor of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you get concessions from brokers that people investing hundreds or thousands of dollars don't get. You're a top-tier investor. Not elite, but orders of magnitude above from the median. I'm happy for you. I really am. But it's important to understand that most of the US, let alone the world, is incapable of reaching the same heights as you.

falcolas 7y ago

So at least 6 figures went into it, somewhere between $400,000 and $4M. The simple ability to invest that much money over 15 years puts you in exceptionally rare air. A vast majority of people can't afford to save over $27,000 per year, let alone invest it. Your financial stability, even minus your investments, are likely at a point that a vast, vast majority of people are incapable of reaching (short of a lottery ticket, or similar event). I'd also point out that, as an investor of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you get concessions from brokers that people investing hundreds or thousands of dollars don't get. You're a top-tier investor. Not elite, but orders of magnitude above from the median. I'm happy for you. I really am. But it's important to understand that most of the US, let alone the world, is incapable of reaching the same heights as you.