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It's easy to end up ahead if you buy diversified index funds and hold them for a long period of time. Stock investing should be boring. The bigger issue is peop

It's easy to end up ahead if you buy diversified index funds and hold them for a long period of time. Stock investing should be boring. The bigger issue is people want results now and not in 10 years, and that's when the speculative investments begin. People need understand that's not what the stock market is, and that strategy is very likely to end with having the rug pulled under you.

basch 6y ago
M1 deserves some credit for designing something in the same space, but for a different market, and encouraging different behavior. They built the app around setting it and forgetting it, making day trading impossible, and auto balancing. You set percentages, and when you deposit or autodeposit, it buys whatever proportion is the shortest. You can active pick stocks or index etfs, but the only proper way to use the tool is buy and hold. More firms would be wise to offer that kind of simplicity, without having to manage WHICH shares to buy. It gives people a similar experience to buying a Total Stock Market ETF, but still lets them have some runway to be foolish. The 30% nanny state of investing software.
WalterBright 6y ago
That's the sort of knowledge that only comes with experience. Inexperienced people need to get burned a few times before they are ready to listen. I have plenty of experience in this, both my own behavior and that of many people I know.
dpoochieni 6y ago
Good luck when the ETF's see issues from poor underlying liquidity.
logicslave 6y ago
Honestly, putting your money in an ETF so you have a bit more money when you retire is stupid. You cant retire any earlier investing that way, and you are subsidizing all of the terrible sectors included in the etfs. Its brainwashing to do it.
- asdff 6y ago
  Maybe. There are leveraged ETFs that do even better than the index, and most retail investors fail to beat the index anyway. Look at all the people on reddit talking about how they are coming back from a 90% loss or something crazy.
  - logicslave 6y ago
    Leveraged ETFs are too risky. The better return is to just buy the top 30 tech companies by market cap
- ac29 6y ago
  > so you have a bit more money when you retire is stupid. You cant retire any earlier investing that way This doesnt make sense, either you have more money and can retire earlier, or you dont.
  - logicslave 6y ago
    What I meant was, the returns will not have a material impact on your retirement. You may retire a year or five early. But if you just targeted your investments a bit more, you actually have a chance at making real money. Why are people working their whole lives? Pumping all their hard earned money into a security that wont do any better than their peers and thus gets them no further ahead? Its brainwashing sold to the masses.
    - jmalicki 6y ago
      Picking stocks is work. It's just another part-time job you can do, so you have to consider what it pays (usually negative), and how much you like the job. If you like picking stocks and are demonstrably good at it, why are you messing around with doing it on your own instead of starting a hedge fund and having other people pay you for the privilege?
      - logicslave 6y ago

basch 6y ago

M1 deserves some credit for designing something in the same space, but for a different market, and encouraging different behavior. They built the app around setting it and forgetting it, making day trading impossible, and auto balancing. You set percentages, and when you deposit or autodeposit, it buys whatever proportion is the shortest. You can active pick stocks or index etfs, but the only proper way to use the tool is buy and hold. More firms would be wise to offer that kind of simplicity, without having to manage WHICH shares to buy. It gives people a similar experience to buying a Total Stock Market ETF, but still lets them have some runway to be foolish. The 30% nanny state of investing software.

WalterBright 6y ago

That's the sort of knowledge that only comes with experience. Inexperienced people need to get burned a few times before they are ready to listen. I have plenty of experience in this, both my own behavior and that of many people I know.

dpoochieni 6y ago

Good luck when the ETF's see issues from poor underlying liquidity.

logicslave 6y ago

Honestly, putting your money in an ETF so you have a bit more money when you retire is stupid. You cant retire any earlier investing that way, and you are subsidizing all of the terrible sectors included in the etfs. Its brainwashing to do it.

asdff 6y ago
Maybe. There are leveraged ETFs that do even better than the index, and most retail investors fail to beat the index anyway. Look at all the people on reddit talking about how they are coming back from a 90% loss or something crazy.
- logicslave 6y ago
  Leveraged ETFs are too risky. The better return is to just buy the top 30 tech companies by market cap
ac29 6y ago
> so you have a bit more money when you retire is stupid. You cant retire any earlier investing that way This doesnt make sense, either you have more money and can retire earlier, or you dont.
- logicslave 6y ago
  What I meant was, the returns will not have a material impact on your retirement. You may retire a year or five early. But if you just targeted your investments a bit more, you actually have a chance at making real money. Why are people working their whole lives? Pumping all their hard earned money into a security that wont do any better than their peers and thus gets them no further ahead? Its brainwashing sold to the masses.
  - jmalicki 6y ago
    Picking stocks is work. It's just another part-time job you can do, so you have to consider what it pays (usually negative), and how much you like the job. If you like picking stocks and are demonstrably good at it, why are you messing around with doing it on your own instead of starting a hedge fund and having other people pay you for the privilege?
    - logicslave 6y ago