4 ms·

I would just like to remind here that if your goal is to create the wealth for the long term then being lazy and investing in good-old (boring) index funds is a

I would just like to remind here that if your goal is to create the wealth for the long term then being lazy and investing in good-old (boring) index funds is a better way. NYT has a nice article published recently on this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/upshot/stock-market-winning-strategy.html?smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/upshot/stock-market-winni...

mettamage 6y ago
I'm doing both until I see a clear winner. It's year 3 so far, there's no clear winner yet. My win condition: 10 years for my own stock picking. My lose condition: if I'm getting abysmal lower returns on my stock picking (e.g. 20% of index funds).
- tyrust 6y ago
  You don't need to wait, there are many historical examples of indexing beating stock picking. Also, 10 years is a pretty short time horizon considering this recent bull market is approaching that age. Good luck, though.
t0mbstone 6y ago
Or maybe, just maybe... you could do a "hybrid" approach? I have my 401K and Roth IRA maxed, an emergency fund set aside, all my debts paid off, and the vast majority of my income being set aside in safe index funds and bonds. As such, I feel like it's completely responsible for me to take a small percentage of my annual income and devote it towards "high risk investments". I call it my "gambling money". In the past 6 months, by trading and holding various cryptocurrencies, I managed to turn $100 into $1000, then $1000 into $5000. This is essentially just "play money" for me, and I don't feel guilty about throwing some of it at online sports betting or online poker or GME/AMC/BB or Dogecoin or whatever. It's money I can afford to lose, but it also has the potential to give me 100x gains while my index funds never will (at least not within my lifetime). I think it's important to maintain a balanced portfolio, and having some "gambling money" set aside for high risk investing is an important part of that.

mettamage 6y ago

I'm doing both until I see a clear winner. It's year 3 so far, there's no clear winner yet. My win condition: 10 years for my own stock picking. My lose condition: if I'm getting abysmal lower returns on my stock picking (e.g. 20% of index funds).

tyrust 6y ago
You don't need to wait, there are many historical examples of indexing beating stock picking. Also, 10 years is a pretty short time horizon considering this recent bull market is approaching that age. Good luck, though.

t0mbstone 6y ago

Or maybe, just maybe... you could do a "hybrid" approach? I have my 401K and Roth IRA maxed, an emergency fund set aside, all my debts paid off, and the vast majority of my income being set aside in safe index funds and bonds. As such, I feel like it's completely responsible for me to take a small percentage of my annual income and devote it towards "high risk investments". I call it my "gambling money". In the past 6 months, by trading and holding various cryptocurrencies, I managed to turn $100 into $1000, then $1000 into $5000. This is essentially just "play money" for me, and I don't feel guilty about throwing some of it at online sports betting or online poker or GME/AMC/BB or Dogecoin or whatever. It's money I can afford to lose, but it also has the potential to give me 100x gains while my index funds never will (at least not within my lifetime). I think it's important to maintain a balanced portfolio, and having some "gambling money" set aside for high risk investing is an important part of that.