Index funds shouldn't be measured by the benchmark indexes as many companies come and go in the very long run. It's not the same performance if you put X money

Index funds shouldn't be measured by the benchmark indexes as many companies come and go in the very long run. It's not the same performance if you put X money in year 1234 after Y years, some of that X money went to the toilet and the tracker index picked other stocks. There are examples of even great and old big names falling to ashes right now: Lehman Brothers, AIG, and GM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average#Former_components http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average#Fo... And you lose a lot of mobility on most index funds, I'm still fighting Fidelity to get my money out of one! Don't make my mistake, Dilbert should stick to cartoons.