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Literally everyone invested in the S&P 500 (the most commonly touted investment strategy requiring zero effort or insight) has doubled their investment value si

Literally everyone invested in the S&P 500 (the most commonly touted investment strategy requiring zero effort or insight) has doubled their investment value since the low of March 2020 (the dates used in the article). SPY low in March 2020: $228 SPY now: $475

fjh 3y ago
Yes, it's a curious coincidence that the people writing this report, surely in good faith, just happened to pick March 2020 as the point of comparison.
worik 3y ago
SO it is OK then. Nothing to see here, move along. Back to work. We do not pay you for reading HN. Back to work I said!!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
RobRivera 3y ago
Yea its such a case of biased sampling. Next up, my blood pressure spikes after pounding 2 esspressos and a cokacola
ChadNauseam 3y ago
I thought we were done seeing this trick in 2021, when there were all those news articles describing how much money billionaires had "made" "during the pandemic" which also used March 2020 as their baseline.
MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
> Seven of the world’s ten biggest companies have a billionaire as their CEO or main shareholder, the report found. This is similarly insightful. It’s unsurprising that the richest companies are owned by the richest men.
happytoexplain 3y ago
Should I be angry that my employer-managed 401(k) is only up 43% in that time period? Edit: This is not sarcasm - I'm not knowledgeable about investment.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  Yes, but only if that 401(k) is entirely invested in a (relatively risky for retirement accounts) S&P 500 index, which is unlikely.
  - happytoexplain 3y ago
    Thanks, so I take it the parent's "zero effort or insight" characterization is in an implicitly riskier context (I was interpreting it as a synonym for "safe").
- thegrim33 3y ago
  401Ks usually target a somewhat safer subset of the market for investment than the raw S&P
  - sgerenser 3y ago
    On top of that, the default “safe” investment, US investment grade bonds, are actually down since March 2020 (which is highly unusual for bond funds over that long of a period). So a typical 401k investment of 70/30 stocks:bonds would be expected to have done significantly worse than 100% stock. See: https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&sl=3wzIVO1Rl5GptiQoHZTmBZ https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-all...
- gottorf 3y ago
  Your 401(k) is probably set up to invest in what's known as a target-date fund, where you pick a year (often rounded to the nearest one divisible by 5) you want to retire, and the fund manager allocates among various risk asset classes based on that. Almost always, the further away you are from retirement, the more risk you can take; when you near retirement, it's probably almost all in bonds and other less risky assets. Sometimes employer-managed 401(k) fund managers take a much larger management fee compared to, say, Vanguard, which adds up over decades, so you could be mad about that.
darth_avocado 3y ago
Also, SPY high in Feb 2020: $330. Did the world's richest men (and everyone else who invested in SPY) lose a third of their wealth in the month back then?
curiousgeorgio 3y ago
And most of that growth is just on paper; it represents very little growth in actual spending power. It can be explained by (1) some economic recovery after COVID and (2) devaluation of the dollar. You have more dollars, but they're worth significantly less, so you're really not much better off.

fjh 3y ago

Yes, it's a curious coincidence that the people writing this report, surely in good faith, just happened to pick March 2020 as the point of comparison.

worik 3y ago

SO it is OK then. Nothing to see here, move along. Back to work. We do not pay you for reading HN. Back to work I said!!

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

RobRivera 3y ago

Yea its such a case of biased sampling. Next up, my blood pressure spikes after pounding 2 esspressos and a cokacola

ChadNauseam 3y ago

I thought we were done seeing this trick in 2021, when there were all those news articles describing how much money billionaires had "made" "during the pandemic" which also used March 2020 as their baseline.

MatthiasPortzel 3y ago

> Seven of the world’s ten biggest companies have a billionaire as their CEO or main shareholder, the report found. This is similarly insightful. It’s unsurprising that the richest companies are owned by the richest men.

happytoexplain 3y ago

Should I be angry that my employer-managed 401(k) is only up 43% in that time period? Edit: This is not sarcasm - I'm not knowledgeable about investment.

ryandrake 3y ago
Yes, but only if that 401(k) is entirely invested in a (relatively risky for retirement accounts) S&P 500 index, which is unlikely.
- happytoexplain 3y ago
  Thanks, so I take it the parent's "zero effort or insight" characterization is in an implicitly riskier context (I was interpreting it as a synonym for "safe").
thegrim33 3y ago
401Ks usually target a somewhat safer subset of the market for investment than the raw S&P
- sgerenser 3y ago
  On top of that, the default “safe” investment, US investment grade bonds, are actually down since March 2020 (which is highly unusual for bond funds over that long of a period). So a typical 401k investment of 70/30 stocks:bonds would be expected to have done significantly worse than 100% stock. See: https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&sl=3wzIVO1Rl5GptiQoHZTmBZ https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-all...
gottorf 3y ago
Your 401(k) is probably set up to invest in what's known as a target-date fund, where you pick a year (often rounded to the nearest one divisible by 5) you want to retire, and the fund manager allocates among various risk asset classes based on that. Almost always, the further away you are from retirement, the more risk you can take; when you near retirement, it's probably almost all in bonds and other less risky assets. Sometimes employer-managed 401(k) fund managers take a much larger management fee compared to, say, Vanguard, which adds up over decades, so you could be mad about that.

darth_avocado 3y ago

Also, SPY high in Feb 2020: $330. Did the world's richest men (and everyone else who invested in SPY) lose a third of their wealth in the month back then?

curiousgeorgio 3y ago

And most of that growth is just on paper; it represents very little growth in actual spending power. It can be explained by (1) some economic recovery after COVID and (2) devaluation of the dollar. You have more dollars, but they're worth significantly less, so you're really not much better off.