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Companies come and go, especially tech stocks and whatnot. Buy a single share of the DJIA at 13k in 2007, see it drop to 8.5k, wait a couple of years and - wait

Companies come and go, especially tech stocks and whatnot. Buy a single share of the DJIA at 13k in 2007, see it drop to 8.5k, wait a couple of years and - wait - it's at 16,500. It's a 27% return in 6 years, which isn't great, but considering the crash, you're still up. That said, I don't know much about investing. But index funds seem to me (completely useless when it comes to investing) one of the safer bets if I'm going to be in the market at all.

Consultant32452 13y ago
The reason why index funds are better is because they're generally managed by a very simple computer algorithm which means very very low fees compared to actively managed funds. If you look over the lifetime of someone's 401k it's really shocking how much is eaten up in fees. Also, over long periods of time you're generally not going to beat the market. What you pointed out about the DJIA having lots of fluctuation, particularly during crashes, is why it's important to keep investing a little every paycheck. That way when stocks are low you're buying more shares. It's a sale!