Get rich fast(er)

I'm sure you've heard of the hot stock that skyrocketed and made someone a lot of money. Unfortunately, in many cases the people who made a lot of money did so by selling at the top. We call these folks successful traders. There aren't many of them. In fact, buying and holding a broad index fund representing the S&P 500 Index or the Total Stock Market, beats these guys as much as 85% of the time.

Index funds aren't sexy but they do work. In 2021, when most traders and stock pickers expected doom and gloom amid a pandemic, their selections lagged the index by more than 500 basis points. The boring S&P 500 delivered a 28.7% return from price gains and dividends. Was this a fluke? No, it's the 12th consecutive year that the passive S&P 500 index strategy beat the "smart money" large cap stock pickers.

Buy and hold strategies are hard to stomach when the market is volatile. But here's some news: they've been volatile for more than a dozen years now. Index investing let's you sleep at night and focus on your life rather than the latest hot stock.