XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: wthyde1953@gmail.com   
      
   Mark Jackson wrote:   
   > On 1/6/2026 6:22 PM, William Hyde wrote:   
   >   
   >>> On Tue, 6 Jan 2026 12:32:37 +1300, Your Name    
   >>> wrote:   
   >   
   >>>> If I'd known he was going to be "playing the stock market", I could   
   >>>> have predicted that he'd lose money. The stock market is an idiot's   
   >>>> game for greedy fools who can afford to lose money.   
   >>   
   >> Buy a broad index, and wait.  This strategy has worked now for about a   
   >> century and a half.  Mind you, it was not easy to do before cheap   
   >> index funds were introduced in the early 1970s on the recommendation   
   >> of a scholar of the markets.   
   > In October of 2010 I was on salary continuance after my position at   
   > Xerox was eliminated. It would run out at yearend, when I would have met   
   > the years-of-service and age to take my full defined benefit pension as   
   > a lump sum.  Since the local labor market was saturated with xerographic   
   > physicists and engineers, and I also had a significant 401(k), I was   
   > thinking about looking for an investment advisor.  A chance conversation   
   > at an out-of-state wedding pointed me to /Unconventional Success: A   
   > Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment/ by David F. Swensen, which   
   > recommended a diverse collection of index funds and a "trade only to   
   > rebalance" strategy.   
   >   
   > So I dumped the idea of paying an advisor and looked for low-cost index   
   > funds.  /The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon,   
   > and Everything in Between/ by William J. Bernstein provided detailed and   
   > reasonably current (at the time) sample portfolios for several different   
   > situations; I picked one (50/50 bonds/stocks), tweaked it a bit, and   
   > have made only one significant change to my holdings since.  Return over   
   > 15 years, corrected for withdrawals - I *am* retired after all - has   
   > been 140%; Vanguard overhead is almost negligible.  Best advice I ever got.   
   >   
      
   You've probably read it, but just in case you haven't, the stem book   
   that recommended index investing and was the inspiration for the first   
   index fund is:   
      
   "A Random Walk Down  Wall Street",   
      
   by Burton Malkiel.   
      
   The first half is a compelling read.  The second half takes a bit more   
   effort.   
      
   William Hyde   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)