
The best investment advice you'll never get - prakash
http://www.sanfranmag.com/print/node/3368
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suboptimal
Summary: invest in an index fund.

It was pretty cool of the Google v.p. to organize investment seminars. Also
interesting to read their list of presenters--the Googleplex is definitely on
another planet.

~~~
JohnN
I've heard about "investing in a mutual fund" a million times and I am
surprised these seasoned professionals advised googlers to do that. With
enough humility, hard work and emotional control you have a better chance of
beating the market. I've never been satisfied with investing in mutual funds
because the average returns will be lowish - 5-7%.

So I studied Buffett, Peter Lynch and few other well known investors
strategies. It took me about 4-6 months tracking their histories and the
reasons behind their decisions. From this I developed my own strategy based
largely on Buffett's and its worked a treat. Generally getting about 15%
growth a year.

But then I spend weekends looking at annual statements, reading investment
forums and have even gone to the Annual General Meetings. For me its all fun.

I guess the Googlers may not have time for that but I believe it makes no
sense buying stock of companies you can reasonably assume will perform badly
for the next 5years or so (e.g. mortage companies!). Thats what you do when
you buy an index fund. You get the good with the very bad.

~~~
mlinsey
The advice is to invest in an index fund, not a mutual fund. Most mutual funds
are exactly the wrong things to invest in, because they eat up much more of
your investment in management fees and they also have a history of usually not
beating simple index funds.

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admoin
I don't know about you, but i've gotten this advice tens of times, at least.

~~~
9oliYQjP
Same here. When my bank tries to sell me on managed funds, I like to tell the
rep that the guy that draws Dilbert told me in his book to just invest in
index funds. Then, when they try to attack my logic for listening to a
cartoonist when it comes to money advice, I rip apart the performance of their
managed funds with respect to the index ones.

~~~
kirubakaran
You seem to have perfected it to an art ;)

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kirubakaran
[http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/happ...](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/happiness_formu.html)

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brk
Back in the 90's, something similar was done at some of the telecom startups
(Cascade, etc.).

I've personally made (and lost!) a fair bit of money in the stock market. Here
is my "best advice" find a _competent_ wealth manager. This may take some
time, and it will likely be a 2-way interview (ie: they will be interviewing
YOU as well, if their client select criteria is simply "write me a check",
then move on).

Managing a decent sized lump of money, and your estate at large, is a rather
complex endeavor. Proper wealth managers (I happen to go through someone at
UBS) will have access to data streams and investments that you as an "end
user" will simply not be able to _reasonably_ gain access to.

I keep a bit of money on the side to "play with" in the stock market. But
trying to manage 100% of my portfolio on my own would be (IMO, obviously) a
less than optimal move.

Keep in mind you don't need to be "rich" either, often times you can open an
account effectively with as little as $50K or $100K. Not chump change, but you
don't need to be an *airre either.

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nazgulnarsil
this is wrong. there is no universal answer to what to invest in. smart people
go where the money is without bias. if stocks are under priced and heading for
a spike you invest in an index fund. but what about right now where the market
is grinding sideways? people who invested in commodities are making a killing.
when commodities stop making you money you abandon them too. getting attached
to an investment just because it made you money is bad.

it's harder to do than to just invest in an index fund, because you have to go
against the herd. if you had decided to dump your stock in 99 and invest in
commodities people would have said you were insane. You'd be the one laughing
now.

Go where the money is. (without bias)

~~~
nazgulnarsil
also: yeah, if you had dumped your stock in 99 you would have missed some of
the biggest upticks in 200 before the crash, but trying to outguess when the
highs and lows will be in the market will make you poor. I think it is better
to set yourself a reasonable goal, and sell when you reach it. This keeps you
dispassionate about it and prevents greed from letting you make silly
decisions.

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projectshave
Index funds are great, but you should try to invest in different indexes that
aren't correlated. Rebalance when indexes rise/fall.

