Common sense #1: Investing

Because the investing information market place is dominated by bad actors, which directly or indirectly promote bad investment behavior, I want to do my part by sharing my favorite educational material, which allow anyone to identify and avoid the most common bad investment behaviors.

Summary

good

total market index funds
minimize fees
minimize taxes

mid

factor investing
leverage

bad

trying to beat the stock market

actively managed funds
stock picking (country picking, sector picking, dividend investing, ..)
market timing

very bad

speculating on non productive asset prices (precious metals, crypto/nft)

Sources

Why total market index funds and not trying to beat the stock market:

(51 min interview) Jack Bogle on Index Funds, Vanguard, and Investing Advice
(Text) Jack Bogle: "The Relentless Rules of Humble Arithmetic"
(5 hour audiobook) Jack Bogle - The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Once you understand how trying to beat the stock market is a bad idea, you also understand that trying to beat the market of non productive asset pricing is an even worse idea.

Testimony

(3 min video) Warren Buffett pays tribute to Jack Bogle
(6 min video) Warren Buffett - How to Invest in Index Funds

Advanced

The only reasonable divergence, that I am aware of, to actually increase expected returns, but comes with major increase in risk, volatility and complexity: