“The stock market is nothing more than gambling and a legalized pyramid scheme”
“the stock market is simply based on the greater fool theory”
Probably lost a good chunk during 2000-03 (as I did on paper). Still, neither of the above quotes are true about the “Stock Market”. For some companies and some market sectors, for sure. But, if you can avoid the “hype”, “the flavor of the day” and “not chase last years returns” it is fairly easy to do well in the market OVER TIME, by picking a good no load, low fee fund (as surveyor suggested), not trading it and reinvesting the distributions.
I read that RE as an asset has only beat inflation by 1-2% for the last 100 years, but the S&P has done +7%. True, RE has the advantage of greater leverage and potentially better cashflow (which adds it’s own risks). The S&P PE is now around 17 which is the historical mean. The PE of SD RE is what?, maybe 20 or 25? And on a rent growth rate of only 3% versus corp earnings growth of 10%. I say how can you not buy shares of solid companies?
Investing in stocks (funds) is buying a piece of paper, but so is the deed to a house (and a dollar bill, or a bank statement, for that matter) it’s all representative paper, pick your poison.
BTW: my favorite funds, buying since 1994 are DODGX and RPMGX. I have no plans to ever sell them.
