Danny ChaiIf you’re really concerned about the long term and not being greedy, Slim (as if he reads this page), you should be investing in broad index funds, not individual stocks. You won’t get rich quick, but long term you’ll do well (in all likelihood better than you would picking individual stocks), and you mitigate the risks.
There are tons of reasons why (good) index funds are better than individual stock picking, especially if you’ve decided to think long term and not be greedy. One being hidden costs. With individual stock picks, every transaction you make incurs a fee. Plus you have to track the tax consequences yourself, and they can be significant. With index funds, assuming you buy and hold, you don’t incur the same short term capital gains taxes, which gives you a net advantage.
I dunno, I could go on and on but yeah, the point is, chances are you’ll do as good with index funds and with none of the work or worry. Like, your 20% annual return (which is, I think, an extremely unlikely long term goal) is essentially the same as the YTD return of the Wilshire 5000 index ending 8/31 (18.41%), the index our (meager and little) mutual fund tracks. Again, with zero research required, no work, and far less risk.
I dunno, whatever, just my opinion, but yeah, I’m a big fan of index funds. And I do think they win out in the long run. I dunno. I just think when analyzing your returns, you need to consider their net return (after fees, after taxes) and compare them to how you might have done with a mindless index fund. See if it’s worth the work.