The Masterclass

Buffett's SIMPLE Strategy Beats Wall Street The Master of investing, Warren Buffett, proved it, again. You do not need Wall Street 'professionals' to reach your financial goals. In fact, if you use them, you may give up 63% of your potential accumulations because of trading, charges, commissions and fees. Buffett made a bet with a hedge fund manager for $1 million 10 years ago. Buffett's strategy earned over 7% a year versus 2.2% for Wall Street's best and brightest. So there is no reason to pay a sales person working for a Wall Street firm to invest for you. The costs over time destroy your account success. Buffett advocates a simple low-cost strategy: Buy the stock market index in a fund like Vanguard's 500 Index. Invest in the market returns consistently and you will do better than everyone you know. Over the long term, your returns would average over 11% per year. DALBAR keeps track of returns and found that the average managed-account equity investor earned just 3.79% a year over 30 years ended 2014. The benchmark returned 11.06%. Also note, since 1997 we have been able to invest for the long term without paying ANY taxes on the gains. In the past, we had to pay for gains in our 401k, IRA and pensions in retirement. We can avoid the charges to start and maintain these tax-advantaged accounts too. Earnings are FREE after age 59 1/2. That can mean deposit $99,000 ($3000 for 33 years) for $901,000 tax-FREE income