The Case for Boring Index Funds in Your Twenties

The financial advice that consistently makes the most people the most money is the most boring advice you can imagine: pick a low-cost broad-market index fund, contribute to it every month, do not look at the price.

This advice has been right for forty years. It is right today. It will be right ten years from now. The reason the advice gets ignored is that it does not generate engagement. There is nothing to argue about. There is no influencer to follow. There is no community to join. There is just the slow accumulation of wealth through dollar-cost averaging into something diversified.

The Objections

"I want to beat the market." Almost no professional fund manager beats the index over a 20-year horizon. You are not the exception.

"This sounds too simple." It is genuinely that simple. The complexity is psychological, not financial.

"Crypto / individual stocks / options will get me there faster." Sometimes. More often, they will get you to a different place.

The right portfolio for most people in their twenties is 80-100% in a low-cost broad-market index fund (something like VWCE in Europe, VTSAX in the US). The rest is bonds, optional. Total complexity: one or two funds. Total decisions per year: zero.

The reason most personal finance content does not say this is that it does not need to be said again. The reason it bears saying again is that most people still are not doing it.