I have a number of things on my bucket list. One is to get "We’re Talking Millions!” in the hands of a million young people. It would seem an impossible challenge but I know it can be done. One of the reasons I know it is possible is because one of our podcasts has been opened by 977,088 listeners. Let’s see if we can take it to a million!
Paul has been writing articles about index funds for decades. The most read is “30 reasons to fall in love with index funds”. While the most common advantages are low expenses, low turnover, massive diversification, Paul suggests the #1 reason may be keeping investors as far away as possible from commission-based sales people, con artists and other conflicts of interest typically not associated with index fund providers.
Many do-it-yourself investors rely of services that have a large presence on the internet. A wonderful aspect of the internet is the ability to do meaningful due diligence on the reputations of those offering their “special ways” to perform better than index funds. But can you depend on the information you find on the internet?
Paul discusses the services of “search engine suppression consultants.” These very clever people are wizards at making bad information disappear. In fact, in many cases their fees are not earned until all the damaging information is totally eliminated. He reads an example of one such article that claims to address the pros and cons of a well-known investment manager. The pros are strong convincing points, while the cons are almost the mistakes that we would expect would be found in any firm.
Paul also addresses the outrageous life-changing fees teachers are being charged and the work of an unscrupulous sales person who holds himself out as a friend of his community.
The bottom line: None of these bad investments would be available through those who supply very low-cost index funds. The low costs don’t leave any room to take advantage of the investor.
