What's in Your Portfolio

[tw]

Unpopular realities were discussed in 2004: investments by Wall Street professionals underperform the market. Financial professionals tend to be inferior investors. While also reaping high profits. Since their purpose is profits; not the product - service of their customers. Anyone with years experience in mutual funds typically would have learned this the hard way. Better mutual funds tend to be index funds - where no professional makes decisions.

But it gets worse.

From CBS Marketwatch.com entitled 401(k) documentary ruffles feathers:

The PBS "Frontline" documentary "The Retirement Gamble" debuted on Tuesday night [23 Apr 2013], and it made for a sobering introduction to the American savings crisis. If you've got 53 minutes to spare, and you're the kind of person who's galvanized by bad news, you can watch the entire report online at this link. I recommend it as a concise introduction to the biggest shift in the retirement landscape in our lifetimes - the migration from a corporate pension model to a self-funded model that depends on personal savings and investments.

When Frontline (PBS) does a report, informed citizens watch. Frontline, for example, in four reports repeatedly demonstrated the myths of Saddam's WMDs. If still investing in mutual funds (as if Wall Street professionals are best advise), then you still did not learn why mutual funds are typicallly a poor investments. View The Retirement Gamble here.

Anyone who invests should also know of better investment instruments that many Wall Street professionals fear you might learn. Michael Sapir, founder of ProShares and a champion of the ETF

In essence it is a mutual fund that trades on a stock exchange. So ETFs end up having greater liquidity during the hours of the day than a mutual fund that you generally can only come in and out of one time a day. You trade exchange-traded funds like a stock. Generally speaking, ETFs are passively managed or indexed.

Review investment advise in 2004 in Portfolio 101. Mutual funds were defined even then. Frontline adds more facts to the same conclusion.

Also demonstrated was what the informed and most easily brainwashed (depmats) do. Cheapshots.
Frontline is for adults. Review what was obvious 8 years ago in Portfolio 101.

If you did not do the math, then learn it from Frontline. Some finally did their homework. And were shocked. They also learned the hard way. What's in your portfolio?