Does it really pay-off to be a lazy investor?
A lazy investor invests on a regular basis in markets no matter what. He or she would not be scared by corrections (a 10% decline) nor by new all-time highs. This is where we come to the topic of invest and forget. Invest and forget strategy has been discussed in media from time to time and especially indexing (investing by buying index funds or ETFs at a low cost) has brought forward the invest and forget mentality. If you look at my way of investing it is not fully a invest and forget strategy, it is more search for value and buy when there is value and sell when I cannot reasonably explain the market value. I have never used invest and forget strategy as I prefer to buy low and keep for as long as possible. To be honest I like more companies that pay a steady dividend every year than price gainers and general indexes (indexes might contain companies I dislike or consider way to risky to ever touch).
If we look at my portfolio we also see some investments that have a lower market value than purchase price. This is normal for me, it usually has taken a minimum of a year before the investments start to have a higher market value than purchase price. As written, fine with me however, can be frustrating for some. This is why investing regularly no matter what is a good option, I invest in companies, others in index funds or ETFs or housing, apartments or condos, we all have our preferred choice.
Invest and forget fits investors who do not have or want to spend a lot of time following markets and companies. It is a very good long-term strategy supported by superb data, just looking at index development including re-invested dividends and you will after 20-30 years have a big account balance (CNBC.com example of saving $500 a month to a value of $120,000 today), another calculator supporting this huge returns since 2011 with reinvested dividends into S&P500 Index with a almost 200% return available at dqyjd.com. This however requires persistence, you have to do it for a long time without hesitating. Especially when markets are down 20% it might be hard to neglect news on how much money people have lost. If you need comfort at those times just have a look how the index has developed over 20-30 years and you will see it is much higher than before. That is what I usually do and every time it amazes me how much companies have returned over the years. If you like to find a lot of information then you can check out slickcharts.com, there you can get simplified and raw data out over a long time period.
As we can see the S&P 500 has performed well while European FTSE 100 index has not recovered since the IT-bubble popped. As you can see it does depend on your investment horizon how much you might end up with, at least beased on historical data S&P 500 has returned huge gains for it's owners while FTSE 100 has a way to go to catch up to its US competitor.
We have now touched the topic of behaviour and psychology in an indirect way. To highlight one person who has become known in the field is Richard Thaler with his books in behavioural economics. FT.com interviewed Richard Thaler back in 2017 if it makes sense to be a lazy investor. Mr Thalers conclusion was that yes, it does make sense to buy and forget. Richard Thaler said back then that his strategy was to buy stocks and then forget, not react or get scared to news when stock markets have fallen by 3 % in one single day. I agree with Thalers way of investing, my issue is just holding positions that have developed very well and are showing large capital gains. I can sell quickly if the result of the company is much slower than the price development, sometimes I might sell to early as the stock or fund or ETF might continue to rise, an example is my ESG investment history. Link to my ESG investment story with calculations.
So back to the question, yes it does pay-off to be a lazy market investor. In the long run you will gain a lot even though there most likely will be difficult and challenging times as during good and exceptionally gold times. You just have to ride with the tide and have faith in companies being innovative and adaptive to changes.
Me, I will continue with my investment method. Must admit that it is a small struggle to find good companies at good prices at the moment. As history shows us, at some point in the future the prices will come down and that’s when I will buy all that I can.
For those interested here are two of Richard Thalers books I can recommend,
Nudge
Misbehaving
Short Summary
In short it does pay-off to be a lazy market investor, depending on your method, life situation putting a small amount to different index funds will in the long run give you a proper return without you having to spend a lot of time on the topic.
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