Thanks TSP for joining the 1980s

[Angry]

I don't disagree, but you're talking about two different things here: Stock picking vs. working with a professional portfolio manager.

My take on the Ramsey messaging is that they're trying to discourage the Social Media fed DIY investor crowd (e.g. "get rich with this IPO!"), which statistically does tend to lose their ass. Like anything, it can be done right if you have the necessary knowledge and discipline, but most individual investors probably don't.

We are probably in violent agreement on this, but I’ll argue the semantics anyways. What you’re describing isn’t stock picking - it’s speculation at best, gambling at worst. When professionals talk about it being a “stock picker’s market” we aren’t saying it’s time to throw darts at unproven companies because we like their tickers; it means alpha is more dominant than beta and momentum isn’t one of the dominant factors influencing positive returns.

I generally despise Ramsey because his budgetary advice is outdated and unrealistic, and his investment advice is short-sighted and hypocritical. He runs a referral service for financial advisors (which no self-respecting advisor would be caught dead on) while telling his followers to just buy diversified mutual funds.

IMO you are correct about the discipline and knowledge issue - but that doesn’t go away just because you index. Case in point - bond funds are one of the worst investment vehicles ever created relative to ownership of the underlying securities themselves…yet how many people do you think own bond funds instead of individual bonds?