Warren Buffett Suggests Investing In Index Funds

by Darren

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Warren Buffett was giving out some investment advice at the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder’s convention, and he may have suprised some people with some of it. He dispensed wisdom, such as:

Index funds are appropriate for inexperienced investors. In response to a question about why Buffett recommends index funds to investors, he said that for “a know-nothing investor, a low-cost index fund will beat professionally managed money.” He also said he had a standing offer to anyone who could name 10 hedge funds that will beat a low-cost index fund. No one has taken him up on his offer.

Asked later why he didn’t take his own advice on index funds, he said he thought Berkshire could beat the S&P by a couple of percentage points, “just not a whole lot better.”

He also had some pointed advice about people doing their homework, before putting hard-earned money into any investments.

Read and think before you invest. When a 17-year-old who was attending his 10th consecutive Berkshire annual meeting asked how to become a better investor, Buffett offered some simple but golden advice. Read everything on investing you can get your hands on and fill up your mind with various competing thoughts. After doing that, it’s time to get started, as investing on paper and dealing with real money is like “reading a romance novel and doing something else.”

He added that when you think about buying shares in a company, think about why you might buy the whole business. If you couldn’t write an essay about it, then you shouldn’t buy any shares.

The annual meeting attracted 27,000 enthusiasts.

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