Stay Out Of Your Way

Investors have had a hell of a fifteen-year run.

Had you invested $100 in the S&P500 at the start of 2010, reinvested every dividend, and ignored taxes, you’d have about $702.50 today.

The fifteen years before that weren’t anywhere near as good.

Invest $100 in the S&P500 at the start of 1995, same assumptions, and you’d have just shy of $356 by the start of 2010 — almost half the growth seen in the 2010–2025 period.

But if you simply stayed invested from 1995 all the way through to today? That same $100 would have turned into just over $2,220. *

Thirty years is a long time, but my goodness that’s a lot of growth.

I know investors roll their eyes when they hear, “Focus on the long-term.” I do too sometimes.

The long-term doesn’t pay your bills during a crash. It doesn’t factor in tariffs, pandemics, inflation, corrections, trade wars, or your emotions.

“The long-term?! My investment portfolio just dropped by $300,000!”

I get it. Nobody lives in the long-term. But what if you didn’t even know about your investments?

Back in the summer of 2022, I was sitting in my old Royal Oak office on a quiet afternoon when the phone rang. I recognized the name on the caller ID right away and thought, “There’s no way that’s John Smith from high school.” **

John and I weren’t friends in high school. We weren’t enemies either. We just didn’t really exist to one another.

We exchanged some awkward pleasantries until I finally said, “So why are you calling me?”

“Well, Vince, I’m looking for a bit of advice. My dad bought me some stocks when we graduated. He never told me about them, but he died recently, and I don’t have a clue what to do with them.”

“What stocks did he buy?”

“About $5,000 worth of Apple.”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I quickly fired that detail into an investment calculator (thank goodness they account for stock splits).

John’s shares were worth more than a million dollars.

“You’re a millionaire, John. And I’m sorry to hear about your dad. How can I help?”

After a few meetings, I connected him with a good accountant, and he and I agreed he’d be better served by a different advisor.

At the end of our final meeting, as we were shaking hands, I couldn’t help but ask: “John, if your dad had given you those Apple shares the day we graduated, what would you have done?”

Without hesitation, he said: “Vince, I would’ve sold them to buy some piece-of-garbage car, probably an Acura Integra, that would’ve died within two years.”

Sometimes the best long-term plan is simply staying out of your own way. We can’t help but obsess over every dip, headline, and shift (higher or lower) in our investment accounts. Meanwhile, real wealth building happens quietly, while you’re living your life, raising your family, and establishing your career.

John admitted that had he known about his Apple shares, he would have sold them. But because he didn’t know, and because he couldn’t even react, he ended up doing exactly what every long-term investor says they want to do:

He stayed invested.

Not because of intellect or gut instincts. Not because he had nerves of steel. But because he didn’t know any better.

Funny how that works, hey?

* Source: S&P500 total return data (price plus dividends reinvested).

** Not his real name.