Well now - going into 15 yrs of practicing ER - and still in posession of my Curmudgeon Certificate courtesy of this forum - here's my grumpy 2 cents:
Who beat who over what period performance wise is about as useful as a pitcher of warm spit. Starting in 1966, fresh out of college - there hasn't been a year since(with great hindsight) some fund/stock/s or portfolio hasn't beat the crap out of what I owned at that point in time. I was always chasing performance - charging into the future by looking in the rear view mirror. After a reasonibly long and expensive period or er 'education' I reluctantly came to the view that I should own the simplest lowest expense stock/bond/cash mix reflecting my place in the accumulation/decumulation(aka retirement cycle) and not sweat the small stuff.
I'm sure there is some academic lit. out there that covers this.
heh heh heh - now I do have a small hormone condition so I have a few 'good stocks' on the side which I expect any day now like the Saint's in the Superbowl to take me to victory. But if the Saint's don't make this year or my stocks falter - it won't derail my retirement.
Target Retirement 2015 - party on!   .
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