The Lazy Investor’s Secret: How Doing Less Makes You More Money

Why the easiest investment strategy is also the most powerful

Picture this: while others spend hours poring over stock charts and financial news, the lazy investor relaxes—reading with family, walking the dog, or enjoying a hobby. Yet, year after year, their wealth quietly grows, outpacing the frantic traders and market timers. How? By choosing a strategy that requires almost no effort: buying and holding low-cost index funds.

The data is clear: over the past decades, the vast majority of active investors—those who try to pick winning stocks or time the market—fail to beat the market average. In fact, after fees, taxes, and mistakes, most end up lagging behind by a wide margin. The lazy investor, on the other hand, buys a broad-market index fund, sets up automatic contributions, and checks in just once or twice a year to rebalance. That’s it. This approach harnesses the power of compounding, minimizes taxes and costs, and avoids the emotional rollercoaster that ruins so many portfolios.

Even Warren Buffett, one of the world’s greatest stock pickers, has instructed that most of his family’s inheritance be put in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. If it’s good enough for Buffett, it’s good enough for the rest of us.

Ready to join the lazy investor’s club? Start with a total market index fund, automate your savings, and let time do the rest. You’ll be amazed at how much more you gain—by doing less.