The perfect MP3 player

[Jonathan Ellis]

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:20:39 -0600, "Shane Hathaway"
<shane at hathawaymix.org> said:
> Grant Robinson wrote:
> > The mortgage calculator I was using puts that loan at $1073 a month P&I, 
> > but for the sake of argument, let's just assume that works out to be 
> > $1000 a month.  Now, lets assume you take that $500 a month pre-payment, 
> > and invest it instead.  Let's assume a modest growth rate of 10%, over 
> > the life of the loan (which now is ~15 years).  At the end of 15 years, 
> > if you invest $500 a month earning 10% a year, your investment will be 
> > worth ~$210,000.00
> 
> Annual growth of 10% is a big assumption.  How do you do that?

There's a growing consensus that index funds are the way to go for
non-professionals.  Mutual funds offer too many ways to get screwed.

Warren Buffet famously said (paraphrased): "Making 10% annually is
surprisingly easy.  Making more than 10% is surprisingly difficult."

-Jonathan