⏱️ Time: 1 hr/month | 🎯 Difficulty: Beginner | 📈 ROI: Compound Gain | ✅ Status: Active
Automated Investing
90% of professional fund managers lose to index funds over 15 years [@spiva2024]. You won’t beat the market. Automate and forget.
The Setup
- Max employer match first — Free money. Always.
- Open brokerage account — Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab. Any works.
- Set automatic transfer — Every paycheck, 15%+ goes to investments
- Buy index funds — VTI (total US), VXUS (international), BND (bonds)
- Never look at it — Quarterly max. Annual rebalancing only.
The Allocation
| Age | Stocks | Bonds |
|---|---|---|
| 20s-30s | 90% | 10% |
| 40s | 80% | 20% |
| 50s | 70% | 30% |
| 60s | 60% | 40% |
Simple rule: Bond % ≈ your age. Adjust for risk tolerance.
When The Market Crashes
Do nothing. Seriously.
Missing the 10 best days over 20 years can halve your returns. Those best days often follow the worst days. If you panic-sell, you lock in losses and miss the recovery.
Automation removes emotion. That’s the point.
Success Metrics
- Savings rate: 15%+ of income invested
- Expense ratio: <0.1% weighted average
- Index allocation: 90%+ of portfolio
- Panic sells: Zero
Set it. Forget it. Get rich slowly.
See Active vs Passive for why this works.