Smart Investing Is Easier Than You Think

Timothy B. Lee — Writer with Ars Technica and the Cato Institute

Farhad Manjoo gives Slate readers advice on “how to stop investing your money like an idiot.” He lucidly explains the principles of good investing, but then says that “for people who have extra money but not a lot of time or facility with investing, there has never been a simple way to invest in the rigorous, disciplined way that experts advise.” Manjoo is far from the first writer to make this claim (and I’m kind of a broken record on the subject), but this isn’t true. Vanguard has had funds that do exactly that since 2003, and they’re significantly cheaper than the options Manjoo discusses in his article.

Manjoo reviews three options, and the one option Manjoo ultimately recommends, called Betterment, is pretty good. You tell Betterment how you want to allocate your money between relatively risky assets (like stocks) and relatively safe ones (like Treasury bonds). Betterment then automatically buys a mix of assets that fit your criteria and automatically adjusts them over time.

Read the rest here.