The stupidest thing you can do with your money?

Our firm generally advoctates taking a passive index based approach to share market investing as it lowers risk and costs. There is also a wealth (pun intended) of research indicating that paying high investment management fees calculated as a percentage of funds under advice for active management of investments does not usually add any value and is often a big drag on performance. It is very difficult to beat the market in the long run and so the argument is, just accept the average market return and get it while paying the lowest fees possible.

One of the regular podcasts I listen to, Freakonomics Radio, tackled this topic last week. If interested in listening to the academic argument for index based investing told in an entertaining way, here is a link to the episode:http://freakonomics.com/podcast/stupidest-money/

It can be listened to online or by downloading onto a portable device or phone.