Sublime

This traditional approach to asset allocation ran aground in 2008, when the financial markets collapsed and investors found that even if they had both stocks and bonds in their portfolio, they all fell together.

Go back to my 20s and at any given point I held something like 25 individual stocks. I don’t know how I did as a stock picker. Did I beat the market? I’m not sure. Like most who try, I didn’t keep a good score. Either way, I’ve shifted my views and now every stock we own is a low-cost index fund.

When someone tells me they have a founder they want to introduce me to but they’re worried because the person is a wild card, I set that meeting up for the next day. Angel investors are looking for wild cards, because the best founders are typically inflexible and unmanageable, pursuing their visions at the expense of other people’s feelings.

Even hyperactive investors seem to believe in indexing strategies. Here’s what James J. Cramer, money manager and host of CNBC’s Mad Money, says: “After a lifetime of picking stocks, I have to admit that Bogle’s arguments in favor of the index fund have me thinking of joining him rather than trying to beat him. Bogle’s wisdom and common sense [are]