Hahaha!!!
Yes indeed 🫣
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You have just highlighted a huge advantage of indexing that nobody ever talks about.... Those who eventually can and do 'beat ' the market.... they never do it from day one, and they dont count the losses or underperformance while they are learning, so over the whole lifetime, even some very good investors, would have been better indexing from the start.
I've been meaning to reply to your Berkshire post a while back as you are missing some very important points.
I thought that would attract your attention;)
I'm a BRK fan. I think I even bought MGV to increase my exposure to it. But I cant buy single stocks again unfortunately because I screw it up.
It did.
If there are two Marathon runners in a race without an end and at certain points the two runners are neck and neck, it would pay to observe each runner.
If one has forgotten to pace him/herself and is thus absolutely buggered with a virtually impossibly high heart rate, damaged leg and internal organs about to explode as well as a dilating sphincter, while the other isn't even warmed up properly and is cruising along at a pace they can easily maintain indefinitely....
A short quiz: If you plan to eat hamburgers throughout your life and are not a cattle producer, should you wish for higher or lower prices for beef? Likewise, if you are going to buy a car from time to time but are not an auto manufacturer, should you prefer higher or lower car prices? These questions, of course, answer themselves.
But now for the final exam: If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market during that period? Many investors get this one wrong. Even though they are going to be net buyers of stocks for many years to come, they are elated when stock prices rise and depressed when they fall. In effect, they rejoice because prices have risen for the "hamburgers" they will soon be buying. This reaction makes no sense. Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospective purchasers should much prefer sinking prices
So smile when you read a headline that says "Investors lose as market falls." Edit it in your mind to "Sharetraders lose as market falls -- but investors gain." Though writers often forget this truism, there is a buyer for every seller and what hurts one necessarily helps the other. (As they say in golf matches: "Every putt makes someone happy.")
We gained enormously from the low prices placed on many equities and businesses in the 1970s and 1980s. Markets that then were hostile to investment transients were friendly to those taking up permanent residence. In recent years, the actions we took in those decades have been validated, but we have found few new opportunities. In its role as a corporate "saver," Berkshire continually looks for ways to sensibly deploy capital, but it may be some time before we find opportunities that get us truly excited.
University definitely teaches a bunch of BS, and it sucks that I feel I have less time to learn about actual investing. But still I need the degree to be able to work in the finance field.
Plus the degree is damn near free, excluding the opportunity cost of not being able to work as much (which is of course massive). Our socialist state heavily subsidies our Uni's, fees free first year, and offers interest free loans to be paid off as you earn. I also earned a 5k scholarship for having decent grades. Net, the papers for my whole degree will cost a little under 5k, but that is applied to an interest free loan. It's a three year degree but I'm taking 6 papers this semester so I could theoretically do it in 2-2.5 years with summer school.
I got a Business Degree and it has enabled me to earn much more than my siblings, none of whom have a degree.
We are all cut from the same cloth, similar intelligence etc but I have been able to exploit more opportunities. Which in itself becomes a kind of compounding machine.
You can also be very successful without a degree. But the qualification helps.
You will do just fine. Just don’t forget to enjoy being young too. It doesn’t last for as long as you think at your age.
They may see it not as a cost but an investment in feeding you full of what they want you fed full of!
That might be a bit deep, but when the State is balls deep in the tertiary education sector, that comes with serious strings attached, most nuanced and barely visible.