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A broad market ETF.

Over time, it's nearly impossible to beat a diversified index fund with any other strategy.

Market timing is bad for your money and your sanity.

It's really not that hard to beat a broad market ETF... for example, the SP500 could easily outperform a total market index.

For instance: SPY

I did a quick check and compared VOO (SP500) versus VTI (total market) and they have an equivalent performance over the past five years (within 0.20% gain), VOO didn't exist ten years ago and missed the last big crash. Both hold the same top ten holdings with the slight less weighting for VTI that one would expect. This may be harder than you think.

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