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Comment by jonasdegendt | Hacker News Reader

> That gives slightly better than the inflation rate ( Canada ).

What do you mean? Over the last year any one of the index funds I'm in has beat inflation by a factor of five, some beat inflation by an order of magnitude. My worst performer is an iShares world fund, which generally has more temperate gains, clocking in at 10% YoY.

Looking at Canadian indices such as $VCN, it's the same story.

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As of October 2025, in the previous 30 Years, the Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index (VCN.TO) ETF obtained a 8.72% compound annual return.

~2x better than the official inflation over the same 30 years. I don't see the factor of five or order of magnitude. Also those gains are taxable.

If you're in Canada you almost certainly want to diversify from Canadian indices. US markets have tended to outperform.

Indices can return >20% one year and -10% other years. I think OP is talking recently, not over 30 years. Over the long term indices like the S&P 500 tend to have a real return of 6-7% ...

That's the biggest problem I have with the recommendation to buy indices as if indices grow at >8% annually is an natural law.

Many (most) indices of countries in the world performed way less than 8%. US performed exceptionally well over almost a century so people are starting to take it as a natural law. If I buy US index, I'm still putting a directional bet on US stock market performing at an exceptional rate.

One can buy "all-in-one" index-of-index funds that have all US equities, all EU, etc. In Canada (which sub-thread stated with), see VEQT or XEQT (100% equities), VGRO/XGRO (80/20), VBAL/XBAL (60/40), VCNS/XCNS (40/60).

You can probably find an 'asset allocation' fund in most countries; e.g., in the US:

* https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...

There are also (more dynamic) 'target date' funds, where the bond allocation increases over time.

Yeah, and those have underpermed historically and it's definitely not recommended by most people.

> Yeah, and those have underpermed historically […]

Huh? Underperformed what, exactly? A globally-diversified portfolios of stocks have underperformed …a globally-diversified portfolios of stocks? …tech stocks? …consumer staples? …utilities? …Treasuries?

1/3/5/10/20-year annualized returns are available at:

* https://canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolio...

> […] and it's definitely not recommended by most people.

Again: huh? Who is not recommending index funds for most people? And what is recommended "by most people" if not index funds?

Look at IXUS or VEU for example, in the past 5-10 years, or even longer, they have significantly underperformed US indices.

> If you're in Canada you almost certainly want to diversify from Canadian indices. US markets have tended to outperform.

If you buy "all-in-one" VEQT/XEQT (100% equities) you are buying an index funds of index funds: all Canadian equities, all US equities, EU, etc:

* https://canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolio...

* https://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/

If you don't want 100% equities, there are VGRO/XGRO (80/20), VBAL/XBAL (60/40), VCNS/XCNS (40/60), etc.

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