Professional money managers are measured against how well they do against this return. As we’ve seen, in any given year most underperform their target index. Indeed, over periods of 15 to 30 years, the index will outperform 82% to 99% of actively managed funds. This means just buying a total stock market index fund like VTSAX guarantees you’ll be in the top performance tier. Year after year. Not bad for accepting “average.” I can live (and prosper) with that kind of average.
