[stevecmo]

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

You are looking at this wrong by trying to make any single investment beat inflation. You should have a highly diversified set of investments that include stocks, bonds, domestic, international, and what you want is the total return to exceed inflation. That is the only way to maximize returns and minimize risk. I keep 6 months of cash/money market total expenses. I keep 60% stocks and 40% bonds. 42% of stocks is domestic and 18% is international. 25% of bonds is domestic and 15% is international. I use total market index funds for these 4 investments. Re-balance to those % every 6 months. This forces you to sell high buy low. This mix maintains a very low risk profile with a return that will always exceed more risky portfolios over time.

I also add a small cap tilt to the stocks and use a small % to dabble in dividend stocks and some high risk high return stocks. But the only measure of success is what is the total return, not any single investments return. That is a very dangerous way to look at your total investments.

^^^^^^^^^^ This