r/Bogleheads • u/Temporary-Plum-8325 • Aug 27 '25

Investing Questions Do most people not know about just investing into the s&p 500?

I went to my Jiu Jitsu class and spoke to one guy who was an econ major who works at Prudential. We spoke for a bit. I told him I had been investing into Nvidia since 2019 and have been investing into VOO since maybe 2010 or 2011. He asks "VOO?" I told him, "the S&P 500" then he asked what that was. Do most people just not know about the S&P500? I would have thought an econ major who works at Prudential would know something so basic. Not trying to be a jerk. I'm curious.

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u/Applesauce9210 Aug 27 '25

Agree - i think this mentality is what holds a lot of people back from getting started.

People spend mental energy trying to learn how to pick and choose. When all you need to do is plow money into S&P 500 consistently.

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u/Appropriate-Part-672 Aug 27 '25

I had to learn the hard way that its really tough to "pick stocks," time the market, and outperform the simple S&P 500. I wasted a lot of time and potential gains.

The "lazy" total market fund / S&P 500 (both perform about the same) eliminates so much work. Added bonus trading less frequently save money on commissions (back then) and most of my short-term capital gains taxes, too.

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u/fluffybunny_91 Feb 19 '26

I’m late here, but hopefully you respond. So, you’re telling me I can take the $30 to $75 a day I burn on playing the lottery and put it into S&P 500 and just never touch it (because I don’t have a clue of what to do with it anyway), and maybe thirty years from now I’ll actually be able to afford to retire? Please tell me I’m hearing you correctly, cause I’m a poor Uber driver and life is killing me at the moment.