Very true.dualstow wrote: what really gets my attention is how different portfolios react to contributions. Usual disclaimer about data mining, backtesting, yadda yadda, but wow. It often works toward evening the score with wildly different portfolios. And I'm talking about a modest annual contribution, like $8,000 a year over the course of one's career.
Imagine you have about $100k saved up and decide you really need to get serious about investing. So you research a dozen different portfolio options and agonize over a few basis points of expense ratios here and maybe even a full percent in average returns there. Well after all that, finding a way to save $8k a year (~$300/paycheck) will juice returns by a full 8% blowing your other efforts out of the water.
People really underrate the saving side of the investing equation.