Any time you plant a fruit tree, you're making an investment in the future. Just how long you reap the rewards of your efforts depends on which fruit you choose. Some trees, such as peaches, live just 10-15 years, but others thrive for decades - even centuries.
FXAIX exists to be a core holding. It replicates the S&P 500, meaning you own roughly proportional slices of the 500 largest U.S. companies, weighted by market cap. The return engine is simple: capital appreciation from those underlying companies, plus reinvested dividends from the index, minus a sliver for fund expenses. There are no options overlays, no factor tilts, no manager picking winners. The fund's published expense ratio of 0.015% sits among the lowest in the industry, which means almost every dollar of index return flows through to shareholders.
We go public, we have a $100 billion valuation. It's like one of the best days of my life. And the next day I wake up, I put on sweatpants, I go on a Zoom meeting. It was like it never happened. And it became the saddest day of my life because I realized, okay, what now? I got all this adulation and I don't feel any different.
