Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. Sorry you thought the title was disingenuous. My point is that following the mainstream advice that your job, your house, and your 401k are you most important financial investments is likely to get you where you came to in the end — lucky to retire by 60. To me, this is being poor. It wasn’t until I totally changed my mindset on these three items and more that I started to build wealth, become financially secure, and can consider to retire early.

As for beating the market, I was mostly talking about real estate, which is not easy to own in 401k accounts but is a great way to build wealth. But could be other stock investors for the few who are savvy enough to do so, as you suggest. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of investors in index funds trail the funds they invest in due to their behavior. Seems to be VERY difficult for folks to not do anything with their money when markets crash, which doesn’t help their efforts. To me, real estate helps with this because naturally encourages buy and hold behavior more than an index fund.

https://www.thebalance.com/why-average-investors-earn-below-average-market-returns-2388519