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High Finances: Flying the Right Fund Can Free You Up

Going with a broad index fund can simplify your investing strategy—and give you more time to spend in your airplane.

In the journey of investment, there can be an awful lot of turbulence, but there are ways you can avoid it. Adobe Stock
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Key Takeaways:

  • Most active investment strategies and professional stock picking consistently fail to outperform the overall stock market, largely due to high fees.
  • High fees charged by actively managed funds significantly erode investor returns, making it challenging to achieve market-average growth.
  • A simple, effective investment strategy involves using low-cost index funds, which automatically invest across a broad market to capture its average long-term returns.
  • Investors should prioritize broad-based index funds (such as total market or S&P 500) with very low expense ratios, ideally below 0.05 percent, to maximize returns.
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If you’re smart enough to fly aircraft, or at least read FLYING, you may be able to educate yourself well enough to make your own basic investing decisions. My goal with this column is to present a case for a simple, effective investment strategy that you can implement right now to start your money working for you.

Jason Depew

Jason Depew flies as a captain for a major U.S. airline. He is also an Air Force reservist and has flown more than 300 combat missions over Afghanistan and other garden spots. Based in Tampa, Florida, he instructs in the Icon A5 and anything else he can get his hands on. His writing is focused on personal finance for pilots with the goal to help all types of aviators enjoy great careers, sometimes in spite of themselves. You can send Jason questions at editorial@flying.media.

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