What I mean is this.  Over the last 20 years, DALBAR has shown that the average retail investor actually accrued about half the return of the S&P500.  These investors would have been better off in a Vanguard S&P500 index fund.  Better yet, there are well designed portfolios of Vanguard funds that have trounced the S&P500 over recent years (no great shake) and have delivered decent returns.  I discuss some of these portfolios and my own thoughts on how to do even better here:

Lazy Portfolios article by me

Regards,

Geoff