Why Ignoring Your Portfolio Might Be the Preferred Approach
For most of us running companies, wealth doesn’t come from the markets—it comes from increasing the value of your business. Your company is the most hands-on, high-leverage, and high-risk investment you’ll ever make. You live in it every day. You control the strategy, the talent, the execution. You’re as active as it gets. But once you’ve taken some chips off the table—hopefully you have—it’s time to think differently about that portion of your wealth. Specifically, how to not think about it.
It turns out the smart investment strategy for your non-business assets might be to ignore them.
There are two basic ways to do that.
Option 1: Hire a Portfolio Manager
Hiring a wealth manager is the most traditional route—an expert to manage your money. Look for a fiduciary—a person or firm with a legal and moral responsibility to act in your best interest. That part’s critical. Many people managing money this way are doing just fine… for themselves.
Portfolio managers charge an annual fee, usually somewhere between 0.5% and 1.25% of assets under management. They’ll tell you they’re aligned with your performance—”if you win, we win.” And technically, yes, if your portfolio grows, they make more money.
But do the math.
If your returns are in the 5–7% range (a realistic expectation over time), and you’re paying 1% in fees, that’s 14–20% of your total return gone before it even hits your account. That drag compounds over decades. It may not feel expensive, but it’s taking a big bite out of a relatively modest pie. For a million-dollar portfolio, over 20 years, with normal growth, that adds up to over $390,000 in fees.
So yes, this is a viable path. But it’s not cheap. And it requires you to believe that the value being added is worth the cost, which, frankly, is questionable.
Option 2: Passive Investing
Passive investing is my preferred approach. It’s cleaner, simpler, and backed by decades of evidence. I know that sounds counterintuitive. We think that constant monitoring, tweaking, and market timing are the hallmarks of a savvy investor.
Actively managed mutual funds take that approach. The dirty secret is that less than 25% of all actively managed funds beat the market, and the fees can be considerable, charging 0.5% to 1.5%, with an average around 0.85% for the privilege of missing market-level returns.
Passive investing means buying broad, low-fee index funds—ETFs that track major indices like the S&P 500, the NASDAQ, and the Dow —and maybe one European or international fund. That’s it. With just four ETFs, I’ve effectively bought small pieces of hundreds of companies across industries: construction, professional services, healthcare, food, tech—you name it.
Fees are minimal (around 0.1%). Diversification is high. And performance? Here’s the dirty secret: most active mutual funds—and most “hand-picked” funds that wealth managers love—don’t outperform the market, not after you add fees into the equation.
So, your risk in choosing an index fund is this: you might have done a little bit better. But odds are, you’d have done worse.
The University of Chicago has done some of the most compelling research on this. Over time, passive strategies consistently outperform active ones. Why? Lower fees, broader diversification, and no need to time the market or guess the next hot sector—just steady exposure to the full market. You can even watch a documentary on YouTube by an award-winning filmmaker about the roots of this called “Tune Out The Noise.”
As an entrepreneur, your business is where you should be swinging for the fences. That’s where the upside lives. That’s your home run ball. Your portfolio? That should be boring. Predictable. Almost invisible.
Tune Out the Noise
There’s a temptation to overthink this. To get caught up in CNBC headlines, hot stock tips, and the fear of missing out. But the best long-term strategy is to tune it all out. Think of your portfolio as ballast. It’s there to stabilize, not swerve. You don’t need it to be exciting. You need it to be reliable. Let it compound quietly in the background while you take risks where you have an edge—your business.
Sure, other options exist—more esoteric investments, venture funds, and angel investor deals. And sometimes, those pay off big. Many entrepreneurs love backing other entrepreneurs. I get that.
Just know those are bets. That’s capital at risk. They’re not your core wealth strategy.
If you build a passive portfolio, set it up to automatically rebalance, and then leave it alone, you’ll likely land in the top quartile of market performance—without lifting a finger. That’s not just a theory. That’s history.
Meanwhile, your energy, creativity, and focus should go into the company you’re building. That’s the investment you can influence. The rest? Put it on autopilot. That’s how you get both peace of mind and performance.
Because in the long run, ignoring your portfolio might be the most disciplined move you can make.
