Vanguard's Ticker for the S&P 500, VOO - VOO and Chill
How Anyone Can Become a Successful Lifetime Investor Using Warren Buffett’s Simple Investing Philosophy
How would you like to solve the investing problem with advice from perhaps the greatest investor of our time, Warren Buffett?
That’s what you will find here.
In a remarkable 15-minute lesson, Warren Buffett explains how to invest for a lifetime — and why he believes this approach is the best solution for most people.
I was so inspired by this lesson that I invested the majority of my own money in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. But I realized I needed to fully understand why Buffett recommended this strategy.
So I did the research.
What I found was compelling evidence showing that this simple approach has outperformed approximately 95% of professional investors over a 20-year period — and the reasons why this has occurred and is likely to continue.
That is what this website is about.
Here you will find the research, data, and long-term investing philosophy behind Buffett’s recommendation, along with the information needed to stay with the strategy for a lifetime.
You will also find insights and testimonials from other great investors and thinkers, including Charles Ellis, often called one of the wisest men on Wall Street; Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime partner at Berkshire Hathaway; and Ed Thorp, the mathematician who famously figured out how to beat both Wall Street and the casinos.
Here is Warren Buffett, in his own words, teaching how to invest.
Warren Buffett’s Investment Advice
- When he purchased his first stock during WWII, the best thing he—or anyone—could have done was to buy the S&P 500 index fund.
- $10,000 invested in an S&P Index fund at that time would be worth a staggering $52 million in 2018. Today this would be worth over 100 million dollars.
- Think of investing in the S&P Index as buying and holding a piece of American business.
- One investment decision for your lifetime:
- You would never have to look at another stock quote or listen to another person give you advice.
- All you had to do was believe that America would do well over time. If America did well, American business would do well.
- If you listened to the doomsayers and invested in gold, you would have 1% of what you would have had investing in a productive asset like the S&P.
- We have operated in this country with the greatest tailwind at our back that you can imagine; it's an investor's heaven.
- You can't really fail unless:
- You buy the wrong stock.
- You get excited at the wrong time.
- But if you own a cross-section of America and consistently invest over the years, there's no comparison between that and:
- Owning something that produces nothing.
- Trying to jump in and out of stocks.
- Paying investment advisors.
- The only problem with this advice? Your friendly stockbroker would have starved to death, and you could have gone to their funeral to atone for their fate.
- The truth is, you would have been better off doing this than a very high percentage of investment professionals or active investors.
- It’s very hard to move around successfully and beat what can be done with a very relaxed philosophy.
- You don’t need to know about:
- Accounting.
- Stock market terminology.
- What the Fed is going to do next.
- None of that counts in a lifetime of investing.
- What counts is having a philosophy that you stick with and understand why you're in it.
Start here by watching Buffett make the case himself.
▶ The Warren Buffett Investing Plan
© 2025 Dan Mahoney | Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. I am a self-taught investor who worked in sales in the IT reseller solutions industry. After watching Warren Buffett—arguably the greatest stock picker in history—deliver an investing lesson, I asked a simple question: Why would he recommend a low-cost S&P 500 index fund for just about everyone?
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