This Overlooked Index Beats the S&P 500 Over 30 Years
One under-the-radar index has quietly outperformed the S&P 500 over three decades. The math isn't even close.
Everyone defaults to the S&P 500. It's the benchmark. It's what your 401(k) brochure shows. But defaulting to the obvious play doesn't mean you're making the best one — and a 30-year track record is hard to argue with.
MarketWatch ran the numbers across three full decades, and the results point to a lesser-known index that has consistently outpaced America's most celebrated benchmark. We're not talking about a marginal edge here. The gap is significant enough that ignoring it could be costing you real money over time.
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This is the kind of long-horizon data that should matter most to you if you're a buy-and-hold investor. Short-term noise is irrelevant. What counts is compounding — and if a different index compounds faster over 30 years, that's your signal to pay attention.
The takeaway isn't to panic-sell your S&P 500 ETF tomorrow. It's to recognize that the most popular option isn't automatically the best option. Diversifying your index exposure, or at minimum understanding what else is out there, is just smart portfolio hygiene.
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