It's a good video and I don't disagree, but let me play the contrarian for a minute as I think it's healthy to consider other viewpoints.
After high school I spent 8 years of my life in university. No time, inclination, or money to learn about investing then.
I then spent 4 years working for someone else. Learning my craft, networking, getting started in life after school and paying back student loans took up most of my time and money in that phase.
Next I started my own company. Worked Elon hours and poured all my resources into this venture. Most business startups fail. No time or energy to learn much about investing during this phase either. Also most money was left in the business to grow it and ensure its success (a form of investing to be sure, just ask Elon).
Then we had kids. Add parenting to the 80 hour work weeks and also add the additional expense of raising a family!
All I really knew about financial literacy was what I learned from reading "The Wealthy Barber" (thanks Dad for that present). I made it a goal to not borrow money other than for a mortgage and to finance my business; to spend less than I earned; and to attempt to maximize my investments in tax-advantaged accounts. I stayed true to these goals. However, as explained above, I was too busy to research what to invest in and it seemed like a daunting task so I simply bought into the diversified Boglehead approach (before I knew it was a thing). That approach allowed me to weather the Dot.com bubble, the 07-08 crash and to build toward a safe nest that I could retire comfortably on and a very successful business that provided a decent income and job security. Selling the business would hopefully provide the icing on the cake for retirement.
That it worked for me and it works for many in the FIRE movement is a testament to diversification's success. It is probably the best way to leverage the power of investments to grow wealth and enable financial independence. It allows the average investor to likely outperform the safer places to park money without taking on too much risk and has a much better chance of earning returns faster than inflation can erode them. But sadly, that's about it. At best, if you're good at saving you'll have enough to continue your lifestyle into retirement and maybe even be able to retire somewhat earlier than some of your peers. Mediocre returns with minimal downside.
I was aware of Apple - my first computer was an Apple II+. I was familiar with Microsoft, bought books from Amazon when it was simply an online bookstore, used Google multiple times daily, etc. but I didn't have the time nor the energy to devote to researching those companies to figure out what separated them from Gateway, Nokia, BeOS and Alta Vista. I couldn't figure out who the winners and losers would be. In hindsight it looks simple and survivorship bias is a real thing.
Knowing that I could have followed my gut and invested in those winners, but didn't and missed out on huge gains by simply being "diversified" in my investments made me not want to miss out on the next big thing. I got interested in Tesla in the Roadster days and when they got close to rolling out the Model 3 I finally decided to hitch onto TSLA as an investment as I was sure it would be revolutionary and I knew that I had to get in before it was obvious to everyone in order to achieve the large gains I was hoping to achieve. This also happened to be the time we made our last mortgage payment. From that day on I decided to invest I put all the money I wasn't putting into mortgage payments into TSLA as well as any future investments. I still held onto my diversified investments though.
Tesla was still not guaranteed success so being diversified gave me the fall-back plan to hang on through Production Hell, the Mobileye split, the years of FUD and everything else Tesla pushed through. My non-TSLA investments allowed me to sleep at night even when TSLA wasn't performing as expected. Also, the internet allowed me to research Tesla more easily than I ever could have researched anything in the past. It permitted me to separate Tesla from Faraday Future and Nikola Motors in a way that I didn't have the resources to in the Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc. early days, and I finally had the time to do the research (and boy, does it ever take up time keeping up with TMC Investor's Roundtable
). Eventually TSLA did take off and we know how that went. My retirement looks much wealthier and will be coming much sooner than I ever thought it could.
So, full credit to those who don't diversify and go all-in. You've got bigger balls than I do and I'm happy for your success. At one point when we hit an ATH in 2020 I did the math on how much more money I would have had had I converted all my and my wife's investments into TSLA as well as sold the business and taken the proceeds from that and put it into TSLA and the number was >$35M! But much like those who run the math on what the money they spent on their 2013 Model S would be had they invested it into TSLA at the time, it's simply an academic endeavour. I never would have done that for a variety of reasons. No point lamenting what could have been. Instead, just contemplate the future. And with TSLA, it's looking incredibly bright!
And look at that. The hue of my TSLA stock ticker has changed since I started typing this. Yay!
then again a friend in San Diego went to a Mercedes’ dealer and saw a 180K “market adjustment” on a Maybach…. Making hay before the meteor hits the dealerships into extinction
