Key Points:
- Long-Term Focus is Critical
- Cost-Efficiency with Openvest
- Time is the most precious commodity of the 21st century
Conventional wisdom says to buy an index fund, buy stocks in a 401(k) or IRA, but never mentions how to grow your money to achieve the highest possible returns you can without taking on additional risk. We are defining risk here as the probability of permanent capital loss. In other words, short term volatility over the course of 1 week does not count. Before delving into the best ways to start, it remains essential to clarify a few points.
1. The time horizon plays a critical role. There is an inherent advantage to thinking long-term (multi-year), which allows earnings to compound, margins to improve, and the invested money to grow.
2. The opportunity cost of staying overly diversified will mitigate your returns over time. To provide a clear example, one of our competitors never provided more than 6% exposure to any single investment. Although this may seem “safe”, this decision actually caps performance on the upside and provides more risk via increased odds of exposure to mediocre companies. In this scenario, odds could be much worse for attracting upside capital.
3. Outperformance is not achieved by luck or single actions-it’s a combination of informed strategies, consistent habits, and disciplined execution. By both minimizing risks and capitalizing on opportunities, long-term results that surpass benchmarks are very likely.
The Paradigm Shift of 1-click Investing
There will be an inherent shift in the way people invest and the investor trend is moving in this direction already. Time is the most precious commodity in the 21st century. Most individuals have neither the time, knowledge nor high capital amounts required to access the best investment opportunities globally. As such, we at Openvest are aiming to disrupt this paradigm by providing access to similar opportunities on a simple, easy-to-use interface.
With pre-filtered, curated 1-click options, users do not have to waste time trying to figure out what works based on their whims. To provide estimates from a business standpoint, let’s compare the cost implications of traditional investment models versus Openvest's disruptive flat-fee structure.
An investment of $100,000 at the traditional 2% management fee and 20% performance carry structure can significantly erode returns. For example, let’s assume a 10% annual return on the $100,000 investment, yielding $10,000 in returns. Under the 2% management fee, you would pay $2,000 annually, reducing your base return to $8,000. On top of that, the 20% carry takes an additional $1,600 (20% of $8,000), leaving you with just $6,400 in net returns, a 36% reduction in your potential gain. In contrast, Openvest’s flat fee of as little as $3 per month transforms this paradigm. Over a year, this amounts to just $36, regardless of the investment amount or return.
The savings are transformative. A $100,000 investment with the same 10% annual return would yield $9,964 in net returns after the $36 fee, compared to just $6,400 under the traditional model. This represents an additional $3,564 in your pocket annually—an enormous improvement in value for the investor. By eliminating percentage-based fees and performance carry, Openvest ensures that more of the investor's hard-earned money stays invested, compounding for the future. The flat-fee model democratizes access to elite investment opportunities, leveling the playing field for all investors, regardless of their starting capital. Such a paradigm shift doesn't just offer better financial outcomes—it aligns incentives, fosters trust, and emphasizes transparency.
Long-Term Investment Points to Consider
Long-term investment in IRA accounts (cannot take out until 59.5), 401(k) , brokerage, and the like should be prioritized. In other words, the daily ebbs and flows of the market should not be considered as a factor when making long-term investment decisions, especially when the money is not needed today and is set aside for long-term needs such as education, house down-payment, retirement savings, among other considerations.
Learn More about Essential Role of Money in Investment
In the last 50 years, the ten most extreme days in the stock market represent half the returns. Ten days in 50 years, Meanwhile, in our day-to-day lives we are mired in chitchat. This should serve not only as an interesting statistic, but a lesson on what to focus on: staying invested. If an individual were to have missed out on the 10 extreme days over the last 50 years, then half of the upside would have vanished. 50% is quite startling for 10 days over a 50-year period. Of course, no single individual can predict with absolute certainty when these days will come. Thus, staying invested in more concentrated holdings, with moderate diversification is critical in shaping a portfolio to capture maximum upside while protecting against downside risk.
In essence, the best way to parlay $1,000 or any other sum of cash into much higher amounts is to prioritize long-term investment growth by constructing portfolios that optimize for such outcomes over the course of multi-year periods. 96% of the stock market’s gains accrue to the top 4% of companies. This fact highlights the winner-take-all nature of the world and demonstrates the critical importance of selecting the right portfolios. Of course, most individuals do not have the expertise to find the highest compounding, free cash flow producing companies with strong returns on capital. Hence, at Openvest, our goal is to save users the headache and provide this on one simple platform. Conventional wisdom is often unconventional in nature and can lead to suboptimal outcomes.