My anecdotal experience has been that the higher someone’s net worth is, the worse their portfolio usually is.

Random stuff added over time. No regard for sizing. Tons of overlap.

Not this guy.

For the most part, he had cheap, tax‑efficient index ETF exposure. What a breath of fresh air.

If it needs to be said again:

• Most stock pickers do not outperform the market after fees
• That stat ignores the extra taxes they usually create
• It ignores the single‑stock risk they load up on
• It ignores the time they waste playing a loser’s game

Index funds don’t have those problems.

You get to own thousands of the best companies in the world, run by some of the smartest people in the world, and they wake up every day trying to create value for you, the shareholder.

The ETF wrapper lets you defer capital gains for decades. And if you really need cash along the way, you can often borrow against the shares instead of selling.

As good as his current portfolio is, we can still make it better by:

• Adding other, uncorrelated sources of risk/return instead of just stocks
• Creating tax deductions that can offset promote, co‑invests, W‑2 income, and Roth conversions in early retirement

You better have something really good, with real conviction and edge, if you’re going to do anything other than broad, low‑cost index funds. They’re an unbelievably powerful tool for building and keeping wealth.