Multiple analyses show that if Trump had simply invested his multi-million-dollar inheritance in an index fund and didn’t touch it, he’d be a lot richer than he is now.
Think about that. His entire life’s work has been less successful than if he’d done nothing.
This is akin to the well known fact that the average investor underperforms index funds by approximately a wide margin, typically losing to inflation. The people who get the index fund performance are those who buy and never do anything again — as a class, dead people. Given his willingness to stoop to grift to secure profits, I sincerely doubt Mr Trump would have had the patience to invest and simply do nothing, at least while still living.
Robert Reich
Ian Ollmann