“Tune Out the Noise”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T98825bzcKw

I’m intrigued by finance, but I’m not interested in it.

Meaning I want to know how it works, but I don’t want to spend any mental energy in investing.

I don’t want to become a day trader, which is a fool’s errand. I don’t want to buy and sell stocks because I’m not a professional, and it’s a professional market. Furthermore, today everyone knows you should just put your money in index funds.

These are the guys who did the research proving this is the right way to invest.

Now I read about this documentary in the “Wall Street Journal.”

“A Billionaire and an Oscar Winner Have Made a Hit Movie. It’s About Investing – The new documentary from Errol Morris makes index funds and passive investing thrilling”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/investing-david-booth-errol-morris-documentary-4dd7ff80?st=tuJdM1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Not that you have to read the article. But I do recommend you watch the first half of this movie.

Documentaries are all the rage, but too often they’re about topics I experienced live, or nooks and crannies featuring crazy people. “Tune Out the Noise” is educational, without being didactic, without beating you over the head.

What we’ve got here is nobodies who find their way to the University of Chicago for disparate reasons. These are not today’s finance bros, wearing tailored suits who are in it only for the money and the attendant lifestyle. No, what we have here are ACADEMICS!

Can you imagine being so intrigued by finance that you want to teach it? Mostly these are oddballs who don’t fit in who find their way to this educational institution…

I know, I know, everybody’s down on universities and college education today. However, at the bleeding edge of any enterprise is the intelligent, trying to figure out the unknown. And that’s thrilling. We’re all excited by the new. But most of us are playing it safe, never all-in, especially in enterprises that appear difficult and don’t rain down money.

But David Booth decided to employ all this academic research to prove a point and make a ton of money. Which is why the University of Chicago’s business school is now named “Booth” (well, he donated $300 million for the privilege).

It’s exciting to see people driven by the data, the science, the theories, as opposed to the modern paradigm of working your way back from the money. How do I get rich? That’s where most people start.

This is history. And that’s where documentaries shine. Errol Morris makes finance come alive.

Until somewhere in the middle of this flick where the focus ends up being on small cap companies and multi-dimensions and conceptually you get it, but something is lost in the process.

But before that…

You’ll be riveted. Because Morris is a professional documentarian, and he knows how to make a subject interesting.

Of course if you’re a newbie, if you’re wet behind the ears, if you truly think you can beat the market yourself…your eyes will be opened. The math says otherwise! That’s the genius of these people… They collected the data and analyzed it, instead of just talking out of their rear ends.

And then there’s the concept of the theory. The data is meaningless unless you’re using it to prove or disprove… This is the kind of stuff you learned in junior high school that rarely comes up in your everyday life, but it’s the essence of progress.

You should put your money in an index fund. Sure, round out your portfolio with bonds, maybe real estate, don’t go all-in on the index. But if you’re going to own equities, this is the way to go. This movie proves it.

As to which index fund you should own with which philosophy… This is where the film gets hazy.

But until that point, you’ll be focused and edified. Even those in the industry may not know a lot of these historical details.

And did I mention that the movie is FREE?!

Yup, just click the YouTube link above.

You’ll be intrigued.