Investing Without Complexity

For most people, investing feels intimidating.

There are charts.

Tickers.

Opinions.

Predictions.

Endless noise.

So they wait.

Or they dabble.

Or they chase what already went up.

None of that is required to build wealth.

In fact, complexity is often the enemy of progress.

The Biggest Investing Lie

You’ve probably heard some version of this:

| “Investing is complicated.”

It isn’t.

What is complicated is trying to outsmart millions of professionals, algorithms, and institutions all competing for the same dollar.

The good news?

You don’t need to beat them.

You just need to own the system.

What Actually Works (Over Time)

Long-term investing success comes from three simple ideas:

• Buy productive assets

• Stay invested

• Keep costs low

That’s it.

No predictions.

No hot tips.

No constant adjustments.

The FIRE-Friendly Investing Approach

Here’s the version that works for normal people with real lives.

1. Invest Simply and Broadly

Don’t play the game of picking individual stocks, you are essentially gambling with your money. The risk is not worth it.

Instead, own the entire market. Or, at least a large portion of it.

I’m talking about the S&P 500, a list of 500 of the largest and most successful companies in the United States.

Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Coca-Cola, and hundreds more.

Instead of trying to guess which single company will win, the S&P 500 lets you own a small piece of all of them at once.

Think of it as a scoreboard for the U.S. economy.

When these 500 companies are doing well overall, the S&P 500 goes up.

When they struggle, it goes down.

Over long periods of time, it tends to rise because:

• Companies innovate

• Productivity improves

• The economy grows

To invest in the S&P 500, you don’t buy it directly. You buy a fund that tracks it (more on that below).

That fund:

• Automatically owns all 500 companies

• Adjusts as companies grow or shrink

• Removes companies that fall behind and adds new leaders

No decisions required from you.

People pursuing FIRE love the S&P 500 because it’s:

• Simple

• Diversified

• Low-cost

• Historically reliable over long periods

It’s not exciting.

It’s not flashy.

And that’s the point.

When the economy grows, you grow with it.

2. Keep Fees Low

To invest in an S&P 500 fund, you will need to open what is called a brokerage account. A brokerage is a fancy term for an investment bank. Being that I am a Boglehead (IYKYK), my favorite brokerage is Vanguard. Any brokerage will almost always charge fees to manage your investments. These fees quietly steal from your future.

A 1% fee doesn’t sound like much — until you realize it can cost you years of freedom.

A low-cost Index Fund or ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) keeps more of your money working for you. Either of these options can track the S&P 500. There are slight differences in each, but both track the same index, cost very little and deliver nearly identical long-term results.

My recommendation is simply to choose the one with the lowest fees.

3. Automate Everything

Once you select your fund, you simply begin buying, think depositing, into more of it over time. And the best investment strategy is the one you can set and forget.

Set automatic contributions:

• Every paycheck

• Every month

• No decisions required

Consistency beats cleverness.

4. Ignore the Noise

Markets will rise.

Markets will fall.

Experts will panic.

Experts will celebrate.

Your job is not to react.

Your job is to stay the course and continue to invest, especially in down markets. Because the market will rise again, it’s a historical truth, and when it does the money you invested in the downturn grows with it. Think of a down market as an opportunity to buy your fund while it’s ‘on sale’. Let’s say a $1,000 buys you three shares of an ETF in an average market. When the market dips, that $1,000 can now buy four shares. So, when the market rises again, you now have four shares growing instead of only three.

Why Simple Beats Smart

The best investment plan is:

• Easy to understand

• Easy to explain

• Easy to stick with during bad years

If your strategy requires constant attention, it will eventually fail — not because it’s wrong, but because you’re human.

Simple plans survive stress.

What Investing Is Really About

Investing isn’t about being right.

It’s about:

• Letting time do the heavy lifting

• Turning savings into future income

• Building a life that doesn’t depend on your next paycheck

You don’t need brilliance.

You need patience.

The FIRE Lens

FIRE investing isn’t flashy.

It’s quiet.

Unimpressive.

Almost boring.

And that’s exactly why it works.

While others chase returns, you’re building independence.

While others react, you’re accumulating.

While others worry, you’re sleeping.

What You Can Expect Here

As FIRERANT continues, we’ll:

• Break investing down simply

• Avoid unnecessary complexity

• Focus on freedom, not ego

You don’t need to know everything.

You just need a plan you trust — and the discipline to let it work.

— Jackson