If You Want to Beat the Market... Don't Be Lazy Laziness has led to many great human achievements... It's part of our natural programming – the "law of least effort" – to seek out a quicker, simpler way to do something. Why would humans want to expend more time and energy than they need to? If nobody had ever cared about making life easier, we'd still be illuminating our homes with candles... relieving ourselves in outhouses... and carrying cash to a stockbroker's office when we want to make an investment. Instead, we enjoy electric lighting... indoor plumbing... and free online stock trading. And it's all thanks to mankind's talent for being lazy. But the easy path isn't always the best one... I've written before that one of the most convenient ways to get started as an investor is with index funds or other exchange-traded funds. These well-diversified funds own lots of different stocks, and buying the fund gives you a piece of them all. This is great when you're still finding your footing or don't have a lot to invest. Funds save you from spending a bunch of time looking for a dozen individual stocks and then tracking their performance. And, because these funds are already diversified, you're protected from the volatility of any individual stock. If you'd otherwise be sitting out of the market entirely, then by all means, buy a fund. For example, the SPDR S&P 500 Fund (SPY) owns shares of all 500 stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 Index. The downside of fund investing is that you won't benefit as much from big moves in individual stocks. Just take a look at the gains you'd have made investing in the S&P 500 versus investing in two of its biggest holdings – Amazon (AMZN) or Alphabet (GOOGL)... As you can see, you would have done better investing in either of these tech stocks over the S&P 500. Outperforming the overall market can be done, but it isn't easy. What's more... you're also taking on more risk than investing in a fund, since you might pick an individual stock that gains less than the index... or even falls. It all comes down to picking the right stocks. And according to my friend Marc Chaikin at our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics, we're entering a stock picker's market... Marc has seen it all. He spent more than 50 years working on Wall Street and has invested through every kind of market. And now, he believes a big monetary shift is unfolding. That shift is pointing Marc toward a strategy he hasn't been able to show subscribers until now. Best of all, his research indicates this could be the No. 1 most lucrative strategy in the markets. Click here to get all the details. Now, let's get into this week's Q&A... As always, keep sending your comments, questions, and topic suggestions to [email protected]. My team and I read every e-mail. Q: Is putting hot foods in the fridge safe? – L.B. A: Yes, you can refrigerate hot foods. It's a myth carried over from the olden days of more primitive refrigerators that you can't. These days, our fridge technology has improved quite a bit to cool down food without malfunctioning. But there are some caveats, too... First is the size of your dish... Avoid plunking huge amounts of hot food (like a hunk of meat or big pot of stew) into the fridge because they'll have trouble cooling down fast enough (more on that in a moment). Perishable foods include things like meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, prepared produce (like salads), and, of course, your leftovers. Here are the golden rules of leaving out perishable foods... Regarding air temperature: no more than two hours at "room temperature" (i.e., 68 to 74 degrees Fahrenheit) and just one hour, max, at temperatures higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (like at an outdoor summer cookout). Regarding the temperature of the food itself: You'll need a food thermometer so you can avoid the "Danger Zone," which is leaving out food that registers at temps between 41 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours. It's critical to get the hot food down to 70 degrees within the first two hours. That's because the fastest microbial growth happens from 70 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you want to be doubly sure that your leftovers will be safe for you and your family to enjoy for a few more days, grab a food thermometer and set your phone's timer for this two-stage cooldown: Get the dish down from 140 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours. If you mess up and don't make it in time, reheat for 15 seconds to 165 degrees Fahrenheit or just toss it out. Get the dish from 70 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below within four hours. "Dividing and conquering" is the best way to hasten the cooling process... Divvy up the dish into smaller portions in loosely covered (for steam to escape), shallow containers or bags to flatten for faster heat dispersion. Frequent stirring and chilling with an ice-water bath (or adding ice cubes to water-based foods) works beautifully. Here are some other food-safety tips which involve appliance upkeep... Keep tabs on the refrigerator and freezer temperatures. The fridge temperature should be at less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below. If you keep seeing condensation, your fridge door may not be fully closed –check the door seal or gaskets. Keep surfaces clean... Don't use your dish sponge to clean surfaces if it hasn't been disinfected. (A 90-second zap in the microwave or a five- to seven-minute submerged bath in white vinegar or boiling water will do.) If using bleach to disinfect, always make sure to clean off surfaces of debris and puddles first. Otherwise, the organic matter (like proteins in milk) can inactivate bleach. Finally, do what I do and designate a shelf in your fridge strictly for leftovers. That way, you won't lose track of dishes so you can enjoy them within the next few days. I usually keep mine on a lower shelf (near the crisper) and avoid shelves on the door since it's the warmest area of the fridge due to repeated door openings. What We're Reading... Did you miss it? The most powerful force behind the market's rise. Something different: KFC is leaving Kentucky. Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement, Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
February 21, 2025 | 