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How To Beat A Billionaire

If you've spent any time at all on this site, you will have noticed I have an interest in investing. I had no interest in finance until my mid-40s, when I took a job at a printing company in which one of the partners is a CPA. I learned personal finance the hard way, struggling with credit card debt in my early 20s (it was the 90s; I blame the guitar and camera stores). After digging myself out of the hole I was in by age 27, I was cautious to avoid debt anytime I could. Investing, aside from employer retirement plans, was not on my radar.

Fatherhood really spurred me into action when it came to investing. There's simply no way a savings account can outpace inflation; if you want to thrive financially, investing is the best way to get ahead. So, with encouragement from my boss, I began to study and learn. Investopedia and The Balance proved to be immensely helpful. In time, I opened an account and started buying exchange traded funds (ETFs) and was on my way.

I read a few investor bios, which can be informative in themselves. Top of mind was Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, who open sourced his decision making process in the book "Principals". Allow me to go on record that I don't believe that billionaires should exist and that the hoarding of wealth is not an admirable profession. Nevertheless, at least Dalio is giving something back in the form of books that explain difficult processes.

Dalio's hedge fund features a fund called "All Weather", which is designed to be a stable fund to endure difficult market environments. Due to its allocations, you may miss some of the boom when the stock market is roaring but you'll also miss some of the pain when prices are dropping, thanks to its holdings in bonds and commodities. The fund is more of a wealth preserver than a wealth generator. The cost, of course, excluded a small-time investor such as myself.

One can imagine my surprise when, in March 2025, Dalio partnered with a SSGA to introduce an ETF called All Weather (ALLW), an affordable fund inspired by the original All Weather fund. Announcements were made, which surprisingly included the asset allocation info, something you generally have to dig through a prospective to find. The allocations are as follows:

    Stock: 30%
    Long Term Bonds: 40%
    Intermediate Bonds: 15%
    Commodities: 7.5%
    Gold: 7.5%

Interesting, I thought, and read on. The letdown was the expense ratio, or the amount of money the fund manager keeps from each share, which is .85%. This doesn't sound like much, and expense ratios on funds can range from .03% to 1% or more, depending on the fund. With the allocation info and expense ratio in hand, my first thought was "I can beat this."

Fuelled by caffeine and curiosity, I began looking into ETFs, specifically the recent performance and expense ratios. Simplicity is beautiful, so I kept the portfolio limited to one fund per asset, with allocation to mirror ALLW, except for commodities and gold, which I allocated at 7% and 8% respectively. The sum total of expense ratios was a more appealing .44%, just over half that of ALLW. I was stoked.

Theory and practive or two different things, so I decided to put my theory into practice using M1 Finance's pie allotment, in which one can build their own portfolio of stocks, funds, etc. and specify allocation of each. I then transfered the minimum amount to open a new account ($100). I would invest the next day.

This was in early April, just days after the announcement of tariffs on virtually every trading partner of the US. On April 8, ALLW opened at $25.04 per share, so I invested $25 in my pie. The market turned, and the ALLW price fell off a cliff, sinking to $23 and change per share in the coming days. My pie held firm, and actually began to grow slightly. By month's end, my pie was beating Dalio's fund by 5%, with the added advantage of a lower expense ratio.

As I write, ALLW is at $25.07/share, up .11% from the April 7 price of $25.04. My pie is up 4.10% from April 7th.

The lesson in all this is to keep it simple, use quality funds with low expense ratios, and with a bit of luck, you can beat Ray too.

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