When we’re kids it’s our parents.  When we’re adults it’s our spouses.  They tell us something and we ignore it.  Someone else tells us the same thing and we think it’s an awesome idea.  We share our newfound “revelation” with our parent, spouse, etc. and they roll their eyes while exasperatingly replying, “That’s what I said!”

Why is it we ignore the advice of those so close to us but accept it from others?  Let’s answer that some other time.

We mention it because it segues nicely into this article about famed Fidelity Magellan manager Peter Lynch – arguably the first rock star fund manager.  He speaks of a truth so obvious that it often goes unnoticed.  It’s a powerful sentiment.

As always we’re not sure benchmarking is helpful and even if it is that doing so to an index is the proper application.  Nonetheless Big Media drums into our heads that we’re supposed to meet/exceed what an index can return.  As Peter Lynch makes clear you aren’t going to beat an index by investing in it.

So…if we aren’t going to take advice from the professionals we hire (and surely we’re not implying anything about Apollo’s clients) then let’s take that advice from Peter Lynch.