For decades, Wall Street wouldn’t shut up about the only blueprint for building wealth: Put 60% of your money in stocks, 40% in bonds. Then just sit back and enjoy the magic of diversification.
Once upon a time, university endowments were a total snooze. They loaded up on US stocks and government bonds, punched out a modest 5% or 6% return, and called it a day.
For nearly a century, if you wanted to invest in a high-flying tech startup before it went public, first you had to answer a simple question: "Are you a millionaire?" If the answer was no, the SEC labeled you a "non-accredited” investor — and you were locked out of the deal.…
In the old days, if you’d told me you’d invested in a startup, I’d have asked the obvious question: “When do you think it’ll IPO?” That was the dream. The startup would grow, go public, and your small investment could turn into a big sum.