Patient investing works even if it is deeply unfashionable 

Here is the dirty secret of Wall Street – brokers make money even when you lose. As long as you trade a lot they win – even if their service is “free”. They make very little money off you if you make few trades a year – even if you make a ton of money on those few trades.

Successful investors are patient. They buy good companies at good prices and resist the temptation to trade too much.

Most of the hype around “democratising Wall Street” is designed to make you trade a lot so that brokers make money. This is not a problem the market can solve without people committed to the impact investing goal of reducing inequality. There are many solutions. The one that appeals to me is like a birth certificate. If everybody was given $100 at birth invested in a low cost ETF and they could not touch it for at least 20 years they would a) believe capitalism could work for them b) learn how great compound interest is.

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