You Can Beat the Rich

The protesters occupying Wall Street and locations in many other cities have strong cases to make against the privileged people in power. It's easy to find fault with the rich and wealthy institutions, and in many ways it's reasonable to feel that the deck is stacked against us. But sometimes we individuals can do better than the rich. The folks at Morningstar recently offered evidence of that, via a study of real estate investment trusts.

In a study commissioned by NAREIT that looked at 20 years of data, Morningstar found that publicly traded stock REITs performed considerably better than private equity real estate funds. They also tend to sport lower fees and use less leverage. Other studies find all kinds of fancy investments to be delivering underwhelming performances. A 2008 report from the Maryland Tax Education Foundation found that "leveraged buyout funds and venture capital funds provide less investment return than a portfolio of public stocks duplicating the S&P 500 index."

Source: Motley Fool

Related Articles:
- Financial Crisis: Can You Spare A Dime For My Wealthy Friend?
- Ten Dividend Stocks With 50+ Years of Consecutive Increases
- Wells Fargo: Things May Not Be Well at Wells
- The Best Dividend Stocks In The World
- Do As I Say, Not As I Do