Did Your Index Fund Beat the Market?

Seems like a stupid question, doesn’t it?

Index funds, by their nature, are meant to match the market’s performance.

We can’t look into your account, but with S&P reporting that $4.6 trillion is indexed to the S&P 500, there’s a pretty good chance that your portfolio has some exposure. Or you might hold a “total market” stock fund. With the S&P 500 comprising over 80% of the US market capitalization, those funds will tend to track the S&P 500 fairly closely, too.

At Catholic Investment Strategies, we developed an index strategy that invests according to Catholic moral teaching. While not trying to beat the S&P 500 it has, nonetheless, managed to do so in 2020 and in the four plus years since its inception.

All the while, our index has avoided the S&P 500’s exposure to things like abortion, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, human fetal tissue research, and the production of weapons of mass destruction. That’s right, if you own a run-of-the-mill S&P 500 index fund, or any index fund holding a sizeable number of America’s largest corporations, you’re part owner of businesses involved in those activities.

Maybe it’s time to change your index!

Post from: Insights