lowest cost "index fund" (assuming you have a broker that doesn't charge for trades). Yes. I understand order flow.

But if the idea is that we manage without fees then just do it yourself. That's free. And how hard is buying 30 stocks?

If you have enough in your account, then you can buy 20 to 30 stocks and you've removed all the risk that any fund can get you. (Some would say 50 stocks, but 20 to 30 and you're removing a lot of that risk).

Rebalancing schmalancing.

So, find 20 to 30 companies you like, buy them. Then forget about it and look every 6 months or so.

The lowest cost "index fund" you can find. If you want to be crazy then choose the 30 in different industries.

It's what I do. And I don't want to say I beat the market. But, I've never not beat the market so far. I'm about 10 years into doing it like this. Some year's its close.

But why buy the entire S&P500 when you know what you really want to own is Amazon and AAPL?

I also put about 20% in some kind of actual ETF like SPY or IVV or maybe a USHY if I'm feeling like there will be a good position to move on.

Here's my list:

BA
AAPL
MSFT
WMT
FDX
GOOG
AMZN
DIS
DOCU
COST
PLNT
XOM
CNK
AXON
INTU
TIGR
SCHW
SPY
IVV