General Discussion

Quixote1818

(28,955 posts) Sun Jan 7, 2018, 02:58 PM Jan 2018

The way to get under Trump's skin the most is to remind everyone he is NOT a self made billionaire

This is how Hillary should have attacked him during the campaign. Take away his claim to being "a self made billionaire" and he is nothing. Any Joe Schmo who had that much inheritance would be worth what Trump is and many just investing in index funds would be worth a lot more.

Dems need someone like Mark Cuban right now reminding everyone that Trump mishandled his enormous inheritance with bad real-estate deals losing a lot of money which is why American Banks would not loan to him. How he would have done better and not had to launder money in Russia if he had just put his enormous inheritance into an index fund instead of shitty real-estate deals just because he wants his name on big buildings that lose money.

Dems should be relentless on this because without his "self made" wealth he is just someone who's Daddy gave a lot of money to and they didn't handle the money that well.

Snip> Trump Worth $10 Billion Less Than If He’d Simply Invested in Index Funds
Forbes reports Donald Trump is worth $4.1 billion; Trump says $10 billion. Either way, he'd be worth a lot more if he simply retired 30 years ago and put his money in an unmanaged stock fund.

Karla Bowsher • December 9, 2015

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/why-youre-probably-better-investing-than-donald-trump/

Snip:

But if you compare Trump's performance since 1982, when the stock market started to take off after the early-'80s recession, it looks pretty abysmal. Forbes estimated that Trump was worth $200 million that year. If he'd put that money in an index fund that year at a 0.15 percent fee, he'd have $6.3 billion today after dividend taxes, almost certainly more than he actually does. This jibes with analyzes prior to Dáte's which have found that Trump has underperformed compared with the market since 1988; an AP analysis found that if he'd put his money in an index fund that year, he'd have $13 billion today; the S&P calculator similarly suggested he'd have $11.3 billion, after fees and dividend taxes.

These calculations vary a lot depending on the size of fee you introduce, how much of the investments you take off for living expenses, which exact day of the year you buy the index funds in, etc. If Trump had invested $40 million in an index fund in January 1974, for example, he'd have $500 million less, after fees and dividend taxes, than he would have if he'd invested in August.

But the exact numbers aren't the point. The point is that after decades of touting his business acumen, his ability to negotiate tough deals and spot good investments, and after spending this entire campaign season arguing that he's qualified for the presidency based on his skills in the market, Trump nonetheless has an investment record that at best roughly matches and at worst underperforms the market. He did only as well or possibly worse than a retiree with a Vanguard 401(k) did.

More: https://www.vox.com/2015/9/2/9248963/donald-trump-index-fund