Moneywise On Oneplace.com

Did you hear about the guy who owned last year’s top-performing funds? Yeah, it's too bad he bought them this year, though.There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that buying and holding index funds will pay off in the long run. Benji Bailey joins us today to make the case with some impressive numbers.Benji Bailey is Vice President of Investments and Senior Fixed Income Manager at Praxis Mutual Funds, an underwriter of Faith & Finance.The Importance of Indexes in InvestingTo understand index funds, we can view them like guideposts in a national park. Just as signs direct visitors to scenic views and help them stay on the right path, indexes serve as essential benchmarks for investors. These benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 for large-cap stocks or the Bloomberg Aggregate for bonds, allow investors to measure their progress toward financial goals.Without these guideposts, investors risk straying off course, possibly realizing too late that their portfolio has been heading in the wrong direction. Publicly av