Skip to contentHome page Seeking Alpha - Power to InvestorsJan. 01, 2026 9:45 PM ETVanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)Eric Sprague5.34K FollowersCommentsSummaryI maintain that long-term investors should hold some S&P 500 as a forward-compatible position amid rapid AI advancements and the difficulty of identifying winners and losers.VOO’s high P/E and heavy AI concentration present valuation risks, with the dividend yield at a low historical rate of 1.12%.AI will likely drive future earnings, but picking individual winners is challenging; index exposure captures sector shifts.Christoph Burgstedt/iStock via Getty ImagesIntroductionPer my October 2024 article, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is hard to beat. Since then, AI advancements have been rapid and it is clear AI will be a big part of ourThis article was written byEric Sprague5.34K FollowersI'm an individual investor heavily influenced by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Munger's 1994 USC Business School Speech is something I think about a lot: Over the long term, it's hard for a stock to earn a much better return than the business which underlies it earns. If the business earns 6% on capital over 40 years and you hold it for that 40 years, you're not going to make much different than a 6% return—even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns 18% on capital over 20 or 30 years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you'll end up with a fine result. Another very simple effect I very seldom see discussed either by investment managers or anybody else is the effect of taxes. If you're going to buy something which compounds for 30 years at 15% per annum and you pay one 35% tax at the very end, the way that works out is that after taxes, you keep 13.3% per annum. In contrast, if you bought the same investment, but had to pay taxes every year of 35% out of the 15% that you earned, then your return would be 15% minus 35% of 15%—or only 9.75% per year compounded. So, the difference there is over 3.5%. And what 3.5% does to the numbers over long holding periods like 30 years is truly eye-opening. If you sit back for long, long stretches in great companies, you can get a huge edge from nothing but the way that income taxes work.Analyst’s Disclosure:I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of VOO, AAPL, AMZN, BAM, BN, BRK.A, BRK.B, GOOGL, GOOG, META, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA, VHT either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.Any material in this article should not be relied on as a formal investment recommendation. Never buy a stock without doing your own thorough research.Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.CommentsTo ensure this doesn’t happen in the future, please enable Javascript and cookies in your browser.Is this happening to you frequently? Please report it on our feedback forum.If you have an ad-blocker enabled you may be blocked from proceeding. Please disable your ad-blocker and refresh.