[groundzeros2015]

Alternatives include - paying a mutual fund manager (who will skip the SpaceX ipo) - other assets classes like real estate and bonds - less diversified stock holdings

In this story we determined that S&P is going to choose a path different that other ETFs. Does that mean these ETFs differ in quality? Which should you pick?

[abustamam]

A properly diversified portfolio should have bonds even with a lower risk profile. Some even include real estate now, since REITs are so popular. Target date funds do this automatically, and rebalance, cheaply.

Mutual funds aren't bad but the average person won't realize that they're paying a percentage of their assets, not a flat fee, to the manager. If the fund class can beat the market by more than that percentage then it could be worth it, otherwise pick an ETF that has the risk profile you can tolerate. But the first step would be to understand that.