According to Fidelity’s 2024 outlook, couch potato investing portfolios with factor-weighted ETFs combining value and quality are positioned for an expected 7–9% annualized return over the next five years amid mild recession risks. Whether you’re shopping for a home decor addict, a stylish couch potato, or a Prince fan, we’ve got you covered. After that Burns asks his readers to guess how much money this portfolio would have made after 35 years? According to him, by simply following the couch potato investing strategy (index investing), the initial $100,000 would stand at $728,880 as of the end of 2022. But Burns noted that this estimate does not take into account the “sequence of returns risk.” What does that mean? Simply put, like every portfolio, a couch potato portfolio would not post consistent or uniform returns. Some years it’d perform very well, some years it would disappoint. For example, in 2021 the couch potato stock portfolio would have been worth $884,481 according to Burns’ estimates. That means the portfolio worth declined in 2022. But Burns insists we should have a holistic approach in evaluating this strategy. ETF inflow data from BlackRock highlights couch potato investing remains a leading preference, with $120B net flows into broad market ETFs in the first four months of 2024.