Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner. There is an upcoming date on your calendar that I'm sure you've

got circled. April 15th, tax day. So exciting. We are currently putting together a couple of all

star episodes on the new US tax bill. But first, since a great many of you are already planning

on how to spend your tax refund, we thought we'd play you a two-part series from last year,

to the most popular episodes we've ever made. The first one, which you'll hear right now,

is called the stupidest thing you can do with your money. Thanks for listening. What would you say

if I told you that everyday investors, people like you and me, are just throwing away billions

and billions of dollars? It's not something that just started today. It's been going on

for the last 20 or 30 years. Is it some kind of a tax? It's a tax on smart people who don't

realize their propensity for doing stupid things. Just how stupid is this stupid thing? Basically,

we were saying you're judging people for stuff you can't deliver. But in recent years,

there has been a backlash. Some would even say it's become a revolution. It's definitely a revolution.

We are in the middle of the Copernican revolution about the proper way to invest, or at least

the rational way to invest. Today, on Freakonomics Radio, the revolution in low-cost index

investing, also known as Wall Street's worst nightmare. You know, there's too much BS in Wall Street.

From WNYC Studios, this is Freakonomics Radio, a podcast that explores the hidden side of everything.

Here's your host, Steven Dubner.

It's hard to think of any other realm where empiricism, or at least what's dressed up to look like

empiricism, clashes so directly with delusion. I'm talking about investing, the stock market's

primarily. The alleged empiricism comes in the form of sales pitch data. It's easy to think

by seeing the ads and reading newspaper articles and stuff. That if you're just clever enough,

you're going to win. The delusion comes in the form of how stock markets actually work.

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