2025's Most-Read Investor Updates: The New Tax Law, Buffett and More

Jan 08, 2026

What captured AAII members’ attention in 2025? The five most-read Investor Update commentaries covered many topics important to individual investors, from the new tax law to Warren Buffett to the S&P 500 index’s historical trends. Today, I am revisiting the essential lessons I wrote about during the past year.

#1. This year’s most-read Investor Update focused on the key tax changes made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This is not surprising given the large number of changes introduced in the bill and the timing of the commentary—published just a few weeks after the OBBBA’s passage. I wanted to get these changes out early so AAII members had time to adjust their tax planning.

#2. Coming in close second was my article on the six lessons investors can learn from Buffett. This was written right after Buffett surprised the investing world by announcing his retirement. It is hard for me to single out one lesson in the commentary as my favorite, but if pressed, I would highlight Buffett’s long-term approach to investing. We individual investors can use time as an advantage because what matters is achieving our goals, not what the quarterly or annual performance of portfolios is. Never underestimate how helpful to wealth creation this is.

#3. Investor Update commentaries about Buffett were popular this year. “Buffett’s Cash Problem Isn’t Your Problem” was written following the release of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRK.B) 2024 annual report. The conglomerate ended 2024 with $330.8 billion in cash and U.S. Treasury bills. Berkshire Hathaway’s sheer size makes it difficult for the company to establish new meaningful positions in stocks. We individual investors do not have this problem. It’s an advantage we should never underestimate.

#4. Mid-cap stocks are often overlooked, but many of you showed interest in “33 Top-Graded Mid-Cap Dividend Payers.” This Investor Update looked at the then 264 dividend payers in the S&P MidCap 400 index. While close to half of the stocks in this group were trading at expensive valuations based on their dividend yield, there were 33 mid-caps with attractive valuations, good dividend growth and financial strength. It is proof that dividend investors can help themselves by looking beyond large caps for attractive investment ideas.

#5. The S&P 500 was on track to enjoy its third consecutive year of double-digit gains as we approached Christmas last week. This good performance followed a 26.3% rise in 2023 and a 25.0% jump in 2024. Back-to-back years with gains greater than 20% among large-company stocks have only occurred nine times over the past 100 years. Though some might seek patterns in this data, history shows that the stock market has instead followed a random walk following those periods.

Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026. Be sure to eat some black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day!

American Association of Individual Investors

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