In times when everybody seems to be day trading—and winning big—I need to remind myself: you’re always going to miss out on Tesla. And Bitcoin. And any other market success story that trickles into the mainstream news cycle.

Maybe you won’t miss out, but I sure will.

Why am I so sure that I’ll miss out on these opportunities? Simple. Because I don’t seek them out. Though I’ve pledged to dabble a little more in individual stocks, the percentage of that dabbling is never going to be a significant portion of my portfolio. While FOMO reigns supreme when market-illiterate acquaintances brag of big Robinhood gains, the reality is that I’m not going to put myself in a position to benefit all that much from a 10-bagger.

That time I almost bought Tesla

While I may lament not investing in Tesla, I have to ask myself: how much Tesla stock would I have bought? A few years ago, I had been looking at a small position in Tesla. I decided against the volatility. Instead, I purchased some Twitter stock (whoops)—a whole $2,000 worth.

Had I purchased Tesla instead, and held on for the ride, I’d be looking at north of $20,000 on that investment. By all accounts, a ridiculous return on investment. Nobody is sneezing at $20,000. However, in the grand scheme of things, with a best-case-scenario and perhaps once-in-a-lifetime stock, I’d have added only an additional $20k to a $400k portfolio. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take an additional $20 grand. But I know myself. For me, individual stocks usually aren’t worth the stress, and the amounts of money that I invest in them are miniscule relative to my overall portfolio. As much as I’m envious of newly-minted Teslannaires, I have to be honest with myself. I wouldn’t be a Teslannaire even if I had invested in Tesla.

Miss out on Tesla and buy the index

As Michael Scott once said that Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” And they’re both right. My lack of willingness to shoot for the moon might mean that I miss out on generational opportunities like Tesla and Bitcoin.

Thirty-something Boomer that I am, though, I’m going to continue to dollar cost average into my trusty index funds. Index funds that have returned very satisfactory gains over the last handful of years. If that’s a little too risk averse, so be it. Though I’d hardly call holding nearly 100 percent of my assets in stocks “risk averse.” Besides, with trusty old VTSAX, I can talk myself into the fact that I technically do own a small portion of Tesla via the index, as with every other stock in the U.S. market. At least, that’s how I help myself get to sleep at night. That and booze.

Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race, but it always gets to the finish line. I’d rather guarantee that I get there than get there a little quicker at the risk of flaming out entirely. The key is to know yourself and your own risk profile. I remember what it felt like to lose real money on penny stocks as an idiot college kid. I know I simply don’t have the risk tolerance to stomach the massive swings of some of these volatile individual companies, even if the potential return is 10x my investment or greater.

The allure of individual stocks remains

As for my Twitter investment—it’s fine. It’s actually significantly outpaced the S&P 500 itself since I purchased it. But it doesn’t change my financial picture one way or another. It simply provides me with another ticker to look at on my Apple stocks app. It also serves as a reminder that picking individual stocks is hard—regardless of how easy Tesla has made it seem over the last year.

The point isn’t that I chose wrong in the Tesla vs. Twitter head-to-head matchup, though obviously I did. The point is that even if I guess right—and that’s all I’m doing is guessing—it wouldn’t result in life-changing money at the dollar amounts I’m playing around with.   

Even as someone fully committed to the VTSAX approach, I still need to remind myself why I remain a largely passive investor. Sometimes, I need to see that reminder with small amounts of money in my own portfolio. For me, the biggest reason to invest in individual stocks is to remind myself why I generally don’t invest in individual stocks.

Even if that means missing out on the next Tesla, or the current one.