The chart above tries to explain why over the last 25 years,
investing in the US stock market has been so frustrating. We have had the Tech Bubble and the Mortgage
Bubble. Both of the bubbles were popped
with serious losses reflected in stocks.
The RED
line reflects the core growth over
the period without the bubbles and crashes (regression line from 1990 to date):
about 10% with dividends. The BLUE line shows the result of
investing at the peak of the market in 2000 until today: about 5% with
dividends. Obviously, investing for any
short period during the Last 25 years could result in exciting gains and
terrifying losses.
John Boyd, CFP