And if I’m wrong and everyone is actually doing it, how is it sustainable in the long run? I mean, we can’t all be millionaires.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    17 days ago

    It’s not entirely without risk. 2008 saw the S&P lose over 30% for the year, and 2002 was over 20%. But it is up more often than down year-to-year, and it is usually up by at least 10%.

    I found some good charts here, even though it is a EU site:

    https://curvo.eu/backtest/en/market-index/sp-500?currency=usd

    If you are investing for the long haul , you will take the occasional 30% haircut if you can get 10-20% the rest of the time. But it would suck if you got that 30% haircut just before you needed to sell…

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      17 days ago

      If you got that 30% haircut just before you needed to sell

      Yep. They key part is to invest for 20, 30, 40 years, where those consistent 10-20% gains compound and vastly outweigh the occasional 30% losses. Even if you had invested at the worst time in 2007, you are currently up 285%.