No, I agree with you that this year hasn't been that good. I'm only up 3%+. And yes, I've earned more in my savings account than in my stock holdings. Ouch.
However, the last 3 years have been good to me, though admittedly, nothing like the 90's. Frankly, I don't think we'll ever see anything like the 90's again in my lifetime. Those are once in a lifetime events. The sooner you and everyone else on these threads start internalizing that reality, the sooner you will diversify and ensure you get a steady, decent return for the long term. The 90's were an aberration, a statistical anomaly.
As far as the S&P500, it's up 3.7% this year. That's a positive return. After inflation, it's barely positive. But no, that's not good, but this year is to be expected considering it comes directly after a three year period (2003-2005) when the S&P500 returned an avg annualized rate of 13%. That's an above average return by anyone's measure. |
