> The Median 15 year annualized return on the S&P 500 since inception is 12%, back out 2% inflation and you're right at 10% returns. lol, that's a ridiculous r

> The Median 15 year annualized return on the S&P 500 since inception is 12%, back out 2% inflation and you're right at 10% returns. lol, that's a ridiculous representation of things. A median 15 year return... Imagine there's a fund with a 50 year history. Three 10 year periods had a return of 15%, and the other two periods had a return of -50%. Would you invest? Hell no. Yet they have an 10 year annualized median return of 15%. Who cares. Beyond that, the 2% also isn't quite right. In reality the return has been about 10% annualized since inception and the 100 year inflation rate has been 3.2%, but even that overstates some amazing returns a long time ago like in the 50s that won't return anytime soon. If you want to talk about 15 year returns, talk about the most recent 15 years... Between 2000 and 2015 the return's have been 37% in total, or 2% per year, "back out 2% inflation" and I hope you enjoy your 0% returns. Obviously we can cherry pick things all day like I just did, we can talk pre 2007 and post 2009, but 10% returns are definitely not reasonable for an average person for an average year, and that's what we're talking about here, that's what is reasonable, and that's not 10%. It's closer to 6% inflation adjusted I'd guess. And that's a huge difference, compounded over say 20 years on $100k it's a difference of $300k.