No, you are wrong. If you put all of your money into the S&P500 only at the absolute, single worst possible day (the market top on May 16th, 2008 at $1,425) yo

No, you are wrong. If you put all of your money into the S&P500 only at the absolute, single worst possible day (the market top on May 16th, 2008 at $1,425) you would still be up about 100% today, 10 years later at $2,779 (So about 2X, just checked). If you put money in "after the plummet," as you suggest, which is the best case scenario, (buying at the low of $735 in January of 2009) would put you up approximately 300% (4X). The average investor would get somewhere between these two just by ignoring the market and investing biweekly. I'm not even advising to go 100% for the S&P500 Index Funds. However that's an infinitely better idea than a portfolio that is 75% of Gold (Dumb), T Bills + Cash (Losing money everyday), and Bonds (Which are paying at near-historic lows). It's just bad advice.