It's actually interesting that they already account for dividends and taxes. Usually if people talk about a 10% return, they are talking about pre-tax returns.

It's actually interesting that they already account for dividends and taxes. Usually if people talk about a 10% return, they are talking about pre-tax returns. I remember seeing a 'rolling S&P500 results' page somewhere but can't remember exactly where, [0] is what a quick search comes with. As you can see in graph [1] there was quite a dip for everyone investing for a period of 20 years between 1974 and somewhere around 1994. That is a 30 year period of a total of 80 years measured with bad returns. [0]: http://allfinancialmatters.com/2007/06/12/sp-500-rolling-period-total-real-returns/ http://allfinancialmatters.com/2007/06/12/sp-500-rolling-per... [1]: http://allfinancialmatters.com/Graphics/S&P50020-YearTotalChartBig.GIF http://allfinancialmatters.com/Graphics/S&P50020-YearTot...