There are a lot of different explanations in the comments without a mention of the glaring obvious reason: 8% was including inflation and 3% is current real gd

There are a lot of different explanations in the comments without a mention of the glaring obvious reason: 8% was including inflation and 3% is current real gdp growth. REAL (not inflation) annual US stock market returns since 1972 was 5.92% [0] REAL annual US GDP growth since 1972 was... 5.95% [1] You can't make this up. Expect our current GDP growth (2-3%) as long term real returns. Anything extra is monetary inflation. [0] https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&mode=1&timePeriod=4&startYear=1972&firstMonth=1&endYear=2022&lastMonth=12&calendarAligned=true&includeYTD=false&initialAmount=10000&annualOperation=0&annualAdjustment=0&inflationAdjusted=true&annualPercentage=0.0&frequency=4&rebalanceType=1&absoluteDeviation=5.0&relativeDeviation=25.0&leverageType=0&leverageRatio=0.0&debtAmount=0&debtInterest=0.0&maintenanceMargin=25.0&leveragedBenchmark=false&portfolioNames=false&portfolioName1=Portfolio+1&portfolioName2=Portfolio+2&portfolioName3=Portfolio+3&asset1=TotalStockMarket&allocation1_1=100 https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-all... [1]https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-gross-domestic-product https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-...