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Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by jiveturkey on Sunday May 06, 2018 @09:41PM (#17009809)
4% after inflation is not easy
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by dannyw on Sunday May 06, 2018 @09:41PM (#17009812)
A S&P 500 index fund will get you that.
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by ghazak on Sunday May 06, 2018 @09:54PM (#17009855)
At fees of 4/100ths of a percent. Vanguard has created a simply enormous consumer surplus. Thank you Bogle.
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by badpun on Monday May 07, 2018 @08:30AM (#17012191)
s/will get you that/has been known to get you that in the past/

Who knows what the future holds.

Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by adrianN on Monday May 07, 2018 @01:34AM (#17010595)
Starting in what year?
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by loeg on Monday May 07, 2018 @03:04AM (#17010868)
Pretty much any year.

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2016/05/deconstructing-30-ye...

> The worst 30 year return — using rolling monthly performance — occurred at the height of the market just before the Great Depression and stocks still returned almost 8% per year over the ensuing three decades.

(This number is not adjusted for inflation, but still.)

https://www.thebalance.com/rolling-index-returns-1973-mid-20...

> The S&P 500 Index, shown in bright red, delivered its worst twenty-year return of 6.4% a year over the twenty years ending in May 1979.

Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by dannyw on Monday May 07, 2018 @02:24AM (#17010733)
Starting in any >25 year period since 1903, I think.
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by adrianN on Monday May 07, 2018 @03:01AM (#17010857)
I looked it up. There are long periods where it performed just above inflation. http://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/...
Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by loeg on Monday May 07, 2018 @03:08AM (#17010879)
Nope. That graph is incredibly misleading. Note that the middle color represents 3-7% inflation-adjusted returns after "fees and taxes" (how are those calculated?) and the light red color represents 0-3% inflation-adjusted returns (again after fees and taxes). 6.2% is the claimed average inflation-adjusted return. A lump sum invested for 67 years at 6.2% is something like a 5500% return on initial investment.

Very few start dates yield poor returns over a 20-year period, and fewer over a 25+ year period. Much less 67 years.

I'm also not sure about the methodology of "including fees and taxes," since the average mutual fund fee has been very high until quite recently, despite Vanguard's start in the 70s, and taxes are highly individual. The article is light on details.

Re:96-Year-Old Secretary Quietly Amasses Fortune, Then Donat... by MrPowers on Monday May 07, 2018 @01:39AM (#17010614)
Yep, agreed, especially with current market conditions (high asset prices and low bond yields). Research Affiliates has an awesome tool that shows expected returns by asset class (https://interactive.researchaffiliates.com/asset-allocation....) and European equity / Emerging Markets equity are the only asset classes expected to yield 4%+ real annual returns over the next 10 years.