Entries in stock market (2)
Average is Not Normal
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 12:00PM Most personal finance literature will tell you that the average lifetime returns of the stock market (like the S&P 500) are somewhere between 8-11% (depending if it's calculated with or without inflation).
This slideshow from behaviorgap.com challenges that view with the idea that average is not normal and that yes, it does matter when you start investing.
While this may help to set expectations - the presentation, taken on its own, suggests that your timing on entering the market is important. My personal take - you should be investing, steadily and regularly for the long term as early as possible. Trying to time the market is a fool's game.
To be fair - if you visit the site and download their white paper called "Behaviour Gap: A Snapshot View", it does a better job of explaining what they really mean (buy AND hold) and is worth a read.
average returns, investing, stock market in Wealthy