As the year comes to a close, it’s fitting that we take a moment to reflect on recent market lessons. But, you know we’ll never focus on any one year, so let’s consider the four most recent decades from 1975 through 2015. This captures nearly all of the investing lives of our clients. Here’s a summary of data taken at the beginning of each of the 10-year time periods.

TAKEAWAYS

Have you ever asked us, “How long is the long view?” If so, this might be for you. After we build you a low-cost, evidence-based investment portfolio, what should you do next? For the most part, pretend like it doesn’t exist. In this example (which only looks at the S&P 500), you’d see a negative result nearly half of the time if you checked your returns on a daily basis. At the other extreme, if you only reviewed results for 20-year time periods, you would have seen positive performance every time.

We got the data from Ben Carlson’s blog (click here) and posted it on the chalkboard in our office as a regular reminder to continue taking the long view.

I’m excited to announce that my book is now available for pre-order on both Amazon and 800-CEO-READ. Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor will also be for sale in more than one hundred Hudson Booksellers locations (airports) and other major retail outlets. It’s been a fun and challenging experience to make this happen, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

I’ll have a book website going live in the next few weeks, book launch parties coming in the spring, and lots more to share in the months ahead.