[masraum]

Originally Posted by red 928

Even investing very conservatively and diversified, I expect to make on average at lest 10% on equity investments.
Truth be told the average return over the past has been well over that number and LTCG taxes are still reasonable.

You are absolutely correct, but despite the market doing what you say, many/most folks in the market don't do nearly as well as the market. Too many people are emotional about it. Many times I've seen/heard "oh no, the market just went way down, so I sold off a bunch of stock (after it had gone down 10% or whatever). Then they wait, and the market starts going back up and to be "sure" they wait some more. Then they are sure, so they buy back in after the market has gone up quite a bit compared to what it was when they sold. I'm like anyone in the market, I hate to see it go down (assuming I don't have a ton of money burning a hole in my pocket at the time, LOL). But when it does go down, I don't sell. I bide my time and then 6 months or a year or whatever, I'm back up to higher than it was before it went down and I haven't lost anything. But then I'm conservative and invested in low cost index funds. I'm sure that there are folks that have made more in the market than me, but I think I'm doing OK compared to most, and probably with less stress.