[quote=Coronita]I am looking at one of my Vanguard accounts I had since 2002. I think it’s the oldest one out of the 26 accounts and it is consistently invested on index funds. Average return has been 7.1%…But there were years that it looked awful, like a deep downturn.
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I ran a series on S&P 500 returns from 2000 (because that was a group of 3 really bad years 2000-2002) with data from https://www.macrotrends.net/2526/sp-500-historical-annual-returns and got 5.25% annual – not including dividends received from index during that time. If I eliminate the 3 bad years and go from 2003 to 2021 I get 9.00%
[quote=Coronita]
Personally, that’s what I’m trying to avoid. Those deep downturns don’t matter if you have another 10-15 years to wait it out. But it would suck if you are drawing from it right after a downturn.
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Looking at the recent data, recovery from 2000-2002 occurred in 2007, but there was a bad downturn in 2008.. but again recovered in early 2013. This does not take into effect dividends from S&P 500 companies.
[quote=Coronita]
I’ve been talking a lot more with people who are seriously considering early retirement. just thinking….
I guess it’s part of the ongoing The Great Resignation….lol…[/quote]
Resignation to ones fate?? Anyway, I was laid off in 2008, found I was getting seriously low-balled on job offers and then family issues came up. I ended up living off of investment proceeds. When family issues eased, I found that I was making more on my investments than any wage being offered… so I guess I could say I officially Retired with Resignation.. I liked the work, but management tends to drive me nuts. I think I have experienced too many pointy haired bosses (one of them even looked the part)
