Some years back, a friend asked me to recommend a good stock investment for her daughter's college fund. Since withdrawals were to start in about three years, my recommendation was not to put the college fund in the stock market at all! Here's why.
What will a $20,000 Stock Market Investment be Worth in 5 Years?
In previous posts, we have looked at the distribution of historical outcomes for typical (but hypothetical) investors investing in the stock market for 10 years and for 20 Years. For those holding periods, the investors virtually always made money -- though sometimes barely so. In approximately 100 sample 10-year periods since 1900, we saw only one instance where the investor's ending portfolio was worth less than his initial investment -- and no instances for 20-year periods.
The above graph (click to expand) is the 5-year version of the earlier charts. It shows the historical results of