|
Let us say a person is 25 and has an annual income (individually or as a household) of $50,000, roughly average for families in the U.S. these days. In keeping with #1 above, he, she, or they will put $5000 (or more) a year into savings and investments. All of that can probably be protected from taxation for at least many years in a regular or Roth IRA. If 20% is put into an intermediate-term bond fund and 80% into a value equity mutual fund, then rebalanced annually or after a ten percent or greater correction, even without any extra investment research effort a 10% or better return is likely, assuming the performances are similar in future to what they have been in the past despite wars, recessions, major bank failures, terrorist attacks, etc.
For example, Fidelity Low-Priced Stock Fund (FLPSX), a value stock investment mutual fund, has had a annual average performance since inception (12/27/89) of 14.38%, and Fidelity Total Bond Fund (FTBFX), an intermediate-term bond mutual fund, has had a 5.40% average annual return since inception on 10/15/02. Their 10-year total returns were 11.30% and 5.28%, respectively. An 80% allocation in FLPSX plus a 20% allocation in FTBFX, rebalanced annually, would have provided a better than 10% average yearly return over the past decade (stats valid through the first half of 2013) and would have done so with generally lower risk than for the equity market as a whole.
| |