26 • RUBY, WILDING & SWANSBURG bac k wh at you’ve los t, and finally , by 2006 , you’re above water . T he n, in 2 008 , y o u lo se it all again. You saw some good years. The market was up 28 percent in 2003 a nd 26 percent in 2009. But , you used t hose b ig ga ins to earn back the money you lost when the market dropped. So, those gains r eally didn’t r eflect forwar d progr ess, did they I ? n fact, it’s even les s pr ogress than you think. Guess what your 401(k ) ea rned annuall y, on avera ge, fro m 2000 through 2009, if it was invested wholly int o “t he market? ” F our pe rce nt? T hree pe rce nt? The answer may surprise you. It’s negative 1 percent. That ’s right . For t he ent ire deca de, you lost about 1 percent on a vera ge per yea r. $180,000
$160,000
Average Annual Return -1.0%
$140,000
$120,000
5.49%
15.79%
$100,000
26.46%
-9.10%
4.91%
10.88%
$80,000
-11.89%
28.68%
-37.00%
$60,000
-22.10%
$40,000
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Shown for illustrative purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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