How Long Does It Take to be a Long-Term Investor?

Bert Whitehead, M.B.A., J.D. © 2009

This year’s market bottom in March wiped out all the market gains in your portfolio since 1996 (13 years)! This has left many commentators sniveling about the stock market as an inferior investment vehicle. But I’m sure everyone reading this has consistently been told that you have to be a ‘long-term investor’ to profit in the stock market.

So if 13 years isn’t long enough, how long is long enough?

When I started as a Financial Advisor in 1972 we were in the recession that started in 1967. The Dow hit 1000 in 1967 and didn’t get beyond 1000 again until 1982 (15 years). There was a widespread belief in the 70’s that the market could never go over 1000.

The financial pundits at that time subscribed to the theory that whenever stocks went beyond 1000, companies would always issue more stock. The additional supply would force the stock prices down, So the supply/demand curves intersected at 1000.

This year the market bottomed at 6600 in March ‘wiping out all the gains’ since 1996! But if you look at the peak in 1982 when the Dow was at 1000 and compare it to the peak in 2007 when the Dow hit 14,000, the market rose 9.8% per year ‘peak-to-peak over that 24 years. Clearly the ‘permanent market cap’ at 1000 the academicians theorized has been discredited.

Even measuring the ‘trough-to-trough’ bottoms from 607 in 1974 to 6600 this year (25 years), the market increased an average of 10.0% per year. On top of this add in the 4-6% in historical dividend payouts and the total average annual returns are easily over 12%.

The stock market has consistently been the most accessible investment over the long term! These kinds of returns are available to every person by simply consistently dollar-cost-averaging into a large cap indexed mutual fund over the long term.

Deciding not to invest in the market now, especially for younger people, could be the worst financial decision you could make in your life. And remember: you are younger now than you will ever be for the rest of your life .

This analysis explains why Cambridge Bond Ladders are for 15 years, rather than the 5 years many other advisors suggest. Fifteen years cash flow will last you through any recession. To fully reap the profits of the stock market an investor should have a 25 year horizon. That’s how long is long enough!