Every Time Horizon

Our modern financial markets are not very old, but we can learn from the past performance of different portfolios of stocks, bonds, and cash across hundreds of holding periods.

Each line represents the performance of $10,000 during all unique 86 historic periods of 5 years. Adjust the period length and asset allocation with the sliders below and hover to view performance details.

012345$7.5k$10k$20k$50k$100k$500k$1.0M$10M$18M

Years Held

There have been86unique5-yearperiods since 1928. With this asset allocation,82periods have seen positive returns, while4have seen negative returns. The average annualized return has been7.88percent.

Adjust the number of years invested and the asset allocation:

Number of Years Invested: 5

1 year
50 years
90 years
12.5% CASH37.5% BONDS 50.0% STOCKS
Conservative
Blend
Aggressive

About

A project by Ben Matheson. The historical market data is sourced the from Federal Reserve database in St. Louis (FRED) via NYU professor Aswath Damodaran, which runs from 1928 to 2017. Stocks represent the S&P 500 including dividends. Bonds are represented by 10-year treasury bonds. Cash is represented by three-month U.S. treasury bill. Assets are compounded annually and displayed on a logorithmic y-scale. There is no adjustment for inflation.