If anyone is curious about the actual returns of the market, I made a sheet [0] with S&P 500 returns over 10, 20 and 30 years at every possible starting point. Note that this excludes dividend yield which is about ~2% today and higher in the past, which should cover inflation for the most part.
type 10yr; 20yr; 30yr;
min -3.57%; 2.80%; 6.94%;
max 17.05%; 15.49%; 12.74%;
median 8.54%; 10.21%; 9.86%;
So for instance, if you invested over 10 years since 1929, the worst you could have possible done is a continuously compounding return of -3.57% (invested in 1927 and sold in 1937). The next worst is invest in 1938 and sold in 1938 for a 0% return. Everything else is positive.
The worse 20 year return is 1927-1947 for an annual return of 2.8%
But of course no one invests like this. They invest over time and dollar cost average. For instance you may invest $100 a month, in which case your returns would be positive and likely very high regardless of when you start, as long as you invest for long enough (more than a few years)
I don't know why a journalist would quote someone without doing 5 minutes of research as to actual stock market returns and important timing is.
I still don't understand why its so fashionable to have these garbage articles come out about how everyone working hard and saving is an idiot and everything is futile. Does the author believe this crap? What else is there to do but to work hard and save? Would you teach this stuff to your children about how they're destined to be destitute?
[0] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dGFQUxyUfGyBE5dnz1rc...