>It's been a really bad idea for many long historical periods.
Name a historical period of longer than 15 years in which the market as a whole has lost money relative to inflation. That didn't even happen across the Great Depression.
Name a historical period of longer than 15 years in which the market as a whole has lost money relative to inflation. That didn't even happen across the Great Depression.
http://www.angelfire.com/or/truthfinder/index14.html
http://www.dogsofthedow.com/dow1925cpilog.htm
Furthermore, market history did not begin in 1910 in the United States. Stock markets go back hundreds of years in many countries. A global long-view perspective is worth a lot more than 90 years of US data. And from that perspective "stocks for the long haul" have very often been a bad idea.
The figure I was remembering was actually about a 60/40 balanced stock+bonds fund like VBINX, which is what I'd recommend to anyone anyway.