To invest for the long- term. So what is the long- term?”

It’s all relative. The average investing lifetime is roughly 40 years because most people want to retire at 65 and don’t start investing until they are at least 25 years old. Thus 40 years could be considered the “long term”. But it’s really a matter of your perspective.

We now have the “lost decade”…. 10 years and people are still upside-down.

If you were 25 years old in 1999, you lost 25% of your investing lifetime but if you were 45 years old in 1999, you lost 50% of your remaining investing lifetime. In both scenarios, chances are good you lost more of your investing lifetime than cited above because chances are good that not only have you not made any money over the past 10 years but you’re still not back to the breakeven point.

The “long-term”? It’s a matter of your perspective but no matter what your age, capital preservation is the key.

- Vics

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