The chart above shows that an investment in the VTSMX (the Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund) did not produce positive returns in the “lost” decade of the “naughties.” But suppose an investor diversified her portfolio with the approximate conservative percentages I suggested on page 369 for the “aging baby boomers.” The diversified portfolio (annually rebalanced) produced a quite satisfactory return even during one of the worst decades investors have ever experienced. And if the investor also used dollar-cost averaging to add small amounts to the portfolio consistently over time, the results
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