do not mean to argue that stocks are not risky over long holding periods. Certainly the variability of the final value of your portfolio does increase the longer you hold your stocks. And we know that investors have experienced decades during which common stocks have produced near-zero overall returns. But for investors whose holding periods can be measured in twenty-five years or more, and especially those who reinvest their dividends and even add to their holdings through dollar-cost averaging, common stocks are very likely to provide higher returns than are available from safe bonds and
...more
