http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/02/business/20110102-
metrics-graphic.html Excellent graphic showing the rate of return from investing in the S.&P. 500 for all pairs of years (start point, end point) from 1920 until now. It’s rather difficult to achieve rates over 7% for any period of time; picking a point on the graph at random (which is more or less what you have to do) yields an average return of between 3 and 7%. 12:54