They say the average annual return of the market is typically between 7% - 10%.

So as investors, that's the return we should typically expect, right?

Well, no.

While the market average is typically 7% to 10%, there is a wide standard deviation, meaning that most years the market does not have a return within that average range.

In fact, it's just as common for the market to return 0% to -10% as it is for it to return 0% to 10%.

And it's actually much more common for the market to have returns of 10% to 30% than the average.

And this is why most people can't handle investing.

It can be emotional-

If you let it.

Having a year where you are up 30%, followed by a year where you are down 30% can be quite the emotional rollercoaster.

This causes people to jump in and out of the market at random times.

And the data tells us historically speaking that investors are quite bad at trying to time the market.

So what does this mean for us?

Don't expect the average over short periods of time.

In the last few years, this has been $SPY results:

S&P 500 in 2022: -19.64%

S&P 500 in 2023: 24.20%

S&P 500 in 2024: 23.31%

S&P 500 in 2024: 16.29%

See what I mean?

@OKavrak