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a lot of people on here i know have contributed quite a bit to a 401k/roth. But i wonder if they really have had a huge growth rates the last 10 years?? I just started a roth ira last year. I just put in a 100 a month last year starting in March and am now making a goal to max out the ira this year. But i looked at it today. with 1200 dolllars in it, i have earned 1.20. some days it's 15 bucks earned beyond my contribution but yes yesterday it was 1.20. just wonder if this is worth it. The way our world is and who knows what the worlds economies will be like in 30 years.
This isn't extra money for me. putting 450 dollars a month into an IRA isn't chump change.
the last 10 and 15 years markets had below average returns of prior periods , they averaged about 5.50% inflation adjusted with dividends reinvested,the last 10 years, which wasn't to bad and about 1.77% inflation adjusted the last 15 years and that's awful.
but that means nothing as your own entrance and exit points are what counts. dollar cost averaging in usually cuts gains over time from the above too since markets spend 2/3's of the time going higher and only 1/3 lower. with relatively only a few years falling and all the rest rising you would have seen less growth than above.
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-16-2015 at 04:18 AM..
Well, when it's early into the investment, the gains aren't that much. But over time, as you put more and more money into your retirement, those days of $1-2 gains now become days of $800-1000 gains and more.
Huge growth in last 10 years? Not for me but growth is growth. Here is my 403b. Not starting the year out well but I don't look at these things short term. May actually work out better as I front load my contribution.
I tend to be conservative with my 401k / IRA and invest in bond funds because of the tax inefficiency of investing in bonds in a taxable account (don't worry if that doesn't make sense).
So my returns aren't very high but I don't expect them to be that high either.
What you invest in is very important (especially the expense ratios). You can easily find that your expense ratios of 1-2% are eating away at your profits if your 401k only has crappy funds available to you.
bonds have been doing great . MY TLT long treasury bond fund is up 6% in two weeks and we have not even had a flight to safety yet. I added more today.
with japan and Europe exporting negative interest rates and deflation bonds are a good place to be now. we are one of the few countries rates on bonds have not gone negative yet. folks in Germany are paying to own bonds just so they have a place to put their money with a chance of capital appreciation if rates fall even more negative and they sell them.
TLT gained 22% last year,..
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The way our world is and who knows what the worlds economies will be like in 30 years. 
