Quote Originally Posted by Globalpack View Post
I was replying to Bullitt's comment where he said ""2030 is almost 17 years away. What you want is for lower prices today and higher prices in 15 years from now."" If share prices fall yes keep buying but my argument is it's PREFERRED for share prices to steadily increase to benefit from compound interest. For example if you start with $100 and, over the course of a year, you earn a 5% rate of return, at the end of the first year, you'll have $105. If you leave that money alone, and the next year you also earn a 5% rate of return, you'll have $110.25 at the end of year two. So, in the second year, you earned 5% on your original $100 contribution and another 5% on the $5 you earned during the first year. At this rate your original investment is doubled in less than 15 years.
Gotcha. 15 years is long time to wait to double one's money though. Plus, one bad year could easily wipe out 5 years of investing. That's what us traders are hoping to avoid.