Buy and Hold for the Long Term

If people really understood how long the long term truly was – maybe selling a stock every now and then wouldn’t be such a traumatic experience.

When you bought into the gospel of “stocks for the long run,” did you have any idea how long the long run can turn out to be? Exactly 10 years ago, the S&P 500 index was at 1164; it closed on Friday at 1239. That’s an annualized average return of 0.63%. At that rate it will take you 111 more years to double your money in the stock market. – 6/12/08 Wall Street Journal