I only invest in mutual funds and not individual stocks and am entirely satisfied with a 20-25% return. At least that keeps me ahead of inflation. I do know of one person who told me he had gone as aggressive as possible with mutual funds and another who put everything in the safest, lowest risk possible. But she is a full lefty and bat snot crazy anyway. Hopefully mutuals will edge up in the 25-30% range with inflation staying low. That would enable me to set up daughters and grands with a sizable bank account. Well, grands don't know anything about what I have set up for them and won't know until I pass or they are married and working.
RSKY
I find it a little unbelievable that you're getting 20- 25% return. Typical, is around 6-7% if you're investments are broad and balanced. Not saying you're not getting those returns, but your risk must be way out there.
As someone who's currently in the retirement implementation phase, my financial advisor recently moved me from Merrill Lynch where I was invested as moderately aggressive to Charles Schwab and we're dropping back to essentially a moderate plan, with much broader investments.
The Monte Carlo scenario's (think stress testing of your investments with 1000's of scenario's run) on the new Charles Schwab accounts show an expected average return of about 6.4% with a 91% chance of meeting my retirement goals. By comparison, the former Merrill Lynch accounts showed an expected return of 6.52% with the chance of retirement success dropping to 71%.
Personally, I don't think the next 20 years will look anything like the last 20 years, financially. It is expected that within the next 20 years, we will experience a major financial upheaval in this country. The tensions (China, Russia, Iran, N. Korea), the national debt and the changes in the world economy are setting the stage for something bad. I'm not "Chicken-Little" with the sky-is-falling, but I honestly think we're in for a rough ride at some point.
