God this was the most boring question I’ve answered so far and somehow this is the one everyone has to read and upvote. Seriously, it took me 5 minutes to write this and there was nothing fun or interesting about it. Well, let’s see how well that works here.
Question: What is the average return for individual investors?
I found this chart in JP Morgan’s 1Q, 2014 Guide to the Markets.
Based on their analysis, the average investor had a 2.3% annualized return over the 20 years from 1993 to 2012. Honestly, I didn’t look into how they got that result, so there is room to argue about what the actual number should be. If I can find the time, I’ll look at the details and update this post if needed.