CAGR of the Stock Market: Annualized Returns of the S&P 500

Over the very long run, the stock market has had an inflation-adjusted annualized return rate of between six and seven percent. Another pattern: while stocks have certainly beaten inflation over the long run, they’ve done poorly within the high-inflation periods themselves: try the inflation-adjusted returns for 1916-1918, 1946-1947, and 1973-1981.

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