A bond represents a debt, or an IOU, from an issuing entity to a bondholder. A direct investment in an index is not available. Money markets are represented by the yield of 90-day Treasury bills as published by the Federal Reserve. Inflation is represented by the annual change in the Consumer Price Index. Gold performance is represented by the change in the cash price of gold.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The chart at right shows how you might expect a dollar invested in cash, bonds, or stocks to grow over 25 years, based on historical returns. These numbers exclude inflation to show the growth in real purchasing power. The average return for each class of investment is represented by the line between the red and green areas. Clearly, stocks won. First, past performance cannot guarantee future results.