Facts That Make A Difference
1. THE OLDEST - The Dow Jones Industrial Average will turn 113-years old next month. Only 12 stocks were used in the index’s original calculation in May 1896 and only 1 stock – General Electric - in that group remains in the index today. The index was expanded to 30 stocks in October 1928, just 1-year before the 1929 stock market crash (source: Dow Jones).
2. THE LOST DECADE - The S&P 500 lost 3.0% per year (total return) for the 10 years ending 3/31/09, the 8th worst decade ever for the stock index. The worst decade in history was the 10 years ending 8/31/39 (i.e., almost 70 years ago) when the stock index suffered a 5.0% average annual decline (source: Standard & Poor’s).
3. PROBABLY WORSE - Twice as many American workers anticipate that the US economy will get worse (46%) compared to the total number of workers that expect the economy to improve (23%) during the upcoming year. The remaining 31% believe the state of the economy will remain the same. This survey was taken in January 2009 (source: Transamerica Retirement Survey).
4. DELAYED GOLDEN YEARS - 1 out of every 4 American workers (25%) has decided to delay their age of retirement in the past year. Less than half of American workers (44%) have attempted to calculate the amount of assets they will need to accumulate in order to retire (source: Employee Benefit Research Institute).
5. IT FIGURES - It costs the US Mint 9 cents to make a nickel (source: Pennies.org).
2. THE LOST DECADE - The S&P 500 lost 3.0% per year (total return) for the 10 years ending 3/31/09, the 8th worst decade ever for the stock index. The worst decade in history was the 10 years ending 8/31/39 (i.e., almost 70 years ago) when the stock index suffered a 5.0% average annual decline (source: Standard & Poor’s).
3. PROBABLY WORSE - Twice as many American workers anticipate that the US economy will get worse (46%) compared to the total number of workers that expect the economy to improve (23%) during the upcoming year. The remaining 31% believe the state of the economy will remain the same. This survey was taken in January 2009 (source: Transamerica Retirement Survey).
4. DELAYED GOLDEN YEARS - 1 out of every 4 American workers (25%) has decided to delay their age of retirement in the past year. Less than half of American workers (44%) have attempted to calculate the amount of assets they will need to accumulate in order to retire (source: Employee Benefit Research Institute).
5. IT FIGURES - It costs the US Mint 9 cents to make a nickel (source: Pennies.org).
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