No doubt that the US Market provided inflation protection. However, it is important to understand just how much and being off by a factor of two is not good.I think HomerJ's point is still valid. Stocks provided inflation protection. This is not always the case, but did here. People who had stocks during this period are way better off than those who did not. I think inflation was about 30% overall, although it feels like more to me in many categories (restaurants, cars, all insurances, rents, house prices). Retirees without (or low) stocks are feeling like our grandparents felt in during the great stagflation era. The last few years show the risk of not enough stocks. I guess those with TIPS did ok, unless they were taxable.
It appears that you are using nominal returns. When I check the total return of VTSAX on testfol.io I get a cumulative nominal return of 74%. Adjust for inflation I get 40%. Based on the Real Total Return Price in Shiller's data the change was 41%. Just highlights the importance for looking at real returns when covering longer time periods.
Statistics: Posted by IDpilot — Tue Aug 26, 2025 9:05 am — Replies 131 — Views 11137