Stock Time Machine
Pick a stock, index or fund and a date in the past. See what your money would be worth today, and what staying invested through the crashes was really worth.
Results
How each way of investing grew
"Yearly growth" is the average yearly return on the money you put in, counting when you put it in (like a bank account's yearly rate). "Worst drop" is the biggest fall from a high along the way. Waiting strategies count leftover cash in their final value.
How far below its high, and for how long
This "underwater" chart shows how far each investment was below its previous high. 0% means it was at a new high. The longer a line stays below 0%, the longer an investor had to wait to get back to even.
Stayed invested vs panic sold
The cost of missing the best days
People who jump out of the market "until things calm down" often miss the few huge up-days that come right after the scariest down-days. Here is your one-time amount invested the whole time vs. sitting in cash on just a handful of the best days.
See the 10 best days
What a yearly fee really costs
A 1% fee sounds small, but it is taken every year from your whole balance, including all the growth. Over decades it adds up to a big slice of your money.
Retirement catch-up planner
Starting late is common, and it is not too late. Enter where you are today and see how much you would need to invest each month to reach your goal, if markets turn out bad, average or good.
Change the return assumptions
These are returns after inflation, so your goal is in today's dollars. A mix of stocks and bonds has historically returned somewhere around 4-6% a year above inflation, with plenty of bad stretches. Nothing is guaranteed.
Why the timing of a crash matters more after 50
Meet two savers. Both invest the same amount every month from age 35 to 65. Both get exactly the same yearly returns, just in a different order: one is hit by a big crash at 35, the other at 62. Same average return, very different retirement.