HISTORICAL REAL RETURNS IN THE MARKET FROM STOCKS, LONG GOVERNMENT
BONDS, T-BILLS and GOLD
What returns, after deducting inflation, have investors actually made over various holding periods such as 30 years, or 10 years? This article shows those returns for stocks (based on the S&P 500 index), bonds (based on 20-year U.S treasury bonds) cash (30-day Treasury bills) and Gold. We also show the data for balanced portfolios holding a combinations of stocks, bonds and cash. Was the best approach to go 100% stocks or to use a balanced approach?
This is all U.S. data. The data used here was purchased but similar data for Canada or other counties is not readily available even for purchase.
The results here are for one-time investments at the start of 30, 15 or 10 year holding periods. We have other articles that explore the results from making equal annual investments.
The above graph needs a bit of explaining. Each point on the above graph shows the compounded annual real return (after deducting inflation) from holding each asset class for 30 year periods ended at the end of the year shown on the “X” axis.
For example, the leftmost points on the blue (stocks) line indicates that the average compounded return from holding stocks (the S&P 500 index stocks) for the 30 year period started January 1,1926 and ending December 31, 1955 was about 8.5% (and that’s despite the depression crash) while the red (bonds) line shows that holding the U.S. twenty year treasury bond (and selling the bond at the end of each year to purchase the latest 20 year bond to maintain a constant maturity of 20 years) earned about a compounded 2.1% and holding 30-day treasury bills for that 30 year period earned just less than 0.0% and Gold had a compounded annual return of 0.4%.
In all cases the returns are after deducting inflation, omit taxes, omit trading costs and assume reinvestment of all dividend and interest income.
Stock (S&P 500 total return index) real returns for 30-year holding periods ranged from a compounded return of a minimum 4.4% per year (which turns a dollar into $3.64 after inflation) to a maximum compounded return of 10.6% (which turs a dollar into $20.53), with an average of 7.2% ($8.14) across the 71 different 30-year holding periods. These are attractive returns. A 7.2% real return compounded for 30 years increases purchasing power by eight times.
The highest real return for stocks (10.6%) was the 30 years from the start of 1935 to the end of 1964. Buying near the lows of the depression would have felt risky but turned out to be the best time to buy. The lowest 30 year returns for stocks came from the start of 1956 to end of 1985 and also start of 1965 to end of 1994. Buying and holding stocks after long periods of gains tends to lead to a low return over the next 30 years.
T-Bills which are supposed to be safe are almost a guarantee that your return will at best barely outpace inflation in the long run. Treasury Bills always returned less than a compounded 2% (after inflation) over the 71 different 30 year periods, and often returned less than 0.0% as T-Bills failed to even compensate for inflation. The real T-Bill return for the 71 different 30-year investment periods ranged from minus 1.8% compounded to positive 1.9% with an average of 0.4%. A 0.4% real return compounded for 30 years increases purchasing power by only 13%.
20-year Treasury Bond real returns for 30-year holding periods ranged from a compounded return of minus 2.0% per year to a maximum compounded return of 7.8%, with an average of 2.0% across the 71 different 30-year holding periods.
Treasury bonds have provided unusually high compound average real returns over 4% (even approaching 8% at times) in the 30-year periods that ended from 2000 through 2021. These were for time periods that started from 1971 to 1992 and held for 30 years. This was mostly due to the high interest rates that prevailed in the late 1970’s and the 1980’s and also partly due to the huge drop in interest rates over those 30 year periods which provided capital gains in addition to the interest income.
Real dollar Gold returns over the 30 year periods have been volatile ranging from minus 3.1% compounded which is VERY poor to a peak of 5.7% compounded annually (which occurred in the 30 years ending 2025). The return in the 30 year period from 1975 to 2004 was minus 1.4% because gold prices had been relatively high at the start of 1975 and low at the end of 2004.
The above graph shows that for the 71 different 30 calendar year rolling investment periods ranging from 1926 through 1955, all the way to 1996 – 2025, real (after inflation) stock returns were higher at the end of 30-year holding periods than 20-year government bonds (Except for the 30 year period started in 1982 and ending 2011 where it was a virtual tie with bonds edging out stocks) and higher than gold returns. In most of the 30-year periods, stock returns were very significantly higher.
Note that the one time that bond returns matched the stock returns, the stocks actually still had a very good return for the 30 years. The bond return was unusually high for the years ending around 2011 because bond interest rates were high at the start of those periods and fell over the periods providing strong interest income as well as capital gains.
Note that stock portfolios that were set up at the start 1929, just before the massive stock crash of 1929 – 1932, and ending in 1958, still beat bonds and Gold – and by a huge amount. And these are for one-time investments at the start of the 30-year period.
Shorter time periods
Stocks held for the 86 different 15 calendar year holding periods often did very well but certainly not always. The maximum compounded real return of was 15.3% (1984 -1999) and the average was 7.0%. But it may be sobering to see that there were occasions where stocks (the S&P 500) gave no real return over a 15 year period. The lowest return was minus 0.6% for the 15 years ending December 31, 1979. In fact stocks performed so poorly over the 1970’s that Business Week magazine famously declared the Death of Equities as inflation was destroying the stock market. That proved to be spectacularly wrong after the FED managed to slay inflation through the early 1980’s by choking the economy with massively high interest rates.
The 20-year bond index (the red line) over the 86 rolling 15 year holding periods performed quite poorly over all the periods ending from about 1946 to 1987. But then bonds performed strongly for all the 15 year periods ending from 1987 through 2021. The highest compounded return was a real return of 9.4% for the 15 years ended December 31, 1996. With this divergent track record it is somewhat meaningless to look at the average which was 2.1% while the minimum was minus 2.0%. Twenty year U.S. treasury bonds currently yield 5.1% nominal and about 2.5% in real dollars.
For 15-year holding periods there are a few periods where bonds beat out stocks. Stock portfolios began in the late 20’s (and ending 1940 to 1944) or that began at the end of 1993 through the year 2000 (and ending 2008 to 2016) did not out-perform long-term government bonds over the next 15 years.
Gold was the winning asset class for 15 year periods ended 1971 to about 1988 – this is for one-time investments made 1956 to 1973. Gold also turned out to be the winning asset class for 15 year periods ended 2009 to 2016.
For 10-year holding periods there are still not very many periods where bonds beat out stocks. However, we do see that in the five 10-year periods ending 2008 through 2012, bonds did beat stocks by a significant amount. The range of real, after inflation, bond returns was relatively large from minus 5% compounded for ten years to over 10% compounded per year. It is apparent that the average return from stocks over many of the 10-year holding periods was significantly higher than the return from bonds. Interestingly, the worst case scenario for stocks was not quite as bad as the worst bond scenario.
Gold had some 10 year periods where it turned out to be absolutely the best asset class.
Balanced Portfolios
Most investment advice advocates holding a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash. It is sometimes claimed that due to dollar cost averaging balanced portfolios can provide both higher returns and lower risks. So let’s take a look at the average returns over 30-year periods using balanced portfolios.
The above graph illustrates that over the 71 rolling 30 year periods ending in 1955 through 2025, Balanced portfolios noticeably under-performed 100% stock portfolios in the earlier decades. However for time periods ended in recent decades, the balanced 70% stocks / 30% bonds portfolio (the dark green line) often marginally beat the 100% stock portfolio and never lagged stocks by much.
A portfolio of 50% stocks, 25% long government bonds and 25% gold (the purple line) was very seldom better than a 70% stocks 30% bonds portfolio.
With stocks currently at high P/E ratios and with a 20 year U.S. government bond paying 5%, a balanced portfolio may not be a bad choice at this time.
And the balanced portfolio may be a lot easier to live with emotionally due to less volatility.
Summary
In regards to stocks, this discussion deals only with the performance of the large stocks comprising the S&P 500 index as a group it does not deal with the risks of investing in a non-diversified portfolio of stocks.
For shorter-term investments the stock market is very risky compared to Bonds and short term treasury Bills. The average return from stocks has been consistently higher over long periods but over shorter periods (anything under 10 to 15 years) the results from stocks are hugely uncertain. It would be most unwise indeed to invest money needed next month or next year or even prior to about 10 to 15 years in 100% stocks
As the time horizon lengthens, we reach a point where stock returns are almost (but never quite) certain to exceed Bond and Bill returns – at least based on a full century of historical calendar year U.S. results from 1926 through 2025. For time horizons exceeding about 20 years it seems quite likely that stocks will outperform Bonds and virtually certain that they will outperform Bills (cash). With a 30 year time horizon it seems virtually certain (based on history) that stocks will outperform Bonds. And the case for stocks is all the stronger if you consider that people don’t typically invest a single lump sum for 30 years. Rather they invest on an annual basis which greatly reduces the exposure if one is unlucky enough to run into the odd period where stocks do trail bonds over a 30 year holding period.
This analysis was based on making an initial investment and letting it grow over time.
Of course, if one is capable of expertly timing the markets then it would be possible to beat the 100% stock approach in the long-term by “simply” being in the highest returning asset class each year. This will be attractive perhaps to psychics and clairvoyants. Mere mortals investing for 20 years or longer might wish to consider the 100% stock approach. However, investors that are uncomfortable with short-term volatility should use a balanced approach. And it may be realistic for long-term investors to move some money out of stocks if stock prices are in an obvious bubble.
Virtual certainty is not quite 100% certainty there is always some small chance that Bonds will outperform even in a 30 year time horizon.
You don’t have to agree with my conclusions. You can also study the graphs above and draw your own conclusions.
Self-described long-term investors need to be sure that they really have a long time horizon before they act accordingly. For many investors, there is a chance that they will need to cash out their investments early. This could be caused by illness, job loss, disability, legal problems and other reasons. But, if an investor is virtually certain that they have a very long time horizon then it certainly appears that stocks (based on a U.S. large stock index) are not riskier than bonds, in terms of achieving the highest ending portfolio value.
END
Shawn Allen, CFA, CPA, MBA, P.Eng.
President, InvestorsFriend Inc.
Article originally created in June 2001 and last updated July 19, 2026