by Adam Netland, Senior Asset Manager, Wealth Enhancement Group

2008 was a dreadful year in the stock market, and early 2009 is off to a rough start as well. The recent economic downturn has affected all of us in some way. If you’ve looked at one of your investment statements lately, you are probably wondering if and when it will recover. These days, it is easy to ask yourself, “Why am I invested in this stock market?

Below is a stock market performance histogram chart.

How rare was 2008? To put it in perspective, 2008 went down as the worst year in stock market performance since 1931, 77 years earlier. The question remains, where do we go from here? Unfortunately, in investing there is no crystal ball to look into the future. Although past performance is not an indication of the future, looking at the above chart illustrates good reason why we invest a portion of our money in the stock market for the long run. In the last 83 calendar years, 59 of those years, or 71% of the time, we have had positive stock market returns. In past time frames, the longer you spent in the stock market, the more likely investing played out in your favor, and you would have experienced growth in your investments.

Sources: Standard & Poors & Ibbotson Associates