History shows that typical investors trail the S&P by about 5% per year. Simply holding the index instead of chasing alternatives would have added that performance back. Yes, the S&P comes with drawdown risk, but time and patience reward those who stay invested with consistently strong returns.

The Stars buy-and-hold strategy demonstrates just how powerful long-term investing can be. With an average holding period of eight years, Stars has produced 21% annual returns over 26 years. After the first couple of years, losses disappear entirely, and the accuracy climbs to 100%. That transforms the perception of “risk”: if there’s no loss, then the real risk is zero.

The growth differences over a 26-year horizon speak for themselves. Cash and bonds would have grown your portfolio 3.5 times. A typical investor’s portfolio might have doubled. The S&P delivered 7.4 times growth. Stars? An astonishing 142 times.

The lesson is clear. Volatility isn’t the enemy—underperformance is. Strategies like Stars prove that patience, discipline, and time in the market create extraordinary outcomes.

👉 The real question is not whether you can handle the ups and downs. It’s whether you can afford to miss out on what long-term compounding delivers.