Let's have a little argument, shall we? I'll start by pointing out how effective stock market investing can be over the long run. The market has averaged an annual gain of around 10%, after all, over many decades.
Hold on, you'll say. A lot of stocks haven't come close to earning 10% in recent years. Here's just a short list of well-known and well-respected stocks and how they've done over the past decade:
Company
CAPS Rating (out of five)
10-Year Avg. Return
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)
***
0.8%
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
*****
3.8%
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)
8.2%
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL)
****
6.0%
Nike (NYSE: NKE)
9.5% Continued...
Selena Maranjian prepares the Fool's syndicated newspaper column, writes articles for Fool.com, has coordinated the Fool's annual Foolanthropy charity drive, and has written a number of Fool books, among other things.
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