How to buy stocks

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…crash the DOW hit a peak of 381.17. It then crashed and did not return to that peak until November 23, 1954. So it looks like you lost money for decades. But the classic How to Buy Stocks looked at how investments would do if you reinvested dividends. That story is very different. Over many decades they could not find a 5 year period in which the stock market lost money, or a 10 year period in which you made less than 7%/year, compounding annually. (The worst period was actually the early 70s.) Now how realistic is that analysis? If the money is in a tax sheltered retirement plan, very. If the money is not tax sheltered, then you're going to be taxed on your dividends, and your returns are going to suffer. (But you're also going to be taxed on returns in a money only strategy.) Working out the full details is very complex. But no matter h…