Stocks had just lost 86% of their value. The headlines screamed panic.
Nobody was buying in 1933. The financial system was in ruins. The unemployment rate was above 20%. Investing felt like throwing money into a fire.
It turned out to be the single best starting point for a 30-year investment in over a century of US market data.
$100 invested in the S&P 500 in 1933 became $3,988 by 1963 — 39 times the original amount. Adjusted for inflation, $1,690 in real purchasing power. A 13.1% annualized return sustained across three full decades.
The Depression Recovery captured every major economic tailwind of the mid-20th century. Roosevelt's New Deal stabilised the banks. WWII mobilisation transformed American industry. The baby boom and postwar consumer expansion drove decades of organic growth. Technological innovation — from television to jet travel — created entirely new industries.
This wasn't a lucky bet on a quick bounce. It was 30 years of compounding through one of the most transformative eras in economic history. The lesson keeps repeating: the best time to invest is when it feels the worst.
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