My Vanguard non-retirement portfolio had a return of 5.5% annualized over the past 3 years including compounding and dividends, coinciding neatly with the beginning of Biden's term. Inflation in 2021 was 4.7%. In 2022 it was 8.0%. In 2023 it has been 3.1%. Since inflation will also be compounded in those numbers, I believe we can take a direct average of those 3 years to get an annualized 5.3%. That makes my real return 0.2% annualized and 0.6% cumulative, which is a long ways from negative double digits. If I take out my international fund, which it's awfully hard to blame Biden for, my return jumps to 6.1% annualized and I'm up to 0.8% in annualized real returns. If I take out my bond fund, I get to 7.3% annualized and a 2.0% real return. That's based on a mixture of assets that includes the S&P index, a smallcap index, and a dividend appreciation fund. Far from my best 3 year stretch, but I'm not the least bit upset about that performance given the challenges that COVID generated on the economy. If your clients are seeing negative returns over the past 3 years I've got to wonder what kind of advice you've been giving them.

And since you asked us to do a math problem, how about I ask you to do the same? What percentage of inflation over the past 3 years do you attribute specifically to Biden admin policies? Feel free to break it out between Trump era spending, Biden era spending, global supply chain issues, the global energy market in Russia-Ukraine wartime, and whatever else you think is important.

[Post edited by CMUHoo at 12/31/2023 4:02PM]