Subject: Re: beating the market
My portfolio is up by a grand total of $13034/year in the last 22 years, which is about as close to a perfect zero as I could manage.

Since I have been retired since then, I simply spent all the returns.

I was recently talking finances with my (adult) kids, and pulled out some figures.

Since we retired, from Jan 2007 to Jan 2023 we have withdrawn 49% of the Jan 2007 portfolio value. Even so, the portfolio value on Jan 2023 stood at 99% of the Jan 2007 value. (Currently it's at 12% greater.)