“You’re In It For The Long Haul”: What does that mean? What if my "long haul" isn't long enough for me to put my nest egg back together?

Recently, you have heard from many financial professionals in the media that we in a "market recovery".

In "I told you so" fashion, what they are tryng to say is that if you had listened to them and waited out the market downturn...everything would be okay! 

They point out that if people would have just “hung in there,” they would have received a 43% return since September 2008.

But let’s analyze this to see what’s really going on. We’ll compare this traditional advice to the Equity Professor strategies.

Suppose you had $100,000 invested in the market at the beginning of 2007. Most people received an 8 percent return in 2007, which means that you would have ended the year with $108,000.

But in 2008, most Americans lost 31 percent of their investments. Your $108,000 would have dropped $33,480 to a balance of $74,520 by the end of 2008.

Now, following the “You’re in it for the long haul” advice, you keep your money invested in the market.

Assuming the traditional advisors are right and you would have earned a 43 percent return in 2009, you would have gained about $32,000, for a final balance of $106,563.

When you average out that three-year period, it comes to about a 2 percent average rate of return.

Now consider what you would have experienced had you followed the Equity Professor advice instead.

You start with $100,000. In 2007 you would have earned 8 percent, for the same ending balance of $108,000.

However, in 2008 you would not have lost a dime — you’d still be left with $108,000.

In 2009 you would have made a 16 percent rate of return. This would put your balance up to $125,290.

Bottom line: Following the EP strategies instead of traditional strategies would have made you an additional $18,727 in the same three-year period.

What’s more, in these first few months of 2010 our clients have already locked in another 16 percent, so in this example the account balance would now be up to $143,324.

But it gets even better than this. Why? Because you need to factor in taxes to the equation.

Following traditional advice, either if these accounts would have been fully taxable, or at best tax-deferred.

But with our strategies, your accounts grow tax free and provide tax-free withdrawal.

So what’s it going to be for you? Poor and volatile returns with traditional advice, or steady and healthy returns and protection from loss with The Equity Professor?