[jedberg]

The chance that you live for 70 years after you have an extra $40,000 to invest is highly unlikely unless you started out wealthy. Also, you will not get 7% annual interest on $40K.

Edit: Let me expand. You won't get 7% real returns on $40K. Yes, the S&P500 can return that much, but that's before inflation.

OP was comparing the cost of a car now to the average wealthy person's inheritance now, which isn't a fair comparison. You have to account for inflation over 70 years.

[JMTQp8lwXL]

The S&P 500, over its history, has returned north of 9% per year.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-average...

[jedberg]

See my edit, I was talking about real returns including inflation.

[JMTQp8lwXL]

The nominal return (9%) is:

40000 * (1.09 ^ 70) = $16,669,203.

The first calculation uses 7%. It is the real return. You'll actually have $16m, but the purchasing power would be $4.5m in 2021 dollars.

[slownews45]

If you just did the S&P 500 you'd have an average return of between 8% - 10%.

[jedberg]

See my edit, I was talking about real returns including inflation.