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Much of the Great Depression generation interpreted that as "only invest in bonds and CDs" and missed out on even larger gains. The stock market did very well the whole 20th century for every retirement generation, if they held lifelong.

This historical sequence of stock investors underperforming wildly in the early 1930s, followed by bond investors underperforming wildly in the 1940s-60s boom, is why the 60% stock/40% bond portfolio became the standard advice for cautious savers.