Mirror, mirror, on the wall, is there one asset class to rule them all? From stocks to bonds to alternatives, investors can choose from a wide variety of investment types. The choices can be overwhelming—leaving people to wonder if there’s one investment that consistently outperforms, or if there’s a predictable pattern of performance. This graphic, which is inspired by and uses data from The Measure of a Plan, shows historical returns by asset class for the last 36 years. Asset Class Returns by Year This analysis includes assets of various types, geographies, and risk levels. It uses real total returns, meaning that ... (full story)