The Power of Patient and Disciplined Investing

On March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 index hit a devilish intraday low of 666, marking the bottom of the financial crisis. Fear was everywhere, major banks were failing, unemployment was soaring, and investors were watching their account balances fall by half or more. Many people said they would never live to see the market recover to its previous highs. I recall meeting with clients that very day.  One of them had just retired, and they were hesitant to roll over her 401(k) account because they knew that my advice would be to invest a reasonable amount of the account in stocks.  Their fear of loss of principal paralyzed their decision-making regarding what should have been a simple decision to stick to their long-term plan.

Fast-forward to the end of the third quarter of 2025, and that same index closed at 6,688—a tenfold increase in just under 17 years. Including dividends, the total return was even greater. The chart on the next page shows the remarkable contrast between the S&P 500’s growth, U.S. inflation, and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index since that 2009 low. Stocks have grown more than twelvefold, while bonds and inflation have each increased by only a fraction of that amount.

That growth didn’t happen in calm markets or predictable times. Since 2009, investors have faced one headline after another that could have easily scared them out of the market. The European debt crisis threatened to tear apart the eurozone. The U.S. debt-ceiling standoff in 2011 led to the first-ever downgrade of America’s credit rating. Oil prices collapsed in 2014, China’s slowdown shook markets in 2015, and Britain’s Brexit vote in 2016 sent shockwaves through global economies. Then came the trade war with China, the COVID-19 pandemic, the inflation surge of 2021–2022, and the fastest interest-rate hikes in four decades. Along the way, we’ve had multiple corrections and two bear markets, each one feeling like the end of the world at the time.

Yet through it all, the long-term trend has been higher. Every single event that seemed catastrophic in the moment eventually faded into history, replaced by new challenges and new opportunities. This is the quiet truth of investing: progress happens through uncertainty, not in spite of it. The market’s tenfold rise wasn’t a straight line—it was a jagged climb built on patience, discipline, and faith in the resilience of human progress.

Investors who stayed disciplined benefited from several timeless principles. The first is that time in the market matters far more than timing the market. Even missing a handful of the market’s best days can dramatically reduce long-term returns, and those best days almost always occur when conditions feel the most uncomfortable. The second principle is patience—the willingness to give compounding time to work. Compounding doesn’t look impressive in the short term, but over many years, it becomes unstoppable.

The third principle is diversification. Holding a mix of investments across stocks, bonds, and other asset classes helps reduce the impact of any single event or sector on your overall portfolio. Diversification doesn’t guarantee against loss, but it helps smooth the ride and keep investors emotionally grounded when certain parts of the market struggle. It’s the antidote to overconfidence and the key to consistency.

Next comes discipline, which means sticking to a well-defined plan and resisting the urge to chase what’s hot or abandon what’s temporarily out of favor. Rebalancing plays a vital role in that discipline—selling what has gone up and buying what’s lagged to keep your portfolio aligned with your goals. It’s one of the quiet habits that builds wealth over time.

Finally, perspective might be the most valuable investment trait of all. The past 17 years prove that the market doesn’t reward those who predict—it rewards those who persist. Every generation has reasons to doubt the future, but history has shown again and again that the long-term trajectory of human innovation and economic growth continues upward.

The next time markets stumble and headlines scream that “this time is different,” remember that we’ve heard that before. In 2009, it felt like the world was ending. In 2025, we can look back and see that it was actually the beginning of one of the greatest runs in market history.