<prompt> Human: Or: leaving money invested for a long time is really fucking lucrative. Apparently, as a young whippersnapper straight out of college, I inadvertently signed up to max out a 401K at my first employer back in 2006. I had no idea this account existed until today, although in retrospect I do remember thinking that my takehome pay was awfully light for the salary that I was supposed to be pulling in. Over the course of my year and a half at the company, I collected 8K in employer matches and another 20K in contributions. The money was safely invested in a long government bond fund, and is today worth a little more than 50K. What the hell, Ill take it. Its not everyday you win the lottery, right? Assistant: you didnt actually winif you paid attention, it wouldnt of been in bond but some in stocksimagine how much you would be at right now if you had majority in stocks like you should have ???Human: You know, I thought the same thing. Then I looked at what 10K would have done if invested in the total stock market, vs. what actually happened. FLBAX bonds - mid 2006-present: 21K FSTVX total stock market - mid 2006-present: 20.5KIt actually looks like long bonds outperformed the stock market. Given the bull run in the stock market over the last five years or so...who knew?  <response>: There are so many haters on this thread. I am happy for you. The most money Ive ever found unexpectedly was 100. 