PNV - Banter and General Comments, page-11534

28% return over 5 years before inflation? Assuming that's accurate (though interest rates haven't been as high as they are for that long) the opportunity cost of that would be the 240% returns PNV has delivered over the past 5 years. Not sure why this is confusing? Stocks don't deliver a constant rate of return like a bank deposit does, most of the returns tend to come all at once over a short period. So there's a trade off, bank deposit you get that constant rate of return (typically not even enough to beat inflation), whereas equities you have to be willing to accept many years of negative returns for the potential very large return you can get when the stock rerates. Can't have both