"The next 20 years will be far more a result of the past 20 than what happened in the distant past. History is not a random sample like throwing dice. History is a sequence of causes and effects. Just because something good, or bad, happened in the past is no basis for expecting — without a shadow of a doubt — that it will repeat itself."
"And those dividends really matter. From January 1926 to December 2007, the monthly return from dividends exceeded the monthly return from price appreciation in two of every five months. Over the last 20 years, dividends have provided 39 percent of the total return. BUT that was the past. Today, the dividend yield is only about 2 percent, compared with the long-run average of more than 4 percent since 1925. Achieving the long-run, inflation-adjusted annual return of 7 percent when starting with dividend yields of only 2 percent is a tough call, especially as earnings per share over that long run have grown more slowly than real gross domestic product, or only about 2 percent a year after inflation"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/business/30view.html?ref=business
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Planning ahead is NOT hoping for some Monte Carlo simulation to come to pass.
Planning ahead today is creating a growing income stream where one sells only to upgade their portfolio as opposed to selling to liquidate shares to eat, where dividend growth (cash flow growth) is the core of the plan.
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Finding refuge From Inflation:
You won't find it in bonds (tips) or in most commodities today
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120682423430974621.html?mod=sunday_journal_primary_hs
Growing income from stocks is the key!
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