Hello Thomas, thanks for the reply and the reference article you provided. I will take a look at it later tonight.

If you were to look at the market return for S&P500 by the decade (which is what an index funds tries to mimic), you will see that the returns were negative only in two decades (1930s and 2000s). The 1930s (Great Depression) had return of -0.8% and the 2000s (Housing Market Collapse) a return of -1.3%. Every other decade has a positive return much greater than these negative returns. With that said, an Index Fund Investor will only experience small losses during turbulent periods and won't necessary need decades to recover.

I firmly believe there it is possible to beat the market. But to do so can prove troublesome for most of us.