Image Credit: Alex Nabaum

Future returns on stocks may well be lower than the past decade’s lavish annual average of nearly 14%. Even so, we should thank our lucky stars for living at a time when we can capture nearly all the return stocks produce.

That wasn’t always the case. Until a few decades ago, earning the stock market’s total return — changes in price, plus the additional growth obtained by reinvesting dividend income — was nearly impossible. Not only were trading costs and fund expenses vastly higher than today; the technology to capture total return didn’t exist.…

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