If you want to achieve an 11% annual investment return over the next 30 years to ensure a worry-free retirement, would such a return be free? Of course not, because the world is never that perfect. Such good fortune always comes with a corresponding "price" and a "bill" that you must pay. As an investor, you will be subjected to endless mockery from the market: it may grant you huge returns but will quickly snatch them away from you. Including dividends, the average return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1950 to 2019 was approximately 11%. This is quite remarkable, but the cost of success during this period was terrifyingly high. The shaded area in the chart below represents periods when the index was at least 5% below its previous all-time high.