10 Stats from Investing in America

In today's news cycle it's difficult to remember what happened last week let alone several months ago.  Remember that 2026 is America's 250th anniversary? With that in mind, we thought it was a good time to share some fairly unbelievable, but accurate, numbers published in a recent book by Meb Faber called Investing in America.  We hope you enjoy them and learn a thing or two along the way:

𝟭. $1 invested in US stocks in 1800 grew to $4,227,433 in real terms by 2025. The same $1 in bonds? $898.

𝟮. The best-performing US stock of all time is Altria (formerly Philip Morris). Total lifetime gain: 265,528,901%.

𝟯. Of the 100 best-performing US stocks in history, only 6 averaged annual returns above 20%.

𝟰. Stock investors spend about 80% of their time below their previous peak wealth. Only 20% of the time are you sitting at an all-time high.

𝟱. When Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877, his $100 million fortune was larger than the US Treasury. At a 1973 family reunion of 100+ descendants, exactly 0 were millionaires.

𝟲. The US holds 5% of the world’s population and 5% of the world’s land. It also holds 60% of the global stock market and has won 40% of all Nobel Prizes ever awarded.

𝟳. The US dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power since 1913.

𝟴. Save $5,000/year from age 20 to 26, then stop. You retire with over $1 million at 70. Wait until 40? You need to put in $270,000 instead of $30,000 to end up in the same place.

𝟵. In the last 225 years, the global stock market has never experienced a 20-year period where stocks lost money in nominal terms.

𝟭𝟬. In 1945, the United States produced more than 50% of the world’s industrial output. It’s the highest share of global production any single nation has ever.

If nothing else, these insights can help us to frame a long-term view of how financial history morphs over time and yet key tenants like the time value of money and compounding growth stay immutably relevant for investors.