Great article from Fortune Magazine by Carol Loomis.

Is it time to buy U.S. stocks?

According to both this 85-year chart and famed investor Warren Buffett, it just might be. The point of the chart is that there should be a rational relationship between the total market value of U.S. stocks and the output of the U.S. economy - its GNP.

Global stock markets shrugged off dire news on the US employment front, arguing that the gloomy data would hasten US lawmakers’ passage of a stimulus package. After falling for four straight weeks and recording the worst performance of the major US indices for January on record, Wall Street reversed course, on a stimulus and a prayer.

Enjoy the read.

What if you don’t want to spend your retirement managing and worrying about your portfolio? Put it on Auto Pilot, specifically on a Dividend Investing Auto Pilot. Dividends from a quality, well-diversified portfolio are much more predictable than capital gains and best of all, they are passive.

A 30% allocation to the VIX and 70% allocation to the SPY would have only suffered a maximum 14% peak to trough drawdown and grown a $100k account into $1,261,750 which is a 17% annual growth rate. As a comparison a $100k account invested entirely into SPY would have suffered a max 48% drawdown and would only be worth $250 k which is a 5.89% annual growth rate.

In the birth of a child there is life, hope, unlimited potential, and yes, eventually death. Though we don’t like to focus on it, death is just as natural as birth. In much the same way, it is natural for a percentage of dividend stocks to fail each year by not raising their dividend or otherwise.