Why 59% of Stocks Destroy Wealth (And What Smart Retirees Do About It)
Stay Wealthy Retirement Podcast
Taylor Schulte, CFP®
4.7 • 678 Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you're in or near retirement, one bad investment decision can have lasting consequences.
And new research shows just how risky stock picking can be:
Over the last 100 years, nearly 60% of all U.S. stocks underperformed Treasury bills—one of the safest investments you can own.
Even more surprising, fewer than 4% of companies created all of the stock market's net wealth.
In other words, the odds of consistently picking the right stocks are far lower than most people realize.
In this episode, I'm breaking down this eye-opening research and what it means for protecting your portfolio and retirement plan.
Here's what you'll learn:
→ Why owning a handful of well-known, familiar stocks can be far riskier than it feels
→ What the research reveals about where long-term market returns actually come from
→ The 3 actions you can take to better position and optimize your portfolio for the years ahead
Because in retirement, successful investing isn't about hitting home runs—it's about avoiding unnecessary mistakes and stacking the odds in your favor.
***
📆 BOOK A CALL WITH OUR TEAM:
Your retirement involves complex, interconnected decisions—taxes, income, healthcare, estate planning, investments.
See how they fit together in one coordinated strategy built around your numbers.
***
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Before we get into today's episode, I just want to extend a big thank you to everyone who |
| 0:04.5 | has recently left a written review on Apple Podcasts or given the show a star rating on Spotify. |
| 0:09.9 | A quick shout out to Happy Colorado Listener, 1971 Guy, Elizabeth G, Carlos, Mike B and NC, |
| 0:17.6 | SPF listener, and JJ Aaron's just to name a few. I sincerely appreciate the kind words. |
| 0:23.7 | Your feedback directly helps shape the topics I cover and motivates me to keep working on making |
| 0:28.8 | this show better. So if you're enjoying the podcast and haven't yet left a quick written review |
| 0:33.9 | on Apple Podcasts or a star rating on Spotify, I'd be incredibly grateful if you did. |
| 0:39.4 | Thank you again for the continued support. And now on to today's episode. |
| 0:44.2 | Welcome to another episode of the Stay Wealthy Retirement Show. I'm your host Taylor |
| 0:47.9 | Schulte and every week I tackle the most important financial topics to help you stay wealthy |
| 0:53.1 | in retirement. And now on to the episode. |
| 0:57.7 | Last week, well-known finance professor Hank Bessam Bender published a new paper titled |
| 1:02.6 | 100 Years in the U.S. stock markets. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because I referenced |
| 1:08.5 | another paper of his that got a lot of attention in the |
| 1:11.4 | financial world in an episode last year. The title of it posed a provocative question, |
| 1:16.7 | do stocks outperform treasury bills? That earlier paper used data through 2016 and covered roughly |
| 1:24.0 | 25,000 companies. And the conclusion, as I shared in that episode, was |
| 1:28.8 | striking. Most individual stocks did not outperform treasury bills. You heard that correctly. |
| 1:35.7 | Most individual stocks did not outperform treasury bills. For anyone unfamiliar, treasury bills or |
| 1:41.4 | T-bills are essentially a cash equivalent. They're considered one of the |
| 1:45.0 | safest places to part cash, which is why they're often used as a benchmark for what |
| 1:49.9 | investors could have earned without really taking on any risk. In fact, if you own a government |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Taylor Schulte, CFP®, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Taylor Schulte, CFP® and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.