Why You Liked the 90's

I was talking to a fellow a couple of weeks ago on the phone. He mentioned that he'd started investing in the market "somewhere in the mid 90's". He also said that it was a really "fun" time to hold stocks. The chart below shows that "fun" time by months. Note that the S&P 500 only experienced 14 months during that 5 1/2 year period where it went down in terms of price. The S&P 500 was up in excess of 240% during the time shown!
This next chart shows how the same index has done since 2000. Not so good! The S&P 500 is still down about 15% from the highs it made in March of 2000.