I tried to explain this to my wife who is a RN, not financially savy.

I said what if in 1998 youworked and earned money to buy a dollar worth of gas. But instead of buying the gas, you invested in the S&P500 at inception. 25 years later it would still only get you the 1 gallon of gas, except for taxes.

You have to take on that level of risk, and when you cash out, in nominal terms it went from $1 to $3. So you gotta pay 30 cent tax and you still can’t afford your gallon of gas.