The S&P 500 has never been lower 20 years later than at any prior point — a historically accurate claim that supports a buy-and-hold strategy. This is real long-term market behavior, though it assumes you could have invested at any random moment and held through recessions, wars, and crashes — a discipline most retail investors struggle with. The statement omits that timing and asset allocation matter enormously for individual outcomes; someone who invested right before 2008 at peak prices still needed 5+ years of patience to break even, and international markets tell a different story.