Once again, I put on the hat of my alter ego, Mr. Perspective, to take on a media fail.
On Friday, financial pundits on CNBC and other business media were making a big deal out of the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was not going to make it to the 20,000 mark in 2016. What they failed to mention is that round numbers are arbitrary milestones that mean nothing more than any other numeral.
No one should care about them. The only thing that matters are the overall returns, and in that regard, 2016 was a pretty solid year for investors -- especially anyone with money stashed away for retirement in index funds:
By the way, don't hold your breath waiting for all of the pundits who predicted stock market doom a year ago to be held accountable. That's not how business media operates. Like our incoming president, they can say whatever they want and never have to apologize or lose access to cameras and microphones when they're blatantly wrong.