If time is money, how much time should investors consider when they’re making plans for their money? Nearly anyone putting money away for retirement has been told that while bonds are a safe choice for short-term investing, given their relatively low levels of volatility, equities are by far the better choice for generating wealth over the long term. How one defines “long term” is a crucial part of this equation, however, as stock investors with even multiyear time horizons may find themselves more susceptible to risk than they realize. “Long term can be a slippery concept. Is it 10 years? Thirty? Or the 72 years between the presidencies of John Adams and Ulysses S. Grant?” wrote Andy Clarke, a senior investment strategist with Vanguard Investment Strategy Group. (Emphasis in original.) “Stocks have returned more than bonds over most long-term periods, but not always.”via