S&P 500 index fund will probably average you around 7%.

I happened to look this up earlier today for a completely different reason - S&P results to date since 1/1/2000 is 5.6% assuming dividends were reinvested.

Ah, I was off a bit then. Thanks for the update.

No you weren't. That period includes one of the worst recessions in recorded economic history. The other guy either intentionally picked and chose his years, or is simply bad at research.

An inflation adjusted long-term trend is over 7%.

That's a fair point, but I don't think it's ridiculous to choose the last 20 years as a discussion point.