Exponential Wealth: Centuries of Stock & Bond Returns

Exponential Wealth: Centuries of Stock and Bond Returns examines how stock and bond markets have created long-term wealth — and why that wealth is difficult to capture. Building on the Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation (SBBI) legacy, the book introduces the Ibbotson Equity and Bond Indices as a successor dataset designed to continue the long-run record beginning in 1926 and help frame future expectations.

The book’s central lesson is that long-run markets can create extraordinary wealth but only for investors who understand total return, reinvest income, diversify broadly, manage costs and inflation, and use history with discipline. The compounding effect is dramatic: Over 1926–2025, $1 invested in US large-cap stocks grew to $14,751, and $1 invested in small-cap stocks grew to $32,425.

Exponential Wealth is organized into four sections: an overview of stock and bond returns (Overview of Stock and Bond Returns); the past 100 years of US markets using the new Ibbotson Equity and Bond data set (The Past 100 Years in US Markets); US data before 1926 and global markets over multiple centuries (Centuries of US and Global Returns); and historical data used to help predict future returns (The Future). Together, these sections move from the foundations of wealth creation to the evidence needed to understand the past and think carefully about the future.