The last 24 months have been tough. Flat returns. Red screens. A gold rush. Geopolitical noise. If you started investing recently, you might be wondering: Is this normal? Does investing even work? I pulled up 25 years of Nifty returns to find an honest answer. Here is what I found. The market gives, and the market takes away. Look at 2008. The Nifty fell 51.79% in a single year. Imagine watching your portfolio halve. Now look at 2009. It rose 75.76% . The same market. The same investors. The ones who stayed in 2008 were the ones who caught 2009. Good years outweigh the bad, but only if you stay. Over 25 years, there have been 8 years of negative returns and 17 years of positive returns. The negatives hurt. But the positives—2003's 71.9% , 2007's 54.77% , 2014's 31.39% , 2021's 24.12% —more than make up for them. The catch? You had to be invested for all of them to get the average. Even in bad years, there were good months. Take 200...