According to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, the average yearly return in Mutual Funds have been 10% per year since 1970. This is for the Norwegian market.

On the same time a servey shows that the owners of Mutal Funds expect a return on 50% per year.

It is good and all to be optimistic, but these are unrealistic goals in a long term perspective. Chances are that these investors that expect 50% yearly return will not behave patiently and become very frustrated when they can’t reach their fictisous goal. Anyway a 10% average return is pretty good, it beats saving money in the bank and it beats inflation.