It&#x27;s less about maximizing returns as it is a reversion to the mean, there are clearly better times to get into the market, but the point is it minimizes the risk of starting in a bad year.  Granted, as you say people often have less money to invest in bad years.  However, even in the great depression ~50% of workers had a job.<p>EX: Rerun those numbers and start in 1999.<p>Or consider &quot;By mid 1932, the Dow had lost 89 percent of its pre-crash value&quot;  Few people are going to have 10 times what they need for retirement saved up.  On the other end retirees are probably not selling all there stock at the bottom either even if people generally need to sell more in a dip than in good times.<p>Granted, 1970 was still a terrible year to get into the market.