Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

How can I determine if my rate of return is “good” for the market I am in?
Do you recall where you read that 25% is considered very good? I graduated college in 1984 so that's when my own 'investing life' really began. Of the 29 years, 9 of them showed 25% to be not quite so good.  2013     32.42, 2009     27.11,  2003     28.72,  1998     28.73,  1997     33.67,  1995     38.02,  1991     30.95,  1989     32.00,  1985     32.24.  Of course this is only in hindsight, and the returns I list are for the S&P index. Even with these great 9 years, the CAGR (compound annual growth) of the S&P from 1985 till the end of 2013 was 11.32%  Most managed funds (i.e. mutual funds) do not match the S&P over time. Much has been written on how an individual investor's best approach is to simply find the lowest cost index and use a mix with bonds (government) to match their risk tolerance.  "my long term return is about S&P less .05%" sounds like I'm announcing that I'm doing worse than average. Yes, and proud of it. Most investors (85-95% depending on survey) lag by far more than this, many percent in fact)