The about-face of the 5-yr return

[NEW YORK] Take the long view. That's standard advice in investing, and it makes sense. After all, if you've salted money away for a serious purpose like retiring or buying a house or paying for a child's education, you really don't want to focus on how the stock market has done today or on what it might do tomorrow. You need a longer perspective.

But there's a fundamental problem with this otherwise sound guidance: How long is the long view? And what do you do if the basis of your long-term thinking changes radically from year to year?

These aren't just theoretical questions. Because of a quirk in the calendar, such a cognitive shift has happened recently. And it suggests that the long view needs to be much longer than five years.