Alpesh B Patel OBEManaging Partner (UK), RootBridge Capital · Asset Management. Great Investments Programme. 18 Books, Bloomberg TV alum & FT Columnist, BBC Paper Reviewer; Fmr Visiting Fellow, Oxford Uni. Multi-TEDx. UK Govt Dealmaker. alpeshpatel.com/links Pro

Double Your Money: The 5-Year Investment Benchmark Revealed! #shorts

20 Jun 2026 · 2 min

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1:31

In this short dialogue, the speakers argue that investors should use a simple benchmark of doubling their money every five years as a performance target, regardless of which specific fund or index they choose. They note that the S&P 500 fell 25% in 2022, but the benchmark still holds as a long‑term goal. The conversation contrasts broad‑brush index investing (global, S&P, FTSE) with individual stock picks, emphasizing that many active fund managers fail to beat their own benchmarks—about 35% underperform. The speakers then shift to retirement savings in the UK, highlighting that the average retiree has only £35,000, far short of the £250,000 considered comfortable outside London, and that many people risk “sleepwalking” into inadequate retirement funds. They reference data hosted on campaign frommillion.com/tools and close with a prompt for final thoughts.

That was the key point I was making. So, if it doubles every 5 years, that should be your benchmark, doubling your money every 5 years. And that's without worrying about where is Barclays or St. James's placement for my money. You don't need to make—
Sorry to keep interrupting you. On that other point, don't forget that's including 2022 where the S&P fell 25%. Okay? And it doesn't have to be the S&P. You might say, well, I'm more risk-averse, I want to hold more cash, I want a global index, I want the S&P, I want the FTSE. For those who obviously want the individual stocks and want a bit of exposure to whatever it might be, anything from a Walmart to an Intel to a Rolls-Royce, whatever. There's obviously the program, but for those who just want a broad brush approach, that's probably going to be a better starting point because we know these fund managers don't even beat the benchmarks they set themselves. 35% don't beat the benchmark they set themselves, and people are sleepwalking into a terrible retirement because we also know people have roughly— I think at retirement, about the average in the UK is about £35,000. For a comfortable retirement outside of London, it's supposed to be £250,000, which even I don't know how that lasts given that people are living 30 years in retirement. But anyway, you get the idea, and we've put some of that data up on campaign frommillion.com/tools.
Any final thoughts?
Because we're going to do more of these where we go over what we've seen when we've done free portfolio pension reviews. And by the way, we should say anybody who wants a free educational pension portfolio review, go to alpeshbatel.com/links and you'll see you can go directly into Paresh's calendar and we'll go through a pension review, why it's not growing.