To say that things took a turn for the worse for equities after October of 2007 is an understatement. By March of 2008, the DJI dropped below 12,000. It dropped below 11,000 in September of 2008, erasing any gains from the decade, and the pain had just begun.
I saw those initial investments I made early in my career tank. Subsequent investments tanked a little less. But the overall trajectory for 18 months was down, down, down. It was a true stock market crash and part of one of the worst recessions in U.S. history.