As the saying goes, investing in real estate is all about location, location, location. Investing in a globally diversified equity stock market has a similar imperative: Patience, patience, patience.

Returns may or may not come when you want them to come, but successful investors are usually patient people. For example, when the S&P 500 had disappointing returns in the first decade (2000-2009), one would have had a less than zero return, yet that doesn’t mean it was a bad place to invest. Why? Simply put, it’s because we don’t know when the returns for asset classes will happen — but it may not offer any of the immediate gratification we’ve all come to expect in this society.